During the weekend, I shot the scene of ‘You are a difficult guy’. During this practice, I found the importance of setting, lighting, framing, also the connection between dialogue and acting, communication.

We shot it in my friend’s living room. Before shooting, I did some changes on the original setting of the living room. For example, I moved the sofa a bit closer to the bookcase to get them both in the frame. Also I made sure that the angle of setting the sofa make audience can see actors’ movements and expression clearly, giving audience a looking space. The piano in the background was a bit awkward though.

About lighting, the sunlight is always tricky for shooting, so I shut the curtain half way to make it a bit bright, not too bright. And then I turn on the light of living room to make the room light more balanced. When I did the white balance, I used the wall to be the background. So the entire color is bit beige because of white balance and the lights. I think it is a good color for a living room and a casual atmosphere. At the beginning, pictures are a little bit out of focus, I forgot to do a focus at first two takes.

About framing, I think I did a pretty good framing in this scene. When I was shooting, I always keeps that in mind. When zooming out and in, always keeps the frame still. Also, I was careful about the angle of actors looking at each other, made sure they are same angles in different shot size and location. When I shot the dialogue between them two, I gave them both a middle close up shot, but kept the other out of the frame. When editing, I realized that maybe it will looks better if the they are both a little bit in the frame when the other is talking, like just showing a little bit of shoulder, to acknowledge audiences their relationship and connection better. But no big influence I think.

This ides just came up to me when I editing. I was think of the found scene of week6, in the scene of restaurant, audience first heard the voice of them two, then camera start panning around, finally audience saw the characters. To establish the connection between two characters, I changed the scrip a little bit. Instead of sitting next to Esteban, Roger walked around a little bit. camera started panning at the beginning, Esteban was in the frame, then Roger appeared in the frame when panning. Then she started talking when she appeared in the frame. I think it will be better she starts talking immediately after shooting, and then she appears in the frame. To achieve that, I can shot the voice and the movements separately. For the movement, I can shot lots of Roger walking around (shoot-to-edit) and then do some editing after.