Shot Sizes

Wide/Long Shot 
A wide shot requires a wide angle lens. A long shot - characters walk from foreground to the background or vise versa. Emphasize the scenery or the location, landscapes or cityscapes.



Tags - scenery, location, grand event, weather, an open space could be used to create peace of mind while a busy scene could do the opposite, show scale of something.

Establishing Shot 
Introduces a new location, from a vantage point that allows the audience to see all the relevant characters in the filmic space. This type of shot should not last more than ten seconds.

 

Tags - location, character, point of view, above the subject & below the subject can each contribute to a specific effect/mental state.

Master Shot
Very similar to an establishing shot - roughly the same size of frame and lens but the camera follows the action entirely. The whole scene could be captured using a master shot. This shot can last for as long as needed.

 

Tags - follows the action, a subject in motion, movement emotionally or physically in the frame.

Full Shot 
The entire character is on display without showing to much scenery. It distances you from the actor physically and emotionally.


  

Tags - create a sense of detachment, unfamiliarity, exposed, lost, vulnerable, dislike, ill health.

Medium Shot
Most common shot in movies, don't frame line across the actors joints (waist, knees, elbows ect...) Half way between a full shot and a close up. Two other types of shot encompass this size of frame - the two shot and over the shoulder. Normal lens do the job.

 

Tags - conversation, establishing a character, a bit of distance, friendly not all that intimate.

Close Up 
The subject dominates most of the frame. More dramatic and captures emotion.

 

Tags - emotion, intimacy, drama, intense, frightening, intimidating, tension. You are physically close to the person.

Extreme Close Up
Show detail - telephoto lens work.

 

Tags - very intimate, secret, acceptance, show detail, private, more emotion, very very close physically to the subject.

Insert Shots 
Don't focus on people but on a relevant object. Tight shots that fill up most of the frame. They help smooth transitions between shots when editing. Serving as a neutral shot that allows a breach of the 180 degree rule.

 

Reaction Shot 
Usually a close up, a cutaway. A reaction to the action. Helps while editing. Bridges the gap between shots. Adds more substance to the characters in dialogue.

 

Production Management Exercise 1

For this little exercise I had to write a letter/email to the owner of a property that I would like to use as a location in one of my films. We had 10 minutes to come up with something. Here's what I wrote.

Dear Sir Or Madam

My name is Scott Bradley and I'm a film student at Leeds University. I'm currently working on a small production with a group of other students.
We've been searching for a number of different locations to use in the project and we so happened to find your garage on the website " ". We as a group feel your garage would be the perfect place to shoot a short scene we have in mind.
The scene in question is part of a story about a boy trying to discover the identity of his father. The scene should be completed within 3 - 4 hours and the production team on set would be made up of no more than 15 people, no mess will be left after the shoot and in the unfortunate event of an damages we're covered with the universities insurance.
Please contact me to discuss this further, I'll look forward to your reply.

Scott Bradley

The tutor mentioned this would be a suitable first mode of correspondence but also said, given extra time, more detail was needed about the production in the letter. Its pretty reasonable considering I only had 10 minutes to write it.        

The Hero's Journey

This is a basic formula or structure of mythological narrative. Many works have followed or have been influenced by this design including the many stories in Greek myth.

Working With Actors, Notes

Having just completed the shoot wherein I had actors performing dialogue for the first time I thought I'd best write a few notes on the collaborative process involved and some techniques I used and discovered while filming.

Prior to this shoot I had no experience working with actors in dialogue, so the actors performed the scene before the cameras started rolling so the crew could see what was going to happen, the scene lasted 40 - 60 seconds, my storyboards went out the window. It took far less time than I had anticipated and threw a little spanner into the works because I needed to drastically cut down my shot list. That was the first lesson I learned, when story boarding allow the actors to breath, don't keep moving the camera or cutting, follow the action. Each shot follows the 3 act structure. If I implement this into my next storyboard I can imagine it will become a little more fluid. I've realized that by keep looking for new angles when story boarding I over complicate things, turning a simple scene into a jarring mess.  

