Half Nelson (Film)

This was a fantastic independent film that I recommend any film-lover to watch. What really interested me about this film was the way it was shot; in an improvisational, documentary manner. Andrij Parekh shot the film almost entirely handheld (Parekh argues that the look is honest, naturalistic and straightforward). Many scenes were shot with the lens wide open and no filtration. The film seemed alot more focused on the performance of the actors and the handheld feel helped provide a much more basic and stipped down version of a movie in sharp contrast to mainstream film.

There were alot of simple light techniques used on-set to create a humble setting. In some scenes Parekh used just one light, a 1.2KW HMI directed through a window covered in tracing paper (1000H). The actual motel room curtains were used to cut and shape the light, making the whole room glow.

"It's important to me that the actors can inhabit a space without being blinded by lights on the set," he says. "It's something I learned from working with John Thomas and Harris Savides, ASC, as an apprentice. Light the room, not the faces. It was a great piece of advice."

I really loved some of the focus work on this film as well, there were some extreme close-up shots that made it almost difficult to follow thw action of the scene but made you really focus on the emotions being portrayed and the dialogue used.

Further information on the filming of Half Nelson available at www.kodak.com

Justice - 'D.A.N.C.E' dir. Jonas & Francois

This is a really nice video coming of the back of the recent 'new rave' fashion trend. The video shows T-shirt graphics animated onto two models as they walk towards and away from the camera. I especially like the fact that some of the animation has been timed to make it look as if the models are interacting with the T-shirt designs. I also like the fact that the focus of the camera is on the torso of the model and completely crops out the head of the model (making you focus on the T-shirts before anything else).

'Lucas With The Lid Off' - Lucas. Dir. Michel Gondry

This is possibly my favourite music video I have come across. It is, to me, one of Michel Gondry's best pieces of work. It involves a large studio set divided into several scenes. The main character, Lucas, performs whilst weaving through these scenes creating a continuous flow throughout the video. The best thing about this video is that it is one take, the movement from scene-to-scene and the placement of the camera, props and action has been timed to perfection by Gondry. The use of the camera to fool the audeince is used as well (for example, a 90 degree angle is used in the bed scene to fool the audience into thinking Lucas is lying horizontally, when the camera flips it is revealed that his legs were actually off the end of the bed - to make this more convincing even elements of the set were placed on their side).

Anyone interested in film or the production of music videos who hasn't seen this piece needs to watch it and appreciate the amount of thought that has gone into it.