22/4/2010

Below is my film script. This is not the final version, but it will contribute to my final script to present to Ms Wong:

4) Girls Working place – NIGHT

Friend of Girl #1

Hey __________, come on its already 10 o’clock! Everyone’s gone and you are the only one left! You haven’t even had dinner yet…

Girl

You can go first, I want to finish this before I leave.

Friend of Girl #1

But you have time tomorrow to finish it!

Girl

I want to finish it today.

Friend of Girl #1

Oh alright… Remember to lock the doors!

Girl

Okay!

FADE OUT

5) Streets at night, near both girl and boy’s home – NIGHT

BOY OPENS DOOR FOR GIRL, SLOW MOTION MOVEMENTS, WALKING TOWARD THE LIFT. BOY OPENS LIFT FOR HER, WALKS IN LIFT. (MUSIC PLAYS ALL ALONG)

FADE OUT

6) Lift Lobby, girl and boy’s home – DAY

BOTH COME OUT OF THE LIFT AT THE SAME TIME (ONE LIFT), AND WALKS OUTSIDE TOGETHER AND THEY GO TO WORK SEPARATELY.

GIRL & PROTAGONIST COMES OUT OF THE LIFT

Girl

Alright, I’ll see you soon

Protagonist

Goodbye!

WALKS SEPARATELY TO WORK

7) Boy’s Working place – NIGHT

BOY WORKING IN OFFICE

PROTAGONIST FRIEND #1 WALKS OVER TO PROTAGONIST

Protagonist Friend #1

Hey how’s it going lately?

Protagonist

Nothing much…? Haha what about you?

Protagonist Friend #1

Bored of life… bored of everything actually…

(PAUSE)

Protagonist Friend #1

Hey _____________, its already 10 man come on! I’m so tired lets go!

Protagonist

Alright alright… (dialog fade out)

Pan to the wall and go to next scene

8) Girl’s Working place – NIGHT

GIRL WORKING IN OFFICE

Girl’s Friend #1

Hey __________, come on! Its 10 already lets go! I thought you said you are going to leave at 9:30!

Girl

(panics)

OH RIGHT!

9) Home of both Girl and Protagonist – NIGHT

BOY OPENS DOOR FOR GIRL, SLOW MOTION MOVEMENTS, WALKING TOWARD THE LIFT. BOY OPENS LIFT FOR HER, WALKS IN LIFT. (MUSIC PLAYS ALL ALONG)

10) Lift Lobby, girl and boy’s home – DAY

BOTH COME OUT OF THE LIFT AT THE SAME TIME (ONE LIFT), AND WALKS OUTSIDE TOGETHER AND THEY WALK THE SAME WAY. (MUSIC CONTINUES FADES TOWARDS THE END)

Girl

See ya!

Protagonist

Alright! I’ll see you soon. Bye!

11) Boy’s office – NIGHT

Protagonist Friend #2

Hey where did _________ go?

Protagonist Friend #1

I have no idea... He was on the phone just now with someone… He should still be here judging that he leave at 10 o’clock every night… (sound fade out)

PAN TO THE RIGHT TO SHOW THE OTHER SCENE

12) Girls office – NIGHT

Girl’s Friend #1

Where did _________ go?

Girl’s Friend #2

Wasn’t she on the phone right here a moment ago? (sound fade out)

FADE OUT

13) TEXT: The past is already the past, now the beginning should be the end. May their past be their growth, and the beginning path their future.

17/4/2010 + 21/4/2010

As a class, we have spent most of the time during class as an introduction to the Wong Kar Wai unit that we are going to take part in for the rest of the year. Now the Film Noir unit has passed, we are all anticipating the results of our film. Questions of how, and why have come to my head, asking myself how I completed the film in such a short time, and how we used such immense co-operative skills to complete this film in such a short amount of time. Looking forward to the next unit, I have payed close attention to the film that we have watched at the end of last class; an example of Wong Kar Wai's film. When i was watching the film, I have already noticed some of the key factors of Wong Kar Wai's films. Below are some of the things that I have noticed and thought that was interesting:

• The dialog of the film is very simple, which makes the plot hard to comprehend.
• There is always a constant and consistent shot of the person talking to the person inside the room, which creates an effect of being an outsider.
• Most of the scenes are set in the night.
• Colours are very vibrant, which contrasts with the darkness of the movie.
• Repetition of music is used throughout the movie, which connects everything together. This shows that the sound used for the film is a very important factor of Wong Kar Wai films.

