The actors of Sneaker Spastic are now selected, and we looked at Robin’s aspects of lightning when casting. Before talking about lightning, the directing in casting linked this to the placement of both actors and the light set up. Reflecting back on the Pollack reading we avoided clichés and ‘worked towards causes and gave the actor a real life example they had to deal with’ (Pollack : 61). This shift between telling the actor what to do first and then implement it in a real scene gave the option to see three sides of the character; the becoming crew member, his unconscious side and how the lightning fell on his face. One example is:
Dir: Say ‘Oi!’
Actor: ‘Oi!’
Dir: Now, I’ve stolen something from you, I’m running away and your reaction is….?
Acto: (A LOT more emphasized) ‘OI!’ with more emotion and an obvious body language evoking more feelings.
I think as for being a director this is where I saw ‘what I really wanted’ and how to bring that out. The actor had personality enough to show it but the reality scene of it showed its meaning to a higher level. Knowing what exactly to look for made the acting behave truthfully under imaginary circumstances. It also made the character raise his face higher and we saw in the tape how we have to test shot with lightning.
But there was one simple question we had not thought about and it was: do you want me to cast with or without my glasses? The actor said. I realized, did Robin mention that? Does glasses matter at all? On a sunny day yes, we will have to ask Paul how to avoid too much reflection in the glasses if it happens.
In Malckiewic’s article, the practical example of the day interior and lights adjustment shows the importance of its pre-production. The choices of fill light and hard light and its placement will as in Robin’s example and also as experienced in the casting, affect (the main point in Mackendrick’s reading from week 7) what we are recreating. The whole act, with the scene construction and the actors needs to be filled with some sort of light to successfully do ‘the act of imagining the action’. Lightning here involves what was presented in the lecture and from the reading as:
-Daylight scene and strong back light
-Soft light and harsh sunlight
-Night interior - Which light sources? lamp?
-Simplicity is a key to beauty – Sven Nykvist on one shadow
-Amount of shadows
-The use of the cutter
-Controlling soft light- how much equipment does RMIT have?
-How to create night mood with using soft and reflective light?
-How to light faces? Eyelight?
To be explored.
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Week 7 Lenny and Sneaker Spastic - Reflection
What went well?
For the purpose of failure, I think we did very well in the Lenny exercise. The use of limited space, gave us as a crew and the actors an imaginary feeling of how it actually is to shoot, in a certain space. What I liked about the Lenny exercise is when Paul said ‘you guys are meant to use and take advantage of the space you’re shooting in’ and he also added that we had to think about HOW we did this. This leads to my second point, where we applied this knowledge (together with the knowledge of camera, lighting, colors and sound settings) into the practice of Lenny. I believe that the 60 minutes we had, gave us enough time to follow the script to each point and also the actual options we have in this amount of space.
What went wrong?
Small things as: the director in the shoot, the boomer in the frame and the unnoticed ‘hand shift’ of the actor but also, the storyboarding. We had too many back up plans giving too many options to choose between instead of having one set of shoots per scene. Good because we had plans A,B and C but bad because this simply showed that we were detailed, picky, focused and neat on the actual shoot resulting into what a journalist lecturer (Alex) names as ‘ you guys were OVER thinking, just simplify it’. I don’t think its wrong but instead showed that the group as whole is together extreme goal targeted and learned a lot on this, and will take this lesson further into ‘Sneaker Spastic’ and in future short-film production. The storyboarding needs to be narrower for Sneaker Spastic and the conciseness of the shoot needs a) to be in the hands of the camera woman and b) reshoot after the entire actual scene.
How can I myself improve this and how can the group as a whole improve on this field?
The learning process of Film-TV 1 after this, and also when constructing the scene, we need to check for everything and keep on to our roles as much as possible. I think the article of developing a crew touches on the aspects that we find challenging both Lenny and Sneaker Spastic. When linking this aspect with Arbiger’s article, the expectations of the crew development there’s a lot to be taught. Arbiger talks about using people with experience and continuing developing communication. I agree with the author in terms of common language and responsibility. This because he introduces us new comers of this discipline, how to do what in terms of a low budget film, communication strategies for handling stress and immaturity for crew members, organizing responsibility, the production hierarchy, production department, directing, DP, sound, art department and styling (make-up and hair).
No matter how straight forwards this article is I did not like the practical implementation of it; I mean, how are we meant to remember all of this, in the time space, of scene shot’s duration say 2 minutes? Our outcome of Lenny, showed good post-production and the crew development here is reflected into Arbiger’s crew construction (386-391). By trusting this article and follow its procedures on crew management and strategic communication, I believe that if each of us maintain our roles as its highlighted in this article, then we wont be over thinking and do those small mistakes as we did in Lenny, in Sneaker Spastic.
After the casting and find the characters we’re looking for, I think then we will be stabile enough as a group to continue the fun of producing Sneaker Spastic, for Arbiger’s part on Art Department. Imagine the make-up, wardrobe, hairstyle, background, props and more that involves for the production design? The more we know the merrier, and the better the organisation and production of this film will be.
