Week 8 

After i had done my pitch to the panel, they gave me a lot of useful tips and hints on how i should go about in making my project. After watching a lot of other classmates pitches, i had time to reflect and think about my own project and compare it to theirs, a lot of them had a much more structured plan and more comprehensive idea, at the time i had thought about teaming up with a fellow classmate to tackle my task, however i realised that it was possibly better for me to do this task on my own so that i could do it my way and get the results that i can ultimately be satisfied with. I took the advice that the panel had given into consideration thinking how i should approach this task, the idea of experimenting with Natural Light and Artificial Light really intrigued the panel, they suggested that i could should an abstract film with beautiful ambient music in the background. The abstract film will contain both atheistically stunning video footage and music to create a pleasant viewing experience for the viewers. Would this approach work? I believe that this idea would work and be interesting, it could really test the limits of using lighting to create some gorgeous looking footage. To go forward with this shot i had to think of a way to make the shots interesting enough for the viewers stay attentive through out the entire film. Hence i did some research and came across a video by online production company “Wong Fu Productions”, they had created a video called “These Four Walls” where it follows a pinwheel as it tries to discover itself. This video only contains beautifully shot footage and ambient music with a main subject of the pinwheel. How does this apply to my idea? Well simply i had thought to go in a similar approach except replacing the pinwheel with a set of playing cards. The cards would each be placed a different location and end up all coming together at the end. This would be able to tackle the experiment i had set in mind and pitched to the panels is that i can test the lighting with each of the shots as well as use the stunning footage of the interesting locations as well as i can have ambient playing in the background, the playing cards also play the subject so that the footage will remain interesting and even tell a story which would keep the audience engaged. So for me to now move forward with my task i must plan out the locations that i plan to shoot at as well as draw up story boards to show what i am visualising in my head so that it becomes easier when actually shooting as the type of shot is already chosen.

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7Vc4WeZQ38&t=101s) “These Four Walls” by Wong Fu Productions 

Week 9 

Despite having the idea in my head, i had to constantly go over the thought of how i should actually approach this task. I may have the main idea in my head, what im going to execute, what i want to film and present at the end of the semester. With all this in my head i still continued to have doubts about the task, whether or not my approach was correct, will i be able to shoot what i had in mind. I tend to constantly over estimate my capabilities as a film maker so the thought of doubt was always lingering in my head. I thought the only way for me to overcome this fear and doubtfulness was to put what i had in my head to the test. I thought about doing story boards as i thought this was the best way to put my ideas down so that i could see my ideas down on paper first before i actually spent the time to go and film, this way worked out well as doing story boards is an easy way to plan out the shots that you want to shoot that way it can save a bunch of time when it actually comes to shooting, it also allows for other people to see the vision that you have in your head as usually explaining your vision with words is not an easy thing where as visually showing them is a much better approach.

After doing the storyboards i then proceeded to do some test shots. For this i had thought that it be better for me to test out my idea before i had fully committed and it turned out to be not be what i was expecting, it would be better to notice errors beforehand and change my method before i had shot too much and there would not had been enough time to do a reshoot and come up with a new idea. I tested with panning shots, lit shots still shots and even zoom shots, when i went to review the shots i had noticed that the shots did not turn out the way i wanted it to be, the shots were rather boring and colourless and felt too plain to look at as there as nothing engaging about the shots. I did think initially to change the idea but i would’ve liked to get a second opinion and wanted to wait till i got some consultation about it before fully scratching the idea. Maybe for this idea my approach to it was not the correct approach, maybe if i had committed to the shoot and shot everything and put it together with the ambient music in post it may have turned out better, as when i viewed the initial test shots it was pretty plain as there was not composition and no music in background to assist the footage hence it looked uninteresting, however this was too big of risk for me to take as if i had ended up shooting everything and it still looked boring then i would have wasted my time and been unsatisfied with my work. I had a chance to also look at some of my other classmates work and majority of them all had some kind of story embedded into their projects, so if i were to do something else maybe i could include some kind of story line into my project.

