[originally posted 12/15/11]
I know I shouldn’t, but I do take awards shows pretty seriously. I’ve been trying the last few years to keep up with movies well enough to have a halfway-formed opinion (last year I saw 6/10 of the Best Picture nominated films), and I do get a bit frustrated when most people only care about the big, flashy categories: Best Picture, Best Actor / Supporting Actor, and Best Actress / Supporting Actress. Maybe Best Director too, and if they’re particularly interested, Best Screenplay / Adapted Screenplay. And while that sounds like a lot, even people who really like movies tend to see Cinematography, Visual Effects, Editing, and both Sound categories as the ‘boring’ stuff that you can chat during, as if it isn’t important.
And guess what? It really, really is.
Let’s start with my favorite category: Cinematography. To boil it down to its essence, cinematography is the lighting and camera choices for each shot and scene. I say choices for two reasons: one because I find it hard to explain cinematography and so I cribbed a little bit from the wikipedia article, and, more importantly, because there are many ways to shoot the same shot, and cinematography is about making the right choice for the scene and film at hand. Think of cinematography as a dynamic version of photography; for any one photo, the photographer has to make decisions about the intensity of light on the subject, the direction of the light, the framing of the shot, the focal length of the lens, the shutter speed, and the depth of field. Even in outdoor conditions with no other light sources but the sun, the angle and intensity of light still must be kept in mind. (There is also the issue of film stock and white balancing, but that would get me into a film/digital discussion and this is not the place for that.) Most people who have ever taken a picture understand this: if you take a picture of someone with the sun behind them, you’re just going to get a silhouette of the person because they are backlit.
The same concepts apply to cinematography, with an added element: time. Unlike the still camera, the lens length, depth of field, and lens length can be changed within one shot. The camera position can also be changed during a shot, giving a new option of camera motion. Every one of these choices can change the mood and impact of the shot.
So why do I get pissy when people don’t care about the cinematography category? Simply put, all of those choices put together are what make the movie a movie. The moving image is the essence of what you’re watching; without it, you’re not watching anything, just listening or reading. Cinematography, even over acting, sound, and story, is the most important element of film.
“So wait wait wait,” you say. “If cinematography is the choices that cause everything you see on screen, what the fuck is Visual Effects?” Good question! Visual Effects sounds like it’s really cinematography, but the difference is that visual effects are what you see that isn’t produced by lighting or camera choices. We’re talking about things like CG, although I would say there are other things that would count. To explain this difference, there was a kerfluffle when Avatar was nominated for Best Cinematography and Best Visual Effects at the Oscars. Since Avatar was completely computer rendered, many people argued that it had no actual cinematography. There are camera movements and lighting decisions in Avatar, of course, but since there was no physical camera or physical light, why should it count as cinematography? Avatar won both categories, so I guess for the Academy, it counts enough.
(In my opinion it shouldn’t count, but I am far from the authority on anything ever.)
But visual effects don’t necessarily have to be flashy. Take for example, the Black Swan visual effects reel. The most noticable effects are of course, Natalie Portman’s transformation into the Black Swan, but look at the more subtle changes. The floor of the stage was stylized, crew were erased from mirror shots, and the backdrop was extended on the stage. In my opinion, Black Swan should have been included in the Best Visual Effects category, simply because the cleanup and animation were both well done and effective.
Next topic: Editing. I think most people who watch movies have the basic understanding of editing; it’s putting the shots together to create scenes, and linking the scenes together to tell the story. But like visual effects doesn’t have to be flashy to be effective, editing is also very important in very subtle ways. In his book, Making Movies, Sidney Lumet mentions that he knew a director that didn’t want his editors winning Best Editing awards because then the editing was distracting from the story. I don’t think that’s true at all, but it is indicative of awards ceremonies’ tendencies to take “Best” whatever as meaning “Most” whatever. (I am far from the first person to make that distinction; in fact, I may have read it from the same book!)
Remember how I said there are choices to be made about each shot and each scene? Editing is the choices made about how to juxtapose each shot to make a scene, and juxtapose each scene to make the movie. The juxtaposition of scenes is laid out by the screenplay, of course, but scenes can also be moved or deleted to tell the story more effectively. Editing decides whether a shot or scene is necessary or effective for the movie. The director and cinematographer may shoot a scene in more than one way, or include closeups along with wider shots, and the editor must choose what combination of shots is most effective. The combination of shots, speed of cuts, and number of cuts in a scene can change the tempo and feel of a scene, and the combination, speed and number of scenes will set the tempo and mood for the entire movie.
And now we get to Sound. Now, I can understand why most people don’t care about the sound awards. Sound is maligned everywhere. I’m sure any sound person has seen ads on cragislist and Mandy for smaller films where it’s obvious that location sound is an afterthought. “Need sound guy tomorrow. Must have his own equipment, no pay but copy and credit.” People just kind of assume that you just need a camera with a microphone, or maybe a boom mic if you’re fancy, and everything’s gonna come out alright. Sound is pretty much an afterthought even for some filmmakers who are starting out.
Sound is incredibly important. I can’t even tell you.
Well, actually I can, because I’m going to, but you know what I mean. Location sound, the sound that is picked up when shooting, is the first thing you think of. The dialogue is the most obvious; of course you have to hear what the actors are saying (unless you’re not supposed to, of course). But you can’t just record the actors. Absolute silence in a film is very different from real life silence. The best way I can describe it is that absolute silence, or dead air, is startling; it sounds like something’s wrong somewhere. To prevent this, the location sound guy will always take room tone, which is a recording of the regular silence at the location. Room tone makes silent movies seem more real and picks up background noises in the area. There are different types of microphones that are best at picking up specific types of sounds, but to be honest, I’m a bit out of my element when it comes to sound, and this post is long enough already.
So what is Sound editing? Well, the location sound and dialogue tracks don’t pick up everything, at least not realistically. Some sounds also can’t be created on set, like sounds caused by things in visual effects. Most sounds you notice in films are actually added in post-production. Footsteps, gunshots, rustling of clothes, and other sounds are added in larger productions by foley artists. They use objects to recreate sounds that sync up with the actions in film, or to add flavor to the background noise. In addition to foley, sounds are also used from sound libraries. Sound editing is the process of putting all these sounds together to sync with the film images.
Sound mixing is the last step in sound production. All of the sounds that are in the film must be balanced so that they do not drown each other out. The room tone and foley noises must be present, but not so much that they distract from the dialogue. Without sound mixing, movies would be unwatchable because all the sounds would be fighting each other for dominance. You don’t want one piece of dialogue to be too loud, or the sound level to change drastically between scenes. Even if two characters can’t hear each other over a loud noise in the film, we as the viewer need to hear both of them.
Now, will all of these categories personally interest you? Maybe not. . But they’re important, and all of these departments and crew members deserve recognition and respect just as much as the writer and director and actors. Movies, especially features on the award show scale, are a collaboration, and I think that’s important to keep in mind.
No comments:
Post a Comment