ASSIGNMENT 3:
- Submission of Videos and Reflection
- Deconstruction of a Scene
- Development of Ideas
- Colour Grading
Color Grading
Let me preface by stating that I am terrible at color grading because my eyes are terrible. I understand its importance in making sure that the image looks more vibrant and has depth, but good LORD am I terrible. I oversaturate my images, and tend not to notice until the very end. I do have a rudimentary understanding of certain principles (e.g. you want your blacks to be as black as black can be because it creates depth in the image), but in general am terrible at this.
#1
This is a laboratory scene, and so I wanted to see what moods I could evoke by changing the colours of the scene. The image without any colour grading is top left. It looks somewhat saturated but has naturalistic lighting. I would say there’s no general mood in its current state. However, the image can take on different undertones depending on the lighting alone; this is shown the three edits, which cover a general spectrum from horror to drama to even romance.
Top Right: I wanted to emphasise the shadows in the scene and make it look eerie to evoke a horror movie. There is also stronger saturation and contrast to try and make the image harsher and more distorted.
Bottom Right: I wanted to emphasise the sterility and coldness of the laboratory, so I adjusted the temperature and tint. I also increased the whites and lowered the highlights in the colour grading to try and make the laboratory look cooler. This colour grading would be appropriate for perhaps a drama, or a serious naturalistic scene.
Bottom Left: I adjusted the temperature to be warmer, and adjusted the saturation and blacks to make the image warmer and more colourful. Emily’s red hair stands out the most in this scene, as does the little splashes of blue dotting the laboratory. I also added a slight pink tint to this image. This is the most romantic of all the images due to its warm colours.
#2
In this scene, a body is being dragged out of frame. No matter what type of colour grading I put on it, the image itself still is somewhat disturbing as it is a limp body being dragged offscreen. Instead, I chose to try and explore small little changes in my colour grading.
Top Right: this image is essentially the smallest of changes as opposed to the other two. I did not change the temperature or the tint, but instead adjusted the saturation, increased the contrast and the blacks, and lowered the highlights, shadows, and whites. This image can be thought of as a colour grading which gives more depth to the image than if it weren’t colour graded.
Bottom Right: this image is the warmest of all the images. I adjusted the temperature and the tint, lowered the blacks, increased the saturation slightly, and increased the whites. I wanted a warmer image for no particular reason (again, colour grading won’t affect the tone of the image), and I feel the warmer feeling makes the image feel like it was taking place in the summer if anything at all.
Bottom Left: this image has the most shadows but also lowers the saturation and adds a slight tint and increases the temperature. The image is a lot colder and harsher as a result, and of all the colour adjustments, best reflects what can be inferred as a darker tone. It’s interesting to note that this image is the least different from the original without the grading.
#3
This was the hardest to colour grade because the original image (Top Left) is already really orange. This is because of the setting and the reflection in Jaie’s white polo shirt. My aim was to then see what I could do with this intense orange in regards to my ability to colour grade in post-production.
Top Right: I deliberately leaned into the orange for this correction because I wanted to have a warmer image. I also wanted to increase the amount of light on Jaie’s face because it is significantly darker than the rest of the image. I did this by lowering the highlights, shadows and the whites whilst increasing the blacks and the warmth of the scene. I also lowered the shadows slightly to try and make it clearer, but I would say that colour grading isn’t suitable to fix lighting problems such as these.
Bottom Left: I did the opposite and instead sought to increase the sterility and harshness of this scene. The blacks remain harsher, but the whites and highlights are only slightly lowered as opposed to the original image. Additionally. the shadows are harsher and the exposure of the scene is lower as well. This colour grading would be appropriate for a serious tone, but I would say inappropriate given the original script.
Submission and Reflection
Video 1: “Good, Fine”
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1G39BNoOze14Lel4Fc4ZrErOJJKA3dR-h (This is video 1; I don’t have space on my computer sorry Paul)
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1QlMtXhaGwwRG5O8HiNXOK3LTHh_dfrTC (This is video 2)
I’ve already covered this video a bit in a previous assignment, but I’ll elaborate a little bit more on it.
In both of my edits, I did not follow the form that the script specified. Initially, we had filmed it such that there would be a shot / reverse shot between the two characters before cutting back to the second one. Instead, I thought it to be a little messy, so I decided to try and create versions of the video that would work without having as many cuts whilst still being as coherent as possible.
