Lessons from Ramin Bahrani

Ramin Bahrani (director of Man Push Cart, Chop Shop, Goodbye Solo, and Plastic Bag) held a directing masterclass during the Dorothy H. Hirshon Film Festival at The New School. My professor who organized the event, Sam Ishii-Gonzales, was tasked with choosing five students in the class to take part in the practical directing exercise in the masterclass. Out of those five students, I ended up as the director.

Most nerve-racking moment of my grad school career. For sure.

Before I get into the directing exercise, I’d like to discuss Bahrani’s lecture. Bahrani’s main point was visual clarity. Ambiguity in the story is okay, but the image always needs to be clear. He used Rosetta Stone software as an example. We went through a few examples from their website. The students had no trouble matching phrases with the images — except when the image wasn’t clear. For example, students had trouble identifying “girl eats” because in the photo the girl’s hand was obstructing both her mouth and the apple she was putting in it.

Bahrani asserted that when talking about your film, you should be able to explain the story in a way that a 12-year-old who doesn’t speak English can understand it. Don’t over intellectualize; do simplify.

He spoke of scene work and that we should be able to use the word “want” when describing a dramatic scene. Treat the scene like you would a complete script — it should have an inciting incident and turning points. These turning points should be emphasized with the blocking, camera placement/movements, and use of props. Along with the actor’ performances, these are the tools we have to make a dramatic story come to life. (We watched scenes from North by Northwest and Paper Moon to illustrate these points.)

Some other points he made:

• Highly recommends Alexander Malkendrick’s On Film-Making.
• Don’t abuse shot selection. Save close-ups for when you really need them.
• Camera motivation can from from inner states. It is also okay to write what the character is like, emotionally, and his/her inner states in a screenplay. It is important to convey the visual language.
• Know who your main character is. It’s okay to describe him/her in your screenplay with a few adjectives.
• Wants can be conscious or unconscious.
• Expected result vs. actual result. Leads to reevaluation.
• Dramatic irony is not used nearly enough.
• Read books.

And then the directing exercise began. Our team of five (producer - Noelia Santos, director of photography - Ryan Garretson, grip - Matt Simon, assistant director - Lit Kilpatrick) was given a pared down scene devoid of names, gender, and scene descriptions from Robert Redford’s A River Runs Through It five days before the exercise. We were to come to class prepared to shoot the scene with actors. I decided to make it really difficult on myself and interpret the scene in a wildly different way: I cast two women (Annika Franklin, who also stars in my short film How Will We Cross the Seas?, and Noelia, our producer) as ex-lovers, set the scene in an art gallery instead of a restaurant/bar, and made the “fishing” dialogue an inside joke between the couple and subtext about their dynamic.

As we were setting up the scene, Bahrani asked what we were doing. I told him. He told me that that wasn’t the scene — we had to do the scene. It had to be in a restaurant/bar and it had to be at a table while the one character writes. He also told us that our producer cannot be our actress. We had to pick a new actress from the class. Liliana Dalen was nice enough to volunteer.

Basically, everything we prepared was for nought. But that’s okay. It was a great exercise in thinking on our feet and finding ways of adapting what we had already prepared for the scene. I managed to keep my cool during the whole thing and had explanations for all of my decisions.

The main crux of the exercise was to use blocking, props, and camera movements to denote the turning points and tell the story. He advised that even before bringing the camera to the set the director should work with the actors to prepare blocking and the use of props. The way an actor stands during a particular line or handles a prop conveys the subtext of the scene and helps illustrate the turning points. Camera doesn’t come in until after. Once you bring the camera in, the director should consider the most economical ways of shooting the scene. Do what is absolutely necessary and what best conveys the story/turning points/mood in a way that involves the least amount of camera set-ups.

What he wanted us to learn was the importance of individual scenes. There should be no throwaway scenes. Every scene should have a point and reveal something new and push the story forward. A deceptively simple exercise that was incredibly difficult and thought-provoking.

Often times young directors will think of a scene in camera moves. It is a visual medium, so it is natural for us to imagine the scene with the shots we have in mind. It is easy to fall in love with these shots. We need to get out of this habit. We need to consider the shots once we have considered everything else happening in the scene. Only then will we arrive at shot selection that truly contributes to the scene instead of devaluing it.

Oh yeah. Andrew Garfield was hanging in the back for a little bit.

