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Musings on Mark Cousins 40 Days To Learn Film

29/11/2020

Mark Cousins is the writer, director and soothing voice behind "The Story of Film: An Odyssey", a 15 episode documentary series which explores the creators and innovators that have shaped cinema since its inception. I've enjoyed this series for its depth, breadth and incisiveness but also for its focus on lesser known but no less important influencers from around the world.

So it was with great interest that I came across Mark's 2 hour video essay on filmmaking, 40 Days To Learn Film. Whilst tempting to watch it in one sitting, it's better viewed as intended, a roughly 5 min clip on a topic per day. This gives you time to make your own discoveries as you traverse the inevitable rabbit holes that it sends you through. Mark's passion for cinema is infectious and as I've been watching it prompted me to add my own thoughts.

Day One: Colour
This reminded me of Krzysztof Kieślowski’s seminal work, the Three Colours trilogy. Cynics might point to Kieślowski's admission that the colour theme was in part to appeal to French funding bodies but each film's colour motif, Blue (1993), White (1994) and Red (1994), was the glue on top of which deeper themes were explored.

A sidenote, I love that digital tools have now made the use of colour in this way more accessible to filmmakers.

Day Two: Eyeline
In this scene from the Godfather Part II, Michael is at the apex and forms a triangle with his antagonist on our left and his consigliere on our right.

His demeanor remains outwardly calm as his rival continues to goad him. A skillful use of shot reverse shot together with eyeline matching heightens the tension as he shifts his gaze between the two before delivering the iconic line "My offer is this... nothing".

Day Three: Wedding Films
The most commercially successful films in relation to their budget. We can be snobby about them but the universal appeal of wedding films is proof that we have more in common than we do differences.

A scene from Top End Wedding (2019), the second highest grossing Australian film of 2019.

Day Four: Drawing
Mark talks about the transformational nature of drawing and brings up Orson Welles and Akira Kurosawa as two directors who used drawings to communicate their vision. The truth is, few directors do their own drawings nowadays usually relying on storyboard artists.

We work in a visual medium and I feel drawing is a vastly underrated skill to deepen our understanding of perspective, composition and framing. I'm terrible at it but trying to get better through Drawabox.

Day Five: Focus
It seems to me that the lack of precision focus was more prevalent in the days of celluloid. Maybe the high dynamic range afforded by the medium was more forgiving. Maybe it was the difficulties of video monitoring on location.

In the Story of Film, Mark talks about the deep focus of Citizen Kane. Focus pulling has its place but there is something about empowering the audience to do some of the work with their eye.

Day Six: Depth (Z Axis)
On screen, depth is the third dimension in a 2D space, it is illusory.

Take a look at this breathtaking scene from Children of Men directed by Alfonso Cuaron and shot by Emmanuel Lubezki. We are Theo Faron.

Day Seven: Day Off

Filmmaking is all-encompassing. Get those ideas out of your mind and onto a piece of paper. Write them down, with that quaint object known as a pen. Check out the bullet journaling method to manage your life (and film projects!).

Day Eight: Obsessive Motifs

Day Nine: Nature

Day Ten: Thought

Day Eleven: Storytelling Before The Renaissance

Filmmaking is all-encompassing. Get those ideas out of your mind and onto a piece of paper. Write them down, with that quaint object known as a pen. Check out the bullet journaling method to manage your life (and film projects!).

Day Twelve: Walkabout

Day Thirteen: Story Economy

Filmmaking is all-encompassing. Get those ideas out of your mind and onto a piece of paper. Write them down, with that quaint object known as a pen. Check out the bullet journaling method to manage your life (and film projects!).

Day Fourteen: Kick Out The Truth?

Day Fifteen: Sublime

Filmmaking is all-encompassing. Get those ideas out of your mind and onto a piece of paper. Write them down, with that quaint object known as a pen. Check out the bullet journaling method to manage your life (and film projects!).

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