Pre-Production -
Final Product -
Learning Journal -
Idea Generation:
The painting we chose for this project is called “Disappointed by love”. It features a woman in white attire sitting alone with her head hung in what appears to be a mixture of sadness & exceptional loneliness. She’s seated by some water and surrounded by greenery.
From this, my team and I analysed the painting as much as we could, and our interpretation was that she was alone in some sort of forest, perhaps trapped? We weren’t entirely sure how to portray that in our micro film until we decided upon shooting everything from her point of view. The camera became her eyes and from there we tried to tell a very implicit narrative of a woman wandering aimlessly through nature, for she is lost and alone, entirely through camera work and context of the original painting.
Furthermore, there’s a poem by the name of “shut out” by Christina Rossetti that we thought thematically matches our concept quite well. This is seen in lines such as; “My garden, mine, beneath the sky, Pied with all flowers bedewed and green” , “Or give me, then, but one small twig from shrub or tree; and bid my home remember me until I come to it again” etc. Ultimately in my final edit I thought it better to let the micro film exist as a piece of its own without throwing the poem in there, as I thought it might take away from the calm, slow, and simple vibe of my film.
This wasn’t our first concept for this project, we actually put together a collage of paintings and picked ones we liked the most to try and decide on one to base our film off of. One of our earliest ideas was to select a painting of Sisyphus pushing the boulder up the mountain. Considering Sisyphus and his situation is meant to be an allegory for the human condition, we found o
urselves slightly out of our depth and unsure that we would be able to portray the ideas of the Tale of Sisyphus in our micro film, so we decided against it. In the same thought we also considered the ‘Fallen angel’ painting but ran into a very similar issue.
Pre-production:
When we decided upon the painting that we wanted to take inspiration from, conversations about filming locations and styles began immediately. We also looked at the poem named “shut out” that I mentioned previously, and we had originally planned to combine the implications of the painting and the narrative of the poem to create a visual guide. In the poem, there exists a woman locked out of this forest. We weren’t entirely sure how we would like to portray that, and so we decided to focus on filming nature and the surroundings as if the camera itself was the woman.
Personally, I liked the idea of the woman being trapped within the forest more compelling than the opposite, and that’s why I ultimately decided to take only inspiration from the poem rather than wholly base the micro film off of the poem.
One of our original ideas was to do more of a poem reading, where we would have tried to match the visuals with the words in the poem more, but of course in the end I opted for a more implicit, music-oriented final edit.
We also created a mood board / visual shot list that we referenced while filming to keep our vision in focus, e.g. the shots of the water, and of the trees.
Challenges and sollutions
Transforming your idea to reality from concept can be very difficult. We had many things we wanted to do or ways in which we wanted to do them that had to be changed once we got to filming and/or editing.
Firstly, we had to reschedule filming twice, since the days that we wanted to film on ended up being riddled with rain. Luckily, we pre-checked the weather and didn’t go to film unaware of the predicted weather conditions.
We also originally planned to have a subject, a woman wearing white just like in the painting, however we weren’t able to secure an actor before we needed to film, and we thought that perhaps we could do a poem reading as I mentioned previously, and our idea developed from there. We took our situation and made the best of it, slightly changing concept to account for the lack of an actress, which personally I think was for the best.
We also had to brainstorm potential locations for filming. This was quite easy as my group and I just thought about local locations that feature lots of greenery, water and some wildlife. In the end we went to Leasowes Park, which is local to our friend Jade.
While filming, there weren’t too many challenges or issues, but one thing that happened a lot that we didn’t account for was the amount of people that would be around, walking through our shots etc. Leasowes Park is a popular location for locals to go on walks, especially with their dogs, so filming there during the morning / afternoon on a Monday might not have been the best planning, but it worked out perfectly fine with very minor delays.
Production decisions
One of our saving graces was our decision to shoot most of our shots with the tripod, to ensure that they were clean and stable. That’s not to say that we didn’t shoot handheld, because we did, but using the tripod for the majority of our scenes was definitely the right decision, especially since we didn’t originally plan on it until we prepared to book equipment, at which time we had a conversation about it and decided it best to bring one.
A more creative key decision that we made a few times while filming was to rack focus here and there. This added another layer to our micro film and added to the aesthetic. We didn’t rack focus very many times, and in my final edit I think we only do it once, but to me it feels like icing on the cake rather than a core part of our film.
