Category: Studio Lights Education

Application of Montage Techniques in Other Fields

Photo processing

Montage photo processing technology is a new type of photo processing method, which is different from the traditional adjustment of exposure rate and pigment distribution. Montage is an organic combination of block mosaic.

This technique requires hundreds of scales, that is, picture elements. The selected scales should be distributed with a variety of pigments so that no empty blocks appear when the software is combined. The finished photos contain thousands of small photos, and there are small worlds in the big world, which can be described as “strange and weird”.

Classics

In modern scholars’ articles analyzing Chinese classical poetry, comments on “montage thinking” can also often be seen. This makes us think about the similarities and differences between montage thinking in Chinese classical literature and modern film montage thinking.

First of all, as a technical factor, I think there is a fundamental difference between the montage expression in Chinese classical poetry and the montage in modern movies. In Chinese classical poetry, the so-called many images that make up the montage have sunk into the bottom of the culture, its own meaning Before it is used, it has been established by people. For example, the “blue bird” that represents the role of messenger in mythology, the “swan goose” that represents letters and family thoughts, and the “beauty vanilla” that represents people’s virtue and character, and so on.

But in the use of montages in modern movies, it can be said that any image can participate in the montage combination, and can produce new meanings, which is different from general conventions. Of course, the classical convention imagery in modern movies is not exclusive, such as the white dove representing peace, etc. The white dove in Wu Yusen’s movies often makes people feel the atmosphere of peace and are nervous about the bloody coming.

Secondly, as the existence of thinking, the author tends to think that the classics and the modern are in common, which seems to have been proved by the research results of human psychology. Experiments have shown that the human eye has the physiological instinct to continuously search for new images, which is the same in ancient and modern times. Therefore, it is not unreasonable to use montage-style terminology when evaluating Chinese classical poetry.

The montage images and thinking appearing in Chinese classical poetry are relatively small in narrative, and the expression is the overwhelming majority, while rational montage is rare and almost pitiful. This cannot but be attributed to the cultural tradition of China. In Chinese classical poetry, the expression of this emotion tends to be extreme and comprehensive.

The subjective emotion that the subject of creation penetrates into the heart and will be poured out determines the selection and arrangement of the image, like a red thread, connecting many images in series, so that the scattered and scattered images themselves are not difficult to compliment. . Therefore, Chinese classical poetry is more homogeneous aggregation, but less heterogeneous combination. Therefore, in Chinese classical poetry, many images repeatedly appear in different verses, such as the bell in the morning and the drum in the evening, the small bridge and the flowing water, the cold pillow of the lonely lantern, the sinking fish and the geese, the lanes of ancient houses, the red plum trees and so on. There is a poem saying: “Weeds and flowers by the Zhuque bridge, and the setting sun is slanting at the entrance of Wuyi Lane. In the old days, Wang Xietang flew into the homes of ordinary people.” There is a song saying: “Withered vines and old trees, faint crows, small bridges and flowing water, people, ancient west wind thin horse…” And so on.

Studio lights and their types

Studio lights are a type of lamps used in stage performances and film and television shooting to illuminate and achieve a certain light effect. In fact, it consists of a high-power flash and modeling light. The flash tube is generally ring-shaped, and the center of the ring has an interface for the modeling lamp. The modeling lamp is generally a quartz lamp, an incandescent lamp, etc.

Film and television lights can be divided into three categories: spotlights, astigmatism lights and effect lights according to the characteristics of their outgoing beams. According to the type, it can be roughly divided into: three-primary color lamp, halogen lamp/quartz lamp, HMI, HQI, FRENSEL, LED video lamp and so on.

Film and television lights are used in photo studios, studios or on-site scenes. “Audience” is a camera or video camera that can be moved and used for technical processing. There are many close-ups. In addition to artistic effects, the lighting also has the role of correct exposure of the camera tube or film. , Especially for the good color reproduction, the color temperature of the light is about 5000K, the color rendering index is above 90 under the light (inside shooting), and the 5000K and above 80 under the sunlight (outside shooting).

At present, the most widely used video light on the market is led video light, which will also be the most ideal popular video light source in the future. It has the characteristics of small size, low cost, high strength, low energy consumption, etc., and the LED has a low failure rate and extremely long life. Each LED particle has a life span of about tens of thousands of hours. However, LED lighting is not very mature, mainly because the color temperature control of LED particles is difficult and the cost is relatively high.

Theoretical Discussion on Montage Techniques

Eisenstein

Eisenstein’s views are inseparable from the fanaticism of montage in the early Soviet Union. Kurišov believes that the material of the film is just a piece of filmed fragments, and the actor’s performance and the arrangement of the scenes are nothing but the preparation of the material. He did a famous experiment in which three different clips were added to the close-up of an actor without any expression.

The first is a pot of soup, the second is a coffin with a female corpse lying on it, and the third is a girl holding a toy. It is said that the audience thinks that the first clip shows that the close-up expression is that they want to drink the soup, the second clip shows painful sadness, and the third clip shows a happy smile. This is obviously an exaggeration of the role of montage and obliterates the role of performing arts. Even Pudovkin said at that time: “A lens is just a word, a concept of space, a dead object. Only when it is put together with other objects can it be given the life of a movie.”

Eisenstein even compared montage to hieroglyphs, saying that montage is like a “dog” plus a “mouth” in a hieroglyph. The name “bark” means that a dog barks. The combination of two nouns produces a verb.

Eisenstein put forward the so-called “juggling montage” when he was engaged in theatrical activities. After failing on the stage, he thought that film is the place to realize the “juggling montage”. The so-called “juggling montage” is the use of strong, even shots, episodes or programs that depart from the plot structure to achieve the effect of grabbing the audience, so as to make it accept the author’s indoctrination.

Pudovkin

Pudovkin’s vision of montage is broader. He does not focus only on the contrast and metaphor of montage, but treats montage as both a narrative means and a means of expression.

He stated at the beginning of the article “On Montage”: “The shots that were taken separately are well connected, so that the audience can finally feel that this is a complete, uninterrupted, continuous movement-this technique is what we are used to. Yu called it a montage.” Of course, this kind of work is not a rigid mechanical operation, nor is it a blind arbitrary arrangement. To organize the shots into “uninterrupted and continuous motion”, “it is necessary to make these clips have An obvious connection”.

This connection can only be in external form. For example, someone fired a shot in the previous shot, and fell down in the next shot, but more importantly, it is “a profound inner connection that is full of ideological significance.” He further pointed out that there are countless intermediate forms between the simple external connection and the deep internal connection. But in short, “there must be a connection of one kind or another, until sharp contrast or contradiction.”

Therefore, he gave another definition for montage: “In film art works, various methods are used to comprehensively display and explain the connections between various phenomena in real life.” He also believes that montage is determined by the talent of the director. High and low, “This kind of talent makes the director good at turning the latent inner connection between life phenomena into a clearly visible connection that can be directly felt without explaining.”

For this reason, Bella Balaz said that the film is not a pure reproduction, but a real creation. A good director not only shows the picture, but also explains the picture.

Montage Prohibition Theory

The main content of the theory of banning montage proposed by Bazin requires that two or more action elements exist at the same time, and montage should be disabled. He believes that montage is far from the nature of movies and should be denied.

After the Second World War, French film critic Bazin’s film review articles had a great influence worldwide. His theoretical basis is based on the “photographic nature of film”. He believes that all art is based on human participation, only photography has the privilege of not allowing people to intervene. The nature of film comes from the nature of photography, and its artistic appeal comes from the same source: the revealing of the truth. Krakauer of Germany also said that “film is, by its very nature, an extension of photography.” They believe that the mission of film is to record the objective existence of the world.

Bazin said, “Only this cold-eyed lens can return the world to its original appearance” and “clear the mental rust from our feelings on the object.” He believes that the first duty of a film director is to respect the substances and events he portrays, not to express his views on them. “Realism” requires us to put aside the meaning we give to the world in order to restore the original meaning of the world.

From this, he deduced another basic point of his theory: Montage should be disabled. Because the montage narrative method implies the danger of imposing opinions on the audience, movies often force the audience to accept a certain ideology, and the nature of the film is against this approach. He tried his best to admire the documentary director Frahadi. He took an Eskimo seal hunt in “Nanuk of the North” as an example to illustrate the superiority of continuous shooting without montage segmentation. It is to discover the world through movies, not to create a new world with pictures taken from reality, in order to express one’s own views.

Bazin’s main argument for attacking montage is: montage critics do not recognize single shots, and do not recognize that unedited film fragments are art. Bazin believes that a single lens contains rich meaning and artistic value. He blamed Eisenstein for “concealing the event and replacing it with another synthetic reality or event”, which “added something” to the object described. Montage captures the ambiguity of the film and leads to unification. The director becomes a guide to direct the audience. The audience can only accept his opinions and cannot appreciate the meaning of the film by themselves.

Bazin believed that reality is a multi-layered structure, and Eisenstein cut the meaning of nature to his own personal interpretation. He particularly opposed “juggling montages” and rational montages such as metaphors and symbols, saying that this is to impose ideas on the audience, and directors who respect reality should “disappear themselves” in the face of reality. Montage is literary and anti-film. Movies should express the true flow of time and the depth of reality, while the continuity of time and space in photography is incompatible with montage.

