Arts Award Part 1

ARTS AWARD Unit 1 – Part A

Arts Challenge

I decided to attempt to get the role of Director of Photography for a range of different reasons.  Firstly, I’d experienced this role before outside of the academy in my media studies class where I had to create an opening to a short film; in that practice, I controlled the camera, lighting and editing as part of the process of a small group. This was my first experience of filming though it gave me a passion for the role. So going for the role of DoP really interested me as it had a spark with the way I work visually as an artist in general, the role allows expression through technically and conventions of filming. I think I already had enough experience in this skill and a novice understanding in the way that filming works, maintaining continuity, composition, rule of thirds, and making sure a range of angles and takes are produced. However, I’m aware that there is still plenty to learn. Exposure, white balance and focus are elements of filming that I am aware of due to photography, however I have not yet put these into practice. These are things I’d defiantly want to improve one whilst doing my art challenge and more so in cooperate them into a film in artistic, expressive manner.

As part of my art challenge, I want to improve my filming technique, learning how to use exposure, white balance, focus and further develop the skills that I already have to make my filming technique more sleek, professional and further creative; one of the elements I want to master from all of this is an artistic expression whilst using depth of field whilst creating an effective piece.

ARTS AWARD Unit 1 – Part B

Arts Challenge

PART B: Plan, Do and Review your Challenge

Plan

My challenge for the arts award is to improve my filming techniques; this includes a range of different elements such as learning:

- how to use a professional camcorder or DSLR

- learn how to use focus effectively as well as creatively such as using depth of field

- how to use white balance effectively or creatively

- how to use exposure correctly

- working in a role as part of a true production group

Hopefully, my goals for my art challenge will be achieved through experience and training in the academy as well as working with my DoP mentor Kyle. I have – with everyone else – worked in small several projects as part of groups in the NSA, using a range of equipment, this has helped to improve my skills and experience using these more specific techniques; sessions on how to use the professional cameras has also helped when looking at how to control these elements of filming which revised over shot types and composition. However, in order to achieve these goals as a DoP the process of filming must also be planned; on my behalf as a DoP this will require me to plan the shot types by creating a detailed shot list per scene as well as a detailed storyboard that also breaks down each scenes, looks at the range of shot types and any possible movement/direction within the shot. This process will help me begin to develop whether or not further planning can be taken into consideration, such as emphasis possibly of exposure, questioning how intense a scene can become by the use of light and dark; or just as equally, focus and depth of field can be used just as strongly to present stylistic though powerful emphasis.

To achieve all of this whilst on the shoot and prep to the shoot in the residential, I will also need the aid of my assistant DoP to plan this process in terms of the equipment we will need alongside how to film certain aspects of our piece, this will help me achieve team work in my roles with everyone else. Whilst shooting, I should have the help of my DoP mentor Kyle to ensure that we get multiple perspectives and a range of shot types. As my mentor is himself a DoP and very creative, he should help me achieve a strict control of exposure, focus, white balance and tight compositions as well as using them artistically and creatively to produce a styled piece.

As part of planning to improve my filming techniques, I will need all of the equipment needed for filming, such as the camera, tripod and possibly a steadicam or stabilizer for filming scenes that have a high degree of calm movement – a steadicam is something I have used before by making my own with a gible and weights however I would like to improve both the use of professional equipment as well as technique whilst filming with this equipment. In order to monitor how these processes go, both in terms of capturing good quality footage and achieving my goals, two steps will be needed; firstly as part of working as a team, the assistant DoP will use the monitor when I am filming to give advice or varying opinion; secondly, each night after the shoot (if possible) I will watch rushes as to gain an ideal of what went well and what didn’t go so well, to monitor my process of filming, technique, quality, control and creativity and whether or not I have or am going to achieve my goals.

Evidence of Doing

A collection of photos were taken during the production of the filming of our short film ‘’hide and seek’’.

In addition, these are all of my planning documents:

Review

When filming in the residential and beforehand even, I made sure that I had plenty of planning already done. This was part of something I had already experienced before due to making the opening of a short film for media studies, including detailed storyboards that would help me achieve my goals in terms of control, technical quality and creativity. I feel as though my storyboards apply to this effectively as it helped me to see things creatively and what shots I could do standard or creatively. This was also useful when planning the shot list alongside the script in terms of what was priority and what wasn’t, such as master shots and then cut-away shots that could help achieve my goals as they would be more artistic. Planning helped the process of achieving my goals, however I had already experienced this method of planning before due to media studies.

