Since today was a single period, we mainly planned on the filming schedule which will be held on Friday, the 27th of February and will continue on Saturday, the 28th of February. On the 27th of February, we will be filming in Happy Valley which will be at night around 7pm. The shots we will be filming will all be exterior shots in an alley. The location as shown in the last blog is quite dodgy and we will have to take care everyone's safety as no one really passes the alley. On the 28th of February will mainly be focused on interior shots which will be held in my place. The shots on Saturday will be shot in the afternoon as we can draw the curtains in our room to create a night feeling.
I think planning ahead and having a schedule is very important in this subject. Because film is the subject that requires excellent time management in order to hand in everything on time. Therefore, we spent this single very efficiently to discuss the meeting time. Since Bernice has afterschool activities until 6pm, Henry and Andy will bring all the equipment to Henry's place first as he lives in Happy Valley. I will arrive at 5:30 to rehearse the lines with Andy so that we can save more time on set. After 7, we will all head to the filming location and start filming until we finish all the exterior shots.
I think I've been a communicator today since I had too understand the schedule and the plan very well in order to be there on time.
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Monday, February 23, 2009
23rd February, 2009
Today was a single lesson, but we all shared the homework that we each done for our own roles. I wrote captions in the lines where I think has to be more expressive and I added arrows where there should be background music to add the tension, to emphasize some of the phrases as they’re the main purpose of the film. I chose some tunes from freeplaymusic.com and I’m quite surprised that they actually fit in the film quite well as we had to drop the idea of using the song “Bang Bang”. That was actually the exact genre of music for this film, but luckily, I found similar ones in freeplaymusic.com. Henry told me that we can use the song “greensleeves” because it was composed around 300 years ago and it wasn’t copyrighted, therefore, it suddenly hit me, we can have this tune as our theme song, it will be the background music from time to time as the tune is really catchy and it fits the theme of our film. We’re also going to find Christie (a student from year 11) to hum it in a opera-like voice so that it will make our film sound eerie and tense.
Henry took some pictures from Happy Valley and showed us the alleyway that we’re going to be filming. I thought this setting is really cool, I like how the shadows reflect right in front of Andy, it can mean deeper and it suits our style completely.
This alleyway is dark and scary, an appropriate spot for us to shoot the shots. The next lesson will be like a dress rehearsal so we can get prepared for Friday.
Henry took some pictures from Happy Valley and showed us the alleyway that we’re going to be filming. I thought this setting is really cool, I like how the shadows reflect right in front of Andy, it can mean deeper and it suits our style completely.
This alleyway is dark and scary, an appropriate spot for us to shoot the shots. The next lesson will be like a dress rehearsal so we can get prepared for Friday.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
18th February, 2009
Today we gathered in our groups started to discuss on our film noir. Since Henry was the scriptwriter, he finished writing the whole script and printed a set of each and one of us. I really like the storyline; I find it very interesting and sexy. It’s about a drunken man and a woman who is the femme fatale. Since Bernice is the cameraman, she will have to control the camera the whole time, while I’m the sound director, so I can do the acting for our film. Andy will be the drunken man. After discussing the roles, we all set off to work. Andy is the editor so he and Bernice drew the storyboard together. While Henry told me his meaning in each line and I thought about what kind of tone we can use in order to make our voices sound deep, mysterious and sexy. Today I’m being a thinker because I’m applying thinking skills critically and creatively to recognize and approach complex problems, and making reasoned, ethical decisions. At first, Henry typed up some songs we can use in the script, however, they are copyrighted, and therefore, we will have to change the songs. We can go to freeplaymusic.com to find different pieces of music that interpret different moods for free. I also have to be open-minded because I have to understand film noir’s requirements and characteristics. We used the “Sin City” as an inspiration for our film and I thought the costumes and lighting are extremely amazing.
