10GP04 Self-Evaluation (Gaffer Report)

10GP04 is a rather free production to experiment the lighting indoors and outdoors. Though most of the time the outdoor lighting could not be controlled, due to the shot size of the framing given, which were mostly extreme wide shots or wide shots, howeever, the indoor lighting are free to experiment.

APA WAN CHAI
Since this is a huge scene, the preparation that we had to do beforehand was also important. We had a pre-light session the night before shooting and we had almost 80% of the lighting ready by the night. The other lights such as the 2K and additional KINO lights were done on the shooting day itself.

There were 5 main sectors in APA that needed lighting preparation:-
1. The 3 floors' corridors
2. The lifts
3. The puppet shadows on 3rd floor
4. The ground floor 1.2K
5. The 2K on 2nd floor (long track shot) and KINO

This is because the long track shot covered the entire view of APA from the corridors, to the walls and to the lifts.

1. 3 FLOORS' CORRIDORS
- The spotlights are alternately dimmed by sticking ND gels and black papers.
- The colors are warmer on the bottom floors and cooler on the top floors (as the lift elevates, to show the people's emotions getting colder)
- Even the lights outside the lifts had to be altered by pasting black papers to show the different gradient and amount of light we see on screen, so that it would look more dimensional compared to the one type of brightness.

2. THE LIFTS
- The 3 different lifts are divided into three different levels.
- The first lift on the left is yellow/tungsten spotlight.
- The second lift is the middle one where the big boss stood and others ramped in. These lights were the Chinese praying little lamps that are normally used for 'Kwan Yi Gor'.
- The third is the blue lift on the right where they shot some of the stressful beings stuck in the lift. These were some of the L.E.D lights that are in the shape of bars and are rechargeable. Those lights sometimes cause a fuss as we tried to save the battery by switching them off when they are not rehearsing, however, when it is out of battery, the whole thing had to be removed and replaced by a new one, therefore, that took time. We also kept the lights charging nearby just in case.
- The three lifts were different from each other but the level of 'seriousness' goes from left to right and then to the extreme middle. The middle one would turn from tungsten to blood red when the -being come in and the lift moved upwards.

3. THE SHADOWS ON 3rd FLOOR
- These puppets were made 'overnight' when we got to know that there were not enough extras but we still had to create the feeling of a lof of people standing upstairs, thus creating the spooky shadows on the wall seen on the oposite of the camera.

4. THE GROUND FLOOR 1.2K
- This is the base light of the lift building and it was supposed to highlight the biggest portion of the wall.

5. THE 2K ON 2nd FLOOR (long track shot) and KINO
- These were lit for all the characters standing in a row. Since there are also some overhead KINO lights, we just dimmed them by pasting black papers to create different brightness on the characters, depending who had actions highlighted (those who have to hold up their hands with the red strings)
- The 2K would be the main character's key light, creating a half-lit body with his left side totally in darkness. This contrast was a dramatic one as we needed to keep the dimension clear and to ensure things didn't look too flat. It was also a point for the character to stop and think, so it's like the light that made him realize something.
- There was also an overhead spotlight that was purposely left to go over-exposed when the main actor walked pass the rest. This is also a highlight of his journet and part of his 'realization' (after discussing with Yang Fan).

AS FOR OTHER OUTDOOR SCENES
1. Choi Yuen Village
- There was nothing much I could do except to create negative fill for some close-ups.
- We also used the huge flags to create shadows for our fellow crew mates and D.O.P. as they film under the hot sun.

2. Hok Chui
- Due to the transportation limitations, we could only bring a few items with us on the speedboat to Hok Chui, for instance the polystyrene, 1 flag and 3 reflectors (1 silver and 1 gold)
- We filled the close-ups whenever necessary and the other times, we waited for the right direction of the sunlight.

3. Broken bridge and the remaining outdoors (with lamb)
- We used the L.E.D. bar lights, reflector and flags throughout the whole shooting. Since there was a long track in and zoom in shot for the scene, there was a dificulty trying to hide the polystyrene that we needed to fill the main actor's face light that was coming from the windshield.
- We also used diffusion frames to make the lighting softer whenever necessary and the huge foldable reflector.
- One of the scenes where the lamb had to go back to the cage, we actually used the reflector to rebound the sunlight to highlight the texture of its fur.

The things that I've learnt from being the Gaffer of 10GP04 are that pre-production and light plans are very important. The freedom that Yang Fan has given me to try new things is very valuable, but I think I haven't been able to do justice to some of his concepts. Weather was a very important issue in this film and thank God, the weather was almost good throughout the whole shooting period.