Depth of field lens

The method Bazin proposed to replace montage is the use of depth-of-field lenses. Because the depth-of-field lens has a sense of depth, different characters and events between them can be placed in the same lens, presented in front of the audience, and the audience can “appreciate” them. Of course, this also includes the use of actor scheduling and camera scheduling, that is, using the movement of the actor’s position and the movement of the camera to continuously follow the person.

The shots taken in this way inevitably have a longer length, so Bazin’s theory was once called the “Long Shot Theory”. In fact, the more accurate name should be “continue shooting method”. The depth of field is to maintain the integrity of the plot space, and the long shot is to maintain the integrity of the plot time, that is, to achieve the “real time flow, real depth of reality” required by Bazin, and not to be destroyed by the division of montage . Bazin believes that montage is to tell the event, and continuous shooting is to record the event, which reserves the right for the audience to choose freely and interpret things or events.

Bazin’s theory has caused a major change in film creation worldwide, and has also promoted the development of film aesthetics that has been stagnant for a long time. However, the film industry generally believes that Bazin completely denies montage and admires continuous shooting with depth-of-field lenses, which is one-sided.

First of all, critics of montage critics regard single shots as meaningless. This is what it should be. However, any single shot cannot be regarded as complete in meaning or require all shots to be taken continuously. The so-called long shots essentially cancel the difference between “lens” and “series of shots”, requiring each shot to be a “series of shots” with the same complete sentence, and even set up a scene on its own. Any film must have a large number of incomplete shots, which must be connected with other shots to have a clearer or complete meaning.

Sometimes it may be just for the convenience of narrative, sometimes for theatrical effect, and more often it is for the audience to see the meaning that the camera cannot see when it exists alone, such as the cross-montage and metaphoric montage mentioned above. This is a way to make the audience aware of the invisible and rich inner activities of the characters or the profound ideological connotation of the plot through the visible and specific images.

Therefore, the lens is both closed and open, closed by the content of the action, but open due to the connection and opposition with other lenses. The shots are independent and interdependent. Even a series of shots cannot leave the overall content and form of the film and become a complete artistic existence.

Secondly, because of the preference for depth-of-field lenses and continuous shooting, we cannot give up the convenience of film space and film time that montage can obtain, give up the special function of concentrated summarization of movies, and give up the broad world of sound and picture montage. We should fully understand and value the role of depth-of-field lenses and continuous shooting, and we must also see its limitations.

The depth-of-field lens cannot get rid of the frame of the picture, unlike the eyes, which is not subject to the frame and frame, and has the interference of perspective problems. Characters are at different levels, and the scales of things near and far are different, so it is necessary to use scene control mirrors to cooperate, so the “photographic nature” still needs to be interfered by people. In fact, long shots just use scene and camera scheduling instead of montage combination to achieve the alternation of the scope and content of the screen. So some people call this technique “montage inside the lens” or “deep montage”.

In addition, continuous shooting can only be in terms of one scene, and it is impossible to use continuous shooting methods for all events at different locations and at different times. In “The Rope” (The Rope), Hitchcock tried to shoot the whole film one by one shot to the end, completely canceling the montage, but the effect was not satisfactory.

True or unreal does not depend on the montage method or the continuous shooting method. Montage can indeed be used to cover up false things, but montage does not necessarily have to be untrue. Conversely, continuous shooting of depth-of-field lenses does not guarantee that they will produce realistic works.

Bazin’s biggest reason for opposing montage is that he believes that the director has become a guide to direct the audience, eliminating the ambiguity of the film. However, the montage that meets the audience’s psychological requirements and gaze shifting requirements is necessary for film narration. Art allows and needs the guidance of the artist. Literary and artistic works as conceptual forms are the products of people’s lives reflected in the minds of artists.

Realism does not copy life photographically, but reflects life according to the artist’s worldview. The director uses montage, not to add something to reality as Bazin accused, but to reveal what was originally in reality based on his own feelings. There is no purely objective record. The “reality” captured by the so-called “cold-eyed” camera is still inevitably selected based on the director’s point of view.

Function and Classification of Montage Technique

Narrative

1. Parallel montage

This kind of montage is often shown together in two or more plot lines that occur in different time and space (or at the same time in different places), and they are described separately and unified into a complete structure. Griffith and Hitchcock are both masters who are very good at using this kind of montage. Parallel montage is widely used. First of all, because it is used to process the plot, the process can be abridged to facilitate generalization and concentration, save space, expand the amount of information in the film, and strengthen the rhythm of the film; second, because this technique is a flat list of several clues, mutual Set off and form a contrast, which is easy to produce a strong artistic infection effect. For example, in the film “Southern Expedition and Northern War”, the director used parallel montages to show the scene of the enemy and us occupying the skyscrapers, resulting in a tense rhythm.

2. Cross montage

Cross montage is also called alternate montage. It quickly and frequently alternately splice two or several plot lines that occurred in different regions at the same time. The development of one of the clues often affects the other clues, and the clues are interdependent, and finally merge in together. This editing technique can easily cause suspense, create a tense atmosphere, and strengthen the sharpness of conflicts. It is a powerful way to master the emotions of the audience. Thrill films, horror films and war films often use this method to create chase and thrilling scenes. For example, in “Southern Expedition and Northern War”, the three clues of crossing the Dasha River by rushing to the Dasha River and the guerrillas blasting the dam were alternately cut together, showing the thrilling battle.

3. Upside down montage

This is a montage that disrupts the structure. It first shows the current state of the story or the event, and then introduces the story. It is a recombination of the “past” and “present” in the concept of the event. It is often transferred into flashbacks with the help of overprints, wipes, voiceovers, narrations, etc. The use of upside-down montages disrupts the sequence of events, but the temporal and spatial relationships still need to be explained clearly, the narrative should still conform to the logical relationship, and event review and reasoning are structured in this way.

4. Continuous montage

This kind of montage does not develop with multiple clues like parallel montage or cross montage, but follows a single plot clue, in accordance with the logical sequence of events, and narrates continuously in a rhythmic manner. This kind of narrative is naturally smooth, simple and smooth, but due to the lack of time and space and the change of scenes, it is impossible to directly display the simultaneous plots, it is difficult to highlight the parallel relationship between the plot lines, and it is not conducive to generalization. It is prone to procrastination and lengthy, flat and straightforward narration. sense. Therefore, it is rarely used alone in a film, and is often used in combination with parallel and cross montages, complementing each other.

Performance Montage

The performance montage is based on the sequence of shots. The connected shots contrast and impact each other in form or content, so as to produce rich connotations that a single shot does not have to express a certain emotion or thought. Its purpose is to stimulate the audience’s associations and enlighten the audience’s thinking.

1. Lyric Montage

It is a way of expressing thoughts and emotions beyond the plot while ensuring the continuity of narrative and description. Jean Mitre pointed out: Its original intention is not only to narrate the story, but also to render vividly, and it is more focused on the latter. Significant events are broken down into a series of close-ups or close-ups, capturing the essential meaning of things from different sides and angles, and rendering the characteristics of things. The most common lyrical montage, which is most easily felt by the audience, often follows a narrative scene and appropriately cuts into the empty scene that symbolizes emotions and emotions. For example, in the Soviet film “The Country Teacher”, Varvara and Martynov fell in love, and Martynov tentatively asked her if she would wait for him forever. She replied affectionately: “Forever!” Then cut into the scene two shots of blooming flower branches. It is not directly related to the plot, but it appropriately expresses the emotions of the author and the characters.

2. Psychological montage

It is an important means of character’s psychological description. It vividly shows the inner world of the character through the combination of picture and lens or organic combination of sound and picture. It is often used to express the character’s dreams, memories, flashes, hallucinations, reveries, thinking and other spiritual activities. This kind of montage uses cross-cutting techniques in editing techniques. Its characteristics are the fragmentation of the picture and the sound image, the discontinuity of the narration, and the jump of the rhythm. The sound and picture image has the strong subjectivity of the people in the play.

3. Metaphor montage

Through the analogy of the lens or the scene, it implicitly and vividly expresses a certain meaning of the creator. This technique often highlights some similar characteristics between different things to arouse the audience’s associations, understand the director’s meaning and appreciate the emotional color of the event. For example, Pudovkin combined the shots of the workers’ demonstrations with the shots of the thawing of the spring glaciers in “Mother” to illustrate the unstoppable revolutionary movement. Metaphoric montage combines great generalization power with extremely concise performance techniques, and it often has a strong emotional appeal. However, this technique should be used with caution, metaphor and narrative should be organically combined to avoid blunt and far-fetched methods.

4. Contrast montage

Similar to the contrast description in literature, that is, the content (such as poverty and wealth, suffering and happiness, life and death, noble and humble, victory and defeat, etc.) or form (such as the size of the scene, the warm and cold colors, etc.) through the lens or scenes. The strong contrast of sound strength, movement, etc.) creates conflicting effects to express a certain meaning of the creator or strengthen the content and thoughts expressed.

Rational montage

Jean Mitri’s definition of rational montage is: it expresses meaning through the relationship between the pictures, rather than through simple narrative expressions of coherent link after link. The difference between rational montage and coherent narrative is that even if its pictures belong to facts that have actually been experienced, the facts combined according to this montage are always subjective visions. This type of montage was founded by Eisenstein, the main representative of the Soviet school, and mainly includes: “juggling montage”, “reflection montage”, and “thought montage”.

1. Juggling Montage

Eisenstein’s definition of juggling montage is: juggling is a special moment, during which all elements are to promote the idea of ​​the director’s intention to convey to the audience into their consciousness, so that the audience can enter the mental state or cause the idea. In the psychological state, to cause emotional shock. This technique can be chosen at will in the content, and is not restricted by the original plot, prompting an effect that can finally explain the theme.

