Day 3 –  Film and TV

Look at the history of film and it’s genres. Don’t necessarily recreate scenes or stills but get a feel for a particular genre. What techniques are used? Turning day into night, using different filters and effects.

I really like the carnival scenes in the TV series Heroes. The camera is constantly pointing into lights and there is often a tilt to the camera. You’ll also notice a sort of tilt shift effect as well. All these factors just intensifies instability and unpredictability of the characters in those scenes.

Incorporating these into a newer style of your own.

There’s some much back and forth ‘borrowing’ between film and photography.

Schindler’s List is a good example of using selective colour. In 1993 Photoshop was very much in it’s infancy but throughout the 90′s and noughties we saw this technique being used more and more. You’d be wrong in thinking that this is in fact a new technique. You’ll have to go back to Victorian times to see the first examples of these technique which at the time was painted on by hand.

Also think about different film and TV genres.

Does your photography have a ‘Days of our Lives’ feel or is it Fantasy, Sci-fi or Film Noir?

Do you mix genres?

Think about Back to the Future Part 3. It might not have been the greatest film of all time but it was an interesting mix of Western and Science fiction

So why not go a watch a film by Michael Chapman, Vittorio Storaro or John Alcott and get drawn into the cinematography for a bit of inspiration.

For more posts in this series go to Get Inspired