Assignment 2| #6 You find a Scene

Now it’s your turn  – Find a scene from a film, either drama or documentary, and deconstruct it on the topics of sound, shot construction, camera movement, production design, performance and any other facets of the production you would like to discuss. It could be a scene you admire or a scene you think is flawed, could be improved upon. Paste the hyperlink of the clip in your post or if you have a clip of the scene put it in google drive and paste the link in your post. 

I have always been a big fan of stories that has elements of romance and dilemma, especially when the story is related related to real life because I’d like to imagine that I’m being there think myself as the character where I can feel the emotions and feelings. In this case, the characters need to choose between their love or career. Not only that, I think each scene has been thought of very well that the movements, camera angles and background music are blending together beautifully. Therefore, I decided to discuss a scene from a La La Land film.

Shot Construction & Camera Movement

I really admired the “Tap Dancing” scene in La LA Land film. This scene is taken by a single camera and the camera follows the characters as they move along. Something really interesting to me that there is a lot of camera movements used in this scene such as some of tracking shots.

Talking about the first shot, the director chose to use an extreme long shot of Sebastian (Gosling) and Mia (Stone) walk together. In my opinion, the director used this type of shots to show the characters from a distance and also to show the environment or setting of this scene to the audience. The camera also tracks backward the characters as they walk closer which makes the extreme long shot became a long shot as seen in the pictures below:

 

Then, the camera keeps tracking Sebastian (Gosling) and Mia (Stone) as they walk along the street. I think that tracking was the essential camera movement as I have seen it in the most of the shots in this scene. Dolly shots are often used when recording the characters that moves away or toward the camera. A movement from the medium shot to MCU shot of Sebastian (Gosling) and Mia (Stone) starts to bring us closer to the characters and their emotions. When Sebastian (Gosling)  gracefully sway on the pole, the steady pan starts to stop which grabs the audience attention and makes them focus on that frame. There was also a Medium Close Up shot of Mia (Stone) which gives more details of her expression.

 I noticed there are parts that the tracking shot dolly-out are combined which creates amazing effects. I will be focusing on a particular shot where Sebastian (Gosling) and Mia (Stone) dance together and the camera starts moving forward and backward (from 3.40 – 4.00)

 

In these shots, the camera moves forward and backward as they dance along. As seen in the right picture, the camera moves forward to the perspective of the characters and it seems like the camera is the eyes of the audience (shows the audience what the characters see). Then, the camera moves backward and tracks the characters. Those kind of camera movement help the audience feel involved in the action and the way camera moves backward, it gives a three dimensional away from the characters. In another words, it moves the audience through that space away along from the characters. The dolly track used in this scene also allows the camera to smoothly move up and down as well.

In my opinion, by implementing a variety of camera movements and angles, they make the shot more dynamic and visually more engaging compared to a still camera.

 

Sound

I have noticed there are several sounds in this scene such as close-up dialogue between the two main characters, kicking on the sand, falling rocks, clapping hands, sliding on the chair, and brushing off pants.

I can hear their dance footsteps clearly and when it combines all these foley sounds with the music they sing, it is truly dramatic for me. I just got completely emotional and involved with the characters themselves. Also, when Mia (Stone) presses her car key, it matches the background music which creates some kind of rhythm and I love that. There are also several sounds in the atmosphere such as nature sounds and sound of insects.

When Sebastian (Gosling) starts singing, the background music slowly appears. This scene is also combined the dance footsteps, soundtrack, and the foley sounds with dialog which increase the audience emotions and enhance the performance of the film.

Production Designer

I totally love the entire scene. I, as the audience, can really feel the emotion and the mood of this scene. The costumes that Sebastian (Gosling) and Mia (Stone) wear are light coloured clothes and match perfectly with the mood in this particular scene. By wearing light coloured clothes also make them stand out in the dark background.  Sebastian (Gosling) wears a white shirt with tie and Mia (Stone) wears classic vintage yellow dress, almost like representing optimism. The colours used in this scene also make me connect with the characters.

The location is perfect and the colour of the sky is beautiful which creates a romantic atmosphere. The Production Designer uses a calm color palette to evoke the romantic mood or atmosphere of this particular scene. I think that purple takes up most of the color palette in this tap dancing scene and kind of represent the passion that is slowly building up.

