Final Reflection for Film/TV 2

Today is the screening night which means the ends up with the course Film/Tv 2, I had such a great time to work as a team, I love working with people, you have so much to learn from them, and also put yourself in a professional field. I have to say there are so many peers are so outstanding, and i want to approve myself as a outstanding person. But in another way, the most biggest challenge is to defeat yourself, not compared with others. You can be your own winner.

–Not confident enough: I think I am quite confident enough compared to my first year in uni, but in this sem, i still feel like i am not confident enough, because in our team, Taylor and Rebecca, they are so energetic and confident, they are expressing their ideas and three of us are sort of listening to the idea and accepting the ideas they have. I rarely express my ideas in fron of them because i am still afraid of being rejected. Through the process of being a team, I am getting confident in terms of sharing ideas, scheduling things, and communicating with them. The most encouragement for me is the time I was the director for Market lane, I had confident that i can do it better and try to deal with the problems we had. And finally i did, at least, for me, it is a big challenge but also the biggest encouragement.  Another encouragement is editing, five of us actually havent touched the final cut pro for a long time, and we are not deeply understand how to use the FCP. I was quite useless during the pre-editing, because i felt like they would do it, even though without me. However, my mind seems to be changed under the circumstance of facing different kinds of problems. I started to deeply dig into the fcp and try to use it as much as i can, Practise makes perfect. I finally can help them with the editing, like different kinds of functions we can use or any other issues.

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Final EDITING

This week, we had so intense time to come down the editing suites and do the editing together, it had so much fun in editing because we can sort of dealing with the problems under five people. Before this week, we were editing individually or two or three people, we could not organise the most of time that five of us can get together. Therefore, the editing result might be disagree by one of us, or totally redo it.

We have so many problems has to be sorted out, in terms of the audio level, the chapter transition, color grading and the music. We are kind of sorting each issue one per day, it has so much to o but we are all having a common is that try to finish one part for today. I think the color grading is such a big problem, especially for the introduction, some of the shots are so dark, so we cannot do too much color grading, because the scene would become blur when you did a big change,there is another issue that the lighting are all different in scene by scene, in order to keep it continuity, we have to do each sequence individually, and cannot do the paste attributes. This is quite annoying, and we spent so much on it. I know that we tried our best to fix, and i have learned that keep the lighting continuity is so important.

Music is another big issue for us, we are trying to use the music in the beginning part when al the barista crossing arms, and for the ending credits. We were trying to find as much music as we can, but none of them are suitable for that beginning part, we are more likely to find the music that bright, bouncy and follow the tempo. we decided to our original idea “Mind your manners by Chiddy Bang, but the issue is that we have to get the permission from the producer otherwise it defends the copyright. However, at the end of the day, we still have not received any email from the producer, we have no any road to walk, so we decide to use it at least for the screening night.

Through this semester, I have encountered so much problems that even more than last semester, i think it might be a good thing, because it is a learning process, i have learned a lot through the problems solving process. In the future, it might be more challenge waiting for me, but now i am kind of preparing the challenge and keep going with what i am confident with.

Film/TV 2 ENDS! !!

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Final week for Editing

This is final week we are going to finish our final work, it is kind of scary and intense. It seems like we have so many works that havent finished yet. The editing suites is going to be my anther home. We got so many advices from peers, Paul and Robin. I have to say there is always a bright way that waiting for us but in order to arrive there, we still have to pay more effort on it.

For Market lane part:

* I don’t like the black footage at the start of him walking into the café. Although it is implied the lights aren’t on yet and he is setting up for the day, there is no showing of him turning on the lights etc so it just looks like super dark and cold footage. It is ok the part with his footsteps, we can brighten this up but I think the opening of the door etc needs to show him turning on the lights when he walks in otherwise is way too dark.

* Don’t know if I like the little flash to the timer when he is making the coffee. I don’t think it is relevant, and it isn’t on for long enough so you can hardly see what it is. If you guys want to keep it, keep it up for longer. I just have always thought this looks out of place

* This whole café seems very cold and dull in colour and I think this is something we need to be conscious of when we colour grade as we don’t want it to be cold and grey

* There is a shot of Mico making coffee about two thirds of the way in and I think it is a new shot. The camera is positioned about the machine and you can see all the coffee cups. This shot goes on for too long.

* I think the whole Market Lane sequence goes on for too long

* I want to see Mico say at the start “my name is Mico… and I worked at market lane? Do you want me to include market lane?” I thought that was very good and I think it should go at the start somewhere.

