8 December 2009

Today, apart from uploading, we did some initial editing. The voiceovers were edited in place (some will have to be re-done due to the re-drafting of the script, but we still edited nontheless), and we're quite satisfied with that. Also, some initial choosing of shots from the footage we had edited had begun. We seem to have more good shots than I expected, but I expected very few, so that's not good news. I think one of the challanges we have faced is the timetable, increasingly. However, we plan to do the best we can and hopefully we won't run aground.

4 December 2009

This was the next work we did on the film, which was a re-shoot. We found when uploading the footage that there was a huge problem: we had made my sister walk all kinds of diagonals and hence the continuity was terrible. I also decided that I wanted a lot more footage, and with a clearer idea of what we needed and what we didn't need, we shot a re-shoot on Friday. Also, we needed to include the party scenes, but this ran into a problem: all the extras we had been promised disappeared at the last minute.

However, we had mostly success from thereon. I manage to lengthen the amount of time the film took by having Justin sit on a chair and drink more slowly. Also, we quickly made a decision to amend the script to set the film in a club instead of at a party, which works as well. We continued to use mirrors and emphasise the loneliness of the two characters. A lot more angles were used, and all in all, the film shoot went well.

There were one or two problems with the footage we discovered later. One was that we hadn't watched the camera carefully enough and there were one or two shots where we got ourselves in the mirror. But then again, this may have to be ignored or somehow re-shot.

22 - 28 November 2009

We did some shooting and uploading over this week. On Saturday, we recorded my sister's voiceovers and shot the movie (minus party scenes). I note that we did rather poorly. The difficulties we faced were that everything took longer than expected. Unexpected noises lengthened the voiceover stage, such as jet planes and vacuum cleaning. Also, it took some time to get my sister to say the lines correctly. However, in the end, we had some good takes. I think that this was a testimony to the warning we were given by Ms Wong not to assume things would go as quickly as we expected.

The filming stage was also difficult for several reasons. Firstly, it was hard to inspire the actress to act in character since the whole film revolves around the voiceovers and the cinematography (not to mention the music). Therefore, my sister's imagination was strained. But we did manage to get the boredom (she was bored!) and fidgeting from her. Some interesting angles of pacing were shot. Also, Justin did very well with the beer drinking and we got some interesting shots of various pacing and walking using the mirrors. I think that these shots may be useful. However, many of the shots may be unusable in editing.

All in all, it wasn't as great as expected, but it could have been a lot worse. I think we'll continue with editing and reshoots next week.

27 Nov 2009

Clare is now unable to make it, and Denise, who promised to make it, has been stopped by her parents. I have phoned about 7 different possible candidates, none of whom are that keen to come. Hence, we have decided to use my sister, who can be more reliable. She seems quite keen to try, so this should go well.

We're planning for our three-hour shoot. I'm a little worried about the party scene later, but that I'll deal with after we have edited the shoot.

17, 18 Nov 2009

This reflection will cover the pre-production of my Wang Kar Wai inspired film 'The Mirrors' up until 18 Nov 2009.

My script was written on a Saturday. I took the time out to watch 2046, which I found on youtube. I thought the film had a very interesting use of camera angles, as well as how the camera focused on close-ups, details, shadows, and background, allowing characters to drift in and out. Also, the story-arch was interesting, following an emotional journey of a character, rather than the classic three-act hollywood script.

The concept of love being a feeling that will never be fully realised was very striking in 2046, and I used it in my script, the Mirrors, where I followed a man and woman, both isolated from a crowded setting, meeting each other, but failing to connect. The image I found is in this blog, above. I was inspired by the reflection to set my script in a mirrored room.

My storyboarding occurred under slightly time-constrained test conditions, but I had in my mind the cinematographic techniques that struck me in 2046, which I applied to the storyboard. It ended up getting chosen, so I was tasked unexpectedly with being a director. I confess that I thought my script might fall under the 'unfilmable' category; but I wasn't spared.

