Cameras & Capture

Slow motion stretches time on screen: the camera records at a higher frame rate than playback — for example 120 fps played at 24 — so action unfolds several times slower, used for spectacle, violence, grief or to reveal what the eye normally misses.

White balance tells the camera which color of light to treat as neutral white — about 3200K for tungsten, 5600K for daylight — so skin and whites look natural, or are pushed deliberately warm or cool.

Cinematography is the art of creating the moving image: the choices of camera, lens, framing, movement, light and exposure through which the director of photography turns a script into pictures.

Double exposure records two images on the same piece of film — or blends them in post — so both show through at once, often a face merging with a landscape; in camera it was the classic way to create ghosts and visions.

Film grain is the random speckled texture of silver-halide crystals in developed film; faster stocks and push processing make it coarser, and digital productions add it back to soften the clean video look.

Forced perspective places actors or objects at carefully chosen distances from the camera so they appear larger, smaller, nearer or farther than they are — the in-camera trick behind giant-and-small scenes shot without digital effects.

A time lapse captures frames at long intervals — one every few seconds or minutes — and plays them at normal speed, so clouds race, cities pulse and flowers open in seconds.

The 180-degree shutter rule sets the shutter speed to roughly double the frame rate — 1/48 or 1/50 s at 24 fps — which gives the natural motion blur audiences associate with cinema; breaking it makes movement stuttery (narrow shutter) or smeary (wide shutter).

Digital cinematography records motion pictures on an electronic sensor instead of film stock; since the 2010s it has been the industry standard, with cinema cameras such as the ARRI Alexa and RED.

Film stock is the light-sensitive celluloid a movie is shot on: a base coated with emulsion whose format (16, 35, 65mm), speed and color response shape grain, contrast and palette before any grading.

Halation is the reddish-orange glow around bright highlights on film: light passes through the emulsion, reflects off the film base and re-exposes the layers; digital looks add it to imitate celluloid.

A hyperlapse is a time-lapse in which the camera also travels a long distance between frames, so time and space rush past together — sweeping through cities or landscapes in a few seconds.

iPhone cinematography means shooting films on a smartphone — as Sean Baker did with Tangerine and Steven Soderbergh with Unsane — using add-on lenses, stabilisers and pro camera apps.

Reverse motion plays action backwards — originally by running film backwards through the camera or optical printer, now by reversing clips in the edit — so smoke returns to a cigarette or, as in Tenet, time itself seems to run the other way.

Slit-scan exposes an image through a narrow moving slit, so each strip of the frame records a different moment; the result stretches and smears space and time — most famously in the Star Gate sequence of 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Undercranking shoots at a lower frame rate than playback — for example 12 fps played at 24 — so action runs faster than life on screen, used for slapstick, frantic chases and punchier action.

An underwater shot places the camera beneath the water surface, where water scatters light, shifts color toward blue-green, softens contrast and slows movement — often used for weightlessness, danger or dream states.

The stop trick (arrêt) halts the camera, changes something in front of it and resumes shooting from exactly the same position, so on screen people or objects appear, vanish or transform instantly — the founding special effect of early cinema.