On writing and directing (and a wee bit Amanda Tapping and some Meredith Baxter)...
OMG epiphany!! Heh. I start off by saying how much I prefer writing, and then I completely fail at writing a coherent post.
Television and film is not my medium of choice for storytelling. Ever since I received my first non-picture book (Five go to Billycock Hill by Enid Blyton) for my 7th birthday I have been all about words. Words can put the experience directly into my mind, whereas tv can only put pictures in my mind of stuff happening somewhere else. When I read a book by a good author, I'm *right there*, and I can go back there every time I read it. There have been occasions where I've felt like that with film or TV, but they're single occurances, and it usually only happens the first time I watch something.
That said, I do have lots of crushes on pretty actresses, preferably ones who play cool kick-ass characters on shows with action and adventure and fun which leads to an interest in filmmaking pretty much because I wanna know what they talk about when they talk about their jobs. I have no desire to ever be involved with filmmaking, but the process is interesting, and so I love listening to commentary to hear nerdy writers talk swooningly about my favourite actresses. I've been listening to commentary for film and TV since I bought my first DVDs 10 years ago, and while I have a rudimentary understanding of stuff involved in filming I've never *really* understood the storytelling aspect to it.
Like, and I said this in my review of Sanctuary 2x07 Veritas:
"I wish I could say something about the directing, but alas, I know very little of it. I've grasped enough to be able to follow commentaries, I know about wide shots and coverage and steady cams, but I have no idea how to think in that language. I don't consciously notice direction, but that said, I know that the only episodes I enjoyed of the last seasons of The L Word were the ones Angela Robinson directed. So I realize it's important. And I can't speak much for Amanda's technique, but I can say that I very very much enjoyed the episode. I loved the tone and the pacing and yadda yadda. The tiling was somewhat less relevant than last week, but there wasn't all that much of it anyway, so it doesn't matter."
And up until last Thursday that was absolutely true. And then I listened to the podcast for Sanctuary 1x07 - Veritas. And it sounds totally corny, that oooh, here's my new pretty obsession and she just showed me what the concept of direction is all about. But it's true. For the first time in my life I acutally understood some part of what it was all about. TV is not my medium of choice, and I didn't understand how it could be used to convey POV, to me directing was purely mechanical. Some shots are pretty, others are annoying, sometimes the pacing is off, sometimes it's really good. But apparently there's more to it than that. And I really had no idea.
I don't even have the vocabulary to describe what I mean. But when I listened to Amanda Tapping and Martin Wood talking about how she'd shot the episode, what he would have done differently, why he would have done it differently, I realized on several separate occasions how it's possible to create character POV through directing (the only time I've been consciously aware of it is the traditional scary POV where they stay really close to someone, not allowing the viewer to see the perimeter, and then something scary jumps out from behind the camera - and I always thought that was a lame attempt at creating suspense where there isn't enough in the story for it to stand on its own). And I had no idea. I know how to go about doing it in writing (although I don't really have a good vocabulary for that either, I know what I like, I know what I don't like, but I can't quite explain why - I should take more literature courses), but I didn't know it could be done on film like that.
There are two scenes in particular that they talk about, both times the scenes are all about Will, and both time Amanda makes the choice to stay close by his shoulder, letting us see what he sees instead of going around to the opposite view which creates *Will's* POV of the events taking place. (There's also that scene with Henry.) It uses the camera to let the viewer feel what he's feeling, as opposed to just being informed of what he's feeling. And I realized that's one of the things that's always made me feel more distant from story told through film and TV, that whenever there's a sensitive scene they put the camera into the person's face who's going through it, which ends up with me feeling like I'm having the story told at me, instead of experiencing it myself. And this might seem like the most obvious thing in the world for people, but until I heard Amanda and Martin talk about it, I had never ever reflected on it like that. I've always thought of directing as being solely the mechanical POV of the camera, and never of the characters. It was a pretty darn cool realization. Am I making any sense?
Now, I don't anticipate this changing how I feel about film and television, because it's not gonna look any different than it did before, but it's an interesting new level of awareness that lets me keep my eyes open for new things when I watch tv. Which is very cool.
Also, Meredith Baxter came out yesterday! OMG! I had *such* a crush on her when I was little. For a good two months when I was around 10, Elyse Keaton was the prettiest woman in the whole wide world. I had friends who were like 'I wanna be cool like Mallory!', or 'Alex is so cute!', and I was all 'My favourite scene was that one with Elyse in the kitchen, because she's the prettiest woman alive!', only I didn't say that out loud. See, again, I had no idea I was gay, but I was vaguely aware of the fact that it was best to keep such opinions to myself. And she's gay. Which makes my inner child just die of *swoon*. And more grown-up me is pissed off that she was forced to come out but also in awe of the graceful way she handled it. Go Meredith!
