Exercise Three: The grass is always greener when you water it (True to Form)🎥🌾🌱

Exercise Three: The grass is always greener when you water it (True to Form)🎥🌾

“The grass is always greener when you water unless of course you’re like me who grew up during the drought and we had to shower in a massive bucket until it was filled to our ankles then try and water plants with that. In others words I want my grass as gold, and as lifeless as it possibly could be” Michael Serpell 20.5.2017

Exercise three was a great opportunity to return to the previously decided location for the filming. At the location I brought with me a Canon digital SLR which I have used before in past filming assignments. The newer 5K Mark III films in higher resolution and I brought two lenses which both will be used for different purposes. The EF-S 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS STM lens used to capture the shallower depth of field whilst the .EF 50mm f/1.8 II. lens to capture a deep depth of field. This is important as I will use the larger focal length lens to closely capture the separate strands of grass and their relationship to eachother. The hand brushing through the grass and the sun light glimmering through the close up/extreme close up of the grass will work to great effect. In comparison the smaller focal length lens will be effective in capturing the girl running through the grass, tracking her movements from a distance, whilst also capturing the full beauty and vastness of the grassed field.

The filming was successful in capturing these two diverse elements. In my opinion the use of the SLR created a more aesthically beautiful imagine as opposed to the X70. Although the X70 can film in a higher frame rate, the image is a little more grainier and less in depth and looks more like a documentary journalistic piece than it does an artistic and poetic experiment.

The filming overall went really well, the weather was disappointing and light was dimming quickly as I was aiming to film the sunset. Never trust the Bureau of Meteorology. These things happen however after filming some extreme close ups of the grass I am convinced that filming with the SLR will look more visually engaging and aesthetically beautiful.

The close ups of the grass will be important to establishing the setting, the hands running through the grass will be gentle, tranquil and poetic.

The next step is to bring the subject in and use the same filming techniques and camera to achieve the same poetic beauty. The hope is to have sunny weather to highlight the subjects bleached hair, and the sunlight incorporated in the shots peaking through the grass.