In the second film project, I had the opportunity to work by myself or work with others. However, I thought to myself, why not do both? So after three productions (including myself), I made a lot of memories and gained a lot of experience from all these productions. They were all very different productions with Pavina going for the advertisement route, Ben hosting his own talk show and finally, mine being an interview.

Pavina’s assignment:

In these productions, I wasn’t deeply involved or invested in it as much as I was for my own, naturally. In Pavina’s project, I decided that I would help her out with cinematography as she expressed that she wanted to learn more about it and improve on it. With that in mind, we tried to make it flashy and “commercial-ly” as much as we could – a lot of advertisements aim to make the product and the model wearing the product stand out. During production, Pavina had also planned locations to showcase and make the shoes stand out even more. Melbourne is known for their structural architecture with the mix of traditional and modern buildings, along with the natural settings such as the gardens and parks.

I also believe there were bits of inspiration from our previous short film, “Missed Moments” – a silent film and a “landscape-y”, architectural type of short film. There were a lot of similarities between Pavina’s first film project and her second one – the music score was important for both films and crucial to setting the whole mood of the film. Her backstory also followed a similar path with Missed Moments, with Chinatown being the ending scene of both short films.

I also took part in the post-production process, only for the colour correcting and the stabilising stage. It was all left for Pavina to sequence the scenes but I had a general idea of how she was going to organise each and every scene. During the production, we made sure to film the transitions from one shoe to another, creating a stylised effect of switching from one scene to another. I believe these types of transitions makes it interesting for the viewers, especially since it is such a simple video with commercial aspects to it. Behind the editing are the emotional aspects that were directed by Pavina and performed by the actress and actor –emotions serve to organise perception and action to attain specific goals (Texeira, 2012) and through this commercial video, that was achieved not only by including what was supposed to be advertised (the shoes) but also the facial expressions of the actress.

Transition at 00:16, 00:46, 1:34 and 2:02 

In this production, I tried to not overstep my boundaries as I was only helping out Pavina with her project – I felt like I took the lead with the previous film project but this time, I let Pavina figure how she wanted to shots to look but of course, I helped her out. All in all, it was all a very collaborative effort and I feel like Pavina and I work quite well together. I’m looking forward for more future projects with her!

Ben’s assignment:

This will fairly be short as I was only involved in the production process. I also had no idea what the content was going to be, except that it was going to be filmed in a studio setting.

Most of the communication was done on Facebook, and I’m proud of Ben for managing to set up a whole crew of talented folks, especially the talent, George Bush’s impersonator. Through all of my previous experiences in a studio, I applied all the knowledge I had to help out Ben with lighting and autocue. Autocue was a breeze but it was lighting that I struggled with for the most part. For the first time, I finally had the opportunity to physically move the lighting and playing around with the settings. Doing it all on my work has made me experience more and go through a learning curve that can only happen through practical work. All in all, I think I got the desired look that Ben was aiming for and I hope he is happy with the final shot:

I am more than happy to help out Ben in the future and also possibly collaborate with him on any future projects. He really takes on this “dark humor” persona really well and is something that should be explored thoroughly.

My own production:

RESEARCH FOCUS: Character development, drama and reality 

During my pitch in the earlier weeks of the semester, I had expressed that I wanted to focus on more the dramatic and realistic aspects of life. Initially, I was not planning on having a production for myself and all on my own – I was planning to collaborate with Pavina once again but I thought that truly following my research focus was important to me and my development as an aspiring filmmaker.

I had expressed that I was interested in family issues from the examples that I showed but James had told me to reconsider whether it was cinematography or the content that I wanted to focus on. Eventually, I came with the conclusion that it was the content (drama, reality) that I was interested in. Having a simple production and shoot would have made it easier for me to truly focus on developing the theme of the whole film. I was inspired by this video to pursue this kind of content, where real-life issues are being discussed with minimal effort for cinematography and all that technical jazz.

You can clearly see the underlying drama that is about to unfold as you watch it throughout the ending of the video and that is exactly what I was aiming for.

