‘Gone Girl’ directed by David Fincher. 2014.

Medium Close up of a policeman starting the scene, suggesting to the audience that the action is taking place at a police station. This shot is the beginning of suggested cues for the audience to follow, in order to gain the greatest impact. The next shot is a medium shot of a female character, possibly a detective, positioned to the right of the frame, looking to the left, suggesting the position of the person she is talking to. Following this the audience sees a male character talking back, the one being interrogated, positioned to the left of frame, and looking to the right. Throughout this conversation that is taking place, it continues in this formation, which is a clear example of external composition. The shots are never the same, they are from different angles however from the same focal length. Having the different camera positions, allows the audience to see the room’s surroundings. There is an over the shoulder shot of the detective, where the camera is looking at the male character,and then one of the male character looking at the detective, giving cues to the audience that the conversation is happening primarily between these two characters. Having these different shots gives the scene some dynamics which intrigues the audience. There are sharp cuts which you would expect in an interview/interrogation scene. There are some medium shots of the detective which gives the audience a quick look at her taking notes, showing another feature of an interview. There is symmetry shown in all of the shots, which is aesthetically appealing even if the audience doesn’t recognise this. The final shots of the scene show all three of the characters sitting around the table, which is important because the audience needs to see all of their expressions and body movements after the intense conversation. The shot then cuts to the male character leaving the room and entering another, and the character follows this movement, while having the other two talking in the foreground of the frame. This suggests the importance of the investigators compared to the male character. He is still in shot, but is shown by himself, with a wall in between them. This individualising is shown throughout the whole scene, by having the male character by himself at one end of the table, while the other two characters are at the other end. This action alone suggests that he is the odd one out. All of the elements put him in the center of the scene, allowing the audience to create expectations that he is on a different level.

Week 9 focused on lighting, and how it affects a specific shot. In groups we experimented with natural and unnatural lighting with reflector boards in a dark room. It was about getting the correct lighting for the scene being created, and the mood we were trying to convey. Paul demonstrated how the offside of the face should be lit, not the side facing the camera, as the back lighting highlights the actor and their facial features; whereas if the front side is lit more, the actor would get lost within the background, and the detail in the face would be non-existent. In this class I understood that lighting plays an important part in creating the atmosphere of a shot. Where the light is directed and the amount of light given, can determine the meaning the audience interprets.

Types of lighting:

-Back Lighting: Comes from behind the character, and makes them stand out more.

-Key and Fill Lighting: Main light source that is within a particular scene, that is usually directed on the character.

-Under-lighting: Light comes from under the character.

-Top-lighting: Light comes from above the character.

-Side-lighting: Light comes from the side of the screen.

With these lighting methods, in class we used reflector boards, one white and one black. My group was beside a window, so we used the natural light whilst using the black reflector board on the other side of the character. This meant that half of the face was lit, and the other was in complete darkness. This showed me how lighting has a significant impact on a scene and how the audience interprets the characters’ story as well.

Week 8 focused on the technical aspects of filmmaking, through the elements of the camera. We went through various exercises that were specific to Focal Length, Focus, Exposure, Neutral Density, Gain, and White Balance. All of these were vague to me before this week, so all of this information has had a significant impact on my filmmaking. Getting all of these aspects right is crucial to scene coverage, and can be the thing either makes a scene great or not so great. In groups we went through the features of the camera and figured out how to set up a camera for a shoot. With exposure you had to work with Zebra patterns that came up on the screen; the more zebra patterns there are, the more exposed the shot is. What you want to aim for is to have the tiniest of zebra patterning on the object in focus, in our case, someone’s face. From class discussion I understood what the difference between focal length and focus is on camera. Focal length is how far the front element is from sensor, for example wide or close, and the distance that the subject is just focus or focal point (when they’re in focus). The main focus however was on focus pulling; this involves changing the focus of the shot while the camera is moving and recording. This proved difficult, and time consuming as you have to work out individual points within the shot, as to where to re-focus the object/person. Each point is then marked with tape on the camera, so that when the cameraman hits record, the camera puller knows when and where to adjust the focus in relation to the movement of the shot. This to me, was the highlight of the week, and it is something that makes a great shot a perfect one. All of these techniques are what I will focus on, along with framing in my filmmaking which leads on to further research in my method of working.

The feedback that I received from my presentation was to watch more films and analyse scenes, so that I can gather a greater understanding of framing and the coverage of a scene; and also to go back to the car park where I created my ‘Weekend Scene’, and re-shoot this. The feedback also included trying more than one script in the same location, keeping as many variables constant as possible.

From here I have put together an outline towards my goal for the rest of the semester. Starting from the weekend of the 25th of April I will begin to analyse more scenes within films, and form a sufficient amount of research, that will be evident in the scenes that I wish to create. Throughout the week I will be planning my scene that I wish to shoot on the weekends. The weekend of the 2nd of May I will be re-shooting the car park scene, and reflecting upon this as a part of my research into my method of working, demonstrating what I have learnt thus far.

Every week after this I will hopefully be digging deeper into the coverage of a scene through framing – which was a goal outlined in my presentation – and creating a scene every weekend and reflecting upon it. The reflection part is what will interest my the most, seeing how far I have come, all by learning from practice. This excites me, and from here I can execute the basics to a standard that I personally am happy with, and start looking at other ways outside of the box.

The weekdays will be the time to plan for the productions, and to understand what I will be doing, how I will be doing it, and why it will be done that way. I will also be editing my shoots in the early stages of the week. All of this will be posted here on my blog, so that I can document my journey.

This week’s class focused on the class proposal that will be presented at the end of Week 7. We had individual feedback and were guided in the right direction and were given tips on how we can go about the rest of the semester, adding to our Method of Working. We were sitting at tables and everyone was interacting, talking about their investigations and helping one another with any queries that came up. From talking amongst each other I discovered what I can do as another investigation, and that is direct a scene from both a script and prose that another student will write. Natalie is a screenwriter and her investigation is about comparing how she goes directing her own work in relation to how she directs someone else’s, and then how someone else directs her work; this person being me. This will be an investigation that will benefit my method of working as I am interpreting someone else’s work, and deconstructing it the way I think best suits. I will be using my investigations that I have done so far to help with this process, and to further my knowledge on my personal style and knowledge in the area of coverage and framing.