Given the issues I had with filming a “behind-the-seats” backshot in a sedan previously, I had never been able to properly use a backshot until I had the reshoots from the 18th of October. In the reshoots, I chose to shoot in the back of a station wagon, giving me much more room to be able to properly get behind the camera and frame up a much better shot.

Below is a contrast between the unframed and uncomfortable shot from 2/10, and the updated shot from 18/10

 

Whilst the example I’ve given for the reshoot isn’t exactly framed perfectly, it does give a good representation for the more “zoomed out” look that I was going for. Now the only problem was that (as I previously mentioned) the reshoot didn’t have sound. To adapt to this, I decided the best way to experiment with the reshoots was to leave the silence, add wild sound that I recorded later and allow non-diegetic sound to be the main influence on emotional intensity.

I began by duplicating the reshot clip, and placed them together. This way I would be able to first observe the original shot without the added music, and compare it to the new one. I found that in the silent shot it just came off as awkward rather than sad. The lack of dialogue definitely makes it difficult to know whats going on, the behind shot can work in terms of coldness, and I think the colour grading I did does help with that, however because you can’t see Matt and Max’s expressions, it just makes understanding the scene more difficult than it needs to be.

I added the “sad” piano track I’d been using for a while onto the shot, I found hat it worked somewhat, but I think I should employ it to only use the emotional “climax” of the song again, as well as slow it down to make it slightly darker and more controlled.

I slow the piano down to 75% to see the effects. This is ok, but I still have two more things to try, an added zoom effect to exacerbate the intensity, and super slow piano.

I slow it down to be even slower and deeper, now it comes off as quite depressing and uncomfortably calm, like the calm just after something dramatic has occurred. This is more in the scope of what I was looking for. Now I’m going to trial a slow zoom effect.

I go into the clips effect controls and keyframe the scale, to have a slow zoom throughout the clip. This works a lot better, and looking back on it, really heightens the emotional intensity of the clip,

Now it was time to export.

The clip is linked below:

Looking back on it, I think its definitely clear that the final shot with the slow zoom effect and slowest piano works the best. As I mentioned before, it gives the whole scene this real uncomfortable calmness, but also reflects the sadness that I was hoping for. I would definitely try something like this again if I was ever shooting an emotional scene inside a car. In terms of heightening a scenes emotional intensity, this experiment has been a success.

Music Credit: