Final Paper - Cinematography Styles

My final paper will have to be on my favorite part of film making - Cinematography. I have loved movies from the time I was a child and it wasn't really ever about the story or music. It was always how the movie was framed, pieced together, the lighting, the angles, etc. I was enthralled in the art of movie making. Tonight as I was looking for information regarding the different styles of cinematography, I discovered a documentary called, "Cinematoghrapers Style." It seems very compelling and I plan to watch it for fun and to help with my paper. The clip that I watched already talked about lighting and how it is the artists brushstrokes in the film. That light can create movement appear different, depth and also emotion or mood. All of those are creations caused by light... one of the scenes in the movie was a man holding a light bulb in his hand in complete darkness (except for the light emitted by the light bulb) and he was talking about this light and how important and wonderful it is for movies. It is something I cannot put into words but it really made me appreciate and want to master the beast of lighting. It seems as though lighting can be your friend if you learn how to tame it and manipulate it, or it can be your enemy if you ignore its abilities or function in telling the story. In just one scene I grew to understand the purpose of light at a personal, internal level.

Overall, I am excited to write this paper and to see what I learn in the process of writing it.

Ciao! Raini

Not sure.....But here it goes.....

Not sure if im doing this right, not too tech savy.
I guess this is my first entry on this site, but i've already got two on my own, i guess. Anywho, Today Sarah started separating the footage that we have done so far. She started to piece together a shot of her pitching, so far looks likes its gonna be a good shot. I also gave her all of the pictures that i shot when we were at her games. She has some other pictures that she showed to me and told me some of her ideas for film that would include the still shots, so far I think this project is going to produce a really good film. That's my piece, see all you kiddies next time in the next episode of AS THE WORLD TURNS,er....... never mind, hahahaha, Later.

Filming in Modesto... dun dun dunnnn

When I woke in Modesto, Wednesday morning before Thanksgiving I looked outside and saw all the lovely fall colors I had missed due to arriving in town late Tuesday night. I was very eager and ready to film. The colors and scenery and lighting was beautiful. I scouted around for some areas to do the interview and was thoroughly disappointed, due to the sound. The sound outside was really terrible and we did not have access to any indoor areas that would be conducive to a good interview on film. When I put on the headphones I realized what a noisy neighborhood Dave's family lives in.

All together I spent about 3 days trying to get something good outside but because of cars and wind, rain on one day and Dave, the interviewee leaving to Boston the next day, I couldn't get anything. It was extremely frustrating to say the least.

There was about a 3 hour block of time on Wednesday though when I shot some cutaway scenes. To my dismay, I ended up with about 1 1/2 minutes of film. My in-laws were shocked that I practically ended up with nothing by the time I stopped.

The next go around will hopefully involve either the wind cover for the shotgun mic or the soundproof room that Chase might be able to get for our second interview with Dave. We will also hopefully do the interview with Kyle, Dave's brother on December 12th when he comes down to visit us.

End of Season

Last weekend was the end of the season for Bandits baseball…We will begin our next season in February. This will give us plenty of time to get all of the interviews taken care of and piece together the remaining parts. Due to the rain and muddy fields in San Diego over the thanksgiving holiday I was unable to get as much filming done as I would have liked however I started to draw up story boards and got an idea how I want to include certain parts. (pictures, interviews, etc.) In addition, the girl from the local high school team agreed to participate in the film and has tryouts coming up next weekend for the boys varsity team which I am still waiting to hear whether or not I will be allowed to film at..hopefully it works out!

The first filming day of the women's baseball team was an education to me of how much of a novice I am in the world of film. I arrived at the field where Sarah was playing. She had brought the equipment for me behind the duggout when I arrived. I began setting up immediately but didn't know where the headphones were so I couldn't hear the sound. I asked Sarah when her team was up to bat where the best place to set up the tripod was. She told me for safety reasons I should stay behind the fence next to the duggout. The problem with this was that the fence was quite high and in order to avoid having a thick yellow bar at the bottom of the screen, I had to set the tripod up high and basically stand on my tip-toes the entire time.

Anything for the sake of the film!

Well, it worked okay, but when trying pan the camera to follow someone running from home to first I lost my balance the first time and totally screwed up the shot. This was the first of many not so stellar attempts to catch the action.

J.C. arrived about an hour after I did so he let me take a break and took over filming. By then, Sarah had her dad run out to the car to get the headphones and things were working a little better for us. We knew we should get different angles, but were a little weary of moving the camera to potentially dangerous areas so most of the filming (with the exception of the staged shots Sarah took before the game) was taken from the same position. We experimented with zooming and panning and as close-up as we could get but there wasn't much we could do from one spot. It was also really difficult because it was impossible to tell when something exciting was going to happen so we never really knew what exactly we should be filming.

At one point, the pitcher came back to where we were, frustrated with the way the game was going. He was shooting off all kinds of F bombs and curses. I had just put the camera aside for awhile because it was running out of film and I was kicking myself that the camera wasn't set up and ready to go. He said something about how he knew they were girls but they're "hardcore" and that they pee on the sidelines without using toilet paper. I asked him if I could film him saying all that stuff again and he said maybe after the next inning. It never happened, though.

