In the year 2076, two men search for water.

They wanted to know what camera we used.

If you think what camera you shoot on is the answer to great storytelling, then I challenge you with this… Go make a big pile of money doing whatever you want; like a brilliant new app or an alternative energy source. Once you have the cash, you can buy the very best camera. Then you’ll be able to tell the best story, right?

Wrong.

Cameras don’t tell stories, people do. Since we can all agree this is the case, there is really only one thing you need to tell great stories… YOU. However, none of us are born knowing anything about the tools of the trade. In an effort to improve the one tool all storytellers have in common, their mind, a must-have addition to their library is Joseph V. Mascelli’s The Five C’s of Cinematography. I picked this book up a few years ago, and I have learned more from it than any other resource on the subject. I’ve been to courses, classes, looked to chat rooms online, and experimented by trial and error; but none of those things have come close to the pure undistilled story driven explanation of cinematography found in Mascelli’s classic book. In his own words from the introduction:
“On many occasions during the years devoted to preparation and writing of this book, I have felt that defining, explaining, clarifying and graphically illustrating motion picture filming techniques in an easy-to-understand way – is impossible – but not quite. Most professionals instinctively know the right way to film the subject – but seem unable to explain just how they do it.”
Almost 50 years after the publishing of these words, I want to reassure Joseph V. Mascelli that he succeeded in explaining cinematography in an easy-to-understand way. He did this by explaining everything about cinematography in five categories that have one common thread; cinematography functions at its peak performance when it serves the story.

So what are the Five C’s? They are Camera Angles, Continuity, Cutting, Close-ups, and Composition. I want to share with you some of my favorite quotes from each one of the Five C’s. Consider this article the CliffsNotes version of the book; and, just like your English teacher, I strongly encourage you to read The Five C’s of Cinematography in it’s entirety in addition to this summary.

1. Camera Angles
“Camera placement is determined by narrative significance.”This is very important. Why are you looking at what you are looking at? Is it because it looks good, or because we need to see it to move the story along? It should always be to move the story along and never solely because it looks good.

2. Continuity
“Good continuity encourages the viewer to become absorbed in the story-telling, without bothersome distractions. The prime purpose of a motion picture, whether theatrical fiction feature or documentary fact film, is to capture and hold audience attention – from opening shot to final fade-out.” This entire chapter breaks down the nuts and bolts of photographing action in such a way that it makes sense on screen. I haven’t come across a better explanation of “the line” (action axis/maintaining dynamic and static screen direction) in any other book.

3. Cutting
“Always move players into and out of close-ups to allow cutting on action.” Cut on the action. This simple axiom of editing works every time. “It is possible to cut away to anything happening anywhere at any time.” Remember this. You are in the driver’s seat. You are the one putting one shot after the other. What do you want the specific series of sights and sounds you’re placing in order to mean? “Each shot should make a point. All scenes should be linked together so that their combined effect, rather than their individual contents, produces the desired audience reactions.”

4. Close-Ups
Close-ups should be made to count. The stronger the motive for using a close-up, the more the close-up can help make the story-telling truly effective! The consistent emphasis throughout the five sections of the book is this; every shot must serve the story.

5. Composition
“Good composition is arrangement of pictorial elements to form a unified harmonious whole.” Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. However, when you are telling stories for an audience you are not the beholder, they are. The most important set of eyes belong to the audience. Make sure you are making images that look good to your audience, and above all else, serve the story.

6. The Sixth C
In closing, there is a sixth C of Cinematography I would like to mention: Compliment. When you are in the process of shooting or have just finished watching a story you think looked great, make sure you tell the person or group of people who created it. After all, none of us are telling stories just for ourselves. As you continue to strive to be the best you can be take the time to compliment others on their own successes along the way.

Oscar Wilde said it best, “Anybody can sympathize with the sufferings of a friend, but it requires a very fine nature to sympathize with a friend’s success”. The sixth C of Cinematography may just be the most important. Make sure you compliment others whenever you can. After all, we’re all creating for others, and we want to know if we succeeded in communicating our story.

Stew Redwine is a Los Angeles-based Director and FreshDV contributor. All quotations from The Five C’s of Cinematography by Joseph V. Mascelli – 1965 – Silman James Press

you can see the original Freshdv.com post at http://www.freshdv.com/2012/05/five-cs-of-cinematography.html 

Stewart Redwine – Director Reel

I recently put this advice to the test when onetimeblind and 36 Parables, myself and co-producer John Schimke, teamed up for the third time to shoot 10 more mini-movies. We completed 8 pages on the first day and plowed through the remaining 16 pages on day two. The only way we were able to shoot 24 pages in two days was by sticking to the tried and true production practices that have been guiding our industry for the past one hundred years.

