My studio：

“At our home” is a very interesting story. I love this story. It mainly tells that Bella doesn’t want to live with Kevin, a man she doesn’t know at all, so she creates a series of pranks to get Kevin to move out of the house. The whole content of the story has a sense of adding fun to life. Although the content of the story contains horror elements, for this kind of prank, it not only makes the script interesting, but also promotes the relationship between the two more quickly. The storyline doesn’t drag on. There are no special editing and makeup requirements for the entire script. And the filming location is in the same place. The layout of the scene is also conventional. For sound design, some sound effects are needed, but these sound effects can be recorded live or found free materials on the Internet. So overall, this script will be able to produce a successful micro-budget short film.

One script I would also like to review is ‘Misconstructed’. I think the theme of this script is very meaningful, mainly about the journey of a young autistic adult who is the only witness to a horrific murder. Police knew she had autism and they were willing to interview her at her home. She was eventually suspected because her disabled practical social skills caused her to respond in a way that did not fit the police definition of a witness. Though this script, I learned new forms of shooting. Because if I as the producer of this short film, I think I may not be able to make it a micro-budget short film. Although the main focus of the entire content is on interviews, and the filming location can be chosen at home，but I would spend a lot of budget for some shoots at the pier. The dock is a public area, but there will be a lot of budget for crew and filming equipment.And I don’t think it’s easy to shoot shadows passing through the crevices of the pier. But Sienna chose to use the POV shot to shoot. This can reduce the number of crews and budget for shooting equipment. And using POV shot, the whole film production will be easier. Because POV shot is the camera lens simulates the observation of the human eye. In the role of this lens, we can through the camera as a medium. On the screen to see what the protagonist sees, so there is a good immediacy of the moment.

Other studio：THE SCENE IN CINEMA

I chose the studio called Thinking With Pictures, which has a piece called Nothing is Everything by Cassie Nikoloska, an essay film that really appealed to me. The film is like a book of essays, four chapters about her current life track. My interpretation of the short film is that it is an autobiographical account of the impact of the natural world on her own life. The combination of collage and video, with different sounds of voice over and rain sound effects, makes the whole production look creative.Cassie expresses her preference for nature over everything else in this film. It makes us realize that in today’s fast-paced and materialistic society, we neglect the details of life. We lose the joy of discovering life.

Another one that struck me was Savannah Selimi’s ‘It All’. When I saw the beginning of the film, it reminded me of a lot of the artist’s interviews I’ve seen on IDO before, and with the shaky footage at the beginning, I felt like I was looking back at old videos.I really like this style, there are a lot of film style photos in it; the film’s tone is also on the vintage film style. The whole film records about the life with friends- use the camera as a pen, the film as a diary. Use this form to preserve memories.

In general, I  think the studio of Thinking With Pictures that is not limited to short film making styles. It is designed to allow people to make a personal prose film using innovative, challenging films. I originally thought it was just about telling a story based on a photograph. But this studio is a combination of writing and filming to make a prose film that expresses your own personal thoughts through film.

1

As a producer, “Hello Cherry” is a short film that can be done with a micro-budget. I planned to shoot for 3-4 days. Because many of the scenes in the script were at night, the first day started in the evening. In the afternoon, the shooting team will arrive at the location early to set up the equipment. The estimate is 2-3 days of shooting, save the time to make up for the recording time. Regarding the budget, the first is the location. There are three places in the script – Street, Cherry’s house, and Office – and I am going to rent a friend’s house, which is structured in such a way that you had to walk through a hallway to get to the living room. There is a large space in front of the kitchen. There are four rooms on the second floor. One of the master bedrooms is very spacious. I will use the master bedroom as the room where Cherry meets Jenny. Since there is a large space in front of the kitchen, I decide to set up a simple office location here. It’s like a company where each person has a cubicle of their own. Only 3-4 boards are needed to form a cubicle. Just need to set up Cherry’s cubicle. I have used this method before and it was successful. This will save the budget for renting Office. About the shot the street, this street nears the house. So the whole shooting does not need to drive to change the venue. Although the house is in the suburbs, we can still save a part in transportation. And I have my own equipment, the only thing I need is light, which I need to rent. This short film requires two background music tracks.I have a list of songs that copyright is free and have chosen two songs in it. I also need some sound effects, such as the sound of a door opening, the sound of a message, the sound of chains colliding, etc. There are many free sound effects available online. If there are hard-to-find sound effects, such as the sound of chains colliding. I can record this sound in the live.

