Over the last few weeks, we’ve been looking more into the intricate processes of creating film, and it’s been making me realise how little I really know about film production. For this assignment, I’ve put film making into four main categories.
- Pre-filming setup
- Shooting the Scene
- Post-filming checklist
- Post-production
There’s been a few small things that have really stuck on board specifically to me that I find I’m now just implementing into my casual film making.
I now:
- make sure to white balance and configure manual focus before filming, rather than auto focus and post production colour correction
- relay “camera rolling? sound rolling? slate in, mark it, slate out, frame, aaaaand action”
- shoot the same scenes in different positions, to create more options
- make sure to wait a few seconds before calling “CUT” to make sure that I don’t cut off an actor and kill the emotion conveyed through silence.
- organise my folders by sound and footage, and I create a sequence with my desired video settings, rather than using the settings that apply to the clip. (I actually accidentally did a video essay last year all accidentally in 4:3 resolution, because I didn’t bother to create a sequence)
- colour grade my video, adjusting my darks often to blue and whites often to a pale yellow, (depending on the video) and I’m more careful to adjust contrast and saturation, as shown in this video:
These are just little things that I’ve picked up specifically since doing this class, and they’re definitely having a positive influence on my work and even in my amateur videos. I’ve also decided to do some research on colour grading, and have been practicing implementing it into my films as well, with varying success. Obviously we’ve discussed a lot more than just these little bullet points in class, but those are the key things that have stuck with me so far.
Go Fish – Edit 1
Pre-filming setup
For this edit, we were really quite diligent with the pre-production set up. The scenes with the close up of the eyes were my idea, and despite it being a little difficult to film, I’m glad that we got that footage.
Shooting the Scene
Almost all of the scenes had reasonably good sound and a clear clapper. We ended up filming a variety of different shots, and different angles with the same dialogue. It really helped that the actors were pretty on to it, and really willing to listen to the direction coming from the group.
Post-filming checklist
Because time was tight, we didn’t check the films as often as we could have after we shot them. Luckily the shots were pretty well lit, but some of the scenes were a little bit out of focus. I had only really realised this when I started getting into post production, but it would have been nice to realise that earlier.
Post-production
I made a stupid mistake in the post production of this edit. I accidentally left on an application called Flux, which is basically a blue light filter that makes the entire computer display in a more orange, amber like light to make you feel sleepy and go to bed earlier. This had a bad effect on my video as you can see, because I’ve made it so blue! I remember thinking I had managed to make it look pretty perfectly white, and wondering how it got so blue the next day.
Go Fish – Edit 2
As you can see, this edit isn’t quite as blue, but I’m actually not sure whether or not I prefer it, the lack of the extreme colour grading makes it almost seem a little dreary, and a little less dramatic. In the future I’ll try to get some more feedback on my colour grading, and I’ll make a few different kinds of edits like this so that the person I’m making the film for can choose which they prefer.
Another thing to add about this edit, is that often the video was just a lucky lip sync, you can sort of tell with the way that Tristan is heard taking a deep breath, but isn’t actually seen taking the breath. Often the sound and voices that were heard were not actually recorded in the same footage, though it still seems to work pretty well, I’m not sure what to make of that observation.
Go Fish Part 2 – Edit 1
I’ll be honest, I didn’t really think I’d be picking this film to critique my abilities as a filmmaker, but there’s so many mistakes that I decided I couldn’t leave it out.
Pre-filming setup
We were a little less organised with the setup of this scene, we knew we wanted to play with levels and camera angles, but we weren’t exactly sure how. I was the only one behind the camera for this one, and in the first scene of this edit, I was sure that the frame was symmetrical, but upon looking at it in post-production, it wasn’t the case. Notice how the painting is somewhat in the middle of our two actors in the middle scene. We actually moved the entire table and chairs for this to be the case, it’s not quite perfect, but it does seem to compliment with the rule of thirds at least a little bit.
Shooting the Scene
The lighting was poor in the high angle shot, and you can partially see the jeans of the person holding the boom mic in the top left corner. In the under the table scene, the boom mic is clearly in focus on the left. We actually tried to make a bit of an effort to get the boom mic out of focus in the under the table scene, but I guess it wasn’t enough.
Post-filming checklist
We didn’t look at the scenes on the camera after filming them, and we weren’t entirely happy with what we’d filmed anyway. Unfortunately, we were running very low on time, and so there really wasn’t much of a post filming checklist. Although we did check the white balance at the start, we didn’t check it afterwards, we didn’t make sure that the shots were in focus, we didn’t check that the boom mic was clearly in shot, we didn’t check if the lighting worked well and barely checked the scenes symmetry and use of rule of thirds.
