1.What is your role / contribution to the film in each phase?
The art director. Perhaps, I contributed by helping to borrow the Canon 5D Mark II from our schoolmate who is currently at internship. (because we lack b-rolls of traffic lights and bus moving/arriving to make the edit more smooth)
2.What have you learnt in each phase?
Never treat b-rolls/cutaways as ‘minimal’ or unnecessarily
Our third roll of footage initially shot on film (containing b-rolls) could not be used due to double image. The following week after DI, we could’ve gone for a reshoot with either our remaining footage or borrow the Canon camera earlier but it didn’t happen, due to complications I’m unsure of.
When we all viewed the rough cut, I felt it didn’t really flow that smooth and the changing of time wasn’t done well – because we lacked the cutaways. Moreover, we lack close ups shots of the actress, a certain impact was lost. I think it was due to time constraints on the bus, we had to return it by 4.30pm and didn’t have enough time to cover what we planned. Hence, the result was..a sacrificial of shots. But it was a lesson learnt, seeing that so many things are missing will make me consider properly the amount of time we have, and what we have to shoot, and whether or not we can achieve it. Sometimes, during the planning stage, if we had in mind that we might need to cut short our shots in case of anything, perhaps that spells trouble coming already.
Edit on the fcp station..safest
We had problems connecting our footage after it was transferred from the laptop. It was initially linked to a hard disk when it should have been connected to the folder in the desktop. Then, our friend wanted the hard disk back(it wasn’t ours) and our footage went offline. We had to call her back, making her run here and there. Less problems would’ve happen if everything was done on the fcp station, less worries, less trouble, perhaps no need to see my director screaming at the fcp station on the day the Fine Cut was due..
AND PROJECT SETTINGS ON FCP IS ALSO VERY IMPORTANT. most of us tend to forget that, and it has been sometime since we used FCP but that really affects the resolution, aspect ratio and everything! Then you, Mr. Lau (as you are reading) told us about patience as you go through every shot and help us enlarge it, changing the settings when you shouldn’t even be doing it. I don’t remember seeing you flare up at the wrong settings, you helped us find a solution patiently, and mention about fishing and..Jiang Ziya. My director (weekiat) was really angry, my editor I don’t know what he was feeling but me as a “third party” ‘cos I wasn’t directly involved in the editing stage, still had this little sense of patience in me. So, what to do besides calming the angry person down..which I don’t know if I did. I don’t know how I will react if i was another role, perhaps even as the editor I would blame myself and as the director, feel helpless. I wouldn’t know..BUT, I think we really need to learn how to enjoy fishing. And remind ourselves that “things that can be solved are not problems”. I think we all were a little tense ‘cos there’s Regional Cinema test the next day, and we were still in the editing room at 6pm..
how would I end off this journal..i think it’s not easy to master the patience or remind ourselves that patience is needed. we tend to let the situation we’re in and negative feelings control us, and things get heated up and, and the group’s spirit goes down – which is not a good thing.
at the end of the day..patience is the word.
