Field Study Assignment 4 Due date: 16 November

Mastering the technical and mechanical controls of the camera is essential. This requires lots of practice. Now that you have your cameras set up, the following exercises to be completed and submitted as FSA4 aim for you to explore different cinematic styles of recording shots and sequences. You may perform these exercises with any willing participant.

This assignment is due after the MiP week, but we encourage you to perform each of these exercises at least twice. Once before the MiP week and once after. Submit your best version and in the reflection consider what differentiates the two attempts.

Please perform all 4 exercises.

Exercise 1. Establishing Shot: Context.  A shot that establishes the context of a film may reveal the landscape and Soundscape and/or environment and position of your subjects dwelling/place of action; revealing the character of the setting, the specific location, and its relation to the natural or built environment in sound and image, this includes the material world surrounding him/her.

• Make one static establishing shot and one moving (pan or tracking shot) of the context/environment at your field site. In both, pay attention to the sound. Each shot should be no longer than 1 minute and no shorter than 10 seconds.
  • When making the static shot: explore different points of view and different frames and eventually choose one camera-position/angle/frame, that you think might be the ‘iconic’ frame of what the place is about. When making the tracking shot, reflect beforehand on what (parts of the) space you want to connect through your camera- movement. (for instance: the livingroom with the kitchen, or the railroad with the house etc)

• Exercise 2. Composition of shots: Cultural Inventory. Portray the material world around your main character by making a Cultural Inventory through a series of short shots, together not surmounting 1 minute. Determine the rhythm of the shots and if these should be made with a static and/or moving camera

• Exercise 3. The Long Take or ‘Plan Sequence’: Activity : Record an activity in one long shot. Edit within the shot by choosing and changing frames and camera-positions (Jean Rouch, Tourou et Bitti , Leonard Retel Helmrich: The eye of the sun),or by staying in one position (David MacDougall, Schoolscapes), or  by making an independent movement that reflects your subjective ‘gaze’ as  filmmaker without your movements being dictated by your object or subject  (Sniadecki: People’s Park ). The shot should not exceed 3 minutes.

• Exercise 4. Time-compression:  Process.  Record a person performing an activity from beginning till end by applying principles of time-compression. Either apply continuity-editing or make use of jump-cuts without disorienting the viewer.  Either choice needs to be motivated, not random. Reflect on the implicit epistemological messages of either approach. Edit in the Camera.  The edited sequence should not be longer than 3 minutes.

Continuity editing in a process film provides a sequence of shots of an activity that consists in one unity of time place and activity using transitions between shots which seek to give a seamless appearance of time and space, suggesting continuity of action without ‘jump-cuts’.  Usuallly applied when trying to preserve the rhythm, flow and development of an activity.

Non-continuity Editing of an activity, shows jumps in time and place, however without disorienting the viewer but acknowledging filming as intervention. Usually used when the portrayal of your subject and/or his/her experience when performing an activity is more important than describing the specific process.

Record without directing your subject.

For each exercise write down beforehand what it is you intend to explore/convey about the activity that is performed by your subject and how you want to achieve that by applying certain stylistic choices.

When recording a process, show beginning, development, and end and the transition to a next activity/pause. Compress time by at least leaving out 2/3 of the real time the activity took. Try to represent a sense of a rhythm and duration that cognitively reflects a comparable sense of time.

Meta-commentary: All assignments must be accompanied by a brief written reflection (200-300 words max) that provides a ‘meta-commentary’ about the student’s intentions with the assignment’s selection.

File Export

• Export the 4 Exercises as one file with titles in between identifying the parts of the assignments, e.g. “Exercise 1. Establishing Shot,” etc.