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Cinematography Notes

Cinematography

Posted on March 4, 2008

1 Comment(s)

Dominic-3

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.

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Written by Joey Daoud

Joey Daoud is an award-winning documentary filmmaker. His past films have appeared on Netflix, The New York Times, and National Geographic. He is also a YouTube creator across multiple channels with videos garnering millions of views. In his free time, he likes to climb mountains, scuba dive, and brew unique coffees.

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1 Comment

  1. Martin Weiss
    Martin Weiss on March 5, 2008 at 1:00 pm

    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.