today's production was a whole lot better than monday's. besides slight delays in setting up, due to unforeseen things like the microphones not picking up sound and the 900 camera's flat battery, everything went according to schedule. also, everyone came by 9am, so i guess it's an improvement, although only derrick and i were there at 8.45am, the planned reporting time.
ok, bertrand said i still talked abit too much, like for example, i was supposed to go for a dry run, but it was still recorded, meaning it should be exactly like what the actual recording should be, but i told them it was a dry run, meaning if they screwed up it was ok. looking back at it, i kinda wonder why i did that. maybe deep down i just didn't wanna cheat their feelings..
another thing is, when i was playing the video of yvonne's p2, which had worked perfectly fine on the 2 dry runs that we had, it played for about 5 seconds, then hanged, so i had to quickly switch back to like. good thing derrick cued the talents well, and also that andrea was alert enough, so that we didn't have to cut back to her blank face. however, the ending shot, which was supposed to be a zoom out from derrick's camera was very jerky. for awhile i wondered whether i should do a re-run, so as to make everything perfect, but when bertrand said it was ok i decided not to. was worried i might eat into the other group's time, which wouldn't be fair to them. thinking back, i feel kinda guilty. the video stopping was nobody's fault except the laptop, but i think i might have accidentally "saboh-ed" derrick's grade as the cameraman. hopefully he will only be graded on his duties as floor manager, which he did very well in.
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Tuesday 28/4
had a talk by a cinematographer from shooting gallery today about lighting. not exactly a talk, more like a hands on tutorial. i came late for the start of the lesson, so i missed what he was talking about. but shortly after i came the class was split into 3 groups. for my group, we were told to go out into the canteen and plan a wide shot and two close-ups of two people talking, with the bright daylight directly facing the sun. gave us quite a bit of a problem, trying to balance the lighting so that it won't be to jarring. tried out many different positions of the lighting, then changing the camera postion, but the background was either too bright or too ugly.
in the end the solution was to place a 1k light outside the canteen to shine it inwards, and 2 other kinos to balance it out. i was outside holding on to the 1k, making sure it doesn't topple, so i'm quite blur as to what they did to balance the light. couldn't hear or see anything from down there.
anyways, showed sarah and derrick my opening titles and asked what they thought of it, and sarah said that the speed at which the words comes out were too slow. tweaked it, rendered it out and our titles were set, complete with an audio soundtrack.
however, as i found out later that day, it was quite impossible to feed audio into the mixer, because jac doesn't have the audio jack. i suppose it can still work without audio though. dont think we're actually graded for that.
in the end the solution was to place a 1k light outside the canteen to shine it inwards, and 2 other kinos to balance it out. i was outside holding on to the 1k, making sure it doesn't topple, so i'm quite blur as to what they did to balance the light. couldn't hear or see anything from down there.
anyways, showed sarah and derrick my opening titles and asked what they thought of it, and sarah said that the speed at which the words comes out were too slow. tweaked it, rendered it out and our titles were set, complete with an audio soundtrack.
however, as i found out later that day, it was quite impossible to feed audio into the mixer, because jac doesn't have the audio jack. i suppose it can still work without audio though. dont think we're actually graded for that.
Monday, April 27, 2009
Monday 27/4
today's rehearsal was, should i say, less than perfect. alright, it was a disaster. we took more than an hour to set up the lighting, camera and stuff, and when i gave instructions as the mixer they said i was too soft, and that my commands were unclear. but i have this to say in my defence; it is super stressful to be in the seat of the mixer. many times i made a mistake and everyone had to restart. also, bertrand said i talked too much. actually he described it as "verbal diarrhoea", making too many unnecesary comments.
but i have to say, it was quite a big eye opener. all the while i though it would be quite natural the moment you start mixing, but now i know that when youre on the spot, your thinking becomes impaired. never mind, i will do better on wednesday morning.
anyways, i did some simple motion graphics for the opening titles. very simple. have to get my group members' opinion tomorrow. added in some cheesy music and voila!, it's done. took like, 2 or 3 hours to do it. quite fast, considering that i went into it without any thought or concept, and also after months of not using after effects. took awhile for me to remember where all the commands are, and i even went online to ask andrew kramer for help. watched his tutorials videos on his website and figured out how to make the text come out like it does.
