Tag: transitions

Project 8: A new Mosjukhin experiment

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‘A new Mosjukhin experiment’

Brief: To create an abstract or emotionally expressive sequence of images that affect our interpretation of the main scene or shot.

  • Think of an emotion or situation that your character is going through.
  • Think of shots, movements, sounds and actions that express something of that emotion or situation.
  • Write a short script.
  • Shoot the actor. Keep it subtle. Run the camera a long time until you get an authentic take.
  • Shoot any of the ideas for shots which are the ‘counterpart’ of that emotion or situation.
  • Cut them together consecutively or place the images side by side in a diptych.

I began by thinking of an emotion or situation a character could be going through and the shots, movements, sounds and actions that express something of that emotion or situation.

It took several attempts before finding an idea I felt happy with. I settled on a character in a state of ‘turmoil’ after reading a letter.

I was unable to find anyone willing to act in the film, so I decided to point the camera on myself. This is something I don’t feel confident doing.

Logbook 4, pages 47-48. Initial ideas.

 

Logbook 4, page 49

 

Logbook 4, pages 51-52

I drafted a scenario in which a character receives a letter containing bad news. As the sequence needed a cutaway of a letter or document, I needed to be sure the contents were powerful enough the stimulate the appropriate emotion I had chosen for this film. However, I wanted to raise the stakes and create something more interesting than simply a letter arriving in the post. I tried several different documents, none of which felt right. Eventually I found and used an actual document that came to light while researching my family history several years ago.

In preparation for this project, I looked for examples of landscape and weather taking on an emotionally expressive role within films. One example that came to mind was the garden sequence in A Beautiful Mind (2001) in which an approaching storm prompts Nash’s wife to gather washing in from the line.

One thing I liked about Ron Howard’s approach in this sequence is the way in which the use of sound plays an integral part in building a sense of the character’s emotional content, in particular the garage door banging in the background.

So I decided to use a similar strategy in this film and introduce the sound of a banging door outside in the garden. I thought I’d use it as non-diegetic sound over the trees and then reveal the source of the banging as coming from the tool shed. I also thought the ‘banging’ would provide a good way of transitioning from the present to the past. So I added a shot in which the Man steps up to the tool shed and bangs the door closed, before cutting to the fist banging on the apartment door.

Logbook 4, page 50

 

Logbook 4, pages 53-54. Rough storyboard.

I filmed the main shots in Medium Close Up, framing the character from the shoulders/chest up to the top of the head. In The Filmmaker’s Eye (2010), Gustavo Mercado says the Medium Close Up showcases the face and because it includes a character’s shoulders, it lets the audience see small nuances of behaviour and meaning in their body language. He also explains that the short camera to subject distance results in a shallow depth of field which helps to isolate the character in the composition.

Mercado also points out that cinematographers generally use normal lenses with the Medium Close Up, which produce no optical distortion in the face. The closeness of the shot when used with a normal lens lets the audience see the emotions in the character’s face (Mercado, p.41). I wasn’t aware of this before reading The Filmmaker’s Eye.

I used a 35mm lens for the shots of the character indoors. Its focal length of 35mm (which equates approximately to 50mm on a full frame 35mm camera) enabled me to get the short camera to subject distance required for this shot size, and produced a pleasing image with no optical distortion.

Logbook 4, pages 61-62. Camera set-up.

The main scene was lit for the scene. Originally, I had planned to use an Arri 300 as the key light, with some CTB gel over the front to convert it from tungsten to daylight, to balance it with the natural light coming into the room through the floor to ceiling window behind the camera. However, once I had set up the shot, I realised there was enough daylight coming in through the floor-to-ceiling window behind the camera to act as the key light. So I moved the Arri away from the actor and used it to give a little extra light to the wall and bookshelf in the background, which helped to isolate the character in the frame.

I wanted to create a sense of foreboding in the image, so instead of using a fill light, I decided to use a black reflector to reduce the amount of light falling on the right side of the character’s face. I also wanted to be sure there was enough light falling on both sides of the face; in particular, I wanted to create a small triangle of light under the right eye. This required me to make small adjustments to my sitting position on the sofa in relation to the lens. Too far to the right, and the right eye would have been in shadow. Too far to the left and the black reflector would have had little effect on the right side of the face.

Shot 1

Shot 2

Shot 3

Shot 1 – Medium Close Up. 35mm lens, aperture T1.5. A static shot, with the camera positioned on the same level as the actor’s eye line.

Shot 2 – Close Up. 35mm lens, aperture T1.5. POV shot of the documents, clearly showing the hand-typed text with the author’s name.

Shot 3 – Medium Close Up. 35mm lens, aperture T1.5. A slow push in, with the camera positioned below the actor’s eye line, tilted up so we are looking up at the character from behind the document. The slow push in suggests there is something going on in the character’s head. The camera’s movement contrasts with the previous static shot.

