here are the items that i used to plan my scene assignment. i chose to recreate a scene from the 1999 film "OFFICE SPACE."
here are some visual references and a couple location ideas.
here's an idea of what i wanted the set to look like. i wanted a very boring, mundane look to match the feeling that makes OFFICE SPACE so relatable. it makes the viewers understand just how boring and undesirable a job like this actually is.
here's another shot of a typical modern conference room. we ended up shooting in a place similar to these pictures, but in my opinion the set location ended up being even better than my visual references. we were able to lightly decorate the set with items from the original film, as well as some new twists such as a looping slideshow and original set pieces and fan art.
Scene:
“Attack it!” from Black Swan (2009) [dir. Darren Aronofsky]
1. I chose a fairly simple
scene (yet very fast paced], with a few cool visual camera tricks. Nothing really happens in this
scene, other than helping to establish the roles of the main characters. It
opens on Thomas (French pronunciation – “Toe-Moss”), the director, telling Nina
to demonstrate her dance moves (this is a big deal because she’s getting a shot
at being the lead in the company’s largest production, Swan Lake. This is New
York City, and Nina is a young girl who could[possibly] be on her way top becoming one of the largest names in the
ballet industry).
2. The camera follows her
around to get a side view of Nina as she walks to the center, where she will
begin her routine. You can see in her eyes that she is very nervous. This is
her big chance.
3. Cut to a close-up of
Nina’s biggest enemy. These two are competing for this huge spot in the play.
You can see her hatred in her eyes, as if she wants to spit on Nina.
4. Cut back to Nina. This
shot establishes that Nina could see her enemy’s face, and that makes this
whole scene even a bit more nerve-wracking. To Nina, it seems like the world
wants her to fail.
5. Cut to a shot from
behind the piano, this shows us the expansive rehearsal room. We can see mirrors
all over every wall (making this entire film all the more outstanding), and
this angle gives us a fantastic view of the piano, Nina getting ready to dance
on our left, and we can see Thomas waiting in the distance. We can also see the
other top dancers (all of the dancers in this scene were chosen as being the
top dancers, meaning that they all have the opportunity to play the Swan Queen)
off in the distance.
6. This cut re-establishes
Nina’s constant focus on her goal. She’s as serious as a heart attack.
7. This small section is
the first bit of Nina’s movement that we get to watch. The camera tracks
forward as Nina spins with grace.
8. Here, we cut to a close
up tracking shot of Nina’s feet as she dances, showing the meticulous and hard
work that she puts in to be a great ballerina.
9. Cut to a close up shot
of Thomas, looking not extremely pleased. This shot establishes even more
pressure being put on Nina, making the scene even more suspenseful.
10. Cut to another
tracking shot of Nina, she continues to spin gracefully while Thomas spouts
more encouraging words at her.
11. Cut back to Thomas, a
close-up. We can see that he is not very impressed with Nina’s dancing skills.
He continues to shout “encouragingly”.
12. Cut back to Nina, she
looks extremely focused and in the zone as she spins magnificently as
ballerinas do.
13. We now cut to our
previous shot from behind the piano, showing the entire room. This shot
re-establishes that Nina is now standing directly in front of Thomas as she
dances.
14. Cut to a close-up on
Nina as she continues to dance. From this angle we can really see the
nervousness in her eyes. This is her dream.
15. This is the coolest
shot in the scene (in my opinion) – as Nina spins in front of Thomas, we cut
from Thomas’ perspective on shot 14 to Nina’s perspective, but because she is
spinning (rapidly), Aronofsky decided to have the camera spinning as well,
because he’s just really cool like that. So it spins twice, stopping
intermittently after a full spin to show Thomas shouting more at her.
16. We cut back to Thomas’
perspective and see the same thing repeated from a new perspective.
17. Cut again to Nina’s
spinning perspective, and we can see that Thomas is now stopping his shouting
as if to say that he has finally given up hope on Nina.
18. Cut to a slightly
changed (by maybe 45 degrees) angle to show a medium shot of Nina as she
continues to spin, but now she looks off as if she’s losing her concentration
due to external stimuli.
19. We now cut to Nina’s
perspective. Her gaze has shifted from Thomas to the door in the corner of the
room; she’s distracted by someone entering the room.
20. Cut to a medium shot
of Nina to show her losing her balance.
