The poetic filmmaker, James Broughton once wrote that “every film is a voyage into the unknown…it is unwise to embark on the high seas without knowing a few of the laws of navigation.” I feel that this is true in my approach to making a scene. I am always venturing into the unknown. I am out of my depth when it comes to shot coverage. The only way I feel I can get better is to pick up the camera and make scenes before I embark on the high seas of making feature films.

For the rest of the Semester I am going to investigate how I can use shot coverage to produce a distinctive, personal and aesthetic scene. I want to create a scene that is built around the image rather than the narrative. My approach to the scene will centralise around visual style such as the mise en scene, the shot construction, and the framing. I am yet to discover my distinct style of filming and approach to directing. I feel as though my investigations and practices will further my understanding of a scene. My focus on the visuals and shot coverage will allow me to discover my distinct visual style of filmmaking.

In order to achieve a scene built on the image and visual aesthetics my method will be:

1- To eliminate the narrative and the conventional script

I intend on conveying information to the audience through the shot coverage and the image. I have always been caught up with narrative. I find myself asking the question- Is my story good enough? My first year short film focussed heavily on narrative. This ultimately averted my attention away from the visuals and shot coverage. I was caught up in trying to create a cohesive and successful story from start to finish. In my scene this Semester I will simply focus on shot coverage and producing a visually aesthetic scene. The Director Abbas Kiarostami stressed the point that a mediocre narrative brilliantly told is preferable to a brilliant narrative poorly told.

2-To have a personal creative vision

I feel as though my scene will be more ‘intense’ and successful if it is something that is personal to me.  I would like my friend to write a script specifically for me in order to achieve this. I want him to write a script that only consists of one scene. It’s simple, focussed and restricted. There is no narrative surrounding the scene- no start, and no end-Through this, I feel as though I will have the ability to experiment with my shot coverage and focus on the visual elements of the scene.

3-To deconstruct and analyse successful scenes from films as inspiration for my shot coverage. Look at directors with a distinct visual style.

Through the deconstruction of other scenes I will be able to look at how I can apply similar shot coverage to my own scene. I am going to look at modern auteurs of film such as Wes Anderson, Scorsese, David O’Russel and Tim Burton to name a few and determine what it is that makes their films so visually aesthetic and stylised.

4-To pre-visualise my scenes.

By visualising my scene before production I will be thinking about how my images will come together when edited, I will be shooting to edit. This will be effective in helping me make artistic choices on shoot and help determine the range of my shot coverage.

5-To use the camera as a research tool

Simply pick up a camera, go out and shoot. I am aiming to shoot my scene three times, each time I will focus on using different shot coverage. I will be filming at the same location and with the same script each time to allow me to simply focus on shot coverage and visuals. As Jean-Luc Godard said: “Take a camera, shoot something and show it to someone. Anyone.” I feel as though this is the best and possibly the only way that I am going to get better and create a successful visual scene.

All in all, as I embark on my journey into the voyage of the unknown, I feel that practice and investigation are essential to my endeavours.