Cinematography

Cinematography is the art and technique of making lighting and camera choices when shooting footage for the cinema.

Shot size

Shot size is the numerous shot sizes found within the frame when rcording photographic images.

A Extreme Close Up (XCU) would only show a small section of something or someone, for example only an individual part of a face.

A Extreme Long Shot (XLS) would show the subject to be rather small in the shot emphasising the background, for example a person far out at sea.

A Medium Shot (MS) is a shot in which the subject and its background occupy more or less the same area within the frame, for example a shot of an actor from the waist up occupying around half the area within the frame.

Medium Shot

Extreme Long Shot



Extreme Close Up





Camera angle

A low angle shot is taken when the camera is placed below the subject making the subject seem larger, and exaggerating its importance.

Low Angle

High Angle

   

Movement

Panning is where the camera turns horizontally on a vertical axis, it is used often to observe a subject in a slow fashion, similar to pedding except when pedding the camera physically moves up and down to observe a subject, both techniques offer a climatical feel as they often reveal something slowly.

Tracking and crabbing are move camera techniques in which the camera physically moves when recording, the differance is tracking is where the camera moves towards or away from the subject offering different effects, on the other hand crabbing is when the camera moves right or left.

Composition

The rule of thirds method is used by splitting an image in nine equal sections, and using the lines to align certain features of the image, it often involves the subject being off centre to create more interest in the composition of the image.

Positioning

Subjective positioning is when the viewer can see what a character can see, by imitating the viewpoint or movement of a character, whereas objective positioning is when the viewer becomes an observer and the camera is placed for best effect but not from anyones point of view.