Day 1

For our first day of shooting, we decided to make it a quick shoot because of other commitments that the whole crew and I have to attend to. This was also the official meeting between the whole production crew and Aaron, who was amazing enough to be part of our little film production. It was also the opportunity for Joanna and Aaron to get to know each other because they were going to be working together on screen and off screen – here are their profiles as I had posted on our Facebook page;

Our initial point of contact was the call sheet, something that I purposely wanted to use because that is part of the process in any professional setting. I also sent Aaron the link of the script, so he knew what to expect and how his character would be like.

We initially wanted to shoot in a bookshop inside State Library as James had suggested, but when we asked the store clerk, they suggested that we shoot on a weekend. Of course, we had already organised this short shooting for that day so that wasn’t a choice for us – we decided to scout around State Library and the librarians allowed us to shoot within the premises. At the end, we chose to go with the Redmond Barry Reading Room, a room with shelves of books which was perfect for the vision I imagined. It did have the yellow, artificial lighting which I try to avoid but at that point, we were running out of time and we had no choice but to go through with this location.

I’ll be honest, despite it being a short shoot, it was one of the most difficult shoots of this production because it was our first time collaborating in a practical setting. We had to do a lot of takes and cuts to take the shots from different angles, including other mishaps like the actress being unsatisfied or feeling awkward in front of the camera. However, these things are all understandable and can easily be fixed. One thing I learned from this shoot though, is that it probably isn’t the best idea to cast an actor/actress who was part of the pre-production process. It’s best to cast someone with a fresh idea of the story so that they produce the results that you want and will be easier to give them instructions because after all, they had no contribution to makings of the narrative.

Day 2 

Shooting for Day 2 was a jam-packed yet productive session. We knocked down two large segments of the story and that was the opening and the ending of Missed Moments. We also received help from Joanna’s friend, Terry, who was kind enough to help us carry the extremely heavy LED panel and also assist us in using the camera and lighting.

I was not expecting it to be this heavy so I’m really glad we got someone to help out. Day 2 of shooting consists of dusk (yay for the golden hour!) and night time shooting. For the golden hour scene, we were actually at a rush for time because the lighting literally changes by the minute when it comes to sunset. We started shooting at 5:30 with the estimated sunset at 5:56 PM – 26 minutes to film! We found a perfect location to film by the riverside and just started from there. Although we weren’t able to film the actual sunset, we still managed to get that residual lighting from the golden hour, so we were able to get those soft tones and tinges of cool colours:

Yet again, we went with the same procedure as Day 1 shoot, and filmed from different angles and perspective for both the BOY and GIRL character. This was easier to shoot because there was little movement for the actor and the actress. The only challenge in this shoot were people walking in between our shots, making it harder for the main characters to be recognised. It was also rush hour and we encountered a larger amount of crowd in the Southbank area.

By the time we had finished shooting this scene, the sun was already gone and it was dark enough for us to start shooting in Chinatown. This is where the LED panel comes in, aka, the fun part! Fortunately enough, the camera we were using is accustomed to filming in low light situations (actually its peak is AT the low light). However, we still needed the assistance of the LED panel especially in alleyways where artificial light was scarce. The thing with the Sony a6000 is that it is able to pick up as much light as it can and the LED panel played its part in that aspect, but there is only so much you can do in order to make the LED panel look natural as if it is part of the whole environment.

Here is a testing shot of the light, with our actor, Aaron:

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To be completely honest, this was another one of the difficult scenes we filmed because by the time we reached the second shoot, we were all tired from walking around the city and we were all quite irritable from our low blood sugar levels. The most difficult shoot, in particular, were the characters walking towards the camera:

It was quite difficult to get the timing right because either the camera would move too slow, or the actor and actress would walk too fast. However, it was all in the matter of editing so our shots were still usable.

Now, onto Day 3 and 4 of shooting!

In the pitch, we mentioned going with the romantic/slice of life route and write about a love story between a boy and a girl. We decided to go with a simple plot line because in order to start on something that has never been ventured, it is ideal to approach it from the basics.

