piece from fall 2009.

i did this entertainment news type piece last fall on a track and field athlete here at UofA for entertainment news production class. hope you enjoy.

chelsea taylor news piece from UA, Telecommunication and Film on Vimeo.

camera movement

this assignment, concerning camera movement, was a nice one to complete. i found a clip from the movie "four rooms", a tarantino thriller that i actually forgot how great of a movie it actually is. one of the reasons this film, and most tarantino films, is visually compelling is because of the quick cuts, odd angles, and symmetrical framing that is utilized. the clip is only 1:36, and has a link for it below.
the first shot is a medium waist shot, and is actually the 'token' tarantino shot of himself he has in every one of his films. nice framing, still camera movement, has the table and money soft in the foreground. the next shot is a pre-cursor for an angle used later, an overhead of the table, but this is close on the money, three stacks of $100 bills. we then cut to a still shot, CU of the bellboy, head in hands listening to tarantino. 'four rooms' sticks with the still camera shot again for a profile shot of tarantino continuing the explanation. that is the end of the still shots, the next few are slow moving tracking shots. while tarantino continues to talk, the CU of the bellboy is pulled out, so if is a medium shot from the chest up, and has a very slow zoom into the face of the bellboy. the background is soft, so the eyes stay fixed upon the bellboy for the whole shot. this is an effective movement, as the dialogue is very serious, a bet is being made for a lot of money, and the movement reflects the seriousness as we move into the mind of the bellboy. the shot stops once we are at the CU of the head again.
the next shot is the great shot in the film. we go back to the overhead, but this is a wide overhead showing the table and the five people around it. no wasted space in the frame! the camera is still for a few seconds, staying on the table, but once the men stop moving and the scene is set, the camera begins movement. this seems to be a crane shot, overhead with a slow zoom in on the action. the camera zooms in to the left of the frame, quickly cutting out the right side. the camera seems to go from a straight down angle to leveling out. it has a minor rotation of about 15 degrees and slowly levels to a CU of a lighter. this shot has a short depth of field, as the lighter is critical focus and the man's hand and shirt are a bit softer. this overhead, slow pan down leveling shot is a nice complement that is not used that often, but seems to fit tarantino perfectly. the action is slowly unfolding, building to a moment just as the camera is slowly moving to a spot. once there, we have a few quick cuts (pinky gets chopped off, man screams), before a steadi-cam shot of the bellboy swiping the money from the table, putting it away, and waltzing out of the room. even here, the action is quick. the last shot is one continuous shot, but goes from money, quickly to pocket, quickly to bellboy's head, and he quickly turns and leaves the room. this is the immediate aftermath of the bet, and everything seems to be happening fast with a lot of commotion in the background, and the quick cuts and movements mirror the feeling.
i think the camera movement in this film is excellent, and has the traditional tarantino quick cut style to it. i do not see any 'bad' tracking shots in this clip, as the clips match the mood of the scene very well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzYOrldilP4

short film

this is not my favorite online short, just to preface. this is more of a music video but i still find compelling images in it and i like the setup of not trying to hide itself. the short knows what it is. so this piece is kind of making fun of itself in a way. i say this because of the background and the attire of the people. it places itself on a stage with a spotlight, and alternates between close ups of the faces and medium shots of the group dancing. it follows a pattern, alternating between people and between faces and groups. it has a high key lighting setup, and uses all thirds of the frame.

