After two months of filming I've finally completed principal photography on my innovation project, The Man-Spider. After taking Mr. Krueger's Film Analysis class over the course of the past three months I feel like I've learned a lot more about cinematography and camera capabilities than I would've thought possible. Although there are plenty of energetic filmmaking styles I've admired, I didn't realize how essential focusing on the main action is until I tried staging action scenes of my own.
For example lets say I want to film someone falling down. Whereas before I might've filmed an actor from a steady wide angle to capture all the action in one shot, I now view every subtle movement as pieces of a puzzle. I ask myself "how can I put everything together to get the viewer's focus? How can I grab their attention?" I first get a close up on the actor's feet. Previously viewers might've seen his foot hit something causing him to trip, but now the closer focus reveals that he stepped on his own shoe laces! I want the camera to capture the "oomph" the actor feels when he hits the ground. I would then shift to a close up of his eyes widening in terror before cutting to a medium low angle to capture the moment of impact.
I've had a lot of fun playing with camera angles and shot sequences on this project and can't wait to share it with everyone. I've actually finished a first edit and am now just tinkering with sound effects and the length of a few shots. So it should definitely be coming at you soon!
I'm also happy to announce that just as I'm wrapping up work on The Man-Spider, I'm set to begin filming my next short film tomorrow! (That'll be November 10th, a Tuesday) There's not much I can say about it for now, but I'm looking forward to sharing more in the near future.
For example lets say I want to film someone falling down. Whereas before I might've filmed an actor from a steady wide angle to capture all the action in one shot, I now view every subtle movement as pieces of a puzzle. I ask myself "how can I put everything together to get the viewer's focus? How can I grab their attention?" I first get a close up on the actor's feet. Previously viewers might've seen his foot hit something causing him to trip, but now the closer focus reveals that he stepped on his own shoe laces! I want the camera to capture the "oomph" the actor feels when he hits the ground. I would then shift to a close up of his eyes widening in terror before cutting to a medium low angle to capture the moment of impact.
I've had a lot of fun playing with camera angles and shot sequences on this project and can't wait to share it with everyone. I've actually finished a first edit and am now just tinkering with sound effects and the length of a few shots. So it should definitely be coming at you soon!
I'm also happy to announce that just as I'm wrapping up work on The Man-Spider, I'm set to begin filming my next short film tomorrow! (That'll be November 10th, a Tuesday) There's not much I can say about it for now, but I'm looking forward to sharing more in the near future.