At first watching the film had been a really hard task for me because i found it very boring as I did not get the point, or the plot of the film. I found it hard to understand because I did not comprehend the dialog used in the film. After watching the film, I felt that this is a completely different technique of filming, very much different from the ones seen in the blockbusters and movies made in Hollywood. This, therefore, makes Wong Kar Wai a very unique director and makes him stand out from other directors of the world. The great imagination of Wong's films have really amazed me. Even the dialog of each scene must be thought out carefully to make it simple, but have meaning in them at the same time.

I have learnt a lot in the previous period watching parts of the movie and to have Ms Wong present to us the characteristics of Wong's films. I have learnt his different techniques, and have watched and digested the several examples shown on the PowerPoint on different movies that have been directed by Wong himself. Although this is a different level of filming, I really am looking forward to creating my own Wong Kar Wai film, as it is, afterall, different from other films that I have watched in the past. Unique.

13/4/2010

As a class, we have watched the rest of the films that we have made, including the film that we have created before the easter holiday. The first film that we have watched was made by Alina's group. After watching their Film Noir, I have had several thoughts in mind:

Alina's Film - After watching their film, I feel that they have used camera angles really well, and very appropriately as well. Their video had been about teenagers, and how they deal with certain relationship problems. Therefore, I thought that this video had really entertained me and provoked my thinking, to think about the different good aspects of this video so that we can use some of their good ideas in our next project. Also, a large variety of shots were explored in their video, which was something that had really pleased me. To improve their film, I thought that they could have improved more on their editing, as some shots had 'glitches' in them, which distracted my attention toward the film. Otherwise, it was a great film to watch.

Then, we spent the next five minutes or so looking at our own film.

Our Film - As I was watching my own film, I noticed several things that have caught my attention. Sometimes when we think that something is perfect at that moment, after a while, we might see it as something usual, something that is not worth bringing up anymore. Much like the music that we have used. I felt this because at the time, I thought that our music was very good; but maybe because I am the editor, I had to look at the film over and over again to check for errors. Showing people a dozen times before submitting our final film. All these things will build up to a certain feeling, a feeling that made me think that my film was not different from other films that I have seen. Not too spectacular, not too interesting at all. Ultimately, this had made me think of the negative aspects of the film. I thought that our use of music could be improved; for some parts, the music was a bit too over the top like the ending scene where Sophia and I were sitting on the table having our 'dinner'. In the course of watching our own video, it felt weird. It felt as if all the work that I have done as the editor has now been payed off... I missed it. I missed looking at the screen, squinting on each little part of the film that made the film unprofessional, and procrastinating about how much more we have to film for each filming day that we had. Now that all work is done, I hope that our film will receive good feedback, and positive comments that are made by both my classmates, and Ms Wong. After the video, surprisingly, the feedback that we received was not only good, but through the course of the video, people were very engaged to our film.

I felt that our group did a great job together. Although this unit was a short, and rushed one, we have used our time very wisely by coming in during lunches to edit and to make our film the best of all. We have aimed high, and achieved it with style. For the next unit, I feel that hopefully, as we worked together so well, continue to be a group and to once again give surprises to our class with our professional film. :)

31/3/2010

After several sessions of working and finalizing on our film on each lunchtime since the last session of film on the 25th, I have finally completed my film. To complete my film, I have invited several peers over to the multimedia lab to enjoy our film. After watching our films, some game very good feedback. Below is one of the feedback that my peer given me on the film:

Christopher Tsang - I think that Marcus' film is one of the best films that I have ever seen a student make. The combination of very appropriate sound, and cinematography is my impression of Marcus' film. To improve, Marcus could have focused more on the angles of shots to make his film more diversified angle-wise.

After taking some of the advise on how to improve on my filming, next time, I will be aware of these aspects so that I can improve as a filmer, and to get a better application grade in the Wong Kar Wai film project.

Today, we have watched the films that the other groups that we have made as a class. As this was a single period, we only had little time to prepare our films. Today, we only watched Brian's group's film, along with Justin Chan's film. I thought that Justin Chan's film was very professional in terms of cinematography, and they were very organized on their planning. In terms of Brian's film, I feel that the creativity of the shots can be explored more so that different shots can be used to make the film more interesting.

25/3/2010

Today, we spent a lot of time during class to continue and complete editing our film. We have spent most of class time to add some music that we have found the previous class to add into our film to see if the soundtracks chosen are appropriate for the scene it is used with. The soundtracks that we have chosen include soundtracks of different types and genres. Some are scary, and some are dark. We have found music close to this type of genre because we have found that this genre is very appropriate for our film as a whole, as it enhances the suspense and the 'noirness' of our film.

