Contextual Studdies: Documentry Screening

• Documentries are unscripted, but rely on classic narative structure. 
• They employ real people not actors, although they can be directed to an extent.
• Usually shot on hand held cameras although they can incourperate static shots.
• Does'nt focus much on mise en scene but still uses framing and lighting.

Dramatic films are the complete oposite to this.

Documentry in the purest sense is filmed observation. A recording, or documentation of reality rather than fatasy.

The term was first coined in by scottish filmmaker John Grierson. Who described documentries as a "creative treatment of reality".

Documentry is broken down in to two main formats.

Formal Documentry:

Observational (Excluded)

Current Affairs/factual (Making A Murderer; content driven)

Polemic (Adam Curtis)

Uses documentry form, techniques and conventions to educate, debate, and inform.

Hybrid Documentry:

Reality (Benafit Street)

Scripted Reality (TOWIE)

Drama Documentry (Man On Wire, Touching The Void)

Uses documentry form, techniques and conventions, but with the primary purpose of entertainment.

Narative Documentry Modes:

• Expository-Emphasises rhetoric and information. The classic "voice of God", current affairs BBC documentry.
• Observational- Classic fly on the wall style. No voice over or techniques that would interupt the action.
• Participatory- Onscreen relation ship between film maker and subject, usually via interview.
• Reflexive- Makes viewer aware of film mking proccess.
• Poetic- Uses a unique narative structure to re tell the events but without the main focus of informing the audience.
• Performative- uses actors to re-enact the drama/story.

Documentries tend to ficus a lot on Realsim. Carrying home things that while we cant neccissarily directly relate to but, they are things that are very plausable and could be happening around us.

Documentries often promote, or at least comment on certain ideoligies. Documentries can often be used for propaganda purposes. 

Making A Murderer does not atempt to promote the themes of crime, and the producers try to be ambiguouse. However the people they selected to be in their documentry were carfully chosen, not n=based on preference or biasst. They each have theor own opinions on the events covered in the documentry but the producers try and keep things fair.

Shows like this are verry strong at creating representation of characters/real life people and events. You must be careful to include a contrasting range of characters in order to avoid a biast representation. 

The dramatisation of events and the way they are played out is a good stylistic device. It can also make a documentry more subjective.


 

 

Location Shoot: The Heist

Today we were using the cameras and varios mics (mainly the boom on an outsiede location on order to create a short sequence. I did quite a lot of work with the camera and mics in this shoot setting up panning shots adn following wjat I had learned about the 180 degree rule. 

We had to set the white balance and exposure on the cmaera to math outside lighting using certain built in light filters to try and prevent over exposre. And in the edit process i put to use the colour corection slow motion and other techniques I recently learned. You can have a look at the results in the video below.

 

A Few Notes From Steeve Coombs Lecture On Writing In Final Cut

• Writing is about re-writing

• Know your ending-but dont be afraid to change it as you develop your script.

• Write about what you know and try to avoid what you dont know as it wont likley be very acurate

• Be confident with your dialouge

  
The Bellow link was an example of a script that we had to open in final draft/celtx in order to edit it to properly follow a script format.

https://www.celtx.com/auth/public/resource/101z6si0

 Edit Worshop: Lawyer Scene

This was the resulting footage from my secon edit workshop in Friday. In which i utalised new techniques such as L cuts and audio storyboarding. I was able to easily transition between close ups and mid shots using the ripple tool. In order to ensure continuity between shots I also utalised coulour correction techniques.

Contextual Studdies: Editing

Editing defenition: The assembly of visual material in to sequences.

Its pupose is to construct narative (both linier and non-linier)

It is aslo used to manipulate time (condense, lengthen, flashback, flash foward).

It juxtapositions ideas and concepts. 

Most editing is "invisible editing" and designed to be non conciouse/noticable and cuts where the action naturally requires them

Four Key Elements Of Editing

Spatial-relationship between diferent spaces and the editors manipulation of tehm e.g. cross cutting.

Temporal-manipulation of time within the film in relation to order, duration and frequency, e.g. montages, dissolves, wipes, and fades. 

Rhythmic-manipulation of duration of the shots: accents, beats and the tempo, e.g. action and suspense scenes, jump cuts.

Graphic-the relationship between pictorial qualities of shots or scenes e.g. graphics match cuts.

Why Editing Is Important

Creates strong visual naratives from simple script descriptions or unedited rushes.

The most creative aspect of filmmaking

A good editor can make mediocre shots work; a mediocre editor can ruin (or ignore) good shots

Shooting Ratios have an impact on editing (film is 10:1, documentries 60/100:1)

Editing can be used to convey particular messages and ideoligies. By including shots from certain perspectives or biast towards objects veiws and colours you can easilly promote beleifs in an audiences through bias'.

