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. 
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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.)