Personal View site logo
The Ten Commandments
    1. Don't zoom. Zooming simply looks amateurish. Yes, there may be times when it's useful or even necessary, but avoid doing it if you can.

    2. Turn off autofocus and focus manually. Even the best AF systems "hunt" during a shot and nothing looks worse than losing focus at an important moment.

    3. Turn off autoexposure. Set your camera to M and manually set the shutter speed, aperture and ISO. Exposure changes when they're not deliberate are terrible to watch.

    4. Set your camera to "Natural" or a similar low saturation look. Standard is almost always way to saturated and contrasty.

    5. If at all possible, shoot at 24FPS and with a shutter speed of 1/50 second if you want a "cinematic look". This is not ideal for sports or any type of action, but it produces the motion cadence that has the feel of motion pictures. 60 FPS with a 1/125 second shutter speed looks like video. If that's what you want, or when shooting fast action – fine.

    6. Use a variable neutral density filter (Fader) so that you can control the light entering the lens and adjust the shutter speed and aperture to the settings that you want. Shooting at f/16 because it's sunny out just looks awful. But that's what an appropriate shutter angle (a speed of double the frame rate; ie: 1/50 sec for 24 FPS) requires unless you have a Fader. Buy a good one. Cheap ones are crap.

    7. Move the camera slowly. Any panning should be at a speed much slower than you think looks right at the time. It will at the end. Experiment.

    8. A tripod, monopod, or table-top pod are all a great idea. Hand-hold as little as possible, and when you do, use wide lenses and stabilization if your camera/lens offers it.

    9. Use an outboard digital audio recorder if at all possible. The mics and pre-amps built into almost all DSLRs and camcorders are mostly terrible. Small recorders can easily mount on the camera's accessory shoe with a small ballhead. Sync the high quality audio with the ambient track recorded by the camera when editing. Good sound is 50% of what people will experience when watching your video production.

    10. Don't try and shoot stills at the same time with the same camera. You'll screw up both. Cameras setting are so wildly different for each that your best approach is to have two different cameras with you which share the same lens mount. That way you can quickly switch from one to the other and also swap lenses between them as needed.

    Via: http://www.luminous-landscape.com/techniques/ten_commandments_of_cinematography.shtml

  • 25 Replies sorted by
  • Those are good rules, but it isn't always practical to turn off the autofocus. Rule number one for me is use at least three cameras.

    Also, if using an outboard recorder it is pretty silly to mount it on the camera unless you are moving a lot and you want it in one unit. The mics will pick up the noise from the camera. If you are using outboard sound it takes just a few seconds to sync it in post, even if you forget you clap your hands.

    Why mention this? If you don't feed the output into the cam, the cams mics create a real backup with the limiter engaged in case something goes wrong with your outboard audio. Just common sense.

  • the only one i'm not in compliance with is Number 5. I just dont get it. I've done comparisons with using the 180 shutter rule and also using aperture priority and locking the exposure and I prefer the look of what I shoot when i know the shutter speed is very high.

    This probably doesnt make a lot of sense but I've shot with guys using the same cameras who used a 1/100 shutter speed for 50p, and I used aperture priority with manual ISO and AE lock on and my stuff was really smooth. Pans, slowdowns and general movement just looks cleaner.

    This is just my opinion, i suppose at the end of the day its all about the look you want

  • I wonder what kind of audience he meant this for. With all due respect to the writer (been a reader of LL for a long time), I think it's dangerous to do lists like this even for amateurs. Many people will take them as dogma without understanding why.

  • I wonder what kind of audience he meant this for. With all due respect to the writer (been a reader of LL for a long time), I think it's dangerous to do lists like this even for amateurs.

    :-) for beginners who had been shooting stills for a while. And it is quite good list to begin with. If someone look at any recommendations as on dogmas it won't help him even if you make them perfect.

  • I like these guidelines. I've been thinking about making some laminated cards with the workflow for each kind of shot, a kind of checklist before the record button is pressed.

