Editing first stage: get the useable footages

started our first editing session today, spent about 2 hours for just cut down all the usable and potential shoots and put them altogether.

Just found out that our footages are mostly too short and some of them have the color continuity problems, most noticaebly, the exterior scene. we failed to notice the direction of sunshine and the coverage of shadow. They actually changes subconsciously and quicker than we thought.

Well, done is done. Have to do some more adjusting later then...

The shots taken at at living room was good, we successfully made the TV flickers! :)

Ohhhh yeahhh!! good job everyone!

Finished our shooting yesterday on time, and all the crews and actors are happy with the shooting.

Actors have been feeding well and been taking the good care i reckon, including their acompany as well! We had a fun shooting yesterday. Full of joy and laughs in the house.

Our shooting went smoothly yesterday, we finished on time for lunch break, and got the nice food for our actors (pasta/pizza/ceasar salad/garlic bread/coke+juice+coffee), besides, we have finished on the estimate time as well!!

Although we did have some problems to get the right lighting we want sometimes, we didn't waste much time.

I'm glad we have done such a good job and especially actors are satasfied and had fun as well!!

It was such a great experience :)

2nd test shooting and thoroughtly organised preproduction

Done our second test shooting at the location today, and figured out some more new ideas. Although everyone is a bit tired of doing test shooting, actually it makes us more relieve and give us more confident for the shooting.

We rehearsed every scene and shots, re-set the lighting and re-mark the place actors gonna stand on..etc. All we have done is kind of a review for us; to get ourselves more familiar with the shooting, and get to know each other's job at the real shooting.


Besides, we became more cautious with our project since we helped other group's shooting. Helping other's group is really a good way to understand what we might need, and it's kind of a foresee of our shooting. We get to know what might happend in the real shooting, like the lighting will be changing quickly with the time.

Therefore we tried to come up with some different options for the shooting, which i personally think was pretty organised!!

I'm so proud of my group, everyone are very understanding and taking care of each other. :) We had a lot of fun working with each other.

Looking forward to the shootng tmr, can't wait to get all thes done!

excellent audition

Well, now i have to say : "young people today are not trustable!!"

There suposed to be 6 girls coming for the audition, but turned out only two shows up.

twoe called me in the late afternoon and said something comes up in a sudden, so she cannot make it for the audition today.

One called me and said there are something comes up in a sudden, and she won't be able to shoot on Sunday.

One just didnt show up, even bothered to call me or sms me.


We got only two young actress for the audition, but which was great!

The two actresses looks alike, although their height have a very big difference.

And we got 2 mom and 2 dad to come for the audition. All of them i think are suitable for the shooting.


Thanks god! Now we finally get actors done!

Now, let's move to the final preparation and rehearsal then!

go go go

The can't-be-wrong production schedule

6pm Wed, 23th - last audition

sent out emails to over 10 young actress for sisters, and 5 for parents.
Got 7 replied from sisters, 3 from parents.

2pm Sat, 26th - Rehearsal

Actors' fitting and rehearsal.

10am Sun, 27th - Shooting date

still Super group for anthony's group

Although we are not shooting on sunday, we still go for Anthony's shooting.

I'm sure all of us have learned a lot from their group's shooting.

Apart from being responsible for each role, there are a few things are quite important as well.


1. Never left the actors alone.

During the shooting, everyone is busy, resetting camera, moving equipment, therefore there are sometimes the actress would just wait inside somewhere along. But i think It is important to make actors feel like they are part of the production team, and it's also important if anyone of us are free, and can chat with them sometimes during the shooting.

2. Organised shooting, camera angle and framing.

3. Time arrangement for every shot

4. Enough food!!

Guess when the time we are shooting, we need to order at least 8 pizza since we have got around 14 in total. lol

5. Unexpected interferrence (e.g. weather)

They have two exterior scenes, which the sound is always hard to record because the location they are shooting got tram running pass, and during the shooting it's very windy as well. We held some cardboard next to the boom, trying to soundproof, and it works.

Besides, the sun are very tricky today, trying to play hide and seek with us...

well, these interferrences are very unexpected, hopefully the it would gonna be a good weather this Sunday.

Things can go wrost that you can imagine

2pm - Sisters' mom called
"Joy, both girls are not well, one sick with flu, I'm afraid you have to get new girls for your project."

I was shocked and discouraged because if we don't shoot it this sunday, then we will loose our great father character as well. (He is going to America for commercial shooting on the 24th), which means we gonna go back to teh beginning...

In the end, she confirmed with me next weekened would be fine for them, and promised if we are going to shoot it next Sunday, she can also help us for filming. I was glad, although still disappointed. I said thank you, will give u a call this evening to confirm.

530pm After the group discussion, we decided to postpond it to next sunday and still stick with the two sisters and their mom.

7pm I called again to confirm, but the sisters' mom said "sorry Joy, we cannot do it next sunday. we just got a paid-job offer before your call, my boss called me and says there's a job offer next sunday"

I was stunned..
I said, "could you please rearrange your timetable if it's possible? and thought we have confirmed in the afternoon"

She said, "yes yes, but joy u have to understand, we couldn't just stay and wait for your project if there's another better chance. Especially yours is .....you know, free work."

I was having full of hopes while i was talking to her, trying to persuade her to change their timetable for us, but now i can totally understand, and there's really no point to talk further more about it.


Now, perfect....we got no one for our shooting, and have to do the audition again.......

you must be kidding me, god!

