Lift scene

BY EMILLY

I'm just wondering whether the "lift" scene is possible. Where are we going to find a lift that no one is going to use, for the time we have to shoot? In terms of logistics it will be difficult.

I think the character needs to have some kind of "freak out" (as in the lift) but we could make that somewhere else, in a mirror or something like that.
What do you think?

Also, I think we can go without the "plane lift-off scene" if we are going to film the sign "international airport"..

That is all..

respond on YQ

1) 100% agree on the job theme, good thinking about the slow motion stuff. nothing to edit about this part

2)the lift scene: two opions -a, the lift should go up, cuz he wants to go home. once he talking to the mirror, he feels fearful. he is fluster at that moment, so he keep pressing the open button or any of the buttons(he's so freak out) he rushes out, and run to the firedoor.(he's running cuz he feels like he is been chasing after by the people who comes from the mirror. ) .....
ps, even we should at UTS building 3's left, we can pretend it is the lift to home.....

OR

option b, as YQ said, from level 5 goes down, rush out at level 3, walk down to the ground floor. then, he should be running all the way to his home, cuz our next scene is home.

3) the dialogues of the mirror talking the words should be strong enough to impact on the character's emotion. such as
the mirror said "what you look at? You such a useless loser!! If I were u, I would disappear forever rather than stay here and wasting your mum's money!!!!! go to hell........." en, this kind of aggressive words.

4) respond on your post of "To director "

a, Chinese boy, okay

b, i'v already talked about the location to my assistant Marilyn.

• She will ask for the permission of Commonwealth Bank at George Steet (the reason why i choose the commonwealth bank bcuz there is one scene to ECU on the receipt, which shows the accout is out of money. I can make that trick by using Commbank )
• The permission of using Insearch class room.
• The permission of UTS building 3.
• The permission of shooting the Insearch councilor's office.
• The permission of using the Chinese restaurant.

c, I can provide the place and the bed for him to run and "suicide"

d, we don't need a huge plane fly infront of you. we just need standby. we could know the direction of the plane flying to. it's not gonna fly like an UFO if it's far enough to you. you could see plane flies everywhere on the sky in the place which near to the airport. (i used to live in that place) only sound is not effect enough, cuz for an international student, plane and airport have special meanings. that's what i felt when i first arrived to Sydney. The plane makes me feel like i have no way back, no relatives, no families, no friends, nothing but loneliness. Let's see, if we couldn't shoot this part, we could try the air plane's sound to instead.

5) love the second part u write

6)Have to mention again, only write YOUR thoughts or YOUR researches. If you agree someone's idea, you can mention that i agree with xxx. but DO NOT TRANSFER or COPY others IDEAS.

By Cindy

Second part

In our film, the second part is the boy actually sees the poster of our campaign, and changes his life. It is base on the first part of the film.
The general ideas can be like this:

• The poster is posted on Insearch wall, the boy goes pass it everyday.
  
• The first time when he sees the poster, he just look for few seconds. This can be inserted after the scene of classroom and "FAIL" paper.
  
• The second time he goes pass the poster, and stops, looks on that for details for about longer time, aims to memorize the details on the poster. This can be added in later time when he faces more struggles.
  
• He has the phone number and website address write down on his paper, because he wants to try to get help from people. And at night, he things a long time about the poster. Finally, he checks on our web and leaves msg on our website/email us for seeking help.
  
• Then we need a scene of the boy seeing the councilor or instead, we can have a scene of him checking email from the councilor about "how do you feel today? anything want to tell me?" such as this......
• Smile on his face, get in touch with friends introduced by the councilor...and so on.
  

To director

I think it is the time to have the details of actors and locations.

1. background of the protagonist, I suggest to have a Chinese boy. therefore we can work easily as the background of the character is much familiar to us.

