Link to The Final Piece.

First test shoot notes

After our first test shoot at Macedon, we realised that our footage needed to be a lot more stable as it was hard to manoeuvre the camera around trees and plants. We were thinking of getting a stabiliser from the tech office but Paul then gave us a tip to just attach the camera to the tripod with the legs folded up, the idea being that the weight of the tripod would help us get a better grip on the camera and produce steadier shots.

This test shoot really helped us get a sense of the space we were working with and definitely made us realise that we needed to storyboard ASAP. We got together as a group and with our experience filming and considering how far the locations are, were more realistic with ourselves and our time constraints and decided that we would now be filming at two locations – Macedon and at Jeyda’s place.

With these new locations and constraints in mind, we brainstormed some shot ideas:

 

Group meeting

After coming up with some shot ideas, Paul pointed out the importance of becoming familiar with our shots and going out and actually filming and experimenting. This prompted us to meticulously plan out our filming days so that we could book in all our equipment and be prepared. As with any group work, it is always difficult to sort out everyone’s availability and this became increasingly difficult as our actress, Alex, wasn’t available on the same days we were.

After around an hour or so of deliberation and planning, Sam said that she had a friend that studied communications at RMIT as well and would be willing to help out. After checking that Sam’s friend had similar availability to us, we decided that it would be best go with Sam’s friend and had to let Alex know in the most kindest way possible that we had found someone else and we really appreciated her interest and willingness to help us out. This is always the worst part of any scenario and even writing this now, I am cringing to the core and feel terrible! but at the end of the day, it’s better to sort these sorts of things out earlier than later and as long as we do it in a professional and respectfully kind way, I’m sure people will be understanding, which Alex definitely was.

Also, shout out to Alex for taking it so well and saving us from a lot of guilt and sleepless nights thinking about it! (which I know is something I would be doing)

So now we have all our stuff planned, we just need to go out and shoot.

 

Test shoot with storyboard

This week we test shot our storyboard at Macedon and the weather was thankfully on our side, as we were able to experiment with shadows, different light and lens flares. This was a very successful day of filming as we were able to see what our ideas looked like on camera and came up with a lot of ideas in terms of character motivation and action.

This time we remembered to bring a zoom mic and after trying to figure out the levels, we were able to record some really good atmos that was much clearer in comparison to our previous recordings on an iPhone.

We were able to experiment with lens flares, and play with the idea that our character may not be in the forest at all, through dream-like shots and allusions to this location which we will also try and explore when we film indoors.

We found that some of the ideas we had originally planned, didn’t translate well on screen such as in the shot below;

Here, we wanted to try and introduce the ‘other souls’ that are mentioned in the poem, and try and incorporate hands and the idea that our character was not alone and both haunted and comforted through those that have passed. However, this looked incredibly cheesy and comical and even with a tighter frame and with colour grading in mind, we could tell that this idea was not going to work and thus, revealing the importance of this shoot.

Through filming, we came up with the idea to hide the walking path, and that the character’s goal would be to find the lake and from there, we slowly reveal that she had been collecting twigs and sticks to build a mini raft that would carry flowers and send it off into the lake. This would be her little ceremony and purpose in the forest and would help her move on and pay tribute to her troubles and thoughts, reflected through the poem. For this, we collected sticks to try and attempt to make a raft, but we’ll see how we go.

Every shoot is valuable, especially test shoots as we are able to become more familiar and confident with the camera and our surroundings, ultimately helping with our official shoots and future projects.

Here are some of the shots that we liked;

 

First official shoot – Indoors

This was our first time meeting Bay, our actress and she was so sweet, we couldn’t have asked for a better fit for our film and our group. This was also our first time filming at Jeyda’s house so we made sure to make the whole day free so that we could experiment and spend as much time as we needed filming.

As we had a few shots already story boarded, after some snacks and a lot of talking, we finally got started on one of the hardest but most exciting and rewarding shots of the day, the establishing panning shot of the character sitting on the ground, looking at herself in the mirror. To achieve this, we placed the camera attached to the tripod, on top of a towel and coat so that we could drag the camera to achieve this effect. Although it took us around an hour to figure out the timing, positioning and the best technique to pull the towel steadily, I think we got a really good shot and had way too much fun trying to figure it all out. It’s pretty amazing, the everyday things you can use to achieve certain styles and shots and it just goes to show that you don’t always need fancy equipment like a Dolly or a Stabiliser, to achieve them. I definitely think I’ll be using the towel technique again and it was so good to have the time to experiment with different techniques which I know I’ll be able to use on future projects.

