Cinematography: Theory and Practice, 2nd Edition

Cinematography: Theory and Practice, 2nd Edition

by Blain Brown
Released May 2013
Publisher(s): Focal Press
ISBN: 9781136047374

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Book description

There's more to being a DP than holdng a light meter! With this book as your guide, you are on your way to learning not only about the equipment and technology, but also about the concepts and thought processes that will enable you to shoot professionally, efficiently, and with artistic mastery. A leading book in the field, Cinematography has been translated into many languages and is a staple at the world's top film schools. Lavishly produced and illustrated, it covers the entire range of the profession. The book is not just a comprehensive guide to current professional practice; it goes beyond to explain the theory behind the practice, so you understand how the rules came about and when it's appropriate to break them. In addition, directors will benefit from the book's focus on the body of knowledge they should share with their Director of Photography.

Cinematography presents the basics and beyond, employing clear explanations of standard practice together with substantial illustrations and diagrams to reveal the real world of film production.
Recognizing that professionals know when to break the rules and when to abide by them, this book discusses many examples of fresh ideas and experiments in cinematography. Covering the most up-to-date information on the film/digital interface, new formats, the latest cranes and camera support and other equipment, it also illustrates the classic tried and true methods.

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Half Title
  3. Title Page
  4. Copyright
  5. contents
  6. Introduction
    1. The Scope of this Book
    2. Titles and Terminology
  7. writing with motion
    1. Writing with Motion
      1. Building a Visual World
    2. The [Conceptual] Tools of Cinematography
      1. The Frame
      2. The Lens
      3. Light and Color
      4. Texture
      5. Movement
      6. Establishing
      7. Point-of-View
    3. Putting It All Together
  8. shooting methods
    1. What Is Cinematic?
      1. A Question of Perception
      2. Visual Subtext and Visual Metaphor
    2. The Frame
      1. Static Frame
    3. Cinema as a Language
      1. The Shots: Building Blocks of a Scene
      2. Establishing the Geography
      3. Character Shots
      4. Invisible Technique
    4. The Shooting Methods
      1. The Master Scene Method
      2. Coverage
      3. Overlapping or Triple-Take Method
      4. In-One
      5. Freeform Method
      6. Montage
    5. Involving The Audience: POV
  9. visual language
    1. More Than Just a Picture
      1. Design Principles
      2. The Three-Dimensional Field
    2. Forces Of Visual Organization
      1. Movement in the Visual Field
      2. The Rule of Thirds
    3. Miscellaneous Rules of Composition
      1. Basic Composition Rules for People
  10. language of the lens
    1. The Lens and the Frame
      1. Foreground/Midground/Background
      2. Lens Perspective
      3. Deep Focus
      4. Selective Focus
    2. Image Control at the Lens
      1. Lens Height
      2. Dutch Tilt
  11. visual storytelling
    1. Visual Metaphor
      1. Telling Stories with Pictures
    2. Lighting As Storytelling
      1. Film Noir
    3. Light As Visual Metaphor
      1. Light and Shadow / Good and Evil
      2. Fading Flashbulbs
      3. Visual Poetry
  12. cinematic continuity
    1. Shooting For Editing
      1. Thinking about Continuity
      2. Types of continuity
    2. The Prime Directive
    3. Screen Direction
    4. Turnaround
      1. Cheating the Turnaround
    5. Planning Coverage
      1. Cuttability
      2. The 20% and 30 Degree Rules
    6. Other Issues In Continuity
    7. Introductions
    8. Other Editorial Issues In Shooting
      1. Jump Cuts
    9. The Six Types Of Cuts
      1. The Content Cut
      2. The Action Cut
      3. The POV Cut
      4. The Match Cut
      5. The Conceptual Cut
      6. The Zero Cut
  13. lighting basics
    1. The Fundamentals of Lighting
      1. What are the Goals of Good Lighting?
