April 08, 2009

We finished all our filming today. Aside from being relieved we all felt an immense sense of accomplishment. We filmed two scenes today which were the cafeteria scene and the auditorium scene. Both were quite time consuming and were challenging, posing new problems with different locations; however we still managed to complete the task well.

The cafeteria scene was quite a short scene with two portals however, we took a while to finish filming. The purpose of this scene is to convey to the audience that Justin is eating (time passes), he then gets up then feels the urge to go to the bathroom. A unique filming method that I though we could use to convey the passing of time and that the is eating, is to simply place the camera in a central location directly in front of Justin. I will then have him eat slowly and every now and then I would place extra plates of food or cups in front of him. I would do this a few times until he gets up, leaving a pile of empty cups and plates. The effect that I tried to achieve is the "fade in and out" effect. This works by cutting out the areas that I am in the shot placing the cups and plates and fading the shots. After doing so, it will appear that Justin has eaten a lot which is accounted for in the fading techniques which depicts the passing of time. This can be seen in http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sa-5rRFBQJ4 between 3:12 and 3:26. I think that this method was very effective because I was able to successfully convey the passing of time as well as the fact that he has eaten a lot during this period. If I had done this differently by having actual time passing, this would be effective in the sense that the audience will see him eating but will be boring and unnecessary.

The second scene that we did was the auditorium scene. This was a tricky scene to shoot mainly because there were so many portals in a central location. The unique difficulty of doing portal in a single location is that the last second in the first shot has to match the first second in the second shot. Everything has to be the same. If there is something different, the audience will be able to tell that a portal has just occurred and will make the portal less realistic. Because portals don't really exist, as film makers we have to deceive the audience into thinking that they are. After all, seeing is believing. The way we countered this problem is to take special care in positioning the camera. As the camera person, this was my job. I positioned the camera perfectly making sure that it directly parallel with the stage and that the shot captured the entire stage. I then left the camera rolling while we directed the actors. Especially because this was all shot in one location, we had to have a variety of entrances and exits. With out much planning, this was done on the spot, however, we were very content with the outcome. The actors Justin and Henry performed very well!

Having finished filming we spent the rest of the time importing our footage on to the computer. We had nearly 45 minutes of raw footage. This was a good time to reflect on what we had done. We were all very happy at finally finishing filming. Looking back at what we filmed today, I was very satisfied with how well our auditorium scene turn out. Quite honestly, the auditorium was an ideal spot for filming portals. This is because it was indoor and the lighting was entirely constant throughout the shots. By doing portals in the auditorium, we could fully manipulate our set rather than us adapting for our location.

Today really exercised my ability to apply my "knowledge" of portals and filming to unfamiliar situations. This is most clearly expressed in my capacity to use my "fade in and out" effective, which I knew in theory but haven't attempted before. Today all so tested my ability to be a "risk taker " and to be "open minded" to the suggestions of others. Through team work and taking responsibility for our parts, we have finished filming and are now ready to start the post production process.

April 06, 2009

Today we completed most of our filming and are hoping to finish the rest before our next class. This entire period was dedicated to filming, but with a single period we only managed to film two scenes: the student/teacher chase sequence and the DT room dialogue scene. I am please that we finished both in good time and am content with the quality of our work. Despite this, each task came with its set of problems. Through the of our filming process, the most important tool was the storyboard which we constantly kept referring to and proved to be most helpful in maintaining the continiuety between shots.

