Filming techniques thread

Is this a good example of framing? To me it seems really nice.

ITT post pictures of examples of good framing, editing, cinematography, sound and set design, acting, lighting, etc.

Let's get aesthetic and hopefully learn something tonight boyos.

Other urls found in this thread:

m.youtube.com/watch?v=djAhwNzf8Qs
youtu.be/CHPjVgYDL6Y
pornhub.com/view_video.php?viewkey=ph55e3dc50f2b0b
m.youtube.com/watch?v=zCiuZAmc5t8.
twitter.com/SFWRedditVideos

you're at the wrong website buddy
You're too good for this place

Here's another example. What does the Yes No sign mean??

appreciate it pardner, jus tryin' to add a little class to the joint, ya know.

I'll bite. Here's a brief bit from the Hannibal Lector scene in Manhunter. The bar crossing over graham is to show his entrapment in in own mind and the whiteness of the surrounding walls gives nothing for him to divert his attention to. The framing also deliberately parallel's Lector's, highlighting the two's similarities

Full scene: m.youtube.com/watch?v=djAhwNzf8Qs

Dumping another cause fuck it, it's 1:55 in the morning and I have nothing better to do.

The circular layout of the gravestones creates a classical theatre of the dead bearing witness to another death, gives it a classical, Greek theatre aesthetic.

Fuck off Jon.

Yes! great example! I haven't seen Manhunter and never knew it existed. I only saw SOTL about a year ago. Didn't realize there was such an extended universe.


Let's keep it going!

I'm going to link a nice exegesis of Jurassic Park.
youtu.be/CHPjVgYDL6Y
Very good discussion of the subtext of Spielberg's JP

mountain time eh?

challenge:
Post example of good lighting or bad lighting

Pretty obvious one, I know, but the use of keeping the monster in the shadows really captures that childhood fear of the unknown and gives flashbacks to when you'd wake up at night and think you saw a shadow moving in the dark
Always happy to help. Manhunter isn't all that connected to SOTL, but definitely worth a watch, along with most of Mann's other filmography. If you like it, I'd also recommend checking out the show Hannibal on Amazon

>dead bearing witness to another death
That's cool as hell.

I wish I knew how to properly describe what shit like that is supposed to mean. Central framing in particular just gets me right in the fucking soul.

This scene, I can't figure out why it stuck with me (I just watched the movie) but something about it leaves a lasting impression

this is cliche as hell but screw it. the last shot of the graduate is perfect and i love it very much

I like this one, showing Patton's authority through the size of his shadow.

And since o have nothing better to do, here's an example of bad lighting from the Chris Stuckmann Short Film: Julia
The scene tries to create an eerie forboding tone, and obviously place relevance on the lighter flame and its deadly potential, yet there lacks contrast between his face and the flame, resulting in it being dull and unnoticeable.
Full short(I shit you not): pornhub.com/view_video.php?viewkey=ph55e3dc50f2b0b

looking at that thumbnail and your comment i asked myself "wait... what flame?"

that's a major error in contrast and could've been fixed just by putting the camera at a different angle. or by lighting his face differently. or just by having the guy extend his arm just a tiny bit forward

that shadow is iconic, been used/copied so many times.

How about the Godfather baptism scene. cool editing

Central framing always works because your eyes will always be drawn to the centre of the frame. Not saying it's bad, just pointing it out.

Here's an example(also from Manhunter) of a non-traditional use of 3-by-3 framing that abandons a central subject. The central-most figure, Freddy Lounds, is placed in front of the large window as in this scene he places himself in the open and vulnerable. Will Graham sits just off to the side to not truly be in the view of the window as he evades, yet comes close to the vulnerability, Lounds opens himself up to in this scene. This would probably make more sense if you watched the movie, but I hoped I made it moderately legible enough

so many >mfw's in that.
It's like they grew up from high school to 10 years later in a matter of seconds.

This one has a pretty obvious meaning within the context of the film, but I still think it works quite well.

