College of Film Studies

Specialization: Cinematography
Year: First
Syllabus: TU
Film History: Cinematography
1.Brief history of Photography
2. Introduction of still camera
3. Information of lenses
4. Project Assignments

Film Theory: Basic knowledge of Cinematography

1. Composition
2. Lighting for still photography (Indoor+Outdoor)
3. Types of Lenses
4. Types of still camera
5. Types of Emulsion
6. Photochemistry B/W
7. Project Assignments

Additional Requirement:
1. Understanding a Photograph: The art and craft of visual storytelling
i. Can a Photograph tell thousand words or can it even raise thousand
questions?
ii. BEAUTIFUL IMAGERY vs STORY CONTAINED IN IT
iii. Decoding and Understanding famous and powerful images/photo stories
iv. Assignment: Creating Photo Stories to tell a story within 12 images
v. Assignment: A day in the life of…
vi. Assignment: Create a Mood Series to demonstrate emotion

4. Fundamentals of Camera work and shot composition

i. Role of Camera Work
ii. Basic Camera Operation and camera movements

5. The Lens, the eye and the perception

6. Composition Techniques

7. Basics of Digital Cinematography

i. Digital Basics
ii. The Digital Cameras (Motion Picture)
iii. Sensors
iv. Resolution
v. Sensor Sizes
vi. Sensitivity
vii. Latitude (Dynamic range)
viii. Color Sampling and Color Depth
ix. Sub Sampling… 4:4:4 <> 4:2:2
x. Recording
xi. The digital Workflow

Narendra Mainali © 2013

Year: Second
Syllabus: TU
FS : 320 (Introduction to Cinematography)

1.1 Learn still camera with B/W photography

1.2 Cinematography
i. Introduction and History of Cinematography
ii. Information of Movie Stock: Photographic Film, Emulsion
iii. Introduction to Lighting: Day Light, Flash Light, Incident Light
iv. Lighting: High Key, Low Key, Indoor and Outdoor Lighting
v. Lenses and filters
vi. Learning about Camera
vii. Exposer control and Composition
viii. Lenses: Types of Lens and Lens Mechanism
ix. Color Temperature and Intensity of Light
x. Relationship between Camera and Sound
1.3 Videography
i. Video Signals
ii. Video Frames
iii. Frame Rates
iv. Exposure Measurements
v. Video Camera
vi. Digital and Analogue Videos
vii. White Balance and Black Balance: Color Temperature in Videography
viii. TV Picture System PAL/NTSC/SECAM
ix. Aspect Ratio
x. Brightness Range
xi. Lighting for Video

Additional Requirement:

1. Ten Concepts of Cinematography in visual storytelling: (Aesthetics)

i. Composition
ii. Exposure
iii. Focus/Optics
iv. Lighting
v. Set Organization
vi. Mechanics of Motion Picture Camera
vii. Pre/Post Production Planning
viii. Camera Operating
ix. Safety/Electrical
x. Collaboration

2. Cinematographers: Thinking Like a Director

i. Shot Flow ii. Camera Angles iii. Frame Size
iv. Shot Sizes v. Illusion of depth vi. Cutting points

3. Digital Cinematography and HD Workflow

Narendra Mainali © 2013

Year: Third

FS 321: Motion Picture Camera and Lenses:

1. Understanding camera dynamics: Motivation and Invisible techniques
2. Understanding Digital Cinema and HD Workflow in Detail
3. Comparing latest Digital Motion Picture Cinema Cameras
4. Lens Language:
i. The Lens and the Frame
ii. Lens Perspective: Deep Focus, Compression of space, Perspective
iii. Control of Image
5. Optics
6. Digital VS Celluloid

FS 322: Visual Composition:

1. Understanding and controlling the visual components
2. Affinity and contrast: more contrast in visual component, greater rise in visual
intensity. Similarly, the greater affinity in visual component, less visual intensity.
3. Space: Creating illusion of depth and dimension.
4. Line and shape
5. Tone: Referring to brightness of object, the tonal range of a picture can help direct the
audience’s attention.
6. Color: The most important of the visual component, color can serve as a character.
7. Movement: Actual, Apparent, Induced and Relative movement to move forward the
story.
8. Rhythm: Easy to experience, yet difficult to describe, Rhythm is made of three sub-
components: Alternation, Repetition and Tempo.
9. Story and Visual Structure: How to structure the exposition, conflict and
resolution in a story, Along with graphs, as the story progresses!
10. Framing and Aspect Ratio
11. Hitchcock’s Rule redefined!
12. Reference Movies to demonstrate the visual components discussed above.

FS 323: Principles of Lighting:

1. Exposure
2. Light as energy
3. Light as color to paint a cinematic frame
4. Color Theory
5. Film and video color space
6. The tools of lighting
7. Lighting as storytelling
8. Lighting as a character
9. Working with strobes
10. Chroma Key

FS 324: Production, Post Production:

1. Workshop on the basics of Post Production
2. Basics of Color Grading
3. Basics of Image Editing and Photoshop
4. The Basic concept of Story-Boarding

Narendra Mainali © 2013

FS 325: Final Project:

ANALYZING THE SCRIPT FOR CINEMATOGRAPHY:

A: Story
1. In as few words as possible, what is the story of the film (as distinguished from the
plot of the film)
2. Whose story is it?
3. What does he/she ultimately want?
4. What are the barriers preventing this character(s) from satisfying this desire?

B: Production Planning
1. What is the most important scene in the film? The scene that the audience must
understand, to read the film the way we hope they will.
2. What is the most difficult scene in the film?
3. Which scenes possess the greatest difficulties from a cinematography standpoint?
4. When the film is all over, what is the single most important image that you want
the audience to take with them from the film?
5. What is the overall tone that you want to set for the audience?
6. What references are you using for your visual approach to the film?

C: Production: Cinematography specific

1. Describe the look of the film
2. What format do you expect to shoot?
3. How many set-ups per day, on average, do you expect to shoot?
4. Do you have your locations yet?
5. Have you done storyboards yet?
6. Have you shot test scenes?
7. Describe your lighting plan for the film.

D: Post Production
1. What is your plan for screening dailies?
2. Editing: Have you thought about editing while in production phase?
3. Describe the post process currently planned for the film. The aspect ratio and
color grading workflow are the main issues here.

Narendra Mainali © 2013