Me, Myself & I

For my Me, Myself & I project I want to involve some of my main interests including, French New Wave. Anime, Games, Friends.

Start with me on a bike, riding toward the camera dressed as typical French person with a French Narration, in black and white, the narration will be about... Something. To film this I may have to cycle following a car that has the camera in the boot with the boot open.

Once I stop outside of Lime Crescent and get off the bike and it switches to colour, and I start to walk towards the front door but we start to here grunting and aggressive Japanese phrases, as the camera turns toward the noises we see two idiots in cosplay fake fighting and swearing at each other in Japanese. I sigh and turn back round. I then go through the door and up the stairs, waving the camera. To get the camera to stay smooth for this shot I will have to use a steady cam. Once in my room there will be some of my friends on the floor looking at baby photos of me showing the camera them and laughing. The camera will then follow me into the bathroom carrying a make up bag and as I put on lipstick/ eyeliner and slowly lean in the shot will flick to shots of everyone, ending on me. I pull an anime pose and my friends pop up behind me, it ends on a camera flash to imitate a photo being taken. 

Evaluation of Loc/ Doc Drama

For our location/ documentary drama, we handed our work in unfinished, as we only shot half of it however the half that we were able to present was edited despite it not making as much sense without the rest of the footage.

For my own role as camera operator and lighting I did several things to help the production along. Firstly I did research into my role, looking at three point lighting and took some time practicing with the camera. I then annotated the storyboards eventually given to me by the director, with my own notes to help me film the project with more accuracy to the original scene. I then was assigned the project of finding a television old enough to be accurate to the one used in the scene and myself and the editor went looking. After finding an appropriate older model television we informed the producer who purchased the television from the budget. Following the purchase of the television myself and the editor did a test with the television to see if the amount of reflection shown in the glass was similar to that in the original, we concluded that the reflection would work and recorded our findings as a video. I was also involved in the green screen test which myself, the editor, sound op, director and producer were involved in during which we hooked the television up to a DVD player and inserted a disc that played only a green image, we then got assistance from Lee to use the studio technology to green screen to then maybe make it easier for the editor. Just before filming we again all sat down and made an equipment list, and did a test set up, for my role I asked for a Panasonic AG-DVX100B, tripod, red head lighting kit with gels and one cool light. During the actual filming I set up the lights and operated the camera, the most tricky shot being the zoom as the camera we had did not have functioning electronic zoom. Despite the difficult nature of using the lens dial to do a full zoom, I manage to get one of a reasonable speed within several takes. After filming I sat with the editor and helped him look through the shots while he edited. 

The main problems that we had on this shoot were lack of communication between team members as most messages were only getting so far or were being mostly ignored and the lack of actual footage in the the end as we did not complete filming. There are several ways we could have avoided this failure, such as using a stand in actress for some of the shots or by using a green screen instead of shooting twice as I and others suggested but the director chose to ignore. I also felt like another member of the group was pushed out by others despite trying his best to do his job on the production and another member simply was barely around to attend production meetings however was present for filming. We also had a lot of trouble with locations, Hartlepool Hospital being very slow with replies despite our Producers efforts. Actresses were also a problem as we struggled to get replies from websites and find actresses of a suitable age. After finding an actress and setting up an audition, the actress failed to attend. Hours after the set time she emailed us saying her agent informed her not to attend. Eventually, with thanks to another student, we found an actress who was not too young and was available to film soon. 

Our final product is half finished and parts are jumpy between cuts other footage was meant to be inserted in between. However the shots are well lit, using a mixture between natural and studio lights, with a blue gel for a slightly colder feeling and the camera shots are as accurate to the original as they could be. The costumes for both Sarah Connor and the guard were very accurate, with the correct colours for both. However the location was less accurate, the room not even vaguely resembling that of a hospital room, lacking the correct style of window at the back completely. The props were also not accurate, no medical equipment was in shot, unlike in the original where a medical trolley can be seen in the background, our project has the equipment replaced simply with a table. One of the most accurate props was not used due to the filming being unfinished. 

