Crossing the line was brought to my attention in week 2 when Robin had edited some of our footage which we shot the day before, into coherent sequences. I filmed a piece with three characters. A male character walks into the scene, sits down at a cafe table in the ‘imagined staging’. Two female characters come in to the cafe and sit down nearby in the foreground (when wide shot is taken where all characters can be seen). The two females discuss the man in the foreground. I captured their conversation using CU shots of the two individually. However, I failed to realise that the angles at which I shot them, would not read-well.
Robin pointed this out to our class and we went into depth about how important it is to make sure you do not ‘cross the line’ when filming, to make sure an audience can understand the positioning of subjects. When shooting a scene from a particular side of the action, the initial angle chosen for that scene, must be cohesive with the next.
Here is a clip I have found which explains ‘crossing the line’ in a more visually expressive way than purely in writing…
In this week’s reading, Luis Bunuel, discusses what découpage is, to the best of his ability. Although I am still a little confused about what exactly it is, as we don’t have a direct translation of the word in English, I feel I have gained a little more understanding of it after reading this piece.
I feel as though it as a term which covers many bases, the construction of a shot, how it’s executed and the “ordering of the visual fragments” (p. 131) which have been collected. It seems as though, quite often refers to the editing process. As the magic seems to lie in what is created from the tidbits of information to create a story in film. The premise is there, but it takes the découpage to develop narrative and action in a scene.
The piece finishes off posing that the “very act of setting one’s camera before an object to be filmed presupposes the existence of découpage” (p. 134). I have interpreted this to mean that the possibility of creating découpage is automatic when having even the motivation to capture frames of subjects or object.
Cited work:
Bunuel, L., (2000), ‘Decoupage, or Cinematic Segmentation’ in Bunuel, Luis & White, Garrett, An Unspeakable Betrayal : Selected Writings of Luis Bunuel, University of California Press, Berkeley, pp. 131-135.
Today, following our filming session yesterday, we spent the lesson in the editing suites. Having a basic-intermediate level knowledge of how to use Premiere Pro from my classes last year, definitely came in handy today. Both Emma and Siobhan joined me in the suite to learn from me, how to do a basic edit for this footage.
Firstly, I’d like to say that I am very pleased with the way the footage came out, as I was worried it would be excessively over/under exposed as I am still getting my head around the process of getting the levels right. I am very grateful that Robin had extensively covered how to adjust the contrast/brightness levels which the camera allows. Although still being unsure when I put it to the test, the lessons on contrast gave me confidence that I had a better chance of adjusting them appropriately to the lighting provided. It does prove that it’s all about actually putting the theory into practice in order to learn and come up with a result; trial and error.
Note: Our ‘imagined window,’ obviously, is going to show characters in an over-exposed light, but we did this intentionally.
Our final edit above is what I created with Emma and Siobhan in the suites. I used this task to show basic editing skills to them as well, as they had not used, or not recently used Premiere Pro. I found this task very easy as we had enough footage to work with, yet the amount was not overwhelming. Even though we captured our shots in a messy order, we luckily didn’t run into any issues that hindered our production process.
Analysing the scene we created, it is clear that the first shot (MS), with the two characters centred establishes the ‘imagined setting’. The second shot (MCU), taken from the left of Serena (foreground) and Vera (background), captured more closely, the movement of putting her head out of the window – an important action in the storyline of the script. The third, (MCU) focuses on Serena from the right side of her face, focusing on her as she looks in her ‘mirror’ in an attempt to see what it is she has stuck in her eye from putting her head out of the window. The back of Vera’s head is seen partially in the foreground, yet, the focus remains on Serena as the key lighting of the shot aluminates only her face. The fourth shot, a ECU of Serena’s attempt to fish out the foreign object from her eye, highlights the panic she has in getting it out. The ECU creates a sole focus on its importance. The fifth switch in the scene, is back to the same composition of the third shot, coming back to the initial action which was momentarily left, to highlight the fact there was in fact something irritating her eye. The sixth (MCU) focuses on both of the characters, taken from a slight left of Serena, yet, frames Vera more than she previously had been – because in this shot, she is involved with the action which is also important in telling the story which the script entails. Vera grabs Serena and takes the foreign material from Serena’s eye. The last shot, is the same (or close to) as the initial shot (MS), where the two are sitting next to each other, again silent, but now with an awkward vibe between the two (their actions show this accordingly).