In the previous blog post, we wanted our characters to meet on several occasions at different locations – now, we just needed a solid script for the crew, actors, and actresses to follow. It was also in our decision to include as little dialogue as possible, that way, it would be less painful to edit and deal with the audio. Otherwise, the script would be filled with instructions of what the characters are supposed to do and how they’re supposed to act for each scene. I also have never written a script before so I decided to do a little research in terms of the formatting and the right terminologies for a script.

I thought this website was extremely helpful in that aspect, helping me format the script properly. I learned a lot of things, such as knowing how to open a scene with the terms, “EXT.” or “INT.” and using film/editing techniques in the script such as “fade in/out” each time a transition happens.

Our final script is straightforward, simple and encapsulates the whole romantic element of our short film. Like I have mentioned, there is little to no dialogue in our script, consisting of literally only “Sorry” and “Hello” – simple one-liners. How I intend for these lines to appear in the film is that it will come as a subtitle and of course, the actor and actress will still have to say the lines in reality. What I’ve learned over these past few weeks have been condensed into this script, especially the session with Arthur, where we had the discussion of scriptwriting and screenplay. I’m looking forward to seeing my script be played out in real life!

This process came to fruition after our presentation to the class – we further discussed what exactly it was we wanted to film and put out to show the general public, that is, for the whole Media cohort to see. Pavina and Joanna showed further examples of media that were predominantly from Asia because essentially, that was the route we were going for – Asian-inspired cinema. Some of these examples were:

Eversense Commericial featuring RiAeDo (2017) 

Unfortunately, this video does not include English subtitles but Pavina provided translations for me. The story is basically about them meeting on several occasions as if fate purposely wanted them to meet and be together. As we see the narrative from the guy’s perspective, it is him controlling his fate to meet her. By the end of the short film, we find out that the girl was several steps ahead of the guy and that she had been planning how to get him to pursue her. Being one of our inspirations, we wanted to use this video format where a boy and a girl would meet on several occasions as if their meeting was pre-destined to happen. Here are a few photos of our brainstorming session, showing the process of pre-production which involves storyboards, ideas, and scriptwriting:

The images from above show the process we went through in order to finalise the narrative and storyline.

1. We have a group conversation on Messenger to sort out our schedules for group meetings and plot ideas. Rather than the drive, it is easier to communicate through instant messaging and organise all Film Project 1 ideas.
2. The two photos with handwritten notes show our brainstorming process and how we plan to utilise the cinematography skills that my group and myself have. Along with cinematography is also the structure for our plot.
3. Finally, a storyboard to visualise how we would want to film our short.

All in all, the process of pre-production has been productive in our brainstorming but has been quite difficult to meet with my group members due to clashing schedules. However, I am looking forward to finalise the script once we have decided that it fits our vision and image from our Film 1 Project Pitch.

In Week 5, James brought in a guest to speak about his experience in the film industry. He has done several advertisements, films and has even directed a few shorts himself.

We all did an exercise together, analysing scripts from anonymous films (however, I was familiar with some of them) and dissecting the depth of certain scripts. My takeaway from this exercise is that each and every line of these scripts contains a multitude description and imagery that it makes it easier for a filmmaker to take each and every word and transform it into the form of a moving image. Here is an example of the script we were reading over:

Script One 

What I sensed from this script is a sense of melancholy and sadness. I did not know which movie this is from but I am assuming that the themes this movie is under are Coming of Age, Slice of Life and Adventure. If I am correct in this occasion, this script has done what it’s supposed to do and that is emanating the type of genre that this script falls under despite the readers not knowing where it is from.

Arthur has also given away some really good advice in preparation for our upcoming Film Project 1:

• Don’t over direct – how I interpreted this was you simply speak to your actor/actress about the concept and show them your script. Everyone digests information and to see how they would replicate your work is part of the process.
• Watching a lot of movies – You are able to see how film productions operate when you have been exposed to so many types of films.
• A movie is made three times – Writing, script-writing. Shooting, production and finally, post-production or editing.

Overall, this lesson has been helpful and inspiring for Film Project 1 and has assisted in me in seeing my vision for my first ever short film.