When filming the chase I used a variety of camera angles and types of shots, however, I used them specifically and in what I thought were the right places. I used close ups either when it was necessary to point something out in detail or else to hide something that was close to the subject. A good example of this would be when Justin is standing seemingly alone in the corridor with an expression on shock. This may seem odd to the audience however, on zooming out it reveals the teacher standing just in front of him. This technique is very effective in creating suspense and is an alternative to cuts. Like a cut, this method reveals something completely new to the audience, however this method also shows the direct relationship between the previous shot. Another type of shot that was unique to this scene is the hand held technique. I liked this technique very much because it was simply so compatible with the subjects in that particular shot. During a scene in which Justin is being chased by the teacher, I had them run towards the camera which I will be holding and moving backwards keeping my distance from Justin. Originally, in my storyboard I had intended to use a dolley for this shot, however, due to the bumpy tiled ground, Ms. Wong advised against it. She also further explained that in movies, whenever a dolly was used, it would be on a track as well to negate the uneven surface of the ground and thus make the shots smooth. However, as it turned out, hand holding the camera was more effective that if we had used a dolley because the jumpy unsteady characteristics of a hand help camera helped add to the effect of disorientation and urgency. This helped establish the atmosphere more throughly and demonstrated that the more sophisticated methods to approach certain things (using a dolley) may not always be the best way.
The DT scene was very different from the chase scene in the sense that it was mainly just dialogue with little actions. With low action scenes, the camera angle is vital in maintaining the audience's full attention. A variety of shots have to be used as well in order to keep the film interesting and to aid the dialogue. In this particular scene I paid close attention to the 180 degree rule as well as the rule of thirds. Both these rules came in play during this scene and I had to constantly keep moving the camera around (to the annoyance of the actors as we had to redo many shots before I was satisfied). Another problem that we encountered was the unevenness of the tripod. Despite the fact that the legs were either fully extended or retracted, the tripod was never exactly straight. This meant that I had to constantly check the "bubble" to make sure that it was in the center before filming. Occasionally we had to slip pieces of paper underneath the tripod to even the legs out, however these tedious step were necessary to produce a perfectly horizontal shot. One possible improvement that we could have made in this scene is to improve the lighting of some of our shots. Because the angle that we filmed at was indirectly aimed at the window, there was a lot of back light which made our subjects very dim in contrast. Two ways we could have improved the lighting is to either have an artificial light source which is not on location and the other is simply to use bounce cards.

Today was a very productive lesson in which I learned a lot through the different situations that I encountered as camera person. Although I had learned the skills used today in class, the applications skills where through experience and I had to adapt to different situations. Today's lesson exercised my ability to be "knowledgeable" in what I have learned through my experiences and in class and discover how to apply these techniques into our film. I learned to "think" of ways to improve my film and to do things differently (as demonstrated with the hand held camera technique) and lastly being a "risk taker" and "reflecting" on the ways I faced and solved my problems. Through solving problems I think that i have gained a lot person growth as an aspiring film student and IB Learner.

March 23, 2009

Today Joyce had finished our script and through reading through it, as camera person, I was able to formulate the possible shots and angles we could use. More importantly, it was very exciting to see our film coming together.

Our story was very intricate, documenting a boy's escape from his teacher with a magical device which allows him to travel through "portals". However, during the chase, he drops it and it start malfunctioning and transports him random places. Obviously, through this event we could induce a lot of humor which is the theme of our film.

In this single period we started planning our filming days and locations; making sure that we chose days that fit everyone schedule and that would allow us a sufficient amount of days to complete filming. However, as camera person, I started working on the storyboard. Again, the main goal as camera person is to use angle and shots that made the portals as convincing as possible. I also have to pay close attention to continuity between portals. I can do this by doing it indoors where we can manipulate the lighting and ultimately keep it constant. I also have to ensure that the last image in a "portal shot" is exactly the same as the starting image of the next "portal shot". This will ensure the cohesion between the two shots are seamless and undetectable, thus making our portals more effective.

In this period, I had finished doing the storyboard for the first few scenes and will finish most it by next period. This period was very productive in terms of the progression of our film, our script is finished and now with the completion of the storyboard and shot list we will be able to commence filming. As camera person, I have a very good insight into the type of shots that we are going to use is just a matter of putting it down on to paper. I was good "inquirer" today by asking my group members about what they thought about this particular shot/angle and was "open-minded" to their suggestions and comments. I also exercised my "knowledge" of filming, sifting through the types of shots that I could use but only using the ones that were appropriate for our cause and allowed the continiuety of our film to flow as smoothly as possible. Because "portals" don't exist, it is important that my shots make the portals look as real as possible. This is done through particular camera angles and manipulation of lighting. As the camera person in my group and in this unit, this is my main goal.

March 18, 2009

We continued working on our Portal Chase Scene project today. Still in the pre-production stages of our film, this lesson was dedicated to working and finalizing our storyboard, locations and types of portals that we would use and the music for our short film.

Having decided that we use a student-teacher chase scene as our subject, we used today's lesson to build on this idea. Two main things that we added to our story was 1) The incorporation of a device, which allows the main character to travel around. 2) During the course of the story, the device malfunctions and transports the main character to random places where he didn't intend on going; consequently, this will land him in main awkward and embarrassing positions and will cause more people to chase him. The result will be pandemonium in which the main character who initially started off with just the teacher chasing him, will be chased by a whole crowd of people.