We also discussed that Andy’s outfit will be a suit and he will wear a bit of eyeliner to add more tension to his face, while I’ll be wearing a sexy dress as I’m suppose to seduce him. We decided that the filming date will be on 27th of February – 28th of February. And we will be filming the scenes in Happy Valley as there are a lot of dark alleys there and it suits our film. I will go home and do some research on the sounds and the way to deliver the lines in the way that will express our own character’s style. I will also find gunshot sounds.
We also discussed that Andy’s outfit will be a suit and he will wear a bit of eyeliner to add more tension to his face, while I’ll be wearing a sexy dress as I’m suppose to seduce him. We decided that the filming date will be on 27th of February – 28th of February. And we will be filming the scenes in Happy Valley as there are a lot of dark alleys there and it suits our film. I will go home and do some research on the sounds and the way to deliver the lines in the way that will express our own character’s style. I will also find gunshot sounds.
Monday, February 16, 2009
Film Noir
I found today’s lesson very interesting. We learnt Film Noir. I remember back in year 9, we had an attempt on making a film noir with our whole class. Film Noir always left me with a deep and eerie image, Noir in French means black therefore Film Noir means Black Film. It’s usually about detective stories and crime investigation. But there is always a femme fatal to seduce the protagonist. I was the femme fatal in the film we produced in year 9. The themes for Film Noir are normally political involving global current issues; it always tries to bring a message to the world through special plots. We watched a few examples on DVD and YouTube. They’re all very straightforward and I like this kind of learning method as visual representation are much easier to understand than words, I personally think it’s a lot more interesting as well because examples actually show the knowledge effectively.
To show that we have a full understanding of film noir, we have to be groups of four and we will create a script, plan, and storyboard and edit a two-person dialogue scene based on Heat and Infernal Affairs. We will have to apply all the knowledge we gained in class about film noir themes and characteristics. We will also apply our continuity editing techniques.
For this task, I am working with Bernice, Henry and Andy. Bernice and I thought it might be better to have mix groups and Ms. Wong also suggested it is easier to do this task if we have mix groups. We already assigned roles, where Bernice is the cameraman, Henry the scriptwriter, Andy the editor and I will be the sound director. I am looking forward to working with them because I’ve never worked with Henry nor Andy and I think this will help me improve my communication skills and working well as part as a team.
To show that we have a full understanding of film noir, we have to be groups of four and we will create a script, plan, and storyboard and edit a two-person dialogue scene based on Heat and Infernal Affairs. We will have to apply all the knowledge we gained in class about film noir themes and characteristics. We will also apply our continuity editing techniques.
For this task, I am working with Bernice, Henry and Andy. Bernice and I thought it might be better to have mix groups and Ms. Wong also suggested it is easier to do this task if we have mix groups. We already assigned roles, where Bernice is the cameraman, Henry the scriptwriter, Andy the editor and I will be the sound director. I am looking forward to working with them because I’ve never worked with Henry nor Andy and I think this will help me improve my communication skills and working well as part as a team.
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Continuity Editing
Today was a very useful lesson, because I learnt a lot more about editing. I learnt about continuity editing. In continuity editing, there are different types of key techniques. I thought the eyeline match shot is a very important and basic shot that everyone should know, because this shot is commonly used in many movies, in fact, each movie seem to have eyeline match shots. I also thought the Match on action cut is quite a cool technique because it flows to another shot without hesitating and this way the actor won’t actually have to do the complete action and risk a possibility of injuring him and herself. My favorite technique was Directional Continuity, meaning a character exists from the right of the screen, and he/she should enter the next shot from the left of the screen.
I realized how important editing is, because the techniques used really affects the way the story is presented, if the timing isn’t right, and then the audience might get the wrong idea. Therefore editing is the most significant part of the production of a movie.
