Production Diary

Production Diary

-October 11,2017

Initial ideas

This week me and Soton started off by recording our selves making ideas and plans on the short film opening we're going to make.In the video we first discuss about the genres we want our movies to be, brainstorming ideas and scenes we initially have in our head,also trying to blend in the ideas of horror and psychological thriller together.The discussion allows us to be able to share of ideas and scenes we have in our head.

In the video we took turns to draw and illustrate the scenes we each have in our head into pictures so, that we have a clearer idea of what each other meant rather talking face to face.These scenes are yet to only be our initial ideas ,they could change or improved at anytime according to the new things we learn in the media class.

-October 27th, 2017

Today i got my first draft for our short film opening

In this week me and Soton have decided to make changes to our story line plot and genre from being a more horror film based into a much more psychological-thriller theme.The name of the film is "Insecurity" named by Soton but is not yet finalized.We think that making a film more artistic and thrilling can be more interesting and results to better outcomes rather than an ordinary horror/ghost film which lacks quality content and depth behind the stories.

We have made a spider diagram to redefine our ideas and make it much easier to understand and breakthrough different aspects/factors that should be considered on producing our films for instance,Our Target audience or the L-CAGES ,Media Platform.

This is the mind map we made.

November 8th, 2017

In today's class me and Soton have decided to make plans on some of the key shots we wanted include on our media product film.These are key simple shots such as over the shoulder shots,close up shots and establishing shot learnt from our lesson on cinematography. We believe by adding these shots with the correct tone of lighting and location build a suspense/solitude mood in some of the scenes in our media product.

Some of the close up shots which are seen below ie. close up on me tying my shoe laces are some of the experiment we made to the shot from our storyboard as the beginning of the short film opening there's a close up on the protagonist hand tying his shoe laces.Depth of field shot on my bag and charger was a reference to the objects such as watches and wallet owned by the protagonist "Alex".

Film Technique

November 21st, 2017

Over the last few classes Mr.Simple have put us into groups of 3-2 to replicate a sample video on Film technique of a media student from Youtube. I was put into groups with Jess and Irada and have played in the role of the main editor.Jess is mainly in charge of taking shots from the camera and Irada helping in some bits of everything.I was able to take some of the shots myself and featured in the video to illustrates examples of shots and angle although my main role is editing.

Here is the video after it is finished.

In my opinion, doing this particular activity is highly useful and beneficial to me and the others because we're able to try out different roles and at the same time learn about new film techniques e.g. shots,angles and composition. I'm also able to improve my skills on editing and get a better vision and advice of how to make my video and content flow much more smoothly.

Notes:-I didn't adjust any colors to the scene yet.

-Around the middle part the file was ejected during the editing session so,there's a slight error.

-Program used -Premiere Pro

November 30th,2017

This a short summarised footage of me and Soton making further trials and plans on shots we would like to include and we would actually execute it before we start our filming.

December 1st,2018

Today me and Soton decided to split our work on finding locations for our short film opening by going to a list of different mid to high class hotels to check on the location whether it suits our ideal location/room of characters in the story and were given consent and approval by the staffs to make filming process in their hotel room and other areas in the hotel such as lift,car parks and cafe.

R&B was one of the choice we looked on and were pretty interested due to its cheap pricing and freedom of use in the area ,however, due to the little time span we got although there sre many decent R&B in Bangkok they requires advance bookings and some comes in almost empty which mean we may need to bring in more props and lightings to set the area into a luxurious mood and tone we wanted in the film.

Many rooms from hotel we have been through ie. Conrad hotel tends to be highly expensive due to its location providing breathtaking views of the city in Bangkok.Moreover,rooms are often highly packed and looked too stiff in the sense of a hotel which makes it almost difficult to believe that it's a couple room rather than a hotel room.Considering the fact that we have grown/semi professional actors for our project and a help in some scenes by an experience camera man i realised it will be extremely chaotic during the filming stages due to our limited space.

Therefore, i went for a cheaper hot the Baiyok Sky Hotel (3 stars) which is still pretyty decent with a much lower price and restrictions on filming by the staffs.The views are still good with a much larger space for us to organise props and set up camera and scenes.However,the problem is the furniture and design of the room in general is highly low class ie. curtains being blue and dirty which obviously again doesn't give us the feel of richness in our scenes and wouldn't make the audience believe in the characters role.

December 5th, 2017

Finally, after all the research on locations we have found a place we genuinely thinks suits our scenes in a reasonable price "The Royal River Hotel".The location is selected because it is the place where some main actions of the story will take place such as the protagonist leaving the house and coming back.The wife being thoughtful and decides to commit suicide in the room.The room creates the mood of a married life and offers the deluxe-rich lifestyle we want the main character to have.

