AV_13: Poster Design #1

My first poster idea for our film 'A World Within Three Acres'

First Attempt - Color

(Unfortunately, the video uploaded has damaged the video quality, so below I've inserted a screen grab, which shows the differences slightly clearer)

Here is a little example of some colour correction work I've processed through Final Cut. Unfortunately where I am, I am unable to use Color software at this moment in time, but thought it would be important to develop knowledge of colour correction within Final Cut also. I

In the original shot, we can see how it's slightly colour casted (to a green - the cages and plants are all green and therefore create a cast on the shot, giving the monkey a green 'tint'), by changing the Hue, Contrast, I was able to create a colour focus, the monkey is more defined than before. Here is a screenshot of the edits I've made on the colour correcting tool on Final Cut:

Colour Grading

Since I've never really had any experience in regard to colour grading before, I wanted to research exactly what it was, and the best way to approach it. This is because it's an important role in the post-production process, which can change the look of film entirely.

Colour grading, is the process of enhancing motion picture visuals by editing grades. It is mainly used to colour correct, by gradually processing or using grades on specific shots. Some shots it's mainly used for are:

- Under/Overexposure
- Colour Cast (Where there is one bold colour within frame)
- Mismatched shots (for continuity purposes of the film)

I'm going to further research the best method of colour correcting through Final Cut.

(Professional) Order of Workflow
In regard to the process of colouring, it's important to structure and organise my approach to the grading. This is because it's easy to get lost and end up distorting the image because where you are becomes confusing. Therefore, I researched how to set up and follow a workflow in regard to Grading.

Here, is an operation of workflow I found online:
http://www.colorgradingcentral.com/archives/fcp-x-color-grading-tutorials-order-of-operation-workflow 

This states that there are three sections to setting up a successful workflow:
1. Correction Stage:
    - Setting The Focus Exposure
    - Setting Dynamic Range & Contrast
    - Colour Balancing
    - Shot-to-Shot Matching

2. Look Building
    - Mood
    - Time of Day
    - Location
    - Popular Looks
    - Stylised Looks

3. Secondary/Isolation
    - Clean up
    - Focusing

March Of The Penguins

Another documentary known for it's cinematography, as well as being about animals, is March of the Penguins (2005). This was once again listed as a film to into if researching cinematography. 

The story follows the 'cycle of life' of penguins in the Antarctica. Every autumn, the penguins leave the ocean, having to march for over twenty days to Oamack. Once here, they choose their partners, procreate, protect and feed their young. The females, after giving the egg to the father, leaves to return to the ocean for food for herself and the chick. All family members face a struggle to survive through the harsh winters and be reunited.  

I enjoyed the film from a cinematographer's view. Laurent Client and Jérôme Maison created beautiful images, and captured amazing footage that brought the piece together. The opening establishing shots are beautifully composed. 

These shots alone signify how isolated and empty the location is. It seems abandoned, lifeless, until the penguins are introduced. You definitely get this feel from the shots, which is something to definitely remember. Shots need to mean something to the story, and this is clever and beautiful way of showing how the place is so quiet - you get a sense of death and moving on from the visual, which is then backed up further with the narration. 

The opening shots of the penguins are brilliantly framed in my view. They keep the animals slightly off centre, showing the space around them. At this early stage, I find this, as a viewer, helpful as I'm now familiarising myself with the location of the film, as well as having focus on the subject. 

The use of long shots is also clever. This alone signifies the length and distance of the journey that the penguins have to endure. The long shot shows many penguins there are and keeps the detail clear. I love these shots, because you clearly understand how far they are going, and think its important to think about these points for my project. For example, we're aiming to show a struggle in our future project, therefore I aim to research further into how to show a struggle in the best possible way through Cinematography. 

In regard to shots, I definitely enjoyed the style of Close Ups the cinematographers chose. They so so much detail, and also emotion in certain scenes (for example when a chick dies, or an egg is lost). The closer you are the more personal it feels - which is definitely a note to take for ours. If we're always far away, we seem out of reach, unable to be involved or help in anyway, whereas (in our production) we get inside the cages, and capture close ups of the animals, it feels more personal to the audience and they feel like they are here, more involved and are able to help, they aren't mere viewers. In previous shoots, I was able to get into certain animal pens which worked really well. Such close ups will create emotion within the audience and hopefully allow them to feel part of the film. 

Even though Cinematography is more than a beautiful image, it is definitely a good advantage. This film shows some beautiful landscapes (and time lapses) to explore their location. The long shots of the scene allows audience to familiarise as stated previously, but also see something they may not have seen before - as the climate in the Antarctica is under freezing and is habited solely by these emperor penguins. 

I feel that the cinematographers have been successful in capturing great footage, and has taught me a few things to take into consideration for my own future projects. Here are some shots I wanted to note because they stood out to me:

This Extreme Close Up shows how up and personal the cinematographers came with these penguins. It's beautiful shot and shows detail in their features.

