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/>

This week we focussed on our proposals and what we would like to achieve by the end of semester.

In Wednesday’s class I started thinking about the end result. I know that by the end of semester I would like to have created a scene. I now need to start thinking about how I am going to achieve that. At this stage, I believe that I will need to a lot of research and exploration into what aspects of a scene I would like to focus on.

These are some of my initial thoughts and ideas on my scene:

I am going to try identify myself within the scene that I create.

I am not trying to make a scene that is narratively entertaining, I want to have a pure focus on the art of the scene, the coverage, the performance, the lighting, the location, framing, mise en scene. I find it exciting to produce something that is not concerned with narrative. I feel as though my past short films have had a sole focus on story. I have judged my film on whether or not the story is a success rather than the visual product being a success. I like the idea of not having to think about the cause and effect of the scene within a narrative.

I am going to focus on having a vision for my shots- could look at other directors visions.

I would like to focus on the movements of the camera and the shot coverage-want to experiment with different shots-trying to create dynamic camera movements.

I think that it is important to shoot to edit. I want to make sure I think about how my shots are going to work when it comes to editing

I would like to centralise my scene around how it looks visually, particularly by having a focus on the framing.

I want to work from a script that my friend has written- I don’t want it to be a conventional script- I just want the script to contain the one scene which is specifically for my shoot.

I don’t want much dialogue within my scene and I want to restrain myself to one location.

Epiphany:

My epiphany this week came from a practical exercise that we did in class which focussed on spatial continuity. I realised that you can cheat with the camera and cheat the background. With the camera and our actors we created an illusion of the background which made it appear as though our location only had black walls. Once again, just by picking up the camera and putting it into practice I was making discoveries that I wouldn’t otherwise find just by reading.

Starting and Serendipity.

With every piece of work that I do, whether it be writing this blog post to making a scene, I have trouble starting. Starting a project and starting the methodology is by far the most daunting part because I have a fear of it not turning out as planned. Overall, I would like for my scene to be aesthetic, convey style and stimulate emotion. If this isn’t my final result, I will have learnt something from the process of creating my scene and hopefully serendipity will take place. Paul introduced me to the wonderful word ‘serendipity’ in Film-TV and it has become part of my everyday thinking. When something goes wrong, something bad happens or something doesn’t turn out how you wanted it to be there is always something good or even better that comes from it.

Just the Visual- Moments of silence and stillness.

I would like to try and create a scene with little to no dialogue and moments of stillness and silence. I want my audience to be focussed on the movement of the actor and the aesthetics of the scene. I believe that moments of silence speak louder than words.  In the pre-production stages of my scene, I want to start with just creating the visuals. These visuals will be silent shots of the characters which tell the audience something through movement and performance. I aim to convey as much information to the audience through visuals and performance. Any information that I cannot show to my audience through the visuals will then be shown through dialogue and then through music. I believe that dialogue and music is used to tell the audience something that they don’t already know from the visuals. The dialogue and music should only be used to stimulate feelings within the audience that cannot otherwise be created through visuals. Therefore, when filming my scene, I want to have a wide array of shot coverage, incorporating every element of information within my scene and about my character before sounds play their part.

When we began shooting our scenes at the start of this course we knew that there were going to be flaws in our performance. None of us are experienced with acting in front of the camera, we haven’t been trained, and we haven’t practiced. Our understanding of the performance is limited to the actors we observe in films, the performance of our everyday life, our mannerisms, expressions and body language.

In the scenes that we have filmed so far, particularly the “stairs” scene from week 4, the performance has been mostly improvised. At no point have the actors practised their lines or had time to get personal with the characters in which they are performing. They have been directed where to stand and where to move around the space but there has been little emphasis on the overarching detailed aspects of performing such as facial expressions, mannerisms, speaking and body language. Our focus has been on shot coverage, framing, composition and movement. The fact that our focus has purely been centred around the camera rather than the performance has allowed the actors to work with no pressure and no expectation.

In Schechner’s Performance Studies: An Introduction (2013 p28) the notion of performance is explored:

‘To perform is to do something up to standard-to succeed-to excel […] performances mark identities, bend time, reshape and adorn the body, and tell stories.’

In the “stairs” scene, there were problems with continuity, the space didn’t allow much room for performance and the camera work didn’t show the details of the character’s facial expressions. Despite this, it was still a performance that ‘succeeded’ and ‘excelled’ as the actors stood in front of the camera confidently delivering their lines-without training or much rehearsal.

