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Reflection Critique

8 December 2020

Based on today’s critique, it would be safe to say that my group received plenty of positive feedbacks. For most part of the tutors critiques were about the establishing shot that we decided to only reveal at the end. Some may argue that they felt frustrated as they were wondering where were the characters location at. For most of the early part, they were distracted because they were really curious but that solved towards the end. They argued that it puts the viewers off and it may not be able to fully concentrate on the dialogue.

Just like the other half of the tutors, i agree with the director’s choice to reveal it towards the end. In my opinion, the viewers should be focusing more on the story and something about the darkness and focus being only on the two characters and the fire tells us that they are secluded in their own world. It was towards the end that shows that there’s more of the world than just them. The reveal of the breathtaking landscape view fits in just well as if it’s describing that the possibilities (whether it is about Kathleen’s future or even their relationship) is endless. 

Aside from that, based on my personal opinion, i feel like the end shot of the place that Alfie usually writes reflects his personality and way of thinking as well. He’s a free spirited person and just like all art involved people, he would enjoy the aesthetics of the world and that it inspires him for his work. Kathleen commenting that she agrees that it is indeed a nice spot signifies how she wishes that she could also be in Alfie’s position. To look outside the box. To have no worries about what life has in store for her.

The final edit took me by surprise as the structure had changed a slight bit but during my first watch i barely even noticed it making the edited changes woven nicely. As for the production design, there wasn’t much comment about it as the angles choose for the final edit didn’t really highlighted the production design that much. But in my defence, that is mostly due to the director’s decision to make it more intimate which works well. The only time that the production design was acknowledge was towards the end scene. 

Overall, I am really proud of the short film my team did and i enjoyed working with the whole team considering how professional and considering everyone was. The whole shoot was pretty laid back so none of us ever felt strong feelings like being distressed or whatsoever.  

Losing Heart :

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Stars for an Audience Production Design Mood Board

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Film Performance behind the scene pictures.

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Sketching and plannings for character costumes for Stars for an Audience. 

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Film Performance Production

As students, for this subject, we were assigned roles in groups to make a short film. Based on the first few lectures we were joined with the acting student from the 4th Year students. During that time, we learnt how essential the relationship between a production crew especially the director along with the cast. It is important that the actors fully understand and are aware in order to deliver as planned during the pre production. 

As for my group, i was appointed as the production designer. Considering this was my first project fully handling the art department, it was an entirely new experience for me. For this project, i was mostly involved during the pre production and during the production itself.

The story for my group’s short film is an excerpt or more like a specific scene about two friends/past lovers (initially started as past lovers and then changed to friends but soon the director refuses to explain in detail about the type of relationship these two had since it didn’t really affect the story aside from them being really close to each other to trust one another about their life and stories). Alfie, a scriptwriter, invited Kathleen, former actress, to his favourite writing spot to read for a play he wrote. Kathleen then broke the news to him that she was planning on stepping down from her acting career. Alfie insisted she follows her passion as that seemed to be the thing that makes her shines best.

For the pre production, i started with coming up with a mood board for how i envisioned the setting would look like based on how the director and scriptwriter explained their perspective of the story. I have also did a few drawings for the type of clothing that i can imagine the actor and actress to be wearing. I did research on colours in film and used that research to choose the type and colour of clothing to represent the personalities of both characters from the script. As Alfie was more of a hopeful and enthusiastic person, i decided to go with bright colours (but not too bright as that would look awkward as the setting is at night in the dark) such as Mustard yellow and blue jeans. Kathleen on the other hand is more of a rationalistic and introverted kind of person. This is due to her losing faith in her passion and considering how she became the polar opposite to Alfie it would make sense to make the colours for her outfit to be the opposite to his which is dark and plain such as beige or grey. I���ve also insisted that she should wear an oversized sweater to symbolise her insecurity. 

Aside from them, the setting was pretty tricky as both the director and scriptwriter envisioned them to be at a campsite. This is for practicality reasons for the technical crew. Initially i thought that it would make sense for them to just be hanging around at the spot but the director insisted on making it a campsite so that there could be more lighting sources rather than making the campfire the only source of lighting in shot. So i suggested to use fairy lights to make the shot more well lit and also used the gaslight. Thankfully, most of the props are camping stuffs that most of our crew members already has so we didn’t need to buy anything. The only thing that we had to buy was the logs and kindling woods for the campfire and that was mostly done by the producer as she was in charge for safety reasons. I simply assisted her during the shoot.