Television and film is not my medium of choice for storytelling. Ever since I received my first non-picture book (Five go to Billycock Hill by Enid Blyton) for my 7th birthday I have been all about words. Words can put the experience directly into my mind, whereas tv can only put pictures in my mind of stuff happening somewhere else. When I read a book by a good author, I'm *right there*, and I can go back there every time I read it. There have been occasions where I've felt like that with film or TV, but they're single occurances, and it usually only happens the first time I watch something.
That said, I do have lots of crushes on pretty actresses, preferably ones who play cool kick-ass characters on shows with action and adventure and fun which leads to an interest in filmmaking pretty much because I wanna know what they talk about when they talk about their jobs. I have no desire to ever be involved with filmmaking, but the process is interesting, and so I love listening to commentary to hear nerdy writers talk swooningly about my favourite actresses. I've been listening to commentary for film and TV since I bought my first DVDs 10 years ago, and while I have a rudimentary understanding of stuff involved in filming I've never *really* understood the storytelling aspect to it.
Like, and I said this in my review of Sanctuary 2x07 Veritas:
"I wish I could say something about the directing, but alas, I know very little of it. I've grasped enough to be able to follow commentaries, I know about wide shots and coverage and steady cams, but I have no idea how to think in that language. I don't consciously notice direction, but that said, I know that the only episodes I enjoyed of the last seasons of The L Word were the ones Angela Robinson directed. So I realize it's important. And I can't speak much for Amanda's technique, but I can say that I very very much enjoyed the episode. I loved the tone and the pacing and yadda yadda. The tiling was somewhat less relevant than last week, but there wasn't all that much of it anyway, so it doesn't matter."
And up until last Thursday that was absolutely true. And then I listened to the podcast for Sanctuary 1x07 - Veritas. And it sounds totally corny, that oooh, here's my new pretty obsession and she just showed me what the concept of direction is all about. But it's true. For the first time in my life I acutally understood some part of what it was all about. TV is not my medium of choice, and I didn't understand how it could be used to convey POV, to me directing was purely mechanical. Some shots are pretty, others are annoying, sometimes the pacing is off, sometimes it's really good. But apparently there's more to it than that. And I really had no idea.
I don't even have the vocabulary to describe what I mean. But when I listened to Amanda Tapping and Martin Wood talking about how she'd shot the episode, what he would have done differently, why he would have done it differently, I realized on several separate occasions how it's possible to create character POV through directing (the only time I've been consciously aware of it is the traditional scary POV where they stay really close to someone, not allowing the viewer to see the perimeter, and then something scary jumps out from behind the camera - and I always thought that was a lame attempt at creating suspense where there isn't enough in the story for it to stand on its own). And I had no idea. I know how to go about doing it in writing (although I don't really have a good vocabulary for that either, I know what I like, I know what I don't like, but I can't quite explain why - I should take more literature courses), but I didn't know it could be done on film like that.
There are two scenes in particular that they talk about, both times the scenes are all about Will, and both time Amanda makes the choice to stay close by his shoulder, letting us see what he sees instead of going around to the opposite view which creates *Will's* POV of the events taking place. (There's also that scene with Henry.) It uses the camera to let the viewer feel what he's feeling, as opposed to just being informed of what he's feeling. And I realized that's one of the things that's always made me feel more distant from story told through film and TV, that whenever there's a sensitive scene they put the camera into the person's face who's going through it, which ends up with me feeling like I'm having the story told at me, instead of experiencing it myself. And this might seem like the most obvious thing in the world for people, but until I heard Amanda and Martin talk about it, I had never ever reflected on it like that. I've always thought of directing as being solely the mechanical POV of the camera, and never of the characters. It was a pretty darn cool realization. Am I making any sense?
Now, I don't anticipate this changing how I feel about film and television, because it's not gonna look any different than it did before, but it's an interesting new level of awareness that lets me keep my eyes open for new things when I watch tv. Which is very cool.
Also, Meredith Baxter came out yesterday! OMG! I had *such* a crush on her when I was little. For a good two months when I was around 10, Elyse Keaton was the prettiest woman in the whole wide world. I had friends who were like 'I wanna be cool like Mallory!', or 'Alex is so cute!', and I was all 'My favourite scene was that one with Elyse in the kitchen, because she's the prettiest woman alive!', only I didn't say that out loud. See, again, I had no idea I was gay, but I was vaguely aware of the fact that it was best to keep such opinions to myself. And she's gay. Which makes my inner child just die of *swoon*. And more grown-up me is pissed off that she was forced to come out but also in awe of the graceful way she handled it. Go Meredith!