Performance

Sebastian (Gosling) and Mia (Stone), they are both great actors for me. They really bring the scripted character to life. Mia (Stone) uses much her expressive face and that makes the character alive. Sebastian (Gosling) captures a real emotional intensity as a dedicated jazz pianist but in this particular scene, he does not use much face expressions since he tries to hide his feelings towards Mia (Stone). Both characters are showing their facial expression which conveys some emotions.

Overall, I absolutely adore the use of colors, the cinematography, the acting, and the music in this movie.

 

Assignment 2| #5 TK2 Taxi Driver Deconstruction

Given what you’ve learnt from making the Lenny Film – Looking at this scene (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. from Martin Scorsese’s 1976 film Taxi Driver, describe the shot construction, camera movement and any other facets of the production you would like to discuss.

Once I’ve done practicing with the Lenny project single shot, I begins to get more understanding in the shot construction and camera movements. When I re-watched the scene from Martin Scorsese’s 1976 film Taxi Driver, I noticed several parts that I didn’t notice before so I decided to focus on particular shot in this scene to get more details of the shot. In the following discussion, I will discuss briefly about the shot construction and camera movement of the entire scene and I will be focusing on the conversation scene between Travis and Betsy.

Travis (Robert DeNiro)

Let’s start with the first shot, when Travis is inside the car looking at Betsy’s office. The director used a medium close up of Travis and when Travis gets off from his car and walks toward the office, the camera pans right to reframe Travis walking in an extreme long shot and the camera also zooms in at the same time when Travis was about enter the office as seen in the pictures below:

Camera panning

After Travis enters the office, the camera follows him by tracking him as he walks. This camera movement makes the audience involved in the emotion of the character and also gives the audience the look of the situation there.

Shot3

Shot3

Then, it changed to Travis’ point of view. By using the point-of-view shot, it makes the audience feel of the actual events that Travis sees through his eyes. When Travis and Betsy are having a conversation. It is likely the other conversation scene, it used the reverse shot while they are talking. The director used eye-level angle which the camera is placed at betsy’s height so that it seems like Betsy is looking up when she talks to Travis.

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I think the shot in the right picture above is also categorised as a Low angle shot because it gives a dominant impression of Travis since he looks down while talking with Betsy. Another point is this conversation scene also follows the 180 degree rules where Travis is looking at the right of the screen and Betsy is looking at the left of the screen.

Simultaneously, over shoulder shot mixed with mid shot of Travis and close up shot of Betsy comes around the way of conversation which are the common type of shots in a conversation scene. The camera is placed behind Betsy and include Betsy’s shoulder and head within the frame. Same with the other characters, Travis, the camera is placed behind Travis and include Travis’s arms, as seen in the pictures above.  At this moment, I, as the audience, can feel their emotions and as the conversation becomes more personal, it keeps me involved in their conversation.

In this conversation scene, it also used a shallow focus in a close up shot of Betsy which creates a depth of field so that the audience can focus on the character itself and the audience can feels the emotion of the character and get more details of her experession.

Shallow focus

Scorsese also makes a lot of zooming in/out camera movement in this conversation scene. Sometimes too much zoom in/out will make the film becomes a bit awkward. However, I personally think it works in this scene and also looks great. It can be seen in shot 7, 8 and 10 the camera also slowly zooms in while Travis and Betsy are talking.

The other zooms out camera movement can be seen in these shots (18, 21) where the camera starts to slowly zooms out from a Close Up shot of Travis to Medium Close Up shot of him standing directly in front of Betsy’s desk.

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There is also another panning shot in the end of this scene, when Travis is waiting for Betsy to come out from her office, the camera pans Travis as he walks in front of the building, as seen in the pictures below:

To summarise, the use of different camera movement techniques and angles can create emotions to support the film and influence how the audience experiences the film.

 

Assignment 2| #4 Lenny Reflection

 

There are three stages that we’ve done in this Lenny project which are pre-production stage, production, and post-production stage. The following writing will expand more details about each of stages that we did.

Pre-Production Stage:

In Week 6, we were assigned in a group to do the Lenny shots. We have 4 groups in total and divided into 2 main production teams. My group consists of Chad, Shikha, Ramsha, Zexi and me. We started to discuss about the location, shot types, storyboard and listed all the properties we need (e.g. blood, the box).