Just a few days before the shoot, i joined my producer to recce the location, this is to familiarise myself with the location so that i could choose where to set up the tent and so on. A day before the actual shoot, we had our mock shoot to test out the technical aspect in terms of the shots, the framing and even some practices for the actor and actress. During that time we managed to bond well with the talents so that they are comfortable with us and able to give their all for their performance. The mock shoot started with only me, the producer and the director arriving on set the earliest as we had to set up the props. As i was handling the art department alone, i’m eternally grateful that i managed to get the help from my producer and director. Initially i had an assistant from another group but she was forced to be in quarantine as her family member had the corona virus. She was helpful during the planning as well and helped me out in terms of suggesting a few things needed for the set as she has been camping a few times.

Throughout the whole shoot there wasn’t much big issues happening. We were always on schedule. But just like all shoots there were always minor problems happening, for this shoot it was the weather on the hill was really cold. Due to that, i insisted that the talents to wear jackets which sadly may hide the colour of clothing i initially planned but i did managed to suggest them the colour of jackets that they could use. Kathleen wore a beige jacket that describes her plain personality and Alfie has a maroon jacket, a bright and eye catching colour just like his loud and cheerful personality. Despite having the jackets on both talents were still cold so during the shoot i held onto their outer (and much thicker) jackets and whenever any of them were not on the shoot i would pass their jackets back to them. The producer had also packed hot packs for all of us and i ended up giving mine to the talents as they were a priority. Another problem we faced was the noisy background. During one of the nights, there were kids screaming and playing around in the dark. There was also airplanes passing by and fireworks booming as it was a few nights before Bonfire night. Luckily, most of those problems didn’t cause any major changes and despite all that we still managed to get everything as the director intended. 

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Cinehaiku Peer Feedback

For the Cinehaiku peer feedback, i’ve gotten Niamh’s group. The visuals for the Cinehaiku was beautifully shot (the framing for most of the shots were great!) and the sound design perfectly matches the visuals also. While watching, i got a dark murder vibe (most probably due to the blood and parasite-like bugs shot) and the sound was intense that it made me feel slightly anxious while watching it. The part towards the end was fast paced so i had to pause a couple of times to actually see what was happening. But other than that, the team did a great job!

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Cinehaiku Critical Reflection

On the 20th of October, we had our Cinehaiku Submission and Critique Session. Overall for our group’s Cinehaiku, the narrative was pretty much straightforward and was easily digested by our classmates and lecturers during our video call.

I was mostly involved during the pre production and post production process. For the pre production process i was the one to propose the idea of making it a family story as i was inspired with my brother’s story who is becoming a father and is overwhelmed with the feeling of getting into fatherhood. And from there as a group we combined all our stories and point of views so that everyone’s ideas are being included.

My main role for this project was Editor. Considering i’ve never done an edit for a proper project before, i am really proud of the end product. The software that i used was Premiere Pro. This is because i have used it before during my internship. I also had a couple of friends that were willing to help in terms of giving feedback. And from these feedbacks, the story grew better and better.  

Based on the end product, the narrative that i visualised and can see is that the guy in the bathtub is having a hard time accepting the fact that he is entering fatherhood while his wife seems (from how we can hear her handling the baby) like a natural. As from the production design itself you could see that at one section there are the mens shampoo and on the other side there is a women’s shampoo along with a rubber duck. From that arrangement, the way i see it is that the guy is still in denial of his feelings and am still taking his own pace at accepting reality while the wife is stuck with the baby even before the baby was born. 

For the part where he is partially submerged in the bath tub, i cut into the part where he was gripping onto the sink to make it seem as if he’s gripping on his life. I’ve always had this belief that a person should never make decision when they are feeling an emotion so extremely (whether it’s sad or mad) because otherwise they’ll end up making bad decisions without even realising it. So the ideal way is to get a grip and start to think about it once you are calm and then only make a decision after. As for this guy you can see as soon as he sinks into the bathtub he was overwhelmed with his feelings. So after the part where he grips the sink it cuts back to the part where he’s in the bathtub that is to make it seem like he is thinking once again and the tap is like a call back to reality. Hence when he looked into the mirror, he see’s his father face. This is more like saying he see’s himself growing into fatherhood and his father’s appearance in the mirror is a visual symbolisation of him finally accepting fatherhood.

Throughout the whole critique, everyone seemed to have a clear idea of the narrative but as for the visuals and sounds there were a few critiques which is true. Most of our classmates did mention that the visuals were flat and this is due to the camera that we used was the Black Magic camera and for a novice editor, i’ve tried doing a few drafts with different colour but the end product is the one that everyone is mostly satisfied with.  Zoe also gave a few remarks where we could change to improvise and mostly were for sound. 

