Shooting Notes Film- Shot (25 seconds)

Making film is a slow, laborious process. Watching a film is a smooth, undemanding breeze. The contrast between these two aspects have always fascinated and frightened me. One has to work especially hard in film as it is so close to reality—there is a moving image, sound, real people etc. It is easier to hide what is really going on in a still image and present a transformed view of that than it is in film.

These difficulties usually mean that it is harder to get up and actually make films. You have to think of the idea, write it, plan it, find locations, find people to help, shoot it in its intricate detail with multiple angles and takes for the shortest of sequences, get good sound, move all the data around, edit it, colour grade it, provide music and sound. It’s easier (well, in theory) to just try and write something. But Wesley, an ok friend of mine, tired of my whining and told me to think of the simplest shortest film that I could and just go and shoot it. I did and it is a very useful process. Here’s a rundown of how I made the 25 second film Shot.

Planning

There was none. There wasn’t much light left in the afternoon and my plan to go shoot in an abandoned Marrickville factory started to look too ambitious. So I walked to the wild non-park at the end of my street with no idea what I was going to shoot. I had a walk around and the initial idea was to just shoot myself walking through the long grass and get a number of angles so that I could practice cutting together.

Shooting

I set up the sticks for a wide shot and as usual couldn’t tell focus for shit on that small screen with so much sunlight around. I try to set up the camera for a 10 second delay before starting the shot but that didn’t work. I started walking across the frame and the ground looked soft so I had the idea of just falling down. The ground was not soft, there were giant, sharp edged rocks exactly where I was diving. Acting is hard!

When I came back to have a look at the footage it looked a lot like I was getting shot so I decided to go with that.

I filmed another closer wide shot from the side. And then one from a front 45 degree angle looking down on the walker. The camera was getting a lot of front sun and it really washed out the image for this shot but there wasn’t really much I could do. I realised later that It would have been better to have the walker walking into the sun rather than away from it.

Around this time I started doing some multiple takes for the same shot. All in all I must have thrown myself onto the ground perhaps 12 to 15 times throughout the shoot.

I gradually got closer and closer to the subjects fall. The colour in the image although I was working a super desaturated, unsharp, decontrasted picture style varied a lot from shot to shot and I was unsuccessful in colour grading later. Don’t know what to do about this really.

Put the camera on the ground for the final fall shot pretty close to the walker. Realised that a nice dead face close up would have been nice.0)

I had a decent idea of exposure (esp using the ND filter) but it’s nowhere near being good. A monitor is crucial for shoots on this thing. You really need to be able to tell what you are looking at.

I then did some general walking scenes. I don’t know if it is the lens of the bad focus or bad exposure but the images are nowhere as sharp in the wide angles as I’d like them to be. A monitor again may help.

Audio

I took the Zoom along to record pristine audio but it was very difficult to manage shooting, acting and then worrying about audio as well. Most of the time I forgot to turn the recorder on for the shot. The 6 clips that I did get were really unusable because most of it was silence either from not being near the action (I had to leave it near where I was going to fall) or from it not being really turned on. I have to practice a lot more with the recorder.

In the end I just went with the Audio from the camera which surprisingly wasn’t that bad. Everybody talks about how horrible the sound is, and maybe I’m just really ignorant about good sound but it worked ok.

I got the hilarious gunshot from the first place I could find on the web. Sound is strangely forgiving but that doesn’t mean that you can neglect it.

Editing

I converted the 3.6GB of data to ProRes LT and imported into Final Cut Pro. To show you the level of my expertise, I spent 10 minutes trying to find how to split the single long clip in the timeline (a result of MPEG streamclip) into multiples.

Once I had found the razor tool I was left with the jigsaw puzzle that seems to be what editing actually is. I played around with in out points and went through the clip frame by frame making sure I synched up where the walker was in the process of the fall. I had a pretty good range of angles to choose from and had a good feel for the shot.

I choose the actual shooting to happen in an unexpected place where the walker is actually coming into frame. As it was a sudden, intense action I cut the clips very short for the shot and had longer more contemplative shots around it. I think it is a pretty standard edit and I was definitely happy with it in the end although it is very immature in terms of crafting.

I used the text tool to make the titles which is super unintuitive (you can’t move the text box around with the mouse but have to define it’s coordinates for example) but the titles are one of those nice touches that makes the thing look smooth.

