TRANSITIONS UNIT: DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY STATEMENT

Lighting
Through my adaptation of Jessica Jones. I want the lighting to flow with the mood of the scene. After discussing with Cinematographer, George Burt, about his Feature Film 'Redwood' and how he wanted the lighting to set the tone for the film and add to the horror and fear, I knew I needed this effect. After viewing the original clip, the lighting is a mixture of warm street light flooding through the windows and doorways, not filling the room but giving us light enough to see the emotions of the characters. The lighting here doesn't flow with the emotions and more sets the time of day for the scene, being a night. The lighting never really changes apart from the light coming off Jessica's laptop at the end of the scene:

I wanted the lighting to follow with the mood of the script. Such as George Burt discussed as in Redwood, the lighting sets the mood and fear of the film. Lee Thomas also discussed how his choice of lighting for his short film 'Cropped' also works with the tone of the film. When it starts and everyone is in the car, we're in a nice bright and sunny field, everyone is happy and getting on with the day. When things start to turn odd and the aliens are seen and scare the characters, the lighting has gone dark and and added more mystery to the scene as well as shown the change of tone for the characters. Although, Lee explains that you would expect to see Aliens at night as it's a classic tradition for Si-Fi films but he also wanted the tone to be consistent with the mood of the characters.
From this, I've chosen to have the lighting as moonlight flooding through the windows, as to work with the mood that Jessica is feeling. Her brothers ashes are smashed on the floor, her flat has been smashed up (all be it by her) and she currently feels broken.
The idea of the moonlight is to give that feeling of her wanting to be hidden. Little colour in the scene to bring out the sadness that she feels and the trails of light through the window and onto the floor of the broken urn, representing her broken state but also helping to establish the time of day (night time). Later, adding in the tungsten to bring out colour to the scene as the mood has changed and Jessica has gotten her confidence back. With this, I wanted a lighting change to represent this and bring that confidence to life. As we would finally see full detail in her face. With this and her change of mood it brings up the scene more.

TRANSITIONS UNIT: LIGHTING STYLE & CHOSEN KIT

Lighting
Lighting for this project was almost my main focus with the remake. How to make the lighting different and my own style while trying to keep the same emotions of the original proved difficult as I haven't really done any low light shooting before. During my research into the art of lighting I looked into Film Riot a large amount and found the video below very helpful:

This showed me what I could do with the lights I use and how I can manipulate them. The way I styled my lighting actually came from watching Horror films. The Woman in Black was the main film which gave me the idea for the lighting in this scene. Moonlight is such a classic style of films for lights, especially at night. The scene below is one that made me consider moonlight:

It gives a very cold and upsetting feel to the scene. Mixed in with the emotions that Jessica feels at the beginning of the scene helps to really deliver the sadness that she feels. With this and the lighting techniques I leant from other cinematographers such as Lee Thomas and George Burt, I chose to have the lighting flowing through the windows. With a main key light on one side to bring out Jessica's face and a fill light central to the window so that it looks like moon light shining through. To work with the mood change later on I decided to have Jessica turn on a desk lamp. Giving us a warmer light but keeping the original there so we get a change in mood but no big changes are needed. 

TRANSITIONS UNIT: SCRIPT BREAKDOWN & STYLE OF SHOOTING

Above is the final draft of the script prepared by Victoria. From this, I took this and broke down the script. Changes had been made to the scene from the original so the scene worked on its own and also as it was now set in the UK (Making it more original rather than a copy). With this in mind I went on to break down how I felt the scene should be filmed.

Page 1

First thing I took from this script was it was all set at night. This is needed to keep in mind for lighting later on but made a note of it. First 2 scenes are new to the script. First takes place outside, whats written is Malcolm walking down the street to his flat. Reading this, I was taken back to the scene in Shaun of the Dead where Simon Pegg walks to the shop:

All done in one take, the scene isn't boring as the sound design brings up the mood and tells the audience enough as well as what they can see within the scene. Now, all this shot would be is Malcolm walking but in the script it also says "he can hear crashing, banging and swearing". After discussing with Jemma, she said she wanted to build the sound design up through this scene rather than show the violence that Jessica has. With this I decided on one single take for the opening scene where we can see Malcolm as a character and slowly bring in Jessica. 

Scene 2, I went with a simple wide shot for the opening as we just need to see Malcolm enter the flat and then we finally get the reveal of Jessica. "She's visibly drunk with a whiskey bottle in her hand. Her families ashes are scattered on the floor amongst various other spirit bottles" this already describes our character but I had to think of a way to show the audience this before Malcolm enters the room. So I decided to have a slide shot to reveal the room and then Jessica. With then close ups of things around the room to give details to what has happened. 

By the time Malcolm starts to clear up the ashes, I want to have a pull focus of the two characters. Keeping it again as one shot but with both in frame and focus goes between them. On a personal level I've always like this and I think this is a good way to go between the characters without having the harsh cuts. 

TRANSITIONS UNIT: LOCATION RECCE

With the choice of location for Jessica Jones. Myself and Victoria worked together on choosing this, having in mind whether we had access and also whether it suited the production. Originally, we were considering using the basement at my student house as this would give us that dingy and horrible sort of vibe which you want from Jessica's flat. However, another group took this location before us.

Victoria changed the script and adapted it so that Jessica and Malcolm would now be living together, meaning he could come in and out of the flat easily. With this in mind, we looked into using Victoria's living room. Photos of this are below:

From a visual point of view, I think this location is actually better. For lighting, the windows are much larger so the room is more easy to fill. The room is actually larger (if we remove the sofas) so there's more room to shoot and also we are able to make this look like a small studio flat. As well as the hallway outside looking like a block of flats hallway. Plus the street outside for us to use for the opening scene.

