In preparation for my report I used a range of different sources to research the use of cinematography to portray emotion in drama. I used two books to research the best ways to use cinematography in this way . The two books that I looked at are “Digital Video Camerawork” (Ward, 2016) and “Digital Cinematography” (Stump, 2014) I chose to use these two books because they have chapters on Camera Setup as well as Camerawork.
The Camerawork chapter in “Digital Video Camerawork” (Ward, 2016) contains information on the use of camera techniques. For example a section in the chapter is about composition which is useful to better compose the shots and place the character in a better position. More specifically the section contains information about the rule of thirds and how important this is; ” The rule of thirds proposes that the an attractive balance can be achieved by placing the main subject on one of the intersections of two equally spaced lines horizontally in the frame and two lines equally spaced in the vertical.” This section also comments on how the shot’s background is is also required to be composed as if the background isn’t well properly composed and coloured the composition won’t match all the way through and will lack continuity. A large inconstancy in the films background would be particularly bad as the cuts between shots will be intrusive and easy visible. Ward talks about controlling composition talks and the purpose of the shot “To emphasize the principal subject”, “To provide variation in shot size” and “To allow variety of shot and shot emphasis” which also helps me work out the best way to compose and emphasize the characters emotions by properly composing the shot and placing them in the correct position.
The second book called “Digital Cinematography” (Stump, 2014) was less useful as it didn’t have as much useful information. The chapter on “Camera Operation” didn’t contain much information. It did have a small bit of useful information on white balance where it talks about what white balance is and its uses. In one section it says “it is always advisable to white balance your camera to accommodate varying colour temperatures”. This is useful to give me the information on how to properly use the camera and to get the colours correct and make it look better through the information that the book gave me to do so.
In conclusion the book Digital Video Camerawork (Ward, 2016) was the more useful of the two books as it contain more concise and usable information that will help with my report. This book also had more techniques that I can use and work with in my FMP. The second book Digital Cinematography (Stump, 2014) wasn’t as useful as it didn’t contain the same level of information as the first book and was more heavily based on the use of diagrams to show the information.
Word Count: 478
Stump, D. (2014). Digital cinematography.
Ward, P. (2016). Digital video camerawork. [Place of publication not identified]: Focal.
Luke Nunney 
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