Three Things. Studio Five.
1. To start with the basics we learned in this class: color temperature, c-stand, and gel filters. A house tungsten light is usually 2860; a tungsten light for film and photography is 3200k; and the daylight is 5600k. The smaller the number, the more red/warmer the light; the greater the number, the more blue/cooler the light. If we want to match the tungsten with daylight, we can use c-stand (century stand) to place a blue gel in front of the light. The heavy C-stands are also used for attaching reflectors to it to locate them at a specific angle and place on set.
2. By watching a few movie scenes in class, Robin brought our attention to the concept of dynamic range. A clip from Helas pour Moi by Godard basically is what was called a “latitude test” when people were filming with film movie-cameras. It was the test that tells the cameraman what are the camera’s limits of the measurable light intensities, which is now recognized as the dynamic range. For example, if one is filming a sunset, the things in the foreground—the beach and the people—may look too dark without any details. It is because the dynamic range of this scene has surpassed that of the camera. The best cinematographers at the time were all familiar with this so that they can get the image in the right exposure they wanted without being able to look at the results on screen. Another two clips from The Beekeeper, and Shame both showed the excellent control of the cinematographers and their knowledge of dynamic range. For the former, the camera pans from a shot of outside world (very bright) to a bar-like interior (dark). Neither the outside world was overexposed nor the interior was too dark to see. They could have lit the interior to achieve this, but I am not too sure. The fourth clip worth mentioning was the one from In Bloom. In the clip, (possibly) they cleverly used the ND filter gel and stuck them to the window in order to produce a well-balanced shot between shadow and highlights. The outside world of the kitchen the girl was in was too bright for the camera to capture both with the same camera setting.
3. Human eyes never encounter such a problem, but movie cameras are artificial and have their limitations. The development of technology now enables us to see the results of each take in real time on camera. So Robin pointed out that due to the convenience, people are growing less conscious of the settings on cameras. This is problematic but also lucky for the filmmakers now. A good thing is that it will be easier for people to access the filmmaking trade while enabling people to put more focus on the form and the content of the film rather than the technical part. The point of inventing such devices is to make life easier, not harder—to make communication easier. Another thing is that the cameraman can quickly adapt to using many different kinds of cameras if needed. However, I think for the filmmakers, they should still not forget about the technical. It is still vital nowadays to know your camera to work efficiently. By understanding how a camera sees the world, the filmmakers will be able to think like a camera so that they can make films through that particular lens just as one speaks naturally. Using the camera to communicate is another language system, so learning the basic grammar (its limits) is still important.
