CINEMATOGRAPHY CHALLENGE LEARNING JOURNAL.
- kadeenaglendon7
- Jul 1, 2024
- 18 min read
IDEA GENERATION
For the cinematography challenge, me and my team did some deep research into
different paintings and what each one could represent, or what one of the paintings could
convey to an audience member. After looking for a while, me and my team stumbled
across a painting named ‘spirit’ painted by an artist called ‘George Roux’ in 1885. From
this painting, me and my team were able to put together a plot and story from our first
impressions of the painting: within the painting, we are able to see a glowing like figure
playing a piano: from an audience members’ perspective, we can tell that the figure who
is playing piano is a woman, and that there is also a male figure to the side of the painting
who is seemingly scared, shocked and flabbergasted when seeing this figure.
From this, me and my team for the cinematography challenge decided to form a simple
yet effective story that allowed us to utilize different techniques through camera work,
sound and lighting work. Our story line into simplified down into a sentence would be ‘a
husband who reunites with his dead wife’, yet in a more complex and detailed
explanation, this husband is begging for forgiveness from his dead wife, as he finally
comes to terms with how poorly he treated her when she was alive. When settling on this
idea, me and my team ensured to execute this idea in a way that would make our product
unique in comparison to any other ideas that were similar to ours.
As a team, we wanted to ensure that we were not going overboard with the idea that we
had, as it could have the risk of looking more unprofessional and rushed if we had added
too many elements to the cinematography challenge. Alongside this, we didn’t want to
take away from clear themes and emotions that the audience members could see within
the original painting, as we as a team wanted to appreciate the artwork, not take away
from it or completely over-write the meaning, reasoning in why we decided to keep it simplistic, yet effective.
PRE-PRODUCTION:
After me and my cinematography team all agreed on a final and solid idea, it was time to
conduct all of our pre-production in order to help us shape our final product.
When writing out the script, me and my team strongly considered we worded things
within our script; this was to ensure that it came across to the audience members as
naturalistic as possible. We took this into consideration because if the script was written
out in a way that made our whole short film seem non-naturalistic and too fictional, the
audience members would not be able to feel that emotional connection with the
characters. Writing out the script beforehand really helped me and my team members for
the cinematography challenge as we were able to visualise the different shots that we
wanted to implement within our product, therefore also helping us to visualize how we
wanted to edit our short movie for the cinematography challenge.
Although we carefully considered this specific step within our pre-production, it was a
slightly challenging part of our pre-production as we wanted to ensure that the actors
who played each character came across as naturalistic as possible. This meant that we
constantly had to change the script after reviewing it, due to some words stopping the
natural flow within a character’s sentence.
This allowed me and my cinematography challenge to achieve an ideal script that not only
sounded as naturalistic as possible for the narrative of our product, but a script that also
allowed audience members to feel a connection between the two characters within the
cinematography challenge. Alongside this, creating a script that complimented the
atmosphere we were looking for allows us as a team to convey clear messages and
themes to the audience members, further enhancing the atmosphere within our
visualized idea.
Alongside the script that me and my cinematography team had created, we had also created a mood board, visualizing the type of aesthetic that we wanted our product to surround we were able to achieve and initial aesthetic from the original painting: evidently from what we can see as audience members, the aesthetic surrounding the painting by George had a typical Victorian aesthetic surrounding it, (this was also the time period in which the panting was created) clearly seen throughout the clothing and the setting surrounding it: We can see that how the house is furnished around them is typically seen in the Victorian times, including the lavish suit worn by the male within the background of the painting, and the corseted dress in which the ‘glowing’ woman is wearing (in the Victorian times, it was very typical for women to wear a corset under their dress to tighten their waist and enhance their chest area.) From this painting, we were able to create a mood board that complimented the painting in its aesthetic, ultimately helping us to build the most ideal atmosphere when planning for the production side of our cinematography challenge, allowing us to look for the most ideal locations to film that would suit the narrative and product, alongside the dress code for our actors and actresses who were going to play these characters.
