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Cinemotography In Movies

What are some of your favorite movie moments with great Cinemotographpy?
Mine is a scene from Contact were the little girl runs to get her dad's medication. We see her running down the halway and then realise that this was a reflection from a mirror.
 
Tarkovsyy's Stalker, which is stunning. Anything by Kurosawa, but Ran stands out as suberb. Almost anything by Hitchcock, but Rear Window and Psycho are my favorties.
 
Kurosawa and Hitchcock have been excellent.

I've also been blown away recently by the work of Christopher Doyle with directors Zhang Yimou and Wong Kar Wai. Zhang and Wong also have stunning cinematography in their films. So much so that I have to watch the films multiple times just to understand every level.
 
I was strangely absorbed with Lost in Translation... it just had that mysterious foriegn feel that drew me into it.
Beautiful colors and lighting.
My favorite part was just the shots of Scarlett sitting in the window on the skyline.. for some reason it was just so isolated.
 
What do you think about Cinemotography as a sustaining force in a movie?
I love great, powerful Cinemotography. Do you ever fill that it is used in a non-elegant way which takes away from the story? (becomming frosting without a cake?)
 
I like the long take in Citizen Kane, when Kane is being confronted by the man who shows up at his girlfriends house with Kane's wife.

Also, there's a shot toward the end of 'Rules of the Game' where Renoir has got the action shifting in the scene from forground to background then middle ground.. very cool, also a pretty huge set.
 
i love the short clip in se7en when the brad pitt character is contronted by the killer with the gun barrel pointing down at him with rain drops sliding down the barrel. Probobly not my favorite but its the first that came to my mind. Correct me if im wrong but they would have used fraser lenses for that shot??
 
I Need Cinemotography Help

I am working on a music video for school right now.
I do not have a great understanding of the technical aspects of making movies. I have only had some basic training and about two years of practice. I am trying to emulate the look and feel of proffesional film. Even though I am using digital video.

I am using the Cannon GL-2 which is a fairly nice camera. I have already shot the musician for the music video and am working on editing that footage. When I looked at the footage I was not pleased because it did not look proffesional at all. It was not how the camera was positioned or any of that it may not even be the image itself. I do not really know what the problem is, and therefore am unsure as how to fix it.

Let me try and describe the way it looks. I do not know the technical wording so please bare with me. This is kind of ironic the footage looks real I think that is why it looks bad if you know what I mean. Have you every flipped to a soap-opera during a comercial break of your favorite show? Well, there is a distinct soap look. It looks real, therefore it looks bad. Does this make sense. My footage looks like it is footage, it does not look like film or proffesional video. I have darkened the image to make it look like pro-film. This helped but the movements are still not right. Its almost like it is too smooth. One thought that I had was if this could be due to a high (or would it be low) sudder speed. Maybe too many frames?

Please help me. I would like to figure out away to make it look like film during the editing process. (since I already shot the footage.
 
Try playing with color grading, and contrast... or get a print on 16mm film if you have the dough (and you will need lots of it).

That's all I know... I'm still a bit green myself.. I'd also be interested in hearing what some cinematographers out there would have to say!
 
I am sure this shot has been done many times before and since, but in Dante's Peak there is a scene where Linda Hamilton is in the jeep looking at Dante's Peak exploding and she is looking through the passenger window of the jeep and you see her reflection imposed on the mountain. I love little tricks like that.
 
Guardianvm said:
Do you ever fill that it is used in a non-elegant way which takes away from the story? (becomming frosting without a cake?)


I don't know if this counts, but I found the flashy, fast cutting close-zoom camera work in The Bourne Supremacy detracted immensly from the film, it made the fight scenes especially confusing and bland. It seems to be becoming a trend in thrillers and action movies to shoot all the action very close in. I don't really understand why. Do they think it builds tension?!
 
My favs:

1) The dark, creepy, almost reverent low light shots in Vito Corleone's office in The Godfather. The low ambient light makes it almost scary.

2) The wide open spaces of differing lands and colors in Easy Rider.

3) The wet, depressing, bleak future of Blade Runner.
 
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