We decided on a final title of our film, “merlot with mates”. It encapsulates the bridge between the two characters in our film, and its theme of having two friends reunite and instead of their usual beers and pizza, they bond over some cheese and a nice bottle of wine.

I realise by now that I haven’t even given a great description of the film we’re making, but I also wonder if it is worth spoiling what happens. What I do want to comment on is the progression and development of the final script from the original ideas we had planned out weeks ago. The idea was initially pitched as a simplistic take on the relationship between two people, and putting a lot of emphasis on how one has grown more mature and adult compared to the other. It was supposed to be a hyper-realistic film, but when I read the first draft I couldn’t understand the subtle humor or characters at all. They weren’t people I knew and it kinda of made me distance myself from being able to understand who or what these characters represented. In the end I feel like the script wasn’t my usual story, but the theme of approaching adulthood is something I definitely relate to, and that was why I initially decided to join this group.

I’m still a little concerned for the tone of the film, or even how it would translate the acceptance that the guest will feel towards the new changes in his friend. I’m not sure how much of it will come across as comedic, and how much will be read as dramatic, but in the end I hope it will be a great film no matter what direction we end up taking it.

This is a reflection on project brief 3, the one I forgot to post ages ago.

As part of the practical requirement of the previous project brief we all had to collate and edit a piece that had a common theme or idea present throughout the clip. After going through all the clips everyone else in class recorded I was inspired by shadows, and so went out to record more footage playing the shadows, movement within them, and how there’s a complete world living within those shadows mirroring reality.

The movement within them and around a few clips with shadows made me want to explore other ways people can almost travel in them. Seeing shadows across the screen instead of the people or objects they reflect forces us to associate the shadow to a person, and think of it as a living being. I recorded more footage of me walking, but framed the camera to capture only the reflections and shadows I cast while walking. It showed how the original in an obstructed way, and allowed me to just play with what we see in reality. The piece in summary is about the reflection of reality,  and its a illusion to what is there. It’s about subjectivity, on how the observer perceives these projected images that shadows and light creates.

So during our pre-production period, as the Director of Photography I had to help arrange the all the technical equipment we would need for our shoot. I started with the basics, but then realised that I had resources from the tech office that I hadn’t used before. So after a few talks with Robin about the type of lighting and camera I would like to use, we discussed different ways I could light the setting. Like I mentioned in my previous reflection, I wanted to do something more interesting with two people sitting at a table. It didn’t need to be anything too spectacular, but I didn’t just want us lighting the set just for the sake of lighting. Robin helped us by suggesting we have a lamp source in the film, something to help indicate that it was night-time, and the use of lamps was a genius choice. No regular person uses lamps during the day, so we jumped straight on and in the edit suites played around with some LED lite panels on a C-stand and trialed what kind of lighting it would be. It would need to have a lot of diffusion, and something around the light to keep the barn doors tight. Core board and even black cloth were a possible alternative to help keep the light isolated like a spotlight, and after being briefed quickly about the benefits of shooting our dinner table like this I was hooked.

But it’s one thing to have an idea in your head, and another completely different thing to see it in action, on location with the set. And so I decided to have a test shoot day, with some of the equipment we were going to use, and see how the environment would work with the lights. It wasn’t anything grand, bit it did let me scope out the location before the shoot date, and also have a technical rehearsal as well.

On the day I was able to see where camera’s could be places, where light stands and c-stands could be placed, and whether the overhanging LED panel would work on our dining table at Hannah’s place. What we discovered during this testing day was that the c-stand would only extend about a third of the way across the table, instead of the halfway point we were hoping for. This problem was a bit unfortunate, but did give us something to work on, because that meant we were either going to have to find some creative ways around shooting the dinner scenes in specific ways, or hope for a longer c-stand arm.

What we ended up doing though was completely different to anything I have ever worked with on set. After consulting the tech office about a longer arm, they gave me a pole cap, which essentially was a long pole you secure at the top of two c-stands and extend out across a distance longer than 2 c-stand arms. It was a great solution to our problem, and I am so thankful that we had enough time to go to the location to figure out these problems. Test shooting has never been a high concern for me before, but for the aesthetic we wanted to achieve we needed the hardware as well, and in the end I a happy to have spend a day practicing shots and angles ahead of the shoot date. The whole experience helped me get a better understanding of what the final film would look like, and also help us plan accordingly, because now we know how much time we need to bump equipment in, and set up all the different lighting set-ups.

The film my group is making is based around a dinner setting, so it’s already going to have a lot of elements involving food and framing. Sitting at a table can be boring, we’ve all seen it on screen multiple times now, and know all the ways to shoot a particular atmosphere. But I want to know if there is anyway we can reinvent the way we film a dinner conversation at a table.

The lighting in the above scene from Inglorious Bastards is a favourite of mine, and after discussing with Robin, he agrees that it would add another night element within the scene to have a similar set-up. Having one main source of light which would keep the scene centered and the lighting focused would allow us to do a lot of interesting things with the intimate nature of the dinner we are shooting.

