project 6: Production exercise

This exercise was creating, or looking for locations to create different moods (using the mise-en-scene). I decided to look for the locations because I decided it would be interesting to find the locations, as it would give me a bit more of a challenge. Also it was a good opportunity to get out and about after recent poor weather!

This first image was to show an oppressive cluttered space. These trees really create a claustraphobic sense and a cluttered space. They obscure a lot of the view too so it would be quite easy to create a feeling of something hiding within the scene working well for a scary scene, or just building tension. However the irregularity is a bit annoying in my mind, I think this would work slightly better if the trees were slightly more regular

This is meant to portray an open honest space with one intriguing item. I placed the item in the middle of the frame so it made it a bit more intriguing. Because there is this one item of interest it makes the stark open space appear more friendly, as it is broken up a bit. Above I would have liked the trees on the left not to be there as they detract from the main tree being the point of interest

This is meant to be a stark hostile space. It's essentially the same area as above, removing the trees and it gives the feeling of a far more harsh environment, the sun helps add to this effect, giving the impression of no relief from it's beating rays. It's quite a tense feeling frame, as there is nothing in it to relax the viewer, it feels quite punishing. Again I would like to remove the trees and hedges at the edge of the frame to make it feel a bit more open, they just close the frame off a bit and detract from the overall feeling

This was meant to signify a warm cosy space. My original thought was using a room, but I wanted to stick with the outdoors, and just so happened to spot this scene with the road and buildings. It's not too open or two oppressive, it has a good balance between the two, with a nice range of buildings and natural plants. I feel I could have given it a more friendly look if there were some children playing or similar, but it gives the impression of a friendly, cosy neighbourhood.

Project 6:Mise-en-scene

Well, this was just a little instruction in the course text, before any exercise, asking me to look at the Mise-en-scene in a scene of a film of my choosing. I just so happened to watch the film 'Marley and Me' after reading through this section, not expecting to see much suitable, but I was pleasantly surprised by the amount I could see that this had been thought about in the film.

Now these two are two stills from the scene that I decided to look at. The film, featuring Jennifer Aniston and Owen Wilson, is about the dog that these two bring into their lives just after they marry, and this is a scene towards the end of the film, with just Owen Wilson and the dog.

This is a comfortable, close scene between the man and his dog, and these two stills both help show how the Mise-en-scene helps promote this feeling. In the top image, the man and his dog are the two main objects in the scene, with vast expanse around them. The position of the two, roughly aligned with the rule of thirds within the frame gives an easy feeling, the path acting as a lead in line, and their relative positions to each other compared to the rest of the frame, shows their closeness. The way the majority of the frame is filled with the grass, very similar and unchanging gives the feeling of neutral space, and really is very relaxing the way the whole frame is put together

In the second frame, again their is a comfortable closeness, with the close proximity of the two main characters, based around the rule of thirds, and surrounded by a large amount of negative space, and the edge of the path helps add to the separation between them and the rest of the frame, helping to give the feeling of these two sharing a connection, separate from the rest of the world, all done by the clever use of Mise-en-scene.

I can see that Mise-en-scene is a very subtle way of creating a feeling within a scene. It largely goes unnoticed, but can help set a viewer at ease, create tension, romance, or even a part atmosphere, without the viewer really being aware of where they are getting this feeling from

Assignment 1: Framing - File Transfer

Now I’ve completed the first assignment, and I’ve already got my report back, so I thought I would post it all up here. This is going to be a long blog post, so be prepared.

Story Outline

A man walks into a room, and walks up to a computer. He logs onto the computer and starts downloading some files onto a memory stick. He looks on edge and keeps checking around. The files finish downloading and he removes the memory stick, and at that moment, a sound makes him start.

Storyboard

The Film

Evaluation

First I thought I would write a little about my thoughts during filming and how I filmed the clip. The entire filming was done in my own bedroom and it used the Canon 5d MkII with a sigma 12-24 f4.5-5.6 lens and a Canon 24-70 f2.8 lens. I wanted to create a dark, mystic look to the scene, so I used one desk lamp as my only light to light the scene, and the light from the hall outside. My brother is the main actor.
I stayed fairly true to my storyboard, but cut the last two frames into one, and decided a close up of the man looking nervous was better. I’ll explain this in the write up.

