With this blog post I would like to go through every shot of my ‘Pure Heroine’ film, in order to provide a greater understanding as to what it is I was trying to achieve with each shot, allowing you (as well as me for that matter) to more accurately assess the degree to which I succeeded.
Coming in to this shot I knew that I wanted Tiana lying in bed and that I wanted the camera to slowly begin shaking in time with the opening of the song ‘Ribs’. In terms of composition that was very spontaneous and while I like the shot it could have been tighter around the edges as I could’ve cut out the bit of hallway through the open door to the left of screen. The lighting of this shot was also very spontaneous as I didn’t want to stick with the underexposed natural lighting of the room and I didn’t like the colour that the overhead lights gave. However we found this lamp that I really loved as it gave the room a real orange haze and I like how that separated the shot from the blue hues of the other shots and I feel it conveyed this idea of the character being a protective bubble within her room. In terms of the vibrating of the camera I really like how it ended up despite how rough it does look, as I personally think I achieved the idea of reproducing this idea of angst vibrating and bubbling under your skin as you fight boredom paralleled with an immense fear of the future. I quite like the length of this clip in the edited video as it has the feel of being quite personal and the more it stays on screen and continues to shake the more uncomfortable it becomes, conveying this idea of unease.
This is a shot that I had completely planned, and actually panned out exactly how I wanted it to. I really wanted this shot to have a sense of buoyancy and movement, as I liked the way it mimicked the beat dropping in the song aster the hum of the opening of song/ the opening shot. The idea behind this shot was to track Tiana, observing her walking through her house with no strong intention to arrive somewhere but out of mere boredom in order to distract herself. The fast pace of the walking paired with the fast movement of the camera is intended to mirror the similar shots to follow in the final section of the film of Gabi walking through the park. By doing this I wanted to compare loneliness that is purposeful with Gabi and the hastiness of Tiana’s boredom which is more related to being dissatisfied yet still being in a state where you’d rather hide away from these issues than do something about them.
This shot was completely unplanned both in its composition but also in the actual action of it all. I only decided to include it as we had an extra 10 minutes of filming time at the end. This aside it is by far my favourite shot of the film. With the inclusion of Ellen I wanted the shots to be slightly surreal in order to convey and idea expressed by Sophie that the music emotes the notion of the central character not being entirely present in the moment and already filing away these moments as memories as they are immediately happening shrouding your life in nostalgia. I think this shot achieves this idea of surrealism with the highly stylised positioning of the two figures. My other intention of including Ellen in this segment was to display Tiana as experiencing these feelings of loneliness and boredom even when in the company of a friend. The way they both fidget in this shot really works perfectly in helping emote these ideas.
I personally feel like this shot was the only absolute failure of the three days of shooting. While it doesn’t bear too much meaning in the form of the shot, it was just an infusion of my personal experiences with feelings of anxiety into the film as it recreates something I used to in times of stress. However this aside I really dislike how it has a large depth of field, as the hands were supposed to be in focus, something I’m still not sure what went wrong with filming of this shot. I also intended for this shot to be a lot tighter featuring only Tiana’s hand and the string and therefore being a direct mirror image of the one featured in the ‘Still Sane’ segment.
This shot turned out how I wanted it to yet I still feel like for some reason it falls a bit flat. The intentions of it was to have Tiana and Ellen being in a vehicle yet still being stagnant and therefore not going anywhere but just killing time. The framing of this shot is the most important aspect for me as I wanted the whole film to feature various shots with the figures in front of an expansive field, sky or road. In doing this I wanted to represent the uncertain and sparse future which remains looming throughout the film, and the varying relation the characters have with it. For instance Tiana and Ellen are looking at each other ignoring its presence yet knowing it is still there. In terms of exposure I originally intended for it to be completely blown out like the shot with Tiana in her room. However I feel like this washed out Ellen and Tiana too much so I then decided to have a little over exposed to try and strike a balance. Now looking back I’m unsure about this decision and whether I’m happy about it.
I’m quite satisfied with shot, especially in the way I was able to materialise a shot exactly in the way I had envisioned it. While the framing was unplanned, the exposure decision was extremely pre-meditated as I wanted to achieve a visual of Tiana looking out the window in to the abyss of her future and I wanted her ‘future’ to look quite vast and therefore wanted it to be completely overexposed and just white and essentially terrifying.
This shot I’m a little unsatisfied with. I intended to achieve a shallower depth of field in order for Ellen to be out of focus. In doing this I hoped to achieve this idea of Tiana not being entirely present in the moment and while she seems to be laughing and enjoying herself she is ultimately preoccupied with other thoughts disallowing her from being completely happy if just for a moment. I also would have liked to have used a wider angled camera to fit more of the action in.
With this series of shots I wanted to mimic the droning of the music to ‘Tennis Court’. The shots obviously place the setting of the film within suburbia. I framed this shots as being incredibly still and symmetrical in order to portray an idea of the mundane and banality of the appearance of the suburbs. I still however wanted them to be alluring in some way, which I tried to achieve by making the shots look appealing in terms of the aesthetics.
Similarly I wanted to mimic the repetitiveness of the production of ‘Tennis Court’ in order to convey and idea of banality and mind numbingness. Upon reflection I should have used and dslr for this shot in order to improve my mobility, as it was incredibly difficult to get this shot with the Ex3 which reflects in the repetition of the shot in the film not quite working perfectly.
Here is another example of a shot where I included a forewarning sky. What has shifted here is that unlike Tiana diverting her gaze way from the sky/concept of the future, here Gabi has come to terms with it and it is unafraid in the way she looks right at the sky unflinchingly.
This is once again another comparative shot to the one of Tiana walking through her kitchen, here however Gabi is walking with much more purpose and something I tried to adapt with my framing as I wanted it to be a lot more ‘correctly framed’ conveying an idea of purpose as opposed to Tiana’s where she floats in and out of shot.
Here the field of grass is supposed to represent a looming future once again, however Gabi is on top of her future both metaphorically and literally.
This shot came out exactly as planned exactly. I wanted it to be symmetrical in order for it to looked premeditated and once again sure of itself. I also wanted to place Gabi in a bust stop not only due to its suburban connotations, but to elicit ideas of her character going somewhere yet not having quite reached her destination yet.
In the final comparative shot, I wanted to repeat that of the central character looking out their window into the vast future; however unlike Tiana who closes her blinds and runs away from it, Gabi sits unflinched at the thought.
Overall with the film I’m quite satisfied with the work I did. While some technological aspects failed I feel the thematic and ideological aspects I wanted to imbue the shots do surface, at least for me.