The Sandwich anology

In my previous post, I talked about the comparison between a movie scene and a sandwich, as a way of simplifying and complicating the concept of elements within a movie scene at the same time. The components of a sandwich (filling [meat, egg, cheese, etc.], dressing [vegetables] and seasoning [sauces and spices]) work together within two pieces of bread in order to compliment each other and merge into one item of food that is consumed altogether in one bite. The sandwich analogy proposes that the elements of a movie scene work in the same way – they compliment each other in order to generate a movie scene on the screen towards various possibilities to enhance the movie-goer’s experience: to create emotion, tension, deeper levels of meaning, dissonance, etc. This proposes a number of questions: if one element does not compliment the others, will it affect the overall experience? If a scene already works with its existing elements, will adding or taking another element(s) affect the overall experience? If an element is dominant over all the other elements, will it affect the overall experience?

With that in mind, this comparison can have possible weaknesses as it is merely a conceptual proposal.

Broadway session (20/3)

Last Friday, the majority of the session was to edit the stuff that we shot the Friday before. We had two films, one for each script, and I decided to work on the first one – the unscripted film. There were 3 separate angles – the master shot, and two close-up shots of the two actors.

Although the dialogue were unscripted, the gist of the conversation remains and I managed to successfully edit the footage, taking lines that are similar from each angle. I used mostly close-up shots, and the master shot is used only when the actor stands up and heads out of the frame. I also had to use many L-cuts and edit some of the reaction shots of the actor when the other is talking.

After about 30 minutes or so, I shortened the whole thing down to about 3 minutes from about 6 minutes and created a final product where the dialogue makes sense and choice of angles were appropriate – and it didn’t seem unscripted at all!

Learning agreement change – Juxtaposition – “the Sandwich”

1. From the first module, I took on my subject of study as “usage of music in building tension”. As I researched and watched more films, the research question still seems vague and hard to answer, and exploration seems difficult. Watching a film is one thing, but remembering it and recalling its effect on a particular scene, then try to discuss its effect is a difficult task. Additionally, it depends on my memory and music taste, and most of the time the music only contribute partly to a scene, not determine the entire mood of the scene. Before I encounter more obstacles and waste more time on this subject, I decided to change the learning agreement, while maintaining the usefulness what I have read and discussed in previous blog entries.

2. So, instead of music, my new subject of study will be juxtaposition. Juxtaposition in film is defined as “the contiguous positioning of either two images, characters, objects, or two scenes in sequence, in order to compare and contrast them, or establish a relationship between them” (filmsite.org, 2015). I will go deeper into discussing this subject in my new learning agreement, and later blog entries. Previous entries about music can be interpreted as the juxtaposition of music/sound and visual elements.

3. “the Sandwich”

The sandwich is something that I came up with that basically compares a movie scene with a sandwich. Like a sandwich, a scene is divided into a large number of elements as we try to break it down. With visual elements, we have action, characters, colours, set design, costumes, etc. With aural elements, we have dialogue, music, and sounds. If the bread – the thing that holds all these elements together – is the picture, we have a very accurate comparison. When we eat a sandwich/watch a scene, we take in all of these elements at once. So, my question would then be, if any of these elements are out of place, what effect would it have on the audience / If any of the sandwich ingredients taste different/bad, what effect would it have on the sandwich. Also, if each of the elements each give a different effect, what would the audience experience? By “effect on the audience”, it can mean emotion, understanding, expectations, etc.

4. This is complicated, but it can be explored in much deeper details than my previous subject, and a lot of theories and tests can be made. I need to refine my list of films, or just scenes to watch.

Broadway session (13/3)

Last Friday (13/3), our group had a chance to work with actors. Before the session, each of us prepared our own script so that we would be able to direct actors and tell the others what to do with camera and sound. The session had some problems, such as the actors arriving nearly an hour late, and some scripts take too much time to shoot that only 2 out of 4 scripts were be able to be shot, as well as limitation in storage available.

The actors were around 60 years old, one male and one female. They are amateur theatre actors, so they seemed to have more experience in acting in front of an audience rather than a camera, so sometimes it was a bit odd to explain to them about the position of the camera.

