In the quiet part of the library sits a hopeful book patiently waiting for someone to pick him up and read him, he sits quietly on the dusty shelves looking at all the university students walk past him. Hopeful that someone will find some use of him one day, Bryan patiently waits to be lifted from his boring state. The unexpected one day finally happens as Sam, an art history major picks Bryan up and browses him along with the other books waiting to be borrowed. Along the way to the counter, Sam bumps into another student and drops Bryan by accident. Without knowing Bryan was left behind, Sam continues to walk away leaving Bryan to fend for himself. Will Bryan stay still on the ground and hope for Sam to notice, chase after him? Or will he be left for the librarian to come by and return him back onto the shelves to live the rest of his boring life. Bryan goes on a journey through the library as he tries to make his way back to Sam without the notice of anyone in the library! Along his journey he will meet new books that experience the same fate as they join forces to make their way to the counter and leave their horrid lives on the shelves.
During the process of pre-production, I was actually quite nervous as this is my first time writing a short film and directing.
There were lots of small details that we have to take note from continuity to props and wardrobe. For this film I decided to go for the color teals and orange to show the separation of the Dad and Ah Liang which he belongs to the bluish tone but with a subtle of orange to feel up his face also representing a sense of hope.
By furthering enhance the color, I told him to wear a blue buttons shirt as blue represents lonely and cold. So during the post production all I need to do is to change the blue into teal in color.
Props were also important as it built up the mood by creating a real setting. Every props in the video we have to source or either buy from it. For this film I spent about $100 just for durians as props for both of the day. As we are using the durian store to shoot, I’ve to buy some durians from the uncle to allow us to film in the store which I felt its a good deal.
Overall, I felt it was really a good experience as a first timer to direct our own film. I felt a sense of completion after watching the video in a big screen during our presentation. I’d like to thank everyone who has put in their time and efforts to complete this film.
Hopefully by submitting into local competitions will help us to build a better portfolios and also benefit to the casts.
Lonely and cold (Cooler/Bluish Tone, Wardrobe to further enhance the mood.) Orange tone as feel light to act as a sense of hope.
Actually, I added the date “5/20/15” representing the Dad’s death anniversary and also the date has it own meaning.
As for 520, it means 我爱你 wǒ ài nǐ, and is a great Chinese love word to say today (and whenever you can) to your loved one. May 20, 2015
Candle were also added to further enhance the scene but it also has it own meaning behind it. Which I added in my film.
The candle symbolizes light in the darkness of life especially individual life, illlumination; it is the symbol of holy illumination of the spirit of truth. Lit in times of death, they signify the light in the next world, and they represent Christ as the light.
My Creation, is a interactive storytelling through WIX using 15 images to tell a story.
As Human experimenting has always been part of his dream to fulfill. James, a mad scientist who started his first few experiments on dogs that he kidnapped around his neighborhood.
On the day 104th of his final experiment, He drugged his entire family and proceed with his experiment which he planned long ago. As he completed his experiments, he decided to hibernate himself inside the chamber.
SELF – REFLECTION
This is our very first time, trying something new by using 15 images or more to create our very own story. I felt that it’s very similar to our storyboarding in filmmaking but in a different way because it is more like freezing in the moment instead of something involving in time.
I personally felt that this is a very interesting project for us to explore and also to allow us to pre-plan the whole story structures.
We are also allowed to use various mediums to construct the 15 image but for this project, I uses photoshop to photo manipulate and composite them all together. One of the challenges that I faced is that it is difficult to keep all 15 images consistency and proper fit them into the story. One solution, is that you have to keep all the photographs in a consistence color tones.
FORWARD is a narrative short film talking about a guy who won the race of a marathon but people doesn’t know the effort, sweat, time and pain included in his training.
INSPIRATION/REFERENCE
A very good example that I found on youtube, we may seen Usain Bolt winning the race of the 200m during the world championships but we doesn’t know how much time and efforts involved in the training and process.
