I’ve always loved Ball Park Music, but had never seen this music video of theirs until recent. Directed by Dan Graetz, it seems like a music video that wouldn’t be too expensive to produce if you already had access to things like studios and lighting, which as RMIT students, we do. Despite the simplicity, it still provides a strong message and emotional punch, something that we aim to do create with our own music video,
Anton Corbijn’s ‘Control’ is stunning. By the end of the two hours, my heart was wrenched and I was gaping at the screen in disbelief (likely because I didn’t know much about Joy Division – including the death part). Something that I thought made this film particularly special and intriguing to me, personally, is that I didn’t take in a lot of context while watching it. The 1970s was a period of strikes and conflict, and Manchester was grimy and deserted, yet the film contains hardly any of this, also filtering out anything of the sorts of shrieking kids, ice-cream vans and lawnmowers. The film, to me, appears solely as a story about Ian Curtis, and much world-building context/background is unnecessary. There’s no way I can truly explain it, but I feel like ‘Control’ hit me in a way I didn’t expect due to the way it made me feel like Curtis was alone, and the world didn’t revolve around him but he was the world.
This is something I would like to explore when creating our own music video, how we can use context, or by stripping away context, to create a certain mood or feeling about a character.
Upon entering this studio, I had no idea what I was getting myself into, though I wasn’t particularly worried about the technical details as I know it’s unlikely I’ll ever go on to work on music videos professionally. However, after our first workshop on Monday, I am already intrigued and fascinated by the inner workings of music video productions and how how they are affected by budgets and production teams, as well various political and ethical considerations. My main aim in ‘Egg Hunting’ is to be able to step into the role of a director more, as in the past I have always stayed relatively quiet in group assignments and focused myself on background/planning work. This also applies to group work situations in this studio, where I hope to learn how to govern myself better amongst others who all have differing opinions and ideas. My goal is to learn how to stay focussed in a collaborative environment and be able to speak up and contribute as much as my fellow group members do, so that all my ideas are heard, instead of letting other people drive the group completely. Otherwise, I am very excited to be able to express myself creatively within this studio in a way that I have never been able to before. Though I haven’t thought about it extensively in the past, I definitely fit into the category of people that listen to a song and start visualising a compatible music video in their head, or think about a place in a movie that the song would be perfect for. I am interested to see whether this is a generally smooth sailing process of us being able to create whatever we set out to do, or whether we will be largely restricted by factors like budget and time. I’m hoping that I will learn, throughout the studio, how to navigate this creative process and experiment with techniques that don’t require a $10k budget.
ORIGINAL, test 1, 2 and 3 (Clip 1)
ORIGINAL, test 1, 2 and 3 (Clip 2)
ORIGINAL, test 1, 2 and 3 (Clip 3)
Screenshot from ‘Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind’
DEVELOPMENT OF IDEAS
When I approach film making, I think it is similar to the way many of us may do which is starting with a script or some dialogue and building everything else around that, including where it would best be shot or what kind of setting it should be in. However, sometimes I find when I do this it turns out a little incoherent and can seem a little bit out of place when I haven’t put enough thought into it, so I decided, along with my group members, to switch things up a bit.
For this project I am instead working from the ground up and focusing on the location first, then hoping some kind of story or narrative will fall into place from that. I’m not really concerned about working with a set script in mind, I more want to arrive at a location and let characters take form in some way that would best fit the place.
I mainly want to experiment with long tracking shots like the scene from La La Land where they are getting ready to go to the party, as well as stand out colour in clothing, and focusing on the fashion in a particularly barren location or one that has very neutral colours.
Screenshot from ‘La La Land’
For a long time now, I have loved the ending scene of Brian de Palma’s ‘Carrie’, where one of the only girls left alive is walking to Carrie’s ‘grave’ and there is a long tracking shot of the girl walking until she arrives. I knew there was something different about the scene, but until recently, I had no idea that Brian de Palma actually had the actress walk backwards and then he played it forwards in post-production, so the scene seems slightly “off” and nightmare like. I would love to recreate this with an actor in the graveyard next to where I live, and it would be exceptional if I could get a smoke machine to make the shot fall into a rather eerie, thriller genre trope.
Screenshot from ‘Carrie’.