In filmmaking and video production, the term ‘coverage’ means to capture footage, and hopefully enough, or the right footage, that it has the potential to be creatively used by the editor in the production process. The more footage there is, the more potential there is for a multi-faceted, visually captivating piece of work.
Today, we tested our basic knowledge of coverage so far, in two groups of around 6, taking on a hands-on practical task involving interpretation and shooting of a script. In a collective decision of the group, I was appointed cameraperson and took on the job happily. I was very keen to learn more about this beastly camera we’re working with. We decided that, because the task we were taking on was not of a monumental scale, we would have appointed jobs, but still help each other in the process of decision making within the responsibilities of each title.
We had two actors, Serena and Vera; a director, Justin; a first assistant director (1st AD), Siobhan; a sound person (possessing the boom microphone and headphones), Emma; a continuity advisor, Kate; and a cameraperson, myself.
We all worked together to decide what would happen, with each person having a little of the control over what was shot, if they voiced their opinion to us. I was given direction mainly, by Justin. We shot our ‘train carriage scene’ outside on some large steps. We used a beam of light to signify the window which one of our characters put her head out of, managing to get something in her eye in the process. We made do with what we had. We started with a wide shot of the two characters sitting side by side which included the action of Serena’s character looking out of the window, getting something in her eye, trying to remove it and Vera’s character asking whether she needed help. This shot covers most of the action in the scene, so if worse came to worse, we would have had the bulk of our action. The second most important shot was taken next; a side view of Serena’s head out of the ‘imagined window’ getting something in her eye, the same action played out as the initial shot, and this time, Vera also took the material out of Serena’s eye at the end of the take. These two shots, capturing all of the action, if problems occurred, would suffice in editing a readable scene together. Ideally, we would have played out the entire scene in the wide / mid shot of the two. To create a more dynamic selection for the editing process, we followed with capturing a shot where Vera speaks, that has the camera focusing more on her as she is facing the camera. We then captured a close up of Serena attempting to get the material out of her eye. Finally, we shot a wide shot, much the same as the initial shot, of the two looking awkward after the eye-incident. Admittedly, this should have been captured at the same time as the first scene, as I stated before.
A few problems arose during the entire production process. During filming, the memory card we used, I realised I had not reformatted and it was almost full after only a couple of takes. This was a minor issue and was resolved quickly by grabbing a new memory card. Our ‘imagined window’ because it was created by natural light of the sun, fluctuated in brightness and moved quite quickly, so the continuity of where our characters were positioned does not quite match up. However, this task was set to help us see and solve issues such as this. When we went to the editing suites at the end of this class, we loaded all of our footage to the servers and realised one of our shots captures our crew in the reflection of a window in the foreground. An issue we will all watch out for next time!
In 1963, two young men are hired as ranch hands in the Wyoming mountains. During the long months of isolation, they begin to bond. Their bonding experience turns into a passionate encounter on one of their cold nights on the mountains. When the season ends, they part ways, only to realise how deeply they feel for one another. A decades-long affair arises between them, one of which they both desperately try to hide from the people around them.The affair remains both beautiful and devastating.
Analysed excerpt (0:05 – 2:28) from Brokeback Mountain “I wish I knew how to quit you” quote scene
Throughout the scene: No non-diegetic sound in the scene Diegetic sounds are present
Dialogue
Both Ennis and Jack are wearing winter clothes and “cowboy hats/gear”
1. 0:05 – 0:27
LS – TRACKING SHOT Ennis and Jack are packing cars/moving items from Ennis’ car to Jack’s car. Packing up from their secret romantic trip together. No dialogue or music. Shot tracks to Jack and Ennis at Jack’s vehicle. This gives flow in the scene of moving items one place to another. LS becomes MS with Jack and Ennis in frame. As Jack moves closer to the opened front door of his car, his face becomes framed by the car door window. He is now in CU view. Ennis is captured out of focus in background. The focal point is Jack, he is upset to be leaving. As well as seeing this due to the closeness to his facial expressions, he also lets out a sigh to remind viewers of the struggle he finds in leaving Ennis again.
