Category Archives: Practical Digital Filmmaking – G2

Practical Filmmaking Final Project – Home

CAN YOU FEEL THE LOVE TONIGHT

 

Home – reminds me of a space confined within four walls.

I wanted to show the idea of a suspense of time over a long period within an enclosed space. The happy and sad memories captured and contained, resulting different emotions and decisions made by the owners living in it.

 

The introduction of the video shows a single long take. Here, I want to establish the struggle in his mind, between the love-hate emotions that he had for his wife. He wants a divorce with his wife, but he feels slightly reluctant. The V.O here helps to establish the background story.

The 2nd photo above shows the ending scene when the wife is at the door step, when the camera starts to pan away. I wanted the introduction and ending of the video to correspond to each other. This conveys unity from the start to the end.

 

The picture below shows how I divide a particular space into 3 parts to portray 3 different scenes. I instructed my actors to try and stay in their space during the shoot. Here, I create different scenarios for my actors.

Different fast cuts were used to show a period of time being compressed. The cloning of 3 scenes into one is also another way to show a period of time in a few seconds. The couple were seen at different parts of the house, with different interactions.

 

I questioned myself how I could transit from the past memories to the present (as seen below). Here I decided to play with 2 separate scenes that looked somewhat similar, but different.

When the female actress (wife) is taken away from the picture, and when the man is shot from a far distance, a sense of “lost” and “loneliness” occurs.

 

Reflection

This is my first short film, and I felt that there there are many rooms for improvements. There are many limiting factors before, in the process, and after filming. The Airbnb place that I booked was a small room in a 4 story building owned by the owner. There are other guests living in her building too, including herself. I had to sneak my actors and friends in to help me with the filming, and had to keep our volumes down. I also had to keep track of the time because I only had the place for 1 day. And because its an Airbnb place, I couldn’t check the location and finalise the shots before hand. Therefore slight changes were make between the initial script and the actual shoot itself. But I am really grateful and thankful for the people who help me make it possible. P.S, I have forgotten to take behind the scenes photos. The editing of cloning effect was torturing. Editing multiple shots in a single still frame is alright. However, the panning camera, makes it harder. The different movements and lighting changes in every sec the frame moves. I had to use the pen tool to mark out every single frame and it took ages. Even though I still couldn’t get it right at the end. 🙁 It might be the way I shot it, maybe i didn’t do it the right way, maybe there might be an easier way to execute it.

All in all, it was a really new and eye opening experience for me. Despite having hiccups here and there, I am determine to produce a better film after being inspired by my classmates work.

“There is no failure except in no longer trying.” Elbert Hubbard

7 Shots Assignments – Seen and Unseen

” A bored kid decides to steal a 10 dollar note from a random stranger out of playfulness, only to find himself entering a horrific world of punishments suffered in hell. “
Seen and Unseen.

The seen and unseen world to me felt like something that i would have never imagine myself experiencing in; like in another dimension. I viewed this unseen world as something negative, something I would wish to un-see. 

This brought me back to my childhood days when I first visited the “10 courts of hell” located in Haw Par Villa. I was scared as hell. 

 

With this thought in mind, I came up with an idea where a kid will be the protagonist, as children are often portray as innocent and oblivious.

When I did my research on the meanings behind the “10 courts of hell”, I came upon this useful piece of information: So basically those who were evil doers in their past life will be taken to a subsequent Court of Hell to be punished. The different levels of hell caters to different types of offence. The shot that were taken in my film were from the Second Court of Hell. Crimes such as robbery and stealing will be punish in this court. 

With this information, I decided to use the stealing of the dollar note as the climax of my story.
1st Shot - Extreme close up shot of the main character. 

2nd Shot - close up shot of the kid’s hand playing with gum. 












3rd shot - Wide angle shot. Introducing a working adult, and leaving the scene; 
           transitioning to 4th shot.

4th shot - low angle shot; begins by establishing the $10 note, then gradually moving 
           upwards to the kid’s expression.











5th shot - top angle shot; camera moves downwards gradually with the kid’s hand. 
           This establish sight of the video through the kid’s eyes / perspective. 

6th shot - transition from the $10 note to the “10 courts of hell”. 
           Shot from first person perspective. 











7th shot - transition back to the the kid being fearful of the dollar note.