1206

I had booked a twelve-hour editing room today, but I ended up lying straight in bed until dinner time. I finally got up, and saw that there were still three hours left, and I thought that the round-trip fare would cost fifteen yuan, so I simply didn't go.

There are many things in life that drain the spirit, involving money, trivial matters, and relationships, and there is no way to talk to people - it seems that there is nothing worth mentioning.

But it's hard to waste a day, so I just write a summary of my experience and just make a film for the past four months. Things are moving so fast that I can't remember anything about the first half of the year.

There is no particular order of production, what comes to mind and what to write.

shot

What I did better this time was that the communication with the lighting photography was more sufficient in the early stage, and basically all the shots to be shot were taken.

The problems I feel are as follows:

Only the purpose of the individual shots was considered, and the connection between all the shots was not considered. Some of the shots look too intentional and unnatural. For example, from the perspective of a father watching TV, he filmed the scene of a mother-daughter quarrel in the background. There's a bit of a deliberate feeling. But on the other hand, it might be better if you chose a different focal length at the time, or if you could shoot from a farther angle if the location was larger. It can be said that I did not have a proper understanding of the effects when I designed this lens, although I had expectations, and I did not have a good understanding of the effects of different equipment. Need to know more about photography. On the other hand, I was really attracted to the meaning of the individual shots themselves, and rarely considered the relationship between the shots as a whole, and rarely considered whether there was a formal incongruity before and after.

How to find the right and elegant transitions is still a huge mystery to me. I think this experience will even affect the way I write scripts in the future. Because if you can't do what you write, it's meaningless. When there are time constraints on shooting and filming, transitions that take time often end up being cut down to jump cuts or quick transitions, which is not my intention. I almost cut out three and a half of the four transitions in the finished film, which wasn't a problem, and my frustration was that I didn't seem to have found the proper breath in the story. Whenever an audience member asks "this is okay" or "this is not okay", I hesitate. Because at the moment I don't have enough artistic confidence to say what form is right and what I need.

If you have a plan in advance, it is best not to make temporary changes. In the S5-6's match shot, the kitchen area should have a small light in front of the character's face, so that when the main light suddenly changes, the character's face area is still illuminated and does not look obtrusive. The prop rented this lamp but it was not arranged in it, because the two scenes were not filmed together, and there was no such lamp when the first part was filmed, so it didn't seem like a big problem and I forgot about it. As a result, the next day, the results will be much different. I regret it later.

Speaking of which, maybe in the future when shooting, I will want to bring a more detailed plan note involving the focus of each department, I actually wrote notes for each department, including makeup, but the effect is limited. And there were too many problems during this shooting, and I couldn't even find the script after filming myself.

When it comes to makeup, makeup should really stand by being ready to touch up at any time. The powder room is too far away from the scene to be detrimental to efficiency and communication, especially when it comes to special effects makeup.

On-site modification of the pre-plan is more dangerous. But when you really change, you have to stick to your own judgment and don't hope for others. After all, in the end, you are the only one who is responsible. On the second day of filming, I had to shoot a day in four hours due to a set failure, and I made a lot of decisions at that time, maybe not perfectly, but at least I got everything I needed, and I was quite satisfied.

Compared to caring about other details on the set, the most important thing is to be clear. Although I thought I knew where I was moving, I knew where the characters were going. In the storytelling stage, I thought I had figured out what each character said in what shot, but speaking is a process! In practice, it's about how fast the character is moving and where it is in what position exactly what sentence it says. If you need to think about this on the spot, it's going to be very challenging.

fine arts

Scenography

*Initial communication is important, but more important than the information you give is the feedback from the other party. If you find that the other party is not positive, it is best to terminate the cooperation as soon as possible.

*If you have limited energy, don't pay too much attention to the details of the set. It would be great to have, but it's not as important as you think.

* Plan your scenario in advance so that you can provide more reference materials in time.

Prop rental

*When it comes to bulky items, the person who moves and the mode of transport is an important and priority issue

*Trucks rented on weekends are generally picked up on Fridays, but the major prop departments do not offer student discounts on Fridays

*Reservations and valid documents are required to enter the world & To get a student discount, all procedures and removal procedures must be completed before 4 p.m. & Some high-end items are not available for student rental

*Sony does not offer student discounts on Fridays >> but the management is easier to talk about, negotiable

*The clothing department rental is too cost-effective, so it is recommended not to choose it

*I don't know why, renting beds and curtains is also very expensive

*If you buy temporary props on Amazon, remember to return them in time & Not everything can actually be returned & For example, products that are large or heavy and need to be returned at your own expense, the shipping cost may be higher than the price, so don't buy a spare one

*All regular prop shops need to be insured in advance, otherwise there is no way to rent

clothing

An important lesson is that you don't need to have that many costumes in a short film. In order to meet the schedule, I prepared three outfits for each of the main actors, but in practice, it caused some disruption to the filming schedule, which was time-consuming and confusing. When editing, it is not conducive to the creative play of the material.

Another fact that may be a little sad is that with the right color, most clothes will look similar on screen, so there's no need to think too much about the style.

venue

* A good venue can save most of the art flaws

*Photography, lighting and art must be surveyed

*The producer or UPM should be present to keep in touch with the owner to avoid interruptions to the filming due to unexpected events

*There was a circuit failure in the venue during the shooting, which really couldn't be prevented in advance, but it led to a lot of financial disputes, so it was best to determine the compensation plan with the owner at that time

*At venues where a fee is required, group members should be informed in advance of the consequences of late departure. The two crew members stayed in the parking lot of the venue after the crew finished work and the truck left, resulting in an overpayment of $150 for the venue.

