University degrees: Courses
Course length: 1 year full-time
Course city: Rome
The Cinematographic and Television Photography Course is in Rome, is annual and aims to train various professional figures (director of photography, camera operator or cameraman, assistant operator) who know how to use and control all the technical tools: socket, objectives, monitors, color correction programs.
Duration of the course: from January to December.
Lessons start: January 28.
According to Vittorio Storaro, the director of photography writes the story of a film with light, just as the musical author does with notes or the screenwriter with words. By “cinematographic photography” therefore we mean that set of processes and techniques through which staging is captured. In other words, it includes all the technical features of a film, edited by various professional figures (director of photography, cameraman or assistant cameraman) who use numerous technical means (cameras, lenses, monitors, color correction programs).
Are you looking for a course to become Director of Photography or Camera Operator in Rome?
The Photography Course for Cinema and Television aims to make the student able to perform, order and control all the operations of the cinematographer and the director of photography:
arranging and controlling the lighting conditions of a film set for both indoor and outdoor shooting
shoot as a camera operator both with a camera / free camera (by hand) and with a camera / camera arranged on the various technical means available for controlling the shots, the panoramas and the various movements on the trolley or other
prepare accessories and means for particular lighting systems
quickly identify the most suitable shooting points for the directing requests, check and make the right exposure to the light of the cinematographic film
check the results of the development and printing carried out by the film laboratories
check the overall success of the films being shown and evaluate any errors or changes to be made to the shot
choose, adapt and request all the technical means, at a reasonable cost, to carry out the shooting as required by the director.
All this, sensitizing the student on the aesthetic and expressive values of the photographic choices, addressing the main tax and labor regulations, and carrying out two differentiated teaching modules in parallel: one aimed at deepening in every aspect the cinematographic shooting technique in relation mainly to film, the other hinged on the specific use of electronic cine-television media – even of those, of course, with which the Academy is equipped – and therefore on digital photography.
The Photography course aims to make the student able to perform, control and manage the operations of the director of photography and the camera operator (or cameraman), but also the assistant operator, on a movie set. At the same time it provides training related to the role of cinematographic photography and its tools, through the continuous analysis of examples taken from films, documentaries, video clips, commercials.
The path of the master, which is always experiential and never only theoretical, winds through some phases:
Re-learning to look: trying to understand the visuality of an audiovisual product, identifying its image characteristics at the service of the director’s history and vision. Correlate them with the type of product and the type of production.
To experience how some characteristics of the image choices contribute to the emotional climate of the film
Experience how we build the “frame” of our vision and where our attention really goes in front of a scene. Human vision and perceptual mechanisms
Correlate these new experiences with some basic photographic parameters, in particular definition / detail, contrast, saturation, light color temperature. Understanding cinematic image formats.
Practice starting from static photography, learning to manage the basic tools of photographic CONTROL: time, diaphragm, sensitivity, color temperature, to build meaningful images
To deepen the understanding of the objectives, their characteristics of modification of space and construction of depth. Learn to use them as a fundamental storytelling tool
Study of light and basic lighting techniques: through film analysis, with practical live exercises and with the continuous stimulus to analyze situations of natural and artificial light of everyday reality, to reuse them cinematically in a creative sense
The analog-digital transition and the coexistence of two image systems. Implications of the different production choices (film or digital), differences on the set, future prospects
Basic shooting technique for compositing on green screen
The role of the director of photography and the relationship with the director. The photography department during the transition from analog to digital photography, as some roles have changed: importance of assistant and assistant operator, data manager and D.I.T.
The growing importance of color correction and color grading in digital photography, the approach of the director of photography in the relationship between the shooting and post-production phases, professional work tools, tests on DaVinci Resolve
Basic differences of use and approach in light digital cinematography: DSLR cameras, cameras, hybrid cameras, advantages and limits
Knowledge – through guided visits with the teachers – of the operational realities of cinematography: hire of rooms and lights, color correction and color grading studies, etc.
At the end of the course, through practical exercises in the video classroom and outdoors, and the continuous joint review of the exercises and short films assigned and filmed, the students are able to arrange and control the lighting conditions of a film set and in indoor shooting. that externally, shoot as a machine operator both with a hand-held machine and with a machine arranged on the various technical means available for checking the shots: stands, trolleys, sliders, light steadycam stabilizers; prepare accessories and means for particular lighting systems; quickly identify the most suitable shooting points for the directing requests, check and carry out the right exposure for storytelling and post-production; check the overall success of the films being screened and evaluate any errors or changes to be made to the shot; choose, adapt and request all the technical means useful for the realization of the screenplay project and according to the needs of the director.
The course takes place with two parallel and integrated modules taught and managed by the teachers Paolo Bravi and Sandro Bartolozzi.
