For exercise 4, we were given the task of recreating scenes from famous movies with a group of people. I was in a group of 7. The scenes we were given to recreate were from the films ‘Love in the Afternoon’ and ‘Vicky Christina Barcelona’. We shot both on the SONY EX3.
Love in the Afternoon starred Tim and Mona-liza while the rest of us crewed. The scene we were given from this film was an interesting one to shoot as it was only one shot. What we mainly had to focus on was the slight movement of the camera as characters came in and out of the shot. For instance, we had to follow Tim mostly as he moved from the left of frame to the right. The main problem we faced was actors memorising lines, as we could not cut the shot, yet they did an exceptional job given the time we had. My job was slating, which you could say is the easiest job on set, but stressful if you get wrong and hell for the editors. Working the EX3 became a lot easier, given the tasks we’d done before, the process of setting up and using the camera was a lot less daunting. The editing process of this scene was extremely minimal, it was mainly about going through the takes that we had and deciding which one was best aesthetically and technically. Editing it together I added a fade in and out so that it was not a harsh beginning/end. I attempted to add a filter yet to me, all the ones that I tried out gave it an aura of amateur (which isn’t an awful thing, considering I am an editing amateur).
The second scene we were given, from Vicky Christina Barcelona, we shot after Love in the Afternoon. This scene was not only longer, it has more cuts, more angles and took us longer to shoot than the first scene. Lydia, Tim and I acted in it. We shot a variety of mid-range, close-ups and longshots. We didn’t necessarily act out the dialogue in full in every take given that some shots only required one line for a close up and another mid range shot may require the whole piece of dialogue. This gave me an insight into how films are made, that there may not always be a flow and that things take a long time to establish and finally capture. The close-ups and mid-range shots were mainly of Lydia and me, and the long shot was establishing Tim’s characters place in the scene, which is relevant later on in the scene. Editing the scene together was much more of a challenge than the first scene, by definition (as there was proper editing involved). For starters, given that we shot in a classroom where the light was only entering from one side (and we did not make an attempt to control the light in any other form) the lighting was all over the place. In some shots the lighting was well lit, in others, it was a tad darker and in others, it was extremely dark. This made continuity tough, as I attempted to lighten and darken some scenes in order for them to match, yet it became obvious that I was trying to match them up. I added a filter over the top of the shots in an attempt to make the transitions smoother and less obvious yet in the end it just distorted the lighting problems even more. To solve the problem I placed brighter effects over the darker scenes in order to give it more flow. The second problem was sound, as it was not consistent, it was either too loud or too soft with momentary moments of equilibrium. The sound in a film is an extremely important part, it is also the most noticeable when done wrong. In order to fix this, I attempted to lower or upper the sound in the scenes so that they matched and added a constant gain effect in order to make the transitions a lot more smoother, which i think I achieved. I finished it with a simple fade in and fade out in order to make it a smooth watch for the audience. Recreating this scene was extremely fun, as the dialogue was a little sententious and it wasn’t something any of us would say in real life.
Remaking these scenes was a valuable lesson in terms of production. For example learning your lines and preparing for the day makes the shoot run smoother and getting lighting and sound right on the day makes for much easier editing in the long run. If theres one thing I’ve learnt, not everything can be fixed in post (contrary to popular belief).