21. Cut to a lower angle
shot of this, more focused on her legs/feet to show the source of the
stumble/trip/fall/slip/whatever.
22. Cut to a medium shot
of Nina looking in the direction of the door, supposedly to get a better look
at the person responsible for distracting her in the middle of possibly the
most important audition of her life.
23. Cut to Nina’s
perspective, we see Mila Kunis’ character entering the room.
24. A continuation of shot
22 here, we see Nina look at Mila, then rub her head, showing her frustration.
25. Cut to a closer medium
shot of Mila’s character quietly apologizing for her disruption while removing
her earbuds.
26. Nina stares at Mila’s
char., possibly building a “who is this” story.
I think this scene is a
great example of more contemporary “auteur” film style, but even though this
isn’t classical Hollywood style, and it does have some interesting shots, it’s
executed in such a way that it doesn’t take the viewer out of the story in any
way. Actually, for me, it helps submerge me, because I’m actually seeing things
from different characters’ perspectives.
About 9 minutes
into this episode, there is a scene in which Matt is in the hospital operating
room to have his testicles removed. When he realizes that there will be no
anesthetic, he starts to get real antsy in his pantsy. He shakes back and
forth, as the camera (presumably) tracks to an XCU shot of his face. It’s
possible that it was a zoom, and not a tracking shot. The movement here is a
phenomenal example of “good motivated camera movement.” This scene really lets
you know what’s about to go down, and how scared Matt is about the whole
debacle.
Scene 2:Breaking Bad “Crawl Space”
This chilling
cliffhanger of an ending leaves us feeling paranoid and eager to learn what’s
the next move for Walter White. The camera movement, which I must say is
exceptionally awesome in this particular scene, is motivated through Walter’s
inner struggles, which would eventually turn into outer struggles if he doesn’t
hurry and get a move on. The thing is, he can’t get a move on because Skyler
gave all of the… No spoilers here. Basically, Walt finds out that shit is about
to go down HARD. So he runs home to pack up basic items and gather enough cash
to save his family. He finds out that he doesn’t have enough cash to save his
family, and basically loses his mind. The camera floats higher and higher above
him as he smiles in his twisted mind.
Scene 3:The Master (2012)
One of if not my
favorite films of all time, The Master,
has a scene which seems almost completely unplanned, but works out perfectly. It’s
a long take, filmed in one shot. At first, the camera stays still as Freddie
(Phoenix) nears the man getting his photo taken. Once they start fighting,
Freddie moves far back within the frame as the opposing man chases him around.
As Freddie starts to make his way stage-right, the camera tracks smoothly to
follow him. I love everything about this movie; it’s beautifully shot.
On No Film School's site, the first thing that caught my eye was a mention of Charlie Kaufman talking about animators. You've probably heard of Eternal Sunshine, or Adaptation, or his first classic feature Being John Malkovich; all magnificently written. My personal favorite is his directorial debut Synecdoche, New York. It's the most depressing movie I've ever seen, and it's fucking beautiful. I hope we're allowed to curse here. It's my blog, so I want to be real and honest and real honest. It's fucking beautiful. I haven't yet seen his latest work, Anomalisa, but It's one I've been looking forward to. It's fully animated, stop-motion made using 3D-printed puppets. Knowing Kaufman's work, it's surely a sad tale, and those are always the ones that are the most powerful and moving films in my experience. The work that goes into making a stop-motion film is tremendous. This is some of the most detailed, beautiful stop-motion animation that I have ever seen. If you haven't seen the trailer, here it is:
At first glance, I'm blown away by how lifelike these characters are. Not just how detailed and real they look, but the way they move, the way they speak; the entire process is phenomenal.
Anomalisa is the first R-rated film to be nominated for an Academy Award. I wanted to add a .gif from a scene in the movie involving cunnilingus, but I figured this blog should be somewhat SFW since it's for a class. So here's link to it: NSFW. I did not want to add this just for no reason other than it's sexual nature, but the extreme detail in his facial muscles, it looks so real; so human. I can't imagine how tedious this film must've been to make, but so relieving and empowering it must feel to finally be able to release to the public. I can't wait to see this film.
Another film, one that I've seen a few times now in theatres, The Revenant, has some very interesting filming techniques and gear used. Directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu, along with the same cinematographer he had with him on his previous Oscar-stealer Birdman, I was certain going into the film that it would be a magnificent visual experience.
