Assignment 2: Shot Selection

 

For those readers who are not familiar with what we were to do for this assignment, we were given the task of providing evidence that we know how to shoot 33 different shot-types.  We were given free reign to do whatever we wanted to film the shots.

When I sat down to decide what to do for this assignment, I set out to make it as fun as possible which in turn makes the exercise more authentic for myself. I tend to learn better if I am applying something to a situation that I enjoy. I recruited two of the funniest people I know (Jonas and Candace) who I knew would be good sports as actors. As you will see, Jonas’ apartment has all kinds of great things to use as props (ie: classic video game consoles).

I learned a LOT from doing this exercise:

a)     keep a spare (charged) battery around.  I had the battery charged to full capacity but I did not realize we would take as long to film as we did.  I used the Rebel to film the bulk of the shots.  This took over 4 hours of filming and we did not have time on our side. It was daylight out when we started and pitch black outside when we finished which effected the lighting and we had to get creative with the lighting to get continuity. This was not planned initially but caused me to think on the fly about how to use lighting which ended up being an application of what we are to learn in the first place!

b)    Once the battery in the Rebel died, I thankfully had a back-up camera in tow. Unfortunately it was a different camera (this time a Sony borrowed from my workplace) and I can tell the difference in quality in the clips used with the Sony (not as good as the Rebel). So – have an extra (similar) camera around if no spare battery!

c)     Panning moving objects is not as easy to do as it looks. The scene filming the moving car took about 5 takes.

d)    Shooting scenes from a television with a movie camera is not a good idea. It worked out ok for this video since I used only quick shots of the screen to as cut-aways but the scrolling effect you get on the camera from the TV was frustrating. Thankfully the graphics on the video game (Combat) were basic.

e)     Size matters.  The confines of an apartment made the light bounce everywhere and made some shots hard to do. We had lights dangling from door closers!

f)   Make sure you have the proper software to upload your files.  It took 5 computers, 6 people, and 7 days to finally get the files off of that Sony camera.  Much time was wasted!

I think I may have over-done it a bit with this assignment but I wanted to challenge myself as much as possible.  In some cases, in one shot I combined different shot types to see if they worked.  Below you will find a shot-by-shot breakdown of each shot:

0:00 – 0:06 Title shot – the apartment building

0:06 – 0:10 Long shot – doorway of apartment building

0:10 – 0:14 Medium shot - doorway

0:15 – 0:18 Close up – door

0:18 -  0:25 Extreme Close up – keying in to get into apartment

0:25 to 0:55  Sequence: establishing shot/medium shot/close up/re-establishing shot:

0:25- 0:34 Pan (still) object and establishing shot (Candace getting ready to play Combat)

0:34 – 0:38 Medium Shot/cut-in (phone ringing on couch)

0:39 – 0:44 extreme close up (text message)

0:45 -  0:47 close up/cut-in (Candace’s face/phone) and tilt

0:48 – 0:55 re-establishing shot (Candace on couch, now crying)

end of establishing shot/medium shot/close up/re-establishing shot sequence.

0:56 – 1:02  Dolly (following Candace to the bar)

1:03 – 1:06 Balance – Candace getting drink at the bar. I tried to not keep her centered and get a more varied shot by featuring the cabinet on the left of the screen. This shot took a lot of practice to get the dolly and balance all in one.

1:07 – 1:13 Low angle – Candace pouring wine

1:15 – 1:18 Objective perspective – wine coming towards Candace’s mouth

1:19 – 1:24 Subjective Perspective – view from wine glass going towards Candace’s mouth. I like the way this shot turned out

1:24 – 1:29 Rule of thirds/Balance. Note the placement of the phone and the chair Candace is sitting in. I tried to balance out what could have been a bland shot by putting a book with the phone and the wine glass. I figured that there was a bit too much white space on the wall and this could take away from it a bit. I hope it worked.

1:29 – 1:34 Medium shot/effects – I tried to create a somber mood by playing with the focus in this shot. I tried a swipe shot at first but I didn’t like the way it turned out so used this instead.

1:35 – 1:39 Selective focus – I tried to put the focus on the bottle and have Candace looking somber in the background

1:41 --  2:41    playing around with lighting. I thought I would try all kinds of combinations to see what effects they would have on the shot.

a)     1:41 – 1:46 back light only. We had a lot of trouble shooting this shot due to the small size of the room.  We tried holding it over her head but we had a horrible glare.  I liked the atmosphere this backing light gave to the shot.

b)    1:46 – 1:51 – key light only

c)     1:52 – 1:57  - key light and fill light only

d)    1:58 -  2:04 – key light, fill light, and back light.

