qUESTION 6: Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
Since I first created my preliminary task, I've seen a huge and substantial jump forward in my abilities to compose, edit and bring a media product together from next to nothing. The initial preliminary task - although thrown together as a quick bit of fun - suffers greatly from a lack of continuity between shots, horrible levels in the audio, weird framing and a lack of a driving idea around which all other elements can revolve. For example, as seen in this video below, you'll notice a breaking of the 180 degree wall when the camera flips from my left shoulder to my right shoulder and the flow of the conversation is just shattered wheras later products and even SYNTH itself benefit from a use of J and L cuts that make the conversation stitch together far less awkwardly.
It's cringe worthy in all honesty; one of the most notable examples of development I can see is in the removal of zoom from almost all of my media since prime lenses are the way in which professional shoots lean, giving a crisper quality of picture without dropping the standard through a lack of focus or the detraction of the images quality from the overall aesthetic. Although it would take some time for me to fully come to terms with these ideas, it is between this abomination and my more recent work that I really took into this concept. You'll also notice that the lacklustre composition falls away from my videos as they go on with less of an emphasis on just pointing-and-shooting the camera and instead spending time composing shots with either the rule of 3rds or with industry standards like the 'Establishing', 'Close-Up' or 'Dutch Tilt' shots to name but a few.
Although you've ostensibly still got the same terrible video, there's a much greater emphasis here on tighter editing and continuity in the mise en scene; it's arguable of course that this is just the result of a more cut down run time but I believe I've developed a much greater understanding of pace and how that plays into the cinematic elements of story telling. Long shots, short shots and all of the cuts in between are tools for conveying a certain idea or feeling and as such should be seen as that, not as quick throw away solutions to getting your subject into the audiences eye. You can say a lot more with much fewer words through the power of the image which you should hopefully see come into play in this more recent video and color grading test: The Exchange.
The Exchange I believe stands as a testament to what I have learned from over a years worth of experience making videos and studying film theory. The most obvious jump is in the color, although I opted to keep it minimalist during the actual SYNTH shoot, color grading can have such and impact on both the feel of the film and the way in which and audience receives it; believe it or not but the majority of Full Frame DSLR's can convincingly make up a very sizable gap between the commercial and professional markets when supported by good color grading, a smart use of depth of field from prime lenses and the letter boxing techniques that instantly turns any shoot up a few pegs in the viewer's estimation. You'll also notice that the use of titles has become a lot more elegant as different lay overs and typefaces fit snugly within the bench lines of the establishing shot which I feel is reflective of how my thought process has refined my film making sensibilities. Keen eyes will also detect a better use of focus pulling where objects in the fore, middle or background are visually contrasted by blur which again came as result of understanding how to draw the audiences eyes with subtler techniques. Pulling focus duck tails nightly into my understanding of how to support the camera when shooting, from the humble hand held I've acquired a whole range of accessories that help me to shoot a better standard of video such as my custom built Spider-Rig that gives a life and character to the footage whilst keeping it stable without post production techniques. There's that, the fly cam for running shots, the slider for pans and short dolly rails as well as a move to three point lighting that fully fleshes out the tones of the scene and the incorporation of a dedicate video mic that records below -3 decibels for clean audio.
Which brings us to SYNTH. I can't say that I'll ever be truly satisfied with the way SYNTH came out and with the benefit of retrospect, I believe that I could make it even better now but for a video shoot coming off the back of a whole suite of technical issues as well as a real lack of experience in a live set, I'm very proud of what I produced. It may have taken a whole night of filming, several days of editing and several cries to sleep, but the finished product embodies so much of my progress as a student. In SYNTH alone, you see:
-180 Degree Rule
-Rule of 3rds
-Mid shots
-Close ups
-Wide angles
-Pans
-Rigged shots
-Tripod shots
-Color grading
-Audio leveling
-Tracking Shots
-Dolly Shots
-Mise En Scene
-Cohesion of Narrative
-Continuity
-Cinematic Story Telling
and those are just to name a few. It wasn't perfect but it was a strong effort that stands up to this day thanks to an adherence to the fundamental rules of film making, the nerve to challenge or develop them and a form of narrative that serves to enrich the lives of the viewer rather than idly waste it.
-180 Degree Rule
-Rule of 3rds
-Mid shots
-Close ups
-Wide angles
-Pans
-Rigged shots
-Tripod shots
-Color grading
-Audio leveling
-Tracking Shots
-Dolly Shots
-Mise En Scene
-Cohesion of Narrative
-Continuity
-Cinematic Story Telling
and those are just to name a few. It wasn't perfect but it was a strong effort that stands up to this day thanks to an adherence to the fundamental rules of film making, the nerve to challenge or develop them and a form of narrative that serves to enrich the lives of the viewer rather than idly waste it.