In this exercise I used several montage shots to express the entire scene. The shots of typing, scrolling on the screen, change-shaped apple, mouth chewing, feet shaking. The shot of typing is a bit out of focus, I cannot get the right focus somehow and I don’t know why. I was thinking is that because the distance between camera and the hands is too short. Also I found the change-shaped apple shot a bit wired and brusque to watch. The short jumps cuts and un-continuity are just annoying. I think it is hard for post production, it is something needed to be considered in pre-production. I thought about it for several times, what can be done in pre production is that firstly put camera at a fixed spot and at the same height. Secondly prepare three apples, these apples are bitten in different shapes. Thirdly camera assistant changes different apples while Phoebe is checking Facebook on her laptop. when editing, the problems might still there, but it will be very slight and small. There might be some better ways to do this, but this is what I can think of. Another thing I’m not that satisfied with is the mise-en-scene. The blot on the laptop, the placemat, the background in the apple shot and the black box in the feet shot are the things I need to get rid of.
Since there have been several cons already, I decided to work well on audio. It took me a while to think of something. Finally I create something like ‘being home alone, doing some laundry, making some tea and checking Facebook in a noisy city apartment’ sound track. For my audio, I searched for some free sound of boiling water in a kettle and washing machine. The sound of water boiling is not that obvious, so I found another boiling water sound and added right before the switch turns off. The sound of the washing machine I found is really good because it also contains the noise of the city in distance, the sound of washing machine is also in distance which is perfectly for me to use. I put the washing machine sound through the entire sequence, and turned it higher after the water sound.
In this week’s class, we did some exercise on lighting, audio and camera techniques. We were divided into few groups and did different scenes applying these techniques. I was in charge of camera. Again we used DEDO KIT for the lighting, there are key light, background light and fill light. For the fill light we can use some white reflectors to help. There is a big difference. Because I was in charge of camera, so I learned something about camera movement. My group was doing the scene where Corey walks in and sit next to Samantha. This scene is a single shot, the camera should be moving along with Corey’s action. For the first time, I just moved the camera exactly along with Corey’s action. It turns out to be wired, it seemed to be slow for my camera movement. I didn’t show the existence of Samantha well enough. Then Paul gave me some advice of moving camera a bit faster, and move along with Corey when he enters the room, then move quickly to Samantha and let Corey walk into frame. While doing this, you should always keep an eye on framing and head room. To get a better shot, Paul ask Corey to slow down a bit to work with my camera movement when acting. Here is another way to improve.
For this shooting exercise, I tried for two times. The first time is not good. Something wrong with framing and angel. I didn’t get the shots I want exactly. One time I was talking to Lisa about my exercise. She gave me some advices on it which sparks me. The problem of my first work is that the framing is too wide and the angle is not good enough to emphasize the action. What I did in the second try is to tight frame up and find a good angle that emphasize the action.
In this exercise there are only four shots from different angles. The first one, a close up shot from side, Phoebe is taking things out from/into her purse. The action is very well seen, and the depth of field of the objects on the desk is right on spot, blurry in the front, clear at the background. The second one, a wide shot from above Phoebe’s head, this shot looks wide, but it emphasizes the action very well and artfully. In the framing, there are only the desk full of objects poured from the purse and Phoebe. Although it is wide, it is still tight and neat. The reason I say it emphasize the action is that audience now can be more sure that Phoebe is putting her purse away. The third one, a close up shot of Phoebe’s hand searching the purse. It clearly emphasizes on action. The last one, a wide shot of sitting room with Phoebe sitting in it. In this shot, I intend to use a wide shot to show the living environment of character. Also the emphasized actions shows the character’s personality and emotion in some degree.
The problem I ran into in this exercise is the lighting. Some of the footages I got is over exposed, also the entire lighting tends to be yellow, the color of the sitting room lights. What I need to remember is that to check exposure with zebra pattern and do the white balance before shooting. Later when editing, I used the tools in color correction, fast color corrector and RGB color corrector to help with the lighting, it turns out to be ok.
Getting dressed is another scene I made. I shot for two times and edited for three time for this scene. I shoot my friend Phoebe who is playing me in the scene wearing three different costumes. The clothes are mine, I ask Phoebe to wear them, and imagine herself is looking at the mirror.
When shooting, I was looking for different angles and framings. I kept some of the footages where Phoebe failed the acting. The reason I kept them is because it looks very natural. At first, I shoot two different costumes. They are two different styles. I shoot again later and added another costumes just to make it look more visual.