In my first initial cut, I included Jaie’s character, but I had Nat’s character over the phone. I achieved this effect using the highpass filter sound effect, and setting the frequency to 400Hz. This makes the wild lines sound more compressed and tinned (is tinned a word? Tinny?), and when accompanied with the video, makes clear someone is on the phone. The first video cuts between two locations: the warm staircase, and the cold stairwell. In contrast, the second cut takes out Jaie entirely, and only has him in voiceover. The second film is only 16 seconds long, and has three different shots, as opposed to the first film, which is 30 seconds long and has 5 shots. To cut it down in the second shot, I removed Jaie’s scenes instead of Natalie’s at the beginning, and chose instead to have it playing in voiceover. I placed the highpass sound on Jaie’s dialogue instead of on her voice. This makes it seem as if Jaie is on the other side of the phone. I made this change because I thought that not only was the opening a bit prolonged, but it was also a bit boring. Although this had the intended effect in quickening the pace, I thought that it did detract from the intended twist as indicated in Jaie’s original script.
Video 2: “It’s not my blood”
https://drive.google.com/open?id=10fRoE69zWC537qfHasjAiKQ34bbcaR8x (Video 1)
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1a4Brjnfb60Q3mgqa3p2nitP0gS6YiIX3 (Video 2)
This is the first thing I’ve made this year that I’m actually somewhat proud of.
First things first: it can still be improved. There is too much headroom on Jaie, which could’ve been fixed had I panned and tilted instead of just panning across the room. The room is also really orange. Like REALLY orange. The costuming could also be better. The lighting on the actors is quite poor, and hard to change in post-production.
Another thing– there is no difference between the two recordings except for the color correction and sound effects in the second edit.
I tried to adjust the colors in both because of the problems outlined above. Although in the first edit everything is clear, the video itself is aggressively orange. In contrast, the second video is darker and more visually balanced, but also uses sound effects as well. Initially, the superhero was supposed to fly through the ceiling, but we do not have access to special effects / are too shit to make them happen. As such, I added sound effects in one of the edits to see what would happen. Honestly, nothing particularly happened as a result, as it is evident by the cutting and Jaie’s reaction where the superhero has gone.
However, one thing I AM proud of would be my camera movement and staging. Admittedly, the staging of the scene was incredibly serendipitous given the original script. However, I like my scene as it only necessitates three shots. I decided not to try and shoot singles of the two, and instead used the mirror to shoot their fronts instead. Although the actors were standing awkwardly around the sink, it was unnoticeable on film as the audience would focus on the mirrors instead. The pan across and the placement of the actors in the setting was quite clean, and the shot itself was not only visually strong, but also served a practical purpose and complemented the requirements of the scene.
I would change the shot of the ceiling to have a hole and some rubble, but that of course relies on a more polished production.
The final shot is a single on Jaie’s character. Although his face is a little too dark, and the shadows are a bit stronger, I think the shot works in bookending the scene given it begins and ends with him, but also grounds the scene – his muted reaction is shown in his facial expression and posture shown with the help of the mirror.
Video 3: “I’ll Just Wait”
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1Ad2qFhBoXLCjeg6d1v53X27znXVnsXbg
This is a series of five shots. I shot two of them. The other three were shot by different group members. The script was generally based off of the previous video filmed in the week.
I’ll go through each segment individually:
- The first shot is filmed through a wide. I am positioned so that I could be seen in the mirror clearly. There are two camera moves throughout the shot: once following Wang, and once following myself. The wide shot makes it somewhat difficult to have meaningful camera movements: the shots themselves lack intimacy, but it’s too wide to have a relationship between the characters, and not wide enough to have stability so it necessitates camera movement but doesn’t feel natural when doing so. If it were a wide shot, I’d have preferred if the shot was either closer or further away, which if it were further, would be fixed instead.
- The second shot is interesting. The pan does not follow Helena, and instead pans straight to myself as I begin speaking. It then pans following Helena until I am out of the frame. I like the initial movement of the camera because the audience follows Helena’s eyeline – it feels natural. I don’t really like the second pan because it feels incomplete. I think it would’ve been stronger to have one pan instead. There is a third pan back to myself before panning yet another time to me walking down the corridor. This shot is too long and pans too much, but the first and last shots look really nice. I would focus on taking out the two pans in the middle and instead just using the first and last shots, and well as the initial pan, as the point which to build upon.
- The third shot is similar to the second, but follows Helena as she walks straight up to Wang. Instead, Helena walks behind Wang, but is seen instead in the mirror behind him. This is more efficient than the pan, and the audience is aware of the space as well as the two characters. The second pan in this shot follows Wang as he walks out the door. I don’t like having the second pan because it is too abrupt a change in subjects from Helena to Wang, but the pans and the shots themselves look nice (at least in my opinion, I did film this bit).
- This is essentially the same as the third shot, but instead we are using an over-the-shoulder shot instead of having Helena in the mirror. I don’t like this shot because it was unrehearsed and sloppy: I think if it was more polished (for example if we stuck to one shoulder instead of swapping in between) it would be more powerful as a sequence.
