The Magic of Movies

Color palettes in film can be created using three tools. Production design and costume, lighting and in the color grade. The set and the clothing that the characters are dressed in is always the starting point for creating a color palette. In pre-production, directors will usually meet with the production designer and come up with a plan for the look of the set. They might give the art director a limit to certain colors they need to work with, or decide on specific tones for key props. Since characters are often the focus of scenes and we view them up close, choosing a significant color for their costume will also have a significant impact. So it matters whats colors you use especially for creating a color palette. 

Color is a psychological process and can create certain atmospheres, creating a scheme around whatever the color may be.  Single consistent colors throughout a film are used as associations. What this means is that we use that color to a certain subject or an idea. For example if your character is always wearing yellow and you see an object with yellow object/item then that will often be associated with the character. Consistent repetitions of a color in a scene represent that idea. Therefore a transitional color is when it is changing the subject. Transitions signify a change in something it can be something as simple as a location or be something much more complex.  A great example would be your characters state of mind, as long as its consecutive it's transitional. One way I could use color moving forward is by using it as theme for a film but in a transitional way to represent/express what the character is going through or a color could present a certain meaning or message...

I learned how color helps convey parts of a story and how it can express an emotion without it being verbal but instead visual. Colors used to be the only thing that helped and enhanced a story. I also learned about filmmakers discovering and developing technicolor. A great example that introduced us to the world of technicolor was the "Wizard of Oz".  Wizard of Oz helped popularize technicolor and it showed the technical aspects of it that made it work, and why it took over the cinematic world. Not only do we use color to differentiate multiple stories we use them to set the atmosphere of that particular story. 

 Complementary colors are sets of colors that, when combined, can be used to make a gray. White, black and gray are actually the lack of both hue and saturation. Primary colors are the building blocks from which all colors are derived. They're also known as basic colors, as they can't be recreated by color mixing. Teretiary colors are the combination of primary and secondary colors is known as tertiary or intermediate colors due to their power to be more than one. Colors can be assigned in a film by expressing emotions or objects on a screen. 

There was company that focused on technicolor which was founded by Dr. Herbert T. Kalmus, Dr. Daniel F. Comstock and W Burton Wescott in 1915 to exploit a two-color additive process. Two strip technicolor was a hit in 1928. Technicolor refined the process with a step called imbibition or IB which means to combine the color separations onto a third black gelatin coated film whcih gave technicolor a richer look.  Famous films such as Wizard of Oz, Down Argentine Way, and Meet Me In St. Louis. Eastman color was a cheap German Afgacolor process developed in 1936. Similar to the technicolor monopack it sandwiched three color film separations in a single roll, Afgacolor was used as crown jewel in Nazi Propaganda Machine. After the end of World War II the patents were released and the process was adopted all over the world. Eastman color was prone to fading and it was simply as I previously said a cheaper alternative. 

1. Why do you think modern day people perceive early film as ONLY black and white?  What do you think has led to this perception?  How do you think color was perceived by audiences back in the dawn of cinema? Most older films were showed to the public in black and white. Not many films made it out in color even if they used color, they were typically not shown to the public. Early color films though particularly fantasies, were widely screened in theaters during the silent era for both artistic and practical reasons. Colors are meant to grab and dazzle ones eyes.  Back in the dawn of cinema I'd say I'm sure that people were impressed to see color on films because most cameras or films didn't start off with color right of the bat. I think what led modern day people to see things this way was because Television only shows older films in black and white. 

It wasn't till 1666 a young Isaac Newton began experimenting with optics that we began to think of color as a function of light. I learned that color is our psychological reaction to a very narrow band of electromagnetic radiation which we call light. From the red on the low end of the spectrum through orange, yellow, green, blue, purple violet at the high end. Through Newtons experiments he discovered that you could combine all the colors light. James Maxwell discovered the theory of electromagnetism. Maxwell formulated a comprehensive theory explaining how  electricity and magnetism are interlinked in a way. Color was used in early filmmaking such as "A Trip To The Moon" by George Melias. They used paint and painted on parts of the film to show color on the clothing or items. That's when color was being more experimented in early films, but it was a rare case when it happened. Another popular technique was hand tinting it was widely practiced. 

60 hertz = 60 fields per second. It is created in a 60th of a second resulting in a full 30 frames per second. It was chosen over the air broadcasting because flashing the same frame on screen was not an option that was technologically feasible. Engineers were also more concerned about bandwidth, something they were trying to conserve with over the air broadcast. Another reason to conserve bandwidth and avoid flickering each frame would be interlaced. The introduction to color factored in 1948, the FCC (Federal Communication Communion) put a moratorium on new television broadcast licenses as it tried to figure out what to do with the newly available UHF spectrum. TV sets access died off while they tried figuring out what to do.