 

 

 

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Start Editing

When we start editing, we have a lot of works to be finished, because we have three chapters and every chapter has to be perfect but connect with each chapter, it is kind of hard for us to edit, its not like the first sem, we were sort of doing the editing in terms of the script, but for the documentary, we have no any script, we have to listen for the interview part again and again, and ask ourselves whether is is suitable and useful for our doc. We have so many footages and sometimes feel so depressed and tiring to see all of the footages, and turn out to be hopeless situation.  The most difficult pat is that we had not organised the interview very well, so there are so many footages are absolutely useless and wastes of time. Especially in ‘il fornio’ chapter, there are so many footages we already have, but go through all the footages we have, there are not too many shots we are happy with, and the ambient sounds are even louder than the barista’s voice. We sorted of hanging out with doing things without planned, thats the most horrible things in shooting. However, luckily, we were figuring out what kind of footages we need during the editing, so we still have time to reshoot and fixed with the problems we had before.

Everything has to be planned out before shooting!!!

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Directing for Market lane

I was charge of the director in one of the chapter “market lane” I have done quite a lot jobs for preparation. I have researched on so many coffee shops in Melbourne, and basically visited some of them and researched on their official website. i found it is quite important that you should have fully understand what the coffee shop should be like and what the essence of their coffee. I visited the market lane near Victoria market randomly, i just knew that market lane is a famous coffee shop in melbourne and it is famous for the coffee beans which came from the originality African farm. The barista was quite focusing on making coffee but also greet the customer often. I wanted to order a coffee and he was sort of explaining different kinds of coffee to me which was so kind and welcomed. I decided to have a short interview with him. After that i knew that he is from Paris and have been staying in Melbourne for almost two year, the initial goal for hime to learn the coffee culture here is to promote the Melbourne coffee into Paris and open a coffee shop with his girlfriend. This is a very nice beginning for me because i found someone who can be a different barista.

I stared to schedule the shooting in order to make the shooting smoothly. I think it might be good if i sat inside the coffee shop, and see what i can do with the questions and footages. I have been sitting on the coffee shop for almost three hours and also came up with so many ideas that i would love to shoot in actual day. I am kind of exciting for the shooting and everything is so organised.

when the actual shooting, so parts of the schedule were out of the track.

• Lighting: i thought that the lighting would be perfect for the shooting day, however, that day was kind of moody, the scene is quite blue style and it was unexpected, because i would like the warm tone for the shop. However, Danni could not sort it out and we sorted of run out of time. so we start to shoot and hope we can fix it in post production.
• the coffee process was quite successful, there are a lot of good shots, which we are all happy with that. There is a problem that when we focus on the coffee making, we are not able to shoot him as the way of making coffee.
• The interview part was quite good, but I am actually not to happy with the way of his talking, i know it cannot change but the fully contents and story he has quite filled with the disadvantages.
• Even planned out all the specific things, but still could not achieved in planning. I had a idea of the shot when he open the shop, and then start his working in early morning, because he is always the first person who open the shop. so my idea is like the observing what happened during the early morning. However, the situation is that we spent too much time on other footages and so we left not too much time. We just finished the shots very quickly, and not satisfied with it.

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Schedule for Shooting

Location: Market Lane Coffee (Victoria market, 109 Therry st)

 

–Opening Hours: Mon: close   Tues-Wed 7am-5pm     Thurs: 7am-6pm

                                     Fri: 7am-7pm   Sat: 7am-5pm    Sun: 9am-5pm

Not busy time:  early morning in weekdays.

 

Condition:

—-Lighting is perfect. No reflection issue.

—-Not too noisy, because there are no too much seats, and customers are all waiting for coffee just for taking away.

—Shop is not too big, but still have a corner to place the gears.

—In terms of it is a busy shop, so we have to finish his making coffee in the early morning, around 7 to 8 o’clock, and we can have interview of his story after he finish working.

Scene one: Open View

 Black, voice over of the barista “ I love making coffee……..”

Can be he is singing one of his favorite song (voice over) Why loves it? And with the footages inside the coffee shop.

Can be the scene of wide view the environment and then close up barista opening door?

Questions:

1. Are you always the first person coming to the coffees shop?
2. What is the first thing you have to do when enters the shop?
3. How long have you been stay in here?
4. Do you remember who is always the first customer when you open the shop?
5. How you get the energy to make coffee everyday? Because the shop open so early.

–Also can be the scene of the letters on the wall. And the voice over of barista read the messages on the wall. Finish a wide shot of he is standing beside the wall and finish the last few sentences. Ask some questions like “ what the coffee mean to you? “ but face with the wall.

Scene two: Making COFFEEE (when not busy) 

–Specific every process of making coffee, make every process slower and clear. (Same composition, frame for longer!!)

Questions to be asked:

1. Grinding…. each process should be specific!!!!
2. Different kinds of beans, what this kind of bean are u using? In this shop, you have muchai, Suiza, La Fany, etc. Can you explain the difference with those kinds of beans?
3. You cup the coffee daily to make sure they taste sublime? Always tastes blind.
4. What the degree of milk should be perfect?
5. What the sugar made from?

