Being away during the week that groups are being formed for the rest of semester projects isn’t the best thing in the world. Even though I didn’t really want to pursue making my film idea this semester, doesn’t mean I didn’t want to have any input on what I was doing for the remainder of the year.

I’m not saying that I didn’t want to work on Monaliza’s film pitch, but I did want to at least see what other possibilities I had with other people I don’t necessarily know or have worked with before.

The group I was put into for Monaliza’s film was with Isobell and Alexandra. The roles we are taking on are Monaliza as director, Isobell as 1st AD and editor, Alexandra as producer and me as cinematographer. I didn’t really want to work on camera, but I knew no one else was really keen on it, and I have quite a bit of experience with it, but not really on the Sony EX3.

I’m looking forward to seeing what we come up with as a group, but because of the nature of the observation/pitch we are working with, I don’t think that there is much progression to be made in terms of writing a script, but nonetheless excited.

Seeing a movie in cinema europa always ages me, I feel like I need to bring in a glass of wine or champagne into the cinema with me, and it seems like the couple next to us were thinking the same thing. After about the fifth trip back into the cinema, each trip returning with a glass of wine and an opened bottle of beer, I noticed that they were both quite drunk. They were talking for most of the movie, but with each glass and bottle they started to get louder. A woman in the row ahead started to get really agitated, which was quite evident when she would turn around and aggressively yell “SHH” with her finger in front of her mouth… like the already loud shh wasn’t enough to get the point across. The male of the couple wasn’t having any of it though, as he returned this with a “pipe down love”.

The film I would like to see produced out of this, would be to capture small scenes of conflict between strangers. I feel like everyone has their own story of when they were yelled at by a stranger, or when they told a driver to piss off when they were cut off. I think a series of short scenes of these sorts of ideas would work as quite a non-serious piece, and just something that can show how sometimes people just need to chill the fuck out.

I know that pitching your ideas to professional is like a very important thing in the media industry but it is honestly one of the most stressful things. But after Wednesday’s pitch sessions I was really happy to hear other people’s ideas and get feedback on mine. One of the main bits of feedback that I received was that I should make my idea into two or three separate films. I was considering doing the three scenes that I have in really different styles and lighting and breaking them up by not explaining transitions (sort of like in a play), but I never even considered doing them completely separate. I think this could really differentiate the mood and feel of each scene, and also gives me the opportunity to explore the emotions of each scenes/film more and how I can communicate that visually.

I didn’t quite understand what had happened at first. I was looking out of my car window, whilst waiting for the boom gates to come up, when I saw a bike fly into this tall white fence. I looked at the bike, still bouncing as it landed, and thought it was a completely normal thing to see. Someone probably just threw their bike, was one of my initial thoughts. Like ??? Who would throw a mountain bike at a fence like that? Who even could throw a mountain bike at a fence like that? This moment seemed like it lasted at least a minute, but a few seconds after I saw the bike, I saw a woman screaming as she jumped out of the passenger side of a white commodore, now with a hint of red. A young boy, still in his school uniform, laid on the corner of the gutter, unable to tell from my distance if he was moving or not.

The film

I’ve always been one to enjoy making a drama, something with a clear narrative, but with this observation, all I see is just a series of images. The moments after something incredibly shocking. There are moments in life where something bad just almost happens, and about an hour later you wonder, shit what would my life be like right now if that had have actually happened to me. There are moments straight after a horrible accident, where you are in this different world, not quite faced with reality yet. It would be very interesting to try and document those moments.

For exercise 4, we worked in small groups to recreate scenes in cinema. Both of the scenes we were referencing were of a drama layout, so this meant that the roles we would work with were: actors (2&3), camera operator, sound recordist, boom operator and a director.

Reference scene A:
L’amour l’apres-midi
(Love in the Afternoon, 1972)
Dir. Eric Rohmer

For this scene, I worked on camera. Because the scene was just one shot, and a relatively short scene, it wasn’t a very difficult task, but it was interesting to note the movement of the camera during the scene, as it was often motivated by the movement in the scene by the blocking of the actors. With editing this scene, there wasn’t ever going to be much variation between group members, because it was just a single shot, but I do regret not experimenting further than just using the original clip itself. Seeing the still above, I really wish I had have taken the time to do some colour correcting, because sometimes the camera just doesn’t do some colours justice. Sometimes just a boost in colour really does enhance the visuals of the scene. The audio recorded for the scene also worked well and I didn’t believe I needed to much with it in post.

