READING & WRITING
Summary of Chapters One (Basic), Two (Composition), Five (Camera Moves), and Six (Montages) from The Bare Bones Camera Course for Film and Video by Tom Schroeppel
In chapters one, two, five and six of his book Tom Schroeppel continues in an easy-to-read fashion to deliver on providing basic information related to how cameras work and how to use them to obtain good photos. Throw in some theory and some simple, digestible illustrations and you have a good mix of practical information and reference materials that will serve any budding photographer well.
In the chapters cited Tom continues to drop gems, tips, beginning with technical features of regular and movie cameras and their operation. Some of the technical features, for example F-stops, I had heard bandied about for years. Never understand them or had a reason to care. Until now! What follows is few of the selected learnings and tips that I gleaned, which particularly resonated with me.
Basics – Here Tom uses a great beginning learning analogy for me in comparing the camera to an imperfect imitation of the human eye. Seems simple enough, but I had never thought about it that way.
A particular illumination reinforced previous visual arts learnings involved Tom’s succinct explanation of how movie cameras record images. Specifically, he reminds that the viewers minds fills in the gaps of the individual fast moving frames, due to a physiological phenomenon known as persistence of vision. Interestingly persistence of vision reminds me of the Gestalt principles of closure which is mentioned most notably within my Gestalt Theory in 7 of Gordan Park’s Most Famous Photographic Portraits article on this blog.
Exposure – If you really want to take better shots understanding camera exposure is pretty important to know. Here Tom explains f/stops which is simply a measure how big or how little the aperture is. The aperture? That’s the hole in the center or your camera where travels through. In a dark room you want to be shooting at f/2 to let in as much light as you can. In bright sunlight maybe decrease your setting to f/11 or f/16. Who amongst us newbies knew such details?
Composition – On one of my early jobs as a presentation editor I was taken out on the factory floor to tag along with our resident photographer as he took some pictures of some equipment that we needed. After a period of time, he explained the camera a bit to me and allowed me to take a few shots. The first words out of his mouth before I was allowed to a shot was “let me see your composition” I realized then that composition., how you selectively and with understanding utilize the camera a tool to decide exactly what you want the viewer to see and experience, is important.
Within this chapter Tom Schroeppel hits on all the mandatory, “price of admission” stuff. For example, using a tripod (no tripod handy? lean on a wall!), rule of thirds, balance, angles, framing, leading lines, backgrounds and more!
Camera Moves – Remember this. The basic camera moves are ZOOMS, PANS, TILTS, and related combinations. My least understood camera move? PANS. Sorry Tom. I somehow only associate a PAN with say a person doing a video recording or a TV cameraman panning his camera to get a shot of the crowd at a stadium . . . not a person classically taking static with a camera which is itself “supposed” to be stationary.
Montages – A two-minute read. Thanks Tom. Remember this. A classic (emphasis mine) montage is a series of related shots to condense time, set a mood, or summarize information. I say classic because I don’t think that I recognized enough of montages, as such, from one of this week’s montage film examples, specifically, Top 10 Best Montages of all time (in film for storytelling): https://youtu.be/DhQHlCaSR_w . The good news is that I think my “montage awareness meter” will be growing as I watch movies in the future. There are obviously different montage “flavors”, as they manifest in films, that I have yet to fully connect with. I was probably rushing too much. At any rate, Remember this. For a montage to work it’s usually best if each shot is clearly different.
RESEARCH TO INFORM
Based on a nudge from our illustrious professor ‘yes”, I thought it would be interesting to examine some of my favorite movies, and television shows to see if I could find examples of strong visual composition guidelines.
After all, I don’t believe any of the any the pieces that I’m about to briefly review were what you would call low budget productions! We ought to be able to extract both audio and certainly visual composition lessons from these, my favorite blockbusters, most of which were directed and produced by some of the best-known film or television directors or producers in Hollywood. Whether they deployed them or not in the YouTube segments that I’m about to feature I’m sure these Hollywood stalwarts know all the visual composition rules — and when to break them. Who knows? . . . there may come a point in my composition development where I will be competent enough to occasionally break the rules!
1 —— The Wizard of Oz –- A previously cited childhood favorite of mine this 1939 classic features its famous, beautifully sounding and sequenced song “Somewhere Over the Rainbow. The sequencing doesn’t stop there though. From a visual composition standpoint, it could be said the entire Wizard of Oz movie is wholly premised on its leading characters traversing through a sequence of winding leading lines, the famous Yellow Brick Road, until they reach the enchanted land of Oz. Once in Oz and past both fun and trials tribulations the final “line” leads to the Wizard of Oz himself!
The visual leading lines permeate the entire film cinematically and thematically and directs the audiences eye to any number of interesting scenes like monkeys, dwarfs, and even good and bad witches. In fact Dorothy meets her traveling companions, the scarecrow, the tin man, and who could forget the cowardly lion along the trail that leads to beautiful City of Emeralds within the land of Oz!
CLICK BELOW to visually appreciate the final moments where the very tip of the Yellow Brick Road beneath them leads Dorothy and crew to Emerald City and the enchanted Land of Oz! The clip is so short, only 27 seconds, that there was no need to set up any timings ==>
2 —— Star Trek – Destruction Sequence —— Any trekkies in the house? Of course, Star Trek was one of the most popular TV shows of its time.
