My inspirations and brief
I am looking to finish college within a year and would like to plan for what I'm doing after. For the last four years I have been making my own personal photography and videography work. In 2021 I started Sunderland college and chose Creative Media.
In 2018 I took some images on my iPhone And when I got home and posted them online, I got a lot of comments talking about the quality of the images and how nice they looked. From there I started to believe that my art was something to take seriously and I actually enjoyed in the process of making images. Since then I have been pushing myself to strive for excellence and a "perfect image". Normal people that watch a film or show watch said film and then that's the end of it. For me I am constantly looking at the framing, colors, composition, angles, lens choices, the amount of bokeh in order to understand why the cinematographer has chose each shot. Every frame shot in a film is on purpose, nothing is ever there by coincidence. Therefore, over the years I have gained a variety of inspirations within the media sector. In this post I am going to try and research into my inspirations. I want to focus more on their art rather than who they are as a person. Looking at all of their techniques and documenting them should help me learn how the media industry is put together and the tricks that some of my inspirations use in order to create some of my favorite films.
Roger Deakins
Roger Alexander Deakins is an English cinematographer. He is best known for his work with directors the Coen brothers, Sam Mendes and more. He graduation he found work as a cameraman and followed that career path for seven years. After that he received the opportunity to film two documentaries, one called Behind Enemy Lines and the other Zimbabwe. Both were the kickstart and backbone of his outstanding career. In the 70s and 80s Deakins decided to focus on more music documentaries and music related projects.
Deakins portfolio had impressed an old friend of his, Michael Radford. Together they collaborated on both of their first dramatic feature, Another Time, Another Place. From there, roger has created many unique and extraordinary films.
Although I do not find the storyline and genre of the film Blade runner: 2049 to be to my preference, I was able to appreciate his unique lighting and framing choices. From this film, this is when I started to take interest in his work.
Roger states that lighting can decide moods of a scene and compares it to when he used to fish at a young age. Stating that while fishing, you are sitting for hours on end and the lighting can change your mood massively. A key way to improve on lighting, from his point of view, is to actually look around and see what the light is curating and how it is doing that. Looking at paintings and still image photographers to see what the differences in light makes to each individual piece. It doesn't have to stop with lighting. It could be color, composition, angles etc.
Understanding exposure is knowing about the range of lights and not having to use a light meter or keep checking camera exposure. Understanding the art of exposure allows you to know where an area rolls into black or where there is a harsh spot of light. Understanding the lighting stops you from becoming a slave to your art. As Marco Pierre once said "do not aim for perfection, by allowing imperfections, you create perfection". In order to get rid of the meter, Roger would light a scene with his main light and then take a reading and after the fact he would know where to add other lights or remove lights. Eventually he was able to completely remove the meter due to his sheer knowledge of light.
Searching for simplicity is a way of being more meaningful and significant. Lighting with a hundred lights may look nice but there is less emotion than a scene lit with only ten. Simplicity in light is better than trying to perfect a scene. If you have spent ages trying to light a scene and it hasn't worked, the best thing to do is strip it all down and start simple again and only build up if it is needed. Another example he speaks about is again, still shots. By zooming into an subject and not showing what is around, making it more simple, can build a better connection with the subject and make it all about them. Meaning that fewer light can end up making a stronger connection with a character. Compared to adding another light, try moving a light and see how it affects the image. A good way to experiment is buying a few bulbs and moving them or adding diffusions in front to see what results come off them.
Roger thinks that the best way to go about choosing a lens is not to actually read about lens choice in itself, but rather to actually experiment yourself. Roger likes to use prime lenses more within his work as it forces him to move within the scene and think about his lenses more carefully, instead of zooming in and out. 32-35mm would normally be his choice for OTS shots, Mid shots would be 35-40mm, Close ups being at 50mm and Extreme close up would be a 60-75mm. Stating that your lens choice massively comes down to just your art and your style of shooting. From rogers choice we can see that he likes to keep quite wide, making him stay in the scene, maybe trying to make you feel more involved in the story? However he also talks about how The Revenant was shot on 12 and 14mm... It mostly comes down to personal choice and style.
Shooting characters from a wide and then simply zooming in instead of moving around doesn't change the overall look of the film, rather it just breaks up the shots more. However, he states that sometimes you may want a zooming shot which is only when he would use one. Despite that, moving with a prime lense gives a real sense of movement to the audience, making you feel in the film more. An example he uses is the perspective of two characters. If the film is about character A's perspective, film them on the wide angle and then the person they are talking to on a more zoomed in lens so they feel more in the perspective of your main person.
