Question 1: For a film to be considered documentary it must be comprised of one or more interviews. True or False?

FALSE

Q1:

My most favourite film was definitely Budgerigar. It was well executed, both at cinematography and scriptwriting perspective. First of all as a cinematographer, the camera movement and the shots angle were really professional, and in my opinion , above all others. The dolly movement was not easy but done amazingly good, which played a real important role in expressing the film and to be more specific, the 2 main characters as the dolly movement slowly going towards the character’s face, from a mid shot to a close up portrait shot .Next , I love the scene of the 2 character’s at low light space, which was setup perfectly for the purpose of the script. Overall,simple but effective storyline was perfectly executed with amazing camera work and wonderful acting.

Second best film was A Love Lost. I love how they decided to do a drama/romance which is of course more complicated to deliver than a typical choice such as comedy. And there are 2 things that strike me : Acting and Cinematography . The 2 casts were really good at expressing feelings, and the conversation scene was so natural and smooth. The guy’s narration fits the script and helped deliver the mood of the film. Secondly , the camera work was not fancy but effective, specifically the conversation scene at the dinning table. Lighting was perfect, brings out the exact light level at a dinner table and it was romantic , thanks to the candles. I noticed there were more than 3 angles were shot , the 2 POV and the mid shot, which was the best shot which was framed beautifully , including the window, the win glasses and of course the 2 characters. #respect

Milk was also good and I enjoy watching it the most. It was an action/comedy film which is the most effective one , in my opinion. The humour was clever and well delivered, the story was simple but effective and the acting was amazing. I find the camera work a bit shaky and grainy in some parts but the rest were perfect.

Q2 :

Through out the whole semester I find this course the most amazing and challenging . What surprised me the most was how myself and others year 1 students were able to pull off such good films when , going back at the first few weeks, no one knows how to make a film. Now we are all producers, directors, cinema photographer , sound director and script writer. Definitely the shooting day was the most excited part of the course. We were working with professional equipments, actors and saying different professional terms on a set. Being in a real professional set was my favourite part. On the other hand , I was i could have contributed more ideas and points into the group , other than just listen to orders and complete given tasks. What disappointed me was our script doesnt really delivered, not as funny and neat as we expected. The original idea was really good but then was changed and I didnt speak up which I should have. Then seeing it at the screenings and clearly didnt turn out as good as I wanted, and to compare with others, our film was not good. It was also really challenging to work in a group of people that I don’t know which led to some trouble in teamwork and chemistry. But overall, I really enjoy this course and I’d recommend anyone who have the same interest as me to take this course.

In Michelangelo Antonioni’s 1966 film, ‘Blow Up’, the director would have had to consider many key works prior to shooting that scene, such as coordinate the extensive movement and blocking of the actors within the set in conjunction with the camera movement, focus and framing as well as considering what it suggests to the audience. The director also have to work with the cameraman long before the shoot and have full understanding about the shot in order to shoot this complicated scene, to make sure the camera position , angle ,lights and movement are perfectly setup and done.
The actors would have to study their lines , and understand their movement, follow the marks and must have rehearsed a number of times to accomplish such movement and acts in that space.
Overall, as a cameraman , I admire and respect the camera operator in Blow Up, because of his framing and movement, amazing work and understanding and chemistry with the director.

Rabiger, M. Directing: film techniques and aesthetics, (p. 385-400). 3rd ed. Boston: Focal Press, 2003.

Developing a cew 

the primary idea of the article is picking and choosing your own crew , which really interested me and how this apply to myself and others through out the course. Firstly  it is very important to make sure the right people are selected for the job and that they have the right credentials and expertise to carry out their responsibilities in a professional manner.  The reading said we need to make sure everyone knows what they want to get out of the film, that they all have the same idea and a positive outlook.

it is also important to consider when dealing with your crew on set, and mood is very important during the shoot. Since we have finished shooting, our experience from that day is a crucial example  to this reading. At first the mood of the set was perfectly fine, professional, serious , productive but also calm and fun and thanks to that our first scene was finished earlier than what we planned and it went really smooth, everybody was happy. But at the last scene, when people were all tired after 6 hours of working non stop, the mood started to swing into a rush, hot and crazy atmosphere. Producer took over director’s role, First AD and producer didnt agree on things which really slows down the progress of the whole crew and was really not professional. There fore minor but important details were missed, issues occurred after the shoot.
But overall, being and running a film is really challenging, as usual, and we have done it nicely. New things, new experience were learned and we are happy with our product

Question 8: Please insert the link for your Lenny ex2 here. (use insert link tool)
List the things that you learnt from this experience – this could be things that went well or not so well.

http://vimeo.com/92120715

Lenny was a great first experience for the group. The most challenging and difficult part was the time constraint. To be able to cover up enough shots for the script in only 20 minutes was really hard, since setting up and getting ready already took nearly 10 minutes. For myself as a cinematographer, setting up was pretty quick and was done very neat . But I have a lot of camera angles in my mind that I could have done for Lenny but it was really time consuming so I couldnt delivered my best. Audio is perfectly recorded by Elaine and my direction . There’s only 1 part with the edit that we needed to improve is the unnecessary scene after the close up scene of Shanon walking to Lenny. Overall, our Lenny went really well and we are happy with our first time working in group.

Question 7: Please outline some points that you took away from the Lighting Lecture. Points that excite you, something that was completely new to you, perplexes you or even one you take issue with. 

The Lighting Lecture was a really helpful one for myself as a cameraman . I learnt about different levels of exposure as well as how to adjust the camera in relation to certain types of light,that electrical power and output are very important factors for lighting and different lights require different power source.

I also learnt a new thing called ” Negative Fill” which involves taking lights down, and blocking sunlight using black cloth to reduce the amount of light coming on set