1
What is the role of the cinematographer in film
making?
Cinematographer
has to understand the story and find allusive images that help to tell that
story. He is responsible for visual presentation, lighting, emphasizing one or
another thing in the frame, scene, movie.
2 Why did director Roman Polanski insist on using hand held
camera in the film Chinatown?
He used this technique to
intimidate actors, hereby forcing them to behave spontaneously, creating
voyeuristic kind of look, so that the viewer would feel like participating in
the story himself.
3 Name two films which use colour in a very symbolic way, and
describe what they suggest.
‘McCabe and Mrs. Miller’, cinematographer
uses faded colours to mimic old pictures,
photographs, taken many years ago to make movie more believable,
old-looking atmosphere.
‘Godfather’. In this movie a lot
of yellow, yellow-red colour is used to create dangerous, brassy period-movie atmosphere,
these colours broke into motion picture business long after that.
‘The Last Emperor’, yellow –
colour of emperors, power, sky, sun itself, red – colour of Peking, of the
forbidden city, green – means knowledge, forbidden information in the closed,
self-contained city.
4 In the film Raging Bull why was the fight scene filmed at
different speeds?
The fight itself was usually
24 frames/sec, parts where men are not actually fighting, were shot at 48
frames/sec. Every fight was different. And people remember those fights as big
flash pictures from ‘Life’ magazine. Creators were showing off as well.
5 Who is the cinematographer for the film Apocalypse Now, and
what is his philosophy?
Vittorio Storaro. He sais
that photography is a single person’s art, like music, painting, writing
whereas cinematography is communal art, it can not be expressed by one single
person.
