My group were assigned a scene from Ermanno Olmi’s The Finances and another from Akira Kurosawa’s High and Low. My first impression of the scene from The Finances was that it looked feasible to replicate; as the cutting was quite fast, we wouldn’t have to film long takes. The scene from High and Low however looked quite difficult to shoot. It was one take, and it had that classic Kurosawa blocking that you only realise the true genius of when trying to recreate it.

I love directing and requested that I direct The Finances sequence. My group accepted. I would also act in it (in a very minor role). I was assigned to be an actor for the High and Low take that Sam would direct. In the lead up to directing the shoot, I watched the sequence many times. I had an idea of how to do it, but at the same time it was difficult because we didn’t know where we were going to shoot. Jess tried to book a classroom online but we couldn’t find anything; we knew we would have to find something on the day. Fortunately, the classroom next to our studio classroom was empty, spacious, and perfect for the shoot.

We decided that we would shoot the High and Low sequence first. Problems arose when I was found to be too tall to play one of the male actors. We switched roles (I played the female), and I performed whilst sitting on a wheelie chair that was moved by the director. We knew the final result would be imperfect (my chair is visible), but we were happy with the outcome of the blocking.

Directing The Finances scene was great. I think I came off too much as an authoritarian, but it was worth it (maybe). Fortunately, the actors Sam and Kris were very easy to work with. The only problems were technical (mainly the camera movement in the first shot), but after time, everyone had adjusted and were familiar with their respective roles. We finished with about 1 minute to go.

It’s not until you edit the two shot-for-shot when you realise how successful the experience was. We took a lot of shots for The Finances, and overall, I was very pleased with the outcome. The errors aren’t that noticeable, the timing was close to perfect and most importantly, it makes sense when played out. As for High and Low, the main problem was that the takes were too short. It plays out very quickly. Each actor could have taken a breath before their lines, and as a result it would have looked a bit more smooth. But, understandably, the actors weren’t professional, and when your main focus is on your movement rather than your lines, the outcome can be quite rushed. Overall, a worthwhile experiment.

The lead-up to shooting the footage with Alex and Chynnae was quite exciting. We had no idea what we were going to shoot. Robin suggested to pursue a theme, but as we didn’t really have enough time to make an executive decision, we improvised, knowing we had the security of using material from the other groups if our footage wasn’t useful.

We shot practically all our material on Victoria Street. It was busy, and there was a lot of material. We shot a few things; plants, buildings, traffic, the shadows of passerbys. We didn’t opt to use a lot of camera movement as we agreed it would be somewhat of a distraction; we wanted the sole focus to be on the subject.

After gathering and watching over all of the available material, I saw a lot of similarities in the content. This was obviously because we all shot in practically the same location, and therefore had similar choices at our disposal.

I decided my idea to pursue would be the natural world versus the constructed world. Maybe not ‘versus’, but line the two up alongside each other and create some kind of contrast. I would do this by showing something natural (a la flowers/trees), fading to black, then showing something constructed (a la buildings), before fading to black and starting the process over again.

Each shot (except for the last) is similar in length. They are timed and accompanied by a musical score. The score, created by my friend, is a piece of classical music (natural) that has been distorted through production (construction).

The last shot takes up about double the time I had used in the previous shots. I wanted to change the formula I had been using. It is a shot that focusses on some kind of construction box, before moving to a crane and following it as it lowers. I ended with this and increased its length (in comparison to the other shots) for two reasons. One, because I am obsessed with the cinematography in Hitchcock’s and De Palma’s cinema, and this shot is something you would see in those films (unnecessary and irrelevant in the context of my film but I get great satisfaction from it). And two, because it’s symbolic of the constructed world taking over (via the time I allotted for each shot) the natural world.

After watching it over a few times, I opted not to shoot any more footage. It was unnecessary, and despite the footage being just okay, I enjoy the imperfect aspect of the shots and think it suits the form and content of the film.

I hate festivals and anybody who attends them. If you’re not a part of the lineup then you shouldn’t be there. I hate the culture. Everybody dresses and behaves ostentatiously. They’re all wearing those hats. You know the ones. And the sunglasses.

Festivals give the materialistic an excuse to think that they are these free-spirited nomads. I see through you all. And all you hear from the attendees are how much of a “life-changing” experience it was and how they “found” themselves.

My Facebook seems to always be clogged with photos of these holes of sin. I have a strict zero tolerance policy, so these who post that smut are swiftly deleted.

Night-time. I’m in the garden sitting at least 20 metres away from the beer pong frat boy bro’s. I can’t see them, they’re around the corner, but I can hear them quite clearly. Boisterous cheers, chest pumps, hi-fives. It sickens me. How can you be that excited over throwing a ping pong ball into a (presumably) red cup.

The Film
Establishing shot of the subject sitting by himself in the garden. The camera gradually zooms into him while we hear the obnoxious sounds of the beer pong players in the background. The camera stops at a close-up of the subject. We hear one last (but loud) cheer of “YEAH” from the bro’s. The subject sighs.