Conclusions

This semester has been my most influential by most. I have grown massively as creative person. I have learned to accept new mediums, try new techniques, become a leader, think on the spot, and gained massive knowledge on on professional workflows.

I have been reading a collection of books in the library that has taught me everything in being a good director to an aware cinematographer. In being a director I have learned the set etiquette and shooting for the edit, how to handle auditions, and how to work with performers.

Practising Cinematography skills was brilliant. I have tried varied different cameras and formats. from a 35mm old camera to a Cine camera I have learned it is not about the camera, but really about the composition and how the piece fits at the end. Thankfully I've had many opportunities to practice framing.

Thanks to everyone who has worked and put up with me I have managed to grow on all my skills and improve on them.

Infinite View

Cardiff Filming

Glidecam

I've always wanted to try a Stedicam or a Glidecam, and thanks to our course we finally have one, I went to the induction with Simon and Chris and we learned all the specs.  from what camera we need, the healthy and safety tips, the maximum load, and the best techniques to achieve best results.

The most important thing that was mentioned in the induction for me was that it needed lots of practice, thanks to Rosie and Rachel for organising the performance art pieces that gave me exactly what I need to practice.

VFX for Al-Kimia

In the beginning of AL-Kimia, the concept did not require any heavy visual effects on paper, as the concept was very simple and minimal, we wanted to be able to achieve all effects in camera. When we started the post production staged and finished the rough edit, we received feedback from Simon who mentioned that the edges in the pool was distracting, it also disguised the "infinity" effect we where going for. Jacob and Took nearly every water sequence clip and manually rotoscoped every shot and cleaned the edges (See Below.) 

By doing this it allowed us to even get the wide shots that where impossible to get with the studio space. an advantage of this whole thing it gives us a spotlight effect, because we created more virtual black space not only gives a sense of location, but also the ease for the viewer.

1 CUT

1 CUT:

Swipe

Shooting on Film 02

Shooting on Film 01

VFX for FLYPAPER

I was asked by a friend from third year film production to help them with the visual effects for their graduation film "Flypaper", they had a particular sequence filmed underwater, in the sequence there was part where there was black rope suspending lights from the ground, the cinematographer asked me to get rid of it. keying something out is something simple to me, so is rotoscope. after trying out these techniques on the actual video it seemed to be impossible.

I tried tracking the footage underwater using either the built in AE tracker or the Mocha, but because there was so much parallax it seemed very fake, because of the light rays emitted in the water. the only way it seemed possible is if I use the clone stamp tool, that way I could even copy the rays the light emits accurately.

I did not know very much about the clone stamp tool video, the photo one is simple, but because I'm using timebase work / moving image, it seemed harder for me. I looked around Lynda and YouTube for tutorials, and I did some tests before going back to uni, to make sure I've mastered it.

Post Shoot Thoughts: Shoot Day 3

Day three was the filming of the first sequence of the film which was the sand sequence, this was a hard sequence to film because of the inconveniences sand brings with it. we had to keep sand controlled, we had to make sure that: sand doesn't get in the dancers eyes, protect equipment, and not let it spread everywhere so it's easier to clean after, and keep the studio clean. The worse bit of all of this is to keep continuity on sand!

Post Shoot Thoughts: Shoot Day 2

Day two was extremely fun, not only because we have to shoot only one element (water), but also because it was a challenge for me, I had to work with only  2x2 meter space with only 90 degrees of angle to use. we got some Great footage, and the blue light was gorgeous. However the edges of the pool was impossible to deal with, and because of health and safety we couldn't get the dancer to spin the way we wanted. overall a great day because we were confident with the environment.

Post Shoot Thoughts: Shoot Day 1

Of all three days filming, the first day was not my favourite, I expected it to be the hardest day too, not only did we have to shoot two elements (fire, air), but we had to set up for the first time, make sure we have everything, make sure everything was safe. I also know that the performers first day would also make her slightly nervous, and worse of all our cinematographer Jacob was admitted to hospital. but thankfully because we had a plan everything was fine, we did not get all the shots we wanted on the same day because of the amount of stress on set. As a director I know that I should shouldn't show any signs of fatigue or disappointment, that could seriously unmotivate everyone on set.

Thankfully, It was a successful day, thankfully we got all the key shots we need, we made sure everything went to plan, made sure we took notes of best takes. 

Film Noir

Film Noir

I wanted to take my cinematography skills to the next level. so i thought I'd look at one of the most influential cinematography eras "Film Noir". if I wanted to take my head of the point and shoot habit and appreciate the frame. this is a project I proposed to Tamara, and we thought it would be great to practice. I started watching movies from that era to make sure I understand the way it was used.

Tamara and I started a Pinterest board, where we put down our favourite stills, something that could inspire a work we could do ourselves.

We thought we should make a series of 5 of our own noir style photographs, we also thought it would be interesting to make the 5 frames relate like a story. we thought it would be cool to go with a slight cliché to support the theme

1: We see a femme fatale and her victim tied to a chair, while the man is struggling, the woman keeps her cool while smoking.

2: We see her shooting her victim.

3: The dead body is discovered by what seems to be a detective.

4: The detective seeks revenge and finds the femme fatale.

5: The detective finally takes his revenge.

The main aim of this experiment is to be able to understand composition and the depth shadows can create in an image. what I realised by watching noir films is that these films heavily relate on hard shadows. the locations had to be very detailed and dependent on symmetry  in the movie. so so when it came to making it possible we had to make sure the location can not only relate to the time frame, but also work visually.

Here are some possible locations of the shoot:

Technically, the shoot needs hard lights to create the harsh shadows. Originally the idea was to use redhead lights and we were going to shoot with a film camera shooting black and white film to keep it as authentic as possible, unfortunately it seemed impossible to take the lights outside as we couldn't get our hands on generators or sockets near our desired location. the next practical thing that seemed possible is to shoot with a digital camera with a flash with a wireless trigger, we took from stores the Nikon D800 with the wireless flash and trigger. unfortunately the wireless trigger did not have a very far range, and the remote had to be always pointing towards the flash receiver, which was another obstacle we could not overcome.

We came to the conclusion that we would like to still carry something like this out once we have the resources, and if we manage to get video lights outside we would consider shooting an actual video with that style.