For the ‘counterpart’ images, I wanted to use the natural elements as a way of expressing the inner emotional state of the character. The wind buffeted trees in the wood beyond the house seemed like the most dramatic way of conveying this. The wind blown trees became a metaphor for the character’s inner turmoil.

    

Shots 4, 5 & 6

Shots 4, 5 & 6 – static shots, with camera titled up at the trees. For each of these three shots, the movement generated by the wind is contained within the static frame. In selecting these shots, I wanted to give the impression that the character was at the mercy of external forces beyond his control. Placing the images of the wind blown trees after the shots of the character reading the documents helped suggest this.

Outwardly, nothing much seems to be happening; a character is sitting looking intently as some documents. But inwardly, there is turmoil. The image that immediately came to mind when I was planning this film was that of trees bending severely in a storm, swaying backwards and forwards, side to side; strong organic structures rooted to the ground, being buffeted by the wind. This image of wind blown trees acts like a visual metaphor in the way it represents the emotional content of the character, who is also being buffeted, hanging on, rooted to the ground.

Juxtaposing the wind blown trees after the close up of the character, helps create an emotionally expressive sequence of images that affects what the viewer thinks and feels, helps build tension and helps connect them with the character.

This had been a fascinating exercise to work on. Trying to create an emotionally expressive sequence of images for this project was difficult. The main thing I’ve learnt from this is that creating a scene that affects the viewer’s interpretation of a shot is all in the juxtaposition of the images used within the sequence. By connecting image of the character reading the manuscript and the image of wind blown trees together in this way, it was possible to stimulate thoughts and meanings within the viewer’s mind that are not contained in the original images alone. This is a very powerful storytelling tool.

One of the most useful technical things I have discovered while working on this project is that there is a relationship between shot size and lens choice. In this case, using a normal lens when shooting a medium close up will give a pleasing image with a shallow depth of field and no optical distortion. Which is particularly useful when you want the audience to see the emotions in a character’s face.

References

A Beautiful Mind (2001) Directed by Howard, R. [DVD] USA: Imagine Entertainment

Mercado, G. (2010) The Filmmaker’s Eye. London: Focal Press.

Reading: Examples of editing techniques

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Brief:

Look for examples of time being contracted or expanded in movies and write up your analyses of these on your blog.

I looked at a range of editing techniques used by filmmakers to represent the passage of time.

Transition wipes in ‘Star Wars’ (1977)

George Lucas uses transition wipes throughout ‘Star Wars’ to show the transition of time. He uses a range of wipes that give the film a comic book effect, like turning a page between scenes.

    

Shot 1 – Long shot of Luke Skywalker climbing aboard landspeeder
Shot 2 – Long shot of land speeder

Lucas uses a straightforward wipe from left to right across the screen to skip from Luke Skywalker climbing into the land speeder and to him racing through the landscape a few moments later. This helps keep up the momentum of the action, moving things quickly along from one scene to the next. The direction of the wipe, from left to right, follows the movement and pace of the land speeder, wiping across the first shot of C-3PO and R2-D2 watching Luke get onto the vehicle.

    

Shot 1 – Long shot of sandscrawler
Shot 2 – Medium Long Shot of stormtroopers

Lucas uses a clock wipe between two scenes to show the passage of time between night and day. The wipe sweeps clockwise around the scene, revealing the Imperial stormtroopers searching for C-3PO and R2-D2 in the desert. The clock wipe is provides a comic-like transition showing the passage of an extended period of time, from C-3PO and R2-D2 inside the sand crawler to the stormtroopers int he desert.

Foreground wipe in ‘Stranger Things’ (2016)

  

Shot 1 – Close up of character centre frame, looking at laptop
Shot 2 – Close up of character centre frame, from behind

A more recent use of the transition wipe. In the first shot, we see Eleven looking at the screen of a laptop. The camera tilts down, filling the screen with the back of the laptop. From there, the camera tilts up, revealing the back of a chair in another location in which Eleven is sitting. She is still seated, in close up, though in this shot she is seen from behind.

The technique is used here to transition into a flashback, a different time zone entirely. This is not simply the representation of the passage of linear time. It indicates an important shift in time and place, around a single character, revealing a scene in which we discover a little more about the character’s back story.

Transition cutaway in ‘Lawrence of Arabia’ (1965)

    

Shot 1 – MS/two shot
Shot 2 – Close up
Shot 3 – MS/two shot

David Lean uses a transition cutaway as a way of showing the passage of time and change of location.

Loud noise cut in ‘Don’t Look Now’ (1973)

  

Shot 1 – Close up
Shot 2 – Close up

 

 

Transition cut in ‘Seven’ (1996)

  

Shot 1 – ELS
Shot 2 – MS/two shot

An example of a straight cut to show the passage of time within the same setting.

