Assignment 3: creating meaning

This assignment is to create a short sequence that tells a basic story and conveys implied meaning.  It must be no longer than 90 seconds and must be based on one of the scenarios provided by OCA. The focus is on meaning – we are required to clearly describe the action or sequence of events and imply a second layer of meaning.

Key considerations

• Composition
• Mood
• Atmosphere
• Where the audience’s attention is focused
• Space on and off screen
• Assumptions audience will make

From a list provided by the OCA, I chose the scenario of somebody making a cup of tea with the implied meaning that they are suicidal.

There is not much of a script as such as there is no talking in the sequence. Instead I created a storyboard, an essential shot list so I could have flexibility with editing and an extras list. In the end I stuck fairly closely to the storyboard but did include a couple of shots from the ‘extras’ list. I also had to lose a lot of the footage from the essential list due to time constrictions.

Looking back I can now see that my essentials list was actually very simple:  show Sara feeling sad, alone, depressed and thoughtful; show her making tea; show some specific indications that she is contemplating suicide (i.e. the note and the bedroom door closing on the camera).

Originally I had contemplated adding more drama: having the actress sobbing; showing her rubbing her wrists as if thinking about slashing them – even filming some spilt milk near her upturned wrists but in the end I thought this would be too forced.

I obviously did not have time within the sequence to convey too much about the character or to paint a picture of depression, as Melancholia does so incredibly powerfully. There are also a number of remarkable films which tackle suicide in very different ways: Polisse, In Bruges, Breaking the Waves, Wristcutters, What Dreams May Come, 21 Grams, The Hours and A Single Man to name but a few.

Storyboards

The sequence

Evaluation of finished sequence

My approach was inspired by Andrea Arnold’s brilliant 2009 film, Fish Tank. Arnold managed to convey some grim situations, without the mise-en-scene always being bleak. I deliberately kept most of the shots light and airy and used the birdsong as a diegetic soundtrack.  Instead, I tried to use the space and composition to show the feelings of confinement and suicidal depression.  I was aiming for a bit of an Edward Hopper feel.  

I think the sequence works reasonably well.  The opening shots show the actress trapped against a grey wall and, later, when she is sitting on the floor, she’s small and isolated and confined by the lines of the kitchen units.  The turquoise/blue background denotes a sense of calm, almost coldness, as she has made her decision.  We don’t get to see much else of the world around but we do see her looking out of frame to suggest that she has big worries or concerns.

It was important to make sure the audience focused their attention on the actress enough to develop some sense of intimacy and empathy, hence the close-ups. I did not want these to feel too intrusive but did crop them tightly to enhance the sense of confinement.  This resulted in a couple of moments of Sara breaking the frame, which I would have preferred to avoid.

I think the contrasts of sounds work well – the contemplative birdsong and general street sounds, followed by the violence of the kettle and unpleasant scratchiness of the pen; then quiet contemplation followed by the sounds in the hallway and heavy clunk of the door shutting.  The final shot of the letter in the empty kitchen has simple birdsong and sounds of London so as not to be too heavy-handed. I thought about adding the subtle ticking of a clock but that may have skewed the implied meaning somewhat.

The sequence would probably have looked more professional if I’d had a medium shot of Sara with ‘look room’ followed by a shot of the tea or the letter, using the right lines of attention, and with corresponding look room. Also some shots were too soft – even if I was channeling Andrea Arnold!

Areas of marked improvement since my last assignment

• Communicating with my actors – I have developed a good sense of when they need very precise direction and when it can be a bit more improvised
• Storyboards and shot lists – this is absolutely essential. It also helps massively with continuity if it is properly thought through in advance.
• I am now much more confident with mixing together various sounds and atmos tracks

Areas to strengthen

• Much more practice with getting the focus right when using large apertures – also to experiment with more lenses and artificial (but natural-looking) lighting
• Be more careful with headroom and ECUs/breaking frame (need to take more time during shoots to play everything back and check it looks right on screen)
• Shoot more overlapping action for the editing stage (needs to be built into the shot planning)
• More practice with look room and eye-lines.  
• Practise, practise, practise; shoot, shoot, shoot!

Down and out in Berlin

This little film was originally a 'quick and dirty' entry for a monthly competition on Photogdography where we create images/video to match a Tom Waits song. The full gallery is here.

For March's competition I got a little confused and started shooting video and stills for a song called Emotional Weather Report. At the eleventh hour, I remembered that the chosen song was actually Nighthawk Postcards so I had to lengthen to footage substantially and it had a very negative effect on the project.  

Without the soundtrack/lyrics - and after some re-editing on the fly - it just looks like a very amateur mish-mash with a messed up soundtrack.

I did however take some learnings from this which I thought I should add to my blog.

• The combination of moving and still images can work well but the frames need to be planning carefully and fit together smoothly - the narrative is as important as ever
• The pacing is crucial
• There needs to be a strong beginning and ending. And, ideally, a middle...
• Matching colour frame to frame is surprisingly easy in FCPX and quite exciting!
• A dirty lens will ruin at least half of your shots
• Some very cool footage can come from very ordinary things - I love the reflections of car lights on the tarmac and the shop lights in the puddles
• The image quality is pretty poor (shot on a Fuji compact) - this works more for some of the images than others
• It is definitely always worth recording atmos and having some interesting soundscapes to use for still image montages
• The coming out of the bar onto the street segment could have been repeated to good effect
• I deliberately blurred some of the shots and I think they work well in this context
• I like the trees and special effects at the end - a dreamy abstract feel

Overall, I am not satisfied with the final outcome of this experiment, although I am heartened by knowing that I could have got a better result (even with the irrelevant footage I had) if I'd devoted much more time to the editing.  A montage really can be much greater than the sum of its parts.  This is something I will take with me into the rest of my photography study - even when I am finished with this "silly film course" as Clive teasingly calls it.

Next time, I can plan and execute more effectively so it has been a useful process, and there are elements I really like.  Plus I was flattered that a friend commented that the film had an Edward Hopper atmosphere (which was of course one of my aims) - he even created this image to illustrate his observation:

Here is a version of the sequence (with the Waits soundtrack removed and some of the clips re-edited):




Down and out in Berlin from Helen Rosemier on Vimeo.


Edit: I have just read this post from WeAreOCA which mentions Tom Waits and Hopper...
http://www.weareoca.com/fine_art/nighthawks/