something has really come into my concern today. my group members all wondered why i had solo-ed all the work. i guess i work better alone, and my main worry was that since we didn't have the time to meet up and discuss about everything, if i pass it to them there will be miscommunication and it will all fall through. thing is, my group mates were all like, "hey, why didn't you ask us to do some of it", or "you spent the whole night doing it? you could have asked us you know.." but i guess, i didn't say it to but i was thinking in my head, i'm not the only one who has a phone, or goes online. it was quite obvious that from the moment i knew what this assignment was about i assumed leadership of it, because i know i can pull it off, so it's quite stupid to say i could have contacted them when they know it's a group effort. ah well, it's over. guess i could have assigned some things to them if i knew it would turn out like that..
i have to say though, i got a real kick out of seeing their reactions when they found out i had done all the work that was to be submitted. derrick's reaction was the best. his face had "oh thank God hallelujah" or something similar written all over it.
but i have to say, it was quite a big eye opener. all the while i though it would be quite natural the moment you start mixing, but now i know that when youre on the spot, your thinking becomes impaired. never mind, i will do better on wednesday morning.
anyways, i did some simple motion graphics for the opening titles. very simple. have to get my group members' opinion tomorrow. added in some cheesy music and voila!, it's done. took like, 2 or 3 hours to do it. quite fast, considering that i went into it without any thought or concept, and also after months of not using after effects. took awhile for me to remember where all the commands are, and i even went online to ask andrew kramer for help. watched his tutorials videos on his website and figured out how to make the text come out like it does.
something has really come into my concern today. my group members all wondered why i had solo-ed all the work. i guess i work better alone, and my main worry was that since we didn't have the time to meet up and discuss about everything, if i pass it to them there will be miscommunication and it will all fall through. thing is, my group mates were all like, "hey, why didn't you ask us to do some of it", or "you spent the whole night doing it? you could have asked us you know.." but i guess, i didn't say it to but i was thinking in my head, i'm not the only one who has a phone, or goes online. it was quite obvious that from the moment i knew what this assignment was about i assumed leadership of it, because i know i can pull it off, so it's quite stupid to say i could have contacted them when they know it's a group effort. ah well, it's over. guess i could have assigned some things to them if i knew it would turn out like that..
i have to say though, i got a real kick out of seeing their reactions when they found out i had done all the work that was to be submitted. derrick's reaction was the best. his face had "oh thank God hallelujah" or something similar written all over it.
Sunday 26/4
well, finally got all the paperwork done. planned out all the script, camera positions, lighting, schedule and all. wasn't easy, but still, looking at it i kinda feel quite pleased with it.
basically the show is called "Reel Life, Real People", and it's a show where the host, played by andrea lek, interviews the guest, yvonne wong, about her latest short film, which is her p2 work. i tweaked the given questions abit and sent it to yvonne via sms, and she replied the answers in word and emailed it back to me, and from there i just fit in all the answers, altering abit here and there to make it more direct to the point, and also to keep it within the timeline of 3minutes. the speed at which they will have to talk is important, because they are on quite a tight timeline.
i'm intending to do a bit of motion graphics for the opening titles. not required, but what i think is, if i can do it, why not? i mean, it's not like i'm purposefully wanting to stand out, but i don't think i'll get many other chances to toy around with the mixer like this, might as well make it look as nice as possible. also, i'm thinking of adding a short clip of yvonne's p2 video, but i'm not sure how long it'll have to be, although the time i'm setting it now is for 15-20 seconds. another thing i want to do is to add some audio, like for the opening titles and for the video, but as of yet i have no idea how to do it. hope jac will be able to help me out, because i remember he said it would be hard to get audio for the mixer, can't remember why though.
oh yeah, rehearsal is in a few hours time, hope it goes well.
basically the show is called "Reel Life, Real People", and it's a show where the host, played by andrea lek, interviews the guest, yvonne wong, about her latest short film, which is her p2 work. i tweaked the given questions abit and sent it to yvonne via sms, and she replied the answers in word and emailed it back to me, and from there i just fit in all the answers, altering abit here and there to make it more direct to the point, and also to keep it within the timeline of 3minutes. the speed at which they will have to talk is important, because they are on quite a tight timeline.
i'm intending to do a bit of motion graphics for the opening titles. not required, but what i think is, if i can do it, why not? i mean, it's not like i'm purposefully wanting to stand out, but i don't think i'll get many other chances to toy around with the mixer like this, might as well make it look as nice as possible. also, i'm thinking of adding a short clip of yvonne's p2 video, but i'm not sure how long it'll have to be, although the time i'm setting it now is for 15-20 seconds. another thing i want to do is to add some audio, like for the opening titles and for the video, but as of yet i have no idea how to do it. hope jac will be able to help me out, because i remember he said it would be hard to get audio for the mixer, can't remember why though.
oh yeah, rehearsal is in a few hours time, hope it goes well.
