Meetings:

Techniques used in films:

X-Men: First Class (2011)

With this sequence from, ‘X-Men: First Class’ there are a number of methods which the director, Matthew Vaughn uses, which I admire and intend to adapt towards my final project.

From 0:00-0:15 the shots remain relatively still and this is almost to represent a moment of thought and contemplation.  After the initial fifteen seconds, there appears to be more movement added to the shots and this tells the audience that actions are being taken based on the discussion presented moments ago. I believe that this advantages the establishment of a change in pacing and so I may adapt this technique into, ‘Gateways’ to show the protagonist reaching for his ambitions.

At 0:18 there is a shot of the main cast looking up at the West-Chester house. The way Vaughn directs the framing of this shot and positions actors is extremely  admirable as it is a visual painting of the character’s thoughts; In the film, the characters are establishing that the current location is where they are going to be spending their time and the set-up for this shot helps tells us that they are almost coming to terms with this and adapting to their new environment.  This is the type of shot I want to use as the protagonist, in Gateways, is staring at his surroundings and feeling that he will enjoy what ever adventure he finds himself having.

At 0:19 we are given a wide angle shot panning down from the house, from a distance, towards the characters. This accentuates the scale of the building as well as, metaphorically, accentuating the scale of the adventure which is to come.

Again, the way it is directed, with the actors looking up at the building and the building itself being in front of them rather than behind, really encourages the audience to embrace a positive attitude and feel that they are going to enjoy what comes next. It is bringing the characters down to the audience’s level and allowing space for empathy. This is what I wish to create with my final project, a sense of adventure which is positively influential upon the mood of the audience.

The lovely Bones (2009)

In this scene from Peter Jackson’s, ‘The Lovely Bones’ there are a range of admirable options chosen by the director.  At 0:36 Jackson positions Saoirse Ronan to the left of shot and gets her to turn around and have the camera operator track her movement but in a circular motion. This is as we establish the second character entering the scene. Though there will only be one central character in my piece, this arrangement of the shot would be extremely useful for me when trying to accentuate and express the positive nature of the surroundings. It is useful for when trying to present the character observing something new.

At 0:57, The actors are placed strategically apart and one actor is acting out catching up with the other. In the background, there is the woodland scenery and the moderate presence of the colour green. This would be a useful technique for me to use when directing, ‘Gateways’ as it will present itself as the protagonist slowly letting go of the facade he maintained when in the city and, ultimately, embracing the great outdoors.

Then at 1:02, we have actors interacting with their surroundings. This is always useful as doing so can help add realism to the film and allow the director to deliver, to the audience, messages. They could even introduce foreshadowing by directing actors this way. It is a method that has been used in Edgar Wright’s, ‘Hot Fuzz’ when Anne Reid’s character is seen using garden shears and, moments later, is murdered with them. It is even used in, ‘The Lovely Bones’ when Saoirse’ character stares at an icicle which has relevance to events later on in the film. There will be some interpretation of foreshadowing in Gateways and I will make sure that it fits well within the five to six minute duration of the film without speeding up or slowing down the pacing.

The way the nature is presented in this scene and the way the actors are positioned proves that storytelling can also be interpreted visually, by the director. Being that, in Gateways, there is a dramatic change in scenery, observing this scene and the way the director has considered the placement of characters and the camera is extremely useful.

Presentation:

Moodboards

Above is a moodboard presentation. It outlines a series of techniques I wish to use when directing my final major project. There are even pages referencing online articles which discuss the different techniques a film director needs to take into consideration when directing actors.

The moodboards visible in the presentation, are all from films which I admire in terms of cinematography, writing, directing and acting. The moodboards will be extremely helpful for myself and for the D.O.P as I will be able to give visible pointers to ensure the film looks the way I intend for it to look.

Secondary Research (Text):

Filmcraft-Directing-Mike Goodridge:

When reading up on an exert from Guillermo Del Torro he says, ‘…forget about writing everyday, learn how to read film.’

This is something that a lot of directors take in-mind and something which I will also take in-mind when approaching the creation of Gateways. As talked of before, I want there to be visual story telling as well as all else which contributes to it.

