In Friday class, we covered lots of things. Firstly, we learned the usage of internal Mic. This usage ensures the high quality of sound. We also watched two abstract films, which are Longhorns and Highway. The first film is quit special and curious. When we watching this film, we feel so confused about the subject of this documentary. I thought it’s similar with the nose of elephant. I think every shot in this film comprehensively revel the fluent, mysterious movement of the subject, emphasizing the nature. Personally, I prefer the second  film than first one. I like the theme of this film. The scene of car and road is pretty attractive, showing the movement of city. Actually, those abstract films both focus on the visual effect, using montage to show their theme. For example, the director of Highway used beautiful rapid cut to emphasize his theme. Also, in the abstract film the music is significant. The suitable music will make the film be more emotional, and make this film have a rhyme. In addition, the rhyme in editing is important. I hope in future production, I will focus on those aspects.

Then we completed one group exercise. We need shoot 6 abstract shots, every shots during 30 seconds. Our group decided the theme of our shooting, which is the pedestrian in this city. We tried to use different perspectives and angels to achieve our theme. Using low angel show their feet, their different walking speed. Using wide shot show their action and movement. I think we did some good shots, but I haven’t edited it, so I cannot know what potential problems we might have in the final work. We’ll see it in next few days.

In Thursday class, we firstly discussed the types of character which people interested in. Classmates gave their own opinion, such as nostalgia character, sociopaths’ character, happiness character and so on. For myself, I prefer the character who have special ability. Because of their special ability, these types of characters may get trouble in different situations, so the conflict and the climax in the story are strong and excited.

In addition, I really agree the reading of “ Getting An Idea” which we read in class. As the reading mentioned, the birth of one film is consisted by the numbers of interests and ideas. An idea could start almost anywhere. The important thing is that we have to remember this idea immediately, so that, we can use those ideas in our future production. I hope I will get and remember ideas from the daily observation of this world.

We also discovered premier and organized our group and individual files on the media server. Some parts I already knew before, but I think the systematize classification of different folders in bin is very useful. It helps us do our work be more clearly in premier. I edited the footages we shot the previous exercise. But it is not good, as I already mentioned in last blog, those shots we shoot have some problems, such as the exposure and continuity.

In Thursday class, we continue learn the operation of EX3 camera, such as the usage of zebra, white balance, focus and gain. We recognized how to adjust the white balance depending on the light temperature in different place. Also, we learned the difference about exposure of skin tone between70%, and 100% zebra. Those knowledge are quite significant for us, we have to practice it and feel it in our daily exercises, so that we can be more familiar with it and reasonable use it.

In addition, we reviewed each of our homework we did during this weekend. This homework is same with the last one. We chose any place we like, and shoot two new 50 second takes of some fresh subjects. I choose one of my favorite places, which is Flagstaff Garden. The view of this garden is very beautiful, especially during the sunset time. Also, I think it is a good place to show the relaxed life of citizen, because, there are lost of people walking, dancing, jogging, or walking dog and so on. I pretty like the position I choose in the frame, because it can emphasize the different planes in this dimension. And the exposure is suitable, but I hope the weather can be better in next time. However, unfortunately, in those two 50 second takes, there are less of people. As the Robin said to me, this is the kind of challenge in documentary, time is so important. Filming something in an aright time, right place, right theme is not easy, but if we did, that is the real filming.

                                                

 

On Friday we film 3 shots with someone performing an action in which they have some expertise and/or manual proficiency. Then, film someone else who without the skill. We used different angles and perspectives to film it. However, I am not so happy with it. Because I do not think those perspectives are proper to film. We didn’t notice the continuous in those shots, even though I don’t know whether we need care about it. Robin said we have separately record sound. I think the interior meaning of this requirement is that we can create some “ surprises” when we put the sound with the scene together. We can separately record some special sound, rather than just record the synchronous sound of what the camera filmed. However, because we do not have enough time, so we haven’t done it. I think we have to plan clearly in next exercise.

I always think what is the biggest difference between documentary and fiction film. Maybe “Life Caught Unawares” can seem as one answer of it. “ Life caught unawares,” means to record life when surprised, and perhaps provoked, by the presence of a camera. To be more specific, it is emphasized the part that exploit the various possibilities about life details, which people did not see, rather than just record the moment of life. As the exercises we did in those two weeks, we documented all things in this natural and real way.

