I have such a bad headache right now. But, it's okay, because I am going to be talking about my FAVORITE shot that we did in the whole of filming.
But before I talk about that, we must discuss the Oscars. Twitter (at least my Twitter) has been buzzing with complains about the outcome of the the awards. I only really have one complaint. That Adrien Brody won best actor. I'm sorry ,but he does not deserve that award. If AI had to be used to enhance the performance, then he should not be considered the best actor. My boy Ralph Fiennes deserved that win and no one can change my mind.
But what I am very happy about is the Anora sweep. My girl Mikey Madison got that award and she wore it well. I know, I know that Demi Moore is supposed to be the bell of the ball, but she got all the other ones, she should chill out. Actually, her reaction to losing the Academy Award sort of made me cackle because she looked slightly disappointed (which is understandable). Plus Cynthia Erivo and Ariana grande cooked with the Wicked tribute.
Before I start my yap fest about the clip I am about to share, I just want to let the shot speak for itaelf and then we can go into a deep dive.
For a bit of context, this takes place after she first experiences the time loop for the first time and is walking out to her car after her repeat therapy session. Not to toot my own horn (I am realizing I say that a lot), but I am really proud of how this shot turned out. Like, I cannot believe my own brain came up with this.
So, I wanted to start it out in a close-up of Alice's face because her reaction to this time loop is arguably the most important part of the opening. the audience has to come along with Alice through her waves of emotion, those being confusion and fear. With there being close-up just as we are figuring out what is going on, then it kind of shows her thinking process.
As the shot goes on, the camera follows Alice from behind, does a 360 and then ends at a mid shot of Alice pulling her phone out of her pocket. I wanted to include a lot of camera movement, especially in the second half of the opening to show the whirlwind of going through a time loop. The loop around Alice is a good representation of that, sort of how the world is spinning around Alice but she is not moving with it.
Like I was talking about in one of my previous blog posts, we had to do some improvising on the day of, and this is one of those shots I improvised. After shooting all the indoor scenes, I wanted there to just be something that set the outside portion apart from it, so as we were filming, I told Maiya I wanted to try something a little different for this shot. And after blocking it out for a minute or two, I think we came up with such a cool shot that is a great representation of the emotions that Alice is feeling in the moment.
The shot following this one is also one of my favorites just because it felt like the elements were in my favor. Take a look.
Like the cloud coverage? Absolutely insane. This shot has the sole purpose of showing a sort of shift within Alice. Here, and in some of the subsequent shots, it shows how Alice is curious (almost to a fault) about who this mysterious caller is. We shot her from a low angle to give a contrast to her earlier feelings of fear. It gives a kind of illusion that maybe she will be able to get the upper hand and find out what is going on, but (as will be seen) she does not find out.
Also, the way we tilt up from the phone to her face shows how she has conflict riddled feelings in relation to this phone and the caller. It is also, at least to me, paints a kind of ironic picture of how this small object of communication is such a point of contention for her. I love that I made it so juicy. Patting myself on the back currently.
To be completely frank, the outside scenes were some of my favorite to shoot. It was such a wide open space and really allowed for a lot of moment, which is completely opposite of the indoor set. Not too shabby for an amateur production if I do say so myself.
And now for the movie quote of the day... (from out best picture winner)
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