Our main reason for wanting to film indoors was to experiment with natural lighting in a more contained space and work with reflections from mirrors and windows. One of my favourite shots is this one seen below;

We knew we wanted to get a shot from outside looking in at the character looking in the mirror, but we never expected or even thought about trying to get the flowers reflected in shot as well. I am so in love with this and I think it looks magical and really fits with this idea of warped reality and has this dream-like quality to it. This will definitely be used in our final film.

 On this shoot we made some changes to the objective or narrative of the film, as we were still unsure as to how our indoor footage could connect to our Macedon footage and also struggled to think of character actions. Through this, we decided to have the character write the poem on a piece of paper which will then be burnt at the forest, as a way for her to pay tribute to all those souls mentioned in the poem, as our original idea of assembling a raft was much harder than we anticipated.  Through this, I feel that our film now has a stronger sense of direction that will help us with filming and editing and is also a good way to introduce the poem and allows us to provide greater context in relation to the character’s motivations and state of mind.

 

Final official shoot – Macedon

Sticking with our traditions for this project, we all arrived early in the morning ready to film. The weather was slightly cloudy throughout the day and allowed for fairly consistent footage that will hopefully make it easier for us when we are editing.

Upon arriving, we quickly found out that the batteries were low on the Zoom mic from when we picked it up that morning so we had to be as quick and careful as we could to record atmos and recordings of the poem. From this experience, we will definitely make sure to charge the equipment before returning it to the tech guys from now on as this was really disappointing. This made us more grateful for the fact that we were able to visit the site more than once for previous test shoots, and we still had other recordings of atmos that we could use although it would have been better if we could record Foley and actions that could help create a more dense, interesting and immersive soundscape for our film.

In addition to this, we weren’t able to go with our idea of our character burning the poem as we forgot a lighter but we improvised and decided for the character rip and scatter the poem into the lake instead. I think that all of us were really in tune to our surroundings and also just plain lucky that we were able to stumble across a lady bug and the dead moth in the lake and were able to get shots of them that could potentially tie in so well with the poem and what we want to express. However, I feel like we could have pushed the envelope a bit more in terms of more experimental shots and angles but it’s sometimes hard to deviate from what you already have pictured in your mind and this could potentially hinder some really great ideas.

For this shoot we were able to apply all our filming tips and tricks that we learnt from previous test shoots to maximise our time and we were definitely the most efficient we have ever been on a shoot. Working with an actress was a good experience as it allowed us to work around and with someone other than our group members and learnt to vocalise and instruct our ideas for our desired shot or tone that we were trying to capture for the film.

All in all, it was a really successful shoot and even with a few setbacks, it comes with the nature of filming or with anything, you just need to get used to improvising and make the most of these situations and your surroundings and I feel like we our group did a good effort doing so. I honestly have never had this much fun working on a project before and it just makes it all the work that we put into it seem more rewarding and I can’t wait to see what our final product will look like.

 

Collaboration

This semester has been the best semester of my whole time at RMIT and I credit that mostly to this studio, BOX and also because of the group that I have been lucky enough to be a part of. As media students, and even for all students, collaboration is basically inevitable and although it is said time and time again, it’s true when they say communication is key.

Good communication is one of the main reasons our group was able to pull through and get our work done during some of the most stressful times in the semester. We frequently shared ideas both in our group chat and in real life. The positivity, openness and respect everyone had made it easier to voice our opinions and create work that we’re proud of and what I think, is the start of a good friendship between us all.

Although there were no clear delegations of roles, everyone had their input in the process of developing ideas, filming and editing and it was very much a collaborative effort. We were able to share the work through separating it in terms of locations, and often owned individual shots or helped whenever we could, which all came together in creating the final product.

This group and studio has made me realise the power of a good group that communicates well and gets along with one another. This has made the whole experience more enjoyable and we were genuinely so excited to see each other and work on something that we all love and have put so much into, which I hope reflects in our work.

 

First official edit

Today we got together to edit our footage so that we could have something to show during the class screening tomorrow and hopefully get some feedback on our work.

Firstly, we split up into 2 groups – Alana and I were working on the Macedon shoot and Jeyda and Sam on the house shoot, which we eventually combined. As Alana and I were editing, we found that there were a lot of shots that we really liked but they didn’t necessarily add any meaning or purpose to what we were trying to convey. As hard as it was to let certain shots go, if we were to include all the shots that we liked, the whole film would seem as if it were pandering and would definitely be too long.

