Great Ad, Great Cinematography: A Breakdown

all right hello everybody welcome back to another breakdown and today is a good one now this director roone milton i think it is uh very skilled director and you can tell that if you look at the history of things right even though they work with multiple cinematographers there's always just this look that comes and ruins work is some of the best and i had not seen this commercial i was just looking through and needed some good examples for something and i came across it and this is perfect because it's not exciting it's not a flashy car ad it is as boring an ad you can possibly make except it's perfectly done beautiful cinematography nice little storytelling moments as well but really the the cinematography and the production design and the angles chosen and the framing and the blocking inside of this little room is really really good stuff so that is what we're gonna be looking at today shall we get into it here we go okay so we play this through the story is a little girl in a room and she's got a new sister coming in or someone who's going to share her room yes here she comes please don't be mean are you sure yes that's the girl you should attack oh no she's coming and i mean just look at the lighting so played so down this is a commercial for ikea and it is man it is dark it is moody it looks like a david fincher movie here and nice little angles where you only see one select part of the room you you're never looking where the light is coming from but the light is always there soft look at that shot man oh it's good it's good take a look at the values down here not much in this area right not a whole lot up top there everything playing in the meat right right in the good zone and then they become friends and it's a tearjerker there you go ikea forever okay so uh let's start with the opening shot right this lays down a couple of key things that are necessary inside this room to make the cinematography work number one we've got a great location right immediately we are shooting into the l of the room right so we're already creating depth and we're identifying the window here is going to be our main lighting instrument along with this window over here right there's another window that is parked over here if we go full screen this is where you can see the magic starting to happen is this is solving this one shot and deciding to do it from this angle is is really what allows us to set this mood right and this is mood man look at this you got this hot high which if we go we got to get out of full screen wouldn't you know it and let's go to cursor let's go see what this is so this hot high here right that's the the hottest thing there is there outside you get this little thing on the bush which actually gets higher but inside the room this is what we're looking at and then that little bump for her right which is in there okay that is the hottest thing that we're setting everything else is sitting nicely way down here so quite a bit of contrast between the two leaving us this little open area where we're going to be able to place the skin tones because that's what we're going to want pop off the screen so if we go back to full screen here man i need to get better why am i so horrendous going full screen okay so we play through it right she walks through the door looks that way now why is it important well number one we have the hedge out there which is not getting front lit see how the light is not bashing into the front of this thing because that would not create this little tiny highlight so even here when we know this location in the interior we're going to really sculpt it with curtains that you can actually see through but still add a little bit of color and they're going to be brand colors and then we have sheers in here that we can soften so we're actually cutting light with these things in the shot which in wides is very important because you know on closer stuff you can get in there with cutters you can use little floppies or something like that but here in this wide shot if we want to get this little broken up area here there's only one way to do it right we got to use what we can put inside of the shot to create those elements and then the nice little production design and having layers inside of this shot with this thing again the lines help out quite a bit and then see in the ceiling right your cinematographer friends will be super jealous okay we cut to this one not much here right not a whole lot of shape this is we haven't gone crazy with all of a sudden adding like the only thing to notice is that because we're gonna make this switch to front light we need this shot girl at the window okay in this shot the previous shot we are lighting this real hard bit back here that heartbeat has to be coming from somewhere so it has to be coming from the window and if we come around here and she steps into this right if we were going to play this for real for real you could see her shadow just start to creep in here at the end she would be hit with this crazy front light and we don't want that so we just need her level up from the background right and this little bit we're going to try and window that out of the way we're going to try and get that hot area so we still get this we got nice shadow reflections and we've got this not a whole lot of depth here but we the main thing is we eliminated that really hard fronty light that was shining on the background right that allows us to keep our mood nice and down and then even in a frame like this we're still adding in elements of the location especially those little reflections as well create depth that just bring you in to this location right when it's not just plonk here's picture of girl right we see the little hand here all little storytelling devices we come out here frame frame this way frame this way now this is backlit right sun coming this way we're shooting into all the shadow which means all we really need to do is pick out these bits and this is down and i don't know what is going on with this window that they've done in the grade but look at how far down this guy's head is compared to her head and i can't imagine maybe it's in dappled light there i don't know if we play through does it get hotter no just stays there so she's really i mean even with the heat here they're telling you to look here but this is almost untouched maybe there's some neg there that is just taking away any of that return light because that it would start to flatten things out and we are really in this especially in this particular shot we're really looking for those edges just to pick out exactly where we should look the real magic happens though once we go inside right right there oh man where did this hot