*Safety precautions for all aspects of the venue are considered. I didn't know what kind of producers would have taken into account the safety hazards of the automatic sprinkler system on the lawn in the wee hours of the morning, but now I know.

* At the end of the day, the art part should be collected by the artist, otherwise it will cause losses in the chaos. During the first week of wrapping, the team threw away a prop, I ran to hardware stores in South Los Angeles and couldn't buy the materials I needed, and ended up having to refuel with something else, which was really unnecessary in terms of financial and energy consumption.

[Voice]

1. Upfront

AD forgot to take the microphone stick when lifting the sound equipment... If it weren't for someone at the scene, we would have used the magic leg to record. Please remind all departments to take the equipment sheet and count it before leaving.

2. Live sound

Good live sound can really save a lot of trouble.

Unless you have to, don't omit the voice, ADR lip-syncing is harder than you think, and you really don't want to call the actor back.

Make sure your recordings know that Wingman or his hands and feet are really fast, in case he doesn't mark the sound files by session and you can't find a single audio.

The LAV of each actor also needs to be tracked as the number of scenes, otherwise you will have to spend fifteen hours listening to twenty-six different tracks one by one to tell who they are.

If you plan to shoot late, record the ambient sound in advance. By the time four o'clock is the end of the day, you may not be able to remember.

3. Late stage

I hate Foley, but I'm finally going to use the console. Check the I/O settings in advance and mute other tracks while recording.

It's a good idea to add ADR and Foley's tracks to your engineering files, and do the live sound together with the post-production to save a lot of time on repeated pour and recalibration.

*Let's find a mixer in advance, I really can't do this job.

4. Music

Surprisingly, there are really many ways to find Composer. And they're really efficient. So you don't need to worry about this in the early stage, but it's best to start in the editing stage, because according to my classmates' experience, temp music can sometimes affect the choice of music.

Pay attention to whether the music you buy can be resold and how this affects the price.

It's a good idea to find a composer who can talk to you in person, and if possible, work with them on-site in the studio to make it easier to fine-tune the details. I don't know if it's just my personal problem, but it's embarrassing to ask to return to the union again and again after the other party has finished the whole piece of music.

*Actually, though, they're going to be less difficult to rework than you might think. So just ask with confidence.

actor

The audition and casting process really taught me a lot of lessons, but I was a bit too lazy to think about them all, and in general, I felt that I needed to be more aggressive: willing to communicate & express my dissatisfaction in a timely manner. Actors sometimes don't like to communicate & trust their own opinions too much > are a little contemptuous of directors who are younger than themselves. It is important to choose language and expression, including actively seeking out opportunities for dialogue.

The rehearsal is very rewarding, it really helps to save a lot of communication time, and having the actors meet in advance helps to inspire some creative play and settle down, which would be more difficult on set.

On the other hand, if there is no consensus in the early stage, it will be difficult for you to update the actors' views on the plot in a timely and effective manner in the limited time on set. If you're limited on time, you'll be more and more inclined to result-based coaching: telling the actor directly what you want. This is contrary to the original intention of the emotion we wanted to convey. For example, when shooting a scene, I don't think the mother actor should look directly at the other person while they are talking, and I say, "Can you think back to yesterday's argument between you and your daughter before answering that?" "What I want to achieve is that she avoids the other person's gaze when answering & creates a frustrated mood & leaves more room for silence. We tried twice and didn't get the results I wanted, but out of the pride of a director who was barely educated in the academy, I couldn't help myself to say, "You look at the table and stop for a while and then look up and answer!" In the end, I was not very satisfied with the effect of this period, and cut another silence time to replace it.

If there is a rehearsal in the early stage, I can find out what I am not satisfied with in time and make up for it through communication, but I can't do it in a short time on the venue. In particular, there is a language barrier attached to it. Therefore, it is important to consider the various situations and performance obstacles in advance, and prepare the wording of the guidance that may be needed at each stage of the performance. I did prepare some scenes, but the scenes were too small at the time for me to take into account.

One of the more frustrating things, but not very detrimental, was that I clearly discovered early on that an actor couldn't open up, but my communication efforts had little effect.

As an introvert, I've been thinking about how I can communicate with actors more effectively. But it's also really hard. Alas, honestly, it's too hard. I asked myself, do I like directing, and I think so. If the writer's job is to condense emotions into simple text expressions and let the story be hidden in them, then the director's job is to expose the stories hidden in those characters and disassemble them into elements of reality. When I articulated my vision to my group, I did feel connected to the world. Through the communication with all the collaborators, my personal fantasies were able to take on life and walk in reality.

But, frankly, I'm not as completely averse to results-based mentoring as my professors do. I saw an interview with the male lead man of "Homesickness" who said: "It's very boring to work with Tarkovsky, and he asks you to go a little further, stop, turn around, and walk back." "We whispered that Lao Ta was probably not satisfied with this actor either, because his queen actor passed away at that time. But that says a lot, and for a director who shoots an autobiographical story and speaks about personal emotions, you would think that he would put a lot of emotion into his communication with the actors. But he didn't! How arrogant, indifferent, and closed is this, but the feelings conveyed by his works are so deep, sad, and tender. He was filming stories about his deepest self, but he didn't need his actors—the emotional faces—to understand him.

Perhaps that's why his work so tenaciously conveys uncommunicable despair. When I think about it now, I am deeply shaken by the difficulties and gains of communicating with the actors.

I don't know why it turned into a fan complaining in the end. Alas, that's the end of writing. In the new year, I wish everyone's efforts will be rewarded.