2. 0:27 – 0:44 MS – STILL CAMERA Shot from behind Ennis (out of focus) capturing and focusing on Jack in background. Captures the two characters looking at the ground. Ennis displays more reserved body language (throughout the film he remains a relatively silent character). To see the two in the shot, creates a comparison in terms of the feelings they’re expressing so an audience can make judgement of the scale of emotion between Jack and Ennis. Jack, seemingly annoyed, attempts looking at Ennis but he hangs his head. Jack’s arm on the frame of the window, hand on hip tells us Jack is wanting to state his authority, he seems to be waiting for Ennis to say something or react, be more open. Jack, talking about heading home announces he will “See the folks for a day or two” and tries to get Ennis’ attention at this point by looking up at him, Ennis does not look him in the eye. Mention of family may render Ennis to feel awkward because they are hiding their homosexual love affair where parents will never be met. Captures the arm positioning of the two, in pockets or fiddling with things. This shot captures more gesture in its shot than dialogue to express emotions.
3. 0:44 – 0:48 CU – STILL CAMERA
Jack now in foreground. Ennis in back ground. Ennis begins talking, fiddling with the side of the back door handle of Jack’s car. “There’s been something I need to tell you, bud.” (Ennis refers to him as “bud” which is more friendship based – takes back from the intimacy they’ve previously shared). As well as this dialogue the positioning of characters from the camera has applied a feel that Ennis is attempting to become more detached.
4. 0:48 – 0:51
MS – STILL CAMERA Back to focus on Jack in background. Ennis’ back in shot, Jack now moved to face Ennis as he begins to tell him something seemingly important. Jack rests his elbow on the door of the car’swindow frame. Shot chosen expresses that Jack’s attention is captured by Ennis announcing something in such a manner, referring to him in a more ‘friendly’ way.
5. 0:51 – 0:55
CU – STILL CAMERA Back to Ennis’ face as only character in shot. Finally looks up to reach Jack’s eye contact. The shot is used to emphasise that this is something important/personal which Ennis needs to address with Jack. Dialogue of “it’s likely November before I can some back here again.” The shot captures closely the fact he has eventually looked at Jack in the eye.
6. 0:55 – 1:01 CU – STILL CAMERA Shows Jack’s face only to show his reaction to the sad news. Ennis talking as the shot remains focused on only Jack. Expresses to audience Jack’s reaction to the news.
7. 1:01 – 1:05 CU – STILL CAMERA Ennis’ face, looking back to the ground. He too is upset/ashamed at the circumstances and how it may make Jack feel. We see he cannot face him entirely. Close up catches detailed facial expression of Ennis. Shot captures Ennis biting his nails, nervously. The camera angle just captures one eye from under his hat looking up at Jack again. Shows a timid depiction of Ennis.
8. 1:05 – 1:09
CU – STILL CAMERA Jack’s face he questions, “November?”
9. 1:09 – 1:11
CU – STILL CAMERA Ennis’ face. Shuffling side to side nervously in shot. Mumbles “yeah.”
10. 1:11 – 1:15
CU – STILL CAMERA Jack’s face seeming upset/annoyed. Jack’s voice louder than Ennis’ by a mile, “Well what in the hell ever happened to August?”
11. 1:15 – 1:18 CU – STILL CAMERA Ennis looking around, shuffling, mumbled response “well…” puts nails/fingers to mouth again. Shot captures this nervous behaviour. A lot of silence in this shot.
12. 1:18 – 1:32 M/LS – STILL CAMERA
Captures the two leaning against Jack’s car. Jack moves off and uses his arm against the door to move from the car “Christ, Ennis” he says as he slams the car door and walks around it. His hands are on his hips and he’s now facing away from Jack. This perspective of coverage allows for the change in body language which each character is displaying toward one another, to be seen. Jack turns to Ennis “you know you’ve had a f**king week to say a word about this.” Ennis looks down,the two are now positioned closer and facing one another. Ennis looks back to the ground possibly ashamed/worried Jack would react like this.
13. 1:32 – 1:38 MID/CU – SLIGHT LOW ANGLE – STILL CAMERA TO TRACKING SHOT
Portraying Jack asserting dominance in the argument. The shot is from behind Jack. Ennis is out of focus and in the background.
