Media Studies (Film Opening) Week 10 - Shooting / Detailing

28/Mar 

Today, me and John had free time at the same time. But Ruguosier was having a class at that time. So me and John confirmed and checked the locations for the study area. We were thinking to use a library or cafeteria, but we made the shoot for scene 6, Grace's scene, and it looked good, so we decided to use them as a sample or the actual film video. I was also suggesting including the slow clock ticking sound for shot 6 to show how Grace got bored and how the time felt so slow to her.

We also took scene 2, the school campus scene. Kids were playing, and Grace walked behind them intentionally. This scene will continue to the next scene with Grace walking on the school campus or corridor.

And we also heard that Ruguosier is leaving us on April 2 for his visa run.

Scene 2

Scene 6

29/Mar

Today, we cast a different actress in Olivia's role. Because Olivia's character was very sick and could not come to school for 2–3 days, Even our media studies teacher suggested we change our plan to use a different actress. Thankfully, my classmate Esther was willing to join us. Confirmed as our actress. I was at first worried about her style and small body (at first, I thought she did not fit our characters; she did not look very extrovert to me), so we ran all around the school to find someone who matched our characters roles. But as I looked at Esther closely, I saw that she fit our character's role. Even in real life, she is an extrovert. John and Ruguosier also ran all the school campuses and agreed to have Esther be our actress. She was also very willing to help us.

Shot 7: We wrote the shot list as this shot will show Olivia sitting down and Olivia and Grace meeting. But we decide not to sit Olivia down because standing up looks more natural. We put in some extras when Olivia is on the scene. (extra=Olivia's new friends on her first day of school.)

Shot 9: We tried an over-the-shoulder shot. In this scene, both Ruguosier and John tried some angles. But I didn't really like the angle. So we decided to zoom in or crop out the edges and make the scene a medium-close-up shot. In this shot, Grace's facial expressions of awkwardness and a little nervousness will be shown.

Shot 10: We filmed in the cafeteria, but the school time was almost over. We couldn't focus on our filming, and there's a lot of background noise and bags and stuff, so we can't use them as an actual film. So for shot 10, today, we only made how the camera will be set and how we will stand, etc. It was awkward to act and direct in front of the other students. I felt respect for other directors, actors, and actresses. But we could use this shot as the sample. This expressed what we wanted to express. 

31/Mar

Today we shot all the shots that we need. We shoot scenes 4, 5, 8, and 10. It was very hard to change the actress and get some extras in each scene. It was hard for me to do multiple things, which are acting, checking the angle, resetting the location and shooting a bit, directing the other actress and actor, and many other things.

We split shot 4 into two parts, which are the leg shot at a lower angle to make Olivia's crunchy more visible, which will continue in the next study area scene. And also a medium shot, in which a stranger walks behind her and she surprises him immediately, which shows Grace's personality.

And for scene 5, we added a door-closing scene(we're not sure if we are using it or not), which is the place where Olivia enters to change her normal clothes into the school uniform (which is a new school uniform to her). This suggested that they are going to be best friends in the future as a part of the actual film, and we wanted to set the changing scene as an intended representation part. We were at first planning to make the actress walk through the camera to show her crunchy, which can be continuous from the last scene. But we made the actress change her outfit into a uniform. Because her change of uniform shows that she’s getting used to this school rapidly, her personality is extremely extroverted and confident when hanging out with new friends. Her eagerness to meet new friends takes part in the shot, and this is shown by Olivia’s rushing in and out of the door. It was fun for me to create the story and intention from the actress's dressing relating to her personality. The shot was taken in a continuous (technically longer) shot.

This is what we took(maybe we'll need to crop out some part or stable some parts horizontally):

Scene 4

Scene 5

Scene 8

Scene 10