We Have Film School At Home

Last time, I tried to shoot some basic camera shots in the style of an Ozu film, with the intention to “re-shoot” a scene from The End of Summer. There were a few issues I had, which in the end was an issue with blocking, and understanding the limitations of different lenses. Given the size of the space, I couldn’t shoot some of the “head-on” portrait shots that Ozu does, even using a 35mm lens, at least not without introducing a lot of distracting distortion.

This time, I shot with a 50mm lens and made sure I had the characters placed in such a way that I could have the distance I needed to get the shots I needed, and I think it really worked out well this time. The only thing I was a little worried about was because I was using a 50mm lens, I would have less leeway to adjust the shot (something that I probably have to do in general, since I can’t actually actively see myself in front of the camera and have to do a little guesstimating. It still worked out though, and I’ve started to develop a system now for how I set up those shots, both in terms of camera distance (subject about 5-6 feet away from the camera) and also camera height and angle (shoulder height, and shooting straight on). The camera height and angle I’m borrowing from my last shot, where I really liked how it turned out, and used it again with good success. The shots feel portrait-like in a way that I want to keep practicing and utilizing for the future.

The only “errors” in these shots are fixable. The depth of field is still very shallow, even though the lens was not wide open (only a few stops down), and in the second shot, the focus is a little bit behind my face, so I’m a little out of focus. Also, the room is very dark, with only indirect lighting from some incandescent lights. This was a good test for the limits of the Blackmagic cameras’ low light capabilities (they aren’t great) but I think everything still looked passable – it just required some color adjustments.

So, in sum, I think I have a “shot” that I will probably be using a lot in the future, that I know how to set up and execute. (And which makes up most of this scene I plan to put together).

I think maybe the next sub-project I will take on is shooting a conversation scene with audio? It will be a little tricky, because it requires me to do some “acting” but that’s fine. Not something I will be using for music videos, but if I ever think about shooting a short film, it’s something I’ll have to learn how to do.