Cinematography in comics

[punkarsenic]

I've seen, over time, a lot of references to film terminology in making comics - from different kinds of shots, to the 180-degree rule, and i know that personally looking at cinematography is really inspiring and useful when i make my comics (and theres certainly a lot more stuff to find on movies than on comics.) so lets talk about the relation between film cinematography and what goes on in comics,

• have you researched into film techniques for your comic? do you find it useful?
• what techniques do you really like, or think translate really well into comics?
• what techniques dont translate into making comics?
• do you consciously think about the subtext of your shots, in which case, what kind of things do you do in your comic that you really like - or do you just go for whats functional and cool, and let the subconscious deal with subtext?

[joe_galindez]

Writer here. I've studied film a bit and it's been useful, mainly in making me aware that there is a camera, even in written works, and that you should move it through the scene with purpose and care.

I try to write my action scenes like the best movie action scenes. Often they are the best movie action scenes, or at least they start that way. Like, I've literally got them playing in slow-motion in VLC while I write down the blow-by-blow in Notepad.

I've found that written action scenes can't go on for too long, because they're more tiring for the reader. They have to imagine the whole thing, while a moviegoer can just sit back and watch. That's the main difference between novels and films: one is linear and takes effort, while the other throws all this information at you that you can't possibly catch every detail -- and you're not expected to

Funny background scenes in movies? Sure. Funny background scenes in novels, not so much. When it comes to the written word there is no background.

I think if you study one art form, it can't help but improve your understanding of other art forms too. There's a cross-training effect and it happens with every combination you can think of.

[IdiotWithPencil]

I have researched movies, series, books, mostly any form of story telling, in my comics I don't use anything of movies techniques except the 180 rule and shot composition

what I've learned is that the best stories use the unique powers from the medium they are in, like try to imagine loney toons in a written form or kill la kill as a manga, they wouldn't work as well as they do, so I concentrate more in what can I do in a comic that I can't do in other medium, concentrate on that and exploit the fuk out of it

but in story telling I do use movie tips, since story telling techniques are universal

[Kayke]

I took cinema studies in college because I consider film and comics to be very closely related. They both combine visuals and narrative in a similar way.

I think we all understand the need for establishing shots. But there are other "shots" we can take from movies too. You can alter how a person perceives a character by changing the angles and lighting in which they're shown. You can evoke different moods by framing the same shot differently. It's an established language that's fairly easy to learn and apply to your own work. I think the key to learning it is just by watching films and noticing the scenes that move you and being conscious of what the cinematographer is doing to influence the way you feel.

I think the biggest difference between film and comics is the pacing. Not like... the idea of pacing, it's very important in both as it is in all narrative art, but the execution. Films can use cuts and editing to effect how fast or slow a scene feels, but in comics it's pretty different. Page layouts and panel shapes end up being the thing that control the reader's sense of time. It's kind of the same in the sense that a bunch of jump cuts feel fast and so do a bunch of narrow panels... and long shots and long panels feel longer/slower. But I don't feel like there is a "page layout" equivalent in film. In film the frame is almost always going to be a constant (aside from some films that play with changing aspect ratios - Hunger Games, Dark Knight Rises, Enchanted, Grand Budapest Hotel) but in comics the size and shape of panels can be changed for every different panel if you want... and the way those panels relate to each other on the page also has to be taken into consideration.

Ummm other than that, on a practical note: scripting. There's not like a set "comic script" style, so everyone's comic scripts tend to look a little different but I know some people who try to stick close to film script format with their writing. I think film scripts are too stretched out? I like to condense things a little, more like a play. But I do still use some film words when describing visuals in scenes where the framing is important. It's kind of just easier to co-opt another art form's language than have to describe the concept of a point of view shot or over the shoulder or what have you from scratch in your own terms every time you want to use it in your script. (obviously this is specific to script writing where no one is really going to read it but the other people working on the project so I'm not worried about how pretty the language is... also I don't think I've ever seen someone describe a "shot" in prose )

[LCT_m_a_d]

I love studying cinematography. Tone and composition most specifically. There's a lot of good data to understand how people might react or feel to certain scenes.

Sometimes people have far fewer, or even worse, too open of expectations to the story-telling aspect of still media. People are more confident about their appreciation of movies even if they don't study film. That makes it easier to determine, "what works" and what doesn't for an audience.

