Documentary Storytelling Assignment

Bryce Hospital Documentary - TCF 312 from Seth Melisano on Vimeo.
My short documentary storytelling assignment for TCF 312.

Director: Seth Melisano

Director of Photography: Nick Simpson

Blog #3 - Shot-by-shot Analysis

Inglorious Basterds (2009)

Here we open with a MS OTS of our main character, Aldo, talking to the antagonistic Nazi sergeant. Aldo gives him a stare while leaning forward, showing an interrogation. The lighting of the scene is a light blue, giving the impression that they are shaded, whether by clouds or by rains. The coats on the characters also shows that it is cool or cold.

Offsides, we see an ECU of another Nazi soldier watching with both fear and curiosity, as he does not know what will happen to them.

We now see Aldo and the sergeant in a medium shot. We can now see the background and setting, establishing they are indeed in a forest, with falling leaves showing it is mid-Autumn. Dead, scalped, soldiers also scatter the background, showing that this was an ambush and that Aldo and his men are brutal.

We see an OTS of Aldo, looking toward the sergeant as he insults Aldo, revealing no information. We see that Aldo still hovers over him, showing that he is still in power.

 Here we see an overhead wide-shot, as Aldo's men laugh, showing us a more precise location, giving us a better look at what the situation is, and shows us the location of Aldo's men.

Here we see a close-up, upward shot of Aldo. This shot mimics what the Nazi sergeant is possibly seeing and could be a POV shot.

Continuing the shot, Aldo stands high over the sergeant, like a tower. This gives the viewer the impression that Aldo is strong and powerful compared to the sergeant. We can also see that Aldo's men are above them, along with the bright sunlight shining through the tree, like angels of death.

Continuing the shot, Aldo sits, still above the sergeant, like a king on his throne, calling out to one of his men, Donny, to kill the officer.

We seeing a CU of the sergeant, nervous, as he awaits his fate. More Nazi bodies are shown in the background. The camera slowly moves forward, building tension.

We see the dark, ominous archway staring back at the sergeant, giving the sense of dread. Like the shot before, the camera slowly moves forward to build tension.

Here we see a two person shot of Aldo and the sergeant. Also still sits above him, will a look of power knowing full well what is about to happen. The sergeant sits in in CU profile shot with a look of sorrow and anger on his face, fearing what lies beyond the archway.

Back to the ECU of the offside soldier, he has now lost his curiosity and has become frightened, fearing for his life.

The camera has now moved to an ECU of the sergeant, showing the fear in his eyes, while remaining calm and dignified.

The camera has now moved to show an ECU of the darkened archway just as Donny is about to emerge from it. At this point the viewer can see nothing, creating the most heightened tension in the scene, as the camera is right in front of the lurking danger, but the viewer cannot see it.

Emerging from the darkness is Donnie in an aggressive stance. We see him emerge in a OTS shot of the Nazi sergeant. The sergeant sits lower than Aldo and Donnie, showing he is the weakest in power.

Here we have an upward shot of more of Aldo's men in applause to Donnie's arrival, but this shot is closer, giving us facial recognition. 

Aldo applauds alongside his men.

Donnie approaches the camera, towering, his bat clearly visible, giving us an impression of how dangerous he is.

The sergeant sits, calm, but nervous. He looks small and frail against the background, giving us another impression of his weakness.

We see an ECU of his medal, confirming his alliance with the German army, as does Donnie.

Here we see the infamous "Dutch" shot, infamous due to its overuse in some films. However, the shot here does not seem out of place. It is an ECU of Donnie as he interrogates the sergeant before killing him. The mixture of both the ECU and "Dutch" angle, with Donnie looking downward, gives the moment and intensity and holds our suspense to what will happen next. Another reason this angle is used is due to Tarantino's homage to German cinema.

Another ECU "Dutch" angle, this time of the sergeant. Again we see him from a downward angle, showing the viewer that he is not in power and is the weaker of the two.

The brawl begins and Donnie is attacking the sergeant violently, as anticipated. Here we see a wideshot of the area, showing the brawl, the captured soldiers, and Aldo and his men cheering on.

With a MS, we now see that there are two captured soldiers as opposed to the one we originally thought. There fear is now at its peak as they watch their sergeant being beaten to death.

Here we have another MS of Aldo watching the beating. We see that he is eating during the event. This tells us that blood is violence is natural to Aldo as watching a man being beaten to death does not disturb him or turn his stomach in the slightest.

After the sergeant is dead, Donnie is full of vitality, yelling boastful comments into the air and at his companions, being met with applause. The camera is at a MS, but, with Donnie's wild and energetic movements, swings back and forth, trying to keep up with Donnie as his moves around the sergeant's body.

In the final shot of the scene, we see a wide shot of Donnie, Aldo, one of Aldo's men, the dead sergeant, and the two captured soldiers. In the same shot, Donnie continues to boast before turning around and pointing at the soldier on the right to be interrogated next, but is instead shot when he tries to run, leaving the soldier from earlier, the last one left to interrogate. 

Black Warrior Film Festival

Last Friday, I attended the opening event for Black Warrior Film Festival. At the Tuscaloosa Dinah Washington Cultural Arts Center film director Ya'Ke Smith presented many of his films, some he had never even shown before. These films included Katrina's Son, dawn., and Father. His films gave me a huge dose of reality, a reality that I've only heard about, but never seen before. They are very well made, but uncomfortable films, but I think they're suppose to be, because he is trying to show to the world the reality of people who live like this, people we don't hear or talk about. I commend his stance to show these types of films and not diluting his message like Hollywood would have done, which he stated during his Q&A. He also stated that for every filmmaker they must have a part of themselves in there films, else they're film has no purpose, and I wholeheartedly agree with this. If you don't care about the film you're making, it most likely will feel hollow. I try to incorporate bits and parts of myself or my life into every film idea I create, similar to Ya'Ke, though my experiences differ greatly from his. 

Blog #2 - Camera Movement

From 00:05 to 00:08 we see a Vertigo shot, which gives the illusion of an unknown danger approaching quickly.

From the beginning of this video until around 00:06 we see the use of the Dolly Down camera movement, showing a field of wheat moving fast beneath the camera and panning upward, showing a fast moving jeep.

Although not a live action film, meaning a dolly wasn't used, the movement of the scene creates a Character Dolly from 02:02 until the end of the clip, slowly revealing pieces of the Iron Giant moving, telling the viewer he is still alive, until finally the shot reaches his head as he gives a smile to the audience.