kdfilmblog2 - Tumblr blog

[kdfilmblog2]

CRITICAL REFLECTION

We made a film called “Carpe Diem” where I worked as a DOP and the feedback we received was so interesting and helpful for our film. The main feedback for the film was regarding the story. According to the tutors, the story was very well put, however, it had its plot hole which confused and raised a few questions. For example, they were confused with the tension build-up between the characters before the argument scene. We all recognized this during the edit and we all felt that the argument just comes out of nowhere. The other feedback we received was about the age of the characters as the mother looked really old which would then make a viewer assume her father is in old age and the passing of him would not make anyone react in a certain way. However, this was no one to blame as our main actors dropped out two days before the shoot and I think Davide and Alana did a phenomenal job getting the new actors in such a short time. In terms of feedback for the visual, all the tutors were very impressed which made me so happy. There was no major feedback in regards to visuals except for one frame where Paul pointed out that it felt a bit different and uncomfortable than others. There was another suggestion by Leo, where he pointed out that he felt we should have had more close-up in the film, however, I then explained the time limitation we had, which I have also explained in my blog. We have shot the film in 4k so we are going to use that feedback and punch in the frame to give a close-up look. Further, Jess was appreciated and we were told that the Cinematography and the production design worked very well together. I was very happy as we both had a meeting before the shoot to create the look we wanted which was presented very well. Zoe’s feedback to sound was very helpful, she was quite happy with it but there were a few things we could work on. For example, the sound of the tap felt like a shower to the tutors, however, I think we made a small mistake in the Davinci and exported the sound in Mono and not Stereo which we will fix now. I think overall the feedback was quite helpful and I really think we made a very good film. I think it gives me a lot to reflect on and what I could have done better.

According to me, I think I have learned a lot. In hindsight, I would have taken a few decisions differently. I wish I and Jess worked on the production design much more before than we did as it got a bit stressful by the start of the shoot, but she did such a good job and made the visuals more beautiful than ever. My biggest mistake was not taking my camera to the test shoot (yes, I forgot my camera before leaving). I personally think this was such a rookie mistake for which we did suffer a bit later. If I had my camera with me, we could have judged the focal lengths which would work in the given space and how the different lenses will help us narrate the story. During the shot list, I misjudged the space and we made shots that included pans and movement, however, that lens would not end up working in the given space and we had to cancel those pans on the shoot day. This also led us to change a few shots on the shoot which created problems for our script supervisor. Moving forward I think making a shot list at least a week prior so there can be different drafts of the shot list. But, again I would like to appreciate Ethan here who handled the pressure so well. In terms of equipment, I had everything but if I had a chance I should have booked many more black flags for the shoot as we were creating a high contrast on one side face therefore more black flags would have helped me create them much better, and not having to use a black blanket. But again you win some you lose some. I had so much fun, from pre-production to post-production. Every single person gave their all. I would work with this team all over again. Could not be more grateful to them.

[kdfilmblog2]

POST PRODUCTION (Color Correction)

After the edit, I was given an Aaf for my color grade. This Christmas holiday I learned how to color grade hence it was quite fun to grade our project. This was the first very first project I graded as a whole and I enjoyed it quite. I still did not have a node system therefore my project was a bit messy. But moreover I learned a lot.

I was quite happy with the grade I did.

[kdfilmblog2]

SHOOT WEEKEND (DAY 4)

This was quite a chilled-out day. Here we only needed to shoot a few insert shots of objects such as the photo frame, clocks, tap, and flowers and just move about with the camera. That was very quick. The rest of the day's plan was to pack up the production design, pack up the equipment and put all the kit in Alana's car. Basically, it was cleaning up Alana's house. We then went back to Edinburgh and returned the equipment. Just like that it was all over. Pretty sad but what a shoot it was. Loved every single minute of it.

[kdfilmblog2]

SHOOT WEEKEND (DAY 3)

The first day of the official shoot went really well. We were very happy with it. I and Davide went through the footage the night before and found everything looked pretty good. It was time for day 2. I was very excited, however, everything went sideways very quickly. As soon as we reached the location, I started to set up the camera and remove the lights in order to shoot the second scene. However, the sun once again created problems but this time they were so much worse. The early morning sun was shining in Alana's kitchen and we could not shoot anything with the sun on that side because we had established the sun on the opposite side. Therefore I had to completely change the schedule. I, Alana, and Davide spoke and discussed that it would be better to shoot the third scene first. Hence I had to shift the whole setup for the third scene. Due to the shift, we were quite behind schedule, but moreover, the third scene was quite fun and went very well.

Until we were shooting the third scene I asked my friend and AC Kritzian and our PA Becca to start setting up a black cover for the sun outside as we were lighting it from outside, and they did a phenomenal job.