Storyboards

First Test Shots 

Week 10 

As previously mentioned i had wished to bring in my work for some consultation to show what i have been experimenting with and get some feedback from fellow students as well as Paul. I went into this meeting without any thought of my project and what i had originally felt when i first viewed it myself, i thought it would be best for me to go in with a blank canvas in my head because i would be able to then paint this canvas with all the advice and tips that is given to me and i could then continue to reevaluate my work and see what direction i want to take this project in, as to whether i want to continue this task or scratch and start again.

Before the actual meeting started i got the chance to pick the brain of some of my fellow classmates, by listening to what they are planning to create and how they plan to execute their plan, they also did show me some of the work they have been working out. I was blown away by the quality of work that some of my classmates were already doing despite the short amount of time we’ve had since the delivering the pitches. It continue to build on my doubt about my own work and how i continued to be unsatisfied with what i have done. This made me realise that maybe my idea was wrong and it was not the right decision to make and that i should rebuild and start from the beginning. It made me think that what i was planning on creating was too focused on the fact that it was going to be a “test experiment” than rather a “film”. With majority of my classmates are creating “films” i thought it would be a good idea to go in this direction, taking notes from them i thought it might be better to come up with a story and film and analyse it after.

When it actually came down to the meeting with Paul he said to me what i had feared the most, and that he didn’t know what i was actually trying to convey with my shoot, he said that it was rather unengaging and that the audience would lose interest in the shoot, it could have been due to that it was an unfinished product and that the sound had not been matched yet and it was just a plain and boring shot with no context. He gave me the advice on shooting something that had something to do with me as a person. Fashion was a point he brought up, with this is mind i thought i would be able to come up with something interesting and contain a story in a linear fashion. To tackle this task i would have to rethink my strategy and come up with a sort of narrative or some event that would allow for the video flow, i had to redraw story boards and brainstorm a new experimental question that i could test out. This approach would not only make it more engaging for the audience but will be much more entertaining to create as i could make it however i want because i’m not involved in working with another class mate.

Week 11 

I had to think carefully how i am going to approach this new project, this includes how i’m going to shoot, the acting, the writing and the staging of the film. To make it look good all these factors have to come into play in order for it be engaging. I began brainstorming and researching video clips of stories that i could shoot. During the meeting last week Paul had saw a bunch of shoe boxes i had in one of my test shots, i thought this could be a interesting subject to shoot. To make it engaging i had thought of the only way i know how, and that it is to film something and make it extremely ridiculous, but making the context so out of context that it made sense in a stupid and unique way. Again i had to draw up storyboards, i had found previously that working with story boards is so much easier than not working with storyboards. When working with storyboards it makes it much easier when it actually comes down to the shooting, it allows you to have a reference point when looking at the type of shots you want to shoot and allows for the film day to run much smoother, when previous shoots I’ve not had a story board it made the shoot extremely difficult as i had to go and physically look for shots to shoot and occasionally improvise, this calls for disaster and you may not end up with the best result possible. Hence why after i had a rough story i had in my head i decided to go ahead and draw up my storyboards, with previous group activities at uni some of the previous shoots we’ve had story boards drawn up, it made it easier for the film crew to follow these guidelines to get the shots that were required and made it easier for everyone when it came to post work as well, as we knew how the film would progress and flow.

Storyboards

Second Test Shots 

Week 12 

Week 12 began official production of my project, all the story boards at this point in time had been completed and the plan for shooting is ready. I had plan to set this shoot at night, this was due to the fact that it was easier to shoot at night without any interruptions, it would be easier to adjust the lighting as well as there would be no pedestrians on the street as well as traffic, which not only removes all any distractions and interruptions but is also a sound factor as there will be no sound interruptions causing me to have to constantly pause the shoot and find a chance when the street is clear to shoot. This turned to be a good decision as when i was shooting, everything went through extremely smoothly, with not street disturbances as well following my storyboards, i was able to get the shots i wanted quickly and efficiently, this way allowed me to have a little bit of extra time to evaluate my shots and decide whether or not i wanted to test out another angle to see maybe that shot would be better or decide to add anything else into the shoot.