Looking at a section regarding Susanne Bier, I came across a quote which is largely relevant to my approach; It reads, ‘Film is communication; it is a mass medium. I want to tell stories that people want to hear…’ 

When, initially, gathering ideas for Gateways I asked myself, ‘What would young audiences want to see?’ Being a regular visitor to the cinema, I understand what I want to see and, from there, begin to think of the impact the film had on the audience. From there, I recall the things that I enjoyed the most and the individual features which made the audience react, positively. Taking this quote into consideration, I will now progress on to make sure that the shooting of Gateways is extremely successful and sets a tone which will engross the audience for the entire duration.

The Fundamentals of Film-Making-Jane Barnwell:

Reading up on the directing section of the book, I found text reading, ‘The director needs to consider movement when filming as its introduction adds another dimension to the grammar of the shot.’

As mentioned before, I am aiming to add a lot of movement into the second half of the film. I am aiming to, ‘add another dimension’ to the experience and make audiences instantly aware of the change in mood (Negative-Positive).

At another moment the text reads, ‘Tracking can also be irritating…when the 360-degree track around a character is overused…’ 

With Gateways, I intend to use one or two 360 degree tracking shots as it is a key camera movement which contributes towards accentuating the environment and surroundings of a character or object.

In terms of feeling it becomes, ‘overused’ I will not concern myself with this matter as I will strategically place each of these shots between moments where there are different varieties of movements. This will extinguish any dominant movements and feelings of repetition.

Get started in short filmmaking- Chris Patmore

Having read through the book I came across a page regarding directing. The page talks of, ‘Auteurs’ and how, ‘They have a story to tell and a vision of how it should be told on screen.’ There is also discussion of how there are, ‘…two extremes of directors’  

They say that there is, ‘…the total control freak…’ and the, ‘go-with-the-flow type…’ It is then said that the best of directors should look for being somewhere in between these two extremes. This is something I have taken into consideration a number of times. Personally, I find it is always better to find balance as opposed to travelling from one extreme to the other and so I will interpret a balanced approach towards directing and ensure that I get across my ideas without causing stress or feelings of anxiousness.

On the directing page, there is a section titled, ‘Go with the flow’. Here, it talks of how a director should create something of a flowchart on their computer adding ‘To Do lists and contacts’. They say that this makes the process of organizing each shoot easier. This is another factor to take on-board when approaching the actual creation of Gateways as there will be many things to take into consideration prior to the shoot(s).

Often, I will make a list of notes to remind me of important tasks I need to carry out and so I may interpret this into my pre-production work. Alongside this,  I will keep in-mind the idea of a flowchart which I may or may not translate all my information into.

Finally, there is a section titled, ‘Top five directional qualities’ which, being self-explanatory, lists five key qualities that a director needs in order to perform to full succession. They say that you have to have, ‘Vision’ and be confident in, ‘Translating what is on paper into a moving image on the screen…’ ‘Organization’ is another quality and, ‘Making sure everyone and everything is in the right place’. ‘Diplomacy and communication’ is the third key quality and then, ‘Knowledge’ and ‘Humility’.

I believe that, for the most part, I have obtained each of these qualities over time. Of course, communication is a quality which is always changing and always advancing so as long as I am confident speaking and interacting with others in a group when getting across an idea this quality should already be relevant.

I will be starting pre-production work as of today and so vision is another quality I believe I have as I have no feelings of hesitation when considering translating my idea onto paper/a document.

On the page regarding the actual shooting of a piece, a section reads, ‘Talking it through’ and this section discusses the importance of how the director needs to regularly communicate with the director of photography. It says that the director will be, ‘explaining precisely what he wants’ and so I will take this into consideration and maintain frequent communication with my cinematographer. This way I can ensure my vision is as close to what I had planned as possible.

The same page talks about script captions and notes; It presents the most realistic situations a director may find themselves in when on-set with the final script. It says that, ‘No matter how my amends a script has…the director can still make changes, especially if he wrote it.’ This will be relevant to when I go into production as I will make changes to the script if there are any last-minute changes which need to be made.

There is an interesting section which discusses the orders which are called out during production; It talks of how the director is the only person who can call out, ‘Action’ and ‘Cut’. However, it continues on to say that the director of photography can also give these orders but only when there is a technical fault or error during filming.

Primary Research:

Survey: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/JCWDDRG

Experimentation Week:

During this week, for primary research, each group went out to the Peak District for a test shoot and location recce. After collating the footage, I took it upon myself to begin testing the effect of the gateway in After Effects whilst the editor followed my directions with regards to how I wanted the shots colour graded.

