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peerbear · 5 months

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Where Currents Meet Test Shoot - The Film

For postproduction I did the colour grade which went relatively smoothly. We had an initial issue with the AAF, and reconnecting the files to their source files took a while but this was all part of the process. For the grade I wanted to go with what served the image, so although I had planned for more blueish tones as Betany wanted, I decided against this as they did not look as nice when I tried them in Da Vinci. I showed Bethany the difference and she agreed with this choice. So, I kept it more natural and colourful. It looks more vibrant than I had imagined, which I like. There was one shot that afterwards needed tweaking after I had exported it. It somehow looked different to what I had made previously, but this was a quick and easy fix thanks to Alex who while he put the credits in just boosted the contrast a bit to make it look like it had on the true tone screen.

Overall, I think the project went well, we worked well as team, and we got it done to a great standard. I find myself less confident with cinematography out of my specialisms, but this meant that I prepared much more for this project, which helped and showed in the result. My biggest take away was that I will need to do lots of test shoots next semester in my own time where I look at lighting and camera set ups so that I can ensure I get the final look that I want. I think this will boost my confidence and means that I will know exactly what I’m doing. Preparation is key. I also want to practice colour grading because I feel like I have not mastered it yet. I think our test shoot piece tells the story that we aimed for, and I am happy with what I have done. I feel my choice of framing, lenses and setups complement James’s production design, Claire’s performance, and Bethany’s direction. I also think Alex’s sound design marries it all together very nicely and adds tone and emotion to the image. I am now even more excited to see what we do next year!

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peerbear · 5 months

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Saint Catherines Test Shoot - The Film

In postproduction sound, we had some issues with the AAF and video exports, but eventually, after trial and error, we managed to make these work. Sadly, with a limited amount of time due to everything else that is going on right now, the sound design is not quite how I wanted it, to me it feels slightly unfinished, but it is good enough for a proof of concept. The LAV files were unusable, with many contacts and a faulty mic at the start. However, the boom mix was great. I managed to take out all the bumps and pole contacts. I am also very happy with the ambience I created which embraced the rain that I could not remove from the first half of the shoot so instead I layered it and made it an integral part of the ambience on top of any construction sounds that I could not remove. I had fun mixing and layering the sound effects that I sourced, and the onset wild tracks all came into great use for key sounds such as stick throwing, snapping, walking, small movements etc. From these I layered multiple sounds to add base and texture to the sounds, my favourite was the stick snapping. I also added in some eery tree cracking, which although it is a bit on the nose worked as I put it very low in the sound mix. This was meant to illustrate the forest creaking and breathing around them, furthering the uneasy feeling and space that they are in. On Zoe’s recommendation, I took out some of the clicks of the rain which made the dialogue much easier to understand. I mixed the dialogue much louder so that it was more audible over the soundscape that I had created around it. There was one sentence of Phoebe’s that I tried very hard to clean up, in the take Harry talks over her line and to me it sounded very off, but sadly we did not have a single take without this or that matched her lips on screen, so I tried my best to get rid of it, but it is the only thing that I did not quite manage to fix how I wanted it. However, when others listened to it, it did not bother them, and this is a learning curve for me I will know to ensure that I have dialogue that is not overlapping in future.

Overall, I am happy with the result, I think from a sound perspective it sounds good and there are multiple layers and textures to it. The dialogue is smooth and sounds crisp. The eery soundscape around them is realistic as Orla wanted, but still has a creative dark tone and an attention to small details within it. The main takeaway for me was my organisation and practice. I know I have an ear for what works, and I know I can do this, but my organisation did get in the way of me on this project. I feel I still managed to deliver the brief, and it has all worked out, especially considering the brief timeframe and everything else that is going on right now. However, I want to do better. My plan is to take out sound equipment several times next semester, to properly familiarise myself with it to ensure that there is nothing I don’t know about on set recording. I also want to record a sound library of my own and source sounds that I need prior to shooting so that I know what I want and what I need to create myself. This way on set my primary focus can be the dialogue and then after that all the other sounds that build the world. I am excited to use some water recording devices for the loch scene, which I have tested out as I mentioned in a previous post on our sound walk with Zoe. Something else I learned from the test shoot was to be more assertive, even though we have a wonderful team I did not speak up enough to get certain things that I needed for example when the LAV was not working I should have made that decision to change to a new one immediately and I should have ensured that I got room tone with the rain as well just in case. I also know that I want to ensure more time for mixing for the final sound edit next semester as this was quite rushed for this project, but was fine as it was not a big project. All this being said it went well and works with the picture. I think it will be a great proof of concept for us and it taught us many things that we need to know for the final shoot. I am so happy to be working in a team with such wonderful and talented people. I feel we are all very passionate about this project and I cannot wait for it to be realised next semester.

