Cinematography

     "And later I thought, I can't think how anyone can become a director without learning the craft of cinematography ( Nicolas Roeg)." Nicolas Roeg is an English film director and a famous cinematographer. Some of his most famous pieces of work, when he was a cinematographer, includes Lawrence of Arabia, The Masque of the Red Death, and Fahrenheit 451. Cinematography clearly plays the biggest role in film production. It is an art of how the director chooses to capture the images that he wants in his film. If cinematography is used correctly in film making it will evoke emotions of the viewer, develop the characters being shot, tell the story more fluently, and produce a distinct look to the director's film. Like mise en scene, there are also five elements to cinematography. The camera work or angles of shots is a key element to cinematography. There are many different angles and ways to shoot a scene, and some are the basic pan, dutch tilt, a low shot, long shot, or a close up. Camera work has the job of presenting the story and provoking ideas to the viewer. Filters also have a big impact to the film. Filters act almost like sun glasses, some are yellow and different colors, and when you look through them it gives your perception of things a different color of tint. Filters can also polarize the shots, add more vivid colors, or even develop a more gloomy look to what is being portrayed. Lenses work the same way, for they can develop a more intense kind of glare, or even an awing kind of blur. Film stock is another decision the director has to make that is part of cinematography. The different types of film stock are standard, wide screen, and I max. Many people think they are getting less of the film if they watch it on wide screen because there are black bars on the top and bottom, but really they are seeing more than standard because you are viewing more of whats happening on the right and left portion of the shot/scene. Visual Effects, like CGI (Computer Generated Imagery), are also part of cinematography. CGI is used because it is easier to create monsters or wrecks or the perfect scenery on a computer than to find them in real life. In my film studies class we have dissected the elements of cinematography in three films, Citizen Cane, Punch,Drunk,Love, and Pan's Labyrinth. 

    Citizen Kane, released in 1941, directed by Orson Welles, is rated as one of the top movies ever made. This film is about one of the most richest and powerful people of all time, Charles Foster Kane. He passes away in the beginning of the movie and says his last word Rosebud, and no one knows what this meant and the press is digging into his past to find out who Rosebud is. Kane grew up in small house with his family who owned a trading post. His mother felt it'd be best if he would go travel the world with a New York banker named Walter Thatch. When Kane grows up he takes control of the New York Inquirer, a news paper company.When Kane becomes tired of running the press he retires to the world famous chateau called Xanadu. During the great depression Kane is forced to sell the Inquirer to Thatcher because of Kane's spending habits, and the money used to finish Xanadu. The press run in circles reading the reports of Charles Kane, talking to his closest friends that worked with him in the Inquirer, and to his ex Susan, who is depressed and drunken over the loss of her singing career. The press of the Inquirer ask the butler of Xanadu who Rosebud is, but no one has a clue to what Rosebud means. Once the reporters leave the chateau, the butler orders the workers to burn the collection that Kane once had, and in the pile of burning artifacts laid his childhood sled named Rosebud.

  Citizen Kane was a movie ahead of its time. It had cinematography used like no other film of that era, and that is why it has always been rated as one of the best movies of all time.  Orson Welles, who was the director and who played Charles Foster Kane, used different camera angles than any director had attempted before. One of the most exciting camera work that went on was during the end when the film showed what Rosebud really was. The camera
swooped down into the artifacts of Charles Kane and through the piles until it got to the fire where it was revealed what Rosebud was. This single shot still puts my mind in loops on how they filmed it. Another shot like this was when it showed Susan Alexander, who is played by Dorothy Comingore, at a bar.  The camera showed the sign of the bar then slowly zoomed into the sky glass window and focused on Susan Alexander. More shots were made unique in this film by the use of lenses. One in particular was the use of the deep focus lens. This was

used in one of the beginning scene where Charles was a young boy playing in the snow. Orson did not just want to show this so he included his mother, father and Thatch in the foreground and kept little Kane in the background, through the window focused. Citizen Kane was filmed in standard film stock because in the year it was made it would have fit on televisions better in standard. To my surprise this 73 year old film did use special effects. It was used in such scenes like Xanadu, and in the opera house when it showed how the workers did not really respect the performance of Susan Alexander. Orson was smart and actually used miniatures in these scenes. Some of the large rooms of Xanadu were miniatures, and in the opera house, when the camera looked as if it were viewing a whole bunch of giant props going up, they were all a bunch of miniatures. Over all, Orson Welles was a director ahead of his time because he used professional shots that no other director had ever attempted, and the directors of our time use them in some of our most famous movies.