We arranged to get filming by 17 November. Christopher was assigned cinematography, Justin sound and editing. Justin was cast as the male actor, but we had to find a female. For some reason, we decided that an oriental with no glasses would best fill the role. This was mostly Christopher's decision, but I confess I found it rather odd. But many girls were either busy or reluctant. In reality, I didn't follow Christopher's rather odd recommendation, and simply found anybody whom I felt was suitable. Eventually, Clare graciously agreed, so we're using her. Unfortunately, Justin had a funeral to attend, so we had to reschedule. I think the difficulty in casting and co-ordinating was overcome well.

We had to reschedule to next Thursday ultimately. However, in the meantime, on 18 Nov 2009, we recorded Justin's voice overs, which he did exceedingly well. I was afraid he would have difficulty, but he had a very naturally bored and slightly regretful sort of tone. I didn't direct him too much, but just let him do it naturally. At first, we tried the music room, but that wasn't sound proof. We went to the Rose Hall, but it had an echo. Ultimately, I decided with Justin that the echo was nice, since it sounded like it was in the head.

We have arranged to film on 25 Nov. I plan to do Clare's voice overs before hand. This should hopefully go smoothly, though Clare may have more difficulty than Justin. But that doesn't matter too much, we have time.

30 Oct 2009 - Reflection on different films

Killing Love:

The film had a good noir plot. The entagling love affairs make interesting storytelling. The acting is also, on the most part, superb. I enjoyed the use of black and white, and many of the camera angles were dramatic and well-done. I felt the timing of cuts was good, and that the ending, though a little disruptive, was well done.

I had a few problems. One, it was unclear who was who in the beginning. Cuts to the people's faces would have helped. Also, the music by Beethoven conjured up imagery of Napoleon that didn't fit with the film. Lastly, I felt that the ending was not as good, since Lucy is not a character we get to know at all, so the ending seems to be caused by a rather external interruption. Otherwise, it was good.

Descending Loyalty:

The music fit the mood, and the editing was good. Acting was, again, on the most part, superb. The plot line archs beautifully, and we feel the protagonist walking into a trap at the end. Lighting was good. Every camera angle was well-planned and well placed. The script was superb as well. Overall, I thought the main criticism could be that the femme fatale could have been better introduced. It seems as if she comes in from no-where.

Paranoia Hong Kong:

The good parts of the film: acting was superb. Camera angles were well-placed. The editing was precise: no shots felt too long or too short, the flow was excellent and established the connection betweeen the protagonist and the scene. The music was fitting. Scripting was simple, but effective. Nothing too fancy attempted, which was good.

However, there sometimes the music was too loud, and the scenes a bit dark. Also, the femme fatale is not really as cruel, since she is not that closely related to the protagonist. The fact that the femme fatale was the killer was also very obvious, since she is the only other character in the plot, and a surprise character would not have been introduced at the last minute. But from an editing and cinematographic point of view, it was a good accomplishment.

To love and to perish:

The film, I think, did include dramatic shots and lighting, and had a good actress for femme fatale. Unfortunately, the other acting wasn't as good, and the plot holes were rather obvious. More effort should have been placed in making more elements of the plot explicit rather than implicit. Also, more effort should have been placed on ensuring that the assassin was less comic. Editing I think was good though. Also, I think the whole script was written too fancily.

28 Oct 2009

Today was mostly my work, afterschool and lunchtime and the like, so I'll discuss what I accomplished and some difficulties.

Essentially, my accomplishments were almost entirely in the field of sound, lighting and touch-up on music. I decided, with feedback from Ms Wong, that she was right in saying the lighting was quite bad. Although some contrast was intended for effect, the difference between lighting in some shots was simply jolting. Therefore, I adjusted the sillehoutted shots by reducing contrast, and darkened the lighter shots, to try and produce more uniformity. The results were not perfect, and the shots are still slightly jarring, but not so much as before.

In terms of sound, I imported the sounds Jonathan Chan gave me. I also fixed each clip so that the sound level throughout the film was basically uniform. This was tedious, but not difficult.

I also added some music at the beginning for Lucas to try out.

27 Oct 2009

Today was the editing stage proper. I couldn't come for the Monday editing session, so I tried my best to contribute to the editing in whatever way I could. I basically acted as assistant editor, giving Lucas opinions and advice on certain shots. I commented on which shots to use. The film has mostly been cut together, and some work on lighting, contrast and other things has been accomplished. We have managed to cut together a coherent film, and have managed to get some ideas in terms of music.

