Thursday’s session focused on cinematography and camera language. We discussed how composition, focus, focal length, geometry and movement can all be used to communicate meaning and guide the audience’s attention. Ting emphasized that the placement of the camera should always be motivated by what the scene is about and what the filmmaker wants to say, rather than simply choosing visually interesting angles. We reviewed an assignment she had given us over the break, which involved storyboarding scenes from The Incredibles. After analyzing the original sequences, we were asked to create new storyboards using different camera angles and shot choices based on the cinematography principles covered in class.
Towards the end of the session, Ting introduced the “5 × 5” challenge. We had to create a storyboard consisting of exactly five shots, each lasting five seconds, using only camera language to tell a story about a person in a bar. There was to be no dialogue and no facial acting, meaning that framing, composition and camera movement had to carry the narrative. The assignment was due the following day, so it required quick decision making and forced me to think more economically about storytelling. I found it surprisingly difficult to communicate emotion and progression with such limited tools, but the exercise made me appreciate how much information can be conveyed through cinematography alone.
On Friday, the exercise took an unexpected turn when Ting paired everyone up and asked us to exchange storyboards. Rather than animating our own ideas, we became directors of our own sequences and had to explain them clearly to our partners while animating somebody else’s work ourselves. After a short demonstration on camera rig animation in Maya, we spent the remainder of the session working on the shots. I found this process particularly interesting because it pushed collaboration to another level. Animating a sequence that was not originally my idea forced me to pay close attention to communication and interpretation. At the same time, directing someone else through my storyboard made me realise how important clarity is in visual storytelling. The exercise also gave me the opportunity to work with classmates I had not spoken to much before, making the studio feel much more collaborative and connected.