Upon Week 4’s filming exercise I believe I fell into the hole of getting work done rather than creating a piece for its intended purpose. Well in this purpose it was to learn however the point was the script and the instructions. I think my group mostly ignored the instructions however I believe that we did intend on creating a product that was at least consistent with what we (the film makers) were attempting to achieve.
With Robin being super critical of our decisions, I believe it was great experience learning or perhaps re-calibrating the mind to think about film. Knowing what a shot has to do in relation to the overall scene and what the scene serves to the film. Things like lighting continuity, what the lighting serves to paint the scene indoors or outdoors, cloud or sunshine, making it look like it is the same room. A lot can be achieved within the misdirection of film, which is something I’m learning more about. The purpose I guess, is to break out of the mould of thinking about shooting in a location being in the same location as the script suggests (if that makes sense). You can give the illusion of having the same location in a shot when in fact your two corresponding shots can be shot on different days, locations or setting (ie. the lighting change) and one must accommodate those changes for consistency required for the scene’s purpose.
For our group’s work, if I had my time again constructing different shots in different parts of the room to get a gauge on what I can and can’t do and to understand the environment of the scene better I suppose. In terms of shot selection, shooting several shots. I understand now that I did not read the script and instructions properly to their intention. Having an establishing shot within a scene written like this was a knee jerk reaction to receiving the exercise. Next time I will have a better understanding of the purpose of shooting a scene like this. Since they are different scenes I actually made it harder on myself for shooting as the one continuous flow of scene. One thing essential when shooting a scene is control, control of the lighting, the camera, the actors, background etc. is important. The more I can control and understand the easier it is to construct a shot for its intended purpose. I feel after listening to Robin’s criticism that I can better understand what problems I might have with constructing a shot can be avoided if I were to change the fundamentals of the shot. Things like shooting at a different angle to not show the light from the window, having a tighter shot so less of the background is showing. All these things contribute to my overall understanding of constructing a scene using what is available rather than what extra things need to be done.
