It is good practice to use the Steadicam only when you cannot achieve the same shot with a dolly; due to tight shooting schedules, even high-end TV shows are sometimes guilty of using the Steadicam when a dolly would have produced better results.

James Cameron uses the Steadicam judiciously and to great effect. The Steadicam was also used masterfully by Terrence Malick in his masterpiece “The Thin Red Line”.

Remember that tracking in on a subject produces a radically different look to zooming in on it.

When you zoom in, you are optically magnifying the subject; when you track in, the perspective changes (the subject increases in size faster than the background, as it is closer to the camera than the background is).

Zooming in can produce an eerie look, and this effect was masterfully used by Ridley Scott in Hannibal; tracking in on the actor tends to produce a warm, dynamic, “you are there” kind of feel. Steven Spielberg is probably the master of such tracking shots, with many fine examples in every one of his movies.

Of course, tracking in on the subject means that you will have to follow focus. With a wide aperture and a medium focal length, even a 1/3″ CCD camcorder will require this if the final framing is a tight close-up. If the actor’s eyes are not pin-sharp throughout the shot, you may as well not have a tracking shot at all, because I guarantee that all the audience will be thinking about is your failure to pull focus correctly.

If the depth of field is very shallow, such as might be the case with 16mm or 35mm, you may want to put numbered marks on the floor that correspond to numbered focus marks on the follow-focus knob, and have an assistant call the numbers to aid the focus puller during the shot. This works like a charm.

Cranes are used to achieve vertical camera movement and can add a lot of production value to your project if used in the right context. I got excellent results in the past by using Cobra Crane II. It only needs one person to be operated and works beautifully (there are some Cobra Crane shots in my videographer reel).

As with all camera movement, crane shots work best when you have foreground objects parallaxing in the frame. Parallax is the visual phenomenon in which objects that are closer to the camera move across the field of view faster than objects that are further away.

There is a fine line between a zoom shot that is tacky and one that is visually compelling. The difference lies in the execution and in the context. Combining the zoom with translational motion (tracking) can work very well.

Ridley Scott has come up with a wonderful technique that he sometimes uses: he sometimes zooms in as a subject approaches the camera, and simultaneously tilts up, since the camera is quite low down. It is quite striking because the zoom, which has the effect of magnifying the subject, is combined with the subject walking towards the camera, which also has the effect of enlarging it in the frame. There is one such shot in Gladiator, in the scene in which Commodus demands loyalty from his sister after the conspiracy against him is foiled; and there is another one in Kingdom of Heaven, when Richard III approaches Balian late in the film. This zoom technique is powerful and it is not a coincidence that he reserves it for powerful characters in extarordinary situations.

Very slow zooms can work extremely well. James Cameron occasionally uses zoom shots, but they are so slow and smooth that most people are not conscious of them. An excellent example of a James Cameron zoom shot is in Terminator 2 – as Dyson is dying and holding a piece of junk above the detonator, the camera zooms very slowly on him. The zoom then stops, Dyson exhales his last breath, drops the piece of junk onto the detonator, and the Cyberdine building blows up.

An extreme long shot (animation on right) contains a large amount of landscape. It is often used at the beginning of a scene or a film to establish general location (setting). This is also known as an establishing shot.

A long shot (animation on right) contains landscape but gives the viewer a more specific idea of setting. A long shot may show the viewers the building where the action will take place.

A full shot (animation on right) contains a complete view of the characters. From this shot, viewers can take in the costumes of characters and may also help to demonstrate the relationships between characters.

A mid shot (animation on right) contains the characters or a character from the waist up. From this shot, viewers can see the characters’ faces more clearly as well as their interaction with other characters. This is also known as a social shot

A close-up (animation on right) contains just one character’s face. This enables viewers to understand the actor’s emotions and also allows them to feel empathy for the character. This is also known as a personal shot.

An extreme close-up (animation on right) contains one part of a character’s face or other object. This technique is quite common in horror films, particularly the example above. This type of shot creates an intense mood and provides interaction between the audience and the viewer.

When analysing a film you should always think about the different camera shots and why they are being used. The next time that you are at the cinema or watching television see what camera shots are being used.

Important: These camera shots are used in all forms of visual texts including postcards, posters and print advertisements.

Focus on your subject’s eyes, unless you specifically want something else to be in focus.

Whatever it is that you want to be in focus, use this technique: zoom in all the way on the subject; pull focus and zoom back to get the framing you want. In this way your subject will be pin-sharp. You should do this as a matter of course on every single setup, and indeed on every take, especially if the subject moved after the last take.

