The exercises within class this week allowed us to focus on the more technical aspects of filming and using the camera. We worked off a handout which required us to run through five different exercises, focussing on focal length, focus, exposure, neutral density, gain, and white balance. We went through the fundamental technical aspects that we needed to know for the camera and Paul told us a good acronym to remember them- P.O.W.F.F.E.R (power, on, white balance, frame, focus, exposure, record). We didn’t manage to get through all of the exercises on the handout but the task was really helpful in allowing me to understand how to do a focus pull when the subject is moving around the frame. I learnt that it is good to use markers on tape on the focus pull and to block out where the objects and characters will be within the frame throughout the shot. Paul also reminded us how important it is to keep the frame ahead of the action. It is better to be too far ahead of the action than to be lagging behind otherwise the shots look awkward. When working as the camera operator, it is helpful to get someone to pull focus for you so that you can focus on the framing and the camera movements.

In Friday’s class we went outside to film ‘The Person with the Headache” (from our handout).

There were three main aspects we had to focus on within this task

1. the way in which the actor was walking towards the camera-we wanted to make sure that we lit up the off-side of their face and two being

2. getting the exposure correct-it was sunny outside. Did we need to use ND filters?

3. pulling focus as the actor walks towards the camera from a Medium shot to a Close Up.

We had a bit of difficulty getting started with this task as we couldn’t get the actor in focus-we then discovered that this was because it was on auto focus- oops!

All in all, this exercise really helped in our understanding of how to pull focus and how to have the correct expose in an exterior setting.

Existence? Identity? Schizophrenia? A loss in the family? Stuck in the past? Crimescene?

Goal= to find his identity

Obstacle= the past

• make the character make choices
• if nothing changes in the scene then nothing has happened in the scene
• create the illusion of life and plot
• be unpredictable

—-

BEV (bird’s eye view) shot of man lying right back on a couch with head his head facing the ceiling and his arms extended out clasping the couch as if he was being crucified.

Cut to Flicker of half a second flashback to close-up birds eye view shot of man’s face submerged in bath water opening eyes and staring at the camera. Cuts BEV shot of man lying on couch looking up at the ceiling. Cuts-back to one second flicker of close-up birds eye view shot of man’s face submerged in bath water opening eyes and about to scream. Cuts back to BEV shot of man lying on couch looking up at the ceiling. Cuts back to three second flicker of close-up birds eye view shot of man’s face submerged in bath water opening eyes and screaming—simultaneously the kettle starts boiling (whistling) for several seconds and we see a close up of this. The man drops his gaze from the ceiling to the kitchen. Mid-shot with flowers in the foreground looking at the profile of this man sitting on the couch (pull-focus). He hastily gets up and attends to the kettle in the kitchen.

He pours himself a tea/coffee then hastily makes his way back to couch. On the coffee table in front of the couch there is a series of photos (Close-up pan of the photos). The man is comparing the photos against each other and begins quickly rustling through them as if he has come to some sort of realisation(Over-the shoulder or POV shot). (POV) He holds one photo up in the air and the camera shows the photo, the photo is still raised in the air by the man whilst the camera shifts to the left slowly (and slightly) to an empty picture frame on a wall full of pictures.

The man walks towards the wall and realises there are more empty picture frames everytime he keeps looking. He is confused and quickly makes his way back to the coffee table, grabs the photos on the coffee table and scatters them on a rug in front of the coffee table. Shot looking up at the man’s face through the scattered photos. He scuffles through the photos on the rug as if his life depended on it. He stops on one photo and slowly raises it. He looks at it for a moment not before checking his surroundings as though he is being watched.

Cut to a handheld (Shaky?) voyeuristic shot peeping into the family room from the backyard of the man getting up slowly and walking towards the bathroom. The camera follows the man into the bathroom. As the camera enters the house, coming from the bathroom we hear the sound of a running tap.

Cut to split shot of family room and bathroom. In this shot we see a blank photo frame resting on a chair in the background of the family room and the reflection of the man’s face in a mirror in the bathroom.

The man is splashing water on his face in the sink (or bath?) repeatedly. Cut to close-up shot of him staring at himself in the mirror with water dripping down his face.

Cut back to split shot capturing an empty mirror in the bathroom and a picture of the man in the picture frame resting on the chair in the family room.

END SCENE/TEASER…COULD END IT HERE?

<<<ALTERNATE ENDING>>>

From the split shot, the man enters the bathroom, lays down in a half-filled bath. The camera moves towards the man until the shot is BOV looking down at the man’s face submerged. He screams with his gaze looking into the barrel of the camera.

END SCENE/TEASER—

Could put close ups of the kettle boiling as little flashes in between, particularly at tense moments.

Also could put more flashes of the man’s face in the bath shot, particularly in the last part where the camera follows the man into the bathroom.

Potential shot along the pictures on the wall.

Mid-shot (Close-up?) of man splashing water on his face however we see the man’s actions upside down as the camera is actually focused on the mirror. The man’s gaze is forwards and the shot flips to a extreme close up of the man looking down the barrel of the camera.