There were several problems. As can be seen, the lighting is a huge problem: The light is too strong in some parts, and creates silhouettes. The sound is sometimes loud, sometimes soft. Also, there are some parts of the film that require complex putting together of sequences. However, editing is primarily Lucas' job, and I am merely aiding with touch-up later on.

Also, we captured some sounds today. We got a door slamming, which turned out to be quite useful. That went smoothly. However, our attempt to get water taps were fraught with difficulties, since exterior school noise was captured in the recording.

6 Oct 2009

A brief blog today. I managed to change my essay and include the examples that Ms Wong asked for multiple times in my essay, quoting articles that included examples of various noir plots.

Also, I briefly watched several neo-noir scenes to prove and illustrate my point that noir editing techniques continue to be employed in neo-noir films to this day. The two films chosen were Shock Corridor and Basic Instinct.

2 Oct 2009

Production was completed today. Jonathan Chan, Denise (our femme fatale) and Lucas arrived at my place to shoot. Lucas completed the script with his masterful prologue, and a good dialogue seen trying to paint betrayal by alluding to the Last Supper. References to the breaking of the bread, and the knocking over of a wine glass, were well done. The protagonist was dressed formally, but messily, showing his failed attempt to succeed. The feme fatale, initially presented as a good woman, is dressed in housewife clothes.

The assassin was dressed in stereotypical assassin dress. I mention the wardrobe as I think it contributed very significantly to the atmostphere of the film.

We were quite resourceful in the film, but managed to create the tension at the dinner scene, whilst including the bread and wine allusions. Jonathan, Lucas and I worked out various shots and angles. For many scenes which didn't seem to present obvious places for shooting, we chose to shoot the same scene from many different angles in order to give the editor as many choices as possible. The same was true for acting. If it was unclear how to say a given line, the actor was required to say it several times differently.

Use of close shots and of shots that emphasised the distance between the protagonists and his wife were utilised. Also, lots of point of view shots were used to try and make audiences reluctantly sympathise with a protagonist towards whom we are not naturally sympathetic.

29 Sep 2009

Today, a lot of progress was finally made. The entire film was storyboarded, and Lucas began a very interesting opening dialogue alluding to gold and women, the two follies of the protagonist that makes him a failure. The shots, including the dinner scene across a long table, are drawn from examples of cutting seen in class. Other scenes were drawn up from experience.

We co-operated well today, and seeing as the entire storyboard was complete, and the dialogue is being worked on, I hope that by Friday we can begin and finish production of this film.

18 September 2009

Today, we worked on the script, since Jonathan had failed to do so. Progress was moderate. I wrote up most of the script, but left out the dialogue, preferring to allow Lucas to do that as he was best at dialogue. However, he was sick. The deadline is beginning to draw near, and there is no sign that there is any planning occuring.

We wrote up the plans of last lesson to rewrite the script slightly to include more of a twist, and a more voluntary feme fatale that had characteristics of the good woman as well. Also, we toned down the man's crime to something more evil and dirty, rather than a good cause, so as to make the man more morally ambiguous. I think that the improvements are good, but in the spirit of the original. Also, the lengthy and unnecessary act 2 was cut. I feel this was correct: the film will be too long and we haven't time.

Film noir synopsis

A man, a former policeman, who divorced not of his own will, and who still loves his ex-wife, watches his ex-wife change jobs and work as a secretary under a very beautiful woman (Feme fatale), with whom he begins to fall in love. His ex-wife then dies, and he begins to investigate the cause of death. During this time, he begins to get involved with the feme fatale, but she is married to a jealous husband. Eventually the husband of the feme fatale dies and the protagonist discovers that it was the feme fatale that killed both his ex-wife and the husband in order so that they may get married.

21 August 2009

Today, I have reviewed in my mind the very basics of film, and hope to learn more about the editing process. I am positive about the futrue prospects for this year. However, since not much was learnt and more was reviewed, I haven't much to say today.

6 - 11 June 2009

We have made little or no progress on post production, which is a great worry. Firstly, on Saturday, we set down again to Times Square and Causeway Bay to get more interviews and to film footage of people on phones and using technology. The results were quite good, and although the footage varies in quality, there is enough of it that a satisfactory film can be made out of it. The process was far more efficient this time round, and we filmed about 26 minutes of footage. On Monday and again on Thursday, Clare and Stephie provided us with the voiceover. Though rather boring, it can be worked into the film.

