Post Production of Map & Networks Project (2)

This is a second major update for the edit and a few things has changed to make the film in a better flow.

First, the green screen part. I have been trying to fix the skin tone but it was still to red. So I try to think of another way to make the skin tone not so noticeable by creating fast cuts of images. So instead of staying longer on screen the images come in and out of screen fast. 

getting fast cuts

Getting fast cuts

The result didn't turn out great. It looks way too tacky because the images are flashing. It ruins the whole film. I decide to stick to the original edit for the green screen part. 

The second major change is the positioning of the news headlines. Instead of having them all on the face mask one after another, I put them in between the shots through out the whole film. The original plan was to project the images of the news headlines on the face mask on the shot day but it flickers when shown on camera. So I might as well split them up to be shown in between shots to slowly feed the news facts to the viewers. It turns out well and sets the style the of film.

The third major change is the transitions. I added some "dip to colour white" to create a flash visual effect. I layered some images in the beginning part of the film to give hint to the audience the theme of the film. It also allowed me to cut some footage shorter by placing the visual effect. 

Overall, the pacing and style is much better now. I am hoping I can get some sound done before the next tutorial. 

Fingers crossed. 

New Progress on Studio Shoot! Walls :)

I am proud of myself today. 

Katherine brought us stuff again. Thank you!

Sugini and her dust sheet

We start with base coat grey

Accomplished this in 15 mins, with 6 people

Second stage of paint, took ages.....

So by the end of the day we covered two sides of the wall with the paint pattern you see above. It was taking ages and requires three teams of two people to do the full wall. In the team, one with brown brush one with grey. The brown goes first and then the grey, both using the dabbing technique. The aim is to blend the two colours together to give a rusty effect. I didn't take a picture of the final product but it looked great! It certainly gives a 3D texture that will look great on camera. Tomorrow we are gonna do the last stage of paint and I think it will add up on the wall and make it much better!

I am proud of myself and my team mates today. Hope everything goes well tomorrow. Please.

Also, we booked out the equipments for the pre-light day and the shooting days. Yay! I learn one thing from Julie that the Slider doesn't come with the Tripods. Thanks Julie haha I would have forgot to put more tripods on the list.

Camera Movements and Gripping Workshop

Moviola Crab Dolly

The Dolly is a fun equipment to use. Well I have just been sitting on it not pushing it... Thank you Chloe for taking up the Gripping role... In the hope that I am not too heavy, I concentrated on the camera movement. We tried out two shots that was in the shot list to see how well it will work.

The first one we tired was a pan from one room to the other. Billie volunteered to be the actor standing in the SuperEgo room and we used the Dolly to move across the room. Sugini and I were on the Dolly, with Chloe pushing it and Ethan overseeing the scene. The idea is to reveal both rooms with a wide smooth pan. We tried moving the Dolly in a crab way but it wouldn't stay straight because Chloe was pushing the Dolly at on end. Chris the Studio technician suggest that we just push the Dolly normally but with the camera pointing to the side. In that way, the Dolly stays straight. So we tried it a few times with different distance to the middle wall. We agreed on staying as close to the middle wall as possible to give a smooth transition from one room to another. That is actually what we want originally but instead of using the slider, Dolly is a better choice in terms of range and flexibility.

The second one is when the SuperEgo walks into the room. Billie asked Logan to be the actor, so that we can have her to operate the hydraulic pump to do the jib up. This one is harder to achieve because the timing has to be right between the Billie and Chloe. The idea is to jib up from the actor's shoes to the hand, which the actor is holding his phone, while tacking the actor walking into the room. With the aid of making how far the jib up will go on the Dolly, we tried a few time and succeed. However, Logan decided to have the actor holding the phone up instead of down by the side. This time we need Sugini to pan the camera up a little bit at the same time. I couldn't do it because the camera is pointing at a side that the handle wasn't accessible for me but for Sugini. We tried a few times and it looked okay. Again, this is a shot that was assign to use the slider but Dolly is a better choice in terms of range and flexibility.

