LECTURE ONE
The idea of “moving” or “motion” pictures goes back some time. People had Zoetropes, a kind of circular tube with slits in the side through which one could look at a series of drawings. When the tube was spun, the images appeared to move.
Early on E. Muybridge had made a set of “series” or “serial” photographs to show whether a running horse had all its feet off the ground at the same time. He did this by using a series of cameras along a track where the horse would run. As the horse ran, it tripped the shutters of the cameras and Muybridge was able to show that the feet of the horse were all clear of the ground at certain points as it ran.
Melies and Lumiere are two names associated with early motion picture photography. Melies was intrigued by the “magic” that could be done photographically by making people and things appear and disappear. Basically he brought to motion pictures something which exploited their peculiar characteristics. Although he was interested in filming what amounted to stage performances, he wanted to do things that were not possible on the stage. Hence his original films appear to be documented performances in which remarkable things go on, which would not be possible on a live stage,
Auguste and Louis Lumiere on the other hand, made more “documentary” type films. His films show people at work, carrying out everyday tasks and are something like travelogues and something like educational films.
Technically, neither had begun to exploit many of the things we will come to associate with modern films. For these pioneers, the cameras remain firmly fixed in one spot. There is rarely any camera movement at all (panning – moving the camera from side to side). Shots (the film exposed from the time the camera starts to run until it is stopped), tend to be the length of the film being used – often only a few minutes.
Over time things would change. Phantom journeys, in which cameras were placed on moving vehicles (trains, cars, boats, etc.) gave the feeling that the viewer was moving, thus freeing the camera from its fixed position.
Cameras tended to be placed at a distance from the subjects. Close-ups are not evident at first and are rare later.
Basically in early films the camera is used the way a still camera might be and the action is restricted to the performers.
TECHNICAL MATERIALS
Terms:
Light on film is controlled by film speed, lens aperature and shutter speed
Film speed: how sensitive the film is to light. The higher the number the more sensitive The number is usually ASA or DIN. 25 is slow 400 is fast.
Aperature: How open the iris of the camera is. Small aperatures ar high numbers and wide aperatures are low numbers. f2 is a larger opening than f22. Think of them as the denoominator of a fraction - 1/2 is larger than 1/22
Shutter spped: how quickly the shutter allows light to fall on the film: Slow shutter speeds go from time exposures (the shutter is open for long periods of time) to speeds of more than 1/1000 of a second,
depth of field: how muchof the image is in focus measured from the camera to infinity. The more that is in focus, the greater the depth of field. The smaler the f-stop the greater the depth of field.
overexposure: too much light. the image appears washed out.
Shot: the length of film that goes without stopping the camera.
Frame: The boundry of the picture. What the camera sees.
Long shot: image shows a large expanse.
Establishing shot: generally a long shot which establishes where the following sequences will take place.
wide angle: 9low # of mm. Takes in greater field of view
Cuts: going from one shot to another
jump cut: loses continuity,br>
form cut: cut is on shape of objects in successive shots
Kinds of transitions:
fade: the film darkens to black (fade out) or goes from black to proper exposure (fade in).
dollying: camera is moved on a track or wheeled vehicle horzintally.
First is the sensitivity of the film to light. This is generally indicated by a number on the film stock known as an ASA number. The higher the number, the more sensitive the film is to light. Some films may have an ASA rating of 25 and others 1000. Low numbered films require more light to produce an image. As a result films with high numbers can be used in low light situations. However, films with high film speeds also tend to be grainier. Low numbers have rich colors appear “smoother” Photographers have to perform a kind of balancing act deciding how much graininess they are willing to accept in order to work in certain lighting conditions.
It is possible to “push” a film – that is to pretend that it actually has a higher rating than it really does. If you shoot a film like this it will be “underexposed” (Underexposed means there wasn’t enough light to make a proper image. It will appear too dark Overexposed means there was too much light and the image is “washed out”.) However it is possible in the development process to correct for this by allowing the film to develop for a longer time. This will, however, also have an effect on how the film will look.
Lens Aperture and Shutter Speeds.
In addition to the film speed, there are two other major factors which affect the image on the film relative to the amount of light it gets. One of these is lens aperture, the other shutter speed.
Basically all cameras have lenses with shutters. The lens can be “opened up” to let in more light or “closed down” to let in less light. The size of the aperture is called an f stop. Larger f stops have smaller numbers. An aperture of f 2 is much larger than one of f 11. Basically you can think of the numbers as the denominators of fractions 1/2 is larger than 1/11 so 2 (as a denominator) makes a larger fraction that 11 as a denominator). The larger the aperture, the more light that comes in.
