Arranging Everything

The next point for me to think about was how close the deadline actually is. The time has gone far quicker than I thought and the deadline is only just over three weeks away.

Finding an Actor/Actress

This has caused me to look into getting hold of an actor/actress. To do this I had to think about who I wanted to play the role and why:

• The theme of loneliness is very specific and causes need for a specific group of people to be cast. I couldn't really use children as they wouldn't entirely understand and they tend to give off thoughts of happiness, which needed to be avoided: This narrowed it down to people aged roughly 16+.
• I also thought about the most commonly seen loneliness, which left me with either the elderly or young adults.
• The next thought was then to chose a gender. This is really seen as a matter of personal opinion but I feel that the idea of loneliness is better shown by a female as males tend to group a lot more with large groups of friends and females are quite reliant on having only a couple of really good friends or a partner. People also seem to feel more sympathy towards a vunerable female than they do a male, and this could cause a much nicer connection to the character.

With all of this in mind I looked to my friends and family to see if anyone would be suitable as well as being available. The only person that fit all of my criteria was a girl called Sarah Welsh who has an acting age of around 20, which seems to fit quite well and I believe would do the film justice.

Filming Dates

She had the best availability out of everyone I asked and even this wasn't brilliant, but it's possible if I prepare all of the shots before her arrival. My filming dates are now set to be:

• Sunday 18th November
• Saterday 24th November
• Sunday 25th November

Though I will hopefully not need to use the latter date if I prepare well enough. I am also aware that this doesn't leave me much time for any post production (just under 2 weeks) but with enough effort and some solid preperation I believe I can pull it off.

Equipment

• Judging from the layout of the module's tutorials it seems that the recommended camera for this module is the Canon 550D. I have been using the Canon 550D for over a year now and have my own, so getting hold of this is no problem at all.
• I will also be needing use of a tripod, this I can get from a friend of mine who is a film student himself and has around three different tripods that are available on all three of my filming dates.
• I then need to think about lighting. I have stated that I want to use natural and practical lighting in my shots and so the natural lighting is mostly out of my control, and practical lights will mostly be common things lying around the house. I have however decided to do a shot using sparklers as I have thought about doing this type of shot for a long time: I have therefore been out and bought four boxes of sparklers to use for filming.
• Another thing to think about was then reflector boards (gold/silver), which could be borrowed from stores, but after some digging I managed to find a friend who has his own reflector boards that he has offered to lend me for use.
• The last thing to get hold of was something to allow steady camera movement and since the stores don't currently have any steadycams available I have opted to try using a track. Track work is something I have never done before and so this will be quite a good skill to learn for the module.

An Exploration into Composition

The next step for me is to work out what types of composition there are available and when they should be used. For previous pieces of work, I have always aimed to analyse the compositions of my shots, however this has never really progressed from the basics of the reliable 'rule of thirds' and 'golden spiral' methods. This has caused me to want to expand my knowledge of compositional methods and complete some research into the alternative methods of composition used by more advanced photographers and cinematographers.

During my research, one of the websites that I found interesting / useful was
"Geometry in Composition".
This website explains the use of the following compositional methods:


Diagonal Lines:



Diagonal lines in an image add a great deal of depth. They provide a method of forcing the eye to move across/through an image, whilst at the same time adding in an element of perspective. Alternatively they can be used as a spacial divider between two areas/subjects. An issue with the use of diagonal lines in images are that they will run entirely across a frame causing an eye trap, so the line would need blocking and cutting up with other subjects.


S-Curves:

The S-Curve is another method that causes the eye to move around an image in a certain way, in order to cause perspective and depth. This type of compositional element can stand alone as a subject of an image as well as a form of composition due to the S providing a flowing feeling.


Triangles:

The triangle is a closed and strong shape: It symbolises strength, stability and security. It is a static element that connects subjects and leads the eye around three main points of an image.

Arcs / Arches:






















The archway is very similar to the triangle in the sense of showing strength and stability, however the arch is not an entire shape: a triangle is closed, whereas the archway is broken and has no base, which seemingly cancels out the sense of stability, it is a powerful shape and anything placed under this will make the shape seem daunting and the subject underneath feel small and overpowered.



I then went further and found out about:

L-Shapes:

L-shapes are really basic compositions that make the eye focus on a subject rather than a background. They make the background seem pointless and are usually seen in images where the background is out of focus and the subject is much clearer (for example where a character's dialogue is more important). This compositional method is key in expressing a narrative.

Circles:

The final compositional method that I found was the use of circles. Circles do not need to be obvious, they are more commonly very subtle and connected by various points of interest within an image. Anything that appears in the middle of a circle is meant to appear safe and secure as if the circle were a bubble protecting them from anything on the outside. On the other hand; if this circle were to be broken then that makes the subject insecure and vunerable.

