Cinematography

Citizen Kane challenged the traditional narratives and technical elements of classic Hollywood cinema in a number of ways. The most noteworthy challenge of traditional narratives was its application of deep focus. Citizen Kane using deep focus and having everything in frame was a serious challenge of traditional narratives and technical elements because traditionally in films of the time, only the foreground was in focus. In addition to those elements, Citizen Kane used cutting edge storytelling…

In the movie Lion, the cinematographer includes many creative shots and camera movements to enhance the audience's emotions and tell the story from a certain point of view. Cinematographer Greig Fraser captures these shots in order to display the emotion and piece together the stories through Saroo’s memories. One of the major techniques he uses to film these shots and make it more realistic is by taking the actors height into consideration. For instance, the memories Saroo has of himself as a…

Masters of Cinematic Technique In Kubrick’s Paths of Glory and Hitchcock’s Psycho, each director successfully utilizes unique camera movements to communicate important thematic and narrative information to their audiences. In each film, the consciousness of the camera encodes not only the director’s authorial vision, but it also serves as a device for communicating power and suspense. Kubrick begins to display his impressive command of camera movement in the opening minutes of Paths of Glory. An…

Many see Akira Kurosawa as one of the most important filmmakers in the industry. His influential career spanned 57 years, in which he directed 30 films. One of his final works, Kagemusha is a dramatic action movie that depicts the transformation of a petty thief who learned the value of loyalty. The unnamed thief was caught stealing from the daimyo of the Takeda clan. However, instead of being sentenced to death, his life was spared because of how similar he looked to Shingen. The Takeda Clan…

The movie, Lawrence of Arabia was considered to be a breakthrough in the film industry for it portrayed T. E. Lawrence’s life in the Arab world and how he influenced the Arabs. This of course was based on true events that occurred from 1916-1918. Despite being a biographical movie, not everything that appeared was truthful. Multiple movie critics stated that certain scenes were over exaggerated, unrealistic, scientifically invalid, and/or plainly made up for entertainment purposes. Before…

In a movie do you wonder why a character is so close to the camera, or why it started raining out of nowhere ? The reason why is because the director is using cinematic effects. In the movie White Chicks, the director, Keenen Ivory Wayans, used many different cinematic effects. Wayans like to use long shot and close up shots in this movie, but also low and eye level angles. Wayans used different kinds of lightings like; high-key, neutral, front, bottom, and low-key lighting. Over all, the…

Citizen Kane is considered by many to be one of the greatest, if not the greatest film of all time, and while I find the notion of labeling one movie as “the greatest film ever made” a bit overzealous, the contributions that Citizen Kane made to the film industry and the impact that it had on the audiences in its era is remarkable. Citizen Kane a substantial influence on the audience and the film industry through its use of innovative narrative style and technical cinematic elements that may not…

After viewing Citizen Kane I was really blown away by the editing techniques which play a huge role in the story telling of a newspaper tycoon who was given the power from a very young age, but in fact all he wanted was love. The continuity editing technique is present from start to finish in this piece which moves the story along without spoon feeding the viewer about the events taking place. The use of montage and fading from one scene to the other allows the viewer one last glance or breath…

Creating a film from the storyboard up requires a wide variety of skilled workers. Everything from actors to make-up artists and even lighting specialists will be utilized; however, it’s easy to take one of the most important jobs for granted: the cinematographer. Although it may seem as simple as holding a camera, artfully combining clips, angles, and points of view to give a scene an identity is far from easy. Varied filming techniques throughout a movie are important so as not to generate…

Exit Trough the Gift Shop The film ‘’Exit Through the Gift Shop is a documentary of street art that focused on the two street artist, Banksy a secretive artist who never revealed his identity, and Thierry Guetta a French immigrant from Los Angeles whose passion is film making and became an overnight sensation. Before gaining Thierry’s fame as an inspiring artist he became Banksy’s guide in Los Angeles when he need somebody to help him find walls to do his art, a film documentarist, and an…