Have a clear mind of transferring the shot from the wide of he’s talking and close up of making coffee.

Scene 3: More deeply interview (seat on the desk, a relaxing way, because the coffee question has been asked when he is standing there, so for the deeply questions, he can be seated)

–Why decide to be a barista? How long have been a barista?

–Who have a big influence on you in making coffee?

–Who gave lesson to you in making coffee?

–Have you encountered with some barriers in making coffee?

–Do you have an interest instead of making coffee?

–Are you a sociable person? Do you chat with your customers a lot?

–Where are you come from? How do you define the coffee culture in Melbourne?

–How to develop your coffee magic in here?

I think it is no necessary to interview the customers, because it would become a lifestyle interview.

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Turning Point

Our team have encountered with a problem which quite serious and exhausted. We have to reshoot everything again, i know it is crazy but we want to make the best documentary as possible as we can, we are all not satisfied with the footages we have  and also the interview part. Moreover, there is another problem that our director Talyor is away in next week, we can not do anything until she is here. Robin gave me and Danni a lot of suggestions, we decide to reshoot next week by three of us and hope everything should be fine.

I have quite a lot ideas in my mind, i have done some researches about some coffee shops.

Market lane Coffee

• the selection of coffee depending on whats in the season, and what tastes good.
• they cup daily to make sure they taste sublime-always tastes blind
• they have different types of coffee beans, they spend time sourcing beans from some of best coffee growers in the world
• Espresso brewing tips. every step of making coffee have their own knowledge behind it

I am quite like this coffee shop and going to visit tomorrow to interview and shot conversation with the barista. probably early morning is better for me to visit.

There are some questions i would like to focus on:

• Can u explain every process of making coffee specifically? is there any tips behind it?
• How to define the good beans?
• How long have been as a barista?
• Why decide to be a barista? turning point?
• Who have a big influence on you in making coffee?
• Have you encountered with some barriers in making coffee?
•  what does the coffee mean to you through the process of being experienced?
• From the customer side, are you a sociable person and love communicating with customers or you are making coffee in your own world?

Most Importantly, knowing a deeply from a barista is significant issue, we have to ask more questions and let them actually open their heart and talk their story behind a barista.

From the first time shooting experience, and i think preparation and research is very important, as we did the shot before, we just go to the place directly, and drive away from the real situation. so all of us are panic and dont really know what to do next.

therefore, this time we have to do a lot of preparation and this is also the last chance for us to shoot until the due date. we also need more time to do editing.

Hope everything can be going well for the interviewing!!

 

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Inspiration

Eliot, man…you’re a huge inspiration. You remind me why I got into filmmaking in the first place, why I love doing what I do. Telling stories, and doing what we can with what we have.

 

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Extensional Filming

I got a chance to work with the master student in VCA, and they are planning to make a documentary called Dasizuan.   I am a continuity person. For me, this is a amazing learning experience, because they are all professional than our bachelor media student, they are more focusing on making the film. I have learned quite a lot from them,  they are all passion with making film, and consider things in a specific and reliable ways.

everything is so organised. the crew meeting at 8.30 in the morning, the cinematographer, lighting assistant and camera operator in the first place and set up all the gears an lightings. we were shooting in a old prison, which the room is very small and could not fit too many crews inside, luckily, to be a continuity person, i have to stay inside, so i can actually how they set up the lighting and visual side in the monitor.

the old man is the cinematographer, he is really serious, and it gives me a expression that all the cinematographers are so serious, and they are too focus on how to make the lighting more dramatic and continuity.

From my observation in his work. i clearly understand how lighting can build up the characters’ emotion. Most of the lighting in character’s face are very dramatic, because as the situation, the old prison, with two policeman, a criminal.

I was just standing in fron of the monitor and can actually see and elaborate how it should be like in the scene,I am quite happy with the most of scenes in terms of the acting and lighting.

There are still have two more days shooting, hope i can learn more from them and integrated with my own film.

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Second day interview

Today, we interviewed the old barista, i can see how much difference between the old barista and young barista that we filmed yesterday. In old barista’s cafe, it gives me a strong feeling of ‘old’. there are a lot of senior Italian people are metting together, and have a couple of coffee, start to spend time on playing cards. We love this kind of nature expressing. They are all super cute, and told us many things about coffee in Italy. At that moment, i can deeply understand what the exact meaning of documentary, is to tell their story in a genuine way, and you can actually be touched and  learned from them.  In the interview part, we were trying to ask many questions as possible as we can, they are all satisfied to answer it.

I thought the interview was absolutely excellent from the interview and footages, but when we checked the footages in the laptop, the audio is really bad, that we cannot se it and have to reshoot again, we sorted out with the problem of the satan and mic button.

We have learned from it and we hope that we would never have this kind of problems happened again. Still learning!!

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