Critical Evaluation

Making Morning Glory has been a stressful but creative experience, I have learned a lot about cinematography and being a practical cinematographer. The work on set was extremely difficult and I am not overly pleased with the final outcome however I believe that it has taught me skills that I will need in the future and works as a sort of proof of concept for our final film even if it is not quite visually what I had imagined.

During the pre production phase of the film I was fairly active, we held a lot of little meetings to make sure that everyone knew exactly what they had to do to prepare and we all attended and felt fairly prepared when it came to production. I began my pre production, after looking at the script and having a little input on its redrafting, with shot listing. On reflection I think I should have done this with Jess our editor as whilst imagining the scenes and shots I was thinking a lot about the comic timing and the cutting of the scenes to create comedy. This is the first comedy I have been involved in and I found the process of shot listing quite fun however in the final film a lot of my personal ideas and comic timings were not carried though, partly because of the execution of the camera work and partly due to different comic ideas. Another issue with my shot list was that it came a little before our full location scout, therefore on the location scout I had to try and squeeze my shots into the settings rather than working with the locations I knew were there.

The location scout itself went fairly well, we found all the places we needed within ten minutes walk of each other and had a few shops and a cafe close by for breaks. I took a few preliminary shots to show the rest of the crew and for my own reference. I also wanted Jess to try colour correcting them to the morning hue that we wanted but she said she thought it would be better for me to do it in camera. This is something we had previously discussed as well so on the day I also used a blueish hue indicative of morning overcast light.

I also went on a few early morning shoots to get examples of the light, they were dark, fairly blue and low contrast. I drew story boards from my shot lists and showed them to Alex our director who was happy with them.

Production did not run as smoothly as any of us had quite expected. The first day drew to an early finish because of my mistake in only bringing two batteries that didn't last the full day. That was a time problem however we had lots of other small issues as the day went on. Principally the tips I had researched for outside shooting didn't help. I was planning to three point light the first scene we shot, the scene at the house, however it was too overcast for the reflectors to do anything. I attempted to light with portable lights but they were too dim to really be noticed.

We also had a few issues with overall coherence. I think Alex our director was a little nervous and didn't quite call the shots with enough confidence, this meant the actors were a little unsure of themselves and their marks and they often stepped out of the depth of field because they missed marks. I wasn't too worried as I thought we had time to practice until we got rushed to finish shooting at that location. Whilst the day was loosely planned we didn't have a time per shot even though I had included setup time in my shot lists. This meant we didn't know when we were and weren't running over and by the time we realized it was too late. My final problem and I think our overall biggest was that nobody else knew what we were shooting, I was the only person with knowledge of the storyboards and so I had to tell Dan where he could stand out of shot, Alex what we were shooting, he had to tell the actors and on top of normal setup that would take five or ten minutes. Next time I am going to make sure we all have an extensive knowledge of every shot.

After the problems on the first day I took advantage of the time left over and went through the shot list with Dan and Alex for about an hour and planned exactly how long each shot would take. Unfortunately I was late on the second day, I put this down to shooting my second project the previous night however it is not an excuse. When I got on set I thought it best to move all of the shots we had missed to the end of the shoot. Our biggest enemy on the second day was the sun, it was out in force and made a lot of the images really contrasty and gave us a few continuity issues with the day before. Alex was still a little flustered and we had a few issues with the general public slowing us down, overall we only had time for a take or two and one setup. Dan helped out a lot with this, we had no sinc sound to get so he helped me lay the dolly and get each shot setup as well as entertaining our hyperactive child actor Courtney. I feel like we got closer to a good shoot on the second day but still didn't have enough time to get the images I really wanted. The dolly ate up a lot of time and really wasn't as nice as I expected. Next time I plan on looking into sliders just to add a little movement and a faster close up feel.

In the feedback sessions and after looking at the edit it was clear that the camera work wasn't up to the standard I wanted, I think our colour choices were a mistake, I should have shot it clearly and with a lot of light and taken it all out in post and changed the colour there. There were also several shakey and weak shots but we couldn't get our actor back. I got some pickups that set the scene and they became some of my favorite shots of the film. There are some that don't appear and I'm not sure why but I trust Jess' editorial choices.

