INITIAL LIGHTING EXPERIMENTS

So I have had a couple of days with not really much to do so I have begun trying to discover how I will get about creating a Nicolas Winding-Refn inspired piece of work. So I decided to see what lighting effects I could create with what I have. I used my laptop, a torch and my phone to create lighting effects, I made use of a green tinted glass bottle, as well as a purple camera filter I have, and a tube for badminton shuttlecocks.

I was really thinking about the practical effects that I could use for no budget.

I have to say it was a little more successful than I expected for my first try and considering what I had at my disposal. I edited some footage together to try and make an atmospheric piece much like Refn's film Only God Forgives.

Here is the short clip:

The Door from Alexander Barker on Vimeo.

DIRECTOR OF CHOICE: UNIT 2 DIRECTIONS

Nicolas Winding-Refn

Work

• Pusher Trilogy (1996-2005)
• Fear x (2003)
• Bronson (2008)
• Valhalla Rising (2009)
• Drive (2011)
• Only God Forgives (2013)

Also Directed 2 episodes of Agatha Christie's Marple

and an advert for Gucci

From Only God Forgives

Larry Smith DoP: 

• Only God Forgives
• Fear X
• Bronson

From Bronson

                       

                                  From Pusher (I)

From Drive

Stylistic and Narrative

• I wouldn't say he tells stories as such
• fairly slow paced
• Use of symmetry
• Artificial lighting
• Use of Track/Dolly
• Gratuitous violence when necessary 
• Strong singular physical performance (Male)
• Sound Design
• Moody/Atmospheric music with composers:
• Cliff Martinez
• Johnny Jewel
• Brian Eno
• Dean Landon
• J. Peter Shwalm

Why choose him?

Because he is mad and so therefore taking on the challenge is mad, but thats what challenges are for. He is just one of the most fascinating directors out there for me. I have a very visual mind and this is maybe why I find something great about his work, is sometimes the story takes a hit so that the visual element gets a leg up. Realistically I think he will be more of a challenge than Cuaron would have been, simply because of the lighting and tracks I would have to use to emulate the man.

Lets Go!!

LAST 2

This is really difficult:

I have gotten rid of Adam Wingard simply because, I may love his work in The Guest (2014) and You're Next (2011), but he is essentially still a fairly fledgling director who doesn't have enough of a trademark style to use.

So it is down to 2 Directors:

Alfonso Cuaron                                 and                                  Nicolas Winding-Refn

This is so difficult! I would ideally love to use inspiration from both, however they are very distinct from each other. Also the rules are to choose one director. 

Cuaron is a well established director with quite a few pieces of work from which to understand a style and trademark of his. My trouble at the moment with using Cuaron is that it would be a challenge for whoever is my DoP (Probably Plamen as we have chatted about it already) as it would require doing long takes using the fig rig. Realistically this is something I am thinking that I maybe want to save for myself to do in the realms of cinematography. 

I had an idea that I could do one of Cuaron's long takes with a fig rig and myself on rollerblades, however Plamen informs me he is not too adept. This is the reason I would possibly like to save this for myself to attempt, but I think I will get the opinion of my tutor first.

This clip from Y Tu Mama Tambien shows Cuaron's bold use of the camera, the way he will follow an actor instead of using cuts as often as other directors might.

Winding-Refn is currently one of my favourite directors due to his amazingly stylised shots used especially in a night time setting. He is a Director that uses tracks a lot moving the camera slowly most of the time. One thing that really stands out for me is the use of music and sound in his movies, he uses moody, dark and sometimes terrifying music (recently teaming up with Cliff Martinez) as well as harsh and from time to time unrealistic to the situation sound design. So if I am to do Refn I will have to focus on sound and lighting as something important of his style.

I think this clip perfectly epitomises Refn's use of lighting as well as music to create a mood in his films. Also on another note Refn's films have a lot of gratuitous violence in them as demonstrated here.
I have to mention as well especially in this film his stories are a bit confusing and don't really make sense, but they are visual journeys.

  

FINALLY DECIDED

Possibly made this a bit more difficult than it should have been, but I have finally come to a decision. I thought I would get a couple of opinions about my last 2 and so after the advice to pick Alfonso Cuaron, I decided to ignore that and choose Nicolas Winding-Refn.