What I couldn’t figure out was how to colour the piece well. The tools aren’t very intuitive in FCP itself and I wasn’t confident to go into Color. This is something I definitely want to put more effort into and maybe download a trial of Magic Bullet looks. But even with that getting consistency of light and so on across clips seems to be a difficuly task. Important though. In the end I was left with a washed out look which isn’t really what I wanted.

I think the piece works without music as there is a blank tension just in the really everyday sounds of traffic and grass being trodden etc.

I had fun doing the edit. There’s a long way to go.

One of the main problems which I don’t know how to avoid is that I can’t use multiple filters like Fade In/Out and Desaturation together on a clip because my notebook isn’t powerful enough to render the two. This sucks and I need to read up on a way around it. May be good justification for getting one of the newer macbooks with a decent graphics card and handing this off to one of my siblings.

Timing of the shot was critical but pretty easy. I kept on playing it back and put it just a little earlier than the visual clue of the shot having been fired. I think it works well. The body is strongly propelled forward by the edit and then it slumps.

The fade in/outs really add to the feel of the clip.

Distribution

Exporting the movie into 1280x720 for uploading to youtube took like 15 minutes. The actual upload of 72MB of data to youtube took half an hour! That sucks. The quality when it’s up there is fairly good and the UI around the whole upload thing isn’t the most intuitive but it’s decent. I then posted it to Facebook.

This clip did take a while (about 5 hours of work) but it was fun doing it. It would be far easier with another person I guess but wasn’t impossible with just one. I need to do a lot more of these. I’ll try doing 2 a week.

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Posted 7 months ago

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A day of pleasurable failure. Yesterday was the heaviest night of rain that I’ve seen in Bangladesh. The streets were in a deep flood. Most of the short shooting night was spent carrying an umbrella around and trying to shoot one handed in the dark. Not much to write home about. 85 photos.

• I leave on the the 20th, so it was great to see Dhaka in its element: water. People were soaked, ecstatic, oblivious, intense. I was wading through feet deep water for most of the night and pulled out of my original plan to go to Old Dhaka. That’s disappointing, but I’ll see if I get a chance today.
• Got to cover some topics that I hadn’t really been able to with the night shots, such as water, buses etc. I wish I had more time to really do justice to the night here. It is so suggestive, so rich. I’m going to miss it.
• Technically, things were pretty terrible as I had terrible shooting position because of the umbrella and rain, and attendant chaos. There were some pictures in the selection that were part of the main shooting. It’s important to explore pictures around the project you are currently doing. The thing about photography is that opportunities don’t stop, and they are everywhere. That’s a trite but true thing to say.

Why tonight will be better

• If there is a tomorrow here, I really need to make it out to Sadhargat to at least see what’s going on in terms of light there. I’m thinking that it’s great. Some water, or boat stuff would be interesting too.
• Let’s hope it doesn’t rain. I wasn’t really able to take advantage of it last night photographically, and I don’t think I have the time (or the health, I’m sick again) to figure out methods to be productive in the rain.

• shooting notes

Posted 11 months ago

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A night of focus. I went back to the welders in Mohammedpur to add to the photo note that I’d put up previously, and that was successful. I covered less ground, but took more time and it was ultimately a very productive night. I’m comfortable with how many photos I have for the night set. Worked from 7pm to 10:00pm. 265 photos.

• Two main set situations, with the welders and also a crowd of men being sold an aphrodisiac vial out on the streets. Took time (shot 120 photos before I knew what was happening), hung out, talked to people and justified my presence there. Came away with enough welding shots to make a small set of them separate to the night work. I wonder if going back for a third night may be the thing to do. Or perhaps finding a new place to shoot welders.
• What’s really interesting about the welding pictures is the magic that is happening that that eye can’t see. The power of the photograph to slow things down is crucial to revealing the wonder that is there. A key use of the photograph.
• Some white balance issues where the colours on camera turns out to be flatter usually because of Auto WB over correction. So for example, yellow light gets converted into a dull grey blue. Really need to try manual white balance. My style of shooting seems so fixed. I shoot around a 80 to a hundred photos and hour. All the time. It seems I can’t deviate from this. I thought that after having shot a certain amount, after having exhausted the clichés I’d slow down. But what usually happens is that I pick a topic and then spend the time on shooting madly on that topic. What would be nice is to concentrate more on each individual image and get each  individual ones right. But of course that clashes with my primary aim, which is to produce, produce, produce. There’ll be plenty of room for perfection later. (Well there won’t be but it’s worthwhile lying to myself).
• I really tried to enjoy the shoot. Spending my time just taking pleasure in looking. I shouldn’t lose that. The real, and only sustainable reason I’m in this business, is to look, and take pleasure in that looking.
• I’m at the point now of closing off the set, but I don’t know what closing off would mean. I never know. So instead I’ll just keep shooting for the next couple of days and see how it goes. I’ll have some other obligations before I go so I don’t know how much time I’ll get.
• Tried to experiment with wedding lights, slow shutter speeds and moving the camera but they didn’t really come off. It’s funny how concentrated effort often leads to failure, but a capricious relaxation does wonders.