For the purpose of failure, I think we did very well in the Lenny exercise. The use of limited space, gave us as a crew and the actors an imaginary feeling of how it actually is to shoot, in a certain space. What I liked about the Lenny exercise is when Paul said ‘you guys are meant to use and take advantage of the space you’re shooting in’ and he also added that we had to think about HOW we did this. This leads to my second point, where we applied this knowledge (together with the knowledge of camera, lighting, colors and sound settings) into the practice of Lenny. I believe that the 60 minutes we had, gave us enough time to follow the script to each point and also the actual options we have in this amount of space.
What went wrong?
Small things as: the director in the shoot, the boomer in the frame and the unnoticed ‘hand shift’ of the actor but also, the storyboarding. We had too many back up plans giving too many options to choose between instead of having one set of shoots per scene. Good because we had plans A,B and C but bad because this simply showed that we were detailed, picky, focused and neat on the actual shoot resulting into what a journalist lecturer (Alex) names as ‘ you guys were OVER thinking, just simplify it’. I don’t think its wrong but instead showed that the group as whole is together extreme goal targeted and learned a lot on this, and will take this lesson further into ‘Sneaker Spastic’ and in future short-film production. The storyboarding needs to be narrower for Sneaker Spastic and the conciseness of the shoot needs a) to be in the hands of the camera woman and b) reshoot after the entire actual scene.
How can I myself improve this and how can the group as a whole improve on this field?
The learning process of Film-TV 1 after this, and also when constructing the scene, we need to check for everything and keep on to our roles as much as possible. I think the article of developing a crew touches on the aspects that we find challenging both Lenny and Sneaker Spastic. When linking this aspect with Arbiger’s article, the expectations of the crew development there’s a lot to be taught. Arbiger talks about using people with experience and continuing developing communication. I agree with the author in terms of common language and responsibility. This because he introduces us new comers of this discipline, how to do what in terms of a low budget film, communication strategies for handling stress and immaturity for crew members, organizing responsibility, the production hierarchy, production department, directing, DP, sound, art department and styling (make-up and hair).
No matter how straight forwards this article is I did not like the practical implementation of it; I mean, how are we meant to remember all of this, in the time space, of scene shot’s duration say 2 minutes? Our outcome of Lenny, showed good post-production and the crew development here is reflected into Arbiger’s crew construction (386-391). By trusting this article and follow its procedures on crew management and strategic communication, I believe that if each of us maintain our roles as its highlighted in this article, then we wont be over thinking and do those small mistakes as we did in Lenny, in Sneaker Spastic.
After the casting and find the characters we’re looking for, I think then we will be stabile enough as a group to continue the fun of producing Sneaker Spastic, for Arbiger’s part on Art Department. Imagine the make-up, wardrobe, hairstyle, background, props and more that involves for the production design? The more we know the merrier, and the better the organisation and production of this film will be.
Week 7 Lenny and Sneaker Spastic - Expectations
Reflecting on both the lecture and the readings, an attempt of drawing conclusions and critical analysis of this learning material was implemented while shooting the Lenny exercise. This week’s lecture started off with Son of Santa. While Paul ran through basic steps of shot construction, effects (fade ins/outs), tracking (using dolly) and the placement of the object, raised awareness of how to do this the best way as possible in Lenny and Sneaker Spastic. Left placement of the object in the frame worked for the eye visually without forcing it. After this, running through the six P’s gave the opportunity to rethink how to think laterally on how to direct and cast film. I think this as a basic rule works for the projects and for Film-TV1 as its vital role (the six P's), play trough all the aspects of film production.
In our projects, security comes first, and the risk management plan is put together consistently, as new things and comes up that the group and I get aware off. Then the shots can begin, together with sound, props and production design. I think it was a good thing of Paul to put in 'how to think' into the lecture; manage your attitudes, be a better person and be a better filmmaker. In between these lines I remember Arbiger’s article on developing a crew. And like Clown Train, the chose of location would put me more into the actual atmosphere of the homeless man and Leon in Sneaker Spastic. When casting, I saw clearly what I wanted out of the actors but that only worked if I put myself into their shoes.
Later, in the lecture we looked deeply into producing, pre production, personnel, priorities, planning, paperwork, production design and practicalities. I think here, this is where the face of Film-TV 1 takes place and I feel this is where the course is coming together. We all know (or should know and are crazy if we don’t) how important a good and well organized pre-production we should have for the main project. What I have experienced over this week is the three stages roles and responsibilities of collaboration that was mentioned:
-Pre equality of collaboration and learn everything about every facet of pre-production. Also, think about our specialty and not be set in concrete.
-The shoot – military hierarchy and the post –equality of collaboration.
-Always analyze pre-production and the production rather than post, and be equally on top of it.
Also, as a last main point, having broad knowledge in the arts is what we individually should know about and as a group as a whole but at the same time this is a crucial aspect for the director.
