Multimedia Journalist
Assignment 2 - In-class Exercises
Week 2 - The Chase!
The intention was a short chase scene finishing with a change in shooting style / transition. We started hand-held, giving a sense of urgency and action, but kepot the mood light and fun. The final shot switched to a long, stable shot on a tripod and dolly to signify a transition within the main character no longer feeling threatened. Acting, I advised with blocking, story elements, shot choice and use of equipment, but mostly let the other members of the team experiment and make the final creative decisions. We could have been more inventive with shot choices, expecially on the stairs, and used a few more cutaways.
Week 3 - Lighting
The aim was to create a basic three-point lighting setup and then experiment with single point light sources, including a reflector. We aimed to be experimental, trying various different dramatic noir style lighting designs using a mixture of direct point sources and diffused panels. The noir setups were often lit fropkm the far side of the subject to create highlights and shape while maintaining mystery and darkness. Our intention for the lighting change was for a curtain to be opened and warm light coming in, so set the colour temperature to 3200 and had a team member turned the light on with the actor's hands out of frame. It worked ok, but still seemed a bit fake and needed to be more of a vertical line of light.
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The three-point lighting setup wasn't achieved very well, with too much fill. This was due to the bleeding of other groups nearby using strong single point sources in our direction in a shared space, washing out the shape. This bleeding was also an issue on some of the single point setups. We could have brightened our lights and stopped down, but were keen to continue. We could also have experimented with some more unique angles with the single point source.
Week 5 - Blocking and Coverage
The Game was an activity to explore camera setups and action lines to create an adversarial card game sequence. The intention was to block the scene to minimise camera setups needed for coverage, but block a variety of angles to increase tension. We planned to use angles to suggest an intimate space and then subvert that with a humorous twist. Filming each character individually each setup covered the entire scene to give sufficient coverage for the editor. Working with only two lights meant resetting the lights along with the camera, creating creative challenges, such as for the wide shot. There could have been more setups to explore the angles for each character and better create tension, but we had to relocate our shoot from one studio to another due to a class, eating up a fair bit of time packing down, finding a new location, and setting up. This had the benefit of making the team think fast on iots feet and work together to move, and plan on how best to block the rest of the shots in a new space without breaking continuity.
Week 7 - Acting
Having had extensive experience working with and directing actors, this for me was an activity aimed primarily at teaching and assisting my fellow students. The second activity was about guiding the actors only by providing intention, or motivation, and it took a while before they understood the intention of the activity. Through the initial attempts they kept directing the actors on what actions to perform, so I guided them to only give objectives and let the actors decide the actions needed to meet those objectives. These were often in conflict with each other, but not always. The scene from The Godfather was done without dialogue to test how body language can convey meaning, and with each take we got better. (I didn't get the assets so I didn't get the chance to do a better edit.) While we're not actors, going through the process helped to develop a better understanding of what actors need from a director, and why its so important to provide character motivation and communicate clearly with intent.
Week 8 - Piss Take (producing)
A producing activity that had many tasks shared between the group. In week 7 locations were found and organised, along with an actor (a UNSW Academic). The shoot was designed to move fast across multiple locations, making sure our blocking and rehearsals were done quickly to remain on schedule. We chose to go hand-held both for speed and style. Two pre-approved locations fell through on the day. One was a reception desk, meaning we had to move quickly to find an alternate location with permission. The second was the sink area, which was populated with people. We found an alternate kitchen and managed to wrap the shoot on time. We also made small changes to the script to make it our own.
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We fell behind schedule in the earlier parts of the shoot, so we needed to better manage our time overall, especially once the later locations fell through. We only clawed it back by dropping shots near the end (as happens).