Major Pre-Production: Cinematography Research - Jeff Cronenweth

 

   Jeff Cronenweth is an Oscar Nominated Director of Photography. Famous for his work on films such as 'Fight Club', 'The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo' and 'The Social Network', all films directed by David Fincher. I have decided to research his work because of the visual style he creates for these films is similar to what I have mentally envisioned for 'Inoculum'. Lots of tints of green and blue in shots, dim lighting, the use of shallow depth of field and the use of long and close up shots are big parts of Cronenweth's style and is very similar to what I want the end product of 'Inoculum' to have.

   This scene below from 'Fight Club' demonstrates all the aspects of Cronenweth's style that I like and want to create for 'Inoculum'. The dim lighting and blue tint are present in this scene, as well as the long and closer shots. I also personally have taken note of the use of symmetry in this shot, I have previously spoken about the use of symmetry by Wes Anderson but in this shot it is done more realistically, and less surreal as Anderson does. I am keen on using this style of symmetry for 'Inoculum' as it is more realistic and thus more suitable as a tool for telling the story.




   Below are screenshots of scenes from films Cronenweth's has worked on that demonstrate his style  clearly.

Example of shallow depth of field use by Cronenweth - 'The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo'

Example of Green tint in shot - 'Fight Club'

Long shot that includes strong use of depth of field - 'The Social Network'

Major Pre-Production: Cinematography Research - Bokeh 2

   More research has been done into the technique Bokeh. My research has discovered that lighting is more important than I first thought with creating Bokeh. There has to be an amount of light in the distance, lights such as street lights, car lights, fairy lights etc. This helps create the circle effect that is present in some Bokeh shots (Refer back to previous blog for examples). This tutorial video below is a tutorial on how to light up a Bokeh shot. This tutorial focuses on how to light Bokeh for Photography, but these techniques can be used in filming as well.

   It is important for me to look at this and take notes as I want to create the best possible look of Bokeh I can for the film. As I am aiming for a high quality finished image, lighting it clearly is key to ensure this of happening. 

Major Pre-Production: Cinematography Research - Bokeh

   Bokeh is a Japanese word which translates to English to being 'blur quality'. Bokeh is the portions of an image which are blurred and not focused on, a type of depth of field technique. Basically, it refers to the quality of the out of focused (blurry) parts rendered by the lens of the camera. has been used in DSLR Photography since roughly 1998 and is one of the most popular subjects in photography, as well as filmmaking since the beginning of growth in DSLR Filmmaking popularity.

   This is a technique I am highly considering to use for cutaway shots and possibly shots in general for 'Inoculum'. My reasons for considering this technique as I feel it can be aesthetically pleasing to the eye if done correctly. This technique highlights a portion of the image highly so it could also be used in other shots, such as shots with people in general to focus on the people more than the background as this will help stop the audience being distracted with what is or what could possibly be happening in the background, also if I have a shot where I need to highlight an object within the scene Bokeh would be very useful for creating this effect.

Below is some examples of Bokeh used in photography as well as filming.

Photography

This image demonstrates a simple use of Bokeh with this Sparrow as it is in focus in the depth of field. It adds more detail to the Sparrow which draws your eye to it automatically.

This image uses Bokeh differently than the previous image. This differs from the image above as there is no subject in focus. Due to the image being taken at night with the street lights in view, the blurry lights create a unique effect which is aesthetically pleasing visually.

This image focuses on a section of the grass, yet you still look at the blurry areas as it creates a similar effect that the night time photo above does where segments become blurred circles. It like the image above makes the image seem bigger and more vast than it actually is.

This picture is exactly what I am aiming to create for the film. Lighting and colour treatment has a huge effect on this with the light on the females face and overall colour tones, but paired up with the blurry lights in the background created by Bokeh, it creates a solid professional looking image. The video below shows how the effect in this image can look like when filming on a Canon 7D.