So I'm working on my first feature film, which I'm really nervous on. Here is a screen grab of a scene I've finished and graded.
It's not the greatest, since it is low budget with no special gear used besides my Lumix G7.
Any critic's on the framing, advice or anything?
I am not quite sure why you would want a critic to look at this so I will guess that you want some input on what you have posted. As a “feature” is this being framed for projection on a big screen or tv? What was the intended feel and mood of the picture and this scene?
My assumptions are this is one of your “better” scenes, and that the actor in the shot is talking to someone to camera left. I will go with big screen framing intent. The look on her face gives me a feeling of some sort of personal trouble.
First and foremost the shot is approaching a profile. What that does is lessen the emotional impact from the expression, and probably the delivery of the lines, from the actor. A close-up like this is used only sparingly on a big screen feature, more of a TV framing but with TVs getting larger the need for that tight a close-up in order to get the emotion is being lessened. A little more headroom is in order here. All in all an MCU or MS would carry the impact and make for a nicer theatrical frame. The camera angle is slightly high and unless you are trying to look down on her, a straight in camera angle would have helped by not shortening her neck adding to a weight impression. Making your actors look good is one of the basic tenets of cinematography and it keeps actors from wanting to throw things at us.
The choice of angle of the shot for the sun position is not helping you. The angle of the light on her face is less than flattering. Makes her weight more pronounced without adding much of an impression of 3 dimensionality. That sun angle accentuates lines on her face brought out by shadows defining her cheeks and from the corner of her mouth. Not making her look better at all. Over-exposure on her nose and cheek is not helping anything that I can see. The shadows around her eyes and eyebrows and the little shadow above her right eye work really well to give an impression of her being troubled however the lack of light in her eyes along with the camera height gives the impression that the troubles are winning.
The background and setting when shooting for 2.37:1 format have a greater impact than another screen ratios because for a given shot size of an actor more of the background will be revealed. Shooting almost straight into the background low wall and shrubbery gives little opportunity to use it to guide the viewers eyes to where you wish them to go. The limited scope of background takes away from utilizing the environment that she is in to aid in the feel of the scene.. The only thing you have to work with are the shadows and colour. The slightly darker area behind her face nicely separates her from the background, but the colour of her hair and the bushes behind her hair are quite close which isn’t helping the shot.
I’m finding the colour correction overly red and slightly magenta. Not great on skin tone and if the bushes and grass in the background had remained green the shot would have been a lot more pleasing. However judging colour on a still on the internet is pretty questionable. If she is troubled the colour, brightness, and sun angle are all working against you conveying a brooding slightly depressed or sorrowful look.
Hope this is along the lines of what you were looking for.
Andy
@Marc I would like to know more about this character, you captured a look here, where there is definitely more to her than meets the eye. She makes me wonder what the sting/plot twist is going to be. Low budget is never going to be wide screen cine studio technicolour so as long as frames match “mood” AND thread of story, don’t waste too much time over analysing exact mathematical equations.
@Marc Off course I agree with @Andrew for certain specifications but sometimes (depending on the context story) a more raw edgy feel is needed such as hand held camera etc.