Vimeo Link: https://vimeo.com/296602254
Through this semester’s studio, I acquired a better understanding of the whole process of filmmaking in regard to how things are put together and I also got the chance to put my knowledge on lighting into practice. The group dynamics was very nice and chill, which absolutely made the process a whole lot easier. I like how we make decisions through discussions instead just following orders of one person. The actors we worked with were
Pre-production
I did not get involved too much for pre-production as I was doing an internship at a short film production that lasted for about 2 weeks. Most of the planning were done by the rest of the team.
Since I’m doing the lighting, my job would be to come up with a lighting plan for each scene based off the shot list. But Jack was super busy during the weekend and only got the shot list ready the night before filming, so I decided to arrive early on the day to figure out the lighting set up.
Production
For the overall lighting design, I aimed to make it look natural but also able to emphasize the mood of the characters, so the lighting that I’ve set up were all by the windows where the natural lighting comes in. For the lighting in the bedroom, I set up the ARRI 1K with one layer of 1/2 diffuse paper, to soften the lighting and add to the general ambient lighting in the room. One layer of blue gel was used to make the color temperature match with that of sunlight.
We filmed for two days and on the first day, when we’re filming Sam’s part in the living room scene, I only set up a ARRI 1k by the window with one layer of blue gel and one layer of 1/2 diffuse paper, so the lighting was close to natural sunlight. On the second day, when we were filming Michael’s part of him sitting in the sofa, I put up one layer of blue gels on the window as it was very sunny outside and the mood’s supposed to be gloomy. The ARRI 1k was set up the same as the day before. But from the footage we could see a difference in color temperature which is due to the blue gels on the window.
On the first day, we tried to film most of the static shots without characters before the actor arrives, so the establishing shot of the house, the close-ups of the sink and stuff were done in the morning. We set up the first dolly shot in the kitchen while we were waiting for Sam’s actor to arrive, and it was really difficult to get the smooth pushing in because the dolly track’s joints are a bit bumpy and the floor was not completely plain. Apart from this, we also hard a hard time trying to avoid being in the reflections of the microwave and other reflective surfaces. But all the footage that we got have some sort of blurry reflections of the camera and us walking around. So the footage didn’t make it to any of our edits.
The shot that we didn’t quite think through was the one of Sam leaving the house. It was the very last shot of the production and I think we rushed a bit so we only got a dolly shot that can not be cut with the dolly shot of him walking in the doorway. None of us realized that until we started editing. Should’ve done a static shot of Sam walking out to the front yard and leaving, that would’ve made it easier to cut with other footage.
When we’re filming Michael’s part of him sitting in the couch, the front MCU of him drinking reveals part of the DJ workstation on the left of his head. We all thought about what Paul said in the class, that things in the frame should be considered whether completely in the frame or out, so we moved the workstation completely out of the frame and then completely in the frame and all agreed that with half of it on the left of Michael’s head looked best. When it’s completely out, there’s only blank wall behind him and the frame has no depth, and when it’s completely in, it looked a bit too staged and would take the audience’s attention away from Michael. So we moved the workstation back to its original place and continued filming.
While directing the actor, for the shot of Michael smoking and drinking and being depressed, we asked him to do a shot of what he thought Michael would be like based on his understanding of the character after we’ve go the shot that we wanted. And it’s one of the most magical moments when the actor who played Michael smoked and drank, and to my eye, just being Michael. We all quietly admired the atmosphere that he created with the role and were so happy that we got the actor who understood what we wanted out of the character.
Generally, the filming went smoothly and we got all the shots that we wanted and made adjustments on the shot list as we progressed.
Post-Production
I decided not to use the exterior shots as they’re either poorly focused (for some supernatural reasons I assume) or not content-related enough. So I kept the edit indoor, which makes Sam’s exiting more contrast to Michael’s staying in.
For a lot of the close up of environmental shots like the sink, the pile of mails and dirty dishes were not used in my edit because I think some of them were not framed so well and the shots of the two have already stated enough information and having them in there would interrupt the balance between the messiness and the tidiness.
Paul said that it’s a bit hard to distinguish the two actors at the beginning so I made it clear using the intercut between the two with one packing and one drinking, which worked pretty well and established the two characters’ mental states.
For sound, I thought about composing but the silence was what stood out to me when first put the footage together and I think in terms of the story and the atmosphere that Jack aimed to convey, the ugly silence played a big part between the relationship and tells the audience more than their lines do.