The V shortcut to change to the select tool has been extremely useful when changing from any other tool to make moving clips around on the timeline much faster. Likewise, Alt+Scroll I’ve found is very handy when it comes to the fine tuning of cuts, allowing you to zoom in and out with precision to make cuts that might be even single frames long.

Though I haven’t seen this film, the edits in this scene seem to place a focus on the props that propel the action. Between the main back and forth shot for the conversation between the characters, the first alternative cut is to the fish placed on the table, then the lighter, then an over the shoulder showing more fish. This seems to suggest a significance to the lighter as it remains hidden from view until it’s owner leaves the scene.

Visual cuts in conversation happen as a character speaks rather than between lines, which maintains a smoother pace of the exchange. Like the props, particular character actions are shown as close ups such as putting a document in the safe, putting out the cigarette in the opulent bookend, pulling a gun out their pocket, pushing the money across the table, which contribute to a heightened awareness and tension of the action.

The main point that stuck with me from the lecture on directing is that when talking to the actors it’s important to encourage them to arrive at the same conclusion that you do as the director, rather then explicitly give stage directions, so they better understand their role, and give a more motivated performance.

The other main point I took away from the lecture was the director needs to be paying close attention to the actors as often as possible and to keep them as comfortable as possible in a set that might be full of people all doing different things; it is the director’s primary concern to ensure the actors are focused and aren’t distracted by anyone or anything else on set that might alter or hinder their performance.

The depth of field seemed to stay the same throughout the scene; the focus would remain on the characters. The lighting on the characters is soft, which contrasts the harder lighting, and hence shadows, in the backgrounds that filter through the geometric objects in the room. A lot of the actor movements are repeated, or mirrored such as when the actors lean against the triangular wooden frame. The camera accentuates this by moving closely with these movements.

The framing of each shot has in it a large portion of the background, showing a lot of the objects in the room. The shots are hence rather busy ones, and select shots have objects obstruct the view of one or both of the characters. I imagine this would have involved firstly positioning the camera in a desirable position, then directing the actors to move to a position that has part of their body obstructed to create this effect.

Shadows seem to play a big role in the scene, and the lighting creates varying shadows on the white wall from objects in the room, and the character’s themselves. The shadows are not dark though, and with the lighting does not create much contrast. From this I assume that the director would have had to work closely with the cinematogapher to ensure that shadows were being thrown on the walls, while working with the actors to stay close to walls or spaces that show the shadows.

The week 5 reading with passages from various directors was a very interesting reading. I liked the way Scorsese explained that he enjoys the restrictions of the frame as a creative prompt, and how to make use of that restricted frame with what you show. He describes that it’s what’s in the frame that informs a viewer, and it seems he thinks about the camera placement in terms of the space that the frame captures and depicts, which can then be filled with objects and characters, as well as movement.

Makavejev’s description of the frame was even better, saying that, “There’s an incredible erotic tension in the edges of the frame.”; that what’s suggested is outside of the frame can be as dramatic as what’s inside the frame. “castrating action” seems funnily apt, and it makes sense because if the filmmaker continues to tease something off the edge of the frame, it’s a response for the viewer to ask what that thing might be.

I just thought it was really interesting to consider the frame a part of the mise-en-scene; as a physical entity that physically interacts and constrains the physical space in front of it.

Sunlight, continuity, lighting coverage were the main points of the lighting lecture, and after doing some test shooting with the equipment it was certainly all relevant. Sunlight is something that we found affected a scene dramatically over the course of the day. This was something that prompted us to consider how long we should shoot each scene for, and how to maintain continuity with changing sunlight.

Coverage was finally something we had to consider after all this, to control the lighting continuity with planned setups, while of course staying within the schedule so the changing sunlight does not significantly affect the final product.

Ensuring the sound was recording properly was the major issue we found when we went to edit the piece; there is noticeable crackling on the audio track, something we could not fix. In the future this would be fixed by double checking the sound recordist is happy with the audio before filming.

The only other thing that could have been improved was more extensive planning beforehand to improve on the edit which we did not have as strong a plan for.

Apart from that I feel the shoot for the piece worked out well: communication between director, actor and crew was good, each shot was filmed efficiently thanks to planning beforehand, and we all worked together quickly within the hour limit to film.

Lighting being something I’m more interested in, the lecture was all quite interesting, but as for things that were particularly intriguing to learn about were concerned with how lighting is positioned, including the sun, and maintaining continuity with lighting.

The position of lighting was interesting to consider as a stylistic choice. The examples of hard and soft light, while something I’m already familiar with, illustrated much better the effects they had on the scene were. The demonstration of using reflectors helped with this too, and as accessories to the lighting were something  had never even thought about before.

Something else I hadn’t considered before was sunlight, namely it’s position and colour over the course of a day. As my group for the short film undertook the test shoot the weekend of this lecture, it was something I paid closer attention to, noticing the difference in light from the start of our day, to the end.

While on that shoot I also paid extra attention to the other important point brought up in the lecture, that is, continuity. Despite keeping the lights in the same position between each shot setup, there was a major difference in how the scene looked, so it makes sense that lighting must be changed often to maintain visual continuity, even if the light falls differently between shots.