Yeah! So I've always been wanting to watch good movies and draw while watching so I can learn from them and I finally can do it! I know I depserately need this to address what is commonly said about my story work. I usually get the comment that I need to use more film like staging and less TV ish stuff. Its a fair coment because honestly I have seen way more TV shows than I have movies. TV is kinda my thing so I would definitely love to work in TV but I jsut want to widen my range and learn as much as I can. And even if I end up in TV, knowing about films will always be helpful. So.. Here is my start. First I watched
Cinema Paradiso.
I don't want to get too much into the plots of these movies so I'll just briefly talk about what I did. In this movie I kinda got caught up in the story and didn't draw as much. And the first thing I drew was the main character as a little boy BECAUSE HE WAS SO DARN CUTE. Then next drawing I drew because it was a funny scene and caught the unspoken conversation of 2 characters all in one shot. Very clever so I had to take note to remember for later. The next drawing, I just thought it was a cool visual so I drew it.
The today I watched
Paper Moon.
I actually remembered to draw this time lol. Again, I was mainly interested in just taking notes about interesting staging, but the main girl, Addy, was just so awesome I had to draw her. I love little girl characters with attitude, but I would hate to have one as my child. This movie had a lot of awesome tricks in their shots and staging. And since I actually remembered to draw this time, I drew a lot more.
This movie also had a lot of shots where the 2 characters were having a conversation or reacting to each other in the same shot and it was always done in a creative way that clearly showed both characters without being flat at all. Actually having both characters in the shot gave it so much depth. This is something I'm definitely taking away with me. We are usually taught to show characters having a conversation only one person at a time. This person talks, then we cut to the next person and they talk, then we go back to the first person. For me this has made for very boring and flat staging because you aren't left with many options when you are just going back and forth. But in this movie, the "dad", whose name was Moze, would be talking to Addy but her back might be facing us. We see all his anger and frustration and in Addy's posture we could see exactly what she thought about what Moze had to say. no cutting away to see her reaction. Its all right there in front of you.
My favorite shot that I took note of is the one on the upper left side, right under the pissed drawing of Addy. Moze picked up a girlfriend and pushed Addy to the backseat while his lady friend got to sit up front. Moze and the lady are flirting and having a good time. The focus of the shot is mainly on them because they are the largest thing in the frame and they are the only ones talking and moving. But then my eye wandered to something that was sitting perfectly still in the open space created by the lady's head. There was Addy,s super still and super angry, not saying a word. And she didn't need to. Even the all of the action was upfront, her attitude about what was happening was perfectly visible at the same time in this shot because she was frame by the action, she was a still object next to something moving, and she is on a hot spot. My drawing doesn't do the shot justice. With more practice I'll be able to capture these down more accurately as I watch. It was great to see so much information being portrayed in one shot. It created depth and interest. It let us know everything we needed to know. there was no cutting back and forth between the flirting and the pissed off face. If there were it would not be as interesting because we would have lost some depth in the staging, the compositions would not be interesting, and we would loose the joy of discovering her reaction behind all of this pointless flirting. I would much rather happen upon that face like I did then to be forcefully shown it by cutting to a close up of Addy. I got the whole conversation of the flirting and I saw what Addy thought of it all at once. AND IT WAS GOOD. That's another thing I know I am afraid of. Putting too much info in one shot. We are taught to keep it simple and only have 1 piece of info per shot. And I think that fear drives me to lay everything out boring and flatly. Seeing that good films like these successfully takes chances has taught me that it can be ok to put more than one thought in a shot. And if done well it adds depth to shot, both in meaning and in staging/composition.
Now I'm not saying everything we have been taught is wrong and we should always stuff as much info in one shot as possible. The viewer can only handle so much at once. But for cases like in Paper Moon, Where the other character isn't saying anything, then its ok to show their reaction in the same shot as the action. Just make sure you know what you are doing, do it well and do it cleverly. Use rules of composition to your advantage to stage this right and make it as effective as possible. You don't want the audience to miss this info, but if staged right, you could save yourself a shot and make another shot more interesting. At least that is what I have learned today from
Paper Moon.
Both of these movies were very good. You should all watch them. If anything watch them because the kid in
Cinema Paradiso is freaking adorable and the girl in P
aper Moon is just plain awesome.
