“UNREQUITED”

The process of this film was really fun and challenging. I had so much fun for the behind the scenes of this film. It is a mellow and sad drama but during the shooting process we laughed so much. During the process, I had my tripod broken which unable me to use my phone as the camera but luckily it still could be used for my camera which also give extra advantage such as better quality of videos. Through this process, I had learnt a lot of things while having fun. I had learnt how to be creative, careful, and enhance my editing skills. The editing part was one of the challenging yet fun to do. I had a lot of things to edit for my videos and I overcame it. Now, I feel more confident with the lessons I got.

COME TO THE CHAT…

Short summary:

‘COME TO THE CHAT’ is a slow-burnt styled horror film. The story begins with a made-up urban tale and curse that happens on the online chat. After recieved the mysterious messages from his best friend, Jordan; Aaron as the protagonist of the story experienced the extreme horror that happened in his first stay at his mother’s house.

The Process:

I have always dreamed to make a film on my own, from scripting to editing. Thus, it is not very hard to brainstorm the ideas, film genre and come up with the story plot. I decided to make a horror film, because I was very fascinated with a film called ‘Unfriended’ (2017). And I just really craved to make a horror film similar to this Internet-related film. During the shooting process, we had a lot of challenges along the journey, from the availability of my actors to the reshoot because of the frame sizes of my film. However, I managed to overcome those challenges and come up with this film within the minimal cost.

What I got out of:

Throughout the semester, I think my overall skills set have been strengthened. Especially my editing skills, at the start of the editing, I always has some problems using Premier Pro; things like adding sound track, color adjusting and so on. However, after attending few sessions and look up on the Internet, I feel much more easier coping with this app. I have also improved my management skills as well, because three of my actors’ time and experience are very limited, therefore, it is hard to arrange a time to shoot when they all free and directed them what to do. However, I am happy with what I have accompolished and learned in the course.

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Title: Sugar

A short summary: Sugar is a short film that is close to life. One never knows what’s going to happen next. The heroine Hebby’s experience is like a roller coaster ride, reversing her life. There are times when there is nothing people can do about what happens.

Process:This year’s theme was micro-budget filmmaking, so we had no expenses throughout the process other than the picnic props and transportation costs that came with the show. At the end of the shoot, all the food for the picnic was finished. I used an iPhone 12 pro max for filming and Premiere Pro for editing in post. Since there was only one phone to shoot, we had to shoot multiple times in different locations to ensure the integrity of the post-editing. And since the outdoor environment is noisy, I chose to use post-dubbing with subtitles to make sure the audience can clearly understand what the actors are saying. We didn’t use lighting panels or additional lighting to adjust the light and darkness of the scene. After showing Tim the rough cut, I made adjustments to the audience confusion section.

What I got out of:During the semester, I strengthened my script writing skills as well as producing a microfilm. When I didn’t take this course, I thought it was very easy and simple to make a microfilm, but as I learned more and more about it, I realized that it is not that simple to make the audience understand the content and meaning of the film in such a short time. During the filming process, we had to improvise our lines to ensure the most realistic effect. Since there were only three of us shooting, I experienced every step of the process of making a microfilm. The most memorable part was the editing skills, although the course will soon be over. But I think I will continue to practice and strengthen my editing skills after school.

Embed Link of Short Film:https://rmiteduau-my.sharepoint.com/:f:/g/personal/s3797057_student_rmit_edu_au/Eioqte-7rzNNjpG7OivwsA4BnlfaKxvMrkJ0Z4YFnYXKHw?e=azFgpt

With the development of science and technology in modern society, network security has become a big problem for people to worry about. Luke uses a bug to spy on his clients through home security cameras. However, one day, he saw a scary scene through the surveillance, a man was attacked by his girlfriend. To save or not to save? Luke finally chooses to save his life, even though he is about to be arrested.
The filming process was quick and cheap, and I spent very little money on the whole process. I had a few hiccups in post-production, but I did my best to improve it. I hope you like it.
This film combines desktop and security camera footage, it’s my first attempt at this  style and I found that it’s really fun and creative. There are not many films of this kind now, and hopefully more people will like this form.