OUTSIDE LIGHTING EXERCISE
The way I see this video, I think resembles the way many see Tommy Wiseau’s 2003 film, ‘The Room’. Perhaps the greatest bad movie ever made. I’m not too sure what is going on here, and it looks like crap, but it is also magnificent (mainly for the way that Rosie rocks the camera). The first shot in the sequence was the one that I directed and “owned”, and while we were supposed to be paying attention to lighting, I’m not sure I did at all. It wasn’t creative in any special way, the light didn’t dapple around her face spectacularly, dreary sunlight just lit up her face enough for her to be seen. The first and second clips accidentally didn’t get any coinciding audio recorded on the microphone, so there is an abrupt change between the second and third clip where you can actually hear Rosie’s voice. Ideally, if I were to do it again, I would have changed locations to somewhere, perhaps under a tree, so I could experiment with capturing dappled light (although it was a very overcast day and not much was working in our favour anyway). Most of the shots are far too overexposed and the framing of the shots isn’t great in general, but at least it was an exercise in which Rosie got to make us laugh (as seen in the end).
INDOORS LIGHTING EXCERCISE
Thursday of Week 8 saw us learning about three point lighting, so we continued experimenting with focus-pulling involving two subjects and a bunch of new lights. This was my first ever introduction to lighting in a studio so I came out semi-confused and semi-excited to continue playing with the lights. We ended up using a panel light with an orange cover (still unsure as to what it’s called) to light the off-side of Adrian’s face; plus two dedo lights for the background and fill. I wasn’t operating the camera for the duration of the class, and while I like both clips, I wish we focused more on Cody’s face in the second one, or perhaps not at all so that he remained mysterious and threatening as the audience wouldn’t be able to make out his features as much. I do love the way how Adrian turns in the first clip, as the warm light on his face to begin with seems to give the environment he is in an eerie feel, but when he sharply turns all you can see is the blue light, making it appear like the scene has changed and there is now a chilling feeling being conveyed. Obviously, this sounds slightly drawn out of proportion due to the fact that it was just a small experiment filmed in class with Adrian and Cody acting, but I think it could be applied successfully to further experiments when we want it to appear a bit more serious.
LOVE IN THE LIBRARY
Although I was acting in this exercise, colloquially titled by our group, ‘Love in The Library’, it was one of the most enjoyable videos from this semester to film and edit. Filming in the library only really sprang to mind as an idea due to the fact that we thought it wouldn’t be crowded during that time of day, and we could use the abundance of space however we wanted. We hadn’t initially thought about using dialogue, but we did have to come to terms with the fact that, of course, filming in the library meant no speaking. This wasn’t a problem though, as we ended up putting our characters in a traditional library setting, and having them as complete strangers to each other. In post production, I decided to keep it as a silent film (apart from the background sounds of the library recorded), though if I go back to the video again I would love to put a piece of music on top and see how it changes the mood, whether it becomes more romantic and intense or whether I make it go down the road of comical and light-hearted. I decided to keep the small giggle at the end in, as although I wasn’t meant to break character during the production, and Michael cut it out in his edit, I liked the idea of the characters kind of making light of the situation. I initially didn’t touch colour correcting the video, so it looks very dark and blue, though I used ‘Love in the Library’ in my colour grade post so there is a rather dramatic change there.
SCENE DECONSTRUCTION
Made two years after his Silence of the Lambs won the big five Oscars, Jonathan Demme’s Philadelphia (1993), did what no other film had done before: it openly discussed AIDS with unflinching honesty. The film was searing and controversial, an all-around game changer.
When we see Andrew Beckett (Tom Hanks) in this scene, he is well into his battle against AIDS, and his attorney, Joe Miller (Denzel Washington), is working hard on the final stages of Beckett’s wrongful termination lawsuit. The two of them sit in Beckett’s apartment, going over questioning for the trial, whilst Beckett puts on his favourite background music: opera.
The scene starring Maria Callas’ “La Momma Morta” is a powerful and distressing depiction of Beckett’s acceptance of death and enjoyment of living in the moment. The scene begins with extreme close ups of each of the men’s faces, showing the colossal contrast in their expressions – Beckett’s demonstrating an absolute adoration of the music and Miller’s conveying complete bitterness and withdrawal. The camera tracks Hanks as he stands up and moves towards the centre of the room, taking his IV stand with him, all from a very high/above angle. It captures Beckett moving around the room, firstly in typical warm house lights, though as the song begins to reach a climax, its as if all the lights in the room fade away, before he becomes bathed in an intense red light. He listens, translates the lyrics and explains the song to an opera-hating Miller, who undergoes his last conversion not only in his opinion of homosexuality, but a conversion of heart overall.