2:05 – 2:12 Pan moving object (car coming up back alley)

2:13 – 2:16 cut in/flat shot  Car tire stopping. I tried this shot initially as a completely flat shot and thought that it looked “wrong”.  I raised the angle slightly which I feel improved the shot so I included the slightly angled rather than a flat shot in the clip. (I liked the way this revised shot worked out)

2:17 – 2:22 Truck – me walking sideways filming Jonas walking to the stairs with the flowers

2:23 – 2:27 Dolly/low angle – Jonas walking up the stairs.

2:28 -- 2:29 cut in (Jonas about to knock on door)

2:30 – 2:32 Cut away – door knocking from inside the apartment

2:33 – 2:34 Close up – Jonas with flowers in front of face

2:34 – 2:39 Medium shot – Candace angry, shutting door.

2:39 – 2:45 I originally tried to do a wipe shot here but it didn’t work. Instead I just focused on the door again but this time as a close up to contrast the medium shot beforehand to foreshadow that it would open again. I also tried to do a selective focus shot here to focus on Candace’s face and blur the background of the kitchen. This took multiple tries but I think I pulled it off.

2:46 – 2:50 swish pan. Rather than move left/right/left I did some other research on swish pans and came up with the idea of Candace throwing the knife at Jonas. (inspired from this clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkX8HvjNki4)  This was hard to do. This took two shots being put together.

2:50 – 2:54 medium shot/establishing shot/balance. I tried to balance the shot a bit by putting some things on the table (note the knife Candace threw at him, bloodied with sodium-free ketchup, the flowers, and the chips).  I don’t know if I’m convinced this enhanced the shot or not. If I was to re-shoot this shot I would have closed the window blinds as there is a bit of glare.

2:57 – 2:58 head-on/cut in --- Candace telling him he can’t text message break up.

2:59 – 3:01 back to medium shot/establishing shot/balance

3:02  - 3:04 High angle -  Candace looking down on Jonas, being dominant

3:05 – 3:09 Low Angle – Jonas looking up, being submissive

3:10 – 3:13 Flat angle  --- I couldn’t figure out a way to get a flat angle shot in here to fit the story so I thought that I would shoot this at their eye level but upon reflection to me this is more of a close up/cut in. 

3:14 – 3:25 follow- focus/zoom out (all in one shot) – following the Atari cables, zooming out to get shot of Candace and Jonas on the couch

3:26 – 3:27 cut-away to the TV, Candace and Jonas playing Combat on screen

3:28 – 3:34 High angle/zoom out -  shot of Jonas and Candace on couch

3:35 – 3:36 cut-away to the TV again… These TV cut-away shots were hard to do due to the lining of the screen

3:37 – 3:40 medium shot  - Candace and Jonas playing again

3:41 – 3:47 tail away from tv diagonally to the video game console, bottles, and games. Looking at this shot now on the screen I don’t like the balance of the games and the bottles. It looks a little too “perfect” – almost mirror image. I would reshoot this.

3:48 --  3:50 cut-away/zoom in – on to TV screen

3:51 – 3:56 Medium shot, re-establishing shot. Jonas offering Candace a drink.

3:57 – 3:59 cut-away/zoom in – another shot to the TV screen

3:59 – 4:04 reportorial – Jonas telling us (audience) he’s “got the game in the can now”

4:05 – 4:10 effects.  I bought some cheap magnifying glasses and held them in front of the camera to give a “drunken effect”. For the most part I think I succeeded. These shots were hard to do.

4:10 – 4:17 effects.  I tried using a different magnifying glass that gave an even more swirly effect.

4:17 – 4:18 cut-away shot to the TV. One tank shoots another.

4:19 – 4:26 cut-away/rule of thirds -  Candace lying on the couch, text notification, she wakes up.

4:27 – 4:31 extreme close up – text message.

Here is the video featuring all of the shots:

Here is an attempt at a wipe shot that I didn’t include in the video (I didn’t like the focus). I re-shot the shot but forgot to do the wipe trick for the clip in the main video!

I look forward to your comments and critique.