NAME: Brenna
Empey
DATE: 10/18/2016
FILM: Shot-for-Shot
DP: Jase Van
Meeteren
TMA 285 DIRECTOR’S REFLECTION
Overall response (2-3 paragraphs):
In 2-3 paragraphs, write an overall response to
your film: Were you successful at achieving what you set out to achieve? What
are you proud of? What would you do differently if you could remake this piece?
What did you learn?
As
I was thinking about what to do for my shot-for-shot, Blade Runner was one of the top choices but there was just one
problem – it’s science fiction and very heavy on the production design end of
things. I settled on this scene even though Deckard’s apartment is the type of
place that wouldn’t exist in Provo, Utah, and just as I expected, finding a
location was difficult. I think this negatively affected the piece, not in the
sense that it didn’t look good, but in the sense that making the space work ate
up a lot of my attention and time on the actual shooting day. I wish I had
gotten to spend more time talking to my actors, and maybe more time for takes,
rather than spending a lot on trying to imitate the space in Blade Runner.
I
do like how Rachel and Danny’s performances ended up, even though some people
in class said Danny’s performance was a little flat. The cinematography turned
out really well with our limited lighting options. If I were to do this scene
again, I would spend more time with colors and costumes within the set itself, as
well as in coloring, because my recreation ended up being too warm, lacking the
industrial feel of the original movie. I might also cast someone else to play
Harrison Ford’s character Deckard, not because I didn’t like my actor’s
performance, but because I think Harrison Ford’s physicality is very different from
that of my actor’s. I learned that casting the right body and face shapes are
important even to the point that they can affect framing and mood.
Briefly answer the following:
What, specifically, did you want to communicate? Were you
successful? Why? Why not?
I
just wanted to recreate the general feelings of this emotionally-heightened
scene, which are gradual defeat on Rachael’s end, and a range of shifting
emotions on Deckard’s end. This is a difficult discussion for both characters,
and I really wanted to draw that difficulty out of my actors. It was very
different than previous assignments to come into this scene having a
pre-written script and basically a pre-written shot list, but that didn’t make
it any less of a challenge. I think, for my actors’ capabilities, I was
successful in pulling out the emotions I wanted even though they may not be as
conspicuous as in Harrison Ford and Sean Young’s performances in the original
film.
How, specifically, did you try to say this? What visual elements, techniques, etc. did you
use?
The
low, contrasty lighting of this scene really communicates a feeling of loss,
hopelessness, and frustration. Deckard’s dialogue dominates this scene, and
Danny (my actor) and I talked a lot about why this character acts the way he does.
We concluded that he kind of just wants the conversation to be over with, like
it’s an annoyance, but it ends with Deckard having a shift in mood as he tries
to be more sympathetic to Rachael. For Rachael, Deckard’s words are
devastating. That’s why the high-contrast lighting works so well, and we tried
to recreate that as best we could in the recreation. Favoring the shadowed side
of the characters’ faces let us take a peek into their psyche and see that this
conversation is difficult for both of them, but in different ways.
What did you learn about storytelling:
I
really learned about how detail can affect the entire mood of a scene when I
was doing this assignment. As I was trying to somewhat recreate the messiness
in Deckard’s apartment, as well as the textures and colors, I realized that my
recreation wouldn’t have the same poignancy because I couldn’t include all the
details. There are vodka bottles all over Deckard’s apartment, which I didn’t
have. The harsh textured light from the blinds on the windows adds a lot to the
industrial, futuristic feel of the scene, and we had trouble recreating those
with the same punch. All around, my scene ended up being much softer and
homier, whereas the details in production design in the original scene make it
very dystopian and industrial.
Working with actors and getting performance:
I
talked about this a bit already, but how I went about this scene was simply by
asking my actors how and why they think the characters were acting in this way
in this moment. It was an interesting process because I showed them the
original scene from Blade Runner before
we began shooting my recreation, so it was more like analyzing an
already-existing portrayal of emotions rather than just reading lines and
letting my actors come up with their own interpretations. We talked a lot about
what Deckard and Rachael were feeling and why, and how they were reacting to
their situation. I think my actors also had different strengths – Danny, who
played Deckard, was great at taking Deckard’s emotions and portraying them in
his own way. Rachel, who played Rachael, did a great job at imitating Sean
Young’s inflexion and facial expressions.
Blocking — camera
and actors:
I
was actually surprised when this didn’t come up during the screening of my
recreation in class. Blocking seemed generally pretty easy at first – the two
characters remain in their own spaces on opposite sides of the room – but I was
really struggling with eye-lines when we were shooting. I think it’s because of
two things: I messed up the blocking a bit, and the room in the original Blade Runner is a lot bigger than the
space I was filming, and therefore there was less space in which the characters
could exist. Because of this, eyelines were less extreme than I wanted them to
be, and my characters were facing the camera more than they should have been.
For the most part, though, the eyelines made sense for the space I was working
in, even if they weren’t exactly the same as in the original scene.
Visuals — composition,
framing, visual elements:
This
is the one area in which I really thought I would shine, but when I got into
the editing room I realized a couple shots of Deckard were too tight! Most
shots of Rachael were spot on, and the lines on Rachael’s end of the room were
very similar to the lines in the original scene, so her shots looked pretty
good. We had to manipulate the structure of the room on Deckard’s end, though,
and basically create a wall where there wasn’t one, so the lines didn’t work as
well and we had less space to work with. In the shots of him sitting down on
the couch, we should’ve backed up or gone onto a wider lens.
Design & Art Direction:
I
talked about this a lot already but it was very difficult finding a suitable
location and recreating Deckard’s apartment. It took a lot of time out of our
shoot, and a lot of manpower that I wasn’t expecting. I don’t have much
experience in production design, which is why (unfortunately) a lot of my
assignments in this class haven’t been art-inclined. I’m really glad I found
this location, though, because the cubic design of the fireplace behind Rachael
is a great recreation of the walls of Deckard’s apartment. To create the same
sort of geometric shapes on Deckard’s side of the room, I laid a bookshelf
sideways across a desk and filled it with books, and I think that helped the
geometric feel of his side of the room. I wish we could’ve found a place with
such stylized walls as they have in Blade
Runner.
The Production Process — collaboration with crew, the logistics of making this piece:
Getting
ready for this shoot was, in general, pretty smooth sailing. The only hiccups
were that my original actress dropped out a week before the shoot and I had to
rush to find another one, and I had a bit of trouble finding a suitable
location because Blade Runner is full
of stylized science fiction spaces. The actual shooting of the scene was pretty
easy, though. I really trust Jase as a DP which took a lot of stress out of how
the lighting, framing, and camera movement would look in comparison to the
original scene. Danny and Rachel both delivered satisfying performances after
we discussed their characters’ feelings, motivations, and actions.
What was it like to watch your
film with an audience? Did they understand it? Miss the point? Why did they
respond the way they did?
I
was happily surprised that most of the audience seemed to like the location a
lot, because I was worried about how inaccurate it was compared to the original
scene. The audience did help me realize that my recreation came off as too
homey and warm, almost the exact opposite of the cold industrial nature of the
original. What I found most interesting was people’s reactions to Danny’s
performance – it read as flat and uninteresting to some people, while others
really liked it. I personally thought Danny did a great job as Deckard but
presenting his performance to an audience made me recognize reasons why it came
off as lacking in emotion that I hadn’t recognized before. I think the general
response to the warmer feeling of my recreation is totally justified, and I
should’ve paid more attention to my colors while shooting and in post.
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