One Shot Reflection

Directing has always been something that I've been somewhat interested in, but not too sure of myself in. At least in production classes, I've been used to developing an idea in a group and being the DP-essentially being able to frame my own project as I see fitting. It was a challenge for me this time to step back from this role, and tell someone else how I wanted my vision to be seen. However, I found that (even though I was only able to do one take) when you have faith in your crew and their abilities, this can end up looking really great.

The pre-production process, however, proved to be much more stressful than I had initially anticipated. My idea sort of 'came to me' in a brainstorming process, somewhat out of nowhere. I knew it was a bit ambitious, but for once I wanted to go outside of my comfort zone in a production class and really try something I'd never done before. I went through about 3 trials of making the sugar glass that essentially failed. The first one didn't harden at all. The second ended up looking alright (but ended up failing...I'll get to that). Then, the night before shooting, my talent suggested I try doing it again just in case. So I did, and it again came out decent.

At the time of the shoot, I first decided to use the last piece of sugar glass because I thought it looked the worst. The shoot went great and the photography looked amazing. As I went to remove the first piece I made from the pan, it broke right in front of me. So I had to go with what I had. It ended up looking really great and I was able to do some cool stuff in post. I think I'm gonna try my hand at directing the next opportunity that arises.

101 Acting

After watching the video today, I realized that acting is not so much a talent, but more of an art. Michael Cane went on to talk about how simple you have to look in front of the camera and that less is more, especially on close ups. I did some researching of my own and found some other helpful tips that might help the rest of the class with their replication project.

1. If your scene has dialogue, tell your actor/actress to make sure he/she knows the character they are playing. if the character is serious, then the dialogue shouldn't come across funny or sarcastic. IF your having trouble keeping your actors from laughing, go through the scene a couple times until the laughter dies out. It is too easy to spot out on screen actors holding in their laugher, and it only ruined the shot.

2. If you have characters in the background or just simply not speaking, give them something to do while on camera. What I mean by

that is to make sure he/she isn't doing something to just get T/V time. They should have a purpose to the shot and should be doing every day kind of things.

3. Last, be aware of overacting. Make sure you understand what the scene's purpose is and that you don't exceed or miss the point. A lot of the time, beginner acts feel like they need to stand out from the others so they feel obligated to try and make more of what they are suppose to do. This mistake is easily avoideable and shouldn't be seen in any of our projects.

I hope this helps to all that read. Give me any feedback you got or anything else that I should maybe add to the list.

Steve Kinslow