Cinematography-Theory-And-Practice

Figure 7.18. Blown out windows andstrong contrast in the film Domino.All effects of this type depend onsome smoke to make the light raysvisible.overall lighting level and then the comparative difference between lightsin a scene — which is usually referred to as the contrast ratio betweenthe key and fill.Take a look at Figure 7.18 — the windows are completely blownouttry to control the windows so they are not overexposed and thuswithout detail and visually distracting in the frame. Occasionally theout the windows. In this scene from Domino, the windows are notonly blown out, but it is hard light and the slight haze in the roomcreates defined shafts.TextureTexture occurs in several ways. One is the inherent texture of thesubject itself, but the one that concerns us here is texture of the lightitself. This is done by putting things in front of the light to break itup and add some variation of light and shadow. Things you put infront of the light are called gobos, and a particular type of gobo is thecuculoris or cookie, which comes in two types.Hard cookies are plywood with irregular cutouts (Figure 7.4). Softcookies are wire mesh with a subtle pattern of translucent plastic.Other tricks include putting a shadow-casting object in front ofthe light; traditionally these include things such as vertical Charliebars — vertical wooden bars used to create shadows. This effect canalso be accomplished with strips of tape on an empty frame. Anothermethod is to put lace in a frame and place it in front of the light.Colorchapter to the subject. There are several aspects to the subject ofcolor as we use it in filmmaking:images.context of color. One of the best references on this topic is IfIt’s Purple, Someone’s Gonna’ Die, by Patti Bellatoni, a fascinatingand practical look at using color in filmmaking.video camera setup) and in terms of controlling color at thelight source, which involves both using color-balancing gelsand the choice of the proper lighting instruments, which comein both daylight balance and tungsten balance.lighting basics115