Frame 1

This frame was a wide shot with the sigma 12-24 lens. I set it up so the door was on one side of the frame, and the computer the other, so our main character was crossing the frame, using him to direct the eye. The initial movement of the door attracts the viewer’s attention, and then it is led to the computer (the main object of the clip) as the character walks over to it.
I think the framing is successful at achieving this objective, if anything I would move the door a bit further to the right of the frame. I also aimed to keep the entire of the head in the frame at all times, at the expense of the legs, and I think this certainly was worth doing. I considered letting the top of the head be cropped into a bit, to allow more of the body in, but out of the two set ups, I think this is the more successful shot.

Frame 2

The scene then cuts to a close up frame from just to the left of the main character. This is designed to focus attention on his typing and the computer screen. The viewpoint does this well, along with the lighting, the screen actually lighting just enough of the keyboard to glimpse the movement of the hands, however I feel the overexposed screen is a bit detrimental to the scene. It was a choice of losing more detail in the keyboard and person to get more detail on the screen, and I decided to overexpose the screen slightly. I think if I had more lighting, I would look to balance that.
With regards to the framing again, the screen is blocked slightly by the part of the desk to the right of the screen, and the wardrobe creeps into the frame. I maybe think this slightly too messy as a look in the frame, and could indeed be made cleaner by moving the camera left, closer to the head. However I think the angle on the head is very good as I have got enough in to show the movements of the hands and head, both very important to pick up on the characters aim.

Frame 3

The scene then cuts to a very short frame. This is to really focus the viewers mind on what is going on. I cut all unnecessary objects from this, and went for the shallowest depth of field I could obtain, to really highlight the data stick being put into the computer. This was key to the scene as a whole, so I thought this warranted a frame of its own.
I made sure the data stick was held by the end so was clearly visible throughout the frame. I tried to direct the eye through the frame with the movement of the hand, going from top left to bottom right, coupling the two objects of attention. I think this worked well. I think the leg in the scene is a bit distracting though and would consider removing this.

Frame 4

We are back to a close up here as the man looks nervous. The camera is a bit higher up in this frame as I have tried to emphasise the character’s movements, however I think this has been slightly less successful looking at the final cut, and think that I may have been better off composing with the keyboard and mouse in the shot again. However I think the slightly further right that the camera has gone has successfully eliminated the distractions on the right of the screen, and certainly focuses the eye better on the character and the screen

Frame 5

Here I have gone for a low shot to show both the character, and another appearing through the doorway. The idea was to use the chair to hide some detail and keep an air of mystery about what is happening. However I think there is a lot of the frame that has been unused and this is slightly unsuccessful. I was trying to keep the eye from wandering too much, but feel that I should have composed to involve a bit more of the frame in hindsight.

Summary

Overall I think I have managed to convey the meaning through my frames well. There are a few areas I could improve, and this is a bit more awareness of the frame as a whole and how much of it is being used in the shot. The extra clutter in the second and fifth frame is the main problem in this scene in my opinion. I will look to in future scan the frame as a whole more thoroughly and consider exactly what will happen before I film the scene itself. I will also look round the frame from many angles, to see if I can eliminate the additional clutter without losing my original idea for the frame.

Research: Stanley Kubrick

So, I thought before I embarked on the assignment, I would do a little research into directors, and the one I decided to settle on was Kubrick. He was a very famous, and often controversial director, and quite impressively for a director of his reputation, he only directed 12 major films, and another 4 before he really came to peoples attention. Perhaps his most famous are Barry Lyndon, a Clockwork Orange, The Shining, and 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Kubrick is very much known for being a perfectionist with his films, and especially with the visual elements. Coming from a photography background myself, I already knew that one of the fastest lenses in the world was made for the film Barry Lyndon, because Kubrick wanted to film using just candlelight, to really keep the atmosphere the same it would have been in the period the film was set. He went to incredible effort to find and adapt these lenses to be able to stay true to the time period, instead of using an additional light source to compensate, showing just how committed and how much of a perfectionist he was.

