#3 – 7/3/2016

Blocking, according to Tom Reilly’s ‘The Big Picture’ refers to the way a shot in a scene of a film is systematically “choreographed” and physically set out out to paint a picture to the audience of what is happening in regards to narrative. It is the way that the actors and the props within a shot contribute to the narrative’s influence on drama, story and the way that the audience are able to interpret the emotional route that a film is trying to convey.

The part of the reading that I really gravitated towards was the idea that some film directors usually determine the ‘blocking’ of a shot by testing it with the real actors and deciding what feels natural the actors in terms of their movement and own positioning, whilst other directors consult their D.O.P’s to decide what the most visually appealing mise en scene is. I know personally that when I film scenes, I definitely treat it as a real organic process, in the sense that I like to test a scene out with the actors and experiment with what feels the most natural and what my eye instinctively decides to be the most visually appealing experience for not only me, but the audience also. I trust ‘the eye’ to make good judgements on behalf of an audience, as a visually unappealing shot can distract from the intented drama of a specific moment in film.