Final Film (Joyride) – Process

Pre Production

I sat in the car one night returning from a hall event with my friend and a few others whom I’ve not met. I remember it being quite late into the night and the expressway was relatively clear.

“Hey, lets try something,” she says as she winds down the window and turned her music to full. She drove down the expressway and with the wind in our hair I felt a sense of freedom and happiness.

That night, was an inspiration to my film Joyride

Before I began writing, I visited Chinatown to think about my film. I went to a few spots that I really liked going to and snapped a few pictures with a friend. I realized that there was something beautiful about the lights and the wide openess of the place and tried to evoke that in my script and writing.

I realized doing some location photographs and some minor post-production would really help in the bigger picture of production.

Having printed photographs allowed me to communicate my mood, visuals, location, framing and style very effectively to my Director of Photography on top of citing some film examples. During consult, it also allowed me to explain and discuss some tones of the film that are personally achievable. A new practice I will adopt, I suppose. 

Overall, I wrote/reworked/redone the script a grand total of eighteen times.

I had a table read with my cast and crew (with Pei Wen sitting in). It was the first time I had a proper look at the script and it was an exciting process as this was a productive opportunity to work the script with the talent and crew. Some changes that were made over the table read include:

  • Changing the lines to fit the character’s/talent’s speaking style.
  • Shortening lines and omitting dialogue and actions as they feel it’s unnecessary and out-of-character.
  • Clarify tone, thoughts, motivations and objectives of the various characters throughout the scene. A sort of how do you say this line?

Overall, it was a good experience and practice that I will do more in future productions with my talent and crew.

I also consulted Jun Ming about some film-vibes he got from reading my script he reccommended some scenes which I have explained in a previous OSS post.

Production

Production day was an exciting but nerve-wrecking part of my film. It was a rare opportunity that I had the luxury of time with pre-production and did a very fast day of shoot for production – each came with it’s pros and cons.

The pros; I had time to explore visuals, location recee, look at similar films and properly plan my time with each location and carefully plan what shots I can do without.

I also had a lot more time to properly look at my script and rework many parts – removing scenes that ruin the pace and changing dialogue so the intention is more subtle and less on-the-nose.

The cons; I rushed my shooting process that totally disregarded some thoughts that I had in mind.

I was very fortunate to have a very committed team in me in this shoot. I remember people asking me…

What? Only two people? Isn’t that too little?

Well, yes. But my team was very good in what they do. I met up with my Director of photography and he explained how some equipment he had helped evoked the mood I wanted similar to the films I told him to refer to. And my producer was very committed in helping me manage the time and locations and even at some points helping me with sound. I could focus on the directing of the actors and dedicate myself to setting the mood, tone and vibe of the film and that it really show in the final outcome.

There were of course some personal creative risk-taking involved in creating this film – I learnt to trust my Director of photography and I remember even at one point telling him “do a shot you think works for you” and I was so surprised that the shot executed was one of my most favorite shots of the film.

Final Outcome

Overall, I really enjoyed the production process. It was an opportunity of many surprises – from giving my talent the freedom to do what they want with what they understood of the characters, and thus creating some little moments that translate so well on film, to cinematic shots that shows the wide open free space of Chinatown. I really was excited to start post production already looking at the rushes.

Thank you to my dedicated team of Joyride.
Hannah and Joy as my two leads.
Jun Ming as my producer/assistant director/sound and runner
Ryan as my director of photography

Post Production

There were a lot of challenges in post-production. But creating the outer shape of the film was relatively straightforward as I felt moments and pace of the film was pretty much set in the film during production itself.

MONTAGE

The montage was an excruciating process. I had to find music for hours and hours until I found a piece that really suited the mood of the film. I then had to consider the pace of the montage. Too fast and I lose the magic of chinatown, too slow and it won’t look exhilarating. Ultimately I reached an in-between of the film and picked the best shots for the moment – a lot of clips did not make it and that will always be a little bummer to me. Just by cutting to the beat of the music, listening it to a few thousand times, and holding on some beats resulted in the montage in the final film.

PACING

When I was looking at Forget (my previous assignment), I realized I had this terrible habit of cutting to action, a very common thing that occurs in new editors. I felt that I was constantly directing attention to things – “look here, okay now look here” which I felt was ruining the magic of the subtleties of moments.

The video said one thing that really stuck to me as I was editing the film – how you film and edit two people talking in a room, the most uncinematic thing, defines your style I was very conscious in my post production to achieve this and I felt it was a small progress – but it worked. I learnt to hold on shots longer and cut in to close-ups to beats. I wanted to take the risk of filming scenes with no close-ups and letting it play out organically, but I felt that was a huge risk that I did not want to take right now. Perhaps something to consider in my future films.

