Reflections on Exercise 5: Camera angles

I have had several responses direct to my learning log (see “Comments”) and below by email. I was happy with this, my second attempt (the first was badly done and not planned properly).

My fellow students seemed to like it but remarked on the distraction – I maybe could have included the mans face reacting to the door bell (see explanation below) and there was a question about whether an alcoholic would have been using coasters. This particular individual has two problems, the second is OCD! I did point out that for continuity, they were great for re-positioning the bottle and glass between takes.

Ideally I would have included turning my head in the pouring shot but I couldn’t get the camera low enough so there was a compromise here. (dropping the bottle cap) The low angle with the bottle dominating the frame worked well. From behind the table, the whole shot was one take that was divided to insert the doorbell sequence. Had I used an actor I could have used differential focussing for the end of the last shot, bringing the bottle into sharp focus at the end as the man consumed his first glass of the day.

Other comments:
From Vaggelis:
“as for you video i have to say it's guite good i can't tell any comment cause mine is not so great but i believe you did a great work .”
From Stuart:
“I think you've done a really good job here, Richard! I felt the edited shots really go together well, too!
I was going to suggest that you would have have had the opportunity to add more depth to the shot in storyboard no. 7 by moving the angle and pointing the camera from the door towards the character (so that the character was looking towards the camera). That would have helped show the distance between the character and the 'interruption'. However, I see that you never ending up using the shot like that. But - you ended up using a similar technique when your character is seated on the sofa and the wine bottle is close to the camera. I like the feeling of depth within the frame that they create. Someone's been reading Grammar of the Shot, haven't they? ;)”
Vaggelis, Stuart, thank you for taking the time to look at my work and also to Emily, Nico  and Margaret for their contributions. You are right Stuart, “Grammar of the Shot” is proving very useful.

Project 4: Camera angles

Exercise 5: An objective POV
Objective: To record the same scenario as the previous exercise but from an objective point of view.
I started with a series of sketches for my storyboard as described below:
(Despite appearances, it is the same person in all of the shots. I’m still struggling with the drawing.)
Frame 1

High angle shot making the sleeping man vulnerable. Perhaps zoom in on the eyes as he wakes.

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Frame 2

Eye level  to high angle shot for a normal feel, man wakes and nurses his head.

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Frame 3

Eye level again, man looks around the room and his eye is caught by the bottle on the table.

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Frame 4

Low angel shot, I want to emphasise the glass and the bottle and make them dominate the frame as they do  his life.

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Frame 5

Low angle again, man unscrews cap and starts to pour a drink, looming over the table.

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Frame 6

Close up of bell push and the sound of a door chime.

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Frame 7

Low angle, man is distracted briefly……..

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Frame 8

……..but continues to to pour a drink.

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I’ve had two attempts at producing the required sequence and I’ve stuck to the story board fairly well. I acted the role myself as I wanted to get it done quickly during daylight and there was no-one else available. My first attempt was pretty grim but the second one was better once I had reorganised the set. (I needed more depth for the low camera position behind the table) I realised early on that the frames where the drink is being poured could only include the lower half of my torso and my hands. This is because I needed to use a low table  for the final frames so that I could allow the bottle to assume a dominant position in the frame from a low angle.

While editing, I discovered how to separate the sound and video tracks. This was particularly useful as I wanted to split the two pairs of chimes across the two frames.

As I wasn’t able to show my character’s face reacting to the first set of chimes, I dropped the bottle cap instead during the second set. My finished sequence is embedded below.

To my fellow students, please let me have your comments before I add my own reflections on the piece.



Alcoholic Objective POV from Richard Down on Vimeo.