Going To An Extreme Closeup

Through a lot of my recent learning I've found that going into big close ups can be a dangerous thing to do without true motive. A close up is a very strong statement on screen and is used primarily to demonstrate an emotion felt by a particular character.

The problem I find with using close ups is that once you've gone into a closeup the only way is to bring the shot out again, this can make a badly put together scene work even less. But today in our story lecture we watched a short film from New Zealand about two children sat in a couple of cars outside of a shady motel.

Through the film the two characters begin to develop a friendship and in the final moments they're sat in the front seats of a car and very quickly we see a close up of the boy and a close up of the girl, after each of those close ups the camera relaxes to a profile two shot. I was trying to think why the film maker had chosen to make those cuts and on my second viewing I saw something that has given me a clearer insight on how to use extreme closeups effectively.

In each of the close ups each character makes a small gesture of affection to each other, very subtle and very quickly but its enough to warrant the use of a close up. Your being brought into their head space for only a little moment but you understand at this point both characters have developed a liking for each other. I think it works and its given me a bit more of an understanding of that size of shot.      

Short Film Writing Notes

When developing a short story for film there are a few things to consider -

• Choose a single moment in a life time and explore it. A tiny moment, not a grand narrative. Sometimes the simplest of stories can have the most unexpected effect on the audience.
• Try to develop how the characters fit into their own world. It can be difficult in short film to allow the story to breath but a slower pace allows the audience a chance to observe the world and its characters. 
• Look at all the characters in the film - it's important to get across their personalities, even if they only have a minor role. Simple and slight moments of character can help shape the larger narrative.    

West Yorkshire Police Project... Continued Prt 2

Shoot 4 - Interrogation
My Role - Director

With this film we wanted to keep with the tongue in cheek tone and we wanted to keep the idea of stolen mobile phones. What we did was set up a robber that had been caught and brought into police custody. Inside a scary interrogation room the robber is told to empty his bag, inside his bag are lots and lots of stolen phones.  In the end he's there just tipping out all these phones onto the table. Its funny but suggests that phone crime is really very high.

Before the shoot I had to amass a large amount of phones so what I did was go around town asking various phone stores to give me as many dummy phones as they could possibly spare. Thankfully one store was kind enough to give me half a bag full which was more than enough.

On the shoot day our crew had been working together for 3 - 4 days so with that experience under our belts I felt we worked in a much more efficient way. I tried to be very laid back with my directing, I trusted everyone to do their roles and basically just moved around the set making sure everyone was up to date and knew what I wanted. I'd managed people before at work but this was the first film I had directed since my directing workshop which was terrible on my part, so there was a nervousness inside me but it didn't show.

I felt the shoot went really well and I think that was partially down to the pre filming preparation I had had done. I'd drew up a story board as well as a camera and lighting plan. I explained the set up to my DOP and camera opp and left them to get the shots I wanted. This gave me a chance to speak to the actors and other members of the crew, for me this put a lot of people at ease. We just worked really quickly and I'd like to thank everyone for really being on their A game.

I'm not sure how the finished piece will look, I'm sure it will have it's problems and when I see them I'm sure they'll tell me a lot about what I need to improve on with regards to creating a film but hopefully whatever the outcome the advert will be accepted and used for public awareness.        

West Yorkshire Police Project ...Continued

Shoot 3 - Shopping Channel
My Role - Camera Operator

In this film we have a burglar appear on a TV channel for thieves, he has a short chat with the presenter and tries to give an insight into the world of thievery. What we wanted to do was create a tongue in cheek warning to people about being careful with their personal belongings.

Firstly I was given the task to write a short script with a fellow student. We absorbed a good few hours of shopping channel footage online then had a crack at writing a shopping channel scenario ourselves. It took just one afternoon to get a script together that we felt brought up the points about personal safety quickly without it coming across as forced or false.

Here it is -

Shopping Channel Advert

Presenter (Keith) - So Rob, what have you got for us today?

Rob - Well Keith we’ve got this amazing new book, it’s the next chapter in our ‘How To’ series. This week it’s ‘How To Steal Mobile Phones’.

Keith - What can you tell us, in particular, about the book?

Rob - Well, I’ve learned a lot of interesting techniques and helpful tips. In fact I’m going to share a few here today.

Keith - Fantastic!

Rob - Well these phones nowadays light up like its christmas, you can see them a mile away. People are always so caught up in their conversations they’ll never see you coming. You could swipe it and be off in seconds.

Keith - Well how about that... What else have you got?

Rob - Here’s a nice tip for you, even if they haven't got the phone on them they are so lightweight you could flick it out of a pocket and the poor sod wouldn't even know about it.

Keith - And then once you’ve actually got the phone surely you could gain access to peoples personal information?

Rob - Of course keith. Most people don't bother with all that security nonsense. We’d get access to Facebook, Twitter and possibly any Amazon accounts. And on the odd day you might even find some bank details.