Why tomorrow will be better

• Continue at the same pace and see what I see. I need to shoot on the other side of the city today and get away from the east a little. It’ll be my last chance to see Sadarghat and I think that’ll be the perfect place to shoot tonight.
• Will try to slow it down just a little bit and see if I can explore the light in a little more detail, with some more shots.

• shooting notes

Posted 11 months ago

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A  productive day of shooting at night. My pants and shoes are caked in mud from the back street markets in Mohammedpur. But the diversity and depth and complexity of lighting was beautiful to see and work with. One situation with metal workers was especially productive (see the previous photo note). Worked from 8pm to 11pm. 290 photos.

• My headphones were being noticed too much so I took them off. Even then, I was anomalous in the crowd and got challenged quite a bit. I realise now that with headphones on I probably miss a lot of requests to stop, and talk. Most of the situations were diffused easily. They really just want their picture taken whilst wresting a little control from me, rather than the street shoot stuff where they have no control. My story about art school also worked very well.
• It again highlighted how important context is. I passed through that market the other day and noticed the complexity and beauty of the lighting straight away. It was a very idea to go back.
• Light levels were really low, so sometimes there was some focusing issues, but nothing too bad. Technically, things were good. There was some good photos that came out of deliberately slowing down the shutter and shaking the camera when exposing. The colours are looking really good with enough contrast and black enhancements in post processing. I’m also doing light dodge and burns to highlight the subject.
• It looks like I’ll be getting near the 2000 photo mark for the night series which is a good base to work from. I’d really like to make a book out of the night stuff which will need 40 to 60 photos I think.

Why tomorrow will be better

• If tomorrow is anything like today that’d be great.
• Start off near the same area in Mohammedpur and see what you can find, the area is very rich. Makes me wonder how many other places I could’ve explored in Dhaka that I won’t get a chance too. Oh well, that’s how this goes I guess.

• shooting notes

Posted 11 months ago

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A throwback to the good old days. Well to a week ago. I shot during the day in gay old Gulistan. The familiar crush of the crowds, the speeds, the heat. But not much was produced. 191 photos.

• Old technical issues (friends really) came to visit. Focus was off at the start as I hadn’t shot people close up for a week. It came back quickly but still. There was a lot going on but in terms of actually adding to the Archiface set, there weren’t and stop in your tracks pictures. Exposure was good.
• I moved well, in and out of the crowd. I was being a little obvious by raising the camera  a bit higher than usual to get a more front on picture and the subjects noticed a little more than usual. No confrontations about it.
• The light was surprisingly good throughout although the clouds threatened constantly. Shooting in the afternoon the light got yellow which is perfect for this work.
• One issue was that it was a holiday long weekend and so the crowds in various parts of the city were scarce. Dhaka just doesn’t feel right without the teeming crowds. Gulistan was pretty full though so all good once I got there.
• The truth is that I think I have enough photos for a set of Archiface photos and I wasn’t hopeful of adding anything spectacular at this stage. Especially with the weather being what it is. But I know that that is untrue. At any time there may be that face, captured in the focus pocket, with perfect light. It can happen at any point. And I’m not really super-happy with the Archiface set. There are maybe 7 or 8 very good photos for it but the rest needed to make the 20 or 25 isn’t actually filler, but isn’t heart-stoppingly good. Need to continue the search whenever I get a chance. Interestingly the other ideas I wanted to explore in Bangladesh which I won’t get the chance too is around building site, and all the young men working in them, and rickshaws that pack a family together.

Why tomorrow will be different

• The Archiface stuff is all dependent on light now. If I get good light in the afternoon I need to keep on working on it for the one or two good ones that I know are left out there. Need to persevere. I’m a tiny bit bored now with the set but that is natural. Need to fight through that getting interested again.
• Need to do night work tomorrow and try somewhere a little different. Somewhere industrial, or by the river. There is also that picture of the plane on the way to Moakali. Old Dhaka may be the place to go though.