Regarding the staff, four people make a shoot team. I think it is possible to find students who are studying media to work together. In this way, we will also have experience and the cost will be cheaper than a team that is already working. The whole film doesn’t need special effects, so the most important part of editing is color. The actors need to be two long-haired girls – two people of the same age. And the body type is to be similar. The script extras-colleague, need to shoot a member of the team to temporarily participate in the role. Because this role is not required to show their faces. Since some parts of the film have to be shot at night and the next day is a full day of shooting, overtime is required. According to the Motion Picture Production Certified Agreement 2010, overtime is paid at 1.5 times the rate. In the cost of actors, the cost is relatively high. The next thing is the makeup costumes, such as the T-shirt, I think the actress can wear their own T-shirt. As for the red dress and some things to decorate the room, I will buy them on “Tao Bao”, a Chinese online shopping app. Adding the postage also is cheap. The whole film doesn’t need special effects makeup, the makeup is basic, so I can take on the role of a makeup artist.

Overall, the cost of this short film mainly lies in the cost of the actors, so a micro-budget of 5k is possible to complete the production of this short film.

2

“Hello Cherry”  is mainly about a weak girl Cherry, who meets a girl Jenny in a dream world, who is the opposite of her personality, Jenny is her second personality, in the dream world they have a dispute, and finally, Cherry was constantly verbally stimulated by the situation,  the main personality was occupied by Jenny. The story. As a director, this short film is a drama and contains a few thriller elements. For example, at the end of the dream, Jenny brainwashes Cherry and makes her break down in the midst of these verbal stimuli. In the end, in real life, Cherry’s right hand has a tattoo with stars. Some of these contain thriller elements. Since it is expressing two personalities, in the selection of actors, not only do you want two actors of similar physical size and age. I also wanted my acting skills to be good. I envisioned that the main way to distinguish the two personalities is through the eyes, which can express many emotions. Not only that, at the end of the dream, I envisioned an exaggerated physical collision between the two actors. For example, Jenny pinches Cherry’s chin, forcing her to look up at herself in the mirror, and then speaks close to Cherry’s ear. As if this can slowly destroy Cherry’s last line of defense. So the second half of the dream requires a lot of handheld shoot and also needs a lot of expression close-up. The close-ups of expressions plus the shaking of the camera will have a strong sense of unease. This will bring out the atmosphere of the film. For this short film, I also want to try the one-take shooting format. For example, in scene 2, Cherry walks home while throwing away her bag and walking to the couch. Here you can use the one take form of filming, first a close-up of the clock, and then slowly become a wide shot, showing the panoramic view of the living room. When the door is opened, the camera turns to the door, follows Cherry a little backward, and finally slowly turns to the window. Most of the others are shots that need to be smooth, using a tripod, dolly, or camera stabilizer.

The whole short film was shot mainly at night, so it is very important for lighting during the shooting process. You need to use them to imitate the moonlight and the street lights outside. The beginning part is mainly cold light, and a little blue will use when editing. When she enters Jenny’s room, the light inside needs to use a color filter, when the scene is shot, there will be a little orange light mixed with a little green in the dark environment. Such an atmosphere will look more bizarre and abrupt, reflecting the room appears unreasonable. Orange light can be mainly candlelight. The color can be deepened when editing at the end. The whole film needs to be adjusted in the editing is the color. I want to use a dark tone for most of the whole video. For music, do not make special production. Just need to find some sound effects on the Internet, and background music that has been selected and can be used directly.

Since the whole film is basically done in a house, it saves a lot of time to not change locations. So it was possible to finish the shooting in 3-4 days. The reason why I chose this house is that there is a lot of space to use. For example, the space in front of the kitchen. Here you can temporarily set up as a desk. Because this part of the shooting is mainly mid-shot, this space is just right. Since there are no special effects in the film, needs 3days of editing. I think the whole production schedule of one week is perfectly fine.

3

My script reduced the number of address changes and actors in order to achieve a micro-budget. I originally intended to rent an office as a location, and the part where Cherry works in the office was originally intended to be a dialogue between her and her co-workers. But that would have increased the budget, and I couldn’t just shoot mid-shots.One of the biggest challenges of my script was shooting in a set-up cubicle, and the other was the exaggerated physical contact between the two actors. Filming in a cubicle requires care because the space is relatively small and easy to have goofed. And in the shooting, the physical contact between the two actors will need to shoot after the storyboard is prepared in detail. Because this part needs to shoot a lot of shots. In general, I don’t have a problem without over the budget for this work. I hope this work can be really produced. This will prove that creative short films can be made even with a micro-budget. I think this is the main content of the studio.

1.

