8:00 AM [Reflection]

POST 8:00 AM PRODUCTION  REFLECTIONS

Shooting 8:00 AM for our assignment – although pretty stressful –was a great refresher for me on production protocol. From doing up the call sheets, storyboards and shot lists (with my DOP), and casting my actress, to the crazy travelling between locations on shoot  and shooting the film itself, to the editing, experimenting with sound and visuals, it was an overall pretty fufilling experience.

There were definitely some tense and stressful periods during the production of 8:00 AM such as making sure I have all my details planned out and all the forms I need before the shoot days, and making sure everyone has something to do and that everyone (especially my actress) is happy or at least not feeling tired or annoyed.

To cope with these problems I made sure everything was ready for shoot. I spent a day location scouting at the timings that I would have my shoot (as seen in my production folder). I had a lot of difficulties finding this one location I really wanted for my shoot which was this back alley at joo chiat (pic below).

A picture captured by the photography company AndriodsinBoots for the wedding of the founders of A for Arcade. Image from: https://singaporebrides.com/articles/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/aforarcade-founders-wedding-at-grand-hyatt-singapore-4.jpg

I didn’t manage to find it during the scout itself and desperately tried to find it via google maps and a lot of asking around. Thankfully the photographer from Andriod in Boots who I messaged replied me and willingly gave me the location of this place!

Besides that, I had my actress, DOP and AD come with me the day before the shoot to take a look at the locations we will be at. I had my actress familiarise herself with the spaces, and I talked to my DOP on the kind of shots I wanted and we looked through which settings and lenses would be best for each shot. I also talked to my AD, letting her know what the schedule will be like and what needs to be done at every location (such as getting the sound girl to record some ambience sounds)

It was definitely hard to keep everyone in high spirits for the 2 days of shoot because a lot of them were tired given the shoots were early in the morning, and the first day of shoot was a long day. But overall everyone was really co-operative and helped me out a lot (-:

Some photos from Pre-production and production:

My casting call poster
Bringing my crew and actress to locations before the shoot
Shoot day 1
Shoot day 1
Shoot day 1: Talking to my actress, giving her some directions. Going up to her instead of talking at her by the DOP
Shoot day 1: Celine, my sound woman helping me get some atmos audio
Shoot day 1
Shoot day 1: Indoor location, directing my actress
Shoot day 1: Kudos to Jin Cheng and Alvin for helping me with the lights
Shoot day 2: Lift scene
Shoot day 2
Finding a beautiful location on our way to another location and having a spontaneous shoot there. (eventually used as my credits sequence)

 

Thoughts after editing 8:00 AM:

My film definitely ran over 5 minutes given that it was a script with no dialogue and was 4 pages long… There were some scenes I had to completely cut out such as the very long scene of the girl pacing back and forth at the doorway as she was deciding whether or not to leave her house and the other scene at the elevator. I felt these two scenes were pretty good at bringing up her hikikomori character but the shots I used were mostly long, one takes and the scene of her first encounter outdoors was stronger than the other 2 so I decided to shorten/cut those two scenes out completely. I wanted to squeeze in the spontaneous scene we shot at the void deck because my film focuses on the girl’s curious journey but there was not enough time and I hence used it as part of my credits sequence which I felt added a rather cute and serene feel to my short.

One issue I realized also was that some of my shots were overexposed. It was really hard to tell during the shoot itself because we didn’t have a separate and bigger monitor for my DOP and myself to look at. I tried to correct the footage a little but not much can be done when the data is lost haha. What I can do is to just take note of this in future productions.

Raw footage
Final image after colour grading

 

 

 

 

 

 

There were also actually other things I wanted to try-out like putting a stocking over the camera lens to create a dreamy vintage effect for the scenes of the girl on her journey to the post office but I had forgotten to get the stockings.. (-‘: O well, I was still pretty satisfied with the outcome.

POST SCREENING REFLECTIONS

There were definitely a lot of people whose production quality was much higher than mine and whose stories had a proper arch and conveyed very strong emotions. I felt to me these were very strong films. For me, however, I wanted to try and create a quieter and introspective film, allowing my audience’s eyes to wander around the screen and explore the places like the girl does. Though I feel that I could have definitely conveyed it stronger.

Another issue I found, and as said by Nicole, was that the girl being a recluse wasn’t very easy to identify and the art direction could have been stronger (the mess on the floor and the girl’s clothes). With such a quirky character, I should have paid more attention to these smaller details. Something for me to take note in the future: Build/flesh out my character.

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