In this critical evaluation
I aim to discuss my individual contributions towards each short-film production
I took part in, as well as the roles I undertook during the process of creating
each film. I will critically reflect honestly on my own work as well as my
peers’. I aim to focus on my learning throughout the module and how I have
advanced my film making skills. Throughout the evaluation I will reflect on any
secondary research that has influenced my work. Finally, I will analyse and
critique the finished films, discussing what we set out to achieve as groups
and whether or not we met our goals.
Initially, I thought the
module would be slightly overwhelming as I was tasked with editing two
different films, acting as the primary cinematographer for one film and
an assistant cinematographer for another. However as the shooting week
approached I organised myself by breaking down the different stages of the
post-production process-
• Footage review
• Footage conversion
• Capture and logging
• Rough Assembly
• Rough Cut
• Fine Cut
etc.
The cinematography aspect
of the production was self explanatory as it required booking out the
equipment, turning up on-set and shooting.
I did my best to allow
equal time for each film I was editing, however one thing I have learned over
the last few years at university is that filmmaking is a long process. There
were instances in which I spent more time working on Jordan's piece (due to
specific obstacles) and didn't allow myself sufficient time to work on Paul's.
The post-production stage of the production will be discussed later in
the evaluation.
I will break down my
evaluation into separate sections/headings which will help me clearly
reflect on each part of the production processes.
'Leaving' - Directed by
Lucy Smith-Jones
Role
- Assistant cinematographer
The role of an
assistant cinematographer is one in which I have never undertook. My
expectations of the role were met as we began shooting Lucy's film 'Leaving'.
The production of the piece ran smoothly and each crew member contributed
sufficiently. Tom Newsham, the cinematographer, delegated me runner tasks that
involved the changing of lenses, utilising the reflector and the repositioning
of lighting onset.
The way in which I have
advanced my filmmaking skills for this piece is that the role I was given was
one in which I have never experienced before, therefore I am now more confident
in approaching and undertaking the role if I get the opportunity to do so
in future.
'Leaving' - Directed
by Jordan Deakin
Roles -
Cinematographer/Editor
Cinematography -
As mentioned in a previous
post, it had been while since I had the opportunity to undertake the role
of a cinematographer, however I was confident in producing a cinematic piece to
suit the director's vision. After reading through the script and creating the
shot-list with Jordan, I knew immediately I wanted to utilise a certain
lens for the Canon 5D MKll - a 50mm 1.4. This lens produced shallow focus that
allowed me to isolate and focus primarily on my subject (the characters). As
the narrative of the film is character driven and focuses primarily on emotions
and body language, the camera and lens allowed me to capture the action
unfolding on-screen without the surrounding environment intruding in any shape
or form.
The director gave me
breathing room for choosing the correct angle for each shot, and gave me
sufficient time to adjust the lighting to my needs. In hindsight I should have
rented out a shoulder rig for the Canon 5D, because at times (during intimate
dialogue scenes) the camera was difficult to hold steady. However, after reviewing
the footage I am more than happy with the results.
One of the problems with
using such a lens (50mm), meant that it was my job to focus pull whilst
capturing simultaneously. This proved difficult as there were moments in
the film in which the characters approached the camera, stopped, and/or turned.
The need to constantly adjust the focus meant that the camera either shook
or the characters were at times not entirely in focus. I am aware that bigger
productions have a separate person who's sole purpose is to focus
pull, and now I understand why.
I believe the hand-held
camera work gave a naturalistic feel to the piece. Unlike static (tripod)
shots, the use of hand-held connoted the concept of the audience being involved
in the piece rather than being passive spectators. I am particularly proud of
the way in which I managed to pull off the second shot in the film, the one in
which Jay goes from a horizontal position to a vertical position on the edge of
the bed. Before we shot the take I instructed Tom Newsham (the assistant
cinematographer) and the actor Jay to block out the scene. The shot itself was
particularly difficult to accomplish as it required me doing three things at
once in a fluid motion-
• Tracking
• Tilting/panning the
camera upwards to a levelled (horizontal) state
• Maintaining focus
Miraculously however,
the first take proved to be the most fluent and striking one. I believe that
one of the reasons the shot works so well aside from its (not entirely)
originality, is that the character Billy (played by Jay) almost breaks the
fourth wall by nearly looking directly into the camera, which subtly creates a
connection between him and the audience. Prior to the reveal of the woman in
the bed, the film's focus is solely on Billy as it leads to the reveal of his
deceit against his wife and infant son. The focus then shifts onto the female
protagonist (played by Claire) during the focus pull shot that shows the
picture of Billy's family to the reveal of the woman in bed through the mirror.
During the dialogue scenes
I primarily maintained the use of over the shoulder (OTS) shots, as this
maintained the connection between the characters on-screen and the audience due
to the characters eye-line appearing slightly off-angle.
I have advanced my
cinematography skills in terms of being able to successfully undertake new
and alternative camera techniques, for example the bed tilt shot. I have filmed
for the first time with a 50mm lens and feel confident using one in the future.
I have also gained more experience with the Canon 5D MKll and understand
more of its features. Most importantly however, I have gained more experience
in working within a crew on a set, something in which I haven't done in the
past as almost all of my past productions have taken place on-location, so it
was refreshing to experience something new.
Lighting -
Overall I am incredibly
pleased with the richness and artistic effect the lighting has on our piece.
Being able to have enough time to set-up the lighting for each shot,
and fulfil the vision of the style of the film Jordan and I were striving
towards was brilliant. We placed a Dedo spotlight outside of the window and
attached a red filter in front of the lens to create a 'neon', streetlight/sign
effect that created the sense of the hotel room being set in a sleazy area.