Week Five was the pitching of our final film idea for our Film Project #1. Unfortunately, Pat has fled to another group but I am still continuing to work with Joanna and Pavina because we feel comfortable with each other and have the same vision in terms of what the story of our short film will be and of course, how we want it to look.

Our ultimate and final decision with the narrative is something I consider to be romance and a slice of life. Of course, the theme/s to each and every viewer is relative to how they perceive the final piece of the film; some people may see it was melodrama, as it is one of the themes that is so ever-present in Asian film (a genre of film I am inspired by). However, nothing has been set in stone yet and everything will be determined once we actually edit the final piece.

For now, though, the direction that the group and I will be heading towards is from themes of romance to a slice of life.

The following images are a series of inspiration and what I would like our short film to look like or at least have the same sentiments and feeling:

In the Mood for Love (2000) 

Chihayafuru (2017) 

Your Name (2017) 

In terms of how we will utilize the overall look and aesthetics of the short film, we’d like to use as much natural lighting as possible, consisting of the golden hour scenes and locations where the light is muted and is not too harsh. One of the recurring scenes that we would like to practice on and experiment with are scenes that are particularly about slow motion, such as this scene from In the Mood for Love, 

As a cinematographer, the lighting is the most important component of the scene and without, a film would lack depth, drama and overall, the cinematic look that we aim to have in every short film. Through this, I aim to practice the craft of lighting and hope to achieve our intended vision for our film project.

Location

As mentioned in our presentation, we aim to go for a romance plot line of “missed moments” where two individuals always seem to be in the same location/s but never seem to notice each other until one of them does. Our location will consist of nature to built-up areas of Melbourne, highlighting the landscape and the entities (characters) that will exist in the landscape.

We thought that it would be interesting to showcase what Melbourne has to offer, which could also be perceived as an appreciation piece. Personally, I wanted to showcase the diversity and beauty of the city from little spaces to large areas.

This is still all a work in progress because nothing is ever set in stone. However, we do have the narrative and themes in lock, with just the location and actor being the last two components to be finalised.

Despite not being in the post-production process of Portrait and Words, I was still very much involved in the brainstorming and the pre-production planning of it all.

During our group discussion, we weren’t too sure of the exact words we were supposed to showcase for the video but we knew for sure that we would incorporate different languages into the video. Given our Asian background (and as I have previously mentioned, my interest in Asian cinema), we decided to speak in the language of our various motherland – Indonesian, Laos, Filipino and English.

The inspiration for Words and Portraits was our ourselves – our ethnicities and cultural backgrounds were the catalyst for the words that we spoke during the video:

Aku Cinta Kamu 

Khoi Huk Jao

Mahal Kita

During the day of the production, we also decided that we were to speak in other Asian languages that we were familiar with such as Thai, Korean, Japanese and Chinese for the sake of making the video more interesting and longer.

Saranghaeyo

Chan Rak Kun

Aishiteru

Wo Ai Ni

I Love You 

What is so appealing about hearing different languages? This was one of the questions that I posed for myself in terms of our aims in creating this video. There are an abundance of videos like these on internet, which was one of the reasons/inspirations behind shooting a video like this.

Screenshot taken from the Youtube channel, Cut 

I thought that it would be an interesting experience to make a video that I would say is an over-saturated type (aka viral videos) that we as an audience always see on the internet. Even though it may be viral and annoying, we still gravitate towards it and watch it anyway. Therefore, it was good to know the thought process behind a viral video like this one.

I believe that once you have made a video that follows the standard format or a video that is widely accepted by the general audience, it gives you the experience to venture out into your own video-making/storytelling/film capabilities. That is one of my firm beliefs – experience is essential, no matter what the content is. It all contributes to your own independent and future works.

