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‘Week 7’ Category

  1. Great Tracking Shots

    November 21, 2013 by kblack7@uoregon.edu

    ARCADE FIRE – AFTERLIFE from Emily Kai Bock on Vimeo.

    So I don’t know how many times I have tried to get a tracking shot of a person walking (while I am behind them), but I have been pretty unsuccessful thus far (at getting a good one at least). The footage is always too shaky due to my walking with the character as I am shooting. If only I had a beautiful steadi-cam! Anyways, this music video from Arcade Fire really blew me away with the amount of successful tracking shots they have. My favorite one is the tracking shot when the old man is walking down the alley. He is perfectly centered in the middle of the frame and is directly in front of the light source to create a silhouette walking into the distance.

    This video, although it is fiction, does a wonderful job in capturing  a story without much use of words. I really liked the shots that utilized a short depth of field to capture the young boys face as he lays in his Papa’s arms. I really liked the juxtaposition of the opening sequence and dinner conversation with the remainder of the video. It sets up a stage for deeper understanding into these character’s “after-life” which I can only guess represent’s the fears and desires they dream of when they close their eyes. Also, the use of cinematic movements in the dream-like sequences were very effective in creating a sense of an alternate reality (something that could be very difficult for audiences to understand without being told out outright). Another shot that really worked for me was the POV shot of the little boy in the laundry cart looking up at the old lady. POV’s can be so powerful in capturing the true experience the character is having at that moment.

     

    Category Week 7 | Tags: | 5 Comments

  2. Time-lapse_Summer Hatfield

    November 20, 2013 by summerh@uoregon.edu

    Melancholia from Enrique Pacheco on Vimeo.

    Because I was excited that Lauren and I taught ourselves to do time-lapse this week I thought I’d look for a video about it.  While we have in no way mastered it like this filmmaker has, we at least got the basics.  This film shows some really beautiful shots that were obviously very well thought out.  According to the filmmaker they had to be since he was shooting in infrared, and in Iceland no less.  To be honest, I wasn’t sure what infrared is exactly so I looked it up.  According to Wikipedia infrared light is electromagnetic radiation with longer wavelengths than those of visible light. In photography the film or image sensor used is sensitive to infrared light. I’m still struggling with understanding this, but from what I can see it takes superbly crisp, detailed images.

    One technique from this that I would like to learn is how to set up a time-lapse moving shot.  This video is full of them.  To me the movement adds to the cinematic look of time-lapse. While I would never want to shoot an entire film of only time-lapse, I think its effective in small doses.

    Category Week 7 | Tags: | 3 Comments

  3. The Garden of Eden

    November 19, 2013 by jarrattt@uoregon.edu

    The Garden of Eden is a documentary about a recreational spring in Israel. It is one of the largest and most famous. The documentary explores the backgrounds and motivations of a diverse group of people that are drawn to spend time in the same place. Though they come together because of a shared interest in the spring, their histories reveal a separation that remains. One review of the films notes, “Casual racism flows all over the place – people give it and people take it – everyone seems on the same page that it’s bad, but no one seems to know what to do to change it.”

    The documentary will explore different characters’ lives. The captivating part of the trailer is the juxtaposition of the inner thoughts and confessions of the characters, which are by turns unsettling and heartbreaking, but are calmed for them (and for the viewer) by spending time at the spring. The synopsis of the film says this about a few different characters in the film: “Yaacov, whose wife left him and who has since been living a sad and lonely existence; Athir, who is planning to move to Canada because life in Israel does not enable him to reach his full potential; Yael, who was forced to wed at the age of 13 and suffered many years of physical and mental abuse; Itzhak, who has yet to recover from the death of his brother in war and seeks a refuge from the mourning in the cool waters. These are but some of the captivating and touching individuals which the camera encounters.” Still, it seems like the spring itself will become the central character that is developed through all of the different people that occupy the space.

    The documentary profiles an area of the world that is filled with religious tension and “casual racism,” but it ultimately lets those issues fall away so that the universal issues everyone faces can come to the surface.

