Research
So, we found a perfect person for our film (HOW?). A magician and mentalist Sasha Crespi. We in our group split our responsibilities. Mostly I did cinematography that's why I focused my research on it.
At the very beginning, I watched the movie The Prestige by Christopher Nolan. It was one of the most intriguing films I've ever seen. I loved it. Sasha Crespi himself admitted that it is a film worth watching, if you want to understand how the magician's world look like.
Then I firmly focused on my role. I took some books from the library. I learned about practical compositions, lighting and aspect ratios reading "Digital Cinematography" by David Stump and Paul Wheeler, "DSLR Cinema" by Kurt Lancaster, "Video Camera Techniques" by Gerald Millerson.
It really helped when we were filming an interview. We used 4 light setup. 2 softboxes, and two contrast lights behind. We used Canon XF305, Nikon D5100 and Panassonic GH4 for slowmotion shots.
Is there any story?
Most of documentaries starts with environment introducing audience with a topic. Usually they begin with over voice at the beginning. First 10 seconds should be only highlights of people reactions, his hand movements and small details like eye or fingers. Beginning should be one of the best parts technically to quickly involve a viewer in a story. After showing our topic I would love to use a shot of Sasha Crespi himself, doing interview. 2 or more angles shot interview. We should just show his actual interview just few times through whole video. It makes more sense to viewer than just over voice on nice footage.
At first we need to shoot actual interview and listen to our soundtrack options. For me it is easier to understand the mood and already imagine our final work listening to our soundtrack. Keeping in mind what Sasha Crespi says in his interview. In the end I would really love to see strong emotions like crying.
In my opinion we should base our video mainly on emotions. He is a great magician with a great background story and we need to show that. Filming how big influence he has. Of course we should show also funny stuff at the beginning just to make everything easier to understand. Simply he is a magician and showing later that he is something more than just a magician. It is his lifestyle and there is no obstacle that could stop him.
Technique
Secondly we need to shoot really dreamy look. Mary has 50mm 1.8 and slider + flycam. I have 50mm 1.8 so it will be easy to make nice image. In specs of uni camcorder - we need to use it once for interview and some B shots for tricks. I hope that we can simulate that cameras image to look like DSLR using long focal length. It should work…
Recording sound. I am not good with uni mics, but we should use them. No worries I will use additional recorders. Lavalier mic and mic in front of Sasha so we can mix or choose the best recorded sound. I will make sure that lavalier and mic in front of him will be levelled and ready to go.
Edit - why dreamy look? It will be easier for us. There is no crazy editing. Half or more of the job will do our 1.8 lenses that makes a really cool bookeh effect. If we want to make dramatic look it will take time to make our soundtrack really emotional and to edit our footage - like blue tint in shadows , yellow in highlights. I suggest to make everything dreamy. So it will be nice looking footage, easy to edit and I guess any music goes really good with that kind of video. In same time that look works really good with emotions.
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