Brainstorming during class – a few notes taken around Week 3 

During the pre-production process, we had initially decided that we were to play around with lights and colours as I had expressed my interest in colour schemes and colour correcting. My vision for the Joy and Hurt video was that we were going to display a yellow colour scheme during joy, expressing details of happiness, bliss, contentment – essentially, feelings that categorise under “joy”. As for hurt, it was the same process – we were to emanate colours of sadness such as blue and other elements like the shadows that are created by the studio lighting. That was the idea that my group and I had in mind. In fact, we were all inspired by this video I showed them, experimenting around with how a person’s expressions can change depending on how the lights hits their face:

The original source was actually from a music video called “Sparkles and Wine” by the artist known as Opale. I had initially heard about this from a Tumblr post and I read an interesting comment where lighting can change the way someone looks – it’s why we come across unappealing photos of our face and other photos where we look great. It all depends on the perspective and the direction of the lighting source.

That was basically the source of our inspiration for Joy and Hurt. It can be clearly seen in some aspects of the video where the root of our vision was from.

Day of the production: 

IMG_3917.TRIM-2939wyn

On the day of the production, we still followed the initial plan for Joy and Hurt, but of course, there were moments where we went on a tangent or had to compromise the production because of technical difficulties. As I have previously mentioned, it was hard to deal with the H4N and the lights (the most important component!) – this had significantly affected the quality of our video and left us no choice but to fix it in post-production.

Presentation: 

Unfortunately, I was unable to make it to the presentation but we had all agreed as a group that we were to present the rough draft, as James had told us that it was okay to present something that was a work in progress. During the presentation, we showcased the video that Pat and I had worked on together during our group meeting – it was not necessarily something that we were too proud of (it is a rough draft after all) – the audio, the sequencing of the scene and the overall quality was still in the works for more editing and improvement.

Rough Draft for Joy and Hurt 

The Final video 

Finally satisfied with the final product, there are a few major key changes between the rough draft and the final video:

• The joy audio – I changed it to a much more upbeat soundtrack because I thought that would fit the image of joy better than the annoying, giggly laugh track. The original audio is from the website FreeMusicPublicDomain.com, with the song title of “…and your love” by the Shepherd Lemmings – it can be used under the Creative Commons License and is Royalty-free.
• The structure of Hurt – it was initially a random sequence of close-ups for the rough cut but I had decided that it needed a structure so it was easier to watch; the first part is on normal speed but after the loud bang and the blackout, I’ve edited it to be a sequence of slow motions.
• Green screen – the purpose of a green screen is to essentially change it a different/background colour other than green (unless, of course, green was the original aim of your video). I actually found it quite difficult to change it to the intended colour without having to alter the actual image and aesthetic of the video. I guess that after all, that is part of the process of changing the green screen to a different background. After going through the tedious procedure of digitally altering the look of the video, this result from,

BEFORE

and

AFTER

Screenshot from Joy

To sum it up, our attempt of showing joy and hurt through colours of yellow and blue was a successful attempt thanks to the inspiration of Sparkles and Wine music video – the whole details of the cinematography and editing was amazing and I aspire to be on that level a video production just like that.

As James has instructed us to do so, we had to find like-minded individuals who wanted to pursue the same type of content – as mentioned in my previous post, I have a strong interest towards cinematography and the color-correcting aspect that comes with film, or even any aesthetically-pleasing video for that matter.

The people I found that I communicate and work well with are my fellow tablemates; Pat, whom I have previously been in most of my classes, Joanna and Pavina whom I’ve just met. For the prompts that have been presented to us (Portrait, Words, Joy and Hurt) we decided to combine two of each with one another to match and contrast the prompts with another.

This was the process of making our collaboration:

