Evaluation

For our first film, Liverpool Passions, I was director. Despite a very troublesome production, I believe that what we ended up with was a very good film and reflects the hard work we out in as well as the great experience we had working together. Our original idea was to make a film about why people declare themselves as Jedi on the census, and compare that to christianity, as Liverpool has a very strong Catholic history to it, but also the highest proportion of ‘Jedi’ in the country. The idea was to, through a slightly humorous means, ask serious questions about why people are religious or feel the need to protest against organised religion. We then changed this idea to one where we would interview many people of varying faiths and passions, and intersperse these interviews in order to compare the way someone would be devoted to books to the way someone would be devoted to faith. In preparation for this, I had to try and find representatives of different faiths, since I had some connections to people working in the church in Liverpool, while other members of the group tried to find people with other passions. 

   It seemed very early on that the religious people and the humanist that we contacted were more passionate about getting involved than the non faith related parties we contacted. After sending out numerous emails, the three who I found who were free on the particular days we needed were the vice president of a sceptics society, a Christian artist who works on many faith based projects and a Hindu temple. Other members of the group had also made contact with a few shops owned by fanatics, such as record collectors and book collectors. In retrospect it would have been a good move to try and focus more on the passions than the religions when contacting people, as in the end we wonky had one non religious or anti-religious person to interview. However I feel we managed to edit around this issue by revising our idea to fit with the interviews we had got, which meant making a film exclusively about faith. In future, when making documentaries, I will put more thought into pre production as this seems to be a much bigger part of documentary than of fictional films.

   Filming in Liverpool was a great experience. While the somewhat limited time frame meant that we were under a lot of pressure, which was only added to by the fact that we didn't know our way around the city and our group suffered a number of minor injuries, we overcame this by keeping a positive attitude. In fact, a lot of my job as director in Liverpool consisted of motivating the rest of the crew to get round everywhere quicker so that we had time to get as much as possible. In the end, four of our potential contributors pulled through. These were the three I had contacted and the owner of an antique book store. We also got permission to film in a record store near the book store, which in retrospect was a bad idea as we thought we were going to get an interview there, however when we arrived it seemed like the owner just wanted us out as quickly as possible and refused to be interviewed or let us talk to the customers. This not only meant we got no useful footage, but also that we wasted valuable time we could’ve spent elsewhere. On each location I made sure our Cinematographer got a good amount of cutaway footage, so as to add to the ease of the editing. I also wanted every interview filmed from two angles to help with this.

   The four main interviews we got were of a very high quality. For the Hindu couple we interviewed, we interviewed them at the temple, as this location was where they worshipped. The Humanist we interviewed was a member of a group called sceptics in the pub, so we chose to interview him in the hostel bar. The book store owner, we interviewed in his shop and the Christian artist, we interviewed next to the Anthony Gormley statues on Cosby beach, as this was the site of her organisations first event. While all of the locations worked visually, the beach and hostel bar presented some sound challenges. We got around the issue of the sound on the beach by using radio mics, which were obscured by her scarf, meaning the sound of the wind wasn't picked up as well, however the mics kept cutting in and out so some of the best sections of interview had to be done from the boom mic, which hadn’t filtered out the wind nearly as well. The hostel had a lot of background noise which, though not sounding out of place as it was in a pub, was slightly distracting to the interview. If we could go back I would have liked to find another pub, which would have been very quiet at that time, and filmed there, so as to get less noise. Both interviews were toyed around with in post production with noise reducers to try and clean the up which helped a lot.

   While the religious and humanist people we interviewed were fantastic, it would have been better for us to find more people who were talking about something unrelated to religion. As Brian, the bookstore owner, did such a god interview it was a real shame we had to cut this out. We also left out a spontaneous interview we had captured with a street preacher named Michael, as we didn't have any more smaller interviews to include and so his would’ve seemed very out of place and shifted the balance to making it more of a film about Christianity. We also got some nice vox pops in shops with some very interesting people with different views on religion, however we didn't have enough to make it worth including them. I feel it would have been better for us to have gotten lots of very short vox pops on the street with random members of the public as this would have given a greater range of views and allowed for better representation of faiths not covered in the main interviews.

