Portrait of Place - Edale Cinematography and Ideas

Wide, extreme long shot to display the opening setting

The location i found for the opening shot appears to be almost perfect for the effect we were going for; the vast, wide-open landscape contrasted with the main protagonist really gives the audience a sense of vulnerability, loneliness and being 'lost' in the wilderness. The tree in the foreground appears menacing and works perfectly in comparison to the person running across screen. It highlights the stillness of nature and how peaceful it can be yet arguably creates a sense of menace and terror.

Tripod MCU, to create a contrast between the two

 

The following shot, after the blackout, reveals a still shot of some grass gently swaying in the wind. It creates a sense of place and connection with nature, whilst giving the illusion that someone may be watching, hiding in the undergrowth. Personally i find it highly effective combing long, expansive shots with close-up, more 'personal shots' as i feel it adds variety and takes the audience from one extreme to another.

The blackouts used were intentional to create enigma in the narrative. They were to promote connotations/connections to the main protagonist's mind and what he's thinking. They also allow the audience to interpret them in their own way.. perhaps they indicate the main character's delve into madness.

Still shot from behind, providing a sense of place

This shot is also another favourite of mine. We in fact used this shot twice in the final video, however each shot is slightly different to the other. This was intended to create a sense of confusion/connection with what the character is going through. Me and my partner James also feel as if it could potentially sum up nature as a 'place that feels repetitive'. The technique of ending with one of the first shots is also a well-known technique seen in other videos, and the majority of the time they seem highly effective. Other things to note are the actual structure of the tree; it's an "iconic" tree that feels different to everything else. It allowed us to find a 'base' to evolve our narrative around. On another note, we created some basic storyboards to accompany our field trip/filming, however personally I have always preferred scouting locations and working around them to create the shots we need.

Hand-held, more 'intimate' shot

This shot, featured just over the half way point in the video is a complete contrast to the first half of the film. In this section, we aimed for a more personal, hand-held 'action' sequence to make the audience feel more involved in the protagonist's world. By using visual metaphors I feel it has helped portray loneliness (the main theme we were aiming for).

Overall, I feel that we have achieved the goals we were aiming for, however perhaps given more time, we could have expanded upon our original idea to create a more interesting movie. The combination of shots and the connection between nature and loneliness seems to have been successfully highlighted in out final piece.

The editing stage proved to be fun, yet heavily time-consuming and sometimes consuming. We stumbled across a variety of problems from cutting up the tape into separate clips, to exporting the final piece onto a 'DVD menu' format. These problems were obviously resolved (thankfully!!) but it has helped us gain experience for future projects. Given more time, i definitely feel we could have gone away to create a more interesting, tighter edit. However I think getting to grips with Final Cut more may be more important at this stage than worrying about further editing.

Inspiration came from films, videos I have created in the past, pictures, internet videos and more. I prefer to apply ideas from many different forms of media into my own work, as well as introducing my own, original ideas.. If you were to put a title on our piece, I would say it's an 'Experimental video' that focuses upon the exploration of a person in a place, heavily touching upon the theme of solitude.

Final piece title - 'Solitude'