We also decided the roles for the production, as seen below:

• Shikha   : Director
• Chad        : Director of Photography (DOP)
• Ramsha : Sound Operator
• Zexi           : First AD
• Veronica: Camera Operator

The pictures above are some of the storyboards that we created. Since we got the script where Lenny died, we tried to find the location that suited best to the scene. We went to check on several locations and took pics of them. Then, we came back to the class and discussed which location is the best. Then after we discussed, we decided to shot in Building 12 level 9. The wall is red which brings the mystery and suspense feels.

We also discussed about the outfits for both Lenny and Sharon. We thought if Lenny wear something light, the blood will stand out more.

We also printed out the shot lists and the shot schedule, as seen in the pictures below:

Pre-production -Shot schedule

Production:

In the production stage, we we were coming early to the campus to discuss further about the shots. After that, we went to the set/location which is Building 12 level 9. Then, all the crew members prepared all the equipments. We did not have the clapperboard but we managed to use a digital clapperboard from Chad’s phone. I was supposed to be the camera operator but I was doing the Sound and Boom Operator.

After all the equipments were ready, Zexi, who was the First AD, gave us direction to be ready by saying “Quite on set! We are ready for a take! Everybody standing by”. Once everyone was ready, First AD started to call “roll sound” and when I (Sound Operator)  was ready for it, I started to roll sound and said “rolling”. Then, followed by “roll camera” and the DOP, Chad, answered “rolling” means camera start recording. The DOP said “Slate in” then clapperboard in frame and the clapper, Aqua, said the all the details in the clapperboard, e.g. scene 1, shot 1, take 2 and then slapped it. Last, the director, Shikha, said “Action!”. After the director said “cut!” , we all stop recording.

We have 3 locations in total. First, inside the lift. Second, in the corner near the lift and Third, inside the emergency exits (stairs). Since we had a scene where Lenny was coming out from the lift and it was a bit hard to control the lift and people coming out/in. But, yea, we finally made it! We also had a difficulty while shooting in the third location which is the emergency stairs. Initially, we wanted to shoot the scene from the outside of the emergency stairs. But there was a shadow in the window. Therefore, we decided to shoot the film inside the emergency stairs. It was actually a bit dark but we adjusted the exposure on the camera so it was okay.

It was really exciting and we had so much fun doing this production. I learned so much from others that have more experienced in doing this production.  Everyone was doing a great job.

These are some photos that we took:

 

Post-Production:

In this stage, we all were working on with the footage that we took. We assembled and edited the footage. However, before we cut and put the footage together, we synced the audio and video by merging all the clips and the sounds together one by one. We did it in a group and merged based on clip markers. There was one clip that does not match with the sound but we tried to merge it based on the Audio. After we fixed it, we started to edit it individually. Sorting out all the footage was quite time consuming.

I created three different versions of Lenny project that can be seen below:

Version 1 :

Version 2 :

Version 3 :

At first, I edited the film without any sounds in it. But then, when I added some sounds it became more interesting to watch and the film became more intense because of the background music. Then, in the first version I didn’t put the close up of blood shots because I was a bit confused where to put it. After I rewatch it again I think I might want to try to put the blood shots in the sequence. Therefore, I created the another versions  of Lenny and this actually turned out quite good compared to the first one. In the third version, I cut it differently where I put Sharon first in the first shot then followed by Lenny. I also did some color grading in all versions.

I created several bins in my Lenny project:

• Clip and Sound Sync contains of some audios (atmos, foley, and wild lines) and merged clips.
• Crap contains of some footages that I do not use.
• Final Version contains of the final version of my video.
• Music contains of several background musics.
• Originals contains of the original videos and sounds (before merge).
• Sequences contains of several sequences that I created.

Below is the screenshot of my project in Premiere:

Also, I created several sequences and I put it in one folder called Sequences. Therefore,  I can make several different versions for each scene. For example, if I edit my first scene but then I am not happy with the results and I want to try another technique, I can simply create a new sequence called Scene 1 version 2, and so on. Moreover, I created a bin called final that contains 4 different versions of the entire scene. It makes my project more organise and easier to edit.

