Cinematographer

A cinematographer is one photographing with a motion picture camera (the art and science of which is known as cinematography). The title is generally equivalent to director of photography (DP or DoP), used to designate a chief over the camera and lighting crews working on a film, responsible for achieving artistic and technical decisions related to the image. The term cinematographer has been a point of contention for some time now; some professionals insist that it only applies when the director of photography and camera operator are the same person, although this is far from being uniformly the case. To most, cinematographer and director of photography are interchangeable terms. Sometimes, however, the term director of photography can refer to the person who supervises the photography in a videotaped production. For example, Larry Boelens's credit on the Mikhail Baryshnikov Nutcracker was "director of photography", although the production was shot on video.

storyboard

A film storyboard is essentially a large comic of the film or some section of the film produced beforehand to help film directors, cinematographers and television commercial advertising clients visualize the scenes and find potential problems before they occur. Often storyboards include arrows or instructions that indicate movement.
In creating a motion picture with any degree of fidelity to a script, a storyboard provides a visual layout of events as they are to be seen through the camera lens. And in the case of interactive media, it is the layout and sequence in which the user or viewer sees the content or information. In the storyboarding process, most technical details involved in crafting a film or interactive media project can be efficiently described either in picture, or in additional text.
Some live-action film directors, such as Joel and Ethan Coen, used storyboard extensively before taking the pitch to their funders, stating that it helps them get the figure they are looking for since they can show exactly where the money will be used. Alfred Hitchcock's films were strongly believed to have been extensively storyboarded to the finest detail by the majority of commentators over the years, although recent research indicates that this was exaggerated for publicity purposes. Other directors storyboard only certain scenes, or none at all. Animation directors are usually required to storyboard extensively, sometimes in place of writing a script.

Focal length

The camera does what a human eye does. That is, it creates perspective and spatial relations with the rest of the world. However, unlike one's eye, a cinematographer can select different lenses for different purposes. Variation in focal length is one of the chief benefits of such an advantage. The focal length of the lens in particular, determines the angle of view and, therefore, the field of view. Cinematographers can choose between a range of wide angle lenses, "normal" lenses and telephoto lenses, as well as macro lenses and other special effect lens systems such as borescope lenses. Wide-angle lenses have short focal lengths and make spatial distances more obvious. A person in the distance is shown as much smaller while someone in the front will loom large. On the other hand, telephoto lenses reduce such exaggerations, depicting far-off objects as seemingly close together and flattening perspective. The differences between the perspective rendering is actually not due to the focal length by itself, but by the distance between the subjects and the camera. Therefore, the use of different focal lengths in combination with different camera to subject distances creates these different rendering. Changing the focal length only while keeping the same camera position doesn't affect perspective but the angle of view only. A Zoom lens allows a camera operator to change their focal length within a shot or quickly between setups for shots. As prime lenses offer greater optical quality and are "faster" (larger aperture openings, usable in less light) than zoom lenses, they are often employed in professional cinematography over zoom lenses. Certain scenes or even types of filmmaking, however, may require the use of zooms for speed or ease of use, as well as shots involving a zoom move.

Depth of field and focus

Focal length and diaphragm aperture affect the depth of field of a scene — that is, how much the background, mid-ground and foreground will be rendered in "acceptable focus" (only one exact plane of the image is in precise focus) on the film or video target. Depth of field (not to be confused with depth of focus) is determined by the aperture size and the focal distance. A large or deep depth of field is generated with a very small iris aperture and focusing on a point in the distance, whereas a shallow depth of field will be achieved with a large (open) iris aperture and focusing closer to the lens. Depth of field is also governed by the format size. 70 mm film has much more depth of field for the same focal length lens than does 35 mm. 16 mm has even less and most digital video cameras have less depth of field than 16 mm. But if one considers the field of view and angle of view, the smaller the image is, the shorter the focal length should be, as to keep the same field of view. Then, the smaller the image is, the more depth of field is obtained, for the same field of view. Therefore, 70mm as less depth of field than 35mm for a given field of view, 16mm more than 35mm, and video cameras even more depth of field than 16mm. As videographers try to emulate the look of 35 mm film with digital cameras, this is one issue of frustration - excessive depth of field with digital cameras and using additional optical devices to reduce that depth of field.
In Citizen Kane, cinematographer Gregg Toland used tighter apertures to create very large depth of field in the scenes, often rendering every detail of the foreground and background of the sets in sharp focus. This practice is known as deep focus. Deep focus became a popular cinematographic device from the 1940s onwards in Hollywood. Today, the trend is for more shallow focus.
To change the plane of focus from one object or character to another within a shot is commonly known as a rack focus.

Lighting Problems

"I have a shoot coming up which is set primarily in a Cafe..."
What are the Cafe's dimensions? What is the ceiling made of (cement/drywall/drop-ceiling)? What is the budget?
On a Champagne budget you could either uses Kino-flo's 'Bag-o-lite' (should keep the bulbs from raining down on your talent's heads) or a small Fisher Balloon (either in Tungsten or HMI).
On a Peanut-Butter budget a bank of china-balls with photo-floods lightly secured to the ceiling (if they fall the ball will absorb most of the impact).
Matt EfsicStudent DP, Brooks Institute of PhotographyVentura, CA
Something else to consider would be in addition to what you can rig overhead--to be prepared to work something hand-held from the floor, either with batteries or a cable. I was running around today on set behind a steady-cam with a 2' 4 bank Kino on a short arm with some light-grid.
Works great!
I have also been using the LED Lite-Panels as well. As a matter of fact today we taped two together, and the grip brothers made a nice mini 1x1 chimera with different diffusions I can Velcro on or off that is completely powered by the batteries on the panel-lites. By utilizing handheld floor lighting--we eliminated the need to bring the overall ambience up as much as we would have liked--and we got some light in the eyes.
You'd be amazed what tape can hold if you spread it out over a large >enough surface area.
Yes, but it's the way that it slowly insidiously creeps back off the surface at an unperceivable rate. Then BANG! something's on the floor.
Thanks to everyone for their replies. I think I will be going with the skirted “china’s” route. probably of the semi-homemade variety.
Ideally I want 500W bulbs in a fairly big lanterns (19" or there about). However I am having difficulty finding proper lampholders to keep the bulb in the middle, even tho they will mostly be static I am reluctant to put such a hot bulb in a paper housing without something to keep it away from the paper (am I over reacting here?).
I am also having problems sourcing 500W and 250W daylight photofloods,
Does the same apply to the tungsten variety
The big difference is bulb life. The tungsten will last the whole shoot, no question. Blues, depending on wattage are rated 3-6 hours. If changing is a hassle you can double bulb (easier w/ the larger lanterns) and have an a/b wiring.
One other trick that can be useful is you can line the inside of the ball w/ alum foil. Not the whole thing of course but say 1/3 to 1/2 - this works good, for example, if you have one near a wall and don't want spill, makes it directional, so to speak.
As someone mentioned be aware of window reflection issues. Rosocescrim inside, gel out side could solve. Of course, any lighting might be problem relative to windows, not just china lanterns. Sometime a properly place long horizontal teaser of duvatyne can solve the problem.