Wowee! What a week we’ve had. The pitches were a resounding success; the projects that everyone pitched were fantastic, and the support that everyone had for one another’s ideas was even more so. (although the pleasant demeanour may have been due to the presence of food. It usually helps.)
The ‘Last Afternoon Tea’ on Thursday allowed us to talk further on the pitches, form groups, offer ideas and support, and wrap up loose ends from the Tuesday. Now, with everyone somehow seemingly mixed in with multiple groups and collaborations, we were ready to roll, but not so quickly, there was still much to do and little time to do it in. with pre-production now consisting of trial shoots we will have to be both concise and time-efficient with little room for error during production.
These projects are our children, we wish to see them flourish, so let’s get out there and make them sons of pitches!
(warning:keep an eye on Paul)

Now this is a shot I’ve been infatuated with for years. I first saw this in my literature class in year 11, and it has stuck with me ever since.
Continuously morphs from a reactionary shot of the main character to the events surround them, to a POV shot – immersing the viewer into the scene. It shows depth and variety of scenery; deciding to not focus on one singular point, but to establish the scene and the entire world of the characters in giving a continuous unbroken 360 degree perspective of the environment they inhabit. It attempts to show the full spectrum of human emotion and the reactions/effects that war may have on people. Some lash out with violence, some wallow in despair in reflecting their actions, some turn to prayer, some choose ignorance, and some rejoice in its end. In one seamless shot we are not only given the perspective of our main character, but also a clear view of the mentality in total of their comrades, no matter how differing they may be. Whilst transitioning between the main characters perspective and the immersed audiences, the cinematography and stylisation remains the same- resorting to a continuous voyeuristic style. The only thing distinguishing the difference between the characters’ POV and the separated audiences’, is the involvement of the characters within frame. The objective of this shot is to provide scope, and it does exactly that in allowing several points of view to take control and dominate the shot without detracting from the overall scene. It is a shared experience, and so the imagery, perspective, and interpretation at hand must be shared as well. It is in this shot that it able to masterfully establish mass scenery and major differing scope/interpretation, whilst all keeping it within the one singular mentality of the combined characters contained within it.  The centrally-aligned cinematographic transition of frames help give light to the narrow and tunnelled vision of the soldiers depicted. There are plenty of actions playing out in the peripheral, however those are never noticed nor of any concern to the centrally depicted characters. Personally, this singular long-shot is able to give as much scenes could ever hope for, and that’s even after reading into it. everything within it is so meticulously constructed that you cannot help but assign meaning to every action; the imagery and alignment is so precise that it is near impossible for it to be chance.

Okay, so originally thought that my idea of a quick/smash cut of me washing the dishes was a dull yet interesting task to take on. I was wrong. Because next up was making the bed! Now this was interesting as that choice of concept went out the window, however interpretation was completely subject to will. We have our subject and topic, but how do we portray it? How do we add style? For this I chose I more comedic route not dissimilar to Edgar Write or that of Monty Python, (being major influences), in that I intended to use an almost musical sense of comedic timing, thus I had to pair it with a more comedic structure and style. But intention and timing is not enough as that the feel of a shot is greatly tied to its cinematography paired with its editing (timing). The opening  has a slower pace in terms of establishing the subject (rather than timing), and so a greater focus is given to the character and the subject at hand (the bed), establishing a relationship between the two. Once the strenuous relationship is established it comes to focus on the characters’ struggle, thus the POV and following reaction shots. Previously I had freedom. But now I was constricted. However, before I found the freedom to be overwhelming. What do I do when given so many opportunities? Yet once I knew what task I faced, I found it easier to concentrate and focus on a singular task; thinking ‘within the box’, but pushing its limits.

For this assessment I’d like to focus on the homework pieces for the studio thus far. I’ve loved the class exercises, but if I want to truly reflect, then I have to reflection what is truly mine and not a collaborative effort, (despite how educational they are).
In the pitch of a film or within the basic concept in the mind of a director or writer, we seldom give much thought to more menial tasks. Whenever people think of creating a piece they tend to think of the more action based scenes, or intense dramatic scenes. In all of my previous works there’s always been some sort of motive, be in from myself or of the character. Everything had a purpose. If something was deemed redundant to a scene, then it would be omitted from the final cut.
what was new for me was having to decide the task at hand and then portray that being acted out. If given a certain task or piece of imagery then I would be able to construct a more cohesive and clear piece, but if having to fully decide something on my own I tend to falter. I’ve found that that tends to be my downfall in a directing role – however it is usually not up to the director to create the imagery as a whole, but more interpret it.
This task has been invaluable to me as that not only did it force me to create and conceive a task, but to focus on something that is so often overlooked; of which I am definitely guilty of. How would this task be carried out? How is it framed? Is it stylised? These alterations and the questions at hand should continue to effect the decisions I make from here on out.