Category: Academic Contexts

#In The Blink Of An Eye

14/03/16 – EC

Working on “Blood Runs Thick” will be my first experience in editing a film, due to this inexperience I read through extracts of Walter Murch’s book In The Blink Of An Eye: A Perspective On Film Editing for advice on the editing process. From reading Murch’s book I learnt a number of techniques for editing and also how to be in the correct mind-set to edit. In one particular chapter, ‘Seeing Around The Edge Of The Frame’, Murch discusses how an editor should only focus on what is in the image and not the context behind making it e.g. if the shot was particularly difficult to shoot. Another valuable piece of advice I got from In The Blink Of An Eye was to “Always try to do the most with the least”, meaning to create meaning through editing without being too complex for the viewer. From reading this book, I am more confident with my first chance to edit. For the technical side of editing, I did some research into the different types of cuts and edits and their uses and meanings, such as the cross-cut, cut away, cut in, cut out, cut too etc.

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#Formal and Stylistic Influences – Cinematography

JC- 14/03/2016

Over the past couple of months I have watched many TV programmes and films that have utilised certain styles and techniques of cinematography that I hope to incorporate into our final short. The ones that I have paid most attention to are:

Frank Spotnitz’s TV series – The Man In the High Castle (2015-)

The series depicts a post war dystopian future where America is occupied by Japanese and Nazi forces. Furthermore the series is beautifully shot and does well to create a gloomy overbearing sense of occupation and alienation. Many scenes are shot in dimly lit spaces that make the most of 45 degree angle lighting to cast harsh shadows on the characters’  faces. To continue, the series is shot using a lot of shallow depth of field which in turn guides and isolates the spectator’s attention to the important subjects in the shot. The series also makes use of Nourish lighting; it is these techniques that I will incorporate into our short.

Carol Reed – The Third Man (1949)

The film portrays the tale of a pulp novelist who travels to postwar Vienna and ends up investigating a death of an old friend named Harry Lime. The film is a classic British Noir which stylistically coheres to the style that has influenced the ways in which I work and from which I will continue to draw inspiration. Again, 45 degree lighting is used to provide harsh shadows on the characters’ faces. The film makes great use of canted angles – another technique I aim to incorporate into our short at times of discomfort, confusion and alienation.

Brian Helgeland – Legend (2015)

The film tells the story of the infamous Kray twin brothers in East End London. The film does well to frame the brothers in many two-shots and uses many low angle shots to emphasise the power and danger the pair hold and represent. Being a British gangster film, it does utilise some Noirish lighting techniques I like and aim to use on our short. However, the systematic low angle two-shots are the technique that influenced me for our short. I aim to frame Chris and Steve like this in situations where they have the upper hand on the overbearing psychotic criminal father Zed.

 

 

 

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#On Film Editing

14/03/16 – EC

Before reading In The Blink Of An Eye (W, Murch. 2001) I read a more introductory book about editing titled On Film Editing (E, Dmytryk. 1984) to familiarize myself with the basic terminology. To begin the book in the introduction it explains how important to the filmmaking process editing is, claiming “Without it, the best movie would be only a photographed stage play, and the ‘art of cinema’ would have remained an unarticulated phrase” [reference], meaning that without the practice of editing, films would not be able to be brought to life,  as each film would be a single static shot

Dmytryk also discusses how he feels that sometimes the editor is the most important member of a film crew, “there is one craftsman without whom a film could hardly come into being – an artist who has it in his power to mold, improve, and even recreate a motion picture.”[reference], which I disagree with as in our particular case, Blood Runs Thick is a shared vision between our crew. Although I do understand the importance of editing, I feel it is no more or less important than any other role.

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#Sound

6/3/16 EC

[the first part of this is very similair to the ‘sound on set’ post]

As we touched on in our technical pilot video, I will be recording sounds separately using a audio recorder and syncing the picture and audio together in the edit. This is so we can have emphasised sounds and create more of a landscape of sound

We are also in the process right now of finding someone who can create an original score for the film. The shared vision for the music at the moment is jazz beats, something to fit the noir/crime tone of the film. Right now we don’t have any to share as when we have found someone to do it I will send them footage for visual inspiration. By having the music created after seeing the sequences it will be played over will help the musician keep in time with the beat and pace of the film and in turn making the soundtrack flow better with the images.

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#Editing

6/4/16 EC

The editing process is going to take place for roughly two weeks after we have wrapped production on filming. These two weeks gives me time to make sure I piece the film together to the best of my ability and compliment the work the director and cinematographer have done. When it comes to sitting down to edit all the footage together I am going to approach it in chronological order and achieve a number of rough cuts. The vision I have for the film, editing wise, is a nicely paced narrative with soft edits, and hopefully I can include a “hidden” cut somewhere as influenced by the films of Alejandro G. Inarritu, most notably Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) [date] which was edited by both Douglas Crise and Stephen Mirrione. The reason behind my desire to include a hidden cut is, although it may not fit the genre, it is a technique that dates as far back as Alfred Hitchcock’s Rope[date] and it is a technique that has fascinated me since looking at film from an editors point of view.

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Concealed Weapon – Examples from The Godfather (1972) & Goodfellas (1990).

JO – 19/11/15

In the final sequence of the film, the plot will unfold that Chris and/or Steve aim(s) to kill Zed. In regards to the genre, style and tone of the film we are aiming to achieve, it seems only right to use a weapon such as a Revolver/Pistol/Handgun of some sort.

Whilst playing with this idea, I realised that this particular weapon can build suspense in the film and can have meaning. If the weapon is concealed throughout the film and not presented until the pinnacle moment of action, suspense will be built and will give way to an enticing narrative element. This idea is influential from work such as Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather (1972) in which Michael Corleone (Al Pacino) has a weapon planted for him in a restaurant toilet where he will assassinate a corrupt police officer and the head of a mob family.

godfather gun

Similarly, the significance of the gun can be explored through lingering shots, emphasising the guns power. The weapon remains hidden until the moment it is needed. The genre, style, action and narrative can imply that a gun will (probably) be used at some point and so thus the impact is heightened when it is finally revealed. By lingering on the gun in a close-up, the audience can view and analyse the weapon.

We aim to use this method towards the final sequence of our film. The use of the concealed weapon and the shock value of its use is the main evocation I aim to create. The value of shock, for example, is used in Martin Scorsese’s Goodfellas (1994) when Henry Hill (Ray Liotta) beats a mans face with the butt of a gun. This element of shock is what I want to create when the gunshot is heard within our films final scene.

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Opening Scene Inspiration – Goodfellas (1990), Once Upon a Time in America (1984)

JO – 2-11-15

The opening sequence in the plot of our film concerns the character Steve being collected by his brother Chris outside of prison. We have decided to work with the idea of this sequence as a constant tracking shot. From this, we can focus the camera on certain parts, such as the close-up, establishing shot and long shot all in the same sequence. At crucial moments, the camera tracking movement will slow down so that we can create aesthetically pleasing photographic stills.

This sequence echoes my initial influences of the crime drama which can be taken from certain moments in Martin Scorsese’s Goodfellas (1990) such as the introduction to the older Henry Hill character, played by Ray Liotta which can be seen in this clip:

Similarly, to the sequence in Sergio Leone’s Once Upon a Time in America (1984) when Max (James Woods) collects Noodles (Robert De Niro) from prison. In accordance with our film and Goodfellas (1990), the theme of tracking up the body from feet to head shows growth of the character whether it just be ageing in Goodfellas, or showing the growth and change after prison life.

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