assignment 1 - a five shots sequence

For this assignment you will produce a short sequence, of no more than five shots, that tells
a simple story using images alone.

Story 
She's at home and receives a message on the phone. It's him. He's asking to meet today. After considering it just for a second she answers. Yes. 
She gets ready, just as she does for every date. She wants to look pretty. 
Then, as in every date, she takes the bus to the park. While waiting, she thinks on all the other dates they've had so far... It's getting a bit less weird every time. Then, finally, he arrives. 

Storyboard

Shot 1 - A mobile phone is on a table, then it receives a text message. A woman takes the phone and answers the message. 
For this shot not much information is needed. I have chosen a close up of the phone, where you can see the table and then the hand that takes the phone, although you cannot see the person taking the phone and won't know who she is until the next shot, when you would only assume that was the person taking the phone.
It is important for the story to see the message "Shall we meet today?" therefore the close up should be close enough to allow the reading.
The point of view is a third person type, from outside the action, although to read the message it must be very close to a subjective POV.
The camera angle needs to be high, so the mobile screen is clear, and the object of the shot (the phone) clear to the viewer. There is no need to imply any feelings with the camera angle for this shot.

Shot 2 - The woman gets dressed in front of a mirror.
I have decided to use mid-wide shot and a mirror reflection for this shot. This will allow to show a bit more of the room, and as she is looking her reflection, smoothing her dress, the shot will imply she is getting ready for some special occasion. In frame the viewer will see the mirror and her full reflection, and in the foreground her back.
A natural angle will work ok, as if someone were looking from behind her.

Shot 3 -  The woman puts on some makeup.
To keep on playing with reflections and giving a clear idea that she is getting ready for a special occasion, this shot will show her in the bathroom, putting on some make up. The shot will be similar to shot 2, using a mid shot and mirror reflections. Again, a natural camera angle will suit, as the shot does not require to imply a particular feeling.

Shot 4 - The woman waits for a bus in a bus stop.
A very wide shot, showing the whole bus stop and the woman waiting. The bus will arrive and leave, and the shot shall keep the same framing to show that she has left.
The shot is showing pretty much all the information required and nothing is left outside the spectator's view range, except possibly the road. The viewer will notice that the bus is coming, though, thanks to the road noise.

Shot 5 - The woman is waiting in a bench, when a man arrives and sits in the same bench, but keeping some distance between them. It might be him, who sent the message earlier, or it might not... the viewer would not know. The woman and the man will look at each other for a couple of seconds, and then will look at the horizon, not saying a single word.
A wide frame will show the bench, and a little bit of the park. When the scene begins, the woman is already seated, so she might have been waiting for some time. I'll keep her arrival out of the scene as this information is not required.
The camera angle is a natural angle, slightly low. When the subjects look at the horizon they will be looking over the camera POV, but just slightly, to give a sense of openness and infinity.





Evaluation

Overall, I am quite happy with the sequence. The story is pretty much nonsense, but still has some enigma in it. I think the flow of the story has been well captured, and it has rhythm. In terms of planning, the final result is not far away from the first draft of the sketch. The main changes came when I re-read the assignment description and realised that I was limited to 5 shots, after that I re-draw the sequence and the sketches have really helped me to focus in the scenes and to know what I was looking for. I'll develop this further shot by shot. 

In shot 1 it could be understood that this is a subjective POV, due to the approaching angle of the hand that takes the phone. Then it wouldn’t make sense… is the subject staring at the phone, waiting for it to receive a message? That was not the idea that I wanted to express, therefore I think the angle of the approaching hand should be more open, so the camera is further away from the subjective POV. In the future I think it's worth it to film and then watch the scene filmed to identify these things that might not be so obvious from behind the camera.

Afterwards, when the spectator can see two hands grabbing the mobile, it is clearer that the viewer is a third person in the scene and it works better. In my opinion the close up of the phone while the woman is answering the message works well, as it allows to read the text and gives some dynamism to the sequence.  

