Exercise: Creating Depth with lighting

This exercise is about using lighting to create atmosphere, layers and depth. In a dark room, I experimented with different lights.
I was surprised at how much light I needed to create any effect at all. This was the room with a small overhead light on.

 CREATE three distinctly different impressions of depth in the same space:

This shot is taken from one end of the room with the light on the desk. The light fades at the edges of the image. To me it gives the sense of something happening in the middle of the night; Someone focusing in detail on a piece of work. The foreground is entirely unlit. So a lot of the detail is blacked out.

 In this image, the light is under the desk. Everything on the desk is unlit. The curve of the roof is pronounced. The overall effect gives the impression of something secret going on; undercover; possibly corrupt. The flipchart suggests a plan being hatched.

 In this image, the two masks have been lit up from below. The way the  light shines orange, suggests something halloweeny, a bit spooky. There is very little else in the shot, just a few unidentified objects.

 In this image the desk and shelves are lit evenly and give the impression of a straight forward office. Work being done, busy day to day living.

Exercise: Spaces

Four shots:

1) An oppressive cluttered space:
I chose this scene because it is overly full of drawers and things hanging down. I took the picture from below to give the sense of being overshadowed by clutter.
I'm wondering if it is too cluttered! Quite hard for the viewed to get a sense of where they are. Though maybe that's part of the point.

 2) An open honest simple space with one intriguing item.
I chose the 'old fashioned' wooden table and chair by a window to suggest a sort of time-honoured simplicity and honesty. Outside it is daylight. There are white walls. There is no complications, secrets or difficult patterns.
The hand addressed envelope on the table suggests news of some sort.

 3) A stark empty hostile place:
The grey stonework where only a tiny weed survives gives the impression of an unlived, unloved space.

4) A warm, friendly, cosy space
I chose a little cosy nook by the fire for this. The fire is on, the warm yellow walls feel warm. The blankets and a book suggest cosiness. The only thing I'm not sure about is the foil behind the fire, which detracts from the cosiness.

Project 6 - Mis-en-scene. Viewing.

The arrangement of objects in a frame affects the atmosphere and meaning of a shot.

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. Scene 1:

 SHOT 1: 'You weren't followed?'
The opening frame is of a dark door, which at the sound of a knock is opened.
It feels closed. Hidden. Secret.
This has been achieved through the face being contained between the dark doorframe. Low lighting. Also the coat stand in the background is almost insect-like, as though this place is a web. The meaning conveyed in the shot: This character is hidden away in a kind of den, or web.

SHOT 2: 'Trust no-one Jim'

The camera follows the characters across a cluttered study: books, papers, desks, lamps, chairs.  Low-lighting. Dark and dense. This place feels as though it is a hub of secret activity. slow music. Jim sits on a plastic chair. The meaning conveyed is that the main character has enticed Jim into his web.

SHOT 3: 'I understand you still have one identity running'

The camera close up on the main character. An uncluttered shot, though still dark. He is smoking which adds to the veil that is drawn over him.

The meaning in the shot is that he is giving Jim a mission. 

SHOT 4: 'I want you to go to Budapest'

Light, Open. Grand building with a river straight across the screen. This is a big contrast from the dark cluttered den of his study. While he talks about the mission, this open shot conveys the contrast of open-closed, public-private, secret-revealed.

SHOT 5: 'They're after my head, JimBoy'. 

The camera retreats backwards into a building 

that overlooks the river. Children are laughing and their youth is in direct contrast to the ancient pillars and the grand building on the other side of the river. Also, as the camera is retreating, a couple of planes shoot over head.

The meaning conveyed is the danger to innocent lives.

SHOT 6: people hurrying - left to right -  mostly alone. Cars cutting across the frame.

A general feeling of lack of safety. Fear. Achieved by colours - greys and browns. Regimented windows. Regular cars cutting people up. Man with a dog on a lead. 

 SHOT 7: 'I have had an offer of service'
The busy shot with people walking left to right cuts to a shot of a single man (Jim) walking right to left, alone. Again, the regimented windows. Also the large lettering along the wall suggests rules and strict government enforcement. Though the yellow wall is warmer than the grey. The mis en scene suggests that Jim is alone against a world of corruption.

SHOT 8: 'A Hungarian General has some information'
Jim walking right to left is intercut with the general walking left to right also alone. There is the sense that they are going towards each other in opposite directions. ie they are on different sides of the fence, but they are about to meet.


 SHOT 9: Revisit of Shot 2 - cluttered study.

SHOT 10: The two men come together in the same shot, with their backs to us and some distance apart. The streets are a complicated network and suggest that they will meet somewhere in the complex web.





SHOT 11: 'There's a rotten apple, Jim and we have to find it'
A shot of Jim coming out of the exit of the underground. From dark to light. Again he is the only one going out from the dark, all others are going into the dark. The suggestion is that he will bring the secrets to light.

OCA Assignment 1: Framing

For this assignment we had to produce a short sequence of no more than five shots, that tells a simple story using images alone.