1. Booking the film equipment and the studio: James told us to put ourselves at the deep end despite having no knowledge of how to construct a well-made scene created by directors and cinematographers. The group and I absolutely had no knowledge about which camera would produce the best results so we just decided to go with either: Sony or a Canon camera. I have to admit, I am an avid watcher of Youtube videos who do reviews of these cameras so I do have a fair bit of knowledge when it comes to knowing the difference in quality. However, we ended up booking what was recommended to us by the techies of Building 9!
2. On the day of the actual booking, I was expecting for everything to go smoothly and for us to know the technicalities of using the camera and the whole studio. Obviously, it was the latter – a lot of issues went wrong where the boom microphone wasn’t syncing well with the camera, the lights in the studio kept turning off and making these weird mechanical sounds.
   Despite the difficulties that we dealt with, we still managed to produce some quality shots (I hope) with the green screen studio. As for the green screen, that is another story – I actually wasn’t expecting it to be green at all, but, it is what it is. We had to work with what he had after all.
3. The post-production stages: We all had to work around our busy schedule to edit the footage together. We decided that Pavina and Joanna were to combine Portrait and Words whilst Pat and myself meshed in Joy and Hurt together. For Pat and I, it was really all just a matter of sequencing the best of the footage that we took during production. We found that hurt had more usable shots rather than joy and was easier to sequence together. The process that I found the most difficult was choosing what type of sounds/music went with joy and once again, hurt was the easier music process for Pat and myself. Here is the current work in progress for Hurt/Joy:

So far, Pat and I have finished the rough cut and hope to polish the video by Thursday night. The inspiration behind this video can be found on here!

The final draft is still in the works – expect to see that real soon!

I’m not gonna lie, I was actually unaware that we had to pitch in our ideas for the film project. In an attempt to not embarrass myself, I quickly compiled some video inspirations that I had already seen and watched. This video compilation consists of music videos, iconic films that all fit into the emotional range of being in love.

Phum Viphurit – Lover Boy 

Having never listened to any music from Thailand, it’s amazing how I came across this. It was recommended to me by Youtube I guess because I am an avid listener of Filipino indie music and indie-stylised music videos. This video fits into my own preference for videography such as the colour and how each scene transitions from one to the next.

Troye Sivan & Ariana Grande – Dance To This 

Here is another music video but this time, however, it is produced from Hollywood, or at least from the United States. The colour scheme of this video is another beautiful example – I can’t quite explain it but the type of colours that emanate from this music video gives it a vintage and classic feel to it.

One of the iconic films of Wong Kar-Wai’s In the Mood for Love (2000) is another inspiration that I have in regards to filmmaking. The cinematography, that is, the frames, shots, angles, camera movement and the colour are all elements that I feel like Wong-Kar Wai has perfectly encapsulated into one film.

One of the recent films that I have watched known as Never Not Love You (2018) is another a film that I have the appreciation for towards the aesthetics and style.

The only criticisms I would have to say about this is that there can be tendencies for Filipino films to become almost cheesy in terms of the font choices and sometimes even the acting style. Nonetheless, it is a still a beautiful film and I highly recommend it to anyone interested in cinematography!

To summarise it all, basically my interest when it comes to creating videos is the intricacies of a shot. I am also particularly interested in the joys and the ordeals of a relationship, attempting to capture it in a romanticised but also in a melancholic way.

Usually, when the two word “film review” comes to mind, one would think of a Hollywood-stylised type of content – but no. In my case, I wanted to showcase a vlogger that I’ve recently just started watching. They are known as CatCreature, and I would say that she isn’t your typical Youtuber. Of course, she follows the line of what we know as ‘vlogging’ but she vlogs in a way that sets her aside from the rest.

The video I’ve chosen is called My Dearest,: 

To give a bit of context, CatCreature expresses her thoughts and feelings from a recent life event that she has experienced.

The angles that she employs in this video are all from a personal perspective, displaying her interactions with people in her life, landscapes. In fact, it’s more so of herself doing both stimulating and mundane activities that happen in our everyday lives.

My favorite part of the whole video is the monologue and what she had to say – even though it was coming from her perspective of her own life, there were moments where I found myself agreeing with what she had to say.

My analysis of this is that it is a simple home video, taken from an iPhone or maybe even from a point and shoot camera, however, it is a heavily edited video with filters over it to either compensate for the lack of well-prepared shots or maybe even for the aesthetics of the overall video.

She also really didn’t go out of her way to film from an incredible angle – it looked like it was filmed from the floor, her study table and was maybe even filmed by her family/friends and of course, herself.

Watching this video, it actually reminded of one of the short films we watched in class by John Mekas, who compiled several, fast, cut-away shots via FILM. It was interesting to see the comparison between the old-school version of editing with the authenticity fo film, versus the digital method of making a video with the same film aesthetics.