All about the techniques!

MOVIE #1:  GONE GIRL
(over-all)

Released in 2014, the genre if the movie was a psychological thriller. Director  David Fincher made sure to put whatever it takes to bring about the psychotic element which the story has. Smartly produced and designed, the production design team had developed the house of Desi Collin’s lake house. As it spoke a lot about the character, Collins, it had to have the rich, controlling character and had to have a nice like the way he had.

Assistant art director for the film (Cara Brower) made the master bedroom on a stage in LA. The other built-in location was for the main house area , where the art director and their team had to make and design all furniture pieces, screens, and props for the scene. Transforming a traditional looking house to a modern, today’s go-to type house gave them good angles and new ideas on staging the set flexibility

The reason why the film was shot in that particular house was because of the warm yet distant cold feeling about it.

Gone Girl was edited in Adobe Premiere Pro to which Olive Peter’s has to say “ The hardest scenes to cut are the emotional scenes because David simplifies the shooting. You can't’ hide on the dynamic motion. More complex scenes are actually easier to cut”. The story had to be as strong as possible. For this, the editors had to get as many optical and visual effects.

The sound editing is the most important element when it comes to film making. Gone Girl is one such movie where the sound is engaging and constructive. Sound design and the music for even the standard narrative scenes were exquisitely made. Even the most typical sounds , for example, crickets croaking or a car passing by the house contributed to the storytelling. Sound shifts and getting the feeling of the unfolding of the mysterious character of Amy added more depth and meaning. Change in the sounds for Nick, (the protagonist) had an affect to how the people would view him as. Every location and scene had its own auditory look and personality.

Cinematographer Jeff Cronenweth was quoted saying that there was a lot of camera movement involved which was deliberately done  to get the image of emotions changing swiftly. Specific shots, like the hand held shot was taken when the protagonist runs down from the town hall. Cronenweth chose this shot to be a hand held one because the scene required a lot of strength and energy.

MOVIE  #2: Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows (Sound editing)

When it comes to Harry Potter movies, especially the last two ones, the movie making, and the detailing gets more vast and so does the sound and sound editing for it.  The movie has its own unique requirements for special sounds and editing to be done. James Mather is the sound editor for Deathly Hallows part 1 and says that there is a subtle increase in the sound which leads to a crescendo. Because of this flow, the ambiance, music, dialogue and design, all set onto the scene perfectly without making the soundtrack chaotic.

The usage of Samplers(almost similar to a synthesizer but uses recordings and samples of sounds that are already recorded)  and  MIDI(these are keyboard controllers)   editing is more towards the end of the HP series. The sound made for the Horcrux scene is the same sound design one hears when the Warner Brothers logo comes up. They are a collation of  sounds like sirens, insects, animal voices and spell sounds which are played and triggered many times with different pitches and amplitude. Mixing was a must and playing it live was essential so that there is a right crescendo and balance in the sheets. When it comes to a movie with sequels, there are certain sounds that are not touched because it makes a connection so strong with the viewers that it becomes it's identity. There are some sounds that are tweaked and have elements added onto it.

  (The sound and edit team re-visit shoot area for newer sounds to match the scene and location)

New ways approaching the sequels and seeing if new tones are apt, or have percussive elements and staccato was a much for the movie. Ambiance sounds like spells, charms, doors are tweaked a little from the previous sounds. The part of the movie that has the animation scene in it needed a lot of experimentation with sound and had to be very different than the previous Potter movies. Since it was a separate tale, James Mather created a minimal yet an outlandish track. It had a voice-over throughout, by Hermoine Granger (Ema Watson) and had to sound like a dreamlike narrative with little hints of sounds to support the animation on the screen.

MOVIE  #3

GRAVITY (PRODUCTION DESIGN)

Andy Nicholson started his work as a production designer for Gravity at 2010, far before it hit the theater. A production design team needs to have a solid background and research work was done. As the movie was a space related one, the production design team researched everything related to ISS (International Space Station) and take guidance of NASA experts. Nicholas started gathering more and more information about the details of what a space station looked from the inside and outside. The production team had  to gather the exact dimension details. Those details are then forwarded to the visual effects team and the art department.

