Practising with my new Camera

I bought a Canon 1100D DSLR for when I go to South Africa in August to be able to shoot some footage of my first overseas so I decided to have a little play.

I used my cat Isis (after the Egyptian Goddess not the terrorist group) as my subject.

The first image I took was on my 50 mm lens. I didn't really like it much due to the wideness and also the lighting.

So I swung a lens, changed to the 300 mm lens and opened the curtains behind the beautiful Isis and I liked this shot a lot more. She was radiant.

Gearing Up for My Filmed Drama Script

Throughout this process I have confirmed to myself that I am a terrible artist. At least with a pencil.
I have been drawing storyboards for my classmates short film script; "Second Chance." It is about a young girl who is driven to the brink by terrible experiences in her recent pass, she feels she can not cope, but at the last minute, before plunging herself into the dark abyss, she is saved by the memories of her friend. I will be attempting to portray the agony of the young woman tastefully and sophisticatedly in order to not diminish the people who have been through similar experiences.

Viewer/Reader discretion advised. R18

These are my storyboards:

01 - This page demonstrates a wide of the scene that runs through the entirety of the script. It also shows the first couple of close ups and a mid shot.

02 - This shows the beginning and end of a dolly track shot  which occurs just before the girl goes into a flash back which is scene 2.

03 - Scene 2 is made up of close ups and mids while the girl is cutting her wrist. The last shot on this page is back in scene one, the flashback is finished.

04 - Another flashback begins which is a Rape Scene. In which the I was trying to show how scared the girl is at this time and went for a lot of follow shots of the rapist. I also want to shoot this scene tastefully and therefore am limiting the shots to mostly minor touching and her body language reactions.

05 - The first 3 shots on this page are a continuation of that scene then it moves back to scene one in the fourth shot.

 06 - The first shot is incorrect, it is much more likely to be a lot closer. It will focus on her legs as she grabs the table. Then the next three shots are in another flashback scene. I am terrible at drawing perspective so please bear in mind that the second shot on this page is not supposed to be a high angle. Also, in the fourth shot, they are not cuddling, he has grabbed her viciously. 07 - The flashback scene continues, the man is beating the woman, kicking her in the guts. If the ground is wet we will option this out for her being punched up against a wall. The third shot is her reaction as he walks away. In the fourth shot it is scene 1 again, she has put the noose around her neck. 08 -The top shot of this scene is the rope snapping taut, it is interchangeable with the next shot which is her kicking the chair out from under her. The rest of the script is likely to be cut for my first assignment due to lack of time. I would like to shoot them at a later date. Due to this, the script will end with the girl actually committing suicide. 
09 -

10 -

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12 -

I have decided to shoot pretty much all of this hand held to intensify the drama of the scene and make the action more personal. I hope that everything comes across right in my final project.

High and Low Key Lighting

Recently we were set a task to blog about films that utilise High Key or Low Key lighting however due to me wanting to work on Television Series when I graduate I decided to look at Television Series that use these techniques.

From my understanding high key lighting is "a style of lighting for film, television, or photography that aims to reduce the lighting ratio present in the scene. This was originally done partly for technological reasons, since early film and television did not deal well with high contrast ratios, but now is used to suggest an upbeat mood" (Wikipedia) and low key lighting is "a necessary element in creating a chiaroscuro effect. Traditional photographic lighting, three-point lighting uses a key light, a fill light, and a back light for illumination. Low-key lighting often uses only one key light, optionally controlled with a fill light or a simple reflector.
Low key light accentuates the contours of an object by throwing areas into shade while a fill light or reflector may illuminate the shadow areas to control contrast." (Wikipedia)

The example of high key lighting that I looked at was Outrageous Fortune:



Outrageous Fortune is a New Zealand comedy drama series. Comedy's are more commonly shot with High Key Lighting as they have a more 'upbeat' mood. As you can see here, there are hardly any shadows on the characters as they look into a cardboard box sent by Wolf, thinking something dangerous may be in there, however, it turns out that he has sent them a cake.

The example of low key lighting that I looked at was True Blood:



True Blood is a horror fantasy show which is full of dramatic and scary plot points. In this example here you can see there is a lot more shadow, Sookie's face is almost completely shaded except for a small rim light on the very front edge. Eric's face is half shaded with highlights on his shoulders. It is much more dramatic than the image from Outrageous Fortune.

The Walking Dead - Cinematography That I Love

I am an avid viewer of AMC's the Walking Dead and often I find myself drawn into the shots that are being shown. There are a few that are particular favourites of mine.

This is one:

It is a pull focus big close up which turns into this:

It is perfect for the scene of Sophia's death. It enhances the drama drawing the moment out and it is cinematically beautiful. I just cant get over this one.

This is another:



I like this one because of the lighting. It is incredibly dramatic, I like the lantern in the shot. The light is illuminating the cracks in the wall beautifully.

