https://vimeo.com/showcase/6011896/video/340588644

Speaking to someone online versus seeing them in real life is a concept that is baffling to many individuals such as myself. My plans to meet up with a friend I rarely see but speak to online happened on a Wednesday afternoon. Brunch was the chosen mode of activity at a local cafe. There were no expectations of how it would be like when we met up, but once I saw her, it felt completely different as to how I would usually interact with her. Because we seldom see each other, there was no sense of familiarity as you would have with an old friend but also, it is a completely different type of interaction even though we’ve spoken on multiple occasions online. There is just that explainable awareness of one another, especially because you witness everything is in real time and in the flesh.

The story behind this observation:

This was actually a personal anecdote of mine in regards to a friend whom I met through a unique circumstance. It’s weird how the world works because we had actually already met prior to our friendship. We had both attended a birthday party and had greeted each other but we didn’t get to know each other until I met her through an ex-boyfriend. Unfortunately, I felt that it was going to be hard to maintain the friendship, especially since I had severed ties with this person. To my surprise though, she still wanted to catch up every now and then even if I was not associated with that person anymore. The only way I was connected to her was online, specifically through the social media app, Instagram. Once we had finally caught up, it was so different to how I saw her through Instagram and face to face.

This second video the challenging part of this assignment, to say the least. Working as a group can be difficult because sometimes, you feel that you are the one carrying the weight of the team, especially if it is your observation being used. I felt that it was my responsibility to lead the group with the whole process, especially in the pre-production and stages and my role as a talent. I was chosen and I nominated myself to be the talent because as the person who had lived through the observation, it was the most appropriate action to move forward with.

As we were a group of six, the daunting question of who was going to edit was coming towards the end of shooting. I, however, volunteered to do it because once again, I felt that I had a responsibility to accurately represent this observation. The only thing that I wanted to put off was directing and that was left with Aria to do.

As mentioned in my week twelve reflection, the weather was quite temperamental and it was hard to get the right lighting and colour in certain shots. That was one of my main concerns whilst I was editing but luckily, Neville helped out with the colour correcting process. Have a look at the difference:

As seen above, there is a vast difference in the lighting and essentially, the mood of the whole video. Colour correcting had made a huge difference in how the message of this video was conveyed along with the consistency of each and every shot. Had it been the original lighting, the video would have gone for a more serious tone which was not what I was intending. Instead, I wanted to go for a more light-hearted version of the situation. Thinking about the actual observation itself, it was not even supposed to be about the awkward interaction itself but rather, the difference between someone’s online and offline persona. Obviously, that was not the case with this video because there was no clear outline with that scope of the story. Despite all the twists and turns (different interpretations) of this observation, I believe that the story was concise and straightforward.

The production of this video piece was an extremely breezy process – it was done within in an hour or so, with minimal adjustments made. When I say minimal adjustments, I mean the pre-planning of this whole video was followed accordingly, with modifications of the shot.

Leaving out certain shots were no problem for me because the ones left in the video could still capture the essence of my observation. The shots that did not make it were crossed out in the script and shot list. My reasoning for leaving these shots out was due to to it being repetitive, unnecessary and more importantly, it would have been an obstructive process. The cafe is quite small in size and if I were to do a tracking shot of the talent walking in, the cafe owner would not have been pleased. Prior to the shooting, I asked the cafe owner if we were allowed to film inside. He was reluctant to let us do that because he did not know the nature of the shoot but once he saw us shoot inside (which was low-impact), he was relieved. He initially thought that we were going to take over the whole cafe but in reality, I was just shooting from the table we were allocated to, and used my mini tripod to film. Filming outside had also little challenges, despite the rain. If anything, it was easier to film inside rather than a closed location such as the cafe.

These were some of my favourite shots taken during the filming and editing process – it captures the whole mood of exclusivity as well as the coziness of the cafe. The fact that the weather was gloomy adds to that effect. My expectations of filming my observations did stray away from the actual video – of course, it would be difficult to replicate the exact same moment that I had experienced from my observation but I would have to say that it was pretty close.

I enjoyed making this “routinely” type of video – it may be hard to decipher its exact meaning without reading the observation, however, the aim for this video was to present Degraves St in the exact way it is.

