Vega Craft LU5 Cinematography

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In this brief we were asked to engage with a number of online tutorials and compare a range of cinematography techniques in the context of art direction. Then apply the most relevant cinematography principles to serve the purpose and context of art direction for film. Also we had to apply existing knowledge of the brand strategy and construct a creative brief, and finally to explore presentation methods and persuasive communication skills required to sell your work to a potential client.

The brief that I created for this task involves the following. Create a film that will speak and relate to students in a direct and light hearted way which will be used as content for a brand to help associate itself with its consumers and create better brand equity. I chose to create a mockumentary film based on the everyday life of your average Cape Town student. One that hasn’t been censored or overlooked the realistic life of a student. I felt this would connect far better with students as they can relate to these experiences and all though not that much talked about they happened to a lot of us almost every day.

For this film I used a number of cinematography techniques which aided the narrative and flow of our film. I will now speak about some of them from the beginning to end of the film. The film begins with a fade in and a dolly shot done simply by holding the camera and moving forward. This is the first three shot of the caps, the liquor bottles and the student desk. These were done to help establish content and an environment for the viewer before introducing the character. The next is a panning shot from right to left which also aids in introducing a setting or environment and was also used to draw ones attention from environment and end with the character in the centre. The next shot is a medium shot. Technically the first few shots of the film are all medium shots meaning they have about half the character in shot and do not look up or down at him. I made sure that the first few shots were mediums because the goal of this mockumentary is to portray the “glorious,” “majestic” and “graceful” student in his natural habitat. Of course it is a mockumentary and so the fact that he is not graceful contrasts and is humours. The next scene is the bathroom. As the character walks in I made use of a zooming in shot, and then again when he brushes his teeth with his finger for emphasis and focus hoping to create a humorous effect. The scene is breakfast. Here I place the camera below the character facing up at him and this is called a low angle shot. This was done to help empower the image of the average student sloppily and clumsily consuming the first thing he can find. I wanted to also maintain the high stature of this character suggested in the first few shots. This same shot is also a zoom out shot which is focused on the character and then slowly reveals his new surroundings. The next few shots mainly just include panning combined with zoom in and out shots. In the rooftop scene I made use of the rule of thirds. I did because the character needs to cross the screen and walk away. Using the rule of thirds allowed for much more space in two ways. One is the focus of the character and revealing of environment and two is the space in which is available to film becomes much larger, making sure to keep the character in the right corner at all times. Finally is the last scene which is in the lounge. This is simply a pan to the right shot combined with a zoom in. in this scene however the lighting was not to my liking and didn’t set the tone of that scene or correspond with the time of day. To fix this I tried affecting the light by closing curtains and taping magazines to the window. This is not a professional technique as I did not have the correct equipment but in the industry of cinematography, a technique none the less.

Youtube Link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_VOdcUvUd8