After finishing the third scene we all took lunch, however, we had already lost a lot of time, therefore, I took a small lunch and began setting up the second scene lighting. The weather was not on my side that day. In the first half of shooting the second scene, the sun was out but with time it got overcast very soon and we started to lose natural light. I was so not happy as now all the shots were a bit different in terms of lighting. Anyhow, we were a bit stressed as we were now tight on time and this was the most emotion-heavy scene in the film. But again the shoot in terms of shots we got them all and were quite happy with how they looked. It was a bit stressful but all did such a good job. Another small problem we faced was that the tripod's leg was broken and it kept changing in every shot so Kritzian had to hold the tripod leg with his hand for most of the shots. What a bloody legend.

The last shot was the dolly pullout, my favorite shot of the whole film. However, a very interesting phenomenon occurred we were in the last 10 mins of our shoot and the card had only 35 seconds left and the other card was still transferring footage so we only had this 30 seconds of card space to shoot the shot. Hence we practiced it several times before actually shooting it. To be honest, it was quite exciting. We then went for the shot and everything was just perfect. The dolly pull was amazing, the performance was amazing and the focus pull was amazing. I was so very glad about that shot. overall this was the most difficult day in terms of "problems" but everyone handled it so well and I could not be more thankful to my crew.

[kdfilmblog2]

SHOOT WEEKEND (Day - 2)

Alright, alright. The day was here when we actually begin shooting. As I live with our director Daivde, we worked on some changes the night before with the insights we received from the test shoot. I was so excited, the day was beautiful and overcast as we expected. We were there bright and early and all traveled to Linlithgow.

As soon as I reached the location, I started to set up my camera and my lights with my AC. It was quite quick, as we knew the setup, thanks to the test shoot. However, as I mentioned before, there was quite a lot of noise in my test shoot so, I had to change the ISO, therefore, there was a bit of fiddling around with light, but we were still on schedule, as Davide was working with the actors till then. We started the shoot and everything was going well and smoothly. However, due to us changing the shot list after the test shoot late in the night, we did not have time to get the copy to our script supervisor (Ethan) on the day. Therefore, there was a bit of confusion between us, but we all handled it very well. But again the first half was extremely smooth. The problems arose post lunch. The real sun betrayed us. It was not overcast anymore, the real sun was barging through the window and it completely changed the look of my frame. Therefore, I took a short lunch and started to flag up the windows as much as I could but the flags weren't enough. Luckily Alana had a black blanket which we used to block some more light. It took us quite some time to get the frame back to normal and we were very so slightly behind schedule.

After fixing the lights, everything went nice and smooth, except we just had to hurry up a little but cause we lost a bit of time in blocking the light. The end shots were dolly shots, as we were not able to transport tracks due to transportation limitations I had to use the studio wheel which made the dolly shot real difficult. The first dolly shot was not perfect because there was a pan with the dolly and it just was not working, however, we did get a good shot but was not the best. The second dolly shot worked well, not as I imagined but it looked good.

I was extremely happy with the day, we all worked very well. Of course, in hindsight there were things I could have done better, for example, I wish I would have booked more flags to block the light. It would have saved us so much more time. I wish I would have tested the dolly on the test shoot, but there was no time. But overall I learned so much and enjoyed every bit of it.

[kdfilmblog2]

SHOOT WEEKEND (DAY 1 - Test shoot)

Our shoot weekend began on the 3rd of March where the first day was shdeuled to check everything and and set up the flat and have a test shoot. We travelled tp linlithogow early moning, and alana got the equmipnets from the sotre to the location by her car. Jess, our production desingner started with setting up the first set when I and my camera assistant Joesph (A legend, I must say) began setting up the lights and camera. The first half of the day was mostly checking the light set up for the first scene, as that was the scene which I was most terrfied, as we were setting up the arri lights outside the house and ground was not the most flat so it took me and joesph quite some time to banace the arri light outside becuase due to the limmitation in equimpent we did not get sandbags, hence we had to make bags with weight to secure the light outside. Then during that another problem occured. We found out that we had not gotten all the lense and were just provided with three of them, 24/50/85mm. Not the worst but it did limit us and we had to change a few shots and improvise. Once the lights were set up outside, we moved about a lot to see what works best for us and how well can the light replicate as a sun. However, during the test shoot, we I and Davide discorved that we had underrestimated the space in our location as it wasnt as bigger as I and davide had imagined. Therefore on the test shoot we had to change a few shots, and cut out the pans which we had planned out. However, the first half of the test was really really helpful, but unfortunatly we took quite a lot of time with our first scene and we did not get as much time as I would have wanted to figure out my second and third scene. Nevertheless the whole day was so helpful and really neccasry for our actual shoot. Later in the day, I took the footage and went through it, and found out that there was quite some noise in the footage. I was really confused as there was plenty of light and my ISO was just 800. Anyhow, the rest of the night we worked on changing a bit of our shotlist and coming up with ideas of the noise. But loved every single minute of that day!!!!

Scene 1 and Scene 2 put together in the night to see how it looks.

[kdfilmblog2]

SHOT LIST

Before the shoot me and davide sat and decide the shot list. We both were quite confused if we wanted to go all of the film hand-held or sticks but after a long disccusions and long brain storming, we decided to go on sticks only. I am sharing the shot list we had.

[kdfilmblog2]

The floor plan I made for the film, and the basic lighting plan I ahd in mind.