I do not think i would have changed anything about the shoot at this point, as i think that every thing went extremely smoothly, i was able to get the shots i want and the way want with minimal distractions and interruptions, i was able to successfully get all the shots i wanted within an hour and a half. However there were some problems that i encountered that i did not know how to resolve, for example one of the shots required me to shoot from inside the window to see the character on the outside, in order to maintain consistency i felt that i need to leave the light on, as the previous shot was a shot of the whole inside room with the light one. In order to keep the shot consistent i had to leave the light on when shooting the close up of the window, however because the light was left on it created a reflection in the window making it almost impossible to notice the character standing outside of the window, i had thought about turning off the light but then that would ruin the consistency and it would look odd to the viewers. So there was only two options left that was to either leave it as it is or find some way to fix in post.

Later that week we then had another consultation session with Paul where we showed him what we have done so far. Obviously i had not finished editing and putting the footage together and also adding sound, but from what he saw he said that it looks good which is nice. After i did the shooting i went to bed and thought about the shoot and some ideas starting popping into my head, i had thought about to do a reshoot and to add some other shots into the final project that could overall top it off, Paul said to do a first cut of the whole shoot before actually doing any reshoots. This is a good idea i thought this way i would be able to see if there are any errors in the shoots i shot before and that way i could do all the reshoots at once, without having to rush another reshoot after I’ve already done one, which could be disastrous and waste a lot of time and energy that could spent on other things.

(insert some of the shots from the final shoot)

Week 13 

Week 13 is the final week of production, this is the week where all of the post production begins and any reshoots that needed to to be done would be. For the actual editing of the clip it was a very simple procedure, all i needed to do was follow the story board and edit accordingly. However as i was editing i found some errors within some of the footage. Two of the clips that were supposed to merged together ended up not lining up properly and ended up ruining the shot, this could be due to that the camera was moved when i took it off the tripod to preview the previous shot, from this i learnt that if i needed to merge two shots together the camera was not be moved from the position it is it set in even if i think i can put it back to its original position. I tried to fix this problem as best as i could in after effects however what ever i tried it just would not work, so the overall end decision was to just reshoot the whole shot again.

A previous issue that was brought up at the consultation meeting last week, was that the shot from inside the mirror to outside showed the reflection of the lights hence making it almost impossible to notice the subject outside the window, i managed to reshoot the footage with the lights off as it seems like that is was the only method. This approached actually turned out quite successful, when you put it in the final edit the shot is only showed for a few second making it quite difficult to notice the change in lighting, if untold the audience may not even pay attention to a detail so specific. Though from an artists point of view it is not a great decision to go against the consistency of the project, but because the shot in the edit is only showed for a few seconds it can pass by unnoticeable by the viewers.

When editing it occurred to me as to whether i wanted to include music in the final finished cut, people have said that the end product may not need music as it would distract the audience from the actual footage of the film. Before i started editing i had thought of why and why not i would of included music in the film, it came to that i was scared that the music would add a bit more character to the film and that the audience wouldn’t have to listen to plain and boring sounds from the camera, but the other side of the issue is that the music may come off as tacky and out of place as it may not be ultimately needed. To solve this issue i decided to test out both methods one edit with sound and one without sound, this way i was able get a taste of both sides and evaluate which decision would be the best for the film, i went with the decision to only incorporate music in one of the scenes, the final scene. This is because the final is scene is a more comedic scene and to simply be witty and extremely ridiculous not make any sense to the actual narrative, the music then accompanies the footage quite well topping it off and finalising the whole sequence. By the testing out two alternative versions i was able to find a middle ground and combining the two to come up with a much better version than the two i had started with, so the method of testing the versions out was a success.