Eisenstein argues that montage, especially intellectual montage, is an alternitve to continuity editing.

"Montage is conflict" (dialectical) where new ideas emerge from conflict in a montage sequence.

Five Principles Of Soviet Montgae (an alternative aproach to editing:

Metric- editing which follows a specific tempo (based purly on frame count), cutting to the next shot regardless of action in the frame.

Rhythmic- similar to metric but allows for visual continuity from edit to edit.

Tonal- uses emotional meaning of the shot e.g. sleeping babies to denote calm.

Overtonal/Associative- a fusion of the above three.

Evidentiary Editing

In evidentiary editing, expositional images "illustrate, illuminate, evoke, or act in counterpart" to what is happening.

In dynamic editing, concepts of matching and continuity rarely apply. Shots are ordered by meaning but not neccesarilly by their relationship to one another in time or space. 

Contextual Studdies: Camera Work

If shots are words, mise en scene is meaning and editing is narative structure.

The Basic Shots- Long shot/wide shot (establishes location and characters); Medium shot (ensures charcter is prominent in the frame); Close up (focuses on charcaters expressions and motions); extreem close up (focuses on specific parts of characters face or objects for dramatic effect e.g. to show fear or anger).

When filming especially in documentry's it is important to pay atention to the rule of thirds. Ensuring your character is riughly centred and that there is something to look at in each segmant.

 

Rule Of Thirds

Other Angles Include Birds eye/Worms eye veiw used to give further detail about location.

There are also angled shots  which were very common in expressionism films. Designed to create a subjective veiw and evoke particular moods or ideas. 

Speed- Slow motion especially is used to create dramatic effect and envoke emotional reponse in an audience.

Camera movement is something that can be utalised but should be done so sparingly. Pans are good for establishing shots but zooms are often better done in post.However directors like Hitchcock are able to utalise techniques like reverse dolly/crane tracking to genreate meanings.

Alienation is one such theme generated by the technique. Hitchcock wanted to distance the audience from the horror and action. 

Key Camera movement techniques- Pan, tilt and zoom; Handheld/Steadicam; Dolly/Crane and now days there is also Drone Footage.

Pan tilt and zooms are thr most commonly used techniques used a lot in documentries and dramas.

Handheld and steadicam footage are used a lot in horror genres. 

Dollys and Cranes take time and money to set up, so tend to be saved for big budget dramas and thrillers that will be shown in cinimas. 

Use of camera movement in "Halloween": Hightens action and emotion through subjective POV.

Switches between subjective (steadicam) and objectice (crane) veiwpoints.

Refocuses audiences atention within the scene.

 

Elements Of visual style (bordwell)

Denotive (directing atention)

Expressive (bringing out or magnifying feelingful qaulities)

Decorative (flourishes or stylistic patterns that are independant or semi independant of narartive design)

Symbolic (creating meaning through shots etc.)

 

Use Of Handheld In Documentry

Heightens action and emotion (conveys urgency)

Dynamics of transition (moving from one location to another)

Places Character In Context

 

Story Telling: Camera Workshop, 180° Rule Ideas

Shot 1: Character 1 starts sitting. Long shot straight on.

Shot 2: 180° facing right, character 2 walks over

Shot 3: long shot straight on. Characters meet and sit down.

Shot 4: Mid shot straigh on the two charcaters. The two begin talking.

Shot 5: Close up 180° angle facing character on the right. Character 2 says their line.

Shot 6: Close up 180° angle facing charcater on the left. Character 1 says their line.

Shot 7: Mid shot faing straight on the two characters.

Pattern continues as above until the final shots.

Final Shot 1: Long shot facing straight on teh two characters, as they say their final few lines.

Final Shot 2: Close up 180° facing character on the right. Charcater on right. Character 2 bids character 1 farewell. 

Final Shot 3: Close up 180° facing character on the left. Character 1 says goodbye to character two.

Final Shot 4: Long shot facing straight on both characters. Character 2 leaves and character 1 sits back down. 

Final Shot 5: Mid shot looking straight on character 1.    

Final Shot 6: Close up 180° facing left, character 1 sighs and then the scene fades to black. 

Story Telling: A Camera Workshop

The above video was the result of a camera workshop we did the otherday. It is a very short piece that uses multiple shots to create a short story of someone getting to and sitting on a chair. Its nothing special and i encountered a few problems so it took longer to upload than i thought, please excuse the shakey camera, i wasnt able to correct it. But the main idea was to get used to the things you can do with the cameras.