As I was developing what the film was going to be about, I actually had a difficult time figuring that part out. With the little time I had, I knew that I could only rely on the resources I had around me and that was my family. I knew for sure that it was going to be an uncomfortable situation, especially with me asking questions that involved their personal lives. It’s not that I had no knowledge of what was happening with them but more so the fact that they were going to speak about it on camera with an audience. Despite all of those worries, I managed to finalise what it was going to be about.

So yes, a lot of personal questions involved with a little backstory of themselves. It is important for the viewers to be engaged with the people on screen so I thought that if they talked about their occupation and the difficulties of it, it would add nice little touch to the overall short film.

The editing process was one of the most difficult and longest process that I have ever encountered. Storyboarding and editing different stories from the talents was difficult to coordinate but eventually I got there. Initially, I was planning to actually incorporate the questions in the video to guide the viewers. However, when I had my talk with James, he suggested that in order to make the video artistic, “make links and connection between the same topics”. It did make it hard at times to make links between what the talents were talking about. To make my editing job easier, I wrote it down:

I numbered what was the most relevant to each other in order to make the links and also broke it down to three parts as seen in the second photo. In comparison to my initial vision where it was going be organised by each question, I decided to make a whole story about it and turned out better and interesting all thanks to James’ suggestion.

James had also suggested that to get reinspired from the constant editing, colour-correcting it in the earlier stages could potentially help out with that. I had no plans to actual put a LUT on it and was simply just planning to adjust the exposure, contrast, etc. However, the LUT that I used put a much more dramatic effect on the whole video and added the right amount of shadows that I needed to slightly hide their face and highlight the key light (in this case, it would be the left side).

You can see that there is sort of a film effect to it, something I would refer to as an “indie film” look. The LUT and the content did compliment each other and only made the video more interesting to watch (at least I thought it did).

In terms of the music score, that is something that I am extremely proud of but also something that I struggled choosing. I didn’t really know what mood I was going for, other than the fact that it was drama. My most reliable source for music is Youtube’s audio library and naturally, I went through the dramatic, dark and inspirational genres for the music score. After a few tries and few trials and errors, I’m happy with the overall finished product. That is the, the look, the content, the music and basically the whole film itself.

The only negative thing I can say about this short film is that you are able to tell that it is a student film/low budget film. Because I didn’t focus too much on the technicality and the cinematography, it didn’t have the intended look that I wanted, much like in the video example that I provided above. However, I think all the other aspects compensated for the lack of budget I had for this student film.

My whole production has made me realise the artistic, technical and creative capabilities that I can reach and keep continuing to reach. I hope to make even better videos like this with better production value.

Academic Resources:

Ben and I were initially planning to collaborate because I had mentioned that I was interested in wanting to do a studio shoot. However, we both totally had conflicting ideas so we decided to go separate ways. However, I was still planning to help him out as he was still interested in filming in a studio.

I have had quite a few experiences with studio sets so I was more than happy to help Ben out – I’ve mostly worked with autocue, camera operating and a little bit of lighting. In this production, I mostly worked on lighting and autocue.

Ben’s style of production was a late night talk show, so a lot of artificial and studio lighting was required. This was my first time physically moving the lighting in a studio setting with no help – however, I believe it turned out fine and went for the intended look. I also kept the juxtaposition in mind in terms of his script and the “talk show” vibe that he wanted to go for.

It was also interesting to finally put the experience I had to use. These past few months, I have been volunteering for RMITV but I never actually had the chance to apply those new skills on my own.

Lighting and autocue – that was all I could from Ben’s production – I won’t be able to help him out with post-production but I’m glad that I was able to assist him with his late night talk show with George Bush.

Initially, I wasn’t going to make my own video considering I already have a lot on my plate – Pavina and Ben’s assignment to help out with on top of the post-production work and also other assignments for my assessment. Ultimately, I wanted to have my own work to take pride in plus have Pavina and Ben’s project as extra work for extra experience.

Lately, I’ve been into the whole concept of lighting and how it works – I’ve had a fascination around it since the start of the semester. This time, I wanted to actually get a bit more technical and use my own lighting – I rented through RMIT AV Loans alongside a boom pole and microphone.

