TESTING TESTING: CAMERA WORK

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I chose to take a darker approach for the camera work task and work from the theme of ‘depression’, ‘loneliness’ and ‘Patience’. To achieve this, i decided to look at some monochromatic images as any time i have ever seen black and white movies or pictures I’ve nearly always has a slightly unsettled response. I was keen to find out more. So I did a little bit of research on how black and white photography makes us react and why?. I found a few sources; however, There was one article which explained ‘I use black and white often when an image is graphic…I want to cut to the core of a portrait and let the person stand out not the colours like in the first picture in this post (Coulson. C, 2020). and another that explained ‘Because the oldest photographs are in black and white, we have come to associate black and white photographs with the sense of a moment in time captured and given a timeless quality. This moment will last as long as the paper does, being both the past and eternity. The legitimately old images look just as timeless and antique as newer photographs. The images below are no more than three years old, but they all look like they could have been taken decades ago. They still have all the sense of history and the passage of time that older photographs have.'(The Emotions of Black and White Photography, 2020), This made me realise the reason i was unsettled was that looking at black and white photography it is harder to grasp the mood for the scene and the time period. The only real way to gather and sense of this (excluding time period) would be the use of lighting and exposure.
Using Padlet, I designed a mood board filled with black and white stills to gather the feel for my video sequence. I am planning of using a low exposure with hard lighting for most of my shots. This generally is what is used to create a spooky or unsettling feeling to the viewer.


After the class session, we were tasked with going away to create Two test shots (every 10 seconds in length) inspired by your concept and mood board. Use the images to experiment with Exposure, Lenses, composition and shot size. Shots should not have any camera movement. All shots should be 16:9 in aspect ratio, full HD resolution, MP4.


my first test shot was a timelapse of outside my window this is going to be used as the ‘patience’ element for my sequence

for my second test shot, i recorded a subject working at their computer but they seemingly fall asleep from exhaustion


This shot uses a lot of hard light and low exposure, causing most of the scene to be void of light, leaving the subject to be silhouetted from the intense light of the screen.

SYNOPSIS:

During the pamdemic we have all been asked to stay indoors and stay safe and as i am shielding i have been inside my house for 7months with the exception of picking up groceries, i have been a prisoner inside of my own home, I want this film sequence to express ISOLATION and PATIENCE. To express this in film i will show shots of myselg in a monochromatic setting going through the ups and downs of my pandemic life.

Using the footage I from above I opened After Effects and bagan experimenting with different effects. I came across the CC Sphere which created a fish eye lens effect, it now looks as though you are peeping through a peephole at the subject. The CC sphere also provided colour modifications; as my footage is monochoromatic this was a good opportunity to take advantage of the colour mod. I animated the timeline and raised the light intensity to cause the screen to flash through different hues.

This changed the tone for the clip, it still has the spooky aspect however the bright flashing colours have (in my opinion) created a more sci-fi aesthetic and instead of the subject passing out from exhoustion, it now seems they are being hypnotised.

Week 2 we are tasked with producing:

· Final synopsis.

· Rough Storyboard including brief shot description and shot size

· Final mood board including a color palette for the project

· Two test shots (each 10 seconds in length) matching the storyboard, mood board and color palette. Shots should not have any camera movement. All shots should be 16:9 in aspect ratio, full HD resolution, MP4.

I began with my moodboard working with a little more saturation this time. clearly seen on the moodboard is a lot of sin city scenes. I chose Sin City as I find the way they have keyed colours throuout the film is compelling.

I still want my sequence to be related to experience with the pandemic but instead of patience, i should focus on ‘DEMISE’.

Using this theme i can create very low saturation high contrast shots of enviromental b rolls that swap back and farth between shots of myself working at a desk or going about life inside a single space for so long.

I watched a movies including ‘SIN-CITY and napoleon dynamite as they have a dark and edgy tone throughout. Napoleon dynamite has alot of enviromental shots and soft lighting, often you can see the subjects from a distance like the scene from in fig. shocasing napoleons uncle with his RV.


what i like about the wide angle shot is it give the audience the full picture of whats happing in the scene, having this outside perspective leave us room as a viewer to judge the character based off of their surroundings. for example it is clear from fig one that the man in the image is living in that van because of the clothes that are hung on the line and the comfortable set up he has arranged himself, he also seems as though hes quite vain as he records himself pretending to play american football.

I will favour these types of shots as id like the viewer to see the entirety of the enviorenment surroundong the subject. After Effects may also be used to morph the view like the fisheye lens from my previous vignette.

The first test shot for this week was a wide shot of me working at my computer in the dark, for this test I heightened the contrast and turned up the glow. also using after effects I masked the footage creating a black void around the subject expressing a feeling of isolation.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

coulson, c., 2020. Black And White Photography – How And Why We Use It | Carla Coulson. [online] Carlacoulson.com. Available at: <https://carlacoulson.com/black-and-white-photography-how-and-why-we-use-it/> [Accessed 1 December 2020].

Artatm.com. 2020. The Emotions Of Black And White Photography. [online] Available at: <https://artatm.com/2012/12/the-emotions-of-black-and-white-photography/> [Accessed 1 December 2020].