- This is my favourite shot (even though I don’t think it’s the best) because it takes the biggest risk. It essentially relies on camera movements. I do think it moves a little too much, and its second camera movement doesn’t move 180º and feels underwhelming as a result, but I think it has the most potential. It reminds me of a particular shot in The Grand Budapest Hotel in its symmetry, but I think as it is now, doesn’t live up to the third shot.
The third shot in general is the strongest because it is the simplest. It has the least amount of camera movements, and has the most balance in its shots. The only thing I would change would be to somehow focus its subjects as I feel it isn’t as strong when it swaps between Helena and Wang, but the shots themselves are well-composed.
DECONSTRUCTION OF A SCENE #2:
Scene: Introduction of Intro to Political Science, episode 17 of Community’s second season. More specifically, the thirty seconds leading up to the beginning of the main title sequence.
I chose this scene because it is absolutely one of my favourite jokes ever told in a TV show. I like jokes that make perfect sense in its nonsense: the twist at the end needs to be at once coherent and unexpected. Because the joke in the scene requires absolute clarity, the camerawork itself is minimal but pivotal. The scene never leaves the setting, or even the table, and the characters all remain sitting down. The majority of the scene is filmed using shot / reverse shot, with some cutaways to the character’s scratching of the table. The characters in the scene are in their usual positions and thus the audience is already familiar with the directions characters would be facing.
In regards to the other scene chosen (from The Office, “The Dundies,” Season 2 Episode 1), this scene does not have a dramatic relationship to portray: instead, it simply seeks to entertain, and does so by playing upon the established patterns of behaviour its characters exhibit to tell a joke. Community implicitly is about television tropes, and through its setting in an American community college, explores these tropes through a postmodernist lens.
The key characters in this scene are Annie, Jeff, Abed, Britta, and Troy. Annie is an overachiever with temperment issues, Jeff is sardonic and emotionally withdrawn, Abed is a savant, Britta is a wannabe anarchist, and Troy is an impressionable former jock. These characters all fulfil archetypes, and it is through an understanding of these archetypes that the joke is made.
The selected portion of the scene begins with Jeff in a medium-close up sitting down facing the right of the frame. He is centred, and talking out of frame towards Annie. After he delivers a quick rebuke to Annie’s stated intent to run for student body president, the camera cuts to a medium-close up of Abed, who points out of frame towards Jeff. After a quick “Nice,” Abed pulls out his key – accompanied by a quick sound “pew” – and moves his hand down past the bottom of the frame. There is a cut to a shot of the table facing Abed with a tally of scratches, above which is identified as “Classic ‘Wingers’”. Abed begins scratching in a new tally as Annie beings talking in voiceover, before cutting to a medium shot of Annie continuing her dialogue. After she finishes, it cuts straight back to the same shot of Jeff replying to her. Towards the end of the shot, his arm and eyeline moves to under the frame before cutting to a shot identical to Abed’s: he fills in a scratch, instead titled “Ab Mentions”. Britta is heard in voiceover before cutting to her in a medium close up. This shot only lasts three seconds, as Jeff is heard in voiceover before cutting back to him. The shot this time is framed differently as Jeff is now in an adjusted pose. This is to account for the headroom and him being in a slightly different position in relation to the rest of the table. It then cuts back to Britta, who remains in the same position and shot talking back to him. The shot then cuts to Troy laughing to himself, before moving his arm and eyeline below the table. The final shot of the scene is of a mirrored version of Abed and Jeff’s notches, only this time it is Troy scratching a tally in under the header “Notches”.
I love this scene because it rewards you as a long time viewer, but still functions by itself. It also gets the details of its characters really well. For example, Abed’s notches are uniform and clean, reflecting the character’s need to understand the world. Jeff’s notches are framed the same way as Abed’s, but are a little messier than his. Although Abed uses his notches as a way to understand the world, Jeff uses the notches to boost his own ego and seek affirmation from others. In contrast, Troy’s notches make almost no sense. It is unclear why Troy began making notches, or what they are mentioning, or if he is making them for himself or for increased status amongst the group. Because it is so unclear, therein lies the joke. Troy’s notches are also haphazard and messy.
In my opinion, the scene works because of the joke, which builds upon the pre-established traits of its characters, and because it knows not to take away from the main focus of the scene. Which is not to say shots for the shots sake aren’t necessary or superfluous – instead, it’s more the ability to recognise what the scene requires, and not overloading the segment. One struggle I have is trying to understand exactly what a scene requires, and trying to only film what is necessary. This scene is a good example of only shooting what is necessary.