[kdfilmblog2]

Class with Andrew for cinematography

A week before we went into production, I had a class with Andrew. I wanted to speak about my lighting plans and I had a couple of questions about how I could use the LUT on Blackmagic so I can comfortably light the scene and shoot in LOG. Upon discussion with him, there were a lot of new insights I gained. I had not taken the real sun's position under consideration. As we were creating a fake sun, and changing position of character to the opposite side of the house, we would have had to cover up the real sunlight coming the other way for out fake sun to work. However, I had checked the weather forecast and it said that it will be an overcast the whole day. I showed him the photos of the location, and for the kitchen scene, he suggested to put up curtains to have more control over lighting. It was such a great insight, therefore right after that we ordered white curtains for the shoot. I think this workshop was so very important for me, as it helped me plan my lights much better.

[kdfilmblog2]

LOCATION RECCE

We were finding a location for quite some time. I had asked our producer Alana to kindly not get white walls (I hate white walls). I just think white walls were the last thing I would want in this film, it would have completely destroyed the visuals in my mind. After a long tough search, we could not find an ideal location, however, our producer is a genius. She herself had a beautiful house in Linlithgow which her parents let us use. I Davide and Alana took down a road trip to her house for the location recce.

When we reached there I was extremely happy because the house made it possible for me to light from outside and try out the lighting plan I had in mind. The location was very beautiful. My main recce for the location was to note down all the light sockets in our shooting rooms and make a plan of placing the lights safely so it would not hurt anyone in the crew and not disturb the neighbors. We discussed how we would shoot and use all the different rooms in the house to make the geography of the house visible in the film. I and Davide discussed the basic shots in the film we would want to shoot. We went through the safety procedures as well. I am extremely thankful to our producer Alana and her parents for letting us use their house.

[kdfilmblog2]

Inspiration | Research | References

I was very excited to shoot this script because for our previous films we as students were lighting and trying to shoot a film in a "fancy" way with "fancy" lighting. However, I realized I did not know how to light a scene in a natural way. Making it look like our usual day. Keeping this in mind I still wanted to make the visual attractive therefore the first film which came to my mind was "The Father" directed by Florian Zeller and shot by Ben Smithard. The film is so beautifully shot with high contrast and natural lighting. The colors and production design beautifully work with the visuals and convey so much meaning in the film.

Therefore "The Father" became my main inspiration for our film Carpe Diam. My main goal in this film was to light from the outside and to create fake sunlight. This was a very difficult task as it completely depended on the location we would get. I wanted the visuals to have high contrast on the character's faces and create a look that works with the story's emotion. The story has immense tension between characters which portrays broken relationships, hence my go-to color to emote this emotion was blue. Now in further development, I realized I did not want to give the whole image a blue color by changing the white balance as I would lose the essence of a natural daylighting scene. Hence I decided I would have tints of blue and also portray the color blue with the help of production design. I and Jess worked closely with the costume and the color of the props. I also want to color grade this project as this is the time I can learn, therefore I am going to shoot the film in LOG and color grade it. This is the reason my maximum time I have been researching how to color grade and make the most out of the visuals for this film.

[kdfilmblog2]

Moodboard for the film

[kdfilmblog2]

PRODUCTION DOSIER

As the DOP, I made the mood board, however the script changed a lot of times in the process therefore the mood board and the ideas towards the cinematography changed quite a lot as well. Finally, we had a script lockdown, I and Davide went ahead and made the shot-list for the film. We ended up with around 25 to 28 shots which I was quite happy with because Davide’s vision for this film was a slow paced. The shot-list took us around 3 days where we went back and forth with ideas. Our main dilemma with the shooting style was if we should be going handheld or with tripod. After many discussions we decided to go with tripod. The reason behind the choice was to have a subtle and not to disturbing frames. We wanted the audience to feel as a third person watching it from far away. The handheld camera movement would have taken that away. I think we made the right decision. After we made the shot-list I made a story board which I had to improvise because of the lack of time. Overall, I am very happy with the outcome of the project and looking back, I am glad we went through the tough time pressure, I got to learn a lot.

[kdfilmblog2]

CARPE DIEM (Meetings)

At the very start of the class, we managed to assemble a very exciting team that consists of Davide (Director), Alana (Producer), Casper (sound), Ethan (Editing), Jess (production designer), and yours truly (DOP). Davide already had a script ready which he wrote during the Christmas break. Therefore we all were very much hyped. Our first meeting was on the 23rd of January when we all met and read the script. Everyone had some pointers to make the script better and we had a discussion of visual references and problems in the script we might face. In the very first meeting, we decide on some creative choices as well, which included the look and feel of the film. In the very first meeting, we set out rough dates for our shoots so we can be ahead of time in location scouting and casting options. We all were extremely hyped. Our second meeting was on the 30th of January where Davide came out with a proper character arc and I made a rough mood board and different character references. We all confirmed the shoot dates and put out a casting call as the cast for our film is very challenging as it has a kid and an elder man. We all seem to be working well and everyone has creative inputs. I am really excited to make this film and fight any problems that come our way.