#15: Final Course Reflection

This semester in TCF 312, I've learned a lot of great, practical knowledge about working on set and dealing with lighting, as well as some theory that pertains to the particulars of how one chooses to approach a scene or a film from a visual perspective. I thoroughly enjoyed all of the books that were assigned and intend to keep every last one of them as additions to my filmmaking arsenal.

Coming into this class, I'd say that lighting was definitely my weakest area. I had a pretty good grasp of the basics, but had never really had the opportunity to work hands-on with such a wide array of professional lighting equipment as I did in this class. The knowledge I've gained just from getting the chance to work with Kinos, Arris, and other lights, will be of great benefit to me moving forward. A lot of the specifics of F-stops and color temperatures were fairly fuzzy to me at first, but I feel like this class helped bring those concepts into sharp focus.

While I've got a good bit of experience developing and shooting my own film projects, I've typically always worked with a close-knit group of people with whom I'm very familiar. As an aspiring director, it's important that I become accustomed to working with large crews on a much less personal level if I hope to achieve success in the "big time." This class has done a lot to help me in that regard, as I've been pushed into a number of projects with people I hardly know at all. While always awkward at first, I find that a group of people with similar interests working toward a common goal tend to warm up to one another fairly quickly once they're on the ground running with cameras and lights blazing.

On top of everything else, I've gained something else very important from this experience. I've gained the absolute certainty that filmmaking and working within the visual medium are, without a doubt, exactly what I'd like to be doing with my life.

#14: DP Reel 2012 & Artist Statement

Director of Photography Reel - Douglas Dillingham 2012 from Douglas Dillingham - ZombieSquid on Vimeo.

As a filmmaker, my primary goals are to entertain and engage both myself and the audience. Film is a challenging field that has held my interest for as long as I can remember, and I find it to be among the most satisfying of pursuits. I gravitated toward film because it combines many art forms and has the power to reach and impact a broad audience. I hope to entertain by taking viewers on an exciting and compelling journey and engage by touching on issues that are universal to the human experience. Through film, I hope to explore what it means to be human on the most fundamental levels by touching on those issues that are common to us all.

My influences are varied, ranging from the poignant, slow-moving opuses of Stanley Kubrik to the frenetic modern works of directors like Darren Aronofsky. I draw inspiration from things like music and painting, photography and architecture, and classic mythology. I tend to gravitate toward dark imagery and uncomfortable topics and themes. I find no beauty in artifice. I prefer to show things in either a realistic manner, or in a dramatically exaggerated fashion. I try to consider the totality of of the history of human art when I'm in the early stages of a project in an attempt to create works that inspire and engage on a visceral level, something that would have resonated with audiences of 500 years ago as well as it would a hundred years from now.

While I have a strong appreciation of the traditional Hollywood narrative style, I'm interested in finding ways to rethink film and bring new energy into the art form. I look for ways to abstract elements from various inspirations into film, for example the rhythmic structure of a song or  the value scale and compositional proportions of a painting. I'm not interested in any one particular genre, as I enjoy working in different styles and think the tone should suit the film. I am, however, interested in finding ways to blend the aesthetics of different traditional genres into something new and compelling.

One aspect of filmmaking that I find infinitely interesting is the ability to craft a living, breathing fictional world on the screen. In this medium, I can portray the world as I wish it was, the world as I see it, or the world as I would never wish to see it.

Film has the power to influence culture, and I intend to dispense with the reliance on tropes in the current Hollywood style and instead develop nuanced worlds with complex characters who are guided by their principles, rather than their stereotypes. I'd like to work to see women and minorities represented more equally in film, as main characters rather than set pieces, in hopes of inspiring others to keep dreaming of a future where equality for all can be a true reality.

#13: The Money Shot/Reels

This example from the beginning of David Fincher's Panic Room is my kind of "money shot." It's a long, complex take that adds up to a very detailed and effective sequence.

By having the camera creep around the house, peering out through the windows at the men attempting to break in, the director gives the scene a creepy and sinister feel. There's also an element of voyeurism that comes with this sort of camera work, leaving the audience to feel as if they're getting a secret peek into something private or the inner workings of a character or their space. 

Another thing I really love about this sequence is the nearly transparent use of CGI throughout. Many of the walls and beams were added in post, digitally, to tie all the different takes together and to embellish the set on screen in a way that couldn't be done practically due to the realities of having to move a camera through the space. This is the way I feel CGI can best be utilized in film; as a way to augment the reality on camera and to create a more fluid and nuanced visual world, rather than as a means unto itself to create characters and worlds.

#12: "Hide" - Scene Assignment Film

#11: Scripted Scene Prep

In preparation for shooting my scripted scene assignment, I've compiled a production notebook that contains everything I'll need to stay organized on set and to ensure that the shoot goes smoothly. Inside are the script, shooting script, room layout and lighting plan, shot list, foley list, storyboard, and more.

The shooting script in my book has been annotated with shot numbers so that we can keep up with what's been covered already and what we need to shoot next.

For me, one of the greatest benefits of extensive pre-production planning is storyboarding. I always try to visit the location before the shoot to map out the lay of the room and spot available electrical outlets. I like to pace off the room to get a feel for its general dimensions, then map the whole thing out roughly in Photoshop or in 3D in Google Sketchup or FrameForge.