In order to get familiar with continuity editing, we were given a class exercise. With the groups last exercise, we are to choose one script between the four choices and use the very few lines to create a storyline. Then after filming, we must use the editing key techniques we learnt this lesson to edit the film. Working with Bernice, Ashley, and Louise again, we picked script 4. We decided to focus on the match on action cut, when Louise is walking down to find me. Bernice was the cameraman while Ashley’s the sound person. We worked quite well together; we all had a lot of ideas which kept our options open. Our storyline is very simple therefore we really have to show how we feel by the tone of our voice. I thought we managed our time quite well as we had enough time to film all the shots we need, we tried to flow each shot to the next shot so that less editing of the lighting will be needed.
I thought our best shot when we film Louise walking down, because we shot a wide variety of shots of her walking down and it will let us easily show more editing skills. I gained a lot of new knowledge today’s lesson and I enjoyed it very much.
I realized how important editing is, because the techniques used really affects the way the story is presented, if the timing isn’t right, and then the audience might get the wrong idea. Therefore editing is the most significant part of the production of a movie.
In order to get familiar with continuity editing, we were given a class exercise. With the groups last exercise, we are to choose one script between the four choices and use the very few lines to create a storyline. Then after filming, we must use the editing key techniques we learnt this lesson to edit the film. Working with Bernice, Ashley, and Louise again, we picked script 4. We decided to focus on the match on action cut, when Louise is walking down to find me. Bernice was the cameraman while Ashley’s the sound person. We worked quite well together; we all had a lot of ideas which kept our options open. Our storyline is very simple therefore we really have to show how we feel by the tone of our voice. I thought we managed our time quite well as we had enough time to film all the shots we need, we tried to flow each shot to the next shot so that less editing of the lighting will be needed.
I thought our best shot when we film Louise walking down, because we shot a wide variety of shots of her walking down and it will let us easily show more editing skills. I gained a lot of new knowledge today’s lesson and I enjoyed it very much.
Monday, February 9, 2009
8th February, 2009
Today was a single lesson and Ms. Wong decided we should all watch each other’s work that was done last week and give comments on it. The main focus was a recap of what we’ve learnt last year.
I thought each group presented themselves in a different way, which I find quite interesting, I like observing these details because it shows the different personality of the cameraman through the perspectives and angles they use.
For the group Ella, Catherine, Sarah and Adrian, I thought the strongest frame in my mind for them was the gritty, documentary shot, because it didn’t lose complete focus, and the framework was nicely done as it was a little bit shaky which proves they’ve given thought about the documentary part. The frame is not sharp but yet not out of focus, which presented the gritty part of the shot. I learnt a lot from this frame. Their color shots however were too extreme, it was either too blue or too red, and they can improve on the editing techniques for that shot. Overall, the sound effects were satisfactory; the emergency sound effect can be less obvious. And they needn’t show the frames. However, the others were quite good.
For the group Andy, Henry, Chris and Raphael, I thought through their work, I didn’t have the confidence that they fully understand what they were suppose to do as the filming skills didn’t exactly meet the requirements and it didn’t seem they put the effort to any of the tasks, so are the editing skills. They could improve a lot more by showing different levels during the shots and not moving the tripod too fast as if its held by hand. But their sound effects were nicely done; I liked it because it was almost as if they portrayed an image of the sound effects.
For the group Elliot, Xiang-Yi, Justin, Jing-ting and Joyce, I thought their first task which was to look at a paper then scrunch it up and throw it on the floor was quite well thought. It showed the effort by the shots, they started with the ear first and then zooming out to the whole body, I thought that was pretty clever. Also their color scenes weren’t too blue or too red, which showed just enough expression for the shot and showed their editing skills were quite good. But I enjoyed the sound effects the most, I thought the work sound was very realistic, it sounded like an office and I liked it very much.
For the group Hannah, Julien, Jeffery and Camille, I thought their frameworks had been planned well, it was shown because all the shots were very steady even though they were long. It was pretty cool how they linked each task to another task to make it seem like a storyline and makes it more interesting to watch. I liked how they shot the rule of thirds because it was straightforward and good effort. However, the sound effects were a little bit fake and they could improve on the emergency sound, overall, I enjoyed watching their work.
