Scene In Cinema: Week #5 Reflection/ Epiphany

I was all too familiar with the way week five’s exercises were conducted. During the first single take task, I undertook the role as camera assist/ focus puller and then accepted the role of camera operator for the second multiple take task. As I’m most frequently put into the camera positions, I aim to direct my groups next scene as I hope to be able to work professionally in the field of directing larger scale films in the future, therefore would like to take the opportunity in these class exercises to practice my skill and learn from any mistakes I make.

Upon finishing my final edit I’ve realized that not only in this week’s scenes, but additionally each time I’ve had to edit a scene for this course, a significant factor that greatly impacts the nature of the performance we capture on camera depends on whether we are given a script or a series of actions from a synopsis to film.

After the comparison between both scenes we filmed this week, its evident the acting in my edited one shot take appears more natural due to the improvised acting performed by the two individuals who loosely followed the basic scene actions, than the acting performed by the duo in the multiple take scene, which we filmed using a script with written dialogue. This seemed more obvious to me after reviewing all my past edited exercises to see the constant trend of improvised performances producing scenes featuring more natural acting.

I believe this is due to the fact the “actor” is able to create their own dialogue that is native to how they speak in reality rather than the lackluster material written on the script, which most likely would not be repeated by the “actor” if they had to go through the scripted situation in real life.