For the entirety of this semester I’ve been working alone, doing test shoots and conducting many of the filming on my own, however I feel like collaboration for me comes through the exploration of ideas. Every time I’ve come to class it has been really helpful letting others know how my shoots have been going and what sort of processes I’ve been exploring. Hearing their ideas and struggles as well, helps to inform me and give me an insight into how I can better my own work. I’ve really needed to have full creative control in the content I’ve been producing and I don’t think I would have been happy with work that was not my full creation. Not because I am too proud but I don’t believe it would have forced me to learn in the capacity I have so far. I believe that collaboration in many situations can result in one person doing a lot more or a lot less than others and in this particular subject I wanted to bear the full weight of my decisions and the marks that I receive. I’ve really appreciated that Paul has given us the opportunity to work with others in the class exercises, with the opportunity to join forces later on (only if we want to). I feel that it’s been really important making connections with other students in the class for future collaborations. However so far in my university experience I’ve hated the idea of being forced to collaborate, when usually it isn’t optional and more importantly its with people you would never wish to collaborate with in the first place .

Thus what I’ve learnt about myself is that the most helpful and important aspect of collaboration is the sharing of thoughts and ideas and well as helpful practices and advice. I hope that in my next semesters at uni there can be a greater focus on the discussion of ideas and practices rather than pairing of random students together in the hope that they will have a successful and creative collaboration.

This scene I believe will be the hardest to control as the lighting cannot really be adjusted as it will mainly be outside in an area that only uses street lights and the phone light (which is actually what I want but this my be more difficult to frame than I first anticipated). My actor will be sitting outside the building and again I want to show boredom in the characters response to their phone. I think it will contrast highly with the beautiful city behind them, and I want to focus on the character’s interest in the phone rather than the city. I will conduct this shoot at night, in order to save time and get the aesthetics and framing of the shot right for the final shoot.

These are some shots from film that I’ve based my framing around.

(Pretty Good Friends 2015)

(Free of Thought 2015)

As predicted this shoot was really hard to control. The lighting of the actors phone didn’t seem to be enough to light their face in the way I would have hoped. I was also aiming to use the lights surrounding the building as another key light but this wasn’t as successful as I had predicted. The overall look of this scene is much darker than I wanted but i found that crushing the blacks and going to a greyscale colour grade helped with the visibility of the shots. I also really like the look of a greyscale scene (I’ve done this in my empty room scene also), even though it has a sort of “my first film”  connotation to it. As hard as this was to film, I really enjoyed shooting this location. I’d like to conduct another shoot during the day as I believe this scene is important to my research questions. Pippa, my actress also flows so naturally through this scene that I’d love to focus on her more in a day shoot where it is obvious her character is ignorant of the location.

This shoot is one in which the ideas surrounding it have developed a bit as I’ve been doing some test shoots. I’ve decided to use dialogue and incorporate this with the use of the photo. I have decided that my actor will be talking on the phone while in the environment of an empty room. I’ve filmed this at night, and tried to replicate as much as I can for the real shoot. My actor (Pippa) will be in different parts of this room while in conversation with someone on the phone for the duration of it. The atmosphere I want to create is a sort of longing and nostalgic type feel. As if the character is leaving this home and we feel their nostalgia through the way the scene is shot.

The framing of the scene is in part based on a short film I’ve seen called This is She directed by Tarik Karam. The emptiness of the scene is something I want to focus on, and use the minimal props and features of the room as the basis of framing the shots.

(This is She 2015)

Shot List – Ideas for Framing

I really like the way the test shoot turned out. I’ve graded it to a black and white palette just as an experiment and I cant work out whether it adds to the aesthetic or not. The costume becomes less noticeable in black and white and the actor blends in with the surroundings more. The black and white definitely gives a more sombre mood to the scene. The sound quality isn’t the best but I mind too much as I’ll recorded better sound for the real shoot. The overlapping of sound works really well with each shot. I let the actor sort of improvise the dialogue as the script I had originally written felt a but stiff and not as natural when the actor had to read it. I also love that she sings and talks to herself, again they feel very natural. When shooting I got more shots from outside of the room and deeper within the empty house and I think they added something to the mood of the scene. A real “emptiness” was felt when filmed more of the house.

It was important that i test this scene at night in the conditions I want to film for my final shoot. Thus I’ve filmed it at night time. Trying to only use the car light and the actors phone light proved to be difficult but I was really drawn to have quite a dark looking scene.

I feel as if this is the kind of scene that only i would like, and maybe audiences would find uninteresting. Obviously there is work to be done, and more light is necessary to the scene. But the sense of vacancy and boredom that is show through someone sitting in a stationary car at night seems intriguing to me. I’d like to re shoot this scene for my final assessment.

After conducting a few shoots and getting a better understanding of how I can film the scenes I want to film I’ve discovered that my research questions are being altered slighting. My original thought process was to keep dialogue to an absolute minimum however i’ve been finding that each scene suddenly becomes more alive with the most natural dialogue from my actors. It’s the moments in which they are alone and the conversations that are said aloud when alone that are the most interesting. For example, the test shoot in the empty bedroom proved to be really intriguing with the actress signing and being on the phone. Thus I’ve decided to add this as one of my research questions.

Updated Research Questions

1. How can I produce a visually engaging scene through production design, including costuming?
2. How can I produce and engaging scene will little conversation but still elements of dialogue from only one featured person?
3. How can I produce and interesting scene that creatively shows the action of being on and interacting with a phone?
4. How can I produce engaging scenes that use natural lighting and phone lighting as a key light to frame actors?
5. How can I create an interesting scene that highlights the relationship between a character and their location?
6. How can I combine these elements of a scene including acting, costuming, lighting etc, to direct and produce a compelling scene?

