Is there such thing as the opposite of a writer’s block where you think of too many options so all your thoughts become one giant messy confusing overwhelming jumble and then you end up not sure about anything anymore? Nope? Okay…
After the director’s exercise last week, the exercise I attempted with camera techniques added a whole new layer to my potential short film ideas, as I started to think about the roles of camera and editing in a scene, and also more about the atmosphere of a scene. Combining this with a potential idea to explore places, there could be so many options. Different places can have vastly different ambiances, and this all changes with factors of memories associated with a place, the people in it, and what time of day someone observes the place. The vastness of possibilities was not good for my already sleep deprived brain, so I decided to pull it back to square one, rewatch some of the short videos I like most and figure out what makes them work as well as find things that I can apply to my own ideas.
Coincidentally, these short films are all about New York City, and I think they all do a great job of capturing the different sides of such a grand, diverse and endlessly fascinating place.
The one above entitled “A Year In New York” is one of my most favourite travel-esque videos ever. It’s just a pretty ordinary compilation of shots of the city that the filmmaker has acquired in everyday moments with a Canon 7D – but when cut together, combined with the wonderfully selected music, it just captures perfectly an essence of New York as a home, and finding places and moments of serenity in the midst of the chaos. Similar to what interested me about the Girls clip I based my directing exercise on, I loved the way this video was able to create such a special ambiance/vibe out of seemingly ordinary shots. The choice of music was also spot on for both the clips, which I think is integral in helping create the mood.
After rewatching these videos, I think I’ve decided that I’d like to try and capture the atmosphere of a place using music and cinematography. The exact location and the exact premise I’m still not set on yet, but hopefully this will all become evident in the near future.
