Today in class, we watched some snippets of Michelangelo Antonioni’s 1964 classic, Red Desert. Whilst it didn’t take up a huge portion of the class, it was still incredibly inspiring and quite wonderful to look at. I really enjoyed how Antonioni uses space and location to evidently show how masterful he is at utilising decoupage to really illuminate his films. This exploration of space is what makes the form of his work so crucial, it’s what makes the film what it is. He is a master at directing his characters through a scene so concisely.
This is something that a director can only dream about. Obtaining a certain visual style of work that is unique to your film making is something that I find to be quite interesting and rare at times. I feel like most directors definitely have their own style that is individual to them, but not many directors are really innovative in their fields, like Antonioni was. I see inspiration from other directors in films, whilst the first pioneers of feature length films really pushed the boundaries in terms of decoupage. It’s these directors that really influence the modern day directors.
Today’s task was an interesting one. We were told to come to class prepared to direct our own little short, which was anything of our choosing and planning. We were to direct it, whilst the rest of the group were going to be filming it, acting in it and looking after the sound.
My group consisted of Matt, Luke, Sam and myself. I devised a short little scene where Luke would be playing a depressed individual roaming the halls of RMIT thinking of retreating to his bed for the day. I was able to cover the scene exactly how I wanted… I did this by filming Luke quite extensively as he prowled the halls of building 9, and directed him to look solemn and grim. I intended to turn the whole thing into a monologue basically, with his mind narrating his emotions throughout his day. The whole scene had a real melancholy feel to it, which was exacerbated by the dimly lit lighting that permeates the bottom floor of building 9.
The activity was really interesting. Directing has never been my fortè, but working with like-minded individuals really makes the job a lot easier and smooth. I really liked the pressure of working under a 30 minute time limit, I felt like it really pushed all us individuals to work really concisely and to not fool around.
Today’s class was spent filming a scene that we had planned in yesterday’s tute. It depicted some university students making their way to class and running into a troublesome dude named Charlie, who may have been drunk. It was pretty hilarious. The day was really wet and rainy, and we had to shoot the scene on the stairs behind building 9. This caused a number of OHS problems and slowed our shoot down considerably.
Throughout the shoot, our film crew ran into a number of issues that forced us to ponder our direction and how we were going to approach the next set of tasks. Sam, our director, did a really good job in keeping everyone in line and making sure we were all focused and attentive to the job at hand.
It’s funny because when you think of your favourite films, you think of them on a creative level. I mostly think about the creation of ideas that happens in the directors’ head on how they visualise a film to ‘look’. By partaking in shoots and this studio in general, i’m starting to look at films in a more technical way.
How were they created? Why did the director choose this shot?
These are all questions that are starting to become regular occurrences within my thought processes. As the semester goes on, I can only imagine that these questions will become stronger and easier to answer.
Today’s class was centered around a group exercise where the classroom became a film set. Every member of the class had a specific role in helping to assemble a scene, as a way to experience in real time how a film crew works together to overcome obstacles and tribulations to create a coherent and viable piece of cinema.
Meg and I were chosen as the actors of the scene. The greatest revelation that I experienced by doing this was how tedious the job is and also how “watched” you are. I felt super self-conscious being studied and judged by the whole class. It was a rewarding experience though and allowed our humour to shine through. I flubbed my lines a couple of times and we both laughed a lot which set the whole crew back quite a bit, which in turn added a sense of realism to the experience I thought. A real film takes months to complete, so one can only imagine how many of those hours are unused footage of mistakes and bloopers. I think we’re hilarious.
The rest of the class had roles such as camera operator, sound engineer, director etc… The thing that I find the most interesting about this was, even though we were all working as a team… It still took quite a lot of time, effort and energy to get a simple scene filmed. I strongly believe that the bigger the team, the longer it takes, as different individuals have different opinions on how things should be curated and presented. Smaller teams usually work more efficient for the reason that there are less voices to be heard. I guess the thing that I took most from this class was the importance of the Director in maintaining a sense of balance and order within a film crew. The director is there to make sure that the film gets made, in the most creatively concise way.
Mommy (2014), directed by Xavier Dolan, is one of my favourite films of all time. I could speak for days about how much I love it, I literally don’t shut up. This scene in particular is my favourite. The film as a whole basically explores the theme of family and this scene encapsulates everything that Xavier Dolan wants to say about it and condenses it into three minutes of pure cinematic heaven. It just shows a family having an absolute ball and forgetting about the worries that can consume a life.
In this scene, Dolan perfectly hones in on the theme of family by portraying a tight knit unit that is making the most of their time together and just having a great time. The use of mid shots throughout the scene are perfectly executed to frame the family in unity, whilst also expressing the feelings of intimacy and togetherness. The francophone Celine Dion song ‘On Ne Change Pas’ plays, which means “one doesn’t change”, which can be translated in the context of the film, to represent the nature of the family portrayed in Mommy; a family that is strong but also fragile to the core. Xavier Dolan does an incredible job at capturing raw emotion by utilising an array of cinematic techniques.
The lighting in this scene is fairly low key and dark, which further adds to the intimate nature of the scene. Spotlight lighting is employed (presumably the kitchen lights) to really focus on the characters’ dance movements as they connect with each other and make the most of the joyous moment. As Diane (mother) and Steve (son) dance with each other, they convince Kyla to join them. This piece of character development allows the mental boundaries between the characters to crumble and for the natural enjoyment of the actors to really show on screen. The coverage of the scene adds to this, as it is quite simple in nature. A few mid shots are featured, keeping the scene relatively simple in a “what you see is what you get” way. As the scene concludes, it’s easy to see how the theme of family is explored thoroughly.