2. I think the director is pretty much have the ideas of the locations, but please be specific.

3. After the lift scene, where does the boy run to? If he runs back to home, then where does he live?

4. I personally think the scene of the beginning of the boy gets off the plane and watch plane fly pass, is hard to shot and capture a just-right/perfect shot because of timing problem. This is such a great idea. But instead of shotting a real plane fly away, can we use the sound of plane flying. This would be much easier to save time and resources.

Well, these are just suggestions, I am fully respecting the decisions of director.

questions

Firstly, I want to clarify that the post of our group members must use their own ideas of the production, not a group discussion record from members to use as own post of ideas. I appreciate that if you have such great ideas, but not other people's as owns.

Secondly, it is free to speak what you have in mind to discuss here with other. But is must be original brainstormed.

The dialogue and subtitle

For our short film, because the audience is focus on the international/overseas students, for the scene the main character talking to himself. I think the language they use should talk in their first language and for that we may put English subtitles.

Also the working scene the boss fire the main character maybe the place he working should related to his background.which means for example if the overseas student his first language isn't English so he may not working in the English speaking environment because his language problem.

For our shooting schedule because there are few scenes, so it may take more than one day to finish it. After the shot list release I will doing the schedule with Cindy to put it together. Such as the ATM and Phone scene can be just do in the CBD's street.


Post By Marilyn

lift scene

The suggested location of the lift scene is UTS building 3, the good things are the lift there is dark, poor, I think, and easy to communication with UTS to book one lift for shotting. Also, there is the firedoor/exit just next to the lift. Can use for the idea of when he escapes from the lift then runs away.

I suggest that the scene starts with the boy finished his visit of friend, and takes the lift from Lv.5 to G.

1. LS, the boy presses the button of going down, sees the sign of Lv.5

2. MS, lift floor, 1st p. view, walks in the lift, looking down.
then tilt up to buttons, presses G.

3. MS, boy lays at wall in lift, looks left at mirror sees himself.

4. MS, image of him from the mirror starts to smile, then talks
"What are you looking at? Why are you smiling? Do I look funny to make you laugh at me?"

5. MS, boy starts to panic and worrying, sweats, and explains to the mirror,
"No, no, I am not."

6. MS, image of him from the mirror keeps talking,
"No need to explain. I know you are laughing at me. You all laughing at me. Does my accent that stupid? I am going it better, you see that? you see that?"

7. MS, boy explains "Stop talking, I know, I know...Stop". Hands on head etc. frustrating actions. then Turns around, face to the buttons.

8. CU, boy's finger keeps pressing G button, and open button. says "let me out! I don't want to hear you!"

9. LS, door of lift opens, boys runs out from the lift. (there is Lv.3), camera pans him running toward to the firedoor.

10. LS, boy runs down from Lv. 3 to Lv. 2, quick breathes and sweats a lot.

Then Turn Black here??? don't know yet.
Because I have not figure out what going to be next.
If the character is Chinese, must speak Chinese.

job scene

I think we can make the ATM (no money) scene before the job scene.
Then comes up in the kitchen of Shan Cheng Hot Pot Restaurant, the boy is listening to his boss. His boss is pissed off at him (find out what problems later in details).

1. camera shot in other person's view, walks forward to the boss and the protagonist, as he/she sees the angry boss is talking to the protagonist. (EWS to MS)

2. CU of the boss' feet in the protagonist's view, he is looking at the boss' feet, and listening the boss swearing and blaming him.

3. CU, LA of the boss' face in the protagonist's view, slow motion of when boss is speaking, but no actual sound of boss' talk. only echo voice of the protagonist's inner heart. E.g. "Bi zui (shut up in chinese).

4. Fade in black as closing eyes.

my little draft

this is the story what i thought so far.

MCU,
Back, look up the blue sky, plane fly passing,

LA, ECU-->MWS,
Ecu on shoes, go with the luggage, walk far (back)

Black and white colour,

MWS(1st person view)
Walk into the class, sit alone

pan, MCU(1st person view)
Looks around, people gossip, eye contact

MWS (1st person view)
Pairs or groups of people walk passed

ECU,(1st person view)
“Fail” on paper.

