Sunday 17 June 2012

Week 15&16: Subjective & Objective Angles and Assessment 2

So... this is one of the hardest concepts people in my class were trying to get their heads around. By the end of the class some people still couldn't quite grasp it. It is confusing but after going over it a couple of time it started to make sense. Now I'm going to try my best to explain it how I understand it.

Subjective is all about the characters emotions
  • When the camera faces the central character it captures their emotions.
  • Close up shots are good for subjective shots.
  • If the shot goes from the characters face to their point of view and then back to their face, revealing their reaction/emotion, the shot stays subjective.

When I figured this out I realised how much easier it was to film a whole scene using just subjective angles. This is what our assignment was all about, filming one page of script actions in entirely Subjective or Objective angles but not both.

Objective is about what the characters are doing in the scene.
  • When there are 2 or more people in the shot.
  • If the central character turns away from the camera it becomes an objective shot.
  • When it's an over the shoulder shot.
  • Long shots because you can't see the characters face/emotions properly.

Most people thought doing it all objective would be the easiest way because they just needed to do long shots or over the shoulder shots. I decided to do the more challenging option of subjective angles.

I filmed the scene using myself and my brother at my house. My brother was the Sharp Dressed Man (SDM) and I was the Shady Looking Character (SLC). The SDM was transporting a briefcase to a meeting point while the SLC was watching him. The SDM gets to the meeting point but the people he is waiting for are late. The SLC come up next to him and grabs the briefcase and runs, leaving a stunned SDM.

After I filmed it, I realised it wasn't totally subjective. I should have done some more close up shots instead of long shots

Here it is
http://youtu.be/2xbe9c0YHlI

Sunday 10 June 2012

Week 14: Meeting Rhoda Lopez

This week we did a directing workshop with actress Rhoda Lopez. IMDB link http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2699159/ Rhoda was most recently seen in The Great Mint Swindle.

All the past weeks worth of lessons were put into use this week. It was finally our chance to talk to a real actress and see how a director should communicate with her. We all had the same one page script and it was up to us to tell her, and the other classmates that filled in as actors, what their objectives for the scene should be.  It took a few attempts with different objective but it started to head in the right direction. Each of the actors were playing of each other and helping the scene come to life. Rhoda gave us helpful feedback on how she thought her character would act and the kind of directors she has had to deal with over the years, good and bad.

Some important points I took from the lesson were
  • Have a positive attitude. The minute a director gets in a bad mood, the rest of the cast a crew quickly follow, turning the set into a bad environment.
  • Be open to your actor's opinions. They spend a lot of time researching and getting into character which helps them understand how their character should act. They could offer up alternative ways for their character to do the scene, which could be exactly what you need. Sometimes it's not what you're after but always be respectful and politely explain why that way isn't the right way for the scene.
  • After a scene talk to the actors first. It's good to let your actors know if they need to change what they're doing or just that they did a good job before you talk to the crew. If you ignore the actors they could loose confidence in themselves or in you and not give the best performance they can give.
  • Don't be too specific with your direction, it can limit the actor's performance and not give them a chance to explore the character. It can also be stressful for the actor to try and do specific actions at specific times e.g After this line point to this, then scratch your head, stir your coffee three times and take a large sip.
I enjoyed this lesson like most people in my class because we got to put theory into practise. I believe that's the best way to learn.