As a producer and a student, for the production of this short film, I think it is possible to achieve micro-budget. First because I am a student now. My shooting team can be classmates in the class, and we used to work together often. This shoot requires a cameraman, a sound recorder, a lighting engineer, and an actor. Our script is divided into four scenes, but three of them can be shoot at dusk. So for the shooting schedule, it can be completed in two days, and there is plenty of time to supplement the shooting. The only thing to pay attention to is the weather, avoid rainy weather. Shooting for two days, so need to provide meals. Because it is a micro-budget, meals may be simpler. Because the shooting location will be far from the city, you need to live there when shooting. In this way, the driving distance can also be reduced. Regarding the equipment problem, since I have a Canon camera, camera stabilizer and a DJI aerial camera. So in terms of equipment I don’t need to rent. I only need to pay the price of renting the lights.

For the location, because the shooting location is on a country road with a desert and a manor. Country Road is a public area, so it is free. As for the manor, I think renting a house nearby is fine. Just need to dress up to feel old. It may be more expensive to rent a house, because I don’t think it is easy to rent a house near the desert. But this budget must be much cheaper than rent manor.

Then there’s the house set, because the final scene is about being trapped in a room without a door. So what I came up with was that I needed two identical room sets, one with the door color blending in with the wall color. In this way, when the final shoot is taken, the effect of not being able to find the door can be shooting. It’s like being trapped in a confined space. Because the script as a whole is biased towards the thriller category, it will cost a bit on the room layout. Although some props I think can be borrowed or rented, such as an old child watchband, a child blue bicycle, a Teddy bear… But in order to highlight the weirdness, I will focus on the layout. Candles are consumables in this shoot, so prepare extras.

Although the costumes of the actors are required to be dark suits、tie. I think these costume actors have their own. So he can wear his own clothes. Because there will be lit candles at the filming site, the final actors’ performances will fluctuate greatly. For safety reasons, a Safety Officer is still required.

This short film will have some sound effects, such as the sound of the door opening. There are plenty of free sound effects to be found online, and I think that’s enough. In the end it will be spent on background music, I think one background music is enough. Or just need sound effects. Since the entire short film has no special effects, but needs to be stylized, an editor good with colors is needed.If the budget is not enough, I think the student of studying media can edit.

So to sum up, the production of this short film will cost a lot in editor, lighting and rent house. The biggest challenge is scene4 in the script – trapped in the room. Basically, micro-budget can be realized.

2.

The theme of this short film is to highlight a person’s state in different atmospheres, and the film ends with a little thriller plot. This script mainly tells the story of a man walking on a country road in the desert and finding an old manor. His mood changes as he sees the objects and photos in the room, and he is finally trapped in the room of the manor. A man’s state changes from exhaustion-surprise-panic-helplessness.

First of all, this script belongs to short film, so it doesn’t take long for the production schedule. Because this script takes two days to shoot enough time. You can arrange the house and set up the lights during the day on the first day. Towards dusk to shoot the three scenes ahead. The last time was all about shooting the last part. Because the whole plot belongs to the thriller category. Therefore, although the video production does not have special effects, it requires strong color impact and stylized editing. So there are two days of shooting, one day of rough cutting, two days of editing, one day of color adjustment, and the last day of reviewing and some part need change to edit. So this short film can be made in one week. In addition, the shooting time is only two days, the budget can have a lot left

Cinematically, the opening set-up shots of the scene will be grand. Shoot with DJI aerial camera, explain the background of the environment at that time, and then slowly approach the actor by shooting with camera stabilizer. Finally, the exhausted state of the actor at the time was captured through the mid shot and close up. Most of the first three scenes were shot in fixed positions. Use different shot.And the walking speed of the actor is also slow. These three scenes mainly introduce the state of the actor at that time, the background of the environment, and lead to the following important plots. In the fourth scene, which is mostly shot with the camera stabilizer, the movement of the lens is smooth. When a man wakes up like a dream, he needs to take a handheld shoot. The use of shaking camera shots reflects the nervousness and panic of men rushing around the room, looking for a way out. Finally, when he crouches down and uses the camera stabilizer again, start the shot from the man’s back. Move the camera slowly, changing the image from a mid-close up to a wide shot, until the image becomes dark and stop moving. Here I want the audience to feel the helplessness of the man at that time. Any equipment other than the two lights is my own, so I don’t need a lot of budget.

