exercise 1.4 - frame

project 16 - other narratives

Documentaries can be divided in two types, those which have a story to tell and those which are observational.

Titicut Follies, Frederick Wiseman 1967

Titicut Follies is an example of observational documentary. The director and a camera man got invited to film the mental institution in the 1960s and edited a marvellous and appalling movie. Not recommended for sensitive minds.

The narrative can be summarised as below:

Intro: we see a show. We can see it is a bit awkward, the performers do not show fully comfortable and the show is somewhat childish.  
1st part: Shortly we see this must be some mental institution or penitentiary. We see how the inmates are ordered to strip out. The documentary continues as we see the different protagonists, the psychiatric of the institution, who is very unprofessional and judgemental, the guards, who frequently verbally abuse and bully the inmates.  
Break: A short break shows more images of the show, where the policeman also act.  
2nd part: In the second part the stories continue. Particularly shocking is one of the last stories, when the doctor force feeds a man who has not been eating. We can see how the doctor intubates him, smoking, with the but of the cigarrette almost falling. The shot is cut with scenes of a man being shaved - this is very weird in a first instance, why this shot so suddenly? - then the force feeding continues, being cut by the shots of the other man cleaning and preparing the other man. Then you realize the other man is dead! it's being prepared for his funeral... and you also realize it is the same man tha is being force feeded. 
The documentary ends with the end of the show .  

Searching for Sugar Man, Malik Bendjelloul, 2012

The documentary is built up around the amazing story of Sixto Rodriguez, a singer in the 1970s. 

The director must have heard about the story and wants to tell us, unfolding the information carefully and misleading us to assumptions, to then surprise the audience at the end (or rather second half of the movie). 

INTRO - We see a man in a car, driving by a cliff, music is on and he's singing. He is in Cape Town and says that song was important for him in his youth as he was nicknamed Sugar after that song. He says the song is from a singer in the 1960s that dramatically killed himself on stage.  
BACKGROUND USA - The image changes to Detroit, and then immediately they place you in the past and you hear the story about Rodriguez. How he was discovered, how talented he was.  
His history is told with a mix of his songs. 
Decadence, then first record,really good, but he never got success in the USA. 
BACKGROUND SOUTH AFRICA- They move you back to South Africa, they tell you how they think the Lp arrived there, how successful and important for the young and revolution their songs were "anthem for a revolution". The man for them was a mistery. They show how he was censored by some radios. 
INVESTIGATION - Back in present Sugar begins to be curious about who he was, where he was from, how he died (legend says he shoot himself, or he burnt himself on stage). They begin an investigation. How was publishing his songs in Africa, where was the money coming? 
Following the labels they end up calling people who knew him in 1997. 
They find out he was alive!!  
AFTERMATH - So they begin to tell the story of him nowadays, we meet his daughters, they end up paying a flight for him to South Africa, make a concert, we meet Rodriguez, he goes to TV shows and gives interviews… 

END - The story ends up saying how things have not changed much economically for Rodriguez, as he has seen little of the money of the previously sold records in Africa, and has shared the money he has make visiting SA. Very happy / sour story. 

project 15 traditional narrative - viewing

I've seen two older Hollywood classics to analyse the three act narrative:
Act 1, beginning that establishes the background and introduces the characters. It is in equilibrium and the intention is informative.
Act 2, where climax builds up and events unfold. Act 2 usually brings threads together and generates more complex plots.
Act 3, the end, the final resolution plays out and everything returns to an equilibrium.

CASABLANCA

Casablanca is a very good example of the three act approach to narrative. The narrative is broken by a flash back in the middle of Act 2, but aside from that, the pattern is mostly followed. 

THE BIG SLEEP

As opposed to Casablanca, The Big Sleep has a quite complicated plot. I had actually to read out the wikipedia storyline before finalising the exercise. The three acts are somewhat followed, and we can easily identify a first act, until the action (and the music) rump up. There is a "false" act 3, where detective Philip Marlow gets paid for his services and apparently the film is coming to an end, but then the plot complicates even more until the very end, where we find a very short and not quite closed act 3. 

exercise: screen space

Lexercise - two people communicating

script for screen space production exercise

Sarah is seated alone. She is holding something (a book, mobile or other item) that has  her attention. She seems distracted, absorbed by what she holds. 
Dan is standing [50m] off across the [park]. He notices Sarah but looks away.
Sarah looks up for a moment and notices Dan. She reacts with [loathing]. 
Sarah continues to look at Dan.
Dan becomes aware that Sarah is looking at him. He looks up at her. 
Sarah smiles at Dan. 
Dan begins to walk towards Sarah. 