    I'd suggest:

    1. Confirm with headphones that your audio chains are in place and secure. You may have switched off mics/preamps to save on batteries during set-up --- are they all back on again. VU meters are no judge of quality.
  • Don't zoom. Zooming simply looks amateurish.

  • People like to feel creative by not following rules but actually rules help creative work by showing people what 99% of the time works. Breaking the rules is also important cause you need to know the affect breaking them is. The above clip does not show that zooming is a good technique generally, it simply shows the strong and powerful effect zooming does.......and if you want THAT effect (sparingly) then cool use it.

    I would say the new stabilisation on the Olympus cameras is starting to make the use of a tripod unnecessary if you want. I can imagine as this improves and cameras have almost a gimbal ability built in shakey footage with be the thing of the past....you'll have to add it in post. :)

    Also some of the new auto focus systems are so advanced if used right they can be a like having a focus puller next to you.

    The internal recording is not really the problem with many new cameras, the problem is more about getting mics close to the sound source.

    I would add some more.

    1. Don't cross the 180 degree axis unless you really want to disorientate people.

    2. Don't use a wide angle lens for close ups unless you want to make the people look crazy.

    3. Understand and use the rule of thirds.

    4. Variety of shots, Wide, medium, close up etc..

    5. Shoot matched action.

  • Rules applicable, of course, only to those mortals that are not already regarded as "artists". Once you are, do almost the exact opposite and earn some awards for this "novelty".

    Automavision is a cinematic technique invented by Danish director Lars von Trier.

    Developed with the intention of limiting human influence, in Automavision no cinematographer is actively operating the camera. The best possible fixed camera position is chosen and then a computer chooses framing by randomly tilting, panning or zooming the camera. In doing so it is not uncommon that the actors appear in the shots with a part of their face and head cut from the frame. With this technique then the blame for any "errors" are entirely attributable to a computer.

  • reichmann is a stills photographer trying to be a cinematographer ...he needs rules to make him feel comfortable. the technical rules ( 2,3,4,5,6,9,10 ) are obvious. The aesthetic ones ( 1,7,8 ) are laughable ...if you're a real filmmaker.

  • @kurth

    If you look at 98% of youtube clips you understand that almost all rules have big use for people who try to improve and just begin shooting videos (or doing crappy home stuff from time to time).

    They just need 5 to be changed to 30fps or 60fps, if you shoot for web.

  • yes , but for cinema makers who know what they're doing, they would break any aesthetic rule , even the 180 rule, if it serves a purpose. I can imagine someone telling cassevetes , better to use a tripod , or antonioni to not zoom . And that's classical cinema. Most great documentaries break any and all rules, unless it's a talkinghead doc.

  • Most great documentaries break any and all rules, unless it's a talkinghead doc.

    Huh, how this 0.001% is related to popular article on mostly photo oriented resource?

  • how is the article a "photo oriented resource"....when it's titled "ten commandments of cinematography" ?? You don't consider documentary ...cinema ? really, your comment makes no sense to me.

    And ...well, is it really a "popular article" ? MR lives in my town and I've yet to see him exhibit here . The internet creates it's own myths.

  • how is the article a "photo oriented resource"....when it's titled "ten commandments of cinematography" ?? You don't consider documentary ...cinema ? really, your comment makes no sense to me.

    Please drop down tone, "article on mostly photo oriented resource". LL is mostly photo resource this is that I mean.

  • I found this interesting.

    Documentary Director Viktor Kossakovsky’s "10 Rules of Filmmaking"

