After the in class attempt at filming a short drama between two brothers I wrote something else to shoot. The night (after I wrote it) I saw a scene from ‘Inside Llewyn Davis’ which seemed simple and looked really nice, so I (shot for shot) tried to replicate it-In the end I included a few different shots so this didn’t end up really happening.
At the bottom script I have evidence of this correlation before shooting.
The Retirement
The two characters are walking through a park; I have a tracking medium shot. The manager is a couple of steps behind the player, trying to keep up.
Manager: $200,000 for one game, all you have to do is walk out on the pitch and hit around a piece of leather – you’re good at it.
Player: No
Manager: Really? (surprised/annoyed)
Player: I’m not playing the game (flippantly)
Manager: Did I mention the $200,000 bit? (hopefully, inquisitively)
Player: Yeah you mentioned it and then I said no (calmly)
Manager: Do I have to go through this ritual every time I ask you to play a game. $200,000 is on the table. How could you refuse that? (warmly, melodically)
Player: I’ve got enough money, I don’t need any more. (Bitterly)And I’d rather not earn $200,000 than watch a bunch of younger, fitter players be better than me.
Manager: You’ve made over 4000 test runs, no one out there is going to better to you.
(silence occurs, player looks grumpy)
Manager: Name one player out there who is going to be better than you?
Player: That Robinson kid bowls 150 kilometres an hour and swings it a mile- I don’t stand a chance
Manager: Only if you think like that
Player: He bowls at 150 kilometres an hour.
Manager: I don’t care if he sleeps in a tub of margarine, whilst crooning Betty Davis numbers to the coaches wife-you are playing the test.
The Two Sit down on a park bench.
Player (sympathetically/intimately): Frank let me be frank, My time is up, there are younger, better players out there, the game has outgrown me. It’s too quick nowadays, I just can’t keep up.
Manager (sighs sympathetically): What do I care? If you don’t want to play the test I can’t make you do it. (resigning to the fact)
Player (grinning, being charming): This is why you’re a great manager
Manager (falling for the charm): Don’t ‘This is why you’re a great manager’ me. You’re a terrible client you know that.
Player: I know.
Manager: So whats next? Aren’t you at that stage in your career when you start writing the autobiography?
Player: Give me six months and I will be.
(manager lets off a wry smile, a pause occurs)
Player: I do think this is the end though. I’ve had a good run
Manager: You’ve had a great run.
Manager: (grinning and laughing) I still remember that century you hit at The Gabba, right in the very beginning, I tell you what I couldn’t believe my eyes, I couldn’t believe I was managing a player from the Australian Cricket Team. You should’ve seen my Mum and Dad, as proud as punch they were. How many runs did you make in that game again?
Player: 183
Manager: That’s my boy
There is a shot of the two players on the bench looking out across the parklands.
THE END.
Basically, this should go for just 3 minutes.
Inside Llewyn Davis, Llewyns and Jeans scene. Scene 21 -24mins. I really liked the way the Coen Brothers shot this scene, it was quite intimate because they focused on the faces of the two central characters. I also liked the hand, held tracking shot of Jean and Llewyn walking to bench past the fountain, it feels as though, even though it is quite a simple scene to shoot, the Coen’s leave no blank space on the screen, and that every image has a purpose. I feel as though in terms of recording character interaction and narrative, shooting a scene in a similar nature to this can give me much needed practice and experience, as well as confidence after my not so great footage from class. It will also mean I will have to set up the camera all by myself and get all the technicalities right on the camera as well as correct compositions.