Obviously there are a number of ways Kubrick set up frames, to stick to one formula for placing objects within his frame would not have led to him becoming the respected director he became. However I have looked for some themes. One recurrent theme is the use of lines as graphic elements in his frames, usually parallel walls, or similar, to help direct the eye. The image below is an example of a few, but there are many more examples throughout his films.

However parallel lines is not just a recurrent theme in the frames above, each contains an air of drama, and tension, largely because the parallel lines are the dominant feature in the frames, and the characters smaller and less significant, the darker corridor leading to the lighter room at the end in the top left image is also quite unsettling to look at, because of the largely dark nature of the frame. It is how Kubrick has used different elements within the frame here to create the feeling he wants to in the viewer.

Kubrick also had another recurrent feature, noted the "Kubrick Stare" on wikipedia. His main characters of his films were largely troubled and dark characters, and he would often have a character shot in which the head was tilted down and the eyes looking towards the viewer. This certainly creates the impression of tension again as you can see from the frames below

This view of a person is somehow less natural for us to see, and it sets off a feeling of a character hiding something, a dark mysterious person. This is largely the sort of film Kubrick made. Most of his films were adaption of novels, or were based on novels. They were almost always controversial. A Clockwork Orange was withdrawn from sale in the UK by Kubrick himself because of the violent nature of the film, and copycat crimes were being carried out in the UK. Another film by Kubrick, Lolita, was about a middle aged man, interested in a 12 year old girl. The novel had already created a large amount of controversy, and Kubrick's toned down version as a film, was also disapproved of by many.

Kubrick also seemed to remove any sort of redemption for characters that was present for the characters in the books he adapted. Anthony Burgess did not like Kubrick's adaption of his novel, A Clockwork Orange, because of this very fact. Stephen King also did not like the adaption of his novel the Shining, branding Kubrick "a man who thinks too much, and feels too little". King actually went on to help make a television series of the shining hoping to replace Kubrick's version of his book.

This seems to be Kubrick through and through. He seemed a man who liked to cause controversy with his films. But he also seemed a perfectionist, very interested with the way a film looked and felt. 2001: A Space Odyssey has large periods without any words being spoken, just displaying beautiful scenes of space and the spaceships available in it, all set to classical music (which also featured heavily in Kubrick films from A Clockwork Orange onwards). He was very much a director who knew how to make each shot work within his film.

Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanley_Kubrick
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000040/
http://www.visual-memory.co.uk/sk/ac/len/page1.htm

How to Learn

This was more a side note in the course, but I thought I would write a blog post, as it does ask me to write a short list. I'm going through my last piece of work for this:

• What did I set out to achieve? I was aiming to achieve a similar piece of work to the previous project, on an alcoholic drinking his glass of wine, but from an objective viewpoint.
• How can I identify what I achieved? Whether or not the video for the project tells the story.
• Did I achieve this? I think I did achieve this, though as mentioned in my project there are a few weak points in the story, especially the panicked section, where I do not think I conveyed this in the best way
• What I have learned from this? I think I have learned that a variety of frames are useful, but also that there needs to be some consistency between them, else there is a bit of confusion from the viewer's perspective. I also have learned that framing is a very important part of how a story is told, and that if the framing doesn't quite suit the atmosphere, the story is not conveyed to the viewer as strongly as it could be
• Is it better to struggle and improve my weaker areas or should I cut my losses and focus on my strengths? At this stage its definitely best to try and improve my weaker areas, but not neglect my strengths. Learning at this stage is very much trying to create a good balance for me to better identify my strengths, and at that stage I will have to decide where to focus, or even whether to try and maintain an all rounded ability.
• How can I really ever know what my strengths and weaknesses are? Self analysis, comparison to other people's projects, and inviting comments on my own projects are all great ways of determining what I have been successful with, and what I could look to improve.
• How do I know what I need to know if I don't know what it is yet, who can I ask or where can I find out? Now that is a baffling question, but I think the general point is how do I get help when I am lost or stuck. I would use numerous resources, the internet being great on research point of view, but also other students, my tutor, even various resource books (though I am struggling to find any good ones on video, any advice as to where to find some would be very helpful) all are good places to find out.
• How do I know if I have improved? When is it time to move on? Again, self analysis is key here. I should be able to tell for myself by comparing where I started, to where I have arrived at, whether I have made a significant improvement. I also can use other people's comments and constructive criticism to help me to analyse whether I have improved enough.