The reason for zooming in before focusing is that the longest focal length has the smallest depth of field – if something is in focus at the longest end of the zoom, it will be in focus at every other focal length too.

Once again, if your subject is a person, focus on the eyes. You may not notice it in the viewfinder, but if the eyes are soft and the background is sharp it will be obvious on a TV screen and your audience will hate it.

If the camera you are using has 2/3″ CCDs, or if you are shooting on 16mm or 35mm film, accurate focusing will be even more important. Indeed, the beauty of a sharp subject against a blurred background is part of the appeal of shooting on film.

All of this means, of course, that you should use a camera with manual focus. If your camera only has auto focus you may wish to consider upgrading.

When shooting on video, light the scene in such a way as to allow a wide aperture to be used. This reduces the depth of field and will bring you closer to the film look.
When shooting outside, lighting conditions are likely to be bright, but you can still use a wide aperture if you use a neutral-density filter. Neutral-density filters are essentially color-neutral (grey) filters which reduce the brightness of the light reaching the film or CCDs. The point is that you reduce the intensity of the light by using a neutral-density filter and then compensate for it by using a wider aperture. Professional camcorders sometimes have one or two inbuilt neutral-density filters, which you can engage with a toggle switch. They can reduce the intensity of the light by several stops.

Foreground objects add texture and increase the illusion of depth. Foreground objects, which can be anything from an actor’s shoulder to a tree branch, are known as dingle in the film business. It is imperative that the foreground element should be out of focus; if it is sharp, it will distract from the main subject and will lose its textural effect. A fine example of the use of dingle is the battle scene in Stanley Kubrick’s “Dr Strangelove”: almost every shot of soldiers assaulting the building have plants and branches, out of focus, in the foreground. He was so keen on foreground branches that he occasionally used light stands to hold cut branches in the correct position. It was worth the effort: the way he shot that scene gives the viewer a strong feeling of being there, crawling behind the soldiers.

f-stops are a measure of the aperture of a lens. In other words, f-stops tell us how wide open the iris of a lens is. Specifically, they express the ratio of focal length to apparent lens aperture, so they have no units. The smaller the number, the wider the effective aperture, and the more light will go through the lens. Hence f2.0 is a wide aperture, whereas f11.0 is a narrow aperture.

The relationship between f-stop, focal length and the diameter of the lens opening is as follows:

f-stop = focal length / diameter of lens opening

Thus a 50mm lens with an iris diameter of 25mm has an aperture of 50 / 25 = f2.0

In practice f-stops have discrete values; in other words, lenses have a finite number of f-stops available, with no intermediate options. The standard f-stops are as follows:

1.0 | 1.4 | 2.0| 2.8 | 4 | 5.6 | 8 | 11 | 16 | 22

Reducing the f-stop of a lens (increasing its aperture) has three effects:

* more light goes through the lens, increasing the exposure;

* the depth of field decreases, making the background more blurred;

* the overall sharpness of the image decreases, and chromatic aberration is enhanced. This is an inevitable consequence of having a wider aperture. However, if you are shooting on video, especially when using a 1/3” CCD camera, you should consistently use a wide aperture if you want a shallow depth of field, resorting to the use of neutral density filters when necessary.

The relationship between f-stop and exposure is not linear. If you open the iris of the lens by one stop, you are doubling the amount of light that goes through. Conversely, reducing the aperture by one stop halves the exposure (other things being equal). Opening the iris by two stops increases the exposure by a factor of four, opening it by three stops brightens the image by a factor of eight, and so on.

This explains the standard sequence of f-stops shown above, which may seem arbitrary, but in fact makes perfect mathematical sense: since it is the area of the lens opening that determines how much light goes through, to double the area we must divide the f-number by the square root of 2, which is approximately 1.414 – hence the weird numbers. (This is because area is proportional to the square of linear dimensions.)

You can check this yourself by verifying that to go from an f-stop to one of its neighbors you multiply or divide by approximately 1.414.

Mathematical considerations aside, the thing to remember about f-stops is that they refer to lens aperture relative to focal length, and that they are also used to refer to the illumination of a subject: if we say an actor’s face is one stop underexposed, it typically means that we should double the illumination of the actor’s face – we should add one stop’s worth of lighting to it.

Constant f-stop while zooming
As noted above, the vale of the f-stop depends on the apparent diameter of the lens. The apparent aperture diameter depends on the magnification of the lens. For example, an aperture that is 50mm wide might look 100mm wide as a result of the lens elements in front of it; the apparent diameter of the iris diaphragm is what matters when calculating F-stops.