   When it came to editing, me and the editors had to sit down with the transcripts, which I had gone through and highlighted the key moments of, and stitch together a coherent sequence of points that would bounce off one another. This was perhaps the hardest part of the process for me, as there were many things I really wanted to include but in the end couldn't due to time limits and them not being relevant to things other people were saying. By this point we had already agreed to make it exclusively about faith, and so Brian had to be left out as well. We also included very little form the second camera angles, as it was hard to sync them up and we only had limited time to edit. In the end I think what we created flowed very nicely and reflected well what the contributors had said to us. With this being the first documentary I have directed on my own, it was in many ways a learning curve for me. If I were to go back, I would do many things differently, but I am proud of my contribution as director and of the team I worked with, and feel I managed to lead them well.

   For our second project I was chosen to be the cinematographer, and decided me and Georgia, the art director, would work closely together, since we both had more experience in the role the other person had taken. To get a more cinematic look, Adam wanted us to shoot on DSLR cameras. Knowing Georgia was a big fan of them I agreed, which in retrospect was a mistake as I realise now I can’t stand them and would have been much more comfortable with an XF-100. However, the look of the film is very good and so this wasn’t much of a problem for the film as much as a personal bother for me. Rather than storyboard, me and Georgia filmed a kind of video storyboard for me to work from as a reference point. We covered form every shot of the video storyboard on the shoot, although didn't include every shot from it as we had some spontaneous decisions of the day which were better.

   When it came to designing the set, Georgia was ill and so, leaving me strict instructions, it was up to me to some degree to construct the master shot and the set at the same time and do the lighting. Georgia and I had agreed to decorate the back wall with many creepy paintings, which I chose with Adam. We also said that lots of clocks and cuddly toys littering the shot would make it creepier, me and Adam thought it would add to the creepy tone if these were facing Edith just like Jacob and so positioned them in that kind of way. It was also imperial that everything was well lit and so I had Adam and Lucy stand in for Edith and Jacob when positioning the lights. My aim was to clutter the edges of the frame with stuff and Jacob, Having Edith in the middle with a nice spotlight on her that didn't stand out too much. I had to face many challenges and make many decisions with this. Such as, how to manage double shadows created by the multiple lights, which I tried to hide behind the characters for the most part, or obscure in the shadowy edges of the frame. I also had to get the lights, balancing all three of them, at such a level that Edith and Jacob were both well lit, Edith more so, with dramatic shadows but not overt spotlighting. getting this balance right was near impossible, so in the end we chose to forgive a bit of a deliberate spotlight in order to get more prominent shadows haunting the scene. I also had to balance the colour palette, by putting lots of reds in the foreground, and on the paintings, against the green wall and the green light that would bounce into the dimly lit areas of the shots.

   Once the master shot was set up and the lights set to their appropriate settings, we were ready t begin filming. Before our shoot with the actors, Georgia came to the set to make some final changes to it and give me advice on shooting it. When filming, I chose to contrast Ediths very standard, straight on shots with Jacobs distorted, Gilliam inspired cantered shots. This suggests her comfort and power is the opposite of how he hates his situation and has less power. It also creates, early on in the film, both the unsettling and Jarring feel and a very formalistic tone that means the audience addresses, while still seeming a bit odd, are accepted by the audience. The power relationships are changed at the end when Edith starts being shot in distorted ways and Jacob eventually steals her spotlight in his own variation on the master shot at the very end. The best shot I got, I feel, was the “Biscuit Cam” shot where Jacob tries to grab a biscuit and his hand is slapped away by Edith. This shot reflects both my influences from Gilliam, in the distorted appearance of the hand and the cantered angle, as well as Kubrick in composing form the centre outwards. I am very proud of my cinematography on this project, but if I were to go back I would use an XF-100 for personal reasons as well as so that I could have zoomed in further on certain things and would have been able to use a tripod on many of the shots of paintings or stuffed animals that we cut away to for the deaths sequence. I would also be more careful with aperture, which was hard to control on the DSLRs as they keep resetting, and perhaps forgive a little more deliberate lighting in order to get better shadows on the walls.

Mr Right

https://vimeo.com/126047941

Filming

We filmed most of the footage in one shoot with the actors, however some of it was captured in a preliminary shoot the day before, simply getting insert shots around the room.

