Camera Man JournalBy Chris Phillipou

What is cinematography? Well, the name comes from combining two Greek words: kinema, which

means movement, and graphein, which means to record. In film, cinematography refers to the photographing of the movie itself. The person in charge of this is the cinematographer, also known as the director or photography or the DP.

In the hierarchy of a film set, the director's two key creative people in the crew are the art director and the cinematographer. The art director is in charge of the art department and the cinematographer is in charge of the camera, electric and grip departments. The camera department maintains the camera and has it ready for the shot while the grips and electrics handle the lighting. Electrics set the lights and run power to them and grips shape the light by using flags and diffusion. Grips also provide support to camera department when there is camera movement for the scene. An example of this is a dolly shot.

Cinematography is the art of capturing a moving image, which is the opposite of photography.

What is cinematography in film?

During filming I found it hard to keep a steady hand, and focus the camera correctly. Despite this I was able to film efficiently with the help and guidance of my fellow group members.

Choosing correct shots was tricky for example in the toilet scene with Arran and the girls that walk in. I wanted to use the shots of the girls looking in the mirror and getting their reactions in their mirror reflections, as well as Arran on the toilet. This was hard to get correctly because of the angles the girls were standing at and also the lining of the camera and the timing took a while to get perfect.

Troubles of filming

To film I used the Sony Z1 camera. This camera was quite a hefty bit of equipment, which was accompanied by a tripod to help with stability.

All in all the equipment was pretty self explanatory on how to use it, however when it came to filming certain parts for example tracking Arran on his voyage to find a toilet, it needed fitness and endurance to carry the camera efficiently.

Arran himself in the scene where he enters the school main building on his search, actually holds the camera himself. This was the right thing to do, and we got a better more steady shot of Arrans sweaty face as he came to terms with laxatives.

What did I use to film?

A major decision that I decided to make whilst filming was to give Arran the camera to film himself in the scene where he enters the main school building. Initially we was going to use a wide shot of Arran entering the school desperately in his search. We tried the wide shot and the camera lining was a bit jumpy and we couldn’t see Arrans facial expressions properly. So with this we decided to let Arran hold the camera, in effect it was a panning shot with the camera in Arrans hands, which was invisible from the audience, which was a good effect and made it look more professional.

Angles and Shots – My Decisions