Balancing Scenes Written to Be Sexual
When working with Jennifer, she had some concerns about how she would be portrayed in a scene that in theory would be highly sexualized. However when I read the script and from listening to her concerns I felt that it wouldn't be appropriate to show to much of the action of her being nude and getting into the tub. So when I filmed and edited this scene, I made sure to be very selective on not only the actions, but also the angles that I chose to shoot from.
Color correction and grading challenges
I wanted the cherry red couch that Tommy "Blac Ice" was sitting on to really pop. However, when I increased the saturation of the red, the blood vessels in his eyes also became more prominent. While grading this scene, I had to qualify his face to bring down the saturation only in that selected area. Then, I tracked the qualifier to follow his face throughout the scene.
Sexual Innuendos using the Kuleshov effect
In film theory class, I learned about the Kuleshov effect from Alfred Hitchcock. This technique is a mental phenomenon where viewers derive more meaning from the interaction of two sequential shots. In this scene, I first show a shot of him kissing her neck while her eyes are closing. It is sexual, but they are not yet having sex. I then cut to a shot of a candle holder by the bed swinging. By itself, the candle holder means nothing, but in relation to the previous shot, it suggests that they have now consummated their sexual engagement.
