Week 10 only consisted of one class as we had Friday off. During Tuesdays class, we looked at everyones takes of exercise 11 (touched upon in my week 9 reflection), and also established what needed to be done before the end of semester, in particular, assignment 4.1. Having decided I would like to film a scene inspired by the work of Antonioni, I thought it would be a good idea to focus on David Forgacs reading ‘Face, body, voice, movement: Antonioni and Actors’, to get an idea of the style I should be aiming to replicate in my own way.

In this reading, Forgacs takes a quote from Vanessa Redgrave, who played a lead role in Antonioni’s ‘Blow Up’. The part of the quote that struck me was…

“He was the first director who i’d worked with to whom it was a matter of absolute importance…     …where anything was, and the movement or space between, above, below, or transecting.”

In my own words, Antonioni has a bizarre ability to engage his audience simply through the way in which actors moved in relation to the camera, and to hell with what this movement actually represents in narrative terms. Extending on from this, I’m going to set my staging for assignment 4 in a relatively bland and uninspiring room to challenge myself to think beyond character motivations as I so often focus my shots around. I will aim to stylise my film around an American indie or art house film, as the dialogue won’t work to advance the plot so much as stall it. In doing so, a strong emphasis will be placed on the way in which the characters traverse the space and how this can be captured in an interesting way. I will expand upon this in my assignment 4 reflection.

For the remainder of the week, I focused my efforts into creating a script and, critically, went on a location scout so i could begin imagining the scene and making a floor plan.

In week 9 we looked at the final edits of our phone thief retakes, and both of them were considerable improvements over the original. For our group personally we had significant issues with exposure as we were shooting in direct sunlight on the rooftop. As the sun would flicker in and out of the shade, achieving the correct exposure is very difficult and therefore we tried to find a middle line which meant it never really looked right. We wanted to switch up the location and experiment a little but we probably could have picked a more consistently lit outdoor location. We continued to watch snippets from short films, this week in regards to camera movement. In particular, especially in Fridays class, the work of Antonioni was studied. The relationship between the camera and actors in his films is incredible to watch, as the regular cinema goer wouldn’t recognise the bizarre movement of actors around their environment. I would love to do something relating to this in assignment 4, however to pull this off would require some exceptional acting. Nonetheless, it would be an interesting concept to explore. To do this would require a thorough location scout and imagination of how its going to look.

We engaged in practical work during exercise 11 on Friday, in which we split into groups of 3 (director, actor, cameraman) and rotated roles to create three distinct impressions of the same action. When i was directing, i decided on capturing the moment when the actor answers a phone call in one shot with no camera movement. To maintain engagement therefore, I understood the movement of the actor would have to captivate the audience. Therefore, I created a deep depth of field and separated the actor from his phone through this. Hence when his phone rang, it encouraged him to move towards the camera in response. The cameraman had to pull the focus significantly here to keep the actor in focus, and this was the only adjustment made throughout the action. I’m excited to see everyone else’s takes next week, and to see how their own directorial style dictates the shot selection like it did our group.

Week 5 Reflection:

Scene in Cinema | Week 5 Reflection

Week 6 Reflection:

Scene in Cinema | Week 6 Reflection

Week 7 Reflection:

Scene in Cinema | Week 7 Reflection

Week 8 Reflection:

Scene in Cinema | Week 8 Reflection

Research Project Link:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1LiBx_dPdnWDS21U5nxzA_lH–1vl4KMY

Research Project Reflection:

Scene in Cinema | Basic Research Project Reflection

Week 8 saw us collaborate to film the script we had in week 7 in which the goal was to focus on the minor aspects of acting and gesture to get us thinking about coverage in more depth. I thought this was a good exercise as it got us it encouraged us to experiment with angles we wouldn’t have otherwise considered if we had dialogue to fall back on for context. It contrasted greatly to my shooting of my research project earlier that day in which there is very little context or screen given to any of the details, but then again that wasn’t the point of my exercise. At the end of this class we discussed the possibilities for assignment 4. Personally I wouldn’t be bothered if we did group or individual work, since at the end of the day, I’ve always loved the practical approach of this subject and as long as I can continue to experiment upon what we’ve learnt in class i’m not fussed. If theres one thing i’ll take away from this studio it’s a greater appreciation for the brilliance we see on scene and those who make it. In that regard, I feel as though theres always going to be a collaborative aspect regardless of it being fundamentally individual or not, because it takes more than one person to make a film as good as it can be.