The inspiration behind this all came from shows that I’ve watched on Netflix, called American Vandal and Youtube that helped me out with knowing how to use lighting:

Soft Boxes 101: A Lighting Lesson 

You can see how well-lit both of these examples are especially around the face and how it creates nice shadows around it as well. The quality of American Vandal is something that I am to go for –

I also studied three-point lighting through Youtube videos and reading websites such as forums and articles that give advice in order to manipulate lighting to how we want it. What I found out through these tips were the three main lighting and that was:

• Key light – the main point of lighting and should be the brightest out of all the three. It can be placed either on the left or right side on a 45º angle and hits the subject’s face nicely to create dimension on either side of the face.
• Fill light – if you would rather not have any shadows on the face, you use 50% of the fill light to make up for the shadows. In my project, however, I wanted it to have a more serious and less-gimmicky look so I only used 15-25% of the fill light.
• Finally, for the backlight – it’s not completely necessary but if you wanted your production to have a more elevated look, you can use it to highlight the hair of your subject and also a little bit of the white backdrop.

I believe that I have achieved it in some ways, but due to the type of equipment that I’ve hired (it isn’t on the high-end level like other productions have used), it didn’t exactly produce the type of results that I wanted, much like in the sample photos above. However, it was still a fair attempt of replicating the standard lighting technique to get the best dimension out of the subject’s face. Here are the results:

These are all the raw images I took before actually shooting the video – they were also my subject for my final video. You can see the shadows on the right side of their face, including the background – it was exactly what I wanted but obviously, it doesn’t have the same quality that was aiming for from the examples that I provided. Despite that, these footages and images are a good starting point for me, especially for my journey and progress to be a capable videographer/cinematographer.

In terms of the content, I will be honest – I was still unsure what my video was supposed to be about, despite setting up and preparing my set. I figured that I would freestyle and talk to the people who were willing to be part of my production. Because I did make the lighting look a bit more serious and dramatic. I definitely knew that I was going to be interviewing people in regards to life matters – it’s just that I didn’t know what exactly the content was going to be about. However, as I got closer to the shooting time with my family, I eventually decided on the topic:

What advice would you give to your past self? 

And basically talks of their life experiences.

I interviewed people in my life to answer the questions from above – it also didn’t have to follow the exact format as I freestyled during the interview, I asked questions that followed their answer to make the interview lengthier. Of course, everything will be edited once it is on Premiere Pro. My plans for it is to segment the same questions together instead of putting it from one interview to another. Once it’s all put together, it’ll have a dramatic and serious tone (I hope).

Due to Pavina’s video being a commercial shoot, we wanted to go for the highly-stylised aesthetic, mainly for the commercial aspect of the whole video. We were inspired by this video from a Youtuber who does fashion lookbooks, Wendy’s Lookbook:

Due to Pavina’s video being a commercial shoot, we wanted to go for the highly-stylised aesthetic, mainly for the commercial aspect of the whole video. We were inspired by this video, from The aim of the final product is for the video to have a lot of fast-cuts, connecting transitions and is essentially a marketing video. It’s as if we were making an advertisement but of course, we are not affiliated with any brands. It’s more so on the focus of each shoe for each category – work, fashion, sport, streetwear and formal.

The aim of the final product is for the video to have a lot of fast-cuts, connecting transitions and is essentially a marketing video. It’s as if we were making an advertisement but of course, we are not affiliated with any brands. It’s more so on the focus of each shoe for each category – work, fashion, sport, streetwear and formal.

For cinematography, Pavina expressed her interest in wanting to improve in that field so I decided to help her out with it. We both decided on the type of shots we wanted for this shoot so it wasn’t entirely my own idea for the how the scene would look. For post-production, I discussed with Pavina that I would be in charge of colour-correcting, correcting the shots and stabilising any shaky footage. Even as a cinematographer, post-production is still an important aspect for us to focus on.

You can clearly outline the difference between the original footage and the newly-edited one. In this commercial shoot, the aesthetic was for the colours to be more pronounced and well-contrasted against the background. The focal point were the shoes after all and I wanted to make sure they were the main attraction of the video. For commercial videos, it is important for videos to look aesthetically pleasing in order for potential consumers to be interested in the brand. Although this is not a legitimate, paid commercial, I still kept that in mind as if I were editing for a client.