After looking through the reading material, what was it in Arbiger’s article, that could be reflected upon in the Lenny exercise in terms of developing a crew? Looking beyond the technical aspects of shot construction and more in depth of the practical, is how I will analyse how the Lenny exercise went.
In our projects, security comes first, and the risk management plan is put together consistently, as new things and comes up that the group and I get aware off. Then the shots can begin, together with sound, props and production design. I think it was a good thing of Paul to put in 'how to think' into the lecture; manage your attitudes, be a better person and be a better filmmaker. In between these lines I remember Arbiger’s article on developing a crew. And like Clown Train, the chose of location would put me more into the actual atmosphere of the homeless man and Leon in Sneaker Spastic. When casting, I saw clearly what I wanted out of the actors but that only worked if I put myself into their shoes.
Later, in the lecture we looked deeply into producing, pre production, personnel, priorities, planning, paperwork, production design and practicalities. I think here, this is where the face of Film-TV 1 takes place and I feel this is where the course is coming together. We all know (or should know and are crazy if we don’t) how important a good and well organized pre-production we should have for the main project. What I have experienced over this week is the three stages roles and responsibilities of collaboration that was mentioned:
-Pre equality of collaboration and learn everything about every facet of pre-production. Also, think about our specialty and not be set in concrete.
-The shoot – military hierarchy and the post –equality of collaboration.
-Always analyze pre-production and the production rather than post, and be equally on top of it.
Also, as a last main point, having broad knowledge in the arts is what we individually should know about and as a group as a whole but at the same time this is a crucial aspect for the director.
After looking through the reading material, what was it in Arbiger’s article, that could be reflected upon in the Lenny exercise in terms of developing a crew? Looking beyond the technical aspects of shot construction and more in depth of the practical, is how I will analyse how the Lenny exercise went.
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Shot construction, Lenny project and ‘Sneaker Spastic’.
Shot Construction and shot de-construction
When going in depth of learning about shot-construction, story boarding and floor plan, ideas for the group project were non-stop coming up. Firstly, when going through shot construction in the lecture and in the tute, main key points were raised as:
1 Color
2 The frame’s angle,
3 view of objective, viewpoint of subjective and the point of view,
4 area of shot and shot size,
5 Movement of focal length
6 Depth of field.
The results of the movie parties have been that all the members of the group project wanted to create something unusual that we could build on. After receiving the reminder that we would be insane if we didn’t plan ‘shot construction of both Lenny and our own project’ resulted into the pre-production of this and raising new questions.
Firstly, to start the pre-production of storyboarding and floor planning as showed in the lecture, the group had different approaches and experience of these. As the lecture taught upon how scenes are deconstructed as in Taxi Driver, it was clearly determined upon the basics of the character and the style used in the shot construction.
Here, aspects of cinematography are recognized in how the frame is set up and how characters, details and camera movements are placed. Comparing the use of colours in the opening scene of Taxi Driver (at the cafeteria) and our set up, the differentiation of using colors as yellow, brown and other dark colors emphasize the scene set up and also the shot construction.
How do we in the group project do the same thing?
How can we include a lot of dimensions of the shot?
How can we regulate the depth of field both internal and external?
As Taxi Driver is shot in nighttime, this sensation of ‘cold’ is something we would use in the shooting of the group project. Why? Because the dark and cold colors reveals the ‘homeless culture of Melbourne and the characters involved’ telling the story of ‘Sneaker Spastic’ by showing a lot of information instead of telling it. By emphasizing aspects of night time and cold colors and daytime with candy warm tones this strengthens the characters emotion and develops art – by adding meaning and conveying information through artistic visuals.
An attempt on what was discussed in the lecture and the tute upon shot construction and shot de-construction, the group decided to throw another movie party and do the pre-production of Lenny as an exercise upon the main group project.
After hearing Paul’s voice that we would be crazy if we did not start to do this, the floor plan and the story boarding of the Lenny projects got made. While doing this and brainstorming questions and issues for both projects I had questions stuck in my mind: what do I as the director want out of the actor? And are there any other camera movements involved in this that we have not thought about?
After post-constructing Lenny, I learned that first of all following the scrip is not always what happens (as we saw the change of Di Niro’s underworld’s details changed as a connotation to the underworld belonged to). As a group we have to analyze the Lenny project and the selected script with colors, frame, angle and viewpoints. These viewpoints are crucial to evoke meaning and feelings and also work as an dynamic effect on the original script.
As movie parties were being held, a couple of favorite short films containing the weekly key points were favorized. For viewpoints, we decided to extend this into semis (semi-medium, semi-extreme and semi-close ups) and into over the shoulders and into birds view. These Points of view shot would be different and funny to play around with. Shot size and area of shot would determine on the test shot done as in ‘failures’ of the Lenny project and also in our own project. Its importance is recognized in what to focus on and what the film maker wants to speak out to the audience.