The problem is mostly timing in post-production. Because I forgot the tape on Monday, and due to poor co-ordination where Francesca didn't log in to us, we have done little editing. More work will be done on Friday.

29 May 2009 - 4 June 2009

On Saturday, Clare, Francesca, Shun and I went down to Times Square and began the process of getting interviewees. We conducted about 6 interviews at most between Times Square and Central, and we got some pretty good answers. We did run into challanges that were hard to overcome however. Firstly, few were willing to be filmed. Most that were willing were expats, not Hong Kong Chinese. Secondly, it was hard to find people with time. Thirdly, the girls insisted on eating at McDonalds and afterwards shopping. We did manage to decide to take some footage of CIS interviews (though even by the end of the week, this was not actually achieved) and some of the interviews were good.

The editing process I was not really part of. I did help add subtitles to the Chinese interview with the elderly lady, but we mostly spent time uploading and editing, whilst I did some research about music and we planned a date for further filming. I found some supplementary footage that we don't seem to be near to using.

I'm afraid that the lag is getting rather severe. Doubt we will finish in time.

28 May 2009

We seem to have missed sufficient film lessons of importance, until the date on which we did our Michael Moore presentation. I have to say firstly that the commercials varied in greatness, with some having good timing in editing, excellent visual and auditory quality, and a storyline that can be followed in the given time (30 secs), whereas others were simply incoherent, low quality and poorly edited. I think my commercial was okay, but it had poorly placed credits and I could have put in different music in hindsight. Shun's was okay, except that the story just was too compressed in the space of 30 seconds. Less walking in and out of rooms could have perhaps given more time to the improtant elements of the commercial.

Michael Moore's films fascinated me quite, more for their entertainment and cinema quality rather than its documentary elements, because I couldn't help but think that he was simply a clever liar. Moore doesn't really tell the truth at all, he uses footage to support blatant lies. But the things I discovered in terms of editing technique, using soundbytes, raw audio and raw video to create realism, and how important it is to use good cinematography techniques. I think my presentation was coherent and understandable, and that I gave my insight into Michael Moore's style.

23 - 27 April 2009

Again, memory loss has hit me, and hence I cannot quite express events as two seperate days. However, over the course of this week, I managed to shrink my film down to size using the techniques mentioned previously.

Ms Wong gave me some ideas concerning the editing, and what could be cut. Definitely, it allowed me to see that many clips that I viewed as necessary simply due to sentimental attachment were really unncessary - if they weren't there, nobody would notice or care.

We also added Chinese subtitles, and we were fortunate to have Mr Gao assist us in this endeavour, though my subtitles were sufficiently simple that his services were not required. It was mostly the film-specific terminology, which I have only studied and learned in English, that was hard to translate.

21 - 23 April 2009

It's been quite a rush, and really for no purpose, but I am grateful all the same. Assuming the deadline was on 23 April, Shun and I hobbled together, after staying after school for long hours, a quite long version of the film. We have been told, however, that more time must be cut, since there isn't enough time, and 30 seconds was in fact a strict deadline.

Hence, it was a pity to rush for nothing, but on the other hand, we are now on time and not rushing anymore. The editing process was quite interesting. Again exemplified was the difficulty that Shun faced trying to cut together his film, in relation to my difficulty. In fact, the things that Shun was trying to tell in his story led his film to be over 50 seconds, whereas mine is only 42 seconds.

On Thursday, after we were given the go-ahead to cut the film down to 30 seconds else face various forms of cruel chastisement, we did some work on cutting, but we are not yet done. Some tactics we have used is speeding up clips to the maximum extent possible, and cutting out anything that, if cut, does not serve to derail the story's flow.

I think the biggest problem is actually making up one's mind and making the cut. However, it's good in a way to have a short film. Because we can only include so much material, the material we do include will probably be very good.