      2. Exposure and Lighting
    2. Some Lighting Terminology
    3. Aspects Of Light
      1. Hard Light and Soft Light
      2. Direction
      3. Intensity
      4. Texture
      5. Color
    4. Basic Lighting Techniques
      1. Back Cross Keys
      2. Ambient Plus Accents
      3. Lighting with Practicals
      4. Lighting through the Window
      5. Available Natural Light
    5. Motivated Light
    6. Day Exteriors
      1. Fill
      2. Silks and Diffusion
      3. Open Shade and Garage Door Light
      4. Sun as Backlight
    7. Lighting For High Def Video
  14. lighting sources
    1. The Tools of Lighting
    2. Daylight Sources
      1. HMI Units
    3. Xenons
      1. LED Lights
    4. Tungsten Lights
      1. Fresnels
    5. PARs
      1. HMI PARs
    6. Soft Lights
      1. Barger Baglights
    7. Color-Correct Fluorescents
    8. Other Types of Units
      1. Softsun
      2. Cycs, Strips, Nooks and Broads
      3. Chinese Lanterns and Spacelights
      4. Self-Contained Crane Rigs
      5. Ellipsoidal Reflector Spots
      6. Balloon Lights
      7. Handheld Units
    9. Day Exteriors
      1. Controlling Light with Grip Equipment
    10. For More Information On Lighting
  15. HD cinematography
    1. High Def and Standard Def
    2. Analog and Digital Video
      1. Analog
      2. Digital Video
    3. Types of Video Sensors
      1. Three-Chip vs Bayer Filter Sensors
    4. Digital Video
      1. Standard Def
      2. High Def
    5. Shooting Formats
      1. 2K, 4K and Higher Resolution Formats
    6. Digital Compression
      1. RAW
    7. Monitoring On the set
    8. The Waveform Monitor and Vectorscope
      1. Waveform Monitors
      2. The Vectorscope
    9. Video Latitude
      1. Clipping
      2. Video Noise and Grain
    10. The Digital Intermediate (DI
    11. The Video Signal
      1. Interlace Video
      2. Progressive Video
      3. NTSC and ATSC
      4. Colorspace
    12. SDI
    13. Setting Up A Color Monitor
      1. Monitor Setup Procedure
    14. Camera White Balance
    15. Digital Video Encoding
    16. Is It Broadcast Quality?
    17. Do It in the Camera or in Post?
      1. The Decision Matrix
      2. 10 Things to Remember When Shooting HD
    18. Timecode and Edgecode
      1. Video Frame Rate
      2. Drop-Frame and Non-Drop-Frame
      3. 29.97 Video
      4. How Drop Frame Solves the Problem
      5. To Drop or Not to Drop?
    19. Timecode Slating
    20. Tapeless Production
      1. Metadata
      2. Tapeless Workflows
    21. Digital File Types
      1. Container Files: Quicktime and MXF
    22. Compression and Codecs
      1. Intra-frame versus Interframe Compression
      2. Bit Depth
    23. MPEG
      1. Other Codecs
    24. The Curve
    25. Controlling the HD Image
      1. Gain/ISO
      2. Gamma
      3. Black Gamma/Black Stretch
      4. Knee
      5. Color Saturation
      6. Matrix
      7. Color Balance
  16. exposure
    1. Exposure: the Easy Way
      1. What Do We Want Exposure to Do for Us?
      2. Controlling Exposure
      3. The Four Elements of Exposure
      4. The Bottom Line
      5. How Film and Video Are Different
      6. Two Types of Exposure
    2. Light As Energy
    3. F/Stops
    4. Exposure, ISO, and Lighting Relationships
      1. Inverse Square Law and Cosine Law
      2. ISO/ASA
    5. Light and Film
      1. The Latent Image
      2. Chemical Processing
      3. Color Negative
      4. Film’s Response to Light
    6. Densitometry
      1. The Log E Axis
    7. Brightness Perception
    8. Contrast
      1. “Correct” Exposure
      2. Higher Brightness Range in the Scene
    9. Determining Exposure
    10. Video Exposure
    11. The Tools
      1. The Incident Meter
      2. The Reflectance Meter
    12. The Zone System
      1. Zones in a Scene
    13. The Gray Scale
      1. Why 18%?
      2. Place and Fall
      3. Reading Exposure with Ultraviolet
    14. Exposure and the Camera
      1. Shutter Speed versus Shutter Angle
  17. camera movement
    1. Motivation and Invisible Technique
      1. Basic Technique
    2. Types Of Moves
      1. Pan
      2. Tilt
      3. Move In / Move Out
      4. Zoom
      5. Punch-in
    3. Moving Shots
      1. Tracking
      2. Countermove
