I’ve just uploaded my final cut. Wow the world works in mysterious ways.
Feels good.

I’ve sent it to my closest pal and production partner Colin and am waiting for a response. I can see that exporting to vimeo settings then actually watching it on vimeo changes EVERYTHING. That crisp vision I crap on about in all these videos is clear and brilliant. I’m really happy with how this ramshackle little vid turned out. There’s a sense of space that I never noticed before long distance shots of the green, to closeups on face. Indoors is so confined in this video, and outdoors is so free? Adding title cards really opened me up to noticing these things. It gives the video a sense of finality.

Colin replied,

some useful feedback

I noticed a fleck of light on Chris’s glasses that I didn’t see before.

The camera shakes from when the tripod was knocked annoys me but there’s not much else I can do about it at this point. This is a cool lil proddy, a great learning experience. Asthis is my final BOX post, I’ll address what I’ve learnt throughout the semester through a short list:

• Trust my instincts and trust myself. I need to shake off my self doubt, my insecurities. Filmmaking used to be so much fun for me but now I’m so terrified whatever I make wont be good enough for an employer or for peers etc. It’s not about that though!! Don’t be scared of being contrived! Everything in filmmaking happens for a reason, everything is set in place for a purpose, so thus everything is contrived and we are all try hards and we desperately want our work to be liked… if that doesn’t make sense it’s an epiphany I need to work out how to articulate.
• I can write a script about anything and nothing and it’s still valid. And I enjoyed writing the deli script and blue moon thoroughly!
• A good lens if your friend.
• Look at how things are made. Look at the camera movements in everything. The panning, the height, whether he camera is based on a tripod or hand held, look at the depth of field, tracking the performance, the lighting (is it offside? it’s always offside!)
• Feed the cat.Here’s my last deconstruction (couldn’t find a longer version of this scene but it’s got the best part in it):

I’ve been obsessed with Jane Campion’s Top Of The Lake. In this scene, a hardened father and husband has angrily stormed a women’s retreat in search for his wife and daughter. Here he approaches them after trying to win them back.

The use of sound in this show is incredible. Campion’s use of extreme wide shots opens the soundscape up to an incredible array of noises. Birds are distant in the opening ECU, with her meddling guitar blending in closely. I rarely see shows (or notice) an instrument playing in diegetic manner. I rewatched ‘Blue Moon’ with my atmos volume higher, yet the soundtrack still encompasses the image. To achieve this effect what I would have done differently would be to record the atmos of every setting with as much importance as the image. The guitarist in this clip is small and insignificant compared to the location, as the song should have been in Blue Moon (regardless of if I titled the film after it!). Water trickles, footsteps are light on the grass, the father yells from a distance. Campion’s soundtracks give an incredible sense of space, distance and location.

The shot construction is beautifully composed; in the establishing shot mother and daughter are sitting parallel, symmetrically distanced placing the shot into a brilliant rule of thirds.

A dirty o/s from the father’s perspective, blacking out one third of the screen as he, a suited man, encroaches on this wide open feminist nature haven.  As we reverse back to his face, the offside is lit, even though in the opening image the sun is clearly pointing to the left of screen, yet his face is lit on the right. I’m assuming this would be by bouncing the light off of a reflector.

Does the above sequence break the line? Or does it just play with subjectivity. He seems like the one in control during the beginning of the exchange, but as he starts to play around, she seems to hold the cards. I am trying to work out whether this breaks the line, especially the second image of the father from a mid shot, it definitely seems to be further out than 60 degrees, and in the third image (of the daughter) it’s unclear who she is looking at. My final verdict is that the line was broken.

That’s all I have for now. Thank’s for a wonderful studio. I’ve learnt a hell of a lot, and a lot of a hell.