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Style and Composition

Yesterday we know we looked at we had some life shoots was really exciting and with film making it's it's a craft yeah and we've all bean inspired and I need the remote we will be inspired by certain things which basically shape how we how we are as filmmakers which is really important because when as filmmakers we need to put a personal mark on it because for me when I execute my shots and I you know go on winning shoots I like to put my personal mark you know, my history my experiences therefore it's authentic yeah. So, um developing your style is something really critical I think because it's like I said it really shaped who you are in terms of your filmmaking and in that shines and then therefore it's got substance yeah so um I remember actually when I was like my first camera was given to me by my mom I was nineteen and I've always bean inspired and moved by basically family events you know, growing up in italian family very loud and lots of lots of different moments and and cultu...

ral event and I was always just in terms of my my personality I was always removed by human behaviour and emotions so when I got my first camera I immediately use that tool to capture those moments because it really excited me teo to harness that moment and keep that moment a treasure that moment and over time you know, I obviously developed you know, different skills and different experiences and that's what you do, how you can reflect and build on your style is reflect on your experiences reflect on where you're from, you know who you are as a person and that will again that will shine when you want when you do your filmmaking um, you know, I did music videos for, you know, for the church, you know, which was great because it was very important to me, my faith, very important to me so you focus on things that you know are important to you, you know? And you use that t build your own your persona, you know, and we'll show you I'll show you that how you can use that you, your personality and your style when you basically attend, arrive at the bridal pet cripple the wedding in general and it's really powerful because people that can connect with you and then you can feel comfortable you deal thing and it's all great. Um so what I want to do is just show you next line, I'm gonna show you a few shots so few recent shots from from winning films that I've captured and some yeah like once again, you know, my my inspiration has also come from, you know, different filmmakers in cinematographers, including gordon willis who was the cinematographer for the godfather and it was all about minimal lighting you know and we touched only yesterday that you don't need so much lighting and you don't need to go you know overdoing it with that fills and you know you can keep it really simple and I wasn't I was always inspired by gordon willis is approach that you know I wanted to you know overhead lighting and it had an effect that had like a a way to portray that mood that field so very much I've always been inspired by people you know whether been with have come from and again like you guys have your own you're own your own experiences use that that is your your ticket you know so allow me to show you ah little little riel ofsome winning clips and enjoy wait so you know every every shot not just a sequence should actually tell a story she would actually resonate something to the viewer and that's what I what ice trifle that my mission that every shot you know the way I compose it the way I frame it and the content that I'm then I'm capturing is meaningful we're capturing moments so we're looking at weddings were capturing moments we're not we're not capturing pretty shots yeah it's important to get pretty shot tio when we touch on that very soon to compose them properly and make sure that the framing is some you know reflects what you're trying to portray so every short has tio I really like you know connect with the viewer so looking at composition this is a concept where I say this composition and framing I see this as a concept where it's a language yeah it's a language that you can use to communicate with your viewer yeah and there are different techniques in different ways that you can compose and frame your shot to communicate what you're trying to portray the message yeah and therefore every shot every sequence we'll have substance because you you put like you've been deliberate yeah and this purpose behind everything you do and we're going to touch on these these aspects in more detail as we do the life shoots today which I'm so pumped about you know because you know it's getting there get her hands dirty and really demonstrate that it's not complicated it's about observing you know most of my thought process most of what I do is actually looking around observing the space as I demonstrated yesterday having a look what what have you got to work with you know sometimes you know you look up to the bride or groom's prepping and super tired yeah and you like uh what am I going to do man this is like I can't do this this is too small so we're going to show how we compose and how we frame so it's effective right, so you're not restricted you're still able to communicate what you need to until a store so there are different ways different types of the ways you khun frame and compose your shots and one of them is known as a negative space now as photographers or even you have been exposed to the trouble field and filmmaking it's it's, it's quite a known concept you know this negative space what does it mean? So what what? As you can see, we've got some negative space and we've got the subject where the idea you're creating some breathing space right purposely like it's a it's a deliberate thing that you're doing here to create breathing space to draw the energy toward the subject, right? But you can't go overboard with this because for example you don't want to cut any limbs it's just well not deliberately like not literally but in terms of your friend you don't want to basically, you know, cut the frame at their limbs or their you know it's not pleasant that's number one number two that negative space is not actually has to signify something is what it needs to communicate with your subject, right? So another way looking at negative spaces that there in this world and it's so big right there surrounded by this big wide world and looking at this shot here you recognize the couple sandra faraj we share the rest of that clip right and this isn't really wants this and I'll owe you want to see the rest of it sandra faras right chilling out just having good time we took him out took him out tio in sydney's called cabrito it's ah a little bay beautiful and I just let him have a moment and knowing this story written this story how they met like from two different countries like you know like you know farrah she's from canada and she's from lucy sydney and what I'm signifying here I know you're probably thinking gee that's a bit of a far fish like idea in terms of this story in one frame but it's those subtle things that viewers when they watch and see the frame them and go oh yeah that's negative space and that's the big wide world yeah I get it no no no you're creating a feeling but I'm basically breaking I'm dissecting it for you that's the