STILL DECIDING + LATE ENTRANT

Last Three

Alfonso Cuaron:

• Tracking shots
• Steadicam
• Realism

Nicolas Winding-Refn:

• Moody and ambiguos characters
• Use of artificial lighting
• Graphic violence 
• tough subjects

Late Entrant

Adam Wingard:

• Outside of the studio atmosphere
• Home invasion (Sub-Genre)
• Stylistic Aesthetics
• Unvarnished 
• Hand-Held Docu-lensing
• Playing with the horror genre in an almost comical parodic manner

DECIDING ON A DIRECTOR

SHORT LIST:

• Nicolas Winding-Refn
• House of Cards (House Style)
• Wes Anderson
• Dan Gilroy
• Alfonso Cuaron
• Adam Wingard

Last 3:

Nicolas Winding-Refn

• Incredibly Stylised 
• Artificial lighting
• Often shot at night

Alfonso Cuaron

• Tracking/Long Shots
• Movement of the character and the camera together
• Wide camera angles
• Hand-Held shots
• Emmanuel Lubezki regular cinematographer with Cuaron

Wes Anderson

• Symmetry 
• Vibrant Colours
• Eccentric Characters

DIRECTIONS UNIT DAY 2

I have to say I did not do the best job today in terms of getting the right coverage. This is something obviously as a director I will have to work on, as well as the fact that I spend too much time behind the camera making sure the shot is lined up properly.

With this exercise of filming a scenario provided in the morning brief, I channeled two of the directors I have been thinking about in the last 24hours: Wes Anderson and Alfonso Cuaron, however I think the former should get more credit in this one.

The main issue for me today was time, especially on the editing. I didn't have much time to change and adjust elements of the clip that will have been more effective. I had to leave enough time for export and upload, and this put more pressure on me to finish in time.

However this was a learning exercise and I will know to be prepared for when I begin shooting.

The end result:

REFLECTION: UNIT 1

Storytelling: Its been a blast

Well I have finished my first unit of my Television Production degree and I have to say I am very pleased with the outcome. Overall I enjoyed the unit and it has already drastically changed my views of where I want to end up in the industry.

After the lectures with Steve Coombes, I begun to understand the basic ideas of creating a story to be put on a screen. As soon as we started I actually started to get so many ideas about formats and stories alike, I got more inspiration than ever before. I have filled a good few pages of my notebook with bullet points and brainstorms about stories that i could develop and use for a future project.

As a result of his advice I now understand that:

This has great writing 

and this does not

WRITING PROCESS

It really has inspired me this unit to look further than the image on the screen. Not that I've got rid of my very visual photographic way of thinking and I believe that has come through in my first ten page screenplay.

I have to say the writing process was something I dreaded as I have never really been a great writer, however with the introduction of Final Draft to me I found a way to write with fluidity and confidence in abundance.

FILMING

Once I arrived at the filming process I have to say I really wanted to portray what I had written as that is the whole point of the Storytelling unit. Essentially it was fairly true to the script, but a few spontaneous shooting day decisions may have been added into the final cut of my 2 minute clip.

One regret I have in terms of quality of my images was that I used my DSLR to shoot, which does not have as many adjustments available as the EX 1, (contrast, aperture, white balance) at least they are not as easily understood or accessible. There were a few shots were the contrast was too high especially the dark and light shots in the car for example. The DSLR had its advantages, but I am a great appreciator of a good quality image which is why I use 'Vimeo'!


So in conclusion for this unit I really enjoyed the whole process and greatly look forward to the next unit Directions, after you Wes.

FINAL DRAFT: SCREENPLAY

So after spending time today making my last minute adjustments I have finally got a Screenplay that is ready to print and hand in for tomorrow's deadline.

I didn't make any drastic changes I just made sure I put transitions in where they were needed and changed a few sentence phrasings here and there.
The only thing was that there was a gap between two scenes without much connection, so I had to add in a small paragraph to make sure it made sense.

But now that I have done that I think it is ready to PRINT AND STAPLE!!


This is off course along with my fine cut which I have uploaded to the UCA TV Production Youtube page:

FINAL ADJUSTMENTS: SCREENPLAY

As I don't have Final Draft on my laptop, my plan is to go into the Studios on Monday and make all the required adjustments and touch ups needed for the hand in on Tuesday.

I used the Final Draft Reader mode on my laptop to read through it and take notes in my notebook before going in tomorrow.

Here are pictures of the work I did:

Hopefully these notes will help the process of finishing of the script easier than it could have been.

 

FINE CUT

So I can fully say after much deliberation that I have finally got a Fine Cut. It has taken me a while to make sure it is completely what I wanted.
The advice I got on Friday was just to touch up some of the sound and also use the closing of doors as edit points, to make things run smoother.

So well here it is then:

When The Sun is Low in The Sky from Alexander Barker on Vimeo.

READDRESSING THE EDIT (THE MEETING)

So after some advice on Tuesday about my edit so far, I have returned to the editing suite and addressed some of the issues and queries that were brought up:

• Firstly the main thing with my whole edit is the lack of variation in shot types, in terms of mediums, close ups and wides. This therefore has restricted me in some ways, but it is something I will be sure to accommodate for on future projects.
• The second is a more specific issue in relation to the first, in that jumping from a mid shot to a mid shot doesn't have much of an effect with the edit.