Conclusion:

After looking into all of the different methods of composition and setting up an image. I then had to relate all of my findings to the film I needed to make: Were they relevant or would they give the wrong impression and detour my narrative etc.

The conclusions that I have reached are that I need to use a mixture of a few different methods:

• There will be a lot of broken circles used to create the sense of vunerability.
• There will be some use of archways to show that there is something hanging over the subject that is overpowering and affecting their feelings.
• There should be a use of L shapes to help get across the point of the character being the most important thing in the film.
• There should also be a mixture between placing the subject in the center of the image and placing her on one side to create imbalance.

Loneliness In Images

In order to gain a sense of how loneliness is created through media I had to do some research into the subject. I aimed to look into multiple different forms of media; not singularly film and television, and so I was required to look into other artforms, such as photogrphay and painting.

 

NightHawks by Edward Hooper

 

The first interesting image I found was "Nighthawks" by Edward Hooper:

 

 

This picture is a brilliant example of how a shot can be composed to create loneliness. The image singles out and alienates the man sat at the bar. To start; the character is positioned in the centre of a frame within and frame, and then is equally centred in the image as a whole. By placing the character in the centre of the frame, this draws your eye to him immediately and then as your eye moves from the centre of the image you notice the empty space around him:

 

The other people in the image are then placed on the other side of the bar to make it obvious that they are not sitting with the central man, however they are placed in such a way that there is a perfect line from his eyeline through both of theirs, and likewise there is a line from where the bartender is looking back to the man. The overall placement of the characters then creates a triangle, which aids in escorting the eye around the main features of the image:

 

Lighting wise, the use of bright light or even the look of overexposure has been used to single out the central man from the other characters. This has been done by making the "happier" people in the image much brighter then the lonely man, who has been made to seem gloomier and somewhat depressed from loneliness.

 

 

John Crosley

John Crosley is a well known photographer who focuses his work on everyday life, with his black and white photo albums and galleries full of images showing real life situations as they present themselves to him. Whilst browsing through him albums I came across two images that represent loneliness very well: they are simple, to the point and easy to read:

 

The first image is entitled "Loneliness" and is an unbelievably simple, yet powerful shot of a woman sat alone on a staircase. He has composed the shot with the right in the centre of the frame, and the sheer amount of empty space around her emphasises the point very well. She also creates a section of high contrast between her black coat and the white staircase which aids in keeping your eye fixed on the woman.

 

 

The second image is "Alone", where you can see and old lady sat in the middle of the pavement with nobody around. It looks as if she has possibly fallen down and that there is nobody there to help her, creating a sense of fear ontop of the loneliness, and desperation for her to find someone to help. Just like the shot above, the character has been placed in the centre of the shot and is in a contrasting colour to the background.

 

 

Alternative Method

All of the images seen so far follow the simple idea of composing an image so that the figure of loneliness is always in the centre of the image: But this isn't the only way of creating this illusion. An alternative method of composing an image to create this theme is to use balance, or to unbalance as the case may be. When an image feels whole and is satisfying it is almost always balanced: for example a large focal point in the background would be balanced with a smaller object in the foreground. When an artist wants to create the feeling of loneliness and the feeling that there is something missing; they can unbalance this image, as done below by an amateur photographer called Goh Wenxian Victor. Also, you can see again the recurring theme of contrast being heavily used, this time with a silhouette:

 

 

 



Theme Exploration

 

When I started thinking about the overall film that I wanted to create, I decided that I couldn't proceed in looking at compositions and lighting etc. until I had an idea of the theme I wanted to be present throughout. This led me to creating two moodboards into possible theme routes for me to go down:

After looking over the different themes I have decided upon the theme of 'loneliness'. I decided on this theme over the others due to the amount of potential it contains: I feel like there are so many different things that can be done with regards to cinematography that would allow me to convey a sense of loneliness; the desperate desire for companionship, the possibility of a lossed loved one and their insecurity and fear of having nobody by their side.

Naturalistic vs Stylised

The visual aspect of films all fall into place on what can be described as a spectrum: between naturalistic and stylised.

Naturalistic:

A naturalistic film aims to create realism and provides the false illusion of reality, as if the contents of the film were genuinely taking place somewhere in the world, for example television dramas and war films.
A beautiful example of the naturalistic look is Kareem Mortimer's 'Children of God':

This film is a brilliant example on the use of natural light to keep shots looking realistic. Throughout the trailer you can see a variety of different environments, both indoors and outdoors, even under water and in caves: but no matter where the location, the shot always looks realistic, believable and beautiful. This form of naturalistic video is designed to be slightly dreamlike, the soft fall-off of shadows and the warm glow around the characters emphasise emotion and a warm, loving relationship which the film is all about.