The set will need to be dressed and changed to look more like a flat as well as making it look like it's been "trashed". This will work well though. What's good here (refer to photo 1) is that there is an old fire place in this room which could be where the ashes are smashed as you can't be sure an urn would actually smash on a carpet floor.

TRANSITIONS UNIT: THE PITCH

Above is our pitch for our Transitions Unit. When we pitched this, Victoria was off sick so only myself and Jemma pitched the idea for the remake. We split the pitch up for presenting it and also had Victoria's comments at hand for her slides. 

Through the pitch we explained why we had chosen this show and it's current popularity, as well as its connection to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. One of the main points we wanted to get across straight away was the fact we have don't have a Director for this project. We explained the way around this which was that the script, actors and Locations will be sorted by our Producer, Victoria and the style, tone and look of the remake will be decided by me.

Victoria's notes had us explain that the role of a Producer is difficult but challenging. In regards to the script, we didn't have any notes but from the feedback, Simon explained that we would need to make the remake our own. Not just do the same as the original programme. With regards to my section of the pitch...
I had already begun to look into the style of filming for Jessica Jones. Often with handheld camera movement like in Daredevil with dark colours but mixing in with that purple tone that we see through the posters and style of the pitch. I wanted to change this. I wanted the camera to work with the emotion of the scene. With the beginning being very steady and stabilised shots, then speeding up and more movement coming towards the end of the scene where the emotions of the scene change.

I also looked into what sort of camera I wanted to use. I want to have moon light rather than street lights to being forward the sadness that Jessica feels as well as the over all mood of the scene. With this in mind I knew I would be using very low amounts of light and for that I looked into using one of the Sony A7 lines of Mirrorless DSLR cameras as they are currently the best cameras on the market for low light and gives a nice, greyish sort of look (examples of which I showed in the presentation).

Jemma explained what it was she wanted to achieve through the edit, working off the style that I was intending with the cinematography but also taking her own toll on the project through the sound design to build up tension and mood. 

TRANSITIONS UNIT: JESSICA JONES CLIP (REVIEWING THE STYLE OF FILMING)

Above is the chosen clip that we're going to recreate. The scene comes from Episode 1 of Jessica Jones Season 2. It's a simple scene, 1 location, 2 actors, only a few props and not a huge amount of dialogue. This allows us all to have a lot to do in our roles. 

Cinematography

Throughout this scene, we have a very simple lighting style. Dark and dim, mixing well with the emotions of the scene. As well as working for the setting which is in an apartment in New York City, so we see both hallway light and street light flooding into the room, allowing us to see what's going on and not needing a light to be switched on within the scene. We get a very faint light on Jessica at the opening and throughout this sort of cold and dark feeling, working well as Jessica is broken in this scene from her families ashes being on the floor. We only see Jessica as portrait until Malcolm starts to clean up the ashes, then we finally see all her face and all the emotions which follows. 

The scene is very locked off shots in regards to the camera. One shot being very low down and having both Jessica and the ashes in shot, reminding the viewers of why she's sad and keeping them as one of the main focus. The majority of the shots are singles, not having both characters in shots and just focusing on their dialogue. All the shots are either locked off on tripods or in a stabiliser as we can see very small movement from the camera towards the end of the scene. 

I feel with this, I could really experiment with this scene and try some techniques I've never tried before. 

TRANSITIONS UNIT: CHOSEN ADAPTATION AND TEAM

I've now gotten into a team for Transitions Unit.

Myself - I'm the Director of Photography. I've chosen this role due to my love of cameras and I've tried to learn as much as possible in the camera and lighting department. I took on the role of DOP seriously with my Fictional Adaptation unit where I made my film 'Ribbons' in regards to the style of shooting and the choice of lighting.

Victoria Simmonds - She is our Producer. Victoria has a keen interest in both research and is very detailed with paperwork. She was the Assistant Producer for our Studio Production 'Steal the Style' and has helped with researching and developing a documentary with one of our tutors through the course. Victoria is also involved with Producing a video outside of the course.

Jemma Simmonds - Jemma is our Editor. Jemma has always expressed a love for editing and has edited all her own projects. She's never had a chance to focus on the role specifically and has often had to double up on a role. She's currently involved in a music video I am developing and coming onboard as the Editor for that as well.

This is our entire crew which does leave us with a slight issue... we have no Director.

As the rest of the students in our year have already gotten into groups, we found that no one was left who wanted to take on the role of Director. Speaking with our Tutor Simon, we asked how we could go about doing this unit without one. He explained that we could go forward and recreate a scene from something, as long as there was very little Direction required in the scene. Meaning we can't do anything over the top and experimental. We would require a scene with simple dialogue and movements for the actors so that one of us could do basic Directing but not stepping out of our chosen role.

Chosen Adaptation
When discussing what we wanted to recreate. We agreed we wanted something current and popular but we would also require something with only 1 or 2 characters as to keep it simple and require little Direction. I wanted something which could challenge me, cinematography wise. With this, we finally chose to recreate a very popular TV Show. Jessica Jones. This programme is about a Private Investigator who has super powers due to an accident when she was younger.

The Programme is set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and runs alongside the other 4 hero series; Daredevil, The Punisher, Luke Cage and Iron Fist. Jessica is an alcoholic and quite broken woman due to the villain 'Killgrave'. A lot of the scenes in Jessica Jones will be her alone or her and her friend Malcolm. With the release of Season 2, only recently coming out, we thought this would be ideal. The cinematography through this programme I've always loved. Very nitty, gritty and handheld film making with very dark lighting to bring out the darkness of the characters and to work with the locations.