Auditions

Today in Advanced productions we split ourselves into three groups of breaking down the production process. I was in the script/ talent group. We went into the studio to do a few read throughs of the script. While reading through the script we looked for inconsistencies, the flow of the dialog, and ways to improve the overall script. We also used this time to audition/ cast the different roles in the film.

Since the original script was written with the lead female character resembling myself I took the role of Natalie. We auditioned for the part of the Waiter, Dante, the two dead corpses, and Calvin. After about three to four read throughs with different actors reading for the part of Calvin our AD David came in to update us and take our notes over to the Director, Torin. At this time David went through the script with us and allowed the group to make some changes to the script.

One line I can recall that we were all adamant about removing was “Well hells bells”. As this line showed the personality of the writer, we felt it did not fit the character who was saying the line. That character is Natalie, a confident 20 something year old who has been around the dating block quite a few times. Since this felt unnatural to the character we chose to change the line to “Well”. Throughout the script you can sense the writers naivety towards the tinder dating/sexual situations placed within the script. This lead us to change quite a few lines in the original script.

Once we made the script changes I delivered the notes to Director Torin. It was at this time that I persuaded Sam, who was in a different production group, to audition for the part of Calvin via a recorded read through. All the actors and the Assistant Director watched as we recorded the final read through and came to a unanimous decision that Sam and I had the right balance of chemistry needed to play these two characters. We brought the final taping into the room for everyone in the class to see and solidified the decision of who got the part. 

The History of Green Screen

The Green Screen has been used in news rooms, music videos, and films for many years. Green Screen or “Chroma Keying” is a special effect usually implemented in post (unless you do live news). The technique composes, or layers, two images or video streams together. The color green used on green screens is based on the Chroma Range that allows this technique to remove the top layer (green) and replace it with another image behind it.

Green screens are green because the particular hue of green is not naturally found in most clothing or everyday modern styles. Green screens can also be blue, since blue is another color easy to remove and layer. However, blue is typically found in most clothing and therefore more troublesome to work with when dealing with live news. If the weather caster wears a color too similar to the color of the green/ blue screen their clothing will be replaced with the background video.

From my experience working at NBC there has only been one incident while I was present with the clothing option of our weather girl and the green screen. She had worn a dress with a lime green/yellow color block on the front of the dress. She had no other clothes to change into and her whole chest had disappeared on air. In order to solve this situation she chose to do all of her casting from the weather center and going in to what we call “graphics” which is what would be on the green screen without her being on camera.

Before the implementation of the green screen in weather forecasting the forecaster would stand in front of a wall with a large map on it a use magnets or similar devices to show the weather manually vs. the highly technological way we use to show the weather now.

The First Aesthetic Field: Light

There are four fundamental and contextual image elements. These are light and color, space, time/motion, and sound. For this blog I will discuss light.

Light is arguably one of the most important things in life. It allows us to see the word around us and express our inner emotions through with different colors. With the influence of lighting we can change the mood in a film from a tranquil scene to an energized one. Moulin Rouge is a very good example. Throughout the film each scene is either enrobed in a passionate red or a mournful blue. This has a strong influence on the audience as to what emotions they are experiencing during the course of the scene.

 

With light comes shadow, which can be utilized as an artistic tool or eliminated from the film. In the film Sin City we see the starkness of light and shadow play to enhance the theme of the subject of which it is lighting. We can also see how muted and enhanced colors play alongside the shadows and light to create a unique artistic style.

Falloff is another form of shadow that comes into play when lighting a scene. With Low-Key lighting fast-falloff can be utilized to emphasize the lighted objects surface texture. With High-Key lighting slow-falloff or no-falloff can be used to reduce or even eliminate texture. As you can see in the picture below the same woman is lit from four different angles. This expresses how drastic lighting angles can have on a subject. 

A strong understanding for these four image elements (light and color, space, time/motion, and sound) will allow you to establish an impact, optimum clarity, and a unique personal style to the medium of your choosing.