Cinematography For Directors [Ep 2 - Introducing Characters]
Cinematography For Directors is series of short videos dissecting the shot selection and framing used in nine specific scenes in the movie Drinking Games. HUGE thanks to Cinematographer Andrew "Tank" Rivara at TankLightsYouUp.com and AC Chris Falkowski for making it all possible! My hope is that the ideas expressed in the videos help your decision-making process on your next film. Remember, these are just ideas, a jumping off point, a way to start thinking about picking and framing shots. Hope it's helpful! ***Ep 2 - Introducing Characters*** I discuss how we introduced the villain in Drinking Games, and some ways you can apply these specific camera moves to your own projects. Full text below. ***About me*** I'm an independent producer/director with award-winning features distributed in theaters, online and internationally. When I have a new project, I do a lot of Q&A's and with my new feature Drinking Games, I took a lot of questions about the cinematography and shot selection. I thought this type of breakdown would be helpful to other directors like you, so I put in video form. You can check out my films below, they're all available on Hulu, iTunes and Amazon. Drinking Games Hulu: bit.ly/HuluThriller iTunes: bit.ly/DrinkingGamesiTunes Turtle Hill, Brooklyn Hulu: bit.ly/THBHulu iTunes: bit.ly/THBiTunes The Graduates Hulu: bit.ly/GradsHulu iTunes: bit.ly/GradsOniTunes ***Full Video Text*** We start at a normal point of view, chest-level, as if we’re sitting on a bed in the room. But as Richard crosses to the room, we use the 16 lens to stay on the bed, twist or pan upward and let Richard become large in the frame. For anyone else this would be empowering, this early in the story it just reminds us of Noopie, lying on the floor below. It puts us in Noopie’s shoes. We did this for two reasons- to suggest to the audience that Noopie and Richard will battle at some point- maybe now?- and to keep people on their toes, asking where will the camera be next? Because we filmed in a real dorm room, we spent a lot of time creating ways to shoot that would make each scene seem fresh and new. We immediately cut from this shot looking up at Richard to Noopie’s watch hand- hinting that he’s alive and is paying attention. So when Richard leaves, it’s time to intro the mysterious man under the comforter. Noopie is a psychopath. He’s chaos. Dark. Mean and without empathy. So we wanted to make him look like a true giant rising from the earth, something not of this world. As he emerges and shakes off the comforter, the hope is that you have a very different reaction to looking up at Noopie, than you did looking up at Richard. The slow dolly forward mirrors the slow dolly into Tom, from earlier in the film, but again I hope you have a very different reaction to seeing the slow dolly into Noopie's alpha male character then you did during the slow dolly into Tom's childlike character. To reinforce that we shoot Noopie through a long lens shuffling through the room destroying everything he touches. Sure, he destroys things in a small way, but you'll notice he doesn't straighten up the room he just makes everything worse and leaves his mark on everything, like a dog marking his territory over and over again. Hope this was helpful. Post any questions in the comments or email me at ryan at believeltd dot com
