Assignment 2: Memories and Goodbyes

Memories & Goodbyes

Done by: Jing Yi, Jia Ying and Jun Ming

Brief Description: A piece of memory shared between a boy and a girl.

Plot: A boy falls in love with a girl. Their relationship developed through various pieces of shared memories. However, at the peak of their relationship, the boy has to leave the girl as he travels overseas. Although the boy left the girl, the girl still anticipates for his return. As time passes, the girl eventually moved on with her life and forgot about the boy. One day, the girl received a post paid letter from the boy – a letter of memories and sadness.

Genre: Romance, Drama, Coming of Age

The Process:

Initially, we had a different idea to our story and had already completed Task 1 for this assignment. However, while editing for Task 2 we discovered that we had a lot of missing visual parts for our story and our stories were not flowing well.

Some of the problems we faced initially were the undecided story plots and unclear story boards. Therefore, after our consultation, we re-plot our story and make sure we confirm all the camera shots and angles we are going to use in our story boards so that we will not face the same problems we had previously.

After adding in the missing parts, our story connects better.

Visuals:

Colour: Warm colours were used to represent the happy memories while dull colours were used to represent sad memories. The different colouring of the images can be seen in order as it follows the mood of the story plot. To show that some of the images are memories of the past, I purposely edited these images by adding vignette and highlights to show a dreamy setting/ memories.

Story: Present –> Past –> Past –> Present

Mood: Neutral (Acceptance) –> Happy –> Sad –> Neutral (Acceptance/ Closure)

Colour: Neutral –> Warm –> Dull –> Neutral

Camera Shots Technique:

Similar Shots – The use of similar shots help us to convey the idea of memories. By using similar shots with different costumes and actions it establishes the idea that time has pass which is one of the element of our story.

Wide angle to Closed up shots: Wide angle shots show spaces especially when only 1 or 2 characters are in the frame. The spaces can create the feeling of anticipation and loneliness. Anticipation can be seen scenes when they are meeting each other and loneliness can be seen when the girl is reading the letter the boy left for her after he left.

As mentioned previously we used a lot of closed up shots to create the intimacy between the audience and character. Closed up shots also allow the character to do the story telling which creates more emphasis in emotions.

Black Screen – Black screens were used to help me convey the passing of time as they acted as gaps between certain time periods. By using black screens with sound, it creates a moments of suspense for the audiences.

References:

For this short photo-film, I am going to set it in a very melancholic and emotional style. Therefore, I decided to emulate the style of Spike Jonze in his film, Her (2013).

The film Her is a romantic movie that plays with memories and emotions. In the film, Spike Jonze uses a lot of closed up shots to express a sense of loneliness. Through the closed up shots, it allows us to feel really intimate to the character and allows us to feel what the character is going through. Besides, because most parts of the film is about the main character.

Sounds:

Mood music – As mentioned, I wanted to create an emotional and melancholic feel to the film. To create the mood, I used 2 different music pieces to help me. The first piece is played at the start and at the end. It is a neutral piece of music and helps me to connect time periods together. The second piece is more solemn and it is played when the girl received the letter before the boy left her. Although the both pieces are used for different occasions, n overall both pieces brings a very emotional and melancholic feel.

Sound effects – I tried to experiment with some non-diegetic sound effects to make it more creative in a sense. For instance the sound effect of wind chimes at 00:58 to create the feeling of peacefulness and pleasant memories, the sound effect of increasing heartbeats at 02:01 to create the nervousness and anxiety of the Character when reading the letter and the sound effect of airplane flying across to further enforce the idea of the boy leaving and travelling overseas.

Voice Over/Narration – After editing everything, I discovered that the ending part to show what happened to the boy wasn’t made clear enough. Although there was a few shots of the letters, the idea was still not strong. Hence I decided to do a voice over, a narration of the letter. The narration of the letter is spans across the last part which provides a closure to the film. The narration begins at 03.32 of the film.

Silence – Humans are not used to silence, silence can be used in an interesting way for instance to create certain tensions. In some of the scenes, I intentionally muted all the background sounds and only emphasized one sound to create the tension. For instance the scenes between 01:30 to 02:10, I did add in any environmental sound or any music. This is done so to create a tension and anticipation of the climax (Girl receiving the letters).

Reflection:

I was really excited to do this assignment because I get to experiment with a new way of making film. It was really rewarding for me personally as I love film as this assignment allows me to have a deeper understanding on how visual compositions and sounds can play such a huge emphasis on the whole story telling in a film. Most importantly I was really happy because this assignment was a good refresher for my video and sound editing skills as I get to practice them before it turns rusty.