There is a fade to black in between the different frames that doesn’t fit very well. I need to pay attention to how frames and sequences are stick together in series and movies, as I don’t know how to change between frames and scenes. This shall help me in future sequences.

I think shots 2 and 3, while she gets ready, have worked well. In my opinion the reflections on the mirrors are achieving the intended idea of enlarging the space shown, and fit in the story, as the woman gets ready for her date.

Shot 3 was finally recorded with a slight low angle instead of with a natural angle as planned, but that was purely due to the position and location of the mirrors. I think the final result is satisfactory.

Shot 4 was complicated, as I the shot raw was uninteresting, and trying to cut it was difficult. I did only one take of that shot, it was cold that day, and the buses were not stopping in that particular bus stop, so the only time that the bus was filmed it was driving quite fast, and far away from the bus stop. I did several cuts modifying the bus velocity, so it kind of looked like the bus was stopping, but none of them worked OK. Finally I cut this series of shots with cross dissolve transitions. I’m happy with the result, that shows time pass, and the final bus passing solution is not too bad, considering the available material. For next sequences I need to be more patient. Always more than one take is going to be needed. And I should wait for the bus to stop, as a lesson learnt.

The final shot, when the two people is seating on the bench, is my favourite one. I like the frame and the composition, the symmetry of the image, and I love the light. There is an alternative finale (actually this is not the original ending of the sequence) which I’ll post separately, but I finally chose this one as I feel it adds a little bit more to the story. 

Everything can be improved, but from planning to cutting, I think I have done a pretty decent job. 

pre-assignment 1

I'm drafting some sketches and ideas for the first assignment:

Idea 1:
A woman is working on the computer at home (wide shot and back angle camera shot) and receives a text, that reads "would you meet me after work today?" (close up of the phone and low angle of her, reading and smiling). She gets ready to meet him (close ups of her dressing and making up, using mirror reflections and back angle cameras) and goes to the bus stop.
In the next scene we can see her waiting outside of the building and he going out (very wide angle). They smile happily (subjective PoVs of both their faces) .  

I like the story, it's simple and nice, but it doesn't give me the opportunity to use all the abilities learnt. For instance, using the low and high camera angles would be difficult as the story has no room for appreciate a status of the two characters, or a situation of risk. It  allows to use different frame sizes, though, and some natural angles. I can also use the subjective and objective point of views studied in the first part of the course.

Idea 2:
A girl wakes up at home. She is alone, and sits in the edge of her bed, meditative (wide angle of the room, and medium shot of the bed, where you see half is perfectly done).
She looks at a photo in the room, where you can see a guy (close up of the photo).
Then she goes on with her typical day, cleaning, having lunch, working on a laptop... (wide shots, high angles can work OK, as she will be somewhat sad and helpless, and I need to show it with the framing).
In the next scene we can see her crying, seating on the coach, muffled music can be heard (low angle and a mid shot. The low angle will help to show her anguish .. or would it work better with a high angle? I'll try both of them).
The next scene shows here watching the TV, on pijamas. It's late at knight (wide angle). And she seems surprised when hears a knock on the door. Image of the door while someone timidly knocks again (very low angle... who is calling? is it the guy in the photo??).

This option not only gives me the opportunity to use the low and high angles, but also different frame sizes and I can do it by myself, which is an advantage, considering that I'm running late on the assignment already.

exercise: an objective POV

Look back at the sequence you produced in Project 3.
You will now record the same scenario but from an objective point of view. 
Again you will need to think very carefully about what you wish to frame; you will then also need to consider where this is seen from and what camera angle would best suit your purpose. Also consider what other meanings and feelings will be implied by your choice of frame and angle.
What to do:
• Sketch out some basic storyboards. Ensure that each new angle is justified.
• Record the shots.
• Edit them into a short sequence.
• Upload your sequence to your blog.
• Look back at your finished sequence and reflect on its success. 