Before the shoot I did a little prep work by going over some notes from Digital Film-Making by Mike Figgis and reading a few chapters in the book Directing Actors by Judith Weston and suddenly it dawned on me that as a director directly telling the actors what to do and how to act is probably the worst thing I can do. But by talking to the actors before filming begins I can go through the script and discuss who the characters are, the actor builds up inside of them their character so when they go out onto the set they are the character. And when on the set it's best to give the actor options or in turn let the actor give you options then with the camera I can follow them.

So what I did was a few things, some worked some didn't. Firstly I did not want to do any rehearsals with my actors, in class we'd already discussed who the characters were and what their motives were so I just told them to read the script. I did this because I hoped it would lock some emotion or expression inside of them that would only be released when they performed, I didn't want them running out of juice before filming. I think this worked, once on set we started trying things out, the actors started finding their feet and in each take they offered a little bit more.

What I also wanted to do was give the actors some freedom to move, I hate the idea of telling the actor to walk towards something, stop, then do something, then walk away or whatever. I like saying 'this is the dialogue, your character wants this, show me your interpretation.' Right away I got good feedback from both my actors, I felt a sigh of relief come from them both, they felt liberated. What I explained as well was the lighting, I took one of my actors around the small set and said 'the light is dark on you here, its bright here and if you stand like this it creates an interesting dimension across your body... work with it.' By doing this my actor knew where the lighting was and he used it to enhance his performance. It was pointless telling him where to stand and how to behave in this situation because it restricts his ability to act.

My main tool when speaking to the actors was motivation, I tried to install into each actor the characters motives, to give them a reason, an understanding of what the character was doing. They then interpreted this into a performance. I think in each take the actors did something slightly different, maybe the tone of voice was different or a movement was different which was great because I could give feedback straight away and move on. That wouldn't happen if I kept saying to them 'no, this is what i want, your not doing it.'

Now onto the things that didn't work so well. On the day of shooting I did two things, one was to tell the actors to stay away from each other at every possible opportunity because in the story the characters don't know each other and or don't like each other so I hoped that it would create something, I didn't know what I just hope something would present itself. The second thing I did was sit the actors down in the set, alone and try to pull a veil over their eyes, to try and take them into the land of make believe. I wanted them to feel like this set was now their home, that this was it, that the only people they had was one another, that they had to spend the next few months in a flee pit of a room with nothing but each other for company. I did this because I wanted them to generate inside themselves a sense of reality which would in turn come out in their performances. Neither of these things worked, primarily because it was a work shop day. Everyone had to be on set to observe the film making process. It was chaos and the actors where in the middle of it. Any sense of reality was broken. Perhaps these techniques may come of some use in the future when the students have become more familiar with the film process and the sets are a little more controlled. I gave up trying to install these two techniques quite soon into the shoot.

What I've learned is the importance of collaboration, everyone on set needs to feel appreciated and comfortable because without that there is tension and creative juices do not flow when tension is in the air. I know that first hand. I just cant wait to get stuck into another project and keep developing techniques and trying things out.     

Drive Sound Track

Film Notes

When drawing up a storyboard forget about the film/story/scene - just look at the images your creating and see if there is a story at play. If there is no story in the images then there is something wrong.

Formatic Foreshadowing is subtle. A lot of films will begin with the first scene that foreshadows events that will occur latter in the film. They plant a seed that grows as the film goes on.

In film you can use a plant - you place a prop/image/idea/fact at some point in the movie that will eventually be used/ become relevant latter on. For example - a character will need to reveal early on in the film that he/she knows martial arts for them to be able perform it at the end of the film to avoid any grumblings of a Deus Ex Machina.  

Many films can be paused at any point and you can see each frame has a beautiful and meaningful composition. Make every shot count, nothing is there by accident.

Mike Figgis Digital Film-Making

I bought this book recently and it contains some really helpful tips and insights into the workings of digital movie making. Below are some simple points for me to remember for future reference.

