Initial Response to the Module
When I first heard about the module I was to be honest quite skeptical about the Research Experiment Development assignment, as initially I thought that this was going to be just a case of rinse and repeat from last years Experiment assignment, so going along those lines, my first idea was to concentrate on directing and writing dialogue and script because this is what I had originally singled out in my year overview of areas that I really wanted to improve upon. I thought of again using my experiments from last years module and applying them to this RED project and filming a scene from a script that I’ve had in the works for a couple of years now that is really still in it’s skeleton form of a treatment.
After a couple of weeks of mulling over the module and my idea, I thought that I shouldn’t take this approach as I would be spreading my time and skills too thinly over numerous different roles (writer, director, art director, DOP). I had already joined up with Rob Cooper, Damian Suparasiri and Ross Carter to shoot a music video for a local band and had put myself forward as being the D.O.P for the shoot; and after seeing Joe Tippett’s work during his Lighting Workshop exercise and hearing him talk briefly about his script idea in class, I really wanted to challenge myself to take on another project with the same job role.
The challenge for me was not only to learn the role thoroughly and act as professional as possible as D.O.P/Cinematographer; but both projects gave me different working conditions; with the music video I would have to work closely with Lighting as we were going to be shooting in a studio environment and for the short film I was being challenged to create a post apocalyptic world look in camera and as the film was going to be shot solely outdoors I was going to be restricted to working with natural light only. Also with the music video I was tasked with creating a specific visual look from the director whereas on the short film I was being given more creative freedom to create the visual style of the film not only in camera but during the colour correction in post production.
My main influences for this RED project were geared more towards the short film project as I’ve always been quite keen on post apocalyptic world films and the films that really sprang to mind from a visual standpoint were the likes of The Road (2009, dir John Hillcoat), Children of Men (2006, dir Alfonso Cuaron) and the made for TV film Threads (1984, dir Mick Jackson); each film having their own distinctive cinematic style that for different reasons had a huge visual impact and something that I would really like to not just simply recreate, but try and amalgamate the strong points of each into one visual style.
I had hoped and expected to gain more knowledge of the role of D.O.P/Cinematographer and really hoped that I would gain great confidence from this project as I was taking on two separate projects within this role in a hope to build my confidence on set and begin to hone my communication skills to a professional level. I was also hoping to learn more about how to create different picture styles in camera and with colour correction in Final Cut.
The Process of my Research
The main focus of my early research was to read books from the library on general key points and skills required and expected from a D.O.P/Cinematographer. This was brought about after our Lighting Workshop when it became apparent that on set the communication between myself and others seemed rather distant and we ended up doing little bits of everything rather than sticking to our role; this made me realize that I wasn’t really 100% aware of what the full responsibilities of the role were and what would be expected from me in the professional world as a Cinematographer.
From reading some basic books that listed all the responsibilities and what is required from someone in this role; I made a point of noting down those that I wasn’t really aware of down in bullet points to read over a few times so that I knew exactly what I should be doing throughout the whole process of a production (inc. pre-production and post-production).
I then moved onto more specific books that talked about composition and all the key elements that go into framing and shooting scenes within film; the book that I really found to be of greatest use was Cinematic Storytelling by Jennifer Van Sijll because from reading this and applying what I had learnt from that onto the script of the short film that I was working on, I was able to break down each shot in my mind, and how it should look and the methods that best suit each scene thematically.
A big turning point in my research was discovering the video tutorial of Dynamic Picture Styles on Vimeo that was pointed out to me by Joe Tippett; before watching this I was really struggling to understand how I was going to approach the actual filming of 'After Arcadia' and how to best create in camera a visual style of my own. After watching the tutorial, I checked out numerous other unique pictures styles online and was considering what was best for this project, but I decided that really considering this as a module I needed to challenge myself as much as possible and decided that I should create my own User Preference set ups in camera myself.
As for my research aimed towards the music video, because it was just a case of getting the visual style that a director had in his mind, I really just needed to familiarize myself with those videos that Damian was influenced by and look at how they were achieved. Also much of the reading material that I started my research on applied to both projects.