• shooting notes

Posted 11 months ago

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Jams, jams, jams. When I finally got anywhere last night I actually got some good work done. A varied day with some afternoon and some night shooting. The area behind Nilkhet market has some interesting light things going on. A solid day of working with 237 photos.

• I was in more populated places (Dhanmondi, New Market) and the shooting was much faster, and consequently blurrier too. My mind is made up, when I’m in Europe I’ll put my money in getting a D700 and an f2 lens, and perhaps a lightweight tripod. Extra baggage to carry but worth it.
• I didn’t do any of the things I was supposed to from the previous shooting notes, which is a shame. There is an inherent tension between filling out a set with similar shots and always pushing yourself to do something newer. I was thinking on the bus back how uncomfortable and difficult night shooting still is for me. I’m still learning. But I can’t forget that it is this constant pushing to get better that really separates the chaff from the wheat. It is subtle and because we are lazy it is easy to forget.

Why tomorrow will be better

• I need to get out there and shoot more day pictures. I still don’t feel like I have enough high quality face shots for that set. Getting the right sun has become the problem.
• Need to take a day off, to do some editing, reading, etc. It’s like I’m addicted to going out and shooting now. But I have to make sure all the parts of the puzzle are put together, not only the most interesting part.

• shooting notes

Posted 11 months ago

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Got into a little disagreement in a back alley with four burly Bangladeshis (oxymoronic, I know) late at night. Survived. A late start to some night shooting meant I didn’t have a lot of time. A fairly unremarkable night otherwise. Just in the churning out process at the moment. 170 photos. Worked outside from 8:30pm to 11pm.

• The most interesting part of the night was the confrontation. Standard shot of men sitting around in the light outside of their house. I took it and walked off. Behind me the biggest of the group gave chase. I stopped, turned back and approached. I said I’d be happy to delete the picture, to which he responded, ‘of course you’re going to delete it’ and then started a course on Ethics and the legal implications. As always happens in Bangladesh, he was joined by 20 other people who have nothing better to do. I told him that it was perfectly legal (I still haven’t checked if that’s right here) and apologised. But they continued to shout at each other in the uncouth way that Bengalis on the streets tend to. I shook my head, turned around and walked away. It was tense, but I defended my right to shoot. I produce enough that I’m not too worried about the lost photo. My story about being an art student doing a project didn’t really fly with these guys.
• Of course, the incident had a psychological impact. But I forced myself to get through it. Out of the 1000s of shots I take a week, I’ve only been confronted a handful of times. Ethically, I have no problems with what I am doing. Every time this happens is another chance to become experienced in handling this situation.
• Perhaps I need a break from shooting night work for a day. I was a little uninspired, the colours looked flat and grey, and the photos came out a little predictable. It was a bog standard day with additions to what has come before. One day of shooting Archiface may make me fresher when I go out.
• Technically, I was shooting a higher ISO, and although this froze more action, I think it did result in flatter colours. I forgot to try the higher saturation or any of the white balance stuff. Need to do that the next time I shoot. I did try to improve the greyness by having less negative exposure compensation but this resulted in images that were too bright, and which didn’t isolate the light very well.

Why tomorrow will be better

• Need to take a day off to freshen up, recharge, insert your own cliché here.
• Need to pre program white balance for really fluorescence.
• Set higher saturation.
• Need to start a little earlier and be in less of a hurry, really need to study how to isolate the light and get enough tension in the frame.

• shooting notes

Posted 11 months ago

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I high-tailed it back from the sticks so that I could get some work in. On the bus back I started taking some anti-landscapes (portrait aspect) out of the bus window and ended up taking 450 of them. Most were throwaways but it was exciting and some worked well in detail. After I got off the bus, I shot some more nightshots. Total 568 shots.

