Reading:
PDSFV ch 13 (art on set) & 14 (set procedures)
Art on Set
“…it’s important to visit your locations beforehand as many times as the budget and your schedule will allow.” – Jan Krawitz
In the process of creating a motion picture, the art director, the set decorator, and the property master truly are magicians, often creating something out of nothing and making things appear from out of nowhere.
There is nothing like the feeling of walking on a dressed set for the first time: experiencing the culmination of weeks, maybe months, of preparation and planning by the director, producer, art department, and director of photography (DP).
A great deal of imagination and hard work have transformed the words on the page into the world of the characters through the choice of sets, dressing, costumes, props and furniture.
Final Walk-Through
It is highly recommended that the director, the DP, and art director or set decorator walk through the set prior to the day of the shoot. This final walk-through allows the directo to talk through her ideas and make sure the arrangement of furniture can accommodate what she has in mind. The one element that is constant in filmmaking is that everything changes. Ideas developed through the rehearsal process might haveresulted in new approaches to blocking. Furniture may need to be rearranged. Other details may have to be altered. The DP needs to anticipate any changes (if they ocur) so he can make adjustments to his lighting plan. Having an official walk-through before the camera rolls will give both departments time to make adjustments and prevent any unwarranted surprises on the day of the shoot.
Set Procedures
The day starts early for the art department. Finishing touches are applied to the set to allow the electrical department time to set up the lights. Other members of the art department are already working on the next set in anticipation of the company’s next move. During the shooting day, the art department is constantly on standby to djust the set, dressings, and props for the camera.
Let’s look at an excerpt from “The Lunch Date” as an example of how the art department approaches a scene.
The duties of the art department for the scene are as follows:
Location: The location is secured during preproduction. If a location falls through, the art department must be part of the plan to move to an alternate location.
Set dressing: Sometime before shooting the scene, the set decorator, cleanup crew, and painters “dress” the set to match the description in the script and any drawings, paintngs, or photos given to the dresser. During the shooting, the set dresser readjusts any set pieces that have been moved for camera framing continuity. If the shoot is going well, the set dresser can leave the shoot and move to the next location to begin preparing it.
Props: The props are gathered prior to the shoot. When the set is ready, the property master places the food in the glass case behind the counter. He prepares the woman’s handbag with the appropriate change. When the performer is called to the set, he hands her the handbag and her packages. He places some napkins nearby for the cook.
Wardrobe: When the actors arrive on the location, they are sent to change clothes after a brief rehearsal. The costumer dresses both actors in the costumes defined by the script. She asks the cook to keep the apron and paper hat neat and claean so they will match for each take. At wrap, the customer helps the actors undress. She puts the costumes away neatly to be used another day. If they need washing, she takes them with her to be cleaned after the wrap.
Makeup and Hair: After the actors are dressed, they move on to the makeup and hair department. Here, their makeup is applied and their hair coiffed to match a previous scene or the art director’s design. When this job is completed, the makeup and hair people stand by off set to make adjustments between takes. At the end of the day, they assist the actors in removing their makeup and any hairpieces.
Set Dressing
The set decorator decorates the set according to the art director’s specific designs. This crew member is responsible for renting, buying, or making all the “dressing” that occupies the set — everything from the rugs on the floors to the magnets on the refrigerator. The set decorator should confer with the actor whose character lives” in the location, and together they will create the character’s environment.
The set decorator works in tandem with other departments, such as lighting. If the gaffer has lit the set brightly, a 100-watt bulb in a “practical” (see glossary) will not register on film or video stock. An electrician might need to replace the bulb with a special 500-watt lamp to balance light temperature correctly.
The set decorator is sometimes called on to assist other departments. The key grip might need help pulling up a rug during a take to get it out from under the dolly’s wheels. Someone might be needed just off camera to jerk a curtain with monofilament wire (fishing line) to simulate the wind. These specialty positions often fall to the set dresser.
Not all set pieces are easy to find. If the director has a specific look in mind for a set piece, the art director and set dresser must make this item to the director’s specifications if it cannot be found.
Continuity
The set is maintained by the set dresser to match the uninterrupted succession of the script’s scenes. If there is a fight scene, for example, the set is each take, and all the broken set pieces are replaced. The duplicated set is matched each time to the script supervisor’s snapshots of the original set.
