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CINEMATOGRAPHY- The Shining.

Stephen King’s shining was an over the edge story. When it was converted into a film, nobody thought that it would become the most iconic horror film of all time. And why not? Jack Nicholson’s amazing acting, the nailbiting story and the dramatic sound effects that keeps the audience on edge and most importantly, the amazing cinematography by John Alcott altogether delivered an award winning movie. Directed by Stan Kubic, he left no lose ends for critics to criticize (except for the author himself, but that’s altogether another story. This psychological horror movie was released in 1980.

The story is based on a writer and his psychological struggles in a haunted hotel. The overlook hotel was the largest hotel built in the history of cinema.  Most of the indoor shots were done in studio by setting up fake hotels, the outer shots were taken on location. Steadicam , a new  type camera to shoot motion picture was developed and used in the movie that allows the camera to take smooth shots in uneven surface.  All types of camera shots was taken including handheld shots.

Lets talk about angles now. A brilliant example of high angle shot is when Danny is shown playing with his toys from above. The shot is taken very creativity with immense sound effects keeping the audience anticipated scared to know what will happen next. The shot also depicts Danny being in danger at the hotel. Coming to low angle shots, in a scene where Jack is shown irritated with his wife Wendy, her face was shown from low angle which made it look oversized and letting the audience share the same feeling as Jack.

One can also see the clever movement of camera during a quarrel between Jack and Wendy near the stirs at the climax. The camera there is not steady and unbalanced which makes the viewer feel tensed and uneasy and a feeling that someone is watching. Most of the time, the director keeps the camera attached to the character to make the viewers feel what the character is feeling.

Not only these scenes, there are multiple scenes in the movie where camera movements were shown creatively. Every scene was shot thoughtfully. Most of the time, to create anxiety and tension and a feeling of uneasiness. No matter what, the shining remains a classic horror movie for the modern times and influence many cinematographers to use more creative camera techniques.

The Magic of Sets- Devdas

A novel written by Sarat Chandra Bose was made into a movie thrice, you can understand how epic it is. A story of doomed love. The first one being made into a black and whit and second one with the legendary actor, Dilip Kumar. But the third one made in 2002, by director Sanjay Leela Bhansali  starring Shah Rukh Khan as Devdas is what the people remember. Apart from the tragic story, the casting nad the songs the main thing that attracted the audience was the magnificent sets. Yes sets are the most important factor in film making when it comes to period fims. The audience needs to be felt the era in which the story is based. And Devdas does just that. The larger than life sets takes  the audience back in time.

Keeping in mind how the 1930s used to look like, deep and detailed researches were  done in Calcutta, the then capital of India. Sketches, sample models and then the final set was made.  It took whole nine months just to create the sets.  But when they stood, it was magical. It spoke of wealth, affluence, class society and grandeur.

The sets needed to compliment the characters. There was a depth research on every aspect. The color palette, proper use of space, the character’s thought and situations. The home of Devdas was of a 1930’s typical zamindar house. It was tall, huge and a proper havelli painted in white.  It was accompanied with huge pillars. There were 180 pillars which reflected the aristrocracy factor that Devdas belong to an affluent family. Colors were yellow and green to bring out the British era feel. 

For Paro’s house, the colors pink and blue was used to reflect her character ie delicate and simple. To reflect her beauty and her personality, the house tha huge stained glasses. After her marriage her husband’s house was even bigger than Devdas to show that his status was the highest. But the biggest was Chandramukhi’s kotha.  It was gold pillard and most probably the costliest set made in the history if bollywood. It was created in Mumbai showing Benaras . The hall where she danced had a 6 feet tall chandelier. Candle lights were used to brighten up the “sama”.

Thus, all these factors gave the movie and the characters justice and something which people are talking about till today and giving Sanjay Leela Bhansali the tag of the director whose movies  have great sets.

Sound- Amelie

Who said sounds are secondary in movies.  Just  because visuals are more appealing and dramatic, it doesn’t mean sound is not important. It is a proper balance between the which creates emotion. This is what exactly the Jordan does in his movie Amelie.

Amelie is a French classic movie starring Audrey Tautou as the protagonist. The world of Amelie is completely different than the world we live in. everything is brighter happier and colorful. She doesn’t find happiness in materialistic things but in nature. She is curious and wants to have the answer of every event that that takes its natural course. She is a free a girl without any bounds. This movie is all about inspiration and learning. 

Jordan, the talented sound editor of the movie cleverly and artistically mixed the sounds that matched the movie’s environment, story and Amelie’s character. The detailing in the sonic helped to elevate the drama and the intensity of the scenes. He even took inspiration from our lives, the sound we hear, we notice or we can relate to.  The sounds changed as she slipped into her own fantasy. Lets discuss some of the scenes where sounds played a key role

The more important moments being shown on screen are to the characters when more detail and concentration have been put into the sound. When Amelie is her life changing moment every sound is increaded. Not so obviously, heavy handed way, more in the way they are in real life. Where as one realizes the importance of something , time seems to slow down and every sound becomes clearer.

The whole feeling of the film is captured by Yann Tiersen score. The score succeeds to give a feeling old movies and take the audience to another world. The score succeeds to give a feeling of old movies and take the audience to another world. There are also sound mixes which go according to the colorful visuals which takes the audience to another world. There are also small sound touches to create itsy bitsy tense situations.

The Marvellous creative Editing in Psycho(1960)

Psycho is Alfred Hitchcock's most revolutionary picture that changed the concept of editing and gave a whole new level to editing. It changed the method of movie editing in many ways. The technologies that were introduced in the making of the film were fresh, new and creative. The editing was done very cleverly and is a perfect example of how a movie's feel is completely depended on the way its edited and give the audience complete feel of what the character is feeling and of the environment.


Basically, editing is compiling of raw footages to create a story and fill emotions among the audiences and keep rythm. Lets explain through some examples. The close shot of marion crane while she is running away from her hometown, after stealing money from her office. the shot which showing her, half steering which with the sky as the background and the course changes, can be regarded as an eye line matching shot. Their the is shown the highway in front of Marion. Then, a change in the weather from dawn to dusk, clear sky turning dark and eventually raining which makes Marion park and fall asleep in the car. The next seen shows Marion waking up in the morning in the same car. The editor of Psycho used editing in terms of time like in the same scene where the detective interrogates in different hotels in search of Marion. Hence George dominates the editor uses different shots showing that the time has passed. Tomasini used graphics in a creepy manner like stuffed birds shot there created more tensed and disturbed mood. He even uses space that made the audience excited and on the edge. A large variety of editing is used in a two hour film.