Grindleford Shoot + My shots

Today we went to Grindleford and shot the sequence we had planned previously. We discussed the whole narrative through once again as a group the day before and did detailed plans of what shots/sequences we individually wanted to film. I chose the start of the POV sequence in Grindleford to plan as well as the long take in the studio. The POV sequence is what we filmed today and it began with a mid shot of a stone bench with the thief walking into shot and looking around. It then cuts to a close up of his face looking just above camera which then cuts to an over the shoulder of the bag in the thief's hands. Then it cuts to the same mid shot of the thief from before looking from side to side which then transitions into a close up of him looking slowly over his shoulder. This then cuts to a first person POV of the person following him on top of the hill behind him. It will then cut back to the same close up of him looking back around and then to a mid shot of him walking quickly off. Here is the storyboard I completed to show this sequence visually:

To make the most of our time and so I didn't have to keep setting up after each little shot, I decided to do a run through of the scene at all the camera angles (minus the first person POV of the hill) before re-positioning and this worked very effectively as it allowed me to view the action at different angles which may effect the position or frequency of each shot.

Here are some stills from the footage recorded today:

I think the shots came out as I planned them to up to a point, due to the storyboarding and advanced planning that went into them, however the thing we couldn't control was the light coverage, which kept changing in between shots which proved problematic when adjusting the exposure on the camera. We originally wrote down the F value for the opening shots to keep it as close to that as possible when changing angles, however this became irrelevant when the sun kept dipping in and out of clouds all day. What we should have done in hindsight is used the reflector and possibly a flag to control the light as much as possible during the sequence. Overall though, I am happy the way this small sequence turned out and how in uses POV to add to the drama of the narrative.

Film Plan

We met up a number of times to plan for going out and shooting the film where we planned each of our shots, contributed to the narrative and organised what we would need to do when. The narrative was a big part of the discussion as we needed it to be clear and solid in order to plan shots effectively, so we eventually decided to make the film about a kleptomaniac who is seen stealing something and followed back to where they hoard all of the objects they have stolen. We want to start the film in the university studio after a shoot and have the main character, the thief, steal a camera bag from it but is seen by another person. The thief then leaves the studio and is followed to a forest (Grindleford) where he realises the other person is onto him and tries to lose them. When he does, he goes to where he keeps all of the items he has stolen and leaves again to carry on his 'spree'.
Although the narrative isn't very deep or tight, we all agreed that this would be a very effective way of addressing all the cinematography elements in a short film, without over complicating the story making it too hard to follow and too much work to complete given our time limit. Also, we are not marked on sound, our group has decided to use no dialogue in the film, so the simple narrative aids this decision as the story is quite easy to understand without the help of speech.

First draft of Narrative Plan

Addressing the different elements
After discussing and finalising our narrative, we began planning how we would incorporate each cinematography element into the film and where we would use them.

• Colour - We needed to use colour as a narrative and symbolic element at some point during the film. We thought about using the object that the thief steals as the main colour element for a while, but then decided to use it along side another just because we would have to frame every shot to get the camera bag in which could prove problematic when doing the POV sequence, so we thought we would have the thief wearing a red hoodie. This is symbolic of not only the thief being a danger to society by braking the law, but also that he is the one in danger by being almost caught. The camera bag is black with a little bit of red on, and this is symbolic of mystery and incognito in terms of the thief not wanting people to know that he has stolen it.
• POV - We needed to have a 2 minute long sequence that favours the point of view of the non-active participant, which is the person being followed (the thief). We thought planned this sequence to be in the forests surrounding Grindleford to show the thief's realisation that he is being followed and the panic it causes. To do this we're using a mixture of shots and a lot that surround a three step pov sequence that I mention in a previous post. This is where the first shot shows the characters eyeline in third person restricted POV, then an over the shoulder, first person or modified subjective of the direction of the eyeline, then a final shot of the character, normally close up of them, with a modified subjective of the direction they are still looking in.
• Lighting - We need an internal and external example of a lighting change used as a narrative device. For our external change we are going to use a reflector to show the symbolic change of emotional joy when the thief sees all the items he has hoarded. For the internal change we are going to use the thief escaping the crime scene through a dark corridor into the light which is symbolic of freedom, but also shows the narrative progressing into a different space (from one location to the next).
• Sequence shot - We need to plan a sequence shot/long take. We have already planned a few of these but the main one we will use is the opening shot in the studio where we will have a wide of everyone packing up after the shoot and in the centre of the frame, have the thief steal the camera bag and walking off shot followed closely by the person that sees him and follows him out. We have taken influence from Michael Haneke with this shot as he frequently uses long takes with important actions occurring within them as a method of making the audience actively search for the action in scene abolishing the passive audience watching of films.