Reference scene B:
Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008)
Dir. Woody Allen
Ph. Javier Aguirresarobe
Ed. Alisa Lepseiter

So the main issue in filming and editing this scene was with audio. I was the boom swinger on this task so I guess I take some of the blame. I also didn’t anticipate this problem, which I should have, so I didn’t allow myself the time to try and fix the audio in post. The audio in piece I edited just has the original audio, and it really is true when people say that audio makes or breaks a scene or a film. I also think that on the day, we thought we were quite pushed for time so we did rush this scene a little bit, so I think if we allowed ourselves to use more time, we would’ve sorted out issues like sound and possibly added in more of the camera angles that we had planned.

So when we actually went out in small groups to film some 30 second clips I was pretty apprehensive about how this would be an interesting learning exercise. Our group sort of decided to film with the visual theme of construction. This was mainly because it was right outside building 9 and the equipment was heavy to carry around, so it was out of mere convenience that we chose this, there weren’t many creative factors involved.

I’d noticed that during filming of different clips, we were filming both moments of construction without workers, and then lots of close ups of just the workers. It was like we were documenting human behaviour in such a non-human, mechanical, industrial environment.

Before editing, I didn’t really like the aesthetic of the clips we’d shot, but when I was looking through the folders of other groups, I found this clip shot from a distance (below), of this crane, zoomed in as much as the camera can. I think it was the colour of the blue sky, or maybe even the glowing white colours of the machine, but to me it had this dream-like quality. I bookended the rest of the clips with this image, and I personally think that it completely changes the feeling of the other clips.

I also made the choice to have the footage that included movement, not be back-to-back with other shots of movement. I think putting two moving shots together looks quite chaotic on screen, and because of the first shot and it’s dream like essence, I wanted to keep the full piece as calming as I could.

There was also another clip that I was quite mesmerised by. It was one of the zoomed shots of the construction workers, but it was this man hammering into steel. I think without the audio it works better because we don’t hear these loud bangs but just see this man really aggressively working. I also had the first shot proceed this shot because I think it works as a good juxtaposition between chaos and calmness.

So after finishing this exercise, I actually learnt quite a lot, and I realised that there really is a lot to think about and consider in this type of situation, putting together clips. I actually enjoyed editing it as well, so maybe I need to like chill and trust Robin more.

Original observation:
I was stuck in traffic driving home along Punt Road and while I was just static in amongst a long line of cars, I started to hear this loud yelling coming from the side of the road. I turned my music down and just watched this moment between these two people. A man and a woman were standing on the footpath outside a closed bar, and they both had their hands on this bike. Not in a way that looked like they were fighting over who got custody over it, but more so just leaning on it. This seemed so strange to me because they were yelling at each other incredibly, but still had their hands quite close together on this bike. They seemed still so intimate in such an aggressive engagement.

Film idea:
Instead of staying true to the observation itself, I want to just concentrate on the idea of conflict. I was thinking of going into the relationship and  conflict between a mother and a daughter, and show how life is often interrupted by these moments of conflict between people.

I want the film to be set very late at night or early in the morning, maybe 3am, with the weather being very hot, maybe 30 degrees, in this suburban setting. The girl is in her room trying to cool herself down by opening windows and turning on fans. She starts to walk to the kitchen for a glass of cold water but can hear muttering coming from the dark of the kitchen. She turns the light on and sees her mum sitting alone on the small round kitchen table, with fallen empty bottles and dried tears on her cheeks. She is very clearly still drunk. I wanted to write quite an emotionally abusive dialogue here coming from the mother towards her daughter. I want it to be very one sided, so all the dialogue is from the mother.

So the monologue is given without the mother realising in her head that it is actually her daughter that is in the room with her. She talks about how she blames her daughter for her divorce, and how her life is ruined because she was burdened by an unwanted pregnancy. She could’ve been famous, she could’ve been extremely successful, but the birth of her only child ruined everything for her.

I don’t want to give too much context in the monologue, I want it to be sort of a voyeuristic experience. Like if you saw two people arguing in the street you wouldn’t know any of the details, you’d just sort pick up a few bits and pieces about the situation. So I don’t want the audience to know why the mother is like this, or how this all came to be, I just want to have implications in the dialogue.