To help us with our project we searched "portals chase scenes" on youtube and found numerous sights. One helpful one we found was at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjZhkAwQVXQ.
This was particularly helpful because it was done by IB students in Canada and showed how other students of our age can produce a portal chase scene. One instance in which they demonstrated a very interesting portal technique was during 0:33 - 0:47. There was a set of staircases and a corridor and basically the boy and the pursuer were running into an opening and coming out of another. This was exactly what we had intended on doing in our own film and it was beneficial to see how other people had executed it. This concept was also demonstrated in http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OylyabAhTQ&feature=channel_page at 4:28-4:5. One thing I learned about doing portals in one central location was that it is always possible to notice when a cut is made because of lighting or else a change of position of an object. The main problem about doing portals in one location is that it will change. However, through watching these videos, as the cameraman I learned a few tips which will help our portals seem more convincing. Firstly, is to try to have a "corridor portal" (or a portal which is shot at a central location) indoors. This will ensure the that lighting is kept constant. It is also advised that it be shot indoors because in the "Tag" video, there were swaying trees in the background which changed position every time there was cut. This flawed the continuity and made the portals less convincing. Secondly, the camera should be placed in a location in which all the openings (doors, any opening in which the portal will take place) can be seen clearly. This will be useful in enhancing the realistic value of the portals.

Here are some situations in which the main character will land in by accident:
1. A family settling down for a calm and formal dinner. Gets chased by the dad.
2. Two couples in a kissing scene. Gets chased by both the boy and the girl.
3. The girls bathroom. Gets chased by the girl who is applying make up in there.
4. The beach, where he knocks over a child's sand castle. Get chased by a kid.

I'm aware that most of these locations are out of the way and will take a while to film, however, I'm sure that when we enter in further into the planning process, we would be able to make some compromises. With such a vast array of locations and situations that the character "lands into" it would also mean that we would have to incorporate numerous characters and actors. This may also prove to be problematic in the filming process as we would have to have many sets and actors and manage to get all the footage within a designated time.

Today was a very productive lesson in which we got most of the storyboard and the music sorted. Although both are not finished, we have a good insight into what we want to produce. Personally, as camera person through watching those videos, I learned a lot about how portals can be made more realistic through certain locations and camera angles. This lesson exercised my ability to "think" about the ways to make the portals as real as possible and they ways to make the cuts between the scenes less noticeable. Through today's lesson I know that these two main things are 1) location and 2) lighting. I also extended my "knowledge" through my extended research and was able to "reflect" on the techniques that they used to produced their portals and they ways we could imitate and possibly do even better.

March 16, 2009

Having finished our film noir unit, we proceeded to our second unit: Portal Chase Scenes.

I had a general idea of what this unit would explore; I had watched last year's portal chase scene as well as "Jumper" (2008) which explored this concept of filming. A portal by definition means: A person or an object which enters through an opening (usually a doorway) in one location and exits in an another. However, although I know the theory and characteristics of "portals" I still have yet to know the camera and editing techniques to make the portals flow smoothly and seem realistic. Because portals don't exist, the effectiveness of a portal relies heavily on the execution of filming/camera techniques and the editing process.

Ms. Wong split us into groups, and we started work. I was very disappointed to have to work with new group members as we had experience working with our old group members. Now we would have to start from scratch. I hope that we would be able to choose our groups in our next project. In addition to new group members, we also assumed different roles. In the film noir project, I was the editor, now I am the camera person. My other group members are Henry, Joyce and Justin. With only a single period to work, we first devised a storyline for our film as well as some possible locations and type of portals we could use. Through discussions we decided on a student-teacher chase scene. This satisfies the requirements of a chase scene as well as add a sense of humor. Personally, i think that this is a very effective theme for our story because the audience will be able to relate to it easily. Having adapted to a more humorous approach to our project, Henry, who is our sound director, decided to
compose his own music which replicates that of Charlie Chaplin. This will greatly enhance the humorous aspects of our film. Adapting the theme of the "olden day silent comedies" we also plan on using "teletext" in which all verbal audio is negated and substituted with text.