Compared with performance montage, this is a more rational and more abstract form of montage. In order to express a certain abstract rational concept, some scenes that are completely irrelevant to the plot are often used. For example, in the film “October”, when the representative of the Mensheviks made an unpredictable speech, the scene of the hand playing the harp was inserted to illustrate Its “repeated old tune, confuses the audience.” For Eisenstein, the importance of montage is in no way limited to the special way of creating artistic effects, but the style of expressing intentions, the way of transmitting thoughts: through the collision of two lenses, a thought is established, and a series of thoughts creates a kind of The emotional state later, with the help of this stimulated emotion, makes the audience resonate with the thoughts that the director intends to transmit to them.

In this way, the audience is involuntarily involved in this process, willingly to echo the general tendency and general meaning of this process. This is the principle of this great director. After 1928, Eisenstein further advanced the juggling montage into a “dialectical form of film”, based on the symbolism of the visual image and the logic of the inner meaning, while ignoring the content to be expressed, and even fell into the maze of pure theory. It also brings creative mistakes. Later generations learned his lesson, and the use of juggling montages in modern movies is more cautious.

2. Reflection Montage

It is not like a juggling montage to express abstract concepts at will to insert symbolic pictures that have nothing to do with the content of the plot. Instead, the things described and the things used as metaphors are in the same space, and they are interdependent: or for Contrast with this event, either to determine the reaction between things that are grouped together, or to reveal similar events contained in the plot through reflection and association, so as to act on the senses and consciousness of the audience.

For example, in “October”, Kerensky was crowded by ministers to the Winter Palace, and an upward shot showed a pillar above his head. There was a sculpture on the head of the pillar, which seemed to cover Kerensky’s head. The halo on the top makes the dictator appear supremely honorable. The reason why this shot is not blunt is that Eisenstein used a sculpture in a real set, a physical object that exists in the real theater space. He processed it, but did not make it different from the plot. Related objects are attractive.

3. Thought Montage

This was created by Vertov, the method is to use the documentary materials in the news film to re-arrange and express a thought. This montage form is an abstract form because it only expresses a series of thoughts and emotions inspired by reason. The audience watched indifferently, creating a certain “distance effect” between the screen and them, and their participation was completely rational. “Common Fascism” directed by Roma is a typical work.

Theoretical Discussion on Montage Techniques

Neither Griffith nor his country’s successors have thought of summarizing or exploring the laws and theories of montage. The first to earnestly explored the mystery of montage was the Soviet director Kurishov and his students Eisenstein and Pudovkin. Their doctrines in turn influenced film theorists and film artists in Europe and the United States.

Eisenstein

Eisenstein has a famous saying about the montage theory: “The alignment of two montage shots is not the sum of two numbers, but the product of two numbers.” In the words of Hungarian film theorist Bella Balaz, it means “up and down. Once the lenses are connected, the unusually rich meaning hidden in each lens is emitted like a spark.” For example, in “The Country Teacher”, Varvara answered “forever” after the two shots of flowering branches. It expresses the feelings of the author and the characters in the play.

Eisenstein applied dialectics to montage theory, emphasizing the conflict between opposite shots. For him, a lens is not an “independent thing”, only when it interacts with the opposite lens can it arouse emotional feelings and an understanding of the subject. He believes that individual shots are just “images”, and only when these images are combined can they form a meaningful “image”.

It is this “power of montage” that makes the combination of shots not a bricklaying narrative, but a “highly exciting narrative full of emotions”. It is the “power of montage” that makes the audience’s emotions and reason into the creative process. , To experience the same creative path that the author has experienced when creating images.

Montage and Film

Introduction

According to the content of the film and the psychological sequence of the audience, the montage shoots a film into many shots, and then combines them according to the original idea. In a nutshell: Montage is a means of connecting a group of divided shots. It can be seen from this that montage is a means of linking the shots taken by the camera in accordance with the logic of life, the sequence of reasoning, the author’s perspective and the aesthetic principles.

First, it is a means of using a camera, and then a means of using editing. Of course, film montage is mainly realized through the re-creation of directors, photographers and editors. The screenwriter of the film designs a blueprint for the future of the film, and the director of the film uses montage to recreate on the basis of this blueprint, and finally it is embodied by the photographer’s use of the film’s modeling expressiveness.

In the production of the film, the director shoots many shots according to the script or the theme of the film, and then organizes and edits these different shots organically and artistically according to the original creative conception to make them coherent. , Contrast, association, set off suspense and other connections and different rhythms, so as to selectively form a film that reflects a certain social life and thoughts and feelings and is understood and loved by a broad audience. These forms and methods of composition are called Montage.

Realization of Montage Technique

The basic element of the film is the lens, and the main method and means of connecting the lens is the montage, and it can be said that the montage is a unique means of expression of film art. Since the smallest unit of a film is a lens, what is the basic element of the film-lens? What does it have to do with montage?

We know that a lens is a piece of film shot from different angles, at different focal lengths, at different times, and processed differently. In fact, since the filming of the lens, the montage technique has been used. As far as the lens is concerned, shooting from different angles naturally has different artistic effects. For example, front shot, top shot, top shot, side shot, backlight, filter, etc., the effects are obviously different.

As far as the lens is taken with the same focal length, the effect is different. For example, long-range, panoramic, medium-range, close-up, close-up, close-up, etc., the effect is also different. Furthermore, the lens after different processing will also produce different artistic effects. In addition, due to the use of spaces, indents, and upgrades, it also brings a variety of different specific artistic effects. Besides, due to the different time taken during shooting, a long lens and a short lens are produced, and the length of the lens will also cause different effects.

At the same time, when connecting scenes and paragraphs, you can choose to use different connection methods, such as fade, reduce, draw, cut, circle, pinch, push, pull, etc. according to different ranges of changes, different rhythms and different emotional needs. . All in all, what kind of lens is taken, what kind of lens is arranged together, and what method is used to connect the arranged lenses, and the methods and means used by filmmakers to solve this series of problems are montages.

If the picture and sound are the “words” for the film director to communicate with the audience, then the montage method used to combine the pictures and sound into the lens and the combination of the lens to form the film is the director’s “grammar”. For a film director, mastering these basic principles does not mean mastering “grammar”.

Montage often presents a variety of features in the specific content and aesthetic pursuits of each film. Montage is from point to point for the audience. For the director, montage first goes from combining to dividing, that is, dividing, and then from dividing to combining, that is, combining. The smallest unit of splitting is the shot, so the director should write a sub-shot script.

As an audience, how should we appreciate the director’s art from the perspective of montage? After all, montage is a method used by directors to tell stories. People who listen to it always hope that the story is smooth, vivid, infectious, and can mobilize the audience’s associations and arouse the audience’s interest. These requirements are completely applicable to montage. The audience is not only satisfied with clarifying the plot outline, or generally comprehending the thoughts and ideas of the film, but also requires a clear and smooth perception of every link and detail of the film’s narrative process. The montage of a film should first be understood by the audience.

A contemporary feature film generally consists of about 500 to 1,000 shots. The scene, angle, length, form of movement, and the way the picture and sound are combined for each lens all contain the element of montage. It can be said that montage has been used since the beginning of the lens. At the same time, in the processing of the angle, focal length, and length of the lens, the will, emotion, praise, and ingenuity of the filmmaker are already included.

In the arrangement, combination and connection between the lenses, the subjective intentions of the photographers are more clearly reflected. Because each lens does not exist in isolation, it must have a relationship with the upper and lower lenses connected to it, and different relationships produce different artistic effects such as coherence, jumping, strengthening, weakening, alignment, and contrast.

In addition, the assembly of the shots not only plays a role in vividly narrating the content of the shots, but also creates new meanings that each isolated shot itself may not be able to express. Griffith’s first attempt to use montage for performance in film history was the experiment of combining a shot of a man who should be on a desert island with a close-up of the face of a wife waiting at home. After this ” “Assembling”, the audience feels “waiting” and “sorrowful”, and a new and special imagination is produced. Another example is to arrange a group of short shots together and connect them by a quick cut method. The artistic effect is that the same group of shots are arranged together and connected by the method of “fading” or “transforming”, which is quite different.

For example

Connect the following three lenses A, B, and C in a different order, and different contents and meanings will appear.

1. A person is laughing, B. Pointing a pistol, C. The same person has a look of horror on his face.

What impression do these three close-ups give to the audience?

If you use the A-B-C sequence to connect, it will make the audience feel that the person is a coward and a coward.

However, the lens remains the same, as long as we change the sequence of the above lens, we will come to the opposite conclusion.

1. A look of horror appeared on a person’s face, B. Pointing a pistol, A. The same person was laughing.

Connected in the order of C-B-A in this way, the person’s face showed a look of horror, because a pistol was pointed at him. However, when he thought about it, he felt that there was nothing great, so he smiled-smiled in front of the god of death. Therefore, he gave the audience the impression of a brave man.

In this way, changing the order of shots in a scene without changing each shot itself completely changes the meaning of a scene, draws the opposite conclusion, and obtains completely different effects.

This coherent organization and arrangement is the use of the unique montage method of film art, which is the structure of the film we are talking about. From the above example, we can see the importance of this arrangement and combination structure, which is an important means of organizing materials together to express the idea of ​​the film. Simultaneously. Due to the different permutations and combinations, different artistic effects such as positive and negative, deep and shallow, strong and weak are produced.