Conclusions from my RED module
I feel that my research task was very robust and the decision to take on 2 projects really helped me get the most out of this module, which I deem to have been a massive success and despite my early fears of this just being a repeated pointless module from last year, this might well have been my favourite and if not most productive module I’ve completed since joining the Film Arts course at PCA. I could make the argument that my research could have been more refined to concentrate on an area within the role as D.O.P/Cinematographer, and that for me would definitely be looking at creating your own unique visual style that is not only personal to me as an artist, but one that also makes you stand out as instantly recognizable. That being said because of my lack of experience working as a D.O.P/Cinematographer I feel that my initial research task was best suited for me to grow and learn as an individual
I feel that my approach to my research was pretty much the best way for me to get the most out of the RED module; starting from reading the books and understanding the role and all the theory that goes with the technical and creative skills within Cinematography and then looking at the visuals and videos like tutorials was very effective, because it was worded towards building my own character and knowledge into the role of D.O.P/Cinematographer. The process in which I research was certainly the strongest aspect of my approach to the research itself, yet the real stand out weakest was that I really could have spent more time researching the technical side of creating User Preferences in camera and different dynamic picture styles, also I really would have liked to have found the time to research the cinematographers from the films that have influenced me for 'After Arcadia' and go back and learn what it was and who really inspired and influenced them.
I’ve learned a substantial amount about being a D.O.P/Cinematographer from this RED module, and I’ve pretty much got everything out of this module that I had originally hoped for from the beginning of the module. I’ve tackled numerous challenges along the way and though I’ve been met with some stumbling blocks I believe I’ve been able to successfully find the right way around them. I feel that this module and my RED projects will be of great importance to building myself up as a more accomplished filmmaker and though I still feel that I really want to go more down the directing route of film making this project has allowed me to explore the world of cinematography, which has always really intrigued me and now I feel I’ve got a more appreciated attitude towards those working in the role.
Finally I’m really happy with the finished pieces of film that I’ve worked on for this project; I’m really impressed by the final version of the music video I worked on as I feel that it really does have a professional feel and look to it, and though the footage for 'After Arcadia' might not have been able to convey the post apocalyptic world in the end, I did really like the style of which it was shot and how after the colour correction the life seemed to be drained out of the film, much like the life is drained from the earth in a post apocalyptic world.
I hope to apply my research towards the next upcoming projects for the rest of the year, and will hopefully look back at my online blog in the future after I’ve left the college and try and develop this approach further in future film projects and hopefully the production crew that we’ve put together for the music video will be able to take off and find more work in the near future.
First I decided to heavily reduce the saturation and then started tweaking with levels on the Blacks, Mids and Whites until I found the right stylistic image I had in my mind.
I finally found that with the saturation reduced by just over 50% and slighting reducing the Blacks & Whites levels and ever so slightly increasing the Mids just a tad I found the style that I was looking for and one that I was really happy with.
This was a very good starting point and thought that it might be a good idea to copy this colour correction setting and paste it onto the rest of the scenes in the time line, and for the most part this worked very well and each scene fitted together really well and only needed very slight adjustments to match up with the montage shot that I originally colour corrected.
Though there were some scenes that needed more adjustments to match up with the rest of the footage; example – the establishing shot
This scene in particular, actually needed slight increase on the saturation, with the Mids staying the same from the raw footage and the blacks and the Whites levels needed to be adjusted to fit in with the rest of the footage.
I really have a positive reaction to the colour correction process and am really happy with how the footage looks now, I think that this one scene below really shows how from what the raw footage that was captured to the colour corrected image has changed; I think that the raw image itself shows that some of the life has been drained from the image, but then I've exploited this effect even further with the colour correction adjustments in post. I feel that you have that feeling of life being drained away with that gritty dull beige/light brown colour palette prominent in the scene.
After Colour Correction
During these last two days in the edit suite, both me and Joe have been on board throughout the whole process, actually having the director in the room whilst correcting the colour turned out to be very helpful as it was always a second pair of eyes looking at how the footage linked up together in terms of light levels and making sure that the colour correction all matched up. After the edit and colour correction was finished we got some feedback from some peers; Rob Cooper actually mentioned what we already had thought in our minds, which was the footage really just looked like a homeless man walking around. Before we exported the footage we got Bob in to give us a second opinion of the final article and taking into account all the troubles we encounter we as a group felt that the test footage was a success.
Though me haven’t manage to create a believable post apocalyptic world I think that the final edit of the test for the opening scene and montage sequence does actually look really good from a cinematic point of view and feel confident that when this film goes into production in the near future we as a group can realistically create that post apocalyptic world.
