For the rest of the semester I’m going to be looking at the act of re-framing, i.e. including several distinct frames in a single shot through the act of moving the camera and/or actors. I decided on this after a really helpful chat with Robin who was able, as usual, to articulate and provoke my own thoughts far better than I could myself.

The first steps in the process of experimentation are to be the mimicry of several methods of reframing that I’ve seen. A particular shot in Return of the Prodigal Son uses only tilts on a tripod (and potentially minute dolly movement) to create 4 or 5 distinct frames. I think the most important part of reframing to note is that the camera and frame are not continually moving, but remain more or less static in between the ‘re-frames.’ As was pointed out by a very clever man whose name I’ve forgotten, it’s almost like they’ve come up with a storyboard which could be 5 different shots, but just decided to, instead of cutting, move the camera immediately to the next one. I think that’s an excellent way of looking at it and I’ll definitely be experimenting with creating a traditional storyboard and shooting it in one or two takes.

I also intend to investigate moving actors/background to create a re-framing effect. I haven’t totally considered this yet, but potentially movement in the background of the scene and of the actors within the frame can achieve a similar effect. I think that’s a really interesting and less explored side of the work.

Of course there are logistical difficulties which accompany this specific kind of coverage. If the plan is to cover an entire scene with one shot, that one shot has to be essentially flawless. I’m sure this is an issue i’ll come up against when I’m trying out my experiments.