    1. Don’t film if you can live without filming.
    2. Don’t film if you want to say something – just say it or write it. Film only if you want to show something, or you want people to see something. This concerns both the film as a whole and every single shot within the film.
    3. Don’t film if you already knew your message before filming – just become a teacher. Don’t try to save the world. Don’t try to change the world. Better if your film will change you. Discover both the world and yourself whilst filming.
    4. Don’t film something you just hate. Don’t film something you just love. Film when you aren’t sure if you hate it or love it. Doubts are crucial for making art. Film when you hate and love at the same time.
    5. You need your brain both before and after filming, but don’t use your brain during filming. Just film using your instinct and intuition.
    6. Try to not force people to repeat an action or words. Life is unrepeatable and unpredictable. Wait, look, feel and be ready to film using your own way of filming. Remember that the very best films are unrepeatable. Remember that the very best films were based on unrepeatable shots. Remember that the very best shots capture unrepeatable moments of life with an unrepeatable way of filming.
    7. Shots are the basis of cinema. Remember that cinema was invented as one single shot – without any story. Or story was just inside that shot. Shots must first and foremost provide the viewers with new impressions that they never had before.
    8. Story is important, but perception is even more important. Think, first, what the viewers will feel while seeing your shots. Then, form a dramatic structure of your film using the changes to their feelings.
    9. Documentary is the only art, where every esthetical element almost always has ethical aspects and every ethical aspect can be used esthetically. Try to remain human, especially whilst editing your films. Maybe, nice people should not make documentaries.
    10. Don’t follow my rules. Find your own rules. There is always something that only you can film and nobody else.
  • how is the article a "photo oriented resource"....when it's titled "ten commandments of cinematography" ??

    I think Luminous Landscape was a photography site until video-oriented DSLRs came into existence at which point they started also doing video reviews. I could be wrong, but I don't think any of the folks on that site are filmmakers.

  • I think people hate the word rule, as we are such a rebellious lot these days. We use rules everyday though, when we write we use full stops, commas and capital letters for names and countries etc, does this mean a writer can't be creative if they use them? In fashion, painting, interior design etc people usually understand the color spectrum and how certain colors clash and certain colors compliment and how certain colors make people feel (also important in cinema). In music we know a set of chords on a guitar go together well and a B FLAT is a B FLAT. etc etc.

    Rules in filmaking are just the same, a good example the 180 degree rule, it should be learnt and understood without question so you can get on with the real creative elements that aren't fixed rules.

    *I've yet to like a Lars von Trier movie, but I think he has dumped all that no technical stuff concept out anyway. Ironically the Dogme 95 thing was all about having strict rules. Clearly he was trying to move cinema back to a more pure time where big CGI movies dominate, I don't think he is against rules like crossing the line etc.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dogme_95

  • e.e. cummings never used capital letters.

  • @Vitaliy ...which tone ?....the tone where I disagree with you ? It's fairly obvious , that my statement was related to the subject matter of your post...i.e the linked article....not luminouslandscape in general. And in that context...your statement still makes no sense to me.

    @babypanda...your posted rules are 1000% more intelligent. And of course LL is a photo site, but the article was posted as a cinema resource, was it not ?

    @suresure123...you haven't seen "the element of crime" then ? I can name dozens of examples of painters, composers, writers, who pay no attention to "rules". Rules , you learn the first semester, and the second semester you learn to break them. If you want to be really creative, you always break them.

    @babypanda....modern poetry was nothing more than a continuous experiment on breaking rules. If blake, keats, shelley etc hadn't learned to destroy structured verse, we'd never have seen/read whitman , pound, yeats....much less ee cummings, robert lowell, olson, creeley...and the beats like snyder and ginsburg....and that's just in english !

  • @Kurth So you will be creative if you break the 180 degree line or have shit sound everytime?.....I see.

    Or maybe musicians should always play out of tune. Maybe your favourite writer should use incorrect grammar so they can be more creative. You're one smart cookie.

  • @kurth @suresure123

    No flame here, please.

  • I think the issue with so-called 'rules' is that they are NOT rules. They are guidelines for film makers that have evolved from over 100 years of people communicating with audiences. I do think they are important as only when we have learned the current methods available can we progress the art further. However, there are always exceptional people who have a 'vision' which is complete and needs no guidelines.

  • @suresure123....no...you will be creative when you know how to break rules. And every great artist pushes the envelope of the commonly accepted aesthetic. Yes....and as a matter of fact I am one smart cookie.

  • Thou Shalt Not Flameth