**Preproduction Exercise** - Pair project with self-selected partners - Available Mar 3 - Due in class Mar 8 In this assignment, you'll create preproduction artifacts for the FBI scene in [_The Departed_](http://francis.williams.edu/record=b1875345~S0) (2006, 2h 31 min, dir: Martin Scorsese) shown below, which begins at 8:12 and runs to 11:40 in the original film. The entire film is available in the library and on Glow, although you do not need to watch it. You can also [download the excerpt](departed-excerpt.mp4).  Preproduction usually works from a script instead of a completed film, since it is done before filming. For this assignment, we'll work from an existing film to remove the subjective elements of directorial choice. This allows you to attend to choices that have already been made and practice how they might have been described before the shoot. Goals ============= The educational goals of this assignment are: - Attend carefully to how shots are constructed and sequenced by recording them on paper, in much the way that art students draw a masterwork to train their "eyes" - Gain experience creating preproduction artifacts so that you can later create them to document and plan your own work - Learn the behind-the-scenes planning and design that create the fiction of an invisible camera and seamless set We hope that for every film you see after this assignment, you are conscious of the cuts, different takes and sets, and camera movements. Observing in this way creates a new layer of appreciation and continual learning opportunity. Specification ======================= Submit one copy of the following for your team: 1. A **plan view** of the sets used, clearly marking the actors, props, and camera locations (e.g., [_North by Northwest_ crop duster set](http://nofilmschool.com/sites/default/files/uploads/2014/03/north-by-northwest-shots.jpg)) 1. A **shot list**, in the order that they appear in the film. (e.g., an overly-verbose [_North by Northwest_ crop duster shot list](https://alfredhitchblog.wordpress.com/2015/07/04/north-by-northwest-deconstruction-of-a-scene-the-crop-duster-sequence/)) For each shot, describe: 1. Start time and Duration 1. Which set is in use and actors are present 1. Which camera position was used, and "who" the camera represented (omniscient 3rd persion, POV for a specific character, ambiguous participant, inanimate object, etc) 1. Field of view and shot type/technique (e.g., CU, ECU, MS, tracking, dolly, steadicam, etc.) 1. Depth of field and focus subject 1. Composition (e.g., over-the-shoulder, dutch angle, etc.) 1. Primary lighting (at least the key light orientation) 1. Any significant actor motion, camera motion, audio, or lighting notes 1. A **storyboard** based on your shot list (e.g., [_North by Northwest_ crop duster storyboard...with incorrect aspect ratio!](http://faculty.cua.edu/johnsong/hitchcock/images/stills/NxNW/cropduster/cropduster01.html)) 1. **Production notes** for the sequence Submit one individual [self evaluation](selfevaluation.md.html) for each team member. Put your name on each page of your work. Storyboards ================ In your drawings, attend carefully to proportion and composition. No shading or particularly fancy art is required--stick figures are fine, but they should be in the right locations and of the right sizes. If you watch the film from the embedded version above, you'll see it in a different aspect ratio than the original. There is also a 16:9 version on the DVD. We don't care _which_ aspect ratio you watch it in, just be sure that your drawings match the version on your screen. That is, don't stretch the image you're seeing to match an aspect ratio that you looked up online! Shot List =================== For the shot list, please use the following formatting (this example does not describe shots from the sequence that you are using):

Time	Dur.	Description
0:01:32	8s	**Camera B, MS** _Queenan POV of Sullivan and Dignam in Office_ (All shots in this scene are at night.) Sullivan is in focus and centered, Dignam is slightly out of focus in the background and on a horizontal third line to the right. Lighting is harsh and from the right, city light bokeh visible behind him through the window. Camera is explicitly Queenan's POV.
0:01:40	10s	**Camera A, CU ==> ECU** _Queenan reaction shot in Office_ Dolly in on Queenan's steady, hard eyes for reaction shot, with overhead lights reflected in the eyes. Extreme shallow DOF. Camera implicitly empathizes with Queenan, even though shown from Sullivan's POV.
	:

Beware of "omniscient 3rd person"--true omniscience is rare in drama. More frequently, we're seeing from the point of view of a non-existent character in these cases. For example, the viewpoint of a third superior office in the room, or of another junior officer being interrogated. These shots make us feel what the character feels, without explicitly being in their physical space or reading as a POV shot. In many cases, the camera empathizes with one character but shoots from the location of another. Directors love to play with viewpoint vs. point of view! Plan Views ================= Many scenes require multiple sets, and therefore multiple plans. This one is no exception. In the _North by Northwest_ plans, each open triangle shows the position and orientation of one camera, and its field of view. There are a _lot_ of cameras in that scene--you won't have as many for the assignment. The dotted lines denote the motion of the camera for tracking shots. You could denote a pan as two of triangles with a common vertex and an arrow to show the rotation between them. Production Notes ==================== We are concerned primarily with visual elements that require planning in this assignment. Unless a prop is core to the blocking in a scene or changes significantly between shots, you need not note it. Likewise, your production notes will be fairly minimal--just elements that don't otherwise fit into the format of the shot list. For example, the position of the sun, notes about set contstruction, any overarching visual considerations, B-roll coverage you might also wish to collect during the shoot, or any observations about which shots are absolutely critical to get right for narrative or continuity.