·         Figgis mentions that making a film is a rather straight forward task but one of the most important attributes you need is patience.

Knowing Your Camera;

·         Love your camera – get to know how it works – check all of its functions so you know all that can go wrong. Doing this will enable you adapt or fix any problems during the shoot.

·         Use the camera – spend time with it. Allow the camera to become an extension of your body.

·         Read the camera’s manual. Learn what it can do then customize the settings to get what you want.

·         Have a loyalty to your camera. Use it and know it. Respect its faults and learn to work round them as part of the production.

On Cameras

·         His brief history using a Super 8 camera reminded me of Peter Jackson’s humble beginnings. Using analogue film was costly – you couldn’t waste film – you really had to know what you were shooting beforehand. This problem does not exist with digital.

·         Differences between 8mm, 16mm, 35mm. 
                                        1.       8mm – Has a tiny film reel. Hard to edit and project.
                                        2.       16mm – TV look, square image.
                                        3.       35mm – Wider image, rectangular. Depth of field and focus       
                                              improvements.

• Each camera has its own structure and limitations – learn them so you can deal with/bypass/change things so you can get the best possible image that you want.
• When the transition from film to VHS occurred the VHS provided its own ugly problems. The VHS had big tapes, the colour had a lot of issues, the reds were very extreme and the images were easily overexposed, blurry images. The Sony Hi-8 had smaller tapes and seemed to move things forward away from the VHS cameras.

Video Aesthetics

·      With the emergence of smaller cameras came the problem of the captured images appearing floaty – light – shaky – the pan being too sharp - the image not having a balanced horizon. The rule is; the lighter the camera the more weight you need to keep it stable.

·       As a director you do a lot of pre planning, but during a shoot you have to watch from an angle. The main relationship is now between the cameraman and the actor/s. By not having hold of a camera you’re unable to make instant creative decisions. So you have to wait until ‘cut’ before you can explain to the cameraman any new angles (whatever) that have sprung to mind. It’s a slow process.

·       Operating a camera (or something else) gives back some of that creative freedom you have as a director. This is more common on lower budget films and digital productions that have smaller crews.

·       When filming digitally, with a small crew, Figgis found that the filming process would have been easier/faster by shooting it all on his own. Get the actors in place, get yourself in place then just shoot. It’s very time consuming explaining what ‘you’ want to a group of people then allowing them to try and get it right. If you do want to be a hands on director you really need to know your stuff, it’s not enough being the visionary, you need to know the ins and outs of the cameras, the audio recorders, everything. In a way you have to know more than anyone on the crew.

·       Figgis goes on to mention that to help create more fluid images you need to remove the camera away from the head. By looking through the view finder you limit your movement but by looking through a small LCD screen or monitor you suddenly have more freedom, you’re able to look around while filming so you can always get into the right positions to get the right shots. But, doing this creates its own problems – mainly, the stability of the camera – having a steady cam or a ‘figg’ rig allows the camera to be more secure.  

  

Budget

•     Figgis mentions that there are only 2 kinds of directors. 1. Needs to be at the centre of the entire production, everyone looks up to the director. He is in charge, the leader. 2. The director sees himself as an artist and he requires other artists in their field to help him bring his own ideas to life. Which one are you?
•     To make a film work you need to have a few basics in place very early on in the production. When working on a small budget film your likely going to have to be – the person who books the auditions, the sets, the persons who arranges the rehearsals, makes and serves the food ect... These things have to be drafted into the timetable as early as possible. You don’t want to have to think about them once the cameras start rolling. 
•     On small budgets don’t write a script with exotic locations and fancy stunts because you won’t make them happen. Always look at the budget then decide what film you’re going to make.
•     Also, you need to remember that the bigger the cast, the more expensive the equipment you bring onto the film will result in more time being used for transportation which will result in you spending more money.
•     He goes on to say that a lot of people get hung up on budget far too often – they use it as an excuse not to make a film. If you own a camera you can make a 90 min feature for free. It’s not impossible. Another thing people get hung up on is the quality of the equipment that needs to be used when making a film, the simple truth is if you do it right you can make a film using only your phone camera. The most important aspect of any film is the story and as long as you are telling an interesting, well written narrative the quality of image doesn’t have to be of broadcast standard.