SCENE TRANSITION

ThisThis. This always gets me. I always felt my films did not transition scene-to-scene as seamlessly as I hoped. It is a little thing that I tend to neglect a lot which rears it’s ugly head in post production. I have watched numerous videos and tutorials about how some achieved creative transitions but never could find the perfect one that suits my film. Whether it’s visual similarity or audio transitions, I could never get it right. I took a cautious effort to think about how I could transition from scene-to-scene for it to ultimately fumble in post-production so I resorted to the most conventional form of transition in films.

the L and J cut. It is disappointing, personally, but I guess it worked to some extent – but this is an area I could work on in future.

REMOVING A SCENE

I removed this entire scene from Joyride for two main reasons.

  1. It is done in one shot, the scene prior (in the car) was fast cuts and it was a jam break in the pacing and was jarring.
  2. The lines and actions from the characters did not flow well enough to motivate the scene as important.

So ultimately I made the painful decision to remove this scene entirely. Bummer. 

On the bright side, it was included in the montage.

Final Film (Joyride) – Research [The Spielberg Oner]

I have this bad habit – I take too many shots, I cut too many times and I hide my mistakes by quicker cuts. But I think I should stop that, right?

Enter the Spielberg Oner.

What I like about the Spielberg oner (or the Long Take) is that is gets us through the scene quickly while giving us an omniscient vibe to the shot. The oner allows us to “walk” through the scene as though we are physically present observing the occurrences around us and allow us an immersion into the scene.

But this is done through something that is quite tricky to achieve – which is to remain invisible. When it comes to long takes, when someone notices a shot is dragged on for too long it removes the suspension of disbelief and allows the audience to become suddenly aware that we are watching a scene happen before a camera.

After watching this video, I realized there are some consideration when it comes to a Spielberg oner.

The Rules of a Spielberg Oner.

  • Move the actors.
  • Follow that movement of the characters – watch the movements then plan the shots accordingly
  • Breakdown the shot in a few angles – a oner is linking a few shots into a single moving master.
  • It works better when you’re not moving the camera at all.
  • If you need to, shoot a cutaway (this gives you an ability to be tighter if you need to or the start of one and the end of another take)
  • Keep it short – a oner is meant to get through scenes quickly or get the pace up.

I noticed that this adds a certain vibe to the film – an omniscient or real-time look to the scene and we are watching it unfold in real time than paced cuts.

Final Film (Joyride) – Visual Reference Research

Visual reference from Eternal Sunshine’s “Elephant Parade” scene

  • The purple tones and the ‘freedom’ in camera moves that are almost documentary-like.
  • Gives a vibe of being physically present and watching the moment unfold that an omniscient being watching.
  • Large aperture and wide angle lens to achieve a bokeh of the lights.

Visual reference from UOB’s “Right by Every Generation” Advert

  • Evokes the mood of freedom and rebelliousness.
  • The seamless transition of going from landscape to portrait orientation that is organically flowing.
  • Pacing of the film is interesting.

  • Lighting and handheld moves are interesting.

Dreams Short Film – Final

Wow, what an adventure shooting this.

If there’s anything I love about the themes of dreams it’s the freedom that comes with it – the freedom to create an abstract concept, to break the rules of what is familiar and to challenge myself to create something that, in a way, make sense but doesn’t.

In this film I explored the concept of impossible imagery. 

Click to see my Audio Visual Script

Time

Through manipulating time, I created visuals that intrigue and manipulated what was familiar. Such as reversing the falling balloons to fly, reversing the wineglass to empty like they’re being beamed up. I also sped up some footage like the overflowing teacup and jumpcuts of the apples being re-arranged.

Displacement

Through displacement, I took what was familiar and switched it to something unusual. Such as filling a teacup with candy, a wineglass with milk and changing the color of familiar fruits to pink.

I pushed it further by making the imagery strange. The raining of m&ms that seem endless till it overflow the cups, the milk that pours from nowhere, and the banana that reveals a yellowish interior. There is something logical yet illogical about this and I really loved this curious feeling it creates.

Triadic Color Scheme

I created a consistency with using a triadic color scheme of pastel yellow, blue and pink. The reason I chose these few colors as they evoked an idea of a candy/sweet/childlike mood to the film to elaborate on the sense of curious impossibility.

Conclusion

Overall this was a fun little experiment in impossible imagery – I loved the theme of dreams that pushed and challenged me to think of imagery that are intriguing and allowing me the liberty to break the rules of film to make something that is surreal.

I also enjoyed experimenting with what I had – I challenged myself to stick to a triadic color scheme and thus prompted me to do things I don’t normally do – which is to consider background, wardrobe and even spray painting props to fit the scheme. This is actually one project I’m very proud of and I am so thankful I have something new to add to my portfolio.

With that being said, one challenge I encountered was making the images sort of match? I felt and was feedback-ed that some imagery are out of place and I do see it that way, but I tried my best with keeping it a little more consistent by playing with the colors, speed of footage and cutting to the rhythm and beat of the music. But it still didn’t feel right, but I’m still satisfied with the overall outcome!

