I have recently been studying more into how to tell a story with a camera, because I have been wanting to understand more how the way of shooting can change a lot the way characters are introduced, story is being told, how color sets the mood of a character and some other useful techniques I will be talking about in the next two posts. I have looked into this company called Believe Limited, who create low budget films with not expensive gear and light, but that still looks great. They have been very kind to post 9 amazing tips for cinematographers and directors on some very useful techniques that can be used with the camera to tell a story without the need of dialogue. I have picked 8 of them which have been the most useful ones (spinning shots being the one I won't be using). In this post I will be talking about the first 4 of them and how they relate to our show based on the things I could do with the camera to put them into practice.
The first one is Slow Dolly:
In this video, it is explained how camera movement inflicts a lot on introducing a character, not only visually but also their personality. Three different examples are used here based on the low budget drama that they created called "Drinking Games." The first one which is really helpful is how the type of shot can imply whether a character is a main one or ot. In their example they show a character coming out of a balcony in a Wide Shot (WS) with a slow dolly, looking to the day like a king as if he had no worries at all, while his friends are waiting for him downstairs in a car. This helps to set the type of person he could potentially be and how he sees the world as well. A Close Up (CU) or a Medium Shot (MS) would have not shown the same message, because the audience probably were not going to be able to see on the same shot that he was coming out of a big house balcony and that there was a car outside making noises wating for this guy to come down. The second example is with the use of color and how it can set the mood and the tone of a character in a scene. They use the example of a light red with orange on the bed so it blend pretty well with a shirtless man showing a very unhappy expression on the day of his birthday even though his gay boyfriend is bringin him a cupcakewith some candles. The last one is the use of a slow dolly in a veyr small space, to add drama to what a character is saying. If the shot was just static, people would be too focused on what he is saying, but since the shot is slowing dollying in, although what he says could be important, the shot itself is already adding some sort of drama on its own without the need of dialogue. This helps as part of my research for the our show, because I have all three different examples that can potentially be used in the show. We have 4 very different main characters that need introduction in a way. Different types of mood they face during the pilot episode and last but not least, very dramatic scenes in which I could use this slow dolly technique to add a bit more of drama and suspense.
The second one is Introducing Characters:
Although this tip is very similar to the previous one, this one is not based on only using slow dolly to introduce characters or set personalities of them. This tip is very straight forward with one example that is actually very helpful for everyone that is trying to think of an idea of introducing a character with a very particular personality. In this case they show a guy previously introduced already in a room, who seems to be watching someone underneath a blanket. We get the sense of being watched because you can see a shot of the person underneath blanket with showing only but half of his hand with a watch, making it look like someone is down there possibly alive or dead but very mysterious without the use of any dialogue. After the guy leaves the room, we see a shot of this blanket in the middle and the camera starts at a high ground and as this person under the blanket starts to stand up without reviling himself, the camera starts going to a lower ground, implying that this character has some sort of powerful or frightening personality, creating the illusion that the camera is another person inside the room. This is a very useful trick that can be used in any sort of situations where you need to establish someones authority because we have to remember that the audience is the one watching and the angles in which you shoot are going to be the ones in which the audience watches the film and that is how you can create the effect of making it look like the camera has converted into a person. For this particular style, I think it will be very useful to use it in situations like the scene of Don talking to the boys about not being interest of coaching them, like he has some sort of authority and also when Nathan is trying to train not to be as weak as he is, making him look even more weak with some good camera angles.
The third one is Marrying Set Design w/ Shot Framing:
The next one is more focused on set design and framing it. Although almost half of the video is more focused towards the director, explaining how they are meant to incorporate the set design with they shots, there is a very interesting point when it comes down to framing the shot working along with your director, which is the part that interest me. On the scene show in the video, we can see a guy and a girl having some sort of private moment in which they seem to be talking about something very serious. The whole idea of the set design in this part, was that the cinematographer was able to get frame the shots to he could get a creepy butterfly tapestry that is having of the wall in the room. The concept behind it is that although there isn't much dialogue and although you watch the actually drama you won't understand exactly what is going on, even that way you can still tell that this two characters are discussing something important to them, but the idea is that having the tapestry in every single shot one, not mattering how blurry it is, it represents something dark and not good, which is in fact what this guy is going through. The tapestry has very dark colors and the butterfly is meant to be a metaphor, so it is important to think of the set design when getting things into frame and see what each of them could imply to the audience. This is a very helpful tip as well for out show, because we have a lot of scenes in rooms where we can decorate them and manage to get this effect. Although this is more useful for the director, it is still important to me because if the director includes something and maybe is not aware of what is is causing in the shot, I need to be prepared to analyze my own shot and explain to him the message that I can see though the lens.
The fourth one is How to Use Whip Pans:
This other one talks about the use of whip pans and the pace on movement of the camera. First if you haven't watched the video, I recommend it to understand more what a whip pan is, which is mainly a very quick pan between characters or object, usually shot in a small space around a MS. In this case the whip pan is very well done and it fits perfectly with what is going on in the scene. What we see at the beginning is a guy that is looking for something, while we it keeps panning between him and some of the other characters that are staring in the room. The whole idea of this movement in this shot is that the audience gets more involved with what is going through their heads and the adrenaline that the are feeling when the are about to have some cocaine. The idea is that with this shot once again without the need of focusing too much on the dialogue, the audience can see how big of a deal this is for some of there characters in the room. The whip pan works as some sort of person quickly moving between characters to establish the pace in which their hearts are beatings, which is pretty fast. If the scene would have been the same but some really slow camera movements, it wouldn't have created the same sensation of rush that the characters are feeling at that moment. I think that this is a very useful trick specially when it comes down to crucial moments and some important actions, because you are using the camera to set the pace of the scene without the need of dialogue. It helps a lot in our show as well, wether it is on discussions between characters or some action during the football scenes, because once again the whip pan helps to set the pace.
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