Wrapping Up
When the photography of a sequence is completed, it is customary for the art department to wait one day before disassembling the set. The art department waits to receive word from the editing room that the dailies are not damaged (if shooting film). If the footage is damaged and it becomes necessary to reshoot the scene, the set can be used again. Once the art director has been given word that the dailies are good technically, the set is struck. It is taken apart if rented or destroyed if constructed.
Waiting to strike the set is done for mostly for financial reasons. Productions with large budgets will store the elements of the set throughout the post production process in the advent that pickups or additional scenes need to be shot. For low-budget and students projects, keeping the sets may not be realistic. In any event, hold on to as many of the key props and set dressings as possible in case you will need to reconstruct a scene weeks or maybe months later.
Set Procedures
Director
Inspires
The hierarchy of the crew is a pyramid, with the director on top. Creating a motion picture may be a team effort, but on set the director has the final word. A confident and prepared director creates a tone, attitude, and pace that allow the team to respond to whatever problems and challenges arise. An insecure and inadequately prepared director, on the other hand, brings down morale and slows the natural pace of a well-oiled capable crew. The most appropriate analogy is director as captain of a ship. She commands and the crew follows; she falters and chaos ensues.
Calling the shot
- Quiet on the set! (AD) This signifies the calm before the storm
- Roll sound! (AD) The sound recorder is activated. The late is called off.
- Roll camera! (AD) The camera is turned on and is recording.
- Mark it! (Camera operator) An electronic clapboard is placed in front of the lens to identify the shot. The clappers are snapped shut to mark the beginning of the scene and to create a digital timecode to match sound and picture.
- Action! The director signals for the actors to begin or for the camera to move.
- Cut! The director signals for the actors or camera to stop.
- Check the gate! (Director or DP) This call is to make sure the take was clean and that no dust or hairs were caught in the film camera pressure plate (if shooting film).
- Back to one! (AD) This signals a repeat of the shot.
- Camera moves! (AD) When the shot is satisfactorily “in the can,” the camera moves to the next position or setup.
- Martini shot! (AD) The last shot of the day.
- That’s a wrap! (Director or AD) Principal photography for the day ends.
Script Supervision
Film directing fundamentals ch 1-6
Chapter 1: Introduction to Film Language and Grammar
The Film World
Film Language – Like prose, a film senstence/shot can be simple, with only one subject and one verb, and perhaps as an object; or it can be a compound sentence/shot, composed of two or more clauses. The type of sentence/shot we use will first depend on the essence of the momet that we wish to convey to the audience.
Shots
Film Grammar
The 180-degree rule
The 30-degree rule – If we are going from one shot of a character or object to another shot of the same character or object without an intervening shot of something else, the camera angle should change by at least 30 degrees.
Screen Direction
Film-Time
Compression
Elaboration
Familiar Image
Chapter 2: Introduction to the Dramatic Elements Embedded in the Screenplay
Spines
Whose Film Is It?
Character
Circumstance
Dynamic Relationship
Wants
Expectations – Past history in the present will build an expectation for the future. Anticipating what comes next is the single engagement tool we have as filmmakers. Sometimes positive/negative, weak/strong. The idea of worrying about the next thing is suspenseful. And the key to it is withholding information. Knowing when to hold back and when to supply. Hitchcock is master of withholding information.
Actions
Activity
Acting Beats
Dramatic Blocks can be likened to a paragraph in prose: it contains one overriding dramatic idea.
Narrative Beats – changing of the strategy of trying to get what he or she wants. Usually define the beat with a single action verb. When doing beat breakdowns, they will be precise and short. This is important when you are explaining to the actors. Each action/beat over the course of the scene should be higher in tension than beat before it. Almost all scenes are scenes of escape or scenes of chase – only differences are whose POV telling from. Characters come together or pull apart. A scene is a mini-film. It has inciting incident, escalation of action, measures of shots can have it.
Fulcrum
Chapter 3: Organizing Action in a Dramatic Scene
Dramatic Elements in Alfred Hitchcock’s Notorious Patio Scene
Notorious Patio Scene Annotated
Chapter 4: Staging
Patterns of Dramatic Movement
Changing the Stage Within a Scene
Staging as Part of a Film’s Design
Working with a Location Floor Plan
Floor Plan for Notorious Patio Scene
Chapter 5: Camera
The Camera as Narrator
Reveal
Entrances
Objective Camera
Subjective Camera
Where Do I Put It? – doesn’t always have to be on the subject’s face when talking!
