Major Project: Inspired DoP: Jonny von Wallström

I first dicovered Creative North AKA Jonny von Wallström. He is a self shooting documentary maker and has one numerous awards, eventually getting his documentary Pearl of Africa commissioned on Netflix. I prefer him as a DoP over and editor however. One thing I do dislike about his work is his color grading. I can't help but feel it is too overdone, especially for documentayr. Whilst I appreciate he is going for the cinematic look, I cant help but feel it is too much and it is possible to overdo it.

The Pearl of Africa has been his most successful documentary so far and is a world acclaimed story about Cleopatra Kambugu, a 28 year old Ugandan transgender girl. Biologically born male, but against all odds, transitioning into the woman she always felt she was inside. I believe he has found a very origional documentary idea mixed in with some incredible cinematography. This gives another perspective on gender transformations by basing it on someone from a third world country where it is not only a concept strongly rejected, but also very difficult to fund, being it is set in one of the most transphobic places in the world. Forced to leave her country and loving boyfriend behind. She sets out to fight for her right to love, and against all odds, to become the first accepted trans person in Uganda.

The vidoe below is the trailer for Pearl of Africa:



Wallström has his own YouTube channel which I have found very inspiring during the making of  Assumed Guilty. Having been commissioned by Netflix himself, he knows what to use in terms of storyline and camera settings in order to get his work commisisoned. This is where I learned that Netflix has their own standards to follow. Being able to watch a professional behind the camera and hwo his thought proccess works and how he goes about documentary storytelling is really enlightening to me and is one of the main reasons he inspires me.


For example, his video below shows how he goes about the storytelling process. We learn the techniques of:

- Emotions and some form of identification with the audience.
- If its an issue driven film it can get boring. It needs to focus on people and their stories otherwise it can lose the audiences attention as they have no real connection to it.
-Good storytelling takes time; need to understand the characters/people and feel the emotions of it.
-Good stories have suspence because they dont have all the clues to lead to a conclusion you cut to unexpected things because you don't want to know what is going to happen at the end.

I feel as though with our documentary I have stood to all of this. Ending on the innovation of jsutice as a conclusion is unexpected. It brings them together; all their stories are unique to them but when in a room with many others it leads to the conclusion that they are united by a similar thing. Likewise, I really wanted to get to know the individuals we were interviewing in this documetary film. This meant researching their stories and communicating with them in person and on the phone before hand.


When exploring his work and style of cinematography futher I could see he has clearly come from a film background over television. Television doesn't require content to be so cinematic, whereas film usually does. However, with Jonnys work and also many other documentaries today all emply the same style, especially with successful Netflix ones. But besides from the way it looks aesthetically, it is just as important that it puts the story across, and conveys emotion through the way it is shot. Close ups at moments of tension or in deep thought brings the audience closer to the invdividuals state of mind and whilst audiences may not relate on a personal level it can make them empathise rather than just sympathise.

References:
http://roughstudios.com/project/the-pearl-of-africa/
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm3698109/

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Story Telling Unit-Camera Workshop 3: 180 degree rule

Image
In today's workshop we were split up into groups and given a one page script and asked to film two characters discussing the 180 degree rule . The key to this task was understanding this rule and applying it. The script was a very basic duologue; the two characters come together, sit down across from each other and have a small conversation until one leaves at the end after understanding the 180degree rule. I chose to have my version with an entrance of one of the characters who is late for a meeting regarding this rule. The dialogue then starts as he begins to explain the 180 degree rule. My idea was to have them both on 'oppersite' sides of the  table, which could have appeared more tense, until the character understands the rule, the tension is broken when the first character leaves. I also wanted to test this rule with the entrance of the first character. I really enjoyed this worksop and found it useful in learning and understanding the 180 degree rule. I di...
Read more

Pre-Production: Professional Practice Interviews

Image
During the summer, I was lucky enough to be asked to take part in a work experience programme being offered to by production company 'Bareska'. In this, myself and three others were given free rein of a professional client project. I was the Co-Producer/Director/editor. I agree to do this project as it was ad-hoc- so a project I was able to work around uni and work and was also a fantastic opportunity for me to practice for my third-year major project, even if I didn't end up doing a documentary. This was fantastic practice in pre-production, directing and just speaking with contributors about a secretive subject. The Symbolism Behind the Chair I wanted to make the chair the focal point t of this piece. I feel it adds story watching Ben walk into frame and the wide shot makes it seem as though he feels alone now he doesn't have his brother, The sun is beaming in which is very atmospheric and quite angelic.  With my roles for the major project, I am going to u...
Read more

News Production: DIY Tech

Image
I am working in a group with Jack, Gavin and Simon and today we had a brainstorm after our unit briefing to find out what we could make a news channel on. We really liked one of the examples of the work of previous students who's target audience was students. We found this something that we could relate to ourselves so would be something we would be passionate about and take an interest in. Our first idea was to base it on university courses where students are made to pay for their own materials rather than the universities providing it. It was also about students taking courses in nursing and how there has been a significant drop in people choosing such courses as a result of the rise in uni fees and having their funds cut (previously the government would fund those degrees). For a segment of each episode I though it would be a good idea to do something more light-hearted too. We want it to engage our target audience of students by keeping it humorous and interesting without ...
Read more