FINAL REFECTION

FINAL SHOOTING REFLECTION

Finally finished all my shooting and editing work. I have been shot three times for this project here is my reflection of this projet.

Actually, this final video is not the one I want to shoot initially, my original brief idea is based on having fixed light and showing the actor’s moving through these fixed light. Because it is so hard for me to find a place to satisfy all y conditions especially the permission and distance, I took my second best choice which is shooting at home. One of my apartment’s bedrooms has sliding door with matte glass and I can shoot the changing of shadows on the glass as people moving in the bedroom. I did use in my second shooting and the reason I deleted in my final video is if I used this part in my video it did not connect from the room to the living room. Because the shadows only show by lighting in the bedroom but dark in the living, which will obey the next scene which has the light in the living room.

The first part in the video was shooting at building 9, which is the classroom we used to have classes. And the idea for shooting this part is from my favorite Korean video “Eyes, Noses, Lips”. The whole music video is shooting in one shot and I think it is so cool, especially form time 1:50, the background light is blinking slowing and slightly showing you the surroundings with the mist which gives me a visual enjoyment.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUe9qtm5M50

I really wanted to try to shoot with this feeling, of course, another place problem I needed to face and finally I used the class room which is not big enough but is bigger than my apartment.

Here is my story board and I used the method —-Rule of Thirds in my first shot which can make my composition better.thumbnail_FullSizeRender

The sliding light shot is my only two favorite shots in all the three shooting time. As the same, I found the initial idea from a Chinese music video called “The Key” from JJ Lin. I got the idea from time 1:44. Only a section of light is on his face and when he moves his head, his head goes to the dark and shows up. Because of the equipment limitation, it did not success neither this time. I borrowed the LED panel which has too many small bulbs in the whole panel and cannot combine the light in to one, I think if I want to shoot like this, I need to borrow the single bulb light. Luckily, because of the plenty number of bulb, it made the light is sliding on the wall which is sooooo cool. I think I will definitely use it in my next music video shooting.

Another my favorite shot has been deleted in the final video which is been shot in the second version. When the actress is standing in front of the video camera, I moved the LED panel below the camera’s frame, the lights changing on the ceiling and the actress is like falling into a fantasy atmosphere. I think it is good to use this shot in a love movie with pink lights, which will give the viewers the feeling of falling in love.

The final shot is about the smoke. Firstly, all I want to show is putting the light on the smoke and as the smoke moves, all the space that the smoke goes will be brighter. However, my smoke machine is not very follow my words and sometimes it performs worse than testing time, which took me a long time to shoot and did not get the feeling I want to show.

The biggest change in this final version is I used two actors (the boy is wearing all black and the girl is wearing all white) to made a contrast, the duration those two showed up in the full version is almost the same, but I used the girl’s shots more in the 30 second version is because I just want to use the all black shots as a transition and played a collision effect to the following white.

To be conclusion, I am still lack of shooting experience and I need to collect more life inspired elements during my lifetime and also need to improve my professional tech skills. Meanwhile, I can feel I started my shooting too late and next semester’s final project needs to be started earlier to leave more time to improve.

ANOTHER SHOOTING

ANOTHER SHOOTING

Based on last shooting, I will make some changes this time.

Firstly, I only used one actress last time and this time I will use one actor called Kai and one actress called Violet. I already asked Kai to wear all black and Violet to wear all white to make a better contrast.

Secondary, I did shoot everything in my apartment and this time I will add a new place to add some variety, to give more possibility for editing.

Third, I did not have enough coverage last time like some facial or surrounding detail and this time I will do more pre-work, like hand draw some storyboard for sure. If my drawing is not bad, maybe I will upload to Google Drive.

Forth, although I have done some research online about how other people always shoot within light, but without last time’s practice, I still cannot make any progress. I think Monday’s shooting will be better than the one before.

AFTER SHOOTING

After shooting

As this first shooting, I am very unsatisfied with the result. Because the concept I want to shoot has no meaning, all I want to show is about the light, the changing light, how can light contribute the atmosphere, the shadows from light and so on. I was satisfied when I was shooting, I shot a lot of footages about playing with light. After I seeing all the footages and got ready to edit, I found I had made many mistakes.