20 April 2009

I wrapped up the finishing touches to my film today. Noting that the film is only 30 seconds long, and that I have probably four times that much in story telling currently; and also that it was too inconvenient to film the police cars, I thought I would skip out the police chase and arrest scene. I did manage to film the photocopying scene, which was very close to how I envisioned it. The photocopying room had enough space and flexibility for me to craft a few angles and to pay some attention to cinematography.

However, today, we also managed to upload the footage that we shot. Immediately, a problem is clear, and that is that of the many minutes of footage, only 30 seconds may be utilised. I hope to be flexible, and I don't think it really matters that much if we are a few seconds off, or even quite a few. The deadline is drawing extremely near, and hence, we will have to stay back after school to finish this off.

13 April 2009

Today was the principle day of production. Shun came over to my place, and we basically shot the bulk of all the film. Shun went first, then me.

With Shun's film, the problem was that of angles and space. My room, my house, the corridor chosen for the case - they just weren't well lit enough, or spacious enoguh, to provide the flexibility needed for a good production set. And the setting just didn't look real. It looked more like the residence of a man being forclosed upon then an environment wherein intellectual property theft - or any theft, for that matter - would occur.

I want to shift focus to my film. My film ran more efficiently I think because it was an easier concept to grasp. It wasn't one continuous story, but was made of several elements. And hence, it was easier to break up and I didn't lose sight of the film. I filmed the various incidents of violation of intellectual property with plenty of different angles and with several takes to ensure that things would work out. Problems were met when I had to do the pirated DVDs purchasing scene.

The problem there was that we had no control over lighting as it was outdoors and both Shun and I were in the shot, leaving my sister to have to be cinematographer, and she not having been trained in such a profession, did not and could not deliver the best shots. However, we got some good insert shots and we got a good general shot.

Other problems, such as the jail scene, were solved - thank goodness - by the back staircase, the bottom of which had some rails that looked like jail bars. By crouching rather uncomfortably, and by ensuring the camera captured neither the stair handles nor the stairs, an illusion was well crafted.

The camera work was swift though, the problems were not unsurmmountable. Hence, things generally worked out.

19 March - 8 April 2009

I confess to having been rather slack on reflections recently and have hence forgotten the exact dates of happenings, and the exact order of such happenings, during the pre-production of our intellectual property video. However, I can reflect on the process nonetheless.

Firstly, it was inefficient. I took several days to write a script and to produce a storyline. The maddening thing was how to create a 30 second film without making it a police commercial. However, that's how I started off. I had no other ideas, so I crafted a film wherein sinister examples of copyright infringement would be followed by a police chase, and then a clip of the infringer in jail (with big blood dripping letters saying 'Do not infringe intellectual property rights', or something like that). The shot list, and other parts of the script, did not move well. However, I was quite pleased with the script that I managed to come up with.

I think that it is important also to note that I am also very pleased with Shun's script, and the originality displayed in that script. So I plan to work with him on that.

16 - 18 March 2009

I have decided to reflect upon the final few days of the editing process as it seems fitting.

Today, we shot the rest of our documentary narration today. We redid Thrusday's work. I think we achieved an appropriate speed and sufficient clarity, but it sounds and looks too much like we're reading. But we haven't really got time to change that. We received feedback from Ms Wong, who felt that instead of just giving a lecture on the various required areas of knowledge, we should accompany our narration with visual and practical examples. Therefore, we decided to use some of the footage we had to our advantage.

For the stuff about recording dialogue, we decided to include a voiceover showing Francesca talking then. Then, as I remember they do in the 'making of's that I have seen, they then switch off the voiceover and allow the viewer to see the scene. So that's what we did. It was quite effective. Similarly done was the part about the sound effects and their meaning. The hardest part was selecting the appropriate scene. I decided that the scene where we discussed the forest sounds was best.

For foley, we took Ms Wong's advice most practically. Shun decided that in order to ensure visual examples were given, he cut in clips of us creating foley, and plugged a voiceover over it. So, when the narrator says 'we jumped in puddles', there's a clip of jumping in puddles; when the narrator says 'we dropped something in water', there's a clip playing of us dropping a removable soap container - it was removable - into a bucket of water.

For the music, I asked Shun to lead us on camera to the freeplay website and to show which theme he chose and why and how. I got the idea from another group, but thought that it would work well in our docuementary. The music we chose plays over parts of the documentary.

