Moving Image Production: Cinematography

The name of project for cinematography was “stolen” it was about a person who breaks into someone house and steals a camera and is followed by a person from that house. That story line that to follow the brief guideline for the project which was that it had to be about someone following someone but the person who is being followed knew they were being followed. We had also had to film parts of the film in grindleford a mainly forest area. A part of the assignment was that we had to incorporate a lighting change, color to signifier a change, point of view sequence and a long sequence into the film. Another part of the assignment was that with they being four people in the group each person had to record equal parts of the film. So instead of assigning roles in the film like director or producer we all shared them.

The strengths of the film are that when everyone in the group filming different sections of the film, makes everyone’s different styles shown on screen. I think our style play off each other really well and make it seem like it is just one, instead of just thrown four different types together. The way that we used the techniques that to be in the film works well as well. With the film story guild lines being set that it had have someone being followed and knew they were. We worked the four techniques and made it affected with the story of the film.

The color was that the person who stole the camera was wearing a red jumper, which we related to little red riding hood. This especially worked well when in the forest as match up with the girl walking through the forest and you feel like she is being followed. The way that we used the point of view shots in the film were to build up tension that thief knows that he is being followed. With the shots being of the when we use the point of view it is to show that when the thief is looking behind him you that the person who is following him is slowly getting closer with each point of view shot.

The way that used the lighting change was that when the thief looked into the back a bright shines out of the bag to the face of the thief. This symbolize that the item in the bag is important to him and also something that is very valuable. This works the best in the night scene at the house where we set it up to only have small amount in the room to make it look like it is coming from outside. Then when the thief looked into the bag the light brighter up the dark room. The final technique was the long take shot the way I used this one was that when the thief is leaving the house we follow him leave the house then go back to the house to show the resident of the house come out and start to follow the person. That is what sets up the parts in the forest where the main part of the following happens.

The weakness of our film and parts I would do differently if I would do it all again would be that we did not really spent allot of time on the project as we did o the other projects we had. This is because with the people doing completely different assignment to everyone also in our group which meant they would be filming or editing other projects at the same time. This made it difficult sometimes to nail down day when we could film or how long people could film for. This also happened with the main actor we got for the film when after we had filmed the main part of the with him, he was not available allot afterward so had to wait to the right time for him which meant we lost time and came closer to deadline.

What I have leaned from filming this was, I use different equipment in this shoot that I have not really used before which was a shoulder rig. This was very useful for the point of view shots because it made them seem like it actual was someone instead of a static shot that you would get from a tripod. Also in other projects that I have worked on I have not really focused much on lighting and color changes before so this made me think more about how this could use them to advance the story. Which is something that I am going to keep on doing from on.

Also I have learned to make sure that even if your groups are unavailable to work on the project because of other work. Does not mean that I should not keep working on it, which of meant I could of kept on top the my ideas for the film.

This does not mean that we did not plan or meet up for the project, we did and even when we were doing other things we made sure to meet up for a hour and talk about the project. But we could of do more in planning for the project, which would have meant that we would have covered for any problems. Like when the actor had a small amount of time he could film the rest of the after we had filmed we him already. If we would have planned a bit better would could have arrange doing the point of view shots during that time because it was from his point of view.

If we would planned more I think that we could of come up with something even more creative then we did. When looking at other groups work and seeing that another group has also used color red for their color part of the film. Shows that is a using that color and comparing to the narrative structure was easy match to make. So if we would of get our heads down I think we could of used the way that we have the time lapse as the color technique as showing the color to cooler at night then when in the forest it be warmer and richer.

The roles those in our group were different to other projects that I have been a part of. This is because with every one in the group having to film equal amounts of the film so instead of some just dong one role. We all basically took part in doing every role, except editing Nathan did the editing of the film and did a great job in cutting together the different techniques and making something strong from it. The parts of the film that I did were the sequence where the thief is walking down a path way across the bridge. While you see in the background that the person who he stole from is following him.

The part where the thief is walking down the path I did using a shoulder rig to get in close behind the thief to bring up the tension that someone is behind him. Then framing the other shots to the person who is following the thief in the distance coming into frame when the thief goes out. Also having the thief they slightly looking over his shoulder so when he comes into the frame it shows that he knows he is being followed. Looking back on the sequence shot that I did at the house where the thief comes out of the house then follow him leave then goes back to the house to see a person who lives their comes out and go the same way that the thief went. Now I don’t think I got the shot as smooth as it could have been, just wish I had more just a few more takes and I think I could of got it spot on. On the night of filming that sequence it had been raining so had to film that shot in between when the rain had finished. They was not really anytime to plan at that location as well because we were filming at a member of our groups house and the actor could only film that day and we did not have him for long. Which meant that we focused on the filming inside the house first because that was more technique shots because we had to light the room as well as creating the lighting change.

I also filmed the time lapse sequence which we was going to use to transition from night to day. This meant that filming in the early hours of the morning so that it matches up the same level of darkness from the last scene. This meant that we had to film for a long period of time to make sure that we get the sky changing. I learned from showing the footage that when the images change in the screen like the color of the sky. Is that we white balance when it dark and when it changed did not, so that I useful to know foe the next time.

I also helped in setting up the lighting for the filming inside the house to make it look like that the light is coming in from outside. This was so that when the thief comes in they would not turn on the lights on and also the person who follows him is asleep in the room. So that also counts forwards the way that we set up the lights in a way that makes tension because he is bare lid and in the background. This is because you don’t know if he is going to get up and found the person stealing but we did it he gets up form the noise of the door slamming.

Besides not really planning more our group did not have anybody who did not put effort in making the film. Every body did they equal parts of filming the film and came up with interesting ways of doing it. We also were could at coming up wit the spot solution to problems we faced. For example when it came to shoot at the house we did not think of the fact that it gets dark in the sky early and we planned to film scenes that need to be light outside. That’s where we came up with the plan to have the person who follows the thief inside the room as the thief. Also when filming in the forest we were going to film more at that location but we had to leave because of people schedules so we shot those scenes at the house.