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peerbear · 5 months

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Where Currents Meet Test Shoot

The shoot went well. We got through shots smoothly and having prepared the day before helped make everything happen quickly. We got to set and set up quickly and then with Alex and Eva I tested out lighting setups until we made it work. I really appreciated both of their help on this, as I previously said that this is something I do not feel very confident with. Eva was so helpful as my AC; she helped me out with focus pulling, clapping, and making camera notes at the same time, which is no small feat. I felt we worked great together and having such a small team worked well for this room set up as too many people would have made the space too crowded. However, for the real thing next year, I will have a crew assembled as this would not be fair to put so much work on one person to help me. For that day it was okay as there was not too much to do, and we worked hard together. I really appreciated her help! I had changed some of the lenses when I had done my tests the night before without changing the shot list which was an issue because I had not communicated this with the AD, so when she would say what we would be shooting on according to the shot list I would say that this had changed. She was okay with it, but for professional practice in future I will open that dialogue with her beforehand. I might do this by sending her an updated shot list next time if I change it. I knew what I was doing, but she needed to know too. For the first half of the shoot, we did the four shots that I had prepared the day before and for the second half after lunch we did all of the four handheld shots, one of these we put on sticks because it was a longer action and the camera is heavy so I thought it made more sense this was, it was a quick set up and turn around so it was not an issue. We ended up shooting all the shots that were on sticks on the short sticks, this felt less intrusive to Iris’ space and made it feel like we were with her, and it gave the piece a calmer and less intrusive tone than if we would have shot from a higher angle. We wrapped early having shot everything we needed already because we were efficient. Our final two shots were top-down overhead shots, which sadly did not make it to the final edit because the cut would have been too long and maybe they felt they did not fit when seeing it all together. I was sad about this because I felt these shots had turned out well and gave more variety to the mood piece, but obviously, the final choice is not mine and I am very happy with the result.

Here are some BTS shots by Mary Hanna:

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peerbear · 5 months

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Test Shoot Preparation for Where Currents Meet

Initially, we thought that Braid Burn would be a scenic and practical location to shoot our test shoot. However, as it is November and very cold outside Bethany and Sam decided against this and instead decided to shoot our inside bedroom scene, which would be much easier logistically as the equipment would all stay there overnight anyway. Creatively this was also a great chance for us to create a mood piece which reflects who Iris is and gives us and anyone who will be involved or interested in the project the chance to get to know the character and the story before we film next March/April.

In preparation for the test shoot for Where Currents Meet, I visualised the space and how I wanted to film it, based on having seen Bethany’s room beforehand and thus already knowing the general layout. From this, I made a shot list and a floor plan. I planned these out on my own first and then went over them and refined them with Bethany in her room, so we could see the space as we were planning it, this way we could properly visualise it. We cut down and improved the shot list and agreed on which shots would make it into the film and related these to a script mark-up that we made so that we could decide which shot had which coverage. Then after this I tested out the shots we had planned, so that we could see them prior to filming and so I could test out which lenses worked best. Once I was happy with a shot I marked out where the tripod was so that we had these ready for the shoot in advance. I also wrote down the lens sizes as some of these had changed from what I had planned in the shot list. Testing the lenses out prior to shooting informed decisions on which lens choices worked best. Once I had set up a shot and liked it, I would show Bethany to ensure she was happy with it too. I also asked her and James to stand in for me so that I could frame up and pick out headroom and final framing choices. I photographed these so that I had them ready for reference the next day. I then tried out the Kino Flo lights, to see how to set them up and what they looked like. However, I left the main part of lighting for the actual day because I wanted a second opinion from Eva and Alex just to be sure. Lighting is where I feel the least confident in the cinematography department so to have extra eyes felt reassuring. On reflection as this is something I am unsure about I will be putting more effort into improving my skill set and knowledge on lighting next semester to ensure that I am prepared for the final shoot as I want to ensure that know what I am doing.

Here are the shots that we prepared in advance:

Here are the floor plan, shot list and the marked-up script. We colour-coordinated all of them so that they match up.

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peerbear · 5 months

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Saint Catherines Test Shoot

We made it to test shoot week!

I have to say the test shoot itself was a mixed bag for me. The crew was wonderful, everyone was great energy, helpful, and supportive. However, for sound, it was a bit of a disaster. It was raining for the first half of the shoot but not for the second half and in the second half the construction site next to us started up. This was bad for two reasons first it meant the rain sound and construction sounds were inseparable from the dialogue. Second, it meant for half of the shots there were rain sounds and for the other half, there were construction sounds, which is a continuity issue. I knew this would be fixable in post, but I was worried it would affect the quality of the dialogue, which along with performance for me was the most important part of the test shoot from a sound perspective. One LAV was flimsy and started to play random frequencies which ruined the sound for multiple takes at the beginning. I thought this might just be jacket contacts, but then it intensified and once I took the LAV off the actress I found out that the cable was damaged, which had not been visible before because it was covered by tape and so I had not noticed it when I miked her up. Luckily, we were filming near to the kit store, so I went back to exchange it for a working LAV. I felt quite underprepared for this test shoot, even though I knew what I was doing, and I had done it multiple times before I felt like I was relearning everything again and I felt like I needed to improve my organisation. Because simple things like a faulty mic should be noticed before shooting. In future, I will test these things out beforehand. I also only got room tone at the end of the day when it was not raining but there was construction which felt like poor practice. I had thought it would be raining all day based on what I had read on my weather apps, and we could not have known that the construction site would start halfway through the day. Luckily, I was able to fix this in post and piece together rain sounds for Harry’s dialogue that had no rain overlapping with it and I managed to remove as much of the construction sounds as possible. I have to say I had a great boom operator; Tom really helped me out on this shoot and he did a great job! I could not have done it without him! Otherwise, I would have had to do both boom operating and sound recording at the same time, which is very difficult, especially in the rain.

Here is Eva (also my flatmate and bestie) who was ACing and she brought her homemade cough syrup so that she would not have to cough and affect the sound, which was very kind of her.

