This week we looked back on our discussions on focal length and began looking into the works of Jean Renoir. Robin asked us to take a look at Renoir’s work but argued that we should not be discouraged from looking into his work because we “must” study it saying it is not something we have to do but the knowledge is there so why not seize the opportunity using the idea of disliking Shakespeare due to studying some works in high school as an example but I had quite the opposite opinion filmmaking actually made me interested in studying Shakespeare among other pieces of literature in high school due to how much his and other authors work had been used and referenced and parodied over the course of film history. Which is another reason I chose to do textual crossings literary adaptation as a course to study this semester.

Since we’re all coming back from Easter break this week was a bit more relaxed as some of the notes we were sent were tips to help us write our advanced drama analysis for assignment 2. I chose to do mine on “Atomic Blonde” (2017) directed by David Leitch as it’s my favourite female led film and one I believe I can write a lot about. We’ve also been asked to consider doing a research task which I’ll have to look into later this week as I haven’t been able to find the time between getting this assignment finished alongside other work that’s due for other classes this week.

Reading Response

“The Absolute Brilliance of the Single Master Shot”

This week’s reading was fun due to the structural breakdown of a shot I’ve never tried outside of the occasional studio exercise which was the master shot. It was interesting to break down the many benefits of a master shot if it fits with the goal of your scene, how it can cut down on potential on set issues such as matching eye lines and wardrobe continuity issues both of which has been recently talked about in class and how they can benefit something like a comedic scene as cutting the scene done in segmented takes in the edit room might affect the timing of the comedy I personally think while the piece makes not of how easy and cheaper master shots may be I think like all other shots in cinema they have a time and a place and shouldn’t be used solely to lessen the budget of your film in my opinion master shots work great in actions scenes and since I’m writing about atomic blonde for my drama analysis it’d be a shame not to talk about the one used in that film as it’s one of my all time favourites. The scene is several minutes long and switches into several rooms, flights of stairs and features intense fight choreography done by the actress (Charlize Theron) herself due to her determination to the character and her work but also to preserve the shot instead of segmenting takes with a stunt actress.