Degrees of control would be a great thing to explore in my experimentation with walks. It fits in really well with Braudy’s notion of the open and closed frame, and invites me to challenge exactly where the line is between the two.
When I say degrees of control, I’m referring to measures of truth, to the level of construct or even direction involved in shooting. The level of training of those involved, the level of involvement of the director.
We need degrees of control in life. And in this course. Sometimes things seem too open, and it’s really scary. I know I want to do postgraduate study, but I know now that I’m not ready for it yet…
It seems that to stand out as an auteur you have to be an exception. You have to be different and you have to be aware of that – play on those difference for that is what makes a prolific auteur (although at present I detest the word as I feel it is self-indulgent and promotes the side of filmmaking that I am not interested in – the selling of one’s product and one’s viewpoint, making it all too understandable to see how this industry machine has been used for propagandist purposes) .
You have to discover your degree of control, and how that works for you. What degree you need to get the best out of the people you working with, and how far you can push them. You also need to determine the degree of construct of what you’re telling/ trying to communicate, and why, and what you want the audience to take away. What degree of interaction do you want? What degree of thought provocation do you want? What methods of control can you put in place to ensure that you get what you want.
To what degree are you willing to compromise , when working with the team?
To what degree can you control the actions of others? To what degree do you want to?
This could be things like exterior against interior. Synopsis against script. Actors against models/ people on the street. Filming in public against filming in private. Filming in daylight against filming in darkness. These are all measures of control that need to be taking into account to achieve a vision.