Left : Glide Cam      Right : Slider

The slider actually surprised me. When I was on set for My Daughter's shoot, they didn't use the motor for the slider. So when David told us that there are actually a slow and fast motor for it I was surprised. I asked if it is better to use the motor or by hand he said it depends if you have steady hands or not. I guess I will think about that.

The last one he introduced is the Glide Cam. It took so long to set up because the balance has to right for it to be steady. The Glide Cam itself is too heavy for me to hold but it was better if I have the vast on. Billie took a picture of me holding the Glide Cam, wearing a vast. The gear looked cool but my face shows that I was dead inside haha. I asked for the picture thinking to put it on here but nah... Billie can have it on her blog xD. The vast was too big for me that there was gap between my shoulder and the vast. It made me easily crushed because it wasn't distributing weight to my whole body but somehow distributing it to my lower part of the upper body. I felt my back within a few minute and didn't manage to climb the stairs. I think only Artus managed to climb the stairs? Ethan can wear it fine but he doesn't think that we need this for our shoot.

As for shoulder rig that Anne showed us, it is good for the fight scene and after if I want some curve lined camera movement. We might try out the EX3 on that shoulder rig and Ethan's shoulder rig on rehearsal to see which one is better.

In conclusion, we loved the Dolly and think that there are more opportunity for us to use it to achieve better shots. The slider will be used for tighter spaces, for example the shot that's going in and out of the mirror. We prefer not to use the Glide Cam and motor for the Slider because it is time consuming to set them up. Also, they are not necessary. All we need right now is to have more time to practice on the equipment. So we asked for the equipment on rehearsal day and hope we can get it.

Fingers crossed!

The End of the Directing Workshop

This is the second Directing workshop and the last. Comparing to the last one, this one have more movement exercises. 

Curve line and straight line - character/ camera movement/ set

This topic interested me the most as I had never heard of it before. He explained it well and showed us how having curve/ straight characteristic change the feeling of the scene with the actors' demonstrating. In words, it is difficult for me to explain what curve/ straight characteristic are. I will try:

Curve line - unpredictable

Straight line - hmmm straight line... you think straight, towards one goal

It is more understandable for camera movement. That is if it is moving in curve/ straight line. In the movie that Nigel showed us, Performance (1970), the camera movement is in straight line for the curve line environment. It would be too much of a mess if the curve line environment is filmed with curve line.

The environment/ set in Performance is curve lined. It was mess, things are everywhere and the camera aids towards the aim to make audiences to have no idea what the room looks like in full.

In our Studio Shoot, I am thinking to add some curve lined camera movements in the fight scene and after to aid the idea of being abstract. It will be helpful since the set is quite straight lined.

In the afternoon he talked about posture/ body language. It is a given and everyone should know what body gesture projects. It is good to have some reminder about our Studio Shoot since we have two very different characters in the film.

Overall, I enjoyed the Workshop very much and learned a lot. I really appreciate him and the actors who acted out different scenarios. These two blog post is not very in depth but I will probably revisit some of the "theories" in the future. This serves as a note so that I can look back to in the future. Right now, all I can think of is camera movements camera movements camera movements ...

camera movements ;)

Busy but Productive #internationalstudentsday

Peeling the wallpapers with hands...

We are supposed to be in the G12 building our set today. When we first arrived there was no tools for us to peel the wallpapers.

Still with hands...

I had stop asking how many layers of wallpaper or material are there because I know the number is infinite lol.

loved this tool! Amazing

Jay brought us back some tools from his family house!

I have been picking up the bits on the floor into the bin bag by hand, then a dust pan magically appeared.

Even using the tools, I got easily tired getting the layers out. So I relaxed myself by picking up big pieces on the floor, then sweeping the smaller bits together in the centre of the room. I would ask Ethan to hold the bin bag against the floor so that I can push rubbish in with the boom stick. It is a godsend that a dust pan appeared. Thank you (Colin?) !

After putting up the middle panels I met up with my International foundation tutor to discuss some plans and the I attended a meeting with UCA Ambassadors. As soon as I walked in they introduced me to the International Student Support Co-ordinator. When I was thinking "what a day!" in the evening I received messages from my International foundation tutor saying that it is #internationalstudentsday. What a day!

