Lenny excercise re-filming on Friday

We decided to re-film it before the tutorial on Friday because our director and the producer were not at the tute last week.

I actualy learned quite a lot last week, although we couldn't manage to film the lenny excercise. It was my second times to set up the camera and audio, and i found that i wasn't as nervous as before, and even more getting familiar with the equipment! Guess they getting to like me, hehe!

I'm the only one who's not from the media major, and may be that's why i somehow don't have enough confidence in the class, although i know there's no really a right or wrong for a movie filming. But last Friday, I have to help out in setting up the equipment because two of our members didn't show up, i thought i would be connecting the wrong line or would not know how to start it; but then i miracally do it smoothly! (Maybe a little bit slow, but i did make it! :P)

I feel good that i'm really learning something, :)

Looking forward to the editing of lenny excercise on friday.

woooh laaa!!

Got a sudden notice yesterday that we are holding the audition today, because these two characters cannot come on Wed.


They are amazing, and they looks younger than pictures! Age ticked! acting ticked!

We will still be holding the other audition for the rest actress on Wed, although all of us pretty much approved them already in our minds! :P

The audition is so funn!, seeing people acting and enjoy the atmasphere, can't wait for the filming!

The audition time rearranged

The audition would be hold on Wednesday

And suprisingly, there is a twins in the candidates!!!!

I'm so looking forward to meet them, and their age are just right as we want.
One is 14, one is 16, guess they would have the similiar feeling as the sister characters in our script.

The production is on progress!

Hero Ying Xiong (2002)

Hero is a Chinese wuxia film, directed by Zhang Yimou. Starring Jet Li as the nameless protagonist, the movie is loosely based on the legendary Jing Ke.

A group of assassins: Flying Snow (Maggie Cheung), Broken Sword (Tony Leung Chiu Wai), and Long Sky (Donnie Yen), have sworn to kill the King of Qin (Chen Daoming), and Nameless (Jet Li) comes to the royal capital to claim the reward offered for their defeat. The movie tells the story of his conversation with the King of Qin, and the flashbacks depicted the journey he took to earn the honour of sitting before the emperor. Zhang Ziyi stars as Broken Sword's servant Moon.

IMDB

The reason why i brings up this movie here is because the production designer in this film has done a great work. He is really play in the 'COLOR'.

He used different colors to construct the atmosphere of each scene, which not only contrast the background but also brings out the character's different emotions.

Green

This green shows a bit sorrow and the two person with may-be-the-same intentions, as well as the envy between them.

ferious red

This Red brings up the madness and angry emotions on the character, as well as his passion.


Black and Red

The black costume Jet li weared was kind of simbolizes the fate of death, and also builds up the solemn atmosphere of sacrifice. The red color decoration on the troops' head has also gives a hint of the folowing bloodness.

White

The white costume shows the solitude and the remembrance of the death of character that Tony lieung playes

Hypertext syntagmas: cinematic narration with links

Found another online excercise to get more clear about 180 degree rule.

Click!
The animating 180 degree excercise

the 180 degree rule

This schematic shows the axis between two characters and the 180° arc on which cameras may be positioned (green). When cutting from the green arc to the red arc, the characters switch places on the screen.


In the example of a dialogue, if Alice is on the left and Bob is on the right, then *Alice should be facing right at all times, even when Bob is off the edge of the *frame, and Bob should always be facing left. Shifting to the other side of the characters on a cut, so that Bob is now on the left side and Alice is on the right, will disorient the viewer, and break the flow of the scene.

In the example of an action scene, such as a car chase, if a vehicle leaves the right side of the frame in one shot, it should enter from the left side of the frame in the next shot. Leaving from the right and entering from the right will create a similar sense of disorientation as in the dialogue example.

-Problems caused and solutions-

Avoiding crossing the line is a problem that those learning filmcraft can struggle with. In the above example with the car chase, a possible solution is to begin the second cut with the car driving into frame from the "wrong" side. Although this may wrong in the geographic sense on set, it looks more natural to the viewer. Another possibility is to insert a "buffer shot" of the subject head-on (or from behind) to help the viewer understand the camera movement.

-FROM Wikipedia


-ABOUT 180 degree rule-

The 180° rule is a basic film editing guideline that states that two characters (or other elements) in the same scene should always have the same left/right relationship to each other. If the camera passes over the imaginary axis connecting the two subjects, it is called crossing the line. The new shot, from the opposite side, is known as a reverse angle.


During the discussion of 180 degree in the tutorial, i was actually a bit confused at that time. Becasue i sometimes didn't find the image was strange. (when we were watching the vedio of last year's students' works) Therefore i checked online , trying to search for some more actual pictures and do some excercise with my
friends. lol

Apparently it works! And it's pretty clear to understand by doing in a small group of friends.

*Useful tips (according to Paul): Focus on one side of two people's 'shoulder', and don't go furthur to the other shoulder.

The audition!!!!

We have made our first audition time on monday
Second audition on Wed.

Getting excited now! lol There are over 20 people applying for the character of two sisters so far, and we have picked 9 to meet on monday. Hopefully we can get out right person on monday!

Was expect that fast, because we have just posted the advertisment on the net for a couple of days. hehe!

*Happy*

Alejandro González Iñárritu

Got some problems with playing digi dossier on my labtop before, some movies' sound track was gone, and some wording i couldn't see on my labtop. therefore i always have to watch it on friend's labtop, like once or twice a week.