My opinion on post-editing is: I envisioned the film’s tone to be warm, with yellow as the main color outdoors, reflecting the hot weather at that time, and the men sweating constantly because of the heat and fatigue. The light source for indoor shooting simulates candle light, warm light dim tone. Here the man is in a dark house, drawn into this room by the faint light source. But here I also hope that the overall tone of this part is darker, which also echoes the later thriller plot. When a man enters a room, there should be a lot of scenery shot in the room. When he was looking for the door in a panic, He kept switching with scenery shot in the room. I hope it’s a spooky vibe. This is accompanied by a tense background music. The overall film has very little about sound design. 

There are several sound effects in this film. Only when entering the room, a dark background music is needed, and the music gradually becomes louder and stops suddenly when panicked. To highlight the front and back contrast. The sound effects are free, and there is also free background music.

In the end, it is proved that as a producer, for the production of this short film, I think it is possible to achieve micro-budget.

3.

For this exercise, my biggest challenge was planning the shooting of the fourth scene. Because there is one plot where the door is going to disappear. My first thought was very simple to use a green screen. Use a green screen in place of the door. Post-production as a wall. But it suddenly occurred to me that this green screen effect would look a little weird. And post-production Ae will be more difficult than Pr. If you want a beautiful after effect, you have to 3D model it. I think this requires a very high budget. So I thought of using two rooms, the same arrangement, and one of them had the door the same color as the wall. This will save more budget, and the final editing effect is no problem. Through this exercise, I think the biggest cost is location and music. Although there will be free music, you may not find a very suitable one. Therefore, the music part should be reserved in the budget. The second is location, so in my future short films, I have a new idea that the location of the entire script is the same. It’s best to happen at home, so that you can reduce the cost of the car and rent. It was easy for me to overlook the driving problem in previous exercises. This time, the location of script- anyone there is far away, so it is the first time to consider the fare problem. Overall, this exercise has given me more concrete plans for future short films.

1.

When I first saw that the studio’s name was PRODUCTION ON A SHOESTRING, my first reaction was that this course was related to the budget. When I read the introduction of the studio, I became more sure of my thoughts. The main content of this studio is “How do you successfully make a film on a ‘micro-budget’ without sacrificing production value and constraining your creative voice?” That’s why I chose this studio. Because I really want to learn how to make good work at low cost. Because I was an intern in an advertising studio last year. The studio mainly shoots commercials and promotional videos. My position in it is planning. When writing a plan, the question I need to spend a long time thinking about is “budget”. Because at that time, I always thought that what kind of work should be made at what price. So when I want to plan more advanced ads, my budget often exceeds the amount given by the manager. So every time my planning program needs to be corrected many times about the micro-budget. Before I was thinking, is the micro-budget really making good work? Where should the budget be reduced? Now I learn a lot of ways to reduce the budget through the study of this studio, such as location, song copyright, costumes and prop, and so on. There are many that can be scheduled. Like I’m amazed when I know the micro budgets of the movies Tim let us watch. Because the work is really great. Especially in the movie “THE RIDER”, it’s really hard to imagine that the final cost is so low. I hope this semester I can write a script and make this work with a micro-budget. Not just write a plan, shoot with this script, make a whole short film.

2.

-class exercise

I may be a special part of the class, because of my English not good. I couldn’t get all of the knowledge taught by Tim at the time. So for class exercise, it’s really important to me. Because every exercise will give me an accurate understanding of new knowledge. For example, for the second exercise, we write a script breakdown sheet. My understanding of HERO PROPS at the time was to find out the needed props for the script. But I found that my group members only listed a few props, and later I learned that those consumables or easily lost props belonged to HERO PROPS, such as cigarettes, food and so on. Because it is impossible to shoot only one shot during the shooting process. Even if the actors perform well, the same scene needs different shot, such as close up, wide shot, etc. So props need more preparation. And through classroom exercise, I can learn the ideas of my group members. I remember the group discussion in the first class. Our group selected videos about manicures. At that time, let us listed all the shooting needs in the video, I only listed the parts that I could watch. I didn’t pay much attention to some small parts, but my group members paid attention to the small props. For example, a sound effect. Maybe it’s been around for a short time, and I can easily ignore it. There is also the way of shooting. They will write in detail in the process whether to shoot with a mobile phone or with a camera. The background music, sound effects, etc. required for the entire video, they will think very comprehensively, and will take into account the micro budget. And I can only list what everyone both can think of at that time.This will make me pay attention to the particularly detailed parts in the future. The group discussion really allows me to break a lot of habitual thoughts and spread my thoughts, unlike the previous ones.

