Week Fifteen

Week fifteen's topic is another tricky one, this week we are introduced to Subjective and Objective point of views in film. When you think of point of view or POV for short you think of first person POV or seeing through another person's eyes. But that's not what I'm talking about now, Subjective POV basically means the camera is looking at the character's face whilst the Objective POV means the camera is watching the character doing something. This POV is from a storytelling POV, not a camera POV as normal! I know the naming of these camera techniques is contradictory to what you'd imagine they meant, so why do we have to make it hard for ourselves when naming these things?
Any ways I've had my rant and got it off my chest so I'll continue now.
We learnt about the 180 degree arc around the character and where the best places for the camera to be placed for Subjective and Objective shots sat in the arc and their ranges. Also learnt the rule that if there is no character in the shot, generally it is neutral and shot neither Subjective or Objective points of view.
Here is a great video explaining it really well, might get more of an idea after watching this (only 1 minute long).

Now we are thrown in the deep end as we are given our second assessment from Chris, which if you haven't guessed already is filming a page from a script demonstrating either Subjective or Objective POV's. Our choice which, but one or the other...we can't have both. This will be almost impossible in my opinion but I guess at this stage it's all trial and error, best way to learn I suppose.
So this should be interesting, here is an example on Subjective POV from some of last year's Diploma students, I hope I can at least match the quality.

Week Fourteen


This week the office messed up and so I had no note taker during this lecture, so trying to go on memory alone is tough. Luckily we had a more "hands on" approach (if you'll pardon the pun), we had a work shop with Chris and actress Rhoda Lopez on castings and rehearsals. Probably the most fun I've had in any lecture so far, we actually got to get involved with a professional actress and get an insight in to what goes on in castings, script read throughs and rehearsals in the industry.

Reading through the page from Chris' script we were previously working on, I was pleasantly surprised to see Rhoda's interpretations and the subtle changes on each read through and there impacts on the the other character's (played brilliantly by classmates I must note) interpretations. Hopefully Chris if you read this know that everyone enjoyed the workshop and I noticed the class slowly coming out of it's shell and really getting involved even though it was during a Monday morning lecture...so yeah more of this would be great. But seriously it was a bit of a revelation actually doing a read through, doing it on paper so to speak just doesn't give a realistic representation.
There were lots of subtle nuances I noticed just by watching Rhoda listen to Chris' direction and listening to her explaining her thought process behind her decisions was invaluable. Hard to articulate exactly what I'm talking about, but was great to get away from purely theoretical lectures and start getting in to lectures where we can attempt to put in to practice what we've learned to date.

Hint hint, wink wink.

Week Thirteen



Unfortunately I was absent for this particular lecture as I was unwell, so I can only go on what I was told about the topic of discussion. Apparently Chris introduced us to the concept of a director's statement and what should be in it.

A director's statement should inform the reader of the director's vision for the project and assist in persuading investors to support it. It should also outline the director's intentions and is the second most important document behind the script of course.

These statements are usually revised, amended and updated due to the ever changing nature of film making. Typically director's in feature films may spend years working on many statements, and as there are no definitive guidelines on writing a director's statement it can vary dramatically between directors and submission requirements. All statements however must discuss certain areas of the film making process no matter what, below is a simplified diagram illustrating this.

Week Twelve

In this week's lecture we talked about how to correctly cast the best possible actors for your project and what you as the director need to consider to achieve this. Acting consists of many subtle nuances and is an art that is very demanding & requires a wide skill, so you need actors that have honed there craft and know exactly what's required of them.
When casting actors for your parts you should look at:

1. Actor's ability.

• Intuitive equipment.
• Skills.
• Physical abilities.
• Heart.

Need to know the actor's history or body of work, know if they have stamina and if they are a risk.



     2. Are they right for the part?

• Actor's experience, character, to fit the circumstance?  
• Is there an immediate connection with the other actors?
• Can they fulfill the physical requirements?

     3. Ability to work with others.

• Are they "yes" people, people who always agree with you and never challenge you and never offer something more. If so then don't hire them, because that's not what you need, need people who at times will question you.
• They should embody characters.
• Should talk concisely about objectives related to the scene.
• Should respect them and earn their respect as it's a two way street.

     4. Should cast the relationship as well as it's role.

• Chemistry between actors important so as they work well together.
• Use the acting fraternity to your advantage - recruit actors that know each other well.
• Different actors equal different approaches.

Just remember "Film is forever!", and as such you must be able to live with your casting decisions at the end of the day. So take a little extra time and thought and make sure to consider the above points before hiring actors, and don't just hire them because they are attractive...make sure they can act!