We had our first practical session with the Creative Writing students. The media students had each written scripts based on the original prose. We then re-interpreted the script to film it on the day. We had several issues to deal with when adapting the script to shoot. The main issue was that we didn’t have the props that we needed to film the story with, so we changed the script to that they were not necessary. After blocking the scene a few times we cut some actions that weren’t necessary to ensure that there wasn’t any awkward pauses. The task was to first shoot the script with one take, then shoot for editing in multiple takes of different shots. We blocked the first scene successfully, and then moved on to the shooting for editing. It was difficult to remember what had been covered and continuity becomes an issue when you are blocking action, because it will need to cut together. It goes to show how planning is necessary when shooting, and better pre-planning takes out a lot of guess work when you are actually filming the scene.
Overall, I think that we covered the material, and ensured there were enough close up insert shots so that we can cover ourselves when we finally edit it together.
At the beginning of the class we watched a scene from the 1964 film by Michelangelo Atonioni called The Red Desert. This scene was constructed of several shots, however, the way in which it was shot flowed from the previous shot.
We also watched a scene from the 1976 film directed by Martin Scorsese, Taxi Driver. This scene was constructed using several shots including reverse over the shoulder shots. The editing in this scene is typical for Hollywood films because of the way that the reactions of the actors stretches time to suggest a romantic bond between the characters. It is also economical to shoot this way because you only need to move the camera for each set up, and just edit it together. Continuity would be an issue for shooting this way.
