Production 02: Report

Date        : 17 October 2013 - 20 October 2013
Location  : Pangkor Island/Budget Resort

Scene 1 : Jose on the way to Souland
On the first day to Pangkor, we did not waste our time on the ferry doing nothing.
We went to the back area of the ferry which is open aired.

Jocelyn stood on the side of the ferry and we started to shoot.
The natural daylight that day really help a lot to bring out the film noir feel.

I was in charge on shooting that particular scene.

*I was quite satisfied with the out-coming of this scene, either the scenery or the emotion of the character, they really brings out the scene well. 10/10 points!! 

Scene 2 : Jose entering her resort room
We shoot at the late evening when we were given the Free & Easy time.
We tried out different lighting - whether to use the soft light in the room or not.

With the soft light, the main character would be more visible to the audience.
Without the soft light, she would be just a silhouette.
I decided to shoot without the soft light as it brings out the mysterious feel of Souland to the audience.

Thought there were many NGs and flaws, we really had our time shooting that scene and it turned out well.

*This scene was actually really impromptu. I simply thought of filming this scene as we could made use of the nice resort room. If there is any personal opinion, I wished I would re-shoot another face close-up of the character. Face close-ups are really helpful to show the emotion or the feeling of the actor/actress in the film.

Scene 3 : Jose approaching the reception center
Special thanks to Alvin Ng who agreed to assist us in filming this scene.
We stayed up really late to film this scene.

At almost 4 a.m. in the morning, we went to the reception counter to set up before filming.
We tried out different angles for this scene.
We were under the 'mosquito-attack' while filming.

I was in charge to shoot the overall conversation of both of the characters and the face close-up of the receptionist.

*I was quite unsatisfied with the lighting provided on the set. I believed the others felt that as well. The lighting was simply too bright for film noir. We had no choice but to film under such circumstances. If I were to choose, I would rather re-shoot the scene with our lights prepared but not only the cellphone's flashlights. I would also like to shoot the hand close-up of the receptionist to show he is a native Souler.

Production 02: Contextual Approach

Scene where the boat was heading to Souland.

• Shooting the water splashing from the side of the ferry.
• Show the ferry was moving in high speed.
• The fast-moving yet not-arriving-to-the-island ferry somehow reflects the emotion of Jose.
• She was eager and curious to know everything about the mystery of her family, but was hesitating to know them all as she was afraid of the truth.

Scene where Jose was on the ferry to Souland.

• The scene shifted from the back to the face of Jose.
• The facial emotion of Jose is the main focus.
• She was not excited to the island at all, instead, she had a lot of things in mind.
• Her confusion of her sister, mystery of her father, and the Soulers.
• The strong wind blowing in her direction helps to bring out her emotion well. I mean, without the wind, she would just be standing there staring in the space.
• With the existence of the wind, somehow brings motion into the scene.

Scene where Jose arriving the resort on Souland.

• Shoot the steps Jose took to approach the resort reception center.
• To show her heavy footsteps.
• Although she was on a vacation, she did not really enjoy the whole trip.
• She was on that island to reveal everything about her family.
• On the other hand, it was also another way to show her messy thoughts of all these mysteries involving her family.

Scene where Jose checking in the resort, meeting a native Souler.

• One of the islanders on Souland.
• Put lighting on the hand of the receptionist, to show the Souler symbol clearer.
• Although the islander was friendly to Jose, she did not really act friendly at him because of her messy thoughts of Soulers.
• She laughed dryly at the receptionist.

Scene where Jose was entering her room in the resort.

• Silhouette formed from the daylight outside the room.
• Shooting the silhouette instead of using the lighting to show mysterious feeling on that island.
• We tried different lighting on this scene, whether to put on a soft light in the room or not, ended up without using the soft light in the room.
• Jose wearing casual outfit to show she was on a vacation.

Overwrite.

After lots and lots of editing and re-shooting, we proudly present you...
Our FIRST production...
OVERWRITE!!!

Produced by the KHOMU Production:

Kashiwini
Huiyu
jOcelyn
May
jUn

Below are the trailer preview of our film noir assignment:

Production 01: Report

English translation: "Okay let's do it again, ONE, TWO, THREE!"

