Final Reflection (True to Form)🎥🌾

“Without reflection, we go blindly on our way, creating more unintended consequences, and failing to achieve anything useful.” Margaret J. Wheatley (1992)

The vision that was clear from the very beginning was at the peaceful time of dusk in a desolate field far far away, the wind quaintly but equally harshly tussled with the long golden grass below and through these diverse patterns controlled by Mother Nature herself through the ever moving earth comes an innocent young girl with a spring in her step bounding through the grass with all the freedom in the world. The young girl is a free spirit living her fantasy, dreams as vast and diverse as the grass field itself and never deviating but always walking towards the light. This beauty, this poetry, this moment of peace, this moment of light, moment of innocence, moment of deep emotion and dreaming are things I wanted to capture through the camera. Showing how long grass can act as a cinematic device for conveying deeper emotions, deeper meanings and deeper possibilities through the audiences perception of the beauty captured on screen. To truly capture the poetics of long golden grass through the way it moves to way to stands still and independent of the next strand. Also to make reference to the relationship between humans relationship work Mother Nature and truly give a perspective of our size in comparison to the varsity of the world and our dreams.

The scene was always there playing on replay the next decisive step was through the platform of these important True To Form experiments and investigations I was going to construct a list of shots, find the most appropriate location and take time through three or more experiments to trial with different cameras, angles and movements so then I could capture the scene in the best way possible.

Through the first experiment I first embarked to film the longest grass I could possibly find, which came more in the form of weeds, this however didn’t phase me. It came me first an opportunity to film on an X70 in the elements and secondly see how long grass/reeds reacted with Mother Nature, on in this case very strong winds and heavy rain. Despite the violent weather conditions I managed to capture a variety of beautiful shots purely focused on the movement of the reeds. It established how to properly set up a camera like the X70 in harsh conditions, utilise the tripod in the right way and also export and analyse footage taken so I could better go out into the field and amend some of the mistakes made in the first experiment.

The second experiment was quite different from the first, more time was spend before embarking to film to actually plan a detailed shot list and find some appropriate locations for filming. The camera was used again this time a more updated model of the X70 camera with a larger sensor. The You Yangs beyond Bacchus Marsh was the recommended location in their national park to find long grass and work in with the landscape. Thankfully on the way there I found a very impressive location, a vast field of long aged grass, golden in bright sunlight and long enough for our subject to run through. After gaining permission I set out to film a variety of shots with and without the tripod. Without a subject available I went about thinking of practical ways of filming in the field for now and particularly in the final experiment. I managed to get a huge variety of shots and when I say huge I mean over 9.5 GB worth of footage. Great variety yes but an absolute pain to go through in post and find the shots which I wanted to analyse in closer detail. A lesson I definitely learnt for the next experiment was definitely be more decisive with my choice of shots, saving time filming, space on the card and more importantly saving time editing. Overall the shots filmed were models to build on and pieces of footage I could work with to get the desired result in my next experiment.

The third experiment was similar to the second where I had my location locked in, had my equipment tested and had an idea of what I wanted to film and how I would film them. The third experiment was a shorter experiment to trial the Canon 5K Mark III, I have always loved the crispness and detail the Canon SLR films in so my intentions were to film with the SLR and see how differently the grass would look and whether that was the way I would like to go with my project. Although the natural lighting was difficult to work with I managed to get really beautiful shots of the grass, learning from the previous experiment I went about filming less, completing the task more efficiently and effectively. The footage was easier to sort through and analyze and the overall look and meaning arising from the shots made the decision easier to choose an SLR for the final experiment.

The fourth and final final experiment consisted of bring everything I have learnt over the semester journey in class and out in the field through my experiments into the one shooting. The aim was to achieve everything I had set out to do in the first place, find a day where the sun would be shining through potently onto the grass and really bringing to life the scene and its subject. I had acquired a subject which was also a tenuous task but through some forensic networking I found the perfect candidate. With a Nikon D500 DSLR at my disposal I was able to experiment prior to the day of the filming by filming the orange clouds in the sky. I quickly realized this was the perfect camera for the project capturing light beautifully without much manipulation and quite easy to use for a person without much technological knowledge like myself. To my amazement in the afternoon of the final filming the clouds parted and was gifting an hour window of strong yellow sunlight and as the sun slowly descended I was left some truly captivating shots of the subject running through the grass. The wind picked up as well with gave some really great variety to the shots, my subjects hair went from almost a darker shade of blonde on arrival to a pale white with full sun exposure, it was quite remarkable. The final filming was an absolute success, I was able to film in full sunlight, achieve some wonderful sunset shots, be able to contrast mother natures power and humans size difference to it, the poetry of grass through wind moving and sun peaking through separate strands of grass to create the poetics imagined in the first weeks of the True to Form course. The editing of the shots was difficult as many beautiful shots had top referenced for the sequences as the most emotive and powerful which meant some I just simply couldn’t fit into the sequence. But having that freedom to chose your best shots from your absolute greatest shots is a good problem to have, it means you aren’t scrounging around in the lower end mediocre shots. I was then able to construct a sequence of shots with powerful, uplifting, inspirational, reflective, beautiful and shallow music  to accompany this subjects dreamy journey through the vast grassy fields.

Editing despite the difficult deciding which shots would work best in the overall final sequences wasn’t too difficult as the beauty already conveyed through the shots didn’t really have to be altered and the pacing of the running was almost exactly as I had imagined. Fears over slowing down the running through high frame rate did spell potential hurdles but with the footage outcome it almost isn’t a necessary element as you’ll see when you watch the final product. The only real change to the original focus through the shots that I produced in my final exercise was really just having a very strong narrative. The narrative through the experiments progressions to the final product doesn’t really need to be that profound. The meaning, symbolism and emotions from the sequence come from the poetics of each separate shot in the sequence, they will be put in the temporal duration in chronological order but the amount of time between each shot can be worked out through the dimming light and the sunset at the end to signal time has gone by. Through the dreamy aspect of the piece, the following of the girl through the grass and things from her perspective, many of shots acts as the girls eyes which is evident through the editing and placing of the separate shots. The narrative was going to originally involve two subjects who run through the grass, meet in the middle and then through an elliptical edit show the two children subjects all grown together in the middle of the field, it would however take away the poetics from the field, raise too many unnecessary narrative questions and possibilities and would be significantly harder to film. It is sacred having a stand alone subject in a field, the comparisons to nature and one lone subject are easier to make and the poetics of tracking one subject are more significant. Therefore I opted to go with one subject and although the narrative idea of two was raised early in the piece was also dismissed more strongly as each experiment was executed.

Overall I am very proud of the final outcome, the sequence looks beautiful and it best reflects my original vision of the piece. It has been a pleasure learning more about camera techniques and how to better enhance my skills as a cinematographer and more broadly as a filmmaker. Through the experiments I have grown my skills, planning, efficiency, effectiveness with the camera, and by the end of the experiment these improvements were evident in the quality of shots I took. The freedom to go out and capture what I wanted was a freedom at first I found difficult to cope with , the broadness of my project did spell some potential trouble with my focus, but through my inspirations of ‘Days of Heaven’ by Terrance Malick a film where the cinematography is beautiful and the comparison between man and nature is profound it gave me plenty of direction on how to film long grass and make the shots more emotive. Once my focus was straightened out I found the freedom to capture the poetics on long grass was easier with a refined plan, with better planning of individual shots and improved skills with the camera equipment.  The vision in my head of the young girl running through long grass at sunny dusk has been achieved on screen and it has been an incredible journey learning every step of the way, staying true to my form and being able to bring yellow dying grass back to life and more poetic than ever before.

Michael Serpell