THE SITUATION/BACKGROUND – In theStar Trek episode entitled “Let That Be Your Last Battlefield” one of these two guy’s “will” has taken over the USS Enterprise forcing Captain Kirk to begin the Enterprise’s destruction sequence which goes down to only a few seconds. . .WHY? The source of their conflict is finally revealed: . . . Bele and all of his people on Cheron, are black on their right sides, while Lokai’s people are all white on their right sides!
THE VISUAL PRINCIPLE(S) DEMONSTRATED – Great Use of Various Visual Principles But Featuring Cinematic Medium Shots Leading to Close Up Shots to Evoke the Emotion of Panic
It appears that each time I watch this You Tube clip I notice additional visual composition or graphic principles at play. And I’m pretty sure each principle is deliberate and calculated. Where to begin? From the Rule of Thirds where some shots feature characters “off center” and on one of the “four points of interest” to at least one scene that also shows a very tiny Star Trek ship emerging into view also from one of the “four points of interest” the principles seem evident and very much at play. In fact, when I pause the video this latter tiny Star Trek ship scene for me brilliantly visually underscores the vastness space (and the perhaps the enormity of the destruction sequence predicament) simultaneously juxtaposed against the minuteness of the ship in one sequence! The tiny Star Trek ship against the gigantic, huge space backdrop also orientates me to time and place in terms of the visual principle of a deep depth of field.
The visual principle that I really want to feature most is the effective and dramatic use of shot framing. More directly how medium shots can be effectively sequenced to lead up to closeup shots for exciting emotional effects. Several medium shots are sprinkled in this sequence to continually pulse each character’s tense emotion as “the final star trek ship destruction count continues 15 seconds … 10 seconds. Suddenly the camera captures extreme closeups of some of the crew’s faces. The tension is so palpable until Captain Kirk, who needed to prove who’s in control, aborts the destruction sequence near the end of the clip! Enjoy!
CLICK HERE to start right at the right moment in time to see what I mean! ==>
1 —— Poseidon Adventure —— The 1972 Poseidon Adventure is based on the fictional SS Poseidon, an aging luxury liner that on New Year’s Eve that is overturned by a tsunami. A preacher played tries to dramatically lead a small group of survivors of the overturned ship up to its top and onto safety.
I loved that movie because of the ominous nature of the plot, its dramatic setting out deep at sea, and the acting depth of its award winning actors including Gene Hackman, Ernest Borgnine, and Shelly Winters. The movie, by its nature and plot lends itself to the topic of depth. Speaking of depth watch the first 18 seconds of the movie trailer that follows which I believe illustrates the visual composition technique of a deep or large depth of field.
From my readings of Tom Schroeppel’s Depth of Field section of his “Bare Bones Camera Course for Film and Video” book in theory a wide aperture (or equivalent) would have been used to create the depth of field scene shown. That is if the scene was not created artificially in the studio. You know Hollywood!
CLICK BELOW to start The Poseidon Adventure (1972) Trailer to watch the first 18 seconds
to experience a deep depth of field scene! ==>
CREATE
Although it took me some time and angst to get through it I became really excited and jazzed to plan my and execute my pre video montage shoot. At first I had concerns about my ability to take the various pre shots with my cell phone. After I stopped overthinking how complicated the workings of my cell phone would be to get “special shots” everything began to slowly come together. On a Saturday I headed to downtown D.C. where I work and for a few hours enjoyed just walking around, relaxed and with purpose to take a fair amount of shots. On another day or two on my lunch hour and after work I took several more shots. It was very helpful to me that I had printed out the pre-production shot list ahead of time. The weather was nice and the outings became one heck of a fun photo scavenger hunt where I could get creative and notice people, things, and objects in a way that I might not have otherwise.
I chose the D.C location where I work because this particular location has a whole lot of interesting elements and sights. These elements and sights are anchored by Chinatown and include museums, a wide diversity of restaurants, the world class MLK library, the Capital One Sports and Entertainment Complex, and a host of other interesting other attractions, colors, textures, and cosmopolitan energy. This energy is evident weather it be day, dusk, or nighttime.
Below are a some of my favorite shots!
Yes. The Chinatown area of D.C. near where I work proved to be an excellent venue from which to do a new employee welcome montage video. A new employee welcome video to D.C, to my building Edison Place (which is inviting in it’s on right) and to the immediate surroundings.
Being a major metropolitan area there was always the test of staying clear of traffic and other safety challenges that can be a part of traversing through city streets in search of that perfect shot. I also needed to stay hydrated and ensure that any equipment that I might choose to bring stayed secure.
Directly below is the downloadable PDF document of my scavenger hunt Pre-Production Visual Composition Shot List .
Finally, directly below is a downloadable PDF of my Pre-Production Planning document . Once again, creating a Pre-Production Planning Document – this time for my upcoming montage video – was fun and exciting and most importantly, useful. Useful in fleshing out any loose information related to such things as defining my audience, tone, direction, and other important pre-production details.