When editing the “stair” scene and reviewing the performance, I noticed it difficult to match up the shots as the actors were inconsistent with their actions and movements. This is largely due to the fact that the actors were improvising in front of the camera. It would have been good if we had someone working on the continuity whilst we were shooting so that the scene looked more fluid when edited.

On the Friday of week 5 we filmed another scene which involved two actors, an ‘executive team’ and ‘support crew’. I found this to be a much more successful performance as the actors expressions were clearly depicted on camera. We tried to give the actors motivations and goals for the actors by making it more personal to them. At first, the performance seemed uncomfortable and awkward but after a few rehearsals the actors became more comfortable in front of the camera. Still we no expectations set upon our actors, they felt that they could improvise more and take risks with their accents and body movements.

Something that I have noticed throughout most of the performances within this course is that they have been comedic and somewhat unrealistic- this might have something to do with our lack of experience with acting. I found it interesting nevertheless and I am wondering how we could perform something more serious and realistic. I feel as though rehearsing the lines, mannerisms and body language before shooting would help to eliminate the awkward comedic performances.

Another aspect that I am interested in with regards to performance is the difference between a theatre performance and a performance on camera.

What does the camera do for the performance that theatre does not?

-the camera can capture the facial expressions of the character in close ups

-the camera can create visual motifs and symbols connected to a performance which theatre cannot.

-the camera can use point of view to allow the audience to see a subjective performance.

The performer conducts themselves differently on a stage in front of an audience in comparison to how they conduct themselves on camera. Their actions, body language, mannerisms and expressions are much more dramatic and emphasised on the stage so that the audience can capture the story and emotion. The performance on camera is much more subtle as the close ups can clearly capture every detail of actor’s expressions and body language. If a theatre performance were to occur on camera it would appear melodramatic and ultimately unrealistic.

References:

Schechner, R 2013, Performance Studies:An Introduction, 3rd edn, Routledge, Abingdon, England.

I wasn’t in class to film our “stair” scene however I still found it a valuable exercise when it came to editing the scene together. The space that we used for this scene looks as though it was quite restricting and difficult to film in. There are distracting background sounds and the lighting is not ideal, however the sound and lighting was not our focus. Our focus was on the shot coverage and how we could effectively use the space to create a short scene for editing.

The scene opens with a medium-long shot of the stairs which helps to establish the location. The two characters walk from the lower left corner of the frame, in front of the camera in a close up and then position themselves in a medium shot. Character 1 stops walking on the stairs near the centre of the frame, his head is slightly cut off at the top of the frame as he looks down at character 2. Character 2 stops walking, positioned in the lower right corner of the frame as she looks down and then looks up to talk to character 1.  The camera is static throughout this shot. As character 1 begins to walk up the stairs his head is cut out of frame. The shot then cuts to a medium shot of character 2 looking down and talking to someone who is positioned at a lower level on the stairs. The stair rail is in the foreground of the shot and character 2 is positioned near the end point of the rail. The stair rail distracts us in this shot and we are unable to see the face of character 2 or 3. There is also too much head room above character 2. This shot then cuts to an over the shoulder shot of character 3 looking up at character 2 and talking. Character 3 is positioned to the right of the frame, we can only see a little bit of his head and shoulder as he looks up at character 2 who is framed in a medium-long shot. Both characters are positioned awkwardly within the frame and the shot doesn’t look balanced. There is too much head room above character 2 and she is not positioned in the centre of the frame. The low angle is quirky but may have been more effective if the characters were slightly closer together on the stairs as we don’t really get to see the details of their facial expressions. The shot then cuts back to the previous shot of character 2 positioned at the end of the stair railing, we still are unable to see character 3’s face properly. The conversation continues between the characters, alternating between these two shots but the camera coverage never allows us to come up close and personal with the characters. I would have liked to have been able to clearly see their facial expressions in a close up shot. The next shot is an over the shoulder of character 1 looking down at character 2 who is framed in a long shot.  The stair rail can still be scene within this shot and within each shot can be seen as an object which helps to direct our eyes to the characters. In this particular shot our eye is drawn down to character 2 as she makes her way back up the stairs. The shot then cuts to character 2 walking in front of the camera where we can only see her back and arms as she makes her way up the stairs. In this shot we get more of a glimpse of character 3’s face however the stair railing is still blocking most of him and he is positioned in a long shot which makes it more difficult to see his face. The camera cuts back to the over the shoulder shot from behind character 3. Character 3 turns towards the camera and walks out the right side of frame as character 2 is positioned in the left corner of the screen walking up the stairs. The scene ends after character 2 has walked past the camera out the right side of the frame.

The camera is static throughout all of these shots. I would have liked to have scene more movements with the camera to create variety in the shots.