At first I was thinking of filming myself run through a red light in downtown Ithaca and see what happens, but as it turns out there are far safer and cost efficient ways to do this.
These days, you don't need to be a filmmaker to understand how a green screen works. You tell the computer to replace a certain color (in this case bright green) with another other image. The result is something like this:
Seems pretty basic. But it's time I admit the truth... I'm terrified of green screen shots.
Why?
Call it a form of PTSD. Once upon a time I did some sub-par acting in a film that involved a car crash and the result was... less then optimal.
To give the crew some credit, what they were trying to do was pretty complicated. Green screen shots for a moving vehicle involve light passing by from the streets, moving scenery in the background, and reflections off windows. That's a lot to think about and it's involves all three stages of production. Thankfully though, the internet has plenty of resources that list out the steps required to accomplish something like this.
For work in postproduction, the best tutorial is by Video Copilot:
With these resources, I feel much more optimistic and prepared for this undertaking. It can be complicated, but if all steps are followed to a tee then the process should be painless. Now I just need to convince Mr. "Editing for Dummies".
Alright! Let's do some Shots! NO, not those kinds of shots, Films shots! (It's not the weekend yet kids!)
Today, in class we spoke about the importance of shots and frame. Ever since we discussed this in fiction field 1, a year ago (time flies), I've payed closer attention to the films I watch and I note the placement of the characters. Sometimes, it helps me understand a little better of what's going on in the film. Have you ever watched a film where you were completely lost? Most people at that point shut it off and never return. I try harder to understand, I like to give em' a chance! They could explain everything later! Anyways, I found sometimes I'll try to interoperate the choice of the camera position, movement or even the placement of props, or the placement of the character's themselves.
In the shot above, The camera frame shows you exactly what the character is looking at, it also shows through camera angle how much bigger this creature is in comparison to the character, possibly imposing a threat. The fact that it's raining makes it harder for the character to run and hide, it gives us a symbolic sense of nature's wrath, unfortunate events etc.
This shot is much less distressing! I would interpret this shot to mean that these character's are getting closer either as friends or as lovers. Judging by the closeness of their bodies and given other cliche shots like this, I would bet that their next action is that they look at each other intimately.
For this shot I suppose you could say the same. Again it's very close and intimate. There's a feeling of safety even in a dangerous position. The expressions of the characters are a combination of amazement and admiration.
Another concept we were touching upon when talking about the way people used to watch film and the way we progressed from where we came from, is the concept that Hitchcock called the Kuleshov effect!
There is also an importance to not letting anything foreign be in the photograph. Set decorating is VERY important. Last year on the Market our art department team made a character who was a religious freak and very uptight person with very intense secrets. We transformed a girl's room from a girly bed room in to a dark, organized, bedroom with a ton of religious symbols everywhere. It looked like an ENTIRELY different place when we got through with it and if you pick the right people to do it, it really doesn't take too long. Here's an example of a set that was designed in the french film OSS 117: Lost in Rio:
The film takes place in the 60's and as you can see, nothing here is out of place or misrepresenting even though the movie was made in 2009! Not one thing in this frame is out of context nor is it distracting. You want things (props, set dec., etc.) to be appropriate but not distracting. I think this room sets up a mood of the scene as well as being absorbing/ believable.
I have more to talk about but I'll save it for next week! Hope you all enjoy the rest of the week!
My first official blog EVER! And it involves Gerard Butler, I guess that makes me somewhat cool. This past weekend I purchased Gamer from the Walmart $5 bin. It was either this or Scooby Doo goes to Mexico and I get jealous when I see a dog going to more places thn I have been so I went with Gamer. Even though I've seen this movie before, I didn't watch it through a film aesthetic eye. This time I decided to do so and a bunch of questions rushed through my head. The effects, the budget, the hours that went into making one scene. At the start of the movie, Butler is seen running through what seems to be an abandoned warehouse and as he runs up the stairs there are at least 7 camera angels that catches him going up the stairs. 7! I guess when you do action packed films you have to capture all of those angles to make it seem like the action is going in a lot faster motion then it really is. Everything was also being blown up. EVERYTHING! The budget for the movie must be quite large to be able to blow up as many cars as they did, which is crazy because i'm still paying off my car! Throughout the movie I had trouble distinguishing what was effects and what was real, I think I have that with every film though. In todays technological age, anything can be an effect. Overall I enjoyed the movie even though I was watching it from a different perspective. Im sure Scooby Doo didn't have much fun in Mexico anyway.