After adding some soundtracks in our film, we found that some soundtracks have really matched the atmosphere and mood of our film, and can act as a supplement to our film to make it more 'epic' and 'fruitful'.

24/3/2010

Today, we spent even more time on the creation of the film. As the editor, I have spent a lot of time during class to fix up the second half of the film so that I can get the film done on time. Cutting some bits that we do not need, or we consider as bloopers, are either deleted, or placed at the very end of the film. As I am repeating the things that I do every class which is cutting the different scenes, and only leaving the ones that are needed, my film-mates will either use this time to record voice-overs, or search for appropriate music for different scenes. In this process, Michele Ko and Rachel Foo have been spending time on recording the voiceovers; Mung Lok Wong had used this time to search for soundtracks to add into our video.

After todays class, I feel that I have achieved a lot. As I have edited almost all the scenes after today's progression. I feel that this video will look very good in the end, as I have added in some special effects into different appropriate scenes. The effects that I have added include motion blur, and desaturate (make black and white).

19/3/2010

Today, we have spent most of the lesson just to edit the footage that we have. We have already edited half of our footage, which means that half of our film is already well cut, but the effects of each scene has not been added into the scenes just yet. Therefore, we still need some time to make some special effects to each of the scenes, and to edit the second half of the film and add the effects to the other half as well. During today's lesson, we have used a lot of the time to plan and brainstorm on the kind of music that we are going to use for each scene, and what mood it is going to convey and whether it is suitable or not for the corresponding scene. The sound designer, Michelle, will conduct this research and will find some soundtracks for our film to bring it to life.

As my job as the editor, I have added some special effects on each scene to create a preview to my fellow peers to show them what it is going to look like when it is done. I have decided that the film should be in black and white, and we should make it black and white after all as it is a film noir. Also I believe that our film would look better if it was in black and white. I have also started to edit some of the second half of the footage so that next class, I am going to try to complete the editing stage of the creation of our film.

17/3/2010

Today, after another session of filming on Sunday in Michelle Ko's house, we have finally completed our film! :)

We have filmed all the footage needed to complete our film including the final scenes where the main character is to shoot the murderer beside the dinner table of their supposedly 'romantic' dinner. We have decided to use Michelle's house as our scene setting because we feel that her house is very suitable for that particular scene. However, the house is full of mirrors, making it hard for the scene to be shot without seeing the film crew at the back of the scene (as seen in our bloopers). Some of the shots have to be cut in order for the audience to not see the film crew at work in order for the film to be professional. Therefore, this adds on to my job to make the film look professional by cutting the scenes where we can see the film crew anywhere in the scene.

This had taken most of the lesson, looking at each scene to see if each scene is fine and usable in our final film. Some discussions have been conducted in order to decided whether the scenes are suitable, or whether we would need another filming session to re-film some of the scenes. However to conclude, we have decided that the scenes are fine after looking at all the scenes that we have.

12/3/2010

Today, as it was a single period, we have spent today's lesson just continuing to edit our film, and to cut some parts that are not needed in our film. We have found that after cutting some of the footage that we have had before, some of them are not well cut. For example, one scene would have another small section of another scene attached to it so it would be distracting if we were to show the video to the class. Therefore, I have started to be very, very careful while being the editor of the group, ensuring that this does not happen in the final video.

Although the process of editing is tedious, but I am sure that the outcome of the edited footage will be really satisfying and rewarding as a team and for me as an individual.

9/3/2010

After a session of filming, we have gained a lot of experience overall. We have learnt how to set up lights, plan out the different shots needed for each scene and which shot would be suitable for each scene, and where we are going to set our scene along with the equipment needed to film those shots. We have used the most of the Saturday to film all the scenes needed in Christopher's house.

Besides producing footage, we have learnt a lot of planning and organization skills that will make us better film students. For example, we have planned when we have to complete our filming, the equipment needed, the shots we need, and when and where we have to film next time to complete our film.

As of producing footage, we have filmed all the shots needed in Christopher's house, which consists of:

1) Sophia (main character) searching for the murderer on the computer

2) Sophia waiting for Christopher (Sophia's husband) to get home.

3) The clock ticking

4) The flashback of Christopher telling Sophia about the code to access the loan shark's database etc.

After filming all these shots, we have used this class time to edit our footage so far, and to cut the scenes that we do not need for our final film.