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The Switch to Micro 4/3 (and Super35 Equivalent FOV)

My camera and lenses were stolen in November 2011. I’ve been saving up some dough to buy a new one. I’m not trying to break the bank, so the Blackmagic Cinema Camera is out of the question. After reading many articles and watching lots of video comparisons, I’m most interested in the Panasonic GH2. When it’s hacked it produces images nicer than any of the Canon DSLRs (yes, even the 5d Mark 3 — though that camera is still the low light king). The reduction in shallow depth of field is fine with me; I’d much rather have deeper focus anyways. However, one thing that was holding me back was the issue of lenses.

[caption id=”” align=”aligncenter” width=”540” caption=”Put together by dvxuser.com member Barry.”][/caption]

Most articles online say that the micro 4/3 lens of the Panasonic GH2 (and AF-100) have a crop factor of 2. That means a 50mm lens on a micro 4/3 sensor will yield a FOV of 100mm. However, that is in comparison to 35mm stills camera. What we really need to be comparing this to is its Super 35mm equivalent — especially if we want to recreate a FOV similar to movies (or APS-C sensors like on the 7D and 60D, which is nearly the same size as Super 35). Using Abelcine FOV calculator, I’ve calculated the Super 35 equivalent FOV of lenses on a micro 4/3 sensor. Here are my findings…

FOV in terms Super 35/micro 4/3 sensors:

• 18mm acts like 25.5mm on micro 4/3. Need 12.7 mm to be equivalent to 18mm on Super 35 sensor.
• 24mm acts like 34mm on micro 4/3. Need 16.9 mm to be equivalent to 24mm on Super 35 sensor.
• 28mm acts like 39.7mm on micro 4/3. Need 19.7 mm to be equivalent to 28mm on Super 35 sensor.
• 35mm acts like 49.6mm on micro 4/3. Need 24.7 mm to be equivalent to 35mm on Super 35 sensor.
• 40mm acts like 56.7mm on micro 4/3. Need 28.2 mm to be equivalent to 40mm on Super 35 sensor.
• 50 mm acts like 25.5mm on micro 4/3. Need 35.3mm to be equivalent to 50mm on Super 35 sensor.
• 85mm acts like 120.5mm on micro 4/3. Need 59.9mm to be equivalent to 85mm on Super 35 sensor.

In terms of Panasonic micro 4/3 zoom lenses (two of which aren’t out yet) and Super 35 equivalents:

• 7-14mm micro 4/3 zoom acts like 19-20mm on Super 35 sensor.
• 12-35mm micro 4/3 zoom acts like 17-50mm on Super 35 sensor.
• 35-100 micro 4/3 zoom acts like 50-140mm on Super35 sensor.

CONCLUSIONS (most common film focal lengths are underlined):

• To achieve 18mm FOV on micro 4/3 sensor, buy 12mm lens
• To achieve 24mm FOV on micro 4/3 sensor, buy 17mm lens
• To achieve 28mm FOV on micro 4/3 sensor, buy 20mm lens
• To achieve 35mm FOV on micro 4/3 sensor, buy 25mm lens
• To achieve 40mm FOV on micro 4/3 sensor, buy 28mm lens
• To achieve 50mm FOV on micro 4/3 sensor, buy 35mm lens
• To achieve 70mm FOV on micro 4/3 sensor, buy 50mm lens
• To achieve 85mm FOV on micro 4/3 sensor, buy 60mm lens

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Inspiration Music - How Will We Cross the Seas?

Music is one of the biggest influences on my work. I’ll have the inkling for an idea and then listen to tons of songs that reflect on that idea. Those songs in turn reflect back on to the work.

I’ve made a mix for the actors/crew of my new short How Will We Cross the Seas? These are songs that reflect the mood of the piece and the psyche of the characters.

Tracklist:

1. “Catastrophe” - Rainer Maria (Catastrophe Keeps Us Together)
2. “Song for Annie’s Harmonica” - Kind of Like Spitting (In the Red)
3. “Stay Home” - American Football (American Football)
4. “End of the World” - Mock Orange (Disguised as Ghosts)
5. “You’ve Escaped” - Aloha (Here Comes Everyone)
6. “A Solitary Angle on the Confinement of Doom” - Birthmark (The Layer)
7. “Sysiphean” - Real Good (Is This Good? Demo)
8. “The Weight of the Straw” - Ida (Lovers Prayers)
9. “Bed of Pine” - Communipaw (Bed of Pine EP)
10. “I Beleive” - Owen (Ghost Town)
11. “I’ll Be There” - Sun Kil Moon (I’ll Be There EP)
12. “This Day Next Year” - Karate (Unsolved)

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