Visuals and pictures always plays an important role while setting a production set. Different forms of space shuttles were captured into large images and spread over sheets so that the visualization process became easier. It was found that every shuttle had a specific tile pattern.  The patterns were given to the texture makers as they would know how to generate the inside view of a shuttle.

 For the SOYUZ space capsule, Nicholson was keen towards using the Russian sections of the ISS as the textures were more appealing than the NASA and European ones.  Attention to details was a must as the Russian section had a more human touch in space. Religious icons, saints were a few things that made the journey of the movie relatable.

The set decoration was made the best by Rosie Goodwin and Joanna Woollard. To accentuate the set, visual effects were added. The production designer himself was sitting at the computers to have some parts of the sets and designs animated. More than sixty to seventy odd items were taken that were repeated and changed through animation for the sets. Modeling them in the art department with the specific frames needed  building them in the same animatization.

Once the animatization was done, the set design and the dressing would take off with the animation and the camera. The lighting starts afterward on the stage of the set. A lot of time was spent while making the interior sets in 3-D design as it was a new process which was explored for the very first time.

MOVIE #4

THE GREAT GATSBY

(CINEMATOGRAPHY)

Simon Duggan is the cinematographer for this film and has brought the 1920s era back into the screen all because of his cinematographic techniques. In most of the scene, the movie sees the usage of lights, particularly in the first half to give importance to Gatsby’s famed castle.

  The lighting mostly came from above as a top light sequence , having a harsh rim light in the interior as well. His cinematography goes in sync with the director and his vision. While shooting, the camera was not still for a gigantic part of the movie in the first half.  Dollys, cranes, pans were maximum to give a theatrical appearance. To get a certain flow of vision and rhythm, the camera was made to cover maximum movements as possible which also highlighted the characters in the frame.

Illuminating the characters and making them stand out from the background, the main leads/characters would get all the focus and pop off from the scene, Outdoor or indoor, they had the popping off effect and the rest of the scene falls back into the darkness or blurriness. Because of this technique, the costumes of that era got defined.

 The colours in the movie played a crucial role when it came to the cinematography and the grand theatrical sense of the movie. Usage of light on specific characters, such as on Daisy gave a very grand and an elaborate feel on her personality. The slightly blurred effect on her added  her softness and how Gatsby gets awed  by just looking at her splendor.

 He avoided the usage of  shadow on her and usually appeared brighter than anybody else. Getting influenced by theatricality, Duggan used diffusion filters that were shot perfectly and fit the story well through his cinematography.

                                                               MOVIE #5

THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON

(CAMERA WORK)

An essential point to remember while making this movie was to make it look natural. Yes, different period looks have been taken but all the drama would not have been possible if they didn’t have strong scene shots. Claudio Miranda was highly influenced by textures and frames of a painter to get the camera angle shot in that way of a painting. The camera locations had to have a natural light and the rest was left to the editing team of what to subtract or add into it. 

It was shot in 4:4:4 FilmStream mode with the camera’s CinemaScope option.  The lens choice was a 6-24mm Zeiss DigiZoom. It was also zoomed into and used at different focal lengths like, 10mm, 12mm, and 14mm within the zoom range. The shots and camera angles found here in this film are medium shots. Close-ups of Benjamin help reveal the transition and paint hat he goes through. The medium shots are used to probably keep the audience engaged into the scene while also making them conscious about the background. Long shots were used, for instance, in the scenes that required an aftermath reveal of a scene to get a more dramatic look.

The camera angles are not so special or over the top. General and normal angles were used for the viewers to show a feeling of normalcy. This was done because the director had other emphasis points for the movie like the narration and the story. For the rest of the scenes, there are attachments on the car for tracking it (done for inside car shots).

As an overall view, the movie has got a good composition of camera angles and shots. Fast cuts gave the viewers a long and a flow for the story with Benjamin as a voice over.