I decided to be fairly faithful to the first sequence (Project 3). Here is the sketch of what I had in mind to shoot, with annotations below:

Frame 1: 
Sarah is at home, she just woke up and is about to prepare coffee. She looks ind of bored/sad.

Frame 1':
High angle shoot of Sarah preparing the coffee. The high angle implies that she is fragile and vulnerable. 

Frame 2:
The camera angle has changed to low angle shoot. The idea is to show Sarah now as a threat (a threat for herself). Here we can see her drinking the coffee by the window.

Frame 3:
Or bored (low angle), zapping while watching TV. After this shoot she sees the bottle.

Frame 4:
Subjective shoot of the bottle of wine location, and low angle of the bottle, which looks huge and menacing. 

Frame 5: 
She finally wakes up and takes the bottle. The camera has moved to high angle again as the subject is weak against the powerful desire to drink. When she's about to pour the wine she hears her name

Frame 6: 
and looks around, but nobody is there... is she hearing voices?? The camera shoots she from behind in a full back angle, which intends to show that there is a possible danger again. 

Frame 7:
She finally pours the one and drinks (high angle again). 

I decided to take a first test take, but the result can be analysed for the exercise, therefore it's attached below:






What works?

• Angles - I think that even when what I want to imply is not always clear, the angles work fine with the sequence, most of all the high camera angles when she is preparing coffee and pouring the wine. 
• Closing scene - even when the scene repeats an action and I don't really like that, I like the shoot, the movement of the drink and the focusing game, along with the end titles. 

What doesn't work?

• Light - the images I shot in the kitchen had very low light, therefore the result is high noise and a different colour. 
• Focus - shooting with the DSLR gives a nice image and generally good quality, but the manual focus was not possible as I working alone, and the auto focus was noisy. I ended up turning down the audio in many of the scenes.
• Subjective PoV - I think I haven't achieved the feeling of the change between objective and subjective PoV.
• I was not very faithful in the end to the sketched scene, and this sequence is slightly longer. 

How could this be improved?
If I was going to take a second sequence, I would:

• Use my new camcoder, so I don't need to use the autofocus on the DSLR and can avoid the noise
• Prepare lighting and the scenes in more detail - because this was only intended to be a test, I was not paying too much attention to lighting and composition
• Some of the shots could be shorter to give the film more dinamism

camera angles

Try to find good examples of camera angles used to create atmosphere or alter the meaning of a scene or shot. Consider viewpoint, relationship with the characters on screen, status of the character on screen, suspense, tension of expectation. Does it create a particular feeling or mood?

I have chosen Psycho as a clear example of the use of camera angles. 
In frame 1 shown below we can see Norman Bates and his stuffed birds from a low angle. This is the scene where we can first see that Norman mental state might not be very sane. The low angle is unnatural within the scene, but show him as a threat, emphasised by the menacing wings of the owls behind. 
The second shot, frame 2, shows Lila Crane in the shower from a high angle, and the perspective allows to see that someone has got into the bathroom. The camera angle helps to imply how fragile she is in that moment. Suspense is created as the main subject is giving her back to the peril. 
Frame 3 shows Norma Bates with a knife from a very low angle. This is again not natural point of view. Nothing in the scene would be located there to help the angle to be a POV from a subject in the scene (Lila, the shower head, Norma bates) but it makes the killer look bigger and more  frightening. Lila would be in front of Norma's character and is not shown. These scene is accompanied by the famous music that creates the terror environment. 
Frames 4 to 6 are taken from a high angle, and it is clear for the viewer how powerless is the woman against her killer. The frames are maintained very little time and there is a great deal of action. The scene achieves that viewer would feel anxious.

powerful, emotive frames

Find some examples of powerful, emotive frames. What feeling you get and how the framing has contributed to this?