  1. Different colors in the light irradiation will reflect the different effect. Like black can always hide perfectly even in a very brightening condition, but white will always appear with tiny lights. I wanted to show these differences and asked my actress to change her clothes in some part and forgot to think about the continuity. Meanwhile, if I really wanted to have both in black and white, I should shoot all the scenes in two colors and edit with jumping cuts.
  2. So many obvious ‘goof’ I found when I was editing, like the changing position of the lights, the performance of the actress cannot be continuously, especially the clothes.
  3. Because I have to shoot in a dark condition, so it is hard for me to invite my friends as my assistance, in especial they are living as far as Clayton. I needed to do everything by my own, changing the lights, operated the film camera, control the mist machine well, set the camera in a suitable place. So many extra stuff made me miss the detail of the scene.
  4. I think I paid too much attention on the light and lost the sight of enjoyable of making video.

EDITING 2nd/3rd VERSION

Reflection about this Shooting! EDITING 2nd version/3rd version

I just realized today about forgetting what do I want to show or present in this video, also what is the meaning of this video.

I think the second version is very messy, I cannot find a main concept after editing, so I tried another editing which is the third version and it still cannot reach my standard. That is the main reason for me to shoot one more time, try to be better.

I found the angle for shooting is also very important, I think my 2nd and 3rd version have some deficiency in shooting angles.

A bird’s eye angle is an angle that looks directly down upon a scene. This angle is often used as an establishing angle, along with an extreme long shot, to establish setting. A high angle  is a camera angle that looks down upon a subject. A character shot with a high angle will look vulnerable or small. These angles are often used to demonstrate to the audience a perspective of a particular character. The example above demonstrates to us the perspective or point of view of a vampire. As a viewer we can understand that the vampire feels powerful. An eye-level angle  puts the audience on an equal footing with the characters. This is the most commonly used angle in most films as it allows the viewers to feel comfortable with the characters. A low angle is a camera angle that looks up at a character. This is the opposite of a high angle and makes a character look more powerful. This can make the audience feel vulnerable and small by looking up at the character. This can help the responder feel empathy if they are viewing the frame from another character’s point of view.

But I am still confused about should I use all the same feeling angle for the whole video or use quite different angle to show the differences.

 

LIGHTING IN FILM

LIGHTING IN MOVIE

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” is another movie which the lighting is perfect in my eye besides “Like Sunday Like Rain”. Recently I have seen a video which is produced by the Eric Kress, who is the lighting technicians in the film “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”.

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BEFORE SHOOTING

Before shooting

There are some things I need to figure out before shooting.

  1. The place I will shoot. I prefer the car park in Queen Victoria Market, it is quite dark at night and it is clear at night, no car and nobody, I can put the light panel far away as a background and maybe my other friends can help me to control the changing behind the light panel. Still wondering should I get the permission and where can I get the permission……
  2. Background sound. Should I choose the original audio while shooting or choose some pure music or no sound for the whole video? I started listening plenty of pure music and want to find some match ones.
  3. After I talked to somebody in our class, I feel like I should shoot something similar to the video I have showed in the class, but I do not want to shoot similar thing, I just want to use the concept from the movie video and create my own feeling. I have asked someone about a place like the one in the video, but I found it is complicated. First of all, the places they said are always far away from the city, I do not have a car and I need to carry so many equipment with me, which is unrealistic to me. Secondary, all the place I want to shoot, I need to get the permission, it means I need to contact the owner of that place and it might not success. Therefore, I gave up finding the similar place to the movie and decided to shoot at home with LED panel.

LIGHT

LIGHTING

Lighting plays an important part in creating the atmosphere in a film. The amount of light and the direction of the light source can give meaning to the viewer of the film. For example, lighting is used to indicate the time of the day.

Back lighting angle: the main light source comes from behind the character. It is used to create a silhouette. The character can be made to look mysterious due to the effect of the shadows. It can create a sense of impending doom and is often used in horror movies.