• Lots of travelling from Comilla, through tea gardens, back to Dhaka and then in Dhaka itself. Have to be careful of wearing myself out with all of the other sicknesses that are plaguing me.
• The anti-pattern of shooting landscapes out of car windows (or in this case a bus window) is a tired genre. So I got the idea, why not shoot the frame in portrait? This hints at how closed in cars are, how often we are just passing through a piece of land, never really being a part of it. Out of the many shots I took, a lot didn’t come out right, either technically or in terms of content, but that’s ok, initall forays are like that.
• The colours are looking flat for some reason. Under fluorescence it looks horrible. I can try using a pre-programmed WB for that, but I think changing that around all the time will be difficult on the fly. Also the pictures even at ISO800 have noise. Not a lot but enough to muddy the picture up a little bit if you blow it up at all (1:3 say).
• I think my tiredness (and need to pee, Bangladeshis have this ingenious ability to sit on their haunches and pee with their pants on that I haven’t mastered) and lack of ability to focus (I’d focused a lot of at least 3 hours on the bus) resulted in some lack-lustre shots at night.
• Editing nearly 600 photos is a pain in the butt.
• The area I was shooting in, just north of Motijheel was commercial. It was different and interesting. There was a lot of different light styles, mixtures going on that I really didn’t exploit.

Why tomorrow will be better

• I wont be tired and drained.
• If I find an interesting scene, I really need to stick around and take more angles rather than just adjust for the light. Need to also play with white balance (either manually, or by giving the Auto WB another couple of goes at the scene).
• Need to try a it more saturation on the colours to see where that gets me.
• Try shooting the other side of Dhaka again.

• shooting notes

Posted 11 months ago

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A good day split between afternoon Archiface shots which went very well because the light was spectacular and Nightshots later which also coughed up quite a number of usable pictures. 268 photos.

• Technically things went beautifully in the afternoon. I totally weakened from my solid diet of rice and curries and had to have a pizza (after two and half months which isn’t a bad stint). Maybe it was the mozzarella that did it but focus was good, colours were great, exposure good. It just emphasised how important conditions, or the situation is to photography. I have to learn to have the patience to wait for the right moment, the right light, the right street, the right direction etc.
• The night work I’m far less sure of technically, and I have to readjust far more often. I’m still too early on in learning the vernacular to fully figure out what it is that I want to say. The photo note Lightworks shows how much you can do with how little in the dark. I’m shooting with far slower shutter speeds and have been pleasantly surprised with how many usable shots I’ve been getting. It has had a minor effect in making me steadier during the day, but it has had an effect. This will only grow with time.
• I’ve resigned myself to the fact that with the current equipment I won’t really be able to capture any action in the night, it’s too difficult to grab focus and the results in the end seem flat colourwise, have bad noise, bad WB. But perhaps I just haven’t learnt to see in the night yet.
• My camera system is breaking down even further. My sweet convertible card (it turns into a USB drive) has broken and now is fixed in the no write mode. I’ve swapped over to a Sandisk thingy which I have to use a card reader for. Has increased the annoyance factor a tiny amount. The grip at the back of the camera has peeled off from the heat. I wanted to super glue it back in but didn’t and now it’s lost on the way to Hobiganj somewhere. Maybe I can get a custom one designed from the sandal repairers here.

Why tomorrow will be better

• Need to work more when the light is good, and work in the right places. The problem with Gulistan, despite all its advantages is the street runs north-south. I need to be walking east in the afternoon. Need to think of streets which would be good options. The criteria is low rise buildings, east-west, authentic people. Sadharghat (right near the river is a good option but it takes so long to get to). Gabtoli to Mirpur would be ok too but low density. New Elephant Road, and Elephant Rd may be ok.)
• Need to plug away at the night work and really have a look at what’s working in the edit and what’s not. If I still to the current schedule I’ll get a max of 6 days of shooting, so really need to hurry this up.
• Get less sick.

• shooting notes

Posted 11 months ago

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After three painful days out with a fever, I finally made it out for a measly 100 shots. And they weren’t great shots either, but it was enough. It was a start. Worked from 12 to 3pm.

• It was a Friday after a pretty significant religious day (called Shobobhor night where Muslims pray all night) and the roads and gathering places were deserted. It was eery to see a city whose natural state is to bustle, fall silent like that. I was just happy to be out and shooting, and I didn’t care so much about working hard. I tired pretty quickly and caught the bus back from Gulistan.
• Technically, lots of focus issues. Over bright exposures (perhaps ghosting) and I didn’t really add to the sets.
• Only shot 10-15 headshots, and none were very good (or new). Didn’t work at night as I had something to go to.
• Saw another fight but once I got there, the kids were so distracted by my taking photos that they stopped fighting. That disappointed everybody.
• I was really happy to publish the burqa set, and people seemed to like them.

Why tomorrow will be better

• Although I’m still not feeling great, I need to put in a bigger effort tomorrow into time spent on the streets.
• Also the priority now should be the night work, as I suspect I have just enough for the headshots series.

• shooting notes

Posted 11 months ago