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Directing, Visual Storytelling

How to Use Color & Light to Set the Tone in Your Film

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April 13, 2020

- Directing, Visual Storytelling

I recommend you spend time thinking about these aspects for your next film. How can you use color and light to enhance your story?

Lighting and color are two of the most important factors in a film, on par with shot choice. Together, light and color change the mood drastically and should be more important than the camera or lenses or equipment you are using by a substantial margin.

A film shot on a cheap DSLR can look excellent with good, well-thought-out lighting. A film shot on an expensive camera will look like amateurish garbage with poor lighting. Finally, unless you’re shooting black and white, color is going to have a huge impact on the emotional experience of your audience.

Example – student short film shot on DSLR:

Compare this to a short film shot by a pro on DSLR (DP Shane Hurlbut):

The difference between these two images is partially skill, but largely about how much thought and effort was put into getting very specific light & color in order to tell the story.

The top shot (and the rest of the film) simply uses the light that was available. They didn’t put much thought into color or light, and it shows.

All filmmakers start out worrying more about whether their shots will cut together right, whether the story makes sense, and so on.

Those are definitely important, but eventually, you must graduate from thinking only about 1 or 2 things and consider more of the storytelling tools available to you if you want to improve the quality of your films.

It’s difficult to talk about these topics, because honestly, while there are some generally accepted ideas about how certain lighting or colors affect emotion, it’s far from scientific.

These topics begin to bleed into the realm of the subconscious that filmmakers play in, and directors must be willing to experiment and possibly fail.

You need to decide, based on your experience of other films and understanding of audience pre-conceptions of certain colors and lighting schemes, whether you think your particular arrangement of light and color will have the effect on your audience that you desire.

In simple terms, the role of the director is as a stand-in for the audience. Using your gut instinct, you must figure out how you think the audience will react to something as abstract as color and light, among other things.

Personally, I love using bold light and color choices to help tell my stories. I have to admit I am very biased toward using strong, saturated colors and lots of contrast, a la Blade Runner. What can I say… I’m weak for that stuff. I think it looks amazing.

Case in point…

However, that doesn’t mean an understated or more desaturated look isn’t a viable option. It all depends on what will best serve your story.

For example, in a film like Book of Eli, they decided to make all colors earthy and dull, and the lighting harsh and stark:

This is, of course, entirely intentional. For each and every scene, they had to ensure that every character had wardrobe and accessories that fit that color scheme, that locations, vehicle interiors/exteriors, decorations on walls, and everything else fit the desired color scheme.

Any stray bright, happy colors in the scene, would draw far too much attention and be distracting.

The color scheme and lighting style are a reflection of the world in which they live. It’s a harsh world, and there isn’t much prosperity. Everything looks dead.

Even in a scene like this, with probably the most color variety in the film, uses understated baby blues, faded reds, and sickly yellows that all fit the tone of the film.


How to communicate your light & color to crew

Look books are indispensable for communication. They come in many formats (PDF arrangements of images, Google Drive folders, Pinterest boards), but they all do something very well; communicate the look you want to your crew.

This is an example of what I use. You can probably see a pattern/style of lighting emerge from my samples:

Well, my crew can too. And I also take the time to go over it with them so we are on the same page and my vision is crystal-clear.

You can’t assume that your team knows what you want, so lay it out for them in very concrete terms. The other benefit of making a look book is that the process of creating it helps you better understand what you like and want to see for your film.

I have talked about look books at length and how to make them in this article, if you’d like to learn more.

Well, I hope this is helpful and you’ll spend a bit more time thinking about how you use light and color in your films to best tell your story.

Until next time, Storyteller.

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Directing, Visual Storytelling

How to Use Shot Sizes & Camera Angles: 4 Ways They Affect Perspective

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September 15, 2019

- Directing, Visual Storytelling

How do you pick your shot sizes and camera angles?

Are you picking what looks cool? Are you picking what is easiest or most practical?

Maybe you’re just winging it, even though planning out the visual storytelling is one of the most important things a director can do.

Well, you should also be making storyboards/shotlists and probably a look book, too.

Or are you picking your shot sizes and camera angles in pre-production based on how your shot choice affects your story?

You should be doing the latter.

But how do you decide which shot sizes and camera angles are best for your film? There’s a lot to shot choice and how it affects your audience.

So, by popular demand, I wanted to cover an aspect of visual storytelling, and that is…

What is shot perspective, exactly?

