Due to a public holiday, Week 2 was condensed into one class. We primarily discussed the role of a focus puller. Essentially a focus puller’s role on set is keep the camera perfectly focused on the correct subject throughout the duration of the shot. We did an exercise where we constructed a scene with a character is late to class. Making his way through the depth of the room to eventually sit down. Placing the camera in the front of the room with a set focal distance, the focus puller would have keep the subject in focus throughout the shot, as the character slowly moved closer to the camera. In this exercise Robin introduced other set roles like the 1st Assistant director, Director of Photography, Camera Operator and a Grip whom all have an impact on the focus pullers job. This was interesting exercise and provided me with more information of each individual roles on set duties. I quickly understood that no matter what your role on set, it’s going to be heavily influenced by other crew members and vice versa. The decisions you make on set are going to impact other’s roles and the film as a whole.
Week 3 was heavily impacted by the Coronavirus and learning was switched to online information. As part of the online tools I’d like to reflect on Part 2 and the contrasts in the 2 scene’s featuring dialogue at a bar. The First scene from “Gossip Girl” follows the 180-degree rule to a tee. Starts with an opening tilt/dolly shot in the bar to then a standard over the shoulder MCU and CU with what appears to at least a two-camera setup but potentially 4. This is a very conventionally shot dialogue scene and the coverage does not draw attention to itself at all. The second example from “The Fire Within” is extremely unconventional. The dialogue is shot from a multitude of different angles and half way through this the scene the 180-degree rule is broken. The consistent cutting between different angles is to me, as a viewer, disorientating. To then break the 180 degree seems to further confuse the viewer. I’m not sure what the director’s aim was when deciding to shoot the scene this way and as I haven’t seen the film in it’s entirety, I can’t comment on the camera coverage’s place within the whole film. However, the choices of the director do have an extreme effect on the viewer and the coverage in the scene definitely draws attention to itself.