You haven’t fully experienced the trials of making a short film until you set out to create one on your own.  After scrapping a lousy narrative idea at the last second, I came up with this idea to shoot this documentary about my friends’ pickup football games on Saturday afternoons.  After acquiring satisfactory A-roll, I learned how unmerciful uncontrollable variables such as weather and final exams can be when trying to organize an outdoor sporting event in the month of December.  After exploring several options of “manufactured” b-roll (usually involving one interviewee playing catch by himself in front of the camera) and disliking all of them, I decided to scrap the subpar footage and use a fast pace to make up for three minutes of talking heads.  With the upbeat music, the rising and falling volume coinciding with the freeze frames, the great bites I got from my interviews, and the quick and frequent cuts, I managed to get away with no b-roll footage and still turn out a project that isn’t too boring.  While it is great to say that I shot, edited, and created this piece all on my own, I realize now that it is better to say you created something good with someone else than creating something okay by yourself.

Editing footage I did not create was surprisingly fun.  I am someone whose struggle with cinema is the actual camera work itself so skipping that step in the creative process was actually exciting to me.

Since I was using archive footage, I thought it would be best to approach this project with no preconceived notion of my story content.  Rather, I thought the best resulting product would stem from a creative garnering of whatever clips I stumbled upon randomly.  For the sake of continuity, I chose only to work with black and white footage.

I proceeded to download ten clips that had absolutely nothing to do with each other.  Their content varied from the atomic bomb, to ants, and puberty.  However, the one video that inspired the content of my piece was one entitled “Boys Beware.”  This was a ten minute PSA piece from the 1950s warning young males to be weary of predatory homosexuals.  Despite the good intentions of this brief film, it came off as sounding as though every homosexual was a child rapist, a concept that may have been acceptable sixty years ago, though laughable today.   So I decided to make a piece even more ridiculous.  One that promised that homosexuals would bring about Armageddon and would even poison their “victims” to fulfill their sexual desires.

While I wished I was more skilled at audio edits and transitions, overall I am happy with the product, and I realized that I would much rather be an editor than a cinematographer

The key to working with actors is balancing fun, positive energy with focus and commitment to the task at hand.  Experimenting with different degrees of reactions, from subtle to outrageous, while in front of the camera is crucial to the success of the performance.  The relationship between the camera operator and the director must be open and cooperative in order to achieve a good result.  The initial vision of the director may not effectively translate to the screen.

One note often given to the actors on this project was to slow their speech.  Whether it’s nerves from being in front of a camera or just a personal habit, talking too fast lead to multiple takes.  The audience only gets to hear the dialogue once.  The lines need to be annunciated clearly without sounding unnatural.

Another factor that comes into play when working with actors is the issue of continuity.  Commitment to the lines on the script, as well as accurate marks and consistent blocking can all help contribute to making the editor’s job easier.

Knowing what actors’ strengths are can definitely aid the director in extracting the best performance possible..  In this case, giving our hero (Alex Schriener) a lot of freedom to create with his reactions after the drops, catches, and poster readings really allowed him to flourish and deliver a comical and entertaining performance.  However, the ally (Matt O’Shields),  is less animated, and his impressive size, calm demeanor, and low, authoritative voice were the keys to his performance.

In conclusion, the ability of the cinematographer to communicate with the director, and the communication between the director and the actors are the keys to creating a respectable product.

Joe and fellow deep freeze victim Rita (Maya Rudolph) are befuddled by the utter lack of intelligence present in their new surroundings.  After being arrested for not having a barcode tattoo and being forced to take an IQ test, the dimwitted populace learns that Joe is the smartest person in the country.  Upon his self-ordered release from prison, Joe learns the existence of a time machine located in the back of an infinitely large Costco.  However, before he and Rita can reach it, Joe is forcibly appointed to the position of Secretary of the Interior by the President of the United States (a former porn star and WWF champion).  He is charged with the tall tasks of solving the agricultural crisis and the struggling “ecomoney.”  After suggesting that the citizenry use water to irrigate their farms instead of sports drinks, he is nearly executed by an angry mob of laid off workers.  However, once sprouts begin to grow he is pardoned, and he and Rita resume their quest for the time machine and their return to their native time.  However, the time machine turns out to be a mere roller-coaster, and Joe and Rita are stuck living out their days as the smartest couple alive.

While this movie is far from classic comedy material, as it’s plagued by a plethora of unfunny witless gags, it’s concept is amusing enough to make its viewing tolerable throughout the film.  The take home message of the film, similar to that of Network, is America is on a startling track to becoming more and more infatuated with sex, stunts, and anti-intellectualism.

Time-travel is tricky business.  The human mind “is not supposed to exist in more than one dimension.”  Cole experiences severe distortions of his mental perception.  This is conveyed very effectively throughout the film.   The numerous shots at canted angles, the frequency with which things appear out of focus, and the well placed low-key stylized lighting all contribute to making the audience share Cole’s distortion.