Emmanuel Lubezki, the DP for The Revenant,used ARRI's Alexa 65 for the filming process. This was the first film to use the camera. Here are some specs I found from this No Film School article:
65mm Digital Cinema Camera
ARRI A3X CMOS sensor
5-perf 65mm (full camera aperture)
6560 x 3102 resolution (maximum recordable)
54.12 x 25.58 mm Sensor size (active image area)
Weight: 10.5 kg / 23.2 lb
ARRI XPL Mount (64mm diameter)
200 - 3200 ISO. Base is 800 ISO
Dynamic Range: >14 stops
Uncompressed ARRIRAW
LDS metadata
Electronic Shutter 5° - 358°, adjustable in 1/10° increments
0.75 to 27 fps (upgrade to 60 fps implemented in early 2015)
The most impressive use of gear (that I can think of from my recollection of seeing the film) is whatever Lubezki used to beautifully and fluidly switch from regular tracking within a long take to continuing that take but now following a horse trodding away. If you've seen the film, you know what I'm talking about. How the hell do they do that? I'd like to learn.
The film has been called by the crew the hardest thing they've ever done, with temperatures being in the -20s. Lubezki said that they experienced lots of issues with the gear due to these conditions, and at one point the monitors even froze. But it all paid off in the end. If you haven't seen it, go see it while it's still in theatres. I'm really feeling like Leo might finally grab that Oscar, despite his very low amount of dialogue. His acting surely made up for that.
I frequent /r/filmmakers, and they're always giving tons of tips and gear recommendations. Here's a list of subreddits full of filmmaking tips and tricks in all it's glory. There's bound to be at least one that piques your interest.
Slovis is an alumnus of NYU's Tisch School of the Arts.
Adam Arkapaw: True Detective cinematographer
Adam Arkapaw is an Australian cinematographer. He is best known for his work on the television series Top of the Lake and True Detective, for which he has won two Creative Arts Emmy Awards.
He studied at the University of Melbourne's Victorian College of the Arts, graduating in 2006 with a Bachelor of Film and Television.
n addition to numerous short films, Arkapaw photographed three Australian features over the next several years: Animal Kingdom (2010), Snowtown (2011), and Lore (2012).
He received a nomination for the AACTA Award for Best Cinematography in 2010 for his work on Animal Kingdom and in 2011 he was named one of Variety magazine's "10 Cinematographers to Watch".
Arkawpaw next worked on Jane Campion's television miniseries Top of the Lake, which was filmed in New Zealand and broadcast in 2013. That year he won a Creative Arts Emmy Award for Outstanding Cinematography for a Miniseries or Movie.
In 2014 he won his second Emmy Award, for Outstanding Cinematography for a Single-Camera Series, in recognition of his work on the HBO television series True Detective. True Detective was filmed in Louisiana and Arkapaw's cinematography received wide praise, especially for a six-minute single-take long take that was planned over months and took one and a half days to film.
Arkapaw was the cinematographer of the 2015 film Macbeth, directed by Justin Kurzel, with whom Arkapaw previously worked on Snowtown. He also photographed McFarland, USA, an American sports film released in 2015, and the upcoming drama film The Light Between Oceans.
Dana Gonzales: Fargo cinematographer
Dana Gonzales came up through the ranks with his 2nd unit work on Paul
Haggis' Academy Award winning film Crash, Julie Taymor's The Tempest and
David O. Russell's The Fighter. He swiftly moved into main unit
cinematography on Michael Shroeder's Man In The Chair, starring
Christopher Plummer. Soon thereafter he began his longstanding
collaboration with director Ric Roman Waugh, beginning with Felon,
starring Val Kilmer and Stephen Dorff followed by Snitch, starring
Dwayne Johnson.
In addition to features, Dana has a thriving
television career. His style ranges from the hyperreal, slick aesthetic
of the ABC series Pretty Little Liars to the grittier, handheld look of
Southland for TNT and the modern-day western Longmire for A&E. Over
the years, his work has garnered a lot of attention and earned him an
Emmy Award Nomination in Outstanding Cinematography for a Miniseries or
Movie on the highly acclaimed FX series, Fargo and Dana was also chosen
for Variety's Below The Line Impact Report for 2014.
