exercise: spaces

Capture four shots that have the following feel about them:

• An oppressive, cluttered space
• An open, honest, simple space containing one intriguing item
• A stark, empty hostile space
• A warm, friendly, cosy space

how they feel? what meanings  are implied?

An oppressive, cluttered space

For an oppressive cluttered space I've taken this picture of my utilities cupboard. It is an small, poorly lighted and full of stuff place, so I thought it could do the job quite nicely. The photo does not feel very oppressive though, possibly because, although I took it in a low angle, trying to get as many things "falling" over the lenses, the door was open, and the things somehow organised.
Probably a space with more things, like an old library bookcase, or this similar photo but from the inside of the wardrobe, would have worked better.
I also think that the viewer does not get the idea of a small space, as they can only see one corner, it could give the wrong impression of a more open and bigger room.

An open, honest, simple space containing one intriguing item

Since the moment I read the task I thought about an empty room, with one chair, and a bra on it. Don't ask me why because I don't know, I think the idea must come from some advert or movie... anyway, I thought that the photo could be nice with a well lit room and the result shown below is not too bad. 

On the one side, the room is nice and the tones of green of walls and chair make a nice effect. As the bra is the only black element in the room it could be thought that it would draw the attention, but on the other side, the picture has too many aliments, the windows are nice and the bright floor starves the attention from the chair and the allegedly intriguing element. I think the exercise would have worked better in a more simpler, emptier space.
The image, to me, feels more cosy and inviting than intriguing and interesting.

As the photo is taken in a room, what would there be of intriguing about a bra on a chair? what if I had took the chair to the outside... that would have been better, definitely. Then both the chair and the bra would have been quite out of place. 

A stark, empty hostile space

The picture below is a construction site being prepared. Because the light is rather nice, just before dusk, the place doesn't look too hostile, but the idea of leaving the background unfocused with the focused fence in the foreground gives a hint of hostility, prohibition and inaccessibility. The puddles from the recent storm also invoque starkness. 
I think that the desired feelings would have been better achieved if no signs of humanity, other than the fence, where shown, and if the day was less clear and no plants have been included.  

A warm, friendly, cosy space

Ah, as the name of this (b)log invokes, warmer than here...
This photo in a mediterranean beach, with the people doted in the horizon, evokes the feeling of feet buried in the very hot sand, the refreshing feeling of the water coming to you in tiny waves, and the warmth of the sun in the skin.
This is in my opinion the image that better achieves the objective of the exercise, but that is probably perhaps because I'm longing too much...

movies in colour

Checking out my course mate Helen Rosemier blog I have found a reference she makes to this web page. I love the extract of the colours and the very nice palettes that you obtain with some of the chosen scenes:

http://moviesincolor.com/tagged/john-hughes

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.   

Mise-en-Scene

Definition

"...the term (is used) to signify the director's control over what appears in  the film frame. As you would expect, mise-en-scene includes those aspects  of film that overlap  with the art  of the theatre: setting,  lighting, costume, and the behaviour  of the figures.  In controlling the mise-en-scene, the director stages the event  for the camera."

Bordwell, D. , Thompson, K. (2008), Film Art: An Introduction. 8th ed.McGraw-Hill

The mise-en-scene-en-scene does not always need to be planned, the authors clarify. Unpredicted events or actors improvisations have their own impact on the shot (natural light may be used and is unpredictable, an ocasional storm that could be used for the scene, etc.). 

The first director to use mise-en-scene-en-scene was George Méliès, who created fantasy worlds, customs, sketched every detail of the shot and edited his films in the very early 1900's. The video above is for his Le Voyage dans la Lune (The Trip to the Moon), 1902.
Within mise-en-scene we can control

• setting
• costumes and make-up
• lighting
• staging

nude portraits - Polly Penrose

Polly Penrose - photo part of 'a body of work'

So very interesting reading the article about Polly Penrose in the British Photo Journal. How she repeats the photo once and again until she's happy with every detail, tweaking her position, getting the shape she's looking for. Also how she's been looking back at the pictures and realising how they show the feelings she was going through at every different moment. 

Beautiful project. I hope we can see how it keeps on evolving and growing. 

a date - alternative ending

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.