One of the things I noticed from the filming exercises in class is BACKGROUND! Production designing is so important that it makes a scene to look good or bad (disregard about lighting in this post). I took notice of this ever since we shot an indoor script outdoor. It was just dreadful to watch and editing was a pain in the backside.
From the exercise we had in week 5 on Friday, we were given a script with a short dialog which involves some technological equipments such as a phone and a computer. We were asked to shoot in in the first room to the right on level 3. The task was to shoot it in one single shot. It was not exactly the best place for that script I feel, but adjusting the subjects and the props in the frame makes everything look so good. Our initial thought was just a shot at the side with one actor sitting on the left of the frame and another on the right. After some discussion and camera placing experiments, we figured out a lower frame to shoot (and close up). Our shot involves a phone covering up some part of the frame and the subjects on the left. One of the actors on the right has to move a little around the frame as the camera tracks her a little without disrupting or cutting off another actor from the shot. Our frame looks pretty packed and I believe it involves tricking the audiences’ eye to not focus on the background, and to have the feeling of ‘this place’ is busy.