Who Shot You?

The Color Purple

 (Shot by Shot)

 

This is "Celie's Liberation" scene from the Color Purple. The scene opens with a shot of a plate setting at a dinner table with people talking and dishes knocking in the background. The next shot shows people talking and adding food from the table to their plate. That shot is then followed by a wide shot, which is used as the establishing shot. The camera then cuts to Shug Avery and Albert conversing. The image above is the first shot of their conversation. The lighting is deem and partially dismal to acquaint the audience with the mood and emotion to come. The light selection was also used to adequately portray lighting in the early 1900's.

In the mid-shot above Shug Avery leans in to Albert or "Mister" that she is getting ready to leave town and that she is taking Celie with her.

"Now comes the time for me to tell you, its time for us to go."

 Albert doesn't understand why Celie wants to go with Shug so he says, " Now whats wrong wit cha?" The camera slowly zooms in enough between Shug and Albert to get Celie in focus in the middle of the shot.

 Celie replies, "You a low down dirty dog, that's whats wrong. Its time for me to get away from you and into creation." In this close-up shot Albert looks at Celie in disbelief. He cant believe that she is standing up to him.

 This is a weird mid shot used during Celie's spill about getting away from Albert where she says, "Your dead body will be just the welcome I need."

In this medium close-up the dad chimes in and says, "You cant talk to my boy that way." Notice that Albert and his father are both sitting at the head of the table, which is an inclination of power and authority.

 Celie responds, "Your BOY? Seems like if he hadnt been your boy he would have made somewhat half a decent man." The lighting on Albert is bright enough to frame him as a  subject in the shot, while also keeping Celie in a close up.

This close up with little to no head room shows Albert still in disbelief (giggles) "Say what?"

"You took my sister Nettie away from me. You knew she was the only somebody in the world who loved me" In this low angled two-shot with natural light striking from the window, Celie explains to Albert that she is aware of his tactics and that she isn't going to stand for it anymore. 

 Close up of Albert looking ashamed.

 Close up of Shug with an expression of joy for Celie.

Back to the two shot. "And Nettie and my kids coming home soon. And when we all get together we gone sit around and whoop your ass."

 Cuts to close up of dinner guest laughing at Celie's comment.

 "Nettie. Your kids. Woman you talking crazy." Albert waves her comment of as trivial and unbelievable. Close up. 

 Medium close up of Celie's head held high when she assures Albert that she has children. "Oh I got children. My children living in Africa."

 Albert feeling embarrassed and intimidated. Close up.

 Medium wide shot and somewhat of a over-the-shoulder shot used to show all of the guests at the table, and to get Sophia at the table with her head hung low. Celie assures Albert that her children gone turn out, "a heap better than these fools you never tried to raise." In an attempt to defend himself, Harpo interjects and tells Celie to "hold on here."

 Celie cuts him off, "No hold on Harpo." Close up of her confidently standing up to Albert's disrespectful and "rotten" son.

 Close up of Shug's approval and admiration for Celie.

Back to medium close up of 'Paw' adjusting his glasses because he can't believe his eyes. 

In a two-shot Celie continues her speech and tells Harpo that the kids made her life living there hell.

And my favorite line out of the entire movie is when Celie musters up enough courage to look Albert straight in the eyes and tell him, "he ain't nothing but some dead horse shit."

Reflections

I have learned a lot in a little bit of time. The most salient lessons that stand out to me have been the ones on lighting and learning the TCF jargon. It’s a lot of abbreviations, changed names and nicknames used for equipment that I am learning. It’s a lot of technical jargon that I probably should be more excited to know about, but not necessarily interested in, that I have found helpful. Coming from a television production background I have found that terms are used interchangeably. For instance, in t.v. production the director might want a bust-shot, but in film production the director would want a mid-shot. It’s the same shot, just with two different names. A lot of the stuff I'm learning about lights is new, or it’s been so long since I worked with them or learned about them that it feels new. Learning to use light to create emotion and knowing when to use a key light or a fill light is interesting to me. I only remember learning about key lights in the past.

I think I have strength in shot composition and framing. I think that I adapt well to change, which is beneficial in working in such fast paced environments. Being able to work well with others, and independently is also one of my strengths. 

The most challenging thing has been keeping up with the technical jargon and professional language because sometimes I get confused, but I think I'm getting better. It also helps knowing that I'm not the only confused student in the bunch. I also find it challenging to plan a project out shot by shot. I don’t usually think sequentially. My brain is kind of all over the place, and that's usually how I form ideas. I really have to work on narrowing down my concepts, and developing them enough to make sense to others, because I know what I want and sometimes I just expect others to 'get it'.

By far the most rewarding thing about videography is seeing your vision come to life, which enables you to share with the masses. Doing the portrait of a place assignment brought me much gratification because it was a project that I cared about. It was special to me and it was a small piece of history that meant a lot to my family.

