Filming Reflection

Filming took place for six days and they’re all done in Beijing.

1. February 28th, 2022

It was shot in an apartment as the setting of the secret agent’s home. I set up the scene by moving a telephone onto the cabinet so I could see the phone call without moving. The camera is set on the tripod at one side of me and then I started doing the ritual waiting for the phone to ring. I had my parent ringing the phone after I did my first worship so I would be able to pick it up like it interrupted in. Then I changed the position to behind and set up the camera high to see my back and the phone ringing. When I picked up, I gave a close up shot to my mouth to see that I’m talking and then a close up of the face to end. I went over the shots that could be used and edited them straight away.

2. April 2nd, 2022

We started shooting at around six when the day got dark. We first shot our outdoor scenes at the apartment because it’s at the beginning of the sequence of our film opening. The whole shooting was in chronological order from our script and storyboard. A water fill-up station at the side of the walk path made a good hiding place for Tess. We shot this scene many times because there were a lot of people walking in and staring at us which makes it unnatural. We filmed in a lot of angles so we could pick from which ones to edit. Then we filmed she entering the apartment and going up the elevator. However, we thought it would take up too much time in our sequence so we decided at that point, we will not add it into our opening sequence. We then filmed her at the door of the apartment and picking up the phone call that lead to her mistake in not closing the door properly. This is a point where we needed to emphasize to the audience because it triggered what happened later on. We planned to use a non-stopping shot to show that Tess followed Tiffany into her house and the hard part was to set up the camera because when the camera turns, it deforms the reality. We needed to make sure that it was angled and spaced at the right spot to turn about 120 degrees without deforming the scene. Then because we did not have light in the room, to see where Tess hid, we moved the camera into the room that they’re in, straight ahead of Tess so we can see her hiding and coming out. At last, we needed to shoot how Tiffany sees her from the mirror. Due to lack of light, and the tiny surface area of the mirror, we needed to shoot at a very specific angle to be able to see both actors in the mirror. This whole shooting lasted to almost 1 a.m and it was already 2 a.m when I finished choosing shots and deriving them onto my device.

3. May 8th, 2022

The third shooting started around 2 p.m. We are still shooting at the apartment so the story seems continued. For the first two hours, we spent time discussing how to fix our original narrative so we could shoot without needing to buy any props. When we came up with a plan, we started shooting. The shooting went on smoothly throughout the storyline but it wasn’t something that we strongly felt good on. So we sat down, discussed again, and decided that we will plan another shooting after we finish editing what we have already. The whole process ended at around 9 p.m.

4. June 16th, 2022

We are going to go to shoot but due to covid, the place we planned to go has closed.

5. August 22nd, 2022

The fifth shooting planned happened during an Afternoon. We talked about the opening we produced and decided that it wasn’t good enough so during around 7-8pm, we went downstairs to the parking lot for a re-shooting. The whole process was quite fast after we’ve decided what to do. The costume Shirley wears is entirely different from the previous one. She had an all black, shiny, leather outfit which conveys that she is now the antagonist and indicating she has two sides, just the the black swan. The whole shooting went on smoothly except that it was quite hot in the middle of summer, and that there were some interruptions by noises from strangers.

6. August 24th, 2022

The sixth shooting took longer. We had to wait for everyone to leave before we shoot because we need to close the light and move the objects. It was also our first time in reach with a setting we’re not familiar with so we spent some time looking at how people behave in the interrogation room. Then when we had dinner, we wrote up a script that we need to memorize from. It took us around 20 minutes to get into speaking like the character of a prisoner and a police. After getting familiar, we set up our tripod and then we started to see the effects of lighting in the room. We decided that starting with all the lights out is very dramatic. Another element we added into our acting was using noise created by the table. First I(the police) threw papers onto the table to show my authority and then I used my hand to slap the table to wake her up from her memory. We had to reshoot many times because we were not very good actors for these characters so it looks a bit too dramatic.

Problems we encountered The shooting was not going well at first because our old narrative was set in places that were inconvenient for us to go to in the current situation(Covid). It also needed three men actress which means we needed to schedule times for shooting when everyone is available. This problem was solved with our new narrative based at an apartment and with only two actress. We still had problems with props and costumes sometimes but when we sort them out and start shooting, everything goes smoothly and the outcome is around what we expected. We cooperated well and had no quarrels on the content or the filming the whole time so it was quite fun. Planning is very essential and important in a shooting. Without a specific plan, shooting could occur all kinds of accidents and it will be a waste of time. Planning helps us ensure that we both agree on what to film and we won’t get off track. For example, with a plan, we could get from the outdoor scene to the indoor scene straight away and start shooting. In contrast, without a plan, after we finish shooting for a scene, we will have to discuss for a long time how we should do the next scene and the one after. Since we always had a specific plan made and edited before we start shooting, shooting did not last for the whole day. But we gave all our time available on a shooting day to decrease the possibility of having to reshoot. How we worked as a group? My job: story-boarding, most of the shooting Shirley’s job: script-writing, most of the acting We both edited the video and decide on the narrative My role was to draw storyboards from the narrative and script we had and also think about how we could shoot the narrative(angles, camera techniques, shots). I write some of the good ideas onto the storyboard so we could be reminded when we shoot. Then when we start shooting, I mainly do the filming process because I’ve already pictured of it in my mind beforehand. We will only be using about 1/5 the footage we had because we shot some shots for a couple of times. This 35 footage is chosen out from the 200 or so footage we had.

Using the longest footage as an example:

#take5

#take6

#take7

This shot was shot many times because it’s a very long shot. We picked out three from the 8 or 9 we had taken. We need everything with no mistakes in this footage to be able to use it.

The shot we finally used as mention as the one above had no mistakes and the best thing is that the time fitted very well. For example, from the screengrab it could be seen that the second the foor closed, the TV started to light. We stuck quite closely with our storyboard and but not the script because memorizing script is kind of time consuming. We mainly had the same structure but the words the character say may differ a bit. What could have been better? There are some shots that did not go as planned. For example..

#take1

#take2

#take3

This shot was very hard to achieve. It’s hard to have both of us in the mirror. Also, sometimes the focus blurs because we are moving and it’s very close. This is a shot that we’re still not happy with and wants a reshoot.

This shot is suppose to be the point of view from a person but it’s way too low. It’s more of a waist-high shot. But it’s something that we did not want anymore because we think it’s best to only have point of view from one person.

This shot was a panning shot but it did not keep the horizontal line straight which is quite disturbing.

This shot was ketchup blood and it looks very unprofessional. We want to reshoot this scene. Were there any last minute changes that appeared along the way? There were a few minor last minute changes with our first product. For example, we originally wanted the phone call to be when she sits down, but then we changed it to when she enters the apartment because it leads to not closing the door. The TV was originally going to be news but then we thought putting on the black swan movie would have more effect on the audience. The biggest change we had in this version was that we decide not to put the murder scene on at all. At first we thought this might be confusing to the audience but then we thought of Barthes semiotics. Audience likes the movie and would want to keep on watching if a question/mystery is created.

Then we had this big change of rearranging the narrative as a memory of someone. It would have a clearer storyline and it would make our opening more rich and splendid. Overall I believe the filming was quite SUCCESSFUL and we had a lot of fun. We both liked the experience and cooperated very well. We also learned and used a lot of techniques during the filming.