{"id":83,"date":"2016-10-07T05:37:46","date_gmt":"2016-10-07T05:37:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/writersroom.ca\/knotforsale\/2016\/10\/07\/the-trouble-with-mcguffin-my-mcguffin-analysis\/"},"modified":"2016-10-07T05:37:46","modified_gmt":"2016-10-07T05:37:46","slug":"the-trouble-with-mcguffin-my-mcguffin-analysis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/writersroom.ca\/knotforsale\/2016\/10\/07\/the-trouble-with-mcguffin-my-mcguffin-analysis\/","title":{"rendered":"The Trouble with McGuffin:\u00a0My McGuffin\u2019 Analysis of 360\u00b0 Film"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\t\t\t\t\tTweet<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div><\/div>
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By\u00a0Sara Bayat, University of Victoria<\/i><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

As a somewhat recent innovation, 360\u00b0 films are still new territory in terms of production concepts. Given the fact that the camera (or six cameras, to be more accurate) is shooting in the round, there\u2019s little editing that can be done beyond special effects or splicing scenes together, and so the majority of the finished product must be shaped on set rather than in post-production. Simply, the footage cannot be manipulated as readily as it is in the world of conventional\u2014a.k.a. \u2018flattie\u2019\u2014filmmaking, and this presents challenges on multiple levels. Take, for example, the extremely low-budget short film, My McGuffin (available in all its glory here: https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=3lsa-8HhBqE)<\/a>, in which a man stumbles upon this newfangled 360\u00b0 camera in the middle of a public square, claims it for his own, and trouble then ensues. I suggest that you watch the four-minute video before reading further, as I\u2019m about to discuss in detail specific elements of the movie in comparison to the traditional film medium.<\/p>\n

\tI\u2019ll wait.<\/p>\n

\tOkay, so now that you\u2019ve watched the cinematic masterpiece that is McGuffin, you\u2019ll likely understand why this isn\u2019t quite a success with respect to championing a new era of filmmaking. Produced\/directed\/written by filmmakers Phil Moran and Yilmaz Vurucu (https:\/\/ffab360.com\/)<\/a>, the film seems less a product of consideration for (or even comprehension of) this exciting new technology, and more a lesson in not what to do. Take, for example, a concept as simple as proximity. In flattie films, which have capabilities such as zoom and close-up, we\u2019re able to see an actor\u2019s reaction to a scenario or line of dialogue, because the filmmakers have control over, and the ability to manipulate, the depth of field. Due to the static range offered by the 360\u00b0 camera in McGuffin, actors were often outside of the camera\u2019s focus, thus rendering their facial expressions very difficult to see. In fact, when the first guy spots the camera standing below a statue, we never actually get that moment of him initially seeing it because he\u2019s too far from the lens, and we should, considering this moment sets the plot (I use this term loosely) in motion. On a similar note, the actors don\u2019t pay much attention to the seams between camera lenses, often resulting in blurred or distorted characters. This means that lines of important dialogue or moments of tension, for example, are weakened (the woman arguing with the antagonist during the second scene, or running from him through the park).\u00a0<\/p>\n