……….JOB THEME……..

LS
Walk into ATM(BACK),

ECU(1st person view)
on receipt, No money

MCU,
Look up at the moon, (back)

MS
Walk into the telephone-box (back),

CU(1st person view)
Hold the phone -->hesitate hang off, walk away,

MLS,
Walks, message ring, take out mobile

ECU(1st person view)
Message from girlfriend, break up

MWS,
Walk, pass the poster, not see

………mirror talking……

LS,
Running out of lift

LA(1st person view)
Look up the stairs, running,

MS(1st person view)
Close the door, went down, breath,

CU (1st person view)
Hold the pill bottle, fall down on the bed,

MWS(1st person view)
Camera Dizzy, twist,
------------edit transfer between the face expression and the view from eyes, heart beating, deep breath
CU--> ECU,
the eyes,

All back forward
…………to be continued

i had two part need to discuss with you guys. the 1st is the job theme, cuz i've heard different version from everybody. We need a final version for the job theme.

The 2nd is the mirror theme. this part is the climax of the whole story, and it's YQ's idea. I still little confused about the camera techniques, such as how we could make that perfectly.

& i dont have any clues about the last part. the things after the back forward. so, need some ideas.

Post By Cindy

updated roles and responsibilities

a bit edit from YQ's role list:

PRODUCER/ DIRECTOR- CINDY
Actors/actressesRehearsalTreatment
Budget(with Marilyn)
Shooting schedule (With Marilyn)
Shot list (Before shooting)
Script (with Emilly)
Edit Script (With YQ)
Shot list (After shooting, with Marilyn)

ASSISTANT- MARILYN

Assist the producer/director:
Bookings - equipment, location’s permission
Catering
Budget - food, transportation, etc(With Director)
Tape/DVD
Costume/ make up

Documentation:
Shooting schedule (with Director)+ Contact of the crew
Script people
Shot list (With Director)

CAMERA OPERATOR-EMILLY
Script writer (with Director)
In charge of taking care of camera equipment,
pick up and returnVisual style - frame
Focus puller
Storyboard

POST PRODUCTION EDITOR-YU QING
Sound recordist - Boom swinger, good audio levels
Continuity recording - logical flow of ideas, seamless flow of events/linking scene, consistent action, performance, lighting & shadow, sound (background, vehicle, noise), framing
Edit script writer (with Director)
Log rushesDirector/others decisions of best takes
Access to lib to create assembly, rough cut, fine cut
Post production editing



Things have to be done before the shooting day ----16th, April, 09 – 17th, April, 09
1, Shooting schedule
2, shot list (before)
3, script
4, treatment
5, actor/ actress, equipment, location, poster

the first scene

Okay, here comes out an idea pop into my mind. i need to record it in here in case i would forget it.
it is about the first scene, we all prefer this video is speechless. We need to make up the image to narrate the story. Our chacarter is an International students.

1). A mid shot of the boy's back, he looks at the blue sky. He see a plane pass infront of him. (this indicate he just got off from that plane and landed in a new country)

2), close up to his feet, then he walks with his luggage.(means walk out of the airport)-->turns wide shot. we still see him from his back. (the camera should lay on the ground, we dont have to come to the airport. just choose one place which can see the air plane)

this is the first scene i want to shoot. anybody has some idea??

Post By Cindy

respond to the sucide scene from YQ

yep, i have been thinking the sucide scene for hundreds of times. Firstly, I thought the character should be like runing before he sucide, it might looks like he is chased after an "imagine stress ". He is full of fear, he only can hear his heart beat and his deep breath. Then he stand on a roof of some building and jump out of the building, his pose should be like flying and then backforward.....