Assignment 1: Picture Story – Curating Self

OBJECT AND REPRESENTATION OF SELF

My object is my pair of running shoes. This pair of shoes has been with me for 4 years and it has been my buddy through my best and worst times. I had ankle issues since young and a good pair of running shoes were essential to provide support and stability when I exercise and when I go for adventures.

I love running and one of the highlight of my life was running my first half marathon. My running shoes were my partners in crime as it guided me safely through the half marathon and subsequently the second, the third and so on.

My running shoes follow me everywhere I go, braving through every adventure together. Slinging my shoes in this manner kind of resembles the action of carrying a rucksack. I love to go on adventure and I need my shoes with me if I do so. I shot it with a deep focal blur with my back against the camera to show the idea of “me and the shoe against the world”.

Even when I am resting, my shoes will still do its best to protect me by allowing me to put my feet on top of it, regardless of the terrain. The reason why I placed my feet in such a manner is to show the scar which represents the ankle issues I have. Hence this shows my reliance I have towards my shoes; I need it.

Through different weathers, conditions and terrains, this pair of shoes has done its best to protect me. It has been 4 long years, and the wear and tear can be seen clearly on the shoes. For this image, I applied a darker tone with the use of a grey background and low lighting to create a very moody setting to symbolize the parting between me and my shoes. I purposely focus on the hole to emphasize on the battle scars my shoes received while protecting me.

Although it is just a pair of running shoes, it painted a huge part of my life. It has been 4 great years, and you have serve me well. A tribute to the best running shoes. Thank you.

My World

A place that is significant to me is my home, my room which I have been staying in for 20 years. My room makes me feel comfortable and safe from the outside world, it also serves as a place for me to rest my body and soul and to regroup myself from reality. It is also a place for me to think for ideas and reflect about life.

I like being neat and tidy and like to keep things simplistic. When you walk into my room, the only features visible are my closet, my bed and my study table.

My bed is my favourite feature in the room and the reason is obvious – sleep. Sleep is everyone’s favourite thing, nobody dislikes sleep. I like to sleep because I can rest and because I can dream. I love dreams and I love dreaming as it enables me to escape from the real world and create my own world. Personally, I am a heavy thinker and my bed is where my thought processes runs the craziest. Sometimes I think too much to the point that I could not sleep and just start staring at the ceiling light.

My room is also a product of negative and depressing thoughts. I like staying in my room, but sometimes the more I stay in my room, the more I feel that my room is like a cage and keeps me thinking that my life is not interesting. Very slowly the feeling of being bounded starts creeping up on me. The irony in that is that the inner me seeks for thrills and adventure of the outside world but at the same time I crave for the sense of safety and comfort.

The best way to describe my feeling I have of my room will be the song “The Big Ship” by Brian Eno. The following is quoted from David Foster Wallace, an American writer, on the song “The Big Ship”.

“This song is making me feel both warm and safe, as though cocooned like a little boy that’s just been taken out of the bath and wrapped in towels that have been washed so many times they’re incredibly soft, and also at the same time feeling sad; there’s an emptiness at the centre of the warmth like the way an empty church or classroom with a lots of windows through which you can only see rain in the street is sad, as though right at the centre of this safe, enclosed feeling is the seed of emptiness.”

Foundation 4D: Assignment 1 (Process)

Object + Place (Process)

Initially when I was thinking of an object to use, I was thinking of using my Chou Chou (臭臭), a tiny pillow which has been with me since young. I already had several ideas on the pictures I planned to take with my Chou Chou, but decided to change it to my running shoes instead last weekend.

Last weekend I was very tired but I could not sleep as I kept searching and thinking of ideas for Assignment 1. However about 1 hour into trying to sleep, eureka struck and I quickly wrote down the ideas that popped up for Task 1: Objects.

For my mid body shot, I planned to use my bag as well in the picture as I felt that it could give a hint of symbolism of adventure. However, after taking a few shots, I decided to remove the bag as I felt that it is taking away attention from the shoes, which is not what I wanted. Therefore, I removed the bag so that the centre of attention can be drawn to the shoes and me.

For the location wise, I initially wanted to choose a better location to represent adventure. Something like the 2 pictures which I took last time. However, because of the weather I had to make last minute changes to it and decided to change to a car park instead.

Another shot I wanted to try was a full body one-point perspective shot from bottom up. However, I could not achieve the shot no matter how I try so I skipped it.

