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.