Evaluation

As the most influential part of the course in my opinion was the use of lighting and how it could create a mood for the piece also developing the narrative, I felt that the interior scene scripted would be the crucial part in which we would utilise this film making technique as the environment could be heavily manipulated by use of lighting installations and camera deception. In one of the later lessons we varied the lighting setup using Dedo lights on a single character sitting at a desk, from this I gained a better understanding of how multiple lights could be used to highlight certain areas of the character to suggest a mood. In the recent lectures we also talked about how gels could be used to further the intended atmosphere which resulted in our production using a heavy amount of blue filters. In our final piece we used a total of 5 Dedo lights to light our scene involving two characters, two Dedo lamps would be designated to each of the protagonists how used in a contrasting manor for narrative benefit. The remaining Dedo lamp was suspended above the table in which the characters sat at, for this light I personally added a layer of two blue gels as I felt that the single gel didn't provide sufficient level of blue. After a conversation with the lecturer I possibly learnt the most important few crucial camera settings I should always abide to when filming, these were as follows; always shoot at 50 shutter speed, shoot only at fixed focal lengths and never go in between these solid increments when composing a shot. these settings were of course carried out in the filming of our production.

Setting out to create a film the with four must have shots I feel that we have accomplished these goals in respect to that area of the production as the cinematography throughout the piece is strong and delivers in terms of this criteria.The long take is one of the stronger parts of the film as it involves a number of elements that have been considered prior and during filming, in particular the way in which it feels very choreographed and theatrical rather than realist, even though it utilises a long take which is predominantly used in realist film making. This idea of theatricalness is implicit from the outset of the shot, the killer walks into the already tracking frame through the almost ostentatious archway feature seen previously and towards the awaiting drug dealer, after the murder of the drug dealer the killer exits frame to the left simultaneously cueing Brad the convicted jogger suspect who appears from the right of the frame which then follows on to signal the tracking back motion as he walks towards the camera. The whole symmetrical nature of the environment complements this use of choreography serving as a stage for the two characters. This trend of surreal motifs is also present in the interrogation room scene with Brad (the suspect/jogger) and the detective, as mentioned previously we used a five point light set up to achieve our desired aesthetic which was a dark and high key lit scene. The characters sit at a wooden table with an ever present over head light that illuminates the centre of the table which they lean into, rather than telling the actors when to lean into the light I explained to them that whenever they felt that the lines urged them to move forward into the frame they should do so, I felt that this technique would produce a more natural performance from the actors, also the way in which I had set the cameras up allowed them to move about without causing problems with the focus, to do this I avoided working with apertures lower than 2.8. The most successful of shots within this scene are the shots of the detective, in particular the initial reverse shot of him where he is sat back with the Dedo on his left shoulder just lighting the creases in his shirt at this point his face is hidden by the lack of light until he motions forward. The above light in front of him lights the documents and his hands that flick through the paper briefly, this lack of light on him develops his character, with his identity concealed he uses his authority over convicted Brad avoid the truth as it were. This lack of light contrasts with the lighting on Brad as we see him lit more highly which helps to introduce pressure making Brad's experience feel more exposed and uncomfortable. The difference in heights between the two reverse over the shoulder shots create a contrasting alternation between the characters, my shot framing the detective is shot at a low angle which alleviates pressure as we engage on his level, however the reverse shot framing Brad is at a noticeably elevated angle reflecting the detectives power over him in the conversation, though this idea works in theory I feel that the two shots may have worked better if they were both shot at the same angle and to build tension we used more cropped in framing, as personally it tends to feel as though the framing has been poorly arranged despite the idea being there. Other negative aspects of the scene would be the lighting continuity between the wide establishing shot and the reverse shots, this is less noticeable on Brad's shots as he is lit much like the establishing wide nevertheless the detective is far too lit in the wide which tends to ruin his ominous reverse shot as we have already seen him in full character, the two shot in my opinion is also too highly lit which retracts the abstractness from what could potentially be a well lit shot much like the others in the scene. The overhead shot I feel could have been used as an alternative to the 2 shot as it fails to bring further depth into the scene, rather it tends to abstract the simplicity of what to could be a very contemporary minimalist sequence, however the lighting is accurate in relation to the establishing two shot. The strongest point of the scene is the lighting change as the detective throws the evidence bag in front of Brad, with the light narrowing into a spot light. Originally I set about arranging the light change to incorporate Brad either spotlighting him or placing him in an opaque ibis to illustrate his vulnerability in the murder case, though the lighting we accomplished worked very well. The idea of using a spot light in this scene was something I had been interested in doing after watching 'American Beauty' numerous times, my inspiration from this film is taken from one of Lester's fantasy moments where his emotions are heightened when he intimately watches his daughters cheer leading group in the school. The use of surreal lighting and music suggest Lester's empty life as he sits alone in the gymnasium light directly from above, he's vulnerable surrounded by a mass of vacant seating. There is no dialogue in the scene however the lighting change and score develop an idea clearly purely through symbolic ambience. The Dedo light was perfect for imitating this concept as it provides a powerful sharp projection of light that can be altered in spread, to achieve our take on this concept we used the dropping of the evidence bag as a cue to pull back the bulb in its casing, the final position of the Dedo when set back was appropriate for the size of the mise-en-scene it needed to light.

In my analysis of 'Blade Runner' I highlighted Ridley Scot's use of noir style lighting in the interview scenes involving Deckard where a kick light cats a strong outline on the edges of the characters faces, with the majority of the face under lit. The lighting style suggests that there is light shone through a window or reflected towards the character as they sit hidden with light escaping on to their faces. The noir/blade runner style of under lit environments does loosely relate to our idea that one of protagonist is avoiding detection, (detective johnson – the real murderer). Much like how the citizens of the city in Blade Runner are constantly observed by passing ships and watchful overseers.

In this screen grab to the left we see the detective sitting back in the darkness of the shot, looking back at this scene I feel that he should have retained this postion throughout as it gives off a stronger sense of the characters power of Brad, his laid back attitude would have worked well to suggest his confidence that he would get away with the murder, subsequently it could connote his fear of his exposure to the light in fear (symbolically) of being ratted out. His face could have also been lit from the side much like Rachel in Blade Runner, a possible alternative. 

In terms of tracking shots used within our film I felt that they were used at the right time, the choice of using a track for the long take is a perfect example of how two shots can complement one another. The lucid forward and then back tracking motion in our film through the archway serves as a driving force of the narrative as it progresses at an unnatural pace momentarily, as we see the murder take place and Brad join the scene at crossing invalls. However in the review session the audience fel that the revealing CU shot of the detective killing the drug dealer wasn't necessary, i agree in all respects as the long tracking motions aesthetic is diminished by the cut, a way of avoiding this would have been to move the killers exit route through the archway so that his identity could be revealed through the same shot rather than breaking the motion.   

The POV shots used in our film were shot using a fisheye lens, initially the suggestion of using the lens sounded a viable choice to shoot the POV shots however watching the footage back I retract my positive view on the lens, I feel that its use in our film ruins the overall aesthetic which has comprised of tracks and static shots which together provide a clean cut film image. Avoiding the use of the lens to shoot the POV's we could have shot them from an outsiders perspective another possible witness to the murder case, these shots could have been taken from a distance or we possibly could have introduced these POV's as a false perspective, seem from an uncredited eye.

As a group for this project we all worked well together and everyone put in effort in constructing the film. From the initial stages we divided the scenes of the film up so that everyone could storyboard a scene or part of a scene, we would then post these on the facebook so that any conflicting ideas towards a shared scene could be resolved.