Shot-For-Shot

The Fisher King is one of my favorite movies. I saw it over the summer, and it has continued to stick with me as a masterful film that really makes me feel closer to God. After a lot of thinking, I chose this scene because it is really fun, but because it also shows the beginning of the wonderful relationship of Parry and Jack, the main characters in the film. Jack needs Parry, but he doesn't know it yet. It takes forces outside of Jack's control and Parry's own goodness to help him make the changes he needs. 

In this particular scene, Terry Gilliam uses a variety of wide and close up shots to show the emotional state between the two characters. For instance, the opening two shots are close up. For Parry, this shows his enthusiasm and care for Jack. For Jack, it shows how hungover and uncomfortable he feels. I felt that I communicated these well. One thing that was tricky for me to replicate was Gilliam's lighting. The light in the film felt more natural, and I was not as successful at replicating that, especially since we lost one of our lights through the process. However, I feel that we did the best we could with what we had. 

The movement of the shots was also really important in conveying meaning. Parry is manic and excited about having Jack join his quest, and also in the middle of his thoughts, so he moves a lot. Jack is kind of frozen in fear and shock, so he stays still most of the time. However, in one important part when he moves to the shrine, we follow Jack. This adds to the tension of him trying to escape without Parry seeing, and makes the shrine feel more mysterious. I also learned a lot about orientation in planning out the scene. I need to pay closer attention to the space in movies and in planning things out to help with blocking so that my actors can spend more time on their actual performance. I totally misread the orientation in my scene, and this caused a lot of confusion for my actors and David. Fortunately, they were all patient and awesome as I figured everything out.

Overall, this project was great to start to figure out how directors can help the audience to feel and gave me confidence that if I put the time and effort into my work, and can portray the same meaning. Also, it reminded me that making movies can be really fun even when it is extremely stressful.