     

    Category Week 7 | Tags: | 2 Comments

  4. Timelapse: Monuments by Night (ACE 7)

    November 18, 2013 by amandae@uoregon.edu

    In honor of time lapse week, here’s a time lapse that has a few things we can take into account when using the GoPros or interval-ometer on the Canon’s:

    1)  Extremely smooth 180 degree  shots of different monuments, to the extent where it almost feels like CG rendering.  Clearly, having a solid light source gives dynamism to the images, and makes for a compelling time lapse.

    2) He follows video rules! The scenes fit well together –it’s not like one scene and then a next–if a pan ends on the right hand side of the screen, the next image progresses starting from the right side.

    3) Use multiple lenses! At minute 1:18 you can tell he chose a lens that captured the feeling of the Italian fountain.  By picking the right angles and lenses etc for each scene, the time lapse becomes a piece that had thought and time go into it, rather than a random collection of images’

     

    Category Week 7, Weekly Inspiration | Tags: | No Comments

  5. Spike Jonze – Turning Nothing Into Something

    November 13, 2013 by abk@uoregon.edu

    I have a flawless, hero-like obsession with Spike Jonze. In my mind, the man has a track-record of perfection with everything he’s ever touched. At first I intended to write a post about his old Adidas ad – potentially my favorite commercial of all time. But in stumbling around Youtube, I came across this Ikea ad from 2006 that I had never seen before. It’s 60 seconds of what now ranks in my Top 5 Jonze moments of all time.

    The ad utilizes the art of framing. The same scenes in this short film would have been completely meaningless if taken from other angles. And while there are a couple pov shots, the majority of this ad utilizes nothing more than the angle of framing on the subject to instill a strong sense of personification on the lamp. At first you expect the lamp to move or show some sign of artificial life, but that bending of reality becomes completely unnecessary – I think it’s brilliant. Of course the full genius of the production comes at the end, when the fourth wall is dropped and the viewer is mocked for falling for the illusion of instilled emotion. This video is incredibly inspiring in its emphasis on not what you’re shooting, but how you’re shooting it.

    Category Week 7 | Tags: ,, | 1 Comment

  6. Close-ups | Glósóli

    November 13, 2013 by lpaters5@uoregon.edu

    I know I haven’t been the first to post a Sigur Ros music video, but this has always been one of my favorites. This is a story without words as the only sound used is the music, and it features mostly tight and super tight close-up shots on faces as well as detail shots on buttons, shoes, and the environment. I think it’s a very beautiful and creative use of the environment of Iceland, as there are many natural springs that give off steam and tall grass that looks lovely close-up or far away. The costumes of the children have a naturalistic element that makes you think they might just be wild children, wandering the plains of Iceland.

    The lighting is also remarkable considering the entire video is shot outdoors. It seems to be nearing sunset when the video starts and it is dawn towards the end, but you are able to tell due to the contrasting color change which seems to work well. While the majority of the shots are close-ups and only occasionally medium or long, there is an extreme long shot at the end that is absolutely magical. There isn’t much of a narrative model as we are simply on a journey with the mysterious wandering children, wondering where they are going, but the last few shots answer our question and make it completely worthwhile. All in all, it’s an ethereal piece of cinematic work.

    Sigur Rós – Glósóli from Arni & Kinski on Vimeo.

    Category Week 7 | Tags: ,,,,, | No Comments

  7. The Schedulers

    November 12, 2013 by bjh@uoregon.edu

     

     

    Anyone who has ever watched baseball or looked at the MLB schedule from year to year knows that it is a huge daunting thing.  32 teams playing 162 games a piece from early April until Early October, someone has to schedule them.  This story is about Holly and Henry Stephenson who from the early 1980s to 2004 scheduled the MLB season each and every year.

    What I loved about this piece is that is that it is not one that relies on any real type of action to move the story along.  At the beginning of the story I loved the juxtaposition of the baseball radio calls over an empty stadium that then seemingly matches up with the amateur level game that the Stephenson’s were watching.  Throughout the video we have these medium shots of the couple at their work deck pouring over the paper of the schedules that they used to make.  What I really enjoyed however was the use of the outdoor and indoor interviews with the Stephenson’s.  The use of the natural light made the interview really feel more alive and helped connect it with the game of baseball, which should always be played outside.

    Category Week 7, Weekly Inspiration | Tags: , | 1 Comment

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