This scene from ‘Manhattan’ directed by Woody Allen in 1979 begins with a CU shot of the name ‘Elaine’s’, with lights and movement in the background behind the window; suggesting to the audience in the first shot that it will be in a restaurant, as it is also in the evening. It cuts into a wide shot taken from the back of the restaurant showing a group of people at a table; this being the establishing shot. The scene is an example of external composition throughout the rest of the scene, where the group of people at the table are having a conversation. It starts with a CU of character 1 in the right of frame looking left, then cuts to character 2 in the left of frame looking right, suggesting that he is talking to her. However towards the end of the shot, character 2 looks to her side when a new voice is introduced. A CU of character 3 is the next shot, positioned in the right of frame looking both left and right. A CU of character 4 is the next shot, positioned in the right of frame looking right; then character 2 comes back, still in the left of frame. This is one way to see how external composition works with more than two people at one time, and just in case the audience gets confused if they are all talking to one another, the camera cuts out to a wide shot showing the four characters. The next shots show the characters with the camera angles changing depending on who is speaking, and who the audience needs to focus on. As one character leaves the table the conversation becomes secretive, so the camera cuts back to a CU shot whilst demonstrating external composition. This means that the audience can focus on the character’s facial expressions and body movements, which build their overall persona. As character 4 comes back to the table, the camera cuts to a wide shot with all characters visible.

In week 12 there was no classes just a one on one consultation with our tutor Paul. This week I started reflecting about the semester, how far I have come and what I have achieved. It got me thinking back to where it all started and how I came to investigating external composition. This week I mainly reflected and focused on my final carpark shoot that I filmed last weekend. I am into the editing stage of this, and so far it is all working out; however the sound is what is challenging me, because each shot has a different level of sound, so I will need to edit this for the best outcome I am aiming for. The visuals have worked out well, and this is the first time this semester that continuity is not a main issue, which means that the editing stage won’t be as hard. Something that I never considered was putting music and sound effects throughout the scene, and it is something Paul suggested to me. He said that it could make the scene more impactful. This is something that I will be looking to investigate.I will also be putting a voice over of the guy on the phone over the shots leading up to him hanging up, to make the scene seem more realistic.

This scene from ‘L’Avventura’ directed by Michelangelo Antonioni in 1960 begins with a CU of a woman’s face sleeping. She is the focal point of the frame which means the director wants to focus on just her and her body movements and facial expressions. Because the camera is focused on the woman, the audience creates expectations that something is going to happen with her, and she is the main character of the scene/film. She opens her eyes and starts looking around because you can hear strong winds in the background. Due to the woman taking up all of the frame, the audience is intrigued as to where she is. As noted in the past, Antonioni has the camera following the actor’s movements. As the woman turns her head the camera shows more of her surroundings, and then when she sits up the camera tracks her movements, revealing a man sitting in the room. He is like a statue, not moving, even when the woman starts walking around. Having the audience now seeing the back of the woman and the face of the man, makes us focus on him, especially because he has a light projected onto him. The only character moving is the woman, suggesting that the audience should still be concentrating on her. The camera is still when she is moving because her body movements are being emphasised. The woman gets up and walks out of the frame, so the focus is now on the man, although he destroys any expectations that the audience has on him about moving. Another main feature to Antonioni’s films is that when the actor walks out of frame, he cuts to them walking into the next shot. This is exactly what he has done in this scene. The audience can now see a door that the woman is walking towards, and it is finally going to reveal where she is. This shot is a MS with the woman left of frame, and the doors right of frame. This allows the audience to focus on the opening of the door. When the doors are open it acts as a manmade frame, almost like its representing a picture frame. The actor stands to the left so that the audience can see the ocean and the sun to the right of frame. The reason why Antonioni has the woman with her back to the camera is because there is an emphasis put on the location, as the entire scene has been building up to this. The scene ends with the woman walking out of frame and the camera still focusing on the landscape; perhaps this is done for continuity and time passing purposes in the editing stage.

