Using the Camera for Interpretation - Christian Cieri

The section on how to use the camera for interpretation is one that seems to be almost common sense while reading it, but a thing of complexities when put into effect. The different camera angles and techniques that go into a film are often taken for granted but we never truly realize how difficult it is to put together these shots into a film until we are tasked with it. While a trained director can tell how things are supposed to look on screen inattentively, to an amateur director, these techniques are incredible difficult to implement in their projects, and can quickly become a daunting task. 

Even if they manage to perform these great camera elements, an audience might not even notice them. While watching a movie, an audience doesn’t necessarily pick up on different things that the camera is doing unless one is actively searching for it. Instead, they get immersed in the world and it might not be until after the film has ended that they realize that is was the camera’s movements and the cinematography that shaped the film they saw. This is because we as an audience are almost conditioned to expect certain shots and angle from a film, and it’s only when cinematography is bad that we notice what the camera is doing. 

One video which I found that I thought really implemented a lot of unique camera techniques was the video by YouTube Jack Harries, known as JacksGap. In this video, entitled “Following Heart - The Shark Conservationist”, the story of a shark conservationist is told, and how she reaches out to teach about sharks to children and hopes to change the social stigmas against sharks. The video itself uses a lot of different techniques, such as shifting the focus in a shot, to different types of shots being used, such as wide shots, medium shots, close ups, and extreme close up of the subjects on the screen. While the subject matter of the video is incredible, I believe that the actual cinematography is some of Jack’s best works.

Here’s the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-yw8tPkmSDA

The actual video begins around 2:20.