Verna

in 2010, I was offered a place at the Helsinki Film School as an Erasmus student. During my time in the film school, I had a chance to observe Finnish film students producing short films. Verna was one of them and I worked in the production to document the process. Here’s the video.

What Have I Learned Today?

Yesterday morning, I was asked by my directing teacher Jarmo Lampela to produce a one minute script and shoot it the next day which means this morning. The main idea for this exercise was to enhance our skills on ADR which is the dubbing process. Dubbing is the post production process of recording and replacing voices on a motion picture or television soundtrack subsequent to the original shooting.

One of the major reasons why I love the film department in Taik is that you are always asked to produce short films in a very small scale of time. That kind of exercises really teaches you how to become alert all the time not only in case of film practice but also as an individual. For exemple, Susanna Helke’s class was held in a way that we were expected to write small articles all the time on subjects such as what is political for us and what kind of political events have we had that had a long term affect on our lives. These kind of exercises really teaches you to become aware of your surrounding and help you in a way to deepen your skills in filmmaking.

I was informed by Jarmo that I would get two actors, one male and one female so I had to write a short story about a couple. Moreover, I wanted to emphasize the sound because we were going to practice ADR for the first time and I really wanted the sound has a major point in the story. This is the story I came up with:

Tom is in the kitchen to make some coffee. Julia is in the bathroom brushing her teeth. Tom takes two cups from the closet and starts boiling the water. He asks if she wants any coffee. “Black or white” he adds. She says black but her answer is incomprehensible because of the brush in her mouth. Tom goes to the toilet and asks her again. Her answer is black. He puts hot water in two cups -one of them is black, the other is white- and he puts milk in one of them. Julia goes out from the bathroom and takes the black coffee. Tom approaches her and hits the glasses. He seems happy. “To Buenos Aires” he says. Julia grimaces and explains that she won’t be able to make it. “Why not?” says Tom still hugging Julia and trying to kiss her. “We will have the best time of our life there!” Julia steps back harder and saves herself from Tom. Tom takes Julia’s coffee and runs to the bathroom. He locks the door. Julia comes to the bathroom but she cannot get in because the door is locked. She tries to apologize but he is busy washing the cups. He pours both cups in the lavatory and that creates a weird mixture of both milky and black coffee.

We had to shoot it very fast and we only had one hour to shoot all the actions. In case of filmmaking, I always tend to think storytelling by shots, in a way that I would like to shoot the scenes by blocking the actors and the actions in the right compositional way, starting from a wide shot to the close ups in the end and so forth. I always feel secure by using that methodology and it is really hard to skip a shot.

Well for this exercise, I had to shoot the shots by rolling all the story from the beginning to the end. I think it was quite difficult for the actors since they had to perform all the text once we said action. The reason why I chose this way because I didn’t have time to rehearse with the actors. I didn’t really know how I was going to block them in case of the place of the camera and editing. I gave my camera operator full initiatives which gave me a chance to concentrate on the actors.

I just finished synchronizing the materials and made a rough cut. I realized that I shot one establishing shot, two medium shots and one medium shot in the bathroom. I think it would be better if we had some close up. Anyway, I think we did a good job in a very limited time! Now we will see what happens with the editing and the sound design.

Learning and Teaching

Riding down an elevator I observed two young fellows, both with guitars in identical cases. One fellow was about 21 and in a hog helmet; the other was slightly balding, about 31, with blond hair and beard, and obviously the teacher. I couldn’t make out whether he was the teacher of the intricacies of the motorbike they had parked outside, or of the guitar. At any rate, he said to his companion: “I will teach you how to play it.”

The other boy said, “No. Nuh-uh.”

The older one said, “Why don’t you want me to teach you? You are going to have to learn it. Why don’t you let me teach it to you? I’ll take fifteen minutes.”

The younger boy said, “No, look, well, maybe – ” And he stalled and stalled and stalled until the elevator got to the ground floor and the door opened.

