For a change of pace, I thought I would share my take on what a little knowledge can do.
Specifically, the monster that deep diving into cinematography has created.
All very boring I know.
I now find it very hard to just “watch” a movie or TV show. I now feel I have to analyse it.
This was great at first, seeing the inner workings and understanding them. I felt like I could reverse engineer a lot of techniques, rate them compared to others and plan my own smaller versions of them. It is cool being able to work out why programme “X” is avergae looking compared to programme “Y”.
The problem is, turning it off.
I have always been aware of this with stills photography. It is a common problem when you get inside of the process, you can see the cogs turning and tend to be awed by brilliance, dwell on short comings and compare it all to your and others work. It was not a real issue because apart from a decent collection of books, I did not spend too much time dwelling on others work and when I did, I did it in context.
With video however, it is really hard to avoid it, because like most of us, I escape to TV and movie land regulalry. Now I just tend to notice more, both good and bad. It’s distacting.
Example;
Teal and gold are “on trend” with a lot of cinematographers. I like it, but am already a little over it. When I point the trend out to others, they immediately see it and I feel a little crummy, because they are now also, more or less, too aware of the process and less accepting of its effect.
If I had said nothing, then they could have happily just let it run its course along with everyone else, but by highlighting it, I have possibly shortened their acceptance span and possibly their enjoyment of the production (or maybe I am making too much of it).
On the funny side though, I watched the ‘70’s “To the Earth’s core” yesterday and had a giggle. Sometimes anyone can see the cracks and a little more knowledge only makes it more enjoyable.