SUMMARY

To sum up this semester work, i found it all to be quite rewarding. Transferring into a new course i felt a hint of fear but was also excited cause i got to learn something that I’ve wanted to focus on for a long time and thats film making. There were a lot of new aspects of film making that i wanted to explore, and that included lighting, staging, framing and sound. I knew the basics of these aspects but i did not how to utilise them to their full potential so that i could bring out the best in my films. When the assignment first came into sights and i had to start thinking of a research question that i could experiment with, i struggled at the beginning to come up with a research question that i thought i could experiment with. It wasn’t until i had to take a sudden trip back to China where i discovered what i wanted to experiment. While away i had the chance to play around with a camera and filming a few shots, i found that lighting played a big part in making the shot look good, i came to a conclusion and when i returned i came to Paul with a proposition on that i wanted to investigate lighting and more specifically natural lighting and how it could alter a shot. Paul agreed and said that this would be an interesting topic to dig further into, so i went home and began to research natural lighting and its uses in films as well as photographies, and to my surprise i came upon a lot of different useful information. There seemed to be a lot of comparisons between Natural Lighting and Artificial lighting, so i thought this would be the direction i would go in, I gave my pitch and planned out what i was going to shoot. However once i shot a few tests before i could even fully analyse my footage to get an answer for my research question i was stopped by the fact that what i had shot was rather uniteresting and plain and had zero appeal to it. I decided to scratch the idea and come up with a new research questions and head in a different direction. The new research question that i came up with is “Creating a stunning looking shot with staging and setting”. This new research question needed me to create a narrative in order to create a project that could be revolved around this question, if there was no narrative to this project than ultimately the sequence wouldn’t flow which would create more problems to the overall shoot. You will notice that the placement of certain items within the shots create more dynamic to the actual shoot, it is able to add more character and also create more context in the shoot. Within some shots the items actually create chaos which is well intended as the scene is meant to be chaotic, the shot not only looks stunning but also have meaning behind it. Also the actual setting of some of the shots proved to be very crucial, you could say that the setting of the shots were the very defining moments of the shoot, if they were not placed where they were i do not think the overall sequence would have looked as nice as it does in the final product. This experiment allowed me to realise the importance on staging and setting, within a lot of movies you will certain items placed at places for certain reasons, these are all hidden messages between the director to the audience, sometimes these messages go unnoticed but they are all placed there for a certain reason, for these staging elements all coming into play when creating a unique set so that the shot could present itself the way it was intended and also be pleasant and yet engaging for the audience. Setting comes hand in hand with staging, staging is able to assist the set in so many ways. Any film location could be called a set however without the proper staging a set may never be able to reach its full potential. Certain mies-en-scene aspects come into play when thinking about the set, all these aspects could ultimately decide whether or not your set will be appealing to the audience or not. Hence choosing your sets is a extremely crucial decision, not only that but the way you end up shooting your set is also crucial, as the way you shoot into the camera is the way that the audience will see as it is their perspective.

Overall i am very satisfied with what i have ended up with at the end of the semester, believe that i was able to successfully tackle my research question and ended up with a result that i am satisfied with, despite going through some bumps along the way, it ultimately finished in the best way possible, and improved my skills and vision as a film maker.

Collaboration 

For the actual collaboration apart from the activities that we did in class, i didn’t actual collab with anyone on my final task, i had decided to tackle this task myself and see i can come up with something on my own and find the answer i was searching for with the power i had within me. Previously when working in a group you constantly had to work at the pace of other people and build your schedule around that, they would even be arguments as some group members may not be pulling their own weight in the group resulting in some group members doing more work than others, hence why i decided to work on my own. By working on my own i was able to work at my own pace and do things my way, this allowed me fully experiment every aspect of film making on my own. As much i as enjoy working with others there are also times when working with yourself has its benefits. Despite this the overall workload would double as i would have had to do everything myself, where as in a group you could have assistance from fellow members. In the end working on my was a success, it is quite hard to get in an argument with yourself but it can get frustrating when you are unable to do something successful after multiple attempts, so maybe next time i could look for to working more in groups that way tasks are able to be completed quicker.

FINAL 22.5 SECONDS