I have to thank all the crewing and non-crewing helpers who helped out in the grip department as without them, the APA scene would have been hard to achieve. And thanks to Yang Fan's directions, I was able to try within my limitations and learnt how to use the materials wisely.

The shadow-puppets were also a very fun thing to do as it was a kind of innovation from our limitations. As conclusion, I think I have a big room for improvement and I will need to speed up so that I may learn more and to achieve another level of filming. I will also bear in mind the things that I have learnt from all Graduation Projects this year so that I may apply them in the future productions!

GP02 Self Evaluation (Post-production)

After wrapping, we sent the films to Kantana, Thailand to develop and got the rushes back a week later. The fact that we had a chance to look at some of the footage before shooting again (waiting for Ada to recover), I consider us very privileged. We saw some of the scenes we shot and realized that things could be taken further. We learnt that some of the things that we are lack of, for instance, the attempt to try the difficult lighting that are matching with the story could be considered again as the lighting before was a little flat. So at the end of the day, after watching the rushes, we thought about the new approaches that our scenes might be able to carry out. This happened during our production period.

During the real post-production period, we watched the rushes together and had meetings. We all thought the colors were slightly desaturated and the images looked a little milky. The effect was due to the over-exposure that we have set for the whole film's in order to create a cleaner look. However, we also saw that the red spots that the make-up artist put on the actors body/face were not obvious after being over-exposed a little. Instead of red, it looked a little pink. So in the next scenes to come, we asked Sean, our make-up artist to make it more reddish compared to the amount previously.

Next, we passed the editing work to Benji. After shooting everything and is ready for Benji to edit, we gave him the freedom to have a cut on his own. The first cut was too long and draggy and some of the parts were not as smooth yet. Then came the second cut, it was better when Benji added some sample music in it to see if the mood fits. However, this time I see less images of what I've filmed. The third cut, was the best cut as Benji threw away a lot of unwanted shots to make things flow faster. As a D.O.P., though happy to see that the film was better, I was also disappointed that a lot of nice shots that we covered were not able to be put into the film. So in the end, I only saw 1/3 of the footages that we've shot in the entire film.

When the film was ready to be color-graded, I made sure I had enough sleep that day to ensure the judgements are accurate with the help of the colorist as well. We tried to match the lighting for every scene and made the paragliding scene more saturated to show the happiness and relief towards the end of the film. The last shot where we had to key in the actors onto the paragliding site was also done in Digital Magic as we prepared the HD tape for him.
We didn't experiment much during the color grading as our attempts in the first place didn't require so.

If I were to choose again, I would try to play around with the filters more, in order to serve the story better. Now, the feedback on Hung Zai is that the character is too 'real' and he seems like a real child. It would be hard to distinguish for the audience who doesn't understand the film. The appearance of Hung Zai was thought to be weirder and more sudden. This would bring out the humor in Hung Zai and to enhance their relationship by setting the placement of Hiu Ching and her lupus.

As a conclusion, eventhough the process of the shooting met a lot of problems, but I'm sure that every production has its own problems they have to deal with as well. Personally, I think I have yet to achieve my best ability. There were no challenges that were too big to handle and I thought I should've provided more for my director, Ada. Sometimes we did argue on the set about things and that affected us a little, but I hope in the future I would be able to use a wiser way to negotiate with my partners on either creativity issues or practical issues. Communication is one of the biggest lesson that I've learnt from this project and I wish to apologize to those people that I might have 'black-faced' accidentally (knowing that when I squint my eyes, I look rather angry, but actually I'm not at all)!

To all my crew members, I thank you for finishing this film together! It wouldn't have been able to succeed without any of you guys! And for those who were not able to attend, thanks for your moral support!

I have to apologize to my director, Ada and my producer, Olivia because I found that when Uncle Bill's leech was on my forehead, I could be quite harsh trying protect all the shots that we've planned, resulting some overtime and transportation difficulties. This Graduation Project is a valuable experience to me as I have learnt how to be a better filmmaker by learning from my mistakes. I hope that in the future I would be able to continue shooting films and to slowly gain more and more experience to develop my own films next time!

10GP02 Self-Evaluation (Production)

'NEVER LOWER YOUR EXPECTATIONS.'

-Bill Wong-

During the actual production, this phrase stuck to me like a leech on the forehead.

