Over the past two weeks, we conducted the Lenny 5 exercise which brought me a general understanding of the process of filmmaking. In week 2, we started the exercise by making a shot list. I was a bit impatient at first because I pretty much went through all my shots in my mind. But I immediately realised that this was a group project and each person had a different role within the team, which meant a detailed shot list became essential to keep everyone on track and avoid disagreements over shots, thus making the shooting process more efficient.
When it came to shooting, I started off as Lenny and the use of the clapperboard made the whole process much smoother. As a non-professional actor, I was a bit overwhelmed at the beginning of the scene, but the crisp tapping sound of the clapperboard was a clear signal for me to get into the role-playing quicker. And at this point, I had not really appreciated the significance of clapperboard for post-production.
After a few rounds of role-playing, when it was my turn as the cameraman, I made a bold decision to shoot most of the footage using a handheld camera. The reason I did this was that both Lenny and Sharon had sequential movements so proper use of camera shake gave the scene a better sense of movement. Also, I experimented with some cinematic shots such as the reversed shot (over-the-shoulder shot) which highlighted the tension between the two characters.
For me personally, the editing part of the Lenny 5 exercise was the most rewarding part. Thanks to the clapperboard, all footage started with important information (scene/shot/take) which helped me correspond the shot list to the footage and labelled them accordingly in Premiere Pro. For my previous media productions, I used to try not to follow the rules so much and wanted to edit videos in my own creative way. For example, I used to sort my footage by original file numbers only because I thought it was just a waste of time to give them extra labels. This kind of egotistical behaviour only made me spend more time trying to find the right footage. Rather than being a maverick, it was more a matter of being arrogant. In the future, I think I should focus on the details of the filmmaking itself while still being creative.
