There’s a new wave style of cinematography
at the moment that’s permeating both short
form and long form narrative work.
This style is built around a darkly exposed
look, which utilises handheld camera work,
large format cameras and a wider lens perspective.
Rina Yang’s cinematography embodies this
new school style, yet her visuals are also
punctuated by an old school, emotive, textural
approach.
I’ll look at examples of her short and long
form work, analyse her visual philosophy and
break down the gear she chooses to create
a contrast laden, punchy, textural visual style.
 
Japanese born Rina Yang moved to London where
she studied and began working in the film
industry.
After working as a camera assistant for 3
years she quickly moved up to shooting a range
of short films, music videos and commercial
work.
The majority of her career so far has been
in shooting short form films, but with her
recent work on the Netflix series Top Boy,
she is beginning to transition into working
as a DOP on more narrative content.
She’s worked with directors such as AG Rojas,
Jonas Lindstroem, Rob Chiu, Matt Lambert,
FKA Twigs and Aneil Karia.
The two visual concepts that immediately come
to mind when I watch Yang’s work are texture
and contrast.
This textural feel comes from the movement
of the camera, the lenses, and mediums she
chooses to shoot on as well as in the colour
grade.
All of these decisions result in a visual
style which feels cinematic yet a little rough
around the edges.
“I am more interested in creating emotive
images than something that is technically
perfect.”
Rather than searching for perfectly composed
frames, shooting on excessively sharp lenses
or lighting for an even exposure, she embraces
a certain degree of cinematic chaos, if it
helps to tell the story.
For interiors she likes to use haze machines
to increase the texture of the image.
Shooting in a smoky or hazy environment dirties
up the image so that it’s not perfectly
clean and sharp.
She also embraces lens flares and likes to
play with camera movement and backlight hitting
the lens to create streaks of textural light
across the image.
Lenses flare when a hard light source hits
a lens front on, bounces down the barrel of
the lens and creates scattered light artifacts
over the image.
The key to her lighting style is creating
high contrast images using lots of backlight
and very little fill or key light.
Backlight is a light source which comes from
behind the character.
Using little frontal light on the character’s
face creates a rim light effect.
This is where a thin line, or ‘rim’, of
light outlines the character.
Typically the cinematographer then ‘exposes
for the highlights’, which means that the
rim light stands out and the rest of the character
falls into shadow.
The way I like to imagine rim lighting is
that it’s like an animator adding an outline
to a hand drawn character.
It creates more separation between the character
and the background.
Lighting from many directions creates less
contrast, lighting from a single direction
creates more contrast.
Yang’s lighting therefore tends to be more
directional and therefore has more contrast,
or difference in exposure between the light
areas and the dark areas.
Part of Yang’s quick ascension up the film
industry ladder can be attributed to how well
she deals with people.
“Aside from technical skills and skills
directly linked with cinematography, one of
the most valuable things I’ve learnt is
how to deal with people.”
“It’s 100% collaboration every step of
the way and I love that.
I talk a lot to my gaffer about the look and
the type of light I’m trying to create,
and try to communicate with costume, hair
and makeup.”
Increased communication means that the crew
are all on the same page about the kind of
visuals that need to be created, which makes
the cinematography more closely match the
initial vision of the DOP.
Camera movement is foundational to Yang’s
style.
In short form, particularly commercial work,
more radical bursts of movement are often
used to create punchy, dynamic moments in
the cut.
She has used a variety of grip rigs over her
career, notably a dolly, but it’s her regular
handheld work which probably best exemplifies
her style of camera movement.
She likes to operate handheld herself and
usually uses an Easyrig, which is a vest the
operator wears with an overhanging arm and
a bungee cord, which is attached to the camera.
Initially the Easyrig was constructed as a
system which distributed the weight of a heavy
camera being held over a prolonged period
and removed strain on the operator’s back.
It’s now often used by operators to stabilise
a camera during short bursts of movement or
for holding on long static shots handheld.
For longer following movement, the traditional
camera on the shoulder method is often preferred
as using an Easyrig while walking can give
an exaggerated bouncing motion.
When framing characters she likes to compose
her shots on the side of the face with less
light.
So her framing and her darker exposure increases
contrast and emphasises her more silhouetted
lighting style.
She often uses LEDs such as Arri Skypanels,
HMIs, such as Arri M-series lights, and tungsten
lights when necessary.
In the studio shot music video ‘Rocket Fuel’,
we can see that she employs her rim lighting,
backlight technique.
She first uses area lighting to provide a
soft, ambient base exposure light for the
scene.
Overhead we can see her lighting team has
rigged various Skypanels S-60s onto trusses
attached to the studio ceiling.
They then rigged a large diffusion layer to
soften the light, which looks like it could
be a full or half grid cloth.
Once she has the ambient light set, she adds
her backlight, which in this case are various
direct, undiffused, tungsten par can lights.
This creates a hard, top backlight on the
characters.
She doesn’t use any fill light from the
front, only backlight.
This creates a rim light effect.
Part of the texture of her images comes from
either shooting on film, or shooting digitally
and adding film grain to the images in post
production.
For 16mm work she’s used the Arriflex SR3.
When shooting 35mm she’s used the Arriflex
435.
Digitally she favours the Alexa sensor and
has used the Alexa Mini for Super 35 work.
Recently she’s taken to shooting large format
digital on the Alexa LF for most projects.
“People look amazing on the [Alexa] LF.
It’s the skin and texture...and also the
falloff.
I prefer that look to anamorphic at the moment.”
For projects that require slow motion such
her Caster Semenya Nike commercial, she’s
used the Phantom Flex.
As mentioned she loves flares and has used
a range of interesting glass for their image
characteristics.
She’s used the Blackwing 7s for their beautiful,
circular, rainbow flares.
Yang regularly uses Cooke lenses, especially
the S4s and the S7s which cover a large format
sensor.
Cooke lenses are known for their warmer image
characteristics, being kind to skin tones
and their increased contrast.
Using lenses which have more punchy contrast
helps to build upon and amp up her style of lighting.
 
Yang’s style is characteristic of a new
wave sensibility to photographing images.
Her cinematography is emotive.
Her strong, deliberate use of lighting, charismatic
camera movement and textured cinematic capture,
culminate in bold visuals that enhance the
emotion presented in the storytelling.
As well as being an inspiration from a cinematography
point of view, I also view her quick ascension
to the role of DOP as being inspiring.
Sometimes it takes fresh, young eyes to break
the status quo of how images are traditionally
produced and inject a vigorous, visual approach
into how stories are told using light.
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style.
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Until next time, thanks for watching and goodbye.
