[Community Project] Cinematography

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wheatgrinder

Discussing all aspects of cinematography for the ongoing IT Community Project.

Topic starters:

  • Image Quality
  • Meta Style
  • Common shot sizes
  • Mise-en Scene
  • Serving the story

Image Quality:
23.976 FPS, 1920x1080 progressive.

Meta Style:
Apply stylistic flourishes in all remote scenes to tie it all together.


Common shot sizes
It seems to me that one thing that will help keep our various efforts looking similar will be the shot framing size. For example, If we define that a Close Up shot has the eyes the upper third line, tight enough to crop the top but not so tight as to clip the chin and we all do our CU's to that specification we will have a nice coherency in our CU.


Mise-en Scene
This basically comes down to production design. Since we have many different locations and varying resources to apply to production design we can instead establish some basic look and feel guidelines for wardrobe and set dressing. Such as no full white shirts, no floral patterns. Wardrobe blues and grays only.


Serving the story
Guidelines for using cinematography in support of the story. I think this will mostly likely be a list of Don'ts rather than a list of dos, but lets see where this goes..
 
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WalterB said:
So we need to know what each unit has available...
Click to expand...
Anyone can edit. Start putting in specs.
Security copy already made.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1-Rzk9_4xuKu5MZX_drun4pdyd8i44XF_qlOGleKgIDw/edit?usp=sharing

Hopefully we can find a common denominator range and work from there.



Also...
By what process will you guys be using to get your clips to Nick for editing?
Dropbox?
And does he need to do all the converting between CODEC formats and wrappers, or is that something you guys can each perform to a common CODEC before submitting to Nick for final edit?
 
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Wheat,

In a convo a year or so ago you investigated the difference between a fog machine and a smoke machine.
What did you recall the pros and cons being of either?
 
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its just a matter of whatever ya got.. I have a goodwill special ($11) that works fine for interiors.. just takes a bit longer etc...

I've rented "cinema" grade before, not that much difference for a small production.
 
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@Nikola:

I'm about to go now and won't be back online till monday morning.

It's up to Nick (the script is going into 3rd draft as we speak), but what can you do before the end of july?

Some skylines and a voicerecording?
Or a complete scene?
(I have an idea... :P )
 
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Well if you shoot me a message with what is needed from me to do I could tell ya if I'll be able to do it and for what time. I live in a small town and I have quite a lot of connections so I might be able to get some cool locations.

What is your idea?
 
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@Nikola,
Your shots look great, if there is a way to get you to shoot a couple pages of something new I think that would be very good for the project.

I'm guessing you didn't quite get the sign up process.

Please go over to the Main Community Project thread and make your desire to participate known. Lets get you involved!


Unique locations are great, but more important to the international flavor is getting a sense of the place.

This goes for everyone, I know its hard to imagine the place you spend all your time is special and unique, but trust me, it is. There are so many little things that make a place unique, you don't really need to plan for it, its all around you.

What you DO to want to do, if find a location with a high density of detail. Locations that are full of details will allow those little tidbits of interest to filter in to the scene imbuing the shot with a sense of "place."

Don't worry about trying to capture a "recognizable" place. Just capture the location with as much background detail that you can, the uniqueness will come through.
 
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wheatgrinder said:
This goes for everyone, I know its hard to imagine the place you spend all your time is special and unique, but trust me, it is. There are so many little things that make a place unique, you don't really need to plan for it, its all around you.

What you DO to want to do, if find a location with a high density of detail. Locations that are full of details will allow those little tidbits of interest to filter in to the scene imbuing the shot with a sense of "place."

Don't worry about trying to capture a "recognizable" place. Just capture the location with as much background detail that you can, the uniqueness will come through.
Click to expand...
Do you have any advice on dressing an indoor/nightime student room for this? Nick's suggestion was having a bunch of maps and whatnot on the walls, though that doesn't seem overly realistic (as someone commented). I have a few nice shots in my head (bed side lamp coming on to motivate a warm, soft light on one side of her when she wakes), but other than a sky line, it is just going to be a students room.

I can maybe get an exterior shot of the house as an establishing shot? One of the locations I'm considering is quite a pretty street at night. Problem comes there with sound design, as there has been a discussion about getting something like a rubbish truck going past outside to make things a little more interesting in the soundtrack - rubbish trucks, busses, anyone who isn't a drunk coming back from a night on the town, etc don't really exist on this particular street between 9pm and 7am.

Edit: Though it is a hippy/student community. Wellington is the hipster capital of New Zealand, and this street is one of the most hip streets around (even though it's in a quiet neck of the woods). Lots of people longboard (http://i1.ytimg.com/vi/AkHzr2T4piE/maxresdefault.jpg) down the street at weird hours. In the establishing shot I could get some drunk people passing by, and someone longboarding down the street, with the house in the background + the bedroom light turning on as Laura wakes up? The longboarding sound is quite loud, and the drunk people establishes the opportunity for both of those to occur once or twice through the scene. Will ask the audio guys' thoughts.
 
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Remember, the exterior and the interior need not be the same building, nor even in the same part of town. The sound design will tie the two places together.
Exterior shot of an apartment window above a bar. Cut to interior shot and everyone assumes the shot is inside the apartment above the bar... you can link the two visually as well. For example by matching curtains. Or lighting. You see this a lot. There will be an exterior hotel shot with a neon sign flickering, cut to the interior and you see neon color light flickering on the window blinds.. its movie magic..
 
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wheatgrinder said:
Remember, the exterior and the interior need not be the same building, nor even in the same part of town. The sound design will tie the two places together.
Exterior shot of an apartment window above a bar. Cut to interior shot and everyone assumes the shot is inside the apartment above the bar... you can link the two visually as well. For example by matching curtains. Or lighting. You see this a lot. There will be an exterior hotel shot with a neon sign flickering, cut to the interior and you see neon color light flickering on the window blinds.. its movie magic..
Click to expand...
Yah I realise, it's just the two locations are together and both are quite nice. It's just whether or not quiet pretty street is preferably to more industrial city centre. In both cases, I'll need to do a skyline seperate from the house exterior shot.
 
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@ C&C:

This poster would be fun, I guess:
i-want-to-believe.jpg


Large file link:
http://mozzy.ru/uploads/pics/I-Want-to-Believe-A4.jpg

A nice reverence to the X-Files ;)
 
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@ Nikola:

Wheatgrinder is reffering to this thread:
http://www.indietalk.com/showthread.php?t=53293

At the bottom of the first post there's a link to a form.
One of the things Nick needs to know: what locations do you have access to and what cast/crew?
And: can you record proper audio?

I have an idea for a scene: I've stated it in the general thread a few weeks ago, and according to your alien abduction video you could do it, light wise.
But Nick is the writer...

I hope we have you on board: more global is cool!
 
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Are we going to post shot lists/storyboards here prior to locking them in, in the pursuit of some kind of stylistic continuity? I have an idea of how I want to shoot my scene, but is maybe moving away from realism with some shot choices. Shots aren't unrealistic per se, but may lose the subtlety and unobtrusiveness I think we're going for, so I don't want to push that too far.
 
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If you'd like to post storyboards/shot lists then I think that'd be a really good thing. Obviously, I know people are pressed form time and energy, so there's no obligation on everyone to provide them, but if you have them then I think it'd be beneficial to share.
 
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