One of the essential points to be taken away from Sandra’s lecture on directing, is the role of the Director on the day of the production. Whereas other crew members have their own responsibilities, i.e. Cinematographer working with camera operator/s and First A.D’s scheduling, the director is key to creating an impression on the actors he is working with, providing them with stimulus where they can draw their emotional response from without being dictatory. The film is the director’s vision as its auteur, and therefore his call in making creative decisions.
Secondly, she stresses on the idea of a Plan B during filming. That is, to fit the shots to be filmed to an arrangment of most importance prior to actual production. In this case, the shots filmed initially will maintain lighting and any other unpredictable factors such as weather.
The Clip from Blood Simple exemplifies a standard cutting pattern of Person A to Person B, sometimes intercut by shots of objects in closeup and long shots of characters walking to/away. The 180 degree rule is maintained, that is, the camera does not cross what is known as the ‘axis of action’ and shots of the two characters are even made off-centre to emphasise this.
In terms of audio edits, sound is often dubbed from one over another, as seen when Person B begins to hyperventialte and is consistent over Person A’s reaction shot. Non-diegetic sounds are also used to imply objects and actions that should belong to the setting but are not necessarily seen on-screen, such as the sounds of whirring, door shutting, and eventually, Person B being sick in the bathroom and tapwater running.
Lastly, here are some Adobe Premiere keyboard shortcuts unknown to me prior to the last weeks’ lectures:
CMD+G – group
CMD+SHIFT+G – ungroup
These are helpful in grouping clips, allowing the user to move multiple clips to a particular direction.
SHIFT+I – go to IN
SHIFT+O – go to OUT
This pair is a shortcut for the user to go directly to marked sections of a preview clip.
CMD+D – apply video transition
CMD+SHIFT+D – apply audio transition
Having selected a transition effect for the sequence, these shortcuts allow immediate edit to selected clip/s.