Write about a recent class exercise: your approach; the experience of pre-producing, shooting and editing.  Analyse the result.

As mentioned in my previous post, I had to tackle most of the problems I encountered during set alone and that really kept me on my feet. Pre-production was fairly simple, I saw a vine(which is a short video that usually lasts up to 7 seconds) that appeared on Facebook and thought if somebody on the internet could tell a story in 7 seconds, what more a full length film. For this part of the class assessment, I wanted to take a different approach. Instead of the standard complex coverage that I would usually do, why not one shot, one story but long enough that it manages to grab and keeps people’s attention.

In this process, I focused mainly on the script and simple dialogues in order to make the conversation quick and snappy. Once I was done, I got the help of Henry and Matt to be my actors and we started filming the scene. The setup was simple, just a tripod and a mic which I hooked on to it, and I let the comedy play itself.

We had multiple takes before I was satisfied with the footages, this was because I didn’t feel the gag in the earlier takes. It felt dry and forced, but after the actors got comfortable to be infront the camera, everything came out nicely. From this lesson alone I’ve learnt that comedy is not just dialogue, it’s visual as well. The frame is a playground and it is important to know what to put in the frame and what not to have in the frame as well. Since the dialogue was between 2 person, I couldn’t do much but to refine the script until I was satisfied with the results.

Overall, I have a better understanding on how difficult it is to pull off comedy. I’ve understood the principles of the lens better. I felt that when shooting comedy with a short focal length isn’t as effective as using a long focal length, but that really comes down to the director’s choice.