I wanted to then follow this journey with the daughter, as she escapes the situation by climbing out of her bedroom window. She ends up at the local roller skating rink that she works at a few times a week. We have a scene of her standing in the middle of the rink, bare foot, swaying to the music playing. The lights are bright and colourful, with lots of movement. She has her eyes closed and her arms above her head. She is crying.

I think that even though there’s no dialogue in the second setting, I think that it would still be as filled with as much emotion as the first scene because it’s sort of this solitude after this tirade. She’s just alone in this usually packed environment and that in itself is kind of emotional. It’s kind of like for me, whenever I’m in like a schoolyard at night or on the weekend and it’s empty, I get this feeling of like melancholy. But I also wanted to exploit the duration in the roller rink, and have it a similar time but filled with nothing in comparison to the kitchen scene. Sort of to juxtapose it, in showing these different moments.

So the format of the piece doesn’t have a beginning and an end, I sort of want to treat it as just viewing these moments. The layout of production would be a normal drama pre production, production, post production format. I’ll need to focus a lot on finding good actors, and locations. But I think time would be the biggest factor of this project.

If I were to make the film inspired by my 12th observation, I think I would want to keep it very minimal and restrictive in setting. I want to treat this sort of as if I were to be writing and creating a play. I want the film to have just two settings; the house and the roller rink. I think the contrast of the action and emotion given in these two settings work in juxtaposition and would show great contrast.

A roller rink like the one above generally uses coloured lights and gives off a sort of 80s vibe which I really like and think it is a dramatisation of a happy setting and nostalgia. Whilst if I have the setting of the house in an old suburban house with little character and blue lighting then this would really show a contrast between happiness and misery.

Still from Snowtown (2011)

Robin shared the Thomas Hardy quote to me, “Happiness was but the occasional episode in a general drama of pain”, and I think the idea that I am working with is portraying this, maybe even visually using the locations and settings to show this.

After my last observation, I noticed that I’ve actually been concentrating more on noticing situations of conflict in public. I just think it is so interesting to get this quick glimpse into people’s lives through one encounter. I always feel so embarrassed when I am having similar situations in public because I feel like people are just watching and judging, but some people just seem to have no awareness of the people around them, watching this intimate quarrel.

I was stuck in traffic driving home along Punt Road and while I was just static in amongst a billion cars, I started to hear this loud yelling coming from the side of the road. I turned my music down and just watched this moment between these two people. A man and a woman wearing standing on the footpath outside a closed bar, and they both had their hands on this bike. Not in a way that looked like they were fighting over who got custody over it, but more so just leaning on it. This seemed so strange to me because they were yelling at each other incredibly, but still had their hands quite close together on this bike. They seemed still so intimate in such an aggressive engagement.

THE FILM

Instead of staying true to the observation itself, I want to just concentrate on conflict itself. I was thinking of going into the conflict between a mother and a daughter. I wanted to show this from the daughters perspective, and how life is often interrupted by these moments. I want the film to be set very late at night or early in the morning, maybe 3am, with the weather being very hot, maybe 30 degrees. Her bedroom is covered in pink items; clothes, furniture, wallpaper. The roo is lit with a pinky/red light. The girl is in her room trying to cool herself down by opening windows and turning on fans. She starts to walk to the kitchen for a glass of cold water but can hear muttering coming from the dark of the kitchen. She turns the light on and sees her mum sitting alone on the small round kitchen table, with fallen empty bottles and still wet tears on her cheeks. She is very clearly drunk. I wanted to write quite an emotionally abusive dialogue here coming from the mother towards her daughter, without her realising in her head that it is actually her daughter. She talks about how she blames her daughter for her divorce, and how her life is ruined because she was burdened by an unwanted pregnancy. She could’ve been famous, she could’ve been extremely successful, but the birth of her only child ruined everything for her. I wanted to them follow this emotional dialogue with the daughter visibly upset by this, and climbing out of her bedroom window. She ends up at the local roller skating rink that she works at a few times a week. We have a scene of her standing in the middle of the rink, bare foot, swaying to the music playing. The lights are bright and colourful, with lots of movement. She has her eyes closed and her arms above her head. She is crying.

I want to just make a film that is a bit dark in subject matter, and focuses on the fact that sometimes happiness is fleeting.