Keith - Well this book does sound like a delightful read. I’ll have to steal one myself. Join us after the break and we’ll be taking a look at possible ways of breaking into your neighbor's shed. Don’t go away!  

What we then needed was a front cover for the 'How To...' book. Thankfully I have a friend in graphic design and she gladly handed over her skills and created a really cool cover for us as well as a logo for the shopping channel.

Here they are -

I'd like to think these little extra details can give the finished product a little extra quality and shows that we are serious about what we want to achieve.

The shoot itself was largely uneventful, I just had more practice on camera and it gave me a chance to keep working with a crew I really enjoyed working with.

West Yorkshire Police Project

Before the new term began a few of us had been offered the opportunity to work on four short crime awareness adverts for the West Yorkshire police. We jumped at the chance and soon we had four short ideas planned and ready to shoot. Over the next post or two I'm going to document the planning that went into each shoot and some reflections regarding what I've learned as a film maker during the process.

Shoot 1. Predicting a burglary.
My Role - Gaffer

The story behind this shoot was that a female student had left her window open and a thief creeps into her house, robs her and then threatens her life. In the heat of the moment the girl wakes up and finds that it was just a bad dream but races downstairs to lock her window.

Its a simple idea and I think the message is quite clear.

Being the first shoot of four it was important that we started strongly and that we as a crew got on and worked together well. I think we did. It was a good all round experience, each of us had a particular role and I think for the majority of the time we really respected that and gave our all to the role. We didn't have any egos getting in the way or huge creative arguments slowing us down.

The problems we did encounter are problems inexperienced film makers like us are bound to come across. Firstly we had some major issues with the lighting. The shoot was set during the evening and all the lights in the house were switched off so we had to give the scenes some extra light to give the set a more dramatic and three dimensional aesthetic.

What we did in one scene was place a 300 lamp outside and directed the light through the front window. On top of the incoming street light the scene looked good. Still there was need of some extra light, so we placed another 300 in the corner of the room, diffused it and bounced the light of a reflector. This killed the harshness of the 300 and just gave the scene a little extra light. This scene worked well.

Unfortunately for us the luck didn't last. Once we began shooting in the bedroom we really struggled to get the scene alive, on camera the whole room looked flat and dark. We tried some different things but every time the light always appeared manufactured and it lacked purpose and place, this really slowed us down. In the end we decided we needed to create moon light coming in from the window. This was hard because the 300's were far to heavy and bright and the room was very small, so what we did was place the 300 just outside the window and created a cardboard cut out to stick on the window. What happened was the light diffused slightly and the room was cast in this really interesting light that appeared to be street light piercing through blinds hanging on the windows. It worked well enough.

The second issue I saw was just a lack of pre filming preparation. This shoot was arguably the hardest one and the crew very much went into it without a strong story board and camera plan. The camera team ended up having to film on the fly and this brought about lots of issues regarding composition and focus.

The shoot itself was long and gave me a good insight into the day to day living of a film maker. We began working at 4 pm and we got to bed on location at 3 am. It was a real test of character and endurance, I learned a lot about my fellow students that night.  

The things I learned that I'm surely going to take into account next time I'm filming is the need for camera plans and strong story boards, that is a must. And secondly whenever I go on a set or location I'll think about placing the light where the light is going be coming from naturally and work from there. Trying to place light in places that would not naturally give light can end up making things more complicated.
 

Documentary Project

Throughout the whole of semester 2 we'll be working on a 10 - 15 min documentary in small groups. What I've decided to do is take a look into the psychological affect social networks have had on society, I'll have a look at where social networks began, how they're used today and perhaps take a look at where this technology will eventually lead us.

I'm not overly familiar with the documentary form so I'll be keeping in a journal all the progress of this project and I'll use my blog to gather visual information as well as links to other pieces of work found on the net.

Scott Bradley Film

Here's a link to my website -
scottatbburn.wix.com/bradleyfilm

Here's a link to my production company FenixFilms -
http://sbradleyfilm.wix.com/fenixfilms

Here's a link to my Twitter account -
twitter.com/sbradleyfilm

Here's a link to my Facebook account -
facebook.com/scott.bradley

Here's a link to my LinkedIn account -
linkedin.com

Guest Speaker

Today we were treat to a guest speaker, Rob Taylor an experienced camera operator and DOP came in to the film school to have a little chat about his various experiences in the industry. However, Rob is not your normal camera operator, his work is predominantly out in the field making documentaries about wildlife and the environment  Filming in dangerous locales like bear infested marshlands and rivers with man eating cat fish swimming its murky waters. His work is beyond anything I'd ever imagine myself doing but his advice and experiences gave me a good insight of what life might be like when uni comes to an end. 

I think the big realization I had was that as a film maker today you really have to be freelance and with that tag you really need to be ready to move around go to where the work is. Rob has a keen interest in the outdoors and his work has taken him all over the world. Its actually both frightening and exciting thinking that in only a few years time I myself might be required to make such leaps across the world. You have to be brave when chasing work.