For his film 1917, he only used a single lens for two reasons. The first being that the whole film was made to look like one single shot, therefore it had to stay continuous throughout. The second reason he chose his specific lens is due, again, to the perspective of the film. Using a 40mm lens was tight enough in order to get shots from the characters perspectives but also wide enough in times where the landscape needed to be seen. The lens also gave them the choice in depth of field. A tight lens always has a shallower depth of field compared to a wide if used at the same f/. By having a lens that was wide they could also choose how much they wanted. Roger settled on a shallow depth of field, meaning he could either focus on the character, landscape or what the character was focusing on.
Roger likes to use prep to his advantage and says that there is nothing worse than arriving on set and realising the set is not built right in order to get the shots needed. Some scenes, in order work and look the best may need to be stripped down to the bare minimum. Skyfalls abandoned house scene was actually the house exterior ( on location ), inside the house ( set 1 ) and finally the frozen lake ( set 2 ). meaning that roger likes to plan everything ahead of time and make sure it is all perfect for his way of shooting.
For Jarhead, he didn't need much prep as the whole film was handheld. For the oil fire, he shot a column of light and then pasted in an element of an oil fire in post in order to make sure the fire matched the scenes lighting.
In 1917 lighting was possibly the biggest factor for Roger. In order for the fim to stay continuous, the lighting had to match. A shot couldn't end cloudy and the next with a bit of sun in, the shots had to be exact and stay perfect in order to match. Using models and pre planning the shots of the burning church allowed the team to know exactly where shadows and highlights would fall, giving more consistent lighting. Without it, if a shot failed, it would be near impossible to remember where the flare was in correlation of the character in order to match.
Apart from his inspiring and impressive career, Roger Deakins is one of the best teachers in the art of cinematics. Practicing and always pushing himself has made him into one of the greats and masters of his art. Listening and applying his knowledge to my own work will assist with faster learning and help me refine and find my own style art. Roger has helped me find my own feet within art and given me the inspiration to just take a step back and think about what I wish to create and how I wish to tell the story.
Roger Deakins -
Quentin Tarantino
Tarantino creates and uses dialogue and situations in order to keep the audience thinking. He does this by going from an interesting conversation to an even more interesting situation. Some situations, he builds up and then flips them, meaning that when the audience think they understand what is and will happen, he changes direction and forces the audience to watch more intensely in order to stay with the story.
By using natural dialogue, the audience are able to follow a story until Tarantino flips or slightly alters the pace of the scene. For example, in Django unchained, while Django seems to build a friendly relationship with a slave owner, the scene is flipped and he becomes hostile within a matter of seconds.
Production design is a great way to steer tone, mood and provide story details through visual choices. For Tarantino, his common theme is building high levels of contrast and exaggerating shots. Weather it is a prop, hair, costumes, Tarantino likes to give each character or prop its own significance within a story. In kill Bill's Costumes are high in color and the same color. Ranging from the yellow motorbike, yellow jacket, yellow pants to the White long hair, beard and cloak. Almost giving each thing its own watermark and uniform. Each giving an identity to each thing. In reservoir dogs, the suits give a narrative compared to nice guy Eddie. With the officers on one side and the enlisted men on the other, we not only see the difference but it was already foreshadowed before, just from costumes. In my own work this could help with establishing a characters personality or foreshadowing. If a character dresses in red throughout the film, then a red car is presented later on in the film, the car would have a connection to said character through its color uniform.
Another great but somewhat subtle show of this is in Django again. Django goes from a messy hair, dirty man to a well groomed man in a bright blue suit. Not only does this displays Django's grow in confidence and strength, but also shows him apart from the plantation owners in all white. His big, bright bold colors shows that he is easy to be seen, he wants to be seen... Django is afraid no more.
Within his props Tarantino uses it to display his characters link and differences with others. Inglorious Basters opening scene has two men smoking a pipe. One with a normal pipe. One with an extremely exaggerated pipe. The choice of using said prop displays the characters power over the other and how he has control over the situation... He is not afraid to show off, maybe even asserting his dominance.
All of Tarantino's moods are emphasized and cemented with his use of color. If a character is on a mission for revenge he chooses bold primary colors in order to solidify the feelings. Blue Django and red Shoshanna. In the opening scene of Jackie Brown, the initial color is blue. A color signifying calmness, sadness, boldness and solidarity. Then Jackie enters the frame in even more blue. So much blue, and not just normal blue, Bold blue, suggests the confidence in her stride and how she carries herself. Therefore within the first few minuets of the film, we know she is a confident, bold woman not to be messed with.
Using colors like Tarantino would help my work be more clear in moods. Knowing how a characters personality and their mission before dialogue is spoken will keep the audience watching to see if they were right, wrong or for another one of Tarantino's twists.
