Over the past week I have had a few epiphanies and realisations. Our task over the weekend was to produce a scene based on a script of choice. I chose the dance scene where a boy offers a girl to dance and she refuses.

My planning, as proposed in the previous blog post, was to shoot this in a beautiful garden setting. My timing fell through on this day, but I had a contingency plan. I shot the scene a few nights later. I decided that trying to shoot a party outside and to attempt to make it look like night time, or even shoot it at nighttime was going to be difficult. Lighting was always going to be an issue. The shoot overall took around about 1 hour to shoot and half an hour to edit. I shot the scene in a living room and shut the blinds to make it look as though it was nighttime. I was under time constraints as I had to leave for basketball. I work well under pressure so I didn’t mind this constraint.

Working with non experienced actors, I found that I had to give them visual points/cues. Their facial expressions came naturally. Their relationship together in real life resulted in them finding it hard to compose themselves and they would break out laughing during takes. This didn’t matter, it only increased the tension in the used takes. I found some colourful, flashing party lights and used these to elude to the theme of a party. I didn’t need to cover beyond the action of what we were seeing. Everything else, including the very generic sound design, helped to convey this.

I had only planned two or three shots. I hadn’t planned anymore than that. I really enjoyed improvising and manipulating the camera around the action. I will use this technique in my scenes towards the end of semester. While I am still establishing myself as a cinematographer, I am loving just exploring and improvising through the scenes. I am learning first hand the practical reasons why some shots work better than others. There is only so much learning to be explored in a text book. It isn’t until you pick up a camera and finally realise, ‘yes, the lower angle shot does make the character look more dominant,’ that your learning actually sinks in.

I was happy with the overall result of the scene. I thought the timing of it was quite funny. Robin mentioned that it should be more obscure. I understand where he is coming from, although the purpose of the scene was to evoke a humorous emotional response. I do believe that I achieved this. I want the scene to entertain the audience and make them relate to perhaps a time when they were alone at a party and were awkwardly approached by someone that they were avoiding. We don’t need to know who these characters are or why they’re here, the clip is too short for the audience to consider this. The audience accepts the social situation for what it is.

We presented our oral presentations this week in front of some academics. I am usually very confident speaking in front of people, but for some reason anxiety got the better of me. I am confident with the direction of my idea and the feedback was very helpful. They have given me some valuable points to consider and I will apply this in my Method of Working.