When preparing for production, we had multiple different challenges to overcome as a team. This included finding the correct location on time, and whilst also having consent to film on that location, finding the correct and appropriate costume that fit the atmosphere within our
cinematography challenge, finding the appropriate casting, and even checking the weather and travels on the day so that we can predict what we need to plan for when it comes to shooting.
Firstly, lets talk about casting and costume. At first when planning our different characters and what costumes we wanted them to wear, we had to consider the appropriate actors and their skillset – this was important so that we could ensure a sufficient performance when filming on the actual day, so that we can create a naturalistic atmosphere to the best of our abilities, with a cast who we knew would prepare beforehand, and had the right mindset to perform and pull off some potentially challenging scenes that they may struggle with if they had not prepared for it beforehand. Luckily in our favour, me and my team had different connections to multiple actors with different skillsets, around not only our campus within BOA stage and screen, but also on other BOA campuses. This meant that we were able to swiftly locate an actor, suitable enough to perform and pull off some challenging scenes within our product with ease, and an actor who we knew would happily prepare beforehand, as we knew that acting was one of his passions (his name being Rauf). Alongside this, we told him about our brief, idea and what he was required to wear, explaining in detail the time period that we were basing our product around. From this explanation, Rauf was able to further step up as part of our cast, providing the relevant costume for his character himself. This helped me and my cinematography challenge team overcome a big challenge, as not only did it save us time looking for the correct costume in the correct size and the ideal aesthetic, but it also allowed us to plan out more important details of our project instead of spending time looking around for costume. Next, let us talk about the weather, travels and travels. After searching for an appropriate set, me and my cinematography team were able to successfully be granted to film within a beautiful church in Stourbridge. For our team, this was convenient as it was all relatively close to Birmingham, and all of our film crew lived either in or near Birmingham, however, we still had to figure out and plan out all of our travel plans, and safely, as we were filming at night (luckily, we were filming within an interior setting, so we had shelter, and safe places to place our equipment and belongings whilst filming in the production stage.) Upon looking at the weather on the date of our filming schedule, we were unfortunately going to be affected due to torrential weather expected around the time that it was time for all of the cast and crew to travel back home. This meant that we had to face the risk of damaging the equipment due to the intense wet weather. We wanted to ensure that we were able to film at night, so that we were able to create an ambient setting within the church with the lights that we were going to use to portray one of the characters within the cinematography challenge, however, could not do this in broad daylight as the lighting would not be as effective. This was a major dilemma that me and my team had to Face as we wanted to ensure that we were capturing the ideal setting for our product but didn't want to risk the damage of equipment. Although it was not ideal, to overcome this dilemma and in order to protect the equipment, the cast and crew split money for a large Uber, transporting all of us and the equipment to the nearest train station where we all safely got the trains back to our relevant locations without damaging any equipment from the weather.
PRODUCTION
Within our cinematography challenge project, for our product ‘Spirit’, there were multiple
key decisions that we had to make on the day of our production to ensure that our
project was created in the highest quality possible, whilst also achieving our initial
intentions for the narrative and appearance of the project. Although making these
decisions might have seemed like a big risk at first, we knew that it was the correct
decision to make as we wanted to ensure that we didn’t put our project and time into
jeopardy.
One example of a key decision that we had to make during the production of our
cinematography challenge was how we had to use the sound equipment. After
performing some test shots before shooting some real take for our project, me and my
team identified that for most of the shoots that we had originally intended to use for the
look our product, the boom pole that we intended to use was not able to record
consistent sound that sounded the same quality as any further recordings that we had to
capture. Alongside this, for some complex shots that we wanted to do, the boom pole
tended to appear in the side or corner of the shot, and if we positioned the boom pole
anywhere else in order for the shot to be clear, the sound would not be consistent
enough.
