The Zen Files

I thought Wednesday’s class was great in regards to the ratio of theory versus practical learning. Although classes where you learn something and then you put what you learnt into practice seem quite commonplace, I don’t generally appreciate how beneficial this process is to my understanding. In this class we looked at a Cohen Brothers’ film Blood Simple (1984), which helped to demonstrate what an L cut and a J cut is. (An L cut being when vision leads and a J cut being when audio comes before vision in a sequence). This concept was also illustrated with a diagram of an editing timeline.

I felt that this method of learning (auditory and visual) aided my retention of information. Immediately after this we also physically practised these concepts in our own work, which I think helped to fully supplant this new knowledge in my brain and also improved the quality of my edit.

Although Friday’s practical exercise was quite rushed, this was probably my favourite out of the exercises we have done so far. Firstly, we went over the technical skills of using the camera and and audio equipment, which gave us all a good chance to revise before going out into the field. We were then each handed a script from a previous week’s exercise that we had to choose a shot out of to direct individually. I received the script that I worked off for the first exercise we did for this studio. At first I thought it would be boring to cover a sequence that I had already done before; however, having played around with the camera and actor positioning for this scene already, I was able to configure an interesting idea for a shot rather quickly. Because I had had the experience of working with the script in physical time and space before, I could immediately start to storyboard the shot I wanted to create and map out the camera positioning, knowing what would and wouldn’t work to a certain degree. Having this planning done on paper made the actual shooting process much more efficient in comparison to usual as well. Even before really seeing the place I was going to shoot in, I already knew what camera angle I wanted, what shot type I wanted, what camera focus I wanted, where the camera was going to move, how it was going to follow the character in the frame and where the microphone could be positioned to enable best signal to noise ratio. ‘On set’ I was able to clearly and quickly explain what I wanted the camera and sound operators and the actors to do, so that after only five minutes, one rehearsal and two takes, my shot was recorded successfully. In saying this, it would have been beneficial if we had gotten the chance to block and rehearse our shot in the location before settling on a particular type of coverage, as well as having more time to shoot alternate takes.

I think I am coming close to discovering what the ‘ultimate shooting process’ for me might be. This would include a thorough rehearsal and experimentation process in front of camera within the real life constraints of time and space (as done in week 1’s exercise);  as well as ‘refining time’ where the ideas for the sequence are put onto paper and concreted so that the shooting process is relatively simple and problem-free (as done in week 3’s exercise).

Harold and Maude (Hal Ashby, 1971, USA)

Scene: ‘He Seems Very Nice’

