I have wanted to write a blog post about composition for ages, but I’ve procrastinated. Framing is such an instinctive and subjective thing; could I ever articulate how to do it? I’m still not sure, but at last I’m taking a deep breath and giving it a go. To help me, I’m using frame grabs […]| Neil Oseman
A revised and updated version of this article can be found here (aperture) and here (ND filters). Imagine this scenario. I’m lensing a daylight exterior and my light meter gives me a reading of f/11, but I want to shoot with an aperture of T4, because that’s the depth of field I like. I know that […]| Neil Oseman
In the celluloid era, light meters were essential to ensure proper exposure of the film negative. In today’s digital world, where you can immediately see your images on a monitor, it may seem like light meters are obsolete. But these devices still have their place in modern cinematography. On a bigger production, when you may […]| Neil Oseman
Exposing the image correctly is one of the most important parts of a cinematographer’s job. Choosing the T-stop can be a complex technical and creative decision, but fortunately there are many ways we can measure light to inform that decision. First, let’s remind ourselves of the journey light makes: photons are emitted from a source, […]| Neil Oseman
Neg fill is the enhancement of contrast in an image by introducing a black solid such as a flag to block ambient light.| Neil Oseman
A cinematographer's guide to shutter angles and shutter intervals, what they are, when to change them and what effects that will have.| Neil Oseman
Learn what depth of field is, what factors affect it, and how to creatively use both shallow and deep depths of field in your cinematography.| Neil Oseman
So far, this blog series about my cinematography of The Little Mermaid has covered the biggest and most complex scenes in the movie. Today I’m going to look at some smaller scenes, and how I employed the cinematography tenet of lighting from the back to quickly build a look for these which has depth, mood and […]| Neil Oseman
Understanding ISO will help you to trade off highlight detail against shadow detail, as well as changing the amount of noise in your image.| Neil Oseman
Learn the technical and creative aspects of exposure for cinematography. What is an f-stop and a T-stop? How do they affect depth of field?| Neil Oseman
Day 17 Our first location was a medical training ward populated by creepy dummies; we had a brief flashback scene to do around a hospital bed. When we arrived there was nice warm sunlight coming in through the frosted glass behind the bed, so we made sure that stuck around by putting an orange-gelled Aputure […]| Neil Oseman
Day 6 I think the director is turning into Harvey Greenfield. This morning Jonnie burst unexpectedly out of a hedge apologising for being slightly late. Our first location was a surprisingly busy park in the village of Exning. We shot under the trees lining the edge of the park, keeping the camera on the same […]| Neil Oseman
Day 11 In a conference room at a business centre in north Cambridge we set up for a scene in which the titular Harvey arrives titularly late for a big meeting at work. Here we were joined by my good friend Alan Hay, who voiced all the pre-recorded male characters in the stage play, and […]| Neil Oseman
Day 1 The weather was dry and overcast, shedding a pleasantly soft light on the proceedings as the crew of Harvey Greenfield is Running Late set up for our first scene, in front of a small primary school in rural Cambridgeshire. Then we started shooting and the weather went bananas. One moment we had bright sunshine, […]| Neil Oseman
Last summer I lensed Harvey Greenfield is Running Late, a hilarious comedy feature starring Paul Richards, based on his acclaimed one-man play, soon to have its 100th performance. We had a 14-day window in Paul’s schedule for the shoot, during which we captured two thirds of the film – less than we’d hoped, but still a remarkable achievement […]| Neil Oseman
Day 24 – 3/5/21 “Frailty thy name is woman” (the opinions of Shakespeare do not represent those of the blogger) A bitty day, starting with our only day exteriors. Call time was 7am and it was a bank holiday, so that pedestrians and traffic were at a minimum on the street outside the theatre. We […]| Neil Oseman
Day 18 – 26/4/21 “Alack and fie for shame” Today’s material involved Ophelia seeking audience with Gertrude, then singing a risqué song to both her and the king. It sounds very simple when I type it out like that, but somehow it still took all day and wasn’t as well covered as I would have […]| Neil Oseman
Day 12 – 19/4/21 “More matter with less art” The two-day weekend allowed us all a much-needed recharge. A few of us hired bikes on Sunday and cycled up the river to Maidenhead, where we found an idyllic field to have a picnic in. Bliss. Monday saw us tackling all of the scenes in what […] The post “Hamlet”: Week 3 appeared first on Neil Oseman.| Neil Oseman
Day 7 – 12/4/12 “Contracted as it were in one brow of woe” Not sure how to feel about today. On the one hand we got some great shots, including our first one on the Technocrane. On the other hand, we spectacularly failed to make the call sheet. Due to the workload on costume and […] The post “Hamlet”: Week 2 appeared first on Neil Oseman.| Neil Oseman
“If the audience starts looking at the cheeseboard, we’ve had it.” – Sir Ian McKellen Following the well-reviewed recent cinema release of Hamlet, which I shot for director Sean Mathias in 2021, here is the diary I kept during filming. You can also go back and read my blogs from prep if you’re interested. Day […] The post “Hamlet”: Week 1 appeared first on Neil Oseman.| Neil Oseman
The reason this blog is so rarely updated nowadays is that I’m the showrunner of Ren: The Girl with the Mark, an award-winning fantasy web series. I first joined the project in 2014 as DP for director and co-creator Kate Madison, then helped with post and various attempts to get the second season made, before […] The post “Ren: The Girl with the Mark” – Season Two Coming Soon appeared first on Neil Oseman.| Neil Oseman
The reason it’s been so quiet on the blog here is that I’ve insanely taken on producing a no-budget fantasy-adventure web series, Ren: The Girl with the Mark. Readers with long memories may recall I was the DP on the first season way back in 2014, and got involved with post throughout 2015 and into 2016 […] The post “Ren: The Girl with the Mark” – Season Two appeared first on Neil Oseman.| Neil Oseman
Day 25 14 months ago production began on the comedy feature Harvey Greenfield is Running Late. Most of the editing is done, and yesterday a reduced crew assembled to shoot one final scene and few odd shots to plug holes. The crew may have been reduced, but the cast was bigger than it’s ever been. Jonnie and […]| Neil Oseman
Almost every film today has visual effects of some kind or another, be it compositing a phone screen for a couple of shots or adding a fleet of attacking spaceships and their laser blasts destroying distant CG buildings. Many smaller productions cannot afford to have a VFX supervisor on set, however, so a conscientious DP […] The post 5 Things a DP Can Do to Help the VFX Department appeared first on Neil Oseman.| Neil Oseman
Filmmakers have used all kinds of tricks over the years to show low or zero gravity on screen, from wire work to underwater shooting, and more recently even blasting off to capture the real thing. Many early sci-fi films simply ignored the realities of being in space. The 1964 adaptation of H. G. Wells’ The […] The post Defying Gravity on Film appeared first on Neil Oseman.| Neil Oseman