Here are some BTS shots by Ben McMorran:

Here is the sound team and Monica from 2nd year who was PAing this shoot and keeping us dry. Even though in some shots I look so serious, you can tell there was also laughter and smiles.

Here are some stills from the shoot:

This is Alex as our Harry.

And this is Claire as our Phoebe.

They both did an excellent performance which I will link in a later post when we have completed the project!

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peerbear · 5 months

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Sound Walk with Zoe in Sound Class and Sound Preparation for Saint Catherines

In preparation for the Saint Catherines test shoot, I had a lot less to do than for my other project (which I will talk about in another post) because my work in sound lies more with postproduction, this is also the part I enjoy more and find less stressful. Sadly, I missed the location recce for this shoot as I had something else on that day, but Orla is also a sound person (or sound queen as I like to say) so I felt I was in safe hands. I sent Orla a minimal kit list of what I needed, which was very little. I read over the script to ensure I knew it well beforehand so that I knew what additional sounds I needed to record for postproduction sound. Due to this, I did not have to do any foley, which I knew I would not have enough time for given the window I had and everything else that was going on, so I used my wild tracks in the sound edit instead.

In sound class, we went on a walk to Craiglockhart Pond and recorded everything on the way there. We also stayed there for a while when we got there. We had many different types of microphones which could record in many different ways. One microphone could record in water and another one could record sound from your perspective as you hear it which I thought was SO cool! We ended up going around and recording whatever we could see and with one microphone that was magnetic we tapped the materials that we stuck it to, to see how the microphone absorbed the sound. This was really interesting and inspirational for me and gave me so many ideas of how I want to make sounds for my sound design on the final shoot for Saint Catherines next year! The test shoot I have planned will be much more simple.

This was hands down my favourite lesson that I have ever had at uni!

Here is Orla, as I mentioned a Sound Queen and also a Girl Boss with an ICONIC power stance! She is pictured all kitted up at the start of our sound class.

Here are Zoe and I recording the water and trying to record the swans swimming. I think these water proof microphones will be ideal for the loch scene in Saint Catherines.

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peerbear · 5 months

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Pitch Reflection

Overall, I feel like both pitches went well. Both of my teams were cohesive and we all knew what we were talking about.

For Where Currents Meet, as DOP I spoke about my visual approach to the project.

My primary concern after the safety of the actresses is to stay away from the male gaze in my shots. As a man, even though I am a gay man I think it can easily feel this way for the actresses. I want to ensure that they are comfortable at all times. I want to stay away from sexualised shots and focus on the gentler moments and the beauty of the story between the women rather than their bodies.

The primary references I will be drawing from both in terms of their narrative and cinematic styles are Into the Blue, Portrait of Lady on Fire and Moonlight. Into the Blue is mostly inspiration for action shots in the water. I like the way these shots are composed, especially in terms of framing and how the cinematographer has considered the movement of water coming in and out of shots, I feel like it shows that this has been thought through prior to and during shooting. Lady of a Portrait on Fire for me is a strong inspiration emotionally for the narrative and how the actresses will be shown in the shots. There is a delicacy and a beauty there that I really hope to capture. In terms of content where the two women are at the beach, I feel this melancholy tone reflects an aspect of what we are going for. Moonlight is my primary reference in terms of lighting and colour palette, Bethany, our director, is very keen for a blue colour palette. I also think this reference is ideal because of how the shots are framed and how emotive the shots of Little at the water in the moonlight are. This is also a perfect example of how we could shoot our shots in line with water safety guidelines.

In terms of approach, I’m going for a simple set up, mainly handheld shots and tripod set ups. I hope to also use a Gimble or an Easy Rig if possible. I’m looking to focus on details, like hands, with many close ups and reaction shots. As it stands, I will be shooting on a Blackmagic Ursa and for the water shots a GoPro or similar waterproof camera. I want to use a GoPro, so that I can really enter the water and not worry about the camera getting wet. I want to play with point of view shots and film the actresses in the water. I also want to look at the ocean water as an expression of the character’s feelings. I want to look at the movement, shades and different textures of the ocean water and the colours of the sea sky. I also want to explore the water as a safe space visually.

We are aware that there might be some issues filming in the ocean logistically in terms of health and safety so we have planned back up filming options where we would have the shots framed in such a way that it looks like the actresses are deeper in the water (closer to the water) than they are, we would do this by using a long lens. I’m currently planning to use an 85mm lens. We also had another backup option to film in a pool and cheat the lighting there.

In terms of style, I’m going for a dreamy aesthetic with mostly blue tones. I’m hoping to play with exposure, lighting and focus to achieve relatively soft shots. I know Bethany is very interested in the character’s surroundings reflecting their feelings. So, I will take this into consideration when I am planning the framing of shots to see how the character’s feel in this moment, for example, when Iris feels alone at the beach it will be quite a wide shot to reflect her loneliness, but when she is with Kallie in the same space it will be a up close to show the intimacy and the comfort in the closeness. This is because a big part of the story is about connection, so the shots will reflect how connected Iris feels to her surroundings. Our current locations include a mixture of indoor and outdoor scenes, I want there to be a contrast in how the shots show Iris’ emotions. I want to show Iris as more comfortable outside in nature, in the woods or at the beach, whereas in the city at the bus stop, on the pavement or inside in the bedroom or shop, she is more confined by the space.