   Punch, Drunk, Love, released in 2002, was a romantic comedy our film studies class had watched as an example of how cinematography was used. Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, Punch, Drunk, Love, was about Barry Egan, who is assumed to be psychologically troubled and quiet lonely. Barry trying to cope with his loneliness calls a sex line, and during this call he gives away his social security number and his credit card number. The next day the sex line girl calls back asking for 750 dollars, so Barry denies her the money but she will not leave him alone, for she even called him at work. This same day at work he is asked on a date with a woman named Lena Leonard, and during this date the viewer is can conquer that she is also psychologically troubled. He heard that Lena is going to Hawaii on a business trip, so Barry takes advantage of a deal that if he buys enough pudding he is set for life in air mileage and follows Lena to Hawaii. After they get back from Hawaii, a car wreck is caused by henchmen of the sex line, and Lena is taken to the hospital. Barry, seeking to settle his troubles, calls the sex line back asking for the supervisor, Dean Trumbell, which is actually just a mattress store owner.  Dean was intimidated by Barry when they meet face to face, and agrees to leave him alone. Lena forgives Barry for leaving her at the hospital alone once Barry confessed about the sex line and what all happened to him, and then he promises to always stay by her side.

  Paul Thomas Anderson, composed this film with his own unique twist on cinematography. The movie was not awarded much, but holds it own in the comedy films category. He uses camera angles and shots that most directors do not, and it shows in this film. In the scene where the harmonium is being dropped off, the camera is at a medium shot that follows Barry Egan, played by Adam Sandler, to the corner of the street and pans past Barry to view the action the director wants the viewer to be seeing, which just happens to be a random car wreck. The only kind of lens that I noticed that was being used in the film was the flare lens. It has the affect of scattering the light across the lens causing the whole image to be 

brighter than it really is, while magnifying the intensity of the light being used. This will help make some shots look more beautiful than they really are, and it can also add to romantic scenes. Punch Drunk Love was filmed on wide screen film stock. As far as special effects go, there were none present in this film. Most of the time it was stunted footage. There were about two car crash scenes in this movie, and both of them could have been easily stunted with no one getting hurt. Newer vehicles have more of a tendency to look shredded and torn up from the accident, and with a roll cage in the car and some extra padding some one could have stunted the beginning crash scene. Punch Drunk Love was a great comedy, and the way the story was captured gives it such a unique feeling that you will rarely encounter in other movies. 

   

    Pan's Labyrinth, a Mexican-Spanish film made in 2006, is a dark fantasy film that takes place in 1944, Spain, five years after the Spanish Civil War. A legend is told in the beginning about a princess to the underworld, where there is no pain, lies, or sickness, she wanted to visit the human world, so she sneaked out. When she got to the human world the sun wiped out her memory, and she eventually had got sick and died. It then cut scenes to the main character, reading a book, Ofelia, a young girl traveling with her pregnant mother to Ofelia's new step father, Captain Vidal. Later that night after the doctor gives Ofelia's mother a drug to help her sleep, and then a fairy comes to her room and leads her to a labyrinth where she meets a Faun named Pan. Pan informs her that she must do what ever this book tells her in order for her to return to her Kingdom, and that Ofelia's real name is Princess Moanna. Pan tells her that she must complete three tasks before the full moon is in the air. Meanwhile her mother's condition is worsening and Ofelia is worried about her. Later her mother goes into labor and does not survived the birth but the baby boy had. The nest task Pan gives her is to bring her brother to the labyrinth. The captain catches her in the act and chases after her to the labyrinth. Pan tells Ofelia to hurry and give him the baby because the next task is to use the blood of an innocent. Ofelia refuses to hand him over, and when Pan disappears, the captain catches up to Ofelia, takes the baby, and shoots Ofelia. Mercedes, who is one of the captains servants, and the captains troop meet the captain at the beginning of the labyrinth, the captain hands over the child and explains he wants to be remembered, but Mercedes says that he will never be mentioned, and they kill the captain. Ofelia is suddenly in a golden kingdom and is welcomed by cheering people, the king, queen, and Pan. The king explains that she chose the right thing to do and offered her own blood instead of an innocents, and there she took her place on the right side of the king as princess. 

