The Digital Bits; "Grain is supposed to be there!"

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by Knight-Errant

Hey Penton, those things have been frustrating me for years. The only reason I don't complain about them is I know it would do no good lol.

I love older films for their compositions and editing and how easy it is to look at them without feeling claustrophobic or squinting to see what's going on in the shots before they cut to something else heh.

Fast cutting and close-ups both have a place and in moderation they're great tools of course.

Oh well at least there's an upper limit to how fast cutting can go. One frame shots anyone?


Am I right in thinking that it can be a cash saving measure?
The need only to light someone's face as opposed to a full set for instance?

You’re right in the sense that once you do the master shot, the production costs begin to increase as you do more and more coverage shots. But in this case I think it’s just a stylistic trend.

My problem with it is that it seems to be used excessively in current motion pictures and after a while it completely loses its emotional impact as a tool. Other movies with their more distant framings and longer takes, allow one to follow the evolution of a feeling through the actor’s behavior (the character development) better and when needed, the close-up can be utilized thus carrying a lot more emotional weight.