As a brief introduction, the In Media Res sequence produced depicts someone taking a pill, going into a dream sequence where he is forced to face his past, ending with ambiguity if he has escaped the dream or not.
What you were trying to achieve in terms of critically communicating about Framing in Film and explain the method in which the editing process was used to attempt this?
Similar to my first assignment, I am following Cagle’s (2007) citation, emphasising the importance of “lending an air to realism” when framing the shots for my film. However, due to this work depicting a dream sequence, I had to also depict some ambiguity using asynchronism according to Hayward (2000).
I accomplish this sense of realism by using cuts that chronologically follow one after another. The first part of the scene follows the protagonist picking up a package, opening it, looking at the pill inside, and promptly passing out. Him passing out and awaking in the dream world is linked through a jump cut of him passing out on a park bench in a similar shot. Long establishing shots are then utilised to capture the new space the protagonist is in, making it more realistic as the protagonist explores the new environment he is in. He then returns to his room as he collapses on the ground, facing upwards similar to where he is facing as he lies on his bed.
To create asynchronism, I decided to make the “real-life” scenes black and white, and the dream sequence to be fully in colour, lending the audience to associate the “real-world” with mundanity and lifelessness, and making the “dream-world” more wondrous and mysterious.
How did your preproduction/production/post production process go and what would you do differently/improve next time?
The pre-production this time around was much more turbulent than before, as I had a much weaker vision of what I wanted to create this time around. On top of that, I fell ill for about a week this time, which not only prevented me from working on pre-production, it also meant I was not in the workshops for a week, preventing me from bouncing my ideas with my peers and receiving suggestions before I had to solidify my concept and proceed with filming. With the benefit of hindsight, I believe that in the future, I should be more proactive in pre-production and be much more open to sharing my ideas with my peers or friends in order to strengthen my concepts before moving on to production.
As I was using the Sony FX3 with a tripod for filming this time around, I had to plan out a shot list in advance, as I only had limited time and daylight to film all my scenes. This became a blessing in disguise, as the filming process went much more smoothly than previously, and I did not have to refilm my scenes like I did last time. I believe this experience emphasised the importance for preparation prior to filming, and I hope I will keep this diligence up and expand on the details I include for pre-production in the future.
Filming was also much easier, as having a tripod made shooting a variety of scenes at various locations much easier than using a mobile phone with a phone stand as I previously did. The Sony FX3 also made it much easier to capture close-up shots and film in darker lighting, which expanded the range of what I could film drastically. This experience emphasised to me the usefulness of professional equipment, and how the use of better tech drastically improves the quality of the film.
As for post-production, I had actually filmed much more footage than I needed, and I had to cut an entire sequence out to fit the scene under 2 minutes. Luckily, the scene still made chronological sense after the cuts, but I believe this to be a lesson in properly planning out the amount of time a particular scene should be given so this doesn’t happen again. As for sound design, the audio captured by the Sony FX3 was much more useable this time around, however audio that I recorded in post was subject to a lot of background noise, that I had to denoise myself in Premiere Pro. In the future, I hope to be able to record audio in post in a more appropriate and sound proof environment, especially when it comes to dialogue.
Your reflection should also include commentary on what you thought the most and least successful parts of your In Media Res sequence were, and why so?
Babbar (2024) outlines the evolution of cinema across various dimensions, on how each served to shape film as a multifaceted art form. While the use of better equipment with the Sony FX3 helped me achieve this goal partially, I believe that much more could have been done in terms of utilising a variety of tools, such as sound design or visual effects to enhance my product. Especially for a dream sequence, I believe if I had utilised more distortion for the audio and visual elements of the scene, I could have enhance the feeling of distortion that the audience feels, fitting the tone of my film to a greater extent.
Beyond this, I still believe I achieved a sense of ambiguity according to Hayward’s (2000) definition, which states the use of jump cuts and asynchronism between image and sound as key aspects. Not only did I utilise jump cuts, I used smash cuts in particular, utilising the loud disruptive sounds to transition between the dream and real world to disorient and confuse the audience. Asynchronism between image and sound was also used, as the dream world had little to no background noise, just music and a distant distorted voice beckoning the protagonist to explore the space. Overall while a sense of ambiguity was achieved, I believe it could have been more successful with the implementation of more techniques.
As stated in the previous segment, the most disappointing aspect of this film was my relatively weak concept. I confess that the use of an ambiguous dream sequence was mostly used to mask my lack of vision, so I could focus on creating a mysterious atmosphere without actually delivering on the mystery. While this may work for a short 2 minute scene, I believe that a stronger concept will be needed for my next assignment. This flaw was emphasised by my lack of socialisation with my peers, and I hope that I will be more effective in coming up with ideas with the help of peer feedback and discussion.
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References
Babbar, I. (2024). Evolution of Cinema, International Journal for Multidisciplinary Research, 6(1): 1-4
Cagle, C.(2007). Two Modes of Prestige Film, Screen, 48(3): 291–311
Hayward, S. (2000) Cinema Studies: Key Concepts Second Edition. Routledge, New York, USA, 9-10
Pre- and Post-Production Proof
Adobe Premiere Pro Timeline
Pre-Production Planning
Weekly Blogs (Week 4-6)