REFLECTION – Advanced Video Piece
I had a slightly delayed start to this project, but with the limited time and resources I had, I’m fairly happy with the result. I decided to adapt my observation #10 from Week 5, centred around me spotting a rat in my backyard. Robin & I decided that this would be an appropriate observation to choose, as it was achievable in a practical sense, and while we decided that maybe I wouldn’t reach a final, completed piece to a high level, I would give it a crack, experiment with the idea and how to capture it, and we’d see how I went.
As I had just one day/night to complete my shooting, and I had no available friends or family to come and help me, I was working alone. This was fine in terms of on screen personnel, as I only have 1 actor required, however having another to help me set up and work out shots would’ve been very beneficial but unfortunately I had to make do. Some things that I planned on including but couldn’t achieve alone:
- Close up shot of my face as I moved – I wanted a close up of my face, both outside and inside, however this was very difficult to set up when working alone, so I scrapped it.
- A shot from outdoors, showing me sitting inside – this was also scrapped because it needed to be hand held, not possible because I was alone.
- A shot of the dog bowl in my hands – I tried doing this using the tripod but the red light on the front was reflecting in the bowl. Probably could have worked around it if I had another person with me.
- A shot over my shoulder as I was sitting – this also required hand held and therefore couldn’t be done.
When I started brainstorming how to adapt this observation, I thought of ways to infer the rat’s existence, without actually showing it, as that would be impossible with my timeframe/resources. I thought I could show the bowl of food outside, at the beginning with food inside, and then later with no food in it. I got a shot of my dog Gus eating from the bowl, and then leaving it with a small amount of food left, to show the audience that it wasn’t Gus that ate the final pieces. I think this affect works to an extent, however without any prior knowledge of the rat storyline, the viewer may suspect some kind of larger or more ominous predator that had taken the food. I think this scene definitely has horror elements and the possibilities for it to be adapted into something of that style is possible.
Sound was important for this piece, but I understood that it is also one of the most time consuming and fiddly parts of film production. Nailing the sound design can take hours of experimenting & mastering. I decided to leave out most major sound motifs I wanted to include as I just thought it wasn’t a viable option to try and complete within the time I had given myself.
One sound element I wanted to attempt though was the distinction between inside & out, as if to show the safe, warm inside, with the cold, silent & dark outdoors. I think I did this well, however one part I did not have time to complete was to add some sounds of a television playing inside, as to add to the soundscape, and to further the difference between inside and out.
I thought the lighting in my short piece was executed well. I used the resources I had at hand (outdoor lights & lamps) to correct the lighting for each shot, and I think it creates an interesting mood.
All in all, I like this idea and I may consider re-working it in the future. I think with a bigger crew and more time, I could pull this off pretty well.