Pavina is in charge of the editing so once she’s happy with her edits, I will fully colour correct the remaining scenes for it to be submitted and be (potentially) ready for the Media Studio presentation night!

As you have seen in the pitch, Pavina was interested in going to the advertising route for her final film project. As we have worked together before, I thought it was a great idea to help her out with her vision and further her experience with cinematography. As for me, I thought it would interesting to dabble with commercial shooting – it was a very easy shoot and was all done in a day. It was also a simple plot with the main focus on the shoes and so, very little acting was required for the actor and actress.

The only real challenge was maintaining our stamina as we had to shoot across different locations. By the third location, we were all starting to get tired – we started filming at one in the afternoon and finished filming by eight in the evening.

In this blog post, I am going to talk about the technicalities of the whole shoot and how we filmed. The camera that we used was the Nikon D3200 and the Canon 80D alongside with a gimbal/stabiliser, the GlideCam 2000. There were a lot of difficulties that came along with using the camera and a stabiliser, mainly because it was my first time using the gimbal, Canon D and the Nikon D3200 with a 24-70mm lens, f2.8 (which mind you, was a massive lens). Whilst filming, it was all a learning process for me and Pavina in terms of how to use these types of equipment. It took us a few tries to get the perfect shot but overall, it was a quick process for us to learn the tricks of the gimbal and the camera.

The gimbal did not produce the smoothest of shots, however, it was less shaky had it been just me operating the camera by itself. The shakiness can easily be fixed in post-production through ‘Warp Stabiliser’. As for the camera and the lens, it wasn’t as beautiful as the Sony a6000 which is why I opted to use a different lens to the kit lens (f.35 vs f2.8). Because it had a lower aperture, it produced a brighter exposure of the shot. However Nikon in general just has a different look from Sony – the colours in the shot are less accurate to real life, whilst Sony amplifies the colour and makes it more beautiful. Nikon makes the shot look quite dull and has a yellow tinge to it. This is not a major problem though, and can easily be fixed in post-production.

For the night time shooting, Pavina utilised external lighting on a low budget and brought her own lamp to the shoot and used a red, see-through film over it to produce a red tinge. It was a practical and effective way to get rid of the shadows but I’m not sure if it actually executed the shot that we wanted. Nonetheless, it was still a great attempt to add in effects and stylise the whole shot.

There are roots of inspiration from our previous short film, Missed Moments, which was originally inspired by In the Mood for Love, an impressionist type of film. Despite being a commercial shoot, Pavina and I aim to have a Hong Kong New Wave style with a commercial twist to it.

During week 8, we individually presented the ideas that we had for our final project film assignment. It was refreshing to see a change after tirelessly working for the group’s film project, Missed Moments.

In comparison to that previous film I worked on, I decided to take things to a darker turn narrative-wise and go for a more serious route. Inspired by Christopher Nolan and his style of storytelling and directing, I wanted to be able to pursue a genre relating to action and a slice of life with familial themes.

The film inspirations behind my idea were Nolan films such as The Dark Knight and Inception; 

FILM PITCH 2 PRESENTATION

I have this weird obsession with slow-motion scenes and something as epic as the opening of Inception is a vision that I hope to achieve. Maybe not production-wise but in terms of the narrative and the cinematography. That is something I hope to achieve. The level of production that I can make is potentially within the lighting and that is being able to replicate the cinematic techniques. The scene from above show a high-energy and an immensely intense scene, but for my production, it won’t be as loud and as stressful. Rather, I plan for my final film to be silent and communicate the mood through the cinematography.

James suggested that focusing on two aspects (narrative and cinematography) is a lot of workload to carry so rather than having my own independent film, I plan to help other projects for Screen and Sensation and hopefully, be able to use my own style of cinematography through various bodies of work. At the moment, I have offered to help out for two other projects and I am excited to collaborate with Pavina and Ben!

The entirety of Film Project One was enlightening and educational – I learned a lot from it and it most definitely broadened my experience when it came to filmmaking. I was always curious as to how films were made when watching them, but now, I’ve delved into it after getting to experience this film production with my group members and myself. The whole process of pre-production, production and post-production. This is the three main steps of how you make any type of film, whether it be indie, Hollywood or a student short film. There are also a variety of inspirations that came behind Missed Moments, which I will further discuss in the upcoming paragraphs.