There are cuts back to Washington as he follows Hanks’ journey through the music, but mainly it focuses on Hanks with an unsteady but flowing camera technique that gives the scene a surreal, dream-like quality. Along with the glowing, red light, the fireplace continues to flicker, casting dancing light on the actors’ faces, enough for you to realise there are tears appearing in both of their eyes. When the camera focuses on Beckett, you practically forget Andrew has AIDS and simply view him as someone enthralled by beautiful music, until the IV drip comes back into frame. The red light is particularly exceptional in reflecting the passion pouring out through the music whilst also conveying an ominous vibe, as just before, the pair were discussing how Beckett may not live to see the end of the trial.
The scene is so intense it is arguable that it could be an overkill to the film, but the soundtrack provides an emotional elevation for the audience until the very end. It has been a favourite scene of mine for years, and I will never forget how much it made me cry when I saw it for the first time.
SCENE DECONSTRUCTION
Baz Luhrmann’s 2001 film, “Moulin Rouge” is vibrant, romantic and all around melodramatic, and it’s the film which I chose to deconstruct a scene from. I will exploring the Roxannne/Tango scene – one of my favourites from the film and possibly my favourite scene out of every Baz Luhrmann movie that I’ve seen, (I’ve seen all of them, multiple times).
The scene embodies a classic Luhrmann piece in every regard, fulfilling all of the characteristics you would expect from the director’s now highly distinguishable style. From Catherine Martin’s exquisite and grandiose costumes and sets to Jill Bilcock’s maniacal editing, and of course, a large emphasis on music. Josh Abrahams’ stunning edition of “El Tango de Roxanne” is performed throughout the scene by José Feliciano, Ewan McGregor, Jacek Koman and Nicole Kidman. This scene is by no means subtle or suggestive, instead, in true boisterous nature of Baz Luhrmann, every emotion is highlighted and amplified to an essentially melodramatic standard.
Within the film, the scene doesn’t necessarily serve any significant purpose in terms of developing narrative. However, it is crucial in the way it works as a tonal piece, heightening the drama towards the lead up to the final act, as the tension of the scene escalates at a rapid pace as if the film is holding its breath before finally exhaling at the end of the scene. The choreography in tandem with the musical performance of “Roxanne” work together to explore the divergence between Christian’s (Ewan McGregor) sadness and jealousy, along with the Duke’s (Richard Roxburgh) lust and terrifying anger. The dance number works to progress the scene by beginning with slow, lengthy and exploring movements, building up to sharp, electric actions that accentuate the impending doom of the characters’ situation.
Arguably, the most striking aspect of this scene is the overwhelming amount of edits that are included in the short space of time, as the cuts happen on average every two to three seconds. I am often unappreciative of directors who use so many cuts that their films seem to have been fed through electric fans. However, for Luhrmann and “Moulin Rouge”, I believe it is the right approach. He uses so many different setups and camera angles that some of the songs seem to be cut not on every word of the lyrics, but on every syllable. There is hardly any breathing room, it makes the scene feel anxious and tense in the best way possible. Shots from the same angle are rarely returned to, resulting in a scene which contains an enormity of camera set ups.
The scene features an array of shots that range from shallow, mid and deep focal lengths as well as an assortment of close ups, mid and wide shots. Medium shots are commonly used throughout the scene featuring a dancer or other supporting characters, while close ups are generally only used when Christian, the prostitute, The Duke or Satine (Nicole Kidman) are on screen. During Satine’s dinner with The Duke when he starts to become mad at her, there is a shot – not particularly groundbreaking, but still powerful in its manner of conveying status. Satine is on the ground with The Duke standing above her, and the camera placed over The Duke’s shoulder, intricately showing Kidman’s portrayal of a fearful, distressed Satine, right before the necklace is ripped from her neck and the music comes to a climax. Wide shots are also sporadically used throughout, and towards the end of the scene, wide aerial shots are used of the dancing troupe as they perform the tango and Christian walks through, clearly showing how small he feels on the inside in perspective of the large dance group.
The scene is all colour and music, sound and motion, kinetic energy and intense emotion. The brilliance of the scene comes not from small details like the framing of a singular shot or the way the light sparks in a character’s eyes in one moment. I believe the scene is a compelling one due to the way everything fits together as a whole to present an to present an enthralling piece of heartbreak and chaos, and wouldn’t wish Baz Luhrmann to have done it any other way.