Working with Bidu was a really good experience and the good part about this project was that we were sort of on the same page. We agreed on most of the things that were done on the documentary and we struggled to find the best possible way of editing the documentary. Editing something new after every feedback session was somehow stressful but we now think that it did worth every minute spent on working for this project. After so many versions, so many cuts, so many opinions and a lot of work, here it is – the final version of our documentary – ‘It’s all about being fake!’

‘Yeah, this is the idea – to be fake

Yeah, this is the idea – to be fake and obviously not everyday I’m able to do this,nobody can be fake naturally everyday.
In the world we are living it doesn’t really matter…nobody cares how many degrees you have, where you are from, what you eat, how do you earn your living…they don’t careabout absolutely nothing, as long as you make profit.And I am part of his world, I am just a characterwhich at some point other want to exploit, to obtain something from it…and i don’t think I want to be that. I don’t know how to explain.
What does this mean? I go from door to door,I knock in people’s doors and I sale…actually it doesn’t even matter what I salebecause in fact all of us sell ourselves and people don’t buy what we sell,or what we try to sell, they actually buy us and they way we make them see what we sell.

I’ve reached a point where I realize that every bad day that I have it only makes mewant more to reach my target. That means I don’t want to let a bad day or a bad week or a bad period to make me give up what i trully want. Contrariwise I want to use it in my favour to push me into obtaining what i want.And now finally I have the feeling that I am accomplishing something with my life and its extraordinary. This is what i want, I don’t know what others want, but this is me.’

In what concerns inspiration, I was thinking initially to edit something that focuses on the story which is told and less on the visual part considering the material we have for the post production process. I loved Zeitgeist’s style mainly because lets the audience focus and reflect on the ideas that are presented. The animations during the play are maintaining the contact with the audience but still lets them focus on the shown problems.

After we were given some feedback from different people, we realised that the simple way of editing the documentary seems to be the best way of doing it as we have a good story already and anything else would just make the audience not to focus on the best thing we got. As everybody said the editing process should not be complicated at all and we have to keep it simple as it was at the begining, we did so an the final result pleased most of the people who have watched it.

As I saw in a couple of movies, the vertigo effect (dolly zoom, Hitchcock zoom, smash shot) creates an amazing feeling to the audience. It is achieved by zooming in while the camera moves away from the subject keeping the subject in the same position, at the same size during the whole shot. This technique modifies the angle of view creating a god visual effect for introspection scenes.

Also, I’ve been trying to get used to lighting effects thinking to create a more intimate atmosphere by having the subject in a spotlight while the whole background is black. If I will be able to find a new subject to make my documentary on I will use this techniques and I hope this will happen very soon.

The thing is that Maria is a really strong character and she says a lot of interesting things. We considered to film her again in order to produce a strong visual impact as well but we realised this would affect the film by not showing the audience the initial thoughts of the character. Maria changed after the film was shot and so did her perspective on life.

The editing process is confusing because is quite hard to extract only three minutes of all as she covers several themes in her speech: foreigner students, educational system, the will for a better life, etc.

As the feedback we were given was motivating, we focused on Maria talking generally about employers trying to exploit naive students looking for a better perspective and then on showing the impacts of this things on her life. She is very motivated and hard worker and she is expressing the will to actually do something outstanding in her life.

“Sacha Vierny was a brilliant film cameraman who photographed several key films of the last half-century and worked with some of Europe’s most individual directors, including Chris Marker, Luis Buñuel and, most notably, Alain Resnais and Peter Greenaway. A master of lighting and an expert in deep focus, he was equally proficient working in colour or black-and-white, his work extending from the dazzling monochrome shadings of Last Year in Marienbad and Hiroshima, mon amour to the exquisite colour of Belle de jour.”  Tom Vallance

Hiroshima, monAmour 1959 – Cinematographic style

In terms of mood, this film contains strong images captured in the very next days after Hiroshima was bombed  showing people in hospitals, suffering. It shows people suffering from irradiation and malformations.

The french girl who acts in a peace film in Hiroshima blends with the narrator . She gets in loved with a japanese and she is telling him the story of her life. That’s how the plot is being constructed.

The camera movements are very slow, inspiring sadness. There are a few fast moments like the one when camera is panning horizontally from the museum scene right into the actual terror scene from bombing days.

It is a black and white film with professional use of lightning. The lights are used especially to hide unuseful details, contrasting love with pain and confusion.

Sad music is playing almost continously ( slow piano, violin and flute).

hiroshima

In I am Cuba, he made an excellent impression on camera movements using hard to accomplish movements. Although the shots are very long ( even more than two minutes) the camera is moving permanently, involving vertical and horizontal panning, panoramic shots and extreme close-ups. In the begining of the film we see a panoramic view of the city, then camera moves to a close-up of the window in which the story unfolds.

His technique is a combination of far and near that makes the viewer blending in the action.

An extreme movement takes place at the funerals. In an unbroken take camera moves between the crowds at the funeral, goes up to 3rd floor, enters a cigar factory trough the window and then goes out trough another window and follows the procession from the top.

Excellent camera techniques definitely characterises Serghei Urussevsky .

I am Cuba masters the camera movement. If I would be able to change anything, I would combine these two, constructing an excellent story with nice camera work. I do think the impact would have been stronger this way, the audience would have been able to receive the message better.