In this clip screened in the lecture from the Coen brothers’ ‘Blood Simple’ describe what is happening in terms of the edits specifically in terms of the audio and video. Also name the different kinds of audio you can hear.

-The opening shot consists of a close-up of the fish being dropped onto the table, the sound of the fish hitting the table is very evident. The shot then cuts to the first character light his cigarette, we can hear the sound of him flicking his lighter to light his cigarette, close the lid and drop that onto the table also. As he drops the table onto the table the clip cuts to a close up of the lighter being dropped onto the table. In the background crickets chirping can be heard in a low volume. As the second character sits on his table we hear the chair creak as his body sinks into the chair, the camera focused on him. They begin dialogue with one another, the camera in medium long shot so we can see both characters in the frame. Whilst they talk background street noises can be heard. The first character hands over an envelope to the second character and we hear the sound of the paper envelope being passed and opened. We hear the chair squeak again as the second character reaches out to grab the envelope. All the while the crickets continue chirping in the background. We see the envelope and the photos within the envelope close-up, showing us a photo of a man that has been shot. All movements can be heard between the characters as they move around in their chairs. The volume of their voices is the same and slightly low also. The first character reaches into his pocket when he says ‘no I trust you’, and as his hand sits in his pocket a clicking/rotating noise can be heard. The first character then pulls a gun out of his pocket and a very loud gun shot is fired into the second character and as his body is hit by the bullet, his chair creaks slightly. His foot that was resting falls off the table after a period of silence as the first character stares at the man he just shot and hits the floor loudly breaking the silence. He places the gun he continued to point at the man on the floor under the table and it silently is placed onto the wood, then kicks it harshly across the floor, we hear it slide a fair distance away from the man. We then hear the chair creak as he stands up. He picks up the cash on the table and we hear him stuff it into the pocket of his jacket. We hear him push his hat onto his head and walk away from the now dead mans body.

 

I had such a blast shooting my first ever short film! The team I worked with all put 110% into their roles on the day and even though it took ten hours to shoot everything, we enjoyed every bit of it. I absolutely loved directing and enjoyed the creativity behind the choices I made with my group members. We had some issues with the sun constantly going behind the clouds which slowed us down a bit, but we did a practice shoot before the day so were relatively organised with what we wanted (Thank God!). We covered most of the shots which makes me more confident during editing. Our main cast member Kostos was incredible to work with, he was very patient and was just as excited to make the film as we were. There was an age and language barrier but our enthusiasm and consideration made those barriers a non issue.

There would have been immense choreography of the actors, frame and focus within the film Blow up 1996 directed by Michelangelo Antonioni. The camera is constantly following the actors as they move around in the frame. If they stand still it isn’t for very long, and when they move the camera moves with them in order to keep the two characters in the frame. The major choreography of this scene begins a minute into the scene. The two actos are moving in and around the objects in the room. The camera moves with the characters to keep both of them in frame.

Most of the shots consist of both the actors, they are shown by themsleves when the scene cuts, for instance when the man pours two drinks. An interesting thing to note in this scene is that Antonioni has chosen for the objects in the room to frame the characters within the frame. For instance, when the two walk into the building at the start of the scene, the woman stands perfectly visibile in betwen the narrow view through the second doorway. That would have been set up so that she stopped at that point, before she walked into the doorway into the same room as the camera.

A shot that I like in particular in the film that relied on the choreography of the actos and the camera together was that of 2 minutes into the scene. The woman stands beside the wooden blocks that support the building but also serves as an artistic frame for the character. Then she moves away from the block out of frame and immediately the camera moves to a set spot as the man moves to where she stood but in a new spot but from a new angle. Antonioni had to consider the continuity of the film when deciding upon this choreography as well as not making it too confusing for the audiences.

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.

Two points that I took from the Week 6 reading was that of the crews roles and their responsibilities, as well as how you go about choosing your crew.
Firstly, some points I took form roles and responsibiltiies. The director is responsible for quality and meaning of the final film, no less. The reading then listed what this means within the film such as casting actors, developing the script through rehearsals and actors as well as writng and working with writers. This didn’t come as such a surprise to me however, another role of the director listed was that of promoting the production. I know the director is the one with the vision for the film, however, i didn’t realise how much responsibility lies with the director.

Secondly, that of choosing your crew. Choosing your crew is more important than I first considered. You want a crew that works well together, knows how to professionaly handle the equipment, has the ability to communicate well with one another and a factor that I hadn’t considered, was that of the crew having the ability to dispense with surprises. A film will never run 100% as planned, and the crews ability to work with new ideas and spontanious decisions is very important.

There were many points that I took from the lighting lecture as I know very little about lighting in film. The light from the sun is blue and the light from the Freznal lights are yellow. To ensure someones skin tone is the right colour you must correct it manually with the lights. When setting up exposure, the correct exposure for inside is around F4 and the correct exposure for outside is around F22.

