Cinematography - Week 10



18/04/2019

I arrived oncampus earlier than was asked so I that I could throw together a rough storyboard for the establishing scene that I meant to work on today as DOP. It was a mix of rough drawings and photos from last week.


 We started the day off filming by picking up every piece of equipment stored in the TV studio that was needed for filming today and bring them all together in the RAW gallery, before taking them across the road. I was advised that as a grip for the first scene, I'm expected to just assist Felix (gaffer) and Caleb (DOP). I had a hard time looking for stuff in the TV studio that was needed, but helped with taking stuff over to the filming location across the road .

I saw the tilta follow focus case was left in the gallery space, but I was told not to worry about it because they already had put the tilta focus on the camera.

 As grip, I was to organise the extension out against the walls for powering the Blonde HDI light we were using for this scene. At first, I thought it was irrelevant to the scene, but after it was turned off I realise its tungsten, warm light helped set the mood. I was then needed to control the dolly, which I wasn't 100 percent confident about at first because of my past experience with being the dolly grip, but this time was easier because I only had to move it forwards and backwards and not turn in a different direction. 

 There were improvements that Ash and Caleb needed from me when operating the dolly, which to go faster, but smoother (especially when stopping). I got confused at one point when Bo (one of the actors) stopped when he wasn't supposed to. Caleb then told me not to stop unless he gives me the signal (raising his hand). 

I also had to move a chair at one point because it got in the way. When I was no longer needed to be a dolly grip, I had to move to different spot in the room we were filming in because I could be seen in the reflection on something in the shot.



In the entrance scene, my role changed to sound, which was new to me because the only time I had worked on sound was during the film bootcamp many weeks ago and had to hold the boom. I was not familiar with the sound recorder and that was the part that was new to me. I was advised to keep the sound level to -6 to -12db with exception the slate and make sure the level doesn't go too high, otherwise it will cause clipping later in post-production. Luqman was the person who held up the boom pole for me.

Eventually, we came around to the establishing scene. For the wide shot where the camera was set just outside the campus, we had a 28mm lenses on, but at the time I thought it didn't show the whole building properly. I opted for a 11-16mm lenses which did bring a wider composition, but it was just too wide and we went back to a 28mm lens and applied a tilt to the shot in order to work. 
I also instructed Caleb (who was now Grip) to place a flag above the camera because the sunlight was causing a flare in the shot. 

It took a few adjustments with a c-stand, but we got there in the end.
In the next shot, I replaced the 28mm lens with a 85mm lens to create effective distance is a closer cutaway shot and it was my first experience with a follow focus, which was tricky with my poor motor skills. Ash showed me a way to use it better by having my wrist in the sharpest direction I could have it in and apply that to when using a follow focus. It took a couple of attempts, but I got better with each take and Ash told me that people who use follow focus for 20 years still haven't mastered using it. 

I gotta I'm feeling like I'm in a working environment where every piece of film equipment is almost familiar, which probably the whole purpose of it and will help us towards completing the exam for this paper. 
Interview for Showreel
I visited Liz Craig's office and talked with the parliamentary support for her and they were more than happy with idea of Liz being interviewed for my showreel. She has in the past helped students like for example architecture students who are doing a project related to the housing crisis, but never before a film student. They would just want me to let me know when would be suitable (provided that Liz is available) and of course, the interview questions beforehand. 

 Let's just hope that they are available before the showreel's deadline in June.

20/04/2019

I have been stumped on putting together the genre sequence to do with the type of scene I had in mind because I am at a lost with locations in mind for filming the sequence and haven't been motivated enough to follow it through, so I'm thinking about switching to the opening scene that is common in biographical dramas, which at the moment, I'm more interesting in putting together for my genre sequence. 
I will more likely be more engaged in analysing the opening scenes from movies in this dramatic subgenre. I feel that it is more achievable, especially with the time I have left before the term break ends.

22/04/2019

I have come up with interview questions for Liz Craig. They are hard, but almost necessary questions to do with housing...
  • What is the housing situation in Invercargill like compared to other parts of New Zealand?
  • What is the housing situation in Invercargill like now compared to during the years of the previous government?
  • What is already done and planned on fixing the housing shortage in Invercargill?
  • What is the current status on housing demand like in Invercargill?
  • What strategies could be implemented to improve rental pricing in Invercargill for low-income families and students?

24/04/2019

The plan today was to see if I was to get another day of mental blockage, but in this case, I felt a lot of motivation and enthusiasm, so I decided to focus on analysing the three scenes for the video essay and the rest of the components (location scouting, storyboarding, script, and compiling the video) would be done tomorrow. Leaving me with Friday to complete the film treatment for screenwriting. Why it has come to this isn't because I have been lazy or procrastinating with the course work, but rather I have been prone to mental block half the time of the holiday break. 
But because life can try and test you at times, especially to me this year, I had something that held me up longer than I thought today. By the time that was done and the usual, personal, mundane stuff, all that motivation and enthusiasm was gone and I was left with a mental block, again.

I tried to analyse the cinematography techniques in the opening scene of Bohemian Rhapsody, but I could only discuss about the framing, composition, camera movement, sometimes lens choice and lighting, but I was uncertain how to determine the shutter angle. I only discussed about the first few shots because it was really straining for my mind tonight after having a full-on day. So I left it at that, went to bed early, and hoped for the best tomorrow. I have still more to do with the opening scene of Bohemian Rhapsody.


Opening scene of Bohemian Rhapsody
Focuses on the protagonist's hand, but then steadily pans to the protagonist's face. Consistently uses a close-up shot. 
In the close up on the protagonist's face, you see the lighting only lit half of his face in order to focus on the protagonist opening his eyes and waking up.





Wide mid shot with the protagonist in the center of the frame and a bright burst of exposure. It's purpose could be for two reasons; one, Sunlight in order to show realism, or two; it could be highlighting the protagonist as being a rock star, however I could be wrong about either of those points because they are not supported enough.
In terms of lens choice, I would say it was filmed with a 16mm lens in order to effectively the achieve the wide mid shot.
Close up on the protagonist's mustache as this is not only a significant physical feature of the character, but also because it is what he is doing in the moment, which is trimming his mustache. 
The lighting is almost subtly presented in a low angle direction towards the shot.
The use of depth of field is done to support the focus on the protagonist's actions in this shot.
The lens chosen for this shot could be 85mm because of the vibrant depth of field and how the close the shot is to the protagonist's face. 

This shot and the two previous camera shots emphasizes on setting up the character more than the location or story.



A smooth, gentle zoom transition, which continues with a pan. As it pans, the shot focuses on a satellite dish, to a crowd, ad then to a broadcasting truck. 
The shot moves itself into the truck and focuses onto one of the television screens for the cinematography to obey the subject of the the off-screen dialogue, which sets up an important event that has brought in the crowds, broadcasting trucks to capture the event, and British royalty like Prince Charles and Princess Diana.






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