For this test, we were trying to figure out how to film the dialogue between B2 and the girl. We tried almost every possible angle to film a dialogue using two shots and over-the-shoulder shots, with 24mm, 50mm, 85mm lenses. We also setup two lights.
After doing this test I showed the footage to Matt from AV. His comments:-
Backlight on characters in absent. To setup one light more or less opposite the camera with the character in between to outline characters with backlight,
Lights on their faces are very boring – flat across the whole face. Should point lights at a greater angle away from the face for a more “glamorous” lighting.
After this I showed him clips from films I thought were beautifully shot, and ask him how they were done. These were:-
Here are 2 clips from our lighting tests using blue/teal and yellow colored gels, using the Sony Fs7 video camera, the camera which we will use for the actual shoot.
The exhibition is going to be held in The Old Red Bus Station, and is in aid of Leeds Womens aid which is a charity that helps women and children in and around Leeds. Any donations made on the night will go directly towards the charity.
During the AV workshops with Matt at the beginning of this brief, we agreed to organize and music video shoot with Tom Attah. Through this we would learn how to professionally record a music video or music performance with professional video and sound recording equipment. We were to use the Sony Fs7 film cameras that shoot in 4K and have the appropriate sound recording inputs with DSLR cameras lack. Â We were to use condenser microphones to record his singing, and film in an appropriate setup with proper lighting.
Here is a some screenshots from a scene from the short film Rat Pack Rat.
An official selection of the 2014 Sundance Film Festival – Special Jury Award For Unique Vision.
I thought it was a beautiful way to film a performance and it was also similar to how Matt described our film to possibly look like, that is we were to use a smoke machine and spotlights as well as in this scene.
Sofie, Ruta and I went out scouting for locations one night. Here is the list of locations I planned:-
Leeds University : Michael Saddler building, Roger Stevens building, Parkinsons Building
NCP car park rooftop
Woodhouse Lane Car park rooftop
Leeds City Museum
The Ship pub
Angel Inn
Thorton Arcade
Queen’s Arcade
One of the things I was looking for, was a location where B2 and Girl could meet, initially I imagined Leeds City Museum, but the lights there at night didn’t seem to be as bright and beautiful as I imagined.
Working part time in and around Leeds University, I fell in love with it’s.. my vocabulary is too limited for me to describe this properly…but I fell in love with it’s rigid, modern, stern architecture, full of straight lines and made of simple shapes.
An important part of my film is the dialogue between Brother 2 and Girl. I have been trying to figure how I might capture this. Inspired by many films I have recently watched, I have developed a strong liking for the ‘Two Shot’. A two shot includes two characters in the same composition.
An example from Mystery Train (1989). In this scene the boy and girl argue whether Elvis Presley or Carl Perkins is better.
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“Having only two characters in a composition instantly suggests there is a connection between them and elicits the audience to compare and contrast them.”
“When using only a two shot to cover a conversation, the audience will “edit” the scene themselves, by shifting their attention from one character to the other depending on which one is talking or any other aspect of their performance.”
“When you use a combination of increasingly tighter shots to suggest something meaningful is taking place, the audience can afford to be passive, since the context of the scene is being revealed to them by the progression of the shots through editing. When the composition remains constant and no editing is used, the audience has to become active, constantly searching for clues to decode the dramatic intent of the scene.”
Another example of a two shot from Fallen Angels(1995). Although there is no dialogue here, there is the guy’s narration of his thoughts.
In this scene from Godard’s Pierrot le fou (1965). Meeting again for the first time in 5 years, the man, who has just abandoned his wife and daughter, and the woman decides where to go.
In this scene from Godard’s Band of Outsiders (1964), the guy and girl meet and speak for the first time, and plan for what to do after their English class.
“The blocking of characters in a two shot can make a vivid narrative point about the dynamics of their relationship”
Jean-Luc Godard and Wong Kar Wai are two directors that most significantly influence my interest in making films and the way I want to make films. Watching their movies was to me experiencing a different type of cinema all together. One which I fell in love with almost immediately. Their films are similar in many ways, indeed, Godard was one of Wong’s biggest influences. Putting into words about how and why I love their films will be a difficult task; the size of my vocabulary will not be sufficient to capture the all that is portrayed in their films, hence I will link a few of my favorite scenes from a few of their movies to endorse what I am trying to say. As research for my film, I have set out to watch almost all of Wong’s films and most of Godard’s films.
“I was watching a film that was not afraid of its audience. Almost all films, even the best ones, are made with a certain anxiety about what the audience will think: Will it like it? Get it? Be bored by it? Wong Kar-Wai, like Godard, is oblivious to such questions and plunges into his weird, hyper style without a moment’s hesitation.” – Film critique of Fallen Angels (1998) by famous film critic Roger Ebert, 1998.
There is an energy about Wong’s and Godard’s films that I have never felt before from watching movies by any other director. A playfulness and quirkiness that makes me happy just experiencing what was on screen, even though I might not understand what relation it had to the story.
Their films were never predictable. Perhaps because both these directors usually never worked with a full script( as I have described in another blog post ). This is perhaps the reason why their characters feel so “alive”. Because they were in many ways “real”. What the characters were saying, were lines that the persons playing them would say, or would feel comfortable saying, in the way that they would say it.
English subtitles for this scene: “I’ve heard that there’s a kind of bird without legs that can only fly and fly, and sleep in the wind when it is tired. The bird only lands once in its life… that’s when it dies.”
Another thing about their film is the frequent use of voice over narration. I find it very difficult to explain why, but it’s something I have really grown to love through watching their films. And is something that I might attempt to use in my short film.
Godard and Wong’s films have inspired me significantly to create films, because they have proved to me that one does not require an amazing budget to create an amazing film. Probably the most common advice given to learning filmmakers, but I have never believed it truly until I have watched these films.
One of the biggest worries I had was not being able to “proper” actors, which might mean very bad acting and consequently a very bad and difficult to watch short film. Godard and Wong gave me faith that anybody could perform or act well, as long as they were themselves, or as long as the characters were in some ways intrinsically the persons playing them.
Alfred Hitchcock:Â In order to get suspense, you provide the audience with a certain amount of information and leave the rest to their own imagination
Alfred Hitchcock:Â The element of suspense is the audience information. Now, you and I are sitting here, suddenly a bomb goes off. Up we go, blown to smithereens. What do the audience have watching this scene? 5 or 10 seconds of shock. Now we do the scene over again, but we tell the audience there’s a bomb underneath this table, and its going to go off in 5 minutes, now this innocuous conversation about football becomes very potent…
In the movie Drive (2011) which I have talked about, the information that creates the suspense is constantly being fed to the audience by the hand-held transceiver and police sirens.
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