Steven Spielberg

Any Steven Spielberg film that is released nowadays I take an immediate interest in, it is almost like brand trust; any film he makes i can come to admire from a filmmaker's point of view. Most of his films are instant classics; Saving Private Ryan shocked film audiences with the bloody 20 minute opening scene but was praised for the realistic, savage brutality of war and the portryal of the D-day and Operation Overlord landings. Close Encounters, the Indina Jones series and Jurassic Park were all the films I used to watch in m youth and I would be lying if I said they had no impact on my own style.

ET was probably the first Spielberg film I saw, and though I haven't re-watched it, I plan to. The latest Spielberg film I saw was Super 8, which I thought was quite similar in many ways to ET, perhaps just because of the time in which the narrative is set, but I would also say the directing methods, cinematography and art style that Spielberg makes use of is still very much his own, and not so generic and commonplace. Whilst I can't pick out individual scenes as I can with James Cameron, I think it falls down to the fact that his art-style portrays your role as an audience in the film as very subtle, I often forget I am watching a film, and no over-dramatic camera angles separate me from immersing myself within it.

I can trust Spielberg to deliver an immersive, narrative based experience. I don't think of him as cinematography centered or considerate as I do with James Cameron and  Hitchock - though he doubtless considers them.

Hitchcock

It would be rude to speak of directing films and not credit or at least mention Hitchcock for his pivotal role in shaping the way films are directed today, establishing many foundations and essentially laying the brickwork for modern directing methods. The first work of Hitchcock I encountered was Psycho as part of a study for critical writing in English classes back in High School. I had heard about the film before, the famous shower scene and the music that played with it was something we had discussed before watching it and something I knew about way before even that, as it has become somewhat of a pop culture reference to anything scary.

I have expected the film to have little interest for me, given I was naive and unwilling to give any film without explosions a chance. However, I dare say this film by it's self introduced me to the horror genre and got me interested in watching more horror films.

Hitchcock's work I find inspring, in this sense, and my interest in the horror genre has grown since the day I watched that one film. I have also since watched Vertigo and The Birds. I find it interesting that he makes a small, cameo appearance in the films he makes as a pedestrian or just a stranger.

Hitchcock has been an inspiration and admiration for me. Other directions such as Steven Spielberg have also been influential but I would feel out of place mentioning the more modern, successful filmmakers without at least addressing the director who potentially gave them the ropes of directing.

We said Hi to the Police

As mentioned, we had a run in with an authority officer whilst filming outside Liberty Park during our first film. We gave her our details and she basically explained that it was so they could tell anyone who called them if they were suspicious that they knew about our activity and it had been acknowledged by a police officer as safe and not intending to cause unrest. I asked for the officer's details in the back of my flipbook.

When we found out we had no battery and summarized we had to let it charge for over an hour, and waste filming time, the group became a little restless. I composed a makeshift storyboard sketch in agreement with the rest of the group so that we knew what we would be filming, from which angle, and roughly how long it would last, so that we could cut back on how many takes we do and how much battery we waste. This meant we could get the filming done and get the footage we need quicker and more efficiently, rather than arrive at the scene, think of the storyboard and then start thinking of ideas that might be cool. I put the focus on what we needed to get done, not what we thought would be a good idea that we could use.

Early Development

Reflecting back on my first storyboard for my instructional video, I can easily see the relation between my earliest idea and the finished product. The opening shot is still the same, if different in duration, and I instead let text do the talking rather than introducing the ingredients vocally. Close ups of the pan and food cooking away, a close up of the knife cutting the ingredients, all ideas I utilized in both my storyboard and in the film itself, alongside improvised ideas such as zooming. One of the ideas I scrapped was the clip of me draining the rice as the rice I had didn't need draining of water because it was measured.

James Cameron

Cameron as a director has contributed a great deal to film. The Terminator franchise has been one of my favourites, though the third and fourth films in the series were noticable not as gripping, and after I learned Cameron sold the rights to the Terminator films after Judgement Day, it was easy to see why, as Cameron wasn't working on them.

I recall Cameron in several interviews I have watched on YouTube, one of which I have already mentioned, where he is discussing actors, characters and the roles they play and his thought processes behind them. Cameron states something roughly along the lines of 'if the T-800 is like a human Panzer tank, the T-1000 had to be like a Porsche," which I found to be an insight into the way Cameron wants his actors portrayed. He has one many awards for many different areas and frequently works on his films as more as just the director; he also writes, edits and produces some films. He has directed two of the highest grossing films of all time, Titanic and Avatar which earned over $4 billion combined, without adjusting for inflation.