Planning:

• Write a simple story:

Thoughts:
Given that I was on holiday in Spain, I wanted to take advantage of the location to shoot the sequence. Spent quite a lot of time mulling over ideas, and thinking back on what stories people had chosen for project 1. Many of them were fairy stories or nursery rhymes which are simple, sometimes moralistic and often have a bit of magic in them.

Story:
A rich greedy man hears about a sacred temple in South Spain called the 'Ermita of Terque', where all deserving wishes are guaranteed to be granted. He travels all the way, and pants up the steep hill in the little village expecting to be granted his wish of a million pounds.
On the way, he meets a poor girl in a cave who is begging for food. He throws a stone at her like a dog.
When he arrives at the temple, he says what he wants and holds out his hand for the money, but instead of money, an orange rolls out.
He looks at it in disgust and throws it down the hill. It lands in the lap of the cave girl, who is delighted to have received an orange.
Instantly, the orange transforms into bread and money, and she is never hungry again.

Storyboard:

 1. Shot is taken from eye-level angle to the girl. Shot starts looking down on man walking up the steps. When he gets to the girl he throws a stone at her and walks past the camera. The camera pans up the hill to the temple.
Need to show - the girl in her cave, her begging. The business man. The temple.

 2. Shot starts by looking down on the man walking up the last bit of hill towards the temple. He walks past the camera and on up to the temple, where he stands at the door asking for money.
Need to show - the business man demanding his wish.

 3. Low angle shot at the temple. He demands his wish and is rewarded an orange. He sits down in anger.
Need to show - the sign saying that all deserving wishes will be granted. The orange. His anger.

 4. He throws the orange in anger over the side of the hill. And begins walking back down.
Need to show - the orange going over.

5. Eye-level shot. The girl catches the orange and it is transformed into bread and money. She looks up at the temple in gratitude.
Need to show - it's the same orange. The transformation.










The sequence:

Here is the finished sequence:
OCA assignment: Ermita of Terque

Critical Evaluation:

It was great fun recording this, though I did need to use quite a bit of bribery to persuade Kani to act a cave girl! I was lucky in that the light and the colours of Spain were so brilliant!

Frame one:
I liked the shot of him walking up the steps, his suit out of place in the dusty village. As I followed him up the steps it is unclear whether we are on his side or not. The shot looks down on him until he reaches the girl. At this point, at eye-level he throws the stone at her. The shot stays with the girl which I think works, as though we have transferred allegiance to the girl.
I'm not sure whether the panning up to the temple is quite right. Perhaps I could have lingered slightly longer on the temple.

Frame two:
Here I have used the same technique of looking down on him walking up and then past the camera to the temple. I had wanted to give the impression of it being a long way up, but on reflection I think I should have utilised another angle to build on what we have begun to feel about the man. Perhaps I could have taken the shot from the temple and looked directly down on his head, or I could have done a close up of his feet on the gravel walking towards the temple.

Frame three:
The orange gets a bit lost in this! Partly because Dan put his foot out to stop it from rolling down the hill, which it did on the first take! But also because of the set up of the shot. Again, I think an angle that focused on the orange somehow - close up at ground level? with his feet and the orange appearing - would have been better. My problem was that I wanted to get the sign in as well, to explain what he was doing up there in the first place.

Frame four:
I like this shot - it's very clear what's happening, but again I wonder if it could be improved by using a different angle? In an ideal world, a high angle shot looking down on the man. Something to indicate that there is a higher being at work here!

Frame five:
Actually this is five and six - I only realised after we got back from Spain that I had zoomed in on the final shot of the girl with the food. Another lesson there!
I felt it was important to shoot the scene from a similar angle to the first shot to show that it's the same girl in the same cave. We tried it from that angle, but the orange kept on falling too far away and rolling down the steps! So it's a slightly different angle, which seems to work just as well in terms of making the story clear.

Overall, the sequence tells the story but on reflection the angles of the shots are very static and unimaginative. They don't play enough of a role in telling the story or in telling us about the characters. I think I need to experiment with very low angle and very high angle shots to get a feel for how the 'steepness' affects the mood of the piece. Also I had for some reason got it into my head that I needed to stick to a particular angle that I had chosen, but of course, that's not the case. So I think I need to try out mixing a variety of angles within a film.

How to Learn - reflections on a piece of work

Look back at a piece of work you have produced so far:

Alcoholic from an objective angle -

1. What did you set out to achieve?  to shoot a short film from a high angle of a man who is an alcoholic
2. How can you identify what you achieved? it's quite hard to objectively view whether the film works or not, though I can see it is a vast improvement on my earlier film. 
3. Did you achieve it? I struggled to keep the high angle consistent throughout the film, and having watched Vagg311's low angle film of his alcoholic I felt that in fact a low angle might have worked better - the threat being internal to the character rather than external to the situation. I found that mine ended up being comic rather than tragic.
4. What did you learn from this? consistency of angle is important. high angle can produce unexpected reactions (!) When I was editing, I found it worked better to cut the scene more than I had expected. The pan across was a little slow.

