Film Courage: What are the basics of getting a great shot with any camera?
From an iPhone to a DSLR?
Andy Rydzewski, Cinematographer: I suppose it’s a little bit like your previous question
about a beautiful shot like what makes a great shot because it’s so reliant on context
so any shot is where is it going to fit into the montage of images so its place is really
more what I think about but on a technical level there are certain things that I will
always be careful of.
Usually you want to see (unless there is a reason you don’t) but seeing an actor’s
eyes is important or at least one eye.
We as humans we connect to eyes.
If you take googly eyes and you put them on a fork suddenly you can bond with that fork
like it suddenly has human characteristics.
I think eyes are a big thing to I don’t think about it consciously but I know looking
at a shot that I am shooting figuring out where the eyes are and can you see them and
are there other things in the frame that are drawing your eye as opposed to an actor’s
face?
That’s a big part of it so I think maybe the way I’d put it is I want to know in
a shot where do I want the audience to look?
How do I want them to feel when they look there and if you have a big wide shot and
there is an actor somewhere but there are other elements in the frame like a big turquoise
teddy bear or a big shiny something or other and maybe that helps the scene?
Maybe that helps the shot but I need to know what the shot is intended to do, the ideal
is and then I can work from there.
Often you end up with a frame (you start with a frame rather) where there is too much pulling
the eye and I know this shot you need to go to that actor right away so that means we
need to knock down this wall.
This wall is too bright so let’s make sure we knock this light down so it’s not hitting
this wall.
Sometimes there is something like an element of costume that like “Whoah!”
In this shot these red boots are too much.
Maybe we frame them out?
But it becomes I guess that’s really what it is for me is it becomes about what is the
intention and where do you want people to look?
And then you start almost chiseling, it’s a sculpture and you’re trying to get rid
of the pieces that don’t need to be there so that people are drawn to the piece be it
through composition or lighting or color or size in frame.
But I think that would be how I would approach it.
And then you know in terms of different cameras have different latitudes so like an Arri Alexa
has 15-ish stops of latitude so you could have your dark to your light.
An iPhone is significantly less and if something if there is a white spot that is blown out,
it’s just no information and it can be ugly and it can pull your eye because it’s so
bright and bare.
So there are technical limitations to different sensors and that can also be a part of it
is something that is less artistically driven and more technical and well this camera’s
sensor is going to break unless we knock down this light and shoot it all within a better
latitude.
But again the intention is the same because you don’t want them looking at the wrong
thing and having their mind drift to something else.
You are sort of trying to be intentional about everything within a frame.
Question For The Viewers: When it comes to getting great shots, what do you struggle
with the most?