Caravaggio’s revolutionary style, impressive use of chiaroscuro, and intense sense of drama, have influenced directors and cinematographers for decades. On July 14th I had the opportunity to share my study of Caravaggio's painting Judith Beheading Holofernes at the University Film & Video Association Conference, UFVA 2023, analyzing it from its aesthetic aspects of framing and staging, to the technical ones of light intensity and contrast ratio.
My workshop Imaginary Shadows: A Technical Interpretation of Lighting, Framing, and Mise-en-Scene in Caravaggio's Judith Beheading Holofernes utilizes filmmaking tools and concepts such as waveform monitor, dynamic range, color space, and bit-depth; to identify potential exposure values in the painting. It also analyzes 8-bit grayscales, both linear and gamma corrected, typically found in digital film production to determine its contrast ratio relationships.
The workshop foregrounded the unbreakable link between painting and cinematography, allowing participants to examine Caravaggio's work from the cinematographer's perspective and transfer the study results to their own filmmaking.
