BETEC Practical Filmmaking Exercise
Our Brief and restrictions for our task was “A character walks into a building and to a room. They meet another character I this room and engage in brief conversation. The character leaves.”
This gave me a lot of freedom to work with as it doesn’t specify emotions, how many characters are in the background or anything so as people were put into groups I didn’t feel that anyone there would meet my expectations in my vision as id already started planning it in my head with locations, characters and dialogue, another reason was to use certain people as actors that nobody had seen before as it just takes away realism of what you are watching when you already know people and they’ll just see it as being filmed not as a film.
I physically began by writing down a basic script but with room for improvisation so the actors could make it seem a little more natural if they just come up with normal conversation in their head rather than memorize some exact lines and say it like a robot which just takes away from the emersion.
I then used a location I was familiar with so I could map out shots and scenes from outside and inside off the top of my head, the location of course was the house of a friend as I remember the layout and the positions of everything was perfect for what I wanted.
For example, I had already decided I wanted to shoot it while it was dark to get rid of continuity errors with the sky and in a street next to a thin path between two houses next to a road was a street lamp which is how I wanted to introduce my first/main character in the opening shot by having the camera angled down from up high and the character walking across the light stopping for the title sequence then walking off.
In the first shot the camera would be stationary but in the next shot I wanted to follow the character with a shaky cam behind so simulate the footsteps as it would be in time with him walking and to establish the urban area then the same shot except id be in front of him, all of this would be shot with only diegetic sound to keep it more realistic with car noises and the engine noise of a truck when he walks past it.
The next shot would be up high and stationery but the angle wouldn’t be as far down as the opening shot but a little higher as the character walks towards our building.
The next shot would be from the same place except the camera would have moved instead of the tripod and showed the front door to establish a familiar site as people used their front door, but obviously to show it’s not his house but the character enters by knocking but without being told to come in the character enters, this demonstrate how he is expected and it’s the house of someone he knows well.
The next little shot would be a close-up continuity shot of the door handle showing the door opening from the inside and the character entering giving that continuity illusion that it’s all happening at once.
Next is a shot following the character again but through the house and into the designated room but the camera would be directly behind the character until he enters the room and move to the side a little to reveal our second character sitting at the other end of the room sitting in a dominant chair on his own to show his importance and dominance to the audience.
This is followed by another mini continuity shaky cam shot of the characters side at a Dutch angle matching up with the characters coat pocket as he pulls out a roll of money showing the importance of what the pocket contained which I feel I did effectively as the importance translates straight into the next quick shot of their hands coming into frame one from a low angle and the other from a high angle for the continuity as one character is standing and the other is sitting and again effectively showing off the importance of the prop during this hand off.
The next shot was on the tripod where the first character would be standing to show his perspective as the second character takes the money pulling the rubber band off and counting it which starts the dialogue. The first scripted line is said as all others was improvised background talk to make the scene seem more natural.
The first scripted line was “where’s the rest” this creates conflict and was originally supposed to create tension but as personal errors didn’t allow me to do any reshoots or even finish filming the rest of the scenes so instead before the second scripted line is delivered there is a quick cut to the other characters as I wanted to reshoot it with a pause before his line showing his reaction and his small silence to show his acknowledgement of the problem to the audience. His improvised line by the first character is then delivered explaining he borrowed some to take his “lass” out this makes the seem more natural pulling the audience into the lore as its revealed that there’s more happening outside the film in this world.
The second character takes no notice of his aggression demonstrating how this character holds the power as he facepalms showing his annoyance to the audience as he then looks to his left telling the other extra characters that where shown before to “get out” which the next shot is from his perspective at his eye level angled to his left where the a extra replies with a confused and quick yet submissive “are you serous” from a big extra with a smaller extra next to him for scale to show his dominance and importance over them which the second main character replies with a louder and more demanding “Get Out!” showing once again his power over them.
The next shot is a quick stationery cut of the extras getting up off the couch showing the respect/fear they have for this character as they comply with his command and do it quite quickly.
The next shot is eye level of the first character as the other characters leave from his perspective and him turning and watching them leave and shutting the door to enclose these characters together creating tension for the audience but as the character turns back around the film ends to leave the rest up to the imagination, originally there where more scenes showing conflict between the two characters but through poor planning and technical difficulties I wasn’t able to obtain the footage and as this meets the briefs requirements I ended it there
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