At first, me and my team viewed this as a major problem that we were not able to
overcome, however, after some evaluation, we made the decision to not use the boom
pole at all, and instead attach the directional Mic to the top of the camera that we were
using to film the cinematography challenge, with the risk of lower quality sounding audio,
however, this would ensure to capture consistent sound, and it would ensure that all
shots that we wanted to capture, whether it was complex or not to all be clean, were
successful without the risk of unwanted objects ruining the setting, ultimately ruining the
continuity within our project. (We were able to avoid these problems by not using the
boom pole and attaching the directional mic to the top of the camera instead.
This allowed me and my cinematography team to achieve the goals that we wanted to achieve within our product, as we were able to capture the complex shots that fit the narrative and aesthetic of our product without the risk of unwanted objects within the background, or the risk of having to ditch our original ideas for the sake of being able to use the boom pole. Another decision that me and my cinematography challenge team had to make on set in order to achieve our intended goals for the project was changing the cast members within the project. Due to multiple different problems that me, the team and the cast had run into on the day of our production, this had a massive effect on different aspects within the project, and this included the partial absence of one of our cast members. At first, this didn't seem like much of a problem, as the cast member who had to arrive later had a slightly less important role that our main character, however, this would put our project into jeopardy as it potentially meant not being able to film the scenes with their character in it to the standard that we wished to, or not being able to film any scenes with their character in it at all. Because of these two potential risks, me and my team made the decision to use one of the filming team members (me) to replace the actor and perform their character on camera. This had the risk of potentially not having a high enough quality performance for the project, however, it meant that we were able to capture all the scenes that me and my team wanted to capture without the risk of not being able to film some scenes due to the limited time frame, however, due to the minor role that I was filling in for, I tried my best to give the highest quality performance possible, despite my lack of acting experience in comparison to the original cast members indented for our product. This decision positively benefited me and my team, as we were still able to successfully film and achieve our intended goals and intentions for the project, despite having to use a different person for one of the characters.
One of the main issues that me and my and my cinematography team had to face when
filming for our microfilm ‘spirit’ was the lack of cast members.
Unfortunately, not only due to the horrible and unpredictable weather that occurred on
the day and the time of our shoot, but this also affected the public transport that me, the
team and the cast relied on to get to and from location, and our homes. From this, one of
our cast members would not have been able to show up to our shoot until the last 15
minutes of the planned shoot, which was a major inconvenience as it would mean having
to rush these scenes that included her character, ultimately meaning that the quality of
the product would deteriorate if we didn’t not dedicate enough time to ensure that we
captured good footage. Alongside this, we were not allowed to alter the times that we
had to the shoot the footage for our product, as the owner of the building had different
responsibilities to tend to after we the time we intended to finish the shoot. (Although
this effected our team, we knew that this situation was inevitable.)
To overcome this dilemma, I decided to step in to our initial cast members’ position as an
actress for our main characters’ wife, alongside my role as a gaffer within this
cinematography. To my fortune, the character that I was filling in for did not have any
dialogue for the audience members to listen to, however, did show their face on camera
with complex facial expressions. As somebody who was not necessarily trained within
acting at BOA, this could have been particularly difficult for me, as I was not used to being
in front of a camera, and I had to ensure to stay in character for the shoot. Although it
took a few tries to perfect, me and the team were able to capture all the necessary scenes
that included our main characters wife to the highest standard possible, before our initial
actress came to location. Me and my team were especially happy that i was able to fill in
as an actress for our cinematography challenge, as within post-production, we had lost a
few pieces of footage that included our original actor, This meant that we had to use the
footage that I was included in, which was not a problem, as we had time to perfect and do
different takes. Not only did this show my flexibility as a crew member on set, but it also
gave me an insight to what the actors and actresses must face during a shoot, opening me
up to a whole new perspective and mindset to how they may feel pressured on set and Infront of an actor, even with experience. This problem within our cinematography challenge immensely changed my perspective on how flexible you would need to be when working on different products, and how you may have to step up into different roles on production to ensure that the final product was satisfactory, even if you didn’t necessarily want to. It also taught me a lesson on different methods within problem solving, and how frequently you need to use problem-solving on set, ultimately expanding my thought process and perspective on how to sufficiently and quickly fix different problems instead of procrastinating and not fixing any problems that you may face at all.
