Continually Confusing - Part Three

Although not the first to employ editing in film, the likes of Sergei Eisenstein and Lev Kuleshov formulated techniques and theories, raising the editing process to an art form.

Eisenstein believed that editing could be used for more than just expounding a scene or moment, through a "linkage" of related images. Eisenstein felt the "collision" of shots could be used to manipulate the emotions of the audience and create film metaphors. He believed that an idea should be derived from the juxtaposition of two independent shots, bringing an element of collage into film. He developed what he called "methods of montage" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergei_Eisenstein#Film_theorist

Eisenstein formulated his Methods of Montage, detailing several principles of film editing.

Sergei Eisenstein – Methods of Montage
Metric	Shots are of equal length (number of frames)
Rhythmic	Shot length is dictated by visual elements such as movement and composition.
Tonal	Transitions are employed to illicit a specific emotional response from the audience.
Overtonal	Overtonal montage may utilise metric, rhythmic and tonal techniques.
Intellectual	Presents and conveys intellectual ideas through juxtaposition, symbolism and metaphor.

Lev Kuleshov famously studied the effects of juxtaposition in film editing.

In the dawn of the 20th century, cinema was a new art form, comprising many techniques that hadn’t been developed. And the ones that had had not been studied to the needed extension. The elements of editing were among them. Filmmakers knew that you could cut and splice the film strip, but they didn’t thoroughly comprehend the purposes of doing so. Lev Kuleshov, a Soviet filmmaker, was among the first to dissect the effects of juxtaposition. Through his experiments and research, Kuleshov discovered that depending on how shots are assembled the audience will attach a specific meaning or emotion to it. In his experiment, Kuleshov cut an actor with shots of three different subjects: a hot plate of soup, a girl in a coffin and a pretty woman lying in a couch. The footage of the actor was the same expressionless gaze. Yet the audience raved his performance, saying first he looked hungry, then sad, then lustful. www.elementsofcinema.com/editing/kuleshov-effect.html

http://haverholm.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Kuleshov.jpg

Film and sound editor Walter Murch discusses the art of film editing in his book, In the Blink of an Eye (Silman-James Press, 1995). The theme of the book lies around the process of editing, why it should work and its acceptance by the viewing audience.

Murch proposes six guiding considerations for editing in film. Although referred to as “the Rule of Six”, they are designed to inform the process rather than be a rigid reference. Correctness and consistency are dependent upon the required effect, the response we wish to elicit from the viewer.

Walter Murch – The Rule of Six
Emotion	Is it true to the emotion that we want to portray, that we want to provoke in the audience? Does it push forward the emotional line?
Story	Does it advance the story? Does it tell the story in way that can be understood by the audience?
Rhythm	Does the cut happen at the “right” point? Does it feel correct and interesting? Does it fit in the overall and established rhythm?
Eye Trace	Where is the audience looking during the shot? Is the eye carried smoothly during the transition?
2D Plane	The representation of the 3D space on a 2D plane (the screen). Questions of “stage line” (the 180 degree rule) and composition
3D Space	The positioning of actors and objects in the 3D space. Are they represented coherently and consistently?

Murch, Walter, In the Blink of an Eye, Silman-James Press, 1995

Where Murch is more firm is in the primacy of each rule over those that follow. While all six conditions may be met in most circumstances, where, perhaps for practical reasons, any must necessarily be excluded, the priority is to maintain emotion over story, story over rhythm and so on.

Continually Confusing - Part Two

“What is drama but life with the dull bits cut out.” Alfred Hitchcock

Here Hitchcock may have been referring to elliptical editing, the technique of compressing time, skipping the unnecessary (“the dull bits”), while maintaining continuity.

puffin.creighton.edu/fapa/Bruce/0New%20Film%20as%20Art%20webfiles/all%20texts%20and%20articles/editing/editing.htm

These shot setups from his 1960 film, Psycho, seem more representative of temporal or continuity editing but demonstrate some of the same technique.

The scene is presented in “real” time. Where he has allowed the viewer to skip the “dull bits”, he has accomplished it via edits. The camera is not static but cuts to the shots necessary to progress the story, heighten drama and view the players’ actions and reactions.

