Visual concept response: Story, composition and the ever-enticing long shot
By: Naomi Robinson
Tags: Television, Editing, Screen, Film

The Diary: A Summary

A story of adventure in the mundane, The Diary is a mini-series that follows a young woman as she travels to Italy tracing the steps her grandmother took when she was her age. Inspired by the magic of the holiday season, Talia decides that chasing the stories in the diary is the best way to find herself. Each episode has Talia ticking off a checklist of ten activities and locations. The first episode takes her to Christmas markets in Merano located in Northern Italy.

The Breakdown: The Story

Episode one is introductory in many ways. The primary goal is for the audience to connect with Talia, and as Inglesias (2005) contends, there needs to be universal meaning and viewers must feel empathy for the story unfolding. Achieving this comes down to viewer comprehension and the complexity of the narrative (Mittell 2006). Bordwell (1989) notes that there are structures and modes for constructing narratives including classic Hollywood, historical and art cinema that employ individualistic strategies for storytelling. Whereas surrealist filmmakers strategically manipulates narrative through abstraction and disorder (Hagener 2007).

In screen media, a poetic dance of meaning erupts when verbal and non-verbal cues combine. The former will be seen in The Diary through dialogue on two fronts, voiceovers and active dialogue. Crucially, this mini-series will take an experimental turn by having the protagonist narrating the episode before taking a shift and breaking the fourth wall by beginning to speak to the audience. Talia will thus have conversations with other fictional characters, herself in the form of reflexive voiceovers and the audience.

The Breakdown: Editing

In The Diary, the approach will involve each episode being comprised of a continuous take. As Kolker (2015) discusses, this steps away from the illusion of continuity through edits and stitching together fragments of story. The cut is often used as a means of creating a cinematic sequence which becomes incredibly important for the visual architecture of the narrative (Cairns 2013). Andre Bazin argues of the notion of having faith in reality through depth-of-field in long shots in mise-en-scene. That is, from Bazin’s perspective, an uncut shot can maintain a cohesive frame and maintain the relationships between objects and people within the scene (Gibbs and Pye 2017).

More than this, long shots affect the viewer by providing an aspect of positionality, a sense of being, where they enter a participatory space to interpret the meaning of the film (Aumont 2014). This style of image sequencing takes away inferences from the audience but at the same time relinquishes control to them (Carroll 2003). That is, where cuts and edits could tell an unspoken story and direct them to a certain position, a lack of edits pushes viewers to subjectively understand based on the continuous stream of information. The Diary plans on tapping into a sense of realism, where the story is embedded in a flexible interpretation through use of a continuous sequence.

An example can be found in season one of True Detective. In the fourth episode, a six-minute unedited shot tracks the main character played by Matthew McConaughey as a raid unfolds. Another in the entirety of the film, 1917.

The Breakdown: Mise-en-scene

Due to the long take being implemented, the space and lighting in the composition of the frame must be considered carefully (Barnett 2008). This is where mise-en-scene comes into play defined as an all-encompassing term for everything within a frame that culminates in visual style. It is everything that is in front of the camera that has elements of realism in terms of detail and expressionism in being representative of inner and outer thought processes and emotions (Martin 2014).

The Diary plays with the space of the frame by using composition and camera movements as key factors of interest. Kolker (2016) considers how whether dynamic or static, long shots put an emphasis on the composition because of the relational nature of extended takes rather than the linear movement achieved but editing and cuts. As a literal frame of reference for visual information, the audience can dissect what is included within the one shot.

Interestingly, long shot is often found attached to open frames (Martin 2014). While The Diary will have wide shots, for the majority it will be relatively close to Talia, the frame cropped halfway through her torso. The constantly moving sequence will only become static momentarily. It is this dynamic temporal and spatial movements that will signify important shifts in the narrative in place of edits.

The Structure: Dialogue

The first episode is a ten-minute sequence that starts by looking over the shoulder of a young woman reading a diary and ends in the same way. The moments in between are filled with her walking to, and then through, the markets. It is a simple concept, but to create the whimsical yet realistic portrayal requires a very specific set of camera movements and timing.

This sort of scene could be shot by using a method of shot/reverse shot or illusionary editing. However, the smooth and personal touch of having the camera follow Talia helps absorb the aesthetic intentions of The Diary; a journey of otherness and familiarity.

