Questions tagged [cinematography]
Cinematography is the art or science of motion picture photography.
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Which movie was the first to use the technique where the camera zooms in on a TV screen and then transitions to the scene shown on the screen?
The above is a scene from The Matrix (1999), where the camera view zooms in on a TV screen and then transitions to the scene shown on the screen. Which movie was the first to use this technique?
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How is the "eye POV" shot made?
The technique is extremely ubiquitous in movies and TV shows where an "eye POV" shot is used when a character closes their eyes when sleeping or when awake and we see the back of their ...
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Method of using previous scenes in ending credit
This is the ending credit for the game Final Fantasy 7 Remake. The ending credit uses clips from the cutscenes in the game. I've seen this kind of method of using part of the flim in the ending credit ...
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What is the effect called which uses color to show events that happened in the past?
What is the effect called which uses color to show events that happened in the past?
Attached are two screenshots from an episode of suits. Here the past has a darker maybe even orange tint. Other ...
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What is this video effect where there's a square on the left side of the frame?
I see this effect all the time used in music videos, and I always ask myself:
What is this effect?
What is the square on the left?
Is it the same effect?
I know it is a vintage camera effect but I ...
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Why is Quirrell standing like he's praying the Muslim prayer?
Something I've wondered ever since I first noticed this shot in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (the Ultimate Extended Edition, in case it's not in the normal edition). At the beginning of ...
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Why does Better Call Saul show future events in black and white?
Throughout Better Call Saul Season 6, all future events (after the main storyline of Breaking Bad ends and Saul lives a low-profile life in exile) are shown in black and white.
Normally, events ...
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What kind of camera trickery enables this "zoning out in shock" effect? [duplicate]
One of many memorable moments in the Babylon 5 sci-fi television series comes in the middle of Season 3 Episode 10, "Severed Dreams" (by itself this episode is chock full of dramatic, ...
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Is there any common name for this type of shot?
When a character makes a decision to do something, we see actors looking down and then blinking and looking forward at the same time. I think I often see this in English dramas.
Is there a name given ...
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Did Gordon Gekko lie about the sunrise?
In Wall Street (1987), Gordon Gekko calls Bud Fox, and during the call makes mention of the beautiful sunrise he's watching:
"I wish you could see this. Light's coming up. I've never seen a ...
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a close shot in music video (fisheye ? prob. not )
I was watching this music video, and my question is about the shot at minute 1:04 -> 1:06, where he leans into the camera and the background seems with no movements.
Does this effect have a name?
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How are some scenes for movies shot especially for iPhone viewing?
In his recent appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live, Rami Malek discusses how certain scenes in No Time to Die (2021) were shot especially for the IMAX version.
But he also mentioned that some are also shot ...
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Shots where the characters are small in relation to a still background: do these have a name?
I'm wondering if these shots have a name: shots where the character(s) is sitting or otherwise still and takes up only a small part of the screen, which is also still, i.e. the rest is pretty much a ...
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Is there a name for the side angle car crash scene?
I have seen this type of shot enough that I frequently expect to see it anytime a car shot shows a side angle profile of the driver. I've begun to see a push in the other way now almost in ...
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How do cinematographers do super zoom out shots?
Sometimes I will see a super zoom out shot in a movie. For example, in Bourne Legacy, the opening scene has the protagonist swimming in an icy lake in Alaska, then warming himself by a fire. The ...
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Do the series "Devs" and "Tales from the Loop" have any connection in terms of who worked on it?
I recently watched "Devs", and now just started watching "Tales from the Loop".
What struck me immediately is how both have the same feel. Tranquil scenes, dominated by nature. ...
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Why does The Bay of Silence (2020) use a lot of wide angle shot?
Many shooting in small rooms e.g. in home in the film is wide angle shot, the image on the edge are distorted. Although wide angle can contain more people at the same time, but it seems to be not ...
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Why is number 9 modified on digital clocks in some movies? [closed]
I just found out that in some movies, for some reason the bottom part of number 9 on digital clocks is cut out. An example from Back to the Future (6 gets the same treatment):
I'd just dismiss it as ...
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How did the camera pass through the window (and then back out) in The Book of Eli?
During The Book of Eli (2010) there is an extended gunfight scene where the camera passed through a window, pans around, and then goes back out the window.
How was this achieved technically?
If this ...
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Could a modern movie such as "Gravity" have been constructed/produced/directed by a crew who never went to college? [closed]
To keep this semi-specific, I'm restricting the case study to the film "Gravity"
I'm wondering if the sort of directing, cinematography and special effects you find in that film could have ...
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First use of super-slow zoom in horror films to create tension
Here I'm not talking specifically about a "dolly zoom", first introduced by cinematographer Irmin Roberts in Hitchcock's Vertigo, but about the agonizingly slow zoom that you see not ...
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Was Spencer Tracy's long monologue at the end of Guess Who's Coming To Dinner filmed in one take?
The film Guess Who's Coming To Dinner ends with a long scene in which Spencer Tracy does virtually all the talking.
In a recent conversation at Quora, someone asserted that this scene was shot in one ...
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Are modern movies less saturated and darker in terms of lighting? What started this?
I'm not sure if anyone else has noticed this or if it is nostalgia tugging but it seems to me that modern movies are much more darkly lit than, let's say, 80's movies.
Does anyone have anything to ...
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Why do 90s movies often look noisy? [closed]
It is my impression that movies from around the 90s look more noisy than from other eras (in terms of picture quality, sorry I probably lack the proper terminology here). In particular, unlike what ...
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Why would they use a backdrop in this outdoor scene?