As we are shooting a lot at night, lighting will play a major role in the believability of the film. I want to make the lighting look natural when recreating moonlight and I know Bethany has a sunrise/sunset scene with a glass refection in mind, where we will use lights to keep control of this. There might be pressure to do shots that depend on external lighting; however, we will keep these to a minimum, using a three-point lighting set up.

Following on from the pitch we felt confident and happy with what we presented. Overall, it seemed to be well received with a few clarities needed and a few developments suggested. I feel as a group we presented cohesively and gave an in-depth idea of what the film will be and look like. The main outcome for me was that we were recommended to shoot in a pool for our water submersion shots, this would enable us to be in line with health and safety guidelines and offer a safer environment to shoot in as well as the opportunity to shoot creatively in water. This made me very happy as I am very keen for the water aspect of this project and think it really adds to the story, as water is a very emotive and special location to be in and to shoot in.

For Saint Catherines, as the Sound Recordist and Designer, I focused on bringing across how I will create the soundscape for this project.

My key references for the sound of the project are Unbelievable (2019), How to Have Sex (2023) and Smoke Sauna Sisterhood (2023). Unbelievable to me serves as a reference for droning sounds that show the dark unease of a sexual assault victim who is not heard. It is an example of this not only narratively, but also tonally and shows how this can be demonstrated audibly. How to Have Sex explores what consent actually means and uses a gripping soundscape that moves from a relatively airy soundscape in the first half to a more gripping dark soundscape that can even be heard in the base of the music of the clubs where the protagonist goes with her friends. Smoke Sauna Sisterhood serves as a reference for our final loch scene. The film is a breathtaking depiction of all the different issues that women face in society ending with a recollection of a terrible sexual assault, after this the women go into the lake and swim in silence, you can hear the sounds of the lake and the women singing together. This moment of going into the water and the atmosphere around this section reflects what I will try to achieve in my sound design to show the water as a safe space.

I want to use the sounds of the water and the forest as motifs for safety and unsafety. The water of the loch will lap gently, and the general soundscape will show the water as a place of refuge. The woods are where Phoebe gets sexually assaulted so this will be reflected in the sound as an unsafe place, with menacing and creepy drones as the wind howls and the trees crack. Just before Phoebe confronts Harry he throws sticks at a tree, I want to make the stick and tree contact sound hollow and uncanny. As Phoebe accuses Harry of sexually assaulting her, he snaps a twig in two, I will layer this sound to make it sound intimidating and I also want to use it as a tonal shift within this dialogue scene.

Something I really like about this project is that we will not show the sexual assault. Not visually nor audibly. However, in the sound design, I hope to create the space that the sexual assault takes up. I have found trauma like this takes up a physical space in a victim’s mind and seeps into the reality of the world around them. As the title of the film is the name of the place where the sexual assault takes place, I think it fits to explore this space audibly. I want to show how in moments of ‘silence’ Phoebe hears the sounds around her and what she feels in relation to them. This will be especially important when she feels alone and we can see her but hear her friends outside and the nature around her, this separates her and shows her isolation.

A big topic we will be exploring is aftermath, and for me a key part of this is touch. Touch can be so triggering and difficult for someone who has been through a sexual assault. You can feel it in your skin even if it is years ago, it’s something that stays with you forever and can affect you for a long time. In my sound design, I want to show this sensation of touch and make it grate underneath the skin of our audience; I want to create that sensation audibly. I also want to use sound as memory, rather than the classic echoing of what people say I want to do this in breaths or whispers instead.

Most sexual assault cases involve someone you know, so I want the sound around the perpetrator to be familiar and relatively pleasant, to show him as he is seen by others, why he is liked and why people would think that he isn’t ‘bad’. But I want to make it clear that he is wrong, and I do not want to sympathise with him in any way. So, when Phoebe and Harry have their confrontation this space and tone around Harry will shift. The focus will be to sympathise with the main character Phoebe and the betrayal of her friends who do not believe her.

I plan to split the sound design into two main sections. In the first section, the sounds will be ambient, gentle and grounded in reality. In the second section after the sexual assault, I want to focus on isolating Phoebe from the sounds around her. However, in the final scene, I want to bring the soundscape back to a gentler soundscape, but still with dark undertones.

I feel the pitch for Saint Catherines went very well, we were cohesive and strong as a team, and I felt I brought across all the points that I wanted to. Everything that we said mirrored each other and we were a unit. Being up there together and presenting together, listening to each other reminded me why I wanted to be on this project (not that I needed a reminder, but it was a great feeling!) This group is strong and kind and I’m excited for what we will create together!

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peerbear · 5 months

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Where Currents Meet Location Recce

For our location recce Bethany, Sam, James and I met up and had a walk along Braid Burn in the Braids just down from Blackford Hill. I found this very helpful to start playing around and getting ideas on what the shots might look like. Bethany and Sam picked this location because they were thinking we could do the bridge scene where Iris gets to see a spot from Kallie's world that is totally unknown to her. So I thought this section would feel kind of magical and bit lighter in the story, maybe even with an element of excitement and adventure.

Here are some photos that I took:

I used the others as my subjects to help practice framing. This was the part of the project where I had the most fun so far!

These last few shots were when I had even more fun, but I think they had an entirely different mood and aesthetic, which is why I have kept them separate here.

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peerbear · 5 months

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Introduction to My 4th Year Projects

(This is a random photo of a sunrise from when I went swimming with my mum because I don't like to make posts without images.)