1. Camera pans around room, following the Butler as he leads Candy towards Mrs. Chasen. Long Shot. Candy is positioned at the centre of screen (focal point).
2. Butler moves to the side as Mrs. Chasen comes into frame and shakes Candy’s hand.
3. Butler walks out of frame to the left. Camera pauses for a moment as Candy and Mrs. Chasen introduce each other.
4. Camera pans to the right again, following Candy and Mrs. Chasen as they walk over to sit down. Characters are positioned centre screen. They walk closer to the camera so that it becomes a mid shot.
5. Mrs. Chasen waves to Harold who is outside. Characters are positioned either side of window frame.
6. Cuts to mid-closeup of Harold waving back at them from outside. He is framed within one of the window panes on right side of screen. He points to Candy.
7. Cuts to reverse mid shot of Candy pointing to herself as she looks out at Harold. She waves to him.
8. Cuts back to mid-closeup of Harold framed in window pane as he waves back to her again.
9. Cuts back to two shot of Candy and Mrs. Chasen, with long shot of Harold standing outside, framed by the left window pane.
10. Camera tilts down, following Candy and Mrs. Chasen as they they take a seat. The camera is positioned over Candy’s shoulder, facing Mrs. Chasen. Harold walks away to the left, now offscreen.
11. Cuts to a reverse mid shot of Candy. Camera is now positioned over Mrs. Chasen’s shoulder.
12. Cuts back to over the shoulder shot of Mrs. Chasen. Harold is seen walking into screen in the far background, framed by window pane again. Candy points to Harold when talking about him (as well as the framing, this action helps to draw the audience’s focus to what is happening outside).
13. Cuts back to reverse, over the shoulder shot of Candy.
14. Cuts back to over the shoulder shot of Mrs. Chasen. We can see Harold covering himself with a flammable liquid in background.
15. Cuts back to reverse, over the shoulder shot of Candy. However, this time the camera is positioned lower so that you can see Candy’s entire body. This shot shows the great physical distance between Candy and Mrs. Chasen.
16. Cuts to mid shot of Mrs. Chasen’s reaction. In the background Harold is framed slightly closer than he was before, so that audience can see that he is continuing to pour flammable liquid over himself.
17. Cuts to mid shot of Candy laughing. She is positioned on the right side of the frame.
18. Cuts back to mid shot of Mrs. Chasen. Right side of frame is filled by Harold in background.
19. Cuts back to mid shot of Candy.
20. Cuts back to mid shot of Mrs. Chasen’s reaction.
21. Cuts back to mid shot of Candy telling her story.
22. Cuts back to mid shot of Mrs. Chasen responding to story. She continues to smile as Harold (or what looks to be Harold), blows up in flames outside.
24. Cuts to mid shot of Candy screaming as she looks outside.
25. Camera tilts up to follow Candy as she stands yelling out for Harold.
26. Cuts back to two shot of Mrs. Chasen sitting down, Candy standing up (mid-long shot) and the flames burning outside framed by the window pane.
27. Camera pans up to follow Mrs. Chasen as she stands to welcome Harold who walks in front of camera from right side of frame.
28. Camera pans to follow Harold as he walks to left side of frame to stand next to his mother.
29. Camera pans to left and slightly tracks forward to follow Candy as she runs out of the room.
Camera pauses as Candy realises she’s run out the wrong door and then pans to follow her as she runs through the correct door on the left.
30. Two shot, mid-closeup of Harold and Mrs. Chasen watching Candy run out of room. Harold is in clearer focus and is positioned higher in the frame than his mother, thus becoming the focal point of the shot.

Overall, Ashby has utilised a traditional, over the shoulder ‘shot, reverse shot’ coverage of a conversation between Mrs. Chasen and Candy. The scene essentially conforms to classical Hollywood continuity editing style as eyelines have been kept constant throughout the scene and the camera does not ‘cross the line’.  Ashby makes dramatic use of different planes in the mise-en-scene and draws attention to the background by consistently framing Harold through the window panes of the house. He also highlights certain characters by employing camera movement. For example, every time the focus is on Candy, the camera will follow her so that she is positioned in the centre third of the frame. The distance that metaphorically grows between Mrs. Chasen and Candy throughout the scene is emphasised by the physical space that seems to expand between them. The shots begin as mid-shots of both the women, over the other one’s shoulder. The framing then transfers to over the shoulder long shots, so that the floor between them is clearly displayed. The shots then shift to individual mid-shots so that the two characters do not seem to be connected at all by the end of the conversation. These closer shots toward the end of the sequence also help to intensify the scene, bringing it to a climax as ‘Harold’ lights himself on fire.

I found week 2’s practical exercise quite difficult because we were told to ‘edit in camera’, which also meant we were not supposed to re-shoot any shots. This is not something I am used to doing, because I would normally shoot out of sequence and edit the scene in post production to fix any glitches. Furthermore, I would usually do at least three takes of the same shot so that I could decide which one worked best in post production. I don’t think I would chose to shoot a scene using this method again; however, I did discover that shooting in sequence aided the flow of the scene and also improved continuity. For example, because the scene was essentially performed continuously (aside from when we told the performers to freeze and the ‘crew’ would move the camera), there wasn’t any accidental discontinuities in the mise-en-scene e.g. when one shot in a scene shows a girl with her hair behind her ears and in the next shot her hair is over her face. I think that shooting in sequence may be a good way to film a scene (when it is a viable option), however, I believe that unless a scene is one long take it is practically impossible to create a comprehensive sequence without editing in post production.

