We have finally reached the last week of classes.

This week in The Scene we had individual sessions with Robin to talk about how we’re going about our projects and also how we liked the unit. I really liked this unit because I was able to learn a lot – not only from the tutes, but also from my peers. I will leave the details for my final post.

In regards to my project, I wanted to film a new scene because I felt that I had not done enough. While all my peers had produced a lot of great work, I felt like I was lagging behind them so I wanted to do more. But it did not work out the way I wanted. Initially, I wanted to film a single scene in three different ways – 2 outdoors and 1 indoors – but since the weather wasn’t great, I could not do the outdoor shots. In the end, I just chose to shoot the scene inside. Ultimately, my final shoot ended up being more like a general weekly exercise than a contribution to my project. Nevertheless, I tried to link this exercise to my project by creating a few edits of this new scene which I hadn’t blocked out particularly thoroughly. Sad and Off are quite similar whereas the mood in Nothing is starkly different.

In ‘Nothing’ the conversation between the two actors seems more like an argument and this is purely to do with their performance – not my coverage or editing. I actually named it ‘Nothing’ because there is nothing much/nothing special about the way I blocked/filmed/edited the scene. When I showed my edit to Kai and Aki, they both said it was OK and that there was nothing wrong with it. But for me, while there is nothing wrong with it, I also think there is nothing to be remarked upon. As for ‘Sad’, the tempo of the cuts is a bit slower and the background music adds some gloom to it. The main purpose of having the pillar was to show them separated and also to conceal what Kai hands over to Lisha. I felt the last cut which returns to the CU of Lisha is a bit strange, but I wasn’t sure how to end the scene. In Off, I tried to put the focus more on Kai. I also did something weird with the sound where I isolate only the dialogue parts and cut out all the other ambient sounds. It’s a bit jarring, but I really wanted to try it out.

On another note, I used the Dolly for the first time yesterday and I can see what a difference it makes compared to hand-held tracking. It did get a little shaky at one point but I don’t think it was too obvious. I think it introduces the scene nicely compared to if I just used the static frame with the pillar in the middle. Actually, this was more of an incidental thing because I had not originally planned to dolly. On the day however, Kai who was filming after me had planned to used the dolly so we had it on hand. There was some extra time leftover to do some more shots for my scene while waiting for Kai’s cast to arrive so I filmed some dolly shots in the 5-10 minutes I had. Not only this time, but there are a lot of times where these ‘happy incidents’ happen for me and I get lucky.

This Saturday we re-filmed a scene for Lisha’s project.

I self-appointed myself to ‘prepare’ the camera and I was good until I had to do the white balance. I formatted media and adjusted the brightness and contrast just fine, but when it was time to do the white balance, for some reason, it came out looking orange. After some consultation with Aki, we decided to just use a white wall instead of the piece of paper I had originally used. Afterwards, I put on the zebra pattern and checked the levels – it was at 75 – and adjusted the lighting until I thought it was OK. Compared to the last time I tried to prepare the camera, I think I have improved a lot. For one I forgot to adjust the white balance last time, and I also took (what felt like) 30 minutes in total to adjust everything else.

I was also about to film on the Saturday, but I didn’t think I had done enough planning. I had written up a new script but wasn’t sure what I was going to do with it. I could go two ways – I could continue with my editing theme, and just edit the scene a couple ways myself to change the mood or I could film the one script in a few different ways with different sets, maybe different actors too. This kind of exercise is probably more to do with transforming the script rather than the footage though.

I showed the 9 edits to Polly, Lisha, and Robin

Polly

Polly enjoyed Jennifer, Weird (W) and Less Weird (LW). She found Stephanie’s edit OK, but the low angle shot with Kai’s arm in the foreground is a bit strange – Robin commented the same thing. She guessed that Jessica’s and LW might have been mine as well as W because she knew I liked that shot from production day.

Comments:

– liked shot of Kai walking towards camera

– should have had a close up on Kai’s face to show his reaction to the letter

– at the close up/pan on the letter, a focus pull would have been good

– maybe having a scene/flashback of another girl passing on the letter would have been good

Lisha

Lisha enjoyed W because she though it was the most different and unique compared to all the others and also more memorable. Also, she liked the cut to the CU of Polly because no one else used that shot in full. Overall, she found the other ones all similar. She thought Stephanie’s one was pretty good because she used a lot of shots. She commented that LW had smooth and fluent transitions between each shot. She thought W, OT, and Stephanie’s might have been mine.