-Homework

Homework is a consolidation exercise for me. Because at the class exercise, I listen to the group members most of the time. Sometimes they may have results while I was thinking. Occasionally I’ll ask questions, or I’ll list them and email Tim for help. Through Tim’s reply and class exercise, I learned more about this course. And homework for me is to consolidate what I have learned, and it is also a test of whether I can understand fully. The most impressive is about scene breakdowns and dividing the script page into eighths. At first I didn’t understand dividing the script page into eighths and didn’t feel it was necessary. But then I thought this existence was necessary, and I thought that how long to shoot could be arranged according to this. According to script-EIGHTH GRADE, I try to divide the script into eight parts by myself, and break down the scenes of these eight parts respectively. With the scene breakdown sheet I did independently, I thought about a lot of details. For example, in this script, there is mention of walking through the hallway to the restaurant. I need pay attention to detail is the need find a house with this kind of corridor. I was also thinking about whether the hallway needs decoration, such as paintings on the walls, or whether there should be anything other than gifts on the chairs in the living room and the dining table. Maybe these are not clearly stated in the script, but we need to consider this budget when we actually shoot.

3.

Regarding micro budget, my understanding of it is to make good works at a lower cost. Moreover, some film productions are not sure whether they will be popular after release, and often directors will use the form of micro budget to produce. Some movies can still take this format if they have enough budget, because some different budgets will produce the same effect. So the micro budget movie has become an independent name. The film “The Rider”, which director-Chloé Zhao made with a very low budget, was surprising to me at first. I think that price is the budget for a short film. And “The Rider” is a feature film. So I’m curious about the effect of the film, I can’t think how the micro budget plays its role in this film, will the final film really be good.To be honest, I didn’t find the right sentence to express my feelings after watching this movie. I knew it was a rodeo movie before watching it, but when I started watching it, I realized it was like a documentary. Interestingly, the cast of the film are all non-professional actors, and the characters in the film are all playing themselves, and they are real cowboys, which is something that a “naturalistic” film has the guts to do. So this movie fits the micro budget movie very well. The director is filming real people in real situations, she is filming him at his house. She is filming someone that already knows how to ride the horse. She is making it like documentary style of filmmaking, very natural, So she is using that creative style very well. And by filming with real people ,are the costs are low. Because she is not paying people to act. Not only that, but since many of the actors are cowboys themselves, they’ll all have their own horses. Through this situation, it is entirely possible to negotiate with them to shoot with their own horses. This saves a lot of money. She also shoots a lot of natural environments, which are often featured in clips of the film. Shooting in the natural environment also does not require pay costs. As she said in an interview on Youtube, it would be more economical. And not using a lot of music background in the film, I think she could save a lot of money again. Because she doesn’t have to buy too many music copyright. The film pays almost no costs on the situation, casts, copyright.And about the costume props, there are no special props to use, so the actors can shoot in their own clothes. so for this micro budget film. It was successful. It did exactly what it work.The film debunks the unrealistic facade of American heroism and perfectly illustrates the need to let go of unrealistic choices, no matter how difficult they may seem. The director also won worldwide acclaim with “The Rider”.

http://www.mediafactory.org.au/corahao/2021/05/28/reflection1-6/

http://www.mediafactory.org.au/corahao/2021/05/28/a4-research-project/ 

The subject of my research is about analyzing a director’s film work-“Chungking Express”.  The filmmaker is Wong Kar Wai, a Chinese director.The narrative structure in Wong Kar-wai’s films is as unique as his visual expression.  Wong Kar-wai’s movies do not focus on the story itself, but present a kind of artistic conception.  Most of his films consist of broken narrative fragments.  The advantage of this “fragmented” narrative method is that it gives the story extension and gives the audience enough room for imagination.It is precisely because of this kind of narrative that after watching the movie, people’s minds will show the actors’ performances.    And an indescribable sense of haziness.  This atmosphere is created by the combination of color and shot. “Chungking Express” left me a deep impression of casualness, beauty and abstraction.Its main content is to tell two love stories: an urban encounter between a broken-in love policeman and a mysterious female killer, and a love story between Patrol 663 and a girl in a fast food restaurant.  The two stories have nothing to do with each other, and there is no intertwined plot.The film is full of a lot of voice-overs, but its voice-overs do not promote the plot.  These two stories combined novel shooting angles and colors to express the same theme-the love that everyone pursued in that period.The film uses a lot of camera movement and novel shooting angles .As shown in the picture below, because of the use of camera motion and editing to form a-step printing.  There is also mirror shooting-using the reflection of mirrors and other materials to form overlapping shadows or symmetry, etc. I will analyze these aspects from the picture composition and types of camera shots.What impresses me most is these scenes.