Visual Design
Style
Coverage
Camera Height
Lenses
Composition
Where to Begin?
Working toward Specificity in Visualization
Looking for Order
Dramatic Blocks and Camera
Shot Lists, Storyboards, and Setups
The Prose Storyboard
Chapter 6: Camera in Notorious Patio Scene
First Dramatic Block
Second Dramatic Block
Third Dramatic Block
Fourth Dramatic Block and Fulcrum
Fifth Dramatic Block
Watch Casablanca
Reading
PDSFV ch 12 (sound), app f (music clearances)
Plan to shoot for sound.
Project 7 continued – edit re-creation film
The Elements of Cinema by Stefan Sharff
On Cinematic Structures
On Cinematic “Syntax”
The Master Plan
Separation is an arrangement of shots showing subjects one at a time on the screen; i.e., a scene of two people talking to each other in separate frames in an A,B,A,B,A,B arrangement. Separation can accommodate any given thematic situation, but cinematically, its specialty lies in the ability to create intimate relationships between parts seen separately on the screen.
Example: Alfred Hitchcock’s “Frenzy” has 49 (I guessed 35) shots before she grabs the phone. The inciting action of the scene is created by SOUND DESIGN – the sound of the door closing as she is putting on her makeup. This is how Hitchcock ties the 2 worlds together. The bigger the difference, the easier it is to cut together.
There are 3 facets to separation:
- the graphic and spatial composition of the images, including introduction and resolution. In separation, identical size pictures don’t “ring true,” and one can recognize instantly a poor director if such is his arrangement.
- rhythm and apparent time: a time sense unique to separation in cinema.
- the “intimacy” of the relationship between the separated images.
Parallel Action
Adjacent parallel action: showing water leaking in different places while main characters don’t know what’s happening.
This stretches T-I-M-E.
DW Griffith – found that this is most powerful grammatical structures in cinema. Humberto Echo says when you have 2 lines of action (A/B), when on action B, time continues in A. The spatial disparity has to be significant to make the climax significant.
2 types of time: Linear vs. Nonlinear
Linear: real life
Non-linear = qm
Use weird techniques like jump cuts from the very beginning so that it is not jarring to the viewer – set things up for a payoff later.
When looking at scripts/docs/abstract work – linear and nonlinear get more complicated b/c while thinking about parallel action, attention is on A (you worry). This is why film is an illusion. We use these phrasing devices to build rhythm/pattern.
Familiar Image – Use this shot as an anchor; within a scene that is fragmented is that it acts as an anchor or a grounding device. High angle/low angle combinations work well aesthetically. These create beats. If close-up and tight, eventually cut wide to release.
Slow Disclosure - used with camera movement rather than fragmentation. Withholding information in such a way we are thinking scene/circumstance about one thing, but as we get more info, it’s turned or changed.
Cinesthetic Movements – Shot-answer shots. None in frenzy shots are POV shots. Even when he walks and she follows him, the camera is still too high to be her POV. Woman is the anchor. Man opening drawer is an invasion and it’s a set-up for a payoff. When camera settles there is a release of tension. Camera had been moving right to left entire scene – When camera moves left to right this is a beat. This is escalating action. Anyone who has been watching up to this point knows what’s coming up and that’s horror. Up until now, all shots have been medium but then compresses time with close ups leading up to the confession. Then cuts slow down to pace…stretch moments to build tension. Separation sequence can start with an establishing shot. At the end of the separation there is some form of resolution to prove the reality. If I throw phone at someone, phone is partial resolution.
Multi-Angularity - builds tension. A series of shots of contrasting angles and compositions (including reverse and mirror images). There is usually an establishing shot. The camera as narrator can move 360 degrees through the mise en scene. Can show how the story unfolds from various POVs. Flows in a freer way than Master Shots and can break rules. Works very closely with Familiar Image.
The Master Shot Discipline – becomes the anchor. Based on a few set-ups:
Over the shoulder
Matching over the shoulder
Close ups
Let’s look for the best pattern – can make for good storytelling when performance not that great. If there is real need for dialogue in a situation or to calm, go back to master shot.
Orchestration is assigning a primary grammatical structure to a scene or a portion of a scene in secondaries. In Frenzy, separation is the primary modality. Secondary is camera movement and familiar image. The arrangement of the various other elements of structure throughout the film.
Film
How are you going to structure your film from scene to scene?
Bicycle Thieves finale is good example of showing cinematic elements