Shot perspective is the point of view in which you place your audience. When you make a shot choice, you are selecting the perspective from which your audience will experience your story.

Perspective consists of two aspects:

1. How close you are to the character (shot size)

2. What angle you see the character from (camera angle)

Why is perspective–including shot size and camera angle–so important?

Perspective is the single strongest influence on how your audience experiences your film.

At least, this is true regarding the visuals – the cinematography, lighting, etc.

After all, there are tons of movies that never moved the camera, were black and white (without fancy lighting), and didn’t have glamorous visual effects, yet were popular and commercial successes.

Part of that is obviously good storytelling, writing, acting – the other important parts. But when it comes to the visuals, the most powerful tools they had ‘back in the day’ were the shot sizes they picked and camera angle they chose.

How perspective affects your shots

How do shot size and camera angle (also known as angle of view) affect your shots – and your audience’s experience?

Shot size and angle of view both change the level of intimacy with the viewed character.

Every type of shot ranges on a scale from subjective (personal, intimate) to objective (impersonal, neutral).

Generally speaking…

1. How close you are to the character (shot size, or ‘proximity’)

Closer to character = more personal and intimate

Farther from character = more detached and impersonal

The scale of shot sizes, starting with the least personal and going to most personal, includes: point of view (POV), extreme closeup (XCU), closup (CU), medium closeup (MCU), medium (MS), cowboy or three quarters full shot (¾ full), full shot (FS), wide shot (WS), and long shot / extreme wide shot (LS / XWS).

Check out the below graphic for an illustration:

To be clear, when I talk about shot size or proximity here, I’m only talking about how large the character appears in the frame. I’m not talking about what lenses to use, wide or long lenses, etc.

That being said, if you want to learn about how your lens choice affects your image, you should read my guide Indie Director’s Guide to Creative Lens Use.

The reason a closer shot size like a medium or closeup is more emotionally intimate is that Humans only get that close to someone who they know very well.

Subsequently, we aren’t familiar with how people look closer than an arms-length away unless we have a very close relationship with them. Therefore, when the audience perceives they are at an intimate distance to a character, it arouses deeply ingrained, instinctive emotions.

The opposite applies for further shot sizes. People that we see from a distance are strangers. We don’t connect with them on a gut/emotional level.

2. What angle you see the character from (camera angle, or ‘angle of view’)

In order to understand how camera angle affects perspective, you have to understand something called ‘eyeline’. You might already be familiar with it.

Eyeline is where a character’s eyes and face are looking. If you draw a line straight out of a character’s eyeballs into the distance, then it would be a literal ‘eye line’.

For example, here are two shots that play directly after one another in the short film “Destination” I created for my post-apocalyptic, sci-fi universe Esotera. Go to 3:06 to see the shots I’m talking about.

Coincidentally, I shot this film on a Canon Scoopic 16mm, so if you’ve ever thought you’d like to try shooting a project on film, you might want to learn about the pros and cons of shooting on film.

Your camera angle determines how close you are to the character’s eyeline. This is important because…

Closer to eyeline = more personal and intimate

Farther from eyeline = more detached and impersonal

So, if you’re looking straight into the eyes of a character, that’s pretty dang intimate. If your looking at the back of their head, or in profile, it’s significantly more impersonal.

The shots above from my film “Destination” are somewhere in the middle.

They are fairly neutral – which fits because these characters are skeptical of each other. They are strangers in a hostile wasteland.

Using perspective to tell your story

Let’s say you want to make your audience feel emotionally close to a character (and this can change from scene to scene or moment to moment). Select a closer shot size. Make the camera angle closer to the character’s eyeline.

Or do both, if you like. Really put the audience inside your character’s head.

Maybe you want to make the audience feel like an intimate friend who is observing this character. You don’t want things to feel quite as intimate as a camera angle that looks straight-on at this character. So go slightly off eyeline, but not too far, like I did in this scene from “Inversion”.

If you want the audience to detach from a character, even for a moment, pull away from the character. Use a shot size where the character is further away; smaller in the frame. Don’t select a camera angle that forces the audience to look at the character in the eye – keep the camera further from their eyeline.

Anyway, I hope you get the idea.

There are a ton of ways you can play with shot sizes and camera angles–two important aspects of perspective–to tell your story.

Perspective in a nutshell

1. How close you are to the character (shot size / proximity)

Closer to character = more personal and intimate

Farther from character = more detached and impersonal

2. What angle you see the character from (camera angle / angle of view)

Closer to eyeline = more personal and intimate

Farther from eyeline = more detached and impersonal

I highly recommend that you try out different perspectives and techniques whenever you can. See how they turn out. They won’t always work like you thought they would, but that’s part of the learning process.