Assignment 2 |#3 Prompt – Readings

3.1 Sound Design

While reading through the “Audio in media“ Book by Alten, S (1994, p. 5-12, p. 266-286), I realized that sometimes I am over-focused on the visual aspects of the film rather than the sound aspects. However, I found that this book suggested sound design actually plays a crucial part in filmmaking. Sound describes the actions that is going on in the film and it helps to build the mood in the film and guides the audience through the film. This book definitely expands my knowledge about the importance of sound design in a film. Here are two main points that I am interested in:

First point that caught my interest from this book is the silence in creating the sound design. Silent shot means there are no conversation between actors, thus it relies heavily on actors’ performance. The silence between words can help to create rhythm, contrast and power Alten (1994, p. 276). At first, I was wondering how the director could create some kind of rhythms which match each scene without making it feel awkward, because sometimes the use of silent shots could mess up the entire scene. But after I read this book, I believe that sometimes silence shot could be more powerful and expressive than conversations. “Silence was the most awesome sound that we could get”, Alten (1994, p. 276). Also, I have seen a scene where there is only silence and it was just a wonderful. It feels like the actors could communicate implicitly with some emotions.

What I also find interesting is the background music as one of the essential elements in creating sound design. Sound can be classified into three categories: music, sounds, and speech. I was particularly more interested in music than anything else. Linear sound provides melody and rhythm; simultaneous sound provides harmony and texture. (gatau cara paraphrase) According to Alten (1994, p. 276), music can establish locale, emphasize or intensify action, set pace, etc.

“Perhaps no other form of human communication is as effective as music in providing atmosphere, feeling, or mood.”

– Alten, S. Audio in media, (p. 276)

This quote reminds me of the La La Land scene that I used for the other prompt. I am in awe of all the song in La La Land film. Through the music, I can feel the emotions between actors and the ambience of the scene. For instance, when I listen to sad and mellow songs, I tend to feel down and the songs would remind me of the lowest points in my life. Whereas, when I listen to happy and cheerful songs, I would feel so much joy and grateful for my life. Thus, I believe that human perceive the emotional expression of the music itself.

In conclusion, this Audio in media“ Book by Alten, S proved for a very interesting read. There are many important aspects that should be considered in creating a good film, and sound aspect is one of them. I believe it is important to understand how a sound could actually create or boost an atmosphere to any settings.

3.2 Actor and Director

Actor and the Director (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.

‘The Director and The Actor’ article talks about the relationship between director and actor. Before reading this article, I was not aware of how complicated the relationship could be, especially when both are on the set. I thought each of them would simply know their work boundaries, which means actors would just act and directors would just direct. However, the argument on this articles, saying that their work is somewhat connected and might be overlapped, made me think a bit deeper of their actual relationship. Here are the two key points I got from the article:

For the actor’s side, this article mentioned that actors should only do what the scripts tell them to do and not overthink about the situation (camera position, angles, props on set, etc). I agree that the actors should focus more on how to bring the imagination alive, as the way actors pronounce the lines would greatly impact the overall performance of the character. However, I think sometimes the conversation itself is not enough to create the vibe of the situation. Whenever I watch a movie, TV series or anything similar to that, I would always notice the body language, eye contact and the subtle interactions between characters, because I think those features add more meaning to the scene. For actors to be able to master which movements are necessary for the scene, I believe they must know a little bit of how to position themselves for the cameras, similar to how directors know which angles to take. This does not mean actors need to know every directors’ knowledge, but just a little common practices would help both of them in working together for the particular scene.

For the director’s side, I read that sometimes directors are frustrated with actors because actors tend to want to control their space. I can understand how this feels because I think it is a common problem in working in teams. The article suggests that directors should be more patient with actors and try to guide them in directors’ direction in a refined manner. I completely agree with the author’s statement because I always do the same thing on my group member. I believe it would be easier to listen to what they have to say and if the ideas are not aligned with the purpose of the work, I would gently say that their ideas are great, however it would be better to think of other ideas as back-up plans. They would eventually reach to an idea that I had all along. This technique could be adapted in many different situation, including working with actors. Actors based their work on their imagination, so they would always come up with ideas which are sometimes great and sometimes not. In any way, if the actors’ ideas are better that the directors’ ideas, it would be a win-win situation for both.

To summarize, key points I got from the article are actors should have a common knowledge of how to control the scene vibe and directors should be more patient yet subtly persuasive on dealing with actors.

 

References:

Alten, S 1994, ‘Audio in media’, (p. 5-12, p. 266-286). Belmont: Wadsworth.

Mackendrick, A 2004, ‘On filmmaking: an introduction to the craft of the director’, London, Faber and Faber.

 

Assignment 2| #2 The Initiative Post

This post is for you to research and write on anything that interests you about media or film making. You might go to the library and get out a book and write about what intrigues you. You could do some shooting and editing then upload it your blog and reflect upon it. You could look at a scene from a film and deconstruct it. Anything….