In the first shot, we see detectives Somerset and Mills on a sofa in the precinct hallway. This cuts to the next shot, in which we see the same two characters asleep on the sofa.

The transition indicates the passage of several hours. This is reinforced with the title card indicating we are now into Thursday, the next day of the investigation.

Fade to black in ‘Fitzcarraldo’ (1982)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Towards the end of ‘Fitzcarraldo’, Herzog uses a fade to black to indicate an extended passage of time. Do Aquilino offers to buy Fitzcarraldo’s ship. Fitzcarraldo tells the crew that Aquilino is the new owner of the ship. Fitcarraldo takes the Captain aside and hands him some money and asks him to buy to items, then whispers an instruction in his ear.

It is clear that a significant amount of time has passed between Fitzcarraldo’s conversation withe the Captain and the arrival of the boats from Iquitos. The fade to black at this point in the film also acts as an important structural device within the overall narrative. It marks the end of the main bulk of the story, Fitcarraldo’s failed business venture into the jungle and his attempt to take the ship overland between two tributary rivers. It marks the beginning of the final sequence, in which Fitcarraldo fulfils his dream of bringing opera to the native indians.

Transition dissolves in ‘The Grapes of Wrath’

John Ford uses the dissolve in the opening sequence of ‘The Grapes of Wrath’, in which we see Tom Joad travelling home on foot following his release from jail. The film opens with an extreme long shot (ELS) of Joad walking towards camera along an empty highway, with crossroads in the foreground.

The shot is cut and dissolves into a second shot from the same camera position, this time showing Joad approaching and walking through the crossroads we had seen in the previous shot. The dissolve indicates a short passage of time. The second shot pans with the character as he walks through frame, revealing a roadside restaurant with a truck parked outside.

Transition dissolves in ‘Dr Zhivago’

A wonderfully composed sequence demonstrating an economy of shots. In this sequence there are nine shots, covering a screen time of 3 minutes 18 seconds.

This example shows how you can develop a narrative covering an extended period of time with only a handful of shots.

The sequence, starting in Yuriatin Park and ending in Varykino, contains three transition dissolves:

  1. between shots 1 and 2
  2. between shots 6 and 7
  3. between shots 8 and 9

The first dissolve indicates a fairly short passage of time, between Lara and Yuri leaving the park and arriving in the lane leading up to Lara’s apartment.

Shot 1 – LS of the two characters sitting on a bench in the park. They stand and walk through frame, from right to left.

Dissolve – creates an overlay of white graffiti and a red star painted on a wall

Shot 2 – as the dissolve completes, the two characters enter the frame from the right, creating an MS/two shot. The camera pans with the two characters as they walk along the lane away from the camera, creating a Long Shot of the characters. The camera holds for a few seconds, then tilts up, revealing the window of Lara’s apartment in MS.

Shot 3 – cut to interior of Lara’s apartment.

The first dissolve in this sequence contracts time, cutting out the bulk of their walk from the park to the apartment.

It also creates in interesting graphic quality, hinting at the turmoil of revolution underpinning the story.

In the second dissolve, the passage of time from Lara and Yuri entering in the apartment to waking up the following morning, cutting out the intervening evening and night.

Shot 6 – MS of the two characters, centre frame, kissing

Dissolve – creates an overlay of the rooms of the apartment

Shot 7 – MS of Lara’s apartment. Through an open door in left of frame we can see movement in the bed and the sun rise through the bedroom window. We can also see a vase of daffodils on a table at the right edge of the frame, presaging the field of daffodils two shots later.

One thing I have learned from my analysis of the ‘transition’ as an editing technique is that it needs to be seen within the context of the whole sequence in which it is employed.

The dissolve, for instance, is not simply a cross-fade between two shots. It is much more than a decorative way of joining two images within a film together.

With the opening sequence of ‘The Grapes of Wrath’, the three dissolves are key to portraying the progression of time within the narrative flow. They allow Ford to contract time within the opening of the film, by skipping the irrelevant events and emphasising the important moments of Tom Joad’s journey home on foot: Joad walking along the dust highway; Joad hitching a ride in a truck; the conversation between Joad and the truck driver; and Joad meeting Cory at the roadside.

The three dissolves in the ‘Reunited’ sequence in ‘Dr Zhivago’ perform a similar function, contracting time in order to emphasise the key moments within the scenes at this point in the story: Yuri’s first impressions of Lara’s apartment; and Yuri and Lara in bed the following morning.

I think these three dissolves also perform a secondary graphic function in the way that they link the scenes together: the barren patch of ground across which Yuri and Lara walk, overlaid with graffiti and the red star; the symmetrically framed couple kissing, overlaid with the empty apartment from a different angle; the close up of the couple in bed, overlaid with a field of yellow flowers.

Contracting time, whether through a transition or any other editing technique, is fundamental to moving image storytelling.