I liked this long shot, showing all the penguins paired up. It looks emotional because of the amount of animals pairing up, you see how these animals are just like us. Also, the lighting, the sunset makes it a more 'romantic' setting - therefore I think this is a great shot.

This shot shows how close the penguins are in the romantic setting, and also the detail of the animals up close.

This shot shows how alone the penguin is - the struggle the urgency the father has for the mother's return - the sunset and silhouette work perfectly together, and I love the framing also.

The close up of this shot is incredible. We see the egg crack and freeze - as the life leaves it. It's emotional and because it's so close, as an audience member it drags you in.

Blackfish: D.O.P Jonathan Ingalls on the Documentary

I wanted to research a little further by seeing what the director of photography (Cinematographer) Jonathan has said about his approach to the documentary and his view on how the production went. Here are some notes taken from 'The Credit'*

Ingalls was completely new to this style of project (wild, sea life documentaries) and therefore gained a lot of research from the Director. This is probably the approach which is similar with my film. Previous documentaries I've worked on have been with people, where we've had some control about what's going to happen, however animals are far more unpredictable. Ingalls says that 'she'd let me know, as we were getting ready to shoot, the content and storyboards.' This means that the director and cinematographer held a stable relationship and good communication throughout - another point which is definitely going to be important when it comes to producing these films, throughout any specific background knowledge, I hope that my director will take the time to keep me up to date with everything going on. So far this has been successful, there are times when I've been left to my own devices to film where I see fit, which was fun and exciting to do, however sometimes was a little confusing as I wasn't sure what key points we were aiming to capture. Saying this, our production relationship is great, we worked well together in pre-production (storyboards) and hope that this will continue further.

'From a cinematography perspective, what were your most difficult shots?

The whale stuff in the wild — on the research boat — was tough because we didn’t know what was going to happen. We’d shoot one direction, and then the whales would show up on the opposite side of the boat. We did our best. We were out there for a while, but it was a challenge to get the whales in the water doing their thing.'

I've learnt that this is common in documentary filming. The key is to constantly film, because you never know what you may capture, and if you're already filming and something occurs, it's easier to turn and film there and then, than stop and re-set up the camera - then miss the initial shot. It's always going to be a challenge in my opinion, but it's always going to be an enjoyable experience, because of the mystery of never knowing where we could end up.

'How did you get into filmmaking in the first place?
Oddly enough, I majored in biology and had a minor in film at USC, and I had this idea early on about doing films about wildlife. I didn’t realize until after I’d graduated that those films don’t get made very often, really. This film was really nice—the two subjects I was really interested in finally came together in one project.

I like the relation to this because I'm very passionate about animals and wildlife, and I feel that this was a main reason I chose to get on board with this specific project. Doing something you enjoy about something you love makes you put you're all into it, and you discover new things you didn't know.

Knowing what you know now about the film industry and making movies, what would you tell your younger self, or aspiring cinematographers?
Like anybody working in the film business, you take whatever projects you can get to gain experience, or that will lead you to the next project. One of the big things I’ve discovered over the past few years is that the projects I like working on the best are the ones where there are amazing people and also really compelling subject matter. Even in the middle of making a film, I can say, “This is one of those rare projects — like Blackfish— where everything is coming together.” You’re looking for that perfect project all the time, and every once in a while, you get one.'

*http://www.thecredits.org/2013/07/talking-with-dp-jonathan-ingalls-about-killer-whale-documentary-blackfish/

Rushes

When we completed shoots, the Director and Producer offered to keep the equipment (as they had vehicles and we're able to transport them easier), and brought them in with us the day after shooting to give straight to the editors - this was completed each time, to allow the editors to get the footage as soon as possible to log and label.

Blackfish

To develop knowledge into styles of documentary further, I decided to look at cinematography within animal documentaries, therefore I can see how they interact with the animals and the workers, and what footage is captured (or archived) to bring the narrative together, as well as the different styles and shots that make the pieces successful.

The first documentary I chose to look into was a recent thriller called 'Blackfish'. The main reason I chose this film was because it was on a list of best cinematography in documentaries list (found on IMDB) and also because I'd seen many comments on the social media site 'twitter' about this specific documentary, and thought it would be a good idea. Also, because I'm going to be working with animals (not to the same extent), and wanted to see what style worked best for the approach we were aiming for.

'In the summer of 2010, Dawn Brancheau, a reknowned SeaWorld trainer, was killed by Tilikum, a 12,000-pound orca. I remember fragments: something about a ponytail, something about her slipping and falling, something about how this almost never happens because in these parks, the animals are happy and the trainers are safe.