The diagram below represent the various camera set ups employed in the scene. It’s apparent that this is not a conventional sequence. Hitchcock has not adhered to the 180° rule. From the establishing shot he employs many different angles. Hitchcock though could not be accused of being an unthinking, sloppy film maker.

puffin.creighton.edu/fapa/Bruce/0New%20Film%20as%20Art%20webfiles/all%20texts%20and%20articles/editing/editing.htm

Perhaps most noticeable, most far removed from the established viewing angles are the shots from the driver’s point of view, of the policeman in front of the car (Set Up I). It appears that Hitchcock has used eye line and trace to lead the viewer’s eye.

We can break down the shots in this way:

	Set Up H	Low angle mid two shot. We’re under the gaze of the police officer, stuck in the car with Marion. Her eyes are down as she reluctantly hands over her licence.
	Set Up H	The police officer moves away to screen left. Marion’s eye’s move up to follow him towards the front of the car.
	Set Up H	As the police officer exits screen left, Marion stares straight ahead after him.
	Set Up H	To accentuate the eye line, Marion’s hand moves to the steering wheel, deliberately pointing the viewer to the front of the car. This prepares us for the novel camera angle, crossing the 180° line.
	Set Up I	Cut to low angle, point of view, mid shot. The officer enters screen right maintaining spatial continuity. We now know that the police officer is in front of the car and we are looking from Marion’s point of view.
	Set Up I	The officer checks Marion’s details and his eyes drop towards the front bumper of the car. His eye line prepares the viewer for the next shot. Focal point at screen centre.
	Set Up J	Cut away to point of view, very close up, high angle shot. Focal point screen centre The officer’s eye line has led us to his point of view as he checks the license plate.
	Set Up K	Eye level, medium close up reaction shot (not from the officer’s point of view). Focal point still at screen centre. Marion cranes her neck in an effort to see what the officer is doing. She’s looking for a reaction.
	Set Up I	Low, reverse angle, mid shot. This is a reaction shot (although there is no reaction). Marion’s obvious concern or curiosity is shared by the viewer. The officer is standing slightly to screen right in preparation for moving in that direction and leading us back to Set Up H (car interior).

https://youtu.be/V9o433ZMOYo

Continually Confusing - Part One

Sources of information on film continuity rarely define the term, moving instead to describe the techniques involved.

Noun: continuity 1.     The unbroken and consistent operation of something over time. Synonyms: continuousness, uninterruptedness, flow, progression -       A state of stability and the absence of disruption -       A connection or line of development with no sharp breaks Plural noun: continuities Synonyms: interrelationship, interrelatedness, intertextuality, interconnectedness, connection, linkage, cohesion, coherence 2.     The maintenance of continuous action and self-consistent detail in the various scenes of a film or broadcast. Definition from www.google.co.uk

Considering Continuity

Why do we need to consider continuity in film making?

If our films were to comprise a single shot from one camera angle, much like a single scene taken from a traditional stage play, continuity would be guaranteed, unavoidable. The audience would experience the entire story from a single, consistent angle with no break in the action. This was the technique used by the earliest film makers believing, as they did, that splicing together different shots would confuse the audience.

switchbackroad.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/heightstour123rnational-tour-company.jpg

It would not take long for the early pioneers to discover that the audience would accept editing and that it could be used to great effect. Shots from differing angles and positions could be juxtaposed to move the story forward while maintaining the attention of the audience. The moments deemed unnecessary to carry a story could even be removed altogether.

How do you make a photo-story? You do it and see how it goes.

Over two weeks and maybe 450 photos, getting sand blasted and hailed on, suffering a nest of ratt-weilers and camera wrangling, I put together a photo-story short.

Fairly early on I decided to produce in black and white. With natural light and a necessarily high ISO value, many of the original photos took on a natural grain that was accentuated in the grey-scale. Adding a high tonal contrast in post-production made for a gritty, moody and almost vintage feel that suited the subject matter and this was carried through to the rest of the footage. I hope this created a consistency throughout the project.

The project is paced slowly, setting the scene, introducing the character and his environment and building the story. Foley sounds have been applied to lead the story and assist in atmosphere.

Many of the transitions are fades (between shots and to black) and these are meant to convey a sense of passing time. Several shots feature subtle zooms to suggest travel, a movement through the scene. Where harder cuts are used, the intention is to provide contrast with the subtly of the general pace of the project.

The scenes are paced to build from a moody, slow beginning towards the finale which is more up-tempo, brighter and, ultimately, to a happy ending.

How do you make a photo-story? Planning before performance

I'm thankful that I can count myself as being a learner in these arts. Being a learner means I can make mistakes like not planning before shooting.

Having said that, I already had a broad idea of my theme and the shots I chose helped me plan...