Portrait of a Place

For the Portrait of a Place assignment we had to tell a story visually without using dialogue. 

I decided to tell my family's story.

My great grandmother is the matriarch of the family, so it all starts with her and her home.

Let Your Light Shine

Honestly, I am not that familiar with lighting. I just know what I think looks good. I am definitely a fan of black and white images, because its something about them that speaks volumes without being loud. In some sense I think that color adds sound to an image, and by taking that sound away you have to be able to tell your story without it being heard. I think that's what black and white images do, and lighting plays a pivotal part in making that story told successfully.

I’m not really a history buff, and I know very little about paintings and art work, but when I was a sophomore at Savannah State University I took a Humanities course where we studied art work, natural earth formations, pyramids, structures, etc… But one painting in particular that I probably will never forget is The Crucifixion of Saint Peter by Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio. I love this piece because the only face you can really see is Peter’s, but you can see the shame and quilt of the persecutors by their body language. When everything seems dark in Peter’s life, it’s like God shines a light on him. I love this painting. The lighting is impeccable!

The lighting in Beyonce's album art work is usually phenomenal!

Beautiful lighting!!!

This is an alter-ego photo done be Derrick Blanks (I would have put his whole gallery up here if I could have), that man is amazing. He is powerful and very purposful  with his lighting selection. This is pretty cool and amazing to me

When I Grow Up...

When I grow up… my goal is to own a thriving and successful production company and production studios. My desire is to be a producer because I enjoy being in charge of the creative content’s execution. I think my niche will be in documentaries, and content centered on the portrayals and representations of African Americans in the media, but I also hope to find success in other veins of media such as situation comedies, docu-series, and various genres of film.

I am passionate about documentaries because I enjoy the unveiling of real life situations that screen writers and script editors have no control over. Life is the best story ever told, and that’s what I want to give to my audience, real life situations that educate, entertain, and inspire.

I hope that taking advanced videography will help me exercise my narrative lens, because I tend to wait to see how things turn out, rather than thinking sequentially or in terms of a story line. Therefore, I am hoping to expand my knowledge and increase my ability to visual storytelling.

Furthermore, I have never had hands-on training with the use lighting in the field because all the lighting techniques I learned about were in studio, so I am looking forward to learning how to effectively  use lights, filters, screens, and lenses to set the tone of whatever emotion I choose to evoke. 

Being a successful producer is my goal, but I would like to know how to do everything: cinematography, directing, editing, screen writing etc…. so I’m looking forward to honing new skills in all aspects of production.

I also hope to establish some good relationships for the future!

You Turn Me On...Visually :-)

When we were instructed in class to blog about what inspires us the first thing that came to mind was nature. I have never been a big 'outdoorsy' person. I love sports, but as far as camping, and hunting, and anything else that requires being outside for a tremendously long time, I'll pass on. However, I do love natural aesthetics. Despite my lack of excitement for physical interaction with nature, I feel most serene and connected with God when I am outdoors.

As far as I can remember I have always loved sight-seeing and looking at great architecture. Granted, at four years old I probably didn’t understand what architecture was, but I’m willing to bet I held some sense of appreciation for sky-scrapers and buildings that stood larger than life to me. I attribute those fantastic structures to great architects, and since God is the creator of all things, he is the ULTIMATE architect. I just came to this conclusion a few years ago, but I see the world as a masterpiece, despite how cliché it sounds. So, whenever I feel like I am at my wits end, life is too much to handle, my mind is clouded, the walls are caving in on me, or I just want to relax- I like to go to the beach.

In undergrad I used the beach as my escape haven, my prayer closet, and my vacation. Tybee Island was about 30 minutes from campus and I would just go randomly to look at the water. I appreciate all landscapes and sceneries: volcanoes, valleys, savannahs, marshes, mountains, clouds, deserts, etc… but my favorite of all are beaches. I think the beach is the perfect combination of land, sea and sky. I appreciate it because as far as your eye can see is nothing but water and sky, and who else could construct something so majestic and beautiful except a Great God.

I have said all of this to say that I am inspired visually by natural landscapes and formations, and when I look at films I tend to search for them. I appreciate the earth’s rawness and cleanness. I tend to favor things that cannot be constructed or crafted by man and I enjoy very wide outside shots that acquaint the audience with the environment.

One movie in particular that portrays this without one single spoken work is BARAKA, by Ron Frike, which in fact may be my favorite documentary (even though I don’t know if it’s technically a doc, but I assume it is because it has no plot, and no narrative). Frike did a tremendous job at evoking emotion by pure imagery.

 

I tried to upload my favorite scene from Blood Diamond when they hike up the mountain, but this blog wont find that video on the upload option so here is the link

Life series by Discovery Channel executes pure clean shots like something I have never seen before.

Love him or hate him- Mel Gibson is a BEAST!!!!!!!!!!! Apocalypto may be the best movie ever made. This movie is phenomenal and he did an amazing job at capturing the true essence and beauty of the jungle.