Once this is done, it's much easier to get a feel for the blocking and to quickly make decisions about lighting placement and such. Once you have a rendering of the room in front of you, problems with the space become much more apparent, saving you the time of running into those problems unexpectedly while you have crew standing around waiting to shoot.

After the room has been mapped, I usually get to work on a storyboard and sketch out a basic version of the types of shots I'd like to see. It is usually during this process that I feel I get the most inspiration as far as camera work is involved because I can see the composition of each shot as a tangible thing, juxtaposed together, in a way that lets me start editing the film in my head and working out the flow of the various sequences.

I also find that storyboarding helps me to start identifying a concrete visual style for the project, as the tone and emotion of the scenes tend to influence the way in which I draw the cells. I can't stress enough the importance of storyboarding in my particular creative process. For me, it's the stage where the idea becomes a visual reality for the first time.

#10: Motivated Movement

This is a great example of effective motivated movement from Kill Bill, a film with some all around great cinematography.

This is one long extended take with the occasional hidden cut, achieved with careful choreography and extensive use of heavy equipment to control the movement of the camera. It does a good job of pulling the viewer in, giving them an all-seeing omnipotent view of the action taking place within the location for the scene.

The camera floats along, following Uma Thurmon's character as she infiltrates the House of Blue Leaves. It varies quickly from sweeping wide shots to tight close ups simply by reframing or moving in closer to a character. By the end of the impressive sequence, the viewer has been taken on a full 360 view of the space where a big showdown battle is about to occur, effectively selling the geography of the space and the reality of the fictional world contained within.

#8 Scene Analysis - Shutter Island

In this opening scene from the film Shutter Island, we start out with a practically blank screen.

We discover that this is a field of fog as a boat emerges slowly.

From here, we cut into the interior of the boat to find our main character suffering from sea sickness.

We move into a closer shot where we see the face of Teddy for the first time, reflected in a mirror. The mirror is used a lot throughout the film and can represent the character's mental state as he searches within himself for meaning, and later in the film, searches for his very identity.

We move back to a wider shot as Teddy's introspection is interrupted by his sickness.

Teddy then turns and loks out of a porthole, and we see the expanse of water through a frame within a frame. We later find that Teddy feels trapped emotionally, and later he is trapped literally on an island, so there is significance in the use of the window and the water that surrounds them (and later the island).

Teddy throws water on himself, perhaps symbiotically trying to wash away his own sins.

Teddy looks again at himself in the mirror in this medium close up.

In the next shot, we see objects hanging in the foreground that appear to be shackles, drawing the audience into the story by piquing their curiosity as to why the chains and cuffs are even present on the boat.

Teddy emerges from another frame within a frame, adding weight to his emergence from the private space within the boat to the more public space without.

From a POV shot, we see another man on the boat through a fence that could, again, symbolize Teddy's sense of being trapped. The expanse of water beyond the edge of the boat helps to show how isolated the characters are.

From a medium wide shot, we see Teddy approach this other man. The sky is dark and overcast and the colors are muted, adding to the general atmosphere of the story.

We move to a medium 2 shot as Teddy gets closer to the other man and they become more personal with one another.

This shot is followed by a reverse medium wide shot where the audience can again see that the characters are surrounded by water on all sides.
As the two characters get acquainted, we move in a little closer. Notice that the new character is more resolute, standing at the front of the boat, while Teddy is less committed, hanging back slightly and never seeming comfortable within the frame. The other man looks ahead in the direction of travel, while Teddy looks all around and seems nervous.

We move in to an even closer two shot as the space becomes more personal while the two men share details about themselves.

The other man asks Teddy if he has a girlfriend or a wife, at which point we cut to a flashback. Teddy's wife is seen holding a tie and walking across the floor to him.

Here, her bare feet show that she is relaxed and comfortable in the environment as she approaches Teddy from behind.

In this two shot, the characters are comfortable and balanced and the lighting is very warm and soft, giving a sense of serenity and happiness.

We move in even closer to see the peaceful and happy expression on her face.

Suddenly, reality comes crashing back in like the waves of the sea and we cut to a dark shot of churning sea water and return to the previous location.

Here, Teddy is isolated and framed alone as he remembers his wife and seems to be contemplative, his eyes set just above the horizon line. Also, Teddy is looking in the direction opposite of the direction of travel of the boat, back into the past and his memories, and also in the direction where his wife was located in the previous flashback.

After Teddy gathers himself, we move back to a wider shot so as to include the other character.

The two men speak for a while and we move back and forth between two medium closeups.

We cut to the mysterious and foreboding titular island as it looms threateningly in the distance in this very wide shot. The lighting frames up the island nicely and its placement on the upper third makes it seem imposing.

When the captain of the boat arrives to speak with the men, he is set lower in the frame than the other two men because he is less important to the plot.

We move back to a more isolated Teddy as he seems to think about what may lie ahead on the island.

And finally, we cut to a POV from the boat as the landing dock nears, marking the end of the boat ride. The overwhelming mass of green foliage in the background makes the island seem exotic and dangerous, and the people on the dock are tiny and insignificant.