As director of photography, I was in charge of the look of the project.
The first thing I did was research the source material we had chosen as well as my responsibilities as director of photography, camera settings and colour theory.
Through this research I found that shooting documentaries / mockumentaries differs greatly depending on what the aim of the piece is and how this is delivered - i.e. if the piece relies greatly on the facial expressions and reactions of the subjects, lower angles are more ideal. However, if you want a typical fly on the wall observational style, higher angles are the best option. I discovered through the research that our piece would be best shot using the subject matter and colour tones of The Supervet but using the filming / framing style of Come Fly With Me as inspiration.
The colour tones in The Supervet have a cool blue toned hue in order to reflect the medical / clinical nature of the programme. The lighting in the interview scene is also artificial and quite harsh which again adds to the clinical subject matter. The setting of the interviews is again very clinical looking - the mise en scene all connotes that the subject matter of the programme is medical. In order to replicate this look in our production, we knew we had to dress the set appropriately to make it believable as a vet's practice (we used posters and surgical equipment to dress the set) - I also manipulated the lighting, camera settings and colour in order to add to this look.
Although a mockumentary in genre, the filming style of Come Fly With Me possesses many of the drama genre conventions. There are no fly on the wall scenes, it is all filmed low angle - this is due to a lot of the comedy being portrayed through the characters and their facial expressions. To keep in line with the documentary genre, sequences are filmed of the characters walking through the airport / working at their jobs - this helps the filming style of the mockumentary look like a serious documentary which adds to the humour when the events in the airport / interviews with the staff are comical instead of serious.
This then influenced how I shot our piece - Vet-Man. Like Come Fly With Me, I filmed Vet-Man in a similar way to how dramas are filmed. This allowed me to be at the same height as the actors, rather than attempting to film the mockumentary in a fly on the wall style. If I had opted for this style, a lot of the humour may have been lost as it would not have been visible to the camera.
I performed a test shoot in order to figure out the best settings and lighting to use. From this, I decided to film all the scenes within the consultation room / surgery with artificial lighting in order to create the clinical look seen in The Supervet. The artificial lighting was integral to the surgery scene as I created a very dramatic look to exaggerate the clinical surroundings. I then decided to contrast this with naturally lit warmer interviews and scenes in areas such as the waiting room, Sheila's house and the park to contrast with the clinical setting of the consultation / surgery. From the test shoot, I figured out the best settings to use were ISO 200, shutter speed 1/30 and aperture f/5.0 as this allowed for good quality, non grainy footage that was exposed correctly - this worked well in the shoot as it allowed for good quality, well lit footage which could then be manipulated in post production. I ensured to follow the rule of thirds with the interviews in order to keep in line with the documentary genre conventions, I also filmed sequences (like the surgery scene) which is also similar to the documentary genre - this then allowed for the comedy to show through the events that unfolded.
As well as being in control of the camera settings and lighting in order to create the visual look of the film, I aided Melissa with the colour grading - this was to ensure that my vision was carried through the editing process and that the footage I filmed was realised in the way it was intended. Firstly, we ensured all the colours matched as two different cameras were used so there were slight variations between the shots. Once all the colour matched and flowed through, we began to grade the scenes. The naturally lit scenes (the waiting room, Sheila's house, the park and the area the bin) were brightened slightly and given a warmer tone. This helped to contrast to the surgery / consultation scenes which were given a cooler tone - this contrast helped to enhance the clinical / medical theme of the mockumentary.
As director of photography, I aimed to emulate the documentary genre in terms of the interviews and sequences used by using conventions from this genre. I aimed dress, light and colour the scenes to reflect the subject matter and allow the comedy be conveyed through Alex's script. I think I was successful in my cinematography as the visual style looks natural (as is a convention in the documentary genre), yet the grading helps to connote the medical theme.
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