The Magic of Movies

A couple techniques I learned is don't look at your screen try to guess how much you need to turn your focus ring to get that subject into focus. Try to memorize how much you need to turn that ring. The next tip would be focus pulling. A focus pull always goes from something that is far away from your lens or the other way around now it's important to know that objects further away from your lens have a much bigger focus area. Start with the object closest to your lens. You could start using both techniques right away as they are easy to do and very helpful when filming a project in real time.   

Super 16 is mainly chosen for its optical capabilities. It's lower resolution look and prominent film grain means that it is often used today to evoke a rough, documentary-esque feeling of nostalgia. Some digital cameras, such as the original blackmagic pocket cinema camera have a sensor that covers a similar area to super 16 and cameras such as the arri alexa mini have specialized recording modes which only samples a super 16 size area of the sensor. There are a few things that choosing a format or sensor size affects. This means that if you put the same 35mm lens on a super 16, super 35 and a large format sensor camera, the smaller the sensor is the tighter the image that is recorded will appear. Since of the field of view is wider, larger formats also have a different feeling of depth and perspective. Because of this difference, the sensor determines the range of focal lengths lenses that need to be used on camera.

Sensors in cameras, both still and video, come in a variety of sizes. Some popular sizes are Super 35 (Sony NEX-FS100), Full-frame (Canon EOS). While an 18-megapixel point and shoot may have the same number of pixels as an 18-megapixel DSLR, the DSLR has a much bigger sensor. As a result, those 18 million pixels are considerably larger on the DSLR chip. The signal to noise ratio refers to a sensor’s ability to receive more light and deliver more of the actual image, or signal, than noise. The sensor contains millions of light receptors or photosites, which convert the light energy into an electrical charge. Lastly I learned with all the different size sensors, it is important to consider crop factor when looking at cameras. Crop factor refers to your field of view for an image. 

CCD is relatively noise free, a con about it is electrically inefficient, the serial readout is slow. CCD sensors require, CCD sensors require a lot of electricity. Still the CCD came to dominate the video market in the 80's and 90's. The CMOS sensor  came around the same time as the invention of the CCD, but CMOS sensor lagged behind because of manufacturing reasons. A camera sensor in the mid 1990's much like a CCD, a CMOS sensor is made out of single piece silicon. But instead of shuttling electrons row by row, each pixel has a small capacitor and signal amplifier. CMOS has low power requirements, parallel processing allows faster image capture but it lacks in sound it has a higher noise. In CCD sensors you only have one amplifier at the end of the imaging process in a CMOS sensor, each pixel has an amplifier and micro variations can cause noise issues. 

The first key tip I learned about is to not buy a slider made out of cheap plastic! Your camera is likely to fall off. Sliding / trucking shots will NOT look clean or smooth. It is junk if it can't capture a photo or good video. The second key tip I learned is that A slider must slide from one end to the other as smooth as possible, without bending boing or catching if it doesn't do that it's junk! It's a promising slider if it has a head to mount the slider on. If it contains that it will help your camera just like a tripod meaning it has the same capabilities as one. The third key tip I learned was don't cheap out on a tripod head for a slider or tripod! You'll find ruined shots because the head lacks in stability now! Lastly always check on your slider and make sure it does what it's supposed to do, slide. 

 It's a complex topic to explain but what I learned is there are three ways to control your depth of field. Adjusting your aperture changing your distance from the subject or changing the focal length of your lens. The first thing to try is changing your aperture shooting at a lower f - stop will decrease your depth of field while shooting at a higher one will increase it. The trick is to figure out the f - stop you want to shoot at. Use other methods to get your exposure set properly when you're set on a particular aperture there are four remaining way to control your exposure. Adjust your light level, add or remove ND filters, increase or decrease gain / ISO, increase or decrease shutter speed / angle. The second way to change your DOF is by changing the focal length of your lens, this can be done by physically switching lenses or zooming in or out. The longer your focal length or the more zoomed in your shot is the shallower your depth of field will become. 

