Composition

[Daniel Reichenbach]

Love this thread, Off Topic start to be more interesting than to read about the question, if RED would be good for a wedding or not. RED will be a powerfull and perfect tool, but behind all that, there is a story, light and the way to interpret and cut out a piece of reality. One of my favorite cameraman is the french Henri Alekan (The beauty and the beast - Jean Cocteau, Wings of Desire - Wim Wenders) Writing with light was his passion, he new exactly how to deal with shadows and light. Hi David, love your picts from Northfork. It is exactly that: Film is a 2Dmedium, which have do deal with the question, how can I trick out the audience to see a 3D-Image. You deal with debt of field (thats why 35mm an RED are cooler than 16mm ore HD), and, sometimes even more important: you deal with shadows and light which gives deepness and guides the eye the place, where the director and DoP want to have the audience. The 12 Min Jackson film shot with RED, that's my opinion, was not made, to demonstrate the talent of DoP and director, to deal with shadows and light, but to show, that RED has the deepness, sharpness and latitude of 35mm - ok, latitude nearly. From now on I can deal with shadwos and light, go deeper inside the art of cinema, because RED is able to give me this tools for a price I can handle with, that MUST BE SAID: Switzerland, thats bank and money, ok, true, but not in the film business. Our film business is one of the smallest, there is just few money, we have to deal with small budgets, really small budgets - for that reason, RED is a real gift.

 

[Jochen Schmidt-Hambrock]

Here are some of my other favorite images in films:

Today, what would you say to a director saying he´ll compose the reflection in in post?

What a great thread!
If you guys post your own work, please give a little info. (lense, f, light, film stock, etc..)

Jochen

 

[Mike the beginner]

This is great work guys please give us more details and a little insight into your own thoughts. What did you yourself create as an image through the inspiration of others.

Mike the beginner

 

[Floris Liesker]

How about this comp?

 

[Petr Dvorak]

Yep Floris, only torso of main subject is left
What about some grading?

 

[david farland]

Hi David,
Thanks for being here!
I loved reading about David Lean and all his epic film making... pity the auto of Freddie Young was so short.
Thought I throw up a sequence of Cuban / French colonialism shots I'm enjoying it at the moment. Classic stuff I guess...

Cheers,

 

[Gbabymogul]

Floris, I like it. Some nice story elements in the pic.

David, nice. I have a few Cuba pics (from classic photogs) but they're a little saucy for here.

Mike, Josch, hopefully when I start shooting with RED, i'll have something ok to show. I'm sure we'll share our inspirations, ideas and dreams. At least that's what art is about, IMO - and this community

artbeatsart, Ditto. RED will (hopefully) free small bizness to achieve what is a closer approximation to the 'intent' of the filmmaker , all else being equal. I don't know if Jim knows how long some bizness' have been waiting to realize a step closer to that aesthetic expression. Now it's up to us. That's pretty a bonny deal



Hsiao-hsien Hou's "Three Times"

What I noticed was how although he balanced the frame with his characters- instead of the scene lacking dynamic interplay (which sometimes hapens with that kind of framing) he used light/color/mood and most importantly performances to be a counterpoint/balance and give it movement (even in the quiet scenes).

And a clasic example if you are a fan of low key lighting, plus using composition to tell a story.

Edward Hoppers "New York Movie"

WKW uses this peaking around corners style composition a lot. I think it can be really powerful, just as when the painters of yesteryear used repoussir (like Rembrandt for ex.).

Edward H. has another painting, but i thought Haakon would put a RED logo on the woman's nipple again, so i'll save it.





:beer:

 

[Tom Lowe]

I'm going to have to agree that some of those early "Kansas" shots in Superman were just wonderful.

Three Times looks great. I think it's in my netflix queue already.

You know, in watching 2046 and In the Mood, I sometimes wonder how much of the composition and framing is Wong, and how much is Doyle. I realize some other DPs worked on those pictures, but you can feel Doyle's hand in those movies. I guess with My Blueberry Nights we will find out. Wong made an interesting choice to hire Darius Khondji (Stealing Beauty) as his DP. My guess is that WKW could have had his pick of any of the world's best DPs for this project.

 

[Gbabymogul]

You know, in watching 2046 and In the Mood, I sometimes wonder how much of the composition and framing is Wong, and how much is Doyle.

I think it's just a case of them having similar sensibilities, and/or having worked together so long Doyle knows what WKW's choices would be. Since Doyle op's most of the time, it's got to be one or the other.