Edit: I don’t think  i’ll be re shooting my scene in the bedroom as a final scene. I’ve gone over different ways I could film within that space and I don’t find it any more interesting or particularly inspiring to me, when compared to the other locations I’ve sourced. I’m just going to focus on my other scenes, paying more attention how I can make them better.

This is a new idea I had because I came by a location I thought would make for a really creative shoot. The inside of a car and the aesthetics it can produced became of real intrigue to me. I also saw a scene that was filmed inside a car and I thought this is something I’d love to attempt. The action of being on a phone and being frustrated could be paired with waiting in a car and I really wanted to try to film this and use this as a scene in my final assessment. Again I want the scene to be at night and use the interior car lighting as well as the phone lighting, but for the initial test shoot I’ve shot in the daytime.

Florence + the Machine has featured in a film by Vincent Haycock called The Odyssey, that is filmed really beautifully and has scenes located within a car. I’ve tried to model a few of my shots in the same way. Another shot film called Hip Hip Hooray has scenes within a car that I found inspiring, they were filmed at night and in black and white which i found added another element to it. Again I tried to film my scene in ways similar these two other films did.

(Hip Hip Hooray 2016)

(The Odyssey 2016)

This is my test shoot in the interior of a car. I’ve used Sean as the actor and “frustration” as the emotion. I found quite fun filming the car as it was a smaller space they had less within it, but forced me to notice more within it. Again the lighting is different but i focused on the framing of each shot and what I wanted to show, working out different angles and positions. Some of these shots are quite ugly in my opinion but overall I liked using this space.

I did a second edit of this scene with the use of text and sound. The point of it highlighting more emphasis on the actual communication element and seeing what the actor sees. However I don’t like it as much. I feel like it takes away from the acting and shows audiences more than they need to see. There is no element of mystery and intrigue, its just laid out on the table and audiences are told what to think. I think for my other shoots I will leave the communication of the “story” or “action” to the actor rather than the text on screen.

I had a new idea for a potential location recently that i want to explore. I got the desire to film a scene in a car as i was witnessing someone talking on their phone in a car opposite me and I found it really intriguing. Talking to Paul he suggested i look at the film Locke with Tom Hardy, which is filmed entirely on the inside of a car. I like the idea of filming at night again and focusing on a conversation maybe or just the idea of being within a car (not too sure yet).

I really like the yellow lighting in these still from Locke. It creates a sinister tone the film (as well as the dialogue and other happenings), adding to the narrative and plot progression. I’d like to film my scene keeping in mind that the space is small and their is a lot to explore within it. Below are photos of the car i will film in.

I’ve been getting more and more interested in the way I could shoot with phones and phone lighting. As I’ve had a lot of emphasis on the action of using a photo in each scene I wanted to see if I could also light a scene or just a face within a scene using the phone light. I’ve tried to source images and footage that I’ve seen this effect created.

(Counter Production)

(Donald Iain Smith)

(Mark Andersen)

(Magenta Sky Films Inc)

As most of my shoots will be conducted at a night, and the emphasis of the scene has been placed on the phone itself i want to see if its possible to increase the screen lighting and let it bounce of the actors face, using it as the key light in a scene or at least a few shots within a scene.

When thinking about costume i want to keep my characters as natural as possible, as if they are playing versions of themselves. As these scene wont have any context there is not a lot of base these characters on, however I feel like their costume could say something. I have had a fascination with making my characters and the way they look, sort of mould into the location and situation they are in. I’ve tried to blend the two, in order to create a cohesive scene, where all elements are emphasised. A style of film called ‘Mumblecore’, in which story lines and acting styles are very realistic and raw, as well as having extremely low production values in order to enhance this “realism”. There are many films that I’ve tried to base my choices upon, when it comes to costume within a certain environment.

(Drinking Buddies 2013)

(The Puffy Chair 2005)

(Mutual Appreciation 2005)

The costume is so appropriate to their characters, its not flashy or over the top.

This is just an example of one of my scenes and how i could dress them in a way that suits their environment. What want to plan out in each scene what my actors wear in order to reach my desired effect of “naturalism” within a scene.

Bathroom Shoot. I came to realise that these test shoots I’ve been doing are pretty much to help me understand the framing of shots. My actor wasn’t available on the day that I had access to a camera on so I though I’d film in my location regardless of whether I had my actor or not. I’ve had a lot of inspiration when it comes to the filming of bathrooms and the way in which I want my shoot to look like. I filmed the test shoot in accordance with framing and camera positioning I have seen in other films. I was inspired by dialogue heavy scenes between characters and how they fit in the confined space of a bathroom. However in my scene I don’t want much dialogue and I will only use one actor. Here are some images I will base my shots off.

(High Maintenance 2012/13)

(Hip Hip Hooray 2016)

(Imaginary Friend 2016)

(Chaud Lapin – Animated Short Movie 2016)

Shot Plan – Story Board

I’ve colour graded the photo just as an experiment. I think its graded to dark and looks odd, however the sickly feel of the bathroom was interesting aspect that comes through with this dark grade.

My second shoot in the bathroom was with my actor, shot during the night time.

I’ve edited the same footage twice. I honestly unsure of how i feel about this shoot. I find it interesting, but maybe not very grabbing. Less is going on within the shot, not that that bothers me, but it might be that little bit better if the scene had another element. Right now there is no context for why he is in the bathroom or really what he is doing, maybe I can create more of a world for the character. A few shots weren’t focused properly, i found it extremely difficult to see on the small monitor, maybe next time i should use a portable monitor.

The actor was really easy to shoot, i found his interesting in his environment so I don’t think there is much about his performance i would change. Possibly even more interaction with the phone would make the scene more fulfilling. I’ve have to work this out before my final shoot.