Exercise 3 / Final Project
Workflow and Creative Camera TechniquesFor the final project we aimed to recreate the dinner scene from ‘La La Land’ (2016), directed by Damien Chazelle.
This choice was initially made for the sake of simplicity in technical recreation of the scene, but on-set we later found out that what appeared to be simple on-screen was harder to replicate than anticipated.
Below are the pre-production materials we collated to prepare for the production process.
Below is the two-page excerpt we used as reference for the short film, directly from the La La Land script.
— And the two stills we were referencing.
My role within the group was as production designer. Unfortunately I was not well during most of production, and had been at hospital several times, so wasn’t able to contribute as much as I would’ve liked for that specific role.
We struggled to find a fabric or material that could be illuminated from behind as shown in the scene as we were on little to no budget. In the end, we opted for a curtain from student accommodation which didn’t really replicate the transparency of the green mesh/veil curtain in the original clip. If I could re-do it, I would’ve dedicated more time to experimenting with different materials and how light interacted with it, in an attempt to create that ‘glow’ emanating behind Mia.
To recreate the candlelit dinner, we bought two variations of candles, but found that the flickering effect wasn’t visible on camera. On set, we held up a sheet of filter paper and orange-tinted gel over a strong light and shook it whilst filming in order to recreate the flickering effect. I feel this worked well, but ideally we would’ve found a solution that utilised the candles in some way as this would look most authentic.
I feel the strengths of our final project was more so in the acting than in any technical aspect. Both Mark-Anthony and India had to step in to play Sebastian and Mia, and did so very well considering they were meant to be part of the technical crew. Their performances gave our scene emotional credibility and validity that wouldn’t have been present without them.
