Month: August 2016

So this week we are shooting at least three more scenes. Kaizer’s doing 2 of them because I’m not free when he’s meeting the people of MD.
(1) – For Wednesday, Kaizer booked a room at the “*SCAPE” building (located at the Somerset area). We can use it for free (a few hours a week); one of our friends knew about it. He’s using it to interview a former guitarist of MD, Petrina.
(2) – For Thursday, the MD’s having an introductory session in ADM in the evening. We’ll grab some footage of the president, Vanessa, talking. And interview one of the main guys [“Ris D?”]. We did a little shooting plan:
We’re planning to cover the event with 2-3 cameras. As for the sound, I want to have one shotgun mic pointed to the person(s) speaking and one set up for the room tone.

The room could have a fluorescent softbox light, so we can use that too.

(3) – For Friday in the afternoon, Kaizer’s meeting a former MD guy at Lasalle university; following that, Syaz, a guy who did video for some of the MD performances.

Lastly, jumping back to our interview with Nadia the previous week, here’s a breakdown of of our set up:
As the main cameraman for this project, I’d read up on how other cameramen light for their video work. Some of them share their lighting diagrams online. I’d like to do the same here.

Currently the documentary I’m working on with my classmate Kaizer is – “Music District” (MD for short). The music co-curricular activity / club that seems to have started in the Nanyang Technological University (NTU)’s School of Art, Design and Media (ADM).

How did we get access to this topic? Kaizer joined the MD some time back. And since he’s a filmmaker, he got his hands on a bunch of footage since 2008 (the first ADM cohort graduated in 2009) and is active in the MD scene. He has performed with his band mates in school, playing guitar and singing.

MD does four main performances a year: on Valentine’s, Freshman Orientation Camp (FOC), Halloween, Mid-Autumn Festival.

One thing that’s special about this club is the lack of a direct school authority figure. No staff member in charge. All student effort. Although Kaizer tells me that the associate professor Peer supports the MD. And the MD uses some lights from the ADM film store.

Kaizer and I have started shooting already. Prof. Moody is fine with the idea.

Day 1 – Thursday, 18 Aug: MD sets up “Open Mic” at the ADM Lounge. The “Open mic” session means anyone can sing a song at the lounge. They announce that they are having auditions for the next cohort of MD people. The audition venue is the former MD room – now the foley sound studio. The audition timings are 5-6pm. The auditions are scheduled for next week.
Day 2 – Auditions week (only 2 days actually) So we set up our cameras and light at the foley sound studio to grab some footage. We are done by around 9pm.
Day 3 – Interview with Chris and Kapilan, MD guys who play some instruments.
Day 4 – Interview with Nadia, former MD member & singer. See how we did the video here.