      3. Reveal
      4. Circle Track Moves
      5. Crane Moves
      6. Rolling Shot
    4. Camera Mounting
      1. Handheld
      2. Camera Head
      3. Fluid Head
      4. Geared Head
      5. Remote Head
      6. Underslung Heads
      7. Dutch Head
      8. The Tripod
      9. High-Hat
      10. Rocker Plate
      11. Tilt Plate
    5. The Crab Dolly
      1. Dolly Terminology
      2. Dance Floor
      3. Extension Plate
      4. Low Mode
      5. Front Porch
      6. Side Boards
      7. Risers
      8. Steering Bar or Push Bar
    6. Cranes
      1. Crane/Jib Arm
      2. Crane Operation
      3. Non-booming Platforms
      4. Camera on a Ladder
      5. Remote on Cranes
      6. Technocrane
      7. Cranes on Top of Cranes
    7. Car Shots
      1. Camera Positions for Car Shots
      2. Vehicle to Vehicle Shooting
    8. Aerial Shots
      1. Mini-Helicopters
      2. Cable-Cam
    9. Other Types Of Camera Mounts
      1. Rickshaw, Wheelchair and Garfield
      2. Steadicam
      3. Low-Mode Prism
      4. Crash Cams
      5. Splash Boxes
      6. Underwater Housings
    10. Motion Control
  18. color
    1. Color In Visual Storytelling
      1. The Nature of Light
      2. The Tristimulus Theory
      3. Functions of the Eye
    2. Light and Color
      1. Basic Qualities of Color
    3. The Color Wheel
    4. Color Models
    5. Controlling Color
      1. Color Temperature
    6. Color Balance with Gels and Filters
      1. Light Balancing Gels
      2. Conversion Gels
      3. Light Balancing Gels
      4. Color Correction Gels
    7. Correcting Off-Color Lights
      1. Stylistic Choices in Color Control
  19. image control
    1. Color Printing
    2. Controlling Color and Contrast
      1. In the Lab
      2. Bleach-Bypass and Other Processes
    3. LookUp Tables
      1. 1D LUTs
      2. 3D LUTs
    4. Camera Filter Types
      1. Diffusion and Effects Filters
      2. Contrast Filters
      3. Effects Filters and Grads
    5. Color Temperature and Filtration
      1. Conversion Filters
      2. Warming and Cooling Filters
    6. Contrast Control In Black-and-White
      1. Polarizers
      2. Density Filters
      3. IR Filters
    7. Controlling The Look Of Your Project
    8. Image Control With The Camera
      1. Frame Rate
      2. Shutter Angle
      3. Time Lapse
  20. optics & focus
    1. Physical Basis Of Optics
      1. Refraction
    2. Focus
      1. Mental Focus
      2. Circle of Confusion
    3. Depth-of-field
      1. Depth-of-Field Calculations
      2. How Not to Get More Depth-of-Field
      3. Zooms and Depth-of-Field
    4. Macrophotography
    5. Close-Up Tools
    6. Lens Care
    7. Lens adapters for Video
  21. set operations
    1. The Shot List
    2. The Director Of Photography
    3. The Team
      1. Camera Crew
      2. Operator
      3. First AC
      4. Second AC
      5. Loader
      6. Data Wrangler
      7. DIT
    4. Slating Technique
    5. TimeCode Slates
      1. Camera Reports
      2. Electricians
      3. Grips
      4. Other Units
      5. Coordinating with Other Departments
    6. Set Procedures
  22. technical issues
    1. Flicker
    2. Filming Practical Monitors
      1. Monitors and MOS Shooting
    3. Shooting Process Photography
      1. Greenscreen/Bluescreen
      2. Lighting for Bluescreen/Greenscreen
    4. Dimmers
    5. Working With Strobes
    6. High-Speed Photography
    7. Lighting For Extreme Close-Up
    8. Underwater Filming
    9. Measures of Image Quality
    10. Effects
    11. Time-Lapse Photography
    12. Time Slicing
    13. Sun Location With A Compass
    14. Transferring Film To Video
      1. Prepping for Telecine
      2. Shooting a Gray Card Reference
      3. Framing Charts
  23. film formats
    1. Aspect Ratios
      1. Academy Aperture
      2. 1.66:1 and 1.85:1
    2. Wide Screen
      1. Alternatives to Anamorphic
    3. 3-Perf
    4. 2-Perf Techniscope
    5. 16mm
  24. dedication
  25. acknowledgments
  26. the cinematography website
  27. bibliography
  28. index

Product information

  • Title: Cinematography: Theory and Practice, 2nd Edition
  • Author(s): Blain Brown
  • Release date: May 2013
  • Publisher(s): Focal Press
  • ISBN: 9781136047374