Tuesday, January 6, 2015
Post #2 - "Under" short Film (Due 1/14/15)
Please watch "Under." A short film by Mark Raso. Made in Columbia University's MFA film program. It won the Gold Medal at the Student Academy Awards in 2012. Comment on a particular aspect of the film that relates to you creative duties on this TCF 442 project.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Under was a great short in which the art "hit hard in its pure form." As far as behind the scenes documentarian work is concerned, I was really interested in the location aspect of things. I was in awe due to the fact that this was a student short and in order to achieve the look he was looking for, hired green screen effects and used a garage in order to make the trapped aspect feel real. I really look forward to shooting our film and to show others what hard work goes into film making.
ReplyDeleteI believe that everything in this short is possible for us to do. Quite a bit of camera movement in the beginning -- almost too much. The slow push ins on the two shots were effective in making the wide shots more interesting. The use of practicals (lighter and headlight) were used in illuminating the subjects faces underneath the snow. We will be using/ replicating a lot of practical lighting in our short as well. The tight framing on the protagonists while trapped underneath the snow was effective in giving off a claustrophobic feeling. We can use similar tight framing to create indeterminate space and make the audience feel uncomfortable. I was especially fond of the rapid focus racks on the females face that were in sync with her heavy breathing. This technique could potentially be used in our film when Leigh passes out/and or comes to after being shocked.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, I feel like my heart has been beaten up and ripped out of my chest. That aside, I thought this short was incredible. Everything in it was beautifully executed. One aspect of the film that I thought they did incredibly well at was using the locations to their advantage. It didn't look like they settled on anything, but instead it was like they used their location as a tool for every shot. While they were buried underneath, their use of such tight shots on each face was simple, but at the same time, conveyed so much. By only being lit by that one head lamp, and the tightness of the two shots, it created this uncomfortable feeling and unease. I feel like in our project, we have a similar situation. We have an incredible location with this old house, and it has all these features such as unusually high ceiling, construction everywhere, and even a cactus fence out front. Instead of seeing these things as challenges, why not use these features to our advantage, and let them push the story like we saw in "Under".
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure how this short relates to behind the scenes documentaries but I think the filmmakers succeeded in stressing out the audience. I was curious how they filmed the scenes of the actors buried in the snow and I think it would be interesting to show and talk to the director about what all went into filming those scenes.
ReplyDeleteThis was a really great piece. The opening shot took a very interesting look at inanimate objects which is something we can play off of when we design the shots of our props in the opening of out film. I also really enjoyed the way they played with the space once our characters were "under". The way the shifted focus in rhythm with the girls breathing was really unsettling and a great way to build suspense. All in all this film uses techniques that are obtainable by our team.
ReplyDeleteI can see how this won the gold medal at the Student Academy Awards. The acting is absolutely riveting, the two leads have perfect chemistry. From the first frame to the last the cinematography is compelling and on point. Beginning a film about a couple trapped underneath snow with a shot framed under a glass table was sheer brilliance. Using the themes of our film, namely history and time itself, to inspire shots could lead us down some interesting paths.
ReplyDeleteOverall, I think the most interesting thing to me is how this film is structured.
Not including the credits, the film runs from 0:08 to 22:08, a runtime of 22 minutes exactly. From the beginning, we gets tons and tons of foreshadowing. The shot under the glass. The shot under the car. The deer that nearly causes them to crash (a brilliant symbol of nature and life/death that we see again and again as the film progresses).
The inciting incident doesn’t come in until 9:30. The character development and foreshadowing we get prior to that point is engaging, but the story doesn’t really begin until nearly halfway through the film. Our script has also been functioning with a delayed inciting incident, which makes Under great reference.
Shooting in and around a car is hard to do tastefully, and I believe this film found a way to do that. The general store looks great on the inside. I imagine that they found the location with most everything already there, and just did some tweaking. The color choice for the jackets are interesting. The man wears orange which makes me think of safety and warmth, while the women is dressed in a baby blue and light pink, evoking a childish feel. Even though the roles of the characters switch instantly. Inside of the igloo is fantastic. The holes for candles and just the fact that it's a igloo is really cool. The makeup on his fingers halfway through is very realistic to frost bite. Overall minimal production design, but very very affective.
ReplyDeleteEven though producing isn't necessarily a creative role, while watching this short I took note about all the different aspects that must have gone into planning each different scene and location. This is going to help me go ahead and start doing as much planning for the shooting as possible. Not only planning and thinking through all the possibilities, but also thinking through what could go wrong all throughout pre pro and production and have some back up plans waiting.
ReplyDeleteJust thinking about all the details needed to cover all aspects of the film like locations, actors, money for props/sets that will be needed. It basically just made me think of all the people that are needed to pull of the production and how me and Brooke will wrangle them all and have everyone where they should be at the right time with everything they need. Basically just holding everyone accountable for their jobs.
ReplyDeleteThis film did a good job with editing, and it had especially good pacing. They made good use of long shots at the beginning and good establishing shots in the mountains. Once the avalanche happened and they were panicking the cuts got a lot quicker and jumpier, which definitely helped integrate the viewer into the scene.
ReplyDeleteIn fact, the editing, shot choices, and performance choices were so riveting that when the avalanche first happened I literally had to stop the movie because I was panicking so much alongside the characters. I hope our editorial team can be as effective, and I think that the shot choice and placing here is a good reference for us because the panic induced by "Under" is very similar to some of the thrilling scenes we want to create in this class.