Movies Without Sound
BY JACOB FELIX, CHANDLER, USA - Movies without sound. The other day I watched scenes from a few movies with the sound turned off. To watch, and study, how major cinematography works in major films. I was watching for key things like depth of field, and how they frame up different scenes. I couldn’t believe how much we don’t notice; when the sound is on we don’t see as much because we're caught up in the story. When watching movies without sound it really helped me observe the cinematography, the lighting, camera angles and positioning. In some scenes, I could see how the better actors really know how to work with the cameras.
Watching movies this way also helped me notice that even though I love music and enjoy the dialogue of a good film, I’m more of a visual person. Watching films like this made me think, and remember, that I've always been this way. Since I was very small, I hated the movie theaters in New Mexico because they didn’t have stadium seating. I would always cross my fingers and hope that no tall or big haired people would sit in front of me. Most of the time it would happen, they would sit right in front of me. That would ruin the whole movie for me. Anyone would get irritated watching a film with obtrusive objects blocking parts of the movie screen.
Now that I'm older, I wouldn’t want to see a film with shakey shots, bad lighting, or poor editing, either. That’s why it's important that we work hard and work as a team, to make sure this film is not just made, but made well. We have what takes to get it done, and I have a lot faith in this team, that we will do an excellent job. At the meeting this past Wednesday, we got a chance to view and critique some scenes we shot a couple weeks ago. Though there were some minor mistakes, it turned out pretty good and showed us what key things we are going to work at and perfect before shooting starts. It also displayed to us that we all work well together.
One of the films I watched was LEGENDS OF THE FALL which won an Academy Award for Cinematography. Every shot was amazing. You could see that everything was well thought out and visualized beforehand. This is the state of mind that I have now; to visualize everything I look at as though I were shooting it. Where would we put the lights? Would this be a good place to set up the camera? Do I really like seeing that in the background? These are the questions I find me asking myself.