I learnt that when shooting a documentary, a lot more consideration has to be put into footage editing. We shot a lot of footage, but we wasted a whole week since we refused to go throguh the footage and edit out unncessary footage until it was near the deadline.

Also, the documentary needed to be more planned out. As it worked out, we shot the documentary as we decided how to edit it; but in future, it would be far better if the process were a little more orderly and more predictable. We should have had a better idea of what we were making before we made it. On the other hand, the final product wasn't bad.

12 March 2009

The mad rush of last minute work began today. Shun and I continue to edit the documentary, as we have been instructed to by the girls. Shun and I looked closely through the rubric and found that there was lacking in our footage any sign that we knew anything about music, foley, sound design, dialogue, silence, etc. The only part we had was the dramatic meaning of sound effects. Therefore, Shun and I borrowed some equipment and headed up to the ninth floor to shoot a short clip talking about music.

This was in response to feedback Ms Wong gave us. She decided that we needed to check the rubric more carefully to ensure that we knew exactly what the documentary was that we were trying to put together. Therefore, we are spending valuable editing time trying to conjure up footage that will put our documentary together.

I have to say that our filming was quite successful today, however. We overcame major challanges. I couldn't quite spontaneously improvise lines convincingly, so we wrote up a script which was held just under the camera lens so I could read the script but look like I am staring at the camera. The footage was good, but I spoke a little quickly, so we may redo it.

We need editing time. The plan is to shoot as much as possible on Monday, and edit after school and during lunchtimes at top speed and try to get the film in before the Thursday deadline.

9 March 2009

Today, editing was the main thing on the radar screen. We have finished capturing almost all the sounds, and the remaining sound or two will be taken care of by the girls. We began the editing process for the documentary, which Shun and I are in charge of. The two of us began sorting through footage.

The basic criteria for the footage were: a) did it provide the material necessary to satisfy the criterion A requirements; or b) did it provide a good background over which to create a voiceover. Most of the footage we have is mostly of our discussion phase. A lot of it is extremely off topic and hence useless. We cut that out. I suggested that we keep only clips absolutely specific to the topic, which suggestion was taken up readily.

I think that we weren't working our best today. However, the deadline is coming up soon, and therefore, if we don't quicken our pace, we will fall dreadfully behind. Unfotunately, the documentary is badly lacking footage for any of the music, silence or foley requirements in criterion A.

2 - 8 March 2009

This week, we were quite productive. We managed to complete recording the rest of the dialogue, although we did it in a washroom, which was rather embarrassing. The recording we managed to produce had relatively high quality, although sometimes, there have been rather weird background noises. I think we managed to do very well for this, since we completed the recording of almost all our dialogue.

In addition, rain and other noises were achieved through foley. We managed to record the sound of a man falling into swampy ground by dropping the soap container into a water bucket. We also achieved some other sounds, such as flopping cloth, thoguh I can't remember what that sounds was for, since I am not editing the comic.

26 Feb 2009

Today was a short single lesson, and I forgot the tapes for my lessons. Therefore, we spent all our time trying to put together more of the documentary. I think we were slow and inefficient, and next lesson, I plan to have more of a plan for the next lesson.

23 February 2008

We started with our recording today. It was rather spontaneous, since there was absolutely no plan whatsoever. We had 'auditions' for who was best for the role, and I was most unfortunately picked to voice the charioteer. I decided that to give the most choice to my group, I voiced it in different ways, as Ms Wong suggested. We tried normal accents, deep accents, strong American accents, even Star Wars Darth Vader talk.

Francesca was picked to voice the princess. I think she did well, but she was kind of too timid at first, a little afraid to show and voice emotion. However, I'm sure she'll get over it soon: she will have to.

I think we worked very efficiently today, since we managed to get a lot recorded. I did quite well with the voicing, and I think I gave it enough thought to make the lines work.

16 and 19 February 2009

We began 2 things these two days. Firstly, we began the editing of our documentary, what we had of it. Only Shun and I did this, and we were quite inefficient, since we spent more time viewing the footage than we should have. We nevertheless managed to remove some bad quality sections of our footage.

We also found some music on freeplay for our clip. We decided to use some very spooky music, the sort you get in the dark climaxes of horror films. It's quite effective, and I think it will work.