Starting 4th year has been quite the build-up we knew that it was coming since we started and then suddenly it has just kind of happened and we are here and it's the same as every other year. I feel like this year is all about decisions, choosing your dissertation topic, who you want as your dissertation supervisor, what you want to specialise in, what projects you want to work on and what you want to do next. It's all very overwhelming but also super exciting! When I was looking through all of my photos today, I noticed how many fun things I've had the chance to do at uni. And I really appreciate these memories, the people that I have met and the opportunities that I have had especially the ones that have helped me grow creatively. One day I will do a post about these because I have never been good at posting on my blog over the last couple of years. But this year I'm going to try and actually do it right!

This year I am working on two projects. For my grad films, I will be doing sound recording and design on Saint Catherines and cinematography on Where Currents Meet. I’m super excited that I will get to do my two favourite disciplines and that I will be working on projects that I am passionate about.

Saint Catherines is about sexual assault and its aftermath, which is very fitting to me as this is a topic that I am passionate about (sexual assault prevention and awareness that is) and it is a logical progression from my dissertation which is on sex education in film and television. Sound is the perfect fit for me for this project, as I find there is a lot of emotion in sound. And sexual assault is a very emotional topic, to say the least. So, I will try to demonstrate the emotional side of sexual assault through my soundscape. I think sound can convey emotions, thoughts, and feelings in a very different way to images or visuals. I plan to use certain sounds to evoke emotions, in a subtle and unnoticeable way, whilst still increasing and heightening the drama.

Where Currents Meet is a love story about two women who meet at the beach. This film is the perfect fit for me in terms of cinematography because I love water and it plays such a key role in the narrative. After university I want to become a water cinematographer, so this feels like the right step for me. I have experience filming in water from a previous project I directed called ‘Bodies of Water.’ Water cinematography marries my love for creativity, sports, and the outdoors perfectly. The fact that this film tells a love story about queer people, further drew me, as a queer person in. I want to make projects about queer people that tell queer stories. I also think this is an important, gentle, and relatable story to tell. I hope to make this visually beautiful and stay true to the story.

I'm very excited to see what this semester and this next year will bring!

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peerbear · 1 year

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Ocean Film Festival

Last weekend I went with my mother to the Ocean Film Festival 2023 screening in the Edinburgh Festival Theater. This and its sister film festival (Banff Mountain Film Festival) are my dream film festivals. Most film students or filmmakers want to make it to Cannes, Sundance or Venice. But I want to make it to one or both of these instead. My family has always been very outdoorsy and so this is the film festival we would always go to over the years and it has always inspired me both as a person in my own life and as a filmmaker. Not only are the subjects and their stories inspirational, but the films in themselves are beautiful, often of different callibers and styles, which is something that we all really enjoy when we go to see it.

I am very inspired by the ocean, by water and the space it creates for me mentally. I find I am calmer when I go into the water or even when I stand at its edge. But when I stand at the water’s edge i always get the urge to run in for a dip or a swim. This is why the Ocean Film Festival is perfect for me because it inpires my soul and passion for film. I’m very interested in doing portraits of people and l find following them on a journey is super exciting. Often times the films that are screened at this festival feature portraits like the ones I like to make about people on a journey be it literal or mental within the realm of the ocean.

This was not the only reason that I went this year. I went with just my mother as I am hoping to at some point submit the film we made last year “Bodies of Water” to that same festival, so I joked we were scouting out the competition, but it was mainly to enjoy other ocean films. I hope to see my mother up there one day as well, if not in Bodies of Water than on another project. I find her a very inspirational person and I think many other people would too. And as I said for me its the dream to have a film there.

We really enjoyed all of the films we saw. But my two favourite films this year were CIRCUMNAVIGATE and If You Give a Beach a Bottle.

CIRCUMNAVIGATE by Will Reddaway

CIRCUMNAVIGATE is a 1 and a half hour long film by Will Reddaway which follows Brendan Prince as he circumnavigates all around the British mainlaind. I found this the most inspiring story because of the feat of doing this in itself. A paddleboard is not designed for these kinds of distances and as I said before a journey for me is always something I really enjoy, especially in these water and sport celebrating films. What also needs to be mentioned is how Brendan used the project to raise funds and awareness for water safety in the UK. As an off duty life gaurd he witnessed several people dying on a beach once and it changed his life. He has made it his mission to make the ocean a safer place for everyone. Something I really appreciated was that his family understood that this was something that he had to do, so he was away from them for 4 and a half months and they did not hold him back from it.

I found the shots were very beautiful not only because of their pretty subjects (the ocean and Brendan too) but also because they showed all the different personalities of the sea. The ocean is one of my favourite places (as I mentioned before) and I feel it has such strong and distinct characteristics that can change from one to the other at any time. Having done Bodies of Water I know it is not always easy to capture these. I find the ocean is something to admire and respect, because it is wild and beautiful. I have to say the long running time of the film was not an issue for me at all, it felt longer than some of the other films of course, but it worked as a feature for me.

Sadly I was unable to get a link to the full film, but here is a link first to the trailer of the film and then below to The Long Paddle page which Brendan has created for his fundraising for ocean safety awareness:

https://vimeo.com/ondemand/circumnavigatesup

https://thelongpaddle.co.uk/

If You Give a Beach a Bottle by Max Romey

If You Give a Beach a Bottle by Max Romey stood out to me as it was completely different to the other films that were screened that night. It is much shorter and it is also an artwork in itself. I felt this film could be an installation. It is educational, playful and enjoyable. It was short but sweet and the edit was fun but concise. The film follows Max as he reads a poem and paints pictures as he empties litter off a beach. The film is inspirational and offers an artistic approach to tackling climate change and the global crisis. I can only recommend it.