I feel like I should’ve written this post probably at the start of the semester, just as a way to say what I hope to achieve through this studio. I’m really enjoying the cinematic tools and techniques that this class is setting me up with. The idea of creating imagery through film really excites me. Feeling inspired and creative is one of my favourite feelings… It really motivates one to get up in the morning and to pursue whatever it is that they want to do in life.
I love watching films. Touched upon briefly in my scene analysis, the movie Somewhere (Sofia Coppola, 2010) really inspires me to create cinema. Learning about coverage has ignited the fire within me to experiment with different angles and modes of film to shoot plenty of material. The editing process is really interesting in my opinion, I like the idea of being able to convey different levels of emotion and meaning by utilising the ability to edit different shots together. I really want to do this in my upcoming work.
I’m also super into long shots lately. Somewhere, my favourite film, has so many long, establishing shots in it that are just set up so nicely. I like that the scenes have a photographic quality to them. I definitely want to take the time in the future to really put heaps of thought into my scenes and to curate them as for them to be able to stand alone as photographs. Reilly stresses in most of his readings about how huge a film production can be, so it kind of makes me anxious thinking about making really beautiful scenes with minimal resources and a non-existent budget, but hey, looking forward to seeing what comes out of this lazy brain of mine.
In the art of film production, coverage refers to the amount of footage recorded in camera which encompasses a different variety of camera angles, takes and cuts which will then later be used in the post-production stage of editing to create a scene. The more coverage shot through the filming process, the more footage that will then be later studied and potentially utilised to make the scene as coherent and structurally plausible as possible.
For example, a group of filmmakers will be working on a shoot to capture a scene of a young married couple conversing about their respective days just passed. They will attempt to plan and capture the scene in a number of different ways so they can later deliberate in the editing suites about which way, using their huge array of footage shot, is the best way to edit and formulate the scene so that they can maximise the depiction of a couple in love. This can be done by using the close up shot that they got of the couple, as opposed to the mid shot, as close up shots usually depict the notion of intimacy and attraction, whilst the mid shot can connote a sense of distance and withdrawal.
Camera coverage is usually planned by the director of the film, by creating something called a ‘shot list’, which is a detailed illustration that defines what each shot in a scene will look like. This helps the rest of the filmmaking team, including the editors, decide on what the most appropriate shots are to convey the scene in whichever way planned.
Today’s class focused a great deal on the idea of creating a scene and how a group of creatives can come together to fuse different talents, skills and techniques to execute a piece of watchable media. In our groups of 6, we were split into different technical roles to make sure that our film operated on a professional level. I was given the role of director and it definitely taught me some things.
Firstly, it showed me that organising an amateur film set is a lot harder than it sounds! Finding the confidence to direct a small cast and crew is incredibly hard to muster up. It’s incredibly hard to trust your own voice and direction in the hope that others will respect that and be willing to put their own trust within you to get the job done.
The class today definitely taught me lessons in the craft of scene building and filmmaking. It taught me that a scene can’t be created by using one person alone and that it’s a team effort which makes it truly special and great. A team that bonds really well and shares the same creative vision will easily be able to create a body of work that holds up on its own.
This scene, taken from Somewhere (Sofia Coppola, 2010) is probably one of my favourite scenes of all time. Within me, it instills the feelings of nostalgia, longing for the past and hope for the future. This is all achieved through a number of different cinematic techniques, including the use of different camera angles to create the idea of drama and an emotional narrative between customers, as well as the use of soundtrack to encapsulate the overall mood of the scene.
Firstly, to understand the overall context of the scene, its important to know that the film focuses on the complexities of being a child to a famous actor. The establishing long shot of the ice-rink, surrounded by the whimsical palm trees of LA, makes the audience aware that the movie does take place in the beautiful, yet mysterious surrounds of Los Angeles, California. Los Angeles is well known for being the geographical birth-place of Hollywood, a place that many associate with superficiality and disposability.
Throughout the whole scene, the two characters are shown in their respective positions on set through the use of a shot reverse shot. Elle Fanning’s character, who is an interpretive ice skater, is portrayed using a long shot, whilst Stephen Dorff’s character, is watching his daughter skate whilst being portrayed using a mid shot. I believe that this combination of shots is used to correlate to the audience the type of relationship that Johnny (Dorff) has with Cleo (Fanning). The use of the long shot might symbolise the emotional distance that Cleo has with Johnny at this point in the movie. Although they are biologically related, their emotional relationship is one of distance and the unknown.. Johnny does not really understand his daughter, but by attending her ice skating practice, he is able to slowly understand the essence of his daughter through her craft. At the start of the scene, the first mid shot of Johnny shows him glued to his fine, although as the scene progresses, he gradually learns to let go of his emotional connection to his phone and to focus more on his daughter. This is symbolic of their relationship starting to develop. The way that the shot reverse shots are ordered allows the audience to easily interpret what is happening, through the cinematography as well as the acting techniques utilised by the cast.
The use of score is also important in this scene and helps to set the thematic mood that is present in not only this portion of the movie, but throughout the whole film. Gwen Stefani’s hit song “Cool” plays as Cleo skates around the ice rink. The song tells the narrative of a character who once felt a deep love for another person, but now through the natural progression of life, is no longer in love with them but accepts their respective fates in life. This can be applied to the scene, as Johnny, leading up to this moment has not been a great father to his daughter, but is now in a position where he is ready to take it upon himself to be present in her life.
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.