Locations

·       When looking for locations it’s always good to make a mental note of any interesting places you come across on your travels. It’s important that you find accessible areas, places where filming wont hinder the public so when you’re writing your scripts you’re imagining real places as possible locations, but locations that can easily be used.

·       When filming on location, within a natural environment like a city centre you might have some issues with synchronizing the sound, however there is usually a clever way of handling these problems you just need to be creative.

·       When on location it’s important to have a central base of operations, a place where you can sit and have a coffee, a little chat, a place that can house any unused equipment. The worst thing you can do is leave your baggage unattended lying around a busy set.

·       Do a lot of pre planning with regards to time frames, don’t allow yourself to get too far behind schedule and if you do fall behind make sure you’re aware of it as soon as possible so you can deal with it before it really effects your plans. 

·         When out filming an action sequence always make sure you do a shot list, or make a rough story board so you know what needs shooting. Think of it as a shopping list; tick off each one once you’ve bagged them. Also, don’t over visualize the sequence, get what you need, plus a lot of cut aways then hand them over to the editor – if you’ve got enough material and the editor is good at his job they will be able to produce something incredible.

·       As a director you main job is to energize the crew and get them working at a high tempo and keep them there. If you can’t lead the group it’s good to have an assistant director who can. This also helps in the sense that it splits the work load. One focuses on the art of the film and the other on the technical side of the production. You also have to have targets and you have to hit them, never slacken the rules.    

Lighting

·       When filming on video it’s believed that you need more light to help get a ‘film’ look – However you’re not shooting on film so why deliberately change the aesthetic to get a film look? Video cameras can perform well in low light situations and they also have their own unique look, so take advantage of it and stop chasing this fictional filmic look. The rule is you don’t need lots of light anymore to get good images.  

·       When scouting for locations keep an eye out for areas that can shade you from the sun and rainfall, you want consistent looking shots.

·       When shooting never use direct light, always try to bounce it off a wall or ceiling.

·       Look to buy cheap lights that you can use on your film set and always allow the actor to know where the light is so they can use it to enhance their performance.

·       In a natural environment use the light sources that are already available. Be adaptive and use the environment.  

·       Bend your filming to suit the environment don't try to bend the environment to fit your filming.

·       With digital film the role of the DP is changing. He no longer needs to just focus on getting the lighting just right for exposure ect... They need to be asking 'why that light?' or 'why that movement? It's like going back to basics - old rules don't necessarily comply with new technology.

  

Camera Movement

·         Camera movement has to be at the service of the story. Every time you move the camera you have to have a bloody good reason for doing so. If you don't leave it static.

·         Use the movement for dramatic effect, create intimate scenes by bringing the camera in close to the actors. From an objective view point into a subjective view point.

·         Wide angles in small spaces or close ups can create a lot of interesting effects.   

Actors

•   When filming 'all' actors are nervous regardless of the confidence or the experience they have on set. Try to understand and respect the emotions of each actor.
•    You have to hold your ground with actors as a director - they have to understand it's your vision but you also need them to give you options. be respectful - let them try a few things (might or might not work) but always get what you want as well so when the editor takes a look at all the material there are lots of options.
•   When things aren't going so well - particularly with actors - bring them into the creative circle on set. Talk to them, ask questions, try new things. Change the lighting, the camera movement. Remember actors like acting so just keep trying and communicating.
•    Don't do to many rehearsals but when you are only allow your actors to speak with a flat voice just so you can see if the dialogue is working or not. Keep the actors ideas and emotions bottled up until the cameras start to roll.
•  When, if on camera, you get a really really good shot and good performance from an actor don't hesitate to stop and show them their work. 
•    Do 3 or 4 takes continually, don't stop the cameras from rolling. Keeps the momentum up.
•   Always change/lower/heighten your voice to suit the scene. You barking orders in a sensitive scene can disrupt the mood.
•   When writing an early draft of a script don't be to vivid about locations, characters looks ect... just get the story down. 

