In the Mirror-Sight and Sound Rhythm Project

VIDEO DESCRIPTION:

Play, download and edit the free video In the Mirror-Sight and Sound Rhythm Project.

Part 1/4: from FILM 450 Sight & Sound:

Storyboarded, Directed, and Edited by Kevin DeLoughry
Shot by Kevin DeLoughry, Sam Norton
With Assistance by Scott Davis, Sam Norton

Starring Kevin DeLoughry

The Rhythm Project is filmed using only 100 feet of 16 mm footage, which is about 2 minutes, 40 seconds of recording space. I digitized the film by pointing my own digital camera at a Steenbeck editing table (makes it a little bouncy, sorry). This is the only project that did not also require independent sound design (no sound on this one at all).

The prompt of the project was bare bones, as we had to film after only 3 or 4 class sessions. Essentially, you just had to have a progression of shots, telling some kind of story.

I was very interested in this bizarre piece of architecture on Wesleyan's campus. There's a concert hall which, from a distance, appears to have a window against it. When you get closer, you discover that there's a little ditch between the outer wall and window, which is where our story takes place. Wesleyan's Center For the Arts (CFA) is full of strange brutalist architecture like that. The space is both isolated and open. You could sit in the dirt, like my character does, and not be noticed by any of the hundreds of students who pass by every single day. Alternatively, you could pass by every single day and not notice the remarkably reflective windows along the ditch. It was a fun space to work in. So I did.

I can't tell you quite where the idea for the reflection coming to life came from. I'm certainly not the first person to think about mirror doppelgangers. It was an easy conflict, one that could fit into 80 seconds of footage. A guy wakes up and is scared away by his reflection. Boom, love it. Greenlight that.

We shot all three of our projects in the same weekend, our first time using physical film recording. Pretty quickly, you learn to light meter everything, often and set your aperture in accordance with the light. You can't trust a viewfinder, you can't eyeball it. This is especially true outdoors. Be careful with highlights. Our film stock had a limited dynamic range, which means that a small amount of very bright light could throw the whole thing off.

Acting in it posed something of a challenge, but I used a partner as a stand-in to set the shots. I was afraid the reflection wasn't going to be plainly visible in the footage, so I brought my dorm mirror and some command strips. Pro-tip: You need to measure the distance from camera to the mirror and ADD it to the distance from subject to the mirror to get the focus.

Main takeaway from this project: editing is super fun when you know your shots.

Sequence 1: Shots 1-4. We go in further and further, revealing the hidden ditch, the hidden character. Call that "cinematic discovery." Great location establishing tool.

Sequence 2: Shots 4-6. Editing on the motion. The general rule for editing on the motion is to cut on a division of 1/3--2/3 or 2/3--1/3 in the motion. It makes transitions so much smoother (especially when you have to edit with physical tape). When I stand up, spin around to the mirror, fall over. Movement carries from one shot to the other, which maintains a sense of momentum in the film.

Here's where some post-production reimagining comes in. I couldn't think of an ending I liked. I went into the shoot with the somewhat unsatisfying ending that the reflection guy gets bored with no one left to talk to, and so he checks his watch. This was admittedly a weird concept to communicate visually, and I wasn't happy with how it turned out. I had this piece of the first shot that was overexposed, as I was running out the poor quality film that comes at the head of a roll of 16 mm film. I had enough left over from the earlier shots. I like the show Russian Doll. I made it into a time loop. My character is trapped in an eternal damnation of being scared by his reflection every 75 seconds. That's much more engaging.

Download, play and edit free videos and free audios from In the Mirror-Sight and Sound Rhythm Project using RedcoolMedia.net web apps