The shutter is said to “open and close” When it is open, it allows light to pass through the lens onto the film The amount of time it is open will affect how much light will fall on the film. The shutter speeds are usually given in fractions of seconds. A speed of 1/60th of a second is clearly longer that one of 1/200th of a second. Very fast moving objects will appear blurred in a photograph. However, the faster the shutter speed the less blurred the object moving will appear. So people who have to photograph automobiles or other rapidly moving objects will often use a high shutter speed in order to keep them from appearing like a blur on the film
There is a clear relationship between these three things: film speed, aperture and shutter speed. Film that is more sensitive to light requires less exposure that a film stock that is less sensitive to light. Once a film stock is chosen, then one can use any number of apertures and shutter speeds to produce a proper image. If you increase the size of the aperture, you simply increase the shutter speed. In effect, if you make the lens opening larger, you must make the shutter open more quickly.
What are the results of choosing one shutter speed or aperture over another? The most common answer has to do with “depth of field”. Let us consider something like a picket fence which extends from the camera for miles and miles. If the camera is focused on a point along the fence say 50 feet from the camera and a LARGE lens opening is used, the pickets that will be sharply in focus will be perhaps those from 45 to 55 feet from the camera. On the other hand if a small aperture is used, then when the camera is focused on the pickets 50 feet away, pickets from perhaps 10 feet away to as far as the eye can see with be in focus. Hence photographers often have to decide how much “depth of field” they desire. If a photographer is photographing a person and the background is very cluttered or messy, a decision may be made to use a large aperture so that the person’s face will be in focus but the “scenery” in the background will be blurred to the point that one can not really notice how messy it might me.
In films, there is something called a rack focus in which the person operating the camera keeps a relatively small depth of field, and suddenly changes the place where the camera is focused.
For example, there are two people – one about 10 feet in front of the camera, and one about 50 feet in front. The photographer is focused on the first person, close to the camera and is using a large aperture. The person 50 feet away appears as a blurred image. Suddenly the photographer shifts the focus (refocuses the camera) to 50 feet. The person close to camera is suddenly out of focus while the one in the background id suddenly sharply in focus. This is something which can not be done in a still photograph.
The word “frame” has two meanings – related but slightly different in film. One of them refers to a single image on the film strip. When someone says that a camera runs at 24 frames per second, they are referring to the number of single images (frames) that pass through the camera in a second.
Frame also means the boundary of the image – that is the area that is selected by the camera – what the audience will see on the screen. When shooting a scene, a performer may walk “into the frame” or “out of the frame” – that is the person will walk into the view of the audience. Sometimes, microphones which are suspended over the performers heads slip a little low and as said to be “in frame” .
Still photography has many aspects in common with motion picture filming. They are both dependent of light, film speeds, lens apertures, shutter speeds and the like, but only people with motion pictures have to concern themselves with camera movements and things which have temporal duration. True, still photographers worry about movement, but usually only because of the fact that the object may blur.
TRY TO THINK OF WAYS IN WHICH STILL PHOTOGRAPHY AND MOTION PICTURE PHOTOGRAPHY ARE SIMILAR AND HOW THEY ARE DIFFERENT.
In the film The Great Train Robbery, we are aware of the fact that the movement is basically by the objects being photographed – people and things moving, There is little if any camera movement. As a result, the rather long shot in which the bandits take the possession of the passengers, is rather tedious, since there is no change in the camera’s position nor much movement of the actors on the screen. There are also no “cuts” – that is changes in the shot where the camera moves from one position to another.
A THEORY OF AESTHETICS
We need to form a kind of theory of aesthetics to be able to analyze films. Films are seen as having a language which means there are some things which are the equivalent of words and some things which are the equivalent of sentences. It is our job this term to work on the “language of film” that is to understand its vocabulary and language. How does the film send a message? Since we are concerned with an art form, it is the artistic way the message is sent that is of interest. We need to be clear that there ae specific area in which variables may be manipulated to bring meaning to the film
We need to discover away to analyze the FILM not just the script.
Underexposed: Not enough light the image is very dark.
Sequence: a series of shots explaining an event.
take: the number of times a shot is photographed
set-up: the arrangement of lights and everything in the camera's view.
1 shot: one person in the frame
2 shot: 2 people in the frame
3 shot: 3 people in the frame etc.
Kind kinds of shots:
medium shot: less expamse
close up: about the size of a person's head.
Lenses:
normal lens: sees like the human eye
telephoto: narrows field of view. Works like a tellescope
Dissolve: a fade out and fade in happenso they overlap.
Wipe: an image "pushes" another off the screen.
Iris: The image shrinks to a pinpoint (Iris in) or the image goes from a pinpoint to fill the screen (iris out).
Movement:
Zoom: a shift from wide angle to telephot whil camera is running (zoom in). A shift from telephoto to wide angle while the camera is running (zoom out)
Dolly in shots do not look like zoom in shots. The relationship between the forground and background is quite different.
boom: camera is lifted or lowered.
rack focus: shifting the focus from something which is close to the camera to something whichis distant from the camera or from something distant from the camera to something close to the camera.
Montage:
Juxtaposiiton of shots to create an effect.
Photography is literally “writing with light”. Light falls on unexposed film, which through the process called “developing” is altered in such a way that images appear on the film. To do this requires a camera, usually with a lens which focus the light on the film. The amount of light that falls on the film is critical to the way the picture will appear. There are many factors which affect this,