Through the Lens….
Over the weekend of the 14th, I
proceeded to film my project. I had two of my friends act in it, and another
help with sound and taking pictures for my blog. With my previous experience, I
knew that filming would be stressful; however, due to being a tad rushed and
with my original plan-of-action being trashed, this shoot was a lot more
stressful than any of my others.
When starting the shoot, I split up the
script into different parts that I would easily be able to shoot. As suggested
in Movie Making Course, “Divide the
script or treatment into workable unit by location and scene…If, for example,
you have three scenes in the same day-care center, you will shoot them
consecutively to conserve time and energy, even though they are widely spaced
in the film” (Jones and Patmore, 63). I started in the park, as I needed a
midday lighting. After that, I headed back to my house with my cast and crew to
shoot the rest of the film. Because the whole film, excluding the park scene,
takes place indoors, making sure that my actors knew the context and tone of
the scene was crucial. Jones and Patmore advise letting your actors know the
discontinuity of each scene so that they don’t covey the same tone and emotion
in three radically different scenes (63).
On the more technical side of things, there
were some kinds of shots that I deliberately chose to create a specific feeling
in the scene. For example, in the very first scene of the film, I have both a
low-angle and high-angle shots. As we have learned in class, these shots give a
certain tone to the audience. As stated in Movie
Making Course, “A high-angle shot looks slightly down at a subject. If this
is a person, this usually signifies that he or she is feeling vulnerable and
overwhelmed….The low-angle shot looks at the subject from below and is used to…make
them seem powerful or in control” (Jones and Patmore 88). I filmed the opening
scene with these shots to convey those very meanings in mind.
A crucial part of filming for me was
recording good sound. I have always thought that good sound is what makes or
breaks a film. Someone could have the best story in the world, but no one would
want to watch it if the film has horrible-quality sound. Because of this, I
chose to finally buy a good microphone that I could use during filming. I chose
to have my friend put the microphone on my monopod as use that as a “boom pole”.
In doing this, I was able to achieve getting the microphone as close to the
actors as possible and only capturing their dialogue (Jones and Patmore 92).
Because this was a short film, many of the
things that would occur while shooting a normal studio film I skipped over.
However, the basic structure and procedures are still all the same. The next step
in this process is editing the film and getting it ready for release. During filming, I was forced to be more expressive and straightforward of my thoughts and ideas. I am forced to be more friendly while still being authoritative. Directing films gives me skills that are crucial for me to grow as a mature and successful adult. As I wrap
up this post, do you agree that sound
quality makes or breaks a film? Or do you believe that it’s still the story
that truly matters?
Works Cited
Jones, Ted, and Chris Patmore. Movie
Making Course. 2nd ed., Barron's, 2012.
I believe that sound quality does not matter in a film. The quality of the filmmaking makes the film, but the quality doesn't. If you look at films today, a lot of them have very small budgets and most of the budget is put into making a good film. A lot of films like this are old, and, y'know, don't have fantastic sound quality.
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