http://www.dscheinert.net/movies/2009_ItsCoolToRap.mov

shot analysis: Fargo

For this assignment, I chose the Coen brother’s film, “Fargo”. The DP on this film was Roger Deakins, who I think is a very good cinematographer. I chose a 2 minute sequence of a scene about thirty minutes into the movie. The setup is that the two men have kidnapped a women who is in the backseat, and they are taking her to a remote location. The tags arent on the car, so the cop pulls them over. From here, the story begins to spiral out of control.
The scene begins with black, and then a Paul Bunyan statue appears. There is a pan down from a low angle of the statue, a slow and drawn out pan that is signifying dark events that are about to occur. It is dark outside, but the statue has a high key light on it. We then go to some shot reverse shot and OTS shots of the main character driving. These are done from the backseat, and the scene is dimly lit. This is giving the scene an edge or a nervousness of what is to come. They then use a medium shot to show a cop pull up in the rear window with his lights on. There is somewhat of a short depth of field as the lights on the police car are soft as he approaches. Once the cop is at the window, suspense is brought it. In the medium shot, we cannot see the cops face until the end, as his midsection takes up the center and right thirds of the frame. Steve Buschemi occupies the left third. This scene is lit using the cops’ flashlight and some fill light in the back. There is also a power position shot as we see from the cops POV a camera looking down at Buschemi, as in the cop authority looking down at the subjects. As Buschemi is attempting to talk his way out of the problem, we see several profile shots of the characters, all looking nervous in dim light. These close ups are conveying the tension in the situation. This shows that they are in trouble and are apprehensive about what is to come. The cop, in the same section of the frame, leans his head in and we see the man’s face for the first time, thinking the suspense may be over. The camera is in the passenger seat for this as we look across Buschemi, who is driving the car. We see Bushemi’s partner then reach across screen, just his arm, from left to right and grab the cops head and repeatedly bangs it on the window. There is a quick cut to a gun, and then from outside at the cops former POV we hear the shot and see the head get hit by the bullet, killing the cop. This is done on a medium shot that crams all three faces into the shot. There is then a CU of Buschemi, looking very nervous, and a shot reverse shot of the passenger. The gun is in the foreground of the passenger, the gun is soft, but is showing us that this is what happened. This guy pulled out this gun and killed a cop. Next is a medium shot from outside the car. Buschemi is just to the right of center with the dead cop, and their car and the cop car occupy the left and right third of the frame respectively. This is when we see a different light set than what was in the car. Before it was dark and dissonant, just the flashlight and some fill. Now the scene is lit a bit more even though we are outside in the dark. Even with the light the cop and Buschemi are dark, almost silhouette. cars have their headlights on, lighting the area around them and some of the snow. Buschemi drags the corps around the cars and off the road, lit with the headlights.
This whole scene, and movie, has a dark feature to it with the lights and the Coen Brothers and Deakins use the blackness of night, the white of snow, and the red of blood to contrast well together. And as always, the shots are very aesthetically pleasing. NOTE: my image grabs are in the reverse order of how they happen. so start at bottom image and work up. also, this was not the end of the scene just the end of how far i did the analysis.

beautiful lighting

this was sort of an odd assignment, i feel like it is similar to the first one we did on cinematography and lighting. nonetheless, i found 2 images that i believe have beautiful lighting. the first image is a photograph by Rarindra Prakarsa. i really like the gold overtone with it being strongest on the sheet. i love the way water plays in this picture, not only the reflection on the sheet but also capturing the gold. my second picture is a photo of quentin tarantino from a new york times article. i feel like the photo is quirky, like tarantino, considering he is wearing heels and appears to be a womens suit. he is centered but not facing center, and the light has the creepy 70's feel to it. also, notice the lingerie over the lamp. interesting.

Rarindra Prakarsa photo
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://ursispaltenstein.ch/blog/images/uploads_img/rarindra_prakarsa_photography_2.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.ursispaltenstein.ch/blog/weblog.php%3F/weblog/comments/5879/&usg=__jsGH9PMOP-Pn2JZBM4UBgyPEQD8=&h=398&w=560&sz=44&hl=en&start=2&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=ksMVwQDp_8F5KM:&tbnh=95&tbnw=133&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dbeautiful%2Blighting%26hl%3Den%26rls%3Dcom.microsoft:*:IE-SearchBox%26rlz%3D1I7GGLJ_en%26um%3D1

Tarantino photo
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/blogs/themoment/posts/0820tarantino.2.jpg

Portrait of a Place. Rama Jama's

this is my portrait of a place. it is rama jama's, the breakfast, burger, shake shack on bryant dr. i chose this place because i thougt it could almost tell a story itself. the owner is very nice, and looks like nick saban. enjoy!

Portrait of Rama Jama's from UA, Telecommunication and Film on Vimeo.

portrait of a place

we have been assigned to film a portrait of a place. this seems daunting at first, 2+ minutes with no dialogue, but can be made easier when broken down. im filming a place that i think is unique to tuscaloosa and unique to the spirit of tuscaloosa, that is rammer jammers. im not making a storyboard or anything in depth. just a good idea of the shots, i know i want a lot of pictures and food filmed. i can speak to the owner and having a better idea about the history of the restaurant, a history i will try and convey through compelling images.