Friday, 25 April 2008
Assignment 5 - give me a break
In this project, we first brainstormed about the theme of the project. The group had fantastic ideas, but some of them were not as feasible. Finally, we settled on having a theme that would relate to university students. However, this video must also not be just about the boring and mundane university life. Who wants to watch a video like that?
We then moved on to brainstorm about what we would like to have or fantasize about university life. Among all the brilliant ideas, the super hero idea shone through. We felt that it would be fantastic to have a nerd transform in to a super hero and change university life.
We then disseminated the workload to our group mates, and followed up with our preproduction documents.
As we wanted to make the super hero part of the video extremely eye catching and different, we decided that we would have our character dress up as a super hero.
The music that we used for our video is a ‘Broadway’ style song. This was done deliberately to create a very dramatic effect. We also had our singer sing out-of-tune during certain segments of the song to portray how untalented and normal he is.
The scenes in our video were shot entirely in campus to enhance the realism of campus life. Some of the scenes were hard to do, especially the bus scenes as timing was crucial.
Although some of the scenes were over exposed and not perfectly timed, we used editing techniques to overcome these problems. For instance, we used the split screen technique during the stair-climbing scenes to show how similar they are.
In order to increase the mundane yet dramatic effect of our video, the first half of the video featuring the nerd has been tinted black and white, while the second half featuring the super hero has slightly more colors. The rational behind this is to tell our audiences that although the super hero has powers, he is very much similar to the nerd and hardly special at all.
I feel that our final product, albeit a little different from what we expected, is a great effort put in by our group, and we hope everyone enjoys it.
Assignment 4 - Survival Mahjong
Cheryl and I had a great time working on this project together. We in fact combined our ideas for this assignment. My initial idea was to create fighting scenes while for Cheryl, she thought of character with split personality and playing mahjong. So we developed our combined plot to flow from the playing of mahjong to end up with us fighting.
The filming process was tedious as we had to think of various angles to shoot the film to make it more action packed. So all the various camera techniques come into use. Our storyboard did quite follow our final product except for the various angles involved, which we did impromptu adjustment based on onset feasibility. For the fighting scenes, we made use of quite a lot of low angles to bring out the dramatic effect.
Before filming, we also planned out various effects to use and a challenge was to visualize the effects involved when filming. For instance, we had the ‘dragonball effect’, the super speed effect and some other effects which were done ‘manually’ and enhanced using premiere/after effects. A differentiating factor in our assignment also lies in the focus on film movement, transitions and cutting scenes. However, these film transitions were not planned beforehand. They were derived impromptu based on our raw footage. We believe that these transitions help to enhance the anxiety and fury theme.
Comments from the class were good. Dr Julian pointed out masking problems which we have to rectify in the first few scenes. In our final product, we also added more fighting scenes and enhanced the colorings to further enhance the mood of the film.
The filming process was tedious as we had to think of various angles to shoot the film to make it more action packed. So all the various camera techniques come into use. Our storyboard did quite follow our final product except for the various angles involved, which we did impromptu adjustment based on onset feasibility. For the fighting scenes, we made use of quite a lot of low angles to bring out the dramatic effect.
Before filming, we also planned out various effects to use and a challenge was to visualize the effects involved when filming. For instance, we had the ‘dragonball effect’, the super speed effect and some other effects which were done ‘manually’ and enhanced using premiere/after effects. A differentiating factor in our assignment also lies in the focus on film movement, transitions and cutting scenes. However, these film transitions were not planned beforehand. They were derived impromptu based on our raw footage. We believe that these transitions help to enhance the anxiety and fury theme.
Comments from the class were good. Dr Julian pointed out masking problems which we have to rectify in the first few scenes. In our final product, we also added more fighting scenes and enhanced the colorings to further enhance the mood of the film.
Tuesday, 19 February 2008
Assignment 3
Stage 1
Well, was fevering from the CNY snacks and missed tutorial again. Anyway, I really sucked at creating stories and was really fretting over this assignment.