There is also the question of how we can shoot food in an interesting way, instead of having it glossed over, the script draws attention to the food, and so the camera needs to convey that as well. Showing people eating the food itself alone is never enough, if the subject of conversation is about how different the food is to the previous meals they’ve shared.

Time is also something we need to be aware of when shooting this dinner scene. How should we convey that they’ve actually eaten some of their meal, without having to show an image of a clock. Is it possible for me to just shoot the entire meal being eaten in real time, or would continuity be too hard to keep that up. Will the actors simply just fake the entire scene, never actually eating anything on their plates, or can we have enough food set aside to justify actual on-screen eating. Also, do we actually cook the food, or do we buy it pre-made. Will it look as good on camera as we hope it would. I think Hannah and Jess plan on cooking the food themselves, so that means we require a lot of prep time and need to bump-in at least an hour earlier than expected. But these are concerns for the Producer to focus on, my job as Cinematographer I need to focus on what angles and shots I should have established in my head.

I’ve been to the location now, and Hannah’s apartment is a small space, but simple in set-up. I really like the idea of playing with negative space and side profiles. By establishing a wide profile shot, and going in tighter on these characters individually, it’s something creatively that will separate us from the film My Dinner with Andre, and keep the audience at a distance, observing the interactions between these two people. Keeping my angles to medium side profiles of the characters, and angled mid-shots it could help us distinguish ourselves from other films dedicated around a dinner table, but I know that we still also have to have those safety shots from Over the shoulder of characters and close up as well. It’s just deciding now which shots are more valuable to our film, and what should take priority on the day when shooting.

We have officially made groups now for our final assessment task, and I have the pleasure of working on Alex Ferguson’s film idea. In a group of five we are to create a short narrative film, which from what I can tell at the moment, will come across as a simplified and more quirky version of My Dinner With Andre.

As we were discussing the script and what will be happening in the actual film, I wondered how this film will reflect the observation it was based upon. There was a certain element of acknowledgment and ‘coming-of-age’ which called to me. I wanted to focus in on that moment where we see the guest to this dinner start off as uncomfortable and foreign, but eventually he adapts and enjoys himself in this ‘new’ environment. I wondered if the script would include an element of that, or have a moment that draws upon that. Or it could be a matter of Alex writing down his experience, word for word, specific to his memory, and him replicating the exact procedure he went through.

This brings up the question of whether we are creating new content, or simply adapting a story that has already existed. I mean we are re-staging the dinner that Alex has already experienced, and he put that experience into writing through his observation, and now we are filming that moment and editing it together to become a film. Is this whole process just an elaborate way from inspiration to film, or is it a straight adaptation of already established content. Is this an adaptation of life then, or a film just based on the true events in someone’s life, and are we allowed to change anything.

Are we allowed to insert lines, and change locations. Am I allowed to say that these people are actually cousins, instead of long friends. Would this still be considered an adaptation of what has happened, or am I changing it too much to let it be considered a re-staging.

I know these are roundabout questions that wont really get answered, but I think our film is going to be an adaptation, with us focusing on a key component or theme from the original observation. So we aren’t just physically re-creating the scene, we are going to also replicate the feelings Alex had in the original event.

So during our third project brief we had to complete a few practical exercises, one of which was to essentially replicate a shot dramatic scene. It didn’t need to be perfect, we were allowed to change up dialogue and setting a bit, but the shots, framing and editing needed to at least resemble the original cut.

The main thing I took away from our shoot was our lack of pre-production planning. Our group didn’t really put a lot of emphasis on where we would shoot the scene, and in the end had to find a location on the fly that would suit our hallway needs, but have enough space to actually fit a camera, three actors and a whole crew to hide. We found a suitable location that visually matched our needs, but it was a busy location, located near classrooms and automated doors. There was constant foot traffic, and since I was on audio I constantly picked up footsteps, doors slamming and the constant echo of things sliding closed. It was frustrating in general to have to stop every 3 minutes to let people through the hallway, and each time we had to re-set our actors again and again.

Being on audio, I found the experience super stressful, because I wasn’t particularly happy with the quality of sound I was getting. The hallway was too spacious and we ended up with a few takes having too much echo.

By the 1 hour point though we had committed to the space and stuck through with it. The only solution we could think of on the spot was to shoot each shot and line specifically and as quickly as possible. While people were walking through we made sure we knew which specific line the actors needed to say, and ended up shooting in a very unconventional way. We didn’t do any leading lines, but since we were already basing it off a scene where we knew where to edit, it was easy to just replicate only the lines we needed for one specific shot.

The editing process ended up going very smoothly, but with the way we filmed the shots, the conversation didn’t end up natural at all. It was choppy and continuity was all over the place. My edit is passable, but it’s nothing compared to the original Mad Men scene, where the dialogue came across so naturally and effortlessly. I guess we all were on edge that day, being constantly interrupted, but it has taught me a valuable lesson now to always go location scouting, and to make sure the place we end up in has less traffic, whether it be vehicle or human.