And lastly this one:



The Walking Dead is great for its Dutch angles, they enhance the fear of the character in dangerous situations. This one here is particularly great in my mind, with Rick falling into the foreground it accentuates the Dutch and the crowd in the background.

I hope to work on a Television Series in the future that requires such cinematic and dramatic shots. I want to write scripts that inspire cinematographers to create images such as these.

GENRE EXERCISE

My team which consisted of Lana, Sarah, and myself, were given the genre of Action and tasked to shoot a short in that style.

We made a little short called Curry Fighting. It was based around two men fighting over a takeaway curry and had an element of comedy to it as well.

We researched other action films and found that there were common cinematography elements to each of the action films. These were:

• Handheld
• Sweeping Pans
• Slow Motion
• High Shutter Speed
• Quick Cuts
• High Angles
• Low Angles

I decided to utilise these in my own way and this is what came out of it.

(The rest of the scene was shot by other students.)

JIMI: All Is By My Side - Review Week 2

JIMI: All Is By My Side



A drama based on Jimi Hendrix's life as he left New York City for London, where his career took off.
Director: John Ridley
Writer: John Ridley (screenplay)
Stars: André Benjamin, Hayley Atwell, Imogen Poots



This is one of the most interesting biographies I have seen in a while and not just because I didn't know much about Jimi Hendrix before I watched it but rather because the shooting style and editing choices made the film different and exciting.

First of all I would like to commend the team on the casting of Andre Benjamin as Jimi.
 

(Jimi)                                                                        (Andre as Jimi)

Not only do the two look very similar but Andre is also a very talented musician who played the songs throughout the live performances of the film. I have noticed that often productions have chosen to supply stardom to their biographies rather than to keep to the true look of the person they are supposed to be portraying. For example Dakota Fanning as Cherie Currie in The Runaways.


(Cherie)                                                            (Dakota as Cherie)

Though the hair and make up assists a lot in creating the image for her, the rest of the face shape of Cherie is actually more simlar to Kristen Stewarts, Dakota's co-star.

So I am glad that the production team chose to make the film more authentic rather than worrying about the name of which ever star they cast. The real star of this movie is supposed to be Jimi Hendrix and that is what this production has done by using Andre Benjamin.

Now to the actual film.

What I loved about the shooting style was that it seemed to keep in character with Jimi.

The camera seems to concentrate on the small things, during long pieces of dialogue such as in the beginning of the film where Jimi and Linda are discussing the stage name "Jimi James". The camera drifts over to the record player, which has no real importance in the scene but it leads the viewer to really listen to the dialogue between the two characters. I think this is perfect because Jimi as a person seemed to have some really profound things to say.

"If I could do things my way, I'd do that. Do something new, you know."

Another example is when Jimi and Linda see each other for the first time again in London. Where other films would have had this scene in a Two-Shot medium close up, the cinematographer chose to instead concentrate on their hands, clutching for the others in the most tender way.  They mute the dialogue and let the viewer concentrate on this tiny little interaction, really bringing everything down to earth.

Editing choices were also incredibly interesting in this film.

Often throughout the film, while a character can be heard speaking they can often be seen on screen not speaking but instead laughing, or lighting a cigarette. It gives the film a small feeling of a documentary. Jump cuts and the use of negative space is creating a feeling of truth throughout the film.

They lay scenes one over another. While Linda reads the review of the Jimi Hendrix experience, Jimi can be seen and heard arguing with his band mates. It creates some interest to what could have been a rather boring scene and the quick snipet jump cuts involved keep it really exciting. Yet another example of some documentary style editing with a twist. 

All in all I really enjoyed the film and found it quite different from others before it to watch because of its style, casting, and editing.

Cinematography. 17/02/2014 Notes and Brainstorming

Filmed Drama Project. Green = Further Developed

Green Idea’s elaborated on:

11     A woman wakes up in a dirty basement chained to the wall and wearing very little. She doesn’t know why she is there. A mysterious hooded figure enters sporadically throughout, leaving her with clues as to why she has been kidnapped. She has done something, or seen something done and chosen not to act on it in her past which is linked to her kidnapper. Dun dun dun.

22     A man wakes up in bed next to a woman looking very hungover and confused. He goes to quietly climb out of bed and sneak away but upon searching for his clothes discovers he is actually in his own room. The woman wakes up just as confused as he is. They spend the morning discovering who the other person is. She might be a cougar who has accidentally slept with one of her son’s friends???

33  The main character has lost his young daughter in a drink driving accident caused by someone else. This has driven him to become an alcoholic himself but he is in denial. He is also the councillor to an Alcoholic’s Anonymous group trying to hide his secret. One of the members is very quiet and he has been trying to get this member to open up. The member refuses but finds the man in a drunken stupor one night and ends up revealing that he was the drunk driver in the man’s daughter’s car accident…

These are some possible idea’s for my short film in my cinematography class. They all need work and I am hoping to have selected one by next week and have a working synopsis and character outline by then.