It struck me that maybe those in the upper five to ten percent of their classes are there because they enjoy the exhibition of themselves learning something, while the majority are embarrassed at showing that they have learned something in front of other people. the volunteer in the classroom is probably an exhibitionist. Why is it that so many of the men of brilliant scientific or scholarly achievement were so often last in their classes, so seldom one of the top five?

I think the group system of learning is perhaps no longer an acceptable or functioning method.

Learning is finding out what you already know.

Doing is demonstrating that you know it.

Teaching is reminding others that they know it just as well as you.

We are all learners, doers, teacher.

Your only obligation in any lifetime is to be true to yourself.

You teach best what you most need to learn.

Live never to be ashamed when something you do or say is published around the world – even if what is published is not true.

“There is no problem so big that it cannot be run away from.”

-Snoopy the Dog

Open any book and read what’s there: you’ll find your problems. Hold a problem in your mind. Open a book.

Don’t turn away from possible futures before you’re quite certain you have nothing to learn from them. You’re free to choose another (different) future, another past.

There is no such thing as a problem without a gift for you in its hands. You seek problems because you need their gifts.

You will find a helping hand at the end of your arm.

Anyone worth knowing is also a little odd.

1971

Nicholas Ray – I Was Interrupted – 6, 7.

Again From Budapest Masterclass and I Porti Dell Arte

Click here to get the issue of Budapest Masterclass in British Cinematographer.
And this is for I Porti Dell Arte.

Some Books I Should Read Before The End of 2009!

Nicholas Ray: An American Journey – Bernard Eisenschitz

I was Interrupted: Nicholas Ray on Making Movies – Nicholas Ray

My Last Sigh: Luis Bunuel

The Interpretation of Dreams: Sigmund Freud

The Uses of Enchantment: Bruno Bettelheim

The Parade’s Gone By: Kevin Brownlow

Picture: Lillian Ross

Hitchcock / Truffaut: François Truffaut

An Unspeakable Betrayal: Selected Writings of Luis Bunuel

Final Cut: Art, Money, and Ego in the Making of “Heaven’s Gate”, The Film That Sank United Artists – Steven Bach

Technique Of Film Editing – Karel Reisz, Gavin Miller

Thank you Nigel Walters BSC

“An early morning hotel breakfast is not the usual time to encounter lively film students. The first to appear with the typical live – in look was Barbaros Gokdemir, the lone Turkish participant, who informed me that he had found the most useful aspect in the previous three days, had been the lectures. Lectures are harder to come by in developing countries such as Turkey. On the bus journey the magnificent Korda Studios the various advantages of this style of “hands on” Master Classes with lectures and analysis carefully choreographed were to be revealed to me by various scholars and participants.”
Thank you Nigel Walters for mentioning about me in your article about the Budapest Cinematography Masterclass 2009. It has been quite a long time since the masterclass is over but I just found out about this article and I was very happy. The Masterclass provided me with an invaluable experience of the craft of cinematography, filmmaking, and collaboration. I was able to work with film students from different 16 nationality and a very strong mixture of film schools. To meet and work with film students from UCLA, Nfts, Taik, Lodz, Victorian College of Art, Westminster, FTII and many others put me on the right track in the sense of knowledge and experience and gave me a chance to enhance my skills on cinematography. I believe what I recieved from the masterclass is transferable and marketable in the field and it will help me reach my goals as a filmmaker.
Without the masterclass, I don’t know if I would have the experience to work with Panavision cameras under the supervision of a great tutor Benjamin Bergery. Working on Korda Studios and understanding how a sound stage really works and how major productions are being done is very crucial. Having lectures and conversations with great cinematographers like Vilmos Zsigmond and Elemer Ragalyi and great tutors like Nik Powell, and having a chance to meet and hear his experiences on film industry from Anthony Dod Mantle was all a part of the masterclass.
I miss you Budapest and I am very happy to be a part of the masterclass.