These shots were filmed on the first day, as none of them required the actors. We used a third Dedo to add extra light to the objects being filmed in many cases, such as in the shot of the monkey and of the woodpecker. Due to the need for the camera to often be very close up to the subjects and the limited zoom on the 70D, I was unable to use a tripod for many of these. For many shots of the paintings in particular I chose to use very dynamic angles in order to add a Gilliamesque nightmarish tone to the piece.

I chose to film on two cameras, with one locked off capturing this master shot. I chose to frame it in such a way that Edith is definitely the centre of attention, through positioning her in the centre and composing the rest of the shot outwards from there. The key elements to include were the two actors, obviously, as well as some of the posters, animals and the dolls house. The spotlighting also adds to her importance. While we considered filming in black and white, I am glad we chose to use colour as, rather than the kind of black and white contrast used in The Cabinet of Dr Caligari, we instead used a colour pallet of reds against the green background, which also bounced green light onto other surfaces of the room, such as the dolls house. This drastic contrast and dramatic use of primary colours contributes to the manufactured feel, as if this is almost filmed in the dolls house.

These two shots illustrate the difference in how Jacob and Edith were filmed. For the most part, Edith was shown in very standard close ups, which we could cut to in a way that was almost reminiscent of a shopping channel, as if she's showing Jacob off. However, Jacobs shots rarely have him acknowledge the camera, and are cantered, often with him lit in a less even way than Edith, such as below.

In this two shot, Jacob is half lit in a very deliberate, German expressionist style way, which makes him an imposing and threatening presence in the shot. The shot below also adds to the characterising of Jacob as a threatening presence, as we had a typical close up and this one of half his face. It is extra jarring that we show only the dark half of his face rather than the well lit half. In addition to this, the contrast of his pink skin and the green wall is very jarring.

This is my personal favourite shot of the film, where Jacob grabs the biscuit. The way his hand interrupts her spotlight makes the light on it very dramatic, allowing it to take over in the shot. Furthermore, it is positioned in the centre, and the camera was placed as close to the plate as we could get it, which made the hand appear very large and threatening. The angle of it also contributes to the feeling that something is wrong as well as serving to block Edith out of the shot, meaning that when Jacob looks to the camera it is easier for the audience to spot.

The way Jacob leans back into the shadows at the end of the shot serves to set him up as even more of a danger. However, he leans forward it is one of the best examples of chiaroscuro lighting in the film. Giving him this kind of presence and importance in such a dynamic shot set him up nicely for when he takes power from Edith when he goes to the window. As you can see, he is spotlit and shown form below, making him look powerful. Whereas when we see Edith again, she is filmed with the same techniques that were used to make Jacob look weak earlier on, filming at awkward angles and placing the camera above her.

Rather than show an on screen death, we chose to represent her death cinematically. One technique we used for this was pulling in and out of focus on Edith with all the paintings, the screaming face by Francis Bacon in particular, in the background staring down at her. This would also be an opportunity to show all the insert shots of paintings and other things around the room, the next thing we cut to was a shot of her teacup on the floor, to symbolise that she had dropped it and died.

The third Dedo was used again in this shot to create a large, dramatic shadow on the cup.

This final shot is a variation on the master shot, showing Edith dead on the sofa, with jacob taking her spotlight and eating a biscuit.

Set Design & Lighting

We did the set design and lighting set up before our shooting day, so that we wouldn't be wasting time while the actors were there. We designed the set to be very cluttered around the edges, but with a lot of room in the centre for Edith, because she sees herself as the centre of the world and is a very self centred person. Jacob, on the other hand, is pushed off to the side, in the clutter. Some prominent aspects of the set are the cuddly toys, all placed around Edith looking at her, just like Jacob, so as to suggest that she treats him like one of them, just a toy. Also, simply to make it look creepy, we included a lot of clocks, showing different times. This was a spur of the moment decision, yet on reflection it helps give the sense of the film being in another time. The paintings on the wall as well as the sculpture and pencils on the table and the manequin on top of her bookshelves suggest that she is an artist, however the nature of the paintings in that they are all very grim and reflect troublesome issues is symbolic for Jacob, as both have deeper troubles to them however she only looks on the surface and sees them only for their beauty.

