Questions tagged [cinematography]
Cinematography is the art or science of motion picture photography.
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How was the time-freezed scene in the Matrix with the woman in the red dress shot?
At around minute 57 to 59, Morpheus explains to Neo that every citizen in the Matrix can become an agent like agent Smith, while everything else around them is frozen. How are these kind of scenes ...
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How did they film the camera following flying golf ball in Happy Gilmore?
At around 00:50 we can see the golf ball flying through the street and camera following it through air and through bushes until it hits window.
How did they film it so realistically considering the ...
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Do actors actually get to film in POV movies?
In movies where we observe from actor's point of view (POV), does the actor actually film the part where he is holding the camera?
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Why did iZombie add gourmet cooking shots in the second season?
iZombie's main conceit is that the main character, Liv, accesses the memory and personality of murder victims by eating their brains. In the first season, this happened, but wasn't emphasized. In the ...
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Why does Harry Potter 6 look like it does? [duplicate]
In a recent Collider podcast the hosts were discussing O Brother Where Art Thou?, and mentioned the cinematographer using (I think), a "digital intermediary" which made the sepia tones. It was then ...
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Why does the spotlight slowly appear when they started talking?
I'm talking about the following scene in The Age of Innocence:
Scene 1:
In Scene 2:
When those two started talking, a spotlight slowly appears on them, and we only hear their voices, and nobody ...
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How was the special high-contrast cinema release of Se7en created?
David Fincher's magnificent noir movie Seven (or Se7en) has very dark cinematography enhancing the moral darkness of the story.
I remember that, after its initial success, the studio released a ...
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In Fargo, why is the 180° rule broken during this scene?
In episode 3 of Fargo, titled "A Muddy Road", the 180° rule is broken during this particular scene, at about 43 minutes into the episode (according to HULU). I couldn't find a clip of the scene online....
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Zooming background camera technique? [duplicate]
There is a camera technique which is fairly common now but was rather unusual and subtly effective when it was first used. Of course I don't know the name of it or how it is done (hence my question).
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What gives a movie the 'Film Look' [closed]
This has always made me wonder, what is they key thing that makes a movie look like a film. To explain better, if you watch some camera footage and then compare to how something similar looks in a ...
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How was pre-title opening in Spectre shot?
The opening scene in 2015's Spectre has a long continuous sequence which, as an amateur filmmaker, is difficult to figure out how it might have been done.
The movie begins as an apparent crane shot ...
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Textual vs material representation in Blade Runner cinematography
Do the cinematography techniques in Blade Runner use textual representation (image as text) or material representation (image as presence) in order to convey the themes or motifs of the film? I ...
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Why do people tap the back of cameras during filming?
At 58 min 49s, the video above shows on-set footage of a film crew. (Link is setup to start playing from there.)
For a few seconds, it shows people following the camera and repeatedly tapping the ...
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How are the cameras set up on So You Think You Can Dance?
In So You Think You Can Dance there is usually a camera movement I can't decipher how is made.
In this case the camera move right to left, and enter forward to the ...
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Lady in the Lake 1947 (Mirror Scene)
I came across a question linked here:
How do they film the mirror scenes in movies?
I found it interesting that most examples came from popular and from recent films. Here is a clip from Lady in the ...
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How did they film Danny tricycle riding through the hotel?
I am curious how the camera managed to maintain such a close distance to Danny riding his tricycle through the hotel in The Shining. The camera seems to be positioned on some wheeled cart that is ...
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What is the name of this technique when the scene is morphed into something visually similar?
Like in the movie The World's End, there were some people sitting in the shape of a circle then the movie's name is shown gradually, the O letter is similar to the circle made by the people.
I see ...
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Is 'Birdman' the first movie to use the long take technique for events not occuring in real time?
Except for a few seconds in the beginning and the end, the movie 'Birdman' appears as a continuous long take. The only other movie I can think of like that was Hitchcock's 'Rope' (1946).
But in ...
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Is the same camera used for TV series and movies?
Are the same cameras used for TV series and movies?
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How was the tracking shot in Frenzy done?
Does somebody know how that famous tracking shot down the stairhall in Frenzy was technically accomplished?
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How are flyover sequences shot?
I have always wonder how they shoot the flyover sequences. Is it very difficult, is it costly? Me being an amateur filmmaker, can I shoot such a sequence?
Example:
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Are time lapse shots of growing plants done in a studio or at the particular places on earth?
I recently watched the Planet Earth TV series. There are some beautiful shots in the different episodes! And one shot (or one particular type of shot) I'm curious about how they done it.
In the 8th ...
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Is there any difference between a DoP and a Cinematographer? If so, What?
Recently I was watching a short film titled "Black Hole". In the credits following I came across one "Purva Desai" being credited under D.O.P (i.e. Director of Photography), only to be followed by two ...
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How did they get this shot in Metropolis?
How were the shots of the runners running towards the camera captured in Fritz Lang's Metropolis? Here's the shot:
Was a dolly used? If it was, would it have been mounted on wheels only or would they ...
