Feedback Session of Edited Test Shoot – Music Video

As a group we discussed the plan of action and fed back our responses to the test footage. We all agreed that we thought that the footage was looking quite promising for the final piece which is due to be shot next week. Me and Damian worked on a finalized shot list for the shoot day based off is rough storyboards and the test footage itself; we were then as a group able to work out exactly what each of us was to be doing on the day of the shoot. Rob had also drawn up the lighting plan ready for the shoot day. And Ross mentioned that he thought that his early tests with the Lensbaby look rather promising and thought that they might actually work really well for the final version of the music video.

Personally I am really happy with our test footage and I think that we should really put some heavy emphasis on shadows in the final version of the music video as these shots are very interesting to look at and will work really well I think in breaking up the footage of just seeing a band play out their track for over 5 minutes as I feel just watching a straight performance might become rather tedious, whereas if we can insert some creative use of shadows into the edit it might just break up the repeating vision of band members playing their instruments.

Picture Style Research - After Arcadia

I watched a tutorial on Dynamic Range and Picture Styles for Canon DSLR cameras after Joe sent me the link that he had mentioned a few days ago.

I found this video very informative and very helpful, as it showed me what an personal picture style could do for your footage that you shoot on the camera. The software that is mentioned in this clip was really put off to my by the narrators summary of it being 'a piece of shit' but then looking at the styles that people have achieved with it was very cool; for the purpose of this project I feel that looking into the software might be too much to take on, I did really like some of the custom picture styles shown in the video, but really part of the project for me and for my own development; I don't really want to download a custom picture style off the internet to use as I feel that I would be cheating myself in the aspect of a learning curve. So I'm going to actually create my own picture style just using the options in the User Preference on the actual 550D itself.

I'll plan on trying to create a user defined picture style on the camera that will start to drain the colour out of the image and hopefully this will give better results in post production when I apply colour correction to the footage to get that stylistic yet realistic feel and look I'am aiming for.

Test Shoot – Music Video

During our test shoot I was able to gain more experience of working with Rob in terms of getting the lighting set up correct; Rob initially set up the lights from his lighting plan and we tested this with some test subjects, and with a little bit of tweaking we were able to find the correct set up we required for our shoot day. The only initial and obvious challenge was to make sure that our camera operator’s shadow was never in shot and especially when using the track and dolly, we found that Rob had to make sure the lights were extended quite high up to avoid this from happening.

I brought along my Lensbaby Composer for Ross to use as well and gave him a quick tutorial on how to use the lens; he was able to play around with different styles and angles during the test shoot to see what the lens was really capable of.

Also this turned out to be a good exercise for me and Damian to communicate on set and plan out our shot list for the shoot day which has been scheduled and booked in for the 14^th November.

RED Proposal

For my RED project I aim to challenge myself in the role as Director of Photography (Cinematography); this is a role that I've yet to undertake, I will be collaboratively working with Joe Tippett (Director) and Bob Brice (Art Director) on a short film called 'After Arcadia'. Part of the challenge that I've got to overcome is working closely with Joe and Bob to creating a vision of a post apocalyptic world on camera.

As the film will be solely shot outdoors in the middle of the moors, I've restricted myself to only using natural light to try and achieve the best visual outcome in camera so that when the film goes into post production, it will be easier and more productive to apply after effects to the footage (especially colour correction) so that the film has that post apocalyptic look and feel to it.

Research - Music Video & After Arcadia

After the recent Lighting Workshop I felt that I really needed to learn more about the role of D.O.P and look for some helpful information on cinematography; during the week at college I went to the library and looked through some of the shelves and came across a couple of books that I thought might prove to be interesting and helpful to read; the two books I picked up were:

Practical Cinematography by Paul Wheeler

and

Digital Cinematography by Paul Wheeler.

Over the weekend I decided to do some substantial reading towards my research for the upcoming shoot; along with the two above mentioned books, I also dug out two of my own books and decided to read them for so me extra research. Those two books were;

Cinematic Storytelling by Jennifer Van Sijll

and

Film Art: An Introduction by David Bordwell & Kristin Thompson.

What I've learned

Book 1: Practical Cinematography by Paul Wheeler

After reading the sections of this book that related to the actual role of cinematographer/D.O.P; I've learned quite a few more things of what the role actually requires and how I should look to prepare myself before the shoot. I was actually quite surprised that this role can really be very demanding even during pre-production.

