This is the edit of the exercise we did yesterday. I think although it took us a lot of time but regardless how it may be for some people, I really like how Farina is lit in the frame. Soft light just embraces on her personality. However 180* rule is broken by using the wide shot for the scene, it just feels awkward and breaks the motion of the film. I should have taken it out, but I added for the experiment whether it works for the audience and I think it doesn’t.
Here is the edit :
 
Today when I entered the class, I saw something new on the trolley, Lights. I always wanted to learn how lightning works in filmmaking and today I got the chance to see that. Besides that, each one one of us were given roles and I was given the role of assistant director for today’s class exercise. Being the boss of the exercise for a 1 minute scene took us at least 2 hours to shoot the whole thing. I thought this could be done easily in less than 30 minutes but I was wrong. It took us massive time to understand the concept of lightning, it is really important to know how to light your subject so that your audience can understand the mise en scène.
Time is another aspect that we must focus on, you just never know what might pop up. The actor may have given time to someone else, weather might change (but it is okay if shooting indoors), equipment may not be ready yet and other things that I can’t remember right at this moment.
Teamwork is important, trust is one part of it, you have to rely on your crew members to do their best and encourage them as they go along the way. Being the assistant director is a hard job, it is big responsibility, if something is not going where it is suppose to be going and the producer shows up, you ought to know you are dead that moment. But along with the role, I understood the importance of sound people, they truly are the unsung heroes of filmmaking as they quietly observe what is going on and they place the equipment where it works best.
Today we looked at one of the key aspects in documentary filmmaking (well not really) and in tv production, interviewing. Robin mentioned that mostly student tend to do interview in their documentary projects. That being said, He showed us different filmmakers approaches in interviewing, from formal style of interviewing, where camera remains still with two or three camera setup and either with one more take to it. The second style is informal where the camera is not still mostly and keeps on moving and follows the interviewee. All of the approaches had different aspect to it according to what the director or producer wanted it. Both have its own perks. I really like the informal way as the whole process is unscheduled and comes out naturally on screen. It feels more ‘real’ in terms of actuality of the situation.
When I watched Errol Morris’s clip, I was really intrigued of his approach, the key element of his approach was that his subject or interviewee was looking straight at the camera. It seemed powerful and convincing. Also to add on was Morris’s voice when he questions the statement of his subject and to which the subject conforms. It felt so convincing.
After that we did a small class exercise of doing a interview practice, I took responsibility of camera operation. Again I say, sound mixer is always a struggle, too many wires and consumes time, I wonder how the professionals on field cope with this struggle. Anyways, so with this exercise, I experimented with different camera angle and positions for this interview with extreme closeups to mid shots. I think over the shoulder shot seemed appealing to me, maybe because of the depth and both of the participants involved within the same frame. I personally wouldn’t go with interview in documentary filmmaking, I’m more towards the observational mode (Term coined by Bill Nichols) of documentary filmmaking.
It’s not the best acting I suppose, but they worked hard for it. What do you guys think?
This is the single shot take my group did for the exercise. I felt the importance of both the actor should be shown, thus I added put into the single frame. Let me know what you think?
So this is the idea if I ever want to make a documentary in future:
The story will revolve around a group of wrestlers who come daily to their practice area which is situated in a graveyard in the city of Lahore, Pakistan. Despite the lack of facilities, their mentor ‘Ustad’ provides his couching to students. Regardless being in a same sport and it is based on individual effort, there is no jealousy among the group and it is their bond that provides the joy of watching them perform. This documentary will focus from the preparation of the ‘Akhara'(square ring of dirt on ground) to their relationship, aggression and the excitement that they have in the ‘Akhara’.
Approaches to film this except for interviews.
I think the observational style as coined by Bill Nichols would be the appropriate way to shoot, as this style has no interviews with the subject. Many different approaches can be made. Following shoots comes into my mind
1, Mid shoot of these wrestlers coming to the area.
2, extreme closeups of their gear changing (Keeping it mysterious for a while)
3, wide shot of the empty ground.
4, closeups of preparing the ring
5, may be add elements of poetic mode with some music which would portray rushing towards finishing it up.
6, Mid shot to close ups of their emotions (aggression, laughter, the energy, excitement) while training
7, wide long shot of them leaving the ring and going back home.
In today’s class, Robin introduced us to different approaches of a filmmaking on a same subject which was very interesting to see how did the filmmaker went by. We just saw three short clips from ‘Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould’ (1993). The first was an interview style where this lady is telling about this gentleman, it was more of a documentary style film and it seemed natural and unrehearsed due to the plane flying above them and she looking up at the plane. The second approach was very artistic like, closeups of Gould playing piano but the visuals were of x ray vision, extreme closeups which showed the intensity of the subject and his passion for that piano. The final clip was more of a film like look, where actors were dramatizing one of his events or something similar. They were just three different approaches and I can imagine there will be other ways to the methods as well, it’s just a matter of observation and practise that is required in order to be well aware of what way you can go with the shooting.
In the other half of the lecture, we were given small class exercise, the first was a one shot of a scene of meeting between two people, which went well since there weren’t many dialogues, I specifically chose the frame as I thought that the both subjects are equally important as it was written in script, it was when I saw the original thing later in class that there were some dialogues missing and in nature it was all about the lady. Moving on the second exercise which was about interaction between 2 strangers in a train. I didn’t used any panning or tilt as it was a “confined” space, so I used the steady shots but with different zoom and angle variations. I’m happy with what I achieved as I knew what I was doing with the subjects. Lets see how it looks in the final version of the edit.
So this is my video which I edited for the class exercise. I think in my previous post I mentioned my planning for the task in which i record the same incident but with different camera angles and composition. So now that the whole clip is edited, I think I acheived what I wanted. I feel it does somehow change the mood in different situations. What do you think about it?
So in this week, we had to come up with an approach or a method to film in class with individually but divided in groups so that each can help out to fulfill their requirements. Last week when Robin mentioned this task, I was curios to what degree I can try something, I can’t just film a whole story or something using certain dialogues as it requires practise and time to perform for an actor. Then an idea struck, why not just film a single take multiple times but with different camera angles and shot sizes.
But before I could shoot, I had to act for my other group members task. My group members were Farina, Diana and Joel. Joel and Diana had almost similar idea, a journey of a guy from one place to another, nevertheless, I did what they wanted me to do. I think i did a decent job, well this is what they said to me so lets see how it comes to the edit for them. For my own task I asked Diana and Joel to only do the following tasks, enter the frame, shake hands/ talk/do some gestures and leave the frame. I asked them to repeat the actions while I changed camera positions and using a mixture of shot sizes.
I think in the end when I watched these clips, I realized that even though it was a single take, but it did gave a different mode to different camera angles and shot sizes, like when Diana talking in a closeup, she looks mesmerizing in those few seconds and I was astonished if she was the same Diana that is in our class In the other clip where the camera is positioned tilted low angle, it gave a mysterious feeling of what is going on and it provides a kick of a curiosity to the audience.
That being said, there were some miscalculations in the shoots I took, some clips had over exposed images and in parts Diana’s sweater was a bit highlighted. Other than that, I’m pretty much satisfied with what I achieved in the end.
Few weeks back we were given a small task to go out and take a single 50 second take on anything interesting we like. So I went to bowen street and decided to record a random scene. Out of a blue a bird walks in on the foreground of the scene and leaves at exact 50-51 st second of the take, It is something what Lumiere Brothers have done but I guess luck played in my part. Like Alfred Hitchcock says “In feature films, the director is god, in documentary films, God is the director’