   Pan's Labyrinth , directed by Guillermo del Toro, who also directed Hellboy, is an excellent film. The way this film used cinematography made this one of my favorite films even though all of it was in Spanish. It is no wonder why this film was rated so highly the way it uses all of the elements of cinematography together to tell such an amazing story. The director shot this film using the basic and not so basic camera angles, so he was not trying to make this film unique in anyway but it's story. Some of the really cool shots that involved special effects and experienced camera work. One really cool shot was when Ofelia, played by Ivana Baquero, ws talking to her brother and it was as if the camera went into the womb to her brother and then into the story Ofelia was telling. Pan's Labyrinth is a film that used a lot of animatronics, make-up, and CGI. The costumes, like Pan's, had animatronic eyes and ears so they could blink and wiggle. His horns, which were ten pounds, and all else were part of the costume, but his legs were on stilts to give him the height and the back of his leg was 

erased by CGI to give him the goat like legs. The fairies were all CGI, the actors had to pretend they were there, but the Mandrake root was actually animatronic and CGI, so the actors could actually hold it, which gave it more of a realistic look. The Pale Man, which was the creature in a different dimension, was a costume worn by Doug Jones, who also did the costume of Pan. The legs of the Pale Man were CGI along with the eyes, while Doug was really looking through the nostrils of the Pale Man. Along with very cool special effects and camera work was the filters and lenses used to make this such a realistic fairy tale. He used a regular camera lens for all of the shots on Pan's Labyrinth because the director wanted it to be as real as possible, but there were the use of filters. He used a Steel Blue filter on the nights to give them a more colder and forbidding look, but he also used a chocolate filter when Ofelia was in the Pale Man's dinning room to give it more of a warm feeling. The film stock of Pan's Labyrinth was on widescreen, which gives you the biggest dose of this movie you can get. The way that Pan's Labyrinth cooperates fantastic camera shots and outstanding CGI, makes this movie as real as fantasy can get. 

Movie Reviews

   Okay, here it is, which movie I thought was the best out of these three and the reasons why. Citizen Kane is a movie that is rated as one of the best movies of all time, and I can understand why it is. The film was as if a director from our current time traveled back into the 1940's and shot this film about a rich news paper company owner, who wishes he had his childhood back to start over again. It has an amazing life lesson and camera shots that had not even been attempted yet, not to mention a dash of special effects here and there. This film deserves the rates it has gotten over the many years, and will still stand in the future as one of the best films of all time. Punch Drunk Love had its own ability to touch me because I am an Adam Sandler fan. Seeing him play a role that he is not usually asked to do made me respect him even more as an actor. It was funny and at the same time touching to see two psychologically disturbed people meet and their adventure in pursuing love. The film also has a unique part in the way that it is filmed as if the viewer has a part of being in his mind and how the camera always follows the action and not necessarily the main character at times. Pan's Labyrinth had such a real feeling about it that I felt as if I were really there. The collaboration of CGI and professional camera work has an effect on the viewer to ultimately become interested in the film. To me the way that it tells a cool story of a dark fantasy intrigues my little kid side along with satisfying my mind. This film is one of the films that when it ends it makes you think of what happened in the movie and if it really had a meaning too. Overall, all three movies deserve credit for being made as good as they were. The cinematography is easily pointed out in them and is done as well as it can be. My favorite film out of these three, which also made it to my top favorite movie list, is Pan's Labyrinth.