Production schedule

Friday 130pm TV flicker testing
530pm Preparation for filming

Sat- Super group

Sunday 2pm actual filming date

14 and 15 May -> Test shooting

Done the test shooting on Monday and Tuesday at the location.

Finally got the camera angles and the lighting settle down, although we haven't got the actress for mom character...QQ

Found that it's very important to do the test shooting and rehearsal with the actors.
We actually spent two afternoon on test shooting, to figure out which camera angle can best present the film mood, the spot the actor would be frame and focus, the lighting, as well as the direction and path for actors.

I actually found that framing is quite subjective when during the test shooting, cuz one finds dramatics, the other may finds it pointless. It's very intersting to working as a group. The directo and D.O.P in my group are quite open for suggestions and different ideas, which somehow generate the exceptional amazinf ideas.

Some useful website of FRAMING

Things happend beyong your expectation!

Before the production began, i innocently think that as long as we get everyhting done beforehand, things should go as we want. However, out production now facing a few unexpected problems.

1. the two sisters (the main characters) can only be come after 1pm on the filming date. And the time on the transportation gonna kills about 40 mins, so which means they would be arrived before 2pm. (If they didnt get lost, and theres no traffic)

2. still looking for the Mom character! (omg! its almost the last minute, and the actress we found a week before jsut called in and canceled.) *Audition on Mon noon.

3.Dad character would be leaving the country on the 24th, so gotta shoot the film anytime before 24th of May, or we gonna loose another actor.


We have been trying so hard on getting the actors and actresses, and then now we lost one of them and which may affect our shooting date as well..

Hopefully we can find a good one tmr, and do the rehearsal on Wed.


We are running behind the schedule.....

Well,... things can't go any worse...

after the Mom actress canceled to take part in our production, i thought we cant go any worst..

Apparently, im wrong wrong wrong!!!



Two sisters' mom gave me a call this morning said,

"sorry, Joy! We've got a family commitment thing on the 20th of May, do you think we can shoot it in another day, or you want to look for someone else?"

I was like "WATTTTTT!!!!???"

I yelled in my mind, but stay calm and trying to persuade the sisters' mom to send them as earli as they can.

Finally, deal... -> they will come straight to our filming location after they finished their family thing, which would be around "2pm"...


Yes, it is a interesting timing..

Now we have to serious consider about the lighting if we are going to shoot at late afternoon till night..


=================================================
progress of today

got two candidates for mom to come on Sat to do the audition.

Since we couldn't do the test shooting on this Sun, guess it would be better to use the weekend to get the setting of the location done, as well as all the furthur schedule done.

Ohhh Noooo!

Our mom character just called today said she would not take part in our poduction..
It's really a bad news for us especially at this moment...



Well, we finally got a suitable location to shoot, but now our MOM is missing...



Just done a quick research on the net again, and print out a few more mom character's detail.



*Production Schedule


-11,May FRI, *Urgent audition for mom character
-12, May, SAT, Actor and Actress rehearsal
-13, May, SUN, Test shooting

-20, May, Actual filming day

Location!!

Have got all the actors we need, but NO LOCATION!!!!

Oh my god, its hard to get a suitable place for our story. May be because we are international students, so most of our friend are live in the apartment, not 'House'.

Our story is a family story, which be set at a HOUSE. Have been looking for several places already, but all of them are too small, or not suitable for shooting.


Hopefully can get the location settle down by this week, and done the test shooting as well.

Group meeting at 6pm

I'm glad that we have full attendance for the every meeting we had so far, although our school timetable are not match at all.
Had a small discuss about the later production schedule, and the work had to be done by this week.

This week's goal:

-Done the audition, get the right actresses and actor for our film.

-Inspect our filming location (Carlton), and do a trial shooting, as well as testing the light,
and get a general idea of the angle for the camera.

-Start looking for the right costume and props.

about Pre-Production

Our audition is getting on the track, and hopefully would get the actor and actresses part done by this week.
However, i think we need to start to schedule the time on practicing setting up the right camera angle, and finalise the script.

The practice of the camera angle taking and the lighting setting..etc were very crucial, and it's important to get the everything right before the rehearsal with actor and actress i think..

well, a bit worry now..

Early Bird's lighting lecture

Oh, it was a great lecture although it's a slightly difficult for me to get out of the bed at 8am, hehe!

Kinda getting idea of the lighting, though i'm still not really sensitive enough to be aware of different kinds of light. =_=

Lighting is used to keep the 'Continuity', whil shooting differents shots at the different time of a day, and continue the film mood of different emotions.

two kinds of light:

Hard light - te key light, which give you a specific setting of the character
- it's very flattered on human's face, and creates intense shadow
- but it's easy to control and adjust

Fill light - fills the shadow, and used to soften the key light.


Lighting Ratio - the ratio is the difference between the main light and the fill light.


Found a useful article about lighting jsut now. See belowed.

Understanding Lighting Ratios, It's easier than you think
by Chuck McKernCommon Lighting Ratios

Ratio Stops Difference Description

1:1 No Difference Flat lighting

2:1 1 Stop General color photography

3:1 1 1/2 Stops General black & white photography

4:1 2 Stops Dramatic lighting, low key

8:1 4 Stops Very dramatic, low key


" If the main light were twice as bright as the fill lights, the ratio would be 2:1. A factor of 2 is equal to one stop of exposure, and if the exposure is increased by one stop, it may allowing in twice the amount of light.