Assignment 4 – 2

PROJECT ONE – SHOOTING

We booked the studio from 3:30 – 7:30

This was actually the first time we entered this studio because it always has a class going on, so we did not have a chance to look carefully last time. And we found out the curtain is not arranged as we expected, and we need to set up another black curtain to create a corner. And also we need more c stands and light stands. As for the tech office, I really do not understand why we cannot borrow more than 4 c stands, even we are only using these for assignment, this was just ridiculous. Thanks to Robin, we could get extra equipment from the tech office. And huge thanks for bringing us the “treasure box” as well.

The most important prop in this scene was the ‘bar’ for creating the effect of prison’s window. Kris and Rachel spent a long time making the bar. However, I think for the next time, we need to make it before we shoot because it gonna take too much time. I would say, we were all confused about the setting, the story, the frames and the lighting that day, because we did not have a detailed plan for it. Everyone was so confused about their job.  Basically, before we started shooting, Kris and Rachel were making the bar, Yoland was setting up the curtain, Jialu was memorizing her script, and I was setting up lights. Jialu did not have enough time to direct the whole progress because she was acting at the same time. Therefore, I was kinda telling them how to adjust the lights and the movement to achieve Jialu’s expectation. This was very hard because Jialu cannot see the progress or direct it in time.  Therefore we cannot make adjustments in time as well.  Afterword, we realized that it not gonna work this way, so Jialu asked me to direct the scene, and she would focus on acting.  And then it got better because everyone was doing their job. The most difficult part of this scene was cooperation,and  since it was a long take scene, the camera movement and lighting would change while the actor’s moving. We need to consider the timing, distant and peace of every movement. In order to achieve it, we made some markers on the ground and the light controller.

As Robin suggested, we made a ‘human dolly’ effect, which was: I set in the chair with camera handheld, and Rachel would slowly pull out the chair to create dolly effect. After many practices, we worked very well. Yoland was adjusting two Dedo light while the actor’s moving. Kris was holding the bar in the first 10 seconds, and then holding the white reflector in the last few seconds. And the 1000k Arri was adjusted by one of Jialu’s friend. We probably shoot the scene for more than 10 times in total.  Although we did everything in a hurry, we worked together really well.