Let there be light..... ok that’s enough

An epic scene in Lawrence of Arabia

Pick a movie you have seen a few years earlier. What do you recollect? My guess is that you would have hardly remembered the story. Most often what will leave a lasting impression are the visuals..

In the earlier days the metaphor of cinematography was `painting with light'. The literal translation of the word cinematography, which derives from Greek, however is writing with light and motion. This post is a small illustration of light and motion in cinematography.

According to the cinematographer of Godfather, the impact of the brassy yellow imagery was so big that it became the default color for many period movies which were released after Godfather

Painting with light

In the earlier days of Hollywood when black and white films are made, the dominance of leading actors meant that cameramen were required to do mainly close ups and medium shots. This was needed to make the actors look good. Sometimes the leading lady had little more light on her than others so that she would stand out. (Guess this explains why I was madly in love with Ingrid Bergman and Audrey Hepburn)

In the movie In Cold Blood (based on the novel of the same name), there is a scene in which the convict who is about to be hanged is standing near a glass window and there is rain pouring outside. As death looms, the convict is sad and telling the Chaplain how things went wrong in his life. We are accustomed to seeing people in such situations usually having an emotional outburst. But here the convict talks in a very unemotional tone. He doesn't cry but we see some thing strange. something similar to tears are  slowly dripping across his face...

what actually happened was that the rain outside the window was artificially created and apparently the fan which was supposed to blow the artificial rain against the window was instead blowing the spray from the rain against it. When light hit the window, the movement of spray water dripping slowly along the glass window is projected onto his face. As a result it appears as if the tears are dripping slowly across his face. The visuals are crying for the convict although he maintains a straight face. The cinematographer Conrad Hall says luck played a huge part in this and none of this was conceived by him.

Writing with light and motion

In the movie Jaws, the camera was placed very close to the sea water level in many scenes. As the movie progresses, the audience increasingly feel that may be the shark is just lurking under the water. It’s a very interesting illustration of just a camera angle evoking an emotion in the audience.

In the movie Goodfellas, Robert De Niro plans to dispense off Ray Liotta and the latter comes to know of it. In their last meeting they both are sitting in a Café talking and trying to outguess each other. The camera tracks back and at the same time zooms in. As a result a peculiar effect is created where you see the same people in the frame but the restaurant and car in the background get closer and closer. The cinematographer’s intention was to subtly convey to the audience that the world around these people is changing and their relation is no longer going to be the same.

This kind of shot was coined as Reverse tracking shot after the movie