• Finally there was a problem with a couple of the shots of Dannie at the end of the shoot. I am not entirely sure how I missed the blurred pictures. I have to say though the fact I was in a rush to use the all the light available may have been a contributing factor to this.

So I have sat down now and had another go at the edit, the only thing now is that it is slightly shorter than 2 minutes, but I am wary now not to lengthen it for the detriment of my story so I will have another look with caution. 

This is how it is looking at the moment almost the finished product and something I can export:

Almost there

EDIT - When the sun is low in the sky (THE MEETING)

So I pretty much begun editing as soon as I returned home yesterday (Wednesday 12/11/14) after the shoot.

By yesterday evening I had what I would consider a rough cut and by now I have what I would consider essentially my finished article. Just a few more touch ups here and there as well as any advice given to me next Wednesday when the rough cut is due.

I used Premiere Pro as that is one have come to be used to over the last year or so, here is a screenshot :

In terms of sound I ended up using more sound from my DSLR than the Rode mic lent to me by Plamen. I used the Rode mic for a few atmospheric filler sounds, but the primary on screen sounds are recorded by the camera itself. Especially for the interior of car scenes where I attempted to use both forms of sound recording, the DSLR took in more sound from the whole car where as the "Directional" Rode mic did what it says on the tin.

Along with the general sound of on screen action I have chosen to use a 'Cliff Martinez' track which is used on the soundtrack of the Cinemax programme 'The Knick' directed by 'Steven Soderbergh'.

I think it has an otherwordly dream like quality to it.

The reason I chose this was due to my idea of his hobby being an escape from the real world situation of his office. 

I really enjoyed the editing process and it ran pretty smoothly.

The way I see it the edit is another chance to discover things you may not have put down on paper for the original screenplay. 

I think if I am ever to become a director that is the kind of director I would like to be, Spontaneous but organised making good use of discoveries to aid the story. 

POST SHOOT

Writing about my shoot yesterday (Wednesday 12/11/14)

First I haven't said this before, but I used my Canon 600d to capture my footage, just because it is smaller and more appropriate for some of the shots I was going to shoot namely a shot from the footwell of Harry's car. Another helpful feature is the flip out screen for shots that are hard to view from the normal position.

So I have finished my small one day shoot with a fairly good sense of optimism for the footage captured.

First of all the biggest positive was that the weather put in a good show, with a fairly red and orange sky for us to use.

I got all the shots I was intent on getting and a few more for good measure.
I have to admit I did not work exactly to the letter of my storyboard, however for the last scene I was under a bit of pressure to finish before the sun got too low.

This may have been contributed to by the fact that I managed to leave the tripod plate on the floor for one of the other scenes. This caused mild panic and a sprint for myself back up the hill to pick it up (cue heavy breathing for the rest of the shoot).

However I look back at it with much fondness, being my first proper organised shoot with an actual notion and plan of what was needed.

Special thanks to Dannie for helping me with my sound and taking pictures, when she wasn't needed in front of the camera.

Me Directing my main actor

Now to the edit.

PREPARING FOR SHOOT: CONDITIONS

As I am set to shoot my 2 minute clip of my short film for 'The Meeting' tomorrow I thought I would make sure I absolutely know the time frame I have.
I have spent the last two weeks checking the weather predictions as well as trying to work out when people are free.

Here is the weather for this week:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/2643179?view=print

Actually Wednesday is a bit touch and go so I may have to improvise if needed, but I will just hope that it all goes to plan.

As well as checking the weather I have had to be wary of the earlier sunsets at this time of year, so I have been keeping an eye on the times that BBC tells me.

I also found a site that is specifically for telling you when the Golden Hour is that day:
http://www.golden-hour.com

I the past week the time of sunset has changed by a full 10 minutes from 16.25 to 16.15, so this underlines the fact even more.

STORYBOARD

My first ever proper storyboard here for the first 2 minutes of my film.
I found this such a helpful process as it helped put my very visual ideas down so as other people may understand my vision for my film.
This is very much a rough idea to guide me when filming, my drawing is not very good:

RESEARCHING

I decided that I would go to my main location to do what my character would do and capture the golden hour.

However I was rather unlucky as despite the whole day being sunny, there was a very large cloud blocking out the sun. The light was just not good enough for taking any pictures or filming really so the stuff I have is fairly poor in quality with very dark trees and branches contrasting the background:

I thought I would use what I had and did a time-lapse of the fast moving dark clouds, as I will be using time lapse in my film. This is the result:

TimeLapse of blocked out sunset from Alexander Barker on Vimeo.

