Anyway but...

Just watched UP, thank you Chris and Lindsey. I was genuinely surprised and pleased. It is nice to see Pixar going through it's growing stages.

Toy Story 3 though... why people!? Why!?

Potter Picture

In the appendices of his autobiography, Something Like an Autobiography Kurosawa Akira wrote concerning film lighting, "I think for example that the current method of lighting for color film is wrong. In order to bring out the colors, the entire frame is flooded with light. I always say the lighting should be treated as it is for black-and-white film, whether the colors are strong or not, so that the shadows come out right." I agree with him.

Cinematography goes through trends like any other artistic medium. We went through a terrible "blue phase" and a "slow motion action phase" (To be fair I do not believe that Picasso ever had a SMA phase in his work, oh well, art history's loss I suppose) And we are now only just struggling to free ourselves of the horrible "well they did it in LOTR so can we phase".

We seem to be finally coming to terms with SFx and CGI. And it seems that the most successful application of CGI is not by making the Fx more lifelike but making the film more picturelike.

I just finished watching the latest Harry Potter film. Now, say what you like about Harry Potter and the Harry Potter films (I myself only like the franchise passingly, sleep with a man who finds the concept of the films offensive and live with a woman who refuses even to read the fifth book) but one must admit that, while the scripts become briefer and briefer, and the characters less and less developed the cinematography for the last few films has been expetional.

Mr. Yates and his crew seem to take the black and white approach to lighting. Unlike many films that attempt to film a reality this film seemed to ackowledge that the difference between film and real life is that in film you can see the world however you like. You can change the colour and the mood with lighting, it is a medium to create a picture and a mood, not a documentary. And one of the things you can do is, by framing, lighting and choice of colour or lack there of create a piece of art that is beautiful in itself.

The SFx phase we're going through means that more and more film is being shot with half sets or on green screen. This craft has never really been perfected but it seems now that instead of attempting to hid it filmmakers are ackowledging it's presence in their picture by effecting the film just a little to make it seem more contiguous. This was ushered in by LOTR I believe.

This is not a negative thing, so long as the filmmaker is aware of it and makes sure the effect is consistant throughout the film even when the Fx shots are not there.

The result of proper application and an artistic eye is almost davinciesque (not a bunch of effeminate men with disturbingly curly hair) in its use of chiaroscuro. It's artisticly refreshing.