>tfw you have to release your short films on pornhub because

yeah, this lighting sucks. I always liked the warehouse scene from Raiders

Aight, so if we're going specifically with the image the wardrobe and production design plays a big part. The dark overcoat obviously represents bad. You could almost consider it to the garbs of death, who is almost always portrayed as wearing black, so this subconsciously lets you know that someone's probably gonna die. This is helped by the bright, almost orangey(?) color of the surrounding set, which not only highlights the darkness of Clemenza's figure, but his shotgun barrel. You could say that the reason the elevator interior is so darkened and black is it represents the void of death that the occupants were just thrown into.

what i love most about this shot is how massive it is compared to how small the object we just spent the entire movie looking for is in the frame. as if inside every crate in that massive building there's another story just as exciting as the one we just watched.

chills, man.

I forgot how much I love American Beauty

One of the best uses of Matte paintings in film ever. Used as more than just to say, "Hey, this is the location", but actually plays a part in the story

Yea man! For me it was to think of how many secret hidden things we'll never ever get to see or know about because they're stuffed away in some crate. There's so much going on in this world and we only ever get to experience such a very small part of it

It's means he isn't wearing any pants

>Contrast
That was my biggest issue with that.
What little I watched was miles better than what I probably could have done, but I kept noticing little shit that could have looked so much better given what they had to work with (establishing shots out of focus, some of the sound editing was funky, the acting).

I digress, however. I just watched a short I made a while ago to compare and...I've done much worse.

There's so many aspects to movies that go over my head without reading stuff like this. I truly enjoy this.

Hey, we all do that, and if this is one of your first shorts, you're bound to fuck up some stuff. Just use the mistakes of the past to better the future, so long as you learn from them you haven't truly done anything wrong

Yeah, that's just the thing though: I can't prove to myself that I've learned since I can never get enough people together to actually make some fucking thing.

There's some stuff I can probably make by myself though, some opening shots I've wanted to do for a while. Might just go ahead and roughcut some shit right now, since I've nothing better to do.

I love analysing shots like this.
The thing that instantly grabs my attention is why there are two lamps in such proximity to each other. It's completely unnecessary and even clutters the space. It would seem to suggest that they are "lampshading" their problems, and by not acknowledging their issues, they are effectively living in darkness surrounded by pointless possessions. Notice how the wife stands in the doorway also, she seems to be blocking the natural lighting in an unnatural pose as if propped up like a puppet. The desire for normalcy and a fulfilling marriage is literally animating her body, otherwise, it is lifeless.

That's because a lot of aspects of movies go over even the creators' head. Most decisions in movies tend to be based around "this looks cool and fits in with everything else" yet tend to carry on a deeper, more subconscious theme and/or meaning later on. Case-and-point being the smoke grenades in Apocalypse Now. Initially Coppola and crew just used them the way they'd have been used in real life, but realised they looked nice so they carried on using them throughout the rest of production. This usage is one of the most iconic parts of the film and adds to the foboding tone of the film. It seems that filmmaking is as much sub-conscious as conscious, as the decisions filmmakers make on a whim tend to carry a deeper meaning than initially intended, because those with a good eye for these types of thing tend to make subliminal decisions which carry their pieces without knowing it

In all seriousness some of his shots (e.g the hallway scene) are decently framed but the inconsistency of them makes the good ones stand out too much which ruines the flow.

Speaking of John Carpenter, here's a great one from In the Mouth of Madness. Sam Niel's residence in the shadows show's how he's been cast out of the world, alone with darkness covering him and his mind. One true light gleams through on the doctor, the one hope Niel's character still has left. Meanwhile, his cell is painted with his graffiti, representing how he's trapped in his own mind and setting up the rest of the film

The puppet like pose of the wife is also Christ-like. As if she is being crucified by partaking in this facade. Lester turns his back on his wife and even disrespects her with an aired fist, this could represent atheistic communism, but more generally the idea of "speaking truth to power". By doing so he rejects Christ and by extension Western civilisation as it leads to his suburbian prison.

Sometimes the curtains are just blue bro.

I'd be lying if I said shots like this weren't aethetically pleasing, yet there's nothing to them. They're the type of thing anyone could set up as the add nothing beyond a basic atmosphere. Meanwhile the shots that actually matter () are neglected and ruin scenes that could possibly be considered powerful

That's pretty much what I'm trying to say here, is that we're thinking deeper about things than the actual filmmakers probably were since a lot of film production is based around decisions of simply what looks good, which is an idea mostly based on the subconscious

if you look deeper into imagery anywhere and you find something, then you were right to look

what that poster is literally saying is that sometimes the imagery isn't intentional but it's still there and it still affects you, and delving into why is never a bad thing- especially if you want to make films of your own

This is just scratching the surface. I took an intensive costume design class (I'm a theatre BFA, pls no bully). Designers study how curvilinear or rectilinear lines and shapes change perception, as well as how form and movement in space do. Designers must justify all of their choices thematically. It's not just willy nilly or purely aesthetic as most people think it is.