Frame 1
Jeff Wall, A Sudden Gust of Wind (after Hokusai), 1993. Image from www.tate.org.uk

The image is a very wide shot, where the landscape and the action of four people affected by a sudden gust of wind is depicted. The detail of who or how the people are is difficult to identify due to the wide frame.
The picture is hilarious in a way. It makes me feel both happy for the beauty of the moment with the objects flying around, and amazed at the same time, for the opportunity that it seems that the photograph had and cached so brilliantly. As it sometimes happens, the image is not casual, and it is actually a collage of staged pictures taken in a period of 5 months, therefore the very formal composition is not an accident.
The very wide frame is critical to give sense to the image, as the action of the wind needs to be shown from afar. A midshot of any of the will make a poor picture and the link between the elements would be lost.


Frame 2
Film The Shawshank Redemption

The character of Brooks Hatlen, played by James Withmore, has been released from prison after doing time for most of his life. He feels like a fish out of water in the outside world, and also feels lonely and miserable, what makes him decide to take his own life.
In this scene we can see how Brooks dress up, stands on a table, signs on the wooden beam "Brook was here" and then shakes the table to end up hanging in the air. I find the close up of the feet, showing some dust from the carved wooden beam, a very moving frame. It needs to be understood with the whole sequence, and possibly with the whole film, but it's a subtle and kind of poetic way of depicting the character's death, showing nothing else than his feet and a close up of his satisfied smiling face, looking at his carved message.  I feel that showing a wider frame would be less subtle and less intimate.




Frame 3
Un chien andalou by Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dali

This extreme close up, part of the surrealist short movie by the spanish artists Buñuel and Dalí, shows the detail of a man with a razor blade cutting the eye of a woman. In this frame you have seen the man sharpening the blade, and you know therefore what is in this hand. The woman looks calmly at the camera and makes a very strong, powerful (and very disgusting) image.

exercise: shooting a short sequence

You are an alcoholic alone in your home

• You look around your empty room
• Nothing interests you
• You notice a bottle
• You hold the bottle and unscrew the lid
• Something attracts your attention, you look round
• Nothing happens
• You look back at the bottle and pour yourself a drink 

Sketch out some basic story boards to remind yourself of the images you visualised. 

Record these shots on your video camera.  

I sketched the sequence the day before. It was a rainy day so I was visualising a quite depressing sequence. It turned out that the day after was a beautiful and sunny day, even though, I guess images are more appealing this way. 

1. The protagonist is alone at home
2. She has a coffee. 
3. Watches TV, nothing interesting. When she looks around she senses the bottle that she knows is on the shelf. 
4. She tries to distract herself with a book, but she can't concentrate
5. She stands up and decides to pour herself a drink
6. When she takes the bottle with shaky hands she hear's her name... is there somebody at home? ... no, that's not possible...
7. There's no one in the room so she pours the wine.
8. She drinks.

exercise: visualisation

Place yourself in the scene; don’t think about what is there objectively but what you would see if you were there.

You are talking to someone in a shop

The person is facing you talking in an animated way, using their hands.

Knocking on a door

You knock on the door.You wait.The door is opened.

You are having an illicit affair

You are alone having a passionate conversation with your loved one.
A sudden sound in the background causes you to glance round.

frame

I've come across this simple definition of a frame. It's simple, but yet I find it beautiful and poetic:

"The camera and the lens work together to record a particular horizontal rectangle of reality. The    rectangle is only a small segment or cut out window of the total sphere of the physical world around the camera operator. This cutout has a finite and defined border, called the frame." 

Thompson, Roy & Bowen, Christopher J. (2009), Grammar of the shot. 2nd ed.Oxford: Elsevier.

exercise: building a story

Chose a picture, identify a series of smaller frames within the picture to create a new story and outline it.

Stockholm Central Station, by Michell Zappa from Wikimedia Commons

I have chosen this photo of Stockholm Central train station hall. We can see a lot of people coming and going in their daily routines, but if we look closer, we'll find Jack. He looks like he has no rush or nowhere to go... and that's because he hasn't. Jack has been sleeping in a hostal for the last 5 years, and in winter during the day he comes to the station because it's warmer than the streets. Besides, he knows some people in this hectic place who usually help him. 