I understand that the requirement of this assignment needs a plot and not just merely display of lovey dovey-ness. Hence, I decided to choose a drama plot. And like some of what our class mate did, some one has to die in the plot . But I did not want to do it in a straight forward way. Instead, I want to potray the notion that the "Boyfriend" remained as a guardian angel to the "girlfriend" even years after he died. So this requires lots of flashback and transition techniques.
So my first picture will present the girlfriend writing a diary/postcard, which was dated 14 feb 2008 : Dear XXX, happy 8th anniversary. The following photo scenes will portray lovey dovey moments of the boyfriend & girlfriend together. I will focus on particular segments of the photos so it will create a illusion that the girl friend is celebrating Vday with his boyfriend. However, in fact the boyfriend has already died for a few years. The transition to show that the boyfriend has already died begins at this photo where it focus on the boyfriend kissing the girlfriend's forehead, who is looking down. I will slowly zoom back and reveal that the girl is actually holding a couple photoframe in hand. And a tear dropped midway. I will then slowly zoomed into the background, where the diary at the start lies. And attached to the bottom of the diary is a news paper clipping of the boyfriend committed suicide.
Afterwhich that I will flash back the SAME "lovey dovey scenes" once again. But this time, I will create a fading effect of the boyfriend fading away. Hence, this time, it will only show the girlfriends in these photos. I will take note that the posture & expression of the girlfriend reveals that she is not aware of the spirit of her boyfriend with her. It will create a feeling that the boyfriend has always been the guradian angel of the girlfriend, accompanying her no mattar what she do.
Stage 2
Added a few more scenes to create a more drama effect. Increased to 34 scenes. Yups, will scan in my drawings once my neighbour comes back. I dont have a scanner now. Hopefully it will be before the tutorial timing.
REVIEW of Stage 2
Thanks for all the comments every one. I guess after all the suggestions, I do have ideas for some more added scenes . Of course, due to majority demand, a change in the plot with a "Boy died saving the girl" tragic scenes. Hmm, will continue revising my pictures, b'cos there are still quite little photos right now.
Change of plot
As my plot involves the protagonist dying, I have difficulty finding cast for the role. Had a had time before deciding to change my whole plot to suit my 'actor', who is my boyfriend.
To summarize, it is actually about a boy who died saving his girlfriend but came back as a guardian angel to sort of protect the girl. But the fact that the boy already died wouldn’t be shown until the middle of the storyline. So with flashback, I wanted to create a melancholy feel .
Sadly, my second plot was totally different from my first one. But with the comments given by my classmates on my first plot, some of them mentioned that certain scenes in my first plot were good. So I decided to adapt and reuse them in my second plot. My second plot is more simple as it directly captures the high and lows of my love life. As it is a more simple and mundane kind of plot, it was not easy to portray the emotions in my relationship. I didn’t want to do a photostory that simply flashes pictures of us being happy together. So, a lot of the photos were designed in a way which expresses different forms of values and emotions in my relationship.
My first prototype was quite dull and below my expectations. There was no narration, no gimmicks. So it turned out to be something I really dislike. So I tried various methods, including changing the background music several times. So finally, I came up with a few ideas :
1) Using words to express my emotions directly à to add a fun factor to my design
2) Play with the various transitions to suit the music
3) Adding my own narration to add a personal touch to the design. But I in fact have a few version of the narrative because the initial ones sounded quite amateurish.
A focus on my film was actually to play with the various sequence, transitions and colors because I believe that these are the little details which give an extra edge to my design. Had a really bad time with the crashing and rendering problem of adobe premiere though.
The comments given by the class was pretty good. Room for improvement includes:
- Narrative voice too much noise
- Got one or two image does not match the frame size
My final product resolves the mentioned problems and I added on to improve some of the coloring and lightning errors.
Well, was fevering from the CNY snacks and missed tutorial again. Anyway, I really sucked at creating stories and was really fretting over this assignment.
I understand that the requirement of this assignment needs a plot and not just merely display of lovey dovey-ness. Hence, I decided to choose a drama plot. And like some of what our class mate did, some one has to die in the plot . But I did not want to do it in a straight forward way. Instead, I want to potray the notion that the "Boyfriend" remained as a guardian angel to the "girlfriend" even years after he died. So this requires lots of flashback and transition techniques.
