Here are a few notes I dug up from an early cinematography class. They’re short and good to keep in mind.
- Eye first looks at what is moving, then what’s brightest.
- Film is a 2-Dimensional medium. The idea is to create the appearance of 3 dimensions through composition, lighting, and camera movies. Tilt, Pan, and Zoom are 2-D moves. Dolly, Crane, and Jib are 3-D.
I also have some foot-candle notes, but I think that’s a discussion for another day.
I would say that a Tilt and a Pan can be a 2.5 dimensional move, depending on how much there is in the foreground. On the extreme, when doing a close up, a pan/tilt can look just like a jib/crane.