Reviewing the Rushes, Pt. 2

Today we reviewed the rushes together with our lecturer.

As I have mentioned already in my previous blog post on reviewing the rushes, I was pretty disappointed with the outcome of many of my shots. This was mostly due to the fact that the LCD display misled me into thinking that the footage was alright. Naturally, when a couple of the very difficult shots seemed to be totally fine and even a little bit cinematic on that small screen, it gave me a lot of confidence. It looked awesome after all and that's all you can ask for at your first year in visual storytelling.

Which is why the fall hurt me tremendously.

Cause as soon as the footage was transferred onto a computer and watched on a bigger screen, we not only discovered a lot of LED reflections in the background of the footage, the imagery was also often shaky AS HELL. That was especially true for the eleven tracking shots I took in total of the opening scene, despite all efforts we took on our shooting days. I already went into great detail about the issues we encountered with the tracking dolly on our shoot in my blog entries "'A Good One' Goes into Production" and "'A Good One' Comes Around", so I won't repeat them here again.

However, the tracking shots were not the only shots that turned out disappointingly for the standards I set myself. Also some of the handheld shots still needed to be more steady as they are disruptive to the desired suspension of disbelief. Furthermore, you can tell that the shakiness stems from fatigue or even the rhythm of my breathing, not from artistic choice.

I mean, I was aware that handheld shots and tracking shots would be difficult to keep steady the entire time, which is why I constantly tried to relax my muscles to avoid shakiness from strain and use our monopod (or sometimes even the set walls) for additional stabilisation.

And to furthermore ensure that the footage was alright, Has and I re-watched many of the clips to make sure that they worked as imagine. These shakes were not visible. When I was retelling my findings today to Has and he watched the footage on a bigger screen, he as well was confused as to the shakiness of the imagery.

For now I sadly cannot do anything about the quality of the footage taken as either equipment or actors won't be available until deadline. Lynley as an editor, however, might have a good chance correcting many of these images by cropping the footage, inserting other clips or maybe even cancelling the jitters in post.

With the guidance of our lecturer I have now also realised that I should have reviewed the rushes every day after filming to ensure that we had, firstly, gotten material that was good enough, and secondly, had enough possibilities to pick up shots within the time that was given to us.

I don`t know why I did not think of it earlier, especially since I already had such rewarding experiences with running the rushes when we shot my 'Me, Myself, and I'. I guess it was due to the fact that I naively trusted the LCD-display too much, when the internal camera software is designed to make the image look the best it can and thus glosses over the footage. However, this is a valuable lesson that will definitely find its entrance into my upcoming projects and workflows, as this mistake carries such a qualitative impact despite being easily avoidable.

Another memo, and that was again a valuable tip from our lecturer, is to always take safety shots in case the 'money shots' (here: the opening shot) don't turn out as imagined or planned. This essentially means to always accommodate for filming an alternative sequence or safety shot (our lecturer's advice was the standard 'close up, mid shot, wide shot'-triumvirate) to give the editor something to edit and absorb losses in a worst case scenario.

The shaky imagery that furthermore stems from my muscle fatigue is a strong indicator for me to practice more cinematic shots over the summer holidays and to exercise more in order to improve my physique. While I cannot say now how far exercise will get me, it certainly cannot do any harm, regarding the fact that the camera equipment will get more advanced (and heavier) in the upcoming levels.

Anyhow, besides the initial frustration with the quality of my footage, I now choose to see them as an important lesson in my journey as a cinematographer and to start researching and practising more in that regard.

Which is why I looked up a couple of cinematography podcasts to listen to over the summer. As I will visit my two other homes and thus be travelling around much, I decided that listening to podcasts on my journeys would be a valuable pastime for me. These podcasts as of now are (in no particular order):

- The Wandering DP (by Patrick O'Sullivan)

- Modern Cinematographer (by Matt Workman)

- Cinematography Database (by Matt Workman)

- Cinematographer's Insight (Rob Ruscher)

- Respect the Process (by Jordan Brady)

- Art vs. Commerce (by Jared Levy) - NoFilmSchool

Already last winter, in the module Introduction to Filmmaking, I was doing research on how to accomplish cinematic shots and found a couple of helpful videos from indie filmmakers, sharing their experience and tricks in achieving cinematic material.

I think the summer holidays will now be the perfect time to practise, practise, practise.

References:

Brady, J. (2018) Respect the Process [online] https://jordanbrady.com [Accessed on 24 April 2018]

Levy, J. (2018) Art vs. Commerce [online] http://www.avcpod.com [Accessed on 24 April 2018]

NoFilmSchool (2018) Homepage [online] https://nofilmschool.com [Accessed on 24 April 2018]

O'Sullivan (2018) The Wandering DP [online] http://wanderingdp.com [Accessed on 24 April 2018]

Peter McKinnon (2017) Shaky Footage? How to get SMOOTH HANDHELD shots like a beast! [online] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59dl-mhQWBA [Accessed on 24 April 2018]

Ruscher, R. (2018) Cinematographer's Insight [online] https://www.cinematographersinsight.com [Accessed on 24 April 2018]

Workman, M. (2018) Cinematography Database [online] https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnw2-4hXY26-W2w9Ja9GBvw [Accessed on 24 April 2018]

Workman, M. (2018) Modern Cinematographer [online] http://www.cinematographydb.com/category/podcast/ [Accessed on 24 April 2018]

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