Colour grading is really something I always hear about and it’s something I really need to get a handle of, but I enjoyed this exercise and trying to understand more how to do it, but what I’ve started on so far is trying to work on this shot, and play with the shadows and highlights to instigate the brightness in a manner that is suitable.

I worked with the saturation here, ended up creating something that is more or less quite greyscale

I haven’t watched this film since it first came out, but I remember being firm of the belief that Will Smith deserved the Oscar, well and truly for this role. He’s just bought his son a basketball with a little money he has, and the shot construction is very vast. The first thing I can really see is the flags you can see, to accompany this scene in which Will Smith sets out to inspire his son and encourage him to reach for his dreams.

There’s plenty of shots in this scene, of both Jaden, Will, and as it is a scene where they are engaging in a sports activity of sorts, it is understandable that the shots would need to be quite consistently panning in the close up shots.

The aspect of the sound of being 100% diegetic for the entirety of the time they are playing basketball, pushes its organic nature and really encourages you to embrace what the moment is. The mise-en-scene in the long shot of the performance featuring an American flag is pretty pivotal here, because it is a scene about, dreams, and the American dream.

So I guess further, it’s interesting here how this movie communicates the message of the American dream; and it is owed in large part due to both actor’s performances. There is an uplifting cinematic score to complement Will’s monologue, telling his son to shoot for his dreams, with a slow zoom-in from a medium shot, to really encourage one to shoot for the stars.

I think this is quite a simple scene, I was hoping to thoroughly breakdown as I thought it would be good to deconstruction a scene I was more or less fairly neutral about with a film I had in my youth enjoyed. The panning and framing throughout keep Jaden and Will at an imaginary eye level at points, which I guess when you think about it is something, regardless of height is usually instigated as it wouldn’t be fluid for it to not be that case.

Then the eyelevel shots are replaced by the inspirational style of Will looking down on Jaden with the slow zoom in’s, which maybe elicits the strength of the moment? Perhaps..

For this week’s videos, we were invited to look into a few ideas when it came to shots – to consider that a few shots could exist within one shot, and I think I spent the time we had trying to work out how to conceptualise this thought more or less, and in turn was pushing improvisation a little more.

What came out are two long shot scenes that cut back and forth and end up trying to capture a few shots as people interract with the frame.

Upon reflection, I would say that what I’ve learnt in these little thought provoking exercise for my creative process was quite worthwhile. There is always so much to be learnt in general but I think that what I got from these videos, combined with Paul’s suggestion to consider that short clip with multiple shots in one shot.

I had this idea of the two people walking to one area panning, which is a shot I think works, but perhaps needs to be redone with a speedier pan to be completely effective, but at this stage I think that it is a nice idea to consider. Further, I toyed with the long shot we shot of a phantom car, and found it interesting to consider the two manners in which it could exist, cut mid way and into the long shot. With that I started to think about Victoria, the film that was all shot in one take, and how it functioned more effectively as a film that was in one take even though there was a cut version, I’d say here, it isn’t as necessary clearly, but it is interesting that an affect in that respect can occur.

I was in a major rush when I came to trying to complete an edit of the two-line script and also syncing sound, and as such, my initial offering was a very poor attempt but also seeking out to try see how the scene looked; a quick cut with a backing track, to kind of improvise and try to see how the music sounds on the video footage that I have offered. I think what I’ve attained from this is that it can look… alright, if you give yourself little time.

As such I thought I’d try to sync sound instead using the footage of another group. There is something truly so lazy about not sparing the time to learn how to sync sound, which says something about.. me I guess.

It was perhaps embarrassingly simple to realise how to sync sound. It was especially eye opening to realise what mark it was for, and what Paul meant by, say mark it so you can see it, literally enabling you to see it later, something cool to have finally had a lightbulb moment about. I made a quicker cut version of this initial Lenny video, as the thing I was happy about was the improvised used of the shoes as blood, it really appealed to me. I think in the final weeks of this semester I would love to make a hail mary attempt to really consolidate my editing skills and make sure I’m reasonably up to scratch with all of the NOTAPOWFENGERE.

The only unfortunate thing about the first shot is I don’t think it leads to a very fluid cut into the bloody feet/shoes