2. 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.
Week six readings, “Rabiger, M. Directing a Crew”.
This reading was about the process of putting together a cast and crew. It is very important to make sure the right people are selected to the right area of expertise and they should be cast for personal as well as technical capabilities to carry out their responsibilities in a professional manner all through the production.
As a Sound Recorder, I find the Sound Department part was extremely helpful.
Rabiger dicusses how the sound recorder listens not to words but to sound quality and be able to listen analytically. In our movie, i tried hard to keep the production dialogue clear of extraneous sounds and i did a number of room-tone (background ambience for locations) and wild-track recordings (door-slams, lines of dialogue that were missed, keys jangling . . .)
As Rabiger said exterior location shooting is often the most troublesome because the background sound levels are uncontrollable and any hope of getting the best quality is usually compromised by a tight schedule. After went through my first film shoot, this is my experience of getting a good sound and clear dialogue
-Controlling the environment is crucial ie turning off the AC (even though it’ll get hot with all the lights), turning off the fridge, putting sound blankets to stop reflections.
-Ask the actors to get levels before a take.
-Don’t forget to record ambience and wild lines or sound effects after takes. Having an actor go through a couple lines right after they take when they are in the moment can save having to do ADR later.
-Location scout areas for sound issues. Choose another location if it sounds horrible. If you can’t then knowing the sound issues will prepare you to try and fix them while on the shoot.
3. 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.
In this scene from blow up, Antonioni has made some very interesting choices as to how he has framed the shot. The camera’s he used in these scenes where a mix of still and panning shots always keeping at least one of the actors in the shot. A few of the things I found especially interesting was when the shot is taken from a position where you can’t see either of the actors heads and all that is happening is dialogue. Also when the female actor is clearly looking at something behind the camera but the camera didn’t directly show what it was.
I think this scene would of take a long time to finish as they would have had to rehurse it many times for the actors to know their position in relation to the camera.
As this scene is quite different and contains many artistic shots everything would have had to be organized a few weeks prior to shooting by the director and production team.