2a process

These are a series of process images that illustrate the direction I'm headed. All allude to the potential of the artifact, seen at the top right of each image in perspective.

2a structure

Another means of investigation for this exercise involves exploring the film sequence in "The Lady from Shanghai" from a two-dimensional point of view using light. In the sequence I chose, the cinematographer highlights objects moving across a series of frames instead of moving the camera to compose a narrative. Those objects (whether people or otherwise) shot with the most light are conceptually pushed into the foreground, as our eyes are first drawn to contrast and areas of maximum brightness. In order to better understand how the cinematographer was using light in the sequence, I abstracted each frame into 2 levels: light and dark. This is illustrated in the first image.

I chose to diagram each frame using one line, composed of seven control points, to illustrate how the objects moved within the frame of the camera. My intention is to diagram each scene in the x- and y-axes, which will subsequently inform a model (using time in the z-axis) to emphasize temporal/spatial movement across the sequence.

The third frame illustrates the "hulls" of the line, which could in itself become an interesting diagram for the final sequence. It further abstracts the line I created with control vertices. Something I've been wrestling with is how should these new diagrams function? Right now, they are represented by a single line but I've been playing with the idea of having them become an enclosed new shape that mutates over the sequence.

2a diagrammatic analysis (latest edit)

This is the second iteration of a diagram I finished for class last week. The first 40s are still the same, but the latter half of the video is new. My logic and structure imposed on the video were as follows:

blue lines = horizontal datum
yellow lines = vertical datum
white rectangles = objects in either foreground/background
yellow planes = approximated angle of the reflected figure in mirror

I focused (mostly) on the movement of the male figure across the frame(s) of the camera and those of the mirrors. Each image represents 1s of film. I found the last 15s to be especially compelling; there's a great deal of layering, transparency, and mutations in scale that are well-composed.

2a diagrammatic analysis

This is the first set of a series of diagrams I hope to complete to fully analyze the sequence. I split the whole sequence up by 00:01 frames in order to keep a clear rhythm since there are far less camera changes. The diagrams analyze figures in the foreground (heaviest line-weight), those in the background, datum lines inside/outside the frame, and eventually planes dictated by the angle of rotation the mirror angle reflects the image.

I hope to do more diagrams like the last ten or so, because I think the potential in the sequence is in the angular distortion of the frame.

project 02 sequence

I chose a scene from Orson Wells' "The Lady from Shanghai" as a cinematic sequence to analysis and inform new spaces. The scene occurs inside a mirror maze; most of the shots are taken from specific angles to amplify the distortion of the plane in which each character is viewed. There are 03 characters in the scene. I am very interested in the vertical datum across the sequence and how it changes according to a persons' movement. I am starting at time 00:42 and have edited it down significantly for the project.

project 01 poster

synopsis

"Visions of Light: The Art of Cinematography" is definitely worth watching before choosing a film to pursue for this second project, especially if you've never taken a film course or critically watched a movie to evaluate it's visual success. Contemporary cinematographers are interviewed, as well as directors, to discuss how the craft of shooting a movie and using the camera as a tool has evolved through time. It’s a mostly chronological sequence, with examples dating back to 1909. There are over fifty films alluded to in the movie; the list is compiled below.

I found the history and development of cinematography to be quite interesting. Cinematographers who shot movies in the teens and twenties had to both know and study photography because of the conventional black and white framework. The Germans in the twenties were blowing everyone out of the water; they took the formal elements found in German expressionist graphics, paintings, etc. and re-appropriated those into their films (ex. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, 1919 and The Last Laugh, 1924).

The impact of sound on films with respect to their cinematography was discussed. Now having to accommodate microphones and larger sound-proof cameras, the dynamism and “freeness” of the camera found in earlier films was lost. The “painfully obvious” microphone in the vase at the middle of the table was illustrated as an example, with the actors leaning and speaking directly into it. One cinematographer even claimed that we would probably have stronger films today if sound hadn’t appeared for another ten or fifteen years after it actually did. In these early sound films the camera couldn’t move or pan; it took cinematographers some time to “free the camera” again. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in 1931 was one of the first films in sound to accomplish this successfully. It was here, during the time between 1930 – 1950 that we got cameras moving with actors, counter to actors, tracking, panning, etc. that led to each studio having a specific style: “gloss of Paramont, hard edges of Warner Bros., and glamour of MGM.”

It was during this rich period that each studio developed their own techniques and cinematographers became inventors in both the figural and literal sense. They had to manufacture and test on screen new devices adopted to achieve a specific effect. For example, the fascination with lighting the female face became critical on screen. Marlena Dietrich’s face was always lit at a much higher footcandle than other objects around her for contrast. One cinematographer told the anecdote of having to construct an entire stageset around an actresses’ face because it was best lit from one side only.

The work of Greg Tolland in Citizen Kane (1941) was highly praised in the movie. Many said it read like a “textbook” for cinematography because so many different techniques were explored, giving the film incredibly deep space and extraordinary dynamics. The clips extracted from it were great; I REALLY want to see the movie. The film noir movement just after the war is also covered. Cinematographers said many of these films had a “primal simplicity” in their deep shadows, low angles, and stark contrast.

Other films are covered in the movie, including more recent films like Raging Bull (1980) and Jaws (1975). I've got the dvd at my desk if you want to check it out.