 Here is the rough shot list we created after discussing both the narrative and the elements to include within it and how to realise this into a film.

Seminar Shoot with Sound Group

Today's seminar we worked with the sound students and two actors to shoot a small scene we have be looking at in previous weeks. As with the CPR shoot, our roles today were to set up lighting and compose different shots in front of a green screen after planning them in previous weeks as a group. The script that we were given was as follows:

Our group took a while to get our head around some of the narrative in the script as it seemed as though some dialogue or connection had been taking out to join the parts together. However we still planned a rough shot list with the script and how we would run through the sequence as once again we would only have 40 minutes to film all our shots. Our group decided that we would run the whole scene through from 4 different compositions to start with and then look at the closer details e.g close ups. First of all the set up we wanted was, as mentioned in the script, to have 3 pools of light separate from one another of for the whole scene to be acted out in one of these pools. To do this we set up 3 dado's high up on stands, attached to a grip that put them almost directly over the actors.

Due to time and lack of numbers, we joined by helping out another group in the technical side of things by setting up lights, reflectors and directing the actors. In this seminar I learnt the importance to be constantly making notes when filming so you can record what iris you used, the focus, zoom length, white balance e.t.c so when it comes to editing you can have as much information as possible to aid you when it comes to post-production. Also having a storyboard and/or a shot list can really help out when time becomes an issue during a shoot because you always have something to work with to guide you if you get off track.

Seminar shoot with CPR group

In today's seminar we worked with the Creative Production Realisation group to shoot their sets that they had been constructing for the majority of this semester. Our roles were to think about lighting, shot composition and framing when trying to achieve what they wanted to convey with their script/visuals. We were only given a short time to get an understanding of the scene we were meant to shoot with our group due to communication issues but their director had a very clear idea of what needed to be done so the instructions we were given were very precise and clear. The camera we shot on was the Canon XF100 which we had only used once before which was a small issue at the start when setting it up, but we quickly adapted to it and managed to set it up correctly. We also had a set of three dado lights and one keno for lighting the set which was ample to create the effect that the CPR group wanted.

We positioned the lights to create heavy shadows on the sides of the set which contained a bookshelf with a variety of items on, and a table also with a variety of items on. We had two dado's with minimum fill at a medium-high angle about 45° from the subject with a medium intensity to give the desired shadow on the backdrop. We used the Keno to give the whole set a dull fill by placing it far back at a high angle on a low intensity. We kept moving the final dado around depending on where the actor was in the shot and to make sure it wasn't over or under exposed and to create a sharp shadow on the wall behind him. We also had to light a green screen in the final few shots which required us to move one of the dado's behind the set and position it so it covered all of the screen at a bright intensity.

Floor plan

 Due to the 40 minute turn over time we had to complete the whole scene, the whole process was very rushed and that combined with the small amount of time we had to look over and discuss the shot list meant we weren't as helpful as we possibly could have been. The CPR group however had a very clear idea of what they wanted to accomplish, so they took charge with most of the set up and we just did the technical side of things. The first couple of shots allowed us to really consider the framing and exposure with lighting but due to the rapid turn-over time, we couldn't maintain this level of precision throughout the whole time we had which meant the second half of the scene was very rushed with little attention to detail (e.g. exposure and focus).

Setting up lights. Source: Jay Burgoyne http://creativesem1.blogspot.co.uk/

What I have learnt from this process is that to complete another persons film shot for shot how they want it to be, you need to be given the script or directors notes as soon as possible to allow you to create a story board or personal shot list with carefully considered compositions instead of having to rush it and improvise everything. The time limit was also a big learning curve as it showed be the pressure of working under a strict production time limit as well as being in a studio environment.

Grindleford Recce

Yesterday, our group went to Grindleford to recce the specific area(s) we would want to shoot our 2 minute POV sequence for our film. In this sequence we all need to produce at least 2 shots each that show the 'non-active participant's' point of view. We already had a specific location in mind that could be potentially used for our sequence which contained a varied scenery which we could use to make our sequence varied, visually aesthetic and powerful.

The variety of different scenery, woodland, winding paths, bridges and rivers means we have a lot to work with and which could really add to the aesthetics of the sequence. We are meeting as a group next Wednesday to discuss exactly what direction to go in with regards to the narrative and the shot list we will work from. We have preliminarily discussed that we don't want to make the narrative to serious as it could be cliché or cheesy, so we want to head in a more comedic and playful direction to try and create something that isn't done frequently.