Recently,
Dana completed Brad Payton's feature film, Incarnate, starring Aaron
Eckhart and Ariel Vromen's Criminal for Millennium Films, starring Kevin
Costner, Ryan Reynolds, and Gary Oldman. He is currently shooting Ric
Waugh's Shot Caller for Bold Films, starring Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Lake
Bell, and Jon Bernthal.
top 10 things to watch at this current time (1/19/16)
1. Tim and Eric's Bedtime Stories
A more cinematic step has been taken by the two comedy gods in their latest [adult swim] show, Bedtime Stories. Bedtime Stories still shows us glimpses into the comedic minds of Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim, but this time there is an evil twist to it that more traditional fans of Tim & Eric might not stand behind. Bedtime Stories carries it's audience through a character's struggle through individual episodes that connect us with a new character, sometimes using big actors such as T&E regular Dr. Steve Brule aka John C. Reilly and Jason Schwartzman, as well as the same actor who got T&E on the path to stardom, Bob Odenkirk. If you've got the time, take a dip into the murk that is Bedtime Stories. Note: This show will be much more easily understood if you take time to learn who T&E are first. Please watch Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! first.
2. Fargo
Why someone didn't decide to reboot an open-ended Coen Brothers movie into a television show before this, I do not know. Fargo is similar to the original film which came out in 1996, but the two seasons take place in different time periods, bringing whole new characters and ideas to the table. While season one was good, season two blew me away. 1979 Minnesota accompanied by the stylistic choices as well as hidden Coen easter eggs in nearly every episode makes it hard to not enjoy visiting the wonderful world of Fargo. Can't wait for season three.
3. Requiem for a Dream
Requiem for a Dream is one that everyone knows, and some people avoid it because they know how hard it is to watch. I find it to be a beautifully shot, innovative film that follows the story of four people who all have to cope with their addictions. A beautiful story that uses very interesting "aronofsky shots" that is sure to move you.
4. Birdman
Birdman is a classic. It's the movie that took home all the Oscars last year, and rightfully so. I was in New Orleans when this came out and I hadn't even really heard of it. I knew nothing about it other than the fact that it had a big cast. I decided to see it, and I sat in the theatre for 10 minutes after the credits just reevaluating my life. Birdman is that kind of movie. I was so amazed by everything about this movie. I went back home and had a Keaton marathon, but this is most definitely his masterpiece.
5. The Master
Another one of those movies for me is P.T. Anderson (my favorite director) 's The Master. A beautifully crafted story of a soldier coming back from WWII who has to learn to deal with the stresses caused during the war, and fails miserably. With two of film's greatest actors, and one of film's greatest directors, it's hard to go wrong.
6. Death Proof
Death Proof is Tarantino's homage to "grindhouse" films of the 1970's, showing b-list actors doing incredible, real stunts in a gritty, ugly way. Some of the coolest driving stunts (and no CGI) I've ever seen come from this movie, and as always, it's a story of brutal revenge with plenty of gore along the way.
7. A Serious Man
The Coen Brothers' truly underrated gem, A Serious Man, takes us to 1967, somewhat of a spectacle into their upbringing. The story follows a Jewish family who seems to be falling apart (possibly due to a curse that their Yiddish speaking ancestors brought upon them) and the patriarch of the family's struggle.
8. The Royal Tenenbaums
The Royal Tenenbaums was the first Wes Anderson film I ever saw, and it holds a place deep in my heart. The beautiful sets that he chooses to shoot in such a play-like way seem to whisk viewers off to some sort of meadowy dream where everything is beautiful, and sad. And happy. This is a terrific film, don't let the air of white privilege scare you off.
9. Nathan for You
Brought to you by Abso-Lutely productions (a la Tim & Eric), Nathan for You takes Nathan Fielder, an awkward Canadian, to southern California where he helps struggling business owners come up with Nathan-ized ideas and present them in a quite hilarious frame. Nathan Fielder makes Michael Cera look like Fonzie.
10. A Clockwork Orange
A classic Kubrick masterpiece, Clockwork follows a gang of teenage boys in futuristic London who go around doing whatever they want. Retribution finds it's way back into the mix, and Alex eventually murders it.
here's an idea of what i wanted the set to look like. i wanted a very boring, mundane look to match the feeling that makes OFFICE SPACE so relatable. it makes the viewers understand just how boring and undesirable a job like this actually is.
