work reflection.
//this is a reflective Journal as an entry, about my experience of shooting and watching. //
//explore my projects to learn more about what I do. //
Movie Of Me | 10 / 9 / 2024
This video is my first shooting in APA. It’s give me a brand new feeling which I have to work with new classmates because I’m studied in HKDI before and I already have a fixed crew mates for shooting. So for me, it is a bit hard to rerun to my classmates.
In this work, my positions are Director and the Director of Photography. The one thing I did activity that I think had the most impact on the final piece is I create the story of “Movie of Me”. In the beginning of all, when Kelly, Kent and me are discussing how to shoot this video. We all think this video have to let people know what “ME” would like to be. So we decide to think what we want the audience know from ourselves and combine it to a story at last.
After the discussion, Kent said that he want to be a script writer but he don’t know how to typing Cantonese and he want to let audience know even he don’t know how to type Chinese he still can be a scriptwriter. Kelly want the audience know she is finding a position which is suitable for her and I want to let the audience know I am a DP before and I want to be a Director. The plot is talking about I am the DP and Kelly is the Director and we are taking a film which talking about Kent want to be a screenwriter and Im not satisfied with Kelly’s order then we argue that to change our position to a right candidates.
I think I create the story of “Movie of Me” is the most impact thing because each of us have different opinions, if I don’t try to combine all of the idea to shoot this video. This video will look like so scattered and no content.
In this video, I think it is easy let audience understood what the story talking about because we put some funny elements inside the video. For example, I got an idea to reference a Japanese film it’s called “屍殺片場” (2017). This is a funny movie about a crew that is making a zombie movie and a lot of errors things happened among them. I planned to reference a scene which is the director ask the DP to do a zoom in out repeatedly. By adding this elements can attach audience find it novel and interesting. Also, we also reference a youtube channel video called “電影劇組 爆笑雷包”. Its talking about a cinematographer on a film crew forgot to bring his SD card, then he tried to hide it for fear of being scolded. We want to use this elements because we like to make our classmates resonate in interesting ways.
The one thing I want to improve is my story telling. I mostly to get idea in referencing some of my favourite films. I think it is not good for be to develop myself to be a director because I’m lack of own thoughts. I think I can read more books about how to develop own thoughts to strengthen this weakness.
annoying of the city. | 24 / 9 / 2024
This assignment is about to using reference clips and audio to express a mood. In my group, we plan to use annoying to be the mood. In the beginning of this concept is from the things that make me feel annoyed in daily life. Once I step out my home everyday, I encounter other things that annoyed me. For example I live in 44/F and I have to wait the lift going up for a long time, when i start stepping on the street I got annoyed from the people talking loud and the noise of the city. And also got annoyed from the public transport because of the bad temper go the drivers and the passengers are grabbing seats etc…
To execute these ideas to be a video, I decided to make the visual feel very crowded to create a feeling that many people make me oppressive. I defined an oppressive feeling make me feel annoying from this city. Also, the visual will look like my POV( point of view) to let audience watch that what my world look like from my daily life. The colour tone will be grey and dark with low contrast. In the audio, we will use multiple sound clips to progressive cascading creates a feeling of annoyance.
About the difficulties, at the beginning I decide to shoot the clips my myself because it is more easily to control what I want in the clips. But after the first tutorial, our lecturer said that although it is too personal and have a needs to shoot my myself, the assignment is required to get some research clips on it. So at last we decided to find half reference clips and half shooting by myself. In these two way we have a difficulties of its hard to find a clips that same as I imagined. For the reference clips, because I persist to use POV clips, it’s very hard to find a similar clips or find a specific action that I want. For the clips that I shoot, the difficulty is I can’t control people to do what I want. For example I want to shoot the passengers are grabbing seats in MTR, but it’s hard to meet often, so I have to change my idea. Because of these problem, I think the final of the video is a little feeling that has not been expressed enough.
隱藏的愛 | 21 / 10 / 2024
In this assignment, we were required to adapt content from a pre-established script while designing shots, scenes, and art direction. My roles included director, screenwriter, and gaffer, marking my first experience as a director.