When editing, firstly I just simply cut the the two costumes. Then Paul suggested to cut back and forth between two costumes. And also cut down the duration of the scene to around 30 seconds. Cutting back and forth is a good idea, it is also actually in my mind. It can make the scene more visual to audience. The changing between two costumes will also make it less boring to watch. When it comes to time duration, at first I didn’t realize that it is too long. When I showed it to Phoebe, she said that she gets a bit boring to watch it at the end because it feels like too many repeating. Then I looked through it again and again, there are indeed some repeating in it, and this is not what audience wants. So I cut it down to 30 seconds the second time. It was much better, briefer and clearer. One thing I learned about editing in this is that cut tersely, give audience what they want to see and do not miss the key points, avoid repeating as much as possible. Also, learn to cut through the moments. There is not a beginning or ending of a moment. For example, when cutting, there is not need to cut right from ‘action’ to ‘cut’. You can just cut from ‘she is washing hands’ instead of ‘she is going to wash hands’, audience will get the message.
For the second time shooting of ‘getting dressed’, I used the ‘DE DO’ KIT to get some good lighting. It turned out to be a failure. During the shooting, I used all of the three lights. I was trying to apply the background light, fill light and key light theory into my practice. The problem I ran into is the overlap and nonuniform of lights. Finally it was too bright and too dark. So after few time of practices, I gave up. The other thing I might did wrong is to shut all of the curtains to avoid the sun lights. Finally I just shoot in natural day lights, it was ok. When I later talked to my classmate, Lisa. She said that Robin said if you don’t have much experience using DEDO KIT, you should start with using just one light. It is actually complicated to use three lights at the same time. For this, I decided to do some research about it, I will come up with another research post of three-point lighting.
For the audio of this one, I decide to use voice-over of me mumbling and whistling. The idea just jumped into my mind. And I really like the idea because what I’ve made is very personal and causal, so it totally fits. Because of doing one assessment in sound design, I found that we can record sound directly through quicktime player and the microphone down in edit suit. This made things much more convenient. When recording, I was too close to the microphone, so there is some buzz sound. To avoid that, to wrap some tissue and to be a bit further from the microphone are good ideas.
In this week’s class, we went through some lighting techniques. Paul introduced DEDO KIT to us. There are three lights in it, there are also different colors of filters we can use. In lighting, there are three main lights, key light, background light and fill light. In the class, all of us worked like a crew to finish one short scene, ‘look at Aidan’. It was a simple scene, but we spend the whole class working on it just to get everything right and good enough. Everyone got some practice and gained experience from it. First we set up cameras, adjust audio, connect to audio kits and boom. Then we did the white balance, exposure and focal length on camera. When everything is ready, The assistant is calling the shots, as I remembered, it was something like audio set, camera rolling, slice in, frame, slice out, and then director calls annnnd action. Secondly we use the lights equipment, the key light is hanged over Aidan’s head, the background light is placed behind Aidan, the fill light is a white reflector some one holding and standing at the side of Aidan. when the lighting was all set, we can see a soft wrapping lights and a clear glaze side of Aidan’s face from camera lens. The lighting was good, next thing was about camera movement and construction. When we took the first shot, the camera coverage is quite wide and loose. The movement is bit slower than the action. After Paul suggest to make the frame tighter and ask the actors to slow down a bit, the shot improved a lot. We spend the whole class to finish this one simple scene, this makes me understand the importance of a scene with good quality. There are always areas that we can improve in one scene. So keep digging and improving.
When I was shooting this one, I shot it using my Canon 700D. The audio was actually really good, but I found limitation of focal length. As the first scene I made this semester, it turned out to be ok. As I said in my presentation, I am going to shoot some ordinary events like this for my project. Also I will be focusing on actions. So for my exercise, I choose to shoot with a tight framing. There are lots of close-ups in my exercise. I am try to find a way to express a person’s emotion, personality, the environment she is in through these close-up shots.
In this scene, we can see some blurry background of the kitchen counter and sitting room. I intend to cover this in the framing to show the living environment of the character. One thing that actually surprised me is the audio. Firstly the quality is really good. Secondly it creates the atmosphere-when I was recording, I forget to turn off the radio, so it record the singing from the radio as well. It sounds really nice, singing in distance. However when you try to put some music when editing, it is different. As I am trying to combine documentary and drama elements in my work, the ‘plain recording’ sometimes is what I need.