Comments:

– she liked the shot of Kai’s face obscured by the glass

Robin

Robin enjoyed LW and OT, and also W though tit ‘fizzled’ towards the end. He thought that LW was the most dramatic, suggestive, and memorable and it made him curious about the characters. For OT, he thought the timing of the actions and pacing of the camerawork worked well in addition to the performance by Polly and Kai. He commented that although it was a one take, it didn’t seem like it and he imagined a cut somewhere. For Weird, it was going OK until the cut between the last two shots – he would have liked it better if it snappier so the focus would remain on Polly rather than Kai. He also chose these three edits as my edits.

Comments:

– Daniel’s one should not be shown first because it would through people off with it’s ‘insanity’.

– Jennifer’s cut is let down by the second shot she chose – felt unpurposeful

– Liked Jessica’s first cut but not the rest of it, especially the CU of the letter

– Lena’s transitions were crazy

– Priscilla’s beginning wide shot lingered for too long, she used the CU of letter that he hated and he felt she just edited for the sake of editing

– Stephanie’s edit was messy, and he hated the low angle

I got 4 more people to edit my scene: Jessica, Jennifer, Stephanie, and Daniel.

Jessica, 21, never studied media

Story: BOY frequents this bar. He goes there to think about life, uni, problems…etc. In the letter, there is a rejection and he doesn’t want to face it. GIRL is the bar owner.

Similar to Lena, Jessica also wanted to leave it as a one take – she didn’t know what I meant when I told her to edit it. She found it really difficult. She used the back shot because she thought it looked cool, and cut to the front to show what’s happening. She cut to the letter for the sake of it. Used the last shot because she had already chosen the take as the base and didn’t want to re-watch footage. Overall, she didn’t put too much thought into and really just couldn’t bothered with the software.

When I asked her whether she would have added some transitions or music, she said if she had though of it she would.

Jennifer, 20, never studied media

STORY: BOY’s girlfriend is breaking up with him through the letter and he is depressed, GIRL is the bartender at the bar he frequents.

She only used one cut so most of the scene was played out through the mid close up shot. She decided to use the shot where Kai approaches camera because she wanted to his reaction to the letter, but she would have preferred if the frame showed his face.

She wouldn’t have put any transitions, but she would have put some background music – maybe some slow bar-appropriate soundtrack.

Stephanie, 16, studied media in year 9

STORY: Same as Jennifer

Stephanie had a ‘the more, the better’ mentality to her edit. She wanted to use many shots and angles, but there was nothing particularly meaningful behind each cut. She paid more attention to sound and continuity compared to the others (excluding Priscilla).

She wouldn’t have added any transitions though she might have added some background music if she knew what the mood of the scene was like.

Daniel, 26, never studied media

STORY: BOY is a pessimist and has come to his good friend, GIRL’s  bar. GIRL likes BOY and the letter is a love letter from her.

Daniel used the most shots of all editors for a total of 14. Some shots he chose based on sound (such as the first one where you can hear my action call) and others based on visual. If he had more time, he claims he would  have made the cuts smoother and put voiceover over the visuals.

He says he would have added background music ‘See you again’ from Fast 7.

This week I got another group of people to edit the scene for my project.

Most of the time, I was in the same room at the time they were editing so I got to observe their editing styles. Priscilla, Jessica, and Daniel watched all the footage before they started editing, and Jennifer did too, though she scrolled through footage in the imovie program which meant that she did not hear the sound. Stephanie flicked through the footage quickly, she did not watch everything and only chose what she wanted to use when she started editing.

In terms of editing ability, Stephanie probably did the best when it came to continuity and ‘cleaning up’ the sound like cutting out action calls and laughter. Actually Priscilla probably did the best, and I guess the most conventional edit, but I’m going to discount her because she did media in high school from year 10-12. Lena and Jennifer didn’t do that well in audio or visual continuity but they each thought about why they wanted to use a particular shot so everything was purposeful. I find it is a shame it didn’t come through in the edit though.

For some reason, I really dislike the raw material that I shot for my project.

I’m not sure why. I think that my shots are plain and awkward and weird. I also feel as though I don’t have enough variety of shots, and I also felt that on the day but couldn’t think of any more angles I could shoot from. Nevertheless, I still edited 2 versions of my own and have given it to two other people to edit. Both times, I was with them and helped them to cut and move the footage. At the end, I asked them some questions about what the story was like, what they thought of the characters, what their relationship was like, and what they wanted to achieve with their edit.