During the initial planning phase, I discussed the direction of the script with the screenwriters. They suggested interpreting the story through a pure romance lens. However, I felt this approach would be challenging, as the two actors were unfamiliar with each other, making it difficult to create a believable romantic atmosphere. After our first discussion, I asked the screenwriters to draft their interpretations of a pure love story. Upon reviewing the first draft, I noticed that the dialogue felt overly contrived. For instance, they wrote lines like, "Let's love passionately," which I believed would come off as awkward to the audience. I felt that the dialogue needed to be convincing enough for the actors to portray their roles authentically; overly forced lines could lead to unnatural performances.
Ultimately, I suggested setting the scene in a school, where the story follows the male and female leads in a study room after school hours. The female lead develops feelings for the male lead and attempts to confess, while he struggles to confront his emotions and avoids her. The story concludes ambiguously, reflecting their unclear relationship. Regarding lighting, due to limited borrowed equipment, I planned to use a 3-point lighting setup to ensure both the faces and the environment were adequately illuminated. Additionally, since our script was set during dusk and our room lacked windows, I used a 300x light along with black and white flags to simulate the effect of dusk lighting.
Reflecting on the completion of this project, I believe I managed the visuals and execution well. However, I recognize that my directing skills need improvement. Having previous experience as a cinematographer, I often approached issues from a camera perspective, sometimes at the expense of engaging with the actors. During the filming process, I found myself wanting to adjust the actors' performances but struggled to articulate my thoughts, perhaps due to my lack of experience in acting. This is an area I acknowledge needs further development.
日沒前 | 11 / 12 / 2024
In this assignment, its required to create a chasing scene. My roles included director, screenwriter, gaffer and editor.
pre production progress
Before starting the preliminary work, I participated in classroom pitching sessions. When brainstorming ideas for the assignment, which was centered around the theme of "chasing," I immediately thought of intense scenes involving pursuit and running. These themes felt quite different from my usual style, so while developing the script, I imagined it as a cinematic scene.
The story revolves around two people who plan to watch the sunrise together. The one leaving believes that arriving at a new place will make the world a better place. The moment the "chasing" begins is when the person who is leaving quietly escapes, held back by the person who remains, leading to a pursuit when the latter realizes what is happening.
After completing the script, I discussed the visuals with the Director of Photography (DP). I took charge of designing the shot list, but I wanted the cinematographer to bring their own insights to the visuals, so I entrusted the storyboard to them.
on shoot progress
On the day of the shoot, as the story relied heavily on the actors’ dialogue and performances, their delivery could significantly impact the overall rhythm of the short film. Therefore, I spent considerable time working with the actors. I initially allowed them to interpret their characters without any preconceived notions, after which I asked if there were any words or phrases that felt awkward for them, making immediate adjustments as needed.
post production progress
In the post-production phase, I was less familiar with sound design, so I delegated that aspect to another classmate. My primary focus was on editing and color grading. Color grading was a new experience for me; I had envisioned a darker tone for the visuals, and I successfully achieved that. I also attempted to selectively enhance more vibrant colors frame by frame, such as the actors’ clothing and the glass bottles. This approach helped to create a more balanced color palette without allowing the brighter hues to dominate the screen.
reflection
After this project, I learnt how to maintain a crew and how to shoot efficiently. After I watch my finished product, I hope to improve my screenwriting skills. I think the process of the conversation on the rooftop to the sequence that leads to the chase between the two is a bit strange or too fake. The chase part is a bit more like a MV. Because the scene where the girl leaves and the man notices her departure and chases her by the vending machine is a bit too hasty, the audience may not understand the reason for the chase. If it were not limited by the subject matter, I might write about what happened after the girl left the rooftop. This would make the story more complete and let the audience know the reason why the girl left. Furthermore, in terms of photography, I hope to improve the chasing part because Due to equipment limitations, we used a slow shutter speed to shoot the running shots. The reason is that a slow shutter speed prevents you from seeing shaky images, which I think makes it look better. But the opinion I heard after screening is that using a slow shutter has its own meaning, maybe to highlight time, but I neglected to think about the meaning of its use.