We wrapped when the game ended and decided that Sarah would write a list of all the things she wanted to have filmed the following week.

Interview

Interview

Despite all the challenges of the interview assignment, I had a lot of fun with it. Since Sarah lives on campus, it was really easy for us to find a first year student that we didn't know just by Sarah putting the word out through people she did know.

That was the end of the easy.

Finding a location on campus to film was somewhat difficult. We wanted it to look pleasing but also be relatively quiet. Once we agreed on a location, we had to figure out which angle was the best to provide depth in the background as well as the best quality of light on our subject. It was tricky to find the right place where she wouldn't be blinded by the sunlight and squinty and didn't have a bunch of tree branch shadows all over her face. When we found this angle, setting up the camera and the shot was a lot of fun. I recall saying, "wow, this is really a lot of fun!"

Our interviewee was positioned in as perfect of light as we were going to get, the shot was set up, the sound was ready to go, we were ready to start filming and--THESE DANG PLANES KEPT FLYING OVER US CONSTANTLY!!! seriously, every time one would pass, we'd hear another one in the distance approaching. During the quietest moments of that, someone would walk by on a bunch of leaves or a car would drive by or a group of people would stop and linger on in conversation. We finally began our first take and about halfway through, this group of people off in the distance began laughing super hard to the point where it caused our interviewee to start laughing so we had to do the take all over again. Again, we had to wait a long time before we found a quiet enough moment. (I believe this was where I recall saying, "okay, this isn't fun anymore!"

We finally, got through the interview as a plane was beginning to fly over again. We considered that as much of a success as we were probably going to get short of leaving town and shut the production down. I feel like our subject was an all right choice but I felt a little lacking in the depth of the interview. We didn't ask her any really profound questions or anything but I kept wishing that she would be more detailed in her responses. I found myself trying to get more out of her but she just wouldn't give it to me. Next time, I think I will tell my interviewee to please be as detailed as possible on all questions before we start rolling the camera, though it may be more of an age issue. I also didn't like my voice being in the shot. If I could avoid that in some way, I would prefer it.

First Bit of Filming/ New Developments

This past weekend both Stacey and J.C came down to San Diego and we made our first attempt at gathering some film. With both of them there to man the camera, I was able to focus primarily on the game. After the game was over we decided to try out some of the staged shots I had in mind. Although I felt the footage looked good, I realized after the fact that there is a significant amount of background noise from the stands which could be a problem. In addition, although we felt that we had gather a significant amount of footage during the game, after I reviewed the tape, I came to the conclusion that all of the shots will have to be staged because everything is to far away to really get the detail and convey the emotion that I was hoping for.

As far as progression in other aspects of the film, I handed out my preliminary questionnaires/ interview topics to the players/coaches I intend to interview and I was also able to lock in all the other interviews I was hoping to get. In addition, I took some photos that I plan to use in the introduction of the film and was able to gather a significant number of pictures of other women from around the world. As a positive side note, I found out via facebook about a woman who is a seasoned veteran of baseball and was given the opportunity to try out for the Detroit Tigers minor league team. I contacted her, informed her about my film, and asked if she would like to contribute in some way. She said yes!! I think this will be an exciting new addition to the film!!

Next film session

For the moment, Chase and I have decided to just focus on the topic of my film... since Chase needs a baby to be born to make his film. So, our next film session is going to be shooting some of the cut-away shots. One of the shots will be based on the family tree. To reflect this, I plan to start from the base or trunk of the tree and pan up from a low angle off the ground. This shot will show the tree from it's roots or the beginning of a family tree, to the leafs or the offspring of the parents. I would also like to implement wind and how that scatters leafs... just as Dave and Kyle were scattered away from each other by their father.

The shot I am most eager to do because it may be a challenge is filming all of Dave and Kyle's pictures falling to the ground. This will be the scene leading up to the title of my film; I still haven't discovered what the title will be. The pictures I will use are of Dave and Kyle throughout the years. I plan to tape pennies to the back four corners of the pictures and just drop them... we'll see if this will work. I am hoping so.

I am eager to do our next film session. I just hope the pictures in my mind translate well on film.

first shot

First attempt at gathering some footage..not sure how well it turned out. Due to scheduling conflicts, my other film crew members were unable to join me this weekend. I have a friend down in San Diego who is a film student who had volunteered to help me out this weekend but he got called into work so I had to have my little brother/dad holding the camera for me since I was playing in the game. Honestly I haven't even had the chance to go over what footage they took so it could be amazing but most likely we will aim for getting some better footage next weekend.

First Shoot

Raini and I shot her first section of interview with Dave on Sunday. All and all it seemed to go pretty smoothly. There were some sound issues with C-17 flyovers, motorcycles, and a short stint of vacuming but otherwise I think it went well. Raini was creative with the lighting and I can't wait to see some of the video up on the monitor. We got a whopping 55 minutes or so of interview, although there are segments of just waiting for outside noise to pass by.
I have managed to get a recording room set aside for us on our next shoot so that we won't have to deal with sound problems. The issue will then be finding a nice background because the room is set up for good acoustics, not good looks. I guess we'll just have to be creative.
I am contemplating dropping my project to go full force on Raini's so that we can have a finished project if this class gets cancelled, and am anxiously awaiting the decision by the school.