1.1 Introduction
The creation of a cinematic work requires a great commitment going through stages from finding the idea, buying copyright for adaptation from dramas or various writings, finding the necessary budgets from various private and public funds, employment of the artistic and technical team who must remain loyal to the work from the beginning to the end by assisting in the preparation and then on adequate terrains (Cleve, 2006). Image and audio recording in co-ordination with actors on a stage is very important. It is a link and creation of a chronological timeline by creating a particular story or content. Distribution is of great importance to a work because it will enable it to be seen for a wider public by appearing in cinemas and TV platforms and modern methods of the time. Lighting, in a traditional filmmaking context, is the principal responsibility of a cinematographer. Working with the director, art department and more than ever today, the visual effects team, a cinematographer utilises a variety of tools to achieve a cohesive visual narrative for a film within which light can play an integral role, making a creative contribution to the production.
As a prelude to other parts of this study, this chapter will discuss the background upon which this study was initiated, the statement of problems that led to this study, the Aim and Objectives of the study. Others are Significance of the study, Scope of work, Research hypothesis and questions, Limitation of the study and Definition of technical terms.
1.2 Background of Study
Cinematographers have been dealing with camera issues for over a century. Cinematic expression includes many principles and conventions, although naive viewers who watch TV or film are usually not aware of them. For example, “jump cuts” are typically avoided by mainstream filmmakers (Yaron, 1995). Avoiding jump cuts can be formulated as follows: after a “cut” (camera stops and re-starts shooting), the camera angle must change by at least 30 degrees. Such rules can be captured mathematically, and can thus be simulated by software. However, jump cuts were deliberately introduced into the cinematic language by French filmmaker Godard. It is this complexity that we want to capture; we want to be able to formalize rules, but also to allow the system to override them in specific circumstances.
Automating camera behavior has applications for both off-line generation of linear animation and real-time interactive virtual environments. For linear animation, automated camera control is an essential part of any fully-automated tool for animation generation, and may be a useful component in high-level authoring tools. For interactive environments, the need is even more obvious: since a real-time director is not available, all camera-related decisions need to be done automatically.
Previous research into automated camera control can be classified into two methodologies: constraint satisfaction and idiom-based reasoning. Constraint-satisfaction methods (Bares et al., 1999; Drucker et al., 1994; Drucker et al., 1995; Halper et al., 2000) typically work at the level of a single frame. Given a set of constraints about the objects to appear in the frame, they try to find the camera parameters that best satisfy the constraints.
Idiom-based approaches try to capture cinematic principles and let them dictate camera behavior. Cinematic principles may serve to reduce the large search space induced by the many degrees of freedom for a camera per frame. Several works have attempted some formalization of cinematic principles, and the abstraction of the space allows the use of symbolic algorithms rather than numeric methods. The first to attempt some automatic cinematography were Karp and Feiner (1993); their ESPLANADE system used planning with communicative goals. Butz (1997) proposed that the rules of cinematic expression are analogous to grammar in natural language, and this was the basis for his CATHI system. Christianson et al. (1996) defined DCCL (Declarative Camera Control Language) and attempted a more systematic analysis of cinematography. They describe several cinematic principles and show how they can be formalized in a declarative language. They encode 16 idioms, at a level of abstraction similar to the way they would be described in a film textbook.
Therefore, in Nigeria where the research was carried out, the activities that was conducted is to know the role of the cinematographer in film making.
1.3 Statement of Problems
Investigation revealed that the idea may be original as the script writer sees from the actions and behaviors of people in real life, as well as the idea may arise from real event that can be a very good foundation but that also needs to be met or adapted for the film narration by developing the intrigue, the characters, the dialogue, and so on. But more and more is used the original narration which is being written just for the movie since it is cheaper and costs are smaller and it is more feasible, more communicative and it deals with human problems that the characters have among themselves.
1.4 Aim and Objectives of Study
The aim of the study is to examine the role of the cinematographer in film making. In achieving this aim, the following specific objectives were laid out as follows:
- To examine the factors inhibiting film making among cinematographer.
- To investigate the contributions of cinematographer towards film making and production.
- To recommend solution to the above stated problem of the role of the cinematographer in film making.
1.5 Research Questions
The study came up with research questions so as to be able to ascertain the above stated objectives. The specific research questions for the study are stated below as follows:
- Are there factors inhibiting film making among cinematographer?
- What are the contributions of cinematographer towards film making and production?
1.6 Significance of Study
This study will be of immense benefit to researchers who intend to know more on this study and can also be used by non-researchers to build more on their research work. This study contributes to knowledge and could serve as a guide for other study.
1.7 Scope of the Study
The scope of this research is focused on the role of the cinematographer in film making using Nollyhood film production industry as a case study.
1.8 Limitations of the Study
During the course of this study, many things militated against its completion, some of which are:
- Time Constraint: The time frame given to accomplish this project was very short due to school academic calendar and it was carried out under pressure which made the researcher not to implement some necessary features.
- Research Material: availability of research material is a major setback to the scope of the study.
- Lack of Initial Cooperation from Respondents: A particular limitation of this work came as a result of the respondent refusal to offer their cooperation at the initial time they were contacted. This contributed in making the success of this research study difficult.
- Financial Constraint: Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature or information and in the process of data collection (internet, questionnaire and interview).