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Directing, Visual Storytelling

A Breakdown of Why the First & Last Images of a Scene Matter

By on

July 21, 2019

- Directing, Visual Storytelling

Start and end with the images you want your audience to remember.

I’ve told people (inspired by the advice I’ve read) that they should choose snapshots within their films to represent each scene or sequence. That way, as they design their film in prep, they know what is most important in that scene.

Those snapshots represent the information or emotion you think is most important for you to communicate to the audience. It’s a useful way to focus in on what matters most – to filter out noise.

The existence of snapshots, or key images, is a reason why storyboarding is such a great tool. As you create storyboards, you discover what the most important images/information/emotions are (and therefore what you should absolutely make sure you capture while on set).

What do key images have to do with the first and last image of your scene being important? I’ll get there in a moment, I promise.

First and Last Key Images in a Scene

So each scene has key images. Let’s look at a scene from American Psycho.

In American Psycho, there’s a scene where Patrick Bateman (Christian Bale) murders a homeless man in an alley.

You can watch the whole scene here:

The key images (which I can almost guarantee are in the storyboard), are:

1. Bateman, silhouetted & emotionally distant, walks down an alleyway. It’s unclear why he’s there but it appears he is only passing through.

2. Bateman notices the homeless man as he passes, and intentionally goes back to the man, who also notices Bateman.

3. Bateman lowers himself to the man’s level and tells the man what his problems are, how he should fix them, and makes a show of trying to connect.

4. The man thanks Bateman for his kindness, grabbing him by the arm. Bateman shows immediate discomfort & disgust.

5. Bateman declares that he has nothing in common with the man. He stands, looking around to ensure no one is watching them.

6. Bateman silently opens his briefcase. The man thanks him. Bateman’s veneer of civility drops as he insults the man and stabs him to death.

7. Bateman grabs his suitcase and casually walks away from the scene of his crime, again a distant, cold shadow.

Of course, films are open to interpretation. Viewers interpret scenes differently based on the subtle creative choices of the director.

As far as what the audience will feel or remember about this scene, obviously the actual content of the whole scene is going to be a determining factor. If in this scene. Bateman just gave the homeless man a few bucks, told him to get his act together and left, that’s going to leave a different impression than him murdering the guy in cold blood.

However, have you ever thought about you start and end your scenes? What first and final impression are you giving your audience about what is important in the scene?

What do you want your audience to remember or feel about this scene?

Here’s what you should consider…

Don’t begin or end your scenes carelessly.

You shouldn’t begin or end your scenes carelessly. The first and final images are impactful.

I’m sure you’ve heard of the idea that people best remember the first and last things that they read. That’s called the serial position effect. I believe this affects what we watch.

When I was in the editing process for my first feature film, one of our Executive Producers gave us some very valuable feedback that amounted to what I’m saying.

He watched one particular scene and paused the film. He asked us, “is that what you want to close out on?” We asked him what he meant. He asked, “is that really what you want people to take away from this scene? What do you want them to remember and dwell on as they move from this scene to the next?”

We hadn’t considered that the bookends (beginning and end) of our scenes would have an outsized effect on the audience as they moved into the next scene. We had ended the scene on something that – frankly – didn’t really matter. It wasn’t what we wanted to communicate to the audience.

We changed the last shot to a closeup of the main character who was dealing with some inner turmoil as that was a better indication of what the scene was all about.

In the above scene from American Psycho, the director starts the scene with a shot that is dark, cold, with Patrick Bateman being nothing but a hollow silhouette. He’s faceless. Just passing through.

He murders a homeless man after he becomes disgusted with him.

Bateman leaves in an even wider, more detached shot. It’s still cold, dark, and Bateman is a more distant silhouette than before. He’s unchanged. Unfeeling.

If the scene would have ended with a closeup of Bateman gazing out at the road, his face completely expressionless, what would that have done to the audience’s last impression of the scene?

Perhaps it would have accomplished the same thing. The audience sees that he is cold and merciless. Maybe. Perhaps viewers would read into his blank expression, laying over it their impression of what they think he is feeling, as viewers often do.

Maybe it would look like Bateman doesn’t care, but the shot is too intimate, and therefore, too personal. It causes the audience to feel closer to Bateman – being a more empathic camera perspective – as opposed to causing the audience to feel disconnected from Bateman, which would suit his serial killer persona better.

