Camera Work and Capturing Happy Accidents: The Elusive Search for the Joyous Happenstance
Saro Varjabedian is a New Yorkbased
director of photography and has
worked on numerous independent films,
music videos and corporate videos. He
has recently finished production of the
spec for Art House Film and is currently
in production on the short film, Lake
Living Dead. Saro can be reached at
www.sarodp.com.
Probably every aspiring filmmaker
has at one point heard the story of
how Conrad Hall, ASC got one of his
most memorable shots through a term
he coined the “happy accident.” At
the risk of sounding redundant, I’ll
just briefly explicate the incident. In
the film, In Cold Blood, a light shining
through a window peppered with
rain, cast shadows of tears on the
character, played by Robert Blake, who
is sentenced to death for committing
murder. Conrad Hall noticing the
shadowy tears acted on the moment
rendering the emotional state of the
character through his photography. In
fact, it would seem that many of Mr.
Hall’s most memorable shots came
from these free flowing moments when
things developed less from planning
but from a visceral feel for the shot.
Mr. Hall once said about his work that
he’s, “looking for the accident, the
joyous happenstance that comes with
filmmaking, rather than go through
some tortured manufacturing of an
image.”
Trying to embody Mr. Hall’s words
of wisdom, I found myself searching
for those same joyous happenstances
on a recent shoot. I was working on a
spec for the feature of Art House Film.
The movie is a narrative mocumentary/
dramedy about a totally clueless group
of filmmakers trying to make a movie.
Talking with the director, it became
very clear that the style called for the
raw feel of a documentary. In fact,
the movie is supposed to look like the
filmmakers behind the documentary
were equally as inexperienced as the
cast. So the camera had to convey its
own personality as if it is a character in
the movie.
The director, Kit Bihun, wanted to
keep the acting very organic and real.
The plan was to pretty much block
the actors, and then, without rehearsal
let them run free with the scene.
The photography’s style was to take
elements such as the camera work from
shows such as the The Office or Curb
Your Enthusiasm and merge it with the
visual look of classic film documentaries
like Sherman’s March.
Knowing ahead of time that my
focus during production was going to
be placed on the camera work and
capturing happy accidents, I scouted
out the locations with Kit on several
occasions. My primary goal was to try
to use as little light as possible, so when
I would go to the locations, I would
watch to see how daylight affected
light levels. This helped determine the
shooting schedule and call time for each
scene. On the final test shoot before
the commencement of productions,
Kit, the gaffer, Miranda Feldmann, and
I went over the look of the project. To
get the washed out look of old 16mm
film, we adjusted the gamma settings of
the camera (Sony PMW-EX1) and added
nude stockings to the front of the lens.
Once we tested light levels, planned
for the lighting setups and defined
the picture’s look, I felt comfortable
knowing that during production I would
no longer need to worry as much about
those areas, freeing me to spend the
rest of my time focusing on the camera
work.
The intention of the camera work
was to time well-placed zooms and
pans with the comedic actions of
the actors. To prepare for the timing
of the camera work, I pretty much
memorized the script to a point where I
could anticipate the responses from all
the actors. During the entire course of
production we were usually shooting
2 to 3 takes per shot to ensure that the
acting stayed fresh and organic.
Since there was no rehearsal other
than blocking, the shooting became
free formed, almost like a documentary.
As is the case with any documentary
that rushes to capture a moment, there
are natural mistakes that occur as the
cameraman tries to keep pace with the
unfolding of events. For instance, one
of my favorite shots came when we
were following an actor to a meeting
and by accident the actor closes the
door behind him before the boom
operator and myself can get through.
The door was a tinted glass window
and our reflection was caught in the
door as we basically slammed into it.
I loved the shot because it becomes
this really funny amateur moment that
perfectly depicts the ineptitude of the
camera crew making the documentary.
This was just one of the instances that
was not planned for but once occurred
worked perfectly for the movie.
Ironically, I found that it was all
the planning during pre-production
which fundamentally allowed me the
added time during production to seek
those joyous happenstances through
experimentation with shots, focusing on
following the acting, and simply feeling
free to make mistakes.
This article may not be reprinted in print or internet publications without express permission of StudentFilmmakers.com.
Check out this article in the August 2008 print edition of StudentFilmmakers magazine, page 6.
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