In my last post, I’ve uploaded a short edit of what we shot on Tuesday with the uses of water, reflection, and shadows. Upon editing and doing a bit of grading, I’ve had the chance to watch those shots over and over again, and reflect on what could have been done differently or what turned out better than expected.

Firstly, the reflection shot of the gentleman talking and smoking. The idea came from a fellow group mate, and she thought it would have been cool to see his smoke appear on the reflection of the surface of the water. However, I was worried that the reflection might not turn out as clear and crisp, let alone the smoke coming out from the gentleman’s mouth from smoking the cigarette. Furthermore, getting the right exposure for the shot was rather tricky as you wanted the ground to be correctly exposed, as well as the reflection on the water. What I would have done differently though would have talking towards the water instead of at an angle the way it was shot. Obviously, this was done on improvise, and it was not intend at all. So hopefully we could “remake” the whole scene again and playing around with the orientation of the subject’s reflection on the water.

Second, was the shot of the shadow smoking. Unlike the reflection shot off the water, I knew this would turn out great even before bringing it into post. Just the idea of using sunlight to project an image, ie. the shadow, on a wall presents such an artistic feel to the sequence. Although this was not part of a narrative exercise, and the shot has no relations to the other shots in the video, I felt it was a significant one in the edit. What I think this shot would function as really well, would be a crime or even horror shot, where the “murderer” or “ghost” is not revealed but you could somewhat see a figure to represent it. How I would direct this would to have my subject smoking while being on the phone, and we could hear her voice, but not see her fully, and only her shadow. And that’s when the murderer or ghost might attack. And because it only shows the shadow of my subject, the murderer or ghost would not have been revealed.

The third and last shot, that I thought worked really well, would be the shot of the little “dance” in the water. Although it turned out really beautiful as a stand alone shot. I found it a challenge to fit such a sequence into a narrative script or storyboard, unless if it was a musical or a music video. I decided to intercut the whole dance with some point-of-view shots for extra texture and to give the viewer a feel of being mobile instead static. The feel of making the audience getting involved, is, I believe, crucial in bringing out feelings or emotions in a particular film.

After going through this exercise, I realised the need for colour grading, especially for cameras that are build for video, ie. Sony EX3. Although the white balance have been set before our shoot, the colours tend to be dull straight out of the camera, and there seem to be a “grey” hue over everything. I understand that this is done, as it would be easier to bring out certain colours during the stages of colour grading. Also, I was setting the contrast of the different shots, and that alone brought out so much colour, hence, this “dull-grey-ish” looking footage straight out of the camera look is really just a blank canvas for colourists to have more headroom to balance, grade, and/or correct during post.