The episode can be broken down into three parts: the inner monologue, the outer interactions and the illusion-breaking fourth wall conversation. The inner monologue is the primary voiceover section of the short. Here, the audience learns about Talia’s motivations and her goals. This does not include in-the-moment reactionary dialogue. Rather, the purpose is for the voiceover to act as an allegory for a diary entry. The outer dialogue exists to root the narrative in context and reality. It is an opportunity to have the story progress alongside the ongoing movement. Interacting with other characters helps fulfil character goals in understanding what her grandmother went through from a participatory standpoint. Finally, the illusion-breaking fourth wall conversation refers to an immersive device that will be used as a means to include the viewer in a more active way. Stepping away from passive consumption, this is a choice to threaten the boundaries between what is real and what is fiction.

The Structure: Shot Sequence

Some important notes to begin. First, the shot requires Talia to always be in the centre of the frame when she is present — this will be a majority of the time. Second, the camera will be in constant movement except for a pause when she stands still, looks the camera straight down the barrel and starts speaking to the audience. Finally, the long take approach lends itself to having location changes as the camera tracks Talia’s journey. The roving camera initially follows her like a friend or a guardian but then starts making sweeping movements at key moments. The direction shifts with the camera sometimes following Talia from behind or the side, facing her like when she confronts the audience, or very rarely the focus moves off Talia and onto an object within the scene. The lighting always permits Talia to be seen in reasonable visibility despite the filming taking place at dusk.

Below is a skeleton of the scenes:

Act One

Talia is reading her grandmother’s diary, sitting in a windowsill overlooking a hillside.

A close-up of the diary, pulling back slowing and swivelling until Talia’s profile is in view.

Standing and throwing on her coat and scarf, Talia leaves her apartment an gets in an elevator. She walks outside and crosses the road.

Camera follows her. Behind on the right until she gets in the lift, then behind on the left as she crosses the street.

Act Two

Her pace slows as she reaches the market. Talia is excited and taking in the wonder of everything from afar.

The camera slows only slightly, able to catch up with Talia and film her from the side. Focus is on her and not the market, although the Christmas magic can be seen around her.

Spotting someone she knows, Talia moves to a stand to try cocoa. The person asks whether she has found what she’s looking for, and she tells her that she can feel it approaching on the horizon.

The camera moves ahead of her, and she walks towards it. As she nears the camera meets her and moves from her left around to her right.

Act Three

Contemplating the question her new friend asked her, Talia asks the audience. She then proceeds to continue speaking to them, walking through the markets toward the Christmas tree.

The roving camera gives chase again, immediately swinging to face Talia which is when she stops moving and breaks the fourth wall. Where the cameras movements were reactionary to her previously, she now responds to the camera which begins heading away from her toward the tree.

Arriving at the tree, she speaks about hope even in the darkest of times and hints that this will be an adventure shared between her and the new travel companion, signing it off with a wink.

The camera swoops up to the top of the tree and back down to the diary Talia has opened to compare a picture her grandmother took.

Conclusion

As a symbolic representation of the thin line between art and life, The Diary is a platform to reflexively think about what is most important to each of us. It becomes about taking risks and a willingness to gain perspective. Utilising the relational advantages of long shots as a primary mode of storytelling, The Diary makes camera movements and composition key components for shifting tone and changing the scene. With stylistic choices, in terms of dialogue and narrative, this mini-series hopes to push the boundaries of realism and surrealism.

*Written for CIM410 — Screen Form at SAE Institute.

References

Aumont, J. 2014. Montage. Translated by Timothy Barnard. Montreal: Caboose.

Barnett, D. (2008). Movement as Meaning. Amsterdam: Rodopi.

Bordwell, D. (1989). Historical Poetics of Cinema. In R. Barton. (Ed.). The Cinematic Text: Methods and Approaches. New York: AMS Press.

Carroll, N. (2003). Engaging the Moving Image. New Haven: Yale University Press.

Gibbs, J. & Pye, D. (Eds). (2017). The Long Take: Critical Approaches. London: Palgrave Macmillian.

Gilbert. L. (2013). The ‘cut’ in the architecture of Jean Nouvel and the scenery of Ken Adam. In G. Cairns. (Ed.). The Architecture of the Screen. Bristol: Intellect.

Hagener, M. (2007). Moving Forward, Looking Back. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.

Iglesias, K. (2005). Writing for Emotional Impact. Livermore: WingSpan Press.

Kolker, R. (2016). Film, form, and culture: Fourth edition. Oxan: McGraw-Hill Education.

Martin, A. (2014). Mise en scène and film style: from classical Hollywood to new media art. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

Mittell, J. (2006). Narrative Complexity in Contemporary American Television. The Velvet Light Trap, 58, 29–40.