Here are some of my favourite images from the film:

I was able to get a link to the film this time so here it is:

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peerbear · 1 year

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Cinematography Class - Exercise 2 - Interior Mood Change

A Trip in a Trunk to Rio

After class last week I spoke with Eva about the project task for this week as we often do and she spoke about smaller spaces and how these are easier to to change and manipulate. This got me thinking and I decided to use a very small space and see what I oculd do with it, namely my grandpa’s old suitcase/trunk that he had when he was my age. As was common back then it has his initials on it, H. B. stands for Hermann Bank. At the moment I use the suitcase as my art box so it houses my paints, inks and mixed media for making art. So I took photos of the suitcase with the contents inside but then deicided to empty the box as I felt this would tell more of a story and look much more interesting. It also highlights how old the suitcase is and how these days its not used for its purpose and its owner is gone just like the contents that were once in it.

I thought about how I might change the mood of the box, starting off with an empty space that looks as I said quite old and moody, almost crumbling into earth. I then thought about the journey that the box has been on and the narrative that it tells now versus what it told in the past. My mother’s parents are German and Brazilian, and for me this is a big part of the trunk’s story. In World War II my grandpa was initially too young to fight in the war, but when he was called up to fight for Germany he and his best friend fled the country as they did not believe in the regime and didn’t want to fight for it. I asked my mother if he would have taken the suitcase with him, but she told me he fled by bike to Austria, so he didn’t have room or time to bring the suitcase with him, he used it for much larger (safer) trips. Sadly he was caught on the boarder to Austria and was forced to fight in the last couple months of WWII. However, this trunk has a much happier story. After the war my Grandpa joined his father’s gemstone company and enterprise for which he travelled all over the world to mine gems and to trade them.

For the concept of this project I imagined that he took this suitcase with him on a special trip to Rio (which is very likely, but not definite.) His father sent him there to get aquianted with one of his friends, and we are unsure if it was a set up, but the daughter of this friend was my grandma, who he met there and fell in love with. He then took her back with him to Germany where they started a family together, and that’s a wee part of where I come from. But I focused on and imagined what my grandpa might have taken with him on the way there, because I know how the journey back went. I packed the suitcase with clothes and books of Brazil as if I was him and then tried to create a dreamy magical world where the box with his clothes and belongings gets taken over by plants as he enters the Amazon rainforest surrounded by cloudlike waves (which are actually my duvets). I imagined him going there falling in love in a dream like world, which is so different to where he is from. The mood change I went for is from melancholic to dreamy and nostalgic.

I feel I took more of a production design approach to the project as the props are great, but the lighting and shots are not as diverse and strong as I hoped. I really struggled with lighting and covered the window above the case with a white sheet, this did help, however, I really struggled to control the lighting in the exact way that I wanted.

I really enjoyed coming up with the concept for this project, although I feel the photos have come out a little rushed. This is because I did not leave enough time on the weekend to do it, however, I really enjoyed doing this exercise and I think it has turned out pretty well.

Here are the photos again for more details:

Article from ASC:

Irish Drama The Banshees of Inisherin Explores a Fractured Friendship

In sound class the other week we looked at or rather listened to a section from this film from the point of view of sound recording and more specifically sound design, my other specialism. We established that a lot of the sound track of this film was music, but however a great deal of effort had gone into the sound recordings as the film was shot on a stormy Irish island called Inishmore - which is a sound person’s biggest nightmare but a cinematographer’s dream. It only felt right to look at something that would conflict with my inner creative brain and look at it from another angle.

To start off I’m going to say the obvious, the shots are BEAUTIFUL. This is not only thanks to cinematographer Ben Davis, but also the landscape. It is a key characteristic of the film and offers a clear but ‘muted’ base colour palette to the film. This is something that director Martin McDonaugh wanted to portray - the landscape’s beauty rather than its drearyness. Davis describes the landscape as meloncholic and almost claustorphobic, I can see the melancholy, but in terms of clausterphobia he might be refering to being trapped on an island, but I personally don’t feel that in his shots, I rather find them freeing.

For the project they used a limited crew of 75 people and gear as the location was so remote and inaccessible with larger vehicles.

The narrative of the film follows old friends falling out and as a dark comedy is meant to reflect the genre of a Western. From what I have seen in sound class and in the trailer I can see this genre coming to life in the wild irish landscape. I feel this is highlighted in many wide landscape shots.

Davis describes many of the shots as ‘threshold work’ which are shots through doors and windows. I feel through these he get the feeling of the conflict and shows how the character’s are literally on the threshold of their friendship.

They wanted a specific view that shows the remoteness and roughness of the landscape, but there were no old houses that looked over bays in the way that they wanted so they purpose built Pádraic’s house and the pub. Due to this they were able to install up to 30 Dedo lights so they could really control the lighting on set.

Davis also commented that for some of the costumes they drew inspiration from Post-Impressionist artists Rembrandt and Van Gogh’s colourful paintings. I really liked that they drew inspiration from artists that lived and created works so long ago, because it shows that you can be inspied by anything and anyone.

