Why, you might wonder, would a photography professor give you a homework about film? Movies and photography are very much related to each other and there are many things one can learn from observing both forms of art.
Here are my favourite reasons to watch movies & learn from them while doing so.
1 – Train your eye.
When you watch a movie you will subconsciously train your eye to see angles & compositions. You will learn to see how they portray people & how they crop away aspects. All of this observing will come in very handy as soon as you pick up your camera again. I love this hidden educating aspect & it took me quite some time to recognise it.
As we watched Frozen & Elsa is for the first time locked away in her room all I could think about was how did they get the camera up there & which lens in the world did they use…?! It took me some moments to register that I was watching an animated film, haha. Welcome to my world.
2 – Telling the story
Every movie tells a story. You can use the story telling side of a film to gather inspiration for your own story telling. Throughout a wedding day and also in your Blog post writing. I am not saying that I have figured them out to perfection, but I am working on it. 😉
3 – Something to talk about when you need to distract your clients
Sometimes when I feel I am stuck with my clients or I need a question to relax them I ask about their favourite film, the last film or the funniest film they have seen. Just giving them something to think about is often sufficient enough to distract them from the photoshoot. As soon as they have found their answer their facial expression changes & I can ask them what they liked most of this particular movie and shoot them while they respond.
4 – To throw in a movie quote
Maybe you love movies as much as me. Maybe you even quote movies & jokes from series? Chances are that if you do, we will get on very well & have tons to talk about. I could list movies as a hobby of mine & it is a funny way to connect with new friends.
5 – Draw inspiration
Movies are a great place to get inspired for composition, style of editing and use of examples landscape or architecture. It is a good place to observe a professional place their object in a scene. Very much like you do when you take images of your couples.
Have a creative day!
Ps, a good movie to observe nature composition & lighting is Far from the madding Crowd. 😉