Overall I think that has been quite a useful exercise, it has cleared up the learning process, and certainly made me think why I am doing this, and how best to learn. Next up is the first assignment, that I am very much looking forward to doing. I may add some more research before that point, or it may well be the next post you see, but I have already started thinking of a couple of scenarios I would like to film.

Exercise 4: The feel of a frame (objective)

Now the exercise was to film the same sequence, but from an objective viewpoint. Below is the storyboard and the video for this. The video is without sound this time, as there was a lot of background noise that detracted from the scene.

I filmed this yesterday, so I will talk about the video now. I looked at my storyboard when I was filming and I decided that the wide scene when the person was panicked didn't work to create the tension, so I left this out when filming. I think overall the clip is a bit too short. I should have lengthened the beginning before the tension, had the person look around a bit more, and then create a bit more tension, with a bit more quick movement in that section.

I also think the whole scene lacks the wide view. I would probably shoot the reaching for the bottle scene as a wide view showing the body too, and then move to a close up on the bottle as he opened it, as that would just feel a bit more natural. However I like the close up of the pouring the wine, and the panicked scene I feel benefits from the close up on the face. Overall I think it works fairly well

Just a word and a video

It's been a while since I posted as I have been away on a course and have had a lot of work to do so have been unable to progress with the course for a short while. However I recently saw the video I will embed below (not for the first time), and it really struck me as a good video to talk about here.



This music video I thought was a good example of a short video, as a lot of music videos are trying to tell a story in a short piece of time. The music may not be to everyone's taste, but this is a very clever video in my opinion. Slipknot (the band featured) are known for wearing masks the whole time, so you never get to see their faces, or indeed who they really are. This video is quite teasing in that respect, because here you get clues as to who they are, the masks are there, but they aren't wearing them.

The video itself focuses on little details about each band member and the song. It has such a crisp punchy colour, against the bright background, and the shallow depth of field, really focuses attention on the feature that the video is showing, and although we never get a clear shot of anyone, we really do get a reasonable idea of the members of the band, and the energy within the song by the pace at which cuts to a different shot are used. Overall I think this is a cleverly constructed music video, and something I hope to draw inspiration from in my work

Project 3: The feel of a frame (part 2)

Coming back to my short video, the alcoholic, I will reflect on it's positives and negatives here. I feel overall it was fairly successful, but there are a few things I could have improved.

Firstly I feel that the weakest part of the sequence is the cutting to the panicked looking after the bottle cap had dropped. I think this does not fit quite right into the sequence. I wanted a dramatic sudden cut to give the impression of panic, but think it doesn't fit with the objective viewpoint, as it gives the impression it's cutting to another viewpoint. If I had cut to the shot slightly earlier, so I was still looking at the bottle, it may well have worked better, rather than cutting when the noise was heard. I also think that I got the framing slightly wrong in the last cut, as the shot is from a different angle to the previous frame.

However I feel the close up frames add a bit of drama, and really focus the viewers attention, on something that is important to the story, ie the pouring of the wine, the shaking hand, everything that is trying to give the impression of an alcoholic. The wide scenes were good at portraying the sudden change to the awareness of the entire room and I think this was a good choice for those scenes.

 If I were to shoot it again, I would see how a continuous sequence would work, without any cuts, as I think this might work much better from the objective viewpoint, whereas this sequence feels a bit of a mix. I would probably still move between close up frames, and wide frames, but would see how it would work with zooms rather than cuts.

Project 3: The feel of a frame

The next exercise was to come up with a short sequence showing the scene described. This scene was:

You are an alcoholic alone in your home

- You look around the empty room

- Nothing interests you

- You notice a bottle

- You hold the bottle and unscrew the lid

- Something attracts your attention, you look round

- Nothing happens

- You look back at the bottle and pour yourself a drink

Below is the storyboard I devised for this sequence above, and below that, the actual scene itself. You can watch in HD by clicking the HD button, but I would only do this full screen, as the video is too small embedded to notice a difference. I invite comments on the video, and will add my own comments as guided by the exercise in one or two days time.

