Framing with Projection in mind

[Tyler F]

Hey Roger and forum,

I had the pleasure of having one of my films screened in a theatre last night, and I had a thought pop into my head about framing with large projections in mind — especially when it came to closeups, but other general shots too.

It felt to me anyway that I wanted to physically back up from the screen for some of the tighter shots and that never occurred to me as i’m used to seeing my work mostly on monitor’s and television screens.

Maybe this is a silly question but i’m wondering if you’ve felt the same and preemptively shot with this in mind early in your career?

 

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[dmullenasc]

Experience sort of teaches you how, let’s say, a chest-up close-up is going to feel on a big screen as opposed to a neck-up close-up… but also most movies even today shoot tests in prep and watch the tests on a theater-sized screen in a D.I. suite so they can judge the results accurately, so there is some feedback from the start about screen sizes.

But the truth is that each movie sets up its own language in regard to shot size that the audience quickly gets used to. Occasionally when you shoot super-tight close-ups and see them later on the big screen, you sometimes feel that perhaps it’s too tight, too much detail, seeing every nose hair and pore… but hopefully you felt that way when filming the shot on set and had time to back off if necessary.

[Tyler F]

Hey David. Yea, it was certainly humbling to say the least. Based on the films i’ve recently watched, a close-up does tend to live a bit further back than what I once thought(though I’m sure Sergio Leone would laugh)–But I agree with you in that each film has it’s own language.

I’m so used to looking at a 7″ onboard monitor or through the eyepiece that i’m always leaning in rather than wanting to scoot back. The Director was rather happy in the end to see these big close-ups but I think I felt different. So I suppose it comes down to taste but now I will keep in the back of my mind that I may have to see my work again in a theater and not on a television or phone.

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