How cinematography techniques shape viewer feelings

Cinematography is the art of using motion picture and electronic video cameras to make images for science, business, entertainment, and mass communication. How does framing shape what viewers feel, and how can you understand the effects of what the camera includes or leaves out? The lessons consider how choices about the frame guide attention and emotion.

2 articles, 1 video, 1 book · about 59 min of reading and viewing

The reading path

1. Read
   

   cinematography techniques · Wikipedia · 38 min read

   In cinematography, camera distance can highlight details important to a film shot. A group of people may look the same from very far away, but zooming in lets viewers see differences in facial expression and body language. Aperture is the opening in a camera lens that lets light through. In Citizen Kane (1941), cinematographer Gregg Toland and director Orson Welles used tighter apertures to create sharp focus in every detail of the foreground and background sets, a practice known as deep focus. Widescreen formats gave cinematographers a wider frame in which to compose their images.

2. Read
   

   Tension of the Frame: How Point of View Can Heighten Drama in Fiction and Film - Electric Literature · Electric Literature · 8 min read

   A cinematography technique that heightens tension is to make viewers distrust the camera's frame, since dangers may lurk just beyond its borders. This makes viewers anxious about what they cannot see.

3. Watch
   

   Ultimate Guide to Camera Shots: Every Shot Size Explained [The Shot List, Ep 1] · YouTube · 13 min watch

   Camera shot sizes shape how an audience perceives a moment. Filmmakers use these choices to speak in visual language with purpose.

4. Book
   

   Cinematography: Theory and Practice · Bookshop.org

   Cinematography by Blain Brown covers the artistry and craftsmanship of cinematography and visual storytelling, noting that some aspects of visual language, lighting and color are eternal while shooting methods, workflow and cameras have changed radically.

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