FLM235 - THE FINAL BLOG

And we've made it! The final couple weeks of trimester number five have steamrolled around the corner. Honestly the last 11 weeks or so have gone by in a flash and I can't believe graduation is right around the corner! I am glad to say that I have enjoyed my time here in FLM235 and it has given me a few tips going into trimester six, which I have spoken about previously in other blogs.

Through the past couple weeks our class has been working in teams to create/recreate another scene of our choosing. My crew and I decided to use this opportunity to create some test footage for one of the upcoming capstones, 'Annaya' by Jelene Moyes. This is one of the first 'big' short films that I have had the pleasure to be Director of Photography on, most of my previous studio assignments I have taken on Directing and Producing roles. Thus to be able to shoot test footage as a DP for FLM235 has really helped me identify potential problems I may have in the future.

Our shoot for 'Annaya' went ahead fairly smoothly, although we could have done with a nicer location. The scene we would be shooting from the script is confined in a bathroom with only one protagonist, however the bathroom we ended up using was much smaller than we imagined. Making some of the angles I had planned a little difficult. This problem could have been avoided if we had done proper location scouting, we unfortunately just fell short on time and had to take what was on offer.

The day itself had a couple of hiccups but nothing we could not handle, we adjusted the shot list on the fly and was able to grab enough coverage for the whole scene. The only major issue we faced was a bit of miscommunication between myself and Jelene where I had not prepared and shot listed for our title sequence footage that I thought we were doing on a different day.

We managed this by leaving the title sequence until the end of the day, and setting aside time to think about what kind of shots we wanted. Thanks to Natalie's scheduling we were able to wrap on time and return all the gear early.

If I could go back and redo this shoot with the knowledge of how the footage was going to turn out, I would definitely adjust some things. Firstly, I would probably only restrict the steadicam to only a couple shots. As while it was great to learn the equipment and find it's limits, I don't believe I am proficient with it enough just yet to get reliably stable footage. I will be planning some more practice sessions in the future before shooting dates for our capstone arrives.

Another thing I would change is the layout of my shot list. I would give myself a little more time to polish it up and would most likely invest into the Shotlister App to make things easier for myself and the AD.

All in all, I think we did an okay job with this scene although I am glad it is only a test. I am especially happy with the result of the 14/24mm close ups we did as you can see below.

'Annaya' was not the only scene 2 that I worked on over the past couple weeks. Through some hazy drunken agreement I don't quite remember, I ended up acting in Kavin's recreation of 'The Room'. Turning the cult classic into neo-noire type piece from his capstone film, 'Lens' (which I have written).

The shoot was incredibly fun to be a part of, I can't tell you the number of times I have said the phrase, "Oh hi Mark." but it's a lot.

I haven't yet seen the final cut of the scene but from what I've heard, it's hilarious.

It was also good to be able to watch the others work without having to focus on anything other than myself, through this I was able to give Kavin some advice on how to communicate with actors and not to focus purely on the visual elements. Although there was not much direction needed for this particular scene. The worst we acted, the better.

Now that we have approached the end of another trimester, I have finally put together a proper Showreel. This encompasses most of the work I have done over the last year and a half and you can see it here.

With the help of this and my new and improved resume and portfolio, I am now currently looking at internships to clock some hours for next trimester in CIU330. I have already been in contact with a couple different companies and hopefully will have a place locked in the next week or two. It's exciting, we may be nearing the end of our time here at SAE, but everything is starting to come together and a career in film making awaits.

I look forward to watching everybody's work, from our class and others, next week at SAE's Exhibition night. I am especially keen to see this current tri's capstone films to see what we have to follow and beat.

Written by Aedan Bruitzman