WEEK 4 - Composition and Aesthetics

1- Composition and Aesthetics

THE ARRANGEMENT OF ELEMENTS, COLOR, TONE AND LINE IN THE MISE EN SCENE

In order to understand how composition is put together you have to look at how form and content work together to convey meaning. Content is the subject itself and form is how they're arranged. When thinking about this you have to take into consideration, shape and proportion, negative space, colour, lines, rhythms, lighting, contrast etc. Some words to think about to help with this are:

• Symmetry/Asymmetry (frame divided equally vs not exactly balanced)
• Graphic focus (geometric line and shape)
• Rule of Thirds (grid overlay of equally space divided into thirds)
• Looking space (negative space for character to gaze)
• Production design (setting and costumes perhaps?) 
• Lighting (high-key/low-key, fill light, soft vs hard, etc.)

- Screen Grammar

• Camera techniques (distance and angles)
• Editing techniques (cut, matched cut, jump cut)
• Manipulating time (screen time, slow motion, flashback)
• Use of sound (direct sound, music, soundtrack, silence)
• Lighting (soft/harsh and back lighting)
• Graphics (text, graphics, animation)
• Narrative style (mise-en-scene, objective/subjective treatment)
• Formats and other features (shot, scene, sequence)

- Theory of Editing
- Post-Production Workflow:

PRE PRODUCTION OVERVIEW -

• Idea development
• Logistical planning/creative planning (storyboard)
• Researching and sourcing
• Location scouting/RECCE
• Hiring crew
• Scheduling shoot
• Budget/Finance
• Scripting/storyboard/shot lists
• Casting (Interviewees)
• Work on conceptual model

THINKING ABOUT WHAT YOU SEE -

• Rule of thirds (focal points)
• The 180 degree rule
• The golden ration
• Matching eye line and matching cuts
• Natural transitions

NARRATIVE -

• Aristotle - beginning, middle, end
• 3 act structure
• Set up - conflict - resolution 
• Dramatic arc/curve
• Non linear narrative (having multiple arcs)
• Symbolic and metaphor 

- Screen and discuss in class one-minute film exercise:

1 Minute Documentary:

SAM from Maddie Tod on Vimeo.

2 - Continue research for Creative Project.

- Reading: Rabiger, M. (2004) Directing the Documentary, London: Focal Press. Ch.16: Research Leading Up to the Shoot. 

• Research partnership. With someone else whilst researching you will appreciate how much richer your perceptions and ideas can become when you exchange with them.  
• A sample. Research relationships, two research strategies, deciding the action and casting the players and the value of assigning metaphorical roles.
• How people alter in front of the camera. Pre-interviewing is extremely important before shooting. You want to test the behaviour of the interviewee as they go on record. Some may come across as a show-off or clam up and get all nervous. Usually people start of being quite self-conscious and constrained. Soon after they begin to speak more freely. Later on you can analyse these interviews and see who's best on the screen.
• Developing the films thematic structure and double checking your findings. During research, collect as many relevant viewpoints as you can. It's fascinating to discover how everyone is perceived differently according to who you question. 
• Finding the dialectics and developing a working hypothesis. In documentary any hypothesis provides a more interesting start point than stupidly impersonate a scientific method. 
• Refining research into a plan. The need for development, conflict and confrontation. The dramatic curve.

As seen on page 236 in Rabiger’s (2004) ‘Directing the Documentary’

• The dramatic components of successful scenes. The best scenes are dramas in miniature. Look for beats and dramatic units. Exposition, facts and narration. 

Bernard, S. C. (2010) Documentary Storytelling: Creative Nonfiction on Screen, New York and London: Focal Press. 2 Story Basics

WEEK 3 - Audio, Interviews & Ideas Pitch

1- Today group C lead the discussion on this week’s readings.

- I had to present my individual Creative Project proposal to class and get feedback from them. Pitch and idea is below:

Pitch:

My idea was to be about sexual consent on campus. I would interview several people of both genders to see their views and opinions on the subject. I have a couple of people in mind of who I want to film and have asked a few people too. Firstly, I would start off the questions about campus and how uni life is going for them and then to create a dramatic climax, there would be questions half way through about sexual consent and how its a big issue today. To end I would make sure it is a positive outlook and have someone saying 'it's okay' and 'tell someone if you're in danger' etc. 

I think this is a good idea because it raises more awareness of the subject and supports those who have gone through it themselves. There are legal and ethical issues I would have to consider as it is a very touchy subject and can be sensitive to people. 

