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Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Blog entry 7 – exercise 2 post-production


The key concept for exercise 2 is continuity, ensuring that the takes and editing process have put together a coherent sequence of images.  Post-production works for exercise 2 had both been a steep learning curve and was also very enjoyable.  This is my very own first film with more than 1 shot that I learnt to edit through the Avid editing software.  I enjoyed the process of sequencing the takes and developing the soundtrack for the short film.  I had intended this film to be somewhat sensory and vivid as well as thought provoking.

The biggest challenges for me were to select the best take for each shot and ensuring that the colour grading was continuous and harmoniously flow from one shot to the next.  As this story is only constructed with one scene, I achieved this by individually colour graded each of the take and watched the sequence a few time to ensure that the colours and the light were harmonious.  The next challenge for me was the sound, in this film, the soundtrack involves a sounds cape and a short piano track.  As this was the first time that I worked with sound, I did not know what was the normal audio range for the soundtrack, I therefore spent a bit of time monitoring the sound level and made a appropriate adjustments so that the basic requirement is met.

Through the post-production process, I believe I have grasped some basic concepts in editing and developing soundtracks for film.

Blog entry 6 – script for ex 3


Our final film for the first year is a 4-5 minutes narrative film, with no dialogues or narration.  In the first semester, we have been working on 3 drafts for the script.

With the concepts and ideas that I want to express through films, I have been finding it incredibly difficult to achieve them without dialogues and narration.   Perhaps it is the limit of my imagination and creativity, or that some poetry and ideas are simply inexpressible by pictures.  I admire many of the films that have theatrical elements in them such as ‘dogville’ by Lars Von Triers, ‘Wiggensteine’ by Derek Jarman, and ‘Prospero’ by Peter Greenaway.  I therefore decided that I would make an attempt to include theatrical elements in this film.  I want to take advantage of using the stage as a vessel for the story and characters to shine.  The stage, the black space allows reality, yet more importantly possibilities and surrealism to take place.  I therefore do not feel the need to fully justify the logics of the settings and the characters’ actions.  My idea for the major production investigates a death on an artist, the universal reason for which we allow death to come upon us.

Through the number of drafts that I completed, I believe that the story becomes more succinct and clear.  My script writing ability also progress in a more coherent manner.