What really surprised me was that they used an Ari Alexa Mini with Signature prime lenses and filters, which is a camera that we have access to at university which was a reminder of how good the equipment is that we have access to, that it is really industry standard.

To end with I thought I’d mention how Davis said he wanted to shoot from “landscape to faces”, to show the weather on the characters faces. For me this quote reminds me of Agnes Varda and JR’s Faces Places documentary where they tour in his van and take photos of different people and paint/print them as murals onto walls and different surfaces in different places. In both projects I feel they achieve showing how people’s surroundings affect them and their way of life and vice versa. For me this ties in nicely again to my task of the week where I have tried to show a part of my grandpa’s story through a small space and I like that any space can reflect a person and their story.

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peerbear · 1 year

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Q-FORCE

Q-Force stands for Queer Force and it is a series available on Netflix that I thoroughly enjoyed. I found it so enjoyable because I could have only dreamt of such a cartoon being around when I was growing up. It takes us back to representation. The series includes a diverse Queer community, which I think is something that is so important to see even in a cartoon, especially for those people growing up, who are getting to know themselves and can find themselves in what they are watching. Although the series appears to be aimed at an older teen audience, with its references and homour, I know I would have still appreciated it as a child. If you are looking for a wee laugh and something lighter, I would recommend giving this a go.

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peerbear · 1 year

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Cinematography Class - Exercise 1 - A Sense of Home

Am I Really Home Again?

Over the years I’ve lived in Australia, Germany and Brazil for different periods of time, but Scotland has always been a place to come back to. This is the place where I grew up. It is the place I have always called home. It is the place where I was born, but I don’t have any Scottish heritage. My parents are German and Brazilian. If you are born and grow up in a country where you are not originally from it gives you a different sense of belonging and idenitity. Because you belong to all of the cultures that you have grown up with, but at the same time you don’t belong to any of them. It can be lonely when you are unable to find comfort in a single one of them. But when you do it is very special. This sense of feelling at home and a stranger in my country and my identity is something I have always been aware of. It is always on my mind.

Home is a very emotional concept. For a long time I’ve said home is not the place but the people. Last semster I went to study abroad in Canada and since then I’ve come back to my definition of the word. Home is not a place or the people, there are always great people wherever you go. For me home is a personal feeling of comfort and belonging. I have also come to the conclusion that home can also be a lonely ‘metaphorical place’ or even state of mind and this like everything else is always subject to change. It is not something that you always share with other people, often it is something that you have to create or build on your own. Saying this right now feels dramatic as I have moved back into my family home for the time being while I wait for the flat Eva and I have lined up to hopefully move into soon. You would think this is home and that living in my parents flat, a place I have always called home my whole life would be my home still. But I don’t know that this is the case for me anymore. I adore my parents and they are wonderful to be around, but I don’t want to live in this flat anymore, that part of my life feels like its been done. I don’t feel that this is my home, it will always be a base to come back to, but the meaning of this place has changed for me. I found this so interesting as initially when I heard the brief to take photos/footage that demonstrate a sense of home, I thought I would revert to older thoughts and take photos of this space. I didnt take a single photo in the house because it just didn’t feel right.

This weekend I brought some of my close friends to my favourite beach for the first time, its called Tyninghame. I’ve been going there with my family since I can remember and its always been my favourite place. Whenever I go there I feel at ease and inspired. The ocean calms me, bodies of water ground me. For me I feel at home when I’m there in the nature. I feel like I belong. The photos I took were an exploration of me and my friends in this space where I feel at home. Here they are in greater detail:

Article from ASC:

Total Immersion for Avatar: The Way of Water

I chose this article because I am obsessed with water and I am keen to specialise in water cinematography for film. I know that is very specific, but it is something I have wanted to do since making Bodies of Water last year. As I said before water is a happy safe space for me and I feel it would be great to work in a place that offers me this kind of tranquility. Sadly, I believe this film doesn’t really offer that kind of tranquility that I am talking about. Although I have not yet seen it from what I have gathered its very much about destruction and unrest within this beautiful ocean world. The Avatar sequel is filmed by a different cinematographer to the first one, this time it is filmed by Russell Carpenter.

The article went into great detail describing lots of equipment that Carpenter used for the film, a lot of which I have not heard of. From what I gathered it mainly demonstrates how complex and difficult this film was to film. It was filmed with many cameras, mostly of two groups which were live action and 3D virtual cameras that needed to match up perfectly as moving images for the CGI animation to work.

For some of the water scenes they struggled a lot with reflections. The way Carpenter dealt with this was by using clear plastic beads layered together on top of the water to stop light from coming through this way there were no unwanted reflections. For me I would not want to hide reflections in water, I think its one of its many and most beautiful attributes that mesmerise me. I am aware that this is done to control as much of the lighting in the film as possible. However, I would find it hard to manipulate it this way. Carpenter himself says “The light should be a living and breathing expression of the life of Pandora.” From the stills I have seen he has achieved this.

Something to note is that although this film is highly technically skilled and moving the film industry forward with new technology, it is important to acknowledge that there are problems with the story - which culturally appropriates indegenious people and makes money off of a screening (eventually streaming) that is based on colonialism. This is something that the director of the film argues aganist, however, it is literally what happens in the film.

The film is supposed to be about belonging and finding where you fit in the world, which I find fitting, in spite of the plot, as this correlates to the home aspect in the first part of this exercise.

