Skills experimentation
Week 1:
This week, we learned about this nature of screen motion.
Before experimenting with the cameras ourselves, we studied into Akira Kurosawa, a Japanese film director, and how he composed movement as well as clips from films such as Amelie, a French romcom film, and Run Lola Run, an action thriller, which both included impressive camera movement which helped tell the narrative.
For the mini practical/experimentation session, we had to film a simple action and explore different movements with different equipment. The three different equipment we used in our experimentation video was a camera slider, glide cam, and a gimbal. For our simple movement, we decided to fim a girl walking into a room, and logging onto a computer.
Gimbal - (Copter.BG)
Camera Slider (Andoer)
Glide Cam - (B&H Photo Video)
Here's the video I made demonstrating our experimentation:
We then were given a secondary task. It was to choose a clip from a movie or television show which used movement and take inspiration from it. Using the equipment which we experimented with in the first task, we have to attempt to demonstrate the essence of the scene, even if we adapt the original to our own style.
The clip we decided to go with was from American Psycho (2000), of Patrick Bateman walking through the office with headphones on.
American Psycho Recreation:
Evaluation:
We were given this task as a practice of using the new equipment and to get us used to how to set it up, and how to use it effectively. The task was to choose a clip from a movie or television show which used movement and take inspiration from it. Using the equipment which we experimented with in the first task, we have to attempt to demonstrate the essence of the scene, even if we adapt the original to our own style. We decided to go for a clip from American Psycho (2000) which shows Patrick Bateman walking down a corridor confidently to the music of "Walking on Sunshine". We chose this clip because it clearly showed movement through a scene which didn't seem too overly complicated, but something that would be easy to adapt to our own style. For our video, we used a gimbal for stabilisation and just filmed a person within our group walking through a corridor with headphones on, like they do in American Psycho. When it came to planning, we had a rough idea of what shots we wanted to get but a lot of them came to us when we were on the location filming. I think we could've been more creative when it came to our video as we could've really experimented with what we could do, however, due to a short time limit we didn't want to go too adventurous. I have learnt how to use a Gimbal effectively within these tasks and other equipment such as a glide cam and a camera slider which will be useful when it comes to my future work as it gives me more freedom and options on how to shoot my films.
I believe our group was successful in creating a video that showed our knowledge of how to use the equipment that was shown to us. We also used a large amount of movement which was the whole point of the task. We did make changes to the original scene because we wanted to adapt it to our location and minimal experience. One change that was really effective for our video was including a side angle between a frame and another change was how long we had our subject walking for in each angle. This was because of the lack of room and time we had to perfectly film everything however, it was able to flow smoothly in post-production. One strength was the extra side angle we implemented. I think it makes our video visually different and appealing and I like how it is framed. However, we encountered a problem in the post-production process. This problem was that the camera was really shaky despite not looking it when reviewing the footage on the camera. To fix this, I learnt how to stabilise image on Avid. This effect allowed me to make my footage look less shaky, overall improving the quality and saving the video. I believe next time I use a gimbal, I will make sure the footage isn't shaky before approving it and using it in my final video as it might not be as easy to fix next time.
References:
Andoer. (n.d.). https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1398457-REG/glidecam_glhdpro_hd_pro_hand_held_stabilizer.html?fromDisList=y. Retrieved from Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Andoer-Portable-Aluminum-Stabilizer-Camcorder/dp/B075SBLZKW/ref=asc_df_B075SBLZKW?tag=bingshoppinga-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=80264450431851&hvnetw=o&hvqmt=e&hvbmt=be&hvdev=c&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=&hvtargid=pla-4583863992488399&psc=1
B&H Photo Video. (n.d.). Glidecam HD-PRO Handheld Stabilizer. Retrieved from B&H Photo Video: https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1398457-REG/glidecam_glhdpro_hd_pro_hand_held_stabilizer.html?fromDisList=y
caffeine. (2021, March 17). merican psycho walking scene but it's ultra smooth [8k 120 fps]. Retrieved from YouTube.