The effect of montage

The Soviet film master Eisenstein believes that the A lens plus the B lens is not a simple synthesis of the two lenses A and B, but will become a brand-new content and concept of the C lens. He clearly pointed out: “The alignment of the two montage shots is not the sum of two numbers, but more like the product of two numbers-this fact, which was correct before, still appears to be correct today. The reason why it is more like The product of two numbers, rather than the sum of two numbers, is that the result of the arrangement is qualitatively (if you are willing to use mathematical terms, it is in the’dimensional’) that is always different from the individual components. Let us give another example The woman-this is a picture, the mourning dress on the woman-this is also a picture, both pictures can be expressed in real objects. And the “widow” produced by the opposition of these two pictures , It is no longer something that can be expressed with real objects, but a new appearance, a new concept, and a new image.”

The use of montage techniques can give new meaning to the connection of shots, which greatly enriches the expressive power of film art, thereby enhancing the appeal of film art. Regarding this issue, we can also get great inspiration from a phenomenon in physics: as we all know, carbon and diamond are the same in terms of their molecular composition. But one is surprisingly crisp, the other is extremely hard, why? The results of the scientists’ research proved that it is caused by the different molecular arrangement (lattice structure). This means that the same material, due to different arrangements, can produce such diametrically opposite results, which is really thought-provoking.

The Hungarian film theorist Bella Balaz also pointed out: “Once the last shot is connected, the unusually rich meanings that were originally hidden in each shot are emitted like electric sparks.” It can be seen that this kind of “electric spark” looks like an electric spark. The meaning of “potential” in a single lens is undetected by people. It must be “assembled” to allow people to produce a new and special imagination. The montage we are talking about firstly refers to the combination relationship between the lens and the lens, as well as the combination relationship between time and space, sound and picture, picture and color. As well as the meaning and effect of these connection relationships.

“Montage is the connection method of the film. The whole film has a structure, and each chapter, each large section, and each short section must also have a structure. In the film, this method of connection is called montage. In fact, it means One by one shots are formed into a segment, and then the small segments are formed into a large segment, and the large segments are organized into a movie. There is no mystery, no tricks, and it is in line with rational and perceptual logic. , In line with the logic of life and vision, looks smooth, reasonable, rhythmic, and comfortable. This is clever montage. On the contrary, it is not clever montage.” There is no such a profound, simple and easy-to-understand explanation of montage. Elaborated.

Function and classification of montage technique

Montage has two major functions: narrative and ideographic. According to this, we can divide montage into three basic types: narrative montage, performance montage, and rational montage. The first is narrative means, and the latter two are mainly used to express meaning. On this basis, a second-level division can be made, as follows: Narrative montage (parallel montage, cross montage, repeat montage, continuous montage), performance montage (lyrical montage, psychological montage, metaphor montage, contrast montage), rational montage ( Juggling montage, reflection montage, thought montage).

Narrative

Narrative montage was first used by American film master Griffith, and it is the most commonly used narrative method in film and television. There is no concept of film montage in this fashion. It is still an unconscious behavior. Its characteristic is to explain the plot and show the event as the main purpose. According to the time flow of the plot development, the causal relationship divides and combines the shots, scenes and paragraphs to guide The audience understands the plot. This kind of montage grouping is clear, logically coherent and easy to understand. Narrative montage includes the following specific techniques:

(To Be Continued)

Brief overview

Montage theory is based on the dialectics of perceptual thinking and rational thinking, proposed by Eisenstein in the 1920s to study film characteristics and the principles of systematic film aesthetics and practical principles. It also refers to the theories about editing and sub-shots of world films. Refers to the Soviet film montage theory represented by Kulishov, Eisenstein, Pudovkin, Vertov, etc., especially Eisenstein’s “conflict theory” and Pudovkin’s “combination theory”.

The theory and practice of montage are the product of the combination of avant-garde spirit and revolutionary will. Russian filmmakers who have been baptized by the October Revolution actively devote themselves to the practice of film creation, and strive to use the weapons of film to inspire the masses and promote the revolution. At the same time, under the influence of avant-garde art at the beginning of the 20th century, especially Futurism and Constructivism, they focused on exploring new film languages ​​and created a montage theory system.

Eisenstein’s montage theory emphasizes the characteristics of “struggle and conflict”: “the specific concept’emerges’ from the conflict of two elements”, revealing that the internal conflict of the juxtaposed lens can produce a third meaning: that is, the object or event. Evaluation. Pudovkin’s theory insists that montage is only a means of film realism, and advocates combining shots in the natural flow of images to form metaphors. Kurishov argued that the neutral shots of external actions, with the help of modeling methods and montages, can give different meanings to the simple actions of non-disguised and non-acting actors (see “Kurishov effect”) .

Vertov’s “Cinema Eye Theory” affirms that film cameras are more perfect than human eyes and advocates capturing life. At the same time, it emphasizes the association and combination function of montage (see “Cinema Eye Theory”), and advocates selecting film observation through montage For the most important moment, organize the material in accordance with the associative and rhythmic principles to strengthen the emotional appeal, and explain the events and political meanings in the film through the montage of text and images.

Definition

Montage means “cutting” in French, but in Russia it has been developed into a theory of lens combination in movies. In the paint and painting industry, montage is also a unique artistic technique and meaning of free-style painting.

When different lenses are spliced together, they often produce specific meanings that the individual lenses do not have when they exist alone. The way of writing in this way is also called montage.

Constitute

Montage generally includes two aspects: picture editing and picture synthesis. Picture composition: a unified picture work composed of many pictures or patterns juxtaposed or superimposed. Picture editing: The method or process of making this artistic combination is to arrange and combine a series of shots taken in different locations, from different distances and angles, and in different methods to narrate the plot and portray the characters.

significance

When different lens groups are connected together, it often has meaning that each lens does not have when it exists alone. For example, Chaplin’s shot of driving the workers into the factory gate is connected with the shot of the driven sheep. Pudovkin’s shot of the melting ice river in spring is connected with the shot of the workers’ demonstration. The lens shows a new meaning.

Eisenstein believes that the effect of connecting the anti-column shots together is “not the sum of two numbers, but the product of two numbers.” With the role of montage, movies enjoy great freedom of time and space, and can even constitute movie time and movie space that are inconsistent with the time and space in actual life. Montage can produce a third type of action besides actor action and camera action, thereby affecting the rhythm of the film.

As early as the film came out, American directors, especially Griffith, noticed the role of film montage. Later Soviet directors Kurišov, Eisenstein, and Pudovkin successively discussed and summarized the laws and theories of montage, forming the montage school, and their related works had a profound impact on film creation.

Main functions of montage

• Through the segmentation and assembly of shots, scenes, and paragraphs, the selection and selection of materials are carried out to make the content of the presentation clear and to achieve a high degree of generalization and concentration.
• Guide the audience’s attention and stimulate the audience’s associations. Although each shot only shows a certain content, the combination of shots in a certain order can regulate and guide the audience’s emotions and psychology, and inspire the audience to think.
• Create unique movie time and space. Each shot is a record of real time and space. After editing, it realizes the reconstruction of time and space and forms a unique film and television time and space.

By means of montage, the narrative of the film obtains great freedom in the use of time and space. A single technique (or direct jump in) can jump from Paris to New York in space, or span several decades in time. Moreover, through the juxtaposition and intersection of the movements of two different spaces, it can cause tension and suspense, or show the relationship between characters in two places, such as lovers’ love in two places. Montages at different times can repeatedly depict the connection between the characters’ past psychological experiences and current inner activities. This freedom of time-space transformation has made the film a great way for novelists to express life freely.

The use of montage allows film artists to greatly compress or extend the actual time in life, creating the so-called “movie time” without giving people the feeling of going against the actual time in life. But it should be noted that the grasp of montage cannot be too long, otherwise it will be boring, and it must not be too short, which will make people feel rushed.

Montage’s ability to manipulate time and space allows the film artist to extract what he thinks best clarifies the essence of life, best describes the character, the relationship between the characters, and even the part that best expresses the artist’s own feelings based on his analysis of life. , Combined together, after decomposition and combination, the most important and inspiring parts are retained, a large number of trivial trivialities are discarded, and life is refined by removing the waste, and obtaining the most vivid narrative and the richest appeal. .

Griffith, in “Party Together, Facing Differences”, showed that when the innocent husband in court looked at the pain of his convicted wife, he only focused on photographing her convulsive hands. In “The Red Detachment of Women”, Qionghua saw the landlord Nan Batian and fired in violation of the reconnaissance discipline. The next shot was the captain shooting the handed Qionghua’s gun on the table, avoiding reporting to the company commander. after. The action is interrupted, but the plot is continuous, and the relationship between the characters is developing. The function of this kind of decomposition and combination gives the film a highly concentrated and generalized ability, so that a film of less than two hours can introduce a person’s life like “Citizen Kane”, involving decades of social changes.

Montage also has two important functions that cannot be denied. One is to make the film freely use alternate narrative angles, such as from the author’s objective narrative to the subjective representation of the character’s heart, or to see a certain state of affairs through the eyes of the character. Without this interchange, the narrative of the film would be monotonous and clumsy. The second is to influence the audience’s psychology through the rhythm of the lens change movement.