Professional Opinion

During an interview with Sharon Calahan, the first cinematographer of animated movies to make it into the American Society of Cinematographers, the topic of CG cinematography within live action movies was brought up. This is taken from
http://www.cinematographydb.com/2014/08/first-cg-director-of-photography-joins-the-asc-qa-with-sharon-calahan-asc/

"CDB: There are a lot of new labels like virtual cinematographer, director of imaging, CG DP, etc. and I understand the “want” to separate DP’s that work in the real world and ones that work in a computer.  How do you feel about these labels?  Will we all eventually just be cinematographers/director of photography?SC: It is an understandably complex question and difficult to answer, especially succinctly. Even at Pixar, where everything is CG, there are differences on each show as to what the role encompasses. In live-action, a film can still be that; a picture captured on film and without VFX, although these movies are increasingly rare.
Many films now are a hybrid of film (while it lasts) or digitally captured plates with integrated VFX elements or “real” shots that intercut with “all CG” shots. The live-action DP sets the visual tone of the film with the live-action capture even if they are not involved with supervising the VFX work. But look at the breathtaking brilliance that can happen when they are involved, for example in a film like “Gravity”! The long production process on a film like that can seem like an eternity to a live-action DP, but the advancements in CG tools will soon start to expedite the process.
It is also evident to see the hand of the great Roger Deakins on “How to Train Your Dragon 2,” who acted as a consultant on that project. There was a great article about the collaboration in the ICG magazine: http://www.icgmagazine.com/web/?p=3803. Filmmaking in any medium is an intensely collaborative process with many people contributing talents and skills. The digital age has introduced new elements into the mix; but at the end of the day, the director and producer hire a DP to create and realize an artistic vision for the composition, lighting and look of the movie as a whole. Ideally to create the most consistent vision for the look of the film, the DP is involved from pre-production all the way through the DI."
This is what happens at Pixar, which is why we use the terms DP or cinematographer. Granted, this was a long preamble to answering your question. I think that the discussion about separate labels for live-action vs CG will probably be moot at some point because in the future it will become increasingly difficult to distinguish the differences. It is gratifying to see the interest that live-action cinematographers such as Deakins are developing for the animation art form. There is much that we can all learn from each other."

Setting Up Our Lights

Choosing the position of the lighting was important on our set as the scene is quite well lit however has a slight blue tinge, this meant at least one light had to have a blue gel over it but getting this balance right was difficult. However after some experimentation with the position of the Key, Back and Filler light we decided on our lighting arrangement and took photographs of the lights positions to ensure we could replicate them.

Weather Challenges in Practical Cinematography

The below paragraph is taken from an article on nofilmschool.com
http://nofilmschool.com/2014/12/7-takeaways-hollywood-reporters-2014-cinematographers-roundtable

The article reviews a discussion between 7 of the years most prolific cinematographers and the specific quote below summarises the general feelings of the 7 about using practical weather.
This lack of control over the weather that is stated could encourage cinematographers in the future to use CG weather rather than practical for convenience.

"Working with weather is like rolling the dice.When working on location and with exteriors, despite many useful apps to help predict the weather, there's no real way to know what it will do. Therefore, the DP must make a choice on which look to maintain throughout the scene. This choice can sometimes continue for days or weeks, but it's basically a coin flip cinematographers have to make. Dick Pope also makes the case for having a little good luck on your side, as he did for the cloudscapes of Mr. Turner."

DSLR Cinematography Guide

The DSLR Cinematography guide is a handy 100 page guide to cinematography using a digital camera, explaining everything from basic cinematography tips such as depth of field and techniques such as Bokeh to how to chose the right lens and adapt it.
When looking at the post production section of the guide I found it did not have too much information about post editing, keeping the cinematography mainly practical however there is a section on post colour grading, while the main body itself is mainly technical, explain how to adjust the colours in a film the side note states that the line between cinematographer and colourist is greater blurring. This is concerning as this is a quite wide spread, free document liked to a highly active cinematography site.

Cinematography VS CG

After joining cinematographers.com and searching through some forums I found a post from 2010 discussing the then recent win for Avatar of the Best Cinematography Oscar. Some members seeming quite disgruntled, claiming that computer generated lighting etc should not count as cinematography and the award should be kept to simply credit practical choices. However others argue that the effects team must have had some cinematographical consultation and the decisions to chose that lighting must have been made therefore whether it was a computer code or practical lighting rig it is still cinematography.
This sparks the question, is CG taking over cinematography or is it simply the next step in the practices evolution.