Written by Dion Kaliviotis 

Dan Gilroy’s ‘Nightcrawler’ is a film that I feel particularly relies on visuals to depict its story. This isn’t to say that there isn’t a lot of dialogue in the film, I just feel as though as the audience we gain a greater understanding of what is happening in the film through the visuals and actions of the characters rather than through what is being said. I believe that ‘Nightcrawler’ is a film that has quite a distinct visual style and therefore interests me as having my own distinct visual style within my scenes is something I would like to achieve in the near future.

An article on ‘The Examiner’ suggests that the film has a surreal look, it is both dark and voyeuristic. The article explores the idea that the film has a strong visual palette which is mainly developed through Jake Gyllenhaal’s (Lou Bloom) use of the camera throughout the film. Apparently Gyllenhaal used the camera a lot off set, he practiced with it, used it as a research tool (Dan Gilroy talks, 2014). This is much what I aim to do-use the camera as a research tool-try and shoot as much as I can in order to create a successful scene.

A particular aspect from the film that I found interesting was the way in which the action was shown through the viewfinder of the character’s (Lou Bloom) camera. Gilroy said that this technique was used in order to keep ‘the action close in the chase to the characters’. I thought this was an effective and distinct way of depicting the story through visuals within the film.

Dan Gilroy talks the slick, surreal, subversive look of Nightcrawler, The Examiner, 17 November 2014. Available from <www.examiner.com/article/dan-gilroy-talks-the-slick-surreal-subversive-look-of-nightcrawler>. [4 April 2015].

Throughout this semester I have focussed on creating an aesthetic and compelling scene. My focus now is to develop a scene that relies on the visuals to tell the narrative rather than the dialogue. To do this, I want to further explore the framing and composition of shots. I aim to discover how visuals can be used to convey meaning and create a story.

As written in an earlier post, I have learnt that framing is particularly in important in creating balance within a shot. From looking at scenes and deconstructing them it is interesting to note how the characters and objects have been framed and what meaning the framing has in terms of the story. If there is too much room in the frame above a character’s head, dead space can be created. If there is too little room above the character’s head in a wide shot the frame can look unbalanced and awkward. If the frame in a wide shot cuts off the character’s ankles or legs it can also look strange-the whole subject should be able to fit nicely within the frame. These are just a few aspects to consider when I film my scene.

I have found Gustavo Mercado’s book ‘The Filmmaker’s Eye’ particularly interesting in helping me understanding what it is exactly that makes a shot work well.

Some of the elements are :

• the placement of the character in the frame
• the use of the rule of thirds-this creates for a ‘visually harmonious composition’ (pg. 7)
• the rules of composition and breaking these rules
• Hitchcock’s rule- the size of an object in the frame and how it should connect to its significance in the narrative at that particular moment. The size of the character can be used to create visual emphasis.

I further discovered that the use of an unbalanced composition can be useful in reflecting the state of the story-it can create reflect and symbolise ‘chaos, uneasiness and tension’ (pg. 8).

The height of the camera can be used in order to ‘manipulate the audiences relationship to the subject’ (pg.8). If the camera is at a low angle- it conveys confidence, power and control. If it is a high angle-it suggests that subject might be weak, passive and lacks power.

Closed frames and open frames can be used to control how much information is being shown to the audience. A closed frame shows most information on the screen. An open frame doesn’t show all of the information within the frame (usually a close up) and draws attention to the off-screen space.

Focal points can be used to demonstrate an idea clearly. This can simply be achieved by having something in focus or not in focus, having it lit or unlit and by what is taking up most of the frame.

Reading Mercado’s book, in my research to come I would like to look at films that rely on their visuals to depict story and meaning. Scenes that aren’t dialogue having and don’t have dynamic use of shots. The first that comes to mind is a film I saw recently, Dan Gilroys’ ‘Nightcrawler’.

Mercado, G 2010, The Filmmaker’s Eye: Learning (and Breaking) the Rules of Cinematic Composition, Focal Press, Burlington.

This week our focus was the proposal. In Wednesday’s class we refined exactly what it was that we want to achieve by the end of semester. We shared our ideas with Paul and he gave us individual feedback. I found it helpful sharing my ideas with the class as they were able to contribute to what I should do for my scene. I was interested in hearing everyone’s proposal ideas because everyone had taken a different approach to the task-some people work better writing, others work better practically, some wanted to focus on particular aspects on a scene such as framing and others had a similar perspective to me and wanted to focus on creating something that relies on visuals rather than narrative.

Epiphany: 

Through discussing my proposal with the class I came to the epiphany that everyone has different attitudes and styles to the ways in which they want to film or write about their scene. It was interesting to see what everyone had taken and discovered from the class exercises and particularly the ways in which they wanted to implement them within their own work.

