Hand Cream, Please.

The whole production of my “hand cream observation” took three weeks and my mood kept changing with the problems and achievements that I encountered. It is not a simple work which requires the cooperation of everyone, but finally me and my group did a nice work. The reflection will be written in chronological order to discuss the preparation, the actual filming and the post-production.

The decisive character in this short film is the ‘weird’ man so that I spent a lot of time on the casting. By recalling my real experience, this man is someone who around 30-40 years old, he seems shouldn’t appear in school and is a bit distant to me and my friend. Also, it would better that he could understand my point to make the drama awkward but hilarious. While Robin was helping, I also tried my best to contact friends who I thought could suit the character. The procedure was burdensome that I was rejected almost all the time, but fortunately we got Luke at the very last minute to realise the filming. Moreover, my friend who was with me in the real experience went back to China for an emergency so that I asked another friend just one day before we filmed. Film making is a extremely collaborative activity and unpredictable situations always happen. Some of them may take very long time and even couldn’t be controlled by myself. The point is to come up with the best solution based on the current issue and to adjust my mind. Don’t be too upset which may affect the group and the following plan. Another preparation is the scene script but this part could improve so much more. In the script, I demonstrated the action, line and camera position. However, when we did the reverse shot, I didn’t make it clear that how many shots should be done from Luke’s perspective and how many from the two girls’. As a result, the camera was moved around twice which wasted some time. This is a mistake I definitely need to solve for the next shooting that the storyboard is strongly needed, and I should carefully arrange the filming sequence of each shot.

Compared to the normal location, elevator is relatively hard to control. We started shooting at 5.30pm when most classes were over. The problem was that the door couldn’t been hold for too long and people would walk in when it stopped. To set up the camera and mic, we could only go up and down with the elevator and have Luke to wait on the 6th floor. Sometimes, one shot needed to be done for a lot of times because the door would unexpectedly open during the filming. I was so glad that Luke also gave a lot of useful suggestions of composition, camera movement and the possible editing. I feel my performance is better than the last class exercise. I was very focused in one hour, directing my actors’ expression and gesture, checking the footages and sound, and communicating with people who tried to get in the elevator. 

After finishing the rough cut, I found it lacked a bit sense of funny by comparing to the original writing. The real experience is a chance encounter so that me and my friend were not prepared. We were just doing a very nature reaction. Luke’s performance is really on the point, but Wendy (the one interacts with Luke) is a bit unnatural. Although we both tried, she is not a professional actor and had just been told the narrative last night. My solution is to add some sound effect and adjust the cutting speed that the overall style would become more cartoon. Overall, this is the most memorable filming experience for me which inspires my creative ideas and teaches me a lot. Thanks so much for the help from Robin, Luke, Aria, Lyreca and my friends to realise this small experiment.