Sunday, 4 January 2015

Critical Evaluation

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.

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