Below is the link to an edited version of my scene:

https://drive.google.com/drive/#folders/0B-TlsDdLEC7jQnFmVlUwOXdYYms

The editing process has begun! I have sifted through the footage and established a flow of moving images. Looking over the footage, visually I am happy with the ‘look’ of the images. The lighting is soft and works well, the colours provide most of the images with depth.

Approaching my first edit I chose to investigate the shots that I had prepared from my shot list. There are multiple shots which link visually (similar white balance etc…) and the characters movements. In saying this, there is also a lot of footage that does not link visually or with the characters movement. The character is performing the same action; waking up, standing and walking over to the tree. Her expressiveness alters and there are simple continuity errors (her arm is in the wrong position or she is looking in a different direction). As the director on set, I wanted to make a lot of the movements quite slow in order to develop a pace that might evoke pathos or a surreal environment. This has drawn out my first attempt at cutting the scene to one minute. I will ask for a family member to watch the scene to give me a raw, fresh interpretation of the cut.

I positioned my intended shots on the timeline and then watched to see the flow of the images. Once I was convinced with my chosen shots I began to colour grade and match the shots. The colours are so incredibly different. With minor colour grading, saturating and desaturating the timeline continuity was less disorientating. I began to fine tune my edit points. Once I had done this I began a fresh edit of different footage.

As it began to get dark on set some of the shots, although look quite pleasing, didn’t fit with the other sequential shots. Therefore, these needed to be graded to match the others. I chose alternative shots from my first edit. This pace was a lot faster. They were static shots which allowed me to cut whenever I felt necessary for the narrative. The panning and tilting shots dictated the timing of my cutting decisions. I much preferred cutting at my own pace. This second edit runs for just over 30 seconds. I desaturated most of the images and matched them all appropriately. I compressed the time that it takes the girl to stand up and walk to the tree. The edit points felt almost like jump cuts. The quick editing style eluded to the surreal nature of the narrative. This worked quite well.

Analysing both of the scenes independently I am still not convinced. The camera work has dictated the editing of each scene. I have not made editorial decisions that allow for many cuts and interpretations. My interpretation of them is that the fast paced edit evokes a sense of danger and urgency. The slower paced edit does not feel threatening. The moving camera makes you feel as though you are discovering the environment empathising with the girl. I decided to layer the two edited scenes together. I placed the faster paced scene after the more drawn out scene and left the final wake up shots at the very end. Surprisingly, this worked. The first scene is over saturated and the subject is curious (inability to walk independently). She wakes up for a second time displaying more detached, cautious characteristics. The second sequence is desaturated and eludes to the idea that someone might be watching her (psychotic behaviour). She awakens at the end to reveal her wheel chair sitting next to her. I am satisfied from a narrative point of view, but I am not investigating the narrative (I just get anal if things don’t make sense). The reception of these scenes have reinforced my main contention, although I feel as though there are extraneous variables that I have not considered.

1. The shots dictate the edit – Timing, camera movement, character movement (continuity)

2. Preconceived bias – On set I was trying to fit the shots into my preconceived ideas. I wanted to achieve a threatening scene therefore I produced shots that were quick, dark and detached. If I had shot a slow panning shot with the subject urgently moving through the space perhaps the final reception would have been different. I want to investigate this from another angle.

So far I have heavily relied upon visual editing with the omission of non diegetic sound/underscore. I do believe that an underscore would really lift the piece and allow for a more effective flow and rhythm. In saying this my intention has not been to produce a master piece scene interpretation. It has been to investigate how the camera can manipulate the narrative or reception of the narrative. I will add an underscored piece to my final scene that is exhibited, as I believe that this will allow for a better audience reception.

 

Final reflection of this investigation:

My anticipation of this task essentially, was that I would be able to produce multiple interpretations of the same scene with a main focus on two very distinctly shot scenes. Why was I stuck in the editing room, forced to cut both scenes a particular way? I am always going to be obsessed with narrative. I want to be a director and one of my favourite hobbies is to write stories. I feel as though I limited myself and did not consider how my own preconceived ideas would effect my investigation. In a large feature production I do believe that cinematographic decisions, yes are based on logistics, accessibility and constraints, but I also believe that they are fundamentally made with motive and objectives. They are revealing what the audience needs to see, based on directorial decisions that will drive the narrative forward. In hindsight, perhaps I should have prepared a more concrete shot list with more shots than anticipated. This may have given me more breadth and coverage of the scenes. I should have shot the two interpretations twice swapping my intention e.g. experimenting with the moving camera to try and create a more menacing feel and vice versa.