So my first picture will present the girlfriend writing a diary/postcard, which was dated 14 feb 2008 : Dear XXX, happy 8th anniversary. The following photo scenes will portray lovey dovey moments of the boyfriend & girlfriend together. I will focus on particular segments of the photos so it will create a illusion that the girl friend is celebrating Vday with his boyfriend. However, in fact the boyfriend has already died for a few years. The transition to show that the boyfriend has already died begins at this photo where it focus on the boyfriend kissing the girlfriend's forehead, who is looking down. I will slowly zoom back and reveal that the girl is actually holding a couple photoframe in hand. And a tear dropped midway. I will then slowly zoomed into the background, where the diary at the start lies. And attached to the bottom of the diary is a news paper clipping of the boyfriend committed suicide.
Afterwhich that I will flash back the SAME "lovey dovey scenes" once again. But this time, I will create a fading effect of the boyfriend fading away. Hence, this time, it will only show the girlfriends in these photos. I will take note that the posture & expression of the girlfriend reveals that she is not aware of the spirit of her boyfriend with her. It will create a feeling that the boyfriend has always been the guradian angel of the girlfriend, accompanying her no mattar what she do.
Stage 2
Added a few more scenes to create a more drama effect. Increased to 34 scenes. Yups, will scan in my drawings once my neighbour comes back. I dont have a scanner now. Hopefully it will be before the tutorial timing.
REVIEW of Stage 2
Thanks for all the comments every one. I guess after all the suggestions, I do have ideas for some more added scenes . Of course, due to majority demand, a change in the plot with a "Boy died saving the girl" tragic scenes. Hmm, will continue revising my pictures, b'cos there are still quite little photos right now.
Change of plot
As my plot involves the protagonist dying, I have difficulty finding cast for the role. Had a had time before deciding to change my whole plot to suit my 'actor', who is my boyfriend.
To summarize, it is actually about a boy who died saving his girlfriend but came back as a guardian angel to sort of protect the girl. But the fact that the boy already died wouldn’t be shown until the middle of the storyline. So with flashback, I wanted to create a melancholy feel .
Sadly, my second plot was totally different from my first one. But with the comments given by my classmates on my first plot, some of them mentioned that certain scenes in my first plot were good. So I decided to adapt and reuse them in my second plot. My second plot is more simple as it directly captures the high and lows of my love life. As it is a more simple and mundane kind of plot, it was not easy to portray the emotions in my relationship. I didn’t want to do a photostory that simply flashes pictures of us being happy together. So, a lot of the photos were designed in a way which expresses different forms of values and emotions in my relationship.
My first prototype was quite dull and below my expectations. There was no narration, no gimmicks. So it turned out to be something I really dislike. So I tried various methods, including changing the background music several times. So finally, I came up with a few ideas :
1) Using words to express my emotions directly à to add a fun factor to my design
2) Play with the various transitions to suit the music
3) Adding my own narration to add a personal touch to the design. But I in fact have a few version of the narrative because the initial ones sounded quite amateurish.
A focus on my film was actually to play with the various sequence, transitions and colors because I believe that these are the little details which give an extra edge to my design. Had a really bad time with the crashing and rendering problem of adobe premiere though.
The comments given by the class was pretty good. Room for improvement includes:
- Narrative voice too much noise
- Got one or two image does not match the frame size
My final product resolves the mentioned problems and I added on to improve some of the coloring and lightning errors.
Assignment 2
Comments by the class :
Overall, the comments were not bad. But they did comment that some of the photos looked too chopped off and the colors are not consistent as some of the dumplings look too yellow.
So I did some modifications according to the comments .
Changes made :
1) Reduced number of photos to suit file size
2) Changes photo to black and white to further reduce file size (solves the problem of yellowish cast also)
Assignment 2
For this assignment, the challenge simply lies in the balance between quality and quantity. I actually had 2 ideas for development. In fact, I even took more than 40 photos for my first idea, but it turned out that the colourful texture of the photos occupies too much space.