Copter.BG. (n.d.). CAMERA GIMBAL DJI RONIN-S2. Retrieved from COPTER.BG: https://www.copter.bg/en/dji-ronin-s2/1247-camera-gimbal-dji-ronin-s2.html
Week 2:
This week, we learned about the approahces to lighting.
Before experimenting with the lighting ourselves, we looked at some examples which could provide inspiration and context to us. These clips included The Game, a BBC 2 series which used lighting to create a metaphoric narrative. For example, the scene included a man who knew a secret and before he exposed it, he was in dark lighting, then when he did say it, he moved into the light. This is metaphorical because it's almost like he is bringing the secret to light. We also looked at Star Wars: The Force Awakens, a 2015 film in the Star Wars series which uses lighting to show the emotion of the characters and their views. In the clip, Kylo Ren is covered in red light, showing he is on the dark side, and it could also show is anger.
For the mini practical/experimentation session, we had to film a simple action and use lighting to create the illusion of these scenarios. The actions we had to film was a character sat in front of a fire, a character driving a car, and a character watching TV.
Here is what we came up with:
A character sat in front of a fire:
A character driving a car:
A character watching TV:
Task 1 Evaluation:
The purpose of this task was to experiment and create the illusion of the actions that were given to us. We had to make it look like a character was sitting next to a fire, a character was driving a car, and a character was watching TV.
When it came to making it look like our actor was sitting in front of a fire, we decided to use a small key light and some red and orange gels. To create the effect of a fire, we gently moved the gels in front of the light to give a flickering effect on the face of our actor. For the character driving a car, we came up with the idea to make it look like the character was at the traffic lights and then driving when it goes green. For this we used red, orange, and green gels on one key light, and another key light which we adjusted the brightness of consistently to make it look like he was driving past moving cars. Finally, when it came to creating the illusion that our character was watching TV, we were lucky to have a prop TV nearby where we were filming our experiments. We moved the TV in front of our actor and put a key light in front of the screen. we then used a mix of blue and pruple gels to make it look like the Tv was on and showing content. Like with the fire, we gently moved the gels in front of the light to give a flickering effect.
I think creatively, we done a good job coming up with our ideas swiftly and effectively. All of our clips create the illusion of the actions given all through lighting and they can be recognised by someoine who didn't know our task which makes me believe that we done a good job. I like our creative decision on how we created the driving scene and how we came up with the idea of traffic lights to make it easier to identify the action and I also like how we included the TV as it helped us portray the scene more accurately. I think we could've improved on the fire scene more as it feels rushed. I think if we had more time we could've perfected it more.
This task will help me for future projects like my final major project as now I have the knowledge on how lighting can create the illusion of actions and that can help me be able to create more scenes which I didn't think were possible and improve the quality of my project.
We then were given our second task.
We had to create three scenes exploring approaches to lighting for different types of production. These three genres included horror, fantasy and film noir.
Here is what we came up with:
Horror:
Fantasy:
Film Noir:
Examples we used to create our look:
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Task 2 Evaluation:
As I was unfortunately ill when this task was set, I will try and base my evaluation of my knowledge of the task and the work that my group completed.
I believe we were successful in our lighting task as our references match what we did. For our examples we used Nightmare on Elm Street, Narnia, 1917 and another example for Film Noir that was on our reference PowerPoint.
I think we were successful in this task, especially with the Film Noir genre as we captured the mysterious, moody effect that Film Noir is famously known for. I also think we captured the atmosphere of the other genres to a certain degree as we matched their colour palette well. We made a slight change on the fantasy example of Narnia as we didn't have the props to give it a magical effect, so we changed the wardrobe to a curtain. One of the strengths of this project was that we got all the colour of the lighting perfect from our examples, to our images, which shows we understood the task well and learnt how to effectively use lighting to convey the genre, and help support the narrative. Another strength was we were able to truly able to capture the effect of Film Noir with our image as it gives off a mystifying and gloomy setting.