I acknowledge I'm far from Cameron's status or quality, but I do acknowledge myself as able to write. I've done enough creative writing and I think I'm up to the task of writing a full script. Post production editing is not my strong point and it's a disadvantage I intend to address. Though I do often acknowledge it's uses and know what I want from footage when I get to the post production film. Producing is something I read up as knowing a good network of people to work with.

Cameron is one of my directing idols because he has a clear vision of what he wants to get out of a film and I can familiarize myself with that. I don't not think of myself as uncompromising and narrow on a group project, though if I were to fully write, direct, and produce my own film at some point in the future, I would still appreciate input - but would not compromise on something I did not even slightly agree with. I would have an idea and I would see it realized in my own way.

My Role as a Director

"Directors are responsible for overseeing creative aspects of a film under the film producer. They often develop the vision for a film and carry the vision out, deciding how the film should look, in other words they make their vision come to life. They are responsible for turning the script into a sequence of shots. They also direct what tone it should have and what an audience should gain from the cinematic experience. Film directors are responsible for deciding camera angles, lens effects and lighting with the help of the cinematographer, and set design with the production designer. They will often take part in hiring key crew members. They coordinate the actors' moves, or blocking, and also may be involved in the writing,financing, and editing of a film.

The director works closely with the cast and crew to shape the film. Some like to conduct rigorous rehearsals in preproduction while others do so before each scene. In either case, this process is essential as it tells the director as well as other key members of the crew (director of photography, stunt choreographer, hair stylist, etc.), how the actors are going to play the scene, which enables them to make any necessary adjustments. Directors often use storyboards to illustrate sequences and concepts, and a director's viewfinder to set up camera angles.

The director also plays a key role in post-production. He or she works with the editor to ensure that the emotions of the scene and the close ups, mid shots and wide or long shots appropriately reflect which character is driving the narrative. The director also advises on the (color) grading of the final images, adding warmth or frigidity to the composition of the shots to reflect the emotional subtext of the character or environment. The director will sometimes participate in the sound mix and musical composition of the film. Promotion wise, if a director is well known his name and image is used to promote the film alongside the stars of the film, but having an image is not the primary function of a director, as they are judged off of their creative talent and ability to run a production. It is the second most powerful "behind the scenes" profession, behind the producer."

Wikipedia's summary of director I felt more connected to in the second film more so than the first one. I always referred to the original storyboard and worked closely with the storyboarder regarding and discussing shots and general cinematography. However, I felt I did most of the above things more in the second film more than the first.

I composed a plan of what to do and how much time we would spend doing things when we found out we had a limited amount of battery to work with. I gave my input on the script and we reviewed lines before filming, and pre-discussed and choreographed the fight scene in the script, and discussed what lighting and mood we were looking for in the shot we were taking so that the rest of the group understood. I suggested that the focus of the camera should stay on Tim, as from a narrative value, my character was a ghost - never really there and not always the focus. I made use of the natural lighting by filming exaggerated shadows and other impromptu decisions such as including foilage in the shot.


I gave out most of the acting instructions where necessary, including but not limited to where and when to enter or exit the shot, minor mannerisms that contribute to the realism of the situation e.g breathing into hands, and scene where Tim falls over. I considered what shots were appropriate and which ones weren't, and made sure to include a variety of both long shots and closer shots, making use of the landscape, and minor decisions from whether to pan in which direction in the shot, or whether or not we would employ the use of a slow or quick zoom.

I made judgements on what would work best with the rest of the film and which gave the right mood. I didn't compromise on any takes I wasn't happy with and was very careful to avoid continuity errors where possible. One example of this was remembering there were other pedestrians in the shot where I walk out of the residence in the first film, who would not be behind me in the second. I had the scene shot again with fewer noticeable pedestrians which worked better with the next shot we took. Another example in the second film was to cut out the clip of a climber's helmet in post production that we didn't notice whilst filming - despite waiting for them to get out of shot.

