Australian film - Federation of Australian Movie Makers

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BASICLY VIDEOGRAPHY by Ian Simpson Composing for the Widescreen As many of us, amateur videographers, make the transition from capturing video in the 4x3 format to capturing in the widescreen format of 16x9, we are going to go through the same learning experience as did the cinematographers of old when they started making widescreen films in the 1950s. So it’s official, we are about 50 years behind the professional cinema! However, what can we learn from the professional cinematographers that will shorten our learning curve to widescreen video excellence? A Must to Avoid When making your first widescreen video you may be motivated to fill the frame with as much detail as possible. This 4 x 3 16 x 9 might mean placing as many people in the frame as possible or it might be having a busy foreground, middle ground and background. In both instances the images will confuse the audience with no clear point gaining the audience’s attention. Alternatively those videographers new to the 16x9 format may instinctively compose their images like they did for the 4x3 format. They may centralise the main point of interest or persons in the frame and pay no attention to what is happening at the edges of the frame. In this instance the result is either a poor composition (a failure to apply the Rule of Thirds effectively) or there may be distracting activities at the edge of the frame. Enhanced View So the new 16x9 videographers have to look at this wider frame with new eyes and recognise its new potential. An off centre object or person can be balanced by a small area of colour or highlight on the opposite side of the frame (again remembering the Rule of Thirds for more powerful placement of the person or object and the area of colour). A consequence of this type of composition is the placement of two related events in the one frame. By being able to show both activities occurring within the one frame, the widescreen directors found they did not have to cut from scene to scene as often as they did in the 4x3 The Rule of Thirds states that the most dramatic placement of key objects is where the yellow lines intersect. format. Karel Reisz and Gavin Millar expressed this point in their classic book, The Technique of Film. Another compositional technique that is stronger in the 16x9 frame is the diagonal feature that starts at one corner of the frame. None of these compositional ploys are unique to the widescreen format, but the extra width of the 16x9 frame emphasises the effect. An aspect of composition that is unique to the moving image is the allowance of a moving or looking room in front of the main subject. Here again the wider horizontal of the 16x9 frame allows more creativity in how that space is filled. Page 14 Australian film & video
Editing: The more detail you can clearly and naturally include in a shot, the less need will there be for you to draw attention to any of its parts in separate, closer shots. This should mean 16x9 format shots are longer in duration. However, is this necessarily so in the modern cinema? Walking room right of frame needs to be maintained if the shot includes a pan. Cutting out the Cut In the early years of widescreen cinema there developed the view that the editing styles of the 4x3 format were now obsolete. Such an example comes from Henry Koster, director of the first Cinemascope film, The Robe, when he asserted that a cut into a close up was now unnecessary, since virtually every detail in the shot was magnified and hence easy to see. This impulsive response forgot that cutting to a close up was more than showing detail it was also used to emphasise, to create context and to enhance or suggest significance. Nevertheless the film theorists and the writers to the magazine, Cahiers du cinema, hailed the widescreen format as making editing less important. Or expressed another way they saw “cutting” in widescreen films moving from the editor to the director. This reduced dependence on the post production of the editing bench was heralded as producing more “natural” films, films with greater authenticity and objectivity. Another spin off of course was the greater use of the mobile camera, longer takes and compositional depth. The first two are forever with us now on widescreen TV, whilst the latter seems to fallen out of favour. Scene Length – How Long? In the early years of widescreen cinema the accepted view was that longer scene lengths were needed because it took time for the audience to become accustomed with each new scene. Or as the film theorists such as Barr would express it, the wider frame encouraged “greater physical involvement” and so encouraged the audience to “interpret” and / or “read the shot.” All of which took time and hence the widescreen shots had to be longer. Scene Length (seconds) 25 20 15 10 5 0 1953-55 1959 Current 1953-55 Widescreen Time period 4x3 Format However, as the graph indicates, as the audiences became more acquainted with the widescreen format and as directors learned to better employ the widescreen format, then shot lengths decreased until now there is no significant difference in shot lengths between widescreen films and pre-widescreen films. What can We learn from the Last 50 Years of Widescreen Films? So what can we, new 16x9 videographers, gauge from all of the experience of the last 50 years? In brief not a lot changes when you move from 4x3 to 16x9. Editing techniques learned in the 4x3 format can still be applied to the 16x9 format. Shot lengths don’t have to be longer, unless that is the mood or rhythm you wish to achieve. The Rule of Thirds still applies to the wider frame. Horizontal and diagonal compositions do look better in 16x9. Be aware of what is happening in the foreground of the 16x9 frame lest it overpowers action in the rest of the frame. However, on the other hand you can take advantage of the wider frame to capture two related actions; (say) a foreground action of a child on a swing and a background of a parent carefully watching. Be cautious in the use of big close-ups and rapid scene changes in the widescreen format as they have a more dramatic effect on the audience. In short enjoy your new found frame area and creatively use it! Max Min Australian film & video Page 15
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