However, naturalistic can also be incredibly realistic in not only the look of the scene, but in the way the camera moves: for example shakey camera work to give the sense of a handheld camera, which instantly makes an audience believe in what they are seeing. This use of camera movement and also the use of realistic colouring of a shot can be seen clearly in the film 'Dead Man's Shoes' by Shane Meadows:

This naturalistic look could also be taken the the extreme end of the spectrum whereby you are trying to make the audience believe that there was nothing added to the shot, and that the entire film was 100% real, as seen in found footage films such as 'The Blair Witch Project' and 'Paranormal Activity'. These types of film are designed in such a way that they can almost be quite difficult to watch at times due to the camera being so shakey, and the level of realism is so extreme that 'The Blair Witch Project' sparked many conspiracies at the time as to whether the film was actually real. However the entire film features what are clearly well thought out compositions and well lit scenes that could only come from someone who is experienced in film making. You cannot go to this extreme without knowing exactly how and when to break the rules of lighting and composition:

 

Stylised:

At the other end of this visual spectrum you have stylised films. These are the films that are designed to fit a specific theme or follow a follow a narrative that is unrealistic: for example science fiction, and supernatural films, where the narrative needs to be amplified to make a point. This stylised nature (much like naturalistic) can be either quite subtle or very imposing, depending on how unnatural the concept in need of conveying is.

A good example of the use of stylistic filming is in 'Requiem for a Dream', which uses to stylistic approach to create quite a dark and disorientating look on the lives of drug users. The film almost makes the audience feel like they are experiencing some of the effects which the characters are and can be quite hard to watch at times due to way in which it is filmed. This is a very stylised film that also managed to contain elements of realism and you do managed to contain belief that the character could be real:

 

 

Towards the more unreal end of the spectrum you have films where it's obviously not real and there is no real attempt to make it so. These kind of films have an unrealistic colour scheme and feature elements that would not be possible or do not exist in the world at present. An example of this form of stylistic filming is Frank Miller's 'Sin City'. He uses a black and white colour scheme with only hints of colour where necessary to apmlify the narrative:

 

 

 

My Film:

After conducting my research into naturalistic vs stylised films, I have reached the conclusion that my film is to be somewhere along the middle of the spectrum, edging more closely towards naturalistic. I want my film to be quite realistic, with only hints of stylistic filming to emphasise points along the narrative. The colour scheme should be quite believable and follow the colours that would naturally occur in the scene, and the majority of my lighting should be natural, with practical elements to aid the storytelling.

Basic Thoughts and Ideas

When watching films or videos I always find myself in awe of the beauty of natural light: the way it reacts when hitting objects and how it affects the objects / characters in the scene.

A good example of this is the film "Tree of Life" from Terrence Malick. This particular film is shot very well with an excellent use of natural light: the glowing around a charater from a strong back light, the soft falloff of shadows, the use of lens flares, and also the way that a shot is set up, for example compositionally as well as the use of contrast; putting lighter toned faces onto darker backgrounds.

 

This has lead me into wanting to experiment with how to use natural light in different ways for example the different between using natural light in dark and light scenes: though I am very much aware of the capabilities of the cameras we have available to use and that minimal natural light in a dark scene is going to require a very high ISO, and this will cause a lot more grain than I would like. Due to this problem, I have decided that I am going to focus my piece on a combination of both natural and practical light: Using as few off camera lights as possible and only really relying on the use of relective boards to aid lighting.

The Task at Hand

 

The brief for this Cinematography Technology assignment is to create a short film; anywhere between three and twenty minutes long based around a single form of cinematography that is of interest to me. This blog is therefor to track to process of the piece as well as to document my research processes and thoughts on the work.

 

The piece must have a good sense on continuity and stick to the same themes and forms of cinematography throughout. These themes should show lighting, composition, focus and camera movement techniques, as well as conveying emotion, atmosphere and thought.

 

Throughout this blog I aim to show detailed and relevant research into the various techniques available to use as well as analysis of popular visual artforms. I will then test these techniques and come to a decision based on this research as to how I will carry out my final piece: Currently I am struggling to decided on how I would like my piece to look and hope to find inspiration soon.

 

Aims:

•  To create a 3-20 minute video piece that follows a set style of cinematography, a theme and contains a constant lighting method throughout.
• To create an online logbook or blog that documents all progress in the module with critial analysis and references throughtout.
   

Objectives:

•  To complete and document research into cinematography, including lighting, styles, composition and themes.
• To reach a conclusion on my final piece with regards to lighting, styles and composition.
• To organise equipment and arange filming dates with an actor/actress.
• To complete test footage to aid in creation of the final piece.
• To film to final piece to a high standard.
• To edit the final piece to a high standard.
• To ensure blogging and critical analysis take place throughout.