This decision came quite naturally, considering our reference painting, location of filming and general concept, but nonetheless we opted for 100% natural lighting for every scene. We did bring a reflector with us as a part of our kit but we didn’t end up needing it.
I’ve spoken a little bit about how we decided to film with no actress, but that was a huge decision regarding how our film would come across. It was something that we were hesitant to do initially, but as things developed and everything started to fall into place, we realised that this was a great opportunity to create something unique.
My filmmaking style tends to contain very still shots, with the subject(s) entering and exiting the frame as they wish rather than the camera moving to capture a subject. To me, this style of cinematography is really immersive, it’s almost like you’re in the film watching things happen around you while you sit completely still, unnoticed by the subject(s). With this in mind I originally intended to shoot this film in a similar way, though in the end we decided that more camera moment would be more thematically / narratively accurate, as the camera is supposed to be the eyes of the woman in the painting. There are still some shots that are still and lack camera movement, but the large majority of them feature some sort of panning or sway.
Unforseen challenges
As I mentioned previously, there were a handful of times at which we had to either pause filming or delay filming due to people walking through our shot. Working around the public can be troublesome when filmmaking, and this experience, though not on the extreme side of public interference, taught me that. This was of minor disturbance and never lasted more than a few seconds, though to avoid it next time we could film somewhere less popular for walking, or alternatively shoot on a different day or at a different time of day as to minimise the number of people we would encounter when filming.
Another unforeseen challenge was that rain started to fall near the end of the shooting day, so we had to cut ourselves a little bit shorter than we originally expected / wanted, however since it was near the end of the day, we had already filmed a substantial amount of footage and so we were alright with leaving when we did. It’s always important to dress according to the weather and be prepared to protect kit from rain if you’re expecting it. The best way to prevent unexpected rain is to simply check the weather before and during filming
Competency
I have had experience as a director of photography previously when working on a short film, but this project more than that one really challenged me and my skills, since this project is almost purely visually focused. Something that is still admittedly difficult for me is the selection of camera settings. Sometimes I struggle to select the correct ISO, or Iris, for example, and it can take me a minute to have everything set up. This project forced me to do more setting tweaking than ever before, since we were shooting outside in a non-controlled environment with natural lighting etc, and I became more confident and competent in this area because of it. With time, experience and some support from my crew, I was able to improve my knowledge and technical skill with the camera.
Furthermore, before editing this micro film I didn’t know how to colour grade whatsoever, but during my time editing this project i learned more about what colour grading does, how to do it and why it needs to be done.
Approach to post-production:
Editing is where my ideas solidified, and I decided what kind of micro film I wanted to make. The mindset I had when I started editing was that I wanted to make something with no subject or dialogue, but still containing an implicit narrative. I approached it as if I were creating an aesthetic silent film that goes hand in hand with the music. This resulted in a unique, slow, and implicit melancholy-feeling micro-film.
The sound effects were very simple but effective. I had a constant forest ambience sound effect playing throughout almost the entire film, as well as the sound of running water that was present whenever running water was on screen. This was done to immerse the audience in the piece for its entire duration. I also found that without the sound effects the film felt a bit empty, like it was lacking atmosphere and needed to be more grounded. The sound effects fixed this issue and added some depth to the piece.
Colour grading this film was quite simple but majorly needed. Before colour grading, every scene had a grey-Ish tint to it, but once I colour graded it, it was much more vibrant. It’s as if a breath of fresh air was blown into the film and it looked much more accurate to how it did in real life.
Self reflection
This creative process taught me many valuable lessons regarding pre-production, production and post-production.
One thing I learned was to work with what you have. When you begin filmmaking, you won’t have everything at your disposal, so you do your best with what you do have at your disposal. For example, we weren’t able to secure an actress, so we took a route that didn’t require one and created something different.
Another thing that I was reminded about while working on this project is to always check the weather and plan ahead. Checking the weather before filming will allow you to select filming days without worry, and checking the weather while filming prevents you from being caught in the rain unexpectedly.
This project also allowed me to develop some skills that I lacked before. Not only did I learn how to colour grade, but I was given the opportunity to refresh all of my premiere pro knowledge.
All of these things will be remembered and brought with me.
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