Plan a series of shots (each containing only one of the two characters). Sketch the frame and think about the size. Think about how the size of the frame you choose and the space you place around the characters affects the apperception of the off-screen space. 

Sketches:

In my sequence, Sarah is not very pleased to see Dan. He is not very interested in talking to her either, but it seems that her feelings might be a bit stronger, as she cannot stop staring at him. Once Dan notices she has seen him, he acts friendly. Sarah regrets glaring at him immediately, but tries to smile while he approximates. 

Filming:

This is getting difficult as my main actor is 1,226 miles away. Therefore I have filmed this by myself. It is not easy to organise things in the screen in this manner, but I've done my best. 

When the facial expression was important I've gone for closer shots, even different camera angles. The result is below:

I have requested some feedback and the comments have been:

- the story is difficult to follow. Only if you read the script it is understandable. 

- it is hard to identify that they are in the same space. I should have found more linking elements in the landscape, or make a clearer opposition angle between them. 

An example of a good exercise is in Richad's blog. The angles of the camera and the space are clear and simple. Some very good acting here also! 

http://rjdown-dfp-log.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Project%2011%20Screen%20Space

exercise: mise-en-scéne - viewing

Freddie (Joaquin Phoenix) is falling asleep while he observes the master (Philip Seymour Hoffman) singing and dancing, surrounded by his family and friends. They are allocated in a way that they create an scenario, open to Phoenix, who is the spectator and Hoffman, the actor. This is created by the mise-en-scène of all the elements. As Phoenix falls asleep he "sees" (or more accurately he imagines) all the women in the scene naked. The spectator knows this is in the imagination of Joaquin Phoenix thanks to the lighting, and the sequence, as we've seen everybody dressed, we've seen Freddie accommodated in the shadows, falling asleep, and then the imagined scene with nude people, which looks clearly unreal. 

The lighting in the scene of Freddie in the shadows also depicts him in a different, obscurer world, closer to insanity.

All the elements of the mise-en-scène - i.e. settings, costumes and make up, lighting and staging - help creating this scene. 

The Third Man makes a extensive use of shadows (and dutch angles, but that would be part of the framing side studied in the previous part of the course) to evoque suspense and anguish. 

Scene 1 above shows a little child who is the greatest menace to the main character at this point of the film, as the boy accuses him of killing his father and a bunch of people is following him, after the kid, through the streets of Vienna. To show this perilous situation we can see the kid, but also the light has been positioned so he has a big, dark and defined shadow, which is definitely more threatening that the actual boy. 

Scene 2 not only uses the shadow on the building, but also the neat reflection on the wet floor, therefore the menacing shadow seems twice as big in this scene. We can also see in the foreground two statues, depicting two men probably fighting, that adds tension to the scene and have intentionally been incorporated in the mise-en-scène.

Scene 3 makes use of a dark corner (all we can see in the first instance) to hide the police men, who we only see when they step forward. 

Scene 4 shows a dutch angle of a room, which is initially in darkness. When the protagonist, who is being chased, turns the light, the image depicted above is what he can see. It is at the some time awkward and disturbing, and this has been created not only by the unbalanced camera angle, but also by the elements shown - a parrot, which is shrieking, the curtains, a kind or gown on a hanger... 

Finally, the last shot in the film, when all has been solved and cleared, depicts a wide path, well lighted, in a very symmetrical image (scene 5 above).  

It has been more easy to identify the lighting of the scenes in the two films above, the use of shadows and clear areas or darker and clearer scenes, than the position of elements to generate moods or feelings. Some of the images above from The Third Man convey a feeling just with the mise-en-scène, and it would not be needed to follow the plot to know that what is going on is rather unquieting. 

The exercise asks now to go back to Project 2 and analyse if the mise-en-scène had an (involuntary) impact on creating a mood. Definitely the third part of the exercise includes elements that create a kind of tension that would be needed for understanding the scene, mainly the black cat and the broken vase. I did not draw using shadows and lights, but I should definitely try to do that for the next sketch.   

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.

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.