When the patrol officer who changed the night snack for the flight attendant’s girlfriend came to the fast food restaurant again, the owner continued to promote sale for him the new supper.   The waitress in the fast food restaurant was wiping the glass while secretly listening to their conversation.  At this time, a very wonderful picture composition appeared.  The waitress was wiping two machines in the shop.  At the same time, the director creatively arranged the patrol police in the gap between the two machines in our field of vision.Nearly two-thirds of the screen on both sides are black shadows on the back of the machine, and in the only one-third in the middle, the patrol officer smiles helplessly under the light.  

In the crevice of composition is clever, on the one hand, gives a sense of voyeurism. This coincides with the behavior of waitress who frequently looks back and listens;On the other hand, the gap creates a narrow visual effect.   In short, shooting the patrol policeman in the cracks seems to be smiling but helpless.  After leaving his girlfriend, his sense of depression and loneliness in his inner world is well expressed in such a small space. （Movie clip at the bottom）

The following pictures are all shot in this format in the movie.  In this way, the main character is placed in the gap of a virtual foreground, which can not only highlight the character, but also guide the viewer’s attention to create a peeping third perspective.

 In the film, when the police call friends one by one at the fast food restaurant, there is a Dutch Tilt composition.  I am very impressed, it will make me want to feel his loneliness.

 In addition, the photographer placed the constable in the center of the golden section of the screen, which is one of the techniques used by the photographer and director to express the psychological activities of the characters.The director used the zoom lens and character position processing to make the movie protagonist become a social microcosm: the loneliness, emptiness, loneliness, helplessness of the people on the fringe of the city…so that his back to the fish tank and the coffee cat doll on the opposite side were talking to himself.

In terms of scenes, the scenes of this movie basically didn’t use wide shots. Most of them are medium shots and close up. These scene changes make the film rhythm tight and the sense of rhythm more tense. The sense of tableau’s contain on the audience’s attention is strengthened. These are well reflected in the shootout part of the killer in the first part and the sleepwalking part of the waitress in the second part.At the same time, a lot of shallow depth of field is used in the film. On the one hand, the use of shallow depth of field makes the atmosphere more depressing, which is conducive to the intensification of contradictions or ready to go; on the other hand, the shallow depth of field makes the characters always clear, but the background is often blurred, giving people a feeling that they can be seen but cannot be approached.

In his usual inexplicable way, Wong Kar-wai described in detail the fast food-style love pursued by a group of small people in the urban forest that is hard to escape.  Through these shooting angles, the film expresses disorder, accident, and unpredictability, but it can’t escape this forest of desire.

reflection1:

For my exercise 3, several problems were found during my editing process.  The first is that some shots cannot be connected. For example, when the video is 00:30, the actors’ actions are inconsistent.  This is the problem that I forgot to pay attention to the direction the actors turn their heads when shooting.  Another problem is that one lens is out of focus.  I treated this segment as a short complete movie.  So I used a lot of the bits of black punctuation.  So the black punctuation marks at the beginning serve as the basis for the plot.I also added background music at the end.  When I saw this script.  The plot I actually envisioned was done indoors.  The actor is frustrated by checking the email and discovering that there is no email he wants to receive.  Then he got up and walked to the window and looked out to the street.  When he heard the sound of a new mail message, he ran to the computer to check it.  Then the expression gradually became happy.  Although the form is similar.  But I’m not sure if shooting like this is a script change.However, in this filming, I did not consider the process of filming the actors looking for letters.  I ignored this link.  What I think is very simple.  The letter appeared on the table because his family or roommate helped him take it out of the mailbox and take it home.  So he can easily find this letter when he goes home.  Through this question, I found that I can make some innovations in many shooting details. I hope I can pay more attention to details when I shoot next time.  I have to pay attention to whether there are extra items on the screen, such as the wires of lights, and whether the connection of each lens is coherent. These are my reflections on this shoot.

reflection2

For this week’s class, I was very impressed with a movie clip.   Just two people came out of the coffee shop.   Woman is walking across the road, and man is shining shoes.   But when the woman crossed the road, she was stopped by the police and taken away.   This clip is almost unedited for me.   The continuity of the shots is done directly. This was shot with a crane.  I think the best thing about this shooting technique is that it can make a movie come alive.If this clip is shot with a fixed camera, the effect may be different.   The feeling of watching will be relatively plain and ordinary.   Men will not express the tension when he see a woman being taken away.When the police car drove away, the camera passed over the police car and then came to the man.  The camera moves quickly. I think this kind of transition can express a man’s nervousness and anxiety about this matter.  If it is a fixed-camera shooting, I can only think of using editing to switch between mid-range, close-up and close-up.  So this one-shot shooting method is sometimes easier to make the plot vivid than fixed-camera shooting.  The same shooting technique used in this movie is about a woman who stole a key.  In the beginning, the crane was filmed from upstairs.  It descended from the wide shot upstairs to the woman’s hand, turning into a close-up.  The whole process can highlight the key to this key.  Let the audience know what is important.Through these two films, let us know better that there are some scenes choosing the right lens to make the film more perfect. It can also make important pointsThis is my reflection on this movie.

