Cinematic Continuity and Exposure

Today I will be talking about cinematic continuity and exposure, as the title of this post would suggest. As I have said before, there are many things that go into making a film, and you can't expect to make a good film while simply holding a camera in hand. When you have everything placed just so in one shot, it needs to be exactly the same in the next shot. This is called cinematic continuity.

As the cinematographer, you strive to create a visual story so believable that the viewer is sucked into it as if it was real life. Things don't magically move on their own, and if you have a can sitting on a counter in one shot, then magically disappear in the next shot, it will take away from how believable the film is. One instance of this can completely ruin an entire film! So, when you film, you need to always keep track of which props are where, where the actors are standing, what the actors are doing, and the natural light that is on set. If you don't, it will completely ruin the cinematic continuity, turning your amazing story into a substandard film.

You also need to make sure you have the right exposure. Exposure, on a very, very basic level, is the amount of light that is on the scene. As a cinematographer, you use exposure to create ambient effect as well as to make subjects stand out. If you underexpose an object, it will look very saturated and dull, while overexposing an object will make the object look overly bright- highlights will blend in with the rest of the picture. I will post an overexposed picture, an underexposed picture, and a perfect picture below. You should be able to tell the difference between the three.

If you didn't get it simply by looking at the pictures, the top one is overexposed, the middle one is underexposed, and the bottom one is perfectly exposed. Note that underexposure doesn't always look all that bad, personally I think the photographer of the middle picture made it underexposed for dramatic effect. Before I go I'd like to say that I do not own these pictures, but rather took them from google images after searching "Overexposed picture", "Underexposed Picture", and "Perfectly Exposed Picture". With that, I end this post. Farewell mine Lords and Ladies, I bid thee adieu!