The tone of my film <CALL> was set when I started studying ‘The Art of Microbudget’ course, it was where I started to get in touch with writing screenplays, scripts, and the film sector, basically starting from 0. The most difficult thing for me was that I’m not confident. I didn’t know how to conceive the content, or how to attract the audience, and I didn’t believe that I could write a good script. When I started to learn to write scripts, my script was often denied by myself, my thinking was always blocked, and I didn’t know where to start. But every time no matter how bad or outrageous my script is, my Tutor Tim will always encourage me, whether it is plain or not, I just need to write. Write about my life, work, family, experiences, feelings, and everything about me.

The reason why I wrote “CALL” is that Tim will give us different themes for us to brainstorm and write scripts to practice in class. As for me, writing a script is a process of bringing myself into the scene, I would imagine that I am the protagonist of the script and lose myself. Therefore, I would wonder if we were also actors in the script. Are we in the real world in the real world? The more scripts I write, the more I feel ignorant, and occasionally I wonder whether everything we are experiencing now is also written by others. Is what happened to us what “they” wanted to happen to us? I refer to the movie <Inception>–keep going deep into dreams within dreams to know existence. I have always been fascinated by the nature of dreams, that is, humans can create a world while dreaming, and at the same time perceive that it is a dream, but they are not aware that they are both creating and perceiving. The wandering of conscious thinking in chaos is a common technique used by many suspense movies because the confusion of subconsciousness and reality will cause the audience to have confusion in time and space logic, thus achieving the director’s so-called “brain burning” purpose. So, I boldly took the script as the blueprint and built a self-created “traversing reality” system, which is equivalent to creating a new universe, allowing the characters in the script to wake up and come to the real world to kill and replace the screenwriter who created and manipulated himself.

The creation of microbudget movies requires the wisdom and ability to “dance in shackles”. As a visual plastic art, film’s aesthetic structure is realized through the blending relationship of two dimensions: spatial modeling expression and time narrative expression. Large-scale production films rely on advanced technology platforms to produce breathtaking special effects spectacles and rely on a strong art team to create beautiful and prescribed situations, which is difficult for microbudget films to achieve. If I were going to continue working on this short film script, I would want to use more professional lighting and shooting locations, space, and color to form the visual language of the film. Characters, plots, and story backgrounds all need space and color to express visual elements, and among visual elements, light, and shadow effects are the most intuitive way of expression. The combination of light and shadow is also the most attractive one in the visual language of movies. In terms of story content, suspense movies often use suspense settings to arouse the audience’s curiosity and desire to explore. A successful suspense movie not only needs to rely on novel and unique drama structure, complex plot setting, ability to control details, and superb suspense presets, but also needs to deal with and process indoor and outdoor scene space art.

In the end, I would like to say that microbudget films can leverage the big market. The artistry and storytelling of microbudget films are their biggest advantages. In the future development process, from the core of the film’s story to the presentation of the form, the artistry will be the foothold. From the content level, a good story is the premise. Unlike big movies that can compete in stunts and scenes, microbudget movies must be made into “smart” movies, with creativity, subject matter, story, life, emotion, and sincerity. Under the condition of adhering to the theme and connotation of the film, it insists on being consumer-centered, starting from the audience’s point of view, telling stories that are closest to life in a way that the public likes to hear, opening audience channels, and meeting audience needs.

FILM LINK:

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Title: Reconciliation

A short summary: Reconciliation is a micro budget drama short film. This film mainly tells the story of a girl who is about to collapse under the pressure from her mother at the beginning. When she inadvertently sees a picture of her at the beach with her mother when she was a child, she decides to go for a walk on the beach. Her mother is constantly calling anxiously to find her.  Finally they resolve the misunderstanding through telephone communication.

Process: First of all, I determined that the film needs to be a micro-budget short film according to the requirements of the studio. Then I came up with an initial idea for a film based on the personal experiences of my friend who is my actress and developed that idea into a full-fledged script. During the shooting process, I used my own shooting equipment to achieve a micro-budget, and continued to shoot a lot of videos according to factors such as angles and sunlight to meet the requirements of the movie atmosphere. In the post-editing process, I also used the free software premiere pro to edit the video, and constantly modified the video through various feedbacks, such as adding background music at the beginning of appropriate clips and deleting redundant clips, so as to achieve a better film effect. In general, I spent almost no money in the process of making the film, except for the tram fee when we got to the seaside.