The various functions of montage have convinced generations of film artists and theorists that “montage is the foundation of film art”, “without montage, there will be no movies”, and believe that movies should adopt a special way of thinking-montage thinking.

The Birth and Development of Montage

Born

When the Lumiere brothers made the earliest film in history at the end of the 19th century, he didn’t need to think about montage. Because he always put the camera in a fixed position, that is, the distance of the panoramic view (or the distance between the middle row of the audience in the theater and the stage), and shot people’s movements from start to finish in one go.

Later, it was discovered that the film could be cut and glued with medicine. So someone tried to place the camera in different positions and shoot from different distances and angles. They found that various lenses with different connection methods can produce surprisingly different effects. This is the beginning of the montage technique, and also the beginning of the film’s freedom from the shackles of the narrative and performance means of the stage play, and the beginning of its own independent means.

In the history of general film, the origin of the split-shot shooting is attributed to Edwin Bout of the United States, who believes that his “The Train Robbery” screened in 1903 is the beginning of the “movie” in the modern sense, because he puts different backgrounds, Including the platform, the driver’s cab, the telegraph room, the train car, the valley and other interior and exterior scenes, they are connected to tell a story. This story includes several action lines. However, it is universally recognized that Griffith has mastered the skills of different lens combinations, which finally frees the film from the performance method of drama. Montage has developed considerably during the silent film period.

Theoretical School

The Montage School appeared in the Soviet Union in the mid-1920s, represented by Eisenstein, Kurišov, and Pudovkin. They sought to explore new film expression methods to express the revolutionary film art of the new era, and their exploration Mainly focused on the experiment and research of montage, he created the system theory of film montage, and applied theoretical exploration to artistic practice, and created the “Battleship Potemkin”, “Mother”, “Land” and other examples of montage art. It constitutes the famous montage school.

Sound and color

In addition, some people think that montage is a product of silent movies, and has no place in the soil of sound movies. Facts show that although audio has restricted the use of certain montage methods, the film has changed from a purely visual art to an audio-visual art, and the characters on the screen become a complete visible and audible image, which greatly expands the scope of montage. .

Sound is added to the picture. Since then, montage is not only the relationship between picture and picture, but also the relationship between sound and sound, sound and picture. The so-called sound includes human voice, natural sound and music. The human voice also includes lines, commentaries, inner monologues, and the noise of the crowd. Therefore, the combination of picture and sound involves various combinations of picture and human voice, natural sound, and music, and the combination of sound and sound involves the combination of these kinds of sounds.

Due to this complexity, the sound composition and sound and picture composition of the film have infinitely rich possibilities, and open up an infinitely vast new world to the audio-visual art (see movie sound). Movies have developed from black and white films to color films, and color has become one of the means of film expression. The new subject of color montage brought to the film has once again enriched the world of film montage.

The Controversy and Development of Montage Hand Posting

After the Second World War, French film theorist Andre Bazin (1918—1958) raised objections to the role of montage, believing that montage imposes the director’s point of view on the audience, restricts the ambiguity of the film, and advocates the use of depth of field Shots and scenes are scheduled for continuous shooting of long shots to produce films, thinking that in this way, the integrity of the plot space and the real time flow can be maintained.

But the role of montage is undeniable. Film artists always use both montage and long-shot methods for film creation. Some people think that long shots actually use camera actions and actors’ scheduling to change the scope and content of the shots, and call them “internal montages.”

The big aspects of montage can be divided into performance montage, narrative montage and rational montage, which can be further subdivided into psychological montage, lyrical montage, parallel montage, cross montage, repeat montage, contrast montage, metaphor montage, and so on.

(To Be Continued)

Some Key Lighting factors

When creating any type of photo, lighting is the most important factor. And lighting is also one of the most difficult aspects to obtain high-quality photos.

In some cases, the lighting is too bright and harsh. On other occasions, it is too dim and dark. So, let’s start to learn more about lighting facts.

Light is colored

All light has a color, or more specifically, a color temperature. Our eyes are very good at detecting these color changes seamlessly and adjusting our vision, so they are usually not noticed.

Unfortunately, this is not the case with the sensor in the camera. Your camera’s sensor will record the color of the light it sees unless you specify otherwise.

For example, in the image above, the light is very “warm”, and golden tones are common after sunrise and before sunset during golden hours. On the contrary, the light in the middle of the day has a cooler tone, and the appearance is almost blue.

Distance dims your lights

It sounds simple, but it’s still worth mentioning. The further away your subject is from the light source, the darker the lighting will be.

In fact, when the light moves away, it will drop at a very fast rate. If the light source moves twice as far away, you only get a quarter of the original light.

If you find that the light is too dim to meet your needs, move the light closer to the subject or move the subject closer to the light. Or, you can use dim lighting as a creative way.

The fading of light helps define the background

The distance to the light source not only affects the brightness, it also affects the background. For example, if your light source is very close to the subject, they will be brighter, but the background will be more shaded.

Conversely, if you move the light source away from the subject, the light on the subject will be darker, but the background will be brighter. Therefore, if you want to create an image in which the background is invisible, keep the light close to the subject. However, if you want to show the relationship between the subject and the background, keep the light source away from the subject.

If the light is too hard, please enlarge the light source

Suppose you are shooting a portrait and you find that there are harsh shadows on the subject’s face. This may be caused by the subject being too close to the light source.

A simple solution is to choose a wider range of light sources. When a wider range of light sources are used, the light illuminates the object from more directions. This helps to fill in the shadows and provide more uniform lighting to the subject.

Headlights minimize shadows

If your goal is to minimize shadows, then headlights are your best choice.

Not only does the headlight minimize shadows, it also minimizes texture, which is often advantageous when creating portraits of older people who may wish to reduce the appearance of wrinkles.

As you can see in the picture above, there is no shadow on the man’s face due to the use of bright, uniform headlights. On the downside, the headlights are very flat, and because there are no shadows, they are small in size.

Side light increases dramatic

When light enters the scene from the side, it adds long shadows, giving the image the depth and size that the headlight lacks.

This is a popular landscape lighting because it makes the image more three-dimensional. It can also be effectively used for portraits with more artistic talent, as shown in the picture above.

If you are looking for lighting that can bring a lot of visual impact to your images, try side lighting.

The backlight reduces details, but can still be dramatic

When a portrait is backlit, the light source is behind the subject. In the portrait world, this usually produces the outline shown above.

Note how the backlight minimizes the details of the subject, but there is still enough detail to make sure that the subject is the person sitting on the bench.

You can also change the effect of the contour. For darker silhouettes, brighter parts of the sky are exposed. You can even use Photoshop to provide backlighting for your portraits!

Use shadows to create image effects

As mentioned above, sidelights and backlights usually produce more vivid images due to the inclusion of shadows. This is because shadows create volume in the scene, which gives it a more three-dimensional appearance.

This means that if you want to add impact to your photos, try illuminating them from the side, from behind, or from above or below. The shadows created by these lighting schemes are very pleasing.

The use of lighting in the studio-the main light

The main light, as the name implies, is the light source that forms the main tone when we lay out the light. It can also be said that it is the light source that determines the atmosphere of the subject. The main light must be the upper light source acting on the subject, so the light source acting on the environment is definitely not the main light.

Some photographers say that the main light is a “hard” light source, which may not be absolute. The main light determines the tone of the subject, whether the light on the model (or specifically the face) is flat or three-dimensional, and the atmosphere created by the angle of the light is brought by the main light.

Generally, when we are lighting, the first thing to do is to adjust the angle of the main light. I believe everyone has seen many lighting methods on the Internet (may be called not exactly the same), such as Rembrandt, Loop, butterfly light or Paramount light (Paramount), side light, etc.

Investigating the root cause is actually the position of the lights at different angles.

Rembrandt light is a famous painter from the Netherlands, it is a kind of light that is very popular in portrait painting, and it can express the facial structure of characters very well. Generally, it will be a top-down light with a 45-degree angle slightly higher than the model’s line of sight.

Butterfly light is a lighting method used by early Hollywood film factories to shoot actresses. Directly in front of the character, generally at a 45-degree angle from top to bottom, the character’s face forms a shadow like a butterfly.

The ring light is at a 30-degree angle on the front of the model, forming a soft ring on the side of the nose.

The side light, as the name suggests, is the 90-degree light from the side, which is easy to form a yin and yang face, but it can also bring a deep and mysterious feeling.

Because the facial bones of Asians are not as three-dimensional as Westerners, butterfly light and ring light are more suitable. On the contrary, Western models are more suitable for Rembrandt light and side light. Women are not as tough as men, so flat light is more suitable. On the contrary, when shooting men, you can raise the height of the light.

The typical butterfly light uses a white radome (beauty dish) without soft light cloth. It is placed less than 1 meter in front of the human face, and the lower edge is parallel to the person’s line of sight. But I didn’t put the lamp head down, but parallel to the front, so that the light from the edge of the radome would shine on the rest of the model’s body more evenly, and the face would also stick out.

In fact, many times, we love to point the light directly at the model, because there are different light shaping accessories, we think it will produce very different lighting effects. In fact, it is not absolute. We can often use the light from the edge according to our needs, and the light will become soft and natural.

 

The development of film has a history of nearly a century, while TV has only been in existence for more than 50 years. Today’s television is gradually growing up and becoming an independent art. It is helpful for television workers to carefully summarize some of the characteristics of their own art and their differences and differences from other arts while drawing on the strengths of other arts. For their own growth and development.

