For this week, we watched few clips shot in a similar environment, there are different filming techniques for those scenes. I watched Two chapters from Tom Reilly’s book “The Big Picture” (2009). Tom Reilly is a well-known assistant director in America. In the chapter ‘what is shot, anyway’, he explains that a ‘shot’ is filmed in a single camera setup, it can be an insert only, an establishing shot or as complex as a moving master. The director’s grasp of the shot is important. A motion shot that takes more than ten minutes may only be shown in the screen for one second, but a single action may require more space to show. For a single long shot, the movement and position of the camera are also particularly important. The details will be enlarged at this time. The lighting, actors, scenes, and props are all regarded as complicated at this time. In another chapter ‘Blocking is overlooked and undervalued’, he strengthens the importance of ‘blocking’. Blocking is the process of choreographing a scene, the blocking determines the position of the actor, how to move and convey the script, which is a planned fusion of the setting environment and the actor itself. These blockings have a dramatic impact on the rhythm and timing of the film. The author cites Woody as a case. Woody is a director with rich experience and ideas. He uses special effects to eliminate the randomness of the scene. The director needs to be very confident in the composition of the shot and understand how a single scene is in the movie. Play a role instead of entrusting the set to the actors. The scenes we watched in class were all shot in the prison. The difference is that the background of one scene is on the prison’s square, and all the prisoners appear in the scene. The background of another scene is the character’s own cell. Although the main character is the same, but there is a huge difference in the light, camera position and coverage of these two scenes. Both scenes have a fragment about office conversations, the difference is that the positions of the characters have changed to reflect different relationships. 

Reference 

Chapter 4 ‘What is a shot, anyway?’ 2009 in Reilly, Tom, The big picture : filmmaking lessons from a life on the set, Thomas Dunne Books: St. Martin’s Press, New York, pp. 16-18. 

Chapter 23 ‘Blocking is overlooked and undervalued’ 2009 in Reilly, Tom, The big picture :
filmmaking lessons from a life on the set, Thomas Dunne Books: St. Martin’s
Press, New York, pp. 93-97.