In this evaluation I will be analysing how this unit went focusing on what I thought went well and what didn't go so well. I feel I have learnt a lot from this unit and although I am happy with how most things went, there are a few things I have reflected on and would do differently in the future. As a final result I have managed to finish with a 8minute film redirected my way and a blog to show the journey making the production.
I started off researching about my chosen director. I chose Sam Mendes because I find his work very captivating and fascinating. I can relate to the way he directs and the final product he ends up with. Although I love the way he works I also chose him to see what I could do differently and how I can take a piece of his work and put my own spin on it trying to better certain scenes to the way I see them. I saw this unit as my own challenge to take something I love and direct it into something Id love even more by adding my style to it.
After looking at Sam Mendes work I had an incline that I was going to take a scene from the film Revolutionary Road as I felt this film had a good plot line and would be a good project to take on myself. I decided that I would watch the film several times and then write up a film review contextualising it throughout. This allowed me to pick apart at the films structure and really understand what I was going to be producing. I finally decided on my scenes and decided to go down the shock road. I chose to do a heavy argument scene followed by the wife dying from a self abortion. With these scenes I knew the drama was strong and I wanted to create an impact and produce something powerful that will leave people thinking. Although the abortion scene was great to test out my visual directing, I felt the dialogue scene before it was a bit too much and I began concentrating on that much more than I should have rather than more of the cinematography that carried through in the final scenes.
I then went on to produce a professional looking script and looked to cast actors for my main roles. This took some time but I decided to go for Alessandra who I have worked with in a previous project and I feel this was the right decision as she threw herself into the role and really delivered on performance. For the male role none of the actors who applied were suitable and I began to get stressed that I wouldn't find someone to play the role. I moved to contacting actors directly after doing a search in the local area on casting call pro. This was a good move as I was able to lock down someone who was right for the role. I feel I should have done this sooner to help broaden my options but the result was good in the end. I developed shot lists and schedules to make sure the shoot would flow well which were very handy when it came to the day. Both actors said they felt I was very professional and would gladly work with me again.
Throughout this process I had workshops with Steve Finn a Television director which helped me to understand the art of blocking. I had never really understood what that meant before the unit and I now feel I have a new skill and more knowledge that I can use in the future. I did try and block with my shoot which worked well but there were a few issues with the argument scene as we were working in such a tight space. For a first proper attempt at blocking I feel I understood what I was trying to do but feel it could have been better. I know this is something to improve on and will only get better with more practice.
I found shooting the argument scene in general was really difficult. Although I managed to keep the performances high and give good direction from what I wanted to see from the actors, the camera angles and lighting could have been better. In some sequences I jump over the 180° line quite a lot and although It can be forgivable when edited, it took a lot of work as not enough coverage was gone from one side. This is something I have learned from and will look to improve next time.
Whilst editing is always a very enjoyable part of the process for me, that particular scene did turn into a chore as it was very difficult to get it to the standard I wanted. Although I am happy with it I still feel it could be a lot cleaner and smoother in places. The second half of the film was a lot more enjoyable due to a great amount of coverage and content to choose from. Some of the colour was a little out but I did correct it the best I could. I like the higher contrast of the second half giving it a surreal feel to it and I feel it really adds to what I am trying to show.
Besides the complexity of the argument scene I very much enjoyed the process and although some things could have gone better, most of the project came out strong due to outputs from work shops and a good use of planning.
No comments:
Post a Comment