Camera in Motion - Mode, Means, Method
Of the many things that filmmaking may be said to be it is. above
all a process of creative problem solving. What exists tangibly for the
director is a need to illicit a specific set of emotions and responses
from the viewer - to make them feel, look, view, consider and engage
with a defined idea in a particular way. Once that idea (be it
narrative or otherwise) is established, decided upon, the process of
making the work into existence is one of solving the problems that the
execution of that idea throws up.
So far so good...
The
problems to be solved might be creative, logistical, technical or
dramatic; they might be concerned with staging, performance, lighting
or editing but it is in the solving and overcoming of these problems
that style, form and cinematic art is delivered. Whilst cinema might be
said to be the penultimate art in the sense that it forms an apex where
all other arts (photographic, visual, architectural, musical and
performance) meet and combine; there are also distinct components of
cinemas DNA that are unique, strands present only in cinema distinct
from other arts. Foremost among these is the 'moving camera'. Whilst
other arts (namely theatre and dance) have moving subjects and
architecture has arrangement of space, neither of these possess the
ability to deliberately and overtly move the viewer through space.
The moving camera is pure cinema.
Thus
for the filmmaker the problem solving surrounding the application of
the moving camera is at the very heart of the cinema experience. But
like any artistic 'tool', movement is but a colour on the artist's
palette, a paint which may be smeared carelessly and without
consideration just as easily as it may be deftly and skillfully
applied. What follows is a paradigm for providing the filmmaker with a
clear mechanism for devising solutions to problems of movement. Rather
than another litany of how camera movement may be interpreted in an
academic way, it is intended as a means by which filmmakers may inform
their cinematic problem solving by conjoining conceptual impetus with
the mechanics of production.
The particular properties of Camera
Movement may be viewed through a simple triangular prism of the Mode,
the Means and the Method. The Mode represents the intended idea; the
sensation, concept or aesthetic construct the filmmaker aims to create
and particularly to generate in the viewer. The Means refers to the
tool and the mechanism used to create the motion, the technical means
to physically move the camera. The form of which has direct impact upon
the look and feel of any shot. The Method details the technique of
operation the filmmaker employs in the performance of the camera
movement. It's from the Method that we apply style and form to to the
tools of movement in service of the intended concept.
You can read the full essay with more than 20 movie clip examples here on www.mikejones.net.au
Posted at 11:00PM Jul 19, 2009
by Mike Jones in moving image theory |
