In this week’s class our focus was to have a variety of different shots within the scene in order to achieve interesting, successful and aesthetic camera coverage. In the past and particularly in Film-TV I found that I wasn’t thinking enough about the different shots, perspectives and camera coverage. This may have been due to the size of the task-I was too busy thinking all the different elements within the film and lost focus on what would simply make it look great. This task (much like last week’s), allowed for a specific focus on camera coverage. I found that I was taking more risks with the camera and doing shots and camera movements that I wouldn’t do if I was creating a short film. I learnt that with a smaller task, more detail can be explored and presented. In comparison to the holistic approach to film that I have taken in the past I really enjoy being able to focus on the camera coverage for just one scene within a film. I didn’t feel overwhelmed by the somewhat daunting nature of creating an entire film which requires you to attend to other elements such as narrative and character progression.

A distinct, pure and aesthetic quality was produced when creating a scene which is treated with detailed focus to camera coverage. Even if there is a time restriction given to us in class, I still found as though the exploration and experimentation with the camera movements is more advanced and intriguing in comparison to work done in past classes. With the style of these in-class tasks there isn’t any pressure to feel that how you shoot a scene will be the final and result. I feel as though I can take risks with the camera as there is no overarching fear of the film as being absolute. I can produce something in class that may or may not be aesthetically pleasing or good but it will undoubtedly teach me something about film and how to create a scene.

Watching the recordings back this week was the most rewarding for me. I honestly didn’t expect a lot of the shots to look as good as they did. It was really useful to see the ways in which we thought we were creating the scene and covering the shots in comparison to how they looked on the bigger screen. I noticed that some camera movements that I was unsure of turned out to be quite powerful and aesthetic-Paul said that the shots made the characters come to life, they broke the barrier between what we see in the real world with our eyes to what we see in the cinematic world. This task most importantly helped in giving me ideas for how I could use the camera in scenes to come and how integral it is to think about the blocking for the actors

Epiphany:

My epiphany this week is about taking risks with the camera. I realised that I needed to do something with the camera movements that I wouldn’t normally do and then watch it back to see how it looks on screen. I need to be creative and experimental with how I approach a simple and restricted task. Taking this approach allowed me to discover what is successful and appealing to watch.