In Friday’s class, we did the presentation, it comes out great, everyone has their own thoughts and perspectives about making films, documentary, drama or both. based on the feedback that three tutors gave me, I have a more specific and deeper understanding about what I’m going to do and achieve in the rest of the semester. I am excited about making all this happen. As Paul said, there isn’t have to be a short film at the end, it can be like 20 shooting practices. However this semester I want to be ambitious about my work, I want it to be a short film with everything considered and done well. I want it to be one of works not just some exercise and practices. As Robin said, mine idea is a self-portrait with an actor. Some one else is playing me. And Paul talked about the voice-over I will create. For now, the content of voice is kind of abstract for me, I haven’t thought of some good ones. One thing I am sure about it is that it will appear in my short film all the way, it comes and goes but never stops until the end.
When listen to other classmates’ presentation, I was sparked by some concepts, different perspectives, new ideas… I list some
-close-up montage
there will be lots of close-ups in my film, what I am thinking is to mix up and put all those close-ups in different scenes together, to make a connection, communication of those different events. It is actually related as well. Then I can have another separated montage scene.
-collection of people wearing interesting stuff
I’m always into costumes and clothes. What I can do in my film is to ask my actor to get dressed in different style and kinds of clothes like a nice dress, something causal-T-shirt and jeans, pajamas, high heels, sports shoes, slippers, barefoot… then I can take photos, or record still images of her in different clothes. And how she acts and feels is all up to her. All I do is to record all of this.
-nature
when some one talked about surfing and showed the images of seas and with people in it. It is really beautiful and makes me feel the connection between people and nature. It just kind of reminds me the connections between people’s emotion and the natural landscape. It’s the thing I always want to try out. Just imagine this, an extreme close up of the sea wave connects to an extreme close up of a person’s face, with eyes close, quite and peaceful, thinking something, cuts to sea wave, cut back to the person’s face, suddenly she is frowning and with her eyes wide open. Something like this is what I want to try out.
In week7, I had a talk with Paul. We talked about my idea about the short film, and wrote down some notes. The next thing is get started!! I’m kind of excited about all this, I think it’s really a good challenging. Now I am just thinking about it, when actually doing it, I might run into some problems, and it’s not like what I thought. Also, I might have some new directions and discovery and may change the plan- I am aware of all this.
plan for the shooting
-series of scenes (shoots I want to get in every scene)
1. getting up in the morning
alarm, phone, framing from back, curtains, windows, view outside window, the bedroom(mise-en-scene), framing her feet, barefoot walking…
2. getting dressed
closet, mirror, put on and take off, can’t decide what to wear, bed full of clothes…
3. removing make up in bathroom
shots of make-ups(mise-en-scene), shots of cabinet behind the mirror(mise-en-scene), squeeze face soap, toothbrush, water trickling along her arms, clean nails, brush her hair, spread face cream…
4. putting away bags
Bag, make ups, wallet, take things out one by one-put things in one by one, shot of things in bag…
5. making tea
open tea package, tea bag, tea bag into the glass, pouring water, tea bag in water, seize the tea bag up and down, shot of her drinking tea-framing up to her mouth only…
…
-location
My best friend, Phoebe’s apartment- bedroom, kitchen, bathroom, living room and balcony.
-lighting
Morning-sunrise-refresh-hopeful
Afternoon-relaxing-lazy-bright-quite
Evening-tired-unburden-to be true oneself
The lighting in cinema is never the natural lights no matter how natural it looks like. My plan is to get several laps and try to create a suitable lighting for different scenarios.
-camera
For the following weeks, I will keep shooting. Every time I have some sparks in my head, I might grab my DSLR to shoot. Every Friday I will borrow the film camera from Building 9 and shooting some well-planed shoots.
For camera movements, I will use hand held more because lots of my shoots have a tight framing. Also handheld make me more flexible with shooting angles and framing.
-casting
I am going to work with my best friend Phoebe who know me very well. In the scene, she is acting me. I will communicate with her in advance, also I will be directing her when shooting. I think that it is easier for her to understand my direction and what I want to get out of the shooting based on the closeness between us and good communication.
-mise-en-scene
-shooting exercise
I shoot a scene where the girl is making tea. In this scene I tried something out and tried to create the tone I want to achieve in my final short film. Here is it. Just a practice.
I got lots of epiphanies during work, discussion with classmates blog reading.
