Onscreen, what is shown?

Our single scene practise was reviewed on this Friday morning. Well, obviously, there were many things that were worth to reflect.

First of all, most of us had a misunderstanding of the use of shot while we were filming the single scene. We like to start our scene with an establishing shot because we thought establishing shot represent a beginning. However, we hadn’t understood the specific function of establishing shot. Establishing shot means Start, the notion of this is absolutely right. But it is dependent on the narrative.

Robin suggested, Single scene is a fragment from a bigger part of a film rather than a whole film. So we really don’t need to start with an establishing shot while doing this scene. More importantly, we should focus on what we really need to show onscreen.

Either a long wide shot or a close-up shot as a starting, the substance is what we want to show. Framing is only a approach in order for illustrating a content. In photography, we can see different photographers who are taking pictures in many different way. For example, Henri Cartier-Bresson and Bruce Gilden are both photo-journalists, but their ideas of photo are dissimilar. Bruce Gilden is crazy for taking photo in front of his subject within one or two metres. Cartier-Bresson, on the other hand, like to keep some distance from his subject by using a longer shot. In Gilden’s pictures, we are able to know subjects’ stories from their facial expression. Cartier-Bresson prefers to emphasise the relationship between subject and environment.

(Henri Cartier-Bresson)

(Bruce Gilden)

So what I am trying to say is content is more important than framing. In visual language, content decides frame.

When we are about to film, at what kind of point we should start?

How do we work in the scene?

In Wednesday’s class, Robins tells us about the order of shot during operating to shoot. As all we has known, most of filmmakers, professionals or amateurs, would see an establishing as the first thing should be done of a scene. Why? What is the reason for that? There are a number of reasons we got after we have discussed in class.

Warm-Up Performers.

Everything should not be hurried. So does filming and acting. Establishing shot could give them space for a warm-up performing. At the beginning of filming, actors are not in their best shape. So we need to give them some time to get into it. Before they starting to perform one or two meters in front the camera, they could turn themselves to the right channel in an establishing shot.

Coverage, another important thing to notice

The main reason to put establishing shot at the top list is because of the coverage. An establishing is able to cover everything of a scene. At the very beginning of your process, you have gotten the thing you want and you do not have worry about what would happen at the next moment. Once you get it, you won’t lose it. Otherwise, you do not make an establishing shot of a scene, you put everything into unsure.  Robin gave a good example that when you have done all the stuffs except for the establishing shot and your actor are dead. How do you establish your scene?

Woooh! New semester, fresh and exciting!

Well, reflective writing again….

Let me talk about what I have learnt in the first class of Media 5. First day class, we started to shoot with a camera and a tripod to create a short scene. This assessment requires us to use a single shot to cover a fictional story through the lens (Techniques: Panning and Titling Only).

Well, this story is about three people are in trouble with a tension. Henry is the boss of a business company. Maria (maybe this is a wrong name, sorry I’m really bad at names), Henry’s wife, is kind of worried. Steve, an assistance, is being panic for the situation.

When I got this task and read the provided story, the first thing came into my mind was mise-en-scene (putting everything into the scene). Because of the technique requirement, I consider the position of characters is able to reveal the relationship of among them. For example, how do I tell audience that Henry and Maria are a couple on screen? I think a position can easily provide these information. Another good example shown on Friday’s lecture was one of those shots in a film called ‘Margaret (2011)’. As we clearly see here, the relationship of the actor and the actress is built because of their  position. A long shot includes the actor on the foreground, and a bus door is kind of a ‘frame in the frame’ to pick out the actress on the background. I think how you compose the shot really affect how audience would think it about.

And the last thing I want to add, which I just realise, is composition. The position of characters actually is composition of the frame, I think. Therefore, in a single shot, a good composition would give a easy way to audience to receive the information onscreen.