Fabric of the Mind - Cinematography - Part 1.
The beginning of a series of posts about the biggest film I have ever made I would like to start with one of my favorite and most detailed parts of the film, the cinematography.
Due to the budget restraints of the film we had very limited ways to utilize the camera in the original ways I would have liked. Even during the filming process I didn't actually like the footage, I found myself one night absolutely hating the film, breaking down because it just wasn't what I imagined, and for any small filmmaker that's always going to happen. Somethings just don't work out. However, in the end I found shots looked great, and everything ended up working out.
Enough of that. Let's get into the actually cinematography of Fabric of the Mind.
First off, we shot this film with 4 different cameras, a Panasonic GH3, Nikon D3100 and D3200, also some of the title scenes are filmed with the Sony A7s a camera we did not get until after the initial principal photography had ended, using it to fill in some gaps. Using 4 different cameras is something that most people do not do for films. However we shot in coordination to the actual story, using the highest quality camera for the most recent parts of the story, and the oldest cameras for the flashbacks.
(The images that appear have not been altered for color correction, these are raw production stills)
For instance.
for the interview scenes, the graveyard scene, and the final scenes we used the Panasonic GH3.
And also using the Nikon D3200 for the classroom scenes and flashbacks.
During filming, using the different cameras as an extra motivation for the way the story is presented adds an extra style to the film. If you have an eye for detail you'll notice the actual quality decreases (only slightly) but it's enough to add a little depth to where the story's timeline actually falls.
Due to the budget constraints as well I do most of the filming myself as a self-shooting director, which allowed me to move the camera in ways I wouldn't be able to describe to another cinematographer, If there's a motivation for the camera movement most of it is actually improved following the actors facial movements and body language.
The films look is stylized after multiple different films, many of which are my favorite movies. Like Silence of the Lambs, Prisoners, Etc... During filming when I was getting a certain angle it reminded David Ogrodowski of Quentin Tarantino. Which I took as a compliment of course.
The reason I wanted so many unique angles was also because filming such a large portion of the film in one location I felt as if the audience would get bored with the scenery of the class. Using these different vantage point we could alter the perception of the room, making each visit back a different one.
Another aspect of the filming is the 180 rule, which we had to break during a point of character movements which led to this:
We changed the perspective entirely of the scene which allowed for more shots of the classroom and for Casey's performance to garner more screen time. However, little to no budget at all we could barely fill the classroom with extras. So the final product does look a little empty, we even utilized crew to fill in spots including our Make-Up Supervisor Amanda Keen (who happens to actually be Elias Socrates' Fiance), the on-set assistant Jamie Simmons (Casey's Sister), our Gaffer Jordan Young, and our Camera Tech Shane A. Wright. (Yes I know the capitalization is horrendous, just how I write.)
This is the beginning of the posts, If you like them, Please let me know! I'm going to add more to this when I have it ready. But for now, Under this post I'll put up the link for the full film (director's cut). Just ignore the live stream version, we didn't release it correctly.