Scriptwriting is one of the first few aspects that I want to dissect and discuss. I have never had the opportunity to write an “official” script from a production and have mostly been for myself during drama classes in high school and was all written informally or wasn’t up to industry standard. For this assignment, however, I actually went out and researched how to professionally write a script, with the correct format and structure. What I got out from the scriptwriting process is that it is the first and official part of making a film. When we had our session with Arthur, he said that a film is made three times. First through script writing, second during the acting and third, when editing. Through this script, I was able to visualise how each and every scene would look, especially because I was mostly describing it through the character’s actions and emotions. The script also enabled me to get to the editing process because in a script, you are able to add in transitions such as “fade” or “cut”, and that can be done in Premiere Pro through the effects.

Now, I have mentioned quite a few times that there will be little to no dialogue. In the final cut, the three lines in the whole short film ended up being:

• “Sorry” 
• “It’s okay” 
• “It’s nice to meet you” 

I made it this way so that it would be easier for us to work with less audio and because, in a way, it is a film technique. To me, I feel it is more impactful to have subtitles over a video without hearing the actual words being spoken. That way, there is an affirmation to the words being spoken and we know for a fact, that the subtitles are always true to the storyline. My inspirations behind using a yellow font subtitle was from the film, Eat Drink Man Woman (1994) and several other films that use the classic yellow, Arial font. Of course, the subtitles were only present because the language being spoken was in Mandarin but in our case, it is English. Why would one need subtitles for English? I think that watching something being spoken with subtitles over it gives it a more dramatic mood and tone.

I’m not exactly sure what the origins of the yellow subtitles are but I know for a fact that yellow is used because it is easier to read no matter what type of background the subtitle is in front of. I wanted to replicate that type of aspect from films to add a touch of authenticity and of course, for the whole aesthetic and meaning of Missed Moments as part of the Asian cinema context.

Now during production, a lot of the process was discussed over our group chat and through video calls. A lot of this was done in the week of shooting because we had to match our schedules with each other and the actor – a lot of changes were made in comparison to our original plan of the whole production. I initially wanted to finish the whole production process within a week over the mid-semester break, preferably over two to three days but ended finishing it over four days, in a non-sequential order. We had breaks in between because we had to work around our commitments. Despite all of this, the production process went quite smoothly and there was really no other major issue when it came to working with Joanna, Pavina or Aaron. Everyone cooperated well and exposed to the type of attitude and behavior you need to have when it comes to working with people in the film industry. Before the whole process, Joanna and Aaron also signed release forms because they were going to be on camera and might be possibly exposed to the public.

For the editing process, I was in charge of editing two scenes which were the Southern Cross and the Chinatown scene. Let’s talk about Chinatown. I want to deeply discuss this because I think it embodies my whole aim for this course: Asian Cinema. Like mentioned in our film pitch, we were heavily inspired with the cinematography of In the Mood for Love so therefore, we wanted to use the red lighting as a source of light and put in the same detail that that film had. The film represents the character’s moods and feelings without explicitly showing it. The way it is shown is through the visuals and the musical score. It is depicted so well through externally (the director) that their actor and actress only maximises the film as a whole. I envisioned our short film to have the same sentiment, which is why I chose to have as little dialogue as possible. Of course, there is only so much you can do with a low budget production so we tried to replicate it to the best of our abilities. The scene that we tried to emulate was all in the work of Christopher Doyle, who has mentioned that it is a “compendium film”, meaning that it is a collection of concise information about a certain subject. He has perfectly depicted it by getting every single piece of angle that we could have never thought of. From the text, “Puzzle Films: Complex Storytelling in Contemporary Cinema”, there is a repetition in the form, themes and styles that contribute to the overall storytelling of In the Mood for Love. Had we had more time, money and resources, we could have replicated the whole storytelling of Wong Kar-Wai through cinematography, but at this moment, our attempt of his work and Asian Cinema as a whole is on a student and amateur level of his work. 

