Moving Images, Understanding Media

Chapter 4 Storytelling with Light 135

all these elements combine to paint the portrait of a brutal daylight

attack. In night scenes, Figueroa creates pools of light to depict the

interior of the family’s house, and the lighting of the characters’

faces allows for a powerful range of expressiveness and strength of

emotion.

• For their film Russian Ark (2002), Aleksandr Sokurov and
  cinematographer Tilman Büttner developed a new system of digital
  photography in order to shoot an entire feature length fi lm using one
  shot with a camera traveling through the rooms and courtyards of the
  Hermitage Museum. Th is astonishing feat was envisioned by Sokurov
  to create a portrait of Russian history that uses the fl owing perspective
  of the camera to orchestrate this voyage like the choreography of the
  dance. In fact, it is a grand ballroom dance that serves as a majestic
  set piece to culminate the fi lm.

Selecting and Manipulating Focus

Th e cinematographers of these examples all had to consider focus, exposure,

and light sensitivity of the recording medium in order to capture the

illumination of the scenes that they were photographing. Th ey also had to

select tools appropriate to their work. When you use particular lenses and

cameras, you will see that focus, exposure, and sensitivity can aff ect each

other signifi cantly. A fundamental example of this is depth of fi eld.

Depth of Field

Depth of fi eld is the range of the image that is in focus for a specifi c shot.

Imagine that you are photographing an actor. Your camera is on a tripod and

you measure the distance between the fi lm plane and the exact spot of the

Figure 4-16

Cinematographer Tilman

Büttner with Steadicam and

director Aleksandr Sokurov

at right fi lming Russian Ark.

(Courtesy Wellspring Media/

Photofest)

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