Week 3: Only week 3?
Sweet Smell of Success by Clifford Odets, Ernest Lehman
How I imagine it:
- A tracking wide shot of the truck passing along all the others and revealing the clock. Newspapers shooting out of their spiral chutes. Men ready to receive them.
- The truck is framed bigger than all the other cars in Times Square.
- Entrance of truck framing SIDNEY FALCO
- Nautural lighting, high contrast when applicable
- WIDE tracking shot going back to the far back counter. Darkest on its top and bottom frame. Close up, still tracking, picking up dialogue.
- Low angle. Framed by the light above. Dark.
- Med Wide of Sidney running around the office as Sally informs him of new messages. Tracking around the room. Cool blocking.
- Robard talks into the phone threateningly. Dark around him, dimly lit.
- Wide Sidney and Sally.
- Sharp camera movements to each musician.
- Le' Samourai
- Shooting from behind the bar.
- If this was in color, it'd be a classy color palette of deep tones/ shades.
- Intimate med-closeups of Steve and Susan. Over the shoulders, where Susan's white mink coat is hELLA white.
** reading the script lets me in on things I may have missed visually. A lot of adjectives galore.
How it was done:
- Sidney dresse from behind the door. Many blocks of separation between the two.
- Camera is fluid
- The area is smaller than I expected. Her coat is brown!
- Beautiful camera blocking. It reveals so much about the character relationship or scene.
- Contrasty as it should be. Beautifully lit
- Use of shadows to emphasize dark thoughts and themes
- Single shots that put an exclamation point on dialogue
- Shady business that goes on at night, the truth comes out to play during the day.
- Sidney speaks over J.J's shoulder like an imp
The most important thing I got from Mira Nair's masterclass this week was learning how to create a good level of communication and relationship with your videographer. Through it all, I love the picture. It will be hard for me to release that kind of control to another person to execute my vision, but I understand the importance of it and how it can really help to stremline these things.