Scripts
First things first, take the time to write down your ideas. And re-write them. And re-write them again. At this stage of production all you need is pencil, paper, and your time.

Pre-Production Pt. 1: Production Design & Camera Prep
Production Design – Leading up to your shoot, take at least a day to focus on Production Design. This means locate your costumes & props and do a Location Scout. Taking time to be deliberate about your Production Design choices will enhance your story without fail.

Camera Prep – The day before you shoot, set up your camera and make sure everything works the way you need it to. Test lenses, frame rates, and any other equipment or camera settings you’ll need during your shoot.

Pre-Production Pt. 2: Storyboard & Rehearsal
Rehearsal – If you can do nothing else in Pre-Production, take the time to rehearse. Rehearsal pays huge dividends on set because the talent will have already worked through the scenes and the story with the Director.

Storyboard – Even if all you have is pencil & paper, which I like to use, take the time to draw each and every shot you can visualize. You may not know everything you are going to shoot, but at least create some visual parameters for how you want to tell your story. Another approach is to take pictures at your rehearsal. For the onetimeblind shoot, John used Cinemek Storyboard Composer.

Block, Light, Rehearse, Shoot
If you embrace this approach to shooting you won’t go wrong — guaranteed.

Block – Have everyone on set stop what they are doing and watch the talent run through the entire scene you are about to shoot. Discuss any pertinent creative or technical needs for the scene and have the actors step off the set.

Light – Set up the lights, camera, and sound equipment for the entire scene starting with your first shot, preferably the widest shot.

Rehearse* – Bring the talent back in and run through the scene with the entire cast and crew.

Shoot – Shoot the scene. Start with your widest shots and work your way down to your tightest shots. This is called the Master Scene Technique.

*I asterisked rehearse because sometimes rehearsal demands even more time, and is worth it. Towards the end of our second day of shooting with onetimeblind we stopped work for an hour so the Director and actors could run the mini-movie we were about to shoot.

Slate
Better slate than never. The whole point here is to keep everyone and everything organized. When you slate every single shot you accomplish two things:
1. Ensure everyone on set knows what you’re shooting and why.
2. Provide your editor with the exact same information you had in the field.
Check out the basics here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clapperboard

Redundancy, Redundancy, Redundancy
As soon as we filled a card on our Canon 7D, we dumped it and made three copies. If you can’t make three copies, at least have two.

Limit Your Choices
It is a good idea to put some bounds on what you will and won’t do. For this recent collection of ten mini-movies, we limited ourselves to a white cyc. We wanted to shoot some of the scripts off the cyc but our schedule wouldn’t allow it. That being the case, our creative choices were severely limited by the location we were in. For the most part, we stayed on a dolly and were on one lens the entire time (Canon 16-35mm/f2.8 L). There were a couple of shots when we used a slider, one handheld shot, and I used a ¼ Black Pro Mist Filter to emphasize the style of one mini-movie. When you constrain yourself to one location, or one lens, or in our case both, you might be surprised by the creative solutions you come up with to tell your story.

Why are you there?
What part of the production are you? Director, Camera, Sound, Actor… all of the above? If you are a jack-of-all-trades this section won’t apply to you. The best advice I can give you I already have. If there is more than one person on your crew, you need to know why each person is there.

Is one person focused on sound, and the other on the visuals? If you haven’t already, you need to break the work up. If you don’t you are in danger of playing herd ball. Have you ever seen kindergarteners play soccer? Every player on both teams follow the ball where ever it goes. Everyone running to each problem and trying to help does not make for a successful day of shooting. You need to break up the work and when it comes time to let some one solve a problem in their area, let them do it.

Slow is Smooth, and Smooth is Fast
I was talking with John about the idea for this article and he made an excellent observation. It is easy to give yourself time to script and even time to edit, but it’s difficult to make time on set. Unfortunately, when time is cut short on set, the story suffers. If we provide ourselves time to write and edit, in order to refine our story, we also need to make time on set for the same refining process to occur. However, there is often so much work to be done it is difficult to see how slowing down and going back to the basics will do any good. You feel like you need to have a camera running all the time. Your feel like stopping for one minute will cost you the entire day of shooting. You feel like you can’t possibly move fast enough. At those moments you need to remember, “Slow is smooth, and smooth is fast.”

Written by Stew Redwine
you can see the original Freshdv.com post at http://www.freshdv.com/2012/02/back-to-the-basics.html