Who knows – those images are open to interpretation. The creative choices above are up to the director and his/her creative intent.

But that’s what is important – that you ensure your bookend images are intentional creative choices, not careless coincidences.

So, that’s about it. Think about that.

Next time you’re making/editing a film, think about the bookends of your scenes. Do they represent the impression you want to leave the audience? Or are you selecting those key images carelessly?

I hope that gets you thinking. Until next time – get out there, be productive, and make great films.

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Visual Storytelling

Case Study: How to Avoid the Failures of “Sacramentum”

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November 13, 2018

- Visual Storytelling

What kills pretty much any short film?
I recently created a commentary on my old short film “Sacramentum”. Back when I made that film, I learned a lot about organization, perseverance, and more.

In particular, my friend Christian kept me from calling it quits when it looked like rain would ‘ruin’ our shoot (hint: it rained on and off but didn’t ruin the shoot – where there’s a will there’s a way, more often than not).

But most of all, I learned how important it is to do visual planning as a director, and told myself I’d never again not know what my film would look like–more or less–before the camera starts rolling.

Why? Because not planning out the visuals (and therefore a large chunk of what makes a film work) killed my short film “Sacramentum” and kept it from being better.

Here’s my case study on what did/didn’t work about my film “Sacramentum”, and what you can learn from my mistakes.



Why, exactly, is it so vital that you go through visual planning?

The main reason is that it forces you to think through each of the elements present in your film (yes, even sound), consider what your film might end up looking like, and then justifying each element by actively thinking of how it’ll affect your audience.

Visual planning also allows you to make many of your difficult creative choices before ever stepping foot on set. You can then use all available brain-power to solve the problems that will inevitably come up on set instead of trying to puzzle through a tough creative decision on set and figure out how it will affect your audience.

I go over the visual planning process for directors much more thoroughly in this article. I also explore one aspect of visual planning – the director’s visual reference (lookbook), which is something I do for every film, no matter how small, because it makes for that much better of a film in the end.

As always, I’m glad you took the time to check out this article, and I hope you find it useful. Now get out there and make another film!
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Directing, Filmmaking, Visual Storytelling

5 Challenging Scene Types and How to Conquer Them

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September 15, 2018

- Directing, Filmmaking, Visual Storytelling

Practice, practice, practice!

As the saying goes, you need to put 10,000 hours of practice into something to become a phenomenal practitioner of that thing. (It might actually take less than 10,000 hours, but that’s another story.) Well, it may hurt to think about how much time that means you really need to put in to become a master of your craft. I get that.

Don’t think about it too hard. Just practice when you get the chance and make it a habit.

So, a great way to become a great filmmaker is by practicing some of the most common scenes.

Each of these scene types reveals something important about your characters, create or resolve a conflict, or advance the story, so they are important to get under your belt if you haven’t tried shooting them before.

This article from Yeah Write! goes into depth about the elements of a scene, what makes a scene work, and what the goal of a scene is.

Basically, a scene mimics an entire film in that it has a beginning, middle, and end, and should reveal something about your characters as they make active decisions toward a goal.

That said, you need to make sure your scene has all the important elements of drama to make it effective and not simply a filler scene.

The dinner scene

This scene is deceptively simple. The mistake I made when I got started as a filmmaker was thinking that having a ‘normal’ dinner scene showed that my main character was a family man (or something like that). Just by having it in there.

Instead, the scene felt fake, because there was no conflict within the scene–what family never has conflict at the dinner table?

By having no conflict, my characters revealed nothing about themselves, and the story was not advanced. It was essentially a waste of time.

A dinner scene (or any meal, really) is a great opportunity for storytelling. You are taking your audience and inserting them into one of the most private moments anyone has; eating a meal at home, away from the prying eyes of the public.

They are probably at their most relaxed and vulnerable and may reveal something about themselves.

What if they are eating with family, but are totally clammed up and uneasy? Or, perhaps your character is eating all alone in a small apartment littered with cigarette butts and empty bottles.

See what I mean?

Quick Tip: think about the setting of the meal, the people present, and what their goals are during the meal in order to reveal more about your characters in this scene. This breakdown by YouTube channel “Now You See It” goes into depth on how powerful dining scenes are.


The foot chase scene

This type of scene is both fun to shoot but also challenging to pull off. Using the right kinds of shots, lenses/focal lengths, and editing to make the scene feel energetic and intense is not as simple as it might seem.