We managed to shoot 2 scripts, one mostly improvised and one tightly scripted. In the improvised script, because the actors were not given specific lines, they were explained the idea of what they would do, how they would move around the set and what they would be saying to each other. 3 separate shots were made (1 master shot and 2 close-ups of each actor) and additional cut-in shots of close-ups of actions and facial expression.

In the second script, the actors had to follow the script tightly, but due to the limited amount of time, they were unable to memorise the scripts accurately. Also, the director wanted very specific gestures and expressions that, even though it only takes one camera angle for the whole scene, it takes about 10 takes to finish it for the director to  be satisfied.

Even though the session was only about three hours, I managed to have a good experience with working with actors.

• It is very important to tell actors whether they are acting correctly according to the script or not.
• It is important to have prepare a solid back story to the script in case the actors ask any questions about his or her situation, background, profile, age, family, relationship with other characters, etc.
• Improvisation is not good for shooting films, because every time the actors act, they will make up new lines that are not relevant to the lines of the last take.
• To sum up, prepare everything as good as possible, have a perfect, crystal-clear idea in your mind and write a clear script, draw a storyboard. It saves money and time of everyone on the set.

Because we only had time for 2 scripts, my script didn’t have a chance to be shot!

Short script, 30-45 seconds long.

INT. LIVING ROOM. DAY.

A BURGLAR breaks into a house and enters a room. He walks
very quietly. He looks around to see if anything he can
steal.

He notices another person in the room. As a natural
reaction, he quickly hides behind the nearest sofa.

After a few seconds, he glances over the sofa to have a
closer look at this person.

The other person is looking around the room, is carrying a
number of items and doesn’t seem to be aware that the
burglar is in the room.

The burglar studies this person closely, then stands up.

BURGLAR #1
Hey! What the hell do you think
you’re doing? Get out of my house!
The cops are on their way!

The other person a.k.a. Burglar #2 panics, drops the items
and quickly runs out of the main door. Burglar #1 looks as
the items fall to the floor, and smiles. Then he hears
something.

The home owner enters the room and sees the burglar.

End

Broadway’s session (6/3)

About 2 weeks ago, we had a session at Broadway with Roger. He gave our group an exercise about filming two separate characters, one heading some place happy and the other heading some place scary. We had to go out of Broadway to film ourselves walking along the street. In order to differentiate between happy and scary, we had to come up with different types of shots. We had 3 hours to finish it, but it took us less than 2 hours.

We had 4 separate shots for each character:

1. Point of view shot (shows what the character is looking at, looking up or down)
2. Medium shot of feet walking (slow or fast paced, confident or nervous)
3. Medium shot from the back
4. Medium shot from the front (to show facial expression)

The ‘happy’ character walks confidently, smiles and looks towards the sunshine; whilst the ‘sad’ character walks nervously, head looking down and frowns. The location shot was also different. The ‘happy’ character walks in a crowded street filled with shops and sunshine; the ‘sad’ character walks in an empty, narrow street, both sides of the street are walls, and the walls block out the sunshine.

The footage is kept on Roger’s card and computer.

Script development

For the script of the final project, I am interested in the idea of having a character who is aware of the existence of the fourth wall. This has been used occasionally in films, such as when characters talk to the viewers to reveal a plot point or deliver an ending line to the film such as in Fight Club (1999) or Wanted (2008), but in these films, talking to the fourth wall doesn’t mean that the character possesses that fictional knowledge, but rather a film technique.

A film that has closely touches this matter is Stranger Than Fiction (2006), where the film’s main character is aware that someone is narrating his life. However, this narrator is also another character in the film, so technically the film is about a man whose life is literally the character is someone’s book.

The direction I am aiming for is more similar to the video game The Stanley Parable, where the player’s every move in the game is narrated; where the game’s ending changes depending on if the player obeys or disobeys the narrator’s narration. The base idea is creative and can be developed in many ways, so over the next 1-2 weeks I will try to turn the idea into a script.