We had a group meeting for Studio shoot in the afternoon as well. It was just to review the audition footages with everyone and decide on the characters. At the end of the day Ethan and I did a rough edit of the auditions to be put onto our Facebook page so everyone in the group and access to it.

 Busy but productive #internationalstudentsday !

(update 20/11/2016: saw this in the library!)

UCA Farnham Library

Hong Kong

We Have Our Actors!

The audition set up - credited to Katherine Whetton

We finished two days of auditions and two wonderful actors are gonna be in our film! Excited!

I have been to auditions before as a participant but I had never been a part of the host. This time I have the opportunity to film the whole process and it was fun. I was doing close-ups and Ethan was doing full body shots. That way we have the important informations about the actors in terms of facial expression and body movements. This is the first time that I filmed actors doing performance as well and I think it's amazing how they tell emotions using their face. The tricky part was when they move around the space that I have to keep changing the focus while moving the camera. I think I did well and the focus was changed in time to follow them. Good practise for me as I will be operating the camera in the studio shoot.

Pre-production being pre-production, it is a stressful stage but once we have done as much preparation as we can, the filming will flow well. I have to admit that I have been a little bit stressed out about the film in the pre-production period but now I am more relieved. It is also because we had a pre-production session with Anne to sort out the planning for the two groups. It didn't go well at first because the two groups have different demands about the set. Before this pre-production session, both groups agreed on having two rooms, we use two rooms and they use one room. In that way, we can dress one room that they are not using and the other room one day before the shoot. However, some issue still happened in the session that our group is not happy with. Luckily, Anne is very helpful being the middle woman that we finally made more agreements. By the end of this week we should have a formal sign agreement between the groups. It was a huge relieve that we reached a certain degree of compromises that we can finally agree on something to work on it. It was a real life lesson right there in the pre-production session.

So far, we have done some very effective group meetings alongside good communications on Facebook page and in group chat. That is the base to a good pre-production. I am glad to have organised producer and 1st AD to be in the group as well as other group mates who gives creative inputs to the shoot. As for the camera team, we have done some small meetings and we have a Whatsapp group chat to communicate about the shot list. The shot list is a shared Google document so that all three of us can put anything in it at anytime. The format is taken from Rachel Bramley when she made it for My Daughter. Right now we have a draft overall shot list and I am changing/adding shots everyday according to a change of information. A change of information meaning anything from set design to knowledge that we learn in lesson. For example, I would talk to Jay about the prop in set and he told me there will be a water bottle in the Super Ego side and alcohol bottle in the Id side. He told me what he think the shot will be, so a shot is added:

Shot

Type/ Movement

Detail

Gear

Notes

J

CU, Still, change in focus

Focus on foreground then to backgroud. Foreground: Water bottle on table; Background: alcohol bottles

Tripod/ Slider

atmosphere

Another example, we learnt in the Directing Workshop about the Status between the characters. So we have a series of shots showing the status flow of the two characters, this is one of them: 

B

MCU, Tracking, Over the shoulder

Tracking the actors fighting with over the shoulder on superego looking at id, high angle

Shoulder Rig

status

The shot list at this moment (16th November) is visualised based on the modified first script. The modified part is from "turning the mirror" to "covering the mirror".

The next big change on the shot list will be tomorrow after the group meeting as Logan said he will give out a finalised script. Then I am looking to modify the shot list on Friday after the Gripping workshop as we learn more about camera movements with more gears. After that it will be on Monday/Tuesday when we rehearsed with the actors with the camera. Hopefully by then we will have a proper shot list for the shoot. 


P.s. Camera Equipment List
Samurai Blade Kit
Sony EX3 Kit
Slider
Shoulder Rig
Moviola
Tripod
Ronford 4 head
Clapper Board
Light Meter

Post Production of Map & Networks Project

For this project I choose to edit in Avid because I loved it and want to practise on it. I have one more lesson with the Avid tutor and that's it. Therefore, it is important for me to edit this project so that I won't lose too much that I have learnt before the next editing project in January. 

