Film Three: Shot For Shot (Juno)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcSYVJrZYtc&feature=youtu.be

Overall response (2-3 paragraphs):

In 2-3 paragraphs, write an overall response to your film: Were you successful at achieving what you set out to achieve? What are you proud of? What would you do differently if you could remake this piece? What did you learn? 

            Since the was the shot-for-shot assignment, my goal was to recreate, as closely as possible, the scene from Juno that I chose. In my opinion, I was mostly successful. Each shot had the same general composition, and the beats and progression of the scene felt largely the same—especially, in my opinion, inside the clinic. I’m proud of how close I was able to come with timing, framing, mise en scene, art design, and performance.

            Obviously, however, a few things were off, and some of them were off in fairly significant ways. The biggest problem is that most of my shots ended up being on a slightly wider lens than they are in the original film. This caused characters to look smaller, and for too much of the background to be in focus, which changed certain elements of the feeling of the scene. I often gave the characters too much headroom. There were also certain visual elements (line, movement, and tone are the biggest ones I see) that I didn’t use properly outside, which led to some distracting elements, or things that didn’t play quite as powerfully as they do in the film. If I could remake the film, those are the biggest things I would change. I also would wait for a cloudy day, or the opportunity to use a large diffusion, to make the exposure and lighting in the outdoor scene better.

Briefly answer the following:

What, specifically, did you want to communicate? Were you successful? Why? Why not?

I was trying to communicate the same emotion and narrative that’s in the original film. To me, that means the discomfort that Juno feels talking with Su-chin, which then morphs into discomfort in the clinic, which causes her to doubt herself and decide to carry the pregnancy to full term. It also, of course, means the humor of the scene. Honestly, I think for the most part I was successful. Some of the tension was less strong, or a bit murkier in my piece due to the things I mentioned above, but overall I’d say the general emotion of the piece still followed the same trajectory.

How, specifically, did you try to say this? What visual elements, techniques, etc. did you use?

I tried to use the visual elements and techniques used by Jason Reitman in the original film. I focused on color, tone, and movement, but there were others that he uses that I neglected to use to their full extent (line and shape being the biggest ones I see).

What did you learn about storytelling:

I learned A LOT. I learned a lot about how powerful simple things in the image can be, like the distance perceived between two people, or a simple, hard to notice leading line. I learned how well over the shoulder shots can orient the viewer to the geography of the scene and can help the action to feel continuous. I learned that it’s possible to cheat actors to feel like they’re different heights than they actually are, without it feeling noticeable. I learned that camera moves can be way more complicated than I had ever realized, in subtle ways.

Working with actors and getting performance:

Honestly, I didn’t do too much in this area. I would occasionally ask my actors to say something a bit differently so that it carried the emotion that I perceived in the scene better, but yeah. I guess I also learned that I feel like I get a better performance and more continuity if the actors run through the entire scene, rather than just shooting line by line for each shot.

Blocking — camera and actors:

I learned a lot about over the shoulder shots, and how long lenses can make those a lot more comfortable for the actor. I also learned things about camera movements and tracking shots, like I said.

Visuals — composition, framing, visual elements:

I learned how leading lines can be made in surprising ways, as well as how powerful they can be in a comedy where we are only supposed to be focusing on the performance of one person.

Design & Art Direction:  

I learned that sometimes, getting a feeling across can be done in multiple ways, with different kinds of set dressing and costuming, as long as they feel similarly.

The Production Process — collaboration with crew, the logistics of making this piece:

Location moves take so much time away that would probably be more valuable spent with actors and camera and running performance. Additionally, it’s really stressful, and I feel very guilty, when I keep an actor longer than I intend, so I will do my best to let them know up front how long it could go, but to try to keep it as short as possible.

                  

What was it like to watch your film with an audience? Did they understand it? Miss the point? Why did they respond the way they did?  

I think it went over quite well. They noticed the same issues that I noticed, but still reacted positively to the things that I thought turned out decently. Honestly, I felt better about it than I expected to. They understood it, got the point, and understood why things didn’t work out well when that happened.

Other observations:

This was really really stressful, but I learned so much about visuals.