The well-constructed mise-en-scenes of the various worlds that Cole encounters truly separate this film from other futuristic sci-fis.  The attention to detail is exceptional.  The audience can instantly tell what dimension Cole is in without the film having to explicitly communicate it through dialogue.  Whether it’s the underground laboratory, a mental institution, or a WWI battlefield, every set has a unique and intriguing aesthetic.  A film that takes more than one viewing to truly appreciate, 12 Monkeys is a visual escapade that clearly demonstrates the power good camerawork can have on an audience.

Buckner has problems sticking up for himself.  But he has a personal break through during his first fight with the Elite.  Stylized lighting, active camera movement, and lots of quick shots show the rush Buckner is experiencing during this pivotal point in his life.  A second exceptional instance of cinematography in the film is when Tommy Hatcher, the leader of a rival gang, begins beating a local who failed to properly hush his wife.  With each pound of the local’s head on the table, the lights flicker and the camera shakes.  The close-ups of both the beating and the reactions from the helpless spectators are enough to send a shiver up the spine of the audience.

During the final fight scene, the film shifts back and forth between fast and regular speed, both glorifying the violence and impressing upon the audience the speed of the blows being exchanged.  Buckner is shot from low-angles, giving him much more size in the frame than he had in the beginning of the film.  Finally, as one of the gang members falls, beaten unconscious, a beautiful jib shot cranks out and above the bloodied body, giving it a Christ-like appearance.

After seeing the film, most doubting audience member will be convinced that Wood was excellent in his role.  Though it helps when the cinematographer knows how to frame him and light him so that his character is conveyed not only through dialogue and action but visually as well.

While Chinatown contains many of the classic characteristics of a noir film, whether it’s the Venetian blind lighting or the twists and turns as the mystery unfolds, it also breaks a lot of conventions to make it unique.  The femme fatal turns out not be a source of threat, a lot of natural lighting and long shots are used, and the main character fails to achieve his goal and instead ends up in a situation he was in before the film even starts.

Gittes, a private eye who specializes in investigating suspected adulterers, is set-up by an imposter to spy on a prominent local L.A. engineer.  Once Gittes discovers he has been taken, he seeks to unveil the perpetrators’ agenda.  However, Gittes gets in deeper than he intended, and finds himself in the midst of an astronomic scandal involving millions of dollar, thousands of acres, and incest.  Despite Gittes best efforts to bring his powerful adversaries to justice, he ends up watching helplessly as the woman he tried to protect is killed and the villain walk off free to perform further atrocious acts.

Plainview, a product of an impoverished and tumultuous childhood, starts out as a sliver miner who has to labor in dangerous conditions for insignificant payoffs.  It is several minutes before the first words of dialogue are uttered in this film, effectively conveying the feel of the culture in America around the turn of the century.  Plainview and his fellow laborers have a silent understanding of one another.  Plainview ends up adopting an infant son when a worker is killed in an accident.  While he is an exceptional oilman, Plainview struggles greatly with personal adversity.  He can neither handle his son’s hearing loss nor his rivalry with local pastor Eli Sunday, and this character flaw ultimately leads to his psychological demise. 

One instance of particular cinematographic excellence occurs when Daniel is revealing some of what fuels his relentless drive to succeed at any and all means necessary.  Daniel sits next to his imposter brother, and as he speaks, the light of the “fire” off-screen dances across his face with a menacing glow about it, constantly interchanging between light and shadow.  This makes the close-up of Plainview’s face an even more haunting shot for the viewers.  A similar tactic is used when Daniel swims in the ocean after discovering his “brother” is a fraud.  The camera constantly sinks and resurfaces in the surf as Plainview floats and violently glares right at the camera.  This not only distorts the shot but also gives Daniel an exceptionally grotesque look as it appear his head is not attached to his body below the water surface.

A brilliantly disturbing film, There Will Be Blood is everything one could hope for with a title so powerful.

Another recurring theme in the movie is the use of glass.  Glass shields a dead woman’s body while she is being identified by her mother.  Glass shields a woman with a broken nose when Detective White (Crowe) notices her and attempts to investigate.  A black suspect is held in a glass interrogation room while he makes his “confession.”  Glass shields Detective Exley’s (Guy Pearce) eyes in the form of glasses until they eventually crack and he has to remove them.  Glass is used throughout the film to show that there is an invisible layer either blocking or distorting the truth.

Finally, one of the best instances of mise-en-scene occurs when prostitute Lynn Bracken (Basinger) invites Detective White into her home.  Her living room is icy blue, lots of glass wear, and cold looking.  Her bedroom is the exact opposite.  Warm, yellow light spills in through the windows onto the neat, modest bed.  This clearly illustrates the significant difference between sex as Bracken’s job and sex as Bracken’s love-making.  White is fortunate enough to experience the latter.

An excellent modern noir, L.A. Confidential is definitely worth a viewing or two.