So I skipped to plan B and bandwagon on the festive mood to photo the process of my mum and I wrapping dumplings for Chinese new year. This activity was exceptionally meaningful to me because every new year, my mum will bound to wrap dumplings. So in a way, I tried to portray the sense of warmth and love I share with my mum through this activity. I was an amateur photographer to begin with. But in some way, I try to apply the golden rules of photography in my pictures as well to enhance the visually pleasing factor. And to avoid the file size problem, I this time use as little colors as possible. So in the end, I managed to churn out 20 photos for the final product.
Monday, 18 February 2008
Assignment 1
Stage 1
For this poster assignment, I first started out with drawing 3 different drafts before selecting the train track design for my final poster. I believe that all my designs were focused on the dark comedy aspect. (sketches)
Reason because I chose my final design because I thought that i could play more on the colors and perspective to create dramatic ominous feel. Also, the abandon railway somehow seem to give a forlorn kind of feeling. After taking pictures of the runway, I immediately picture out a tragic kind of theme for my poster which explains the red colours I used in my final product.
But the design of this poster wasn’t drafted out in seconds. I focus quite a lot on the arrangement and placement of objects to lead audience eyes ard the poster. So in a way to apply the various theories like rules of 1/3 to this poster. So after several trial and errors, I did out my first poster prototype.
Poster 1
For this poster assignment, I first started out with drawing 3 different drafts before selecting the train track design for my final poster. I believe that all my designs were focused on the dark comedy aspect. (sketches)
Reason because I chose my final design because I thought that i could play more on the colors and perspective to create dramatic ominous feel. Also, the abandon railway somehow seem to give a forlorn kind of feeling. After taking pictures of the runway, I immediately picture out a tragic kind of theme for my poster which explains the red colours I used in my final product.
But the design of this poster wasn’t drafted out in seconds. I focus quite a lot on the arrangement and placement of objects to lead audience eyes ard the poster. So in a way to apply the various theories like rules of 1/3 to this poster. So after several trial and errors, I did out my first poster prototype.
Plot & prototype 1
I know its abit not accurate in terms of procedure that I develop my plot after my poster draft sketches. But I am really not v good at developing drama plots. So from my poster, i derive a kind of dark comedy plot：Sophia is an Indonesian girl who comes from a poor family. After overcoming trials of barriers, she came to Singapore in search of her dream. To her, Singapore is a dream as well as a hope to save her poor family. But she never dreamt that her career in Singapore turned into a nightmare. Imprisoning her life once more, Sophia felt unjustified to live such an undignified life. Burying her dreams, she was overwhlemed by hatred and began to take revenge on all those who made her life miserable. But just when she was about to commit an deadly act, memories of her family flashed past her. She did not want her sibilings to follow her path. In hope of saving them out of poverty, Sophia thought of a plan and committed suicide in the end.
Thinking back on my design process, I feel that maybe I should think out of the box and not try too hard to restrict my design concepts to fit the realistic aspects of the plot. In a way, I believe that the challenge lies in the balance between the surrealistic and dark comedy factors.
Here is my poster. Wasn't ablt to enlarge it though, so the wordings might seem quite small. But when enlarged to A3 size, it is readable. I realized that the printed our version really looks slightly different from the online one, will do some minor adjustments.
Poster 1
Revision of poster
In fact, I didnt really get what it means by surrealism and didnt take note of this factor when doing the first poster prototype. Was sick and did not go for my first tutorial. But the comments given by my tutorial mates in private mentioned that the surrealistic aspect of the poster is not loud enough and the ‘comedy’ factor not strong enough. They sense more of a tragedy feel rather than a dark comedy feel. The fonts also seem to merge into the messy background.
With these, I decide to change some details of my poster. Did some research on what surrealism means. And I realize that surrealism can be portrayed through minor distortions and abstract expressions.
Changes made :
1) Placement of fonts to enhance readability
2) To add on surrealistic mood, I enlarged the girl in the middle, plunge a hole through her body, with a knife sticking out from the hole. This in fact suit my plot and at the same time create a kind of unreal expression.
3) Type of font -> to enhance the comedy feel
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