On the first film I didn't play much of a hand in the post production at all - Wizzy and Yoni came in on a friday and did the editing. On the second film I wanted to see the post production myself and arranged the timeline. The film clips in total came to over 7 minutes and I shortened it down to just under 4. I suggested altering the storyline slightly under the impression that the film strictly had to be 2 minutes long, and if we shortened the clips down too much, they would not have length enough to create any sort of dramatic effect. That decision had some mixed feedback, but clearly more criticism than necessary. I decided to let it go and see if the film could be shortened enough, and whilst it didn't have the lengthy shots and dramatic effect I filmed for, we had enough footage to work with and it came out well. 

I browsed for sound effects from the BBC library such as wind, footsteps and other sounds that we may have ended up using or not using altogether, and gave my opinion on what music we should use before making a joint decision with the editor on what track to use. I then asked the storyboarder whether he wanted a track, to which he asked do we need one? I respected his input as a storyboarder, but I felt at least the first half of the film with no dialogue would have been good with music.

Even More Filming Again - Again!

When we arrived back in Ilkley more after a faster trip, given we were more familiar with the way there now, we noticed it was much better weather, accurate to the weather forecast checked on earlier. We went back to our previous location, discussed what we would be filming, and began without much hassle. As the day progressed, we recieved some nice weather, and I think we all appreciate how lucky we were to get such good footage in our shots. It was described as having all four seasons, as we had filmed both the dull dampness of autumn, the cold of winter, the brightness of spring and the sunlight of summer towards the end of the film.

We also used the boom pole microphone to record dialogue audio, and we had to be careful with what we filmed soundwise. I decided if necessary I would make use of the BBC sound library to fill in what we couldn't get.

The 'fight scene' we conducted took many takes from many different angles though in my own opinion, upon reflection, I would have wanted more. Still, working with what we had, I think we achieved a good result. We had a lot of footage and I thought perhaps that the fight scene might need to be scrapped and we could change the film's plot slightly into something that was still narrative driven but not as abstract, but with enough post production we found workaround and brought the overall length of the film closer to 2 minutes.

I played my part in arranging the artstyle and cinematography of the second film a little more than the first one. In the first film I was always acting and could never see the shots until they were made, or have them set up using someone else to model for the shot. In the second film though I was not infront of the camera until the second day of shooting, and was able to hold the camera and take a few of the shots myself, as well as the normal arranging of my own shots.

I worked in respect with Tim's storyline and consistantly referred to what happens in the storyboard, what angle and at what distance this scene must be shot, and why this specific shot would work well when followed by the next shot. I would like to think that at some point we often thought about shots in their pairs, and would not consider the first without also considering what would happen after, analysing whether it would look strange or out of place in comparison to other shots used throughout the rest of the film. We also captured the same scene using many different shots and camera angles, as demonstrated with the fight scene at the end, but more subtley so when the character I play extends a hand towards Tim's character in order to help him off the ground.

Starting to Film, Again

When starting film number 2, we decided to begin filming on a friday we had off, following a storyboard also composed by another one of the group members. I felt it would have been a good idea to film during the week and make use of the time but was comfortable to film on the friday regardless, even though I had some plans to hand in some papers regarding my new residence next year.

I wanted to make use of the scenery with a long distance landscape shot of the scenery and had the idea of turning it into a timelapse, by speeding up the clip. I didn't want to spend too long filming them though as we would likely only end up using a few seconds of the clip and worked by percentages. For example, taking 30 seconds of footage and speeding it up by 100% would make it last 15 seconds long. If we wanted it at 200%, it would last 7.5 seconds long.

I consistently referred to Tim, the storyboarder, as to what approaches we would take. We had both worked on the script for the dialogue earlier on in the day and refined it, changing out some words and replacing some lines as well as setting down the choreography for a fight scene that would take place later on. I brought up the idea of introducing a sound effect to make my voice sound more ghostly, as to avoid the same criticism we received in our first film in the concept of anchoring meaning to an actor's role. I wanted some of the wildlife and foilage in the shots, plants and such, and a distinct switch between long-shot and close shot in order to establish the remoteness of the location.

Later on, our story boarder and simultaneous lead actor for this particular film Tim had to feign falling over and passing out from the cold. I suggested earlier that he breath into his hands and mimic typical behaviour one does when they are cold. We took many shots of this and it took a while to get a result I would agree with. Some of the takes looked too scripted and too acted, e.g and I eventually decided to call out to Tim some suggestions of what to do whilst collapsing. All this involved was telling him to drop the bottle he was holding as he fell, rather than before he fell, fold his arms as if struggling for warmth and eventually fall over.