I believe marvel artist will robson is also quite knowledgeable about cinematography.

[thomassayle]

Just poking in with my theory, I find that a lot of comic creators do come from a film background (making videos in general ) and that a lot of transfer over because transitioning ideas to paper is easier and more practical than filming all their ideas.
Also I find that comics are just highly detailed storyboards (sometimes) so treating it as so, decisions come naturally. Also there's this whole terminology of understanding and if it applies well into other arts why not use them instead of creating new unnecessary words. Both film and comics are visual arts so It would make sense they would share, just like the writing would borrow from books.

• No not for my comic, but I did research into film because I was/am interested in film and its production.
  *I think mise on scene (not really tech) which is basically everything in frame, and comics are made up of frames.
  but basically anything in the storyboard production.
  *camera movement, the frame doesn't move (unless flip o rama) so some things dont work, though there are creative solutions out there like for a pan you could do a long horizontal panel or if action is required you could have mutilples of said character against one background though the panel will be large. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Eakins#/media/File:Eakins,_Thomas_(1844-1916)_-_Study_in_the_human_motion.jpg)

• Unless its an important scene or I want to express and certain feeling/meaning than I let the sub deal with and do what feels right.

[Rixou]

*Sees topic creator * Ah, that explains why I like your comic, haha!

To address the items you raised one by one:

• I don't study films 'seriously', but I catch movies when I want to take a break from making comics, so there are probably subconscious effects.
• Cuts to weave together different plotlines/locations are useful. Also pacing to tell the maximum story within minimal time/page constraints without seeming too rushed.
• Er. Zoom cuts/staggered zooms can look lazy or make for too static a composition if overused or in the wrong context.
• subtext, as in eg. framing the image to emphasize the dominance of one character over another? If that, yes- here's from a page early on in Pandora's Scar.

Actually that's pretty much the main cause of angst when I storyboard/ pencil :'D

[Mocha]

I'm an art student so I kinda have to take film classes whether I want to or not, but I've found that studying cinematography really helps with drawing sequential art (comics, story boards, etc.). It really gives you a stronger sense of how to arrange panels and perspective/angled shots of scenes or characters and really makes your work more dynamic. It also helps with learning to create more cohesive pages that are easier to read and follow without confusing the reader about what is happening in the scene.

Things that I find don't translate well from film to comics:
-flickering lights
-subtle movements, either with the actors/characters or the camera, 2d illustration is better at capturing either fast dramatic movements or a single moment in time
-basically any fancy camera work that can't be expressed in illustrations

[Griffian]

I'm an animator as well as a comic artist, so I actually tend to look at my comics like storyboards:

I imagine it as though the paneling is the lens of a camera. Generally, I start with an establishing shot that sets up the subjects of the comic, followed by a close-up of the main character . In 18, I tried to give the feel a slow-panning shot before focusing in.

[Michelle]

I'm a storyboard artist in addition to doing comics, so I view most things through the lens of cinematography. Aside from basic technical drawing skills, I think cinematography is a crucial skill to have if you want to make entertaining comics.

Like @Kayke mentioned, your cinematography decisions influence how your story, the world and characters are perceived. You can make a moment feel comforting or filled with dread with just the right angling of the camera. Not utilizing camera placement thoughtfully creates a huge missed opportunity in comics, and oftentimes it's what can make or break a powerful story beat.

Re: not translating well, I think that while storyboarding knowledge makes for better comics, storyboard artists can run into pacing issues. When you're storyboarding, you're often drawing things moment-to-moment to convey a continuous scene, but in comics, that can make the pacing feel super slowed down. Moment-to-moment is great for conveying subtle or complex action, but in general comics leave a lot more visual gaps compared to storyboarding. Personally speaking, that was one of my big challenges when getting back into comics-- picking out those key moments to be turned into panels, rather than trying to illustrate every little action.

[ZatchZ]

You see it a lot in manga made in the 80's as a lot of the mangaka would use movie references to start up their comics. Such as Fist of the North Star, Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, One Piece, etc.

If you'd like, you can check out my comic, where I lift a lot of film techniques to put into my comics to give the readers a feel that they too are in the experience.
From the mise en scene, establishing shots, perspective views, hard close ups, reveals, building up suspense, story structures, etc.
I control the story by only showing the audience what I want them to see.
Or at least I try.

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