I know it sounds like I’m really bashing this film, but there’s definitely a lot we could do better in the future.
Post-production
Post-production was really what pulled this train wreck of a film somewhat together. Notice how I said previously that the lighting in the high angle shot was rubbish, I really played with the settings in post-production and it actually came out reasonably well. I didn’t really like how this edit panned out, because I used the dialouge from the edit that was filmed above the table, so it sounds quite serious as opposed the dialogue heard while we filmed under the table. The seedy underlying acts of this innocent script are not conveyed through the dialogue. I’ve once again used footage that doesn’t correlate with the sound files that it is merged with, but it seems tos sync reasonably well.
Notice how Edit 2 works differently through the use of a different sound file.
Go Fish Part 2 – Edit 2
I like the timing of this one a lot better. I think it’s just funnier and it flows better. I still obviously have a lot of problems with the lighting, contrast and colour grading, but hopefully I’ll improve that in future films.
Piano Lessons – Edit 1
This film was really difficult. because we didn’t have a plan, or a script or much of a story to work with, all we were trying to do is figure out some kind of way to have one scene depict two different kinds of shots, which I don’t think we did very successfully.
Pre-filming setup
As you can see, I’m not in charge of the camera for this scene, there was actually a reasonable amount of pre-film setup that went into the creation of this scene. We tried multiple angles but none of them really seemed to give us much leverage when it came to turning it into another kind of shot.
Shooting the Scene
I felt that the original shot construction at the beginning of the scene was actually quite nice, but we couldn’t figure out where to go from there. As Tierra goes to sit down beside me, we’re trying to create an over the shoulder shot, but it didn’t work, so I quickly cut to the close up of the piano because it looked nice aesthetically.
Post-filming checklist
We did look over the films after we shot them, and we were satisfied with how we had set them up, and the focus and white balance were pretty good, although we didn’t think the camera movement worked very well, and once again, we were very short on time.
Post-production
I played around with the colour and contrast in this edit, and I quickly cut away from the first shot to the close up of the piano, but notice how edit 2 looks and plays differently.
Piano Lessons – Edit 2
This edit has a warmer, more home video kind of colour to it, it looks less professional in my opinion, but I find that the timing seems to work better in this edit, because Tierra actually gets to sit down for a moment to show the other shot before I change the scene. I’ve also kind of made it look as if she slapped me onto the piano, which I think works rather well.
Scene Deconstruction
There Will be Blood, directed by Paul Thomas Anderson
There Will be Blood is a film that really effectively conveys emotion while using limited dialogue. There is a great deal of confrontation between both Paul and Daniel in this scene that often communicated through the silences inbetween their conversation. The two characters are so vastly different in nature, Paul being timid and passive, and Daniel being assertive, often coming across a little too forward. I don’t want to delve too deeply into their great acting performance, so instead let’s look at the film techniques and cinematography.
Shot Construction
One thing I really admire about this scene is the way the camera movement creates entirely new shots, like we’ve discussed recently. Take for example the scene at 1:00, where Paul is silhouetted in the right half of the shot. This shot only shows him and Daniel, but when Paul sits down, Fletcher is revealed to have been present in the conversation the entire time.
Slowly the camera closes in on the scene without us even really noticing, before long the characters have consumed the entire shot, and it communicates to the audience the tension rising between them, as there is little empty space to breathe. Eventually the camera is consumed by Pauls face only at 2:45, and only then are we presented with a cut, after the line of dialogue “600 dollars”. This shows the shift in power, Paul is now seen as an equal, and the shots turn into equal over the shoulder shots.
I found it interesting the way that characters didn’t really exist in the world of this scene until they appeared on camera. At 3:03, H.W (the child) appears at the right of the scene, next to Paul. I can imagine the precise planning that would have taken place for him to be visible in such a small space of the camera. Once we are able to see H.W, Paul is also able to see him, and turns around to look at him. He is out of focus, but once Daniel introduces him as his son, we return to see him fully in focus.
I admire the way that each character is introduced to Paul with the use of close ups and focus, rather than simple dialogue.
Lighting / Colour
The room is really dimly lit with warm halogen lighting, so it’s interesting how we can see the detailed facial expressions of the three characters in a white light so clearly, obviously lighting rigs have been used, yet we ignore it. The overall colour of the scene is grey and dull, but the scene remains defined and complex. I find it interesting that the director has chosen to have this room to be coloured with a more hostile white light, when the room would naturally have had a warmer more inviting light.
In future films, I’d like to replicate Paul Andersons ability to display several different types of shots within one camera roll, and I will take into account the way in which lighting can be used rather blatantly and still not take away from the scene and its enviornment.