https://www.mediafactory.org.au/khang-nguyen/2018/10/19/the-scene-in-cinema-reflection-blog-9/

https://www.mediafactory.org.au/khang-nguyen/2018/10/19/the-scene-in-cinema-reflection-blog-10/

https://www.mediafactory.org.au/khang-nguyen/2018/10/19/the-scene-in-cinema-reflection-blog-11/

https://www.mediafactory.org.au/khang-nguyen/2018/10/19/the-scene-in-cinema-reflection-blog-12/

https://www.mediafactory.org.au/khang-nguyen/2018/10/19/the-scene-in-cinema-an-experiment-2/

https://www.mediafactory.org.au/khang-nguyen/2018/10/19/the-scene-in-cinema-exhibition-post/

So, this is the end. It is such a sad thing to acknowledge how time flies so quickly, especially considering how I have enjoyed the studio in many different ways from the new knowledge in every class to the highly enjoyable and useful exercises. However, I have accomplished a lot in the goal I set from the first blog: to earn much more knowledge in cinematography and put it into practice. I am happy that I have made progress throughout the past 12 weeks and for The Scene in Cinema being my first studio, I cherish my time here kindly.

Anyhow, for the last ride, we have Exercise 14 which was a great group exercise. It is the first one that involves more than one single scene and oh deary deary me, it is amazing how we got everything shot in around an hour when it could have taken a lot more than that. The class divided into two large groups, and considering the number of actors would be required from the script, we rotate the roles around so that everyone would be acting and involving in the crew. And everything was amazing, from the acting to the camerawork. At times we struggled with deciding how a scene was shot, and although there were two directors and essentially four different camera-people, we came up with solutions for each scene reasonably effective. I had my hands on the camera in one occasion and I felt that I am now much much more comfortable of operating it compared to the very first class. We had some problems with the sound when we were filming the last scene, but everything was solved in a lightning-quick fashion. It is just great being in the same studio with my peers, who are all amazing and talented. Personally, I am happy with the final product, although there were parts that we could film again in a slower pace as the whole video seemed a bit rushing. It was also interesting to see that the two groups had different approach to the scene transition, with us using the classic black-out to represent the passing of time while the other group fades the process. I think that both of these worked reasonably well, although they were rather safe options. But still, it is great to see that the whole class ended the studio on a high.

And with that, The Scene in Cinema is concluded. All good things must come to an end…

I can’t believe this is the penultimate week already. It feels like only yesterday Robin emphasised how undermined “coverage” is, or showed us how to put together the tripod and the camera precisely. Well, I guess time flies when you’re having fun. Or lots of fun.

Anyhow, what a busy week this has been to my delight. In class on Tuesday, we started in a different room located at building 13 to examine the significance of lighting. I learnt about the different types of lighting, which were soft and hard light source (new information, again). We tested the lighting in a room in a quick interviewing exercise. I had to interview Ayu, and I felt that the lighting was quite alright in her screenshot, maybe slightly bit too dark. It is amazing how a few movements can change the lighting right away, while lighting is also massively affected by natural factors.

We then had the chance to practice more with this concept in Exercise 13, which I think has been the most challenging exercise as of yet. We had to shoot in two different locations, and the final edits show that although the lighting on Madeleine and Jack (our group’s actors in the exercise) was very alright, we had problems with continuity as Jack stood a bit too close to the wall in his medium shot compared to the initial wide shot of both him and Madeleine. In one edition, we had problems with eye-lining too. This was because there were two different medium shots of Madeleine, and each was shot at a different angle in a different location. Overall, I was satisfied with the result of our group apart from the small details identified.

On Friday, we had our presentations. It was great to see the wide variety in ideas of everyone’s projects, as well as their own experience in the course. It was also nice for all of us as a group to appreciate Robin being our great tutor. Wow, one more week only. I am totally going to miss this studio.

This week, Robin provided us the reading Face, body, voice, movement: Antonioni and Actors by David Forgacs. This reading is basically an analysis of Forgacs into the unique directing approach of Antonioni which I found to be extremely interesting.

When I imagine the job of a director on a film set (maybe of the time before all of the great experience in The Scene in Cinema), I would think of someone in glasses, holding a cup of coffee, having clear ideas of how a scene should be shot and expressing that clear sense to actors in order for the scene to be exactly the way that director would want. Then the approach of Antonioni comes to the picture and I start to realise directing can be more problematic than I initially thought. Antonioni is said to have viewed an actor to be like essentially a tool or an object to utilise in a scene, “just as a wall, a tree or a cloud are elements of that shot”. For him, “an actor does not have to understand” anything and should just follow his instructions without questioning. This autocratic style may not be keen on by actors who want to know exactly how a scene is set or shot in a certain way in order to make sense of the role, but in a way, Antonioni must be an exceptional mind in order to pursue such approach. Filmmaking is an art, and in my opinion, sometimes an artist can see things that other people fail to spot and that artist does not need explanations in order to stand out. The words of Forgacs portray Antonioni to me as someone who values his demands (because he is a highly demanding character) and the exquisite worth of his ideas. Hence, it is understandable that he wants to be in complete control. Still, as someone who has acted in front of the camera (occasionally) and on the theatre stage before, personally, I value different ideas and a sense of broad communication with the director. It would be a much more enjoyable and effective experience for the good of the individuals and the project, rather than being bossed around like essentially the working environment that Antonioni created on his film set.

