Drama: Cinematography

My Role

My role in the drama was cinematography. There was not many specific approaches or techniques I wanted to implement into the drama as I wanted to work with the director, Oliver, and work around what he wanted from my role. So, throughout the shoot Oliver and I would look at the script and through each scene to see which shots he wanted and we went with a few standard shots of and did not experiment too much with it. Using shot reverse shot with close ups and mid shots depending on how intense the scene was and using pull focuses between objects and characters to really show their focuses and emotion throughout. However, when Oliver was moving on to setting up the next scenes or figuring out what is next, I would get some more cutaway shots that did not involve others from the group. For example, a shot where Dillon wipes away the crumbs from the kitchen counter and a low angled shot of Dillon walking towards the camera. For these specific shots I wanted to implement a similar approach to that of Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul where it would be a long shaky shot using handheld instead of a tripod. One thing I really wanted to be used in the drama was a technique learnt in the seminar. The technique of having characters come in from the left and right side of the frame to show which character was the protagonist and antagonist. However, with time issues and lack of space to use this we could not use this very well. 

As Dan and I shared this role we swapped frequently between scenes at who would operate the camera within the first half of the day and then Dan moved onto doing a lot of the lighting within the second half of the day as it got darker. One issue we had with the equipment came when the slider was used and a clamp was missing so the slider had to be balanced on the tripods without security. Plus, the slider did not move as freely as wanted. There was a scene in the bedroom where the two characters are lay on the bed, and in order to get the shot reverse shot I had to go handheld and lean on George and balance whilst getting the shot of Kelly. I am rather proud of this as I managed to get it relatively still and balanced carefully. 

Research & Analysis

Analysing Sign Language, I really enjoyed the crisp and clean focus used on the characters with the extremely blurred backgrounds in order for the audience to really feel the characters and for us to really notice these sign holders in the street. In reality, the public tend to ignore the signs being held in streets and the cinematography in this piece allowed us to notice them. The wide shots of the secondary characters as it was a perspective of the main character and it allowed us to have the same insight and opinions of them as he has.

Analysing Pudding Bowl, I think the use of cinematography towards the girl is used well in order to create this vulnerable state for her using the high angled shots and maintaining eye level with her whilst she is on the floor to show the powers within the household. This also adds to the comedic value of the piece and how the girl just seems clumsy even though it was not her fault she had glue in her hair.

Audiotour uses establishing shots throughout when the audio describes the things the character is looking at. Also, close ups of the character to show how she reacts to what the audio is saying and shows the audience how intrigued she is to find the information of whatever she is looking at. Until the end when the shots get closer to the character whilst she is looking into the reflection due to the tension rising as she reveals information to herself she did not like.