In our class yesterday as well as going through how a shoot should run we watched all our Lenny videos. It was impressive to see the difference between them all, and not in a bad way.
The first group’s Lenny was dramatic and went for an extremely emotional approach to the script. The cinematography was amazing with the still montage at the beginning highlighting the concrete harsh landscape. The cinematography was also very effective in terms of colour saturating the screen in dull shades of grey and diffused greens, browns, etc. The whole atmosphere was diffused. The drama was heightened by the building orchestral music and the cutting between Sharon and Lenny building up their confrontation and when they finally meet with the wideshot of Sharon running towards the collapsed Lenny to give the audience a full indication of this pivotal moment. The editing was effective and mostly used in terms of continuity editing, keeping the audience orientated and amongst the action. Overall for the first production I thought they effectively conveyed the script of Lenny keeping within the rules of production, such as obeying the 180 degree rule and knowing the camera very well in terms of exposure, focus and white balance. Out of all the films I thought this was the most technically professional.
The second Lenny used nearly the same location, but the feel was much different. It was highly saturated with a yellow glowing tinge, which Paul suggested was a white balance issue but anywho it was a very different feel. The shots were similar to the first with Lenny walking, Sharon’s shoes, the box, etc. However, it was slightly disorientating, which I didn’t notice till Paul told me explicitly so it wasn’t an extreme problem for me. The costuming was done well, with the high heels on Sharon as she struts in an amazing shot of her feet centered in the middle of the frame and the clicking of her high heels, which heightened the melodramatic style of the acting; Lenny in a suit and Sharon in a black dress. The dialogue sequence between Lenny and Sharon works really well with the cuts and doesn’t cross the line, using over-the-shoulder shots to create a sense of place and continuity that isn’t as present in the opening meeting sequences that were slightly disorientating.
Overall, both these films use similar things: music to heighten the emotional intensity, over-exaggerated acting and a large feeling of despair. However, they achieve these in different ways. The first one through the bleak, concrete setting emphasising the glowing red blood and the second one through the melodramatic heightened music and melodramatic acting.
In terms of our Lenny, i think it was highly different to the first two because it used rather extreme low and high angles, where at points we had the camera positioned on the ground. We also used a quite different setting. Even though ours wasn’t as polished as the others in terms of the audio I think we went a bit abstract. I wanted the main emphasis to be showing Lenny’s vulnerability, by 1. showing Sharon tower over him and 2. have really low angles of him, where the camera grounds itself within his subjectivity. Therefore I wanted to use extreme angles for this short exercise. Paul pointed out a few things that we could of improved on such as the exposure on Sharon’s face and having a reflection of Sharon in the mirror of the box, just to add something and make it better. Obviously, there are a few things we need to work at.
This is more or less a progress report about my role and all sorts of other stuff I’ll keep it brief.
Casting call is out. This was fun to do and because Eliza had already given well written descriptions of what she was looking for it was a relatively easy task. I have kept a copy on googledocs just in case I find another casting call site and then will be able to paste it straight up.
Contact with my group is going really well. We are using email and googledocs to keep in contact. We have had two meetings, sticking to one a week, we will probably need to amp this up a bit. All meeting notes get written up on googledocs so all group members can access all the information. Googledocs really is a mervellous thing and allows people to share and edit ideas, which is perfect for film production notes.