As a whole, my technical and creative development has definitely advanced in comparison to a month ago. I learned a lot of techniques and the overall process of how to make a film: pre-production, production, post-production and screening. Beyond screening, I believe the film is still growing with you and as time goes by, the way you see your own work in the future is a proof of growth. You may it view differently a month from now compared to how you see the film today. My technicality and creativity has definitely advanced in the sense that I know a lot more through experience. Now, it is a just a matter of getting more experience and exposure in the film industry.

References:

Eat Drink Man Woman (1994), produced by Hsu-Li Kong, Taiwan (distributed by The Samuel Goldwyn Company, 1979), 123 minutes

In the Mood for Love (2000), produced by Wong Kar-Wai, Hong Kong (distributed by Universal Pictures, 1912), 98 minutes

W. Buckland, Puzzle Films: Complex Storytelling in Contemporary Cinema, 1st Ed., (Wiley, UK, 2009), p. 183 

On the day of our presentation, the time was very limited so we were only able to show half of our rough cut which equated to 10 minutes in total. We wanted to be able to show our presentation before the actual video but unfortunately, we didn’t have the time for it so James just suggested that we discuss it in the blog post:

Slide 1 

In our presentation, we wanted to discuss the genres and themes that were involved in this narrative. This slide mentions that this story is true to a certain extent, and is one of the many love stories that develop in fiction and in reality. There is nothing outstanding about the story but however, it can be seen from an Asian context, especially in a Western society like Melbourne. The main focal point of this project is the cinematography and the visuals, which maximises the simple plot and makes it seem “larger than life”, or at least that was our attempt of it!

Slide 2 

It is after all, romance, a genre that women usually gravitate more towards. It is also because a lot of the perspective comes from the girl, meaning that a lot more women would relate to this story. However, this short film is open to all audience because there are times where it is neutral in both perspectives, making it more open to a wider and general audience.

The roles and the equipment used 

In our supposed presentation, we wanted to discuss the type of equipment we used and the roles that were responsible of. The camera used was the Sony a6000, which I owe a lot to especially with the f1.8 35mm lens. A lot of shots turned out amazing because of the lens and would have otherwise looked simple had the kit lens been used. Of course, the kit lens were great for wider shots but the 35mm lens really stole the show in this production. Alongside the camera, a tripod and an LED panel were used.

In terms of the roles, I was mostly looking at which shots were the most flattering to look at for the actor, actress and the location. Pavina was great in directing what the character’s were supposed to do whilst Joanna did an amazing job with being an actress and also directing herself and the actor in some moments.

The verdict of the rough cut 

As mentioned, we only showed half of our 10 minutes rough cut so we had to skip certain shots. However, the whole class did get to see each and every scene (except the deleted scene) and were able to critique the whole short film:

• James suggested that we go for more ambient, background sounds rather than the cheesy music during the train scene
• He also observed that we all had really close shots (which isn’t necessarily a bad thing), which means that we gravitated towards more close ups and mid shots
• Tightening in terms of editing – as our rough cut was unusually long, more shots needed to be cut off
• A positive aspect of our short film was that it turned out really great in terms of the visuals which was good to hear because of how much thought was put into the composition of our shots, especially in areas where it was busy like the trains and the CBD in general

I’m happy we were able to receive these comments because it gives us more room for improvement!

Southern Cross Scene 

For the post-production process, I am in charge of editing the Southern Cross scene and the final scene, held in Chinatown. I may have gotten two of the most challenging shoots to edit for this production, mainly because I have limited shots to work with because of the production process that occurred. I still made it work and produced the rough cut of the project to look like this:

My process in terms of editing is sequential in the way that we shot it during production, meaning, that I set the videos according to the start of the production right until the end. After all, that is how we went during the production and followed the format of the script. The establishing shot of Southern Cross to the introduction of the characters, it was all in sequence. I did add in bits and pieces of footage that I thought would serve well, especially with the transitions between the shots and the slow-motion effects. In this edit, there is also a lot of fast cuts between the girl and the boy in the train, establishing their first point of contact. That is one of the first times I have ever edited fast cuts, rather than playing out the whole scene first from the guy’s perspective and then the girl’s perspective afterward.