Lastly, for our group, Bernice, Ashley, Louise and me, our editing skills have a lot to improve on especially the gritty, documentary one. It was overdone and it looked like as if it was cartoon rather a documentary, also the shot wasn’t very shaky and seemed as if it was film on a tripod. However, the rule of thirds was done well and portrays it correctly. The sound effects were quite good except the work sounded a little bit too alone, as if it was telling a story rather showing a working scene, that we can improve on as well. Overall, the recap really helped me realize the areas I must focus more during this semester and should try to avoid them next time when we get another opportunity to do a similar exercise. I thought today I had been observing and thinking cortically, therefore, I am a thinker today.
I thought each group presented themselves in a different way, which I find quite interesting, I like observing these details because it shows the different personality of the cameraman through the perspectives and angles they use.
For the group Ella, Catherine, Sarah and Adrian, I thought the strongest frame in my mind for them was the gritty, documentary shot, because it didn’t lose complete focus, and the framework was nicely done as it was a little bit shaky which proves they’ve given thought about the documentary part. The frame is not sharp but yet not out of focus, which presented the gritty part of the shot. I learnt a lot from this frame. Their color shots however were too extreme, it was either too blue or too red, and they can improve on the editing techniques for that shot. Overall, the sound effects were satisfactory; the emergency sound effect can be less obvious. And they needn’t show the frames. However, the others were quite good.
For the group Andy, Henry, Chris and Raphael, I thought through their work, I didn’t have the confidence that they fully understand what they were suppose to do as the filming skills didn’t exactly meet the requirements and it didn’t seem they put the effort to any of the tasks, so are the editing skills. They could improve a lot more by showing different levels during the shots and not moving the tripod too fast as if its held by hand. But their sound effects were nicely done; I liked it because it was almost as if they portrayed an image of the sound effects.
For the group Elliot, Xiang-Yi, Justin, Jing-ting and Joyce, I thought their first task which was to look at a paper then scrunch it up and throw it on the floor was quite well thought. It showed the effort by the shots, they started with the ear first and then zooming out to the whole body, I thought that was pretty clever. Also their color scenes weren’t too blue or too red, which showed just enough expression for the shot and showed their editing skills were quite good. But I enjoyed the sound effects the most, I thought the work sound was very realistic, it sounded like an office and I liked it very much.
For the group Hannah, Julien, Jeffery and Camille, I thought their frameworks had been planned well, it was shown because all the shots were very steady even though they were long. It was pretty cool how they linked each task to another task to make it seem like a storyline and makes it more interesting to watch. I liked how they shot the rule of thirds because it was straightforward and good effort. However, the sound effects were a little bit fake and they could improve on the emergency sound, overall, I enjoyed watching their work.
Lastly, for our group, Bernice, Ashley, Louise and me, our editing skills have a lot to improve on especially the gritty, documentary one. It was overdone and it looked like as if it was cartoon rather a documentary, also the shot wasn’t very shaky and seemed as if it was film on a tripod. However, the rule of thirds was done well and portrays it correctly. The sound effects were quite good except the work sounded a little bit too alone, as if it was telling a story rather showing a working scene, that we can improve on as well. Overall, the recap really helped me realize the areas I must focus more during this semester and should try to avoid them next time when we get another opportunity to do a similar exercise. I thought today I had been observing and thinking cortically, therefore, I am a thinker today.