Looking back at the final film after being away from it for a while I am a little less critical however I think there is a lot to fix if we are to achieve the final film we imagined. The look itself I think needs to change, for a start the colour balance doesn't work. Although the light is blue in the mornings it isn't as cold as the balance makes it out to be and the image loses a lot of its charm. I think if we shoot in a brighter colour balance and just bring the blues up a little in post production the overall picture quality will be much better. We struggled on day two with the sun being so bright. We may have to look into scheduling some of the more important outside scenes in the golden hours however with the next project we can afford to do that, in this case everything was outside and we needed to shoot more than two hours a day. If I was in this situation again I would definitely just make sure I shoot only in sun or only in light, composing so that the contrast wasn't in the image.

The film opens with a lot of shots I like, although the balance doesn't quite do the justice the slow starting pace sets the scene really nicely. Unfortunately my first strongly planned shot with the grass in the foreground and shop in the background was so low I couldn't use a tripod and the image ended up shakey, it was the last shot of the day and with fading light time was of the essence so we used all we could get. The restriction of time was really our biggest problem, with two shooting days and ambitious location shooting we really didn't have the time or control over the environment to shoot five pages a day.

The opening is nice and features the shots from the pickup shoot, I had more time to shoot and set them up however I would have like to use a thinner depth of field but we didn't have the lens for it. The bully shot is where it begins to deteriorate, with the track back and pan. It didn't work because we changed the shot, the scuffle was supposed to happen in the middle of the road as more of a long shot but Clarice our producer didn't want the actors in the road so they ended up in a medium shot, too close for the framing. Again this problem was caused by a lack of communication and knowledge of exactly what we would be shooting.

Another well planned shot gone wrong was of the balancing curb shot. The depth of field was thin but in a few takes I got his feet solidly in focus as he walked however that shot didn't end up in the edit. I'm not sure why but I know that Jess had some footage loss problems and wonder if this was all she had left. Next time I think I will go through and label the files and show which ones I think are best to use to help cut down on her workload.

A few of the shots I had planned on the track and dolly didn't quite work out, the camera just didn't travel the way I expected and I turned instead to handcam, specifically in the dog reveal shot. It isn't nice and I didn't have time to focus. I am already looking into steadycam and fluidcam as well as cheap alternatives to a follow focus to improve upon the quality of handcam footage next time. In the park Georgia reveal shot my lighting was way off, I should have shot the action towards or away from the sun to avoid the horrible shadow rather than trying to use a reflector and bounce to balance it out. Finally a little framing issue in the last scene, I should have shot the actors looking to the other side of camera, as it is they look away and we see more of their backs, the other way round would have been more including and fit the tone much better.

I think we all learned a lot through the film, I think Alex will be more confident in his directing which will have a great effect on the performances, and I have learned a lot of practical drama shooting techniques. I am fairly happy with the finished film, I think that Dan's sound adds a lot to it in both setting the scene and tone. We didn't have a large focus on art direction and subtle little touches, I think that me and Alice need to talk about putting more obscure comical close ups into the film for next time. I would also like for Clarice to look into getting a budget for the next project as more money means more time and I would like to shoot as close to  two pages a day as I can.

Overall I think I put a lot into the production, despite it's and my failures I learned a lot and have become a more practical cinematographer and film maker. I have definitely become more of a cinematographer than a director interested in cinematography. Whilst my research was slim and mainly online I feel like I have actually learned what to research. Before this project I knew so much less I wasn't sure what questions to ask and what to study but I have learned which areas I need to know more about and can now look into more informed study. We definitely learned more about planning, and practical planning, and that everyone needs to know everyone else's jobs for a smooth day of shooting. I have also personally learnt a lot about shooting drama, the film I have been most comfortable and prominent as a cinematographer was a much slower contemplative doc, the shooting style is the complete opposite so working with actors, marks, shot reverse shot and general film making techniques is still a big learning step for me and I feel much more confident with these techniques now. I would like to look at a few more films for reference before we move forward as a lack of real visual goal was one of my main weaknesses, I definitely need to increase my aesthetic research and am looking into how to achieve the images that are in my mind. A more precise focus on my equipment and the use of different lenses, sliders and a general better standard of kit, including battery, will help me to improve on my own productiveness and I am looking into exactly what products I need to achieve my goals. I look forward to making something better than this but am happy with what we have made and what I have learnt.

Morning Glory

Here it finally is!
http://vimeo.com/82327245

I am pretty happy with it in the end. There are things I will definitely do differently next time but for this little short everything worked out ok in the end.