We had our second official filming session on 21st September, this time with the presence of all members =).
After the tutorial session with Mr.Charles last week, he pointed out that there's no consistency in the lighting of our scenes.

We decided to retake the scenes, with the same location, but with brighter background light.

Co-director supervising the scene.

The trial scene before filming.

The trial scene 2.

We used 2 cameras to shoot the same scene in 2 different angle.

My contribution

I shoot mostly the facial focus and the movement of the characters involved in that particular scene.
While shooting, I did not forget to imply the design element onto it: Rule of Thirds, Spaces, etc.

Checking the composition of a scene + actress trial acting

Moving the camera according to the movement of the character.

Running the script one time before actually shooting with the actress.

Blooper for one of the scene =)

Different stages of the same scene with different composition.

We do not decide on the shots that have to be taken by ourselves. We discussed and try out different composition before deciding the real thing.

A pic of director and co-director working out the scene together by trying 2 different angles.

Then, after shooting the scene, the directors will play the videos that were taken so that everyone could check on the mistakes and the frauds.

When we were facing problems on the lightings and editing.

Narrative

Screenshots of the movement of character.

This scene focuses on the student that suddenly appeared. The focusing on the student shows the importance of this role that will manipulate the main character into a bigger mystery.

Symbols that appeared on the student's hand.

The symbol that later recalled by Jose which indicated her student who is one of the Souler. The student who placed her hands on the desk in front of Jose purposely did that to hint her about her own identity.

This is the scene where the student approached Jose and said things that she could not understand.

Though it's a short scene, but it's really IMPORTANT because without this scene, the story cannot flow.

IF this student did not approach Jose and DID NOT say these few sentences, Jose would live her normal 28 years old lecturer life as usual.

It is clear that this mysterious student knows the main character's father and the main character's true identity. This leaves a question mark in Jose's mind wandering: 

WHO THE HECK IS SHE,

WHY THE HECK SHE KNOWS MY FATHER,

AND WHO THE HECK AM I?

And lastly, I as the director, would like to share another behind-the-scene of our film.

THANK YOU.

Production 01:Contextual Approach

Beginning the Production

We used 3 phones as the 3 main lights for film noir.

Main light for subject

To separate subject with background

To lighten and control the shadow

Joseph H. Lewis

We spent a lot of time testing the lightings.

The Director of The Big Combo suggested that before using the lights, we could use a test lamp, to test different lighting directions and effects.

Test lamp

All we did was tying one of our phones to a bamboo stick and put it near to the subject.

Scene 1: Wake Up

This scene was initially shot at night of 14th September, but was re-shot on the 15th(with 2 members' absence).

Jose woke up from her nightmare. Her breathing was heavy. She ate her medicine to calm herself down. She came down from her bed to wash herself up before going to work.

 Below are the thumbnail sketches of this particular scene:

And below is the interior of Jose's bedroom and Jose's wash-room:

Rough sketch of Jose's room

Rough sketch of Jose's wash-room

Scene 2: Mysterious Student

We started our shooting session on 14th September.
Initially, we chose LT15 as our location to film our first scene that we had chosen, then we shifted to LT11.

Jose was giving her lecture while a student came in interrupting the class. After the class, the student stayed back and approached her. The student told her to stay low profile and questioned her about her own identity.

Below are the thumbnail sketches for the scene before shooting the scene:

When directing, the directors tried to fit the subject in the screen by using the simple design composition rule: The Rule of Thirds.
Unless we're stressing the subject, then we will put the subject at the middle of the screen.

Film Noir

The scene we had shot were all dark with a little light shine on the background.

Key light are used on the main subject in that particular scene.

E.g. a scene when Jose was eating her medicine beside her bed.

Personal opinion:

Original scene:

After the washing ups, Jose opened her room door, then the scene changed to her student opening the door while she was lecturing.

In my opinion, 

I would rather it be a continuous scene but different locations before and after opening the door.