I am not satisfied that this investigation has given me enough resolution with camera coverage and shot decisions. I need to explore this further. I am going to start exploring different cinematographers. I will choose a cinematographer and investigate two very similar scenes from two different films. The context of the films will be completely different. I will compare and contrast how the cinematographer captures these scenes. I will not comment on the production design and acting of the scenes.  I will also turn off all sound focusing entirely on the use of the camera.

Sarah Petrie-Allbutt

My intention was to explore and compare how the camera can be manipulated to convey different meaning. I focused on altering camera movements, angles, depth-of-field and white balance – using a large space in order to create an organic production environment.

I have mapped out a day by day schedule that I will endeavour to follow. This will work as a guide to structure my time and prepare me for the final exhibition.

 

Week 11 –

Wednesday 20th May: Edit Scene 1 – Personal interpretation

Thursday 21st May: Internship

Friday 22nd May: Blog Post Week 11

Saturday 23rd May: Work & Edit Scene 2 across both Sat and Sun

Sunday 24th May: Same as above

 

Week 12 –

Monday 25th May: Blog Post – Reflection & Comparison of two edits

Tuesday 26th May: Edit Scene 3

Wednesday 27th May: Additional sound design for chosen final edited scene

Thursday 28th May: Internship

Friday 29th May: Blog Post Week 12 – Comparison & Reflection

Saturday 30th May: Work

Sunday 31st May: Work

 

Week 13 –

Monday 1st June: Fine tune final scene

Tuesday 2nd June: Write final substantial blog post/Report

Wednesday 3rd June: Finish & Submit final scene

Thursday 4th June: Internship

Friday 5th June: Edit exhibition 40 second clip

Saturday – Monday: Echuca holiday for long weekend

 

Week 14 –

Tuesday 9th June: Submit final 40 second exhibition clip

Wednesday 10th June: –

Thursday 11th June: Exhibition!

 

Filming Complete!

 

The filming went quite well. We were lucky that it didn’t rain while we were there. The main issue we had was that it got dark very quickly. I had to keep on adjusting my aperture/F-stop and then my ISO.

Method of Working:

I used my shot list as a guide, but predominantly I improvised camera movements. I positioned the character where I wanted her and blocked out her movements. After this, I manipulated the camera around her shifting angles, camera tilts & pans, changed lenses. I ignored the 180 degree rule of crossing the line and organically shot as much coverage as I could in the time frame that I had.

I adjusted the White Balance a couple of times (as seen above). I over saturated the image and then brought more cooler tones and hues into the image. I experimented with depth of field. Filming on a Canon 5D is always going to be difficult to keep the moving image in focus. I spent a lot of time focusing and refocusing to ensure the picture was crisp. I tried not to attempt a focus pull or follow focus. The character moved through space and at times this was not an issue but sometimes she would fall out of focus and I would ‘cut’. Follow focus is too time consuming and difficult on a DSLR without the appropriate equipment. I maintained shot types to stills, pans and tilts.

I was lucky with the expression of natural light. I had prepared a small LED light and reflector, but I didn’t use any of this equipment. Not only would it have been a time consuming to match the light (shot continuity) as she moved through the space, but the natural light complimented the image without having to add artificial light. The lighting was soft and as the sun went down, it became quite expressive, which complimented the tone of the scene (my intention was to create different tones to allow for different cuts of the same scene).

The acting was minimalistic. I didn’t want to get caught up in teaching a non actor to act. I let her feel the space and wander curiously through it. Focusing on genre forces you to focus on acting and the portrayal/representation of that genre. Once I began filming I realised that I didn’t want to get caught up in the logistics of the ‘genre’ and the acting. The exercise for me, was to focus on camera coverage and the manipulation of the camera to reveal new meaning. This will be evident within the multiple edits that I conduct. There is room for more than two edits of this scene. I will work on multiple edits, focusing on the cutting of the shots and then choose the edited scene which is most effective. I will then fine tune my chosen edited scene by adding in diegetic sound (that was also recorded on set) and non diegetic sound. This final edited scene will be used for the RMIT Media exhibition/presentation.

I will compare and contrast all of the edits reflecting on the process of filming, how I can improve, how the scene tells a different story and how the camera is manipulated.

This week has been challenging, but I have thoroughly enjoyed the filming process. It was simplistic, yet the results surprised me.

