Movie Screen Critique
In “Kingsman The Golden Circle”, two special organizations called the Kingsmans, based in England, and the Statesman, based in Kentucky, combine forces to test their strengths and wits. The elite secret agents form both of the organizations band together to battle a ruthless enemy trying to kill of anyone who uses drugs. The acting is superb and the filming is just as good. Most of the shots have a 360 pan to get an idea of whats happening behind the actors and to each side of them. Even when you can't see of frame, the actors hint to something about to happen off frame as shown to my right. Following the look breaking the rules of third in the final scene, it whips around without breaking the rule of 180 and shifts the actor to the opposite third from the whip pan up. The whip pans insinuate movement outside of the frame. The
director does well to foreshadow action off the frame and
doesn't reveal what's happening until the main actor reacts. Elton John's music is played throughout the film subtly and as the action picks up, the music gets louder. Towards the end of the scene, one of the agents is seen shooting a pistol. Every time that the pistol is about to be fired, the director uses slow motion to exaggerate the motions of the spy. The use of slow motion is key to making the action much more intense. As a whole, this film is very well done and really appealed to me.
FRIENDS
Filming friends was an interesting experience. As the director of photography, I filmed for Ava. Ava and I had been working with each other since the beginning of the year and hope to continue to work with her. Organizing pre production with her was a breeze. She had the shot list ready in laminated pictures 3 days in advance for me to look and decide who would represent each of the characters the best. The day of the filming, we found out one of our actors couldn't make it, so Ava and I found Will Simmers as a replacement.
For every shot, I used a 40mm lens. Composing the shots was much easier than usual. The lighting was great. Having two ARRI lights along with 2 LED lights was very nice. Focusing up the shot was pretty difficult. On auto focus, the shot looked washed out and over-lit. I decided to use manual focus for all of the shots. This made a big difference in how the shots came out.
Working with the actors was great. Originally, we were very specific about what we wanted and wanted it to be an exact replica of the show. But we found out that letting everyone be themselves was the way to go. Letting them put their own twists on the dances made for a much more interesting film. Instead of making this project an exact replica, we decided to take our own spin on the film.
Director - Ava Marshall
Director of Photography - Blake Greene
Editor - Daniel Hatheway
Lights - Johnny Miceli and Egan Schmitt
Actors - Sky Woodard, Daniel Hatheway, Ian Anglum, Will Simmers, Jess Grabher, Olivia Watanabe