I did a green screen sequence first because I figure it would be the hardest part to do that I may want to tackle it first. It is not hard to do the keying but because I wasn't able to film the actress the whole body, it was tricky to position them in frame. Then I did some basic editing in a new sequence and import the green screen sequence in it. The news headline were failed to be projected on the actress's face mask on the shoot day. The next thing I did is to put the news headlines on her face mask and blend them in. 

I did a recording session with Jay my guitarist to get the notes that I want. The sounds are great and I will play with my keyboard to get some more sounds as well. 

Colour correction

Layering and fade in fade out

Final look

When seeing Rosie I realised the edit didn't flow that well. So the goal this week is to make a better edit in terms of flow. Some black frames are added in between the beautiful shots to add some pauses between thoughts of the audiences. I will need to rethink if the text should be on the face mask or in the black frames considering the style of the film. Also the colour in the part of green screen doesn't really match the rest of the non-green screen ones. I will need to think of way to blend them in. For example, I might have the images come in and out very quickly so that the colour is not that outstanding. I am sure that there will be different ways to do it and I will experiment with it more.

Another goal is to get a draft for my soundscape by playing with my keyboard and on Protools.

I asked the Avid tutor if I can use the computers in the evening but I am not sure which evenings due to a busy schedule. She said that I can just walk-in for now as the general demand is not too high yet. This is a great news. Hope I can achieve my goals of the week.

Directing Workshop

Directing is not really my thing but what I have learnt today is so interesting.

I now understand that I don't need to show actors storyboard and I shouldn't tell them what to do. Unfortunately, I did all of that in my Maps and Network shoot. Luckily, abstract piece is different. For narrative piece, the director should 'direct', of course, the actor. The directors use verbs to lead them towards the direction that you want actors to go to. The director should expect a good actor to bring light to the blueprint which is the script.

Thing that Nigel said about the industry interest me as well. He told us the way that the industry works.

For example:

no camera allowed when the director is having a run down with the actor

amendments on scripts will be highlighted and printed in a different coloured paper

shoot 40 setups a day for drama

shoot 4 setups a day for commercial/ shot film

shoot 1 minute scene in 1-1.5 hours

etc.

It was very useful for me to picture how the filming day should work.

In the afternoon he talked about 'status' on screen and how to cast a movement piece to help us with that. The status theory was mind blowing for me. It is always there in real life or in film. It just all make sense now after he explained it. As for the way he casted for his film without dialogue 16 years ago, he used a parallel scenario to test if the actor has what he want. He wanted someone who has the humour bone, can act with whole body and can tell his feeling when there is a close up on the face.

It was very helpful and entertaining with Nigel explaining and actors acting out accordingly live in front of us. I enjoyed it and looking forward to the next lesson! (and maybe more?) I agree what he said at the end that some people wants to make film because of film and some people wants to make film because of the inspiration from the people in real life - you need both.

Role Research - Camera Operator

What to call the movements that's done by the slider?

https://www.slrlounge.com/4-camera-movements-can-slider/

1. Slide
2. Boom(Jib) Up/ Down
3. Push/ Pull
4. Parallax

Job description of Camera Operator:

http://creativeskillset.org/job_roles/3073_camera_operator

Draft shot list

Now we have a draft list visualised by the camera team according to the first script. We will need to get inducted to the equipments and practise on the movements. We will update the shot list once we rehearsed with the actor(s).

The Infinite Mix

I went on a Saturday and we need to queue up outside. I was freezing but it was worth it!

The exhibition space was so cozy that people won't mind sitting on the floor. In most of the rooms there were soft materials on the wall and the floor so we felt quite relaxed in the space that we won't mind sitting there for 10-20 mins. I loved the big screens.

The piece I liked the most is the 4-screen work with many TVs on the floor about a 70 years old man. It was funny and thoughtful. I almost want to lie on the floor so that I can see all four screens at once. I stayed in a corner instead. The first time watching I was amazed by the visuals and constantly turning around to check the screens and TVs. The second time I was focusing on what he was saying. It was very thoughtful that I almost want to stay there for the rest of the day so that I can think about it. The piece is looped very nicely as well, unlike other pieces that leave a blank screen at the end for some times. We didn't have to sit in the silent darkness waiting for the video to come back up in a unknown time frame. We were in a perfect loop that can possibly put audience into a zone of endless thought about life.