Was gonna post this on since last weeks, but just keep forgeting :P

11'09''01 - September 11 (2002)
When the movie firstly began, i was like, 'oh! no, not another error!!' I thought the glimpses and blackness beginning was another problem i got with playing the digi doss on my labtop.

After a few seconds, i kind of getting the picture of the movie, though without the image. It's amazing, the power and the influence of sound is very incredible. The director skilly leyers different sounds to construct the whole picture in audiences' mind, instead of putting the real vedio footage of 911 incident (those victim cries and blood)

This movie makes me fully understand yhat how the sound in a movie can be so crucial.

And i just noticed that the i have also seen the other two of his films

21 Grams (2003)
Babel (2006)

I quite like these two movies becasue both of the film are depicting the 6 degree relationship, that everyone is connecting with each other through not over 6 people.
It's like people are having their life going successful and happily, but in the other side of the pole, there are someone might having their most difficult point of their life. And life is always unpredictable.

script decided! ""Popcorn""

Had our first meeting for the production team today, to finalise the storyboard, pick up the script as well as decide the responsibility for each of us.


Popcorn is the story about the jealousy between the sister. The younger sister get more attetion from the parents, and the older one attemp to win back her parents' attention by faking the need of a wheelchair.


We have a little difficulty on picking up the location, because the location is at a HOUSE, and there's a extirior scene set in front of the house. We need to find one HOUSE is near city or better to be inner city although i know its quite hard to find.

All the friends i know live in the house are around eastern suburbs.

Therefore the location we are still trying to ask among our friends, see if theres anyone's place we can borrow to shoot.



For the story, i have a feeling that it would be interesting if we shoot it in twin sisters; a image comparison in the screen.

But it have a certain level of difficulty to film it, so guess i will just leave it to the director then.

Roles

Director: De No
Producer: Ying
Director of Photography: Syed
Production designer: Moi
Sound: Wendy


Production Desgner's responsobility -

To establish the visual feel and specific aesthetic needs of the project. For example: the costume, make up, and scene settings. Production Designer is to establish a unified visual appearance to the film.

As a beginner in the film production, i think im lucky to take the role as production designer, though i was wanted to do producer before.

Got a feeling that i should be able to learn quite a lot! :)

swimming pool

It was a movie released a few years ago, directed by François Ozon.
I've got this dvd in the holidays back in taiwan, finally got time to watch it.

The story is about a successful crime fiction author, Sarah, is suffering from writer's block. Her publisher suggests her to take a break in his holiday house in the south France. When she enjoys in her solitude, the publisher's daughter, Julie, shows up unexpectedly. Their interactions and then set off an increasingly unsettling series of events, and a possible real-life murder.

The movie wasn't scared me untill the very end when Sarah and Julie walks pass at John's (the publisher)office. Julie looks a totally different girl, she looks chubby, with teeth bracelet, and she's closed to her dad. The most importantly, she seems doesn't know Sarah at all.

Guess the director wants to let the audience to decide if it's illusion or they really happened.

i personally think it was just the fiction story that Sarah wrote in her new released book.



I love this movie. The casting is good, and it is nicely filmed.

But something in the movie i just don't get it. For example, did Julie really been there and meet Sarah, or it's the other stranger Or it's all her imaginations? Did Sarah really seduce the old gardener and have sex with him in the end? -_-*%&#@

Reading dossier

Due to my procrastinating and slackiness.....=o=

My reading schedule are always one week behind, finally go through of most of them during the break, hope its not too late...

I found it week4's reading are most usefull and interesting for me. They point out many basic but important things and skills which are easy to forget.


* Your film must resemble what you see on shutting your eyes. (You must be capable, at any instant, of seeing and hearing it entire.)


*What is for the eye must not duplicate what is for the ear.

*ONE cannot be at the same time all eye and all ear.

*The ear goes more towards the within, the eye towards the outer.


*Image and sound must not support each other, but must work each in turn through a sort of relay.



from Bresson, R. Notes on the cinematographer.


During the break, i also watched a lot of films, would try to upload all the movie review asap. :)

wooo!

Just finished reading part of the scrips, i think everyone has done a very good job on it. Too many good stories to choose, hope my production team would have the same feeling and same interest on the scrip/story.

script formatting and layout

During the script writing process, I really learn a lot. I read the dossier thooughly, and checking back to the guiding format and examples, which all make my script and story more clear and nicer to read i believe.

Although I'm not so confident with my story (don't know if it has the proper opening and ending, or does it make sense to others), i belive people would get it and hope they would like it when they read it.

scrip writing is... omg! keep rewriting!!!!

Keep rewriting my story while doing the scrip. It's not a concept story anymore, getting form into the serious format.

Feel like a new baby is coming. wahhaha! :P

The The idea is still the same, about a uni student's pay to his obssession of dowloading movies. But during the writing, many things starts getting in their place, and many more things have to be considered,..

-timing: the time of the film (3 min), the length of peopl's conversation...etc.

-action description: better to be short, sharp and right tothe point, but can also construct the atmosphere of the environment, and the emotions of a person.

-direction: Character's walking path, and the path of camera. The relative location and direction of the furniture, in order to construct a concrete image for the readers.

-lighting: sunilght? table lamp? dawn, or just natural light at teh day time?


During the rewriting process, i feel like i'm getting into the story, like i'm standing right at the scene, which is good because i can kind of enjoying creating my own world. But i'm also worry that it may not be clear enough for others, or too over describe to others.

I keep asking myself would the actions or dialogue be described tooo much, tooo details? or it's not enough informations.

Let's pray that everything would make sense and easy for others to read then....