Audio Polar Patterns

We've taken a look at various mics in class and where they pick up the sound best.

 

The circular diagrams at the top of the list suggest the directions in which these mics pick up sound.

Made In Britain Production Notes

If I didn't already know making films was a slow, difficult and sometimes painful task then I certainly do now after shooting a short scene from the film 'Made In Britain'. I walked off the set with my confidence shot to pieces, unable to look some of my collaborators in the eye and large feeling of self pity, I sat at home for a short while fighting the urge to call it a day. I kept asking myself 'Do I really want to do this as a job?' At that moment I didn't really know the answer, but once I'd beaten myself black and blue and rebuilt my fragile ego I understood that the shoot was just a workshop, a chance to fuck up without consequences and I wanted another go, to do it better, to inject new ideas that had suddenly presented themselves far too late.

The project was built on very shaky foundations. All the students had barely got their feet under the table and we were all thrown into the frying pan, very much a sink or swim situation. As a small production group we only had a week to plan the film, read the script, storyboard, brief the actors and camera crew. It would have been a hard thing for any new student to do but it was made even harder when I found our team to be made up of people with very different methods of working. I was the director, I needed everyone to pull together, to turn up on time to meetings, to provide the necessary work, the simple, basic elements of any project. That did not happen. Its fair to say that my relationship with the second most senior member of my creative group was sour from day one, the one person who would be critical to the success of this picture was soon to be a little thorn in my side. Instead of pulling in the same direction and giving each other a helping hand we just didn't work, mainly due to the fact that we just didn't spend enough time working on the storyboards even though there was plenty of time available. I also felt a slight lack of respect from her towards myself in particular even though all the students had earned the right to be in the film school.

Once the cameras started rolling I felt blind, it was a new situation for me, filming in a studio set with actors in dialogue, directing a camera crew when I've been so used to manning the equipment myself. Filming on location is so very different from filming in a studio and it took a little while to understand how things should be done in that kind of environment. The tutors did their best to push me and the crew, asking questions and putting us on the spot. That was fine and understandable what I didn't want to happen was for a divide to form in our crew, for us to loose faith in each other, to panic and not listen, to not talk respectfully to one another, for the most part things were fine but as I've mentioned before my relationship with my DOP just kept getting worse. The storyboards were thrown out the window and improvisation was the name of the game however neither myself or my DOP understood one another's point of view and instead of talking about it and dealing with it the right way we just broke down and each one of us were completely out of sinc for the entire shoot. At this point I felt weak and I kept getting weaker, I started to notice the eerie silence on set and that everyone was listening to me, I'd lost confidence in my own ability, I'd lost confidence in the shots that we were aiming for. I felt small, exposed. My mind locked up and ideas that usually flow so easily evaporated. I was looking for reassurance somewhere on set, someone to lean on, anything to bring back a little confidence but all I had was my DOP and I knew I'd receive very little from her. So I stuck at it, I'm surprised no one (maybe the tutors and my DOP) noticed that I'd lost it and so I kept going until we'd got what we needed and I could get the hell off the set. A forced and weak shake of the hand from my DOP at the end summed up our opinions of one another and the tone of the atmosphere.

Not all of the shoot was difficult, I really enjoyed working with the actors, they both responded well and I allowed them some freedom to do as they please during each take which in turn relaxed them and brought out relativity natural performances. Our camera girl was deaf so explaining the movements of each take and what the actors were about to do was a little difficult at first, speaking to an interpreter the entire time added an extra body onto the already crowded set, but we got there, we were both patient and I respected her. She clearly was familiar with the camera so I gave time to make sure she understood what I wanted and the end results are fine, I'd be more than happy to work with most of my crew again.