For this ‘epiphany’ I felt it would also be worthwhile to list my initial thoughts on what this studio will entail:

1. We will be learning about ‘cinema scene coverage’ through doing (to some extent). We will be putting cinema theory into practise by creating our own scenes. I am looking forward to this aspect of the course because I have always thought that film theory and film making are too segregated in high school and university courses. For instance, in my cinema studies course at RMIT, we study the theory of cinema, but never put our research or findings into practice. Similarly with the more practical subjects, the focus of the course is generally to improve technical skills and refine creation processes, instead of looking at the theory behind it. Thus I think this course will be a good opportunity for me to not only study cinema history and research different ways that filmmakers choose to cover their scenes, but actually use that information to aid the creation of my own scenes.

2. We will refine our own filmmaking methodologies. This will be accomplished through practical research and experimentation, as well as looking at how directors and cinematographers have covered scenes in the past and how this has become part of their ‘signature’. This is something that particularly interested me in Week 1’s lecture. Robin asked us what we thought a director actually did, because it is quite a difficult job to define. One thing that he identified as being a director’s responsibility, was the coverage of a scene. Although it may be the cinematographer’s job to control the camera, the way that the camera is choreographed to work with the performers and the environment of the shoot is up to the director. And this is essentially what creates a director’s ‘trademark’: what we think of when we say things like ‘oh that has to be a Tarantino film’, or ‘that is very Blake Edwardsian’. I think that this course will enable us to generate new ideas around ways a scene can be covered as well how we can work as individuals in the actual process of creating a scene.

3. We will concentrate on the coverage of a single scene rather than an entire film. By doing this we need not worry so much about the overall narrative and scripting of a text, but can focus on how best to position cameras, actors and cuts within a scene.

All in all, hopefully we will develop as filmmakers in a technical and intellectual sense over the semester.

For our first studio class of The Scene in Cinema, I was in a group of four and we received a ‘blue print’ of a scene in which we were asked to create. We were limited to only panning and tilting the camera and the entire scene had to be ‘covered’ in one take. This was an interesting task for me because I felt like the ‘final product’ that we created was far more considered and compelling than what I have produced in the past as a result of ‘traditional’, industrial filmmaking methodology. This is mainly because of two things. 1. Our team worked well together and we all rotated roles; and 2. We did not script or storyboard before we began rehearsing the scene.

By rotating roles, each of us was able to have a go using the camera. At first we all expressed what we thought was going to be the best way to ‘cover’ the scene, primarily in regards to where we were going to position the camera. However, the original camera angle, shot type and camera movement that we had decided on was changed several times as we rehearsed our scene, due to the movement and positioning of the actors. For instance, one of the characters was described as being ‘tense’; so we decided that he should be pacing back and forth as he delivers his first lines. This performance then determined how the camera would move: we chose to begin the scene by following the character as he walked towards the two other characters and then as he sat down, the camera would tail him by tilting down. In this instance it was beneficial for each of us to have a turn controlling the camera, because we were then all able to contribute our own ideas about shot composition. In effect, I think we ended up with a more refined product than if each of us had have individually created our own version of the prose.

Usually when making a film I would spend a lot of time scripting and storyboarding a scene before I would physically begin to block and film it. However, our Wednesday class was very different because we were thrown straight into rehearsing, without writing anything down beforehand. I found this to be quite an enriching experience because we were able to plan the scene within ‘real’ space and time constraints. Although it can be good to meticulously plan every camera position and performance before going ‘on set’, I found that by practising with real life people, seen behind a real life camera, we were able to devise more interesting forms of camera coverage. In essence, this way of constructing a scene gave us more freedom to play around with camera and actor positioning, within the constraints of our environment. Furthermore, there were a few times during our rehearsal where we all thought that a certain camera movement would function well in theory, but when we physically tried it, it didn’t work. For example, we tried to follow the pacing character as he walked back and forth, but when we looked at the recorded footage we noticed that the camera was moving too fast and the scene was thus dizzying to watch.

Ultimately my ‘epiphany’ from this week’s class is that it might be time to change the way in which I approach filmmaking. Maybe beginning with floor plans and storyboards, like I have always been taught to do, isn’t the best way to go about covering a scene. Maybe instead I should begin in the real environment I am going to shoot in with other people who can help to block the scene with me. This would aid in the generation of ideas and would also reveal restrictions to do with camera and performer positioning due to space. Maybe after this process I could then refine the scene through scripting, storyboarding and floor plans in order to devise the ‘best’ way to cover the scene.