Research: Framing

In line with the research suggestion in the course I have decided to find some powerful emotive frames. For this, as it is from a different discipline to this course, I have decided to use my own photographs as examples of framing, and critically assess these.

The first image is a very tranquil shot. In this I think the line leading into the scene of tranquillity provided by the posts really helps draw the eye through the frame, and into the nothingness. The shot is very wide to give a summary of the scene, and really let the scene be the powerful element in the frame.

This shot above again contains a very powerful scene, but in a different sense this time, with a lot of drama, and threat. The person in the frame is very small with regards to the frame as a whole, suggesting her insignificance when confronted by the stormy scene, and really adding to the drama in the scene. Also by having her very central in the frame, but just off center is creating a feeling of discord, and helping to add to the tension.

The last shot is a very tight crop on a face, with a shallow depth of field. This instantly identifies her as an important person within the frame. It draws us in to her. The framing with thirds as well is very easy on the eye, and we feel very comfortable. There is no drama, but a very powerful connection with this person in the scene, and would be useful in a romantic sense in a film, or just generally for an important character to the plot, or just the scene.

Project 2: Function of a frame (subjective viewpoint)

Above are my three situations from the subjective viewpoint. Click on the image to view it larger. I have included basic annotations as there was not space for more, so I will expand below.

Knocking on door - In the first frame very little is visible, just the small area of the door where we are knocking, however once knocking, to pass time, we suddenly become aware of the scene as a whole, and when we go back to the door once it is opened, we are now a bit more aware of our surroundings. A third person viewpoint would not have the switch in view, and would probably be a far more standard scene, whereas from the first person, there is a bit more drama added

Shopkeeper - The background is out of focus so to speak, we are aware of its existence, but not of details as the animated shopkeeper is grabbing our attention. A third person viewpoint would probably be aware of the scene as a whole and lose the drama of the shopkeeper

Illicit Affair - Here in the first scene we are only aware of our partner. A close up of her face while we talk passionately, but as soon as a noise is heard, the attention snaps, and the scene instantly opens up and we become aware of everything behind us. If this was an objective viewpoint the scene would already be fairly open and we'd be aware of more, and there would be less tension in the sudden switch of viewpoint with the noise heard.

The Subjective viewpoint is very good at portraying tension, and suspense in a sequence. This is achieved through the narrow viewpoint that can be achieved, with a lot of the scene out of shot, until we require it. It only shows us what the person in the scene sees, so if something is suddenly revealed to our subject, we don't find out until they do, hence we don't know what is coming, allowing for that sudden surprise. It connects us with the feelings of the subject, as we are effectively in the scene with them. The Illicit affair works very well with this viewpoint, as the sudden change of viewpoint really adds drama to the scene, and this would be lost somewhat from an objective viewpoint (though filmed from the right viewpoint could still be done fairly convincingly).

Project 2: Function of a frame

For this project I came across this painting by Renoir that has a group of people in it and I thought it would be ideal for picking smaller frames out.

My first frame below shows a man looking out across the dance floor, admiring the particular woman of his interest.

He plucks up the courage to talk to the lady that he was admiring and her friend, both of whom look charmed by him

The lady agrees to the offer of the dance, and there is a romantic ending as the two share a close dance.

Project1:Frames in a film (part 2)

Above is my "own story" for the last part of this project. It is a rather short scene based around golf. Having looked long and hard for examples of other students work, and not finding any, I decided I would scrutinise the work above with the questions in part 2 of the exercise. I feel the simple story that I have chose has made it rather easy to show in the 5 frames, and I actually feel I could have done it in 4 frames, with frames 2 and 3 probably being able to be included in one. The story I think is fairly easy to understand (though comments would be nice as to how easy it was) but the simple idea was a golfer putting the ball, and falling short of the hole, then decides to kick the ball in and hope no one was watching (which they were).

Project 1:Frames in a Film

For this project I decided to tell the story of the boy who cried wolf in 5 frames, shown below. I hope the scan is good enough quality for you to depict the story. You can see I'm not the greatest artist in the world. Comments would be appreciated as to how succesful the frames are and where I could improve.