tejaspradeep

[tejaspradeep]

Film Production Workflow - Scene Recreation (Group - 4)

This was the final project before our trimester ended. We had to recreate a scene from a movie.

Our group members got together and suggested various movies like 'The Conjuring', 'Annabelle 2', and 'Little Women'. But instead, we chose to recreate a heated argument between Scarlet Johansson and Adam Driver from The Marriage Story.

Our group member Imogen's flat was the location and she had listed the different shots which were to be filmed. She also handled the camera. Erin handled the sound design and me and Emma acted the roles. Ellie handled editing.

We intended to film it in the morning as it would give us natural lighting. But we couldn't do that as we had to plan the shots and how we were going to shoot it. We started filming at 4' o clock in the evening and finished filming at 8' o clock at night. By then the sun had already set. As a result we had to use artificial lighting. This affected the accuracy from the original scene. In the scene from the movie the lighting felt a lot natural. We also had a very small space to film the entire sequence. This led to an issue. As it was shot in Imogen's accomodation there were a lot of posters of the accomodation on the wall. We were not able to hide it.

However we utilised all the resources we had. We made significant effort to try and make it as similar as we could. The movie was well edited, however the syncing of the sound could have been better. The back and forth conversations between the characters were filmed well.

The casting was done in the last minute. We had plans of bringing actors from the actors course, but we chose otherwise. I personally felt that me and Emma did a good job to learn the dialogues quickly and enact them within a very short time.

[tejaspradeep]

Film Production Workflow - Visual Exercise 2 (Group 4)

We had decided to shoot an introduction for the canal which is right beside Bainfield Student accommodation. We did not have a clear plan on what we were shooting, but we observed the place for a while. Once we had a plan we used the sound equipment to record actual sound effects. It took us about an hour to shoot.

I had helped with recording the sound effects. All of us gave our inputs into every aspect of filming. We were involved in every aspect of shooting the scene.

[tejaspradeep]

Film Production Workflow - Reading Week Exercise

For the reading week assignment, we had to read a chapter ('Language Of The Lens') from the book 'Cinematography: Theory and Practice : Image Making for Cinematographers and Directors'

The chapter dealt with the various techniques used by cinematographers citing examples from different movies. They also showed the how different styles of cinematography changed our perspective of viewing the scene or character.

The book also cites an example of Hitchcock who believes that the size of an object in the frame should also equal it's importance to the story or the situation.

The extent to what we see in the background or foreground of a shot keeps changing with the different type of lens we use. Sometimes we see entire environment where the film is shot and sometimes we see it very compressed in the frame.

Different lenses can also help us tell the superiority of a character too. They tell us which character has an upper hand over the others in that particular scene. This is achieved by shooting in low or high angle.

[tejaspradeep]

Reading Week Short Film Review - Shoes off!!

This 7 minute long short film is quite intriguing. I love the way they represent their bond in psychologically queer way.

The background music and framing of shots are another aspect that I liked about the movie. You are made to feel that there is something off somewhere but there actually isn't. It is just his way of showing his freindship. This is evidently visible in the scene where he puts the talcum powder all over his friend. The framing of the shot made the whole sequence look very awkward.

Besides that both are drunk. So one does tend to act awkward to very normal situations.

On the whole I liked the quirky perspective of representing friendship in a dark manner.

[tejaspradeep]

Framing and Composition Exercise 1- Group 4

We were a group of 5 members including myself and we had gathered over to Emma's house for shooting the movie. We chose grief as our topic for the movie and shot it using Rule of thirds and center framing. Erin played the protagonist in the movie and it revolved around her visit to the grave. I had made a poem for the movie. We had ideas to use it for the movie as a voice over. However we chose not to.

The weather played into our hands. As it was a bit cloudy and rainy we wanted to utilise it to represent the grief of the character. While using center framing the screen looked very compact, on the other hand, while using Rule of thirds the screen had a lot of free spaces which we used aptly to show the surroundings. Rule of thirds is better if one solely wants to focus on the character.

I prefer the rule of thirds because we were able to capture the emotion of the character in a better manner using it. It also helped in capturing the environment better than centre framing.

Grief - Rule of thirds

Grief - Center framing

[tejaspradeep]

The Dark Knight (2008)

Honestly, this was my second experience watching a Nolan movie, that too in a theatre and I did have some expectations too. The movie was an out-in-out blockbuster experience and was the literal opposite to Oppenheimer. I had wondered quite often the reason why Nolan's Batman trilogy has often garnered so much praise and was finally lucky to witness it. Although Batman is superhero, I really loved the realistic representation of him. The emphasis given to the antagonists too is another reason I really liked the movie. The score by Hans Zimmer is an important aspect as it elevates the scene and gives goosebumps.

Christian Bale and Heath Ledger

I find Bale's performance as batman as good but I believe that his portrayal of Bruce Wayne was absolutely top notch. The pain that he doesn't have anything good in his life to look forward to is beautifully portrayed by him, at the same time not loosing his flamboyancy of being a classy billionaire. He has to juggle between three characters at a time. And to compete with him, Heath Ledger's portrayal of Joker is sadistic, psychotic and really villainous. Together their clash on the screen as characters was one of the highlights of the movie. Also I love the way how the protagonist and antagonist represent two ends of the same coin. Coin is another repeating element used by Two-Face (Harvey Dent) played by Aaron Eckhart who acts as a completely opposite person to Batman and his ideologies. This is shown when he tries to kill a member from Joker's team before he becomes Two-Face. While Batman is a symbol of order, Joker is a symbol of absolute chaos and this chaos changes Harvey Dent's perspective and persuades him to fall into Joker's plan.

The Color Tone

Yet another reason why I loved the movie was it's colour grading. The movie had a very dark tone from the beginning which was consistent and this suited the way in which Gotham was to be seen. Gotham was portrayed as a city plagued by crimes and criminals for which the dark theme really stood out.

[tejaspradeep]

Kantara - A legend

This movie is a masterpiece. It's the right blend of fiction and fantasy and stays true to the mythological values. This is also one of those movies which actually inspired me to make films. The rawness is one of main aspects that I liked about the movie. It used stories from grassroot levels as its foundation and thoroughly succeeded in providing a blockbuster mythological thriller. The story is based on the legend of Panjurli and the practice of 'Bhoota Kola' wherein a host becomes possessed by Panjurli and this is a practice in South India. It was also one of India's entry along with RRR for the 2023 Academy Awards.

Goosebumps!!

This is moment from where the movie changes to a completely different level. The action choreography and acting were of a completely different in last 20 mins beginning from this sequence.

Well executed scares

Another aspect of the movie is the timing and execution of the jump scares. This is a huge aspect for which I believe the movie should be experienced in the theatre. The awkward silence and pause just before the jumpscare was repetitive but effectively executed to keep the audience thrilled.