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
4th February, 2009
I thought today I was quite reflective today. I went back to my group from last lesson and we uploaded the footage to the computer where we used final cut pro software as our editing resource. Since our group didn't finish the sound part of the exercise, we split ourselves into two pairs so that we can save time and are more efficient as we only have today's double lesson to edit the footage. Louise has more experience in the sound area, so Bernice and she went to create the sound effects for work, destruction and time. Ashley took film course for the first time; therefore, I stayed to start editing and taught her some of the basic tools in final cut pro software. However, we didn't manage our time well enough and we had to stay over lunch a little bit. I think its because I haven't used final cut pro for quite a while and I'm not particularly completely familiar with this editing software, hence, explains why we were behind the schedule.
During editing, I came across some difficulties when I had to add video filters for each task because I didn't recall how to set the right setting for different kinds of atmosphere of the scene. After Mr. Cheng told Ashley and me where to find the video transitions and filters, and how to preview them, the knowledge started to float back and it got easier later on, I taught Ashley how to separate the clips and how to delete the unnecessary clips. But due to my loss of memory, Ashley learnt the video filters and transitions today while I recalled it. I only remembered how to add in texts and captions when I was reminded by Mr. Cheng as well, hopefully throughout this term I will have opportunities to use final cut pro and will later on be more familiar with it. I will certainly have to make an effort to remember all the basic tools and functions in this software as it is what we're going to focus on this term.
During editing, I came across some difficulties when I had to add video filters for each task because I didn't recall how to set the right setting for different kinds of atmosphere of the scene. After Mr. Cheng told Ashley and me where to find the video transitions and filters, and how to preview them, the knowledge started to float back and it got easier later on, I taught Ashley how to separate the clips and how to delete the unnecessary clips. But due to my loss of memory, Ashley learnt the video filters and transitions today while I recalled it. I only remembered how to add in texts and captions when I was reminded by Mr. Cheng as well, hopefully throughout this term I will have opportunities to use final cut pro and will later on be more familiar with it. I will certainly have to make an effort to remember all the basic tools and functions in this software as it is what we're going to focus on this term.
Monday, February 2, 2009
First Film Class of The Semester
Today was the first class of the year 11 film core class. After the introduction of what we will be learning this semester (which are editing and film analysis), Ms. Wong gave us an exercise to recap the topics we've learnt last year in year 10 - Cinematography and Sound.
I thought it was a good exercise because it refreshes my memory from last year since I had film for my first semester last year. We grouped ourselves as 4 people per group. My group mates included: Bernice, Louise, Ashley and me. For the first few exercises, they were focused on cinematography. We did task number 4 first. " A student typing on the computer". For that exercise, I was reminded that we can use the soft focus to make the scene look a little blurry and hence, creating a dream-like sequence. In order for giving each of our group mate to have a chance to film a scene, we took turns to act the tasks out.
I thought the most challenging task among all for cinematography was task five, because it took the longest to film. If I were to do it again next time, I would find a better place to film so that the tripod can stand more stable.
Due to the limited time we had, we weren't able to complete all the tasks therefore we will start edit the footage next class. However, we managed to start the Sound part, and we did the work sound, using keyboard and voice to create a work sound that portrays a stressful working environment. Overall, today was a introductory class and we refreshed our memory about the knowledge we learnt before.
I thought it was a good exercise because it refreshes my memory from last year since I had film for my first semester last year. We grouped ourselves as 4 people per group. My group mates included: Bernice, Louise, Ashley and me. For the first few exercises, they were focused on cinematography. We did task number 4 first. " A student typing on the computer". For that exercise, I was reminded that we can use the soft focus to make the scene look a little blurry and hence, creating a dream-like sequence. In order for giving each of our group mate to have a chance to film a scene, we took turns to act the tasks out.
I thought the most challenging task among all for cinematography was task five, because it took the longest to film. If I were to do it again next time, I would find a better place to film so that the tripod can stand more stable.
Due to the limited time we had, we weren't able to complete all the tasks therefore we will start edit the footage next class. However, we managed to start the Sound part, and we did the work sound, using keyboard and voice to create a work sound that portrays a stressful working environment. Overall, today was a introductory class and we refreshed our memory about the knowledge we learnt before.
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