So this week instead of being boom operator or camera assist, i had a go at directing and construction of shots. It’s a great feeling to know that what I say feels valued in a group environment, maybe its the fact that I’m in third year and classmates think i got the answers. which i don’t, I make the best of the situation.

For week 3 we did ‘stairs’, lets not get lost in detail but there are three characters, for us it was two girls and one creepy guy who might have been eavesdropping. Since we had to use the treacherous editing suites that have reflective glass walls. and it is a small space so the camera is unforgiving with the amount of detail it captures when it sees it self in the glass behind the subjects in frame. But that is just the finer details of the shot.

I’ve been trying hard to ‘use’ space as a gimmick to my direction, the one who got me into this was wes anderson. his use of symmetry and long shots really give this feeling of focus and perspective. We’re so used to close ups in the classic hollywood narrative. one example was fast and furious 7, it gets boring when all you see are close ups and shaky camerawork. Sloppy, I tell you. And not to mention lazy. But thats what pays!! And with Paul Walker gone, people feel sentimental of the movie and it has that emotional pull. but not to me, and i’ve seen good movies, and this was not in that list.

So, we try and stay away from that. but that week’s task was to still capture action (the pirouette) in the shot, but instead of the camera doing the motion, I tried to make the subjects dance in and out the frame. I have also tried to incorporate the doors as part of the scene. Introducing a new space into the shot making it less constrained. I have also timed it for the final character to enter the scene, giving it that effect of having a bigger set.

Epiphanies

I think it was a productive lesson, towards the end of last year my editing buddy and I used to stay late at night perfecting the documentary. Never did I think of doing scenes there. I had to be creative and try to wash my pair of eyes and recreate something that I thought I knew.