I decided early on to not focus very much on the stylistic elements of my film. I didn’t want to weigh myself down with the responsibility of cinematography when I felt my time was much better spent focusing on directing my actors and making sure everything happened quickly. One of my actors and my co-director are both quite busy, so I wanted to try and get as much done as I could in one day, which is very hard when focusing on style and lighting. I decided to aim for a fly-on-the-wall documentary style, otherwise known as “Cinema vérité”, as the quick turnaround and comedic nature seemed to fit nicely with my vision and time constraints.
Cinéma vérité (/ˈsɪnɪmə vɛrɪˈteɪ/; French: [sinema veʁite]; ‘truthful cinema’) is a style of documentary filmmaking, invented by Jean Rouch, inspired by Dziga Vertov‘s theory about Kino-Pravda and influenced by Robert Flaherty’s films. It combines improvisation with the use of the camera to unveil truth or highlight subjects hidden behind crude reality.[1][2][3]
Cinéma vérité in relationship to direct cinema and observational cinema
It is sometimes called observational cinema,[4][5] if understood as pure direct cinema: mainly without a narrator’s voice-over. There are subtle, yet important, differences among terms expressing similar concepts. Direct Cinema is largely concerned with the recording of events in which the subject and audience become unaware of the camera’s presence: operating within what Bill Nichols,[6] an American historian and theoretician of documentary film, calls the “observational mode”, a fly on the wall. Many therefore see a paradox in drawing attention away from the presence of the camera and simultaneously interfering in the reality it registers when attempting to discover a cinematic truth.
Footage review
Looking back on my footage, after color grading and some other tweaks, I’m quite happy with the way it turned out. It’s obviously not as pretty as I could’ve made it with some more time, but seeing as it was all filmed in one day apart from the public scenes, I don’t mind the slight amateur look. There are a few things I would change, though. The main one being the incredibly irritating focus hunting. There are multiple shots where the subject slowly goes in and out of focus, due to the auto-focus system failing to lock on. Because of the small screen, battery drain and quick shooting schedule, I failed to notice most of these errors on the day, only noticing them the next day when editing. In future, I’ll look to fix this issue by changing the auto-focus mode on my camera to a more specific one, and spending a little more time setting up the shot before shooting. Also I’ll use manual focusing a little more; I’ll use auto focusing to lock on to a subject, and then switch to manual focus for the shot, therefore stopping the hunting issue.
Inspiration
A major source of influence is, as previously mentioned, Nirvanna The Band The Show. They use a mockumentary style, with all shots being loose, basic and fun. They utilize zoom lenses, so that they can get plenty of different shot types with the same camera, covering the whole range. They have a few people shooting at once, all getting shots of the different characters at different focal lengths, which they then edit together to create a natural looking end result. I love this style; it’s quite easy, looks decent, and is incredibly quick to accomplish. It has a slightly childish quality to it, as if it’s being filmed by people with limited grasp of the camera.
This deleted scene shows off the filming technique perfectly. There are two cameras, shooting the two actors as they improvise a scene. It’s not flashy or pretty, but it’s very functional, and provides coverage for everything happening in the scene, making it easy to edit together afterwards.
Public scenes
I knew I wanted a similar look for my public scenes, but also that I needed to implement another element: stealth. It was essential that the members of the public didn’t see the camera, as this would’ve given away the fact that my cowboys weren’t real. As soon as they see a camera, the dynamic switches dramatically, and it becomes a forced performance, which can get a little awkward.
I achieved this stealth the same way they do in Nirvanna The Band The Show: with a zoom lens. I used a Sony 18-105 f/4, along with Sony’s ClearZoom option, which somehow allows you to zoom in a little more digitally without losing any quality. This allowed me to be absolutely ages away from the public interactions, while still having a clear view of them.
The frantic way we filmed the public scenes means a few of the shots are a little messy. There’s people walking in front of the camera, even more focus issues, some shake, and even some parts where I’m forced to move from my spot, making the shot jitter wildly while I re position myself. I don’t think these things impact the film too much though, as I feel like it just adds to the realism of it.
Color
I knew that I wanted my film to have a rather warm color palette, as this evokes a distinctly western aesthetic. This was a simple effect; I just turned up the temperature in Lumetri color, and then tweaked it a little using the color wheels to achieve this look.
LUTs
Another way I accomplished this warmth is through the use of LUTs. I talk about this more in depth in my editing blog post, but put simply, I downloaded a LUT called “Sedona”, then put it over the top of my footage. It saturates the shadows with warmth, and creates a sepia looking image. It’s much too intense when first applied, so I dialed it back a little to around 35%, and this is my result:
I really like this look. I’m finding it hard to think of words to describe it other than “warm”, because that word really does sum it up. I think it fits very nicely for the style of film I’m aiming for.
Conclusion
I tried to make my film evoke the classic stylings of a western, but with a modern twist. This mirrors the story of the film, where the old fashioned characters are blended with the modern world. The warm color palette and costumes create the old look, which is naturally countered by just filming in a modern looking environment.
Research sources
- Linkedin.com. (2018). THE GOOD THE BAD AND THE UGLY COLOR PALETTE. [online] Available at: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/good-bad-ugly-color-palette-adeep-oberoi [Accessed 2 May 2019].
- Faris, C. (2015). Use LUTs Like A Pro! – Best Practices for Color Grading with LUTs. [online] YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7YZtAQEVaA [Accessed 2 May 2019].
- Johnson, M. (2017). Nirvanna the Band the Show the Deleted – Getting in the Way. [online] YouTube. Available at: https://youtu.be/cXE-CZQvl18 [Accessed 2 May 2019].
- Pedia, W. (2016). Cinéma vérité. [online] En.wikipedia.org. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cin%C3%A9ma_v%C3%A9rit%C3%A9 [Accessed 2 May 2019].
Josh Martin's FMP blog 