While you might not do very well on your first try, practicing and reviewing your work afterward is key to mastering this scene. If you can nail it down, it becomes a great tool for advancing the plot and injecting a little excitement into your film.

Remember, though, that the scene should reveal things about your character and your character should be doing it to achieve a specific goal.

If we don’t have a reason to care about the outcome of the chase, it won’t be interesting. Is he lazy, an overachiever, overconfident? Perhaps he is chasing a criminal but intentionally lets him get away, revealing he may be hiding something?

Quick Tip: use long lenses to shoot characters moving side to side, and use wider lenses to shoot characters moving toward or away from the camera – that will make them seem to move more quickly than they are. You can also get great results by tracking behind or in front of a character.


The fist-fight scene

If you go ahead and practice this, you don’t have to do anything too crazy. However, knowing how to shoot a fight is good to know how to do in a pinch. Ever needed to just have a character punch someone in the face?

Beginner filmmakers can have a hard time selling this single, straightforward action on camera.

It certainly confused me at first!

Like the foot chase, a fist fight comes with a variety of technical challenges, since you have to ‘cheat’ the position of your actors and camera to simulate that they are actually striking each other.

As far as storytelling goes, a fist fight or physical struggle is a legitimate method for a character to attempt resolving a conflict or issue.

Your character may even be making a bad decision, but it’s a strong choice that reveals much about your him, nonetheless.

You just have to make sure that physical altercations advance the story and aren’t there just for their own sake.

Quick Tip: the actor’s arm/fist should always hide the gap between their fist and the other actors face, like Ryan Connolly demonstrates in the below video breakdown.

Oh, and for a good laugh, check this out.


The travelling scene

Travelling scenes aren’t just for cookie-cutter transitions!

This is a multi-purpose scene in that it can really tell your audience a lot–if you use it well.

A traveling scene can range from a montage of your character going on an epic journey, to traveling from one city to the next, or even just walking a few blocks.

However, in that rather short span of time, the audience sees many things.

Environment. World-building. Tone. Character attitude. How the character interacts with his world. How they fit into the world.

Do they ignore their surroundings? Do people avoid them? Do they take the back alleys, looking around cautiously? Do people spit insults at them?

Is their world busy and full of stimulus? Is it a slow country town?

Give your audience a sense of the world your character inhabits, and tell them a bit about who they are and what they do.

Travel scenes are often used as a transition, such as going from one city to the next as a matter of plot progression, but you should always try to use that time to show your audience something about your character.

Quick Tip: take a look at a scene where your character is traveling. Think about the layers of information you can convey through this scene–who, what, when, where, and why–and try to communicate more than the obvious through your travel scene.

The exposition scene

Exposition: “the insertion of important background information within a story; for example, information about the setting, characters’ backstories, prior plot events, historical context, etc.” (Wikipedia)

The rule of thumb for filmmakers is ‘show, don’t tell’. This is incredibly important. You should always look for ways to build vital information into your story through characters’ actions and their world.

Exposition, if done badly, tends to tell, not show. So, only once you have built as much information into the scene as possible through non-dialogue means should you use dialogue.

At that point, dialogue can be a good way to communicate information (like in this great breakdown of how to use dialogue), but you need to get to the point, and you need to make it interesting!

Don’t have your characters sitting and doing nothing but chatting, pandering to the audience. Not only is that boring, but… well, that’s actually a great reason not to do it.

Part of your job is to entertain the audience.

A way to handle exposition is ‘the walk and talk’.

Sometimes the walk and talk can double as a traveling scene (from one location to another) and way to deliver exposition. It can show a lot about the character’s world, their busy life, and deliver information that will be important for later in the story.

The video below hints at some ways you might effectively use text and dialogue to communicate information without pandering to your audience.

You can also use a traveling scene as an opportunity to have characters deliver important information while also getting to a critical next step for the story. This might be traveling on a plane, bus, in a car, or another mode of transportation.

Quick Tip: try to communicate as much information as possible with action, tone, and world-building. Whatever you need to tell the audience through dialogue, have your characters say it while doing something relevant or interesting. Traveling, Building something, cooking, cracking jokes, struggling to get the kids to the dinner table, hiking to their hunting blind… anything–just keep it entertaining.

Oh, and then there’s this:


Try these and many more

Like I said, the key is to practice. This is obviously not an exhaustive list of the types of scenes, the ways you can execute them, or what you should try. Regardless, I’d encourage you to bust out a camera, call a couple of friends, and go try out these scenes. Good luck!





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