In our second class, we went off into a group task to re-film the phone thief scene from a few weeks ago. Although I wasn’t in the group that shot this originally a few weeks ago, I felt like we were able to bring fresh life to the script, switching the location to a roof top setting. We took on a lot of the advice given to the first group initially and worked on holding the confrontation between the thief and bystander longer to increase the intensity of the moment that I didn’t feel was given justice in the original. We also played with a lot of different camera angles and movement, using it as an opportunity to experiment and be more expressive through the camera coverage.

Classes in week 7 following from our mid semester break were dedicated to shooting the scene we started planning in week 6 and some basic theory surrounding field of view. The shooting exercise went relatively smoothly, ironing out the jarring issue of Cath picking up here bag by pre-establishing the space she moves into. Since we shot the scene from multiple angles, continuity was the biggest issue, given that I altered my delivery in later shots to be a bit more expressive. This caused issues for the editor as discussed in class as it reduced the flexibility with which they could cut back and forth between the angles. I found it to be an enjoyable exercise, and the main takeaway I got from it is, where possible, shoot additional footage minimise the potential for such inevitabilities. We also dove into what affects a cameras field of view (F.O.V), something that has always interested me in landscape photography. I have a camera with a 1/2.3-inch sensor and I’m looking to upgrade to the newer model of that camera which happens to have a full 1-inch sensor. The field of view on these two cameras in 68 degrees and 77 degrees respectively, so the principle stands here. I have also began planning my basic research project which I am covering on a seperate blog post this week. In the reading ‘A Man of Excess’ by Gavin Smith (1995) pg. 24-29, there is a particular quote highlighted which I strongly agree with, that being ‘fluid editing is about getting the actors’ movements to force the cuts, so they don’t seen arbitrary. This is a point I have argued in my previous two scene analysis’ of ‘There Will Be Blood’ (P.T. Anderson) and “Creed” (Ryan Coogler). In both these scenes, camera movement is triggered by the momentum of those within the frame, hence why the camera transverses the environment with so much grace that it never seems jarring. Although I cannot think of an example off the top of my head, if the focal point moves to the right of screen but the camera pulls wildly left, it will seem forced and abrupt. However, this can be used to great effect is this is the look the director is going for.

For my basic research project, I wanted to do something on shot selection, taking a shot that would normally be considered jarring and imbed it in a way that flows. My initial thoughts were to break the 180 degree rule, but we did this earlier in class. My next, which we spoke of but never acted upon, was to place a wide shot midway through a scene, as we tend to be believe wide shots should only be used to establish a location at the beginning of a scene.

There are films that have done this before effectively, but its a rare occurrence and I cannot name any off the top of my head. In films it is often done when a character is dropped somewhere and is only just made aware of their surroundings, ‘The Hunger Games’ for instance when they first spawn in the arena. I don’t recall it being done when a character is already in a defined space though, and this is what I am trying to achieve.

I poured my focus almost entirely into pacing and shot choice, as my main goal depended on creating a plot that would compliment having a wide shot in the middle. I felt that, to achieve this, the climax of the plot had to be blunt. I achieved this by zoning away as much as possible from shots of specific features such as character gestures and miss en scene. In doing so, the audience finds it difficult to engage with the characters and is hence drawn away from the action, working to make the wide shot less jarring. I also decided the only way such a sudden cut would make sense is for the character to be lonely, as there needs to be a motive for the widen shot, in this case, showing Stewarts isolation from his peers, as if he just noticed he’s alone.

A notable decision I made was to not use over the shoulder shots and instead position the camera just off to the side of the actor in the foreground. That way we don’t see Emily leave the room and hence the wide shot has purpose in progressing the narrative. I also opted for no music as it makes the scene feel even more awkward for Stewart. The experiment isn’t emotive enough for music to have the appropriate impact.

Shooting was done on Tuesday 11th and edited on Wednesday 12th, a relatively short turnover time. Keeping the shots basic meant editing wasn’t particularly difficult, making a shot like this work was all about the plot twist, and had little dependance on my editing skills (thankfully).

Overall, I enjoyed pulling off this exercise, especially the difficulty of planning such a shot and brainstorming a scenario which would make sense. I’m not particularly happy with the execution in terms of how the scene came together, however, the effect remains apparent regardless.

Basic Research Project Script:

Wide Shot Experiment-24xxldn