Story Telling: 2nd Edit Workshop

The above video is the result of our second edit workshop using stock footage. In this ne I utalised diferent techniques adn video effetcs to create effective establishing shots and titles. Carfully mapping out and splitting my audio first and then matching it to video. I was able to utalise techniques such as opacity, mirroring/reversing footage and more.

Story Telling: Steeve Coombes 3rd Lecture

The story is the significance of the plot. The plot is what happens. The story is how you get there.

The points in your story should not connect with "and then" but instead you should connect plot points with "therefor's" and "but's". 

Your characters should have "but's" and twists in their development. e.g. an everyday policeman, but he robs banks. 

 https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6473802345104068878#editor/target=post;postID=4996865276157719604

You should build up theese character points so that the audience knows the character well enough to try and predict their actions.

There should be a twist that forces your characters to have to adapt or change to their situation. Like a joke, this is the distraction before the punch line.

You should try to keep your audience ahead or behind of the action, based on the information you give them about plot and characters.

However ont be afraid to subvert their expectations of what the charcater will do.

Audiences Love "moments". They tend not to notice character and dialouge etc. if they are distracted by "moments". 

Source material for this lecture included Mel Brooks' "The Producers" (1968) and Alfred Hitchcocks "Physco" (1960), and more.

 

 

My Moment

The moment I chose the ending sequence of David Fincher's 1999 Movie, "Fight Club".  It was incredibly memorable to me and inspiring in terms of plot structure, hidden messages, editing and stylistic techniques, and so much more.

This is memorable to me because in under a minuet it demonstrates the way each character has ahd to change and adapt to this strange and violent wold that they were thrown in to. We can see that the charcaters are finally acepting their insanity as a quite literal part of them. 

The scene sums up an entire generations worth of angst, depression and fear as the dialouge gives way to destruction and chaos, and the characters simpy acept the chaos around them, subverting our expectations as an audience, of their charcters.

It ties together all the underlying messages in the movie and affirms them. We as n audience are shocked and mesmorised by both characters and their situation. Which is why we remember it.

Story Telling: The 180 Degree Rule

 Where you position the cmaera in a scene is where you position the audience.

It is important to keep your camera shots consistant so they dont brake the 180 degree rule adn confuse your audience. Start with a wide shot of the two characters you want to feature. This will allow you to divide your scene in to screen left and screen right, cutting betweeen vlose ups of a left shot and a right shot, staying within a 180 degree diamiter.

The 180 degree rule can be broken, but should only be used as a story telling device that is intended to put the audience on edge, or symbolise decent in to madness/fantasy. 

 

Steve Coombes Character And Dialogue

In our latest lecture with Steve Coombes we learned about characters and dialogue in screenwriting. Some of the source material we looked at included "When Harry met Sally" and "Full Metal Jacket". 

In this post I will summarize some of the key points that i picked up on starting with dialogue.

Dialogue:

Dialogue is one of the least important parts of film/TV but it is still important to get it right, since some dialogue is intended for TV, some for Film, and some for Theatre. 

Dialogue should have a point, it should not be overly detailed or too formal (show don't tell). 

Different characters speak differently, with different vocabulary and phrases, you can read it aloud to see if it sounds natural. 

Where possible it is good to replace dialogue with actions or facial expressions.

Accents are best avoided unless necessary, and you shouldn't have characters speak the hidden meaning of your script.

Denial is key for conveying messages and creating subtext, e.g. I'm fine, no i don't love her.

It is good to start in the middle of a conversation and let the audience figure out whats going on. 

Different characters use different curse words. 

Character:

Know your characters well, and know what their traits are, as if they were your friends.

Characters should have flaws and visual tells e.g. tattoos, or the fact they like things a certain way, or have OCD. 

Characters should be right most of the time, but wrong now and then to help them develop.

If you have a character who is a psychopath or a monster, the best way to make them more likable is to introduce someone who's an even bigger monster and put them "next to each other".

Their should be a character based on the idea of the "existential hero". Many characters when faced with individuality or change, question their lives  and morals. It is mostly men who go through an existential crisis.

Make your characters choose, give them some kind of conflict that they have to make a choice between. Have them be pulled in different directions.

When characters need to make decisions it is important to keep them on edge and indecisive, and know what it is that will make them like this. 

Lateral Thinking

Edit Workshop Result

Today we had a small edit workshop with Fergus, in which we practiced and refined our editing skills using stock footage to create a small sequence. I was able to utilize a few effects I hadn't used before such as camera stabilization. The video bellow was my final result at the end of the workshop. Hope you enjoy and feel free to give feedback. 

It is titled, "Lateral Thinking".