6. Competency
During the production period of me and my teams’ cinematography challenge, we had to
deal with many different technical aspects on the set of our production, whether it was to
do with sound, camera work, or even lighting work. In all of these fields, there were
challenges that we all had to overcome, but it also meant that we were able to learn
different skills whilst filming. Although parts of this process were challenging for the cast
and crew, it also gave us a learning curve to overcome and benefit from, as it would
positively affect us within our future as film makers.
One example of a technical skill that I had to learn on set was using pieces of lighting
equipment on set that we may not have been necessarily familiar with. As mentioned
before, I took up the role of a gaffer within the cinematography challenge, ultimately
meaning that I was In Charge of the lighting within the production. This was important as
lighting can drastically change the atmosphere within a product, so I had to ensure that I
was using my equipment as sufficiently as possible. Although I had some experience as a
gaffer, me and my team had only had in-depth lessons on lighting and gaffer, meaning
that we were all relatively new to the role, including myself. Although this seemed
challenging and even slightly scary, we were determined to overcome these different
dilemmas to ensure that we had a presentable product of the highest quality that we
possibly could do.
One aspect that I found difficult within my role as a gaffer for my cinematography challenge was using certain equipment. I was assigned a certain bag that held all the necessary lighting equipment for our production, that would ensure that we would be able to experiment and generate new ideas when it came to using these different pieces of equipment. One piece of equipment that I was struggling to use and get my head around was one of the lighting panels that we were assigned. Although I was slightly familiar with how to use this piece of equipment, I was also struggling to use the different controls on the back, such as controlling the warmth of the lighting, even sometimes struggling to achieve the ideal amount of lighting. Instead of not using this piece of equipment and procrastinating (also because my team members were struggling to understand how to use some of these pieces of equipment) I decided to do my own research, watching short but effective videos on platforms such as YouTube to understand how to use these pieces of equipment, To my luck, these short tutorials helped me not only how to use these pieces of equipment on set for the shoot of the cinematography challenge, but also allowed me to gain new knowledge in multiple pieces of equipment, which was extremely beneficial for me as a film maker, as I was able to now use these new pieces of knowledge in future projects that I would work on. Now that I had gained this new knowledge, this was able to positively enhance our cinematography challenge product, as I now understood how to control the different tones and brightness on this lighting equipment. This ultimately allowed me to enhance and control the atmosphere and emotion within the set of our product. This was extremely beneficial for me and the team, as this meant not only did this allow a smoother color grading process within post-production, but it also allowed us to further convey our intended atmosphere and aura within our product towards our target audience members as we were able to create different emotions throughout these colors due to how different tones and colors connotate to different emotions and feelings that the characters may feel within the product, ultimately reaching our initial intentions for the project.
POST-PRODUCTION
When editing our footage within post-production, it was ideal to reference back to our
pre-production, allowing us to look over the intentions that we had for the overall
product, ultimately guiding us through when editing our product in premiere pro.
We wanted to consider the atmosphere within the product, which also determined the
pacing of the overall product, and how it would be viewed from an audience member's
perspective. Judging from the script, and the message that we wanted to convey, we
ensured that the pacing of the product was relatively slow, ensuring that we fit the
atmosphere and emotions that were present within the short movie. From this, we
ensured that all transitions within the cinematography challenge such as jump cuts or
fade in and fade out were simple and not too drastic, as it would contradict the overall
aesthetic that me and my team were trying to achieve in the first place. This influenced
the final outcome of the final edit for our cinematography challenge as it positively
adjusted the pacing within our product, ultimately meaning that we were able to clearly
convey and intentional messages and themes within our product to our target audience
members.