I tried to resolve any creative conflicts via voting or agreement. If two people agreed with a shot whilst another was unsure, we would go with ahead with the shot, as I did not want to delay filming for reasons even they aren't sure of. If there is still some disagreements, we carry out practice shots, live shots, and re-watch the footage and analyse it, and if necessary, compare it to another shot or angle to decide which to use. In some situations we will agree to make some decisions later on, but in the case that they don't, we usually decide there and then what shot we will end up using.

I knew that since in this film there were certain things we wanted to portray; the character Tim was playing would descend into a weaker state of mind and health, until he became so dizzy and cold that he passed out. I portrayed this through the use of specific shots that would portray this, such as the tilted shot close to the ground, progressively shakier camera and handheld shots. Some of these involved me carrying the camera whilst walking backwards, unable to see where I was going. Another suggested shot for the same clip was for Tim to walk along holding the camera infront of him, but I thought it would be easier on the actor and have a better degree of accuracy than Tim trying to hold it infront of him whilst keeping it pointed at his face. The idea of the shot was to keep Tim's head in the center whilst the world around him moved. I liked the concept of the shot and I have seen it used before, and for what it was being applied to, it was being used for, would have been good. But the effect we achieved when we tried the same thing was not of the same caliber.

Our post-production editor had a car, which was doubtless a great asset which I think we made good use of. We drove up to Ilkley Moor for the shoot and decided we would try and film it all on the same day. Things went well, and the weather was appropriate for a fim based on a poem named 'Sulking Winds'. We got some good footage and only had occasional problems with shots such as pedestrians, climbers, the rain getting on the lens and other problems which worsened.

The weather got very cold, very windy and very wet. We were all practically freezing to death and we didn't want to risk the equipment getting damaged so we packed up, and since the weather looked like it wasn't going to stop any time soon, decided to head back and resume filming on the monday after the weekend.

On reflection it was definitely an interesting day of filming and quite an experience. The footage, upon viewing, we decided was well worth the effort and much more fitting and appropriate to what we were filming.

Continuing to Film

At the start of the day we learned that we may not be able to get ahold of the camera we used last time we filmed, but was also integral and key to the film. I learned that it is not good to rely so heavily on a prop that we do not have access to 100% of the time, as it basically falls down to coincidence whether we could film it or not. Fortunately, we were able to obtain it.

When we began filming again, we noticed we were low on battery and production was immediately put on hold so that we could charge the camera's battery. We learned there and then that it was worth checking the camera's battery way before actually filming, and ensuring to put it on charge, as it could have easily charged overnight and saved us all some hassle. We summarised we had to let it charge for at least 1 and a half hours, and since we had to hand the camera back at 4 in the evening, our time was limited. We sat down and went into some more detail about the scenes we would film. In the previous day we had many many shots and takes of each scene, and it was not something we could repeat with the levels of battery we were going to film with. We brought up a set of rules, to turn the camera off after each shot and only take each scene a maximum of 3 times, so we needed everything we could to be perfect. It didn't start off too well, many taxis were parked outside and there were lots of pedestrians. We asked some taxis to temporarily relocate and also waited for pedestrians to move before we started filming some scenes, picking up where we left off the next day.

When we got to Hyde Park there were some more discussions about possible good shots, although I insisted we stick to the plan we had so we don't run off on ideas we -might- use, and instead get all the footage we definitely need before the camera runs out of battery or we need to head back. Any ideas that were quick and easy to film were done though, if they contributed a level of cinematic value.

In some shots I forgot to take off the lens cap, meaning we could not use any shots where the lens would point at the camera. It was a silly mistake to make, but it does reinforce that even silly mistakes like this can have a big impact on what footage you could use without purposely utilizing clips with a continuity error.

In the end we got all the footage we wanted, though perhaps not as in detail and as well executed as we had obtained on the first day, where we had more time, as much battery as we wanted with on-scene access to a charger, and no need to carry the equipment round as much.


When we watched films at the crit I noticed in comparison to the other films, we had used a lot more shots.

The primary feedback we got was that in the shot at the end, we needed to anchor some meaning to the fact that the only other person in the film was in fact a ghost of the main character's former protagonists best friend. I agree upon reflection that not enough was done with what footage we had to portray it the way we intended, although we were quite constricted for time when filming. I plan to introduce some footage or pictures of us in a similar way to the appropriately named 'Marvel style intro' at the start so that they are interpreted as a flashback and the audience becomes aware of what the character is thinking in the shot, and can establish that the other character we see in the vanish in the shot is the same deceased person we saw in the flashbacks.