Lenny Project
The interesting camera movements done in the Lenny project became the next task in the Pre-Lenny project. As we flicked trough movies to find these pans and zooms to convey emotions and be focus drawing, the winner of the short film competition TROPFEST with ‘Sharon and Jason’ and the Schweppes short film festival with ‘eraser’ were the details of the script were overemphasized and practiced into its reality. In ‘Sharon and Jason’ the characters clearly touches upon both Mackendrick and Boormans article of acting. What the group will use of this is broadened up in the section of the main group work.
While exploring camera movements in the short films, the Evian Water commercial of the rolling skating babies had an interesting end where the camera is placed in a frogs view, but panning. ‘Jason and Sharon’ and ‘Eraser’ contained a lot of interesting shots and movements that the DOP is brainstorming and as we prepared the Lenny Project, we dedided to go really in depth of it even though we are meant to ‘fail’ on this exercise. We figured out, after doing the storyboarding and the floor plans how much time it will take, and we can learn out of this project how to make the shooting log on excel.
As the group is learning the script of ‘Sneaker Spastic’ and reflecting on the learning materials of sound and cinematography, what Paul showed in the lecture of Scorseses article is what the group is exploring now. Film interpretations and Paul’s love of this, reminds me of what the first thing mentioned early this semester: “If someone asked me to do a short film as a course assignment, I’d be so happy to do it! I mean that’s what we are here for and that’s what we want to do!” As we shared experiences of this in the group, I heard Paul continuing his statement: “Plus it is a great thing to have your port folio as a demonstration of skills and how organized you are. And everybody loves film, everybody loves watching film.”
Film interpretation here was seen in the movie, where Di Niro repeated the underworld and the ‘magic’ he was performing with his masculine sexuality. Further on, this was a good way of breaking up this scene. The use of zoom is something I personally don’t prefer but instead the mere use of tracking and panning. Just because its more natural for the eye I think. Static use of camera and a the dolly is what we will be doing in the project, and we are getting the equipment to play around with it to see the flexibility of the use of a tripod on something with wheels (desk chair) how much this allows us to do with the camera.
Paul’s storyboard was…ok I suppose but as we were drafting one for Lenny we realized how hilarious this process’s outcome can be! It was tempting and we had to give it a go and I’ve never seen any weirder Lenny or Sharon figures before as my home made line folks, they just look ridiculous and Goi and Vannessa would not stop laughing, and the floor plan remains in the same funny category! We love post production!
When doing this, and learning how important cinematography really is, I started visualizing not just the Lenny Exercise, but our project. I can’t simply wait for the casting to start and look for the actors of the characteristics we are creating and I can’t wait to reflect upon week 6’s readings that involves this. Details, as costumes, props and color mode will definitely be the high lights of the group project. I love looking for this in movies, shot films and films in general and creating and finding them for our own project is tempting, as with the imaginary characters. When doing all this, so much detail learned in lectures and tutes and there rules we just knew on our finger tips (like the 180 degree rule), camera movements and shots and its great to finally implement this into a whole, as a our short film.
‘Sneaker Spastic’
Finally! This is it! It’s the time for our group project to really start and the best things are; it’s OUR project and its MOVIE LAND and EVERYTHING is possible to shoot! We could not simply wait with story boarding, floor planning, check listing and could not wait entering the role as a director. And the freedom we have here, its so large it’s scary! One example is the questions raised upon some detail changes of the script, but so far it remains unedited. The freedom here is just one of many, as Di Niro’s change of outfit, without changing the meaning of it.
And the camera movements we are using, I know this sounds cliché but I have to say it: how much fun is it, to see other short films and thinking we’re doing that movement, we’re using this speed and slow it down, look at that prop doesn’t make sense and lastly the characters presented in these short films and their performance. Movie parties are fun and learning full and opens up the reality of the short-film industry; everything is possible! We found our style and this really set the basics for ‘Sneaker Spastic’ and what characters we are showing.
So acting is as simply as doing it’s said in Boorman’s article. I wish I knew Nicolas Cage and Meryl Streep but I don’t. However, this is not a good or maybe a proper example but these characters do the job for ‘UNWATCH’.
The parody of the Swedish Governmental spending of Tax money is here presented as money to UN, for the poor fighting Swedish soldiers in Liberia, where they shoot a ‘Baywatch Liberia’ film.
As a director, I have to know what I am looking for with the actors and what character I want to create. I was hoping this short film/music video would give me some ideas and it did. And no, I’m not thinking patriotism but how to make actors evoke feeling and meaning. And here I also flicked through ‘Love Field’ again and both these clips presents strong characters, each in their own way and style.
I want to be a somehow Sydney Pollack and drawing on this reading key points I think were helpful were:
-Set up routines, even though we’re not shooting in the morning as Pollack did.
-Don’t work towards results but causes and give the actor a real life example they have to deal with, not tell him/her what to do (page 61).
-Avoid cliches
-Eisensteins theory of montage: about the close up of a man, a clown and a child.
-Emotion = a product of the unconscious.