Citizen Kane ....... 3.5 fairies out of 5

Punch Drunk Love...... 2.7 magic stones out of 5

Pan's Labyrinth..... 4.5 fauns out of 5

1st Post!!

      Did you ever wonder what kind of skills it takes to be a director? Or how they make movies look so good compared to unprofessional film makers? Well one of the tricks up their sleeves is called mise en scene. Mise en scene is how the director sets a scene to make it appealing to the viewer.  There are five elements of mise en scene, which is the placement of objects or characters, lighting, setting, composition, and human figure.  The placement of objects and characters gives the movie or scene it's own taste.  The director chooses who and what goes where on the set, so he can convey what is happening in that scene.  The lighting can set the mood of the scene.  There are three types of lighting; hard, soft, and natural. Hard lighting casts more shadows and looks more menacing, which can be useful in suspense and horror films.  Soft lighting creates a more angelic glow on a character's skin and/or surroundings. Natural lighting is lighting from the sun and moon, but can also be from inside lighting that is neither hard nor soft. Setting is the place where the shot or scene is taking place.  Composition is a key factor to mise en scene.  It is the balance and symmetry of the shots being taken.  People refer to this as the rule of thirds.  If the shot was divided into a tic-tac-toe board the director could place a character's eyes on the top line because it is more natural and appealing to the viewer, but the director could always purposely place a character against these rules so the viewer would react more uncomfortably.  Human figure is the actors and actresses selected to play the roles on screen because of their abilities to portray the character. For example you can not have Bruce Willis acting as a ten year old in your film.

     In my film studies class, we started to analyze the mise en scene in films, and one of the films we had watched was Moonrise Kingdom, which was directed by Wes Anderson in 2012, who is an outstanding director. Moonrise Kingdom starts by introducing the Bishop family. They are a sort of dysfunctional family that has recently been having trouble with their twelve year old daughter Suzy Bishop. Suzy has secretly been planning a runaway with a Khaki Scout, Sam Shakusky, who met her at a church play. Sam runs away from his scout and meets up with Suzy in a field nearby, where they start their way across the island of New Penzance to a beach location called the Old Chickchaw path, but Sam and Suzy rename it to Moonrise Kingdom. While they escape, Sam's scout and Suzy's parents start a search party to find the two lovers. Though they are eventually caught up to by the party, their adventure does not end here. Sam is found out to be an orphan and the officer of the island, Captain Sharp, takes responsibility for him until Social Security comes to take him to a treacherous orphan facility. The Khaki Scout finds out and feels bad for Sam, so they decide to bail him and his girlfriend out again. The couple decides to escape to where it all started, the church. The search party reassembles with the help of Social Security and finds the scout and the couple at the church. On this night a storm hits the Island, which causes a dangerous situation for the lovers, scouts, and search party, but Captain Sharp developed a change of heart and adopts Sam so Social security does not take him.

     Moonrise Kingdom, along with other fantastic films, made by Wes Anderson, are great examples of how a director uses mise en scene in films.  He strictly follows composition, and the rule of thirds, by making everything symmetrical and balanced, and when Anderson wanted the viewers attention he would make them feel a little discomfort by placing the narrator at the bottom of the screen. The Bishop families house, the beach, and much more places in the film showed symmetry, which leads up to how Anderson used the placement of objects in his film. Anderson puts every object on the set for a reason, even though some scenes seem like it is just a clutter of stuff. If the viewer would look deeper
and analyze the shot they would see that the objects fit with the rule of thirds and balance out the shot, so the viewer would have a more calm and pleasing feeling about it. The setting of this film is on the island of New

Penzance, and the setting is built around the plot because it helps show how devoted the young lovers are by crossing the small island to where they find a place of peace, Moonrise Kingdom. Characters in this film like the two protagonists, Sam Shakusky, played by Jared Gilman, and Suzy Bishop, played by Kara Hayward, are great examples of human figure. All of the actors fit their roles perfectly just how Anderson had intended. Bill Murray played the perfect older father of Suzy Bishop, and Edward Norton looked completely natural when he was Scout Master Ward. Natural lighting was used all through out the film because Anderson didn't intend for Moonrise Kingdom to be a complete romantic film or a suspenseful horror film, but a comical, dramatic, romantic film.

