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Friday, April 19, 2013

film 1 postproduction and film 2


We have had a one-day editing lecture using Avid to familiarise ourselves with the software before undertaking the postproduction and editing work for the one minute film.  This made it simpler and easier to work with the film.  Given the film being a one take, the editing process was quite simple.  The challenge for me was to select the right take out of the 10 takes that we managed to complete during shooting.  Editing helps the film looking more polished and completed.  I was happier with the film at the end of the editing process. 

Film 2
The brief: 2 minutes screen time, maximum of 10 cuts, no dialogues or narration, no hand-held and post-production sound can be used for a maximum of 50% of total screen time.

I previously worked with symbolism and conceptual ideas in film 1 and given the aforementioned criteria, I decided that for exercise two, I will dedicate more space and creativity interest for plot development and characters’ movements.  The purpose of film 2 is to assist us in understanding the important of ‘continuity’ in films.  I will therefore attempt to create a plot that demonstrates this requirement.  The title I have in mind for film 2 is ‘the feminist’, it is about a young woman who has a strong view on what ‘feminism’ should be.  Script is still in the development process.

Sunday, April 7, 2013

1st shoot reflection


Shooting for exercise 1 completed, what I had in the script was not exactly what was filmed.  1 minute is such a short time to include plot development as well as character development in the film.  I ended up cutting out half of the plot and saved more time for character development…Right or wrong? I’m not sure, my gut says it’s right though.  Ability to improvise on the shooting day is definitely one of the important skills for an amateur director like myself.  Shooting time was scheduled for two hours (time to set up camera, rehearsal, getting costume ready and packing up) which I found was really short.  If time had allowed, I would have liked to try out a few other camera movements and angles for the film.

I have never worked with a proper film crew before, I didn’t know what to expect.  Shooting my film and being a crewmember for other colleagues’ films were both really fun and informative.  It was good to get to know the appointed tasks for each of the role (1st AD, camera/light assistant, DOP, actor and director) and getting to know the proper terminologies and purposes for the ‘calls’.  Being a director is fun and definitely the most stressful role of all the roles, having the crewmembers around was a big help.