At one point, two of the actors are turned away from the camera while talking to a third actor, and all we see in the foreground are the backs of their heads (a problem that could be fixed with angles, shots, and editing, but I\u2019ll discuss that later). Had Moran and Vurucu used a dolly, or perhaps gone to the trouble of blocking their actors, the images would have been much clearer and more effective. Another downfall of this film stems from the lack of control that can come with a 360\u00b0 production. During the first minute or so of the film, there are people (who very obviously aren\u2019t extras) in focus in the immediate background who seem to be wondering what the heck is going on. They look directly at the camera and actors often, react to lines of dialogue, and one of them even appears to look around for some sign of a crew. There\u2019s a moment later on (around the 2.38-minute mark), where one of the actors is clearly visible behind a tree, though it\u2019s obvious that he isn\u2019t meant to be seen yet in the scene. Careful camera positioning within a traditional production, coupled with the shallower scope inherent in standard filming, would have eliminated these people being caught in the shot, and it\u2019s likely that a visible crew on set would have alleviated some of the confusion for those bystanders at the beginning of the movie.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Further\u2014and this could probably just be chalked up to bad acting\u2014if the performers of McGuffin didn\u2019t have a line to deliver, they\u2019d sort of stand awkwardly and look at each other, waiting for their cue. This is fine if you aren\u2019t watching just one person, but since this is 360\u00b0, the actors need to be dynamic at all times on the off-chance that a viewer focuses on them. If the characters aren\u2019t interesting, then there\u2019s a likelihood of the audience disengaging from the storyline altogether and paying attention to whatever is going on in other areas of the video. At one point in McGuffin, the main guy\u2014we\u2019ll call him Joe, since none of the characters are named\u2014and a woman\u2014lets says she\u2019s Sophie\u2014are walking down a street discussing the possibilities that this technology can bring to the world. It seems largely improvised, and so the interaction is brief. There\u2019s an awkward pause. Joe then blurts out, \u201cHow about this, a strawberry filling with a sweet white wine,\u201d which is said seemingly at random until, after another very awkward, lengthy pause, during with Sophie blinks a lot, the antagonist\u2014Barry\u2014understands it\u2019s his cue to approach them again. This exchange delivers them into the next plot point. The most stimulating part of this interaction is the street they\u2019re walking down, which is unfortunate, because its basically just a bunch of parked cars and bland office buildings. Oh, the agony.\u00a0<\/p>\n

My point is, the entire time in which this conversation occurs, there\u2019s nothing interesting happening either between or around these characters, and this is where viewers start to switch off. In a flattie production, the editor can cut back and forth between actors, utilize different shots of various distances and angles, and inject the scene with interesting shots of landscape\/people\/things; all of these techniques eliminate awkwardness, speed up pace, and make the picture much more dynamic.<\/p>\n

\tWhile the concept of 360\u00b0 filmmaking is certainly fascinating, it has the potential to go very poorly without a lot of careful planning and consideration during pre-production, because there aren\u2019t a lot of ways to remedy issues in post. Sure, it\u2019s interesting to be able to look around the world of a scene, but the main action still needs to be engaging, particularly in narrative film, because whole point is that the audience becomes absorbed in plot and character, rather than distracted by basic flaws. We can only hope that by the time Moran and Vurutu make My McGuffin 2, they\u2019ll have figured this out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By\u00a0Sara Bayat, University of Victoria As a somewhat recent innovation, 360\u00b0 films are still new territory in terms of production concepts. Given the fact that the camera (or six cameras, to be more accurate) is shooting in the round, there\u2019s little editing that can be done beyond special effects or splicing scenes together, and so the majority of the finished product must be shaped on set rather than in post-production. Simply, the footage cannot be manipulated as readily as it is in the world of conventional\u2014a.k.a. \u2018flattie\u2019\u2014filmmaking, and this presents challenges on multiple levels. Take, for example, the extremely low-budget short film, My McGuffin (available in all its glory here: https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=3lsa-8HhBqE), in which a man stumbles upon this newfangled 360\u00b0 camera in the middle of a public square, claims it for his own, and trouble then ensues. I suggest that you watch the four-minute video before reading further, as I\u2019m\u2026<\/p>\n

Continue reading<\/span><\/i><\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[4,2,5,3],"class_list":["post-83","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-360-film","tag-knot-for-sale","tag-uvic","tag-vr"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/writersroom.ca\/knotforsale\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/writersroom.ca\/knotforsale\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/writersroom.ca\/knotforsale\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writersroom.ca\/knotforsale\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writersroom.ca\/knotforsale\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/writersroom.ca\/knotforsale\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/writersroom.ca\/knotforsale\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writersroom.ca\/knotforsale\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writersroom.ca\/knotforsale\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}