Maybe the most important thing to think about when making a film is its tone.
I’m not completely clear on what the tone of the full film is going to be, but I am thinking about how certain sequences and scenes are going to feel. One of the biggest patterns I am noticing when planning scenes is the contrast between the naturalistic tone of the scenes where characters are just talking and the carefully planned out slow motion scenes. This contrast reminds me of Martin Scorsese’s ‘Raging Bull’ in the sense that the realistic scenes of Jake LaMotta at home are improvised, while the scenes where Jake LaMotta is fighting in the ring are more technically precise and meticulous.
Improvised home scenes:
Technically precise fighting scenes:
This contrast keeps the audience very interested in the film because the film’s tone suddenly changes, which makes it unpredictable. The exaggerated and meticulously planned scenes also make the quiet improvised scenes stand out more.
Firstly, I want to talk about the exaggerated scenes because I’ve gone over how I plan to execute them in my previous blogs about planning cinematography and the script. These technically challenging moments of the film are mostly influenced by the already mentioned ‘Raging Bull,’ ‘In The Mood For Love,’ and ‘Moonlight.’ In these moments I will include dolly zooms, characters looking directly into the camera, slow motion and music. These moments will signify that something big and important is happening inside the character’s minds, and since this is happening internally the only way we can see that is through acting and cinematography techniques.
The music is another huge part of making something seem very big. The music that I chose for this film is Max Richter’s ‘On the Nature of Daylight.’
This is the music from the film ‘Arrival,’ which uses the music as leitmotif when the main character (who is coincidentally called Louise, just like in my FMP) is thinking about the past (or, as we find out in the end, the future). The music also serves as the emotional core of the film, as do the moments it’s playing over, which adds even more to the audience’s investment in what’s happening. Similarly, the moments the music will be playing over in my film will also be important emotional moments, which will aim to connect the audience with the characters and evoke some kind of response.
As I was thinking about other films that physically show us what the characters are thinking and what’s happening inside their head I thought of ‘Shutter Island’ and revisited one of my favourite scenes in the film. Funnily enough, I realised that this scene also uses ‘On the Nature of Daylight:’
The scene also feels like it’s happening in somebody’s mind (because it is). The cuts that don’t have continuity, the music, the big performances, the colours, everything contributes to give the scene that heightened dreamy tone. The high saturation used in this scene is definitely one of the main components I will use to differentiate the subdued improvised moments and the heightened moments.
Now I want to move on to the improvised and quiet feel I want most of the film to have. Scorsese’s films are obviously a big influence, as well as Terrence Malick’s films (they both give their actors a lot of freedom), but my biggest influence is probably Derek Cianfrance’s ‘Blue Valentine.’
This is one of my favourite films because it feels different from anything else I have ever seen. It dares to do things that Hollywood films never do and I think that’s one of the reasons why some people find it too depressing or too dark. I told my two lead actors to watch this film to prepare for filming my FMP and all they had heard about it is that it’s “the film that makes you never want to get married.” But why does this film have that kind of reputation? There are plenty of films where a marriage or a relationship ends, but they don’t have a reputation for being as sad as ‘Blue Valentine.’ Why?
I came to the conclusion that it’s because this film feels real. When you watch this film it feels like you’re watching two real people fall in and out of love, and that’s why it’s so effective. After some research, I found that the way they filmed ‘Blue Valentine’ was in chronological order. First they shot the scenes in the past where they meet and get to know each other, which means that the awkwardness that exists between the actors is actually translated onto the screen as awkwardness between the characters (Cianfrance also shot the scenes in the past on 16mm film, which gives that era a sense of nostalgia, while the present scenes were shot on digital). Afterwards, they stopped filming for a month. In that period, Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams basically lived together in a house to really get comfortable with each other, but more importantly, to grow bored and sick of each other. Of course, that’s a bit extreme for my FMP, but I will try to shoot the film in chronological order, beginning with the characters meeting, then filming the montage where I’ll get the actors to really get to know each other, and then the scenes in Louise’s head, where their love is most prominent.
Throughout the filming of ‘Blue Valentine,’ entire scenes were improvised, which is another thing I have been planning from the beginning. Although I wrote the script, I have always had in mind that the dialogue will be mostly spontaneous and that the script might as well just be a guideline of where the scene is going. If you’re going to make a character feel real they have to say things that feel real. I realise that you can create great characters that feel like they’re saying written things, but whatever they’re saying is so well written that it doesn’t matter (Tarantino and Aaron Sorkin are two examples). It just isn’t the right tone for my FMP, and that’s why I’m going with an improvised feel.
Sources:
http://www.vulture.com/2016/03/christian-bale-terrence-malick-knight-of-cups.html -April 23rd 2017
http://www.today.com/popculture/martin-scorsese-how-classic-taxi-driver-line-went-improv-iconic-t87821 -April 23rd 2017
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/filmmakersonfilm/8257869/Blue-Valentine-interview-with-director-Derek-Cianfrance.html -April 23rd 2017
http://nofilmschool.com/2014/08/blue-valentine-teach-making-authentic-films -April 23rd 2017
http://nofilmschool.com/2014/08/blue-valentine-teach-making-authentic-films -April 23rd 2017
http://filmmakermagazine.com/20339-the-way-we-were-derek-cianfrances-blue-valentine/#.WPySmFKZNE4 -April 23rd 2017
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