At first we were struggling to start but once we decided to include the atmos under it and the recording of the poem, it was much easier to find shots that would relate to what was being said and helped us contextualise and sort out the sequence and beat of things. During editing, we found that a lot of the shots were focus pulls and sometimes weren’t even focused at all. Luckily, we filmed and left shots lingering for a while and that really saved us during the edit, this was definitely one of those moments where having a monitor while filming would have really helped in terms of making sure things were in focus and is worth considering next time.

After a while, we combined the footage of the house and the forest and we tried to stabilise a few shots and transitions. With our edit, we made three different variations of colour grades as seen below;

 

However, we decided that this was the one we liked the most;

Although we have a bit more work to do, I think we did a really good job at editing and it was so much fun and there’s really nothing more I could ask for.

 

Class screening feedback

Today we got to see the projects that our class members have been working on and they are amazing! The whole point of this screening was to get feedback from our peers and show our progress so far. I love how open and constructive this class is and it really helped when our film came up as everyone is really supportive and respectful and I know that we’re all here to try and improve and learn.

Some of the points were;

• look at playing with the transition from the home to the forest – might be odd due the fact that there are 2 transitions before the actual change in location (lens flare and eyes closed)
• fix the beats and pacing of the poem  – look at syncing this with the image on screen
• increase the volume of atmos
• play with the intensity of the colour grade to really push the emotions in the poem and film / make it more dramatic and complimentary
• possibly include music
• layering of different voices reading the poem – push this confusion, isolation and all the other souls that the poem is speaking of

These things will definitely be taken into consideration when we get to our final edit.

 

Final product: Sentiment Creeping In

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, this studio has been my favourite studio of all time and I am so thankful that I chose it. I have worked with the best group and the best tutor, Paul, who has put up with so much and helped immensely! I’ve had the opportunity to learn so much about filmmaking through reflection and practice, and I am now so excited and feel better equipped to work on future projects.

Here is our final product that I, and I’m pretty sure our entire group is so proud of;

Sentiment Creeping In from Daleen Jeen on Vimeo.

 

EGG HUNTING – Week 1

If I’m completely honest, I enrolled into Egg Hunting because not only is it scheduled during a really good time in the year, but I also liked the idea of having it as safety net or option to have a more relaxed study load next year. Even though I tend to not remember music videos and don’t watch them enough, apart from on Rage or when I’m 50 suggested videos in on YouTube, but despite all this, I thought it would be an amazing opportunity to be able to create a music video, and learn and work on a form that I am quite inexperienced and unfamiliar with.

What I’m most excited for in this class is the opportunity we have to work with a band, a REAL CLIENT and being able to be experiment and further develop my skills and most importantly, learn some new ones along the way.

During our first class we were told that some past students from this course have had their music videos aired on Rage and that just blew my mind. As most of the projects I’ve worked on at university have mostly stayed within the realm of RMIT or with friends and family, hearing that excites and scares me. Although it may not happen, it is now a group goal for us to submit our music video to Rage and of course this all depends on whether or not the band chooses to, but hopefully, and just maybe, it could get chosen to air.

 

EGG HUNTING – Depeche Mode & Anton Cobijn

For our first class we looked at Depeche Mode and the director of the Band’s music videos, Anton Corbin. We watched four of their music videos and were told to write down what we thought about the band/ characters for each music video. Below are just my rough notes and impressions;

Band: Depeche mode

Director: Anton Corbin

Strange love

• Looking at more controversial topics – sex – band trying to stand out
• Infatuation with women and sex
• Dark clothing
• cool
• Certain stance on women – objectifying? Prostitutes
• Mixed race sex work –
• Static quality of the shots
• City –
• The megaphone

 

Never let me down

• Seems more dramatic – serious issues
• Angst?
• Confusion and disappointment
• Masculinity and identity
• More cinematic
• I really like the shot of him standing in the field at night with the grass illuminated
• Relationship between male friends and possibly father?
• No females
• Country
• Comedic / subversion of expectation with the type of car
• The megaphone

 

Behind the wheel

• Still this infatuation with women
• Fate – and following them
• Subjects of women
• Still sexual / but more toned down in comparison to ‘Strange Love’
• the megaphone

 