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Friday 24/4
day 3 of class, beginning to feel the heat already, but i'll talk about that later.
firstly, today we finally got a tech brief on the mixer. it's a damn cool machine. my church's one is better, of course, with more controls and stuff, but the fact that i actually could touch and play with this one makes it cooler. had a test run with it, and i liked it, haha! didn't learn much about it that i didn't already know, though, but i guess i'll still need jac's help with the DSK and stuff.
main thing that i got to learn today was lighting. although i sort of already knew about 3point lighting and stuff like that, i kind of forgotten it, all i knew was that 3 lights were involved. but today i re-learnt what is key light, fill light and others. still i don't think i can get the hang of lighting. hope the lighting guy coming next tuesday will change that.
but what i really got out of today is that i don't think i can use a dark setting anymore. today's set up was very professional looking, with dark lighting bringing out people's faces from the shadows and all, but now i think many groups will be copying it. have to think of something fast. submission of production plans is on monday, and so far our group haven't really come up with anything other than name (Reel life, Real people), which kind of isn't really relevant at this point. the weekend is coming, and i have no news from any of the other members. i can't exactly meet them out because my weekends are almost always never free, so i guess it's solo work then. maybe it's my fault for not spreading the word, but hey, they didn't contact me either. just hoping that one or two of them would at least give me a ring and ask me what needs to be done. or better yet, tell me what to do, so at least we'll have some plan ready instantly.
that's it for another day..
firstly, today we finally got a tech brief on the mixer. it's a damn cool machine. my church's one is better, of course, with more controls and stuff, but the fact that i actually could touch and play with this one makes it cooler. had a test run with it, and i liked it, haha! didn't learn much about it that i didn't already know, though, but i guess i'll still need jac's help with the DSK and stuff.
main thing that i got to learn today was lighting. although i sort of already knew about 3point lighting and stuff like that, i kind of forgotten it, all i knew was that 3 lights were involved. but today i re-learnt what is key light, fill light and others. still i don't think i can get the hang of lighting. hope the lighting guy coming next tuesday will change that.
but what i really got out of today is that i don't think i can use a dark setting anymore. today's set up was very professional looking, with dark lighting bringing out people's faces from the shadows and all, but now i think many groups will be copying it. have to think of something fast. submission of production plans is on monday, and so far our group haven't really come up with anything other than name (Reel life, Real people), which kind of isn't really relevant at this point. the weekend is coming, and i have no news from any of the other members. i can't exactly meet them out because my weekends are almost always never free, so i guess it's solo work then. maybe it's my fault for not spreading the word, but hey, they didn't contact me either. just hoping that one or two of them would at least give me a ring and ask me what needs to be done. or better yet, tell me what to do, so at least we'll have some plan ready instantly.
that's it for another day..
Wednesday 22/4
not much class today, all we did was prety much discuss about our project. had some ideas about set design. i want to see if i could bring in my tv from home, and maybe a rug from sarah, but i'm afraid i'll be doing too much. well, on one hand, i want to go all out on projects now, but on the other, when is enough enough?
did some research on talkshows, mostly ellen degeneres, watched what kind of shot sizes, reaction shots, and everything else, and realised it's actually, although limited, quite smooth. i guess that will be the effect i'll try to achieve.
as for lighting, haven't really given it much thought yet. maybe something that's dark, or maybe even go taiwan variety show style. i don't know, probably depends on how the overall feel of the production should be like.
we've decided to use the questions given to us from the script. also, we've paired up with andrea lek's group, so they'll fill in the role of guest, host, and 2 cue card holders for us, and we for them. also, the responsibilities are kind of planned out, i will be the visual mixer, and sarah, aaron and derrick the cameramen.
guess that's all for today.
did some research on talkshows, mostly ellen degeneres, watched what kind of shot sizes, reaction shots, and everything else, and realised it's actually, although limited, quite smooth. i guess that will be the effect i'll try to achieve.
as for lighting, haven't really given it much thought yet. maybe something that's dark, or maybe even go taiwan variety show style. i don't know, probably depends on how the overall feel of the production should be like.
we've decided to use the questions given to us from the script. also, we've paired up with andrea lek's group, so they'll fill in the role of guest, host, and 2 cue card holders for us, and we for them. also, the responsibilities are kind of planned out, i will be the visual mixer, and sarah, aaron and derrick the cameramen.
guess that's all for today.