It was a great help to work through the photos, the ideas, shot by shot and think about the transitions and the sounds I needed to complete the project.

It's not that I stuck to this plan (not completely) but it was a great (re)starting point.

I discovered that I needed more shots (the weather didn't help with this but with perseverence I got some) and which other resources I should be hunting down.

How do you make a photo-story? To begin, you can only try...

Make a photo-story?

How? I don't know how to use a camera. I've a background in art and design, the concepts of composition are familiar (if distant in time) but the technicalities and practicalities of taking actual photographs remain mysterious.

Best way to learn? Borrow a DSLR and a variety of lenses from a good friend and go for it.

This is a selection of shots that went towards the final story.

I set this up as the establishing shot. It's an eye level, long shot of our protagonist's house.

Moving inside we see the dogs. (high angle, long shot). One of them is watching...

...our man playing his guitar (eye level, mid/long shot).

He's finding it difficult (high angle, long shot, wide angle) and...

... he storms out as the dog looks on (eye level, over shoulder, very long shot).

Our protagonist takes a break (new scene, establishing shot, wide angle) before...

... returning to consider his guitar (eye level, suggesting mid shot)...

 ... and getting back to work... (low angle, close up, narrow DoF)

 ... and playing guitar. (Over shoulder, very high angle, narrow DoF)

After abusing the lack of physical film (while embracing the capacity of digital storage) and taking over 300 photographs, I picked my shots. You'll see the results later.

Dealing with the Premiere

I've been enjoying making our photo-story this last couple of weeks. One little problem has been Adobe Premiere's media export. The standard formats produce huge file sizes (even for a two minute film) but other methods appear to mess with the aspect ratio of the media.

Even when the media seems to have been exported successfully, displaying the file other than on PC (e.g. casting to an external display) seems to cause problems.

The Adobe website provides the following tutorial but I'm not sure it solves my problem

Export a sequence clip in Premiere

In any case, I gave birth to a photo-story by fair means or foul.

An Attempt at Area Lights

 Leaving behind any idea of colour theory, I just have some time for a look at the different types of lighting available in Maya.

This first example uses one spot key light and a soft area light as a fill. The geometry is very basic and there is no bump mapping in the material. We can see the hard shadows cast by the key light (spot with wide penumbra) and the slightly more sympathetic shadows from the area light.

This second image was created with two area lights. A bump map has been added, the key and fill lights have been coloured to accentuate a contrast in hue and tone. The geometry of each block is exactly the same.

Besides the simple effect of a reflective floor, I've raised the blocks slightly to allow for a "natural" shadow beneath each.

The entire composition also feels more comfortable.

Is it more important though, that the area lights seem to add a touch of realism (at least beyond the last render) to the image?

Having said that, I noticed that I had no definition between the layers of blocks. I bumped them up a bit to cure that...

A round of colour correction adds some drama...

An Experiment in Virtual Lighting #4

For this experiment, I've retired our Mudbox mannequin in favour of a more detailed model. Henry simply didn't have the detail nor the shiny eyes for this experiment.

I've also ditched the mathematical approach while trying to remember the lessons learnt.

We'll call our new model Bernie.

Bernie's a happy chap. He's an old model of mine. I've had to render him in Blender because Maya wouldn't play ball with his textures. The lighting settings are similar to Henry's last set up but we've moved away from the symmetrical composition and lighting that Henry was subject to.

Here's Bernie with a slightly yellow key light supported by a blue fill light (at one third intensity) and a barely noticeable back light. Arranging and capturing a catch light proved quite difficult as Bernie wears glasses. This is a broad light shot illuminating the side of the model facing the camera.

Tracking around Bernie and swapping the key and fill lights on the horizontal, Bernie is rendered in a far more dramatic fashion. The back light also comes into play defining his hat, neck, jaw and shoulder. Bernie's features are accentuated with a greater tonal contrast. His glasses reflect some catch light and there is also a suggestion in his left eye.

Exactly the same shot as above but with the lights rotated around Bernie (on the -ve Y axis in Maya terms). This demonstrates an extreme short light. The portion of the model that is most brightly lit is facing away from the camera.

As a demonstration of the dramatic possibilities of lighting, here Bernie is subjected to a low angle key light and a high angle back light which defines his hat and shoulders. This once friendly character takes on the persona of an interrogator, a stalker or... what else?

This was an easier angle for the catch light to take effect. Unfortunately Bernie only comes alive when he's in serial killer mode.