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In week 8, we discussed about camera movements. This topics excites me since I have always wanted to know how to handle camera movements and learn to shoot in different angles. By doing some shooting experiment, I could do trials and errors to get the feel of the camera and I believe it could improve the way I shoot a scene.

I used to think that practicing by myself would be better, since I thought I am able to assess myself. So, what I do most of the time is I bring my small tripod with me and do the filming myself. However, I noticed that the clips that I took is not cinematic enough for me. So, I did research on google “How to make your film more cinematic?” Then, I found some articles that said by adding some effects in Premiere pro, it could brings some cinematic look to the videos. According to McAfee (2016), cinematography could be achieved by adding movement to the shot. After I read the articles, I thought it would be better for me to try it out rather than just reading it.

“You’ll never know until you try.” ― Davee Jones

In this video, I recorded myself walking along the beach. I used my tripod to attach my smartphone. Once I’ve done with the shootings, I watched all the footages and they were totally boring. Since it was a static video so there was no camera movement at all. In order to make it more dynamics, I tried to put some pan camera movement techniques by creating some key frames in Adobe Premiere Pro. So, it looks like the camera is panning up while I am walking. and also I tried panning right. I also put some cinematic black bars to create a cinematic look. Then, I added several footages and music to the video. Below is the edited version:

I personally think that the edited version is more dynamics compared to the original video and also by using camera movement in post production, it could improve my videos and makes my videos look a little bit more cinematic.

 

References:

McAfee, R 2016, How to be more creative with the camera: film and video tricks. Available from: https://blog.pond5.com/6604-how-to-be-more-creative-with-the-camera-film-and-video-tricks/. [4 May 2018].

 

 

Assignment 2| #1 The Shot Construction / Next Stage exercise

#1 The Shot Construction / Next Stage exercise 

These shot/takes should be synced up, topped and tailed and put in a sequence. Remember, these are not meant to be finished videos – they are just experiments. Then: Compress it and upload it to your google drive (that you created in Assignment 1) and paste a clickable hyperlink or embed it in your blog using these instructions. Compressing, Uploading & Embedding Video Files using Google Drive (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.

In week 8, we did some shot constructions experiment with our Lenny’s project. So, we tried to deconstruct some of Lenny’s shots by shooting multiple shots in one single shot. We also had to implement the motivated camera movements. For example, when Lenny walks across the lift and the camera follows the character by panning or tracking her. Because this is an experiment exercise, each of us had the opportunity to try shooting, which was a good way to learn about the shot construction and camera movement.

At first, I had no idea of how to shoot multiple shots in a single shot scene. This is a completely new area for me and unfortunately I ended up with terrible video. Since it was a handheld footage, the result of my video was shaky and totally unstable. However, after the discussion that I had with my group members and Paul regarding the footages that we took, I began to have more understanding about the motivated camera movements and the techniques as well. For example, in Chad’s footage, the camera follows Lenny as she collapses, which result in a shaky footage. Rather than the camera fell along side the actor, it is better for the camera to be ahead of the position, and the subject to fall into that frame if I am not mistaken.

We used several different camera angles and shot sizes as seen in the video above. When we compared all the footage we took, I personally think that by combining all shots together, which have different point of views, will create a more interesting scene. For instance, we can take the best shots of each person’s footage and try to combine it together as it contains more elaborate compositions. I also think that I should get some close up shot to capture more emotion and facial expression of the character.

Once we are done, we went to edit suites and looked at all the footages. I like the footages that the other members took. For instance, the footages that Chad and Ramsha took were quite stable compared to mine and also the way Zexi moved the camera was beautiful. I like the part where Sharon talks to Lenny and it becomes Over shoulder shot. However, there were some parts that could be improved and should be done correctly. For example, the part where Sharon walked away from Lenny and after that Lenny died, that could have been done better if we used some zooms out camera movement. As Sharon walks away from Lenny, the camera can start to zooms out and then come back to shoot Lenny (died). So we can see that there is a motivated camera movement.

I personally think that a moving camera gives more dynamic visual composition compared to static shots that we did previously. I also think that it would be better if I define where the camera will be and what or who I will shoot and prepare some camera movements equipments for the shots especially if I do a tracking shot in order to get smoother shots. Moreover, I need to practice more of shooting in continuous mode. By doing more practice, I will get more comfortable doing the shots and hopefully, the way I shoot the scene will be better than before.