Actually, documentary is a cinematic representation of society, costume, politic and so on. There are numerous ways or modes to show this representation to viewers. For instance, some directors prefer showing this world in a straight way in their documentary. Dziga Vertov is one director who proposed the straight way firstly in 1920s. He use camera to capture the unaware actions of people in this world. Generally, He is a father of the film truth. Film truth is depends on one concept, which is called ‘Kino-Eye’. As Hincks（2007）mentioned “ the Kino-eye group, following its renunciation of the film studio, of actors, sets, and the script, fought for a decisive cleaning up of film-language, for its complete separation of cinema from theater and literature.” The director who strong persist the Kino-eye do not consider part of the cast, set, or script, on the contrary, they will pay more attention to the camera. They must use the power of camera to the utmost, because after Vertov and his comrades attempted to film in various methods, they finally find that camera be more comprehensive than human’s eye. This is really different from the drama. Because, in the drama production, we are extremely focus on the script, and cast.

Vertov in further promoted this concept in his Kino-Prada (Film truth) series. This series was newsreels, which not only capture fragments of actuality, but also organize it together through the concrete way. He believed through the way that camera with its varied lenses, ability to slow motion, shot-counter shot editing, stop motion, time-lapse and fast-motion could presented a perfect and reliable organization about deeper truth, which can not be seen with the naked eye. As the symbolic film of Film truth The Man with a Movie Camera shown, this series focused on the everyday experiences. In this film, the director Vertov shows the montage of urban Russian life, and the work or play status of ordinary people in this city. There are not any script and sets. On the contrary, the director perfectly spliced numerous individual visual elements together. Those individual visual elements based on the agility of camera. The director has to keep pace with fleeting life, because the millions of people do their own things in different places in their own time. In this Film, Vertov become accustomed to this situation, he manages his camera go to lots of places, such as the school, bank, club and clinic and so on. In the meantime, through the perfect organization the chaos of life gradually being clearer and easier to be recognized too. This perfect organization consisted by different cinematic skills, due to those skills, viewers are able to see the film truth, which they are ignored by their naked eyes in daily life. On the other hand, this truth not the life as it is, but also what the things shown by the montage. So, in our documentary production, except to record the unaware action, we also need to use edit skills to find deep truth of life.

 

Reference

Hicks, J. Dziga Vertov: Defining Documentary Film, 2007.

In Thursday class, we learned lots of basic camera skills in very specific way, such as the usage of tripod, filter, white balance, focus and so on. Because of last semester studio, so I am familiar with those silks. But I think that is a good chance for me to enhance it. Honestly, after a holiday, I forgot a little bit, such as the usage of color bar. But after this class, I deeply remember those skills of camera operation.

We did one small exercise in class, which is one shot for 50 second. This is really different with drama exercise. We have document one real event or place in one position, no panning, no tilting, and no zoom in or out in recording process. As Robin said don’t be lazy, we have clearly observe the situation, and choose a perfect position, rather than just rely on the automatic way. To some extent, this exercise helps us more close to what we want to document. We capture the real things rather than design it. It is pretty difficult. For example, the sitting of white balance is hard to adjust, because the exposure cannot be one hundred percent correct in every second. The reason is that the weather is changing. In one shot, the exposure might change from the correct one to the dark one because of the change of lighting. For this problem, I think because documentary focus on the “real recording”, so we cannot shot again and again, so the change of exposure must exist. The important thing is we should keep it in a reasonable range.

In Friday class, we learned new audio gear. I think it is pretty easy to use. In the class exercise, we use this gear to record sound to describe a place. In my perspective, the key of this exercise is that we need to find symbolic sound of the place. Anyway, I think the fist week we did a good start, I really expect the next week study.

In the last semester studio, I had learned knowledge of camera coverage in a specific way through a series of scenes filming. Those exercises assist me in closing camera. However, in last semester we mainly focus on the area of drama rather than documentary. And in this semester, documentary seems as the significant role. To be honestly, I prefer drama than documentary, I do not have inspiration or perfect idea of documentary filming. According to my understanding, the studio film3 will through a series of reading, watching, planning, shooting and editing exercises to help student get a comprehensive understanding on documentary. So I guess I will face a big challenge in the whole semester.