I was watching the movie Double Jeopardy (1999) and the opening scene features a party that takes place at a large lodge type house on the water in Vancouver. In some of the scenes the bay can be seen ...
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The distorted images in 2001: A Space Odyssey
The final segment of 2001 includes distorted images like below to convey an eerie sense. How was it achieved? Did Kubrick use a different lens for these shots? Can anyone specify the lenses he used ...
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How did they manage to make Birdman look like one single shot?
In Birdman there are some techniques for making it all look like a single shot that I've picked up on which are quite obvious, such as the camera turning upwards towards the sky and then having it ...
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Tracking and Traveling Shot
What is the precise difference between a tracking shot and a traveling shot?
I’ve seen that some people consider them synonym, like here:
https://sites.google.com/a/colgate.edu/fmst-terminology/...
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Can a specific shooting style be patented?
I was watching one of my childhood cartoons and realized one of the scenes was directly uplifted from Matrix.
What I wonder about is. Can movies get sued because they copy the camera angles and stuff ...
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Origin of the side-view surprise car crash shot?
The most common form of the surprise car crash shot has the camera inside a moving car, with the frame showing the driver or a passenger in profile and (past them) a side window framing the world ...
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Pasolini's hand-held camera
In most of his films, Pier Paolo Pasolini uses a shaky hand-held camera almost constantly, though it is not needed on most occasions. Can anybody clarify why he preferred to use this technique?
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How did Kubrick shoot HAL's "eye" in 2001: A Space Odyssey?
How did Kubrick shoot HAL's "eye" in 2001: A Space Odyssey? We see the reflection of the astronauts approaching HAL, but not the camera.
How was it done?
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How was 1917 filmed as a continuous shot?
I just saw the new Sam Mendes film 1917 and was really impressed with the continuous shot approach, especially given the setting in the trenches of WW1. I've seen this effect done before and know ...
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Camera manipulating actor's heights? (Chris Bauer height? The Wire vs For All Mankind)
I've started watching For All Mankind and was pleased to see Chris Bauer in a strong supporting role playing Deke Slayton. I hadn't seen him in anything since he played Frank Sobotka in The Wire
In ...
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Was there a special kind of camera used for The Rise of Skywalker?
While watching The Rise of Skywalker I noticed many many shots where the camera would be looking at the characters/events from far away and then zoom in and re-angle itself onto the character or ...
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Was the slightly shaky camera effect done "In the edit" of the Kingsman movies?
The fight scenes in the Kingsman movies, as well as being fairly brutal, are amazing bit of cinema - long shots following through the action, with a mostly steady camera taking in all the detail. I ...
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Are movies shot in higher resolution than the planned broadcasting? [duplicate]
Apparently The Lord Of The Rings and The Hobbit are going to be released in 4K (link in German).
The Fellowship of the Ring is from 2001 when the 4K technology was not generally available. Does that ...
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What's the longest period of time over which a time lapse film has been recorded?
Time lapse photography can create some pretty impressive visuals. I think we mostly see time-lapse photography in non-fictional works about nature, plants, or the stars. But sometimes it's used in ...
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How did they shoot that scene in "The Fall"?
Here is the scene of The Fall I am talking about. It's from the first episode in the first season, in fact within the first ten minutes actually.
Here the character pulls of a mask and the camera is ...
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How did Hitchcock get the still eyeball shot in "Psycho"?
In the 1960 thriller Psycho, there is a shot of a dead body with the eye fixed open as the corpse lays on the bathroom floor. At first I thought it was a still, but some of the water drops move, so I ...
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Camera Movements in Roma
According to Alfonso Cuarón, the scene in which Cleo is turning off the lights contains 45 different camera positions. Why couldn't he do the scene simply with a 360-degree panning shot?
Has he ...
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How does a Camera move freely inside a car in a movie scene?
In Children Of Men, there is an uncut scene wherein a camera moves freely inside a car full of people. It starts with a front shot with the camera in the dashboard position facing back towards the ...
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Mirror shot without camera reflection in "Velvet Buzzsaw"
In the film Velvet Buzzsaw, there is a unique piece of reflective art, 'Sphere'.
There are a couple of camera shots where we see the sphere, but the camera cannot be seen in the reflection:
How are ...
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Discrete "Zoom" Used in 2001: A Space Odyssey
There is a "zoom" where a series of short clips, each one getting closer to the subject, are shown in quick succession. I've seen it in a number of movies and in possibly more than one Kubrick film.
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Meaning of a movie shot type with too little of a leadroom
Sometimes in movies a character is shown in an interesting way. It's usually shot from a side and he or she is facing the frame with little to none of a space between their nose and the edge of the ...
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When recording on film, how does the crew see the footage?
When recording on film, the crew cannot review the footage straight away, as film needs developing. In addition, the director cannot actually see what the camera is recording, as it is recording onto ...
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How did they shoot the bowling ball scene in The Big Lebowski?
The Big Lebowski (1998) features a number of surreal dream sequences in it. In one of them, the Dude is plastered by a bowling ball and obtains the viewpoint of a bowling ball as it rolls down the ...
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What's usually the effective visual resolution of typical Hollywood Movies?
I'm really surprised by the quality of the visuals in some new movies this year (2018). I'm curious to know in what resolution these cameras typically record to experience this quality on a cinema ...
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Is there a quantitative reason why X looks different? [closed]
I’ve always assumed films by Terrence Malick or Kubrick (for example) look different because of “art”. The shots appear cleaner. The subjects are better framed. The lighting is more natural. ...
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Animals died during the film shooting?
Is it true, that a lot of animals died during the shooting of Gilliam's "Adventures of Baron Munchausen"?
Quote from IMDB's trivia:
A lot of the animals for the film died and had to be replaced.
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