Personal Jesus

• trying to break into the American market after doing so in Europe
• prostitutes again
• worshipping women
• more sexual suggestions
• dynamic compositions out of natural light
• moving from light to dark
• I liked this one the most, it seemed more self-aware and playful, despite exploring the same themes of sex and prostitutes
• catchy beat
• limited locations – achievable for our own

 

Notes

• narrative of music videos and brand identity
• these MV’s helped promote the band
• authorship – Anton Corbin

 

Inspiration from Good Time (2017)

These are a few inspo shots from Good Time (2017) by the Safdie brothers. I saw this film this year and absolutely loved it! The constant blaring of the neon lights and intense ’70s/’80s score added to the overall suspense and immersive experience. The interesting lighting choices and set design in such cramped spaces have inspired me to think about the overall tone of our music video and its genre. Despite the upbeat music, with the events that occur in the music video, I’m starting to think of our music video as a thriller and how we can play with juxtaposition between the tone of the music and image. Most of the previous projects I’ve worked on have been heavily reliant on natural lighting and this music video gives us the chance to experiment with lighting kits and different colours which I am so excited for!

 

Macedon test shots & Colour grading

Test shots & Colour grading from Daleen Jeen on Vimeo.

This was some of the footage from our first test shoot that Jeyda and I filmed as part of our group project. Although we hadn’t storyboarded yet, we decided it was a good idea to get a sense of the space we were filming in to better prepare ourselves and help with shot and storyboard ideas. We quickly realised that our footage was too shaky and that we needed to find a way to stabilise the shots for future shoots. Manoeuvring through a forest is already hard as is, and it became clear that operating the camera would not just be a one person job.

Typical of Melbourne, the weather kept on changing throughout the day, and we had to constantly change the ISO and were trying to figure out which functions would work best, resulting in a lot of inconsistent footage.

Sound is an important part of our project and we thought that an iPhone would be sufficient but found that it was far too windy and my phone wasn’t powerful enough to capture the sensitivities of the rich and different sounds of the forest as much as we would’ve liked. With the sound recordings, I compiled them and overlayed certain bits in Audition in an attempt to try and replicate the sounds of the forest.  We will definitely be taking a zoom mic for all future shoots!

 

Colour grading – 

This was my first time experimenting with colour grading and it is astonishing how the littlest difference in hues can (literally) change the tone of a video. Colour grading was actually much harder than I had anticipated and I found it difficult to decide which colours to combine and choosing certain levels, it was all very much trial and error. I found myself getting frustrated and a little overwhelmed at the endless possibilities and was second guessing myself a lot in terms of what looked good and what didn’t. In the end, I decided to try and stick to the primary colours but it is safe to say I definitely need more practice with colour grading

Bottom right/no colour grade = This is clear to me that colour grading really does enhance the image, particularly without any adjustments to shadow and contrast, the forest and the subject look a little washed out

Bottom left/ blue grade = I need to experiment more with blue, this gives it a moody and jaded look

Top left/yellow grade = This is my least favourite grade as it is too warm, suggesting a more happy environment and doesn’t really fit with the poem

Top right/red/pink grade = This is surprisingly my favourite grade of them all – I really like the contrast between the green and brown/pink – this makes it look otherworldly and dreamlike, a concept that may work with for our project.

 

Focus pulling exercise

Focus pulling exercise from Daleen Jeen on Vimeo.

Focus pulls and different depth of fields are a simple way to direct audiences’ attention to certain things on screen. This is usually more noticeable when it comes to 3D films, where objects, especially in animations (to me anyway) are made to be too obvious, it almost seems obnoxious. I have never really enjoyed watching films in 3D and try to avoid them, however, watching Finding Dory in 3D confirmed my extreme dislike/hatred, as I don’t like being so explicitly forced to look at certain things on screen and as a result, I’m unable to enjoy the full spectacle of what’s on screen and completely immerse myself in the world.

However, when done carefully, focus pulls can be a very artistic and subtle way of introducing or highlighting new meaning, characters, actions and so forth. This exercise was a good opportunity for us to look at movement and as I have never really used or worked with pulling focus on a camera other than tapping the screen on my phone, it was a great opportunity for me to become more familiar and a little more confident with my camera handling abilities.

Although a lot of the actions we were looking at were pretty simple and straightforward, I found that framing and following movement were areas that could be improved on. For example, in the shot of Jeyda walking down the stairs and slowly coming into focus, there was a lot of hesitant tilting and it seemed as if I was unsure as to how I wanted to frame her. This exercise highlighted the importance of practicing and anticipating and being prepared for capturing movement.