Last week in Cinematography we looked at Exposure and a few tools that could be used to help you get it right. In this exercise we experimented with Auto-Iris, Zebras and Light meters.
Our in class exercise had us position our subject in front of a window, with daylight directly behind them. We set up a light in front with a blue gel and then white balanced our camera.
1) In this first shot we used Manual Iris and set our Exposure by what was acceptable to our own eyes. My F-Stop in this shot was 4.
2) Next we set the camera to Auto-Iris. When we expose for a shot, getting a good exposure on the subjects face is our priority. As you can see in the screenshot below Auto-Iris wasn't ideal when it came to this as it took all of the background and surrounding light in the frame into consideration.
3) In Auto-Iris still we zoomed into the subjects face, switched the camera to Manual, and then reframed. This gave a much nicer exposure to our subject.
4) For our fourth shot we turned on Zebra's on the camera. In Manual Iris we overexposed our subject to show Zebras, then closed the aperture until the zebras had disappeared.
5) This shot was exposed using the Light Meter. We took a reading of our subject, then set our exposure accordingly.
6) For our final shot we opened our F-stop 1/3 above the previous exposure. On the Sony we had to open to 3.4 as it could not open 1/3 stop.
This week I got started on Module 2 of my Unity course. This is where things begin getting more interesting and we actually started creating some stuff.
The first video tutorial is:
3D Level Design 18.03 min
This tutorial talks you through creating a basic level using primitives (basic 3D objects from within Unity). The benefits of this are that you can quickly block out and plan a level for your game, with basic elements which could be replaced later by more intricate models.
This tutorial uses 3D cubes to create a basic level of ramps and platforms. Here's some screen grabs of mine:
Unfortunately my internet is being particularly slow at the moment and I've been trying to load the next tutorial for half an hour I'll have to carry on with the others later on!
I've made a point of trying to watch some non-dialogue films over the last month. Here's a few that I've seen recently. It's kind of difficult to find films without dialogue unless they are animations (which often don't have dialogue), as often this isn't something a film is tagged by.
Visually beautiful. Even as someone new to film I noticed the nice camera work and compositions. The story is quite abstract, but is emotionally effective- in no small part due to the score.
This is a simple story about relationships and forgiveness. I thought that the simple stylistic choices suited the story well, and I was really impressed by the smoothness of the stop-motion animation. In the absence of dialogue, the music was used to portray the emotional context of each scene. While heartstrings is a neat little film, I felt that the story and solution is pretty cliched.
The week leading up to filming was a busy time for us as we attempted to get everything ready to go. At this point we still hadn't cast our main lead, we hadn't sourced any materials yet for our Art Team to work with, the previs was still incomplete and ultimately we were very behind on schedule.
For me, this meant jumping into a lot of departments to try and help out and take some of the pressure off.
I spent Monday trying to source Materials, but since my group was based in town we didn't have a lot of luck. Fortunately some of the other groups ended up with much better hauls than us, and the Art Team was able to get started. I didn't have much to do with prop making etc this year, aside from doing some painting of a set and sewing patches onto jackets for costuming. I also took measurements of the cast for the art team, as I have a couple of years experience with that kind of thing.
We would have been pretty stuck without a main lead so one of the other tasks I took on was to look through all of the casting call footage for any actors that could be cast as a brother or sister alternative. Luckily we managed to find someone, and he was cast as Thai- in this case Mia's brother.
Over the rest of the week I talked with our director to go over the storyboards. We had found that in some scenes there were simply not enough shots to cover the action and the dialogue, and that there were some continuity issues which needed to be sorted. I then sat down with the previs team to talk through the changes and go over each shot with them.
Finally, I got stuck into my own jobs. I finished off the risk assessment and hazard management for our shoot, went on a test shoot to suss out any other hazards that might arise due to the intended camera placements etc, and got stuck into scheduling and call sheets.
Recently we have looked into a number of film writing paradigms, however they seem mostly geared towards the feature length film. Because of this I decided I needed to do some more research, specific to short film. I came across an article byStéphanie Joalland on the Raindance Festival website. Stéphanie presents 7 'rules' for writing a short film and gives some examples.
I decided it would be worth watching these suggested films to get a bit more context into what she was talking about. The seven points she brings up are:
1) The shorter the better
Stéphanie suggests that creating shorter films is a good idea, not just because many festivals look for films that are under 10 minutes but also because a shorter film will keep production costs down. A shorter film will mean you can spend more time making the film look amazing, rather than having to film quickly and ending up with a cheap looking film. She gives the example of Sebastian's Voodoo which is a 4 minute long animation.
