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The Challenges of Teaching Cinematography

Posted on: March 18, 2022

In this blog, Blain Brown, author of Cinematography: Theory and Practice, among others, discusses the challenges of teaching students what constitutes "good lighting", and the tools he has developed to aid his teaching.

Not as Easy as it Looks

After 30 years of working on the set, I taught cinematography and filmmaking for ten years. The thing I loved most about teaching, after the joy of helping young people learn to be better filmmakers, is that it forces you to think about and articulate issues that when working on set, you mights have done just by instinct and experience. At my first teaching job, the format was a one-hour lecture for the whole group, then in the afternoon, four-hour workshop classes limited to 12 students.

Before I started the job, I put together a series of DVDs on different topics of cinematography and visual storytelling which I narrated live. Some students found these presentations helpful, but I soon realized that I was not getting through to some of them and so over the years I modified them but more importantly I came to understand the importance of hands-on work in the studio and instructional videos showing specific techniques and methods.

What is "Good" Lighting?

When I was first learning filmmaking, I would sometimes hear comments like "if you light it right" or "that's not good lighting." They are some of those things that seem to make sense at the time, but when it comes to actual practical advice, they are meaningless. The other one is "it needs editing." What does that mean?

What is "right" lighting? What is "good" lighting?

We know that's not about "pretty." As the great Gordon Willis said:

Pretty photography is easy: it's really the easiest thing in the world. But photography that rounds a picture off, top to bottom, and holds the content together is really the most beautiful. That means it can be visually very beautiful; it can also be pedestrian in certain ways because that is more appropriate to the story. You try not to put the photography in front of the story - you try and make it part of the story.

He sums it up perfectly, lighting is about setting the mood and tone for a scene, laying a foundation of the visual story, perhaps to conceal or reveal, to add to the storytelling of the scene.

In keeping with our goal of "invisible technique," we don't want the audience to be aware of the lighting, to be distracted from the story by it. It's all about telling the story visually.

To me if there's an achivement to lighting and photography in a film it's become nothing stands out, it all works as a piece. And you feel that these actors are in this situation and the audience is not thrown by a pretty picture of by bad lighting. - Roger Deakins

Also, the cinematography must have a point of view; not only in the sense of camera placement and lens choice but in the lighting as well.

Here's the Question

So how do we teach this? Certainly, looking at great examples is important, but this has one shortcoming: the great masters are very good at invisible technique; the lighting of a scene just seems so natural, so inevitable, that it is sometimes difficult for students to understand the thought process and methods used for lighting the scene. Of course, we can narrate the scene and talk about how, and more importantly, why a scene was lit and shot this way and that is valuable.

But I find that having the students put these ideas and methods into practice is crucial to learning these skills and techniques.

The Basics

Of course, we have to teach the basics: key, fill, backlight, kicker, background light, back cross keys, hard light vs. soft light, types of lighting instruments, using diffusion and bounce, how to create depth and dimension in lighting the scene, how to give the actors an appropriate look for the scene, and so on, but obviously it would be wrong to give students the impression that there is only one way to light a scene. An exercise that I find useful is to take the same scene and have the students (with instructor advice and assistance) to light it in several different ways.

Different Methods

On the website for my cinematography, lighting, and filmmaking basics books is a video of the same scene lit in several different ways: hard light/back cross keys, soft light, through the window, "Godfather" lighting, hard downlight, desk bounce, practicals only, candles, and from underneath, which is the one we eventually chose to shoot the entire scene. The video was shot in one four-hour Saturday workshop with students as the crew.

By the way, there are also videos of lighting basic closeups, behind the scenes on a professional shoot, lighting from different angles and altitudes, creating depth and dimension, lenses, color balance, and other basic techniques.

Including the Directing Students; Coverage and POV

Fortunately, the school required directing students to take cinematography classes, and cinematography students to take directing classes and art direction classes.

I cant think how anyone can become a director without learning the craft of cinematography - Gus Van Sant

I also find it important to give students who are doing the lighting scene-specific goals for the scene; what type of mood and tone to aim for, blocking of the actors, time of day, etc. If possible, a bit of a script for the scene. It is essential to impart the idea that everything about a scene originates from the script and from the director's goals for the scene.

Also, you need to think about coverage when lighting a scene. Sometimes in class we only have time to light the master; but if at all possible, I try to have them shoot all the coverage of the scene as well. As you have no doubt encountered, not understanding how important it is to shoot ALL the coverage is a recurring source of trouble for beginning filmmakers.

Of course, when we are lighting a scene, we are also preparing to shoot it, which gives us a chance to talk about camera position, lens choice, lens height, filtration, color balance, camera movement, the script, the director's goals for a scene, establishing an overall point-of-view for the scene, and other director's topics.

The website also includes videos showing the basic techniques for shooting a scene, something both directors, and cinematographers must know. They are:

  • Master Scene Method
  • In-One/Developing Master
  • Triple Take Method
  • Freeform Method
  • Walk-and-Talk

They show the raw footage, then the edited scene. I have been told by instructors that the videos help students understand that there are several ways to shoot a scence, and that just randomly getting a bunch of shots is  not one of them! They can also save a considerable amount of time in the teaching studio, and enable students to get right to experimenting with the various techniques.

Teaching filmmaking is not easy, but I'm sure we all enjoy the challenge!

Best of luck, Blain

I do hope you find the books and videos helpful. They are:

Cinematography: Theory and Practice
For Cinematographers and Directors, 4th Edition

Motion Picture and Video Lighting
For Cinematographers, Gaffers, and Lighting Technicians, 3rd Edition

The Basics of Filmmaking
Writing, Producing, ADs, Directing, Methods of Shooting a Scene, Cinematography, Lighting, Audio, and Editing

The Filmmaker's Guide to Digital Imaging
For Cinematographers, DITs, and Camera Assistants

The cinematography book has been translated into 12 language and the lighting book into 5 languages, so it is easier to accommodate international students.

All of these books have over an hour of online video lessons and demonstrations of cinematography, proper coverage for editing, methods of shooting a scene, lighting, lenses, color balance, and topics such as proper slating technique. The basics book also includes demonstrations of proper and improper audio recording, something that students often stumble on.

You can see samples of the videos here:

Books and Videos for Filmmakers

The Basics of Filmmaking

Digital Imaging for DITs, Cinematographers, and Camera Assistants

The Invention of Space (In Filmmaking)

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