The lighting set up used two Dedos, in order to create the harsh, large shadows on the walls. I placed the Dedos fairly low so as to make the shadows go higher up the walls. One Dedo was mainly focused on Edith, which was very bright, then there was a dimmer one focused on Jacob. This meant that Edith looks clearly more important due to the spotlighting on her, whereas Jacob, while still well lit, doesn't look particularly prominent in the shot. Both also had very nice defined shadows on the wall, which were closer together due to the angles of the lights. In addition to the Dedos there was a Kino light illuminating the whole room which made the Dedos less deliberate looking and more natural, also making the scene easier to film as the Dedos alone wouldn't have provided quite enough light.

While setting up the set and lighting I also positioned the  camera for the master shot, so that I had a sense of how everything would look on camera, and could make appropriate changes in accordance with this.

Video Storyboarding

Rather than a conventional storyboard, we chose to shoot a video Storyboard. By this I mean we got two members of our crew to fill in for the actors, went to the location (Before the set was dressed) and filmed a series of shots that we can use as reference when it comes to filming. Although we will most likely shoot a lot more than just these shots, it is good to have a starting point to use as a bare minimum and a set of angles to try and cover everything from.

https://scontent-lhr.xx.fbcdn.net/hvideo-xtf1/v/t42.1790-2/11021583_10205519594162329_1407979569_n.mp4?efg=eyJybHIiOjM5OSwicmxhIjo1Nzl9&rl=399&vabr=222&oh=9dc2287a582350ca6a6c80b8c900e815&oe=554BD39D

This is our master shot, where Edith is centred and Jacob pushed to the side, hopefully to be cluttered in with props and elements of the set. We will try to cover everything from this angle so as to always have something to cut to that is familiar to the audience.

 This is an example of how we will shoot Jacob, at a slanted angle so as to make him appear more uncomfortable and less secure than Edith.

In this shot, we see both Jacob and Edith, However, Ediths prominence further illustrates her power over him in their relationship. 

This is a shot I am particularly looking forward to, when Jacob goes for a biscuit, then looks at the camera. By placing the camera very close to the table we will hopefully make his hand look very big and menacing, this sense of menace is heightened by the cantered angle.

In this shot where Jacob goes to the window we will hopefully use the natural light to nave him spotlit and Edith in the dark by contrast now, illustrating the change in power, which will be further shown in this shot where the placement and angle of the camera makes Edith seem weaker.

Influences: A Clockwork Orange

A Clockwork Orange, one of the biggest influences on us narratively for this film, features many examples of dynamic composition which I have taken influence from for the cinematography on this film. In the scene in the tunnel, the characters are lit in such a way that creates huge, sharp shadows, much like the ones I intend to use in our film. The shadows here create terror and a sense of power, since their shadows are so much bigger than the tramps. This appears to have been done by lighting from not too par above, as lights further down will lead to larger shadows.

This is not the only instance in which Kubrick has used cinematography which could be useful as a point of reference to me. Kubrick often creates visually dynamic images in his very wide shots, such as this one from A Clockwork Orange, where the Droogs appear very powerful because they are given space in the frame whereas everything else is very cluttered. As well as this, they appear slightly better lit than the rest of the content of the shot, suggesting that they are the most important thing in the room.

Another contributing factor is simply placing them in the centre. In fact, many of Kubricks most striking images appear composed from the centre outwards. 

This technique could be used in out film to give more visual power to the old lady by placing her in the centre of the frame and giving her lots of room, whereas Jacob and everything else will be cramped together somewhat claustrophobically. 

Influences: Terry Gilliam

Terry Gilliam, director of Twelve Monkeys, Time Bandits and Brazil, has a very unique take on Art direction and Cinematography. Twelve Monkeys, a film inspired to a great degree by the Cabinet of Dr Caligari, uses its cinematography in a very interesting way. Particularly in the scenes in the mental asylum, the shots used are often very cantered, creating a somewhat nightmarish feel that is so deliberate that it distracts the audience from Brad Pitts manic rambling.