13 Feb 2009 - Reflection

A short single lesson today, but I can cover three points. Today, Thursday, we were given our first assignment, which was twofold: first, to create a soundtrack for a cartoon which we had been given; second, to create a documentary of how we made the soundtrack. So far, I've been appointed the cameraman for the Making of the Movie, which leaves me rather undesirably out of conversations about the cartoon soundtrack. Therefore, Shun and I have decided to alternate shooting the documentary.

On Friday, at lunch time, we agreed on the kinds of sound we needed, and discussed ways to record them realistically. I threw in the useful comment here and there from the sidelines. So, I think we're moving forward well. I was meant to type up our sounds on the a document, but the girls never sent me the stuff. I guess I'll have to chase them on Monday.

Lastly, I noticed an interesting thing with a film I was watching with my dad, the title of which I never found out. But every time a film switches from one scene to another, especially if the transition involves moving from a close-up or medium shot to a long shot or extreme long shot, the main theme of the music of the movie, or another important theme, is played. It seems that the music produces a tendency to drive the film forwards.

9 Feb 2009 - Reflection

Today, we learnt about the basics of sound design. It was quite interesting. Broadly speaking, we learnt about the 2 categories of sound design: diagetic and non-diagetic sound, and about the three types of sound in film: dialoge, sound effects and music. I guess that sound design only became a serious art in film until after the silent era, but that wasn't discussed in class, so I don't really know.

We also learnt about how music was chosen to highlight important moments in the film, and to enhance mood. Most improtantly, we learnt how to create sound effects, including how to use foley. One can either record sounds (Car tyres as car tyres, etc.), or, if the sound doesn't exist or is hard to record, such as a building on fire - nobody would light a building on fire, then record the sound - one can use foley. Foley is where one records one sound that sounds like another. Such as hands making mushy sounds in mud may sound like mudddy footsteps.

We had a shot at recording sounds, such as water, joy, time, etc. For some sounds, we tried to create the actual sounds. For others, especially for the more abstract concepts, we tried to record what we remember as the 'common film interpretation' of that sound. So, for example, with time, we went into a quiet room, and tapped a wooden board at a regular rate or about 1 tap per second, to mimic the sound of a clock.

Some were not so good. 'Joy' was people laughing, but I don't think that worked too well. And we wasted a lot of time trying to record water, because of random fits of laughter that ruined the recordings.

5 Feb 2009

Today, we edited the clips we shot on Monday. The editing process was a chance for me to familiarise myself with Mac computers, Final Cut Pro and the editing process. In CT for the past semester, I have been used to using Adobe to edit some films. Final Cut Pro is slightly different, but it seems to be more professional. The effects tools, etc. seem to be more upgraded than the Adobe stuff.

We edited the clips at first at quite relaxing pace, but by the end of the lesson, were slightly rushed to submit the video on time. We chose the clips we wanted, deleted the unwanted ones, cut the video together, then added some effects. The one big thing that I learnt was that to add an effect in Final Cut Pro, one has to render than edit in a different window.

Well, I think I have remembered how to edit today.

2 Feb 2009 - Reflection

Today, we did, primarily, a re-cap on cinematography. The recap was useful, as, for me, it did remind me of the various techniques we learnt about last year, and their various applications to film in order to alter the look and mood of a film or of a clip. We were asked to form a group of four and do various scenes.

The first scene we were asked to do was a scene making a difference between a sharp-defined shot and a documentary-like shot. To do this, we decided that for the sharp-defined shot, we would shoot with a tripod, whereas for the documentary shot, we would shake the camera as if we had been standing wearning shorts and t-shirt in a refigerator for an hour. It is noticeable how the steadiness of the camera has a tremendous effect on the feel of the shot.

Other important shots included our conversation shots, when we were asked to shoot according to lighting. I remembered a useful technique to change the lighting. When one wants lihgted characters but dark background, you do just that: light the characters, and place them in front of a dark background. To do the opposite, however, one can just silleouhette the characters in front of a bright background. We did this on a CIS staircase by shooting from different angles.

I think that today we experimentated and tried to apply skills learnt from over a year ago to some short clips, and I think it has helped me remember my cinematography.