Pan/track of Jack begins from the side to back of him, as he walks towards the lake. Jack is asking about why they always are somewhere cold and saying they ought to go somewhere where it’s warm.
14. 1:38 – 1:49 M/S – TRACKING (ON DOLLY?) Jack walking towards river, front on. “We ought to go to Mexico” he announces, angrily. He walks toward the camera, becomes a CU on his face. He walks past the vision of the camera. Ennis is now in shot from the background as Jack exits. This allows for focus on Ennis as he begins to speak, “Mexico?” Ennis’ hands are in his pockets and it has become a L / M/S. Ennis walks towards Jack by the lake. He is talking as he walks toward him.
AT THIS POINT WE SEE A DEGREE OF SEPARATION OF THE TWO THROUGH CAMERA SHOTS, THE SHOTS HAVE CAPTURED THE CHARACTERS BLOCKED FURTHER AWAY FROM EACH OTHER AND FREQUENTLY FACING AWAY FROM ONE ANOTHER.
15. 1:49 – 1:53 L/S – STILL CAMERA
Jack looking out to the lake, his back facing the camera. Ennis is not in the shot. Shows he is taking in the information he’s been told. He is reflecting. Possible symbolism of the lake and the idea of reflection.
16. 1:53 – 2:17 CU – HIGH ANGLE – PANNING (AROUND JACK)
Camera slowly swinging around to the left of Jack’s head as he looks on to the lake. Ennis in facing him in the background, very out of focus. Jack is on higher ground therefore is clearly depicted being above Ennis. Ennis is asking “come on jack, lighten up on me.” Trying to soften the damage of the situation as he realises how strongly Jack feels about this news. Jack becomes out of focus, Ennis asks, “we could hunt in November?” Jack still looks upon the lake. Jack remains out of focus and on the right side of the shot. Ennis is depicted rather far away in the background – shows a level of separation between the two at this point. They are at different positions in their lives – a proposition of what is to come at their separation (as this news has explained that explicitly). Ennis “kill some nice elk?” camera sways back to the right to face Jack and hide Ennis behind his head in background. We then see Ennis appear on the right in the background as Jack is in focus and announces “there ain’t never enough time, never enough time” in a day-dreaming depressive tone.
17 2:17 – 2:28 LS – STILL CAMERA
Jack facing the lake. Turns around to face Ennis and begins talking to him. Hands on hips. Assertive. Shows the distance between them and is from the POV of Ennis.
Today, was a very exciting one for me indeed, although completely exhausted now – I am full of energy knowing that I was at least of some importance in an exciting and interesting film project. One of my housemates, Alexandra Kirwood, in her fourth year of Fashion Design at RMIT, asked me to join her in the production of a ‘surreal YouTube tutorial’ with herself and talented film/photography practitioner, Will Duan (recently employed tutoring in his field of interest at RMIT).
Basically the premise of the surreal YouTube tutorial consisted of an acquaintance of Alex’s, Danny Fischer, in his dark, glow-in-the-dark-star covered, coloured light and blacklight illuminated, lava lamp accessorised and smoke filled (via smoke machine) bedroom. What’s captured is his attempt to teach himself and (partially) learning how to knit, getting drunk, smoking and attempting to make a tutorial for others to watch and ‘learn from’ in a very ineloquent manner.
Throughout the production process we endured (which was around 10 hours all up), I essentially played role of the 1st AD. I drove Alex and Will around, we picked up gear from RMIT, recorded sound on a Zoom microphone, captured some behind the scenes footage, voiced my opinion on possible production choices and generally, assisted where needed. It was a great learning experience and I got to see a monopod and a gimbal being used for the first time. The effect the gimbal has, cinematically, is really interesting and worked perfectly with the setting we created, for the surreal, almost creepy feel we were aiming to convey. I hope to sit in on some of the editing sessions with Alex and Will, when I have the time.
This is the monopod used.
Here is Will’s camera mounted and being levelled on to the gimbal.
These are images of the Zoom recorder we used, which had to be pointed directly at the subject making sound to capture it clearly.
