Transcripts
1. Intro: Hi everyone. My name is Zoe. I'm a cinematographer
and a Professor of Film. I've been shooting films
for many years now. The projects I've worked on
have gone on to be shown at festivals like Sundance
and Caribbean tails. What is it that separates
a video from a film? It's not just the content. Today we're going to be going
over a few elements that will bring your videos
into the film world. Throughout the course, you'll be covering several
essential topics, including cameras,
sensors, depth of field, lens compression,
and much, much more. Let's get started.
2. Camera Sensors: Cameras, sensors. When it comes to digital video, there are tons of options to choose from when you're
looking at cameras, sensors, it's important that you choose the camera with
the correct sensor for the work that
you're shooting.
3. Crop Factor: Crop factor. The first thing you
want to do is to determine the cameras
sensors size. The size of the sensor will have a major impact on the lenses that you
choose to shoot with. If we take Canon DSLR
is as an example, you may have heard
that they have full-frame cameras as well as APS-C or crop sensor cameras
with Canon in particular, this is important to know due to the fact that they have at
least two types of lenses. Canon is known for their
EF and their EFS lenses. Lenses can work on any
camera, but EFS lenses, which are usually
more affordable, can only work on
crop sensor cameras. But what does this all mean? Well, crop sensor or APS-C
cameras and cannons case, such as the cameras from
the Canon Rebel series, are targeted towards an
early learner demographic, both in complexity
and in price point. To this end, canon has enabled most of their lenses to
work with these cameras. As their users become
more experienced, many upgrade to the 5D or 1D semi-professional
and professional lines. Both of these cameras
feature full-frame sensors, but are also much more
challenging to use. Crop sensors got their name
from being just that cropped. They are physically smaller
than a full frame sensor. What this means is
that many cameras with these sensors will have what
is known as a crop factor. The crop factor refers to a ratio in comparison
to a full-frame sensor, or rather how the
crop sensor has to compensate to achieve
the same coverage as a full-frame sensor. In practice, what this looks
like is a bit of lens map. For instance, the crop factor of many canon rebels is 1.6 I. A 50 millimeter lens on a cabin, rebel would actually
capture an image that looks much more like it was taken
by an 80 millimeter lens. It's important to understand the multiplication that
goes on here in order to be able to make the
best choices when selecting a camera and lens.
4. Depth of Field - Part 1: Depth of field. Based on
the size of the sensor, the depth of field will also
appear lesser or greater. On full-frame cameras,
shallow depth of field will become more apparent
than on crop sensor cameras. For the most professional look, I'd recommend going with at least a full frame
sensor whenever possible.
5. Field of View: Field of view.
Additionally, the field of view that you will get with a full frame camera is much greater than you would get
with a crop sensor camera. This is especially important
when you're considering which wide shots you're looking for in the film that
you're shooting.
6. Lenses: Lenses. Another crucial decision you'll make when choosing to shoot a film is which lens
or lenses you'll use. I'd argue that your
choice of lens is way more important than
your choice of camera. Within reason, the lens
you choose will determine a large percentage of what constitutes the
look of your film. Spherical versus
anamorphic, fast or slow. These are all
choices you'll need to make as you look at lenses. I'd recommend looking for
fast full-frame lenses. That way, no matter the
body you're covered. A fast lens is a lens that
has a wide minimum aperture. We'll go into
greater detail about aperture later in the lesson. But for now, what we should
remember is that aperture is also referred to as the
f-stop or the T stock, and is usually advertise
after the focal length leg. So most really dramatic shots in popular films are shot with a lens with a low
aperture as having a shallow depth of field really focuses the viewers sight
line on the subject. It isolates them in the frame. But what is depth of field?
7. Depth of Field - Part 2: Depth of field,
depth of field in the space within a shot of
the things that are in focus. But what does this mean exactly? Most videos that we
see on the internet, whether they be
newscasts or YouTube, vlogs look something like this. As you can see, everything or almost everything
is in focus. This is great for
when we want to see every element of
what we're filming, but not so great for making
different types of films. Depth of field is one of the tools that we
as filmmakers can use to direct our
audience's attention from one object or
subject to the next. By using a very shallow depth of field of maybe a foot
or only a few inches. We can really isolate the
subject of the shot and give them that so-called film look that you might
be familiar with. Depending on the aperture and the lens that you decide on, your depth of field
can shift greatly and you'll want to change it to suit the content that
you're shooting.
8. Deep Focus: Deep focus. We can get a very deep focus where most things
are in focus by closing down our
aperture and can establish a shallow depth
of field by opening it up. However, there are
challenges associated with both deep focus and having
a shallow depth of field. For instance, shots that
use deep focus require a lot more light as a result of the aperture
being so close. Now, historically, the
focus was the norm. And as a result, the amount of light required for filmmaking in the
past was extensive. Needing so much light
in post challenges, if they're required, lighting
elements were unavailable. Today. A lot of light
is still required. However, we also have the
advantage of technology. Iso is something that we can
adjust to give ourselves a bit more latitude with regard to the amount of
light that we require. For a bit more on ISO, check out my previous video
on cinematography techniques. Another trick, if you
really want to use defocus, but you don't have the
lights or the latitude with ISO is to shoot outside
during the day. In this instance, the sun is one of the best
light sources.