Television lighting art, which belongs to the category of television art, should also be the same. TV lighting is a “branch” of movie lighting. Although many expression methods of TV lighting are borrowed from movies, and even some expression methods are the same or similar, many years of practice and development have formed many of their own characteristics that are different from movie lighting. . It is these characteristics that promote its development and become an art.

It is necessary for us to make a basic and simple comparison and analysis on the difference between TV lighting and movie lighting.

The brightness ratio and the light ratio requirements are different

Cameras and tapes, cameras and films have formed the difference in materials used in film and television art. Then, different materials have different requirements for tolerance and brightness ratio. For example, the maximum brightness ratio of the TV can only reach 30:1, which limits the light ratio control of the TV lighting to 2:1 or not more than 3:1, so as to obtain the best picture effect and the normal level of the dark and bright parts of the subject.

The film latitude of movies is significantly greater than that of cameras and tapes. The brightness ratio of movie images can reach 100:1, and the light ratio of movie lighting can be controlled up to 7:1. Due to the difference in height ratio and light ratio requirements of TV and movies, There are also fundamental differences in light measurement, light metering, and lighting in lighting.

The difference in lighting requirements between multi-camera continuous shooting and single-camera shooting

 

The lighting methods and methods of large-scale theatrical programs and evening parties in TV studios, such as live broadcasts or live videos, and “indoor dramas” in TV dramas, are completely different from those of movies.

If multiple cameras shoot at the same time from different angles, the lighting design of the TV lighting is arranged for the continuous shooting surface of different lenses, and the lighting can be adapted to any angle. It can also be said that the lighting design should take into account that the camera is basically applicable when shooting the subject at any angle.

The above characteristics and methods will inevitably bring some adverse effects on the quality of lighting. The lighting design of TV lighting cannot take care of every angle of the camera one by one. The reason is that the position of the lighting is determined by the camera position of the previous lens. of. So for TV, you have to provide lighting for all lenses, which means that there is inevitably a compromise.

The difference between multi-genre lighting and single-genre lighting

TV lighting includes TV drama lighting, studio lighting, TV feature film lighting, TV newsreel lighting, etc., which is very different from a single movie lighting.

TV lighting has always been associated with certain timeliness and documentary styles of TV stations, especially news films and news feature film lighting.

The requirements for lighting methods in TV art films are also very different from those in movies. In this way, there is a big difference between the lighting equipment of TV lighting and movie lighting. For live multi-camera shooting, a lot of lights are required. The lamps require flexibility, high luminous intensity, and small size. It can be said that TV lighting has a variety of requirements for lamps, which should be suitable for various types of lighting in the TV category. At the same time, there are higher requirements for TV lighting personnel.

The difference between real lighting and shed lighting

Among the thousands of TV series produced and broadcasted by various TV stations and TV series production systems each year, a large proportion of the movies are filmed and illuminated using real scenes, and movies are more studio shooting and lighting. Therefore, film and TV series are produced in movies and TV series. The differences and characteristics of the production cycle, economic capacity in the movie are obvious.

Real scene lighting has low investment, natural and real light effects, and short production cycle. In addition, audiences have very high requirements for the authenticity of TV program production, which is closely related to the audience that the art of TV has, the venue environment when watching, and the degree of connection between the theme content and actual life.

The lighting environment and conditions of the film studio are significantly better than the real-life lighting of the TV, such as the height of the scene in the studio, the “light position” left for lighting in the art scene, the unity of color temperature and color, etc., for the real-life TV In terms of lighting, some parties are “beyond the dust.”

Different literacy and adaptability requirements

TV lighting personnel should be all-rounders. There are not many people who work full-time in a certain genre of lighting in TV stations, and most of them are “plastic” types. For them, it is necessary to adapt to a variety of environmental lighting, more often people create and adapt to the environment, rather than the environment to adapt to people.

In the actual lighting work, not only should be proficient in the lighting of television art films, but also in the lighting of feature films and news films. Large scenes should have the ability to dispatch many lamps. Newsreels and small scenes of feature films should have multiple uses. While ensuring documentary and timeliness, try to ensure the lighting effect.

How to determine the color temperature of film and television lighting

When it comes to light, we have to explain the problem of color temperature. Most people who play with cameras know “color temperature” more or less, but they may know little about the principle of color temperature.

Color temperature 3200K refers to the “light color” emitted by laboratory blackbody at 3200 ° K (2927 ℃). K represents the unit of absolute temperature. When the color temperature is 3200K, the light color is close to red.

Remember that when the iron burns to 1000 degrees, it’s just the time when it glows red! If the red iron continues to be heated, the light will be brighter and brighter and closer to white. If you can control the melting and spreading, you will find that the light will be closer to blue (like the blue emitted by a gas stove fire).

The closer the light color is to red light, the lower the color temperature, the longer the wavelength, the longer the unit linear transmission distance, and the easier it is to absorb. Therefore, the red light is usually used as a warning light. The closer the light color is to blue light, the higher the color temperature, the shorter the wavelength, the shorter the unit linear transmission distance, and the easier it is to reflect. The reason why the sky is blue and the ocean is blue is because blue light waves are reflected and red light waves are absorbed, so we cannot see red. Otherwise, the sky and water we see will turn red.

Human perception of color comes from light and light reflection. After light enters the eye, it can distinguish various colors through the perception of the optic nerve. Because the human eye has the function of automatic adjustment, we can still distinguish the color difference of objects even under different light sources. Therefore, the color of objects under 3200K tungsten filament light is not much different from that under 5000K sunlight.

However, the camera or negative relies on the electronic or chemical light splitting method to reflect the color ratio of light (the ratio of three primary colors or three primary lights). The machine has no way to automatically adjust the color difference, so the recorded color is completely reflected.

Therefore, we can see the normal color when shooting under the light, but if we do not adjust the sensitivity of the machine to the color temperature, we will find that the whole color is not right when things are taken to the sunlight, the red series are not obvious, and the whole picture is “bluish”.

Similarly, if you see a normal color when shooting in sunlight, and you do not adjust the sensitivity of the machine to the color temperature, when you take the object to the light, you will see a picture with less blue series and “red” color.

This situation is often encountered when we shoot ENG. when we shoot in the indoor lighting environment, sometimes when we bring the sunlight through the window, we will find that the sunlight is blue, but what we see with the naked eye is normal.

Therefore, before using ENG photography, we must do the work of “white compare” (i.e. white balance), take the color temperature of the scene as the standard to do a “zero” action, let the camera under the light source of the scene, take the “color” of the white object (usually white paper) as the standard white. so that other colors can have a certain color standard that can be followed, the camera can present a more realistic color.

For professional cameras, the standard of color temperature is quite high, so most of them have more than two color temperature plates (3200K, 5600k), and even more than four sections (3200K, 4500k, 5600k, 6300k). The finer the separation, the higher the precision and the lower the relative tolerance. Therefore, when using more advanced cameras, photographers should pay special attention to the change of light. In fact, the more sophisticated the machine, the more beautiful the picture will be, but relatively, the greater the chance of error.

Fortunately, technology has been improving. At present, the new generation of digital cameras have more and more control over the color temperature and are more accurate than before. Maybe one day, “dialogue” will become redundant work. Only advanced machines will have the function of “manual” color temperature control! Isn’t that the case with many cameras now? Only advanced models have the function of manual focusing and aperture adjustment.

Sometimes, color temperature can be used to create different images. For example, intentionally blue can show a colder tonality, intentionally red can show a warm feeling. In the same picture, even red, blue and standard three different color temperatures can appear at the same time to show the artistic feeling of the image.

In addition, I would like to mention that there is a “colored light” that often confuses beginners with color temperature. Colored light refers to the use of special light color paper or color board in front of lamps to make “colored light”. Most of this kind of light is used to make “effect light” and “atmosphere light” to create special effects of shooting scenes.

This kind of colored paper has red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and purple There are all kinds of colors. Of course, the light produced will also affect the color temperature. But please note that the effect light belongs to “ambient light”, which is different from the purpose of “lighting light” needed for shooting.

On the contrary, the ambient light is more like the color on the wall, which should faithfully present the primary color of “light”. When shooting, the red one should be red, and the yellow one should be yellow.

If you do “dialogue” action under the effect light, if you can correspond to the excellent temperature (maybe within 1000 or 2000 degrees), you will find that the shot picture does not feel like the effect light, yellow light The white paper shown below should be yellow, but the picture is white Instead, it didn’t restore the color of the scene.

Therefore, in the case of the above situation, we must first determine which color temperature is the main “lighting light” (generally 3200K standard light color temperature is the main, but there are also 5600k sunlight color temperature as the reference), set the camera to this reference value, and then add the color paper to make the effect light.

The above situation is most likely to make mistakes in shooting places with stage lighting, especially in shooting stage plays, dance performances and other occasions where a lot of artistic color light is needed to present the atmosphere. Many people will use white paper to find the brightest light source for “dialogue”, but the color of the picture they see after shooting is quite different from what they see on the scene.

In fact, the solution is very simple. Most of the machines are set to the preset “light” (3200K), and then they can shoot. Because most of the stage uses 3200K standard color temperature light to light, it can be used as the reference value to show the proper color. Of course, some special occasions, some people will use other color temperature values to shine (such as sunlight 5600k), but there are not many opportunities! Try to see if you can adjust the color temperature of the machine.

