Okay here are my group members: Pei Wen, Chiharu and Yi Ting.

-RESEARCH-

After much discussion and sharing, we decided to use someone from Pei Wen’s past for our assignment. Here is a summary about that someone:

There is a guy she used to be friends with. She got along with him at first because he was not judgmental about girls’ appearances and have similar interests. Over time, she realised that he always arrived in class at the same time as she did, and stayed back in class whenever she did. He also display other signs of affection towards her.
 He confessed to her one day and she rejected it. He did not speak to her for the rest of the night and suddenly sent her a very long whatsapp about how he liked her, how he dreamt about her, having nightmares of her trapped in a cage. He also promised never to speak with her again.

However, on Valentines day in JC 1, he sent her a message about how he missed the chocolates that she made….for the whole class. Then he also went on the say how we should just forget each other and move on; this did not make sense as it was a one-sided love. He also used his sister’s Facebook account to message her.  It was later found out that he have depression, and his obsession and delusions towards her is perhaps because of that.

Goodnight Mommy

This film is about a twin who have delusions of his already dead twin. One way the film hints the non-existence of the other twin is by cutting the dead twin off the frame. This technique can be used in our shooting.

Fight Club

Ruyi recommended this film to reference with after she saw our group’s draft film. One of the hints which show that Tyler ( the protagonist’s dissociate personality) is not real, is through the flickering of appearance and disappearance of Tyler at the beginning of the film. The use of flickering can be used to hint to the audience that the person isn’t real. This can be used in our film, which has a character who does not exist in real life.

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-Process-

Storyboard

 

Props

Toothbrush

Metal cup

Drawings of the sisters

Shooting

We ended up shooting 3 times in total.

For the first shooting, the toilet scenes are all done in a handicap toilet.

The main issue for the first shoot is that the toilet looks too much like a public space, which is not what we intended it to be. Another issue is trying to portray the sister as imaginary.

We tried to make the ‘dead’ sister look blurry in our shots, but it looks like she is in motion instead.

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For the second shooting, we used Pei Wen’s friend’s dorm room as she has her own personal toilet. Despite our difficulties in shooting due to the cramp enclosed area, we managed to complete our shooting in time.

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The third shooting was only done after Ruyi reviewed our videos, as we have to add in some extra scenes.

 

Arrangement of photos

We ended up removing some scenes in our storyboard, such as the opening of the door scene, as they are not a crucial part of the story.

We also ended up using a lot of moment-by-moment shots, to portray a depressing atmosphere throughout the whole story.

For our video, initially, I thought that all of us have to use the same set of photos. After our consult, however, I cleared my doubts and managed to make some changes to my film so to make the story flow more clearly.

For the timing of the scenes, I tried to make crucial scenes linger longer, while fast paced scenes last shorter.

I also make sure that the moment-by-moment scenes quite long, as based on personal experience, when one feel depressed or hopeless, time will always seem to drag longer, and life seems very mundane.

Below is my initial video edits without sound:

 

Sound

I made some notes before I start to find sounds for my film. As the notes are too messy to post here, I will provide a summary of my notes instead:

Sounds to create myself:

• atmosphere of the toilet
• atmosphere of the room ( I used sounds I found online in the end as those online sound more appealing to me)
• splashing of water

Sounds to find online:

• sound of foot steps
• sound of water dripping off the tap
• sound of brushing teeth
• sound of wearing shoes
• sound of closing and opening the curtains

I refrain myself from using dialogue as I want viewers to focus on the sound and its significance instead. I also believe that sounds are enough to send the message across, especially in this case.

Editing of sound

For me, the most difficult sound to edit was the sound of water dripping. I heard of  ‘ Shepard tone’ on Vox, and I have watched Dunkirk, which uses this tone.

I am really inspired by it and I wanted to replicate this effect and use it in my film.

I tried to isolate low, medium and high pitch water dripping sounds, and using speed, I tried to recreate the Shepard tone. However, I failed.

Instead, I just use the original water dripping sound I found online and increases it frequency gradually. Surprisingly, I was able to get the effect I was looking for; the impression of an endlessly increasing frequency of water dripping.

In the end, however, as the duration of the film is too short, not much of the Shepard tone effect can be heard.

During the fight scene, I initially tried to use the sound of the waterfall. However, as the the waterfall sound falters in terms of it sound waves, it does not give the effect I want to portray. Hence, I decided to find a sound that sound similar to that of a waterfall but much more consistent in terms of its frequency: the static sound of a TV.

For the background sound in the room, I chose one with birds chirping so to make the last part sound happier, so that there will be a hint of hope. I find it better if there is hint of hope in the film so that the whole film will not be so mundane.

Absence of sound

Personally, when I am alone with a family member, my mum for instance, everything including sounds. The texture of her hand, the contours of her eyes;these are some features I notice explicitly when I am alone with her. My senses will only focus on her. Hence, I decided to use the absence of sound when the character knows that her sister is present and is with her.

Film

Below is my first edit of the film:

 

After my consult, I realised that the impression of a dead twin is not obvious enough. Hence, I added more scenes and re-edited the existing ones so that it will be more obvious that the sister do not exist.

Here is my second edit, which I showed to the class:

Ruyi advised me to use something else instead of words in the video. I decided to change it to the character’s face to show that she is comprehending what her friend just said. Based on the reactions on some of my classmates, I also added a transition to one of my last few scenes so that the whole video will run more smoothly. I have also added some subtle changes to the video.

The final post will show my Final video, after all the edits.

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