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?
I really enjoyed making this film,
and I feel like I learned a lot of things that need to be thought through
before trying to create something like this. I went in to the creation of the
project having carefully prepared my beat list, and knowing that beat list
pretty well. Of course, under the circumstances, I also felt prepared to stray
from the beat list pretty significantly as needed. However, what I was not
prepared for was knowing how to work with the given setting, and knowing how
best to frame the beats that I had planned. These were the two biggest
challenges I perceived during filming. After filming, as I was editing/choosing
which segment of my footage to use, I realized that I didn’t get as many
different angles as I would have liked, and that there were frequent/repeated
moments where I lost track of what I was following because I became more
focused on avoiding the ball and players than on keeping something interesting
in the shot.
Despite these challenges, there are
a lot of things I’m quite happy with in this film. Overall, I think I did a
good job of following the action, and making it so that the audience could
understand what was generally going on. There are also several beats,
movements, and actions that I’m happy with (such as when Steven returns and
James falls trying to get the ball, when I follow the ball as it rolls towards
me on the floor, and when James prepares to serve a couple of the times). There
are a couple of compositions I like, such as when James is on the floor and
when I get a sort of brief over the shoulder shot of James. Additionally, I’m
very happy with the people I got to participate in the film. They were fun and
engaging.
However, of course there are several
things I wish I had done better. First, I wish I had been able to avoid having
any moments of downtime where I got lost in what I was following. This was very
tricky with the space limitations and I never really managed to get it down. Second,
I wish I had been able to get more angles (from the front of the room looking
back, closer shots, and more shots that prominently featured both players.
Again, this was tricky due to the space and nature of the action, and I didn’t
really get it down. Third, I wish I had managed to get prettier compositions.
This is something I could have spent more time planning, but really didn’t even
think about until the end of filming when it was too late for me to perfect the
skill. Finally, there are a couple of technical things I’m disappointed in.
There were a couple specks on the lens (or possible the sensor) the entire
time. I cleaned the lens immediately before filming, so I’m really not sure
what happened, but I wish I had at least noticed these imperfections in the
display before I finished filming so I could have tried to get some footage
without them.
Briefly answer the following:
What, specifically, did you want to
communicate? Were you successful? Why? Why not?
I wanted to
communicate the tension of the game of racquetball—the suspense that comes as
the two players play a point and we (the audience) don’t know who will win the
point. I also wanted to characterize the people playing, at least a little bit.
I think I was successful because everyone I showed it to said they at least
felt some drama. They also all seemed to enjoy the “characters,” so I think
that’s good. I think in some ways the drama could have been a lot higher, so I
could have improved in that area, by possibly getting closer to the players to
give a better reading of their facial expressions as they played.
How, specifically, did you try to
say this? What
visual elements, techniques, etc. did you use?
The biggest
one, of course, was movement. I tried to follow the players as they moved to
reach the ball, and their sporadic and quick movements gave a sense of urgency
and excitement. I also tried to depict the space in a way that gave a sense of
what it felt like to be in that tight room with two people moving around
quickly. One thing that turned out nicely that I didn’t play was color. James
was wearing red and Steven was wearing blue, which provided a nice contrast
between them.
What did you learn about storytelling:
I learned
that it is very difficult to tell a story with characters very engagingly if
you can’t get very close to them to read and depict their facial expressions.
However, another thing I learned is that if the situation is fairly obvious,
that can be a big supplement to helping the story along, especially if other
factors are unchangeable. In this case, everyone generally understands how
racquetball is played, and that each player is trying to win each point. This
really helped. I also learned that if characters are moving around with purpose,
there is always something to look at, and that those details can be choreographed
in a way that no cuts need to be made.
Working with actors and getting performance:
Obviously, I
didn’t really direct actors this time, but I did learn that Steven and James
are very friendly and helpful and nice to work with.
Blocking — camera and actors:
It can be
very difficult to capture big blocking movements in a visually pleasing way
without having them choreographed beforehand. In this case, it led to my shots
generally being overly wide and kind of ugly and boring. This is something I
will be sure to avoid in my next film by using a nice and purposeful variety of
wide, medium, and close-up shots.
Visuals — composition, framing, visual
elements:
Having all
white walls is not very friendly to using a lot of visual elements, unless they
are very purposefully contrasted with something with more detail. I also
relearned that wide shots can be especially difficult to frame in aesthetically
pleasing ways. However, fortunately, movement is often enough to keep the
audience engaged, which is something that really benefited my project.
Design & Art Direction:
Again, all
white walls with no details other than the people in the shot can be good, but
it has to be framed very exactly, which was very difficult under these
circumstances.
The Production Process — collaboration with crew, the
logistics of making this piece:
Once we got to the courts, everything went incredibly
(miraculously, even) smoothly. However, as usual, I forgot some important
things until the very last minute (specifically, I forgot to find racquets
until a couple hours before shooting), which created a lot of unneeded stress.
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?
Actually,
watching my film with an audience was a really nice experience. Everyone really
seemed to enjoy it. More than that, they seemed engaged, and able to follow
what was going on. There were certainly lulls (especially toward the
beginning), but overall no one seemed to lost, bored, or annoyed. I think they
responded the way they did partially because they knew the people involved,
which may have been unfair. (However, I did show the film to some people who
didn’t know Steven and James before class and they really seemed to enjoy it
and the characters as well.) I also think they responded well because I was,
for the most part, able to stay focused on the event and its details with only
a few lost moments. Additionally, there was at least some variety in the shots,
which kept enjoyment up as well.
Other observations:
This was a
really good and fun exercise. My main fear—the safety of the camera—ended up
not being a problem. Of course, it did cause me to miss some nice beats and
shots, but I’m happy I was able to protect the camera and lens even if that
meant a little sacrifice.
However, I
definitely learned from doing this why racquet sports are shot from one wide
angle without much on-court action (unless it’s shot from far away with a long
lens). If I were to do this assignment again, I think I would pick something
less risky. Hopefully this wouldn’t require me to sacrifice intensity, drama,
or fun.
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