This research is really painful to me. My first obstacle was picking a topic, I really have selection difficulties and I highly doubt if that can be cured. My first choices were “Wildness in Film”, “Dutch Angles” and “Legs in Film”. I just thought these would be interesting to talk about, but then I realized that there is a big common flaw in all of them, they don’t form a scene. First of all, this course is about scene coverage, about what we call decoupage. And what I was thinking when selecting these topics are some certain shots, but not the overall decoupage. Plus, there is really not much to talk about in one single type of shot.

Eventually I chose this topic of “Scenes in Elevator”. Initially I was just watching a scene in New Girl, then I realized it would be an interesting topic. It is a specific area to research on, so it should be easy to stay on topic and dig deeper. Then as I was trying to plan it out, it truly wasn’t hard to find a dozen of films with various elevator scenes, so I got a good base to start the research. However, as I continue, some questions just keep popping out: What is the purpose of this research? What am I trying or should try to achieve? What is the ultimate outcome of it?

What is the best solution when you are confused? Take your question to your teacher and make him confused. There were two pieces of advice I got and I think they are actually quite helpful. The first one is, there does not have to be an ‘ultimate outcome’, what’s important is just to discover something in this area we are interested in. Like he always ask us in classes, are we interested in what we are doing? My answer to that question is and always will be yes, I love films and I want to make my own. It does not matter whether there is a purpose in the end or not, this process of researching and learning is the outcome. It may sound cliché but it is true in a way. In the process of researching, more or less I will be discovering things I have never noticed before, and that is the purpose.

The second advice is not watching the scene in isolation from the whole film. To conduct a research on films, it is better to know the works from which you are quoting. Watch them properly so you will not misjudge any of them. Also take notes as you watch them. That I did. After viewing all of them, I realised that I did have false impression of some of them. For example, Drive did not only make that elevator scene overly dramatic, the whole film was shot in that style. The cinematography and lighting are beautiful but it makes you ask ‘What’s the purpose?’ The scene is referenced a lot when talking about elevator scenes, mostly because it’s dramatic approach, I assume. But after watching the whole film, I do feel it is a bit overrated.