Wednesday, August 19, 2009
{ 3:47 PM }
The second round of filming was far more successful than the first. As we were keeping most of the shot angles and the director was the same, we had a easy time doing the filming. The experience we collected from the first round of filming was extremely beneficial in this round of filming, as we took a far shorter time to complete each scene. We also cut short most of the long scenes, mainly in order to create more film effects but also partly for the benefit of the actors. This allowed us to aviod the '26 takes record' we had in the first round of filming. While the first round of filming took 5 nights of hard-core filming, this time we only took 2 nights of focused and concentrated shooting. It was surprising to our team as well.
Instead of using a real HDB flat, we changed our set to the Boarding School as it was much more convenient for the teachers. We were also allowed to view the talented actors we had as teachers, which was a real eye-opener.
The equipment that we were allowed in this round of filming was also very beneficial for our film.We were now able to adjust the light exposure, the colour, and the focus to suit our filming needs. The greatly enhanced resolution of this camera also boosted our film a great deal. As for the audio effects, the boom mike used allowed us to catch conversations even in the most populated and noisy environments, such as in the MacDonalds scene in the film, which we failed to do in the first round.
Labels: boarding school, second filming
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
{ 10:46 PM }
However, despite how accomplished we felt about our first round of filming, it was not up to the standard we wanted. We were only allowed a handycam for our first round, as the teachers did not trust us with the professional video cameras. This caused our footage to be of considerably poor quality, and the audio was also lacking in sharpness, resulting in a poorly made film. Our actors were also comprised mainly of our team members, with teenagers of 15/16 years of age taking up the roles of adults. The only team member whom did not act in the first round was the director himself. This was also extremely problematic, as the film turned out to be like a kid project, instead of a quality film that we wanted.
This led to our second round of filming, but this time, we were allowed access to the professional video cameras and the boom mike, which significantly enhanced our footage and audio quality. It also allowed us acces to changing the 'high-tech' options during the process of capturing the footage, thus making it easier to create more sophisticated filming effects. This time, we were also able to get our teachers to take up the adult roles in the film, making the film far more authentic than before. I would say that this is an extremely positive change from the first round of filming.
Labels: first filming session, Problems, standard
Thursday, June 25, 2009
{ 12:00 AM }
The first filming round had been a tiring process. We had a schedule planned out for our filming, but, like most plans, it is not easy to follow. We had hoped to start filming at 7pm at Lingfeng's house, but distractions after distractions came towards us and we only started after 8pm. Being set at night, our story only makes our film even easier to be pushed later into the night, especially when we are tired after a day of school.
Being the first time doing a film for many members of the team(which is four out of five members), we did encounter many problems with the filming. The angles for the shots planned in the storyboard were not as easy to be done as we thought. The first night of our filming presented us with many flaws in our plans, as we completely underestimated the amount of time required for each scene to be shot. We even had a scene which took 26 takes, a total 2 hours worth of hard work for a mere one minute in real time. This also taught us to cut our scenes shorter to make it much easier for the actors, as longer scenes only make it far more difficult for the actors to recite the lines and act it out at the same time. This 2 hours of exhausting work soured our moods as we took take after take, reciting the same lines over and over again while at the same time trying to act the best we could.
To sum up the first round of filming, i would say that it may be the most educational process of all. I doubt any of the teammates had expected filming to be so difficult and tiring, but when we really went down to the set to start our filming, we really tasted the hardship that all filmmakers face all the time. Furthermore, we also gained essential experiences about film and acting techniques, and we did try out the different shots to create different effects for our film.
Labels: first round of filming
Thursday, May 14, 2009
{ 9:38 AM }
We just found a couple of really interesting films that gave us more inspiration for our very own film production! They are as follows, we'll use them in our respective research to further explore their effects on family relationships:
1) Singapore dreaming [a film that showcases the renowned 5 'C's of Singaporeans]
2) College Road Trip [a Disney film that explores how a family communicates with each other, and learn to compromise]
3) I not Stupid [a Jack Neo film looking into education, and how important it is as a reflection of social class]
4) I not Stupid too [a sequel to 'i Not stupid' further looking into Singaporean families]
We're looking for more actually, considering Forrest Gump! but not sure if that is that feasible.
Labels: college road trip, i not stupid, inspirations, singapore dreaming
Sunday, April 19, 2009
{ 8:39 AM }
Through the process of film-making, our group hopes to explore a couple of themes that are extremely pertinent in the society. A community can often be represented by a family. However, family problems are often a result of social ills in the community as a whole. In this film, we touched upon the themes of social class, intra-family communication, stark generation gaps as well as domestic conflicts. Classified under the umbrella of strained family relationships, we can see that all these themes that we have identified have strong links with the issue at hand. The film aims to act as a stereotype, showing a typical family relationship, between a father, a sole breadwinner; and a teenage son, still oblivious to the outside world, and hence failing to appreciate his father’s hardships.
The problem of social class has been looked into both in general, and specifically, into family ties. Many problems within a family are often a result of differences in social classes within a community. People begin to compare their social class, where the higher classed claim superiority through their ability to support their own material needs. Not only does this divide the community, it divides a family, especially when one compares his own parent’s social status to someone else’s, just like in the film ‘father and son’.
Communication between family members is also a good theme to look into, as this is often what we call a ‘catalyst’ to further conflicts. Due to a lack of efficient communication, misunderstandings often brew, resulting in further arguments to something that both parties are not clear about. Through this film, we hope to be able to analyze and see how important communication is, even if it was through letter writing, or even talking verbally.
We indentified a stark contrast in generation gaps, due to the change in mindset and concepts over the years. Due to generation gaps between the older and younger generations, this is indeed a cause of conflict between older and younger parties. With such generation gaps present, the film explores the ideas of how these contrasts can affect the relationship between a father and a son, and how this gap causes misunderstandings that lead to family conflicts, within the Singaporean context.
Labels: communication, father and son, generation gap, social class, themes