In doing this primary research and experimenting to see which effects and shots would work best I believe that now I can progress on to suggest ways of which we could better shoot he final film next week. Also, I have began creating a storyboard for the final film.

The footage I captured, mainly consisted of shots of the protagonist running across fields as, for the majority of the second half of the film the character would be doing this. We experimented with an extreme long shot of the protagonist running in the far distance on top of a hill. From the chosen perspective, the sky appeared lower making the actor ever so slightly silhouetted.

Below is an effects test I ran using footage from the experiment day

Reviewing Sources:

Books-

After reading through, ‘Filmcraft-Directing’ I found that there were a number of helpful pieces of advice for me to take away. For example, one director stated, passionately, that they want to tell stories people want to hear.

Already, I was considering my audience and thinking of how I could adapt the elements of the movie, such as the story line and events, to best entertain. I am not planning to make a film which diverts itself away from the audience’s needs. In reading this exert from the book, I felt instantly reassured that the approach I was taking was correct.

When reading through, ‘The Fundamentals of Film-making’ by Jane Barnwell I found, and quoted, a phrase which greatly appealed to me. Specifically, ‘The director needs to consider movement when filming as its introduction adds another dimension to the grammar of the shot.’ This, as well as being reassuring, was extremely helpful and inspiring to read; It further advantaged my planning and allowed me to inject more movement into the shots. However, it also reinforced the fact that too much movement in shots could be detrimental to the overall film. Having already consider this, reading this phrase acted as reassurance and I was able to carry forward my ideas and begin to piece together plans for going out and shooting the film.

I found reading, ‘Getting started in short film-making’ very helpful as it was thorough with how it discussed and explained such things as auteurs. However, it did not complicate explanations with jargon and long-winded answers. Instead, it was straight-to-the-point and, at times, informal. Normally, this would be a negative but, in this case, it was not. I was looking for simple answers so that I had more time to plan for the final shoot and this proved successful in reading.

One section talked about frequent communication between the director and cinematographer. Being that I was the director and had a clear idea about how I wanted the visuals to appear, this proved useful to read.

 

Films-

After reviewing the training montage from Matthew Vaughn’s X-Men: First Class I found that there were a number of beneficial elements which I took away. For example, I was able to reflect on certain shot sizes Vaughn chose to use and then begin to consider how I would use them in the final project.

A more specific example would be, when I analysed the use of still shots and how this allowed the director to show a change in pacing. This was something I was able to consider when planning out the shots for the final shoot. I could begin to consider how I would use shots to suggest or interpret a change in pacing or deliverance of the overall story.

After reviewing different methods used in ‘The Lovely Bones’  I accumulated a lot of useful information. For example, when I talked about actors interacting with their surroundings,  I already was aware that my film would apply to this method.

Meeting(s)-

After the brief meeting with the crew, all details and job roles seemed a lot clearer and, personally, I felt more reassured that the team knew what I wanted for the final shoot. For example, when asked about what types of shots and camera movements I wanted by the cinematographer, I was able to clearly list a variety of shots ranging from extreme long shots to close-ups and even movements such as tracking and tilting.

As seen in the video above, the sound operator and actor both asked the majority of questions and I answered them as thoroughly as I believed I could at the given time. As a whole, though only on one occasion the meeting was successful and helped prompt each of us to begin looking for ways of which we could achieve the tasks set within our current job roles. The communication between each of us was exceptional and we were each more enlightened with regards to what each of us were expected to do.

Survey Responses:

After reviewing the responses to my survey, I found that I received a very diverse collection of answers; Whilst some were direct and to-the-point others were more specific with things that a film director should avoid in order to make a better movie and, overall, be an exceptional director.

One answer talked of how focusing too much on the unique selling point of the movie, such as the visual effects, causes audiences to see the director as being ‘egotistical’ and ‘pretentious’. This response allowed me to reassure myself I was on the right track with my script writing; At the time, I was not constantly adding in moments where effects would be used and trying to impress the audience with the visuals. Instead, I was focusing on making the story fun and uplifting as well as creating a more positive atmosphere and environment for this protagonist to exist in.

Some answers were more useful than others, as some appeared as minimal worded answers rather than being constructively critical. However, all answers gave me some idea of what I needed to do in order to perfect my chosen role.

As a whole, I found it extremely useful making a survey as I received an exceptional amount of responses and felt more reassured that I was heading in the right direction with my production work.