Analysis #5

 Lecture 7 Lighting: What was covered? Do you think the content is relevant to your project? And why?

The lighting lecture covered all aspects of lighting to think about when planning our shoots. The importance of running a practice shoot was stressed, as it helps to determine what lighting kits you’ll need to book, as well as the lighting set up/positioning of lights. Lighting techniques were also described as a way to add to the script, i.e.. character mindset, mood, time of day etc.

This is all very relevant to our projects, and was apparent during our shoot day on Saturday. I didn’t have a lot to do with the physical shooting of our film as I am Producer/Project Manager, however setting up the lighting for each shot was very time-consuming. We knew what effect we wanted for each shot, however would have greatly benefited from a test shoot to be more efficient on the day.

Select from one of the readings from week 5, 6 or 7 and describe two points that you have taken from it. Points that excite you, something that was completely new to you.

I found the reading ‘Acting is Doing’ by Sydney Pollack in conversation with John Boorman really interesting.

There is a strong relationship between the actor and the director in film. As long as the director can get the best performance out of the actor for that scene, editing can take care of putting the film together.

Sydney tries not the be too direct in his instructions to the actors, as he feels that acting is very results-based, which puts pressure on the actors and may not bring out their best performance. He tries to imagine the scenario as not a film scene, but a true-to-life event.

It makes sense when John brings up the association example of Eisenstein, as I have discussed his theory in cinema studies. Sometimes the expression on someone’s face is interpreted by the audience, depending on what else they have been shown. So realistically, the actor does not always need to be overtly ‘acting’ in order to give a realistic performance.

Sydney explains that he needs to view the scene from the camera’s ‘eye’ or perspective, to ensure that he is experiencing the scene in the same way that the audience will. However, he also stresses the importance of watching the actor perform in front of you, as oppose to watching only the monitor. This is a good point, as on our shoot last week I liked being able to watch the action from the monitor to see how it was looking on screen, but it could have been disheartening for the actors if Lauren, our director was doing the same and not engaging with them and their real-life performances.

Blow Up is a 1966 film directed by Michelangelo Antonioni. In this scene note the choreography of the actors, camera, frame and focus. As covered in the lecture describe the things Antonioni would have have to consider when directing the actors and the camera.

Antonioni would have had a lot of considerations whilst planning this scene. The actors move from outdoors to indoors and enter numerous rooms. Blocking of the actors would have been carefully planned in order to capture them in the interesting and often unconventional ways he does. Multiple cameras or takes of the same shot would have been used from different angles to get the amount of coverage that is shown. The scene is very fluid, and ever-moving, so must have been carefully choreographed in order to work and appear natural.

Lighting would have needed to be kept consistent throughout, and it needed to be believable as an interior building during the day. There are also some shots that use reflective surfaces, so the camera and crew would have been placed in a way that they are out of frame.