Sorry Bernie, under this lighting the grin only makes it worse...

An Experiment in Virtual Lighting #3

To save me the bother of calculating every time I want to find a complimentary fill light colour, I created a spreadsheet to do the job for me.

My grandly titled "Additive Light Calculator"

The colour tint values are entered as a base for the result of the additive mix. In this case, the chosen colour is white (R:255, G:255, B:255).

Key light values are entered. I chose a deep, warm tan (R:233, G:153. B:52)

These values are subtracted from the required colour tint and the result is the complimentary fill colour. This time, a dark blue (R:22, G:102, B:203)

Using tertiary colours (rather than the primary or secondary) is definitely an improvement. Subjectively, the light appears more natural, more subtle while offering contrast in tone and hue across the form.

This light set up is for demonstrating additive lighting. I suspect that using a purely mathematical approach is not the answer to creative lighting but we'll plow on and see if we can improve...

An Experiment in Virtual Lighting #2

Remember Henry our Mudbox mannequin? I've brought him back under Maya's virtual studio lights to test the Primary/Secondary colour mix theory.

Primary: Blue (R:0, G:0, B:255) Secondary: Yellow (R:255, G:255, B:0)

It's all gone a bit disco for Henry but the theory appears to hold up under our virtual conditions. As you can see, Henry is lit by 2 spot lights of the same intensity (1.0). They are acting as twin key lights at 22.5' and -22.5'. There are distinct areas of our primary and secondary colour lights (to Henry's extreme left and right) and, where they overlap most, areas where they mix to produce a white (or certainly whiter) light.

Primary: Red (R:255, G:0, B:0) Secondary: Cyan (R:0, G:255, B:255)

 Primary: Green (R:0, G:255, B:0) Secondary: Magenta (R:255, G:0, B:255)

Not entirely scientific (and not particularly useful outside 50's sci-fi and 70's disco) but we don't have to stick with these garish lights. If we apply the same additive theory to more subtle lighting, can we find a more subtle effect and use it in a creative way?

Sorry Henry, you're not finished yet...

White Light/White Heat

Taking the additive RGB model a little further, it's apparent that a white surface will appear white when the three primary colours are reflected equally and at full intensity.

In the case of Maya's lighting we can use the RBG model with a range of 0-255 for each of the red, green and blue colour channels.

You can see from this example that I've selected the RGB, 0 to 255 model. All of the RGB values are set to the maximum (255) and the additive result is a white. This is the same process as we see in the mixing of primary colours in the image above.

What of those secondary colours? The cyan, magenta and yellow?

If yellow light represents an additive mix of green and red (R:255, G:255, B: 0) then adding blue light (R:0, G:0, B:255) should produce our white light.

The expected result. A primary colour added to it's complimentary, secondary colour creates a white light. We should expect the same results from the mixing of:

But why should it stop there? If we can mathematically calculate the additive values to create a white light (or any other colour), we can choose the colours of our lighting and accurately predict the colour of the resulting mix. Or, conversely, choose the result, the required tint and calculate the colour of lighting required.

Worth an experiment?

Three Spots of Illumination

A very simple animation demonstrating the additive interaction of the primary colours of light.

I created three hard spot lights and coloured them pure red, green and blue (with a value 255 in Maya). They were pointed directly at a pure white plane. The lights were parented to a dummy cube object which was key-framed to dolly on the +ve Z axis. The penumbra angle was then keyed to display a fuller colour gamut.

Technicalities aside, I hope this shows how, even with virtual lighting, the primary colours add up to white (ish) light.

Exposure explained again

This is a simple overview of the factors that affect exposure. The presenter isn't shy of hammering home the basic principles and gives some examples of which settings are of most concern when shooting different subjects.

The second video in the series moves on to explaining the use of "stops" (in shutter speed and ISO as well as aperture) to maintain a balanced exposure.

Working with Mrs. Lewis

Mrs. Lewis is a professional gardener and is armed with nothing more than a smartphone for taking shots. I must have been boring her silly about photography over the last few weeks. She stopped work to take this photo because of the fantastic colours of the fallen leaves which the wind had carved into a path.

I took the liberty of cropping and colour grading it.

The Griffiths' Garden in Autumn, Jeannette Lewis, 26th October 2015

The colours of the fallen autumn leaves are amazing but the compositional colour balance is very awkward. The deep green of the hedges has no balance. There is also tonal asymmetry but I saw this as less of a problem and more of an opportunity.