-No self-manipulation
-Know what to look for in the casting
-“Acting is behaving truthfully under imaginary circumstances. We can create a Redford & Streisand / Reford & Streep moment, YES we can, this is movie land!
MAINPOINT: get the characters into doing not acting (the ‘listen’ example).
And from Mackendrick’s reading;
-The relation ship between the actor and director.
-Thought, knowing and the gut thing.
-the make-believe.
-Knowledge about the eye-lines and eye contact.
-Reaction = Action
-The sense of conscious control
-Visual information: the eye, facial expression and body language = expression of feelings.
-The technique of humility.
-Always have the overview by knowing the script, the story boards, the floor plans and the characters on the fingertips.
MAIN POINT: The act of imagining the action: what we are recreating.
I don’t think there’s anything as information overload within reflective learning it demonstrates what I’ve learned, and I simply love writing! Paul said we would be silly if we had not started post-production. But we have and checklists works for me and overall for the group project, this is what we’re doing in week 6-7.
-Group Folio – in progress
-Logging sheet.
-Shooting sheet
-Permissions from councils.
-Learning the camera, sound recorder and the script.
-Meet the author.
-Bookings of editing suites and equipment
-Continue floor plans, story boarding and character descriptions.
-Plan casting
-Learn manuals
-Music copyright
-Production forms
-Release forms and insurance
-Safety report
-Group collaboration contract?
Let ‘Sneaker Spastic’ begin!!
When going in depth of learning about shot-construction, story boarding and floor plan, ideas for the group project were non-stop coming up. Firstly, when going through shot construction in the lecture and in the tute, main key points were raised as:
1 Color
2 The frame’s angle,
3 view of objective, viewpoint of subjective and the point of view,
4 area of shot and shot size,
5 Movement of focal length
6 Depth of field.
The results of the movie parties have been that all the members of the group project wanted to create something unusual that we could build on. After receiving the reminder that we would be insane if we didn’t plan ‘shot construction of both Lenny and our own project’ resulted into the pre-production of this and raising new questions.
Firstly, to start the pre-production of storyboarding and floor planning as showed in the lecture, the group had different approaches and experience of these. As the lecture taught upon how scenes are deconstructed as in Taxi Driver, it was clearly determined upon the basics of the character and the style used in the shot construction.
Here, aspects of cinematography are recognized in how the frame is set up and how characters, details and camera movements are placed. Comparing the use of colours in the opening scene of Taxi Driver (at the cafeteria) and our set up, the differentiation of using colors as yellow, brown and other dark colors emphasize the scene set up and also the shot construction.
How do we in the group project do the same thing?
How can we include a lot of dimensions of the shot?
How can we regulate the depth of field both internal and external?
As Taxi Driver is shot in nighttime, this sensation of ‘cold’ is something we would use in the shooting of the group project. Why? Because the dark and cold colors reveals the ‘homeless culture of Melbourne and the characters involved’ telling the story of ‘Sneaker Spastic’ by showing a lot of information instead of telling it. By emphasizing aspects of night time and cold colors and daytime with candy warm tones this strengthens the characters emotion and develops art – by adding meaning and conveying information through artistic visuals.
An attempt on what was discussed in the lecture and the tute upon shot construction and shot de-construction, the group decided to throw another movie party and do the pre-production of Lenny as an exercise upon the main group project.
After hearing Paul’s voice that we would be crazy if we did not start to do this, the floor plan and the story boarding of the Lenny projects got made. While doing this and brainstorming questions and issues for both projects I had questions stuck in my mind: what do I as the director want out of the actor? And are there any other camera movements involved in this that we have not thought about?
After post-constructing Lenny, I learned that first of all following the scrip is not always what happens (as we saw the change of Di Niro’s underworld’s details changed as a connotation to the underworld belonged to). As a group we have to analyze the Lenny project and the selected script with colors, frame, angle and viewpoints. These viewpoints are crucial to evoke meaning and feelings and also work as an dynamic effect on the original script.
As movie parties were being held, a couple of favorite short films containing the weekly key points were favorized. For viewpoints, we decided to extend this into semis (semi-medium, semi-extreme and semi-close ups) and into over the shoulders and into birds view. These Points of view shot would be different and funny to play around with. Shot size and area of shot would determine on the test shot done as in ‘failures’ of the Lenny project and also in our own project. Its importance is recognized in what to focus on and what the film maker wants to speak out to the audience.
Lenny Project
The interesting camera movements done in the Lenny project became the next task in the Pre-Lenny project. As we flicked trough movies to find these pans and zooms to convey emotions and be focus drawing, the winner of the short film competition TROPFEST with ‘Sharon and Jason’ and the Schweppes short film festival with ‘eraser’ were the details of the script were overemphasized and practiced into its reality. In ‘Sharon and Jason’ the characters clearly touches upon both Mackendrick and Boormans article of acting. What the group will use of this is broadened up in the section of the main group work.