What were three reasons why 24 frames per second was chosen as the modern standard frame rate for filmmaking? 24 FPS is so commonly used because it's a common and more cheaper accessible frame rate you can see in motion. 24 FPS is also more typical because it's a good mix of both overcranking and undercranking. Undercrank means to record in a slower frame rate than final projection. Overcrank means recording a faster frame rate than final projection. Undercrank means recording at a slower frame rate than final projection.  24 fps also works extremely well with sound syncing, it allows many film companies to save money on their films. 

 Think back on what you've learned about filmmaking.  What is over-cranking the camera?  What does it do?  How is it done?  What does undercranking the camera do?  How is this done? How does this affect the image artistically? Over-cranking is when your video is in slow motion. A great example of that is The Matrix (1999) the bullet scene. Over-cranking began as a method for slowing down motion pictures. Under-cranking a camera speeds up your video.  You would have to change your frame-rate to make a shot play at a fast speed. This affects the images by making it appear either more dramatic or intense, it conveys whatever you're filming differently.

A frame-rate is the speed of still images moving per second. Shutter speed is an electronic shutter that opens and closes to let light onto each frame of your video. The speed is how that electronic shutter is open for whatever amount of frames that are being exposed to light before the camera moves on to the next frame. In your camera your shutter speed is measured by fractions per second, because you are letting more light into each frame. The frame rates relationship with shutter speed is they work together when it comes to motion and exposure in your film. I could apply these newfound principles to my future films. If I want a more cinematic look I would keep my shutter speed and double the frame-rate. 

What is pan and scan?  Why was it created?  How does it affect a film when it's transferred from the theatre to home video?  In your own words explain 3 examples from the video on how pan and scan changes what the filmmakers intended. Pan and scan is when you make a widescreen film a rectangle fit into a square format on a television screen. It is in a sense technically redirecting the movie. Making your frame smaller can cause you to lose the effect of all the stunt work in the sequence it reduces your film to a confused blur.  A wider frame contains many elements. Your eye sees all of them, some of them peripherally (at the corner of your eye), and some of them as a point of focus. Doing a pan and scan can change the way the director intended their film to look like. It is often not a great idea to just do a pan scan without taking your time to not film it in a different aspect ratio. 

How did your Horror Filmmaking Challenge go over the week?  What were some of the challenges that you encountered?  How did you overcome them?  What do you still have left to do? My horror filmmaking project came out a lot better than last year! Over the week I had planned ahead of time how the schedule of pre and post was going to look like. During the filmmaking process the only challenge we faced was having to rush a scene before our SFX makeup artist would have to leave us. We encountered this challenge by getting the scene done on time. Theres nothing left to do we edited the project on time so that's fortunate. I do plan on going back to locations to make an extended directors cut. 

What are three key suggestions that this video made that you find useful that you didn't know before?  Why are these so interesting? The first key suggestion I found useful was to "define your subject".  Remember to identify who or what you're shooting. It's important to figure out how much of the duration of the person or thing is being seen on screen. You have to think about what the audience really wants to see, then you want to show them that. The second thing I learned about is to "focus on your subject" either though auto or manual you want aim for that crystal clear focus. Otherwise a blurry image can be quite distracting. Lastly I learned about spotlight, this is more about positioning your subject weather it's a dark or light skin tone try and get it brighter than the background. These are so interesting to me because thats what most films do and that how it should be no matter what kind of video or film it is. 

What are the key responsibilities of the cinematographer on a film set? What is the cinematographer's relationship with the director? The cinematography is in charge of the lighting, the framing, the camera work. They ultimately use that control of the photogrpahy to tell and enhance the story. The DOP gets involved in the production for example the choosing of locations the best place to shoot things, the best time to shoot things, how to be efficient with time, how to be economic with equipment etc.  As head of department they have to know to look after all the lighting, grip, and camera people. The cinematographers relationship with the director is they discuss the visual side of things with them. They come to agreement about locations, how things are going to look, and whats going to happen. They work together to make the directors vision come to life. 

How is cinematography like a language? What are three techniques of visual language that you realized while watching this video?  Cinematography is essentially visual storytelling through the screen. It is how we show the action to the audience. This means that cinematography is all about communicating with the viewer. Cinematography is built on principles of concrete understanding because cinema is a language. How is it a language? Well rules are our understanding of how we speak to each other. That is the same thing with cinematography it works the exact same way. Three techniques of visual language I learned was embrace the glossary of the basics. High angles, low angles, and wide lenses, depth of field, etc.  You should gloss over it and think too far ahead when it comes to cinematography.