9. Focus Pulling: Shallow depth of field. On the other hand, having
a very shallow depth of field is a challenge for whomever is
maintaining the focus. The focus polar. Typically the first AC is
the person responsible for ensuring that what
is meant to be in focus is correctly in focus. By limiting the range that
this person has to work with, their job becomes
exponentially more difficult. As at some ranges, they will only have a
few inches to work with. And don't forget, the first
AC has to pull the focus as both the actors and the cameras potentially
move about the set. Not an easy task. However, this is a skill
that can be trained. And if you're interested in working with shallow
depth of field, I'd recommend practicing
your follow focusing with a moving subject and
a wide open aperture.
10. Aperture: Aperture. I cover the details of
aperture in my other class, but for a brief refresher, here's what aperture is. Aperture. Aperture is my favorite way of manipulating
and digital image. What is aperture? Aperture is the whole
inside of moulins. Increasing or
decreasing the size of your aperture essentially allows or prevents
more light from passing through the lens and
hitting your camera sensor. Aperture is measured in stops. It increases on a
logarithmic scale. On typical lenses,
you'll see an aperture ranging from about 1.4 to 22. However, there are lenses lower than this and some that
go higher than 22. Now what does it
mean by going lower than in higher in that 22.41? Well, essentially 1.422 are both measurements of the size
of the hole in the lens. You can have an aperture of 1 for which while being
a small number, is actually quite a
large hole in your lens. And you can have apertures
all the way up to 22, which is actually quite a
small hole in your lens. A lens that has an aperture of 1.4 allows a lot of light
to pass through it. However, as you go
up on the scale, the amount of light steadily decreases having each time you go to a full
stop in aperture. And f star of 1.4 has twice the amount of
light as an f-stop of two. And then an f-stop
of two has twice the amount of light
as an f-stop of 2.8. Not only are these major stops ways of measuring
how much light, but these stops are actually
broken into thirds. So you can have an
f-stop of 2 third, 2 and two-thirds, or 2.8.
11. Lens Compression: Lens compression. Now that we understand a bit
more about depth of field, we can talk about
another major factor in motion picture making,
lens compression. Lens compression is a
visual effect that can cause the images the camera
captures to appear distorted. On a wider lens, the subject may appear slimmer, the background may seem further, and the straight
lines near the edges of the frames may look curved. On the flip side. With a tighter lens, the subject may appear wider, the background may seem closer, and the images in the
background may also look a lot larger than they otherwise
would to the naked eye. This is the result
of lens compression. In the right moments, lens compression appears
normal as our eyes have been trained to accept certain
distortions in certain shots. However, it's something
to be cognizant of when we're making our shortlist
and choosing our lenses.
12. pCAM Pro: P cam pro. P can Pro is an app created by
camera Tech David you back. The app features a lot of excellent calculators
that allow you to make quick decisions based
on facts instead of guesses. There are options to
preview field of view, depth of field calculators and aperture calculators
to ensure that multiple subjects
remain in focus. I won't spend a lot
of time on this app, but if you're serious about
getting accurate results, I'd highly, highly recommend
making the investment.
13. Linear vs Log: Linear versus log. Most videos that
you see online have been shot using a
linear picture profile. What this means is that
the image has been produced without too much
regards to the exposure curve. However, as we learned
about aperture, exposure values are inherently
logarithmic or doubling or halving depending on
whether the amount of light is increasing
or decreasing. Shooting in a log is an attempt to correct
the elements of the linear picture
profile and retain as much of the camera's
dynamic range as possible. Occasionally, you may look
at an image recorded in a linear picture profile and
notice one of two things. Either the highlights are blown out or the shadows are crushed. This occurs because the
linear picture profile does not adjust for these elements that are on the ends
of its spectrum. As you can see in
this comparison of the linear versus the
logarithmic curves. As you might expect, the linear curve is not a
curve, It's a straight line. The log curve, on
the other hand, has a greater slope at the
beginning of the line on the left and a lesser slope
of that translates right. The bottom left
side of the curve refers to the shadows
of the image, which the curve attempts
to maintain the details though by bringing
the brightness up and closer to the middle. And on the right side, it does the opposite with the highlights by
bringing them down and closer to the middle
and darkening them so that the details
are not lost or blown out. This results in an image that
is apparently more flat. However, as the details
are all able to be recorded by the sensor
in post-production, they will be able
to be utilized as the contrast is then
re-introduced to the image. If it's in your budget, shooting in law will
always give you more flexibility over a
linear picture profile. In the long run, many
prosumer cameras even come with the
option pre-installed. For instance, the
camera that this is being shot on has
c log installed. And if you look at
the before and after, you can see the difference
that color correction makes. However, many cameras don't
come with the option for log. Or maybe you're just not comfortable with the idea
of color correction. There are still
choices that you can make to optimize your image.
14. Color Spaces & LUTs: Color spaces. If you're scrolling around in the picture profile options
of a digital cinema camera, you may see the option
to record in or use a lot representing rec
seven O nine or wreck 2020. These two color spaces
are two examples of dozens of color spaces that are available
in the film world. But first of all, what is a color space? A color space is a specific grouping of
colors that your camera, television, or other device can recognize and reproduce
these colors. Space is also applied to
the clips that you shoot. And rec seven O nine and erect 2020s are just two
examples of that. Rec seven O nine is the standard
for 1080 HD television. And its scope looks
something like this. It's effective for what
it was established for, but it's a bit limited.
15. Conclusion: I hope you've learned a bit from this video and are able to utilize depth of field
log color spaces. Let's end much more
in your next project. As always, let me know if
you have any questions, comments, or concerns, and
I'd be happy to address them.
Zoë Davidson, Software Engineer & Cinematographer