This all serves to create a very jarring effect on the viewer in these scenes, emphasising just how out of place Bruce Willis character is in the past that he has been transported to. Camera placement is also used to great effect by Gilliam. For example, in the first shot shown, Bruce Willis Character and Brad Pitts appear vastly different in size. This is achieved by placing the camera very close to Willis and zooming all the way out. Doing this gives a further distorted feel to the image, a technique which is used again here, in this shot from brazil.

In this shot the babes head appears disproportionately large in comparison to the background. Although the baby is admittedly much closer, having the camera very close to the baby accentuates this difference to the point that it starts to feel unnatural and uncomfortable.

   These types of camera techniques would be very useful in our film as we want to create a similarly nightmarish feel from the shots of the perfect man in particular, in order to make it seem like he is trapped in a world he hates.

Another interesting visual aspect of Gilliams work is his attention to detail in art direction. This is most prevalent in three of his films that he calls the "Trilogy of Imagination." They are Time Bandits, Brazil and The Adventures of Baron Munchausen. All of these have Gilliams signature art direction style present and cranked up to eleven with different results. In Time Bandits, the unique home made feel about everything helps keep it all seeming like an adventure that the child has dreamed up himself, particularly the fact that one of the time Bandits wears a colander as a helmet.

Perhaps most relevant to us is the use of art direction in brazil. The sets, props and costumes are meticulously designed in such a way as to make them often clutter the set to such a degree that the characters seem penned into a corner of the frame. In this example below, the claustrophobia is accentuated by the blocking and camera placement, driving the claustrophobia to an extreme level. This would be a very useful technique to emulate in our film as it would contribute to the nightmarish tone we want to create. 

In Baron Munchausen the art direction is often used to reminisce old fashioned effects from films such as Jason and the Argonauts and the 7th Voyage of Sinbad, as well as old fashioned theatre sets such as those present in the beginning of the film, reflecting the idea that the film itself is all a play being put on by (Supposedly) Munchausen. This was done through the use of very low key effects, almost as low key as Gilliams animations for Monty Python.

Influences: German expressionism

In order to get the right type of creepy tone I looked at some German Expressionist films, most notably The Cabinet of Dr Caligari. In this film, the cinematographer Willy Hamister, as was the trend with many german expressionist films, used a technique called chiaroscuro lighting, which is creating a strong contrast between light and dark. In order to achieve this he had to create large, sharply defined shadows to litter the shots. These help create a very creepy, highly formalistic atmosphere to the whole film. In this shot we see an example of chiaroscuro lighting, with the Somnambulist and the virgin he is kidnapping being spotlit, against a background decorated with abstract patters made of shadows. The spotlighting, though it appeared very deliberate, creates this contrast between the dark and the light which contributes to the overall strangeness in the tone of the film. This technique is used at numerous times throughout the film to similar effect, as well as several other techniques present in this shot.
   Another thing to note is the type of light used in this shot. The lights in the film all seem to have very sharp edges to them, allowing for very defined and powerful, rather than soft and naturalistic, shadows to be created. This can be seen most clearly in the shadow on the wall of the somnambulists arm, the edge of which is very sharp indeed. These defined shadows on the walls almost create the sense that the scene is being haunted by its own shadows. The art direction is also key in creating the chiaroscuro because of the colours of the costumes. The somnambulist is dressed all in black, while the virgin is in white. This compliments the type of lighting used very nicely as simply in the costumes there is already a contrast, symbolic of binary opposites of purity and corruption, being put into practice. These two factors work together nicely to create a very striking image, with heavy contrast and a sense of terror.
   I intend to utilise some of these techniques in our film. For example, I will be trying to use lights which create very sharp shadows, in order to create a similar sense of looming terror around the scenes. I will also, to some degree, create a similar sense of terror using spotlighting, though not overtly. Hopefully the cluttered background will stop the spotlighting being the focus of the shot but not disguise it altogether. The cluttered sets may present a challenge in trying to surround the characters with shadows in a similar way to this film, as we will be trying to keep the elements of the set fairly visible even if they are out of the spotlight. I will hopefully be able to use the sets to create abstract patterns around the characters. Another challenge will be working with the art direction in terms of colour palette. While this film in some ways benefits from being black and white, if we are choosing to shoot in colour we may need to pay some attention to how contrast can still be created, perhaps by using contrasting colours in the shots.