4 minutes is actually quite long for an animated short, so I don't really think that this was the best example of this point. However Sebastian's Voodoo is a good film, which is really emotionally engaging. The main character has a clear dilemma and sacrifices himself to save the other voodoo dolls. My only criticism it that the character and his relationship with the other dolls could have benefited from a bit more development to make his sacrifice more personal, rather then simply choosing to save the lives of strangers over his own.
2) Keep the practicalities of filming in mind
This could include thinking about the setting of the film as well as being practical about what sequences are in a script. Examples given are Apricot (2010) and Just a Love Story (2010) which take place at a table in cafe and in an elevator respectively.
This is something we need to consider when writing for our assignments. As part of our assignment we need to be able to deliver whatever we have written into our screenplays.
3) Make it Visual
Show don't tell. For this point Stéphanie talks about creating a visual back story for your characters through their actions. She suggests that you can tell a lot about a characters temperament from small details, such as how in The Lunch Date the main character polishes her fork before eating.
I had mixed feelings about this film personally as I felt quite disengaged during the introduction. I had to watch it a second time after I had gotten used to the visual style. Once we got to the main part of the film (when she returns to 'her' table) I found myself drawn back into the story, probably partly because of the predictability and the additional comedy that the film gained from that. The story was handled quite well with a clear message.
I feel like having a non-dialogue film as an example for 'Make it Visual' would have been more to the point, but I do see what is meant by building the visual back-story, even if your characters do talk.
4) Find single moments.
Stéphanie suggests that the best short films explore a single moment, but with a story, conflict or dilemma at its heart. This ties in to what we have talked about in Screenwriting class, and what we explored during the in class exercises.
This is something I struggle with in my writing. I normally write for 1-2.5 minute long films, so when trying to write a 4-8 minute long film a single moment often doesn't seem long enough. Because I am used to condensing these moments I haven't quite figured out how to extend a film without adding too much or not enough detail. This is probably also an issue of pacing.
A deadline or ticking clock can help with building the conflict in a single moment, such as in On Time (2011).
Make that a compelling story. The film should have a hero with a goal and an obstacle/antagonist in the way. Be aware that while short films can push the boundaries that they must still be emotionally engaging. Concept-driven ideas or breaking the rules for the sake of breaking them isn't going to help you to tell a good story. Stéphanie offers I Love Sarah Jane (2010) as a good example to watch, because despite it's unusual setting it contains at its core a love story which an audience can connect with.
Or the audience! A short film needs to hook it's audience right from the start, the first page of the screenplay. There is little time to make an impression, and also to develop a satisfying ending.
7) Beware of Clichés
Stéphanie says that short films are often filled with clichés and navel gazing. She suggests that many stereotypes are overused, commonly: hit men for hire, heists, people seeing themselves die, children representing innocence, incestuous relationships. Write about what you are familiar with- not what you have borrowed from other films. Stereotypes should be avoided unless you have a new slant on the idea.
The last few weeks seem to have flown past in the blink of an eye. Over the past few weeks I have been busy with preparing for our film shoot which we have been out on location filming for the past week.
The last week of term (30 March- 5 April) was spent in preparation of this, securing equipment and location permissions. I helped out the production team with the location release and hazard management for Sandy Point, and provided an extra set of hands for transporting equipment (just don't ask me what it all is or how to use it!).
I also ended up writing the 'script' for our PledgeMe video and created some of the basic animation for it. I wanted them to be kind of quirky, so I went with soft, messy colouring and messy linework.
This is a still of my favourite, where I put in more time:
Too much render time...
We have decided on our PledgeMe rewards and are just waiting for our campaign to be approved/
I also created our pamphlet for Material Sourcing, which we had all forgotten about until the night before XD.
Earlier in the week I went along on the first of our location scouts. Other than that I've had a slightly quieter week on the Group project this week, but that is all going to change really soon.
Since we have a few people away on internships I'm going to be helping to cover the 2IC role, which means more production work for me. This also means I've taken over minutes again, the job which I was so happy to say goodbye to this year.
This week I'm also going to be getting stuck into learning Scenechronize, as I'll be needing to start of script breakdowns soon in preparation for filming.
I've been continuing to work on ideas for our PledgeMe and also our Production Pamphlet, which both need to be completed this coming week.