While exploring camera movements in the short films, the Evian Water commercial of the rolling skating babies had an interesting end where the camera is placed in a frogs view, but panning. ‘Jason and Sharon’ and ‘Eraser’ contained a lot of interesting shots and movements that the DOP is brainstorming and as we prepared the Lenny Project, we dedided to go really in depth of it even though we are meant to ‘fail’ on this exercise. We figured out, after doing the storyboarding and the floor plans how much time it will take, and we can learn out of this project how to make the shooting log on excel.
As the group is learning the script of ‘Sneaker Spastic’ and reflecting on the learning materials of sound and cinematography, what Paul showed in the lecture of Scorseses article is what the group is exploring now. Film interpretations and Paul’s love of this, reminds me of what the first thing mentioned early this semester: “If someone asked me to do a short film as a course assignment, I’d be so happy to do it! I mean that’s what we are here for and that’s what we want to do!” As we shared experiences of this in the group, I heard Paul continuing his statement: “Plus it is a great thing to have your port folio as a demonstration of skills and how organized you are. And everybody loves film, everybody loves watching film.”
Film interpretation here was seen in the movie, where Di Niro repeated the underworld and the ‘magic’ he was performing with his masculine sexuality. Further on, this was a good way of breaking up this scene. The use of zoom is something I personally don’t prefer but instead the mere use of tracking and panning. Just because its more natural for the eye I think. Static use of camera and a the dolly is what we will be doing in the project, and we are getting the equipment to play around with it to see the flexibility of the use of a tripod on something with wheels (desk chair) how much this allows us to do with the camera.
Paul’s storyboard was…ok I suppose but as we were drafting one for Lenny we realized how hilarious this process’s outcome can be! It was tempting and we had to give it a go and I’ve never seen any weirder Lenny or Sharon figures before as my home made line folks, they just look ridiculous and Goi and Vannessa would not stop laughing, and the floor plan remains in the same funny category! We love post production!
When doing this, and learning how important cinematography really is, I started visualizing not just the Lenny Exercise, but our project. I can’t simply wait for the casting to start and look for the actors of the characteristics we are creating and I can’t wait to reflect upon week 6’s readings that involves this. Details, as costumes, props and color mode will definitely be the high lights of the group project. I love looking for this in movies, shot films and films in general and creating and finding them for our own project is tempting, as with the imaginary characters. When doing all this, so much detail learned in lectures and tutes and there rules we just knew on our finger tips (like the 180 degree rule), camera movements and shots and its great to finally implement this into a whole, as a our short film.
‘Sneaker Spastic’
Finally! This is it! It’s the time for our group project to really start and the best things are; it’s OUR project and its MOVIE LAND and EVERYTHING is possible to shoot! We could not simply wait with story boarding, floor planning, check listing and could not wait entering the role as a director. And the freedom we have here, its so large it’s scary! One example is the questions raised upon some detail changes of the script, but so far it remains unedited. The freedom here is just one of many, as Di Niro’s change of outfit, without changing the meaning of it.
And the camera movements we are using, I know this sounds cliché but I have to say it: how much fun is it, to see other short films and thinking we’re doing that movement, we’re using this speed and slow it down, look at that prop doesn’t make sense and lastly the characters presented in these short films and their performance. Movie parties are fun and learning full and opens up the reality of the short-film industry; everything is possible! We found our style and this really set the basics for ‘Sneaker Spastic’ and what characters we are showing.
So acting is as simply as doing it’s said in Boorman’s article. I wish I knew Nicolas Cage and Meryl Streep but I don’t. However, this is not a good or maybe a proper example but these characters do the job for ‘UNWATCH’.
The parody of the Swedish Governmental spending of Tax money is here presented as money to UN, for the poor fighting Swedish soldiers in Liberia, where they shoot a ‘Baywatch Liberia’ film.
As a director, I have to know what I am looking for with the actors and what character I want to create. I was hoping this short film/music video would give me some ideas and it did. And no, I’m not thinking patriotism but how to make actors evoke feeling and meaning. And here I also flicked through ‘Love Field’ again and both these clips presents strong characters, each in their own way and style.
I want to be a somehow Sydney Pollack and drawing on this reading key points I think were helpful were:
-Set up routines, even though we’re not shooting in the morning as Pollack did.
-Don’t work towards results but causes and give the actor a real life example they have to deal with, not tell him/her what to do (page 61).
-Avoid cliches
-Eisensteins theory of montage: about the close up of a man, a clown and a child.
-Emotion = a product of the unconscious.
-No self-manipulation
-Know what to look for in the casting
-“Acting is behaving truthfully under imaginary circumstances. We can create a Redford & Streisand / Reford & Streep moment, YES we can, this is movie land!
MAINPOINT: get the characters into doing not acting (the ‘listen’ example).
And from Mackendrick’s reading;
-The relation ship between the actor and director.
-Thought, knowing and the gut thing.
-the make-believe.
-Knowledge about the eye-lines and eye contact.