There is a particular interesting section in the reading that made me realise something new about acting which is the differences between film and theatre acting. Having previously acting in a musical back in my years of high school, I know a thing or two about being on the theatre stage. However, I have never really thought about how different that experience would be from being in a film set. To be fair, I have only acted in one short film, and the set was rather basic and the working environment was extremely democratic as the director valued my feelings and opinions on the character that I act. Forgacs points out some interesting comparisons, from small but obvious details to completely new facts for me. Even though it is so obvious, I never realised that the face of an actor on the theatre stage is not too important (although the actor still has to be in role all the time) compared to in a film because facial expressions would be seen much more clearly in the film. The new thing for me is that “the actor in front of a camera must move within a limited rectangular frame”. Although this is still rather obvious, I have never thought of it before. Acting then, like other aspects in filmmaking, is more problematic then I have ever known.

So, this is the first of the last batch. This week, we encountered Exercise 11 which consists of shooting one chosen action from a list of some with three shots at maximum. The great thing about this exercise is we have to be in groups of 3 (or 4), and each member will rotate between the roles of director, cameraperson and actor. For most of the exercises in the studio so far, I have not engaged myself being behind the camera but rather in front of it. This is partly due to the fact that I do not mind acting if not many people in the group want to act, but also maybe because it is slightly out of my comfort zone still to operate the camera. Two months in of the studio, I have gained certain valuable knowledge in terms of theory on how to use a camera like the EX3 that we use in every class, but not so much experience in terms of using it practically. I am used to how to set it up on the tripod, but it would be wise not to count that as extremely valuable practice… So this exercise helped me to gain more of that sense of valuable practice, as I would be able to observe a number of new things from the point of view of each of the role.

I teamed up with Lili and Ayu for this exercise and we chose the scenario of someone waiting at a corner, checking the time and then leaving. We decided to shoot at a corner in a spacious area down building 12, which eventually was the same setting for each of our shot. Being directors, each of us tried to make the shots distinctive. A way of doing so obviously was to shoot at a different angle compared to the others and in the end, each actor left in a different direction to make the scenes diverse from each other. I found that I was considerably more comfortable operating the camera than I thought, and I was able to capture the shots the way the director wanted. While it is myself being director, the stand out factor in this exercise in my opinion is how different the scenario I imagined when reading the script is compared to what a shot would eventually be. I intended for Ayu, who was my actor to exit via a stairway but then I realised that the exposure is very high. Because of this, I had to change the approach of the scene by shooting at another angle in order to portray the actor in the best way possible. In the end, I thought that maybe two shots could have made the scene work reasonably the same way, but having more shots give the director different ways in deciding which would work best. Overall, it was an interesting exercise and the fact that the roles were rotated made it one of my favourites so far. And long may it continue…

Out of the readings that Robin provided us this semester, The wisdom of the unrehearsed scene by Tom Reilly is perhaps the most intriguing to me. Reilly discusses a sense of laissez-faire approach from a director, which could effectively bring the best out of the actor for the good of the individuals and the whole project. As I occasionally act, I feel that it is a vastly interesting approach, as I always prefer to work in a free environment. Acting for me is an art, and with the right amount of freedom, an actor can bring in extraordinary return. Being fascinated by this idea, I decide to focus my experiment around this concept: how different it would be when an actor is totally in control and when being given specific instructions from a director?

I decided to come up with two scripts for the project. The first one is simply this:

Bedroom

A man situates in his room. He just lost the love of his life.

I want to try to bring the sense of freedom to an ultimate level, hence the script maybe is too short. I asked a friend of mine to help me out, and he kindly accepted me to film it in his room. I wanted to film it in the night time, as I felt that the setting would be most appropriately suited to the context in that way. When I showed him the script, he was confused as he thought a director should be “more responsible”. I think I approach this method appropriately, just not as orthodox as he might have expected. Anyway, I gave him two minutes to come up with a brief plan of his own. He said that he wants to put himself in that situation, and being a tough character, he didn’t want to “be weak”. Here is the product:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1-BXZNxTsTElkCfgJIpgb05Havd_nHVCT

This scene was conducted with four shots. The first problem I found right away was the unstable exposure, as the footage was a bit too dark in some shots, but appears to be right in a different shot. I tried to put more light on but it didn’t totally help the situation. I shot the footage using my own camera (a Sony a6000), and the setting is totally different from the EX3 that we encounter in every class. It also has a problem with the sound, as it is a bit echoic and maybe too much external noise for my liking. However, when he looked out of the window, a police car passed by with the siren on which actually helped the context in a way that it brings out a more intense sense to the scene.

