#4 ASSIGNMENT
Joining this course, I was definitely not expecting the knowledge and learning progress I have currently obtained. As this semester was also held online instead of in campus, it was definitely a little harder to not only work as a group but also attending the classes. Starting this reflection off, I want to acknowledge that this semester, I had the opportunity to attend my wonderful lecturer Cassandra’s classes. She never fails to make the classes entertaining, with my wonderful online classmates as well. For this assignment, our task was to create a 2-5 minute short film as a group. I was blessed enough to be working with Sa who is a directing and editing genius, and Miller who was super nice despite being overseas in China. I was actually not the best in providing the most physical work in presentations due to some circumstances I was going through in my personal life, but for this assignment I had the wonderful opportunity to act in our film. We had a wonderful idea that not only is taking inspiration from the 1994 film Chungking Express, but our crazy talented Sa also tried to recreate the camera visuals. Our idea and concept was to showcase one’s mind and our thoughts with the aesthetic storyline. The process of making this short film was incredibly fun despite it being only Sa and I, as Miller is not in the country. Nonetheless, we split the scenes with a day and night shoot so we could capture the adaptation of Asian culture into the project as well.
Moving on to what I have learnt from this project, firstly would to be the camera specifications when filming to achieve certain shots. Sa was teaching and educating me on how achieve the aesthetic from a few iconic scenes from Chungking Express, which was incredibly eye opening to view the inspired shots and the cinematography of blurry yet storytelling shots come to life. Not only did I learn the camera shots, I also learnt on how to use a gimbal and the different lighting in the shots as we did not use any artificial studio lights or ring lights. The third main takeaway I have learnt would be an improvement in my acting skills as I have never acted in public the way I did in this, it was definitely a experience. We tried many locations, lighting angles and all sorts to be able to find the best shots. Not to forget, it was extremely fun to be able to do our day and night scenes. The night shoot was refreshing, I’ve started to look at a Melbourne in a different perspective.
Another key thing to be reflected on was if there was one thing I would have done differently, I would have managed my time better. I would have planned my time better to focus on the project more instead of the issues in my personal life, but it has passed and I will work on it in the future. Moreover, how I would improve on my time management issues while having some timezone differences next time would be managing the role of planning in advance and time allocation. Despite my not-so-great time management, a not so serious challenge I faced that I actually find funny was a challenge for me to act sad and lost in our short film. Reason to it being a challenge would be because I could not stop laughing, it was tough to truly try and express my feelings from the inside that were ‘sad’ or ‘unhappy’ as I was filled with energy, but I have overcome that challenge with the help of the positive energy during filming.
In conclusion for this reflection, I learnt a number of things about myself. Firstly, I learnt that I actually have a developing passion for acting and performing, it was incredibly fun to be so creative inspired with my brain spiralling with potential future ideas. Secondly, it would be the confidence levels I thought I did not have was actually there the entire time. Not to forget lastly, would be the perseverance, consistent habits and patience I have developed during the span of this project. There were many times I felt lost in this assignment and teamwork truly matters, having the right team mates creates the best mindset to be in for growth. To officially end this reflection, if there was one thing I would develop in the future would be an extension or extended series of our short film in the future. It was truly an incredible semester, and in fact the most eye-opening one yet!
VIDEO LINK: https://vimeo.com/655283082