- We then got into our groups and had to choose a project idea. As a group we decided to choose the idea of a busker which was my classmates idea. Here is his pitch:

'My idea is to record the life of a particular ‘busker’ (Busking is the act of performing in public places for gratuities … People engaging in this practice are called street performers or buskers. From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Street_performance ) This will entail following a particular busker who I have selected on the basis of his locality, he lives in Brighton, and his extraordinary story of success. This is the twist of the film, to show the opposite ends of street life, the divide between busking and begging, and whether busking is a sustainable way of life and whether the art form will die out. The issues of social media and internet fame I feel threaten more classical ways of making money through music. I have talked to BBC radio Sussex presenter Melita Dennett who puts on the ‘BBC introducing‘ section of the station as she deals with another method of finding musical talent.

What I wanted to do was ‘cover all bases’ as it were to try and find the most exciting documentary on Busking and Buskers I could. I am excited to learn more about the subject! Hopefully, coming at this subject from as many angles as possible will not only give me the ability to see the best angle to approach the documentary in how I present facts but also cherry pick all the best information I have that is relevant to my subjects of the longevity of busking as a career in 2017.

There turns out to be a good reason for all the reading we are told to do because it all factors into our final film!

There are always difficulties in filming and creating a documentary that is unforeseeable no matter the amount of planning put into a project, so I’m sure the original idea, storyboards, shot lists and narrative patterns will change as the idea is further developed, but isn’t that the joy of cinema? Buskers readily available as they are all over the streets of Brighton, where I am currently based, and they want to be noticed so are easy to find and ready, and excited, to be filmed.

In the creating of this idea and its development, I have looked over the reading set in week two of this module by Rabiger, chapter eleven on ‘Developing Your Story Ideas‘. But as with any idea, there are issues that will arise such as being in contact with a busker efficiently to plan an interview and so on, but I will cover this in my next post on the presentation of my group’s idea in week six.

I will discuss any developments in my idea in later blog posts. Although I am able to edit this post after publishing it, I think it is important and interesting to see where my films idea was at this time in my project.'

- Understanding acoustic space and recording sound. Microphones and Interviewing techniques:

- Start shooting interview(s) and set up the edit of the one-minute film.

2 - In your groups finish shooting interviews and the editing the one-minute film.

- Reading: Rabiger, M. (2004) Directing the Documentary, London: Focal Press. Ch.22: Location Sound. 

• Recording using different types of recorder. Avoid using camcorders as they usually only have an automatic sound level recording, because pauses during speech will get amplified while the automatic level control looks for a signal. Professional machines use balanced line mike cables that have sturdy XLR sockets and noise cancelling connections between mike and recorder, used for concerts. Most camcorders have stereo (two track) recording ability that accommodates two inputs. Three or more sound tracks are something professional camcorders have. Level metering is crucial because over recorded digital sounds can be distorted badly.
• Microphone types, power supplies and pickup patterns. Omnidirectional mikes, directional mikes, hypercardioid or gunshot mikes, boom mikes and lapel (radio and wired) mikes are all different microphones used for different purposes. This is because sometimes you want to capture different sounds in different perspectives.  
• Recording requirements and conditions. Direct and reflected sound. Reflected sound, bouncing off surrounding surfaces before finding its way to the mike, travels longer route and arrives and fractionally after its direct, source sound.  Source sound-to-microphone distances. The boom operators main task is to stay just out of frame at all times but also stay near the sound axis of each speaker. Relationship between recordist to camera is very important as they need to work together to create perfect framing and sound.
• How the recordist works. Responsible for ambient sound/presence tracks and all sounds on set.
• Supplementary sound tracks that the editor will need. Sound effects and wild tracks. Atmosphere loops. Automatic dialogue replacement (looping). 
• Sound aesthetics.
• Dos and don'ts. Never - leave checkpoint without checking everything. Accept 'we can fix it in the edit'. Take recordings for granted. Understand problems and look for solutions. Always - Carry spare batteries, extra cables, basic repair kit. Wear headphones always so you know what you are recording. Take a little longer and get it right.  

- Chapman, J. (2009) Issues in Contemporary Documentary, Cambridge: Polity. 1: Definitions: Issues and Influences.

WEEK 1 - Introduction To The Course

1 - Our first workshop consisted with a few things to get us introduced to documentary. We had a group discussion and I learnt a couple of new things that I didn't know before, for example how versatile it can be. We then all watch past students short documentaries and it really helped me to understand the high standard I had to achieve in the near future. 

- Camera angles in all types of film making are important. They can convey a certain meaning or give a particular type of feel to what you're watching. This is why it was one of the first things we looked into and analysed.  

- After this we were put into groups for our projects. It was our turn to do the reading for the following week so we all made sure we knew which one it was and how we were going to discuss it in class.

- Brief for the one-minute film exercise: Choose from one of the following themes: 1) ‘My first day at Sussex’, 2) ‘The pitfalls of independent living’.

We chose to do the pitfalls of independent living as you have a lot to talk about and can get a lot of b-roll for this subject.

Modes of Documentary 

- OBSERVATIONAL

- EXPOSITORY

- PARTICIPATORY

- PERFORMATIVE

- POETIC

- REFLEXIVE