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:)!