The Griffiths' Garden in Autumn (Edit), Jeannette Lewis, 26th October 2015

Reduced to black and white, a purely tonal composition, the deep reds and greens become more harmonious and the darkness of the bushes less distracting. The path of leaves is now freer (supported by the bush) to force the viewer to the focal point of the porch.

In "reducing" to black and white I made adjustments in the tonal values of selective colours.

I get the feeling that a dark figure (or figures), a silhouette in the porch , would have completed the image. 

Autumn Windfalls

I took this photo a few days back. It's a very autumnal scene with windfall pears and fuchsia flowers.

I've just put it through Photoshop's RAW editor and cropped it.

Given that is was an overcast day and it's taken under a pear tree and dense fuchsia bush, the colours are very vibrant. I've really only corrected the white balance (to the "daylight" rather than "overcast" setting), gently massaged the exposure and contrast and taken out a little yellow.

I used my borrowed Nikon D7000 with a Nikon AF Nikkor 85mm lens (fixed) @ f/1.4, 1/1320s, ISO 100.

Original image

Corrected and cropped

This lens can be set to a very large aperture so I think this is how the image was acceptably bright even at a shutter speed of 1/320s and a low ISO. This meant that the DOF was very tight and I think I've missed some foreground detail that I'd have liked to have captured. Going by the 1/3-2/3 principle for DOF, I could have dollied out and caught more of the foreground.

The general focus isn't perfect either but with manual focus and these settings, it felt quite unforgiving. I could have fired off a few more shots and hoped for more.

Compositionally I quite like it. The bright focal point ends up being a little off the third mark in the leaves to the right. The line of yellow pears takes the eye around to where you find the in-focus fuchsia flowers.

More experimentation required...

An Experiment in Virtual Lighting #1

What better way of finding out about lighting than flinging around 8000W of red hot cans? Not having an 8000W lighting rig, I settled for some virtual spots in a Maya scene and a Mudbox mannequin (who we'll call Henry).

One Spot...

I started with the basics. One key light, a spotlight directed along the Z axis (0') at an intensity of 1.0.

Henry is certainly lit but it's pretty uninspiring, very symmetrical and overexposed.

Moving the light might add more interest. I moved this single light by 45' and then 90' on the Y Axis.

At 45'

At 90'

A definite move away from the tonal symmetry. The light is at the same intensity so Henry still suffers from overexposure in the highlights. The effect is certainly more dramatic. The contrast between light and shade becomes increasingly stark as we move to 90'. We do however, lose all sense of form in the shadowed areas.

Two Spot...

Time to add a fill light to give us back some of that form.

Both the key and fill lights are at 45' (and -45') on the horizontal. As both lights are at an intensity of 1.0, Henry is very blown out. The highlights have taken over and we're back to that tonal symmetry.

With that single key, moving towards the 90' added more drama and removed symmetry. With both lights set to opposing 90', we do have a dramatic contrast but Henry is back to his symmetrical self. If we're looking for some interesting asymmetry, the lights are going to have to be asymmetrical in position and intensity.

The key light is now at 45' (Intensity 1.0). The fill light remains at -90' at half the intensity (0.5). We have that tonal asymmetry while retaining form in most of the shadowed areas. Henry's highlights are still suffering from overexposure and his silhouette could do with some attention.

Three Spot...

This is the same setup as the two spot with the addition of a back light (intensity 0.5). This has the effect of picking out Henry's silhouette. Note the crown of his head and the form of his shoulders.

The key light has also been dimmed (intensity 0.5) to address the blown out highlights. To retain the asymmetrical tonal balance, the fill light has also been dimmed (intensity 0.2).

Up to this point we've had Henry under some pretty hard lights. An adjustment in the penumbra angle value softens the edges of the spots' light cones.

More

That's a basic 3 light rig but where else can we go? Some light from below?

This image has an additional low angle fill light at an intensity of only 0.1. It has quite an effect on the result, more evenly lighting Henry overall.

By changing intensities, we swap the roles of the key and low angle fill lights. This creates low angle key (intensity 0.7) and high angle fill (moved to 45' on the vertical and intensity 0.1) lights. This dramatically alters the image and accentuates Henry's under brow. His crown and shoulders retain some form by use of the back light. This is a look reminiscent of horror and thriller films as the subject takes on a looming, ominous appearance.

While every image was taken from exactly the same, neutral angle, it's very obvious that the lighting set up has a profound effect on the resultant images.