Key and fill lighting angle: it is the main light source in a particular scene, it is usually directed onto the main character, fill lighting can be added to soften the effect of shadows.

Under-lighting angle: the main light source comes from below the character. It can be used to disfigure the face. Horror films make use of this technique.

Top lighting angle: the main light source comes from above the character. It is used to remove shadows produces by the key lighting. It can also create the illusion of a bright, sunny day.

Side lighting: the main light source comes from one side of the screen. It is used to light one side of the character’s face and produces shadows across the set, creating a sense of mystery.

It is important for me to know and use how to set the lights. the position of lights can show the different details and show how much we want to show.

SHOOTING RESEARCH

RESEARCH

I have searched some film lighting techniques online. Like putting real film lights outside windows instead of relying on natural light is always worth; a beautiful blue can be achieved with HMI lights and a digital camera set to tungsten balance; a beautiful “Matrix”- style green can be achieved by shooting with regular fluorescent lights with the camera set to tungsten balance; soft pools of light on actors’ faces can produce a very interesting look and so on, which I think it is useful to help with my project.

COMMON FILM COLOR SCHEMES (2)

  1. Triadic Color Scheme

Triad

Triadic colors are three colors arranged evenly spaced around the color wheel. One should be dominant, the others for accent. They will give a vibrant feel even if the hues are quite unsaturated. Triadic is one of the least common color schemes in film and although difficult, can be quite striking.

Pierre_Le_Feut-640x424@2x

Jean-Luc Goddard’s 1964 “Pierrot Le Fou” makes use of a triadic color scheme of red, blue and green.

  1. Split-Complementary Color Scheme

SplitComplementary

A split-complimentary color scheme is really very similar to complimentary colors but instead of using the direct opposite color of the base color, it uses the two colors next to the opposite. It has the same high contrast but less tension than a complimentary pair.

Split_Complementary_Burn_After_Reading

A split complimentary color scheme in this scene of the Coen Brother’s “Burn After Reading” of red, green and teal.

  1. Tetradic Color Scheme

Tetrad

Tetradic colors consist of four colors arranged into two complementary pairs. The result is a full palette with many possible variations. As with most of these color harmonies, one color is usually dominant.

Complementary_Magnolia

A scene from “Magnolia” showing another example of Hollywood’s love affair with orange and teal. Blue/green has been pushed into the shadows, and orange in the midtones and highlights specifically in skin tones.

COMMON FILM COLOR SCHEMES (1)

COMMON FILM COLOR SCHEMES (1)

  1. Complementary Color Scheme

Complementary

Two colors on opposite sides of the color wheel make a complimentary pair. This is by far the most commonly used pairing. A common example is orange and blue, or teal. This pairs a warm color with a cool color and produces a high contrast and vibrant result. Saturation must be managed but a complimentary pair are often quite naturally pleasing to the eye. Orange and blue colors can often be associated with conflict in action, internally or externally. Often an internal conflict within a character can be reflected in the color choice in his or her external environment.

Complementary_Amelie_2

The color palette of Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s “Amelie” is a great example of a complementary pairing of red and green. I really love this movie and this movie is perfectly like in using red and green.

Complementary_Fight_Club_2

A complementary pairing isn’t always so obvious and the contrast between the two colors used is often relative. Another shot from “Fight Club” which at first appears just to have a strong overall teal tint to the entire image, but a closer look reveals there is still a orange touch to the skin tones relative to the deep blue green.

  1. Analogous Color Scheme

Analogous

Analogous colors sit next to each other on the color wheel. They match well and can create a overall harmony in color palette. It’s either warmer colors, or cooler colors so doesn’t have the contrast and tension of the complementary colors. Analogous colors are easy to take advantage of in landscapes and exteriors as they are often found in nature. Often one color can be chosen to dominate, a second to support, and a third along with blacks, whites and grey tones to accent.

Analogous_American_Hustle

Reds, Oranges, Browns and Yellows in this scene from “American Hustle” fall next to each other on the color wheel forming a warm overall feel with very little tension in the image.