-Reaction = Action
-The sense of conscious control
-Visual information: the eye, facial expression and body language = expression of feelings.
-The technique of humility.
-Always have the overview by knowing the script, the story boards, the floor plans and the characters on the fingertips.
MAIN POINT: The act of imagining the action: what we are recreating.
I don’t think there’s anything as information overload within reflective learning it demonstrates what I’ve learned, and I simply love writing! Paul said we would be silly if we had not started post-production. But we have and checklists works for me and overall for the group project, this is what we’re doing in week 6-7.
-Group Folio – in progress
-Logging sheet.
-Shooting sheet
-Permissions from councils.
-Learning the camera, sound recorder and the script.
-Meet the author.
-Bookings of editing suites and equipment
-Continue floor plans, story boarding and character descriptions.
-Plan casting
-Learn manuals
-Music copyright
-Production forms
-Release forms and insurance
-Safety report
-Group collaboration contract?
Let ‘Sneaker Spastic’ begin!!
Saturday, April 17, 2010
Lectures and tutorial comments
So far of the course Film-TV 1, I have been getting a lot out of it and whatever that appears confusing in the lecture is always broadened up in the tutorials. Of the section of cinematography and the camera, I have learned more about the use of the camera. This was one of my personal goals in this course, and I felt that it was in the beginning of this section that I am getting what I wanted out of this course.
The script writing process was challenging but it id due to the non-experience of it as told in week one. Now that the script is selected, the variation of taste and interest is different from one student to another but that is also seen between the tutors. The clarification of script writing came as the weeks passed and now we’re ‘doing them’.
Leading into the learning about cinematography, it was easy to follow Robin as he was putting all the theories of the focal length, the lense and the depth of field from one practical example to a larger one. When Scorsese talks about ‘what to put in the frame’ the importance of this was first seen in Robin’s lecture on the 60’s film and then more in depth in Paul’s lecture of Di Niro, his placement and angels. Scorsese mentions that where he ‘place the camera is very often determined by having to relay the right information’. I believe in this frame the whole course so far comes together and how crucial it is to know the script, know the technical aspect of the lense and what to capture with the camera and how. This also constitutes to know; What is the Master shot? And break this down into the three main factors of directing the actors, setting up the correct details of the lightning, focus, focal length and color balance, and lastly, recording the sounds to their ultimate quality.
When reflecting each week and hearing the voices of the course’s professors, their messages gets implemented into practice brick by brick and yes I am getting a lot of this course. The number system Robin put up looked complicated but as we run trough this and get to practice and even fail when shooting the Lenny project, this is the perfect example of learning by doing together with critical thinking.
The script writing process was challenging but it id due to the non-experience of it as told in week one. Now that the script is selected, the variation of taste and interest is different from one student to another but that is also seen between the tutors. The clarification of script writing came as the weeks passed and now we’re ‘doing them’.
Leading into the learning about cinematography, it was easy to follow Robin as he was putting all the theories of the focal length, the lense and the depth of field from one practical example to a larger one. When Scorsese talks about ‘what to put in the frame’ the importance of this was first seen in Robin’s lecture on the 60’s film and then more in depth in Paul’s lecture of Di Niro, his placement and angels. Scorsese mentions that where he ‘place the camera is very often determined by having to relay the right information’. I believe in this frame the whole course so far comes together and how crucial it is to know the script, know the technical aspect of the lense and what to capture with the camera and how. This also constitutes to know; What is the Master shot? And break this down into the three main factors of directing the actors, setting up the correct details of the lightning, focus, focal length and color balance, and lastly, recording the sounds to their ultimate quality.
When reflecting each week and hearing the voices of the course’s professors, their messages gets implemented into practice brick by brick and yes I am getting a lot of this course. The number system Robin put up looked complicated but as we run trough this and get to practice and even fail when shooting the Lenny project, this is the perfect example of learning by doing together with critical thinking.
The Script Selection Process
The nature and the fun of selecting scripts and making a short movie, resulted into the decisions of picking out favorite parts from movies, play around with cameras and see how this can be contributed to our movie.
When selecting scripts, we were looking for ‘that something’ that we could shoot creatively but it had to be appropriate for our portfolios. The G3 Summit picked then ‘Sneaker Spastic’. The temptation of selecting a script outside the top ten was overruled by how we saw this as a practice of the workplace. If this was a given ‘job opportunity’, say if this was a large film industry called ‘Melbourne Universals’ and the same tasks were given, we would imagine that in this business, Christine was ‘the boss’ giving us 10 scripts to choose between. But there were others there as well. However, in a workplace where an editor did the same thing, we’d pick one out of the ten and worked on them with the technical support for the production and done one of the ten. It was just a natural decision.
