In this first week of the scene in cinema I was keen to dive into the course material as it was my first preference. I picked this class because I would like to be a feature film director, but I feel my camera choices so far have been pretty standard and basic when they could be more complex and better suited to the emotions I’m trying to convey in my films to get a better understanding of framing and stylising camera shots to generate the correct tones for scenes and to get a better understanding of camera choices I’m not too familiar with in order to expand my knowledge and improve as a director.

I wasn’t expecting to start the practical side of the classes straight away in the first week but I was happy to do a blocking exercise as it was something we hadn’t had the chance to do much of in my past years of camera classes and it’s a directing technique I’ve been meaning to expand on so having the challenge of having a fixed camera and creating a solution by generating the coverage needed using tilts and pans was fun as it gave me the chance to work on my communication skills between the camera operator and the actors which is another area I believe I need to improve on.

In the second lesson this week we looked at covering depth of field by looking at aperture and focal length which was something I’d covered before in classes from previous years but had no problem revisiting since it gave me the opportunity to continue to learn where everything is on the Sony camera’s we’ll be using this year. After reviewing the work I think we could have created a stronger depth of field than we did while the subject was in focus and we had a good level of exposure the background imagery could have been push back further which is a shame as we chose that location thinking it would help us create a strong depth of field due to how well it showed up on camera. I also think we could have framed the subjects better. I believe there was value in recording the data on the camera sheet as now I see issues looking back the sheet shows what settings the camera was on to avoid making the same mistake in future practices

Both exercises were distinct but held a link as they were both types of stylistic camera coverage and both had challenges which my groups had different levels of success completing. In relation to the rest of the semester this class is showing a more complex style of camera covering as a opposed to standard camera set ups which is exactly what I signed up for.

READING RESPONSE – BLOCKING IS OVERLOOKED AND UNDERVALUED

I agree that many directors, including myself, often undervalue the importance of blocking a scene when it is an integral part of the process that deserves more attention. While I believe that directors should be in charge of blocking I can’t agree with the concept of actors not getting a say in how the scene is blocked as my directorial style is not a dictatorship and I like when people offer ideas even if I don’t end up liking them.