It was also my job to sit in during editing and piece the film together, surprisingly we had very little difficulty. Some shots don't cut to cleanly with each other and perhaps we did just have one to many angles but the end result is somewhat far from terrible. The feedback from the other students has been positive. I looked around and I saw plenty of groups becoming frustrated with the images they had but my group was relaxed and pleased with what we were working with. My comment after we'd watched the final cut was, 'its just like watching Eastenders'. Maybe that's a slight exaggeration but I am relativity pleased with the outcome considering I felt like I'd lost the floor during the shoot. I have to be pleased with the film, I certainly want another crack at it, I want to keep directing.               

Sound Equipment Notes

Microphones use an XLR cable to connect themselves to the cameras/mixers ect... And can also be used to create longer cables.



You can usually tell if a piece of equipment is designed for professional use because it will have an XLR plug socket.

A lot of the early sound equipment descended from telephone technology because they were the first pieces of equipment to manipulate sound.

The shotgun mics have two models, a longer microphone and a shorter microphone. The shorter version picks up a much more wider pattern of audio than the longer mic. The longer captures a more channeled audio.

  Shorter Model.
Longer Model.

Composition Exercise

We were given a little test the other day in our directing class. The goal was to create a single frame on paper that fore-shadowed a young boys death in the film Rat-catcher. All we had to help us was the short passage taken from the script.

The scene was of a boy playing with a net curtain at home, his mum stops him and clips him round the head for being silly. Latter in the film the boy drowns in a canal. So in the single frame we had to come up with a image that fore-shadowed this event.

We immediately started thinking of things that were not part of the script, started adding various elements unnecessarily to symbolise drowning. This of course was breaking the rules. We had to come up with a shot that contained only four elements; the boy, a windows, a net curtain and his mum.

Our next thought was to use the net curtain as a way of representing water, we thought by wrapping the boy in the curtain, he's struggling to get out of it, it could fore-shadow a future struggle but this time he gets lucky because his mum's there to pull him out of it. We placed the boy in a mid close up and in the centre of the screen to represent his weakness.

It was really all we could think of.

Our biggest mistake was trying to make the net curtain represent water and to try and link what was happening in his home to the event further in the film. When we saw the real film scene it was so simple but so brilliant. The boy was wrapping himself in the curtain effectively becoming a mummy, the window, which all of us hadn't even thought about, was shaped like a cross. You could hit pause at anytime during that scene and you would have seen the image of boy soon to die. It was so obvious, so easy and that's what makes it such a brilliant shot.

We were thinking along the right lines but we were perhaps trying to join dots that weren't there, if we had just taken a step back and analysed each element properly we could have perhaps thought of something closer to the original scene. As it was we got close but approached it from the wrong angle.  

History Of Sound

Before there was any sound recorded on film when the picture was screened in a cinema there would be huge organs placed on stage.



Once audio had started to appear in film the company 'Nagra' soon became a landmark in the TV and film industry. The audio recorders were durable and efficient, the brand went on to win many awards for it's inventions in the field of audio.



Unlike today the Nagras were designed to be repaired, opened up and modified. They used a reel of tape to record the audio, one reel of tape could record 25 mins of audio, compare that to a standard film camera's 10 mins of visual recordings its easy to understand how impressive this piece of kit was.

As time went on the Nagra was bettered by digital technology. It was replaced by the digital stereo recorder 'DAT' it was like a Walkman and cost around 600 pound. This used large DV tapes to record on.



At this time audio tapes had issues with hiss on playback so when Dolby entered the scene and reduced the amount of interference it was a landmark achievement.

A mini disc recorder was going to replace the DAT but for one reason or another it never really took off. It was used primarily as a back up unit if all else failed.

Now everything is recorded onto a hard drive and has made playback, copying and editing audio much faster and easier but the technology is much more fragile, I doubt the tools we use today will last as long as the older audio recorders.

Analogue = DAT = HDD