Further questions:

1. Is it better to struggle and improve your weaker areas or should you cut your losses and focus on your strengths?  I find that I tend to focus on my weaker areas, and whilst I do think it's important to pay attention to these, I would like to be able to identify and focus on my strengths. By knowing my strengths I will be able to carve out a 'filmic voice', and know what sort of films I like and am able to make.
2. How can you ever really know what your strengths and weaknesses are? Critical input from others is extremely useful, and subsequent reflection to assess whether that input is appropriate. This is, for me, a very good way of learning. Honesty from others is v. important.
3. How do you know what you need to know if you don't know what it is yet? By practicing, it is quite easy to see what works and what doesn't. Practice practice practice!
4. Who can you ask and where can you find out? Watch films, ask others on the course, tutor, and read up about it
5. How do you know if you have improved? When is it time to move on? By reflection, and by looking back at previous work. By assessing what you intended against what you have achieved. It's time to move on sooner rather than later!

Exercise: An objective POV

The exercise is to record the same scenario as the previous alcoholic one, but from an objective POV.
I decided to go for a high angle view, looking down on the alcoholic, I wanted to show the vulnerability of the character, his lack of control.

I decided beforehand what I would have that would distract him from his drink - his daughter calling him. I particularly liked Richard's telephone ringing in his first sequence, and thought that a family member calling could be quite poignant.

Storyboarding:

1) man opens his eyes, bleary. He focuses on something ahead of him












2) he struggles out of the sun lounger and goes towards the can of beer










3) he leans against the fence and picks up the can

4) he shakes the can, looks at it and is about to drink when there is a shout from indoors 'dad'. He looks but doesn't respond.









5) the shot goes to the door from where the shout came, and the girl shouts again.










6) Pan back to the man who still doesn't respond.

7) he looks to the mountain and then drinks.










Here is the finished film:

the alcoholic - an objective POV


Reflections:
I was a lot happier with this than with the first sequence. The light was a lot better (could be the glorious Spanish weather) - and the camera didn't keep going out of focus! The pace of it seemed to work better too, and I was happier with the distraction of his daughter calling him.

Things that could be improved.
Still struggling with the camera angles. I thought I was doing the whole film in high angle, but there are places where it seems to be almost eye level, even though I was standing on a chair. Because the angle is not consistent it feels a bit jumpy.

Other students' work:
I liked Paul's close up style of shooting the film, though at times I felt it could have been the subjective viewpoint. He also pointed out that a wide angle view might have worked better in places. Though I couldn't see Stuart's film (password protected) he also pointed out that the close up shots meant that we didn't see enough of Paul's character.
I particularly liked Vagg311's film. I like the use to the low angle - and he kept the low angle throughout which worked really effectively. I liked the way we saw the character from different viewpoints. This led to a feeling that we knew him from all angles.

Camera Angles

Exercise - to find examples of camera angles used to create atmosphere or alter the meaning of a scene or shot. Consider whether the angle affects:

1. viewpoint
2. releationship
3. status
4. suspense
5. mood

HIGH ANGLE SHOTS

High angle shots more the scene more dynamic and exciting than eye level shots. The character seems less powerful and significant, there may be some threat from a bigger force.

Subjective shot. From the point of view of the camera. Looking down on the the character in the shot. There is a suggestion of lower status in the character. He is swamped by newspapers, and there is an expectation of action. However, there is a mood of stalemate in this shot, through the stance of the character.

Objective shot. Here there is no-one else in the room, but the camera is looking down on the girl. It creates a tension, suggesting that something will happen to her that is beyond her control. Something from outside the window perhaps? We feel worried for her, and the mood is scary.

Subjective shot. The character is looking up at the camera character. Even though he has a gun he appears vulnerable, lower status. There is the suggestion of action from above and he is needing to defend himself.
















Here the character is looking down on action on the street. There is a sense that the camera is in the know about something about to happen to the people on the ground. Those on the ground seem more vulnerable.
















LOW ANGLE SHOTS

 In low angle shots the character seems more powerful, the sense of threat is more likely to come from within the scene, possibly from the characters themselves.


Here the three characters appear strong and contained, but the low angle gives a sense of threat from within the group itself - possibly from the dogs.












This school, shot from below, gives a sense of the sinister - evil, madness, horror? There is a mood of anticipation.








Here, the character is given a higher status by this low angle. He looks down on the audience, he preaches to them. His smile may not be altogether honest. There is an overbearing feel to the character.










In contrast to the high angle shot above of the man with the gun, this character with a knife is in control. There is a definite feel of danger from this character.










Likewise in this shot. The man with the gun is all powerful. Even the man with his back turned appears more powerful.









EYE-LEVEL SHOTS

At eye level, the scene seems quite 'normal'. The action is fairly flat and the angle itself gives very little away.


Here there is a sense of equilibrium - Of the two men belonging in the location. A stroll. A slow pace, a quiet discussion.










Again, the characters here are all at the same level - eye level - and there is no sense of threat. A song for pleasure.











At eye level, this character poses no threat, nor does he seem to be in danger from any outside force. Informative. A content mood.