PLANNING PROCESS (Word.Doc)
I started out by writing short dialogues and trying to imagine using the 7 shots. The image above shows a rough idea of how I drafted my script.
After some revision of the whole dialogue, I sent it to my friend to do the voice over for my film.
STORYBOARD
As I’m not good with words, by using images it is also easier to visualise and explain to my group members. Some examples of my shortlist that I found on the internet.
SHOT 1:
The first shot included quite a few props, like the Singapore flag, gold medal, finishing line, and lots of confetti involved. To be honest, I was a little too ambitious, without the help from my team members I won’t be able to pull through the shot because it has to be well coordinated from holding the finish line from each sides, putting the flag, medal and firing off the confetti on my character at the end of the race.It was one of the hardest shot to achieve and due to the weather conditions, I had waited quite a few days to able to film at the stadium.
For the very first shot, I wanted to portray that he’s a winner at the end of the race but no one knows how much he had put in. I did a reverse in the post to portray from a winner and rewind back to where he started from.
This is one of the props for the very first shot!
VO: You may have seen me with the race, but no one knows how much I’d put in.
SHOT 2:
I wanted to portray that he always started off his training in the early morning which shows 6am with the help of the dialogue. The blue LUT also gives a feeling of the early morning.
VO: Every Morning is a hustle.
SHOT 3:
In the third shot, I wanted to portray that he’s actually training very hard pushing himself, step by step to the limit. A low angle with the white stripe also shows that he’s very focus as thick lines on the other hand appear difficult to break. It suggest strength and give emphasis to nearby elements.
Running on the white line also shows sense of stability.
VO: Every step, a struggle.
SHOT 4:
I wanted to give a dramatic shot so I placed my cast with a low angle against the sun. It gives a strong silhouette feeling while the sweat drips down from his face.
VO: Every drop of sweat,
SHOT 5:
This was one of the shot that I pre-planned while doing my storyboarding, I wanted to give the audience to experience the unique feeling of him training thats why I had chosen a POV shot.
VO: Every ounce pain. In the end, it’s all worth it.
SHOT 6:
The sixth shot represented that he’s back to his training routine even though he won the race.
VO: And after the race. We do it all over again.
SHOT 7:
The last shot is the most crucial part because we are fighting against the time for the sunset. We flew the drone for quite multiple of times to get the perfect shot.
The sun also representing a light of hope where he visits every time right after his training. It is a memorable place for him because while he was preparing for his race he will always run to the edge of the hill and look at the sunset to remind himself to work towards his dream.
REFLECTION
It took me a total of 4 days throughout a preiod of 2 weeks to film, as the weather was bad during the last few weeks. I’m actually quite happy that I’m able to complete the assignment 1 but there were some shots that needed to be improved for example like the Go-Pro shot.
It was fun working with my current team as we called ourselves “A KiwiDuck Productions”, without their helps and moral support for example, while filming the drone scene (7th Shot) it actually started drizzling, I wanted to call off the shots, but Ryan and the rest was like encouraging me to just continue filming till we get the right shots. Looking forward for my next project!
This was my very first character that I designed using photoshop. I wanted to create the leading lines using nuclear missiles but after the presentation I was asked to further improved on my designs.
The Bulb representing he is a smart person, he’s a thinker.
The Suits representing he’s rich in a way and also well presentable.
Final Design
I decided to redesign my fictional character as my previous work was quite messy in a way. The overall design is based in a futuristic lab with HUD screen at the background, a robotic arm and the body scanner as Tony Starks owns many latest technologies in the market.
New York city was also put in at the background of the HUD.
The subject is also wearing a suits to represent that he is well presentable and also a white collar. I also input the color red to represent ironman as the color red has the characteristic of it. The arc rector is one of the most iconic object in the movie, without it he won’t be able to stay alive.
The New Element is an element that researched and theorised by Howard Stark his father. The element generates power similar to the Tesseract which his father found and studied in the years following World War II. That’s why I decided to put in the Tesseract because its somehow relates to ironman.
The foreground also added a camera interface as, Tony Starks is always recording during his experimental of new armour and weapon.
