For this final reflection piece, I want to discuss the origin and the genesis of my investigations, as well as the investigations themselves, and finish by looking at my method of working and where I want to go now.

 

The Scene In Cinema has been an excellent foray into deeper learning and deeper understanding of the camera, and composition of the frame. The encouragement, and the focus that has been provided have, for me, provoked a new kind of mindfulness in my practice. Buddhist Teachings suggest that one way to learn to be mindful is every time you are under a doorframe, or walking through a door, take a moment and note this to yourself in your head. I feel the same now about the camera. When going to shoot something, and the camera comes into the room, it in itself is an integral part of the shoot. It is not to be plonked anywhere, it needs to be treated mindfully, just like the other beings in the room. (this might sound a little other-worldly, or praise-the-almighty-camera-esque, but it is the best way I can think to reflect on how I now think about cinema as a practice.

 

The early in-class exercises this semester saw me spending more time in the frame then I had originally though I would. From these experiences, coming from a media background, coming from the perspective that I was another mechanic in the puzzle of the moving image, I learnt more then I expected and I enjoyed it more than I expected to. This led me to begin to question how I could work with other bodies in the frame, and what I could learn from being able to place bodies in the frame.

Over the semester, and as a precursor to the semester, I have found myself intrigued by David Lynch. His thoughts around ideas and around methods of practice, working with actors and developing ideas have resonated with me. I am interested in his creative process and this has resulted in (maybe not directly at the time, but in looking back I can see it clearly influenced) some of my textual and practical investigations.

I have researched Lynch, Godard, Bresson, and Brackage specifically and pulled some of their more pertinent quotes into my own work. It is clear, they all work with people they have come to know and understand. They work with their muses – they develop connections and they do things that will favour those people. Or, as in the case of Welles in The Lady From Shanghai, they push people to a whole new extent.

 

To explore this, on quite a shallow level, I investigated the role of the body in the frame. I created walk banks in an attempt to better understand people’s movements and draw on inspiration. However I did not find this particularly useful in the end as it seemed to be simply the genesis of a collection of work that didn’t get me anywhere. I tried to use tracks to explore a more technical level of understanding and how that could influence my work in the movement of, and within the frame.

These pieces, simply filming people walking were extremely interesting. Some of them, simply because they weren’t at all interesting when others were. The space, and the people made the investigation. And now I realise that I became fascinated by the onscreen appearance of girls in heels walking across the frame. It adds an element of sophistication, and of assurance that you don’t find in people wearing flat shoes.

 

So I set out to work with Karen and Lauren again, to harness the energy that they both had and develop it further. I worked on developing an idea for both, working to their sensibilities. Unfortunately neither piece came to fruition. Working with others is giving up aspects of control that one needs to do – but the degree to which this is done will determine the outcome. How much can things be compromised?
Locations were harder to source then anticipated. Getting people around was difficult, my health proved to get in the way too. So I had to redevelop my work with Karen. That shoot turned out better then expected. Working outside meant that I had less control then I’d hoped for, however I was lucky to have a skilled crew which made things much easier. The edit for this piece changed entirely from what I had thought it would be. I’m glad that I got the amount of coverage that I did. The handheld camera work, and long Lens (contrasted with tight close-ups) made for a piece that is sympathetic to Karen’s explosive energy. Although she wasn’t wearing heels, I feel her poise and her intensity streamed through the piece. It is interesting to notice how she did grow slightly irritated when I asked for things to be drawn out more and I didn’t quite get what I wanted from the pauses. This tends to suggest that perhaps that is her limit, and she cannot (or I could not) communicate (direct) her in a way that would achieve the anticipation I wanted to communicate.

 

It might have been better to develop stronger narrative in the investigations that I did. But my style and my level of understanding was not there yet. I am really grateful that this course could be shaped by what we wanted to know and where we felt we were at.

 

Throughout the semester, working and collaborating with other students has been hugely helpful, and looking back I wish that (if I had had the time) I could have worked more on other people’s work. But working with people you know and understand – it bypasses that commercial aspect of content creation and turns it into a deep and explorative practice. My conversations with Simone and collaborative work with her has been extremely useful. Having bouncing boards for ideas in class helped me to form my own opinion on my own ideas – and to get an idea of what I felt was work pushing for and what aspects of practice I could compromise on.

 

What I didn’t do will always frustrate me. It seems that Robin, you were right. I do get frozen in my thoughts, up in my head. All too often it prevents me from getting that practical stuff done. But I think I’m getting better at this, and realising that this is what has helped me explore more and more creatively. Without this I wouldn’t have been able to think as deeply as I have, and tried the things that I have.

 

It seems that I got stumped a few times, by illness, by the limitations of needing more then a one man crew, and simply by my own head, but hopefully my reading and reflection taught me how to come to a new understanding with the camera, and with those in the frame. It has taught me a new way of seeing and of understanding how to make cinema. Of this I am most pleased. I feel it shows through in my exploration with Seonaid where our planning and preparation was able to happen at a level where we could pull off what we planned (and what we planned was not just a shot reverse shot piece).
Things catch up with you, and I didn’t achieve all that I want to, but I have succeeded in formulating a new, nuanced understanding of film, of cinema and the relationship between the camera and the people, actors, personnages in frame. It has helped me to better understand that the mechanics of the camera construct a new way of seeing, they provide us with something that other mediums do not. The moving image allows for edits, for repetition, for what would seem a non-linear construction – something that we can find deeper meaning in the spaces between, in the moments before, in the subtext of the actions and the words themselves. The writings of celebrated directors have helped me understand this in my own way, and form my own opinion; what is in the frame is important, what is between the frame is more important. And the style, the motivation and the drive behind the actions and even the moments of hesitation. So far, my investigations have pointed me towards the conclusion that those things cannot be controlled by the director. They can, to a limited extent be directed, however much of it is inherent in the people you work with, and what you choose to have them do/how you chose to have them perform.

Now, in the break, Seonaid and I want to continue to create an film short pieces, even simply with ourselves as the actors. We will endeavor to continue to build upon our practice, and to analyze and discuss it together. I hope that the work we produce will continue to inform and direct our future choices as well as allow us to experiment.

This course has inspired a great deal of self-learning, which is not at all what I expected. It has taught me how to build with others, but not with a 100% collaborative mindset – more about each of us achieving our own end goals through an exploration that we can share. Those pieces; working with Simone and with Seonaid have helped me explore my practice the most (through exploring their practice and methodology too). Essentially, I feel I’ve only scratched the surface of how to work creatively with other people whilst preserving my own creative control on the aspects that I choose.