Honestly, we’ve still got a lot to do. However, I feel like we’re slowly getting there. We now have a proposed location thanks to my lovely mother, as her work has now been turned into an office-like building. This means that we will have a whole house to film in and logistically be able to set up a green room, etc. It also means we will have lots of space to film in. Eliza has given us some examples of the type of location we will need to set up, and hopefully this will be logistically possible. As producer I have organised a meeting with my mum at the location. However, I have already talked to her and we do have permission. Tomorrow I am going to go and check it out taking some photos. Eliza has described the feel she wants for the location as: bland colours. Very monochromatic- except for Bernard. He wears brown and has terrible, puke coloured ties. Therefore when I head to the location, it will need to be rather monochromatic, which my mum says it has been painted white and grey so that sounds perfect to me. Eliza also sent us some photos of the type of feel she wants, that are from some films:
This sets up a clostraphobic environment, where Bernard feels trapped within his workplace. An art with film is convey a lot through image and action. It also adds a metaphoric layer to the film if he physically looks claustraphobic then this indicates that he is emotionally uncomfortable as well. Now, back to some logistics in terms of location:
- I need to ask if I can change around things: add shelves to make it look claustraphobic and uncomfortable.
- If there are no partitians I need to see if they have some readily available and figure out how to put them up.
- We now have an art director so when I take photos I need to make sure they highlight the space and take down notes on if things are logically capable in that space.
- What is the lighting like? Fluro, incandescent. If my DOP asks a question about lighting I need to make sure that it is possible or if we will need extra lighting.
- Floorplanning I will take a tapemeasure to measure out the spaces, to indicate how big the room is. I will also take my video camera to give my director a feel for the space. I will draw out a comprehensive floor outline of the building so we can start thinking about floorplan.
I think this about covers everything with location. I just need to have a feel for the location and make sure that Eliza’s shot list that she has written can be articulated in the space.
In terms of Lenny. I was happy with the shoot. We made fake blood and got everything done on time. We will edit it on Wednesday as that is the next day that I have group members available to work on it. We followed the storyboard well, however what I learnt is that so many creative juices flow through you when you’re there filming that you realise that there are so many more things to do, and you ask yourself questions like what if the angle was lower? You just keep thinking and thinking about all the great shots you can add that will make it so much more aesthetically pleasing.
So this is an update of our progress. I am going to write a blog post along these lines weekly.
In regards to the Lenny exercise I have taken over the role of Director, which is quite challenging because I am the creative force behind the production. It is also challenging because I am producing it as well. I’ve decided to film it a dark, almost film-noir style of film, where I want to take advantage of doing extreme shots, either extreme close-ups or extreme wide-shots. I have torn the script apart and plotted out what each shot will be (it may be slightly ambitious, but we’ll see). The hardest part has been scene 3, which is the dialogue section- I want to stick with two camera angles for this section due mainly because of the time restriction. This is the overall shot breakdown of the script:
1. EXT. BOULEVARD – DAY
- Establishing shot- WS of Lenny weaving between buildings (if possible from a high angle if time permits). Lenny will stagger towards the camera.
- If time permits- CU of Lenny’s feet staggering
- If time permits- CU of Lenny’s eyes in pain
2. EXT. LANE – DAY
- CU of box clasped by a hand with painted fingernails (indicating a woman), camera tilts downwards and focuses on high heeled clad feet
3. EXT. BOULEVARD- DAY
- MCU of a puddle of blood, camera tilts upwards to show Lenny colapsed on a bench. In the background you hear and see heels approaching.
- MS Sharon cast above peering down at Lenny (camera remains at the same level as Lenny, angled up to show Sharon)
- MS over-the shoulder looking down at Lenny from Sharon’s perspective
- MS camera pans to show Sharon exiting the frame after dialogue finishes and pans back to Lenny with the box in focus, Lenny exerts all energy to unclasp and open the box as the box springs open Lenny colapses.
- if time…The camera widens above Lenny from a high angle to emphasise his death.
NOTE: Dialogue will be filmed from shot 2. and 3. of this scene, and in editing will be alternated.
I know that this seems like a lot of shots, however I have made it easier for my DOP because there is minimal camera movement- the camera does not actually need to be moved for a tracking or dollying shot. All of the camera work will be done on the tripod. Overall, I hope to create a dramatic dark film that encapsulates the power that Sharon has over Lenny. In terms of scheduling I will do scene 3 first because it will take the most amount of time to perform. I will then do scene 1 followed by scene 2.