I want to try to achieve that loop of thought for audience of my exhibition piece. It will make sense for the theme of my piece and make audience to think.

Narrative Sound Hand-in

Overview

This one minute soundscape is inspired by a Chinese short story as I said in the previous post. I translated the text to English and reinterpreted it. The end result is a film-like soundscape with a few lines spoken. Compare to the script I gave to my male voice actor, the lines got cut down a lot for better story telling. By listening to the soundscape, audience should know that the couple are getting married but accident happened to her while she was trying to post their wedding invitations. The soundscape ends with a rewind/flash back to better enhance the feeling of losing your significant others. Having to fit a story into a one minute soundscape is a challenge that I gave myself and I am very happy to see the end product. If I was to fit in all lines recorded with the voice actor, I wouldn't have enough time to fit them all in. Instead, I abandoned those lines that are telling stuffs that can be told by the soundscape. Also, I changed the lines to better fit the environment in this day and age.

I had two Foley room sessions for sound and voice actor recording. The recording process went well and now I am used to and confident in using the Foley room. The traffic sounds were recorded from London using a Zoom H4n recorder. It is to replace the original mono sound that I recorded in Farnham. The stereo sound is what I need for constructing the atmosphere and sense of location which is a busy street. I stood in the street holding the recorder for quite some times to get as much sounds as possible to edit with.

The Pans

I did some slight panning to give each sound clip a room to breath. It is mainly on the mono tracks that are stacked together.

The volumes

Effects added only to the "London Traffic" clip

I cut the long clip recorded in London into bits that I need. I paned one of them to make it sound like a car is coming from left to right and being responsible for the car accident. I also tune down the pitch make it sound more heavy and impactful. Other sounds got turn down in volume to emphasise it. One of the sound with people chatting got reversed and muffled to make it sound like the character is shocked but people in the environment is concerned about the accident.

Effects added only to the "Glass hit" clip

A reversed sound of hitting a glass cup sounds like time rewinded.

Effect added to the last line of Sakura's - "I'm getting married!"

The use of pencil tool for the Wet/Dry effect

Slowly building up the effect by doing this. It fits the environment and then got emphasised.

Effects added to different tracks 

NUGEN plug-in checked the final product that the soundscape is with the standard

Umbrella, Our Weapon Shoot Day

Today I had my studio shoot for the Map and Networks Project. This is the first time that I get to film in the big studio and I was very excited about it. It is worth booking the studio one month in advance!

When I first enter the studio I was a little bit shocked to see a film set in the middle of the room. Luckily, there was some space at the side that I can film in.

(Update of screen shots)

Shot list for the day

Schedule of the day. I organised the schedule according to the nature of the shot and make the shoot day productive.

First, the Green Screen.

Filming with the green screen is not as tricky as that in the Journalism studio. The studio light was very good, so as the green screen. However, I didn't film the actor's whole body because the limit in space. I can't stand far back enough to get the actor's whole body but instead I had to cut off where her knee is in the frame. 

Then the smoke machine.

It worked very nicely. 

I was going to project news headlines on the face mask but it was impossible. The refreshing speed on the projector is quite low that you can see the projected image flashing on the camera view finder. I will try to do it in post-production because it is quite a important scene. 

My only complain of the filming is that I didn't have enough time to play with the shot more. I had enough time to get the necessary scenes done but I wish I had more time to play with different camera angles. I already knew before filming that everything has to be done by 5pm but more the shots the better when I am editing them. 

What I've noticed is that I was too busy during the filming. I was directing the actor, operating the camera, thinking about the lights, checking and trying to keep up with the schedule. I didn't have time to think about slating. Even I got Ethan to help with moving the lighting and handling the smoke machine, I still have too much to do and it was slowing the shoot down. I now understand the importance to having a well communicated crew! I thought this is a simple shoot but I am definitely asking for help next time I need to shoot in the studio. 

Overall, I am happy with the outcome from the 3-hour studio shoot. I booked an Avid computer to edit for Tuesday and Thursday. I hope it went well as well:)!