Research – CHIA TE

For this project, I worked with Cai Jing and Debbie Ong on the horror genre. For this horror trailer, we are much focused on how chinese superstitions that are often warned of and reminded by the adults. Here are the links we studied and have incorporated common superstitions into the film:

Reference 1
Reference 2

Clipping toe-nails or finger-nails at night would bring ghost to that place.
Throwing rice grains on every corner of the house would chase spirits away.

After watching several film trailers, we understood that the introduction is usually smooth, in between filled with conflicts and at the ending, more climatic scenes would appear with the resolution that makes us wonder what will happen to the protagonist when at the end.

Moving on to our story… We have decided to name our film, 不信。不辛。 If you don’t believe in the presence of ghost/superstitions, misfortunes would happen on you.

Summary
Nicole and Valerie just moved in as first-year students into the school hall. They are roommates. Nicole is extremely superstitious due to her fear for the supernatural while Valerie on the other hand, is not. Curiosity had led Nicole to find out from her seniors that there was once a girl who was often outcasted and bullied in school, committed suicide around their block. Nicole shared the story with Valerie at night but being a scientific geek herself, everything that has no scientific explanations does not make any sense at all thus the disbelief.

After that night, trippy things began to happen. Nicole, alone in the room was studying until she received a phone call from Valerie that she would be late and to sleep early without her. A strong gust of wind entered the room, the windows spread wide as if something is coming in. Nicole became paranoid and started unleashing all her amulets out from her wallet. Before she sleeps, she started throwing grains of rice into every corner of the room in order to chase off spirits. Valerie who came back and happen to witness the moment got really upset and they quarrelled. Knowing that the spirit used to be a lonely and neglected girl, she is upset at Valerie for not wanting to acknowledge her presence. She begins to hunt Valerie while is sleeping or alone.

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Storyboard

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Trailer

I would say this project is extremely challenging as it would require me to study many different trailers in order to know what makes a great one. When planning the story, filming or editing, my group mates and i have a lot of art direction or opinions ourselves which I would not say is a bad thing as the worst is not having any ideas to improve and contribute. Through this filming, I have understood more about the importance of a trailer, which is to make the audience care within this short 2 mins, convincing them that the movie is going to be worth the watch. Besides that, team wise I would say that in between we did tire ourselves out with ambitious time management and other assignments on hand but thanks to Debbie’s constant encouragement and motivational attitude, we managed to make it for today’s submission.

Regarding the consultation this afternoon, we have noted down the changes that needs to be made and will work further if time allows. But most likely we will : ) Overall, I am really satisfied by this trailer and its a joy working with both Caijing and Debbie!! 🙂

On Friday afternoon (28/10), our class went to NUS to visit the “Double Vision” Museum. It was actually my first time going to a video installation museum and i was looking forward to know more about it. Double Vision is a selection of video works and experimental films that are inspired by the affinities between the Philippines and Vietnam in the history of the American wars in the Pacific.

The first short film i watched as we entered was the “Shotgun Tuding” by Shireen Seno. It is based on adaptations of films set in the American Wild West known as ‘Pancit Westerns’, a vernacular play on the Spaghetti Western subgenre of Wild West films. It is honestly quite interesting but a bit expected in a way we know what is going to happen next. I feel that it is quite draggy in some parts but yet humorous at the same time.

I also watched the film “Where’s Francis” which was inspired by Apocalypse Now, a film on the Vietnam War which was filmed and produced in the Philippines. The two main characters are buried on the ground with only their heads shown. Both having a conversation while waiting for the director to shout “cut”.

This film aims to investigate the historical consciousness surrounding the relationship between the Philippines and representations of the Vietnam-American War. It was quite interesting as it is a short film that is unusual and it makes me want to continue hearing these two characters conversation.

The last film i watched was “Nailed” which was too long and draggy for me. Everyone was almost falling asleep as we watched it. I realised they reused some scenes a couple of times. As i read the brochure, it was said that Nailed is a Filipina’s exploration of the Catholic Church and 400 years of Spanish and American colonialism woven in a montage of images, sounds, stories and performances.

We moved on to the second level where it is mostly all sculptures which was interesting. The one where the artist uses body parts to create a face is something that i remembered clearly at the third floor. It actually look quite nice in a weird way and i just find them pretty unique! 🙂

Overall, I feel that this museum requires more time to allow us to ponder as we explore different films since most videos are pretty long. I do enjoy this museum visit though, it was indeed an eye-opener and it was a great day with the class as well!!

Category: Research

FINAL ASSIGNMENT: TO BELIEVE OR NOT

Double Vision Museum