Some other points about lighting that I took from the lecture was that of electricity and lighting. 240 Volts come out of any ordinary wall socket. Most household circuits are around 10 Amps. You can run 10 amps at 240 volts (2,400 watts) in total before blowing the circuit. You need to be very cautious you don’t blow the circuit when setting up your set for shooting and should work out how many watts you are using per circuit. Whenever you are shooting you should find the fuse box for the building and find out how many circuits are in the house. There will be two or three circuit breakers e.g. Lounge room 1 circuit, Kitchen 1 circuit. You can have 2,400 watts per circuit (Per part of the house) (Ensure you always have a torch on set) If you exeed this you must use a generator so you don’t blow the fuse.

To shoot someone inside with a window showing outside you want the subject inside to be around the same exposure as that of outside (F22). Put the blue sheet of plastic over the Freznel ARR light to correct the exposure range.

ARR (Freznal) light has 1000 watts. They have beam lens where you can change  the width of beam as well as use barnyard doors to narrow light.
Never connect extension lead to coiled light cable. Make sure it is unwrapped.
10 Amp circuit breaker power board (red head). It will turn off faster than a power board or circuit breaker if there is any surge or something goes wrong and shuts down making the shoot safer. Kino Light is a soft light the you would tend to use if you want the light to wrap around someones face .

 

We showed our rough cut Lenny’s in class today, basically just discussing what went well and what didn’t. For our Lenny we had good reviews, particularly with the opening establishing shot of the courtyard. The acting wasn’t very good which is something we had to work with but the experience of shooting our Lenny film was purely for the sake of figuring out how to work with our crew and establish our roles within the group. We practiced our ‘calling the shots’ which we struggled with at first but got the hang of it a lot quicker.  We only had an hour to shoot and ran out of time, as Paul told us we would.

The other groups had really good camera work as well. The camera cut between dialogue focusing on the different actors when it was their turn to speak. A few things that annoyed me with our Lenny was when the character Shannon spoke her hair was covering her mouth. We didn’t have much time to fix this on the day as we only had one hour but it made me think of the little things that need to be right for the audience to follow the story without being distracted by the little things. I wanted to get more camera angles of the dialogue between the two however, we simply didn’t have the time to get all the shots. I also wish we showed more cuts of Sharron walking towards Lenny. It makes me think of all the shots we are going to have to take for our actual film and how it will take a lot more time than we think to get everything right. It’ll be really good working with actors that actually want to be there.

We were also pretty lucky to shoot our Lenny on an overcast day as it made it easier to set up the white balance. My group and I are filming inside for most of our shoot so we will be manually setting up most of the lighting. I really enjoyed watching the other groups Lenny’s as it is a good way of seeing where other groups are at in terms of their creative choices and way of showing the same thing in all these different ways.

Some notes from Paul:
Something to take note of is that of people’s reactions. People tend to cut when the person has finished talking, however people want to see the reactions of the characters before we cut to the next person that is talking. I really like it when the camera shows someone’s face while the other person is talking to them. We like to see how someone takes in what people say.
Another thing to take note of is that of continuity of characters walking in and out of frame.

Here is the link to our video from the Lenny shoot

 

• DEPTH OF FIELD is the area of acceptable focus that extends both in front and behind main point of focus
• The shorter the Focal Length, the greater the DEPTH OF FIELD
• Different FOCAL LENGTHS offer different FIELD OF VIEW, DEPTH OF FIELD, PERSPECTIVE (Viewers perception of their proximity to the subject) (The viewers perception of the spatial relationship between objects in depth)

• SHORT focal length lenses appear to exaggerate the spatial relationship between objects in depth
• LONG Focal length lenses appear to compress the spatial relationship between objects in depth.

 

 

 

 

82 year old Arthur Cortez wakes up to his 6:30 alarm as he does every morning. The same jazz song plays for five seconds before he reaches over and turns off the alarm. Beside the alarm stands a frame with a portrait of a woman. His body lies perfectly neat under his thick blankets. He slowly pulls himself out of bed and walks to the kitchen to make his usual breakfast, which consists of cornflakes and a cup of instant coffee.

He sits at his kitchen table alone, it is quiet and dark in his house. Once he is finished he washes his dishes and goes into the bathroom. He washes his face and then looks at himself in the mirror with a blank and tired expression on his face as he does every morning. He runs his old and tired hands over the lines that mark his age.He returns to his bed and after he finishes making it, he picks up the frame with the portrait of the woman that stands beside his alarm clock , holds it in both hands and then returns it back to the night stand.

He walks back to the kitchen and picks up a bouquet of flowers that he bought the day before and walks to the front door of his house. He puts on his best coat, scarf and hat that were hanging on the stand by the door, then stops to look at the shelf that stands beside the door.

He looks at an old portrait of the same woman where she is a lot younger than the portrait in his bedroom. He holds his right hand to his chest, staring at the portrait and opens the front door. Arthur steps outside and shuts the door behind him cradling the bouquet in his right arm. Leaving a cold and dark house behind him.