We only had one problem with our task and that was we didn't have the exact props as the original version had so we had to improvise to solve these problems. For example, we just used a normal hand in the position of Freddy Kruger rather than creating long fingers for the Horror take, and we used a curtain instead of a wardrobe for the Narnia/Fantasy take. I think we could've improved slightly on highlighting the characters in our images more as they seem slightly underexposed, ruining the true effect of the lighting.
In this project. my group learnt how lighting helps support the narrative and build the genre and how to convey that through small clips and images. This will be helpful for future projects, especially the final project as it opens up a range of possibilities on how lighting can help portray the story that you're trying to tell through the screen.
Week 3:
This week, we learned about how to experiment with focus.
Before experimenting with focus ourselves, we looked at how focus is affected by the aperture and how it can be used in film to help tell he narrative without explicitly telling the viewer. We also learned how different lenses can affect the depth of field and the focus of an image.
For the mini practical/experimentation session, we had to film a simple action and use different focusing techniques to practice working with focus. They included a focus pull, otherwise known as a rack focus, walking into focus, following a character and rack focusing.
Here is what we came up with:
Focus Pull (Rack Focus):
Walking into focus:
Following a character and rack focusing:
Evaluation:
For this task, we had to experiment with focus by looking into three different focus techniques, a focus pull (or otherwise known as a rack focus), a character walking into focus, and following a character and rack focusing. The purpose of this task was to practice focus techniques so we have the ability to use them for future projects, such as our final major project. This will improve our skills and help us create better quality content.
For this project we were in groups with a camera and we had to experiment with the focus to create these techniques. For our evidence, we decided to film 3 short videos, each showing how we implemented the technique into a simple action. To do it, we experimented with the aperture, which changed the focal length, to change the depth of field.
In terms of responding the brief, our creative decisions were effective as we learnt how to do these techniques in multiple different settings, with different actions - I just chose the best 3 which showed off what we produced due to our experimentation. I can learn from this task as now I know how to do these simple focus techniques for future projects such as my final major project as it broadens my skills and techniques knowledge, allowing me to tell a deeper story.
We then were given our second task.
We had to create a short narrative sequence that incorporates these approaches by using an example which can be adapted. For our narrative sequence, we looked into recreating the Hot Fuzz (2007) "Good Luck Nicholas" scene.
Here is what we came up with:
Evaluation:
For this task, we had to create a short narrative sequence that incorporates these approaches by using an example which can be adapted. For our narrative sequence, we looked into recreating the Hot Fuzz (2007) "Good Luck Nicholas" scene. The point of this task was to get us to use focus techniques in a narrative setting. I believe we were successful in this task as we included subtle focusing techniques within our Hot Fuzz recreation. This is because we efficiently used focusing techniques to support the narrative in our adapted scene.
We made some slight changes, which were changing the camera angles slightly to support our location (there was a lack of space so we had to work with what space we had) and we made some slight changes to the script to make it quicker and easier for ourselves to film this short scene.
The strengths were that we used a rack focus at the end to reveal the sergeant walking into the room which was a great creative decision as it almost acts like a reveal. Another strength was that we made it a dramatic effect when one of our characters started calling the sergeant by using multiple shots of the phone and focusing techniques. I think this makes the short clip build up tension and helps with the reveal of the sergeant.
A problem we encountered is that because of our lack of space, we had to move some objects out of the way, and one of them was a computer. Moving the computer caused us to create a background which could be confusing to the viewer, which might cause them to be dragged out the illusion of the short video clip. To fix this, we made sure that our camera angles and the position of our characters would cover that computer so the viewer wouldn't see it in the background of the video.
Next time, I think we could improve the amount of focus techniques we use. Even though we used a couple in this video, I think we could've used more in different shots to really accentuate what we experimented with in task 1.