Video and Sound Production / Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media / Taylor's University
Project 2: Video Shooting & Editing
LECTURES:
Week 2: Framing & Storyboard
Earliest Cinema
Cinema technique is all about manipulating shots and
sequence that isolating part of it to look at and in what order to see
them.
Cinematography
1) Motion picture/ Film/ Video is made up of many
shots which require placing the camera in the best position for that
particular moment in the narrative.
2) Shot is continuous view shot by one camera without
interruption.
3) Sequence is a series of scenes, or shots, complete
in itself.
4) Scene defines the place of setting where the action
is laid and may consist of series of shots or sequences depicting a
continuous event.
Shot Size
The shot size determines how large the area that's visible within the
frame.
1) Extreme Wide Shot- Shows broad view of the
surroundings around the character (scale, distance, and geographical
location). Used to show where character is in his/her environment.
2) Wide Shot- Includes the entire subject and important objects in the immediate surroundings. If used at the beginning of a
scene, it is often called an "establishing shot".
3) Medium Wide Shot- Shows a character usually cut off
across the legs above or below the knees. Wide enough to show the
physical setting in which the action is taking place.
4) Medium Shot- Shows the subject that are important to
understanding such as gesture and expression. Usually from the person's waist up, letting their hands and the lower half of their body fall outside the
frame.
5) Medium close-up shot- Films subject character from
approximately midway between waist and shoulders to above the
head.
6) Close-up shot- Used to isolate the most important
part of the subject. Usually the head to emphasize facial expression, or
the details of a small object
7) Over the shoulder shot- Shows the subject
from behind the shoulder of another person.
8) Extreme close-up shot- Single out a portion of the
face and magnifies a detail. The objective is to focus on important
details either to increase the drama or impact on a situation. It also
allows the viewer to see the information of the picture more
clearly.
Composition
1) Rule of thirds- divides the frame into thirds both
horizontally and vertically. The points where the vertical and
horizontal lines cross are aesthetically pleasing spots to place
subjects or to have perspective lines converge.
2) Face modelling- Best when subject is turned 45 degrees
(3/4 angling) to the camera
3) 3D solidity- Angling the camera in relation to the
subject so that two sides of the objects are viewed, results in the most
effective rendition.
4) Distance- Angle the camera so that parallel lines
diminish and converge preferably towards the right. To ensure that
viewer's eyes are carried in distance.
Subject Height
1) Eye-level angle- From the eye level of an observer of
average height or from the subject's eye level.
2) Low angle shot- Any shot in which the camera is tilted
upward to view the subject. Can make the character look bigger,
stronger, or more noble. It also gives the impression of height.
3) High angle shot- Any shot in which the camera is tilted
downward to view the subject. Can make a character look smaller,
younger, weak, confused or more childlike.
Screen Direction
1) Dynamic Screen Direction- Constant screen travel depicts
subject motion in one direction only. A series of shots of a subject
should move in the same direction to show progression.
2) Static Screen Direction: When planning shots with
two characters, you need to understand the camera movement in relation
to the 180 degrees rule. The rule enforces the camera stay on a
horizontal axis and not cross sections, also known as Line of
Action.
Week 3: Storytelling in Film
Storytelling in Film
1) Story (What happened): The set of all the events in
cause-effect relationship occurring in time and space, both the ones
explicitly presented and those the viewer infers, constitutes the
story.
2) Plot (Why they happened? And how?): Everything visibly and
audibly present in the film, and material that os extraneous to the
story world.
Story structure
3-Act Structure
1) Beginning: Setup / Introduction of a story
- To introduce the world
- To introduce the main characters
- To establish the dramatic situation
- Leads to an incident that complicates the story (Plot point 1)
2) Plot Point 1: "plot thickens"
- "Inciting incident"
- Turn the story in a new direction
- Steps up what Act Two is going to be
3) Middle: Confrontation of a problem
- "Rising Action"
- To develop obstacles / complications
- Leads to climax of story (Plot Point 2)
4) Plot Point 2: "longest mile"
- "Climatic Turning Point"
- Protagonist's quest reaches critical mass
- Possible solution is presented
- Biggest cliffhanger: will the protagonist win or lose?
5) End: Resolution of problems
- Ending of climax
- Answer to all obstacles / problems
- Tying loose ends
Week 4: Mise En Scene
"Putting on Stage"
Refers to what we see onscreen, its visuals, meaning and all of the
elements that appear on camera and their arrangement
1) Composition
2) Set Design:
- Refers to everything the audience see within a particular scene.
- Help to build out the world of the location and add even more context to the story.
3) Lighting
- Often the tool that conveys mood most clearly.
- High-key lighting: used in musicals and romantic comedies to minimise shadows
- Low-key lighting: used in horror movies
4) Costume and Props
- Costume: one of the most useful tools in communicating a characters's thought and journey
- Props: An object with a function serves to drive the narrative or become a motif to underscore the themes of the film
5) Depth of Space
- Determined by the distances between objects, people and scenery, influenced by their placement along with camera location and lens choice
INSTRUCTIONS:
TASKS
Project 2: 30s MV Video
For our short video project, we were split into 3 per group and had to
choose a song and choreography that we will be dancing to in the MV.
After some discussions, we settled on doing the infamous TikTok dance
"Jiggle Jiggle", which is a song by Jason Derulo X Duke & Jones X
Louis Theroux X Amelia Dimz. The reason why we chose this song was
because the dance is relatively easy to follow, and since all 3 of us
are not very good dancers, it was the perfect choice.