Reflection 3

The requirements and skills of the screen actor.  The value and potential of gestures and actions free, or independent, of speech and dialogue.  How is walking, running, swimming, driving, smoking, listening, even thinking, shown on screen.I remember the movie clip I saw in class was a man swimming in a swimming pool.  The content of the filming is only the process of shooting him swimming.  This is a fragment without a storyline, what is needed is the performance details of the actors.  For example, some detailed movements of his hands when on the shore.There is also a movie clip of a group of people stealing things from train stations and trains in partnership.  There was no communication during the whole process, but many shots used close up to shoot their hands-when they were stealing things.  And their demeanor.  You won’t feel bored after watching the clips.  The audience will be attracted by their performance.  This will advance the storyline.

Reflection 4

Robin sent us a script in class.  Let’s choose a scene content to analyze-which equipment to use, the location of the camera, and how to shoot.  My team members all chose the second scene.  The reason is that the dialogue part is very simple to shoot.  I think it makes sense. I didn’t consider this factor at all before that.  I wanted to choose scene one at the time.I will not consider this when choosing a scene.  I just choose which scene I will have a sense of the picture first.  So I wanted to choose scene one.  For the first scene I want to choose, I will use dolly.  I like shooting clips without dialogue.  Because then I can try many different shooting angles.Like this“Juliette picks up the book that Ella had laid down horizontally. Ella notices this and watches her apprehensively, looking like she might be about to say something.”This place I want to use the zoom format to shoot.   The book is in front of Ella, the book is close to the camera.   At first the camera focused on the book.   When Juliette picked up the book, the process of picking up the book was like a transition.   When the book was taken away, the camera focused on Ella’s face.  I will use dolly to move the camera forward at the beginning.  The camera stopped moving when it focused on Ella’s face. I don’t think the success rate of shooting in this scene is very high.  Because you need to try again and again.  It is impossible to follow the focus successfully at once.  There is also the problem of the distance between the book and Ella and the angle of the camera.  What I think is that the camera and the book are at the same height, and then look up slightly to shoot.  In this way, Ella’s position is a little higher than the book.This may not be a reflection.   I just wrote down my thoughts on this script.   I will try to shoot this if I have the opportunity.

Reflection 5

Through some film fragments I saw in class, I became interested in first-perspective shooting. I know this class is not about first-person shoot  For example, a person escapes from a car.   The process of escaping, as well as a series of things that happened when he got into a stranger’s car, were all shot from a first-person perspective.   This kind of shooting  gives the audience a strong immersive .The feature of this kind of shooting is camera=audience, and all the content that takes place in front of the camera is directly aimed at the audience.   The audience stood at the point of the character in the film and watched what happened.   Everything the character experiences is directly felt by the audience.Just like the movie clips watched in class, when this person gets in a stranger’s car, chats with the driver, and looks down at his shoes.  These things intuitively make the audience feel what the character does after getting on the car.  It’s like what the audience is doing right now.

Perhaps because of the strong immersive, I always felt that when I switched to first-person shoot, there would always be a horrible storyline next.  Because this shooting method can express feelings most directly.  But I watched the clips of “GOODFELLAS”, and I found that first-person shoo can also be easy and humorous.  The combination of first-person shoot and voice over creates a relaxed atmosphere.  Introduce everyone you see in this shooting format.  This form is special.

In conclusion, the shooting methods of these two movie clips are different.  Although the first one was shot with a first-person perspective, it was hand held.  It can be seen from the shaking lens.  But also because of the shaking off the camera can better express the rush of the actor’s escape at that time.  The second is the image taken with the stabilizer.  The same shoot from the first person perspective, the second one is more stable.The above is my reflection on this first-person perspective

Reflection 6

For this week’s presentation, I think my classmates’ presentations are very good.  Everyone’s research projects are very interesting.  What impressed me the most was Xinyi Qiu’s topic.  Her topic is about Shooting Styles of Directors From Different Countries.  She chose two clips from two movies, one is from In the Mood for Love which is directed by Wong Kar-wai, another is from The Terminal which is directed by Steven Spielberg.  I am personally very interested in Wong Kar Wai’s movies.  My topic is also to analyze his movies.  I really like his shooting style.  Xinyi Qiu’s presentation is very complete and detailed.  She researches around these aspects-the composition, types of camera shots, angle shots, camera movement, and so on.  So as to reflect the expression of the two directors’ different styles of emotional expression in shooting.