In this semester, I hope I can find a balance between drama and documentary. Also, I have to keep considering how to make a documentary be interesting and attractive? how to apply the methodologies of drama production to documentary making? Furthermore, I think I do not totally use camera，audio and other filming gears in a perfect way, so recognize and perfectly utilize the properties of different gear is significant for me. It is so good if we can learn more gears as soon as possible in this semester. Such as lighting, audio, dolly and so on.

In addition, the significance of software in filmmaking is massive. Through the series of exercises I hope I will promote the usage skills of the software, such as PR, AE and so on. I do not have knowledge about After Effect, I really want learn it in the rest time.It looks like I meet a big challenge in this semester, but I believe that if I put my passion, I will conquer it.

In this studio, I did several individual exercises. This is the most proud thing for me in this whole semester, even though those exercises not so perfect, but I keep learning knowledge about camera coverage in the filming process.

In the previous classes, we mainly did some group exercises. In some degree, those exercises foster the cooperation ability between group members. Also, basically, those group works gave me a kind of systematic way to shoot a scene. In addition, because this studio is combined with media 3 and media 5, the student who come form media 5 know more skills or knowledge than us. So, generally, through the series of group works, I learn lots of things from my group members. For example, before I study this studio, I have not use the record gear. However, in the group work filming process, they teach me how to use sound mixer in a right way. Robin asked us individually edit the same footages which due to the group scene we have done, it is so interesting. As a result, we recognized the charm of montage. Also, personally, trough the editing work I have done, I find the problem that I got rid of editing rhythm usually. How lucky I am for that I got a chance to fix it gradually. We wrote the found scenes in our blog too, this is useful way to help me in further know the camera coverage, and mise-en-scene. For example, after I analyzed one scene form Happy together, I realized the usage of using mobile framing could increase the information about space. I also got inspirations from the hand-held shot and the different angels that Wong Kai-Wai used in this film. Those works both make a basis for my individual scene filming.

I researched the dialogue scene in my individual project, because I realized that there are majority of scenes are dialogue scene which between different people. So this is a really significant and basic proportion of film. I want to successfully and creatively design dialogue scene in this semester. However, I am unable to construct a dialogue scene in a professional way, I often feel struggle about how to film the dialogue scene in my own way depending on some professional criteria. So I keep investigating them in a specific way.

Firstly, I researched some basic knowledge about dialogue scene on YouTube, such as the framing and angels. Rule of thirds is simply divides the screen to three equal parts vertically and horizontally. We need frame our subjects on those lines or in one of the third proportion screen. This rule can make the shot balance better. There are some basic angels in dialogue scene, such as the wide shot of both subjects, two over the shoulder shots, move to each other’s shots. Those angels have been used in my individuals project. However, actually, I cannot use those angels as a stereotyped formula. On the contrary, I have to consider what part i want to emphasize. For example, in the exercise which I did in week 8, I use two over the shoulder shots to show their daily conversation between two girls. This composition not only depends on rule of thirds, but also because I want to emphasize their reaction when they say the lines to each other.

 

This is a normal way to shoot a daily conversation between two people. However, how to design a composition more than two people in dialogue scene? I got an inspiration from the scene in one famous film, which named Flipped. The director uses a triangle and ‘L’ shape for characters position. This position provides a good perspective for viewers to see every character’s reaction. I utilized this position in my week 8 scene. I think it is suitable and worked.

However, This scene also has some problems. The most obvious one is the continuity. I have not notice the consistency or similarity about background in different cut. In addition, when I cut the dialogue between people, I forgot to maintain the similarity of frame size. As a result it looks a bit of weird. So I fix those problems in week 9 scene. Besides, Robin shared one meaningful clip with me, which talk about how to use a panning present the dialogue between people. So I choose to try this method in the week 9 scene. I felt that compare with cutting shot, the panning one truly underlined actor’s state of mind.

Through the exercises, I learned how is important about the role of 180 axis of action in dialogue scene. This rule mainly talks about the positions of camera and two characters in a conversation. For example, if something on the left side of the screen should stay on the left side of the screen, even if the camera moves. Also we have to notice the consistency of eye line in dialogue scene. In week 10 scene, I have crossed the line in one shot. As a consequence, specters would feel confused.

Week 10 and week 11 scenes depend on a same script, which is a crazy plot from Infernal Affairs 3. Except the daily normal conversation, I also want to challenge some mysterious, suspenseful dialogue scene. In those scenes, director use special perspective to show some clues. This dialogue scene shows the illusion of one character. So I design some medium close up for single person to imply the clues, and change shots in large context to show the reality. Also, I found that using pov shot might add the mysterious feeling.