Although it's true that depth of field gets shallower with smaller sensors, there's a bigger factor involved and that's crop factor. It is basically a smaller sense that creates a more zoomed in image given the identical focal length. Another confusing topic is lens equivalency. In the photography world - 35mm film was the standard that pretty much everyone uses. People got so used to what 50mm lens looked like on 35mm film. When digital came along with smaller sensors they introduced this idea of lens equivalency where you take the crop factor and multiply it with the lens focal length. I would say a camera with an APS-C sensor which has a crop factor of 1.6. While shooting with a 50mm would give the same angle of view of an 80mm lens on a full frame sensor.

The circle of confusion is about how big can a spot of light caused by imperfection focus be before it's noticeable as "out of focus". It helps us understand how our camera focuses light it helps us understand what depth of field is. The iris also blocks the rays of light producing the larger circles of confusion. This affects the viewer by making them able to see the blur of a background much more clearly and it's emphasized. For a full frame 35mm sensor and half that for an APS-C sensor with 0.018mm cinematographers projecting film onto a big screen use a slightly different set of numbers. The ASC manual puts the circle of confusion of 35mm film (which is actually about the  same size of an APC-C sensor). 

Depth of field (DOF) is the distance between the nearest and the farthest objects that are in acceptably sharp focus in an image captured with a camera. The DOF is controlled by the lens aperture diameter, which is usually specified as the f-number (the ratio of lens focal length to aperture diameter). Reducing the aperture diameter (increasing the f-number) increases the DOF  Shallow depth of field is the short distance between near and far focus. With a back focus setting, you will not be using depth of focus. I can use DOF when I am trying to show an establishing shot of a location and shallow DOF when I am trying focus on a specific object or subject.

Kurosawa  would combine his films in different types of motions. Over the course of Kurosawas filmmaking career he made over 30 films in all of them the movement was surprising and cinematic.  The first move I learned about was the movement of nature. In every one of his films, the background of the shot features some kind of weather. Wind, water, fire, smoke, snow and one advantage of this approach is that shots have a lot of visual interest. Even when people are still, there's rain in the background to draw your eye. Rain is a real emotional trigger that works in any film. It's another layer that the audience can relate to sensually. Secondly there's movement of groups. Kurosawa films usually feature large groups of people who band together or split apart.  Crowds like this are really cinematic. What they communicate is a lot is going on when you put this many people in a shot, any emotion feels big!

It's very shaky and unstable making it hard to understand and focus on what's going on. If I'm watching something that is very shaky I'm going to be more focused on that problem rather than watching the story and dialogue. With the shoulder rig it's still quite unstable but holds a much better grip rather than the fully handheld scene. It has that documentary look however the shakes are stabilized. The third way is the dolly technique now using a dolly gives a much more cinematic look and so can a slider. It truly adds tons of production value to your scene. With a dolly you get smoother motion, and it is a lot more easier to follow with the story. 

This video talks about how the most interesting part of frame composition is when it arises and you don't think exclusively about the frame. Using windows and object create film composition that can be really have you thinking and making it a thought provoking subject. It becomes a subject about whether your subject is open frame or a closed frame. A great example of this is the Graduate (1967). Staying in character is constantly pressuring but we see this every moment as the frame is constantly closing in by the people around him. Composition isn't just about being an aseptically pleasing quality but it's also about having meaning. This video also mentions artificial control is the control and power created by composition within a scene, primal control comes down to power dynamics.

I learned how composition can be as pleasantly simple with the right staging, places, depth, balance, and people. Composition is a fundamental piece in film that puts your visuals together. I learned how it's not really a technical decision but an expressive one. In simplicity composition is how the elements are positioned and exhibited to the viewer. I relate to the saying about how composition is a fundamental piece in film because without knowing the right composition your story can get lost and trail off confusing your viewers. I've learned how even doing a simple shot and angle can do so much with the right colors and location. Without the right framing the narrator in the video mentions how it can be an overload of visuals which isn't quite pleasant. 

Red means visceral, bold, courageous, energetic. Green balances, harmony, health, growth, freshness, deep greens are associated with wealthy, has been a long symbol of fertility. Blue means trustworthy, strong, dependable, secure, preferred by men, popular in corporate because its productive and non-invasive. Red can make us feel angry, or too little and weak. Green encompasses the mental clarity and optimism of yellow with the emotional calm and insight of blue, inspiring hope and a generosity of spirit not available from other colors can make us want to suppress our appetite, and we frequently use word blue to describe sadness or bouts of depression. They all have their own individual impacts in different ways.