After selecting ‘Sneaker Spastic’, it contained the factors we were looking for:
a dialogue, a simple but unusual action, a large amount of space we could play around in with directing, photography and sound, the setting where we could make a great effect out of colour balance (for example: in a cold color temperature but with different light sources 4000-4500 as its outdoors) and shooting a script that contains the creation of a psychological space. And also, as safety comes first, we figured out that if we shoot here, there wont be that many risk factors involved as there would be when filming in an open area filled with external factors. The risk and safety plan we have to make now is narrower and on internal factors as us and the handling the equipment, than what it could have been.
The best aspect in the learning process scenario is how large freedom we actually have in this assignment that we can build on together and amongst ourselves, with the author and with guidance. After the tutorial the group and discussing the choice with Paul, the group happy with the choice and the project can begin.
When selecting scripts, we were looking for ‘that something’ that we could shoot creatively but it had to be appropriate for our portfolios. The G3 Summit picked then ‘Sneaker Spastic’. The temptation of selecting a script outside the top ten was overruled by how we saw this as a practice of the workplace. If this was a given ‘job opportunity’, say if this was a large film industry called ‘Melbourne Universals’ and the same tasks were given, we would imagine that in this business, Christine was ‘the boss’ giving us 10 scripts to choose between. But there were others there as well. However, in a workplace where an editor did the same thing, we’d pick one out of the ten and worked on them with the technical support for the production and done one of the ten. It was just a natural decision.
After selecting ‘Sneaker Spastic’, it contained the factors we were looking for:
a dialogue, a simple but unusual action, a large amount of space we could play around in with directing, photography and sound, the setting where we could make a great effect out of colour balance (for example: in a cold color temperature but with different light sources 4000-4500 as its outdoors) and shooting a script that contains the creation of a psychological space. And also, as safety comes first, we figured out that if we shoot here, there wont be that many risk factors involved as there would be when filming in an open area filled with external factors. The risk and safety plan we have to make now is narrower and on internal factors as us and the handling the equipment, than what it could have been.
The best aspect in the learning process scenario is how large freedom we actually have in this assignment that we can build on together and amongst ourselves, with the author and with guidance. After the tutorial the group and discussing the choice with Paul, the group happy with the choice and the project can begin.
The Cinematographer
When Robin presented cinematography, aspects of the lens functions demonstrated how incredibly crucial these settings are. The movies shown in the lecture while Robin was talking about, gave the insight of the role of the iris and the knowledge of the focal length. Together, these created the dynamical impact of the depth of the frame from the film.
In terms of which lense lengths Robin used in the lecture, the scene of the lady drinking her champagne (she’s wearing a hat and a dark swimming suit, before the camera goes down wards and enters the pool) has a narrow lens angle than the other shoot as there appear to be a small depth of field here. This looks like a telephoto and when watching the film, 5 meters of lense length hit my mind first because the lady, as seen in Mollison’s article, she as the subject, moves her head and one of her arms both forward, backward and sideways across this range and she remains in focus.
If it has a deep depth of field or shallow, determinates on whether the aperture (the openness of the iris) is largely open or not. Considering the clarity of the subject contra the field, the iris was semi nearly closed and the clear lightning together with this, helped giving a deep depth of field.
In terms of which lense lengths Robin used in the lecture, the scene of the lady drinking her champagne (she’s wearing a hat and a dark swimming suit, before the camera goes down wards and enters the pool) has a narrow lens angle than the other shoot as there appear to be a small depth of field here. This looks like a telephoto and when watching the film, 5 meters of lense length hit my mind first because the lady, as seen in Mollison’s article, she as the subject, moves her head and one of her arms both forward, backward and sideways across this range and she remains in focus.
If it has a deep depth of field or shallow, determinates on whether the aperture (the openness of the iris) is largely open or not. Considering the clarity of the subject contra the field, the iris was semi nearly closed and the clear lightning together with this, helped giving a deep depth of field.
Friday, April 16, 2010
Sound Deconstruction
Deconstructing the scenes of the Shutter Island Trailer, the scenes are shot first, then the actual sound is recorded. In the scenes where Di Caprio is in action the ambient sound is constant but gets dominated by sound effects in the early start of a scene. Since this is a movie made on a larger scale than Paranormal Activity, the sounds ‘squealing people’, ‘shooooses’ and ‘sounds that fills time and space’ are used in the movie as Dicaprio realizes he is a part of the mental institution in segment 1.26-2:06.
Compared to the scene of the 6th October 2006 in Paranormal Activity where the girl gets the blanket blown over her, the background sound is clear and fills up the gap of silence by being filled of ‘activity’ sounds. The editor has done a great job here, filming first and then adding sound.
In terms for the group project, the sound scapes will be done after the shooting. During our movie parties we’re all brainstorming and contributing to the first creation of sounds before Goi does so.
Compared to the scene of the 6th October 2006 in Paranormal Activity where the girl gets the blanket blown over her, the background sound is clear and fills up the gap of silence by being filled of ‘activity’ sounds. The editor has done a great job here, filming first and then adding sound.
In terms for the group project, the sound scapes will be done after the shooting. During our movie parties we’re all brainstorming and contributing to the first creation of sounds before Goi does so.
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