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.