Kieran also mentioned that it would be more interesting if the first shot was facing the door as it is the only thing separating the guy from his family. But i remember getting a feedback from a friend where he mentioned that the first shot made so much sense in terms of the zooming out part makes it dreadful and like this character actually has a chance to get out (of feeling overwhelmed) as there’s a way out and the open window also represents freedom but instead he chooses to stay in his thoughts and letting himself consumed by his overthinking. As a person who overthinks a lot i too have a few experiences where i could see the answer right in front of me but the longer it takes for me to make a decision the answer seems to look further away and it seems harder to achieve. 

I’ve learned a lot throughout the whole process of making this project and i’d say that this is probably one of the most interesting and exciting project i’ve done as it is such a short yet slightly challenging project. Luckily, everyone from my group were really passionate and as this is a collaborative project, i’d say that everyone played a role in every aspect. All of us were excited with the end product and from the critiques given i’m sure that we’ll be able to improvise it and make it even better.

The link to our Cinehaiku is https://vimeo.com/469546681 (A New Leaf)

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Cinehaiku On Set Production Pictures

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Cinehaiku Production

Today was our shoot for Cinehaiku. My first ever shoot in Edinburgh. Although it was considered a short shoot, i learned a lot and bonded a bit with my group mates. I feel like it was honestly one of the most calmest shoot. This is of course due to them being super attentive and whenever there was a problem, they were quick to handle it. For most of the shoot i wasn’t able to do much but i did take note about any detail and was constantly reminding them if they almost forgot it. I also helped out Lauren with production design but for most of it she was the one doing it. Finlay and Shona were the ones that handled most of the cinematography aspect while me and Lauren took turns in handling light. Lauren handled more on Production Design for the rest of the shoot. I was more of a production assistant where as if there was anyone that need any help i would attend to it and at the same time try to take notes for post production in terms of sound and also gaining more ideas for how the editing would look like.

We started the shoot with a minor problem as our equipment wasn’t complete. But the group was quick to settle it by borrowing the equipment from another group that lived just around the corner. Turns out we overestimated the time for the schedule which to our luck was fortunate enough that we still managed to finish everything either on time or earlier. Despite the problem we had with the lack of equipment, we still managed to get the first shot done within a few minutes shortly before the younger actor arrived on set.

As soon as Joseph (The younger guy) arrived, Shona was the one to explained to him as to what he will be doing and filling him in with the details about the Cinehaiku while Finlay, Lauren and I tried to figure out some shots and how it should look like. As soon as everything was done, the actor quickly got undressed and started with scene 2 where he was already in the bathtub. He did a few takes so there’s variation for post and it was quite a challenge as we needed all his actions to be on time. I could also understand how tricky it might take some time for him as he might need to get into the mood before he could be fully into his character. Fortunately, Finlay and Shona was being super positive and kept saying that he did a great job but would always ask for a couple more and as time progresses he got comfortable and managed to do the actions on time. We also did some close up, medium and wide shots so that there are variation for post production. Not only that, we also had some footages with lighting and some without. This is just so that there are options for editing.

After that scene, we moved on to Scene 3 where it was the revelation part. This was when the guy looks up into the mirror and he could see his father’s reflection in the mirror. The way we shoot it was we had some close up of his hands gripping onto the sink and then proceeded with an over the shoulder shot of his looking up to the mirror. We did this a number of times also just for variation. And that was a wrap for the younger actor. The whole shoot for him ended very much earlier than expected as scheduled it to be 3 hours but we managed to wrap it up with Joseph within 30-40 minutes only. 

As we needed the camera to stay in the same place for the next shoot with the elder actor who was supposed to come in at about 3pm, we ended up leaving the camera at the same spot and turned it off (with the lens cap). We went out to get some lunch and came back immediately afterwards and eat in the house. 

At about 3pm the elder actor arrived and we did the same with recapping about the whole Cinehaiku idea and he was super fascinated and interested in it that he told us that he himself did some research about Cinehaiku as it was his first time hearing about it. He also bought a haiku book for himself. Finlay showed Stephan the previous shot so that he knows what to imitate. He got undressed and we all immediately shoot his scene. As his scene was so short, Shona asked if he wanted us to record any footages for his showreel just to show appreciation and he gladly accepted it.

Finally as soon as he finished, we all gave our gratitude and said our goodbyes to the elder actor. Right after that we reviewed some of the footages and decided to just try out another extra shot of a wider window in the kitchen where we could film the leaves of the tree in close up. We also attempted to do a few dolly shots but due to circumstances we weren't able to make one. We ended the shoot with transferring footages into Finlay’s laptop and my hard drive.