I think that the two directors shoot the same subject, but the reason for shooting in different styles has a lot to do with Chinese and Western cultures.  In the Mood for Love which is directed by Wong Kar-wai, the costumes and props of that period are different from the present.  Not to mention the contrast with Western culture.  In addition, Wong Kar-wai’s shooting methods are very special, he usually likes to use long shots to express the atmosphere.  There are close-ups in the composition, and there are a lot of side-shots of the actors.  In normal shooting, everyone will focus on the protagonist, and switch between mid-shot and close-up shots.  But Wong Kar-wai’s filming will not take this form.So his shoot style is very different from Steven Spielberg.  It’s like his emotional expression is expressed through small things, and Steven Spielberg is expressed from big things.

 Overall, Xinyi Qiu’s presentation really appealed to me.  She mentioned every point.

http://www.mediafactory.org.au/corahao/2021/04/16/reflective-writing-4/

http://www.mediafactory.org.au/corahao/2021/04/16/reflective-writing-5/

http://www.mediafactory.org.au/corahao/2021/04/16/reflective-writing-6/

http://www.mediafactory.org.au/corahao/2021/04/16/analytical-writing/

The movie clips to be analyzed this time are selected from Léon.  This movie mainly tells the story of an Italian who lives in the slums of New York, named Leon, who is a professional killer.  For many years he has lived alone in this small town, he likes to drink boxed milk, and he likes to go to the cinema to watch old movies.  He also has a pot of green potted plants and a toolbox full of guns.  Matilda is a 14-year-old girl, and Leon is a neighbor in the same apartment.  She had a family but was never happy, so she smoked and skipped class when she was very young.  Fate allowed the two of them to communicate.  The girl escaped the catastrophe because she went out to buy milk.  It turned out that the owner of the neighbor’s house was the eyeliner of the police, and the whole family was killed for hiding a pack of drugs.  It was Leon who opened the door to protect the girl at a dangerous moment.  Matilda hated the murderer for killing her brother, so she asked Leon to teach her how to kill and prepare to avenge her brother…

The clip I selected is about the preparation before the police go to the girl’s house.  This can be regarded as one of the classic fragments in this movie.  A corridor began to appear in the fragment.  The director used a long shot to shoot.  Then the characters appeared one after another, like a model catwalk, but they looked funny.  This kind of performance seems to imply that what they are going to do next is like entertainment in their eyes. In the end, the policeman appeared solemnly.  The relationship between such characters is very clear.  The last person to appear is important.  When these people appear, the picture is not fixed.  The lens moved forward slowly throughout the shooting process.  The camera slowly advances with the appearance of the last character.  When the police finally came out, the shot slowly changed from a long shot to a mid shot.  Let this character clearly appear in the audience’s field of vision. Then when the policeman opened the box to take stimulants, the camera at this time was a close-up shot of his hand. This plot is to explain the reason for his crazy behavior afterwards. Then the shooting position becomes high angle shooting.This position shooting his hideous expression. Can make the audience feel that what he is about to do is against the law. Because this person looks very distorted.This clip is basically mid shot.  Many scenes are shot at once rather than shot separately.  Many lens switching is not done by editing.  In these short shots, the audience can clearly understand how crazy what happened next. This shows that the effect of shooting has been achieved.These shots have made sufficient preparations for the next storyline

The above is my analysis of this scene. also learned how to show some plot hints.

Through the feedback of assessment 1 for the first time, I have a new question.   During the filming, there are some fragments that only need to shoot the dialogue between two people.   But when we watch the movie, we will find that some clips will join the shots of other actors.   Sometimes I think about why I need to shoot this actor.   But most of the time I will ignore this problem. Because I often don’t care about this kind of problem when watching movies.  When I see this in the feedback again, I will think about it.  I found that there are some emotional expressions, plot pushes or guesses about some characters (for example, judging whether this character is a hero or a criminal in the movie).  Many hints are given from these actors who have no lines. For example, their movements, their expressions… not only can they give these hints, but they can also make some clips look richer.  For example, in a dialogue, the screen is a scene where two people talk back and forth.  This kind of clip will look boring and monotonous.  When a third person or some external factors are added, this clip instantly becomes very rich and interesting.  Some actors may not have a single line, but he can be the guide of this movie.