Film 5 - Brick - A Scene in One Shot

I really loved this assignment and project. Working on Anna’s Big shoot the week before made me extraordinarily excited for the possibilities and the options I had with my script. While there are always things I feel could have gone better, I believe that my shoot went incredibly well.

We started at 7AM on Saturday morning, the only time I could reserve the Nelke to shoot in. The HFAC scheduling office was extremely accommodating, scheduling a stage manager to assist with lights and stage. Because of this, we were able to get an incredibly distinctive look. With our successes in location, however, there were some other setbacks. Being at 7 in the morning on a Saturday, I could only find extremely dedicated actors to fill the seats of the three written specifically in the script. If I had gone later in the day, or perhaps spent even more time finding people, I would have liked to give the actors background performers to work off of. It would have really filled the space and influenced the performances of the leads.

As for directing on the day of, I found that this assignment really lent to being the ubiquitous winged witness. My original plan had the two leads ending on the stage at a low-angle. Upon entering the space and blocking, however, I learned that this made it feel like a cheap recording of a staged play. Not the feeling I wanted to communicate. In addition to blocking of the actors and camera, I do not think I adequately captured Cooper leaving down the stairs to underneath the stage. He just kind of becomes enshrouded in darkness and the audience fails to truly recognize he has left the space. Had I seen this before editing, I would have wanted to bump up the lights of the wings.

I regret to say that the best performances always seemed to happen when something went wrong. Battery ran out, someone started singing opera in the Hallway, or an actor replaced key words and lost focus. Cutting is obviously a crutch in a lot of ways. But on the same token, if a cut is used purposefully, it can incredibly lend itself to the meaning of the scene. Performances were incredibly strong, but the actors would alternate takes in giving their most honest portrayal. The best performances came after I spent time building energy with the actors—kind of like a sports team, psyching each other up.

For this shoot, if I had the opportunity to do it again, I would want tighter close-ups in certain key moments and beats. I feel like I stay too wide, and could have done better with tighter framing. Granted, when we finally got into the space, it was decided with my DP, Anna, to shoot on a wider lens than my original plan at a 50MM. I could have punched in more in post, but I didn’t want to lose quality.