May 11th, 2015.

I have been in contact with the ‘City of Yarra’ council. They will be contacting me shortly to notify me of the progression of my application of filming at the Fairfield Park. They seemed quick to respond. I am confident that everything will be sorted within the appropriate time frame.

I am picking up the gear at 1:30pm on Wednesday. My cast/crew will not be arriving on set until 3:30pm. I am going to visit the location prior to their arrival and begin testing my proposed shot types. One is quite complicated, this shot has been described in my Week 9 blog post. I am going to test film this shot on location. I will also test colour, contrast and adaptations to the weather conditions. These tests will be posted to the blog Wednesday night before I begin editing the scenes.

The more prepared I am prior to the arrival of cast and crew, the more fluent the shoot will be. I will need to quickly adapt to the conditions on the day. Each day, the weather is constantly changing. This is a concerning factor.

I will also need to remember to bring my computer and hard drives in order to back up footage if I run out of space on my CF card. NOTE TO SELF: remember that!

I have arranged for the important prop – the wheel chair! I will bring this up to Melbourne with me.

The next progress report will be on Wednesday.

My focus this week has predominantly been revolving around preparation of my shoot next week. I have organised my actor, crew, location and shooting style for both scenes. I have had a bit of a fall back with my location agreement. I posted off my location permit application forms to the ‘City of Darebin’. They contacted me quite promptly to inform me that the location where I am hoping to shoot is within the ‘City of Yarra’. One step backwards! I have emailed new location permit applications to the ‘City of Yarra’, along with the updated insurance forms and I’m waiting for their response.

I have completed my pre production booklet. This booklet incorporates my annotated research, call sheets, release forms (some are pending) and a shooting schedule. This is a visual representation of my preparation for shooting. It has helped me to organise my thoughts, ambitions and purpose. I researched the film ‘Gothika’ in order to study the aesthetics and use of shots. This films expresses a lot of moving camera. I am going to shoot my thriller genre themed scene different to this. I will shoot my scene the old fashioned way; with quick cuts and still shots. I will juxtapose images, cutting them together appropriately.

I also researched a number of films that I believe are aesthetically beautiful from a production design point of view and from a cinematographer point of view. I watched ’12 Years a Slave’, parts of ‘The Great Gatsby’ and ‘A Beautiful Mind’. I have included in my booklet screen shots of scenes that resonated with me.

Another task that I have been working on this week is filming the Australian Directors Guild Awards. This ceremony is tonight (Friday). We have been practising with the cameras this week. We will be shooting Vox Pop interviews with the nominees as well as the ceremony. Any experience with a camera is preparing me for my shoot next week. The faster and more confident I am, I will execute my ideas more effectively.

In our class today we were given the opportunity to create our own exercise. I wanted to experiment with a shot that I am going to shoot next week – The camera points to the sky through an overhanging tree. Leaves fall from the tree. The camera moves clockwise 360 degrees. I envisage this camera movement as a window into a surreal world. It will represent a true Autumn’s day.

We found a tree relatively quickly. The shot wasn’t quite as I had pictured. I think the actual tree that I will film will be more obtrusive and will fill the shot composition more effectively. This tree was more staggered and sparse. Another conflicting factor is the tripod. We were able to manipulate our tripod to point the camera up into the sky. The tripod that I will be using won’t have this flexibility. I will experiment with this shot on location before the actors arrive on set.

Another factor was the falling of the leaves. This shot has the potential to take a significant amount of time on set, in order to pull it off effectively. I will have to make a 1st AD decision on set, as to how much time is allocated to this shot. I may have to shoot what I can, move on and determine whether I use it or not in post production. This exercise was very valuable. It allowed me to practice a technique that I am not very confident executing. Angus and I were the only ones who had an exercise idea that we wanted to explore. Everyone was enthusiastic in involving themselves in both of our ideas. I think this was beneficial not only for me, but for the entire group. It allowed us to use trial and error and to problem solve until we were happy with our result.

An issue that arose with my exercise was the lighting. The exposure changed constantly as the sun hid behind clouds. This moving shot also lends itself to an aperture pull. One angle was over exposed and as the camera moved away from the direction of the sun, it became under exposed. We used a ND filter to compare the ‘look’ of the image. The view finder and zebra pattern were detrimental with the set up of this shot. The harsh light hitting the monitor effected our individual perception of the image.

