N.10 | "Rashomon" (triangular-relationship scene), Coppola on stealing art plus more

JOURNAL ENTRY

October 20, 2024: My second micro film we shot on September 22 is edited and ready to go. It's titled Lupo - The Cleaner.

The last thing I’m waiting for is the music score and the sound design/foley from my friend and sound expert Giancarlo Bottalico. He's going to do that in a couple of weeks, which is amazing considering he’s having a vacation now.

This is taking longer than I expected, but it’s my fault. I must become way more disciplined when it comes to finishing a project.

Also, I’m working on a nano film (30-60 secs) and another micro film. I want the former to be done and dusted in a week or two, and the latter before Christmas.

I wonder if I’ll have time though. Film school starts next week, which will probably eat up a lot of my time.

FILM STORYTELLING

Rashomon (triangular-relationship scene)

I watched Rashomon again this week. It reminded me that it’s important that 1) I keep watching both contemporary films and movies from the past, and 2) I infect my mind with films from Italy and Europe, America, Australia, Asia and anything in between.

Almost all scenes in Rashomon are beautifully composed. The cinematographer, Kazuo Miyagawa, was a real master. One of the best scenes is the triangular-relationship scene.

In the scene, we go from the husband watching the wife, to the husband watching the bandit. Then, we go from the bandit watching the husband, to the bandit watching the wife. Then, we go from the wife watching the bandit, to the bandit watching the husband. The scene ends with the wife watching the husband.

The movement repeats itself to represent the triangular relationship between.

3 INTERVIEW HIGHLIGHTS

Francis Ford Coppola at Happy Sad Confused

Collecting three highlights from this discussion between Josh Horowitz and legendary director Francis Ford Coppola.

How 10 more minutes can change everything

Coppola recalls the first time The Godfather Part II was shown in San Francisco. It was a disaster. The audience hated it. They hated the music, the acting…almost everything. This was a very depressing moment for the young director. In just a matter of weeks, they would have the premiere in New York.

Then, Coppola understood why the picture was not received well.

The Godfather Part II is structured in two time periods, spanning across decades. Originally, the two time periods were shown in the movie in 10-minute intervals. And this was the problem. The intervals were too short. The audience would be taken out of the story too quickly.

So, the director had the editors work for several days to extend these intervals to 20 minutes each. After the change, the audience loved it. Nobody complained about anything.

Being part of another filmmaker’s story

Edward Berger (All Quiet on the Western Front) went to see Coppola once to say that he became a film director inspired by Apocalypse Now. For Coppola, that is the greatest award he could ever receive. He’s happy to know that his work can inspire many others.

Coppola says that that is exactly how Balzac (French novelist and playwright) thought as well.

Someone pointed out to Balzac once that many young artists were stealing his stuff. Balzac replied that that’s why he wrote, so that others would take his work and in turn he would be part of theirs.

The misconception of “getting a great performance”

The expression “getting a great performance out of an actor” is a big misunderstanding of film directing. The actor does the performance. The director is someone who does give a good note once in a while and helps whenever possible.

Source: From Happy Sad Confused (paraphrased and/or quoted).

FILM STORYTELLING

The establishing shot

The establishing shot is a common visual element to open a scene or an entire film. It's wide enough to establish the geographic, the time of day, the project tone.

It shows the scale of the subjects in relation to their environment. It's also often used to transition between scenes, to mark the transition to a new location or introduce crucial details about the location or world.

TIDBIT I’M PONDERING

Tips on building a good hook in literary and films

I’m doing my best to write scripts every second day, to keep myself sharp. I read Weiland’s Structuring Your Novel’s first chapter on the hook again to refresh my memory.

Here are a few interesting points that I believe apply to film as well:

No matter how amazing your story is, you must hook the audience as soon as possible. The question the audience should ask is: “What’s going to happen next?” and not “What’s going on here?”

A good hook has the following traits:

• It doesn’t show anything about the backstory: don’t overwhelm the audience with information they don’t need now.

• It opens with character(s) (protagonist(s) or not), in order to connect with the audience.

• It opens with conflict, which doesn’t necessarily mean nuclear warheads.

• It opens with movement: motion will keep the audience watching.

• It orients the audience with an establishing shot, only if it makes sense.

• It sets the tone of the entire story.

Also, the hook must be organic. It has to make sense for what comes next. So, don’t try to be a smartass by opening with a clever hook. Don’t betray the audience. They won’t like it and they’ll be disappointed even before the film starts.

Source: From Weiland’s Structuring Your Novel (paraphrased and/or quoted).