light come from that wasn't there right there we go in there just reaching the other cheek depth there with the hot and the shadow right just varying interest even though it's really blobby and then just that little tiny bit of light a little tiny bit there that that and then it just rolls into darkness right this is a good looking shot we're inside this little girl's head what's she thinking oh no new little sister yep there she is runs in there and this is an important one too okay this other window we cannot see out that window right because then you would see our lamp the lamp has got to be this side of the window and even if you did even if the camera circled around a little bit and looked out the window you wouldn't see the lamp because the lamp is back here in between the two windows if we roll back right the lamp is going to be here shining this way because when we come around here it's going to be back here right that's the hard lamp that is outside but look she's not in that light but there is something coming this way right there is something planted in this area where you cannot see like a little light mat or something something is there you see how you can't see through that thing because on the other side of it around the back is going to be the lamp that is lighting up her when she goes this way and just a really good job of balancing things see it doesn't feel unnatural it doesn't feel i mean there definitely feels like there's a light there right if you stop and look at it but it still feels like it could be just the bounce around the room but it is definitely not the bounce around the room because look it's still i mean even this interior light is upstaged because we're getting shadow nose all of this and just a little bit of level right not at the same level as back here we don't want it that hot it's just a little tiny tiny bit and then to keep interest in this boring white walled room you have the curtains and the shears that block off the light so you only get this little tiny hot spot you get something across here which leads you to the face and then up here just peppered with little goodies and again shooting into the l of the room when she sits down so that we create as much depth as we can and lighting through the window that we cannot see okay just really well done and then this who knows if there's a little leg on that wall or something just to suck up all the return light that would be going from whatever this light is over here on the ground it's going this way you just don't want it bouncing off that wall and returning here and flattening it out you want to keep that contrast especially when you have it this perfectly sculpted right you don't want any light coming in this way and contaminating things from there we got again a little darkness in the foreground as she comes around mama at the back and then oosh now we're in okay now the light has changed angles and it's changed sides a little bit it's significantly darker but we're again in this real close shot inside this girl's head and this is upstage key neg add some little elements in the background to create something interesting this is all pretty stock standard stuff still notice we haven't seen this corner of the room over here behind the wall divider whereas if we go back we haven't seen over here and we will never look over there right because that is where all of our lighting is coming from so we need to pick an area in those wide shots where we're never going to look and it's going to be here because that's we're going to park our light from so we can shoot upstage and shoot into the l of both sides of the room okay we've seen this walk across next we get the single and this look at the balance in levels this is what we call setting room tone right this this level here this level here this stuff here and then you do the slash so the slash would come in and you can do it two ways you can either balance the slash to the room tone or you can balance the room tone to the slash probably easier in a location like this if you're on location to balance everything to the room tone so to balance the slash to the room tone that's probably going to be your quickest step or you know if you do have a way of getting like a light matte pre-rigged in here up top which is fairly easy to do right just on like a little widowmaker setup here where you can just push it on either side of the hallway and then put it down so you get this nice soft light but this is the important thing with room tone is you see there is a light here right there is definitely light coming down from above lighting her up it's not just dark but it doesn't feel like it's coming from anywhere it just feels like it's there like it's dark but there's enough exposure to see that is the trick with room tone and that is it done really really well you want the light just like oh it's not going to make it it's not going to make it and then it just falls on whatever it is there's no crazy shadows on the ground there's no uh tails there's no hot spots anywhere right it doesn't get hotter here than it is down here it's just perfectly balanced room tone almost shadowless and just enough level right and you can get away with that with super sensitive cameras nowadays just a tiny tiny tiny bit of level and then slash across and we're talking just the framing of the shot as well depth going to the door i mean this is a classic the hallway shot right every horror movie has something like this but then again balancing it out out here with this color and then the slash it crosses cool okay we go from there our beautiful room tone shot so look at what we've done here we've gone from dead center now we've picked the right side of the line we can see into the room and this light has severely softened off but look at that no shadow man that is a beautiful looking shot you can't get any better than this for setting mood for telling people exactly where to look this is a little bit of depth even into you're going to think i'm going crazy with this concept but this is the l of the hallway right because we are looking into the little beam there with the crack in the door that little light to dark oh sorry dark to light to dark to light to dark it's just really well done and then this let's see what that is on the old and that is down there but it's all in there right everything is in there except little face and the door and it's nowhere near the top everything in that toe and just expanded so you can still see it but it feels really really really really really dark okay from there let's make it bigger i think it gets even better from here okay again where are we looking still works we're not looking down here because this is where our light is coming in that is