In terms of the music score, I chose something quite slow, but also something that captured the moment in a sweet sense. I also wanted to have a curious tone, a tone that I would describe as a “first meeting”  as if you’re trying to know the person for the first time. There’s a sense of innocence and curiosity that comes with the music score. The music was taken from Youtube’s audio library:

Dinner for Two by SYBS 

I was lucky to enough discover free music that matched the whole tone of this train scene. On top of that, I also used ambient and background noise, as Pavina had suggested. I scouted around Youtube and found some sounds such as Rail Stations sounds, Escalator sound effects, Train tracks sound and finally a train announcement made by Metro. It was a good idea not to up completely drown out this whole scene in music (as James had suggested) so the mix of ambient noise and music was matched it really well.

Chinatown Scene 

Much like the Southern Cross scene, the editing process was very much in order and of course, followed the structure of the script. This was much easier to edit because it was straightforward and the actual process of this scene’s production was quite easy in comparison to Southern Cross.

This was probably my most favourite part to edit because of how visually pleasing this was to look at. The lights and the cinematography of this whole scene matched perfectly with my attempt of replicating a scene from In the Mood for Love. That was something that I emphasised during my film pitch, especially with the whole mood lighting (red). I also feel like that this was an essence of the kind of film I wanted to pursue – Asian films. Earlier this semester, I was talking to James about what my inspirations were in terms of my pursuit in the field of film and that in the style of Asian cinemas. This scene itself is one of the stepping stones to diving in that realm and eventually, achieving a more professional and polished look.

As for the music score, I found another perfect gem that matched this scene and the finality of it:

Touching Moment by Wayne Jones 

It is another piano score but this time, there was more build up in the song from all the drama that has built up during the entire short film. It is also a bit slower and has more gaps in between the song. As the song gets to the chorus, it matches the moment when the BOY and the GIRL finally see each other again and when he eventually gives the book to her. This song encapsulates the whole mood of the scene and was a good music score to end on. This scene purely relied on the music rather than the ambient sounds which was only heard in the beginning but other than that, it was all thanks to “Touching Moment” that wrapped up this whole scene together.

Day 3 shooting was actually from our deleted scene during the production and on the script:

Before we decided to delete this scene, we thought it would make sense to have it at the beginning, to establish that the girl is all alone on her way to a destination of some sort or is simply just carrying on with her life. However, as we stitched all the scenes together, we thought it wouldn’t make sense to add in the girl’s part without the perspective of the guy, which we didn’t get to shoot. However, we still had the full day of day #3 shooting and managed to fully edit the deleted scene. Check it out:

You can see that there is almost little to no relation when it comes to the meeting of the boy and the girl without the boy’s perspective so we decided to scrap it off. If we got the boy’s perspective, it would work, but unfortunately, we didn’t have time to shoot due to schedule clashes and time restraints.

Day 4 

The last day of the production was one of the most challenging shoots we had to do for our short film. There was a lot of movement involved in terms of the trains, escalators so it was difficult to get the perfect shot. We managed to capture the whole feel of the environment (I hope) through the variety of shots that were captured during the shoot.

Before the actual day of the shoot, however, we discussed the options that we had for the location changes because of the unpredictability of Melbourne’s weather. For the whole week, it was supposedly sunny until the actual day of the outdoor shooting we wanted to do. As seen in the script, it was supposed to be held in the tram stops and trams in Docklands because we thought that it was the least crowded. We never found out whether it would be busy because the weather did not allow for us to shoot outdoors. Instead, we used Southern Cross as our Plan B to combat the weather and it luckily worked in our favour – the lighting wasn’t too dark nor too light to film outdoors with the camera receiving the right amount of light.

The filming was all going great until we had to go into the actual train carriages – the real challenge of this shoot. Initially, we were planning to film inside the tram which I thought was easier whilst in pre-production but we had to scrap that plan and continue with filming inside the train. One of the positive aspects of filming inside the train station is the frequency of the trains meaning we can get in out of the City Loop as much as we want. In all the other aspects, we had to take rush hour into consideration alongside the other commuters who were in a rush to go home.

We in from Southern Cross to Melbourne Central, Melbourne Central to Richmond and finally, Richmond to Flinders Street Station. You can imagine how stressful it must have been, having to transfer three times to get the perfect shot.

However, it was worth it and we eventually got the desired footage!