This helped the mise-en-scene of the film and highlighted the narrative of
the piece (Billy having an affair with another woman).
I positioned two Kino
lights at different sides of the bed and directed them towards the character's
general positions within the room. I chose blue and pink/purple filters that
flood the room with a 'passionate, toxic yet delicate' substance. The
underlying blue filter maintained the levels of 'deceit' within the scene,
whilst the red/pinks and purples overshadowed the deceit and lies with
connotations of sex, love and passion.
On top of everything else I
am most pleased with the continuity of the lighting. After repositioning the
lights for each shot/take, I feared that the difference in light levels would
appear in post, however the levels remained similar throughout.
Mentioned in previous
posts, the chiaroscuro lighting on Billy's face proved effective as it connoted
the sense of an unbalanced, two-sided character, and the artistic lighting
approach was influenced from texts such as 'Only God Forgives' and
'Drive'.
Taking this work and
experience forward, I now have more confidence in working with lighting on a
set and believe I have the capability to produce a visually striking, well-lit
piece.
Editing -
The edit of 'Leaving' was
fairly straight forward, it mainly involved following the shot-list but taking
out the cutaways I captured on-set. I strived towards focusing primarily on the
character Billy the first section of the piece, as the film's focus was on him
until the reveal of the picture.
Simple
'shot-reverse-shot' editing techniques were used during the dialogue
scenes, and I made sure to not fall into the trap of cutting straight to a
character when he or she is speaking, but instead holding, or cutting early to
a character's reaction. Reactions, facial expressions and body language are
just as (if not more) important than dialogue in certain scenes.
Small continuity errors occurred
with the positioning of the two characters in the room, and when Billy was
getting dressed, however apart from that the piece itself was fairly
straightforward to edit.
Walter Murch states
that every editor should follow the ‘rule of six’ -
“1. Emotion 51%
2. Story 23%
3. Rhythm 10%
4. Eye-trace 7%
5.
Two-dimensional plane of screen 5%
6.
Three-dimensional space of action 4%” (Murch, 2001).
Murch believes that
'emotion' is the number one aspect an editor should focus on. Taking this
onboard, I chose key moments from each take that highlight the
character's emotions more than any others.
Overall, I have advanced by
editing skills in terms of gaining more experience on working with character
driven narratives. I will take my experiences forward onto future
productions.
Sound -
I believe it is important to mention that as of the
time this was written, the sound designer for our film has done no work. This
is most likely due to the fact he has been working on two other
projects simultaneously. We have contacted him personally numerous
amounts of times over the last couple of weeks but nothing solid has come to
light. However, arrangements have been made with the sound designer and he is
currently in the process of tidying up the dialogue, and creating an atoms
track/score for the piece. It is unfortunate that this is being done so late as
I'd have liked to discuss the film in comparison with the sound, but for the
purpose of this self-assessment/evaluation I will briefly discuss the vision
Jordan and I have for the piece.
At the sound's current
stage, the dialogue is crackly and requires cleaning up. This is due to the
tie-clip microphones that were used as they rubbed agains the character's
clothes during movement. I attempted to apply just the 'boom audio' to the
clips however most recordings featured all 3 recordings (two tie-clips/boom) in
one, so it wasn't possible.
Poor conditions of the set
and the location of the set also meant that unwanted exterior background
noise interfered with certain dialogue scenes. This meant I had to cut off
certain dialogue recordings at certain points which resulted in 'no-sound'
gaps. However I understand that the job of the sound designer is to create
a smooth flowing edit.
Jordan and I's vision for
the sound relies mainly on a minimalistic approach, with low tones to create an
emotionally driven piece. Subtle atmospheric effects will be added to
create a believable, living a breathable world e.g. exterior sound- a dog
barking, cars passing, wind etc.
In hindsight we should
have contacted the sound designer from day one and stressed the importance of
sitting alongside Jordan and I during the editing process. This is certainly
one thing I will take forward for future projects.
'Bitter Little Twist'
- Directed by Paul Manning
Role - Editor
The edit of 'Bitter Little
Twist' was perhaps the most straightforward despite it's complex and
experimental approach. There were no more than 15-20 shots/takes in the whole
film and each shot featured only one or two takes. We stuck closely to the
shot-list and implemented a 'jump-cut' at a later date to create a more
frantic, fractured piece.
Emma Tackney the sound
designer did a brilliant job with the sound, it really helped develop the film
into a believable, rich and atmospheric piece. The positioning of the thunder
and dark, low tones complimented the cuts in the film.
After taking Paul's
rough-cut onboard and cutting/refining it by reducing the duration of the dance
sequence amongst other things, I sat down with the director and he said that
his vision for the piece was fulfilled. There are downsides to his piece
however (in my opinion), and this lies with the cinematography. I personally
believe that the use of hand-held camerawork should have been utilised as one
doesn't feel the motion of the dance sequence from a static camera shot shot
from only two different angles. The use of lighting could have been utilised
better by introducing streams or pools of coloured lights to emphasise the
symbolic church/religious setting. However, I think that overall the piece
takes the audience on an unsettling journey that raises many questions on what
is perceived as reality and what is imagination.
Reflecting on the module as
a whole, it has allowed me to resume my passion for cinematography, work with
professional actors closely, experience working on an actual set within a crew,
and create character driven productions that convey an array of emotions. These
have all advanced my film-making skills and I will take them forward for future
projects.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
MURCH, Walter (2001). IN
THE BLINK OF AN EYE. 2nd Edition., Los Angeles, Silman-James Press.
