The Filmmaker's Eye - The Language of the Lens: The Power of Lenses and the Expressive Cinematic Image

by Gustavo Mercado

The Language of the Lens explores the expressive power of the camera lens and the storytelling contributions that this critical tool can make to a film project. This book offers a unique approach to learning how lenses can produce aesthetically and narratively compelling images in movies, through a close examination of the various ways lens techniques control the look of space, movement, focus, flares, distortion, and the "optical personality" of your story's visual landscape.

Loaded with vivid examples from commercial, independent, and world cinema, The Language of the Lens presents dozens of insightful case studies examining their conceptual, narrative, and technical approaches to reveal how master filmmakers have harnessed the power of lenses to express the entire range of emotions, themes, tone, atmosphere, subtexts, moods, and abstract concepts.

The Language of the Lens provides filmmakers, at any level or experience, with a wealth of knowledge to unleash the full expressive power of any lens at their disposal, whether they are shooting with state-of-the-art cinema lenses or a smartphone, and everything in between.

Genres: Film, Nonfiction, Art, Textbooks, Photography

206 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2010

Reviews

[Kushan Shah · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a beautiful book that explains some of the tedious basics of lenses and their practical applications to evoke various emotions in the audience in as easy and straight-forward a manner as I have seen. I look forward to reading the other book by the same author.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

Idk I made it like 50 pages in before my teacher stopped assigning us to read it. It was kinda cool though I guess

[Saravana Jackie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best book to understand the characteristics, conventions, nuances and aesthetics of lenses.

[Oleksandr Hryshchenko · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ще одне прекрасне видання від ArtHuss, над яким я мав радість попрацювати як перекладач. Навіть і простому кінолюбителю воно видасться напрочуд цікавим, бо розплющує очі на чимало аспектів операторської роботи й кіновиробництва, про які більшість із нас навіть не замислюється. Після цієї книжки ви дивитиметесь фільми набагато проникливішим і прискіпливішим поглядом. Словом, книга про оптику, яка змінює оптику самого читача.

[Sean · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good book to purchase and have as reference when creating images. Contains lots of examples (images) on how emotion can be showcased in film by using space, movement, focus, lens flares, distortion etc.

[Jose Luis Guerrero · Rating 3 out of 5]

Me ha ayudado a comprender como el uso inteligente de las ópticas influye en los sentimientos que provoca una película

[Tường Trương Thuật · Rating 4 out of 5]

All about lens, from technical to theory. What I like most about the book is that the examples taken from the movie are specific and easy to understand.