His other big piece of advice was the need for students and up and coming filmmakers to really develop their skills and become a product that they can sell to production companies. By learning about cameras, all types of film making, how to edit and getting your driving license are just a few examples of what you need to do to make yourself more employable. 

Susan Beir

Another Director I've been reading about, below are some notes that may help in the future.

• She she says she has to be terrified of the material and terrified about how she is going to put that material where it needs to go. This helps her deliver her best work. 
• One particular thing she learned very quickly was that when filming an actor delivering a long piece of dialogue how surprised she was that she really wanted to see the listener more so than the speaker. In the script the speaker is the focus but when your filming that may have to change. By shifting focus it can help give the scene a stronger emotional punch.  
• She says she's on a creative high when working on a film, even though its a very intense experience she really throws herself at it. It wasn't until she finished her first feature film that she realized just how hard it is to make a film. 
• Always think of the audience when writing a script or shooting, tell stories people want to hear. 
• She doesn't writer her own scripts but she collaborates with Andreas Thomas Jensen (who writes the script) and likens the forming of a script to building with Lego. They don't write a synopsis they develop themes and characters then develop the story from there. 
• When she is on set working with her actors she always considers the arc of the scene and tries to find the less obvious or less predictable journey through that scene which she believes is often the most realistic or natural one.
• She comments on how quiet and focused her set is and how it lacks any tension. She says that when you require your actors to do something quite frightening like a sex scene the best way to deal with it is just continue working as you do and don't make a drama out of it on set by throwing out your crew ect.  
• She tells real stories with human characters so she is not overly interested in fancy camera work or huge sweeping tracking shots, if it does not tell her story then it does not go into the film. 

Advice to young film makers -

"It may sound like a really stupid thing to say, but the best thing for film makers is to have a life. I think I am a bit wary of people who have been crazy about movies since the age of eight and live in the movie world. Of course there are exceptions, but in general the movies I enjoy have some relationship to life. I feel that for a director to convey life it is worthwhile to have some experience in it." 

Footnote -

I find her advice quite interesting they way she points out its really important to look beyond the world of cinema to help you become a better film maker because I've always been worried that I don't love cinema enough and that its one of my shortcomings. Cinema has always been one of my big pleasures but I enjoy sports, gaming and writing before cinema and Bier has given me a little more confidence that it is OK to not live and breath movies.

Its interesting because in the book that I'm reading Del Torro's advice is almost the opposite, he says that you really need to look back through history and watch all the movies you can that are worth while and really invest time into the workings of all your favorite films and talk about them, he reminds me of Peter Jackson, both were huge movie fans from such an early age. I think its important to have a middle ground, I know in my heart that not many 24 year olds have had the life I've had so with all those experiences I need to use them and let them help me create interesting stories and characters. I suppose I'm beginning to understand the term 'point of view' with regards to the tone and themes of a particular film.  

Oliver Assayas

 Continuing through the Directing film craft book I've been reading I've been introduced to Oliver Assayas, a French film maker with a rather keen interest in Asian culture.

Here are some notes -

• He says its difficult getting the best performances from your actors when you first begin making films because you don't really understand how to deal with them. You have to work out a way of functioning with your actors yourself. You have to learn and try new things with every film you make. 
• When your writing the script your writing for your actors so you need to think about the emotional context of the script and let the actors absorb it and then translate what you have written into a good performance. 
• When he writes a script he says he has a skeleton that he builds on throughout so he always knows where he is going and where he has come from. 
• He is a very precise writer and also on set he goes through set plans, camera plans and the respective positions of his actors religiously way before shooting even begins. 
• He keeps his actors on their toes by changing lines on set when necessary  he doesn't want his actors relying on what they have practiced in rehearsal. He also likes hearing the actors own input into proceedings. He feels his method allows the actors more freedom to perform. 
• He has worked with the same group of people (film crew) throughout most of his film making career. He says they all know how he works and in turn he understands them, it makes his film making process faster and more precise allowing him to have the room to experiment when the need arises. 
• He used to be a painter so he has likened camera movement to the stroke of a brush. Aided by his choice of cuts he says his films take on a rhythmic flow.
• He evolves the shot with each new take, developing new ideas and incorporating unforeseen opportunities.
• The trick that took him the most time to understand was the process of capturing those tiny nuances of emotion you can find on set, especially on location. You can have a real sense of space and see some small moments of beauty like a sunrise or rain. He feels its really important to get those elements into the film. 
• The thriller is the most experimental genre there is. 

Advice to young film makers - 

"Just look what's happening around you when you are shooting. No one really tells you that, but it's very important. Just don't think only of whats in your screen play and whats useful for your story. Open your eyes to the world you are creating around you and eventually consider it might be more interesting or stranger than you had planned."