Cinematography-Theory-And-Practice

Figure 1.10. (top) The compressionof space created by a very long lensestablishes the visual impression of atrap, a spider’s web in the final sceneof Seven — an excellent example ofvisual metaphor in cinematography.Figure 1.11. (bottom) An extremelywide lens creates distortion forcomic effect in City of Lost Children.reflects his situation — he is utterly on his own at this point. Stronglines of perspective cut him off and lead the eye constantly back tohim.A lamp hangs over his head like the sword of Damocles as if itmight come crashing down any instant. All eyes are turned towardhim at the almost exact center of the frame; clearly the weight of thethat this is his do-or-die moment — that everything about the case,and indeed about his entire life, depends on what he is about to say.As the scene builds in a continuous shot, the camera slowly pushesin to a medium shot, thus excluding nearly everything else in thecourtroom and focusing the viewer’s attention on him alone: otherpeople still in the shot are out of focus.The LensAgain, we are not talking about the physical lens, what concerns ushere is how various lenses render images in different ways. This is apowerful tool of visual storytelling — the ability of optics to alter— a flavor and an inflection it adds to the image. There are manycinematography6