The location for my scene will be inside at an old Victorian style house. I will be using the bathroom, living room and kitchen predominately. This location is good for my shoot as I have access to it whenever I need it therefore giving me the opportunity to experiment as much as I like. I have chosen this location because I feel as though the mise-en-scene is compelling. The rooms are quite cluttered but the objects and colours are so interesting and arranged in a way that makes it feel like it is part of a film set.

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.

After receiving feedback on my proposal I realised I need to deconstruct other scenes from films in order to gain a better understanding of how I can use framing, mise en scene, shot construction and shot coverage. In my proposal I mentioned that I was going to research the works of Wes Anderson, Scorsese and David O’Russel because I believe they are directors with distinct visual style, however, I was told that analysing video art and surrealist film could also help me to further my understanding of visual style.

MY GOALS FOR THE REST OF SEMESTER:

Specific goals: 

To choose the location for my scene (completed by Wednesday 29th April)

To write the script with my friend (completed by Friday 30th of April).

Weekly tasks (starting Tuesday 28th of April until the end of semester):

To research, analyse and deconstruct scenes from films with a distinct visual style and to analyse video art and surrealist films (write in my blog)

To continue my methods of working by researching framing, mise en scene and shot construction (write in my blog)

To plan for my scene that I will shoot on the weekend by writing up a shot list, sketching storyboards and pre-visualising how I will approach shot coverage (write in blog).

Weekend tasks (starting from  Sunday 2nd of May until the end of semester): 

To create a scene using the same location and the same script, focussing on the shot coverage, shot construction, mise en scene and framing.

To edit my scene.

To analyse and reflect on my scene in my blog.

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.

Andre Bazin (1918-1958) was an influential film critic and theorist, the “Aristotle” of film (Dudley 2013 p.li). His most profound writings were within the Cahiers du Cinema which he launched in 1951. His interest in cinema arose from reading columns in the french journal, Esprit, particularly inspired by Leenhardt’s column. He also contributed his own work to Esprit which further developed his passion for cinema (Dudley 2013).

Bazin was strongly inspired by the workings of Mounier which as a result formed Bazin’s notion of seeing the camera ‘as a lantern with which the filmmaker peers into the dar, seeking a glimmer of views’ (Dudley 2013 p.28). Furthermore, through a combination of reading the columns in Esprit and the workings of Mounier, Bazin adapted the ‘personalist notion’ in which Bazin explored the ‘proper orientation’ of the filmmaker in cinema. He suggested that ‘when a filmmaker has found his orientation he has achieved style’ (Dudley 2013, p.28). His notions of personalism, depicted from Mounier’s work further developed and constructed his concept of the ‘auteur theory’ which suggests that film’s convey the filmmaker’s own individual vision and personal style.

After striking up his interest in cinema Bazin decided to create a ‘cine-club” which would gather cinema minds alike to watch and critic films on a projector screen that Bazin had sourced (Dudley 2013). It was during this time in 1943 that Bazin began writing theoretical articles on films. In his articles, Bazin argued that ‘cinema is the most important event in the popular and visual arts’ (Dudley 2013 p.53). Most importantly, Bazin recognised the need for critics in cinema due to the ‘homogeneity’ of its audience (Dudley 2013 p.53). He believed that the audiences who go to see films ‘reduce feedback’ due to the face that they are inconsistent with the types of films they are watching. He felt that no audience saw a large number of films within the same genre (Dudley 2013 p.53).

Bazin aimed to enlighten people to see the technical processes of cinema and fundamentally the ‘psychological, sociological, and economical factors’ of cinema (Dudley 2013 p. 55). In 1951, Bazin launched the Cahiers du Cinema in which his was able to convey his notions and theories to the audience and filmmakers. It was Bazin’s first essay, “Ontology of the photographic image” through which he was able to demonstrate his view of cinema which saw film as a new form of ‘achieving realism’ (Dudley 2013 p.65). Bazin suggested that ‘cinema has the power to represent a recognisable reality’ (Bordwell & Thompson 2008 p.158).

Interestingly, Bazin differentiates between the theatre and the cinema, recognising that cinema is able to do things that the theatre cannot. He believed that mise-en-scene is more significant in cinema than in theatre as the ‘drama’ can still be present without the actors (Bordwell & Thompson p.158). This is because the camera can lead the eye to different objects and motifs which help to tell the story.

In his writings, particularly within the Cahiers du Cinema, Bazin expresses his passion for cinema in a theoretical and critical way. His work has had an immense impact in shaping the perceptions of film and has ultimately changed the views and perceptions surrounding cinema.

(Source: mutanteggplant)

References:

Bordwell D & Thompson K, 2008, Film Art: An Introduction, 8 edn, McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages.

Dudley A, 2013, Andre Bazin, Oxford University Press, USA.

Nasu V, 2015, What is Cinema? Andre Bazin-Film Critic & Theorist, photograph, viewed  21 April 2015,<http://www.mutanteggplant.com/vitro-nasu/2015/04/18/what-is-cinema-andre-bazin-film-critic-theorist/>