We chose the room 718 on the 7th floor of the hotel because it is a suite room so,many people including the actors and helping team could use the room freely without everything being too tight/crowded.Despite making some reservations quite sometime before and the hotel not being set completely into the cities area we were able to use the room at a reasonable price of approximately 4000 to 5000 baht.One of the things i like most about the room was the fact that there's a balcony,enabling us to see and make shots of the Jao Praya river and at the same time also capture some aspects of the city life/buildings from the high point of view created by the room.

Filming day

December 15th, 2017

Today is the filming day as i appointed to meet the actors and helpers first in the morning to give them another further brief of our plot/storyline of of short film opening.I also came in at the hotel room relatively before the appointed time around an hour just to make sure aeverything in the room is alright and started to bring in props and set up the location for the scenes with help of my driver and some of the workers from my mom's office.

After making sure everything was all set me and Soton and the helping crew started our filming process at 9 a.m in the morning.First few scenes were pretty easy as it was taken just from inside and outside of the room.We decided to try and film all the internal shots or shots which used the same settings/locations as much as possible so that we can just finish filming all the shots needed in a particular location and doesn't need to comeback and forth since that we be an inefficient use of time and probably be very chaotic since the actors and the crew holding pops and lights with have to move back and forth to places several times.

At around 13.00 we have finished almost all the internal scenes that took place inside the room so, we decided to have a lunch break for 1 hour just for the actors and the crew to rest.We continued filming at around 14.00 ,however, this time moving onto external scenes such as the lift area ,parking lot and the coffee shop.It was a normal day time so us asking permission to film in public areas wasn't too difficult as there were not many people.

The last few scenes are scenes of the flower and cityscape in the evening time to show the changes between time and mood in the story line.Therefore, we have to wait quite sometime for the sky to turn dark and give us a sort of evening mood which suggests to the audience this change of time/atmosphere with the same environment/objects shown in the beginning of the story.

1st assemble

December 28th , 2018

This is the first assemble of our short film opening "Insecurity". I have tried to combine scenes we have from our filming day to see how it would roughly turn out like.We're open to feedbacks and is looking forward to make all the possible improvements to our project.

Feedback

WWW

- Some really well joined cuts - flow of rhythm

- Use of Russian Montage editing technique

- Good switch between cityscape and characters

EBI

-Better flow between scenes

-Continuous and easier to understand flow of edits

- Use of "Fade in " and "Fade Out"

-Order/sequences of shots

-Merge between scenes - use slopes

- Some scenes were too long and too short

-Too many views

Media Short Film Opening

January 14, 2018

Here is me and Soton's short film opening titled "Insecurity".

We tried to fit all the details and footage in as much as possible according to the 2 mins limit of the project without making it look too forced and unnatural.Errors checkings and editing were made several times to make the video closest the word finished and doesn't require too much change/editing in the future.

We're open to feedbacks and is looking forward to make all the possible improvements to our project.

Notes

-The video is exactly 2 mins,it may still have some flaws but we have already tried to eliminate all the minor errors/limiting them as much as possible.

-The video definition is currently maxed at 720p ,we might choose to render the video to 1080p later.

We will try to make further improvements and changes according to future feedbacks as much as possible.

Sound Edit 1

February 28, 2018

According to the feedback given from my peers and Mr.Simpson.I have decided to make changes mainly on sound from Mr.Simpson ideas and advises of using this idea of the 6 elements on nature e.g. wind, fire to represent and express feelings of the characters specifically on the antagonist which is the wife (Diana) through the use of digetic and non-digetic sound.

Building on that idea me and Soton decided to use water to represent and express her feelings of loneliness and solitude. Variety of water sounds such as waves,sinking/drownining will be included.This is to suggests the idea that Diana feels highly isolated and dull as she referenced and pictures her self being in a highly peaceful and nature place as a lake or a sea where nobody can interrupt her it's just her and her. The sound of waves acts as reference to her blank feelings and dull emotions as they are rocks and pebbles just being eroded by the tides over and over again.

Moreover, drowning/sinking into the water sound also implies that she's being highly depressed and her mind is being swollen entirely down to her deeper thoughts and her conscious mind.The feelings of dark and unknown is created through this foreshadowing the fact the she may never comeback.

Notes: Earphones/headphones is highly recommended in order to listen to all the sounds.

2nd Sound Update

March 3, 2018

After showing Mr.Simpson my sound edit with adding elements of water to represent and act as a metaphor to the wife's feelings/emotions. I've received further feedbacks and comments on timing,rhythm and small specific details.From that i have make further changes according to his advises.

Notes from Mr.Simpson:

Here is the video after the sound edit:

Final Film

March 15, 2018

This is the final film of our As Media project "Insecurity" short film opening with a length of 2 mins long.

Notes: This is the last edit after Mr.Simpson suggested that the birds sound effect in the end was a little too slow so, i made it faster and fit in at a better timing.

media study

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