Beginning to Film

After the instructional videos we were asked what roles we preferred when making the videos. Divided into post production, director, producer, camera and storyboarding, I joined a group as a director willing to act in the films. I did this for two reasons. Firstly, I would like to think I can make decisions quickly and work to get the most out of a situation and take whatever opportunities I could get. I trust myself more than other people to make decisions that will be beneficial but not necessarily always the best decision. Secondly I have acted for film projects before, namely in college for a friend's film studies project.

 I consult with the rest of the group often and tried to encourage collaboration, e.g everyone creating and discussing a storyboard, carrying out a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) analysis, and make joint decisions on the art direction whilst referring to the storyboard and the storyboard artist. Compromises were made every so often but I feel the end result to what we will get done is beyond what I or any one person could achieve on their own.

The storyboard I suggested was this, but in the end we decided to go with another groupmember's storyboard in pursuit of a more narrative driven storyline after feedback from other course members. We produced each storyboard by taking the most important words out of the most important lines in the poem and agreed that we would build our scenes to reflect the themes within these words.

We developed the storyboard we chose with scene explanations and how we might portray them as I did with mine.

Letter of Request for Liberty Park

Whilst filming for our first film project at my student residence at Liberty Park, we were spotted by staff who alerted me to the fact that written permission was needed to film on location. Naturally, I assumed this was so the student accodation knew that what we were filming would not misrepresent the residence in any way they would not agree with. We spoke with the administrator and learned that the film should not contain any sex, drugs, or violence. As our film involved no such themes, I composed this letter and earned permission from the administrator to film on sight. I took it upon myself to sort this out.

I also obtained a copy of the agreement of loaning equipment from the college to give the the administrator as well so that they were assured they would not be held accountable if any of it were broken there.

This wasn't something I was aware of during my instructional video, but as that video contained none of those themes either, no harm done I suppose.

In development of a first year (Level 4) film project at the Leeds College of Art, I am requesting permission to capture and record film footage of the Liberty Park student accommodation. The film is 2 minutes long and will be based on a poem, and will not contain any themes of sex, drugs, violence or any inappropriate behaviour that will represent Liberty Park in a negative manner. The equipment is loaned from the college and as such the filming group are responsible for it’s safekeeping and maintaining condition.

Sincerely

            Joel McCusker

Instructional Video

For the first part of the module in preparation for realising what role I would like to play in the production of films I would be making of later on, we were to produce a one minute long instructional video on whatever subject we wished. I made my video on how to prepare a curry using a recipe I had improved earlier on in the fortnite and felt it would not be overly challenging to film in terms of location, and would allow me to focus more on shots, cinematography, and take into account variables such as lighting whilst eliminating other possible obstructions such as weather conditions.

I asked my flatmate to film and basically told her what I would be doing. I said that I would not be recording sound, believing I would use a soundtrack in place of the video sound. However, I did use the video sound, albiet at a quieter level. I had the shots focused mostly on the hands and had text to detail any necessary information about what I was doing, e.g which ingredients to cut and how to cut them, and how long to cook the ingredients for (roughly). Curry is fairly simply to make and my own recipe was no exception.

Some feedback I got on the video was that some of the handheld shots I took without the tripod were quite shaky. I agreed and acknowledged that I should keep the camera zoomed out when handheld to reduce the shakiness of the shot, or simply have the camera brought around on the tripod. However, I also insist that the shots were viable, useful and informative. I received some questions on why I included the sound of people talking in the background. 

I explained it was to give the video a less professional, ameteur portrayal of my cooking and reflect my home life. I made the video somewhat comedic, e.g pop culture phrases such as 'like a boss'and 'epic success'. This was purely to make uncomplicated actions and procedures seem overly rewarding and dramatic. The video had an informal feel to it which was my original concept. I also kept the sound of the food being fried in order to make the food seem appetizing, which I think worked quite well considering I get hungry every time I watch it.

I know the video is far from perfect I recieved some good comments and feedback via anonymous and various internet users and subscribers to my YouTube account. Some were impressed by it and were not aware that this project has in fact been my first real attempt at editing a video.