In terms of locations and portals we had a list of the possible ones that we could do:
1. Through a classroom door and out of a bathroom cubicle. This will be quite easy to do as there will probably be little people in each locations. However the sudden change in lighting may pose a continuity problem.
2. Through a closet and out of a rubbish bin. This can also be easily done however will be difficult because we intend on using a rubbish bin which is in a public location and might startle the pedestrians.
3. Corridors: Probably most well known from Scooby Doo and the Matrix, portals could be done within one location. This is executed by having a long corridor with doors on each side. A person would enter in through one door and exit out a another. This would be very effective and humorous for our cause especially if we had multiple people running around at the same time. However, this would prove to be very challenging because all these portals would be taking place in ONE location. Because of this, the lighting for each shot must be the same or a continuity problem will arise. Through my experience with editing in my previous project, I learned that keeping the lighting constant in one central location can be quite simple. This is done through editing the first scene and copying the attributes to the others, thus producing a constant lighting.

I think that cohesion and relationship between the modern and contemporary setting and dialog of our film and the olden day technique of using silent movie soundtrack and "teletext" is a very unique way to approach our portal chase scene project and will no doubt produce a very interesting outcome.

As a camera person, this project will challenge my ability to adapt to different environments and situations. Especially with this project, being the using the appropriate camera techniques and angles is crucial in making the portals look convincing. This will exercise my "knowledge" as a film maker and a student in portals. To be able to "inquire" and "think" of ways to use my environment to my advantage in making the portals realistic. Working in a new group, it will also test my "communications" skills to be able to work effectively with my new group and to convey my ideas and actively contribute and discuss with my peers. Lastly to be a "risk taker", especially in learning something new, I think that as a IB learner it is important to take risks as it will not only have a chance of producing something really good but also will have a rich beneficial value. I am very excited about this new project and am sure that this will be a rewarding experience.

March 11, 2009

Viewing Day!

Despite that we were screening the films today, we still had the audio to edit. The main problems with the audio was that either 1) it had too much background noise 2) was too soft or 3) complete absent. The only solution to these problems were to simple re-record them and integrate them into our footage. The challenge with doing this was the syncing; because the sound was recorded separately, we would have to make it so that the audio completely fit the footage.

Some sound effects that we had to do were footsteps, gentle indistinct talking, clothes rustling and clinking of glasses. These we done by our sound director who had recreated these sounds. Aside from effects, we also had to re-record some verbal audio which were unsatisfactory in our footage. In addition we also added a voice over, documenting and portraying the thoughts that were going through Jackson's head. Other than helping the story of our film progress, the voice over is also a classic film noir technique. Lastly, we also added some non-digetic sounds such as swallowing and heartbeats to create a sense of tension and nervousness.

Re-creating and re-recording the audio was not particularly challenging however, on my part as editor, it was very challenging to edit the sounds into the footage. During this process I kept two things in mind: 1) to integrate it cleanly (e.g. make sure there is minimal background noise) 2)sync it so that it looks as if the sound was authentic. This was not too difficult with the sound effects, however was much harder with the verbal audio. This is because, like an animation or cartoon, the voice actors have to do the voice of the character to accordance to the movement of the cartoon character's mouth; to give it the realistic effect. This was difficult for me to sync properly because the way we re-said our lines were different from when we initially did it on the shooting day. However, through very minor and micro scale editing and adjusting the speed of the audio, I managed to make the audio match the visuals. During this process, something I found useful was the co-operation and participation of my fellow group members. This demonstrates the importance of being "open minded" to their criticisms and suggestions and to be a "risk taker".

Apart from that, our sound editor also found some music to use in our film. Music plays a very important role in any film. The most vital thing to keep in mind when choosing a piece of music is that it is appropriate. Although this probably goes without saying but, we were very specific and choosy with our music. The attributes that we were looking for in our music were: eeriness, possibly even a bit scary with sharp notes. In terms of instruments, I was planning on something with a synthesizer. When the sound director showed us what he found, we vetoed two of his choices and settled on the last one which satisfied all these requirements.

Finally, after added a title "Natalia" and a credits page we were finally done and ready for screening!