If you've seen the pics where Doyle wasn't the DP or Op, including 2046 where he didn't do the whole pic, i think it's reasonable to conclude the WKW is guiding the framing, for the most part.
Even in "The Follow" you can see WKW's framing and composition choices are similar to past efforts. When i watch Doyle's "The White Countess", and his Taiwanese films (both of which he op'ed in) , i don't see as much as the same choices.

I really want to see them work together again , but I'm as excited to see a collaboration with other DP's, actors, languages, and how he handles a set shooting schedule, haha...

 

[Tom Lowe]

haha, yeah. I agree with you that most of the framing and composition choices are probably inspired by WKW, because on Doyle's other work, you don't really see it. I also love to see how those unique framing choices you see in In the Mood are really taken to their artistic extreme in 2046. You can see the evolution of WKW's ideas about composition and framing evolving before your eyes. Really amazing.

 

[Gbabymogul]

You can see the evolution of WKW's ideas about composition and framing evolving before your eyes. Really amazing.

I agree 100%. 2046 was the culmination of so many elements that he mastered over the years with various other films. As a fan, what's satisfying is to see it come to fruition along with a kick ass story. I hope he brings Blueberry Nights to Toronto for Tiff. It should be a fun movie (more like Chungking Express)



:beer:

 

[Tom Lowe]

I hope the movie is great and he wins at Cannes. I understand he will be up against some great films, though.

 

[Gbabymogul]

I hope the movie is great and he wins at Cannes. I understand he will be up against some great films, though.

Yup. Looks like Cannes will be a good one, this year.

Here's a few fun sexy ones

Mathew Vaughn's "Layer Cake"

The film was hit and miss, but I think Vaughn has a good future. He had some nice compositions (wink wink).

Obviously there are tons more (and better examples, Welles, Visconti, Tarkovsky, Spielberg, Depalma, Hitchcock, Lean) but they're on my other computer. Maybe when RED comes out I can reload them and start comparing how people are using the camera compared to classical and modern ideas about framing, composition, and other aspects. Like Jim mentioned, don't blame the camera, hehe...

btw, thanks Jarred for this amazing pic manager. Your generosity is really appreciated.

Hopefully, we can get more people posting their compositions, so we can learn/improve together.
(i gotta get my stuff on jpegs)



:beer:

 

[Corrado Silveri]

1599...

Caravaggio - Vocazione di S. Matteo

 

[Tom Lowe]

Well no one can argue with Sienna Miller's "composition." :w00t:

 

[Gbabymogul]

Well no one can argue with Sienna Miller's "composition." :w00t:

Haha. You could but you'd be wrong

Nice Elcurado. I'd figure you'd be use to painting examples.


Pitof's "Vidocq"
And a great movie composition-wise at least (shot on a digital cam)

The curve of the window and the curve of her bare shoulder. I want to hire the colorist for this film but I know he's too expensive

Anyway, I'm always trying to understand why a composition is evocative or suits the story and why another doesn't.

I guess we'll see more of peoples personal work when RED starts shipping. I think we can all learn from each other -> from beginner to seasoned pro.
I'll stop posting frames now so Jarred doesn't ban me, hehe.

[size=-2]ps- Pj's short would look good inthis thread , hint hint, sorry coulddn't resist[/size]

 

[Andrew M.]

Gentlemen! This thread is incredible art of cinematography learning experience.
I was trying to contribute here a bit of technological knowledge for cinematographers a like and I found cinematographers injecting the art of the trade in techi guys.

I hope that this thread will develop in to the permanent discussion.
The other thread I see developing is the techniques and art in post but it is fragmented in two or three different places.

 

[David Mullen ASC]

I've got so many frame grabs collected over the years...

Here's some more deep-focus b&w CinemaScope compositions, from "The Innocents" (a ghost story shot by Freddie Francis):

 

[Jay A. Kelley]

Hey I love this thread.. Had to say it too.. Thank guys! Thanks David.. I you all keep posting I'll keep reading

Jay

 

[David Mullen ASC]

As you can see, I'm somewhat obsessed with widescreen movies. I even drove out to Dayton, OH once to see the 3-projector Cinerama system resurrected at the New Neon Cinema for awhile. Later I saw a new print of "How The West Was Won" at the Cinerama Dome, projected with three projectors for a 2.66 : 1 image.

Here are some frames from the DVD (an old unrestored copy of the movie) which I distorted to give a sense of curved screen Cinerama projection -- you have to imagine these images being on a HUGE screen. Cinerama was like the IMAX of its day -- three 6-perf 35mm frames shot and projected side-by-side; the total negative area was somewhere between 5-perf 70mm and 15-perf 70mm IMAX.