An extraordinary use of cinematography is the ones you don't notice, but feel. Inglourious Basterds is the highlight of Tarantino's use of angles. Opening the scene Hans is framed with an OTS shot, showing he has control over the situation, he sees everything and is comfortable in a stranger's home. Meanwhile LaPadite is only framed in a single shot. He is isolated, alone, defenseless, scared and has no escape. The juxtaposition in both shots give off a very subtle nod to the character differences, however it switches. Once Hans begins to talk about his paperwork both characters revert to a OTS shot. Therefore we see that both characters are in a state of solitude and calmness. As soon as Hans references the jews he is holding captive however, LaPadite returns to a single shot. Reverting to the shot shows his change in mood and his return to fear.
I wish to follow with Tarantino's choices of shots in my work in the future in order to give small hints in change. Although the change is minute, when used frequently and often, it can have a big impact over a film. It is things like these which make Tarantino such an inspiration to me and my love for the art.
Linking into one of Roger Deakins beliefs, Tarantino uses a dolly rig to physically move the camera closer to the characters faces as tension builds. The cameras keep moving forward until an extreme close up. When the camera is up to a point of being able to move forward no more, it signals the breaking point in LaPadite and that is when we get his confession.
Another point within this scene, which has great choice of camera movement, is the visual recognition of the jews held under the floorboards. In reference to Alfred Hitchcock, Tarantino builds tension by showing us the people under the floorboards. Doing this makes a normal conversation more dramatic because the audience know what and where the victims are lying. Also referenced 15 minutes into this breakdown, I have learned that Tarantino chose to use one continues movement to show the captives instead of cutting, in order to give the geography of the victims but also makes the scene more dramatic by letting the audience guess what is underneath them, compared to simply showing us.
Tarantino takes part in the edits of his films as it gives him other ideas as to how to alter the film for more effect. Holding, dragging, quick-cutting and transitions can play a lot within a scene. Yet again referencing back to Inglorious Basters when Shoshanna is at an awkward dinner the audience can see she wishes to leave. Normally when a character enters a scene we see there face. However Tarantino decided to not. As an audience we hear a man at the table call out his name then we see Shoshanna's face while Hans stands behind her. The camera pans up to see his face and the music intensifies. Once Hans says hello we revert back to Shoshanna's face. Tarantino could have chose to follow codes and conventions of film and changed shot depending on who is talking. However, by breaking this rule and holding the camera on Shoshanna we are forced to see her crumble and become scared. We sympathize for her and wish for her to escape. Even when Shoshanna isn't involved in a conversation/ argument he chooses to stay focused on her, reinforcing that she is in fear.
In similarity to this scene, in Pulp fiction Mia is dying and needs a shot to the heart in order to survive. Vincent is about to give the shot but he stretches it out as long as possible. This makes the audience tell him to "just do it already" and keeps them interested and increase the anticipation.
Using Tarantino's dragging techniques I will be able to create tension and anticipation within my work. But I will need to be careful when using this technique incase I accidently make the audience lose interest all together.
Tarantino's sound design is a mix of natural and cartoon like sound effects. He uses the extreme sound for emphasis on actions and movements. In Kill Bill Vol.1, a gun shot is fired and echo's throughout the scene, carrying the action. When Kiddo, kicks the mug and a sound of a baseball bat is heard, emphasizing how hard she kicked the mug. Again when she withdraws her knife, the sound of a sword being unsheathed is played, making the knife seem more dangerous and bigger. Using sound to emphasize certain aspects and emotions. Sometimes using a different sound may give a better effect depending on what mood you are after. Violence meets levity within his work and is what gives the Tarantino effect.
Tarantino's choice of music is unique and "wrong" when it comes to scenes. He uses music from his own love of music and uses juxtaposing music in order to contrast with the action, giving an almost humorous and sickening feeling. In Reservoir Dogs he was so obsessed with the music, he spent the entire music budget on one song, Stuck in the middle with you. The song was played during the torture scene which cut away from the tone of the scene and make it pure entertaining to watch.
It is Tarantino's use of breaking the rules which gives him his own unique style. It gives him his own flavour to the film industry and inspires me to create work that is unique to me and how i wish to tell a story. Together Roger and Tarantino have inspired/ taught me to become my own person within the film industry and have given me the confidence to experiment and fail.
College has assisted me in refining my craft and skills so I am prepared for the workplace or higher education. In order for me to know what I wish to pursue in the future I need to research into jobs, companies, universities and apprenticeships. After that, I will have more firmer and stronger idea of what I want to do in life...
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