After "learning" film-making for 10 months, we were supposed to make a DV film - the final project of 1st year. This post is dedicated to explaining some of the thought process that went into the making of the film.
Link to Film - http://www.youtube.com/edit?o=U&ns=1&video_id=MWYzspkTaMY
(Its a private video. Mail me at shreyanknanjappa@gmail.com if you are not able to view it)
Scene 1
In the very first scene I started off with an establishing shot of the restaurant.
Followed by a close up of a photo. Without showing who is holding it. This is quite jerky, from wide shot to close up. This creates many doubts in the minds of the viewers. Who this girl is, who is holding the pic, etc..
Then the person holding the photo is revealed, but we can see someone else in the foreground. If this scene was shot in the classic way, I had to first establish the characters. I purposely avoided this, to create some suspense around Arun (the guy with the lighter). Further, I did not reveal Arun even though his dialogue starts, hence increasing the suspense.
Finally Arun is revealed. He continues his dialogue.
We cut back to the Detective. This time the frame is tighter (higher magnification).
Later, we come to a close up of the Detective. This is the usual way of doing a shot-breakdown. Starting off with a Mid-Long shot, then a Mid shot and finally the Close Up.
One thing I wanted to do was, show in a subtle way that Arun is more dominant than the Detective. So, while taking Arun's shots, I kept the camera at a low level. Where-as while taking the Detective's shots the camera was at eye level. A Low-Angle shot makes the character appear more dominant.
Scene 5
The penultimate scene is the conversation between Arun and Raghu. The 180 degree rule tells that, when shooting a conversation between two characters, the camera has to stay on one side of them.
Therefore, one person faces right, the other person faces left and it has to stay that way for the entire scene.
Here, Raghu is facing right
Arun is facing left.
This is the most important scene in the film, where we find out that Arun has been lying the whole time and he is not who we think he is. Once this truth about Arun is revealed, I wanted to break the 180 degree rule to create a jerk.
Hence, I cut to a high angle shot of the gun.
Followed by a shot where Arun is facing right. This creates a kind of jerk and complements the truth that we have learnt about Arun.
Shot-breakdown is a small part of the thought process that goes into every small detail of film-making.
Nothing happens by accident. :-)
Link to Film - http://www.youtube.com/edit?o=U&ns=1&video_id=MWYzspkTaMY
(Its a private video. Mail me at shreyanknanjappa@gmail.com if you are not able to view it)
Scene 1
In the very first scene I started off with an establishing shot of the restaurant.
 | ||
| Establishing Shot |
Followed by a close up of a photo. Without showing who is holding it. This is quite jerky, from wide shot to close up. This creates many doubts in the minds of the viewers. Who this girl is, who is holding the pic, etc..
 |
| Close Up |
Then the person holding the photo is revealed, but we can see someone else in the foreground. If this scene was shot in the classic way, I had to first establish the characters. I purposely avoided this, to create some suspense around Arun (the guy with the lighter). Further, I did not reveal Arun even though his dialogue starts, hence increasing the suspense.
 |
| Mid-Long shot |
Finally Arun is revealed. He continues his dialogue.
 |
| Mid-Long shot |
We cut back to the Detective. This time the frame is tighter (higher magnification).
 |
| Mid Shot |
Later, we come to a close up of the Detective. This is the usual way of doing a shot-breakdown. Starting off with a Mid-Long shot, then a Mid shot and finally the Close Up.
 |
| Close Up (Camera at eye level) |
One thing I wanted to do was, show in a subtle way that Arun is more dominant than the Detective. So, while taking Arun's shots, I kept the camera at a low level. Where-as while taking the Detective's shots the camera was at eye level. A Low-Angle shot makes the character appear more dominant.
 |
| Close Up (Camera below eye level) Low angle shot |
Scene 5
The penultimate scene is the conversation between Arun and Raghu. The 180 degree rule tells that, when shooting a conversation between two characters, the camera has to stay on one side of them.
Therefore, one person faces right, the other person faces left and it has to stay that way for the entire scene.
Here, Raghu is facing right
 |
| Raghu facing right |
Arun is facing left.
 |
| Arun facing left |
This is the most important scene in the film, where we find out that Arun has been lying the whole time and he is not who we think he is. Once this truth about Arun is revealed, I wanted to break the 180 degree rule to create a jerk.
Hence, I cut to a high angle shot of the gun.
Followed by a shot where Arun is facing right. This creates a kind of jerk and complements the truth that we have learnt about Arun.
 |
| Arun facing right |
Nothing happens by accident. :-)
