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dapperdelphina · 2 years

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Begin Again (2013) | dir. John Carney

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katieqnmr · 1 hour

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Camera for St Cats 😵‍💫😁

As I’ve said before, I was really nervous about doing camera for the first time ever (basically) I had made Orla promise me a beautiful camera team, and now I had to do the work. The thing is, I was scared that even doing all the preparation I possibly could wouldn’t ensure that I would feel ready to film…

But I had to get over the fear and once I instead began to be excited about what the project would look like I was able to delve into researching what I wanted the camera to tell about the characters I’d written. I almost think camera and writing is a god-level combo, it’s perhaps too much power(?) but I would be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy having so much input into the characters I had spent so much time with the previous months. Also orla kept me in check ;)…

In part of my preparation for camera, I browsed a ton of film stills on shotdeck, which I had to get a free trial for. Shotdeck is really great. The stills are super high-quality and feel like they pulled from a range of films. I still think they’re lacking a few but for what I needed, it did a great job. Even though I love drawing, I’m not a huge fan of storyboards, because I feel like I just get lost in all the details and take so long to do them that they don’t serve as a useful reference point anymore. I can’t seem to be able to hand in half completed work, and stick figures would never satisfy the desire I have for detail.

So? The solution is to find as many screenshots as can explain what I was thinking. My first port of call was Normal People, because Orla had found some shots of it when we were discussing the moods of each scene, and I was just taken immediately. It had the exact kind of realism but beauty that I wanted to capture. I loved the use of lens lengths too. It felt really personal but didn’t stray into documentary territory.

Confession: I still haven’t watched Normal People (neither has Orla!) but I don’t think I had to to understand the shots. The fact that I didn’t know what each scene was saying, yet I could feel so much and get so much character depth means that they did a really good job.

I used stills from other films as well, especially scene 3 I was always referring back to this 4 shot from Waves, (DOP Drew Daniels). ^ but Normal People formed the bulk of my inspiration for this exercise specifically. There were also plenty of scenes where I came up with shots with no inspiration, except for the medley of whatever stuff is in my brain (hard to find a source for that). I was able to visualise exactly what I wanted without having to storyboard it, and it also gave me a really good idea for the lighting of each scene. I could adapt each to be personal to what I wanted. There were no shots that were exactly mirrored in Saint Catherine‘s, because I obviously wanted to use my own creativity. There is one shot (6.1) that is very inspired by normal people, but we changed the focus to be on her other eye in Saint Cat’s.

Seeing the shots already existing made me feel less nervous, and I think as a beginner allowed me to begin to be confident in what I was going to create. I also found this incredibly specific shot from a music video that had the softness of light that I wanted from Scene 7.

I also really enjoyed the chats I had about lighting with Alex who is clearly the most passionate and talented gaffer I’ve had the pleasure of working with haha - he had such good ideas about how we could achieve each shot. When I had questions about where we would light from or what kind of light we would use, he had an answer. Alex is just incredibly knowledgeable and adaptable, and I felt like I was in very safe hands.

As the shoot went by, I felt like I was able to really imbue the film with my own creativity and perspective. I feel so happy that I was given the freedom to explore what I wanted to. The shoot itself was so calm and days just flew by…we were finishing early or on time every day, and everything felt like it was going a very easy pace! The Saint Cat’s shoot is definitely the one I felt most at home and most inspired by. :) I loved doing the cinematography for Saint Cats, and I wish I had found the confidence to do it earlier.

#gradfilm #saintcatherines

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dapperdelphina · 2 years

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