Message of the week: I have promised myself that I will be reading more this year and that I will actually contribute a lot more to my blog. This is something that in previous years I found very difficult, but while writing this post I have realised it is more fun and even therapeutic than I remember.

Stay tuned for some queer content.

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peerbear · 2 years

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MASTER SHOT STILL SHOOT DAY

For our master shot still shoot we got up at the crack of dawn, because WE wanted a specific lighting in the shot. Being a drama queen myself I showed up in my pyjamas in protest. However, I got over myself very quickly and had a good time. We knew exactly what we wanted to do and had prepared everything for the shot, even if somewhat frantically on my part. I said from the get go that I wanted to do sound design for this project, so for the master shot I took on the role of production design. Most of the things on our dashboard were things that we already had in my flat, for example the dried flowers, newspapers and my essential oil difuser, which was the closest thing that I had which had an interesting urn like shape, we hoped it wouldn’t get noticed by anyone! I cheekily threw together the in memoriam card from a photo online, although I knew exactly what I wanted to do I am just not very good at drawing detailed things and I felt I did not have enough time to do so. The set up did take us a wee while as we were seeing what worked and what didn’t and it was very cold. However I think the final shot turned out very cinematic and looks great! Our set up in the car was a cosy tight fit, but quite cold as we thought it best to have the boot up o have more space, but it worked well. I think we were very happy with our final result. Our goal was to reflect the second cars headlights into the wingmirror of the car in which our actor and director James was in. This was meant to be a part of the story and add a cinematic feel to the shot. We scrapped this idea because it affected the lighting too much. The paraphernalia on the dashboard was also meant to show that the character had been in the car for several days. His costume, the suit and tie were meant to indicate that he had gone straight from the funeral onto this road trip. The fact that he is in the passenger seat and not in the driver seat is meant to indicate that he is on the trip with someone else who is not seen in the shot.

The boys did an excellent job that morning, everyone doing their part and making it all come together! I feel we work very collaboratively on everything and the group moral is great!

After the shoot the boys introduced me to MacDonald’s breakfast! I kid you not I had never had one and I enjoyed it so much! At first when they recommended it I was not keen at all, but when we had it I was impressed by it, because for Macdonalds the quality seemed better than normal. Maybe this was because I was cold and hungry I’m not sure!

Here are some photos of the set up, with a bit of focus on the production design.

Here is the car set up where we tried to get the headlights into frame.

Roro on the camera!

Our camera set up and our glamourous model.

Robbie adjusting the wing mirror to reflect the headlights.

An artsy shot of the boys or my babes as I call them now!

This and the next 2 photos are just some photos of our production design set up on the dashboard.

Here is our In Memoriam brochure design.

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peerbear · 2 years

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LOCATION RECCE FOR MASTER SHOT STILL

We met up the following week at Peanut Express Cafe on Brougham Street. We were discussing where we wanted to shoot and what we need to make our master shot happen. James had a specific area up near Perth in mind because that is where he is from and he knows the area well. We all agreed on it. Then after some thought, I recommended a different spot outside Edinburgh, near Balerno at Threipmuir Resevoir, as it was closer and I felt it was similar enough to what he had in mind. I pulled up some photos and locations to show them what I meant.

These are the google maps pins and photos:

https://www.google.com/maps/place/55%C2%B051'22.1%22N+3%C2%B020'12.4%22W/@55.8561327,-3.338971,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x0:0x5f8ae04bc3aa9c58!8m2!3d55.8561327!4d-3.3367823?hl=en-GB

https://www.google.com/maps/place/East+Rigg+House,+Balerno+EH14+7JR/@55.8581576,-3.3542998,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x4887c30f9f10b6a1:0xe7f16106063afa0!8m2!3d55.8581576!4d-3.3521111?hl=en-GB

We agreed on this and then after uni one day we went all together on a wee road trip for a location recce. We were going to rent out equipment for this shot and for the master shot, but in the end, decided it would be more practical to use Rowen’s camera.

We had a nice wee adventure looking for our spot and almost got stuck with the car, however, as usual, we had a laugh and a great time! Initially, we went to the first location I had suggested because I really liked the aesthetic of the road. However, it is a private road and said something like ‘LOCAL ACCESS ONLY’ or ‘NO VEHICLES BEYOND THIS POINT’ so the boys kept me right and decided we would not go for that as it would have been complex asking for permission etc. We tried the second location I suggested and found it didn’t quite make the cut as there was not enough space to park on the roadside and let other cars by and it was clearly a busier road. So we kept looking and drove about for a while and that was when we got stuck in the mud and had to push the car out of a wee ditch. Finally, towards the end of the trip, we came across a dirt track which was ideal as our location. I did not think so at the time as I was still very keen on the private road... And in the end, I’m very glad that we decided to do this as the initial background distracts focus from the subject in the photo a little bit and narratively this one works. Our dirt track was ideal because we thought it would not get busy at all as it was a dead-end road and if there were passers-by there would be enough space for cars to get past us without us having to move anything.

Here are the map pins and final location photos:

https://www.google.com/maps/dir//Balerno/@55.8694899,-3.3593623,16.6z/data=!4m9!4m8!1m0!1m5!1m1!1s0x4887c36d3d374aff:0xd672b2e0d05912dc!2m2!1d-3.3595188!2d55.869115!3e0?hl=en-GB

So now we had our location and we knew what we needed in terms of props and we knew what we wanted to do so all we had to do was come back and take the photo!

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