D.O.P: Job requirements;

• Reading the script regularly
• Holding various meetings with the Director
• Early access to recce shots
• Keeping a close eye on and with up-to date storyboards
• Close to shoot day - confirm colours & textures with wardrobe/Art Director
• Detailed schedules and Lighting plans
• Shooting order
• Giving camera set-ups to operator before
• Taking charge of stills photography on set
• Confirm with Director the scenes required for the next day at the end of shoot

I hadn't realized that being D.O.P would be so demanding from the pre-production right through to the production of a film. Every little process that leads up to the shoot of any film the D.O.P seems to be always there or thereabouts whenever any decisions not only on the visual side of the film but also the storytelling. After reading this I am certainly going to make sure that I'm kept up-to date with all the storyboards for the film and will make a priority to read the script on numerous occasions and start planning out each shot that is required before the shoot days.

Need to also speak with Joe (Director) to talk about the recce shoots for the film, at the very least I'd like to see the shots, and also need to confirm whether or not there is going to be a camera operator on set or whether the operation of the camera will also be part of my responsibility.

D.O.P Preparation

• Recce shots close to shoot days - to work on camera set-ups
• Type up equipment and lighting lists
• Technical schedule with equipment and shot lists
• Sole communication with camera operator
• Lenses to be decided before the shoot days; each shot should have the lens listed with it

After reading this I'm really concerned that if I'm not able to go out to the set of the film then I won't be fully prepared to have the correct camera set-ups for the shoot days; will have a chat with Joe (Director) about possibly tagging along when he goes out onto the moors for the recce shot. Will also take a very detailed look at the script and storyboards to decided beforehand which lenses I will require and use for each individual shot and list them and then begin working on a technical shooting schedule.

Book Two: Digital Cinematography by Paul Wheeler

Unfortunately it turned out that this book didn't prove to be any use to me; apart from just repeating what I had already learnt and read from the Practical Cinematography book by the same author; the rest of the book I didn't find relevant to my area of research. I had hoped that being a digital based book it might have covered the DSLR area of cinematography as I will be shooting the film on my Canon 550D; I'm going to try and see if I can hunt down a book that looks into DSLR's and talks about them from a cinematographers standpoint.

Book Three: Cinematic Storytelling by Jennifer Van Sijll

Section 9. Camera Lenses

Wide angle - can capture the vista but also use this to progress characters story with a nice depth of field. This is something that I'm going to try and look into fitting into 'After Arcadia' as I really like the idea of not only capturing the landscapes that our protagonist is covering but also using the shots to progress his story further to give those wide vistas more meaning other than just being used as nice looking cutaways.

Telephoto lens - could exploit this to increase protagonists seemingling hard and agonizing journey to find humanity; I've played around with the idea of possibly having our lead character walking towards the camera or possibly running up hill and shooting this from afar with a telephoto lens to try and make it look no matter how hard and fast he tries he doesn't seem to get anywhere soon. This is something that I will discuss with Joe (Director) in the near future.

Section 10. Camera Position

Close Up - to be used with camera movement to try and increase the emotional connection witht eh audience towards our protagonist.

Over the Shoulder - will look to use this to visualize our characters gaze of emptiness and the loniness of his situation looking out over vast wide landscapes with no sign of humanity in shot.

Point of View - look to try and increase the audiences intimacy and sympathy with our lead character; could possibly try using this as he struggles up a hill hoping and half expecting to find some sign of human life on the other side of the hilltop, but only to find emptiness.

Section 11. Camera Motion

Handheld - look to use handheld for dramatic instabiltiy of our character, to use contrasts between static and handheld like in the example given in reference 'Touch of Evil' (pg. 186)

Section 14. Props

Props with Internalizing & Externalizing character - try to creatively use the mirror in the film to reveal more about our protagonist - possibility of the mirror clouding/misting as our character gets more confused.

Section 17. Natural Environment

Things that move - possible use of weather to convey or comment on scenes in the film.

Rain - might supply much needed water for our character, but might also wash away footprints that he finds leaving him frustrated - you have on one hand the weather giving him the water he needs to survive but also removing the evidence of other human life that he so desperately seeks.

Exploit the cold to comment on our protagonists struggle.

Book Four: Film Arts: An Introduction by David Bordwell & Kristin Thompson

I basically just re-read chapters 4 & 5 to refresh my mind and understandings of Mise-en-Scene and cinematography, looking at:

• The aspects of Mise-en-Scene
• Applying time and space to Mise-en-Scene
• Speed of motion and Perspectives
• Framing
• Angles, levels and heights
• Long takes

Because i'd read all of this before it wasn't as if I came away learning anything drastically new, but it was very interesting to go back and just refresh the context and theory behind these very important aspects of Film Style.