Comments on other groups:
A Broken Beautiful (Andy, Henry, Bernice and Medora)
- Interesting use of the lagged delayed effect
- Good use of hand held camera technique, was able to produce and express the sensation of disorder and drunkenness very effectively
- Voice overs were well used and conveyed the thoughts of the characters in contrast with their actions. The dialog also fit the story.
- Dim, low key lighting was done very well and expressed the depressing film noir atmosphere
- Flashbacks were a bit obscure, this could have been improved through making the contrast between the present time and the flashbacks more noticeable. This would negate any confusion between the present and the past.
- All in all good cinematography

Pulse (Adrian, Catherine, Ella and Sarah)
- Black and white, interesting and effective monochrome technique
- Good narration, however, more emotion could have been conveyed.
- The "match on action cuts" were very effective and clean.
- Effective use of lighting and contrast between light and shadows.

Stratedegem (Camille, Jing Ting, Joyce and Justin)
- Awkward audio, a bit muffled and intentions were obscure.
- The audio and lip synchronization was slightly delayed.
- Good music choice
- Although moral ambiguity was expressed well with the betrayal of Camille's character, I wasn't sure whether it harbored the characteristics of a noir film.

Plunge (Julien, Jeffery, Hannah, Raphael and Chris)
- Starting off with a quote was very effective in setting the atmosphere as well as the still images that were shown. These abstract images were good in projecting the depressing and isolated sensation of a noir film.
- Dialog and storyline was very intricate and fit that of those of film noir.
- Lighting was simple yet effective.
- Music choice was well chosen
- Good continuity and was able to account for the complicated storyline

The most challenging thing in this lesson was the syncing of the sound clips, especially the verbal audio. However, I managed to overcome this through minor scale editing and gained a lot from this experience. Through the process of editing my film, i experience the many field of editing: the visual, the lighting, the audio, transitions and title + credits editing. This was a very rewarding journey for me and I was able to benefit greatly from it. In terms of the IB Learner Profile, I exercised my capacity to be "open minded" to others because, especially with editing, it is important to get a second opinion. I also learned to be "knowledgeable" in my skills and in my learning. To apply what everything I learned about film noir to my own project. Lastly, I also learned to be a "risk taker", to try new things and new approaches to problems. As a beginner editor, it is inevitable that I encounter problems, "I might as well make the best of them and try new things that I'm not familiar with." Through editing with this in mind, I was able to excel and produce everything to the best of my ability, I also discovered that the best way to learn is from my mistakes. From "reflecting" on all the problems I encountered and how I overcame them, I am able to experience personal growth as a film maker!

March 09, 2009

Having finished cutting and continuity editing, today's single lesson was dedicated to lighting. It is unavoidable that the lighting between shots will vary unless we use bounce cards or other lighting equipment. However, because we filmed in only two locations there was minimum variation in lighting, which was good news for me because natural lighting is much better than edited brightness.

The main tool I used to help me in editing the lighting was the "colour correction" function, the "RGB balance" and the "White, Mids and blacks balance". Although I had a general idea of what each function did, I had never used them before and it was a really challenge getting the hang of it. However despite this, to my surprise I managed to utilize it quite well and make the lighting constant throughout our film. One thing that i kept in mind before I edited the lighting, I looked through the clips that we had and decided on the shot with the best lighting as the basis and my goal, to make all the other shots with the same lighting as that one.

The first few times that I tried adjusting the lighting were unsuccessful. Then being "open-minded" and being a "risk taker" we tried changing the film into black and white in an attempt to make each shot's lighting constant. However, that didn't turn out very good because the parts of the shot that were originally quite dark turned even darker which is the opposite of what we were trying to achieve. So I continued to play around with the "White, Mids and blacks balance", then through adjusting the saturation as well, I manged to produce a good outcome.

One problem that I encountered with adjusting some shots with really poor dark lighting, was that because we used the basic elementary camera rather than the HD one, the quality of each shot wasn't particularly good. Even when I adjusted the lighting, the shots were very heavily pixilated and grainy. To increase the quality in the editing process (especially if the lighting is very dim), is very difficult and a tip to remember next time would be to film with a better quality camera or to use some sort of lighting equipment.

Overall, our light editing process was a very time consuming one. However, i think it was worth it. Compared to the initial lighting of some shots, the edited lighting made a big difference. Despite the pixalated appearance, I think that task really tested my ability as editor to face different problems and have learned lots from this experience. Today exercised my "open-mindedness" and my "knowledge" parts of the IB Leaner profile. And from reflecting on how I coped with each problem, I was able to "reflect" how the outcome of what I did and learn from my mistakes and the things that I excelled in.