I tried a pan using my tripod:



Panning using my tripod from Alexander Barker on Vimeo.

LOCATIONS SCOUTING

I have just been out scouting for my location for my main location that of the clearing in the woods.
In the park next to Maidstone Studios.
I have tried to cover all areas with this scout so there are many different options if I want to change.

This is the first location I looked at a few days ago (when it was actually sunny):

Smaller clearing with less area and very long grass.









The issue with this was that it is very close to the road and some houses, and I really want to get the feeling of escape in my story.







The second location is more of a paths crossroads, but it could be effective none the less:

The crossroads.

The only thing about this location is that it is a bit crammed and there are tight spaces.
This is still in the running, but it is not really the vision I had when I wrote the first draft of my screenplay.





My third and most successful location is again actually not exactly what I imagined, but it is probably the place I would like to take pictures of the golden hour from:

This is a good place in my opinion for my main location

It is quite expansive and there are a lot of entrances into it for me to work with.

It is maybe not quite as middle of nowhere as I had in mind, but the good thing is you can't see buildings over the trees around the clearing.







I think the battlement type feature can act as a line between the two. King of the castle, so one has the upper hand on the other on the better position for photography.

NIGHTCRAWLER (2014)

Film that depicts the endeavours of a man who becomes a freelance cameraman for a news network. 

Rating: 4.8 out of 5

Directed by: Dan Gilroy

Cinematographer: Robert Elswit

This is a film that is essentially an intense character study of one man Lou Bloom (Jake Gyllenhaal) who is a man in search of work. He stumbles upon a car crash on a main road and gets out of his car to supposedly help (but I don't really know what his intentions are in the scene). It is here that he meets a man with a camera who films the car crash and the person getting dragged from her car. He then discovers what the mans intentions are for the film and that is to sell it to the highest bidding news company. 

As a highly driven, intelligent and business minded man Lou buys a camera and a police scanner and begins to track down incidents and try and film them for news companies.

The performance here from Gyllenhaal is one of the most intriguing and unusual performances I have ever seen from any actor. His character which even has some elements from Donnie Darko is so intense, but is seemingly normal. There are so many emotions thrown around by the performance that sometimes I couldn't help but smile at it. 

I have to say I can draw comparisons with Drive, however Drive is definitely darker in tone which is mainly due to Cliff Martinez's score. James Newton Howard is the composer and I think the music reflects Gyllenhaal's character quite well as the music fluctuates to say the least from upbeat to dark and intense beats. 

I have to say I really enjoyed this film, but I have to say it runs heavily on Gyllenhaal's shoulders as it is a touch patchy in my opinion. Without Gyllenhaal this would be a mediocre film, but with the help of him it gets brought well above average. The elements I love the most are the Cinematography, the last 15 minute (Car chase and ending) especially GYLLENHAAL.

DETECTORISTS (2014)

Detectorists: BBC Four, Thursday Night, 30 minute show

Written and Directed by - Mackenzie Crook 

Not only do I really enjoy this show, I think it also shares many traits with the vision I have for my screenplay.

This 6 part series is set in a small town (Real life Framlingham Suffolk) where Metal Detectorists Andy (Crook) and Lance (Toby Jones) live without much excitement.  Both the men have mundane jobs in the town, but it seems their main interest is Metal Detecting.

Andy has a long term girlfriend whom he lives with in the town. He is studying for an archeology degree whilst always looking out for that piece of treasure that he might find with his detector.
Lance is still stuck in a vice like grip slaving away for his former girlfriend who left him for another man.

The whole idea of them using there hobby (deep in the countryside away from civilisation) as their escape is something I would like to portray with my characters love for photography during the Golden Hour. I am going to look to create this kind of feel, but hopefully it should be even more of the contrast as theoretically, my character works in a big city.

           

This story is a lovely character study with amazing and eccentric people helping the story. Hopefully my mysterious man might play a similar role to that of Mr. Bishop (David Sterne) who is a mad old man who can come up with some very sensible words of advice at times. On second thoughts my old man should not be quite as mad as Bishop.

Everything about this show is quite laid back, it certainly is not fast paced. But that is what I love about it, that the story and also the cinematography. The shots really express the countryside well and it makes you want to go out there to see how amazingly nice it is. 

As of yet I am still not a writer or a critic so I don't know what is right or wrong in a TV show, however in my opinion I think this is well written nicely paced and subtly comical drama about a subject that is most certainly not in the public eye. 

P.S. another point is I really like the soundtrack by the South African folk singer 'Johnny Flynn'.

This clip demonstrates how brilliant this show is complete with a bit of the soundtrack at the end: