As you can see, the film was shot very well, especially for being an indie film. Many things come together to create a great film including story, acting, cinematography, wardrobe, makeup…etc. Of the many frames we could analyze, the main one I want to look at is this:

If you look at the full size image and have already watched the film, you’ll notice that this frame is the end of a slow dolly in over the piano. Your eyes are gently drawn to the woman in white with black hair. You’re not sure if this is where you should be looking, until the following cut.

We can now know that our attention was supposed to be drawn to her. But in the previous frame, how was this accomplished?

Many factors go into effectively drawing our attention. First one is most important, and that is wardrobe. Notice how she is wearing a lighter and different colored clothing than anyone else around her. Next is composition. She is placed in the center of the frame and the surrounding extras are subtly moved away from her. Next is lighting. Whether done on set or in post, there is a very gradual vignette around her where the light falls off in front, behind and to the right and left. This again draws the eyes to the center.

Another way to use this effect is by rim lighting the subject. While it would perhaps have been too obvious in the above frame, it can be used for distant shots where you want to show the audience where to look. For example, here is a frame from a restaurant commercial I shot using this affect:

So there are a few techniques you can add to your production to help properly draw your audience’s attention to the correct spot in the frame. If you enjoyed TRIGGER, check out the making of.

The first frame I have is from Iron Man 2. Click on the image to see it larger.

This is in a scene towards the end of the movie in which Tony Stark is talking to Nick Fury about the Avengers. You can see a short clip of the scene in the trailer at 3:35.

Now I’m not going to pretend that I was there on set and saw how this scene was exactly shot, but together with a little observation, we can dissect the main elements that made up this shot. First off, let’s look at the key light. From what I can tell, there looks to be two light sources from camera left. The first is the primary key on Tony Stark. This is a softer light that wraps around the majority of his face. The second is a harder light that acts as somewhat of a rim light. This brings a bit more dimension to the lighting while still maintaining a camera left motivation.

There is fill light bringing up the exposure of the other side of Tony’s face. Whether this is a third light or purely ambient fill is hard to say. Notice though how there is no edge light on camera right. If you’ve heard the traditional 3 point lighting technique once, you’ve heard it a hundred times, and while it works well for basic interviews, you won’t see it done verbatim often in films. Instead, the DP (director of photography) used a brighter background to provide separation between the foreground and background. This is a very important technique that novice filmmakers sometimes forget about.

In addition to a brighter background, we can see that haze/mist is used to add some more depth. We also have some rays of light in keeping with the directional motivation of the key light. Last thing I will point out is how the background is dressed up. Notice the random machinery and crates in the background? As random as it looks, it’s deliberately been placed there to make the background a bit more interesting. A good set designer makes the DP’s job a lot easier.

Well there you go! Our first frame analyses. I’m sure there’s more things we could examine just from this one frame. What else do you notice?