For my shot of my object in a plain background, I was experimenting between using a grey or black background. I decided to use the grey one instead of the black one. I was thinking of using the black one at first because my shoes are bright so a black colour background will probably bring out the features of my shoes even more. But after experimenting with it I felt that it did not look that good, it looks like my shoes are falling into a manhole.

While I was taking pictures of the shoes in a plain background, the Sun came out of nowhere and casted a shadow of my shoes. A Eureka popped up, and I thought it was rather cool that the shadow can signify the idea of objects have life.

For the topic on PLACE, I feared using my room because it is very limited in terms of angles and things that I can take picture.

One element that I could play with is natural lighting like Rinko Kawauchi. So, when the light casted shadows of the window grails and patterns on my wall, I instantly took a picture of it because it looked cool. I really wanted to put this inside one of the 5 images but felt that it might be too abstract to talk about.

Another experimentation that I did was to play with flash at night. I wanted to take night shots of my room at first but my camera could not see anything so I had to experiment with the use of flash. However, for most of the shots, I was unable to create the perfect brightness of the flash and the shots looked horrible, but I managed to capture one of the shots that was acceptable enough to be in the Task.

Because of the small space, I looked for every single aspect and angle I can take to achieve what I wanted.

My bed with soft lighting

Using a ladder to take pictures (Dedication)

Blurry shot from the top corner

Can you guess what these are?

These are fall ceilings…

The mood I was bringing out in somewhat like a Saturday rainy mood where you just feel like hiding yourself in the home cocoon in your bed. A depressing, gloomy mood.

https://www.google.com.sg/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwjkqqW0y4DWAhUGNo8KHQBOAhcQjRwIBw&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.videoblocks.com%2Fvideo%2Frainy-day-in-the-city-rain-drops-on-window-glass-depressive-mood-background-rmxjnlxriplddpbj%2F&psig=AFQjCNER-NCG5XuBelQ2souqddQ8aN8Bow&ust=1504238543358283

Foundation 4D: Assignment 1 (Research)

One reference Artists that I looked up was Rinko Kawauchi. Rinko Kawauchi is a japanese photographer which photos placed emphasis of the use of natural lighting and colours while keeping it simple.

https://www.google.com.sg/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwj5ss7VsPbVAhWBtY8KHb18APwQjRwIBw&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.pinterest.com%2Fpin%2F382454193335523569%2F&psig=AFQjCNHXni894x75ndEpGu0jURgqyygSzA&ust=1503887772081710

For this photo, it is just a simple photo of a person smoking a cigarette. However, the use of the natural blue lighting and the use of the red/orange heat from the cigarette produces the cool and warm contrast effect. Since the blue/cool colour takes up the majority of the picture, the contrasting red/warm colour instantly draws our attention. Why I like this picture is because it is very simple, strong and straight to the point.

https://www.google.com.sg/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwjNvoutt_bVAhXCPY8KHblhAVkQjRwIBw&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdavidcampany.com%2Frinko-kawauchi%2F&psig=AFQjCNHXni894x75ndEpGu0jURgqyygSzA&ust=1503887772081710

This other image also make use of the natural lighting while keeping it simple. The natural lighting presents a very soft complexion of the old lady’s skin while highlighting the wrinkle on her cheeks. It brings out a very strong idea of gentleness of the old lady. The light blue background also place a very calming environment. Overall the picture draws out the tenderness of being old.

Other images:

https://www.google.com.sg/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwjyiICSuvbVAhVJNo8KHZicAhQQjRwIBw&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.rinkokawauchi.com%2Fmain%2FLight_and_Shado_eg.html&psig=AFQjCNHMVPj6B6MKa2daqNoi-oW4TaLy5A&ust=1503890312763775

https://www.google.com.sg/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwj8z5iSufbVAhUDtI8KHfNkBDAQjRwIBw&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.rinkokawauchi.com%2Fmain%2FAILA_eg.html&psig=AFQjCNHXni894x75ndEpGu0jURgqyygSzA&ust=1503887772081710

https://www.google.com.sg/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwiZkdzWufbVAhWIRY8KHQKECjQQjRwIBw&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.pinterest.com%2Fpin%2F248612841899833221%2F&psig=AFQjCNGVLDzFudGuAIdn-lo_C_92XswAVg&ust=1503890169830325

Overall, I really like Rinko Kawauchi’s work because it is simple. The pictures she takes seem so effortless and so calm without making it too complicated turning simple boring objects into interesting and intriguing objects. What I can learn from her work is probably her use of natural lighting and colours to bring out strong emotions and ideas. All these are my opinions and everyone can have different interpretations…:)