What is light ratio & Main affecting factors

Light ratio refers to the brightness ratio between the light receiving surface and the shadow surface of the object, which is an important parameter of light for photography. When the light ratio is large, the images in the photographic works are hard in tone, few in level, strong in three-dimensional sense and large in contrast.

when the light ratio is small, the images in the photographic works are soft in tone, rich in level, poor in three-dimensional sense and small in contrast. In photography, the light ratio should be determined and adjusted according to the situation of the subject and the photographer’s creative intention. The light ratio is determined by 1:2 ∩ power.

  Affecting Factors:

1. The influence of light level. The light ratio of the subject is small under the illumination of the positive light plane, moderate under the illumination of the front light, and large under the illumination of the back light and the side back light.
2. The influence of light quality. The ratio of direct light is larger than that of scattered light.
3. The influence of climate. The light ratio of sunny days is higher than that of cloudy days, rainy days and snowy days.
4. The sunlight ratio is bigger in summer and smaller in winter.
5. It is the influence of light luminous power. High luminous power, high light ratio, low luminous power, low ligh.
6. The influence of light source distance. The light source distance is close, the light ratio is large; the light source distance is far, the light ratio is small.
7. It is the influence of different lamps. Spotlight lighting, light ratio is large. scattered light and white light lighting, light ratio is small.

The classification of movie tunes

Keynote refers to the dominant tone in the photographic picture, also known as “main tone”. The main function of the tone is to set off and express the theme, express the atmosphere of the real environment, and strive to form a certain artistic conception.There are three kinds of tone in black and white photography works:

★High profile photo: refers to the image composed of medium gray to white tone in the photographic picture, that is to say, more than 80% of the images in the picture are light or white. High profile photos can give people a bright, pure and beautiful visual feeling, mainly with positive lighting.

★Midtone: It is the most common tone structure in photographic images. The image consists of black to white layers in the form of rich tones, with mid-tone gray dominating. It can fully show the subject’s three-dimensional sense, texture and rich sense of space, giving people a sense of harmony, tolerance, delicacy and depth.

★Low key photo: it refers to the image with medium gray to dark or black tone in the photographic picture, that is to say, more than 80% of the images in the picture are dark or black, with only a small amount of white. When shooting low-key works, choose dark or black background, and backlight or side backlight lighting. It gives people a deep, solemn and solemn visual feeling.

Contrast of tone

• Soft tone photo: it refers to the soft tone, small contrast between light and shade, excessive levels in the middle and deep depiction of details in the photographic picture, which often gives people a soft, delicate and implicit visual aesthetic feeling.
• Hard tone photo: refers to the picture tone contrast is strong, with simple visual effect. When the picture was shot, the larger light ratio had formed a larger contrast. After dark room production, the middle layer was gradually removed (a bit like black-and-white printmaking).
• Silhouette photo: it is a kind of special shadow effect. The main body has no shadow layer, just like the paper-cut graphics in art works. When shooting, backlight lighting must be used, with light or white background as the background, light or white background brightness as the criterion, and light shield shall be added to prevent glare.

Light level

Light level refers to the position of the light source. Different lighting directions and angles will produce different lighting effects. Taking the subject as the center, the light source can be divided into front light, front light, full side light, side backlight, backlight, top light, foot light, etc. Each light type can be divided into high light, horizontal light and low light.

(1) Front light – flat or smooth again. It means that the direction of the light source is consistent with the direction of the camera lens. Its characteristics are: the picture light and shadow is flat, light ratio and shadow is small, lack of three-dimensional sense. The positive light can be divided into high position, horizontal position and low position. In portrait photography, the illumination of high position front light forms a butterfly like projection under the nose, so it is also called butterfly light.  

(2) Front side light — front side light is a kind of side light, which is located on the left and right sides of the camera and forms an angle of about 45 degrees with the camera. Its characteristics are: the subject has obvious three-dimensional sense, rich tone, bright color. High front light is called “triangle light” in portrait photography.

 

(3) Positive side light – also known as Omni side light. The angle between the direction of the light source and the direction of the camera lens is about 90 degrees. Under the illumination of the positive side light, the light of the subject’s receiving surface is almost equal to the shadow surface, which is conducive to the performance of the line and surface structure characteristics of the subject, but the light ratio is large, so the light should be distributed in the dark part of the person to reduce the light ratio. The front and side lights are mostly used for male figures, which is conducive to the expression of the masculinity of the characters. The photos taken by far side light have great contrast, strong sense of three-dimensional, strong sense of texture and space perspective.

 

(4) side backlight — refers to the direction of the light source from the left or right side of the object behind, and the direction of the camera lens at an angle of about 135 degrees. Because Rembrandt, a Dutch painter in the 17th century, was good at using side backlight, he was also called “Rembrandt light”.

When far side backlight is used for lighting, auxiliary lighting should be added to the shadow part, so that the shadow level and texture of the dark part can be properly expressed.

Side backlight lighting is the best light level for taking low-key photos, but with a dark background.

(5) Backlight — the direction of the light source is opposite to that of the camera lens (180 ° angle). Under backlight illumination, the side of the subject facing away from the camera is exposed to light, while the front of the subject facing the camera is in shadow. Therefore, we should pay attention to adding auxiliary light illumination to the shadow part, so as to make the shadow level and texture of the dark part get the proper performance. If you don’t fill in the light, make a silhouette.

In the side backlight, backlight lighting, we should pay attention to the following points:

① choose a dark or black background,

② appropriately increase the exposure compensation or auxiliary light,

③ add a light shield to prevent stray light from entering the lens, so that the negative film appears “halo”.

(6) top light refers to the light source illuminating vertically downward from the top of the subject. The subject is under the illumination of the top light, the horizontal side is bright and the vertical side is dark.

If you want to shoot people in this kind of light, you should pay attention to the following remedial measures:

① change the shooting angle, please tilt up or down from the subject’s head to change the angle of the top light on the face of the person,

② add light to the dark part of the subject, you can use a reflector or flash,

③ use a baffle to block the vertical light, so as to change the light and dark contrast of the person’s face.

(7) The application of foot light — foot light is mostly used in the modeling of background light in photography. Especially in advertising photography used very much, can eliminate the shadow surface.

Foot light is seldom used to photograph people because it is light under the subject and dark above the subject. But it is used as auxiliary light to eliminate the heavy shadow of nose or chin in studio.

Taking pictures of the skyline in the morning and evening, the sculpture can get a more spectacular view of the city by taking pictures of the skyline in the morning and evening.

Type of Light

Light type: refers to the role of all kinds of light in photography, light type is also called light type.

(1) Main light

Main light is also known as shaping light, is the dominant light in the picture. Other light must be subject to the main light. There is also a main light in outdoor photography, such as sunlight. In indoor lighting, the intensity of the main light is not necessarily greater than that of other auxiliary light and decorative light. If the backlight effect is required, the intensity of the main light is weaker than that of the auxiliary light behind the character.

(2) Auxiliary light

Auxiliary light is also called deputy light. When making backlight or side light photography in the sun, because the shadow part is too thick and the shadow tone is too dark, it lacks layers. At this time, flash or reflector should be used as auxiliary light to make the shadow part have proper lighting, but the auxiliary light should not be too bright.

(3) Decorative light –

also known as decorative light. It is mainly used to modify some parts or details of the scenery, such as eye light and props light, to show its texture.

4) Contour light —

refers to the light used to outline the main body. Generally, backlight or side backlight is used. Its main function is to make the subject and background open space, highlight the subject, enhance the depth of the picture.

(5) Background light —

acts as a foil to express the sense of depth of space, so that there is a clear boundary between the subject and the background. At the same time, it can also sense the tone of light projection and background.

(6) Effect light —

is a specific lighting effect, such as furnace fire light, lightning, etc., its light source variation is larger, has a certain modeling effect and specific atmosphere.

Light and shadow structure

Cubist painters understood the ever-changing forms of objects as a combination of several simple geometric shapes. For example, the head is a cuboid, the eyes are a sphere, and the nose is a cone… This is of great reference value for photographers to study the basic shapes of light and objects.

After an object is illuminated by a beam of light, it will inevitably produce a variety of different light and shadow structures, and there are logical laws between them.

Take a cylinder as an example: Suppose that in a non-light environment, a beam of light illuminates the cylinder from the side and above, forming a light-receiving surface, a backlight surface, a light-dark boundary, and a shadow. The light-receiving surface is composed of a series of continuous brightness, which can be simply regarded as composed of a bright surface and a sub-bright surface.

The backlight surface that is not irradiated by the light is facing away from the light source, so it should be dark, but because the light illuminates the cylinder while also illuminating the surrounding environment, it will inevitably produce environmental reflection light, and the light returning to the space illuminates the backlight of the cylinder surface. Therefore, the backlight surface is not dull and dark, but has a certain brightness, like the light-receiving surface, from bright to dark, continuously changing, but the brightness is weak compared with the light-receiving surface. The backlight surface can also be simply regarded as composed of a dark surface and a sub-dark surface.

Three basic styles

The tone composition is restricted by the position of the object, the light source and the viewing angle.

Tone can be summarized into three basic forms:

(1) The light source is on the side of the object and forms a 90° angle with the viewer, usually called side-light illumination. The tonal relationship formed by the object is shown in Figure a above. Taking a cylinder as an example, it is composed of five tones, with the shadow on one side, which is usually called a full tone (or gray tone) with a light and dark surface structure. This tone is rich in layers and has a strong sense of three-dimensionality.