But something wasn’t right. Why would a highly intelligent animal attack its trainer – in effect, bite the hand that feeds it? I set out to understand this incident not as an activist, but as a mother (who had just taken her kids to SeaWorld) and as a documentary filmmaker (who can’t let sleeping dogs lie).' 

- Gabriela Cowperthwaite - Director

Blackfish is a story of killer whales, focusing on Tilikum, a performing whale (for Sea Land & SeaWorld) that killed several people (trainers) whilst in captivity. He was moved from Sea Land to SeaWorld because of the first killing, however the film (directed/produced by Gabriela Cowperthwaite) shows horrifying and emotional footage and interviews with previous trainers and friends which reveals and explores the whale's nature, how they've cruelly been kept in small spaces within captivity, and how all these have shown pressures rise for the multi-billion dollar industry (Sea World).

It's definitely an emotional piece, which has been cleverly structured, and challenges us (as the audience) to think about our relationship with nature and wild animals - it truly brings to light how little we have learnt about the nature of these animals, and how they should be free to stay in the wild. The footage you are shown is so shocking, it made me genuinely angry at SeaWorld and how they treat their animals (especially when the animals attack each other and are kept in small confined spaces all night every night in complete darkness). It's a beautifully put together work that definitely tugs on the heart strings on the audience.

Cinematographers of the piece (Christopher Towey & Jonathan Ingalls) have worked together to create a beautiful portrayal of the director's approach to the story. The interview set ups are beautiful, with interesting backgrounds, yet not something that takes away from the main subject, being the interviewee.

Like here, it links well with the theme of the film in the sense that we're talking about wild  animals, and like the fact that it's a cool colour and doesn't take away from the man being interviewed, especially as the background is out of focus. The interview follows a similar approach to what our director wanted to do, and that is to have our contributors talking and also showing them working as well (and using the interview as a voiceover throughout).

When the interview visual changed to something else, it was always relevant to what was being said. For example one talks about one of the accidents where a girl is dragged in, as a viewer we're shown the archive mobile phone video footage of this happening, which makes it much more easier to visualise and understand than just watching him talk to us. This is a point we hope to keep during our editing process. 

I feel that the shots (not necessarily the archive) were beautifully captured and composed. The framing seems very well thought out, and the interviews follow the rule of thirds, as well as having good lighting which looked natural and easy (for the viewers) to follow. 

I found this an interesting approach to showing the court cases. I just thought it looked unique, therefore is something written comes up within our work, it's an approach I'd be interested in developing.

Here are some other shots I found interesting. The first shows the graphic injuries, so it allows a reaction from the audience. It's scary to think that the trainers are in this danger everyday, and therefore shows that these animals are not meant to be kept in small spaces and trained for our entertainment. The second screen grab is shown when the interviewee talks about how there are cameras everywhere. To explain: the interview follows a death of a person (believed to be a drifter) at night who was dragged in by the animal when the park was closed, there were lots of coverups and twisted stories to unsure that the park or animals held no blame, usually the persons involved or the trainers who were killed. The interviewee talks about how he was found later in the morning, however there are night trainers and watchers on shift at night, and cameras are located everywhere. These are all shots showing different camera locations throughout the water park, showing that there are eyes everywhere, so something strange must have happened that we never learnt the truth of. The last shot of the expert witness was interesting, because once again I liked how they introduced written or uncapturable audio/text relevant and displayed it in this way. 

The story definitely shocked and caught me off guard. It was an emotional piece from start to finish. You feel the emotion for the animals (you sympathise and feel sorry that they've been captured) as well as the trainers, and then anger at the sea world business. We're shown that there have been many cover ups when it comes to the deaths, and the stories are twisted to ensure that the company can't be held responsible for everything. We are shown clips of staff lying (about the life span of whales - they said that they live longer in captivity, which is clear to see as not true). I feel that the cinematography works well with the sound design and archive to tell a truly intriguing story which captured me as an audience member, showing me that animals like this shouldn't be captured, they were born to be wild and we don't deserve to take them away from their animals. Truly an emotional piece I will think about when developing our projects. 

Equipment

Here's a list of all the equipment we used throughout the shoots (1-4)

• Canon XF100 (Camcorder Camera)
• Canon XF305 (Camcorder Camera)
• Canon 600D (DSLR Camera)
• Canon 550D (DSLR Camera)
• GoPro (Camera)
• 6 x Batteries (3 for each camcorder camera on all shoots)
• Marantz 661 (Sound Recorder)
• Audio Techniqua Rifle Mic (Sound Microphone)
• Boom Pole (Sound Equipment)
• Shoulder Mount (Camera Equipment)
• 2 x Rolls of Masking Tape [Consumables]
• 16 x AA Batteries [Consumables]
• Dedo x3 (Lighting Equipment)
• Kino Flo (Lighting Equipment)
• HD-126 LED Digital Video Light (Attachable Camera Lights)
• Track & Dolly