     Alfred Hitchcock is a legendary director from the early, and mid 1900s. In film studies we recently watched one of his best movie, Strangers on a Train. This suspensful horror film starts with the main protagonist, a pro tennis player named Guy Haines, bumping into a very talkative man, who claims to know a lot about tennis, on a train. He mentions his name is Bruno Antony, and he starts talking about his perfect theory on how to get away with murder. He explains that he would kill someone Guy wanted to get rid of if Guy would kill Bruno's father. Guy thinks of Bruno as a mad man and did not want to be involved with it, but Bruno hears that Guy hates his cheating wife who is only staying with him because of his money, which is stopping Guy from being with his true love, Anne Morton. So discretely Bruno stalks Guy's wife, Miriam Haines, to a fair, where she is flirting with two men, and when he gets the opportunity of being alone with her he strangles her unheard. Bruno then approaches Guy reminding him that he must do his part now, which is to kill his father. When his love hears of this she is broken up that Guy is a suspect and his innocents has not been proven, but there is also no evidence that he is guilty. When Bruno realizes that Guy has not been even planing to attempt to kill Bruno's father, even though Bruno has given him a map, a key to his place, and a gun, he black mails Guy saying he will plant evidence that Guy was the murderer by putting Guy's lighter at the scene of crime. When Bruno does go to the fair to attempt it Guy shows up trying to stop him. It all eventually leads down to a duel of the fates on the carousel.

   Strangers on a train, by Alfred Hitchcock, is a great early film that shows that mise en scene has been around for many years of film making. Hitchcock chose to have hard lighting in the sinister moments and to usually cast it on the character Bruno Antony, played by Robert Walker, because he was the psychopathic antagonist in the film. He also used the soft lighting whenever Anne Morton, played by Ruth Roman, was in a scene because she was the love of Guy Haines, the protagonist, played by Farley Granger, for the scenes were usually romantic. The human figure in this film was portrayed very well. Robert Walker played the perfect psychotic antagonist, Bruno Antony. I thought that every actor was a great fit to character and they must be use to

acting as classy as they did because on the screen it looked natural. From the fair to Danburry, Conneticut the setting was a key factor to the climatic ending of the film. Hitchcock made the fun fair into the fear fair by placing the murder and action at the fair. Hitchcock had also included very well performed composition. He would always place the object or character he wanted the viewer to see most at the focal points of the tic tac toe board from the rule of thirds. Hitchcock used placement of objects and characters in this film mainly for blocking. Blocking is where the director places his backgrounds and props so the camera can get the perfect shots the director imagines while actors and more prepare around them without it being caught in a shot or scene.

Movie Preferences

    Out of the two films, Moonrise Kingdom and Strangers on a Train, it comes down to which one I think is better. Moonrise Kingdom showed off how mise en scene can make a comical drama look like candy to viewers, and I compare it to candy because you can never watch it too much. All of Anderson's films have this same unique style that I believe makes them so great to watch. Moonrise Kingdom is a film that makes you happy until it ends. Strangers on a Train was made by the legendary film maker, Alfred Hitchcock. The film never looses its suspense and horror unlike most other films have in the 1900s. Strangers on a Train was surely one of the legendary films that survived the fight of time and still ranks as one of the top films ever. From my opinion though, I think that Moonrise Kingdom was a better film. It had made my favorite films list and addicted me to Anderson's films. I would rate Moonrise Kingdom 8.5 birds compared to a rating of 7 birds for Strangers on a Train, even though both are very well films that are worthy to be on anybodies repertoire of watched films.