On the acting, I could not really feel whether or not he is sad about losing someone he loves, or he is just suffered from insomnia. In a way, I couldn’t feel it going the way I would have liked, and nothing really blew my mind. Maybe because his acting is not so natural, but I know that he tried his best so I could not complain but I can’t help picking out points to reflect. I actually really liked when he looked out of the window, as it showed a moody character that is just perfect for this scene. I tried to capture it in four different shots, but in the end only two satisfied me which I included in the final cut. So after this first scenario, I feel that an unrehearsed scene or a highly-freedom approach to acting would depend of the ability of the actor and the confidence of the director on the actor. At times, there are things that directors can’t foresee, which in this experiment was that very deep facial expression of my “actor”.

The other script was one with more direction, or of the way that I would have wanted or imagined the scene to be:

Bedroom

A man sits alone on his bed at the corner of the room. He looks blankly at another bed in the room, which is empty. He checks his phone constantly, swiping through messages. He tries to sleep but his effort is fruitless. He gets to the bathroom, washes his face and then sobs painfully.

Man

Maria…

For this version, I tried to show him how to do certain motions, such as how he should look at the empty bed. I tried to be as in control as possible, forcing him to act to the best of his ability in the way that I wanted. Here is the result:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1OZ-kcrek1sKcJOMetLaiJXKQjC85rhot

I was actually quite disappointed, but mainly because of the unnatural acting. I wanted my character to be rather desperate, but my actor’s ability (although again he tried his best) could not really showcase it clearly. This is especially the case in the last part, as he didn’t sob at all. I wanted him to kneel down, hold his face and just pretends crying, but this footage was lost on accident which I can only blame myself (although it was still not as good as I would have hoped). Hence, the ending of this version was quite peculiar, definitely not in a good way. The lighting and sounding problems were still the same, which means I should have used a better camera like the EX3 if I wanted the footage to be exactly how I wanted in terms of quality. Still, there are positive points. I really like the close-up, as it showed partially that he is bothered, or that something negative is stuck on his mind. The panning from his bed to the empty also worked quite well, slightly better than I first expected as it has a moody vibe to it which was what I tried to gain for the scene overall.

Considering that both scenarios left me being slightly disappointed, I felt that I should try to combine the footage into one version of “A man who lost the love of his life”. I decided to remove the noise and put in some sad instrumental. The tone is also black and white to showcase a sense of lost.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1S4h_-Ae40-hOjopaVXM0hi1l17bbx7XR

I actually really like this edition. I was able to combine all the positive aspects that I gather in the other two scenarios. This shows that maybe at times, a mix of approach from the director would fit the film best. Total freedom of acting might not gain the director when he aims, while being too autocratic could tame the sense of natural acting.

When I found that I was sorted into The Scene in Cinema for this semester, part of me was very excited but also anxious at the same time. I didn’t know anything about cinematography at all as well as not filming anything from a camera such as the EX3 that I later would encounter almost every class. But then, this means that I can learn something new every lesson, which is something that I always want because after all, it is all about making progress. And then, I realised from the very first class that this is a highly practical studio, which makes the whole learning experience even more fun. I probably sound very much like a kid in primary school right now, but week by week, I always looked forward to the class and wondered what we would learn about. Maybe it is because, as Robin said in one occasion, this studio provides a very unique look into cinematography, which makes it even more extraordinary of an experience.

Robin is an amazing tutor. His knowledge in the world of film craft is amazingly broad, and I am proud to say that I have learnt so many valuable things from him in the course of 12 weeks, as I am sure all of us in the studio have too. The fact that we learned about so many different aspects of filmmaking is something that I did not expect in week 1. Initially, I thought “Oh great, I’m gonna learn how to make a movie”. That turned into “Oh cool, I’m gonna learn how to operate a proper camera” in the very first class. Then “Oh wow, I’m gonna learn how to watch a movie?” So so so many different aspects, from something extremely technical like the depth of field to something like the roles of different people on a film set. The studio completely changed the way I watch a film now, as I now pay more attention to the smaller details and constantly asking myself “Why this scene is shot that way?” This is something that I certainly did not expect at all. Apart from that, it was great being in the same studio with amazing and talented individuals like my classmates. All exercises were so fun in cooperating with them and there are many things I also learnt from them throughout the last three months. For this being my first studio, I have cherished every moment of it. Eventually, all good things come to an end…