Red Sonya

Film Description

Sonya keeps dreaming about strange things and everything seems related to red objects. Meanwhile, in real life, she is delivered a red bag. After she receives the red bag, everything becomes different. Things that she dreamed about seem to really happen in real life. 

Poster

Three favourite edits

Edited by Astley Tay

Red Sonya (Astley) from Media Factory on Vimeo.

Edited by Belinda Tan

Edited by Christian Berzi

Our film & comments

Aaron Harper

Red Sonya aaron from Media Factory on Vimeo.

When thinking about what I gained from Small Things, I feel like I gained more than just knowledge of the industry, I feel like I gained something more on a personal level. When I started Small things, I was unsure what to expect or if I even belonged in the studio itself. Over the whole semester I felt that things became more clear on what was expected of me and I personally felt that at times I may have not looked like I was on the ball or made little to any effort, I felt that I was up to the challenge. As the semester went on and I got close with people in the class, things got a lot more easier on where I was going in life and I felt during my time with the group project I had that ‘ah ha!’ moment where I knew what I wanted to do when my time at RMIT university came to an end and that was I wanted to be in this industry of creating ideas and making them come to life behind the camera. I gained a lot of new confidence in myself and knowledge that I will forever be thankful for.

Astley Tay

Red Sonya (Astley) from Media Factory on Vimeo.

After spending 12 weeks in the course, I can definitely say that I have gained a lot of knowledge on cinema. I am happy that I did a lot of exercises throughout the semester as they give me a lot of thoughts and ideas on cinema as well as my future.

The first thing that I think I’ve gained the most is the confidence in operating the camera. This studio allows me to touch on the professional video camera but I admit that I wasn’t confident enough at the beginning of this semester. After doing multiple exercises in this studio, I would say I am more than happy to volunteer myself as the camera operator when it comes to a film production.

Secondly, I would say I have gained some capabilities to break down a scene and take a deeper look into it. I have noticed the mise-en-scene in different kinds of films, for example, the editing pace, the lighting of a scene, and the production design. There’s actually so much stuff happening in a scene and I’m glad that this course allows me to have the ability to observe more in a scene.

Last but not least, I would say I’ve learned how to work in a team. In this studio, I did a lot of exercises in class with different peers. I’m glad that I’m able to give my ideas and work well in a team most of the time. I personally think I did a good job and I’m happy with most of the projects.

Overall, this is a very great studio and it really gives me the knowledge in filmmaking and cinema which I would like to take them along into my future career path. Thanks, Paul!

Belinda Tan

Through small things, I learned the process of film making in pre-production, production, and post-production. I also learned more information about the roles of different film crews and how they are all equally important no matter what their title is.

Before small things, I never knew the tedious process of pre-production such as creating a shot list and planning a storyboard as I usually skip that part and go straight to filming. I have always thought of that process as redundant but after incorporating it into assignment 2 and 3, I realised that it helps to have a plan as it gives us an understanding of what would happen on the shoot day itself. This is not only important for the crew but for the actors and actresses as they would need to know what is happening and which area they would be at to prepare better for their roles.

For production, I finally appreciated the video camera even when I am on team DSLR. Shooting on a video camera allowed everyone in the crew (including the actors/actresses) to see what’s happening. If we shot in DSLR, we would still need to add an external HDMI which consists of wires and defeats the purpose of practicality. I also learned the technical aspects of the video cameras like JVC HD PRO and their functions.

I learned so much for post-production even though I am working as a freelance editor. I never knew the power of editing by a scene until I learned and tried it in small things. Editing by scene allowed me to have more focus on the flow of the take and scene itself without being distracted by other footages. By duplicating the sequence and nesting it, I was allowed to make changes more freely without affecting or having a messy timeline. This helped a lot especially if a film has a lot of scenes and shots and requires linear storytelling. I also got to experiment with colour grading and ventured into colour grades that I never thought I would use (e.g sepia/black and white tones).

Having the class discussion about films and suggesting ideas was also great in the sense that it was collaborative learning and all of us gained knowledge from each other’s ideas and mistakes. In conclusion, small things was a really interesting studio as I got to gain so many insights to film making and being constrained allowed me to find solutions to solve it, contributing to my learning process while exercising it.

Christian Berzi

This studio has given me valuable skills, specifically regarding shot construction which was my core goal coming in to this semester. Before Small Things I believed that I was more skilled at editing film rather than shooting it, after this semester I now believe the opposite is true.

My new skills help me to think carefully about the frame and critically assess everything in it. The excitement I found from selecting and including props in my films now has expanded to set dressing too. The limited time of the project didn’t allow for ideal set dressing or even much at all. This is my greatest disappointment about the project however I am extremely satisfied with almost everything else.

My opinions about making film have changed throughout this semester. I had a relaxed attitude towards script writing because I had too much confidence in my post production skills. I learnt that this attitude was inefficient and that scripts need good details as our actors were forced to write their own lines and improvise to a great extent because my script didn’t have the necessary information. This resulted in a mixed bag but a net negative was the time I had wasted.

Sarah Liu

This semester I chose The Small Things Studio as my third semester. During this semester, I learned a lot of very useful and professional knowledge, such as how to set up a camera tripod, how to reset the camera’s exposure, white balance and how to choose the shooting angle and record video and audio. These studies have made me more aware of how behind-the-scenes shooting, editing and how the overall program should work. Let me have a deeper understanding and understanding of professional equipment and software. Teamwork is also a very important part of it. This semester I also learned how to express my ideas and purpose in a more professional language and way. Storyboards, audio recordings, shooting angles, and lighting positions are all necessary. I have learned more deeply in the study of this semester. In the editorial section, I am also more familiar with and proficient with the Adobe Premiere software. Through color grading, video editing and audio, background music exercises. I am more proficient and profound about Adobe Premiere.

Crew Photo