What I got out of: I learned a lot during the entire process of creating the film. First of all, during the initial writing of the film script, I learned how to create a creative film idea and develop it into a feasible screenplay on a micro-budget. I learned a lot during the entire process of creating the film. First of all, during the initial writing of the film script, I learned how to create a creative film idea and develop it into a feasible screenplay on a micro-budget. Then during the shooting process, I also learned how to use external factors to brighten the lights to make the atmosphere of the movie look stronger. In the post-editing process, I learned more things this time. For example, I learned how to make the title special effects at the beginning and end of the credits. Then, through some feedback, I learned to add appropriate background music to appropriate clips instead of just one background music to the whole film. Overall, I learned a lot of film shooting and editing skills during this filmmaking process, and most importantly, I also learned how to make a micro-budget film.

Embed Link of Short Film: https://vimeo.com/830549386?share=copy

Title:

True friend or Fake friend

Summary of my work: 

True friend or Fake Friend is a micro budget film, the duration of the film is no longer than 5 minutes. It talks about the main character (Emily) best friend (Selena) without place to live, so the main character (Emily) allow her best friend (Selena) lives at her apartment. But Selena doesn’t do anything when she lives in Emily apartment. Once on the argument, Selena says Emily is a fake friend because Emily doesn’t help her. But Emily thinks Selena is her true friend, so she allows Selena to stay. However, Emily is so tired of Selena’s behavior that she finally get Selena out of the apartment. 

Process

During the shooting process, all of the equipment is by myself, I didn’t spend any money on the film. Also, I didn’t rent equipment from my school or friends, although they can provide the free equipment for me. All the scenes were shot by my friend (the second character) and me, we used the tripod to finished all the shooting. We also used lighting to enhance the actress’ looks during filming. 

What you got out of it

I single-handedly created this movie from the script to the final broadcast. In this process, I learned how to write the script and what needs attention in the script, such as the name should be capitalized when it first appears. And then is using the low budget to finish the production, for example, I can use my apartment to film, so that I can save the money of hire other place. Also, I can use my own phone or own camera to finish all the footage. Finally, in the process of editing, I learned a lot of editing skills. For example, what kind of editing method can make the film look smoother.

咖啡人Final cut.mp4

在这部影片的制作过程中，我主要研究从设备、人员安排、剧情、拍摄场景等方面将拍摄成本降到最低。
我觉得我在最初的剧本安排上做得不够完美，我设计了一个相对复杂的情节和镜头，导致我在拍摄的前几周遇到了很多问题，我把拍摄过程理想化了。
原来的故事里，我设计了追车，一些航拍，后来没实现。长达一个月的雨季，需要额外的摄影师和高拍摄风险是我遇到的最大挑战。所以我不得不放弃一些精彩的镜头和情节。
如果我能有更多的时间来完善甚至重做这部电影，我希望我的整体策划能更符合微预算的主题，更巧妙地表达微预算的概念，保留精彩的故事情节。因为在这次尝试中，我遇到了太多阻碍我构思的因素。
我认为在这个工作室对我来说最大的挑战是微预算和伟大作品之间的概念冲突。毫无疑问，这是违反直觉的。几乎所有人都知道，更精彩的剧情和更震撼的画面需要更高的资金和人力支持。所以在微预算条件下拍出更好的电影，需要电影人有更多的知识积累和综合能力。
在拍摄过程中，我主要使用了iPhone13和大疆的云台作为拍摄工具，因为这个组合足够方便，也足够便宜。另外，为了让画面不那么枯燥，我加了一些花絮和旁白。对于这些内容，我使用了索尼相机 A7M4、DJI AIR2S 和 DJI OSMO ACTION。因为这部分镜头拍摄难度较低，可以轻松获得更好的视频效果。期间参考了一些优秀视频制作人的内容，比如youtube的Casey Neistat和Sam Kolder。他们的创作给了我很多启发，尤其是在拍摄手法和音效的选择上。

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