This means of course that when you zoom in (increase the focal length of the lens), the apparent aperture increases, since it is being magnified. However, since the value of the f-stop is the ratio between focal length and apparent aperture, the f-stop also stays approximately constant.

Zoom lenses are designed in such a way that when you zoom in or out, the change in focal length exactly compensates the change in the apparent aperture. Hence there is no difference in exposure when you zoom in or out.

T-stops
In practice, even the best lenses exhibit light absorbance, effectively “stealing” some of the light going through them. This means that if you calculate the exposure based on the f-stop of the lens, you will end up underexposing the image, because less light is reaching the film plane than is expected in theory. T-stops are the f-stop of the lens corrected for its absorbance and reflectance. The T-stop is the true speed of the lens, calculated by compensating for its light absorbance and reflectance, and will result in accurate exposure.

Lens speed
The speed rating of a lens, expressed as an f-top or T-stop, is its maximum aperture. It is known as “speed” because it affects how long it would take to achieve correct exposure on a film of a given ISO rating. Fast lenses have a large maximum aperture (e.g. f2.0) and allow a faster exposure time for a given film sensitivity (ISO rating).

Zoom lenses tend to be slower than prime lenses, since they tend to be quite long and it would require an impractical lens diameter to maintain a low f-stop. For example, a 50mm lens with a speed of f1.0 would need to have an iris diaphragm that is 50mm wide. That’s perfectly attainable.

On the other hand, if you want a 250mm lens with a speed of f1.0, its apparent iris diameter would have to be 250mm, which is impractical and expensive.

A crane shot (animation on right) is often used by composers of films to signify the end of a film or scene. The effect is achieved by the camera being put on a crane that can move upwards

A tracking shot and a dolly shot (animation on right) have the same effect. A tracking shot moves on tracks and a dolly shot is mounted on a trolley to achieve the effect in the example above. This camera movement is used in a number of ways but is most commonly used to explore a room such as a restaurant. By using a tracking shot or a dolly shot the composer of a film gives the viewer a detailed tour of a situation. It can also be used to follow a character.

Panning (animation on right) is used to give the viewer a panoramic view of a set or setting. This can be used to establish a scene

Others

An Evangelion shot (animation on right) is derived from the popular anime series ‘Neon Genesis Evangelion’. This camera movement begins as an extreme close-up and zooms out abruptly, creating a blurring effect to emphasise the speed and size of the object

A high angle (animation on right) is a camera angle that looks down upon a subject. A character shot with a high angle will look vulnerable or small. These angles are often used to demonstrate to the audience a perspective of a particular character. The example above demonstrates to us the perspective or point of view of a vampire. As a viewer we can understand that the vampire feels powerful.

An eye-level angle (animation on right) puts the audience on an equal footing with the character/s. This is the most commonly used angle in most films as it allows the viewers to feel comfortable with the characters.
A low angle (animation on right) is a camera angle that looks up at a character. This is the opposite of a high angle and makes a character look more powerful. This can make the audience feel vulnerable and small by looking up at the character. This can help the responder feel empathy if they are viewing the frame from another character’s point of view.
As with camera shots, you will be able to see many examples of camera angles in any film or visual text that you view. The next time that you watch television or see a film, take note of the camera angles and think of how they affect your perception (idea) of different characters.

Another camera angle that you might come across is a Dutch angle.
A Dutch angle (animation on right) is used to demonstrate the confusion of a character. The example above should disorientate you.

The Festival de Cannes has celebrated the cinema for more than 60 years.
Over the years, the French Association of the International Film Festival has been able to evolve whilst retaining the essential: the passion for motion pictures, discovery of new talents, and enthusiasm of festival-goers and professionals from around the world, all contributing to the birth and distribution of films.Learn more about all the awards here.

Moscow International Film Festival (abbreviated as MIFF) is the second oldest festival in the world, after the Venice Film Festival. It was first held in Moscow in 1959.From its inception to 1995 it was held every second year in July, alternating with the Karlovy Vary festival. The festival has been held annually since 1995.Learn more about all the awards here

The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) is a publicly-attended film festival held each September in Toronto, Ontario. The festival begins the Thursday night after Labour Day (the first Monday in September, in Canada) and lasts for ten days. Between 300-400 films are screened at approximately 23 screens in downtown Toronto venues. Annual attendance at TIFF exceeds 300,000 from public and industry audiences. Learn more about all the awards here.

The Berlin International Film Festival (German: Internationale Filmfestspiele Berlin), also called the Berlinale, is one of the world’s leading film festivals and most reputable media events. Learn more about all the awards here