Clicky click to see my research and process.

and for something extra!

Dreams Short Film – Process

Pre Production

Knowing I had experimented with surrealism and photo manipulation in the previous assignment, I knew for this video assignment it was both a familiar landscape as well as a new experience for me. I knew the bits and pieces of techniques to surrealism and creating impossible dream-like imagery, but at the same time removing my comfort and familiarity of photoshop made certain elements hard to play with. I knew I had to achieve these magical visuals in-camera and being limited in terms of software, I challenged myself to conceptualize some impossible visual trickery.

Pre production was an interesting process. I rarely work with a concept that is not tightly drawn to a narrative. As this was a mise-en-scene video I thought about what visuals were surreal, what colors to use and how I could make it out of the ordinary. I thought about displacement, using unorthodox props and working with the concept of time – reverse, slow-motion and timelapses. I settled on some simple, minimalist and clean visuals, and knowing this is a surreal concept, I knew I had to do a lot of experimenting. I texted a friend whom I felt could effectively convey the mood and who also had a very extensive wardrobe.

Production

DAY ONE

Firstly, shout out to my Dreams team, Amanda, Hannah and Jacob for helping me with the shoot.

The day started with shooting certain visuals I had in mind, I decided to keep it to a simple pastel blue, pink, and yellow color scheme. So I started with simple actions such as expensive milk into a wineglass, raining balloons and stretching balloons. It was good to have so many extra hands helping out cause honestly I don’t think I could’ve pulled it off on my own.

I feel extra hands helped add that little more to the visuals – I could focus exclusively on the outcome of the shots on camera than perfecting the pouring of milk or perfecting where the balloons fell in frame.

behind the scenes of milk pouring

I feel the props and wardrobe helped out a lot to bring out the vibrant and sweet mood of the film. I was very appreciative that my team also suggested some visuals based on the concept of the shoot such as varying the camera angles, reversing certain simple actions and also suggesting how else I can play with colors!

The shoot took about 2 hours before we wrapped and I really liked how the visuals turned out – it really radiated the mood and visuals I imagined.

behind the scenes of other visuals

DAY TWO

The second day, I got Claire and Hannah to help me out with the scenes. It was a little less fulfilling than the first day but I was pleased with the outcome still.

Hannah and I started with spray painting the fruits then while waiting for it to dry, I shot the m&ms scene with Claire. It turned out a lot less “fluid” like I’ve imagined but I thought the image of it was still pretty surreal. I played with the diagonal lines from the yellow art card and considered my color schemes.

We then went back and Hannah helped me with being my hand model and arranging the fruits in a aesthetically pleasing manner. I really liked the whole idea of surrealism at play in this segment as when the banana was peeled it revealed a wonderful tinge of yellow.

behind the scenes

Overall I learnt about how to be imaginative with my films and it was a difficult task imagining how elements would work in both forward, backward, slow motion and at unique angles. But I guess that was the fun with this project – the idea of creating the impossible, the surreal and the unique. I was quite pleased with how the footage turned out!

Post Production

I wanted to die editing this, but low-and-behold, my mac chose to die first.

In post production I painstakingly looked at each and everyone footage forward and backward and had to play around a lot with the sequencing to see what flowed and what didn’t. I unfortunately had to not use a lot of footages as they weren’t surreal enough, lacked imagination, or just plain weren’t aesthetic. It was quite painful considering how I actually planned for some but didn’t turn out well or how they just didn’t fit in the big picture of things.

Such is life. 

Click here to see my final and my research

Dreams Short Film – Research

For this film I decided to explore visuals.

Dreams, to me, is about surrealism – it is about the things that are impossible suddenly turning possible without us questioning how it could be so, a suspension of disbelief. I decided to explore the idea of creating impossible or unusual visuals.

I explored this through playing with visuals and time. Having the medium of videography I decided to utilize minimalism to convey this. Time, with videography, can be manipulated in a few forms: Forward, Reverse, Slow Motion and Timelapse. 

So, I turned to vimeo for some minimalist visual suggestions and this is what I found!

How exciting. 

Click to see my final outcome and process

Red Riding Hood Comic – Final

Story

This comic tells a story of Red Riding Hood in her adventure to her grandmother’s place on a snow storm (that’s why her grandma couldn’t get out of the house, I suppose). The snow storm creates a blanket of darkness so Red Riding Hood had to carry a torch to see.

Feeling watched, the looks into the bushes to see an injured wolf. Being a kind-hearted individual, she tries to nurse the wolf back to health, but feeling threatened the wolf attacks red riding hood.

But in her quick thinking, she swats the wolf away with her basket but not before the wolf manages to leave a scar on her. Realising what happened, Red Riding Hood gives a smile before she comes a wolf.

It was interesting that a friend pointed out what if the wolf was the grandma so I added bloody footsteps in the top panel to imply the wolf had already attacked the grandma, or perhaps, the wolf was the grandma?