Whilst filming, with the help of my planning processes, I feel like I did actually achieve my goals. One of which (that doesn’t directly relate to my area as a whole) as team work in a crew, I think this an essential process as DoP as I learnt a great deal as to how a real crew would work. Whilst there was sometimes our problem with each other, particularly when running out of time, it was all efficient together. We all understood our roles and how we could each help each other from experiencing those roles before at least once. The only issue we had whilst filming was simply running out of time when it was getting dark, nothing went majorly wrong whilst recording and we were prepared for issues so I feel like this area of my goals was achieved. As for my actual role as DoP, I feel like I achieved everything I set out to do. Certainly, when reflecting the residential and the filming during editing, we have plenty to work with, all of which is a good quality if not achieving what I set out to do. When reviewing the footage now in the editing process, I can see there’s a range of creative shots and static shots per scene, meaning that we had plenty to use. With Kyle as my mentor too, I feel like I was able to learn so much from him in terms of how to use the fields I wanted to advance in. Part of my challenge was to learn how to control exposure, white balance and focus effectively, though with Kyle these were really put into the field and really explored. Creatively using the depth of field was one of my favourite and most enjoyable stages of filming as I could go away a way from the set, zoom in and use any natural dressing of the scene to explore the depth of field in the shot such as the transition from the foreground to background.

I think the greatest challenge I faced whilst filming was the factor of time and light. Because our team was filming outside and due to the time of year, we were really susceptible to the nights cutting in, meaning our filming started at 9 and ended at around 3:30 to 4pm. This meant that we really had to be carefully with time and that we were doing around 4 scenes a day which made my role slightly harder. As part of a DoP I wanted to ensure that we would defiantly having enough footage when we came to editing, though time would ultimately make me choose between what was essential to the film when shooting; this often meant the sacrifice of certain shot types as well as numerous takes of others. Though looking back in hind sight, I feel like even this was handled rather well as we didn’t have to sacrifice a lot, we were up and ready with the kit and setting things up quickly. Other than time, we faced one smaller problem. On the second day of filming our monitor broke, which meant me and John (assistant DoP) couldn’t really communicate as well with each other in terms of opinion and advice, which meant that we had to rely on ourselves more and sometimes re-watch footage to determine whether or not we would do another run. Apart from time and the monitor breaking, the only other issue during filming was that we were outside in late October – start of November which meant it was extremely cold which often enough made it extremely hard to operate the equipment. Whilst this didn’t really hinder anything, I suppose I learnt a lesson of filming with fingerless gloves.

In total, I don’t think the plan changed that much during the process of filming and planning. Only some elements changed due to time, but originally after casting the genders changed to an all-female cast, things that changed were only due to the factor of time which often resulted in certain shop types being cut out and the first scene being significantly reduced – which has in the end resulted, not being needed.

In the whole process of NSA, I feel like I’ve so much. I’ve developed the role I really wanted and had set as my art challenge; in that, I learnt so much artistically, including the use of depth of field, exposure, white balance and improving my prospective of composition, rules of thirds and the composure of film. I feel like I’ve learnt enough in how to use professional DSLR’s and camcorders that I’m capable of using one outside of the camera which has in consideration completely changed my techniques of filming and improved my abilities, skills and understanding of both the role of DoP as well as techniques. As well as learning things that were a part of my challenge, I also learnt more about team work and how a crew would work and rely on each other to compose an effective film.

When looking back at the residential in Rothbury, it was a lot as I would have expected it. As I’ve had similar filming experiences from Media Studies before, I expected the same experience of working to a time scale, shooting and working with actors though I suppose I gained more sight into team work in crew roles.

I found filming out in the woods of Rothbury was both fun and disciplinary. As we had to spend time travelling and racing against the clock for day light, it was stressful from my perspective in getting the kit ready, setting up and deciding whether or not we could take certain shots and making a sacrifice in some cases – other than that, the extreme cold made the filming a tough challenge despite four pairs of socks though I guess I have learnt from it the results of filming rurally and outside. Despite this, I loved the experience. Working as part of a crew and making something that is rather stylistic and artistic in the abstract feel it tries to present was just amazing to be a part of.