(2) The light source is behind the object, and it is at an angle of 180° to the viewing angle. It is usually called backlighting. The tonal relationship formed by the object is shown in Figure b above. The cylinder can’t see the light-receiving surface, only the backlight surface, and the shadow tones are only dark and sub-dark. In addition, there is a bright outline form, usually called a dark tone. The image lacks gradation and three-dimensionality.

(3) The light source is in the same direction as the viewer, and the tonal structure of the cylinder is as shown in Figure c above, usually called forward lighting. In this lighting situation, the backlight surface, the boundary line between light and dark and the shadow cannot be seen, only the bright light-receiving surface can be seen. The cylinder consists of only two tones, bright and sub-bright, and has a darker outline form, usually called bright tone. Bright tones can show the full picture of the object, like dark tones, lacking a sense of three-dimensionality.

Cubist painters decomposed the ever-changing forms of objects into several simple geometric combinations. Therefore, grasping the light and shadow structure produced by light on the cylinder is representative and valuable for the photographer to study the relationship between light and the basic shape of the object.

shadow

Light irradiates an object and produces shadows at the same time. There are three forms of shadows: (1) Projected on itself, such as the nose shadow on the face. (2) Shadows that are not illuminated by light, such as backlit surfaces. (3) Shadows projected on other objects, such as the ground and walls.

The law of shadow

(1) Since the light propagates in a straight line in the same medium, the light source, object and shadow always remain in a straight line, and no shadow can be seen at the position of the light source.

(2) One light source has one shadow, and two light sources have two shadows. The amount of shadow is directly related to the light source.

(3) The height of the shadow cast on the wall is related to the height of the light source. The higher the light source, the lower the shadow ↑: the a lamp is higher than the b lamp, so the shadow on the wall is lower than the b lamp.

(4) When the distance between the light source and the object remains unchanged, the height of the shadow on the wall is related to the distance between the object and the wall.

(5) The direction and size of the shadow on the ground are related to the direction and height of the light source. The light source is on the left side of the object, and the shadow is on the right.

(6) In a point light source, the size of the shadow is related to the distance of the light source.

Shadow

The reality of the shadow is related to the nature of the light source. Direct light and the real shadow have clear boundaries. The scattered light shadows are imaginary, without sharp edges.

The virtual reality of the shadow is related to the distance between the object and the light source. When the distance between the object and the shadow remains the same, the larger the light distance, the more solid the shadow, and the smaller the light distance, the more virtual the shadow.

 

When the distance from the object to the light source is constant, the virtual reality of the shadow is related to the distance from the object to the shadow. The smaller the distance, the more solid the shadow, and the larger the distance, the more virtual the shadow.

When the size of the object, the distance of the light source and the distance of the shadow remain unchanged, the virtual reality of the shadow is related to the light-emitting area of the light source. The smaller the light-emitting area, the more solid the shadow, and the larger the light-emitting area, the more imaginary the shadow.

When the area of the object is much smaller than the light-emitting area of the light source, the larger the light source distance and the smaller the shadow distance, the clearer the shadow will be.

The revealing function of shadow

(1) Shadows are used by photographers in traditional movies as a means of revealing the space outside the picture frame. The composition of the picture is limited by the frame, and it can only show the scene inside the frame, and the scenery outside the painting space cannot be seen. Therefore, photographers often cast shadows of objects outside the painting into the painting to show the existence outside the painting. Take the film “Tango Crazy Love” (Tango, 1999) dance rehearsal shots, for example.

The background is a screen, and the shadow of the actress behind the scenes is cast on the curtain. Although the audience cannot see the characters behind the scenes, they can know the existence of the characters behind the scenes through the shadows.

(2) Shadows can reveal the surface shape of objects. The picture below is a wooden house in a mountainous area. Under the front sunlight, the log shape of the log house cannot be shown. Therefore, the shadow cast on the wall and the ground by the tree trunk shows the shape of the log on the wall and the unevenness of the ground.

(3) In photographic modeling, shadow is an advantageous means to highlight the main body and cover up the secondary body. In the composition, the secondary factors can be handled in the shadows to make them inconspicuous and not overwhelming. Shadow is an important element in the composition of the picture.

What is Sky-light

The success of the picture comes from the skillful use of light by lighting engineers and photographers. And all the lighting comes from nature. Sunlight and sky-light, photographers occasionally intervene in the environment to reflect light. The skillful use of the photographer is completely familiar with the law of light and modeling. This is not difficult, especially for the natural light illumination. Outdoor natural light in daytime is directly or indirectly from the sun. In cloudy weather, the direct illumination of sunlight is combined with the scattered light of cloud layer, and in rainy day, the indirect illumination is all. Indirect sunlight is generally called sky-light. Different weather lighting modeling effect is different, the reason lies in the proportion of sunlight and sky-light.

the Importance of Natural Light on Photography

In cloudless sunny days, the light is completely from the direct sunlight. According to the logical analysis, the modeling effect is that the illumination angle is concentrated, and the brightness difference between the light receiving surface and the shadow surface is very large.

But in fact, it can not be generalized. For example, in the morning and dusk, the sun appears soft and warm; in the afternoon or near noon, the sun presents the above reasoning shape. Our shooting is in an ordinary residential area in Beveley Hill, Los Angeles. The air quality and light in Beveley are not good. During the shooting process, we encountered many problems, such as the weak light in the morning and the foggy air.

In the actor’s play in the morning, due to the lack of natural light, we want to express the mild picture in the morning, which is emphasized the effect of light on photographic images. Use the camera to show the atmosphere of sunrise and sunset, avoid correcting the white balance, use the sunlight white balance to restore the yellow tone.

In addition to blocking short wave light, air medium also plays a role in softening light. The sun in the morning and evening is not as dazzling as noon. Under its illumination, the contrast between the light and dark side of the subject is soft, and the dark side is not as black as noon.

In general, it is the best lighting in the film shooting that does not deliberately emphasize the noon atmosphere. Lighting is the task of the lighting master, but capturing the light to shape the film is a must for the photographer.

The light of cloudy weather is a combination of direct sunlight and indirect sky light. Their proportion is closely related to the thickness of clouds and the distance between clouds and the sun. The thicker the clouds are and the closer they are to the sun, the smaller the ratio of sunlight to skylight. Sunlight is the main lighting source, which determines the illumination of the light receiving surface, that is, the bright surface. The sky-light has high scattering degree and disordered directivity, which can provide auxiliary lighting for the shadow and balance the contrast of the picture. What the photographer should do is to observe the light dark ratio of the subject before the official shooting.

Most of us are indoor plays. The cloudy weather and the haze in Shijiazhuang have a great impact on the indoor light. The light is not warm enough when we get up in the morning, and it is not bright enough during the day. However, such an environment is also a good test for photographers.

In fact, it’s not a logical point of view to shoot from a cloudy day, but it’s only necessary to consider the composition. The fully uniform exposure of the picture will make the two-dimensional planarization serious. Generally speaking, there is no three-dimensional sense in the picture. Close to photography, setting the foreground can create a three-dimensional effect through the perspective law of near big far small, but this one is far from enough.

The three-dimensional sense of the picture also needs to be created by the ratio of light to dark light. For example, a person’s face will be fat if the light is completely uniform, and the appropriate shadow will look thinner. In a cloudy day with uniform illumination, the photographer should try to reduce the light on some of the faces to be photographed, so as to create a proper light ratio, so that the picture does not fall into the flat. Let the subject close to the dark environment, dark environment due to poor reflective performance, forming a light absorption plate in photography. The contrast is easily created. When the female is the main body of the picture, the dark background can also better set off the color of the characters and make them white.

The cloudy sky lacks elements and is much brighter than the ground landscape. When shooting, too much blank will cause severe damage to the picture. In cloudy days, the sky should be included in the picture as little as possible. We all have a common sense that on cloudy days, the color of the scenery will be dim due to the heavy proportion of scattered light.

This can only be done from the color aspect when manipulating the picture and modeling the characters, and try to choose the bright color of the clothing. It seems that cloudy day has few advantages, but it is not necessarily. The biggest advantage of cloudy day is that it can shoot as long as the light is enough. However, compared with sunny day with strong light, its picture is visually low.

The meaning of light for interior shooting

Different from location shooting, interior shooting has one main principle: during shooting interior with available light, make all kinds of light for your own use.

This principle applies to all places and times, not just interiors. Don’t fight against the light. Make full use of all kinds of light sources in the surrounding environment. Don’t trouble yourself. Control the light by opening the shutters and curtains. Windows can be opened or closed. If it’s all like this, the window will have a soft light effect.

Make the most of the lights around you (desk lamp, head light, monitor or TV screen). The lamp is good! The light efficiency is almost the same, but there is still a lack of light. Maybe at night, the windows can’t be used.

The available light source is not only sunlight, but also artificial light, such as lamp or TV screen, which is often necessary to shoot indoor night scenes. For example, in our film, there is a scene where the hero is in a trance watching TV, and the atmosphere created by the screen is the best. Aim at the person, illuminate the computer and the face of the person, simple and efficient.

If the light is too hard, use the reflector to reflect it! If not, use the wall to direct the light to the wall. If the light is strong enough, the reflected light will be softer. In a word, we should be resourceful, flexible and make the best use of light.

“Light gives me creative shapes and scripts, and that’s why I’m a photographer,” says Barbara Morgan. Because without light, there will be no photographic art. Without light, even if we have good equipment and ideas, we can’t see the results. Imagination is like the wings of a bird, and light is the wind that holds them up.