There is Pete, for example, reading in the cafeteria. He retired many years ago, and since then he comes to have a cappuccino every morning, then he will left to do the groceries shopping, but before leaving he will buy a coffee for Jack and will spend some time chatting with him. 

Also the two nice guys who must work in the office close to the station. They come by train every morning, stop to grab some breakfast and leave. Once Jack met one of them in the street while the guy was walking with his family, and he greeted Jack and asked if everything was OK... well, that's sadly unusual. Very nice people indeed. 

Jack also likes the station because he can make up stories, and then the times flies by. For example today he saw this elderly couple who looked anxious and nervous with their luggage and the tickets in their hands... He imagined they were going to meet his new granddaughter, who lives in Australia, and they'll spend some time in the southern summer with their family... how fantastic would that be. 

From left to right, Jack, Pete, the two nice guys and the elderly couple

exercise: look at other's students sequences

Look at other student's sequences and try to answer these questions:

• What is the story?
• Wat information is conveyed in each frame?
• What information is neessary to understand the story?
• What essential information has been left out and/or what is included unnecessary?

http://rjdown-dfp-log.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/project-1-frames-in-film.html
http://digitalfilmproductionbysuzy.wordpress.com/2013/10/19/exercise-telling-a-story/

Richard and Suzy both have chosen  Jack and the beanstalk. I like both approaches and the dynamism of their stories.
In Suzy's story you can easily identify the feelings of the different characters and the giant's representation is very good, as in one of the frames you can see only his big foot trying to catch Jack.  I think the only information that has been left out is clarifying what is the object that Jack has in its hands, and that it has been stolen from the giant's house. This bit of story is very clear in Richard's frames, although the size of the giant is not as brilliantly framed as in Suzy's tale.

http://heidibocalog.wordpress.com/category/photography-degree/digital-film-production/part-one-framing/project-one-frames-in-the-film/
Heidi chose to tell the story of Santa's visit on Christmas night. The first frame shows a child placing his shock on the fireplace, then you can see him sleeping in the second frame. The third frame shows Santa's feet coming by the chimney, and then in case there were any doubts, frame 4 shows a closeup of Santa and the presents. Finally frame 5 shows the happy child finding the presents by the tree. 
Heidi has included all the information necessary, and all the frames have been very well chosen. 

http://emilyoca.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/ex1-telling-story-in-five-pictures.html
Last but not least, Emily has chosen the difficult fairytale Cinderella. I think that, exactly as it happened to me with Pinocchio, the story is too long to be summarised in only 5 frames, but in this case the chosen information helps to identify it very quickly. 
You can see in the first frame a miserable Cinderella sweeping the floor, and her two evil sisters are in the foreground with the invitation to the prince's party. Then you see a fairy giving Cinderella her beautiful dress and frame 3 shows her dancing with the prince. Finally frame 4 shows a clock indicating it's 12 o'clock and the shoe in the stairs, and frame 5 shows the prince fitting the shoe in Cinderella's foot. 
If you didn't know the story it would be difficult to understand that Cinderella has not been invited to the ball, and that she needs to be back before 12, but then, how do you show all that in just 5 frames?

Repeat the process with a story of your own:

exercise: tell a story

Tell a story using just five frames. 
Choose a simple story and sketch out five essential images that will tell it. 

For some estrange reason I decided to sketch Pinocchio and I only realised too late that it was going to be very difficult (if not impossible) to tell the full story in just five frames... so I decided to tell my favourite bit instead.

In my opinion there is room for improvement in terms of creating the scenes (the elements would give an idea of where the frame is taking place, but a richer background would have helped)... and I wonder if it would have been possible to tell the full story. 

I would like to read what do you think, please comment.