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The Insider's Scoop
The Role of the Cinematographer
By Ly Bolia
Special for CinemATL.com
I believe in the Holy Trinity. The director, that is, the cinematographer, and the production designer. Now, as a cinematographer I understand that it's ultimately the director's call—ideally they're the brain, and I'm cool with that. But hopefully, just hopefully, they'll listen to us other two and make informed decisions based on our respective insights.
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| Ly Bolia shoots footage on the set of the short Wild Night. (photo: Chris Burns) |
With that in mind, I'd like to offer a few suggestions from a cinematographer's point of view on how directors can better communicate with the rest of the triumvirate.
With regard to the production designer, I believe that one of the biggest mistakes first time directors make is to underestimate the importance of a good production designer. In past experience, directors seem to expect me to make everything look good purely by lighting, but lighting can only go so far. Lighting can't alter makeup and it can't make a green coat red. So don't ask.
Pay attention to the hair and make-up people, their contribution is invaluable. While shooting a film in Moscow, we decided we wanted a blue hue on all the exterior shots but we still need to maintain good skin tone for the actors. After experimenting with various shades of orange makeup we were able to come up with one that could be color corrected in post to create the desired effect. This couldn't have been done with lighting alone
Now as to cinematography, it's my belief that every director needs to have a basic understanding of how the human eye works in tandem with the brain. For example, since our brain interprets the light our eyes see, we can look at different temperatures of light, (light bulbs, fluorescent lamps, daylight) and still "see" the same color—our brain automatically makes things look like we expect them to—but film and videotape can't do this, which is we always need to color correct.
A basic understanding of the physiology of the human eye can help the director focus audience attention where they want it. With that in mind, here's a crash course.
Our eyes are attracted to five main things: color, movement, focus, size, and brightness.
Color
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"You know why stop signs and brake lights are red? It's because our eyes are attracted to the color red."
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You know why stop signs and brake lights are red? It's because our eyes are attracted to the color red. I won't get into the reason, but suffice it to say, if you want to draw attention to something, make it red. Contrasting colors also help. If every character in a room is wearing gray and then a character wearing red enters, guess what? The audience will direct their attention to the red character. Warm, earth tone colors tend to come forward while blues and greens tend to withdraw. Experiments also show that body temperature is affected by color. Subjects were placed in an orange room and had their temperatures taken. When they were then moved to a blue room and again their temperatures were recorded, their body temperatures had dropped 3 degrees on average. Weird.
Movement
Have you ever walked into a quiet space where people have congregated? The first thing they do is look at you. Yes, you are extremely attractive, but that's not the only reason they're looking at you. Our eyes are attracted to motion. And that's probably why you get so extra agitated when you see those annoying online advertisements that wiggle around the computer screen...man, I hate those things.
Focus
As an example of how focus plays a part in the eye's physiology, try this simple experiment. Place your left hand up a foot from your right eye and your right hand 2 1/2 feet beyond your left hand. Close your left eye and focus on your left hand. Notice how your right hand goes out of focus and you pay more attention to the hand in focus. Pretty cool, huh?
Size
This one's pretty simple. The objects in the foreground and large in the frame draw attention over other, smaller background objects.
Brightness
Our eyes are attracted to brightness. That's why it's so annoying when some jerk at the theater opens his cell phone in the middle of the movie. That's also why you don't notice the exit signs until the lights grow dim.
In addition to the above, a little knowledge of lenses goes a long way. I will discuss two formats: 16 millimeter film and 35 mm film.
In 16 mm format, any lens under 25 mm in focal length is approaching wide angle. Wide angle lenses tend to expand space. Everyone has seen the notice on rear view mirrors, "Objects in mirror are closer then they appear." Well, the wide angle lens works in much the same way.
In 35 mm format, a normal lens—that is, a lens that takes in a field of view very similar to what we can see with our unaided eyes—has a focal length of 50 mm. In 16 mm, a normal lens is 25 mm. Both these lenses, when used on their respective format, have about the same angle of view and perspective as the human eye.
Anything greater than these focal lengths begins to enter the telephoto range, in which space is collapsed and objects appear closer then they really are. The telephoto lens has another nice characteristic. As it collapses space it also creates shallow focus as it reduces something called the "depth of field"—the range of objects that are in focus on the screen.
If you had two characters, one standing five feet from the camera and a second 15 feet from the camera, you could maintain focus on both with a wide angle lens. With a telephoto lens, you would have to choose which character you wanted to have in sharp focus. Also because of this, it is easier with a telephoto lens to focus attention on the character or object you wish by having it sharp in the frame, while everything else is thrown out of focus.
This is just a simple illustration of the idea of depth of field. There are other variables involved such as f-stop and format, but all that is for another article.
See? A little knowledge of the human eye goes a long way. For the overwhelmed director who has to juggle a lot of balls on the set a working knowledge of both cinematography and production design (not to mention every other discipline) goes a long way to facilitate efficient and effective communication.
Ly Bolia is a GSU assistant professor and a local filmmaker. His films include "Once Upon A Jedi" and "Success Is Mine" as director, and "Bellclair Times" and "Last Confession" as D.P.
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