Here's an example of the changing scene technique from the film The Adjustment Bureau(2011):

Or

We could change scenes using the after effects eye zoom effect. This effect was used in many films such as Twilight Saga 

Alice Cullen's future sight

 Here's an example of how it will look like: 

Narratives/Dialogues

Isabelle : "Soulers should stay low profile but not standing in front of the class teaching. You should stay like your father. You don't even know who you are, and you're asking who I am." 

The mysterious student said this to Jose.

Clearly, this student knows who Jose really is, and has the answer to her lost memories when she was young. She even know who Jose's father is. This sentence is very important, as it was a gearwheel that triggers Jose to start her journey to search for her father and her memories.

Without the sudden appearance of this mysterious student, and her words toward Jose, she would probably live her life the way she has at the current state.

Role Models.

I'm starting the first assignment for contextual studies as the director of the production team for 'Souler'.

I admit... I don't really know what's called a director, or what's a director's job. There's few film directors that are really really well-known and who I really admire.

J.J. Abrams

Hayao Miyazaki

Steven Spielberg

James Cameron

So I spent some time watching the behind-the-scenes of these great movie makers.

The ways they communicate with their crew members, the method they convey their ideas and explain them to their production team, how they blend in among their crew members and talked and laughed with them,

these are the things I wished I could learn and use as role models while filming our mini-movie together.

Ideation Crit

Our story was upgraded and enhanced with more details and information.

We do focus on the details, the specific scenes while we were discussing, but we forget about the main thing, the main story line was all about.

Our group went on group tutorial with Mr. Charles today, and we prepared sketches on our story line, but we did not even prepare a simple story timeline. Mr. Charles pointed that out, asked for our main synopsis, and cleared some mist for us.

Ideation Visuals

So, our story was about 2 clan leaders' revenge on each other which involved the generations that follow.

And, we sorted out our main story timeline and had simply written it down,

Above was the main story bone of our story.
Our story's cult was all about Soul.
The secret clan that appears in our story was called the 'Souler'.

Due to that, we had already set our mind to name our story as Souler. It was, according to Mr. Charles on his latest tutorial with us, not so clear that people will not relate 'Souler' with 'revenge', since it was the theme of our story.

Contextual Definitions

The story was required to relate to a cult.

Design References

A Glimpse on Hamlet

I happened to bypass the Shakespeare's Hamlet, a play that centred with the theme revenge.

Illustrated and designed by Catherine LaPointe

In the play, prince of Denmark, Prince Hamlet was encountered by Ghost, who later was revealed as his dead father.
Ghost told Hamlet how he was killed by his brother, King Claudius.
The murder of his father and the remarried of his mother to his uncle rekindles the fire of revenge inside Hamlet.
Hamlet decided to re-enact the murder scene of his father with the production of The Murder of Gonzago, which in Hamlet's word : ' the play's the thing wherein I'll catch the conscience of the king.'

In the midst of the play, the King was agitated and this confirmed that he was a guilty man, he then planned to murder his king uncle while the King was praying, but did not.

Instead, Hamlet killed Polonius, and for that he was banished to England.
He secretly came back to the Denmark, had a sword fight with son of Polonius, Laertes.

Meanwhile, Hamlet's mother, Queen Gertrude unconsciously drank the poison wine prepared by the King to kill Hamlet.
Laertes confessed about the Queen before he died. Hamlet then stabbed King Claudius and forced him to drink the poison wine. He then died from the wound received during the fight.

Inspiration

It happened that many films from all around the world was inspired by Shakespeare's Hamlet.

For instance, The Lion King (1994)

The Banquet (2006)

Characters' Outfit design

We took reference on the White American artist, Kirby Sattler. His paintings are all his perspective on the American Natives.

Idea Reference

 The philosophy of - The Eye in the movie Now You See Me(2013)

The story of Hamlet inspires me on using the theme 'revenge' as the main collarbone of the story flow.

Everything happens because of the promise-broking of the male Souler leader. 

And the chain reaction that follows,

• the revenge planned by the female Souler leader
• murder of the wife of the male leader
• tormenting memories implanted in the mind of main character
• the avenge of the main character towards the female leader

Dialogue/Narrative

For this tutorial, I drew some simple comic sketches about the story line.
However, it was just some introduction about the cult and how the story began.

 It was just sketches to visualize the beginning of the story.