Do you watch films differently since taking up photography?

pjm1

pjm1

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This is my first thread in OOF... but I thought it was worth asking, as it's something I've noticed more and more over the last month or so.

Since taking up photography, do you watch films differently? Do you sit there thinking, "yes, I can see you have a light off camera there and there..." and generally spending more time critiquing the output than actually watching the film?

There are some films which really got me focusing on the lighting more than the story and I just wondered if there were others suffering from a similar affliction?!
 
Honestly no.
Films...movies...are for me pure escapism.
I don't care how they're filmed or with whom.
If I leave having been entertained....job done.
 
Not just films but tele too. I notice dof more, blown skies and how hard it must be for the guys getting the close ups in the motogp. Also when I pause sky plus I notice how crap quality each frame is compared to photos on some of the stuff.
 
Raptor Mike said:
Not just films but tele too. I notice dof more, blown skies and how hard it must be for the guys getting the close ups in the motogp. Also when I pause sky plus I notice how crap quality each frame is compared to photos on some of the stuff.
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Surely that's just a Sky pause issue.
 
viv1969 said:
Honestly no.
Films...movies...are for me pure escapism.
I don't care how they're filmed or with whom.
If I leave having been entertained....job done.
Click to expand...
Gotta agree with that TBH.
 
I do that sometimes with soaps (EastEnders, Coronation Street and Emmerdale). I see this scene and think "that could benefit with a different angle or a more decent bokeh effect".
 
Ian D J said:
I do that sometimes with soaps (EastEnders, Coronation Street and Emmerdale). I see this scene and think "that could benefit with a different angle or a more decent bokeh effect".
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Soaps?....Shame on you :lol:
 
Ian D J said:
Hi Viv! Indeed, afraid to say that it is one of my guilty pleasures. Like I'm also an armchair trainspotter.
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Bless. We all have guilty pleasures :-)
 
I have noticed that I have focussed on such things recently, but then slap myself and stop myself from watching something that I'm obviously not enjoying.
 
pjm1 said:
You must either have a very mobile armchair or a great view of the railway line from your living room!
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:D :D I just like reading railway-related books and magazines. Actually, there is a railway line running very close by my house but it's long since disused, the last time it saw a train (and it was a steam special) was in 2009.

Come to think of it, nowadays whenever I look through my train books and magazines, I do find myself mentally analysing the quality of the photos rather than just enjoy looking at the trains themselves.
 
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pjm1 said:
That comment takes me back to my teenage years of VHS... wearing out tapes with pause & slow advance.

Long Play recordings were the worst!
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And just what type of tapes were you constantly pausing, rewinding and playing, huh? :)
 
"Since taking up photography" is a bit difficult to say, as I've been taking photos since I was 11 and I got my first SLR, which is 35 years ago now. :) :eek:

However, I certainly do take note of the lighting and composition when watching films and TV shows; it adds to my enjoyment to see a great piece of cinematography played out on the screen. There are times when I use some of those ideas when I'm out taking photographs myself. Some of the programmes that have made me sit up and pay attention to the visuals recently have been Channel 4's Utopia, which aired last year, both seasons of The Bridge on BBC2, and the current TV adaptation of Fargo is richly rewarding; all have been textbook lessons in how to compose scenes for wider screen formats.

If you're into lighting, you can do a lot worse than study Jack Cardiff's work for Powell and Pressburger (A Matter of Life and Death, Black Narcissus and The Red Shoes). Films by Stanley Kubrick and Francis Ford Coppola are well worth studying (Coppola's often-overlooked 1982 movie, One from the Heart, is a sumptuous exercise in lighting used to create in-camera effects - and it has an awesome soundtrack by Tom Waits with Crystal Gale).
 
About 3 years ago I bought my first camera and was reading about lighting and trying to 'understand' it, I watched American Beauty and I was so engrossed in the lighting and composition. It wasn't just the great lighting and composition but the use of colours to symbolise emotions. It made me realise you could add many layers to an image. Of course I'm not creative enough for such things but it visually appeals to me.
 
Don't enjoy them any more or less. Although it's hard not to be impressed with Kubrick's composition. The Shining is a master class.
 
Very much so.

Do a search for Kubrick Cinematography (y)
 
I quite a big movie fan,so yes lighting of all sorts interest me from movies to art.

To be honest most people TV are set up so badly,i go in for the full works my tv is set up very carefully :)
 
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viv1969 said:
Honestly no.
Films...movies...are for me pure escapism.
I don't care how they're filmed or with whom.
If I leave having been entertained....job done.
Click to expand...

:plusone:
Same with books, I read for entertainment (unless it's a reference book, of course!)

Raptor Mike said:
Not just films but tele too. I notice dof more, blown skies and how hard it must be for the guys getting the close ups in the motogp. Also when I pause sky plus I notice how crap quality each frame is compared to photos on some of the stuff.
Click to expand...
viv1969 said:
Surely that's just a Sky pause issue.
Click to expand...

Partially a Sky pause issue but also, TVs are crap resolution, especially for stills - a 2MP camera will outresolve most TVs.

pjm1 said:
Er... erm. They were "photography" films. Yes, that's it.

(Did I get away with that one?)
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In the same way that '70s photography magazines were only bought by photographers?

Having said the above, there are some films where the "rules" of photography have been applied to very good effect and some where the lighting has added to them but TBH these matters don't affect my enjoyment of a good film!
 
Yes, to the point that focus racks now drive me round the bend.
 
I have a variety of interests that make watching films quite distracting, my recent interest in street furniture can sometimes make me miss significant plot details completely...
 
viv1969 said:
Honestly no.
Films...movies...are for me pure escapism.
I don't care how they're filmed or with whom.
If I leave having been entertained....job done.
Click to expand...
Pretty much agree 100% but I do sometimes notice a good composition where I wouldnt have before.
Jamaica Inn recently had a few classic compositions in it. Most decent films, dramas, nature documentaries will show good composition nearly every scene it seems to me, but I only really notice if I stop to think about it.
 
I remember a police drama that used to be on based on new York, the name slips my mind, and the camera man couldn't keep the damn thing still. Gave me motion sickness. I think it was NYPD blue? Shame cos otherwise it was good.
 
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