The scene from ‘The Passenger’ directed by Michelangelo Antonioni in 1975, is all about camera angles, camera movement and the movement and positioning of the actors. Antonioni has created a scene that draws in the audience’s attention, not giving everything away all at once. The first shot is of a piece of fruit still connected to a fruit tree, where a hand then comes into the frame from the right side, followed by a woman’s face. By just having the frame focused on the piece of fruit on the tree, suggests to the audience the location of this shoot. As the woman picks the fruit, the camera follows her actions, revealing more fruit trees. This cue tells the audience that this is taking place within an orchid. The found scene from week 10 talked about how Antonioni got the characters to determine the cuts by walking in and out of frame; and this scene does the same thing. The female walks out of frame while the camera is positioned behind her, then the shot cuts to her walking into frame with the camera positioned in front of her. This is done to prevent continuity issues, which will be of use in the post-production stage. Antonioni has her walking behind trees, showing a more realistic approach. The camera then follows the female’s eyes to show to the audience what she is looking at, however this is done slowly. The camera pans from her to the fruit on the tree, and then keeps slowly panning until the camera reaches the man laying in the grass. The slow panning creates suspense, and the audience is lead to suspect that something is going to come of this. The conversation between the two characters starts with a wide shot of them both, and then cuts to the female who is in the right of frame looking to the left; then panning to the male who is in the left of frame looking to the right. This is another example of external composition. By the way the characters are positioned, we know they are talking to one another, even if the audience didn’t see the previous wide shot. The camera then cuts to a medium shot of the two and then pans upwards, the same time the woman stands up. This is an example of how Antonioni makes the actors determine the shot types, angles and pacing, through their movements. Within the final shot we see the back of the man, and the front of the woman. This allows the audience to speculate that she is more important, and the lines she delivers need to be emphasised. This female character is the one who dictates the entire scene, and when she walks away from the man in the final shot, the camera follows her and only her. It is as if we are seeing her story and nobody else’s.

The scene from ‘Red Desert’ directed by Michelangelo Antonioni in 1964, begins with a shot focused on a brown door. This brown door is amongst white walls, with brown stairs leading up to this, suggesting that action will take place here. The door then opens and the audience is introduced to a couple who walk down the stairs and into the room. The camera has a wide depth of field as both of the characters are in focus, however the woman is in the foreground and the audience are drawn to her, whilst the man is in the background. The female is speaking to the male, however she has her back to him, so that the audience can see her face. This is a main reason why the audience are drawn to her instead of the male, and it seems the director wants us to focus on her expressions. The camera switches to the back of the woman, with the male out of shot. The camera movement tilts upwards at the same time the woman’s head does, emphasising what she is looking at, as it is obviously an important part to the scene’s storyline. The next shot crosses the 180 degree line, with an over the shoulder shot of the man looking at the woman. This action doesn’t make the audience question the scene, instead it works well and you hardly notice. This is a way to show all the areas of the room, however it is done so that the audience knows where all of the characters are in relation to one another at all times. Having the camera tilt all the way up to the roof is a way to pass time, and makes it easier in the post-production stages to cut to the next shot. The shots keep changing from being able to see the woman’s face to not see it respectively, which is another way to cheat continuity in the editing stages. The conversation that follows is an example of external composition, where there are single shots and the way the characters are positioned within the frame, and the way their eyes are facing suggests they are speaking to each other. In this scene there is a strong motif of the characters walking in and out of frame, which is a cue for the cut of shots. Every time a character walks out of frame, the shot cuts and shows the same character walking into frame. The paint on the walls is another motif that is used to determine space, that joins the two characters together. This is clear when the female follows the paint on the walls until she reaches the male. In the majority of the shots, the paint is what is in the middle ground of the framing, while having one character in the foreground and one in the background.

This week was spent planning our substantial blog post, and summing up the whole semester. This got me thinking how I am going to reflect upon everything that I have done and learnt. How was I going to summarise my method of working and investigations, because I have come a long way from filming one shot, to an entire scene.  I started with an idea, and I now have a research project consisting of various paths stemming from this idea with projects that I have created to demonstrate these.

Plan for Final Blog Post:

1.Start with where I began. How it all started. How I got to the stage of figuring out what I was going to investigate.

2.Talk about what I investigated and the paths that I took – summarise blog posts – main points.

3.How I learnt through practice – how this got me to where I am.

4.What footage I have created – Why I did this and how.

5.What I have learnt coming to the end of this semester.

6.What I have achieved through my investigations.