Tuesday 21/4
ok so basically this is my blog for vidpro. i guess i'm kinda late for this entry, well, for the whole week, but i'll make up for it with posts for days where things were done. for this project we were asked to do a blog so yea, here it is. only thing is, i still have a problem with the fact that it takes up such a high majority of the marks. i know it's an incentive, or rather a dis-incentive to make us blog, but still 70% is too much. we should be based on our works rather than having to let people know every step of the process. that being said however, i gues it does have it's advantages, like for example if you're in a group and you're the only one working, it's kinda easy to tell because you're blog would be the only one with real information.
alright, enough ranting. today we sort of got a brief run through of what's gonna happen for the next 4 weeks. live studio recordingm now that's a cool thing. being part of the camera crew in my church, i sort of know how everything works. i've been praised by the director for coming up with interesting shots during the singing sessions, and also i've been shouted at over the comms for cutting the pastor's head in half horizontally after a brief moment of distraction and letting the camera tilt down when it was live on the giant LCD screen on stage, as well as broadcasted over the internet to people from around the world. what's this supposed to mean? well i guess it means i know what are the commands to give and all.
it's quite a lucky thing too that last week the director gave me a brief introduction to the visual mixer board, letting me know how the shots are, well, directed; through this board. i got to learn about things like DSK, how the shots are chosen into the preview feed and all that. it was quite a brief introduction, like i said, but i guess, after looking at the class' reaction to the mixer, i'm like one of the only ones to ever have touched it before. finally, i get to have an edge over the others. just hope i don't screw up and mess this project up. that would just suck.
oh yea, it's a group project, and my members are sarah, aaron and derrick. not exactly my choice of people, but since jem, jake, mal and betty "abandoned" me to form their own group i guess i have to work with them. i've only ever worked with sarah, and one good thing about her is that when she's focused she can come up with something good. the other two, i've not worked with before, but from testimonies from other people i guess i might have a hard time. but then again i've been wrong before in group projects; people whom i thought would be a letdown proved themselves, and likewise some people were indeed unexpected letdowns. that said, fingers crossed.
woah, typed more than what i thought i would have, ah well, that concludes the first day.
alright, enough ranting. today we sort of got a brief run through of what's gonna happen for the next 4 weeks. live studio recordingm now that's a cool thing. being part of the camera crew in my church, i sort of know how everything works. i've been praised by the director for coming up with interesting shots during the singing sessions, and also i've been shouted at over the comms for cutting the pastor's head in half horizontally after a brief moment of distraction and letting the camera tilt down when it was live on the giant LCD screen on stage, as well as broadcasted over the internet to people from around the world. what's this supposed to mean? well i guess it means i know what are the commands to give and all.
it's quite a lucky thing too that last week the director gave me a brief introduction to the visual mixer board, letting me know how the shots are, well, directed; through this board. i got to learn about things like DSK, how the shots are chosen into the preview feed and all that. it was quite a brief introduction, like i said, but i guess, after looking at the class' reaction to the mixer, i'm like one of the only ones to ever have touched it before. finally, i get to have an edge over the others. just hope i don't screw up and mess this project up. that would just suck.
oh yea, it's a group project, and my members are sarah, aaron and derrick. not exactly my choice of people, but since jem, jake, mal and betty "abandoned" me to form their own group i guess i have to work with them. i've only ever worked with sarah, and one good thing about her is that when she's focused she can come up with something good. the other two, i've not worked with before, but from testimonies from other people i guess i might have a hard time. but then again i've been wrong before in group projects; people whom i thought would be a letdown proved themselves, and likewise some people were indeed unexpected letdowns. that said, fingers crossed.
woah, typed more than what i thought i would have, ah well, that concludes the first day.
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