The ideation behind this design took me quite awhile but after some researched of the ironman characteristic and putting the elements, I really love the new design that I created.
Our installation is titled “The Unfolding Narrative“.
The stories that would be played through the headphones initially before anyone records their thoughts in the booth:
1 – Working adult – Mild bipolar disorder
2- Old Uncle – Anhedonia (Major Depressive disorder)
3- Working Adult – Manic depression (Suicidal)
4- Working Adult – Relocation depression (change of nature in job)
5- Working Adult – Parenting through depression
6- Working Adult – Depression caused by chronic Illnesses/change of environment
7- Fresh Graduate – Financial depression
Our purpose:
To encourage open conversations on our mental health
Choose to use the toilet -> where private thoughts are most apparent, bringing them to a public space
Front view:
A row of 9 toilet bowls placed at the ADM entrance
A headset will be attached to each toilet bowl where participants can pick up and listen to the recorded stories
Each toilet bowl will have a different encounter recorded
Back view:
Participant can move to the back and contribute their own personal stories
We want to create a safe and comfortable place -> drawing/ writing/ highly encouraged to share their stories verbally
Explaining the layout:
According to statistics, 1 in 10 Singaporeans suffer from mental health issues
So we made 9 toilet bowls -> equivalent to 9 listeners lending their listening ear to the one person in the booth.
Straight line of toilet bowls
Stories shared:
Most common problems -> depression, alcohol abuse, obsessive-compulsive disorder,
Other problems -> Schizophrenia and Dementia
Community involvement:
We want to have an interactive/community sharing component included in our project
Reason why we encompass different ways of expression -> to have a greater sense of inclusion towards the process of story sharing
What we considered?
Live streaming of personal stories -> why not? -> might create a sense of fear, a sense of formality in the process of sharing -> therefore, we chose not to do it
It was working properly when I tested it before presentation, It somehow didn’t work the way I wanted. I was pretty disappointed about it but it did work based in the video. Somehow,I felt that the speed of the motions can be much slower down. That’s one of the biggest challenges that I faced. If I was given a second chance to rebuild the whole structure, I believed I can improve on and do it better with a different kind of layout. Instead of doing it this way, (Above) I could have done or build it in a way that the mechanisms is against the wall.
For this project, I learnt of gathering materials and trying to do things in my minimum budget which is $10. Actually I found most of my items inside the recycle bin in our 3D foundation room. It may look like a big mess of rubbish in it but if you search carefully inside the bin you may find what you wanted.
I did quite a few sketches before I start as we need to pre-plan before hand, what is gonna happen in between the frame.
After some sketches, I felt that by drawing that much doesn’t really help a lot. It does helped us visualize in a way but we still have to test, trial and error to know whether does it physically work in the way we wanted.
For me personally, I felt that I’m the person that I needed to make the actual thing rather than drawing, so it will give myself a better understanding of the whole structure.
I started by gathering and listed the materials that I needed for my structures. Example like the toilet roll to represent pinnochio’s nose, and some wooden chop sticks that I consolidate whenever I’m having dinner with my friends in school.
Wooden chop sticks to represent the cage
The cage is done!!
In my whole structure, I’ve 3 parts to build on.
First is the stage where pinocchio started his show.
The second part is where the ball will hit the platform and the coins and fall into the money bag which pushes all the weight down which will triggered the pulley system.
The 3rd part of the structure, the pulley will pull the cube upwards and the axe will fall and blocked which allows the ball to roll towards the cage.
For this image (The Pulley wasn’t in at the moment)
We are tasked to present a short scene for our final project, so I decided to pitch pinocchio as I felt that generally everyone knows the story of pinocchio so It will be easier for everybody to understand my project.
This is the scene that I picked.
After presentation, the assignment was given! (Nightmare!!!!!)
We have to create a goldberg machine within inside a frame or preferably a frame with any kind of materials.
I did quite a lot of research as I’m quite confused about how the system work.
Even a 10th grade student can do better than us!!! Oh noooo!!
