Month: July 2016

Edited scene link on google drive: https://drive.google.com/a/rmit.edu.au/file/d/0B32yH54QH6CEYkF6VUJ3M2w4WE0/view?usp=sharing

This project, which I worked on with Matthew Duong (actor) and Jeremy Costa (videographer), was quite fun, if rather short-lived. We ended up having two films with slight differences in how they are edited (one by Duong and one by Costa). The link above and the shared video on my google drive is the one edited by Duong on his laptop. Both versions, though, focused on using our limited shooting time and poor line-memorizing to our advantage, making it seem hilariously awkward and absurd.

One moment that stands out really well was having me standing behind Duong, nodding along, which is a very funny fourth-wall bit of absurdity as at the same time, I am supposedly on the other side of the room talking. This is aided by the audio mix of me talking while being inter-cut with Duong saying “whatever” while in various positions and locations. This was probably the funniest moment of the video. There were many other funny moments, such as the moving of my face to Duong’s face, or the odd pronunciation of the word “nice”.

One of the not-so-great moments, however, was most likely my need to keep looking at the script. A huge amount of lines with zero rehearsal time allowed meant that we both needed to keep a script nearby for prompts, only Duong was more subtle in keeping his hidden. I very audibly and visually turned a page at one point and constantly looked down at my lap. The good news is that in the editing suite it was used to maximum awkward and comedic effect by showing it off as much as possible, even mixing in a great reaction shot that just looks like disappointment.

I guess the main thing I would do differently, assuming I had all the time and resources available, would be to have rehearsals to memorize the lines, or perhaps have people with lines written on giant cards out of the shot to help prompt the actors. As well as better camera and audio equipment to have better-looking and sounding shots. If, however, it was exactly the same time/resources, perhaps then maybe more head-shots, so a person can keep the script in front of their face, out of shot, so they can still read the lines without looking at their lap every time. Other than that, I think we did very well.

We started getting together for assessment 2 (done in pairs), with plans to do the unmarked assessment 1 during Wednesday’s session. We also discussed the various restrictions on our web series to the creative writing people, including budget, length, and character limits. There will probably be a writer-director co-op relationship during shooting.

We also apparently have to do weekly updates in the same pairs as for the assessment 2, with each pair updating a different week.

We watched a few episodes of some web series that we liked and sent links to our tutor. The show I sent was “The Guild”, and we analyzed the camera-work used in it to show the characters in different places, as well as the conversation between two of the mains. We then did “Jake and Amir”, where we looked at the minimalist shots, and how the production value has changed greatly, but not the formula of each episode. From a producers point of view, writing has to be kept the same, just keep control on the set and lighting and good shots. Afterwards, we looked at “The Leftovers”, a local RMIT production. It started out as some passive-aggressive back-and-forth between an RMIT student and a Melbourne uni student, ending with a bash at Deaken and maniacal laughter.

Assessment 2 is describing and analyzing an episode from a web series on a template, then individually reflecting on it. We went through some of the details within the template. My partner for this project is Daleen Jeenmuang, and we will do week 4.

 

We met today with the creative writing people with whom we will collaborate with to make a comedy web series. In groups we discussed these questions:

• What are we going to make? No idea. We are still deciding what our comedy web series will be. We need to think about this and talk it out more with the people we’ll be working with. We aren’t even sure who we will work with.
• What is something new that you’ve encountered in this discussion? Nothing new, exactly. Just the same stuff I thought about.
• What do we want to get out of this studio? A good web series, a popular web series, and a good grade. I really want a lot of people to watch it, like it, and for me to receive a high distinction.

A lot of ideas were discussed for comedy web series. So many ideas. One idea was 2 friends who are going to a series of parties, its entirely shot outside each house by the door. They talk, enter, then it cuts to them leaving and reacting to what happened.