After I finished my first documentary project, I was quite impressed with the outcome, because most of the ideas Samantha and I wanted to achieve in the film were successfully accomplished.

We wanted to have a film with a smooth flow, from the beginning to the end, we managed to show a clear process from having a question to looking for answer and finally state out our answer. We also wanted to make the film into a personal journey of finding the answer, because the topic is closely related to us, and this was also successfully accomplished. The personal emotion was especially clear in the ending of the film.

I also consider the visual part of the film very successful. In my previous blog posts, multiple times I mentioned that I wanted to make the foods in the film look as good as possible. In order to make this work we borrow LED panels from RMIT and I used my macro lens to shoot the scenes in a high frame rate. The hard work pays off and the footage looks very beautiful, I am very satisfied with it.

However, during the shooting we also had some technical difficulties. Because we wanted to shoot with different types of lenses so we shot the film with a DSLR camera, but my camera was too old so the auto focus function cannot operate once it starts filming. I had to manually focus the camera in many different environments and it was quite a challenge for me, but I am glad the footage came out fine. Next time I will make sure my filming equipment has all the functions I need so we will not waste any precious time during the shooting, this can also secure the quality of our footage. In my last week’s post I stated that there is room for improvements for our plan of shooting, so that is also what I will keep my mind on for my next project.

This project has helped me learn more about the Chinese food culture and different people’s view on the authenticity of food. Chinese foods can be categorized into so many genres and all of them can be some different from each other, this is also why I am not so familiar with some of the Chinese foods although I am Chinese. This project has allowed me to ask people from different provinces in China and has a better, more diverse understanding of our own culture. The conclusion is our film also made me realize that it is almost impossible to define a very personal topic because every individual can have his or her own answers and there is no strict rule to judge it as right or wrong.

Overall, this project has helped me become a better media practitioner and more familiar with documentary filmmaking. I was able to find an answer of a question that I was very interested in and also gained an important experience as in making my first documentary. Those difficulties I ran into during the semester have taught me to be more careful and thoughtful, and I am sure my next project will run smoother and the film will be even better.