Final Exercise: Epic Afternoon of Sunshine (True to From) 🌞🎥🌾

The final exercise was my final chance to get everything right, achieve everything I set out to achieve and hopefully with a bit of luck get the desired results.

With my trusty tripod, a very impressive Nikon DSLR and the X70 on standby and of course a list of shots and an idea of exact location I wanted to film in, I was ready.

Arrived and despite not having much luck with natural light in the first half an hour, the sun came shining through the dark clouds and incredibly stayed upon for the next hour and a half. It was unbelievable. Our subject was ready and with the strong sunlight shining on our field of long grass and glowing n our subjects long white bleached hair, with the camera rolling true cinematic beauty was captured.

What I wanted to achieve was shots of great poetic clarity, shots which were filmed with the in depth Nikon DSLR, the Nikon D500 DSLR was the perfect camera for the exercise, the detail it was able to capture in on this particular exercise in my opinion was far greater than the Canon 5K Mark III. The filter was slightly different and I didn’t have to tamper much with the settings in order to achieve great lighting continuity.

What made me most proud about this project was through my ongoing research I was able to refine my cinematography skills in this exercise being more precise with what I was capturing and instead of trying to film every little minuet detail, I had planed shots, when the time was right with the lighting and movement of wind through the grass I would shoot. If we messed up a take I would do it until I got the desired result. Precision and clarity were both lacking from the first three experiments however they were important and vital platforms to launch into the final exercise. Clarity in understanding what needed to be done in this shoot, how I could learn from my previous mistakes and trials and tribulations and more importantly with quickly fading light and limited light how I was going to be time efficient in filming what I needed.

To my amazement the shots were quite beautiful, the movements through the grass, brilliantly executed by the subject Phoebe, a very obedient young actress, her movements through the grass were crucial to the final projects successes. Her hands brushing the grass, her hand moving from side to side on her shoulders as she, at times, sprinted through the fields, her eyes looking out, and her arms spread apart as she felt all the small bits of long grass move through her fingertips was really well staged and I’d like to say well directed by myself.

The sun of course plays an important role in this project as the natural sunlight lights grass like no other source of light can. The way the unpredictable movement of wind swirling the grass uncontrobbaly distorts the light and creates incredible patterns and contrasts through the grass. This kind of effect cannot be achieved without potent sunlight. The sunlight created profound patterns and colours on the grass, the grass is notably more aged and golden with direct sunlight and instead of looking lifeless and grey. The sun plays an important role in lighting the subjects bleached white hair. The hair stands out in any conditions but the way the light manipulates her hair is quite wonderful. It really stands out and with every different angle used through the pans her colour subtly changes. The sun has helped the final exercise project my original idea of the project.

This project takes a lot of inspiration from Terrance Malick’s Days of Heaven, the way beautiful cinematography and the marvelously captured relationship between Mother Nature and man. The sky in dusk scenes of Days of Heaven, seems to provide a glow over the film, like a reminder of an alternative power. In the films reflective nature does make you question from one of the most simplest of locations some of the universes most complex thoughts. Through the vastness of grass in my exercise and the girls relationship to her world and the world beyond as the large expansive sky is shown above glowing, her dreams and imagination seems to transcend beyond her unescapable field of dreams.
Natural light in Days of Heaven used almost exclusively by Malick serves to give the film a very realistic look and also to give it the rose-tinted wash of memory. Since most of the film also takes place outdoors, it somehow takes us back to childhood summers, to carefree days in the sun. Through the girl running through the field it takes us back to our days of innocence though the times where every thing in nature was noticed and appreciated, everything seemed dreamy and wonderful and where you moved with the elements and became a strand in a field which would grow, move with the times and become a symbol of peace. Although we need no narration, no real introduction, all we need is to see the world through the girls eyes, feel her living her experiences and the joys but also the dangers that present themselves through this world of hers. It may not always be bliss and full of sunny beauty but it’ll always be hers to explore, hers to experience and hers to marvel at and dream in.

Through the glorious sunlight there is a dreamy filter explored, as sunlight fills up the screen we think back to when we were young and we could run for miles and never lose energy and never get tired of chasing our dreams. That is the beauty of this experiment, it can make us feel different ways as it’ll relate to us on different levels. Long grass specifically is poetic the attention to detail of the grass will prompt many thoughts from the audience and whatever you feel is significant and sacred to you. I cannot tell you how to feel but what I can present you with is an experiment that will definitely effect you in a unique way.

Important shots to achieve

Plan A (in a perfect world all goes to plan)

Sun shining through grass at dusk
Subject, young girl wearing long white dress, bleached blonde hair so the sun changes the colour depending on what angle its hitting the hair
Sunset shot with grass in the foreground
XLS grass, static
LS grass, static
LS grass pan, static
LS grass girl running tracking hand held
MS grass girl running tracking hand held
CU grass girl running tracking tripod
XCU grass static
CU grass static
MLS grass girl running tracking
CU-XCU grass girl tracking pan
LA girl running hand hand tracking
HA girl running hand held tracking
MLS tracking grass girl running
MCU tilt in focus out focus grass girl walking
LA LS Clouds colourful and orange
CU-MCU Teddy Bear in field
MLS girl running with teddy bear tracking hand held

Plan B (if the weather is grey)

Close up at grass at dusk
Subject, young girl wearing long white dress, bleached blonde hair so it stands out in grey conditions
XLS grass, static
LS grass, static
LS grass pan, static
LS grass girl running tracking hand held
MS grass girl running tracking hand held
CU grass girl running tracking tripod
XCU grass static
CU grass static
MLS grass girl running tracking
CU-XCU grass girl tracking pan
LA girl running hand hand tracking
HA girl running hand held tracking
MLS tracking grass girl running
MCU tilt in focus out focus grass girl walking
LA LS Clouds grey and ominous
CU-MCU Teddy Bear in field
MLS girl running with teddy bear tracking hand held