• Normal - focal length ~45-55mm
• Telephoto - focal length ~100-135mm - flattens perspective, compress distances - make audience to feel trapped or claustophobic. Has narrow field of view and small depth of field.
• WideAngle - focal length ~20-28mm - magnify distances - makes shot feel spacious, audience is in scene and part of story. Wideangle can also create skewed perspective, can reinforce a strong or overbearing personality of main character. Wideangle lenses have greater depth of field.
• Fisheye - very large degree field of view (~180 degrees) - can achieve by rendering reflection of an environment in a sphere
• To get closer to subject:
  • Dolly (moves camera) perspective changes, more dramatic movement through space, stronger sense of 3D space
  • Zoom (change focal length): perspective doesn't change, static, like moving in closer to 2D image, character with low moral fiber, reinforce 2D element
  • Vertigo effect (trombone or Hitchcock effect): Dolly and zoom at same time while keeping subject matter at same place in frame. Creates a distorted or heightened perspective. Something weird is going on. Used when characer is starting to realize things are not as they seem. Sense of reality has been skewed.

• fast (freezes action) vs slow (blurs action)
• Can blur foreground or background during movement

• Controls the range of distances that are in focus
• Set using fstop - value controls size of opening in lens
  • higher numbers allows more of frame to be in focus
  • lower values of fstop means less of frame will be in focus
• shallow - draws attention to character or give character a sense of isolation.
• deep focus used in Citizen. There is very large depth of field - foreground and background are all in focus.
• rack focus - camera's ability to shift focus from e.g. front to back. Can tell audience what you think is important

• Amount of light can pass through lens
  • controlled by aperture, which is the size of opening in lens.
  • measured by fstop - larger fstop the less light can come through
  • shutter speed - time it takes for shutter to completely open and close (in seconds) - rotating shutter - shutter angle is the open section of rotating shutter. adjusting shutter angle controls
• How long film is exposed
• Speed of film

• Establishing shot: usually wide shots - often used in opening and closing shots. They tell us where you are are. Opening shots often start high up and move in. Closing shots are opposite - start close in and move out and up.
• Wide shot: frame encompasses an entire scene.
• Medium shot or waist shot: usually includes waist up.
• Two shot: frame that includes 2 characters
• Over the shoulder shot: framed over the shoulder of one of the characters. Often used when one character is talking to another.
• Close Up (CU): allow for detailed portions of frame. Gets rid of nonessentials and allows one to isolate important or significant characters or incidences. CU types include: medium, head-and-shoulder, head, choker, extreme closeup (e.g. just eyes). 3/4 front face is most common, don't film against busy background, avoid single eye.
• long shot: focuses on scenery
• reverse angle shot: response to a previous shot - used in conversations between two people where sequence includes shots back and forth.
• Camera angles: Used for psychological effect - One of the most important cinematography tools for for story telling
  • point of view: camera at eye level seeing what the character is seeing.
  • low angle: (looking up at character/scene) inspires awe - reinforces character's position, e.g. if character is important.
  • high angle: (looking down at character/scene) reinforces nature of character if often when character is weak, audience is looking down at character, also used to establish story (e.g. establishing shots).
  • angle plus angle: camera is angled and tilted (up). Allows for greater linear perspective. Enhances 3D effect.
  • Dutch or tilt angle: results in weird or unstable effect.

• Anything moving in one shot should be moving in next
• Audience should always be aware of direction of movement
• Characters should come and go in opposite directions
• Don't cross the Action Axis.

• Images should convey mood, tone, atmosphere, and meaning
• Balance or unbalance composition
• Symmetrical balance is static, lacking in contrast
• Assymmetrical balance is more dynamic
• Rule of thirds - divide frame into 3 rows/columns. Main obects should be placed at intersections.

Camera Movement

• Camera movement should always be motivated.
• Make sure tangents (graph editor) are smooth, e.g. slow-in, slow-out

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