I am excited to shoot my scenes next Wednesday, although I am worried about time. I may have to reschedule to shoot one again if I run out of daylight. If I am prepared and set, the shoot should run smoothly. There are many contributing factors that could impact on the shoot; the weather, if it rains; the public, if there are a lot of people around; losing daylight or the light changing significantly between shots. As I am shooting so late in the afternoon the lighting is going to change quite dramatically and quite quickly. I will have to adapt very quickly to these conditions.

 

May 1st, 2015.

Please refer below to the working script, ‘Euphoria’.

I traveled to my chosen location, the Fairfield Park Boathouse. This location is aesthetically pleasing. There are huge native trees, walking paths, the Yarra River and being Autumn, fallen leaves cover the ground. It is perfect! I found a park bench that is off the walking paths. This will be great for filming as not many people will be around. There will be minimal interferences. I was worried initially as the vision that I had for this scene was off course and therefore may have had a negative impact on the environment. The location that I have found (refer to images below) is out of the way of the public and will not disrupt the natural landscape.

Arriving at this location ideas for a script flooded my mind. INSPIRATION! I used the park bench and the tree as a mark for envisioning character movement/interaction. A rough run down of the script is… a girl (Rosie) wakes up on the park bench, she is slightly disorientated. She stands up and walks through the park, around the tree. She attempts to run down to the river/lake (looks like a lake on camera) when suddenly she wakes up again, back at the park bench with her wheel chair next to the table.

My initial interpretation of this scene is for it to be vibrant and surreal. The girl is in a world that she endeavours to stay. She walks and runs through the leaves. When she wakes, she is awaken to her harsh reality. The script lends itself to a contrasting interpretation. The thriller interpretation of this script will incorporate quick cuts, darker and cooler hues. She is anxious that someone/something is watching her. When she is awaken the wheelchair may signify her ‘psychotic’ state rather than in my interpretation the wheelchair signifies her inability to walk/disability. Two very different and unique interpretations.

My next step is the nitty gritty of shooting. I need to get approval from the council to film there. I need to send out call sheets and get my actor to sign her release form. I have booked the equipment that I intend on using. I will be relying on natural light, although I have booked a battery powered LED light as a fill light when necessary. I have also booked a reflector, a second lens and a dolly. The second lens will allow my to capture multiple styles of images.

I will begin to brainstorm potential shot lists/shot types over the next few days.

This passed week has been huge in terms of progression of my personal scene. This will be discussed in my ‘Method of Working’ post. In class this week we focused on experimenting with focus pulling exercises. Unfortunately I have already completed these exercises in my first year of the ‘Diploma of Screen and Media’. Being familiar with the theory and practical aspects of focus pulling, I have been a bit disengaged. I helped my group work through the exercises. Mustafa is very interested in learning more about cameras and cinematography. It was great working with him on these exercises.

As I have been working with my Canon 5D lately, it is interesting coming back to real video cameras. The focus is far more precise and the manual use of exposure, focus, white balance and the zebra is more effective than trying to set these up on a DSLR (and lack of zebra). I am enjoying working with the two different cameras.

Next Friday I am filming at the Australian Directors Guild Awards ceremony. We will be shooting interviews and parts of the ceremony. This will be a great experience as it will test my ability to adapt to unpredictable conditions. The response from everyone participating in the awards may not be positive towards us. We will need to network our way around everyone to cover enough valuable footage that can be used for their disposal in the future. Adapting shots with a myriad of constraints will be a good exercise for me.

SCENE 1 – EXT. Park bench. DAY

A cool, windy Autumn day. ROSIE (21) rests her head on a park bench. The Autumn leaves sway around her.

She awakens and lifts her head. She looks around her location, confused and anxious.

No one can be seen. There is a lake nearby, down the hill of the park. A large over hanging tree surrounds her. A slight breeze brushes through her hair. The leaves sweep passed her face.

ROSIE touches her cheek. Curious by her location she turns her body and places her feet firmly on the ground. She is not wearing shoes. Her toes are immersed in the pile of leaves collected on the ground.

ROSIE stands, first with hesitation and then pushing herself off the park bench, she stands with confidence.

She walks over to the hanging tree and grasps it, looking around anxiously.

ROSIE circles the tree once and then looks down to the lake. With an empowering urge she begins to run down towards it.

SCENE 2 – EXT. PARK BENCH. DAY

ROSIE awakens. She is sitting on the park bench once again. ROSIE is disorientated and frustrated. The over hanging tree engulfs her.

She turns to look around. Her wheel chair is next to the bench waiting for her.