Then, i was concered about the equipment thing and the shooting techniques. I have been thinking to take a mid shot of him fall of (instead of he face the ground to jump), and he could fall off at a cushion. Using cutting skills to bring the scene more real. well, this is the hypothesis. it's just see how possible it would be.

i disscussed with my crew, and they all thought, we wouldn't done this scene, it's so difficult for a student project (we are not that professional) Therefore, we thought, we might change the way the character sucide. He might be take the pills and sucide on the bed, and it would be easier for us to shoot.

About YQ's lift scene, i thought it is a very creative, especially when the character's another personality is going to shown from the mirror. it can obviously express the personal mental image to the audience. still need to work on the camera skills. should be very fun.......

i'm now looking for the character, an Asian looking boy.........should be good at acting.....anyone has the idea, or has some people to recommend???

ps, about the jobs and roles. YQ has already typed on the blog. very clear. it's better for us to communicate more during the processing of our project.

Post By Cindy

crew roles and responsibilities

Producer/Director - Cindy
Bookings - equipment, location
Catering
Shooting schedule
Budget - food, transportation, etc
Tape/DVD
Costume

Actors/actresses
Rehearsal
Treatment
Shot list (Before shooting)

Assistant - Marilyn
Assist the producer/director
Documentation

Camera operator - Emilly
Technical proficiency
Script writer (with Director)
In charge of taking care of camera equipment, pick up and return
Visual style - frame
Focus puller
Storyboard

Post production editor - Yu Qing
Sound recordist - Boom swinger, good audio levels
Continuity recording - logical flow of ideas, seamless flow of events/linking scene, consistent action, performance, lighting & shadow, sound (background, vehicle, noise), framing
Edit script writer (with Director)
Log rushes
Director/others decisions of best takes
Access to lib to create assembly, rough cut, fine cut
Post production editing


NOTE: duties may be different, depends on producer's organization

the suicide scene

In order to avoid the danger when the character jump down form a building, I think we don't need to actually shoot the person jump down.

Instead, we can just have the scene like this:
The character stands on the top of a building, scared, tries to jump down, listens to his own voice in echo saying something like "jump to release". Then the character opens his arms and black screen.

Well, this is just a suggestion.

scene in lift

I just had an idea of create a scene in the lift.
Because lift is always a place make people nervous, stressful, especially to the people who have mental problems.

It can be like this:

The character is in the lift by himself. He has the imagination of the lift stop suddenly, lights off, another person (mirror reflection) in the mirror of himself talking to himself, the character sweats and gets dizzy.
Suddenly the lift door opens, he sees people look at himself. Everything back to normal, the character runs out from the lift.

Notes about the song

Well last week I didn't document this, even though it is important!

It's related to a song choice for the film. We wanted a slow, sad song during the black and white part of our film when our main character is "experiencing depression". The song "Black Wave" by The Shins is almost perfect in conveying the emotion we want. There was not much thought that went into this discussion but I informed my group and they seemed happy with the song. However we didn't really consider how we were going to get rights to use it in our film. I thought it might be quite easy because The Shins have an independent record label. After doing some research within Sub Pop Records, I found this useful bit of information;

WE WILL NOT GRANT ANY LICENSES FOR THE FOLLOWING ARTISTS: The Postal Service, The Shins, or Nirvana. There are far too many requests to be able to process any of these.

C. A sync license for a Sub Pop artist will run you $500, half of which goes to Publishing, the other half of which goes to Sub Pop. Just so we’re very clear here: this is a festivals, student film or non-commercial license only. Any “for profit” uses of the film are not authorized under the $500 license.

(Sub Pop Records website)

In short, we have to pay $500 if we choose another band (The Shins are not licensed) because this is what it will cost to get lawyers and so forth... it's not worth it. We can't pick a very popular song, because getting rights to popular songs is very difficult.

Anyway, on Friday our group was just browsing through songs and found a few good ones. We are yet to decide on a song.

BY EMILLY

musics and soundtracks

Regarding to Emilly's research of using a famous music or soundtrack, we need to pay about $500 for the copyright.

