Cinematographic Techniques

Well, I can't think of choosing a cinematographic topic. I usually think of cinematography in terms of not using too many straight on shots and over the shoulder dialogue shots, or camera position, or various movements. Spotlight was a movie that had great camera positioning.

I think OP meant cinematic techniques in general as he has written about techniques that are not directly related to cinematography like Chekhov's Gun and the like.

Still, if it's just a matter of wanting inspiration for posts in this thread, how about a post about the split diopter?

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I have no idea what split diopter is so feel free to share.

tonight i'm watching suspiria so tomorrow I might talk about techniques used in giallo movies

Well google can probably explain it better than me, but it works like bifocal glasses, where half the image has a different focus point, than the other half, if that makes sense.

I guess the reason why split diopters are not used anymore, is that nowadays with digital editing, you can cheat it, and just lock the camera in one place, and then shoot half the scene, in focus, then the other half in focus, at a different focus point, and then put both halves together in post, in order to save money on a split diopter?

Is it the technique that leave a weird blurry line in the middle of the image?

Well I guess that would depend. Are there any other techniques that do that, not to get confused by?

i don't know

Yeah it's what I though it was you can see the blurry line in the middle of the image.
I personnaly hate that technique

Yep for sure, that's it. I was thinking of doing shots like that for a short film project of mine. But I have no split diopter. Which means I will have to set the camera up, and then shoot one side with one actor, and then shoot the other side with the actor, and put both halves together in editing later.

If you still have them and you don't mind I would love to see them

Oh well I haven't shot it yet, so I will have to see .

Have you pick the subject of your movie

Oh it's just a crime thriller.

Actually speaking of the 180 degree rule before, I noticed that this movie clip decides to cross the 180 degree line, by moving the camera across it, instead of just staying on one side:



Why did they decide to cross it, instead of keeping the camera, on one side only?

It's probably for the comic situation when the snake appears. In fact, very often when directors break the 180 rule they do it instantly. In this clip, we have the rotation of the camera which helps us orient ourselves. When directors break suddenly the 180 rule is to upset us and disorient us. I think they break the line simply to make the appearance of the snake funnier

Oh okay, yes for sure they definitely do not do it in a disorienting way at all. But how does it make the snake funnier just because they moved the camera to the other side?

IDK perhaps because if they were keeping the line we would have seen the snake b3fore Van damn but because we jump it,Van damn sees it first and then we see the snake. It's probably not for this reason but it is the only reason I could think of

Oh okay, I thought that if they had just moved the snake to the other side, you still wouldn't have seen it, because the faces are in close up and the snake would still be out of frame at that point. So I thought why not just move the snake to the other side, and then don't just move across the line at all then... Just thought it was a strange choice how to decided to move across then line there, instead of just stay on one side, and then have the snake on that one side.

I'm saying that but I have no idea really

Yeah for sure. And thanks for your insight as well .

One thing about movies today, is the night scenes look too bright compared to before. Before, thins were hidden in shadow and this made movies more creepy and suspenseful at night before.

For example if you compare The Thing (1982) to The Thing (2011), the 2011 is lit much brighter at night with less shadows, and more is visible. But even in the areas where there is shadow, you can still see a lot compared to really black shadow in the 1982 one, which I liked better.

Same when comparing the 2005 King Kong, to the 1976 one. Much more black shadows at night in the 70s one.

Or an even better example is comparing Mad Max 2 to Fury Road. Mad Max 2 is dark at night with dark shadows, But Fury Road looks like it was shot in the daytime, and they tried their best as possible to make it look like night. But the lack of darkness just makes it less exciting and less interesting I would say.