I would have to say that Week 12 is the culmination of the knowledge and bits of advice that we all have received during the semester. From all technical tips and the life advice that Robin has given us, it is a chance for us to utilise it and pour it into the final studio assignment for the semester. During Week 12, I filmed for both my group and individual video piece – a week full of video productions.

Punctuality has never been my strong trait and unfortunately, this semester was a reflection of that. I have been trying to be more on time, if not, a bit earlier but I have failed to do so on so many occasions, being early only once to my studio classes. I was running extremely late to this group meeting but to lick my own wound, I wasn’t the only running late. I do, however, feel incredibly bad for making my group members wait and that is something that I must actively improve on. Wasting people’s time is extremely inconsiderate and unprofessional and reflects an individual’s commitment.

Despite my lateness, it was still overall a really good day of filming – the energy was great and we were all communicating very well. Neville was familiar with the use of the sound recording device, Aria and Jackson were experts with the Sony EX-3 and Liv and I made to practice each and every scene before filming. I was really pleased with our team because everyone was patient and considerate. Because of our teamwork, the weather’s temperament also did not get in the way of filming this video piece. There were times when the sun came out (not ideal for filming particular scenes) and when we would experience the occasional shower or two.

filming in cloudy conditions
vs
filming with the sun

The weather’s inconsistencies reflected on the look of certain shots as seen above. This can be easily fixed in post-production – in the future, however, it is best to ensure that external elements won’t affect the ongoing consistency of the shoot. Now that we’ve completed the production process, I am excited to start editing this video which is my favourite part of this whole process!

With my own individual video piece, I filmed on a cold and rainy day. This was not too much of a problem because this mostly comprised of me shooting indoors which was at the café. Of course, this was relatively more easier to film as I was the director of this process and it was really up to me how the shots would look. The only inconvenience I would have to point out is filming inside small locations with consideration of the cafe and its patrons. I asked the owner if it was okay to film and they were a bit hesitant at first but eventually they said that we were good to film.

I’m happy with how my shots came out and this is probably something I’m a little bit proud of (in terms of the aesthetic value) than the group assignment. However, there is a difference between them and that is the story being told. A video can have completely different looks from each other but it is important that the message you want to be conveyed is clear!

Week 11 was an eventful week, full of pre-planning and organising, leading up to one of my final assessments of the semester (my second final semester too ah!). Prior to all the planning of my individual and group video, I helped out with Liv’s video piece as the sound recordist. Helping out Liv gave me an idea of how it would be like working together as group. At the same time, it made me realise how stressful it can get filming in a busy environment, especially if you are filming in a public space. Nonetheless, we still managed to achieve and get through all the shots as planned!

Taken on set during Liv’s video piece production

Organising two types of video pieces is a difficult task to get around, especially if you are working as a group. The difficulties that arise are usually the level of commitment between group members, clashes of schedules and the creative differences.

During Week 11, we had the opportunity to venture and discuss between peers what it was we wanted to achieve for this final project. Everyone had a vague idea about what it was we wanted to do so it was quite hard to set our sights on a particular video idea. However, there was this one profound moment during the discussion between my potential film partners – this was in regards to choosing which observation we were going to adapt. Neville brought up a couple of my observations, stating his interest in them and I was quite taken aback (in a good way) because I did not think that anyone would care to stop and read my observations of the world. This observation, in particular, was about meeting a friend I speak to online more so than real life. To my surprise, a lot of people seemed to agree with this idea and also had their own interpretations of what this observation meant for them. For example, Neville perceived as a story with two points of views and then eventually, these points of views would merge and become one. On the other hand, Jack thought that the whole scene was based off the awkward interaction between this person and the observation. As it is my own observation, it was definitely about the awkwardness but that was not the main reason – it was about my perception of this person’s online and offline persona and the differences between them.

In the end, we veered towards the idea of going for the ‘awkwardness’ between these two characters, mainly because it has the potential to be entertaining on screen and also, everyone seemed to gravitate more towards that idea. During pre-production, I wrote a script and we all worked on a storyboard in order to get the final idea of this video. It was fairly simple, with very little dialogue and heavily reliant on the voice-over to convey the awkwardness.

This storyboard was helpful in constructing how the shots would look like and how we could enhance the ‘awkwardness’ between these two characters. I’m glad that everyone seems to have the same vision for this project which is effective for teamwork, especially when working with tight deadlines. I’m looking forward during production with my group and I’m excited to see how far all of our combined skills can take us!