But in my research, things go like this (email):

• Firstly, some general information about synchronisation, which is the copyright licensing term for the use of music in audiovisual media. Synchronisation licensing is usually administered directly by the owners of the copyrights on the music involved. (There is no central organisation like APRA/AMCOS administering this area in general.) There will usually be Australian contacts, even when a composition or recording is originally from elsewhere.
• There are two kinds of copyright which may be involved:

1. - the copyright on the musical composition. This copyright is usually administered by a publishing company, on behalf of the writer/s of the music.
2. - the copyright on the sound recording (if an existing sound recording is being used). This copyright is usually administered by the record company which produced the recording.

• You may also know that there can be exceptions to this rule if a production is made as part of a course of study, eg by a student making a project for assessment, or by a teacher making course materials. However, if a production made for such a purpose is also to be used in any other way (particularly any way involving screening before an audience) permission is required as above. To make this film for use as your assessment project, you will not need permission
• For further information about the use of music for educational purposes, you can consult the APRA/AMCOS Print Music and Educational Licensing Department (print@apra.com.au or 02 9935 7900).

actually, I have already asked my friend to compose some of suitable music/soundtracks for us, I am still waiting for that.
I think our musics/soundtracks will be like these styles:

• sad, depressed, moody
  
• confusing, imaginative
  
• dizzy
  
• relaxed, light and hope

Film group presentation

We will have a presentation on next Monday, 16/3/09.

Topic: Our film (15 mins)

Contents:

• general idea of our film, style, genre, etc.
  
• sample or relevant style films to talk about.
  
• roles of group members (director, post-pro editor, camera person, director assistant).
  
• 1 page outline.
  
• different mediums accepted (ppt, poster, etc.)
  

We will meet for this presentation on Thursday too, and talk about this, then finish the outline and ppt.
Please do some researches on sample films and any other relevant info.

Thanks!

Quick notice about the research

I have found a good site to find journal articles for your research topic!
Try Oxford Journals.
And also EBSCO on the UTS library website. They are pretty good for journals I think.

I am researching the effectiveness of pamphlets in communicating our topic. I want to keep this source available for when we might need it.

- Emilly

film genres and style

Films are often divided into genres, which describe the typical subject matter - - what the film is about. This is distinct from film styles, which describes filmic conventions which can be applied to any genre. Of course, the more that genres are defined, the more likely that a filmmaker will try to combine, transcend and evade categories, so not every film can be neatly labeled.
Some of the most common film genres are:

3 - D film
Action film
Adventure film -
Animation
Art film -
Blaxploitation
Comedy film
Disaster film
Documentary film
Dogme 95
Drama film
Ephemeral film
Family film
Fantasy film
Film noir
Historical drama film
Horror film
Martial arts film
Musical film
Newsreel
Pornographic film
Propaganda film
Romantic comedy film
Science fiction film
Short film - (duration approximately in the range 1 - 30 minutes)
Silent film
Spy film
Surrealist film -
Sword and sandal
Thriller film
War film
Western film
Wu Xia film

A film style is a recognizable group of conventions used by filmmakers to add visual appeal, meaning, or depth to their work. It can encompass every aspect of film; dialogue, cinematography, attitude (i.e., seriousness or lack thereof).
Film style is distinct from film genre, which defines what a film is about - - Western films are about the American West, love stories are about love, and so on. Although some styles are strongly associated with certain genres, a style can be applied to any genre - - Barbarella - is a surrealistic science fiction film, for example.

Obviously each filmmaker develops their own film style, but certain styles that transcend individuals include:

film noir
surrealism
musical film

From http://www.cinemateca.org/

To be more specific, our film is obviously a drama, isn't it?

But what is a drama film?

"Drama Films are serious presentations or stories with settings or life situations that portray realistic characters in conflict with either themselves, others, or forces of nature. A dramatic film shows us human beings at their best, worst, and everything in-between. " (Dirks 2008)

Our storyline is about a person and his/her difficulties during lifetime while he/she is having a depression. Her/his difficult time comes from his/her surrounding things in life.

By Yu Qing