Raw Cinematography- 'The Black Hole'

For the 'Black Hole' narrative scene, The purpose is to communicate the emotion of anxiety and the idea of losing control of my life.


Earlier in the project, it was decided that static tripod shots were more appropriate for the film compared to handheld movement. This still holds true, as I am attempting to create a low kinetic energy feel to the film, which echoes a serious tone that is needed when exploring the theme of grief. However in the instance of communicating Anxiety as one of the negative aspects of grief in my story, Handheld movement may be appropriate to this scene alone.


One of my previous projects that involved representing anxiety in a moving image involved the use of handheld camera movement to make the audience feel disorientated and uncomfortable. This resulted in the film successfully making my peers and tutor feel anxious. So I decided to further compare static tripod shots with handheld movement to see which method was more effective.


The videos that I looked at by Casey Niestat are able to show the bustling, fast paced feel of New York city. This filming block was done in Hereford city, as I wanted to use a setting similar to those in Casey's video to illustrate a fast paced bustling tone. I walked around town, capturing footage as a walked along and on a set tripod.


This filming block of raw footage has been the longest so far because I knew that if I decide to apply fast paced editing with a high level of cutting, then I would require more footage to select from. By doing this, I will not run into the problem of not having enough footage.


Luckily, there were many people out in town that day, which helped to create more loud, diegetic sounds that could be used to connote an anxious response from the main character to the world around them. The unfortunate drawback with filming the public is that some people are not keen on being filmed so there were some that avoided the camera's view.

                                                            

I captured some extreme close up, handheld shots of my eyes to act as a reaction from the character of the loud environment. This shot was difficult to shoot due to being unable to see the preview screen on the back of the camera and also trying to remain aware of my surroundings in the city as I was walking. I Therefore decided to film this shot in the city centre, away from the roads. This prevented any potential hazards such as traffic.

This shot of a blurred out traffic light was taken to connote sensations of anxiety in the audience. The 'Father and Daughter' animation outlined to me that metaphorical marker can be effective at representing a general tone or message to a scene. The choice to show a traffic light changing was done because driving and being caught in traffic is a common trigger of anxiety in most people. The idea of waiting for the light to turn green is meant to represent the idea of anticipation and anxiety of waiting.

The tripod shots that were taken proved to be not as effective as the handheld movement. As seen above, the handheld movement, along with the out of focus approach, connotes a feeling of disorientation through the combination of the out of focus and the motion blur. The tripod shots convey a low kinetic energy to the scene, which is not the aim of the seen conveying anxiety. The handheld movement on the other hand shows frantic movement and caned angles.

The choice to blur out the background was done to connote a sense of isolation in the character and fear of the world. This field of depth reduces detail in the background visuals, which intensifies the sensory overload that the character is meant to feel with the anxiety.

When I comes to editing this scene, I will try using a fast paced editing style to cohere to the fast, frantic movement in the shots. Fast paced editing was also using in the Anxiety film project, so the results may be successful.