Editing choices – Justification

Less Weird

Mid shot – shows Kai’s face, emphasis begins on him, while Polly is more mysterious

Side angle – Kai’s face is still in view, but now we can see more of Polly

Front CU of Polly – we can see her expression and that she is somewhat dejected

Pan following letter – highlights its importance

Pan left to show both characters – chose this shot because I liked Polly’s performance and how she dropped the letter, like she was dropping the matter

Final pan – wanted emphasis to end on Polly

Weird

CU of Kai – liked how his face is obscured by the cup. Also, I expect that others will use establishing shots to begin, so beginning with a close up will be unique

CU of Polly – for continuity purposes, and also to correspond to the CU of Kai

Pan to follow letter – again, this is to emphasise its importance

Front view of Kai approaching camera – chose this shot to show him moping

Pan to two shot – characters of equal importance

One Take

I chose this take of all the ones we shot because I liked the speed of the performance and was satisfied with the panning. The only thing that I would change is probably Polly’s expression in the beginning – she was slightly smiling.

EDITORS

Lena, 28, never studied media

– Story: BOY did something wrong and he knew the letter from his ex-girlfriend was going to address that, GIRL is either his long-time friend or employee at the bar he frequents

– at first, just wanted to use a one-take of the scene, but after I showed her some examples of my edits she realised how she could change things to her liking

– cuts to the letter to show it’s significant, finds the camera movement in this shot ‘movie-ish’, decided to show the actor’s reaction to the letter in ‘front-side-front’ pattern to emphasise his expression (at the expense of continuity)

– opened the scene with GIRL, so the scene should end with GIRL

– used transitions because she thought it looked more natural that way, and the dialogue flowed better

– did not consider continuity of visual or audio as much as I expected

– used 8 shots, 4 transitions

Priscilla, 19, studied media in Year 10-12

– Story: BOY is mentally unstable, letter contains personal content: could be a secret, from a doctor, GF or family member. GIRL is his friend

– preferred distant shots because she wanted to convey isolation, not intimate with audience (she also found CU shots awkward)

– didn’t think about transitions, and thought it didn’t need background music

– paid more attention to script and continuity

– more conventional, predictable – what I expected the footage to be edited like

– overall ‘neat’ edit, used 5 shots

 

Today we were told to ‘do stuff’ in relation to our projects.

We created an exercise where we had to have a mobile camera and convey a story without dialogue. The script we used was actually the one I wrote for my project. Overall my scene is quite ‘static’, the characters don’t move much and the blocking is simple. For some reason I thought that using camera movement with my setup would be achievable since everything else is bland but I was wrong. I think my simple blocking actually hindered the camera from moving in a purposeful way because there was almost no reason for the camera to move at times.

After monitoring how our shots looked, we came to accept the inevitably of the camera’s shakiness and decided to experiment. My little experiment consisted of something like a ‘one-man show’, where one actor played both parts.

On the weekend, we also had to film footage for our own projects. Though I had high hopes for my project to turn out well, I am already dissatisfied with what I’ve got. While editing, even I did not know how to arrange the footage, so I’m not sure how well others will handle it. In regards to the framing and composition of my shots, they were really awkward. The filming space was very cramped and the two actors were also really tall so I had a hard time expressing the spatial relations within the scene; the shots ended up looking really weird to me and were not the way I would have liked them to turn out. On the bright side this dissatisfaction has fuelled motivation in me to revise my project and plan even more thoroughly for the next time I plan to shoot. I am determined to create what I sought out to create in my proposal!

 

Another aspect to my method of working is that I don’t get out of my comfort zone a lot, I tend to hibernate in there.

Last week I drew some storyboards for my self-created project, and I decided I to draw up some shots where there is camera movement involved. Almost in all of our exercises, I have filmed or edited scenes which are entirely static. But I can’t stay static forever! This is kind of exciting for me because I usually try to avoid any panning, hand held, or tracking shoots. I’m not sure why this is. Perhaps it’s because it’s easier to achieve a ‘perfect’, symmetrical, or clean shot when the frame is locked off compared to when it’s moving. Or maybe I’m just scared my scenes will end up looking amateur (because that’s what I am, and I try to hide that).

As for zooming and focus pulling, I still have not considered these, though on the day if I am feeling experimental and bold enough I might try to incorporate it into some shots. As I have mentioned in the week 8 reflection, I am so bad at camera operating so I still have lots of things to try out, lots of mistakes to make (and of course learn from), and lots to familiarise myself with. I think a unit like ‘The Scene’ – where you can essentially do whatever you want, choose your own activities, play with the camera and editing – won’t come by often, so I’m going to take this chance to improve on my weaknesses, investigate the things that interest me, and expand my horizons – do things I usually don’t do.

For now, it’s working with a mobile camera, but in the future it will be working with a mobile lens.