Over all, I feel like I met my arts challenge as I learnt all of the skills that I set out and experienced the role of a DoP further whilst working in a role of a crew. This meant that I got to explore a creative and more skilled ability of using the cameras in the sense of manually controlling focus, exposure, white balance and gaining more insight upon composure and thirds whilst I was out in the shoot; this particularly allowed me to meet my challenge as I used the depth of field to creative an atmospheric distance between the viewer and the actors.

If I could go back and do this again, although I can’t change anything about our shooting time, what I would improve is getting more footage in reality. In some cases, when we came to shoot, in some areas there just wasn’t enough footage and some of it wasn’t very effective due to a minor slip up (such as John’s feet in the shot or in one rare shoot Lizzy, our director) or the fact that the lighting in the film was just too dark due to the time of day. It would just make the process easier – prophase  it would have never been used or it could have made the film completely different in terms of atmosphere, but I believe I would have also created a lot more intense shots by getting more close ups if possible.

ARTS AWARD Unit 1 – Part C

Exploring Short Film and Features.

When comparing 2012’s ‘Argo’ (feature length) to ‘Gone Goodbye’, I found a lot of similarities in the tone and atmosphere of film. Whilst both are completely different in story, in some essences, when compared in terms of filming techniques, light, white balance and even exposure to some degrees, I found a high degree of similarities. Both tend to film in a blue washed-tone to create the dull though tense filled atmosphere that both fulfil to reach the tension point; whilst ‘Argo’s’ is to rescue the six American hostages, ‘Gone Goodbye’ strives to reveal the protagonists story and evidently, the balloon that appears. I found that the tone of the film aided this process, particularly when viewing it; it creates the atmosphere created to keep the viewer at the edge as they continuously question what’s happening. The filming is fluent with cut-away shots of objects relevant to the scene; both films explore an art of film whilst presenting a stylistic and somewhat ‘noire’ tone. Both of course, as nearly all films, follow the conventional structure of basic mid-shots, close up shots and long shots, though I feel that both do it rather artistically with the inserts of cut away scenes of the surrounding environment. I also found that both explore an artistic ability of tracking – whilst ‘Gone Goobye’ follows the protagonist over sky view during the beginning of the story, there are often scenes in ‘Argo’ where the camera follows cut-away characters in the scene, taking the viewer to a new part of the scene which allows the story to develop further. I find that whilst ‘Gone Goodbye’s’ example is slightly more crude in terms of filming, both attempt to fulfil the latter; I find with the general method of filming in both short film and feature film are rather artistic. Although both stories are completely different, I found that there is somewhat similar structures to both as their goals are to further reveal the story through anxious atmospheres.

ARTS AWARD UNIT 1 – Part D

Meeting the mentors:

When I was given the role as the DoP for the fractured or ‘hide and seek’ group, I met Kyle a DoP who had worked in a range of projects such as short films and music videos. I feel like I learnt an amazing amount from Kyle as he worked through our projects with us and more so, was my mentor for our group whilst filming in Rothbury. First meeting him, I learnt a great deal about how he storyboards, documents his planning work – even photography – and keeps images of things he likes from films or photography so that it influences him. I thought this was an amazing thing, more so as his storyboards were immensely detailed and creative, going into depth; even the presentation of which was in a small book, meant that it was always capable to him to give that influence. During the shoot, he was very open about the type of shots we could feel and would often encourage me and John to use the depth of field creatively when capturing footage; which also meant that when we came to edit we had a good visual transition between scenes.

As to how the industry works, I found that Kyle’s craft of being a DoP isn’t exactly secure, though fruitful in its rewards as his projects became more well known. He said that there would be a period sometimes when he would be often waiting, which gave me an idea as to how a DoP in the industry may move between projects in the industry. Though Kyle made it obvious that being a DoP – at least to myself – was an experience that couldn’t be challenged.

When joining Northern Stars, my plans for the future in 2013 were to go to University and study some form of Media Production and those plans still stand if not only stronger than before; I feel like the academy has encouraged me further as well as talking to Kyle, who offered that University may not be the be all and end all for this industry, but has still encouraged me to get a degree in production before going out to the industry. What he has made clear is that the more people you know in the industry the more likely you are to become part of a project, which has edged me even further to the Teeside Film course due to its work placement with the BBC where I may be able to gain more experience.