Dissecting the Hipster Look. Take an ironic look at ‘hipster’ style color grades.
With Instagram being over 4 years old I think it’s safe to say hipster style photography and filmmaking is more than just a fad. Although a ‘hipster look’ can add some style to your videos, many filmmakers don’t think through their color grading process any deeper than simply adding a preset. In the following post we’ll take a deeper look at the characteristics of a Instagram/hipster color grade, how it mimics the look of some analog film, and demonstrate a potential workflow for achieving this look. What is the Hipster look Instead of simply telling you what makes up the hipster look i’d rather show you. Hipster Hike Hipster Hike is a video created by Caleb & Sawn on their Vimeo channel.
Let’s breakdown this image:1. I Am Not A Hipster This is a still from the movie trailer “I am Not a Hipster”. Let’s breakdown this image: 1. Unsplash Image by Dustin Scarpitti Let’s breakdown this image: 1. Common Themes 1. 2. 3. 4. Is the Rule of Thirds Really All That It's Cracked Up to Be? One of the first concepts you learn about when studying aesthetic theory is the rule of thirds, but is it really as beneficial to composition as you think?
According to videographer/fine art photographer Tavis Leaf Glover, not really. In this video, he talks about 10 myths about the benefits of the rule of thirds, introducing image makers to different compositional techniques, as well as explaining how the rule of thirds often leads us to eventually come to a creative plateau. Now, whether or not you agree with Glover's claim that the rule of thirds is detrimental to composition, he does talk about a lot of fantastic advanced techniques that you may have never heard of before, namely those of dynamic symmetry and gestalt psychology. He breaks down one of famed photographer Annie Leibovitz's photographs in this blog post, explaining how she used several compositional techniques to create a shot of 10 female celebrities. Here's a list of techniques Glover mentions. How To Properly Roll Cable. Hotel Chevalier by Wes Anderson. Call Of Juarez: Gunslinger - Director's Cut.
Aesthetics Masterclass: Learn How to Speak the Cinematic Language More Fluently. If you're going to work in a visual medium, you have to understand the visual language.
Everything that is inside a composition, as well as the characteristics of those things, say something to its viewer. Literally -- everything. The shot size, camera angle, lens used, lighting, costuming, and props say something. The size, shape, and color of objects in the frame say something, as well as the vectors they create. Their relationship to other objects in the frame say something, too. As a filmmaker, your job is to tell stories using these images -- these "words", which is why your visual literacy is supremely important if you want to 1.) communicate clearly and effectively with your audience, and 2.) tell the stories that you truly want to tell. In this workshop, photographer Adam Marelli compares the work of classical painters to contemporary photojournalists, essentially "bridging the gap" between the compositional techniques found in classical art and photography. Rule of Thirds, se7en, and the beautiful work of Darius Khondji - Halcyon Realms - Art Book Reviews - Anime, Manga, Film, Photography.
One of my art/film related articles “Chiaroscuro – From Caravaggio to Harris Savides” that I wrote about half a year back has been receiving quite a number of hits, notably from folks who have been googling for information about Chiaroscuro and Harris Savides.
I’m glad that the article served in some way, albeit tiny, a resource for liked minded folks like me who love the cinema and pursue cinematography as a both a passion and career, although I certainly don’t profess myself an expert. Lighting and composition are 2 crucial elements in photography and film-making; Chiaroscuro, originally a bold and dramatic painting technique, is now sometimes used by DPs to achieve similar results in motion picture film. For composition, we have the Rule of Thirds. (above) Example 2 : Tracy Mills (Gwyneth Paltrow) lit by a soft, beautiful rim light and composed within the hotspots.
Her frame is supported by the various vertical lines formed by the 2 pillars and the windows in the background. From Focal Elements to Fibonacci: A 30-Minute In-Depth Study of Composition. There's more to composition than the rule of thirds.
And Fibonacci's not an opera singer. (You're thinking of Pavarotti -- or of Bocelli -- or of no opera singers because why would you be?) The composition is the frame and the arrangement of the elements in that frame. What are the elements of a frame? The mise-en-scène -- everything in the frame that makes up the frame, including everything from the actors, to lighting, to props, to costumes, to composition. Those two things, composition and mise-en-scène, are usually the first concepts you should (and do) learn about aesthetic theory, because they lay the foundation for everything else.