This week I am going to write about the process of planning for a shoot and how important it is. First off, I want to talk about how important it is even when you are doing a small project to plan ahead and know exactly what you are going to do before you start shooting. I found this out the hard way while working on a small project for class.
The most important thing that makes shooting an easy process for me is having a detailed shot list. For really small two or three minute videos I thought there would be no reason for a shot list because I had what I wanted to do in my head. But as I began to shoot I found out how unorganized I was and found that I had no real idea of what I wanted the actor to do or how I wanted to set up for a shot. Having a shot list for this project would have even shown me on this particular project that the idea I had was no good and I would have done something else. That is why I believe that having a shot list is the most important part of Planning for any size project that you are doing.

For this weeks post I decided to use the suggested topic and find some shots that show "beautiful" light.

In this classic Twilight Zone episode with William Shatner this shot uses its lighting very well. Fully exposeing Shatners face and keeping the creature in partial shadow makes a great this a great shot.

The lighting in this shot of Tom Cruise from Collateral is perfect!

I love this shot from Thirteen Day of Kennedy with his brother and O'donell, played by Costner, in the background.

Shot by Shot

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBq8K-Y2B4g

For my shot by shot analysis I did the opening scene of the James Bond movie Goldeneye. The first shot is a master shot a the dam where Bond is about to base jump. You see a small airplane flying and the camera pans out to get the entire view of the dam in the shot. I think that the shot of the plane adds to the shot. If it had not been in there we would have just seen a boring dam.








The second shot is a very low shot of a man (Bond) running through a gate. I like how the camera moves with the actor in this shot and makes us feel like we are running with him.










The third shot confirms to us that the character is on the dam that we saw in the master shot.











I like the next shot because it is the first shot in the scene where we can see a full shot of the actor but we cannot see his face. I think they did this on purpose because it was Pierce Brosnans first Bond movie and they wanted to "tease" the audience in this first scene.










The next 2 shots are a crafty way of showing what the character is about to do without showing a full shot of him.



















The shot of the dam shows how large of a jump he is about to take.










This next shot says a few things. It shows a birdeye view of how large a jump he is about to take. It also shows enough of the character to tell us that is Bond but doesnt expose his face enough to give us a true look at the new actor.











In the next few shots of him takeing the jump I like how is face is blacked out completely by the light.