Another aspect of editing within post-production that me and my cinematography team
really wanted to consider was the colour grading. As a team, we understood that different
colours or tones that were within the product can drastically change the atmosphere
within a product, and further convey different auras to the target audience members –
we really wanted to enhance all the different emotions within our product such as grief
and sadness yet love: we could do this through colour grading. At the start, we wanted to
ensure that the scenery appeared as cold and isolated, as our main character is seen by
himself within the church praying in an empty church that appeared quite empty and
gloomy – we were able to enhance this by adding cooler tones to the look of our product,
as cooler tones can connotate to feelings of gloom and mundane. This moment within the
product contrasts to the ending half of the product, where the main character is seen
with his deceased wife. Although feelings of confusion and anger rush through his mind
(evidently throughout the script too), me and my team wanted to use warmer tones to
show to the audience members the love and comfort that he still has for his wife, despite
the conflict that they may have had when she was alive. This positively enhanced our
product as we were able to convey multiple themes and emotions that the team intended
to show, without literally telling the audience how the characters felt about each other.
A final aspect of the process within post-production that me and the team wanted to do in consideration for our target audience members was adding captions. Adding captions to our product would help expand our audience members drastically, as people with certain disabilities such as hearing problems would be able to watch and understand our product clearly without the concern of not being able to understand, as we also wanted to be equal to all possible audience members who would watch our product. Alongside doing this, we had to ensure that we picked a font that was clear enough to read from all audience members, and a font that fit the aesthetic of our product: we were able to achieve this by researching different fonts on websites such as ‘Dafont’ to ensure that not only did we use a unique and creative font that fit the aesthetic of our product, but also a font that was readable for the audience members. This positively influenced our product as we were able to expand our audience members by considering those who might not have very good hearing, and added an element that the majority of audience members would find accessible and useful.
After reflecting on our final product, we were satisfied with the outcome of our product
and were happy to showcase it to the rest of our peers and to the public, however, there
are a few things that we would do differently within our next project to ensure that we
are able to complete production without any setbacks or problems coming our way.
One process that me and my team should have done differently to ensure that we are
saving time and money is checking the weather on the dates that fall around and on our
ideal shoot dates before looking for filming locations to film within.
Due to the weather circumstances that we had to face on our filming day, we had to
spend our own funds in order to ensure that all equipment got back safely without
damage, also ensuring that all cast and crew got back home safely. (as transport was
unpredictable due to the poor weather on this day) Although the weather and time of day
was out of control, it is important that next time we plan to film, that we constantly check
the weather, before looking for locations, choosing a date to film and the time of day to
film. This would be to ensure that we are saving as much money as possible (as we did not
plan to have a budget for this cinematography challenge), without the risk of damaging
anybody or any equipment.
Another part of the planning that me and my cinematography team would do differently
when filming within the future is ensuring that we have a big enough time frame to film
within. Even after planning out pre-production, ensuring that we had a call sheet to keep
us on track, we needed to keep in mind that external factors such as the weather or public transport can have a ripple effect on how much time we have to film: as mentioned previously, the weather was poor on our filming day. This led to transport being untrustworthy, and some of our cast and crew having trouble when travelling to and from location. This had an effect in our filming time as some of the cast and crew showed up late, meaning that we had less time to film all of our product. Although we were able to successfully film within the given time frame that we had, we didn’t have any time to shoot any extra shots for coverage or to generate any new ideas on set due to the limited time that we had. Next time to prevent this risk from occurring once more, it would be better to dedicate a bigger time frame to our production period, to ensure that within post-production, we can edit smoothly, being able to implement different ideas that we potentially though of along the way. Although we had different setbacks, me and my cinematography team viewed this as a learning curve within our career as filmmakers, as from this mistakes that happened on the production day, we have now learned what to do from these different situations, meaning that if they were to happen again within future productions that we may work on, we would have a good idea on how to overcome and resolve these different problems.
9. Provide a link to your final edit of your short film:
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