Shot for Shot - Final

The Original Scene

Shot for Shot Remake

Side by Side Comparison

                When I first started this assignment, I had no idea what I wanted to shoot.  I started by going to Youtube and looking up a ton of scenes from my favorite movies. I considered doing scenes from Catch Me If You Can, Misery, and Silence of the Lambs.  In the end, I settled on doing a scene from one of my favorite movies, The Truman Show.  I love how this movie deals with what it means to be “real”, and the importance of free will and choice, even if it means living in an imperfect world.  The religious parallels in this film are excellent, so I was excited when I got approval to shoot it.  I also loved how the camera movements and wide lenses gave the impression that you’re watching a TV show or security footage, so I was excited to replicate that in the shot for shot.  We also worked hard to replicate the original colors and costumes as much as we could (although we forgot to give the actor playing Truman his tan coat until it was too late).

            In retrospect, I wish I hadn’t started shooting the last part of the scene first.  It was fine for my actor because there wasn’t a lot of difficulty with his shots, but we ended up shooting the most emotionally difficult shots with my actress first, and neither of us really knew how to draw out the right emotional state.  I felt like she did a great job for the rest of the shoot, but it was a mistake to start her off with the hardest shots emotionally.  I also wish that we had shot in the kitchen first because we ended up going over time, and the member who let us use her home had little kids, and we were there until 10:30.  I was so grateful that she was willing to help us, and she was very gracious for letting us use her home, especially since it got a little late, but I feel like we overstayed our welcome, especially since she has little kids.  Since we shot the living room part at my brother’s apartment, we could have shot those parts last without disturbing as many people (although I apologize to my crew who had to carry equipment up to his 3^rd story apartment).  Also, while editing, I realized that while the actors did a fine job, there were plenty of moments where their delivery was slightly faster or slower than what the original film did, which meant that while most of the shots are similar down to the frame, some of them had to be lengthened or shortened in order to make sense, so it doesn’t match as perfectly as I wanted it to.  I wish I had taken a little extra time with the actors to watch the shots over and over and perfect the timing.  I also wish that I’d had more time to get everything from the framing to the color of the set perfect, but I feel that we did a fine job with what we had to work with.

I’m extremely grateful for my cast and crew who were so willing to help me with this project.  I was super grateful for my wonderful DP, Lauren, who was extremely helpful in helping me to replicate the shots for this film, especially the difficult Steadicam shots.  Overall, even though I was stressed out of my mind about this project, I feel like the shoot went smoothly and I’m thankful to everyone involved who helped out.