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Cinehaiku Production Schedule Planning

Date of Shoot: 4th October 2020

Production Schedule (Rough estimation):

9:40am: Arrive on set

10am : Setting up camera Start shoot for the Scene 1 (Dolly Shot of the bathroom window that shows the trees)

12pm : Younger Guy arrives Scene 2 (The man sitting in the bathtub and then slowly sinking in) Scene 3 (Over the shoulder shot of the man looking at the mirror of the bathroom) (Do not move the camera)

3pm : Elder Guy arrives Scene 3 (The Elder guy appears in the mirror)

4:30pm : Wrap

Items to bring for the shoot : Towels (Lauren) Spray Bottle (Shona) Plants (Shona) Baby Bath Toys (Lauren)

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Cinehaiku Pre Production Meetings

For our pre production we had about 5-6 zoom meetings and there was one time where we met and that was due to us picking up the equipment from Screen Academy and storing at Finlay’s flat which was our location also.

Pre Production Meetings:

18 Sept 2020 - Confirmation of the idea. Discussed having a mirror in the shoot. Interested in doing a shoot in the forest. Lauren suggested this as an inspiration (SZA - Go Gina Stripped version https://youtu.be/DpSWgZVIfi8). Everyone is required to make their mood board so that we’d know that we are on the same page.

22 Sept 2020 - Tutorial with Zoe. Shona did the casting call poster. Finding ways for all 4 of us to have our own roles for the shoot. Anith appointed as editor as she may only help remotely as there's a delay in her visa. Finalise a date for the shoot which is on the 4th of October.

24 Sept 2020 - Changed the plot slightly from an outdoor shoot to an indoor shoot that is located in a bathroom. All four of us explained what we thought about the story behind the haiku. All of us agreed that it’s more about shedding into a new version of yourself. The story is more specific now that we know the character is a newly-father that is overwhelmed with his life as he sinks into his bathtub. Sounds of the newly born baby could be heard along with sounds of crashing + a couple fighting.

27 Sept 2020 - Talked about equipment booking. Confirming the talents from the casting call. Lauren handled the Risk Assessment form while Shona handled the Booking for the equipment. Finlay emailed the finalist talents.

29 Sept 2020 - Tutorial with Zoe and Kieran. Finalise booking with Ben.

30 Sept 2020 - Meet up at Screen Academy to pick up Equipment and store it at Finlay’s House. Zoom call meet up to discuss in detail about the schedule for the shooting date and to confirm with the talents about the timings. Discussed about the stuff we’ll need to bring during the shoot. 

References: SZA - Go Gina Stripped version https://youtu.be/DpSWgZVIfi8 (Initial mirror in the woods idea) Contact , tricky mirror scene https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZD0_5HFMPIg (A nice reference to our current cinehaiku) HAUNTED MIRROR EFFECT - How To Make Your Reflection Do Something Else In Adobe Premiere Pro https://youtu.be/Wo6kj3XX0og (editing wise for the mirror part)

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Cinehaiku

For the Cinehaiku project, i was appointed as editor as i was initially supposed to be joining the shoot remotely. Fortunately, i was able to fly in to the country a week before the shoot.

My group mates were Finlay, Lauren and Shona. Initially had trouble finding groups as i was the new student amongst the year 3 students but i asked around and some people pointed out that this group has a spot left.

When i joined the group, they were already sharing ideas where shona had one about Tarot Haiku and Finlay shared one of his favourite Haikus which was from Murakami Hijo. The haiku was

First autumn morning the mirror I stare into shows my father's face.

The three of us agreed to use this haiku as it made sense to us and that it was do-able. Towards the end of our meeting, each and everyone of us agreed to make an individual mood board so that we know that we are on track. The mood board that i had in mind while reading this during that time was not as clear but as i looked on Pinterest i could see us trying out a few of the shots as it would probably make sense. Despite the group wanting to use a mirror, my thought was more about reflection as it could be a metaphor like situation and that i would also make sense and fit in well with the story.

At one point of the meeting, i suggested my idea to the group and everyone was super supportive and took in some of my idea into consideration. After hearing most of their ideas, i could see that all three of them had the same perspective where it was more about a guy turning into a new chapter in his life where he can see himself getting older and due to resemblance he could see himself turning into his father. What i could see from that was a tad bit different where i could see it from a perspective of a young father who is overwhelmed with getting a newborn baby into an unstable marriage where he and his girlfriend was not financially stable and are not the brightest ideal parents as they are constantly fighting and arguing. But on the first day of autumn which is when the baby is born, i could see the young guy looking into a puddle and seeing his father’s face in the reflection. In my mind that was more like a wake up call where he could see that if he continues letting his overwhelmed self take full charge of himself then he’d turn out like his abusive father. We ended up compromising and took everyone’s ideas into account and turned it into one solid story.