What I plan to do next

During this week I plan on having a meeting with Joe (Director) and Bob (Art Director) and showing them the Cinematic Storytelling & Film Art: An Introduction books and giving them with recommendations of which sections that might provide useful for them on the project and hopefully this will spark some interesting discussions within our group on the visual style and storytelling of 'After Arcadia'.

Group Meeting w/ Damian Suparasiri, Robert Cooper & Ross Carter – Music Video

Had a group meeting with the whole crew involved with the making of the upcoming music video for the band; Cheating Jack Ketch.

Conversation w/ Damian

I had a long discussion with Damian about the visual style that he was hoping to achieve for the music video, he showed me a couple of music videos that he really liked the visual style of and was hoping to create something along the lines;

Cancer Bats – French Immersion

For me this music video seemed to be rather a simple black and white approach but cut with some scenes with very high black contrasts; there are a couple of shots where some shadows are very prominent and these to me are the most interesting shots; looking forward to the shoot I think this style will really rely on the band themselves wearing the right colours for the shoot day to achieve this style though I’m much interested in looking at working with shadows as an idea for the music video from a cinematographers viewpoint.

Tyler the Creator – Yonkers

This video was really stand out for me; as it had the same bright white background that we would have whilst shooting in the infinity cove and also the use of a tilt-shift lens in this music video reminded me that I have a Lens Baby Composer in my own set of lenses that can achieve a similar effect by blurring different areas of the image that you are filming and I’ve yet to use it on any film work to this date, and this video really got me thinking that this music video could be the prefect opportunity to experiment with the lens itself.

Conversation w/ Rob

I discussed with Rob what the equipment we were going to need to use in terms of lighting for the music video; after our lighting workshop from a couple of weeks previous where we tested out the LED lights, we both agreed that those lights wouldn’t be appropriate for the lighting style we were looking to achieve.

We agreed that the small Dedo lighting kit would be the best option for the shoot and that if we went for a 3 light set up we could look to explore with the idea of creating interesting shadows that would be projected on the back of the infinity cove and would give us the stylistic vision that Damian had wanted for the music video. We talked in depth about how the finished video would look like and from that Rob said that he would work on a lighting plan for the video so that everything would be ready for our shoot day, and to help with this we as a group decided that a test shoot prior to the actual shoot day of the video would be a great idea.

Conversation w/ Ross

I discussed with Ross which lenses that we were going to use; we as a group had already agreed that we were going to shoot the video on our Canon 550D’s as we all each have own; we also decided that it would be a good idea to book out a Canon 5D MKII from the ERC as it might come in handy for some of the shots in the music video.

In the interest of making this music video look as professional as possible we decided that it was best to book out a wide range of the Carl Zeiss lenses from the ERC as well; Ross also asked about using my Lensbaby Composer for the shoot as he wanted to look into camera movement etc. And he had the same reaction to me after watching the Tyler the Creator music video with the use of the tilt shift. We agreed that though he had not used the lens before that it would be a good experiment for his RED project even if it didn’t end up using those shots in the final version of the music video.

Group Meeting with Joe and Bob - After Arcadia

Today we had a group meeting with regards to what we needed to have and ready for the shoot day so that this project could be a success. I spoke to Joe about the prospect of looking at camera set-ups so that we could look at capturing as close to the style of the film as possible in camera so that when it came to colour correction in the edit during post production, it would be much easier to manipulate the image and get that desired stylish look we were hoping to achieve.

I mentioned that I could try downloading a preset user preference online for the shoot or even look to create my own user preference ready for shoot day; this I said would really require me to be present when he went out onto Dartmoor for the recce shoot; Joe mentioned a video guide that was on Vimeo that gave a really good and informative breakdown of picture styles for Canon DSLR’s that I might find really helpful.

I spoke to Bob also about the overall view of the Art Direction for the film and we talked about how the characters jacket itself really needed to blend in with the overall colour palette of the film; we both agreed that the jacket/coat really needed to be either a beige or light brown in colour so it stayed very neutral and not contrasting with the stylistic look of the films cinematography. I told Bob that if he wasn’t able to find a suitable jacket in time for the film, then I had a jacket that might just suit visual style of his idea for the characters appearance.