And? A film at the moment of production exists outside of authorial intent and is subject to potentially any criticism, it's an infinite regression of symbolism. Please leave you mental midget.

So would you say that my presumption of the black overcoat mimicking death's garbs is correct

Here's a great on from To Live and Die in LA. Here Peterson(dude on the left) plays a character conventionally portrayed as a hero in an antagonistic, unhinged role. This shot perfectly encapsulates that twisted trope with Peterson back-to-back, mirrored against a shadowy character that would commonly be a villian. The way the light casts on Peterson, you'd think he was some well-to-do good guy, yet he's the one holding an unarmed woman by the throat

There is no such thing as a correct interpretation in art. You justified your position with a cogent analysis, I would say it rings true to me.

Here's another great piece of cinematography from Stuckmann. Conventionally, you'd want to darken the area around the face to highlight danger, high shadows usually trigger the idea that something bad's gonna happen. Stuckmann even performed this style of lighting well enough in the previous scene, but lighting the face head on removes any semblance of tension from the scene, as nothing is really conveyed from this traditional, common lighting

I'm a sucker for background storytelling in frames. Scenes where the foreground is quiet or still and actual events are playing out behind that. Making you ask questions, wonder what's going on or to juxtapose the two planes and to reflect on their interaction.

To constrast, here's a similar image from the Sopranosm.youtube.com/watch?v=zCiuZAmc5t8. The way the camera is lightly perched at a low-angled highlights the shadows and ridges on Jimmy's face, not only capturing his facial expression in a way head on light can't, but also triggering tenacity from the darkness of it all

>Stuckmann even performed this style of lighting well enough in the previous scene
The bit where the Mexican looking dude there was just waking up? I had serious issues with that, that was such a perfect opportunity for a silhouette shot and he squandered it by tilting the camera just enough to show his face. Maybe that's just me and my hard-on for noir lighting tropes, though.

Oh sure, art is stimulation and stimulation perceived creates interpretation. I'm just not on board with "they did this because they thought it looks cool but subconsciously etc etc". Let's not pretend we're delving into the subconscious of the artist when we interpret things that they did not consciously intend. The shit went down as it did, and you can recognize whatever patterns you want in it, but don't try to tie it down to subconscious intent. Sometimes a nigga throws some blue curtains up in the back because why not. If you want to see some shit in that blue, go for it, it's right there for you, but sometimes that shit is there entirely by accident.

Unless we just have different ideas of what means by "It seems that filmmaking is as much sub-conscious as conscious". I'd change it to "It seems that filmmaking is as much unintentional as intentional". It is not that things interpretable as something, but not consciously intended as that something by the creator have to come instead from the subconsciousness of the creator.

Apocalypse Now is full of great cinematography. The ending scene is a masterwork.

My favorite scene transition is from The Life Aquatic. One shot of flying to the ship, one of riding away in the boat. We already saw a helicopter landing earlier so there's no need to show it again. We see somebody waving them down, and we see the helicopter parked on the helipad, so it's obvious what happened without wasting any time.

The sewers sequence in The Third Man has some superb lighting and composition.

One of my favorite scenes with the use of lighting.

The driver putting her out of harms way, and putting her into the light as the rest of the elavator looks darker. Making it seem like hes keeping her safe, and pure and out of the darkness. He leans towards her in the light one last time to kiss her, and he goes back into the darkness where he belongs and does what hes meant to do.

the 2 drops of blood on the cab, the clear white sky behind him, and the realization in his eyes. what a perfect way to kill a character.

the horrorthe horror

whats happening in this thread

Discussion.

Fuckin' crazy shit, right?

It's funny because there's actually plexiglass over a portion of the bars like they use in silence of the lambs to great effect, but it's never drawn attention to here.
In some shots you can make out cox's reflection.
I love this movie and would gladly talk more about it!!

The ominous framing and dark lighting combined with Kurgen being in full focus with his dead eyes.
He doesn't give a shit. He's going to fuck her and perhaps kill her. And not necessarily in that order.

some 12 year old kinosseur stating the obvious