Cinematography-Theory-And-Practice

Figure 15.1. (previous page) A typicalworking set. In the foregroundis an electrician (lighting technician)with various colors of electrical tapefor marking distribution cables.The director, the cinematographer, and the production designer arethe three people directly responsible for all creative aspects of thefilm: how it looks, how it works, the “style,” and the continuity.The working relationship between the director and cinematographeris the key to getting a film made. Let’s look at the responsibilitiesof everyone involved, first of all in a typical feature film. Theseprocedures are general to most types of production including, commercialsand music videos, and on small productions such as industrialsand documentaries; many of these are omitted, but the essentialfunctions are always the same.In relation to the camera work, the director has a number of duties.It is the director who makes the decision as to what shots will beneeded to complete a particular scene. He must specify where thecamera will be placed and what the field of view needs to be. Somedirectors prefer to specify a specific lens, but most just indicate tothe DP how much they want to see, and then the cameraman callsfor the lens to be used, or in the case of a zoom, at what focal lengthit will be set.The director must also specify what camera movement, zooms, orother effects will be needed. Most directors do all of this in consultationwith the DP and ask for ideas and input. Problems most commonlyarise when the director feels he must make every decision byhimself without discussing it. Certainly it is their right to do so, butless experienced directors will sometimes call for specific lighting oreven specific lights that are time-consuming and ineffective whenthere are more efficient ways of doing the same thing more quicklyand effectively.One of the most common situations is when directors ask for longcomplex dolly or Steadicam moves. It can be very effective and dramaticto shoot an entire scene in one shot, with the camera movingconstantly with the characters even as they go from room to room ormake other types of moves. However, these types of shots are generallydifficult to set up, difficult to light (since you are so often forcedto hide the lights), and usually very demanding for the focus puller.They also require many rehearsals and many takes to get all the elementsto work together: the timing of actors’ moves, the timing ofcamera moves, changes in focus, and in some cases changes in T-stop.Lighting is much more complex because it is like lighting for multiplecameras with very different positions: it is very difficult to makethe lighting work well for both cameras and hide all the equipment.As a result, the lighting often has to be compromised.Long, complex shots are exciting to conceptualize and great funwhen they are completed successfully. Also, it sounds so quick andconvenient to just “go ahead and get the whole thing in one shot.”The problem is that almost inevitably, the shot gets cut up into piecesanyway, with inserts, close-up, or other coverage. This means thattime and effort spent to accomplish it were largely wasted.Unless you absolutely know that the continuous take will be used, itis usually better to break it up into logical pieces. The director mightalso ask for special effects such as higher or lower shutter speeds, certainfiltration effects and so on. Ideally, the director should arrive onthe set with a complete shot list. This is a list of every shot and everypiece of coverage needed for the scenes on that day’s shooting. Somedirectors are extremely well prepared with this, and others let it slideafter the first few days, which is a mistake. It is true that shot lists areoften deviated from, but they still provide a starting point so thateveryone in all departments is headed in the same direction.cinematography288