doing this number and then we're outside with the slash right and again just creating depth i mean this is the whole ad is selling this thing you don't know that but that's the whole ad is selling that little room divider get a little book out enter upstage no shadow you can see the highlight there but then slash now that is a soft slash right see how it transitions from slash down here slowly gets darker up the room well that's going to happen on her body too but then you're mixing in the soft light so andre would be super proud right sobof would be loving this come in and look at the quality of that light right it's like very very very soft but still soft and dark so soft and dark you have to do with an egg because it's going to be so wrappy that it would wrap all the way around right you don't want that so you have to cut it off with an egg and then we've got her back turned with the light streak back there then light this way so you got light to dark to light to dark you get to her face then dark then light it's just really depth and peppered across the frame this one it's uh what can i say that's a good-looking shot and why is it good-looking you should already know right this is framework boom that way little leak bounce up from the book right it's probably got a little her little book there or a little piece of poly so you just get a little bit more wrap from whatever she's looking at and then yeah just choosing the right side of the line here and choosing where her for her to be inside of the room and where the bed to be inside the room is just beautiful i mean that is a good looking shot you're putting that on your reel right sit down again we haven't seen over here and we're doing the same trick on this side of the room we're lighting this way and we're creating a slash from outside the room and yeah still good looking come on come on how could you make this better in a room you got a little girl she's in a room you want to create shape and mood how do you make this better i don't know how i don't know how i can't remember the cinematographer's name but it's i mean beautiful work look at that same thing you got a little girl parked right up against this wall right so you have to do it through contrast you can't separate her from the wall because that's the the size of the bedroom to still be believable you don't want too much crazy fall off so having her parked right up against the wall but still being able to fit a slash just behind her this is i mean really really good and then this thing in there right and that is who knows that that ends up being the product it just ties in so well everything together and then where do we go from there again beautiful shot another beautiful one i mean look at the shadow though like so when we're in this shot when we can't really get something in that close just notice the transition from light to dark across the face and then how it's a little bit lifted in the shadows there and then we come around to even closer dense shadow and then dense right now it's dense now it's dense and now it just perfectly wraps around to the other side you can see the little light in there right the light from the ground and then the window light all right you can see them both really really nice stuff and where does this thing happen to be this bright spot is it on this side of her face no it's on the dark side so you go across the image that way and then you know right where to look and a little smile and a run across now now we do see into this little corner of the room right first time we have seen over here the entire ad now we are lighting this way all from outside we've also got a new sunspot which i think she's in at the start yeah there she is see how she's actually in it here this little light that comes out of nowhere and then we do have this little thing just to you go depth depth this thing in there just layer after layer after layer in what is basically just a bedroom with a little tiny bit of wallpaper on it and just creating enough room tone and enough shape and this thing is slowly but surely getting softer this thing from the start of the ad to the end that's okay right like we have to deal with it and look at how the curtains have opened up they're not near as together as they once were they've opened up which means you're letting more light in which means we get more light in the background and this is a good looking ad beautifully played and she steps through what does she step through right there oh she steps through that line so this one is coming from over there as well right so we got two suns here we got one coming this way and then you got one going that way both coming out of the same window and so to do this one you just have to be far enough back with the lamp that you can't see it in this shot if you just walk it back this way then you can shine it in here and you see she walks right through man this is like a this is going to be my no my new go-to study for how you can take a concept where on paper you can imagine how boring this thing could have been or how bright they could have made it how vanilla but this is like beautifully crafted very well done job by uh by director cinematographer the whole team really um so kudos to them okay so that's an example of what you can do even with maybe not the most exciting content you can still work and progress and try and get every step better along the framework and try and get it more dense and more rich and once you get to the top this is what it looks like okay that's going to do it for this week if you've got commercials that you want to see broken down or any techniques make sure to leave them in the comments section below i appreciate all the support and if you like this stuff even more than that you can head on over to patreon where we've been going for i think five years now and we've got lots and lots of content basically a podcast every single week breakdowns every single well live streams every other week this is a lot of stuff going over there if you're into cinematography so check it out okay thank you and we'll see you in the next one goodbye

Channel: Wandering DP

Views: 23,017

Keywords: cinematography, cinematographer, wandering dp, director of photography, cinematography techniques, cinematography tutorial, cinematography reel, filmmaking, film theory, camera techniques, camera techniques for better filmmaking, cinematographers on cinematography, director, lighting techniques for film, lighting techniques for music video, lighting techniques for commercials, dp, film, assistant camera, gaffer, key grip, lighting, learn lighting, learn cinematography, become a dp

Id: fx895rzyqAk

Length: 18min 35sec (1115 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 09 2020