Thursday, February 25, 2010

This is a scene from the movie Cloverfield, (directed by Matt Reeves, DP: Michael Bonvillain) in which the city of New York is being attacked by an unknown creature. In order to escape the chaos, our protagonist along with friends, head down to the subway tunnels for safety, which they soon learn to be a mistake. The most interesting thing about this film is that it is filmed from a characters perspective holding a friends handheld camera. This provides for some great cinematography opportunities that the director and DP take full advantage of in this scene. This is a movie that is really hit or miss for people, but as for me, I loved every moment.

The opening shot is great in terms of setting the mood. The entire shot is pitch black except for just a few very dim overhead lights lighting the tunnel. This is perfect to show how they are going into the “unknown” darkness with only a few lights barely enabling them to see in front of their face. This really creates a feeling of helplessness too.

They finally get the onboard light on, which in essence becomes their key light. This light only illuminates objects two or three feet in front of it, the rest falling away into darkness, and when the light hits it really overexposes. This light is perfect for the scene because it causes every subject to get right up to the camera in order to be seen, really making the viewer seem like their line of sight is being blocked in a place where you want to see what’s coming next. I found myself craning my neck in order to see around the subject in the shot.

Here we have a nice medium close up in which the subject seems to be in an infinite abyss of darkness. Creating another terrible feeling of groping through blackness not knowing where you’re going. All that is seen up ahead is another tiny ceiling light marking their next destination. Also her face is overexposed, making her seem as his her face has lost all color, a typical response to fear.

This shot has some awesome levels going on which really show how far the light is able to throw. The woman closest to the camera is well lit while the two people right after slowly fall out of the shot because they are not lit well enough, yet another great way to show their descent into darkness. The camera represents safety, because that is where the light is. The characters hear a noise but they cannot see where it came from because no matter what light they are in, all three characters still cannot see.

This is one of my favorites. Here we have three patches of light, one small light on the wall, which really just creates some dimensions to the shot without revealing anything. We have one pool of light in the back, and then a lake of blackness, showing this unknown area where the rats are coming out of. They keep wondering what the rats are running away from, and the light tells the story in that we have no idea what they are running from.

Another good close up shot, the character is out of focus and only half of his face is on screen. This signifies well how they are completely blinded by bright light and darkness, and no one’s eyes can focus on what’s up ahead.

Finally the night vision comes on in this close up and instantly reveals what we have been hearing and fearing the whole time. I like the framing of this shot too, the creatures are up above creating a dominating feeling, and a feeling as if they are about to pounce. Also there is some great depth going on here, with an out of focus face in the foreground and in focus creatures in the background.

This is a shot conveying panic. It is from the ground level perspective and there is dust being kicked up from everywhere. The creature is out of focus and the viewer feels very panicky and disoriented at this point. Also the cameraman, (a character named Hud) is in a weak position, consistent with the story-line. The handheld camera is at its best in this shot.

The final shot is them finally escaping the tunnel and getting to a safe place. The lighting tells the story yet again. Here we have a well-lit place signifying safety and we see utter blackness through the door, highlighting in a way the terrible place they just came from. Also the blood on the lens helps create a feeling of fear as well.

Monday, February 15, 2010

Let There Be Light


I am no photographer, but I took this picture, and decided to use it because I really liked the lighting in it. It's very overexposed first off, I took it very close up to the subject with the flash on in order to do so. You can still make out some of the bright colors in these flowers though. It's up against a very plain background in order to make the flowers seem even prettier than they are.


I also took this next photo on the quad one day earlier this semester. It was high noon and the sun was right above this huge tree full of squirriels, and I really like the way the shadows were cast on the little guy. The light is very ha
rd
and the leaves and branches create hard, sharp, shadows throughout the tree. He is also framed a bit to the right to give some of the attention to the detailed branch next to him.

This photo was taken by my friend Sara. The
color in this photo is amazing. It is so bright and the colors really pop. Also the clouds make for a nice touch in the background. The way the sun lights the kayaks gives a great feel for Summer time at the beach. Very tropical.








The next photo was taken by my friend JD. I really like the lighting in this as it comes over the top of the factory creating an intense silhouette. also there are at least five different shades of color in this one. It starts with a bright white and then goes to light blue all the way to dark blue. Also the lens flare is pretty awesome from the sunlight.

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Portrait Of An Event: Shuffle

This was shot by Cody Abbot on a park bench near the Black Warrior River. It's a simple game of 5 card draw with some pretty high stakes. Thanks to my lovely girlfriend Aspen Harris for acting, and my good friend Malcom Mcdonald for helping out as well. Enjoy.

Monday, February 8, 2010

Pre-Producktion

I have always heard that pre-production is the most important part of the filmmaking process...and I'm starting to believe it. Although running and gunning is a lot of fun, it can be sloppy. The last project I worked on was a CMF project in which we planned out every single shot, and believe it or not it went much smoother than in the past when we used to just wing it. I wrote out a shot list for this project and have already filmed it. Honestly without that shot-list, things would have gotten ugly. It was freezing outside and I wanted to get it finished, the shot list served as the perfect checklist.

In order to build a narrative of a place it's all about the style of shooting. I DP'd for Cody at Bryce Mental Hospital and hopefully I was able to capture the mood he intended to set. I felt that the key was going to be distortion and angles. Hopefully the focusing was symbolic of the mental distortion those patients felt many years ago. We shall see. This is fun though.

Grace and Peace.