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How are first-person perspective videos shot?
I want to know what kind of cameras are typically used to shoot first-person perspective videos or movies and how they are shot?
Here's an example. The song Smack my bitch up by The Prodigy.
Here's ...
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How are the face-in-suit segments of Iron Man filmed?
This question deals with the actors in a full-body shot of the suits, however I am wondering how the face-inside-the-suit segments are filmed, for example:
Iron Man HUD as seen in The Avengers (2012)
...
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What was the first use of the driving closeup shots known from Miami Vice?
One of the trademarks of Miami Vice were the nightly cruises through Miami's streets, which were usually accompanied by great music and very characteristic camera shots showing closeups of the car ...
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What are light meters needed for in digital movies?
I know when shooting on film, a light meter is used to determine the amount of exposure time for the film to get the right colours. Wikipedia also mentions they're used to to determine the optimum ...
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Camera movement in final scene of 'Into The Wild'
I just watched 'Into The Wild'. In the final scene the camera rotates around Chris' face, zooms out of the bus and zooms out showing the surrounding area above the bus. This link does not show the ...
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House of Cards - Camera Shots
Did anybody notice the extended shots of the backs of characters' heads in House of Cards? I am wondering if those have any symbolism or intended value.
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Camera sway as cinematic technique?
I've noticed a trend in movies where the camera "sways" during quiet, drama scenes, as opposed to "shaky cam" which is used during action scenes.
I've noticed its use in both political/war movies and ...
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How was the cameraman removed from the mirrors in the elevator scene? [duplicate]
In the movie Shattered (aka Butterfly on a wheel), at about the 7th minute, Neil Randall (Gerard Butler) is going up an elevator, with another person in it.
From the angle of the shot, I am 100% ...
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Slowing down the frame rate vs. using a slow-motion camera
Why do even some of the big budget films slow down the frame rate to give slow motion effect rather than use a slow-motion camera? The point is that the first technique almost always give a hint of "...
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Why is it a common trend to pan the camera past an object then back to it?
The title might have been vague so let me clarify. I have see this in many movies and television series over the years, even cartoons. Let me create a scenario since I can't visually remember one to ...
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Name of special effect [duplicate]
In movies, there are certain types of scenes where an actor/actress is standing facing the camera, in a hallway for example, and the hallway (or environment) is extruded or seems to get longer.
I ...
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Camera shot with close-up next to farther away standing person
While watching Final Destination 3 I noticed a very characteristic camera shot. At a scene where the main character, Wendy, sits in her room at the computer (watching the supposedly foretelling fotos),...
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Did the director and editor for House of Cards make aesthetic decisions based on H.264 encoding limitations?
Given that the production team for House of Cards knew the show would be streamed online as the only distribution method, did the directors and editors consider H.264's encoding limitations when ...
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How is dialog between two people filmed?
I was always wondering how dialog between two people is filmed.
Suppose there are two people talking. The screen is switching between faces of the characters while they talk.
How it is done in reality?...
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When will high definition television no longer account for the standard definition 4:3 aspect ratio?
The vast majority of TV shows are now available in high definition. However, much content still seems to be framed for "center cuts," where the center of a high definition image in a 16:9 aspect ratio ...
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Is there are list/table what camera filters cause what perception of a movie by the audience?
I remember the movie Traffic which uses a lot of different filters. How do these filters typically change perception of a scene or whole movie (I've seen whole movies overlayed with yellow filter). It ...
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Zoom actor in while background out? How is this effect called and made?
I don't have a youtube link (I think "The shining" has such a scene), but you all probably know this effect, the actor is zoomed in by the camera while the background zoomed out, probably by zoom in ...
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Why was Kurosawa the first director to shoot the sun?
Akira Kurosawa is often credited as the first director to point his camera towards the sun in his film Rashomon (1950). Was this an artistic first, or was there some technical hurdle that Kurosawa was ...
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History and reasoning behind average length of a feature film
I've personally always really enjoyed 'shorts', and always wondered why feature length films are the length they are, especially given my experience that most people's attention spans only last 30-40 ...
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What was the first full-length feature film shot completely with digital cameras?
Nowadays almost every movie is shot with digital cameras. I would like to know what was the first full-length feature film shot completely with digital technology instead of celluloid.
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Were any non-CGI movies shot in their entirety though a colored lens/filter?
This is a 2-part question:
Is it technically possible to shoot a movie though a colored lens/filter? (as opposed to changing the image color AFTER the movie is shot, via CGI or earlier effects)
If ...
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What was the earliest mass-release movie that used Matrix-like "bullet time"?
One of the things that The Matrix was famous for was "bullet time" cinematography.
I'm fairly sure that, while it was the first one to use the technique extensively and become famous for it, it wasn'...
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Is there a rating of the 3D-ness of a 3D movie?
If things aren't thrown in my face during a 3D movie, I feel somewhat disappointed. I also appreciate the use of 3D to enhance a wide-angle shot, a humorous close-up, give a subtle sense of depth, and ...
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