To be honest, I am so struggle with the usage of angel, I am so afraid to use high angel or low angel in an unnecessary way. I realized that the usage of high angel or low angel is usually emphasizes some specific emotion in the scene. So in my last week scene, I decided to choose a scene, which contains strong emotion. The script of this scene is the plot of divorce between a man and his wife. I tried to use some special angels in this scene, such as the low angel for character’s face, the low angel for gesture and props details. I felt those special angels and perspectives shows the depressed and struggle emotion of characters in an obscure way. In this semester, the thing that I learned how to achieve pulling focus shots is very amazing. Personally, I feel this types of shots have a different beauty. Audiences are won’t distract by other stuff, they may focus on the ‘right’ thing.

In conclusion, I am so happy I can keep researching, exploiting and trying the different way to construct the dialogue scene. Trough those exercise, I am able to know what concrete reason design the different shot and how to design it in a specific way. I am so lucky I choose this studio in this semester, I met a group of good partners, and got numerous useful suggestions from Robin. And one more fantastic thing is that I got a chance to challenge myself. Even the works I have done not so perfect, but at least, I have a very fantastic start.

 

 

This is the last week of whole semester. I helped Evelyn and William filming their scene in weekend. They both did a good job. In the scene of Evelyn, the usage of dolly is pretty good. The smooth movements of camera leading viewers gradually watch the actions of characters in a mysterious way. William did two creative long takes. These two long takes is similar with action film, I think it is pretty cool. He shoot the Actor’s action in a fluent and tightly way.

In addition, I shoot my final scene in the end of this week. In this scene I come back to the two people dialogue shot, however, I firstly use the lighting. This scene is a divorce situation between a man and his wife. I want to emphasize the depressed, intense atmosphere in this situation, so I turn off the light in my home, getting a black background, and I choose one yellow light to build shadows in action’s face. However, in the second shot, the lighting looks a little bit dark. In addition, as I said with robin, through this experience, I realized that it is not easy to use light, especially more than one light, I am so lucky because I haven’t choose more light.

In this scene, I tried to use some low angel shots for characters and props. I found this type of shot, which cooperates with light might shows the depressed and struggle emotion of characters.

     

Also, I designed one pulling focus shot for the woman and man. Compare with other shots, I think this shot can be more cooperates with lighting to clearly and show their both reaction in the same time when they say the key lines. In this case, viewers may feel the emotion of them.

This is my last scene in this semester. I want to continue research how to shoot a dialogue scene in an intense way, such as the usages of angel, perspective, and the choice of shot size. This dialogue scene mainly shows a bad situation between a man and wife. The man ask his wife to sign the divorce paper, however, his wife refuse it. I want use some detail shots to emphasize the interior struggle and sorrowful feeling of those two people. Also, use different shots to build the intense relationship between the two actors.

I will use lighting in this scene, because I will shot this scene in the evening, the lighting can be used to build a perfect atmosphere.

 

This scene I have shoot twice time on the weekend of week 10 and 11. The scene, which I did on week 10, is a bit of confused. Basically, what I mainly telling in this scene is a little confused, because it is lack of context, viewers cannot know the whole story from this scene. In addition, I have not designed some parts in this scene in a perfect way. For example, there is one shot cross line. The camera put on a wrong position. Also, in the end of this scene, I want to make a strong climax. So I put the shots of Kai, which he standing up in different perspectives, and edit those shots together. However, it seems too long. Some shots are not so necessary. As a result, I have re-shoot this scene on week 11. I have tried to fix those problems in this version.

In the version of week 11, in order to emphasize the intense effect, I add more shots of Aki. Because, Aki plays the role of only witness in this whole dialogue scene, which is imaged by Xiaocheng, Her action implies the significant information of the reality. So I add one more shot which her confusedly look at Xiaocheng, when Xiaocheng say something in the first time. This shot hint viewers that something seems weird in this moment. Also, I reduce the shots of Kai’s action. On the contrary, I changed it in a continuous way. And, I used close up of Kai and Xiaocheng to emphasize the intense feeling. Finally, I mainly used the shot of Aki, and the shot both have Aki and Xiaocheng to discover the reality, the whole dialogue is imaged by Xiaocheng, he is talking with himself in the whole time!