1) Storyboard
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| Fig. 2.1 Sketches of the storyboard |
During our Week 3 class, we were given time to discuss and decide the location to film and how we want our video flow to be like. Since the MV is just 30s, we tried to play the Jiggle Jiggle song from start to the 30s mark, and much to our convenience, the dancing part of the song stops right at the 30th second of the song. Hence, we tried to look at the different angle shots that we needed to take and start dissecting the scenes of what we can film for those shots. We even tried planning down to how many seconds the shots will be and it was a very wise decision because it really helped to save us a lot of time when we were editing the video.
2) Shooting process
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| Fig. 2.2 Behind the scenes pictures taken by Qiao Yin |
Top left: Preparing medium close-up shot for Qiao Yin's scene
Top right: Testing close-up shot for passing glasses scene
Bottom left: Testing another angle for the medium close-up scene
Bottom right: Monitoring is the shot turned out fine
Our shooting location was at the carpark in D'Latour. We filmed at about 10:30am in the morning so the lighting was great and it was not too hot. I was expecting to sweat a lot, especially since we were wearing hoodies as well, but thankfully we all survived. It was a smart move to plan out our storyboard before filming because we finished filming everything in an hour. Fortunately, we did not face any unforeseen obstacles (like getting runover by a car) as the carpark was mostly empty.
3) Editing (Draft 1)
Our shooting location was at the carpark in D'Latour. We filmed at about 10:30am in the morning so the lighting was great and it was not too hot. I was expecting to sweat a lot, especially since we were wearing hoodies as well, but thankfully we all survived. It was a smart move to plan out our storyboard before filming because we finished filming everything in an hour. Fortunately, we did not face any unforeseen obstacles (like getting runover by a car) as the carpark was mostly empty.
3) Editing (Draft 1)
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| Fig. 2.3 Super-exposed clip |
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| Fig. 2.4 Original clip |
Here was where we started facing a few problems and challenges. Before
I started editing, I was told by my 2 friends that the clips were
super-exposed when being exported from Adobe Premiere Pro. The video
clips were in .MOV format and when it was exported to .MP4, it changed
the lightings. We had to figure out ways to fix this problem through
YouTube tutorials. However, my friend tried to convert all her .MOV
videos into MP4 format, and the original clips' lightings and
adjustments were restored.
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Fig. 2.6 Split screen edit on Premiere Pro |
The downside is that, while editing the video, I have to trim my
parts of the videos out one by one, since they have all been compiled
into 1 full video. It was not difficult though, I really enjoyed the
process of editing and it was funny looking back at the silly things
we did.
| Fig. 2.7 MV final |
Project 2: Production Shoot
For our second project, we were split into two groups with about 14
people per group to form a shooting production team. We are to shoot
these scenes from a Korean drama entitled "Happiness", but it is not
compulsory for us to stick to the story. Our final video is a 30 seconds
trailer that includes all of these shots.
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| Fig. 3.1 Scenes and Shots from "Happiness" |
After we were introduced to the different roles that a production team should have, we went into our groups and discussed which role each of us would like to take.
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Fig. 3.2 Our group's crewlist |
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Fig. 3.3 Test shots taken by our DOP |
Week 5: Shooting Test
This week we went down to the shooting studio to get
familiarized with the equipments we will be using during our shoot
in Week 6. We got to try using camera on a tripod and some sound and mic
tools handled by our sound crews.
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| Fig. 4.1 Our D.O.P and Camera Assistants setting up camera |
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While part of the team was getting used to the new equipments, the rest
of us were discussing the dialogue and location to film. We had to
recreate this over the shoulder on medium shot with simple one-sentence
dialogues for our actor and actress.
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Fig. 4.3 Example of the shot |
Once we have confirmed everything, we brought the equipments out to the corridor to get some natural sunlight for the shooting. We had about 9 takes in total, but it was a really good practise for all of us. As an assistant director, I had to shout "Actors ready? Sound rolling? Camera rolling? Shot 1 Take 9!" and clap the slate. It was really fascinating for me to experience because I have always only seen people doing this on television. After all of the takes, we finally found one that we liked and here is the result:
Fig. 4.4 Result of Shooting Test
Week 6: Production Shoot
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| Fig. 5.1 Behind the Scenes of shooting |
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| Fig. 5.2 Behind the Scenes of shooting 2 |
It was a lot of fun shooting for the short film! Even though it was a sunny day, all of us were actively participating in the shoot and we managed to finish right on time before class ended. We used a lot of new filming equipments and it was really fascinating to learn how to use them.
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| Fig. 5.3 Screenshot of raw clips |
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| Fig. 5.4 Screenshot of raw audio |
After the shoot, I transferred all of the video clips and audio clips into my desktop and uploaded the successful takes into a google folder so that my groupmates can access them too.
Week 7: Colour Correction
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| Fig. 5.1 Colour Correction screenshot 1 |
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| Fig. 5.2 Colour Correction screenshot 2 |
After doing colour correction on Adobe Premiere Pro using the lumetri scopes, here is the final result of the video.
Fig. 5.3 Final Short Film
FEEDBACKS
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REFLECTION
I really enjoyed doing this assignment because I got to work together with my classmates and also learn how to use the filming equipments. It was also really fun being an assistant director because I have always wanted to clap a slate. It felt really warm seeing all of my groupmates work together because we all put in our utmost efforts and being so cooperative. Overall, I'm really happy and satisfied with our efficient work and I couldn't ask for a better team.
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