-tags of film
I used to think that a good film must has a good drama, something different, something new and something not tacky. However I realize recently that a film can be great even it doesn’t have a good drama in it. I first realize this is when I was doing narrative and authorship in cinema 1 year ago, then we learned French New Wave which is not much to do with great plot or drama. Then I did Documentary: True Lies, I had more knowledge about documentary. For the first time, I see the power of real. There is staging and direction in documentary, there is simply recording in it too. In film3, I realize that we are using both drama and documentary to create something new. There can be the authentic of documentary, there can be exquisite of drama, there can be both. For me, I am trying to create something real and beautiful, I want to show the power of real using good cinematography. CINEMATOGRAPHY is the thing I want to work on this semester.
-when editing
When I edit my shooting before, I was just putting the footages together, simply cut and paste, and then find some music that fits it. And I think that something is missing. When look at Lisa’s work the other day, I found that she changed the speed of people walking, and I think it looks really good and funny. There is real editing in it. Also she used split screen in one of her exercise. In the two split screen, we can only see half part of the two people. When watching it, we focus more on difference of their actions because of split screen. I think this is a great idea, and it is something worth trying in the future.
-about moments
In documentary, I think that moments are causal. By causal I mean it can be the beginning of something, in the middle of something, or at the end of something, it just happens, and it’s just recording. Although it’s just recording, you can still staging it.
-about sounds
There can be suitable background music, there can be voice-over, related or not related to the film, there can be just silence except characters in it make a noise…
In this week, we start to talk about work individually. Like what we did last semester in the scene. For the rest of the semester, we will find our own focusing area of filmmaking and explore and research it.
I want to talk about my idea roughly first. I am going to shoot several scenes of daily routine of a person’s life, a girl. I will focus on the specific, small, detailed and ordinary life events, for example (the events I have in mind) getting dressed, putting on or take off make ups, getting up in the morning, eating, putting away stuff in bag… Those events are all very small and they happen to everyone every day. I am thinking to shoot some scenes that this girl is with other people, both when she is alone and has communication with others. There might be some narrations as well, but I haven’t thought of a good one, maybe something will come out when I start shooting. I want to show the power of the real moment- it may not look that bright and wonderful from outside, but the beauty of it is that it’s real and ordinary. Also I want to create mysterious atmosphere, so I will find different framing and angles to show some parts of the girl but not her face (can be a blurry one). When shooting there will be a mark on her that shows it’s her. In my shooting, there must be direction, performance and staging. My aim is to make it look beautiful, so in that case, I have to consider lighting and mise-en-scene as well. I will try different lighting in different events. I am going to work with my best friend, ask her to be may actress. We share experience and know each other very well. And the girl in the short film is actually an insinuate figure of myself. So when I work with her, I will direct her to act me. Because she knows me and we are close, I think that it will be easier for us to communicate. On the other hand, I’m thinking to look for someone from casting list. It would make me gain some experience of working with someone who’s actually in acting.
When I look at my idea, the thing I am trying to create reminds me of the scene of the man and the woman talking in the room we saw on Friday. There isn’t lots of script in this scene, they are just talking stuff in a room. What draws me more attention is the mise-en-scene, the lighting, the costume and their kind of wired and funny interaction. It makes audience feel like that it is not important about the plot, it is just fun to watch them. What sparks here is the great cinematography, and this is also what I want to achieve in my final short film. We also watched few other scenes which are all interesting to me. The scene with the drunk guy in looks really great, it is like a documentary style, but it is really interesting and stylish. In the scene, the guy is always holding some alcohol in his hand, or sitting in a bar, or drinking with other people. One framing which zoom in to his mouth, he is speaking or singing something, it just looks so interesting. And the music and the words or the song he keeps singing is also very suitable for the scene. In addition, the scene about blind people is pretty amazing. When first look at the it, I don’t know this is about blind people, and when I look at the eye is being striped off, I was shocked. Then when I look at it again, I noticed everything is about sound in this scene, the sound of a train, the sound of crowded people, the sound of bird, etc. And they are all brought to audience powerfully. For the train part, audience can only see the wheels operating repeatedly, the more it repeats, the more you want to focus on the sound it makes. For the crowds part, director makes it blurry when editing, this make audience feel scared just like the blind people, they can’t see clearly. For the bird part, the bird is kind of locked in a hermetic room, the room is so plain and make you feel asphyxial, the only thing you can hear is the screaming of the bird.
