There’s a lot of talk about getting that “cinematic look”, and a lot of people seem to attribute it to the size of your sensor, using anamorphic lenses, or applying some LUTs in post. But getting a look similar to cinema is about a lot more than that.
In this video, filmmaker Alex Zarfati from Timethread Studios walks us through the process of thinking, planning and shooting cinematically. It covers everything from story to shooting. It goes into a lot of detail, with a lot of great little tips.
Story is King
No matter what you’re shooting, the most important thing is the story you’re trying to tell. Even if you’re making a YouTube video, you want to take your audience on a journey. You want them to believe it and feel invested in it, and that means setting the scene – figuratively and literally.
The story you’re trying to tell informs everything else about your production, whether it’s a solo shoot or a team effort. It sets the mood and tone. It defines the pace, blocking, set design, lighting, everything. Nobody wants to see a cooking show that’s shot and edited in the style of a horror movie, for example – although that could be quite amusing to watch, the more I think about it.
Do you want to create drama and tension? Or maybe a sense of warmth and comfort? How about just a general curiosity about what’s happening next and the inability to switch off?
But everything else is important, too!
Setting the scene for your shot isn’t just a case of plonking a couple of lights on stands and grabbing a camera. It involves everything from set design and the clothes your subjects are wearing to the lighting techniques, camera positioning and movement, and a whole lot more.
Getting a gritty look and feel, for example, isn’t just a case of throwing some grungy-looking LUTs on your footage. As Alex demonstrates, the set itself, along with careful use of practical lights and colour, can really sell the idea that you’re shooting in a pretty grotty location before you’ve even gone into colour grading.
Now, don’t get me wrong. Colour grading is still extremely important. It allows you to turn all your different clips into a cohesive sequences that all look like they belong together. Colour and saturation also set the mood and allow you to separate different scenes.
The Matrix is always a prime example of this, with shots in the Matrix appearing with a green tone, while others in the “real world” are lit with sometimes dark but fairly accurate-to-life colours.
It’s an interesting video packed with great information to help you up your cinematic shooting game and well worth a watch.