Here is a first fashion film of Alex’s, which was produced last year. Although she managed to rustle up an impressive cast and crew (in relation to the task given in her course to create this fashion film); the concept, main organisation of team and costuming is hers as well as decisions of direction.
Today, we used a colour chart to test whether our levels of contrast/brightness were correct on our viewfinders and our actual recordings. We explored the ‘zebra’ function, ‘bars’ and adjustment of the aperture to do so. Last week I learnt basics of adjusting contrast (with mainly the exploration of the zebra function and changing the percentage of whiteness the function shows), but today I felt as though I learnt about the subject in more detail.
Margaret (2011), a film with a starting scene which captures a devastating accident. This scene involves the main character, Margaret, played by Anna Paquin, running after a moving bus. She’s trying to ask the driver where he got is cowboy hat from, he can’t hear her clearly through the glass doors and tries to understand what she’s saying. The lights change to red, it is made clear that Margaret has seen this switch, yet she still runs with the bus. The bus driver runs the red light, hits and kills a woman who has just stepped on to the road.
We were made to analyse this film and discuss why the cinematic choices were made. There were long shots from across the other side of the road as Maragret window-shopped, we saw how busy the streets were from the rush of cars left and right. From the loud noises from the cars and their horns. Any other dialogue was rather overshadowed by the busyness of the streets. This established that the cars were fast moving and disruptive.
We watched a scene in Le Feu Foulet (1963), by Louis Malle, which was a scene in a cafe which had incredible coverage. We looked over it in class, Robin had mapped it out for us on paper and we could see that there were many cameras involved/many angles that the scene must have been filmed from. I never realised until this very moment to click to the way in which cameras are cleverly positioned in the film and televison which I consume. Discussing these film and television scenes alone, has made me more aware of this factor and I have now caught myself several times watching something and noticing its coverage. A great step in honing in on my abilities to succeed in this class I believe!
Today, I was taught by Robin how to adjust the contrast levels on the Sony cameras we will be using in class. The information given today was really helpful as I have always been in the dark about how to change, and when to change different contrast settings on a camera. Unfortunately, most of the time I rely on an auto-function when documenting. This is something I am willing to, and cannot wait to shake! Next week, I think we will be going into greater detail of this, as a class.
To detail how we did this, in writing would be far too confusing for what it’s worth. I aim, to soon gather diagrams / photos of the equipment we use, annotate, scan and post these diagrams onto my blog. For now, the mere mention of the fact that I put this skill into practice with the help of Robin, will have to suffice in anyone realising that I did indeed absorb some of the information. As well as potential for diagrams and such to explain I’ve understood these functions; drafts and final works which myself (and my classmates) produce, will be posted and reflected on, in this blog.
Today’s class we were in one of RMIT’s theatre classrooms/studios with staging, this is where our Wednesday classes will be taught. It’s refreshing to be in quite a different environment to a regular classroom or a lecture theatre.
In a group of four, we worked on blocking a scene from a set script we were given. I was on cameraperson duties and the three others were the actors. We had put our basic knowledge from yesterday’s lesson put into action again while setting up the camera and preparing for shooting the scene shots.
We were taught to shoot a scene with the most important shot first, the shot which covers the most action. This means that if something goes terribly wrong at some point during the takes, the first shot will have covered the entire scene, but it just won’t have the finer details (eg. mid shots, close ups…) which are secondary to the shot which captures the most action in a scene.
OUR GROUP SHOT LIST ORDER:
1. Wide shot – MAN IN BACKGROUND SITTING AT TABLE, TWO WOMEN AT TABLE CLOSEST TO CAMERA
2. Mid shot – MAN AT TABLE
3. Close up x2 – TWO WOMEN TALKING
4. Panning shot x2 – BOTH PARTIES WALKING IN SEPARATELY
Our group was lucky enough to get some very valuable information from Robin today about contrast and brightness settings on both the camera and the viewfinder. He taught us about camera functions such as ‘zebra’ to measure the correct exposures. We played around with the colour bars to check the shades were right and the viewfinder was showing true to what we would be seeing through the camera. We were also explained the importance of using the manual settings of a camera as the automatic settings can cause inconsistent exposure and add unwanted ‘noise’ or ‘grain’ to a shot.
