Scene In Cinema: Week #4 Reflection/ Epiphany

This week was quite intense. It was the first week where we really had to plan our shooting exercise similarly, but obviously not to the full extent, as we would during the pre-production stage for a proper short film shoot. In addition to the storyboards being drawn up, I decided to create a shot-list for our groups shoot in order to properly break down the shots and to identify the movements and angles needed in detail for each individual shot.

I’m glad my group and I spent a couple hours after Wednesday’s class to deliberate our camera coverage scheme whilst on location for our pre-production, as we immediately got ourselves into our groups to begin our planned “doors” shoot, upon turning up to Fridays class. During the shoot I divided my time to work behind the camera as the assistant camera/ grip as well as being in front of it as an actor which I was completely comfortable with. On production, I thought my groups shoot went rather smoothly, until I began to inspect the footage in post. REFLECTIONS! In quite a few shots there were a few reflections of crew members who stood behind the camera, visible throughout our shooting environment, which featured a lot of glass. Although time was a constraint during the shoot, I believe we should have dedicated some time to review our footage, so we could have changed the positioning of our crewmembers in order to avoid this minor issue. Nevertheless, although the reflections are present in one shot, I’m still quite happy with my final edited scene. Although it only contains three long shots, in my opinion, the aesthetic qualities of my edited version of the scene is heavily reminiscent of Stanley Kubrick’s The Shinning. Just my opinion. Possibly due to the combination the matching use of symmetry, lingering long camera takes and wider shots, in addition to the mutual breaking of the 180-degree rule of cinematography. This ultimately influenced my epiphany for this week in regards to the “rules” of cinema. Just because we break certain rules in practice, does this mean a mistake has been made? Absolutely not! Rules are merely guidelines that one can choose to abide by or disregard. Since the conception of cinema, if certain “rules” were consistently followed there would be no evolution and progression towards the birth of alternative filmmaking such as art and abstract cinema. In my opinion, it is vital for a filmmaker to know and understand the “rules” in theory, and when in practice, to deliberately experiment with what they want to achieve without the constrictions of such guidelines.