difference so subconsciously people are thinking that you know I mean because once and we'll show you I'll show you another clip a finished clip later on into the court today today and it would demonstrate all these elements put together so negative space is a powerful way to draw the energy towards your subject and to signify that they're in a big space in this case are like you know they're they they're coming together through this like massive like you know well you know so this massive world but they still manage to find themselves you know that's why I'm trying to communicate now mister you know the you know the concept of rule of thirds yeah but I thought I just touch on a very quickly that you know, the rule of thirds is you know you're shot is divided into nine squares and the idea is to draw the energy it's creating more impact yeah it's making the shot more interesting so and it's kind of similar to negative space because there there is a little bit of negative space so the idea is to draw thie energy towards the subject and it's general to make the shop more pleasing yeah so there's that will assist with your flow and you know these are the these are the things this is a this is a concept where you're going you should be applying this to many parts of the day because it's quite common it allows for example when we do shoot for speeches um you know sometimes you know I person may frame it quite tight but generally I ii look for rule thirds and because what that does is you've got you know that the filmmaking concept in the rules where they're talking like like for example, you no right to left and you need to basically when you're looking at reaction shots they need to connect so when you have when you apply the rule of thirds to the speeches, then you're in a better position to do that to show that who they speaking too right now when we're looking at a motion picture on the screen it's two dimensional you like here? This is live this is really this is three dimensional the idea what? What we're trying to do as filmmakers our goal is to create that three dimensional look right? We're trying to bring that that illusion if you like that it is three dimensional and how do we do that? Well, it's, the concept is known as visual structure. So going back to what I was talking about, you know, like the gear it's, not about the gate what it is also about is a visual structure visual structure is to do with the way you tell your story with shots with your framing in your composition. So hear what we have is we have we called vanishing points now vanishing points what it does it create step right so it makes the shot ah lot more it gives it more impact and it gives that feel that it's three dimensional and by doing that it helps the audience feel like this is really this is like I'm actually here on there, I'm here, you know what I mean right so this is something where you sure this is something you should be looking for when you're composing your shots because constantly you need to keep your audience you your viewer drawn to what you you don't want them to drift away not for a second you know you wanted to keep them like drawn in to what your shine because this is powerful stuff this is like, you know where we're telling stories about these people real people you know and their emotions and their families and you want to use these techniques so then you draw the energy towards the subject and that super powerful and that's cinematography yu know yu lighting and using you know angle's too till the story in a more powerful way it's a visual structure and invention points you know look for those things now it's important when you frame certain shots that you balance your shots you balance your framing so for example, this shot here this shot of the opera upper house in sydney and you got a bit of the bridge and some sky and what I was trying to do here is I'm trying I'm basically incorporating three aspects into the one shot and still allowing it teo look pleasing so for example it's not like on a we'd kind of slant and it's not uncomfortable to look at its it's pleasing ryan you've got in the one shot I'm demonstrating three things here two landmarks so I'm showing people where they are they're in sydney actually got married this is shan telling sean at the upper house the marquis it's called opera point mccain is just by the water borders venue and you know we use the shots you know in the way we can take the viewer back because where when we're editing we'll discuss this in the post production overview with its time it's with time shifting all right and I'll talk about time shifting tomorrow but with this shot I'm actually incorporating three things the two landmarks and the other cast sky I want to give the view a bit of an idea since what would that what the day was like and actually it started out to be like blue skies and then it became overcast but it's it's just to give them and not to say oh, it was overcast but just to give them a bit of work in a perspective yeah andi we'll touch on things like you know when you're adding sound like effects like you know, birds and things this is like a visual example way you're incorporating another dimension to your film and that is showing the weather it's not like a critical thing, but they just give you the viewer a bit of a perspective framing close ups I've seen this done like so many times it like I've seen this done incorrectly so many times and, you know, once upon a time, you know, one of kind of just starting out filmmaking that this is one of the things that I had to develop over time and and just fine tune because it's, very easy to this, my personal take of this, I find that if you not used to, like, framing things and and doing close ups in filmmaking, you can get quite wrong because some people, for example, think are still needed to, like, have some head room. But then what do I do? Do I cut the neck? And I've just left a little bit of room here to show a bit of a bit of the shoulder and with close ups, you know, you generally your it's okay to cut the head like, you know, to frame part of the head out of the frame, and what you're doing here with a close up is your you're really you're you're inviting the viewer to the person's emotion and you can see here, you know, it was a great moment, you know, bride here is you can see her tear, you know, and we'll touch on lynn selection, and I was actually on a fifty mil here, and you're thinking crazy, how close would you mean, I'll tell you what I at that time, I only have a fifty I kid you not. This is the truth. She did not look at me once because we're going back to that under this all the time. But things just it just happened so quickly and I didn't have time. Tio, you know, that's what happens in a live event, but because I spent the time to get to know thiss couple, this is sierra she's, very comfortable me. I walked in there sick. So everyone, this is our field. This is orlando, you know, like, okay, and they're making a joke about it, and we'll do it single these things and basically the whole bridal party. We're just kind of jelled as friends and school, so she wasn't fazed at all. She just like he's doing his thing, you know, it's second nature. So this is the correct way. This is an example how you can really draw the viewer to the to the emotion and show that emotion.