SHOOTING A SCENE – WEEKEND TASK

This was a really useful exercise in allowing me to gain a better understanding of shot coverage. Putting it into practice, picking up the camera and trying to make something aesthetic is a lot harder than what I originally thought. I found it quite stressful when trying to transform a visual of a shot in my head to the camera. I was constantly thinking about how I wanted the scene to look when edited which helped me to figure out the shots that I needed however I found it frustrating when I couldn’t use the camera how I wanted to. This may have been because I was using a DSLR which limited my ability to focus properly and the tripod that I was using didn’t have a leveller. Despite this, I’m pleased with the scene and the variety of shot coverage that I used. I liked the nature of the task as it was mostly improvised-I didn’t have a shot list or story board to work from which allowed me to experiment more with the camera and the actors-lucky they had the patience for this! Before filming I looked at some scenes from the TV series ‘Breaking Bad’ and the film ‘Taxi Driver’ as inspiration for some of my shots and how I wanted the actors to move within the frame. I took screen shots on my phone of shots that I liked from ‘Breaking Bad’ and ‘Taxi Driver’ and used them as a reference to help form my framing.

Here are some of the shots that I looked at:

‘Taxi Driver’

I liked this scene as it was shooting someone sitting down at a desk. I thought this was similar to my scene as I would be filming someone sitting at a table doing the crossword. I didn’t replicate much of this in my scene however I took notice of the framing and the balance of the actors within the frame. I like the shot where we see the back of Robert De Niro in the foreground frame right and the other character frame centre.

 ‘Breaking Bad’

I liked this Close Up of the kettle. In the background, out of focus, the action is happening, however we are focussed on the kettle. This helps build suspense and tension. I also like it because it is a bit quirky.

This is how I tried to emulate this in my scene-little bit different as there is not much action going on but I really like this shot:

In this shot the camera is static as the character approaches it and sits down. I like the way the characters head gets cut out of frame just before he sits down-despite not being able to see his face we focus on his body language and can tell that the character is distressed. When the character sits down in a Close Up, it becomes very personal. The camera then rotates slowly around the character until he is in the centre of the frame. Following this, the camera tracks out into a wide shot of the character sitting on the ground. This is really effective in establishing the setting and the character’s place within it.

With this shot I tried to keep the camera static as the actor walked towards it however I found it hard to keep him positioned in the frame without it looking awkward. I think next time I would like to move the camera slightly and reframe as the actor sits down. 

Here are some screenshots from my scene:

What I particularly found the most exciting about shot coverage was the blocking of two actors within the frame. I seemed to get the hang of it by the end of the shoot and I am pleased with how I have framed the actors.