THE DP REEL

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Scene Assignment - Draula's Lament

Biggest lesson learned from my scene assignment is, that while DSLR cameras can do amazing things, they are not very easy to use. DSLRs crush the depth of field to an extreme I wasn't prepared for. With a 55m Zeiss lens, wide shots were almost impossible to film indoors in a confined space. For wide shots, a 24mm or 35mm will be needed. During editing I noticed some shots were not, contrary to my belief, in focus. Any love I previously had with editing died. DSLRs need footage transcoded to ProRes. Without transcoding, editing is very hard. Finalcut drops frames, shuts down, or runs out of memory. When shooting with a DSLR, a field monitor is essential due to the LCD display screen being so small. While the location was not my first choice, props and background detail add a great deal to the overall video. More details, extras, props fill out the shot and make it more compelling and realistic.

Lighting is still hard for me. I often find that you end up needing more lights than you have. Also, any good film really needs at least 4 crew members. Any less makes it very hard, and time consuming to properly film a scene.

Time after time I am shown that I am much better as a director than a cinematographer. It just isn't my strength. I can pre-plan it all out, but when I grab that camera and those lights, it just never seems to turn out the way I wanted. Im more visionary, not very technical. I like framing and composition, and really enjoy working with actors the most. The technical aspects wear me out. I really want to start learning how to be a good director, and hire out a DP for videos/films. Assignments like this make me want to do more narratives only with ample time to work with actors both on set and off at rehearsals. I like doing narrative pieces much more than documentary style film. Documentaries just don't interest me or hold my attention. I like character interaction and development, I need actors and a fourth wall.

Portrait of a Place

So for my portrait of a place, I explored Downtown Tuscaloosa. Although Downtown Tuscaloosa is quite large, I wanted to show it from the average student's perspective. To a student here, Downtown is really just Univ.Blvd, and Tenneman Square. Downtown is basically just a grouping of bars, restaurants, and shops in a L-shaped block.

I wanted a lot of movement. I wanted a driving shot but realized the JVC 100 was not well suited for movement. A GoPro would have been the best camera for this project. Having a DP to work with felt much better than pulling director/DP double duty. I like directing much more, so I liked and benefited from having a partner be my project's DP.

Inspiring Scraps

Bits and pieces on film and in photos that I love.

This shot is beautiful. Spiderman has probably to best CGI I've ever seen. This shot has great use of "magic hour," CGI magic hour in fact. Despite being all CGI it is so realistic. NYC is such a busy/conjested city and the producers made sure to give plenty of detail to this scene which was needed to be realistic. The movement is so fluid and follows the subject in such a way that it would be impossible to do with an actual camera which adds to the realism and really puts you in the story.

I think this was a great idea to stage an interview in a closet. Usually interview gimmicks like this don't work but does so here. This is a great example of how Editing can create the humor in a piece. Jump cuts can be a great comedic tool as shown above here.... and below in...

Another good use of editing and jump cuts.

Amazing scene that has a lot of fluid movement and multiple angles. Good use of subject POV shots. I am fascinated by Parkour running and think it can do a lot for action movies. This scene manages to be both gritty and graceful.

Be back with more...

Poster Art

 

Portraits

Stills