I'm glad it did because now that I look back, at least 85% of the shots I could say passed my conscience.

And the other 15%?

Honestly, could be MUCH MUCH BETTER!

(But nevertheless, I still love them.)

NO REGRETS.

Just room for improvement for the future!

P.s. I tried to shoot every shot we planned, unless we really, really, REALLY needed to 'COMBINE' them.

During the production, we encountered a lot of problems, such as time constrain and Ada's health. Sometimes, whatever shooting order we planned previously have to changed on the spot due to the lack of time. In the beginning, we were processing quite slow as it was still a warm up session and the fact that our actors Carolyn and Yian were not as familiar with each other at first made it quite difficult for them to work together. Most of the time we have to wait for them to rehearse a few times before we could roll the camera.

Besides that, since Ada and I normally have the shotlist ready before the shooting, we would try and shoot whatever we have planned, unless time is really running out and we have to chase the sunlight. We have a few day time scenes in which we have to shoot as fast as we could and make sure that the plan works because we had to turn the scene back into a night scene right after. That was the ORTV Broadcast scene where we saw Hiu Ching working in a environment and on another night as well. At first we shot the night scene first then we took the black papers off and shot the day scene until the sunset.

Another scene where we have to rush before the sun set was the paragliding scene. Since in the morning till afternoon we shot at Bethanie for the news reporting scene, at around 4pm, we rushed to Jordan Valley and shot the paragliding scene as quick as we could. As we shot, we moved from one patch of grass to another patch of grass because the sun was setting too quickly behind the mountains and we shot till the last drop of sunlight went off. Luckily, we could finish 95% of them and the 5% was rest of the cutaways.

Talking about the scene in Bethanie, we almost cut off the chroma key shot because we had no time to shoot it. As Ada and Benji were deciding behind my back while I shot Hiu Ching fainting, I heard that they decided to cut it. While Hiu Ching was getting ready, I suggested to Ada that we keep the chroma key shot as it is one of our major attempts in this film, that is to test the green screen effect. At last, we shot it and then made it to Jordan Valley right away. Though, I had a tough time dealing with Olivia about keeping this shot, but in the end, I think we did the right thing.

The toughest shoot of the day would be the support group scene, I suppose. This is because my director, Ada had eye infection and she couldn't see the monitor at all. First thing in the morning when she came, she told us that she has problems with her eyes and we were all discussing whether to continue shooting or not. Since it's the scene with the most extras and we didn't want to lose the HKD$3000 on the rental of the location we preferred, which was the WWF Yun Chow Chai Heritage Preservation Centre in Tai Po, as we also went through a tough time getting this place for our shooting. Lawrence, our assistant director recommended us to stop the shooting as our director couldn't see. However, based on the same concerns about the amount of extras we could get and the expenses of that day's shooting, we decided to take a risk. Ada, with her eyes barely able to see anything, continued to battle with that day's shooting as our assistant directors helped to control the situation. Since Ada couldn't see properly, I tried to follow the shots that we have planned and shot as fast as we could because the sun would set in the evening and we had a large number of shots. In the end, it is also because of the tight schedule, we were short of reaction shots of the support group members. Besides, the extras were also too still and quiet during the scene.

I have also tried to make the environment looks more cheerful by sticking the colored gels on the window panes. Since that scene was supposed to look as welcoming and warm as possible, I thought it would be appropriate to decorate the plain white window panes with gels that would help with the lighting as well.

One of the shots which I am satisfied with came from the scene where we see Hiu Ching's mother washing her hair. The close-up on Hiu Ching where she looks at her mother without her noticing was the shot in which I think the lighting helped a lot. Since the scene was supposed to be warm and emotional, I told Yang Fan to create a sunlight which resembled a warm sunset that was similar to the warmth felt by Hiu Ching towards her mother. As Hiu Ching's mother's touch was very important to Hiu Ching, we also used a longer track shot to cover the movements of the hands.

The interview scenes for Hiu Ching shot in APA were comparably easier than the rest as the space and time were good enough. Although it was the first day, but our schedule was still as tight.

The two-day shooting in Hiu Ching's house was one of the tighest schdeule of all. In the same house, we have a lot of scenes of Hiu Ching's daily lives. The kitchen, the living room, and the bedroom. Since we have two days that we could use for shooting, we carefully planned the sequence by ordering the daytime scenes where we see the windows, the night time scenes with parents (they are only available one of the days) and the next day, day time scenes, in the afternoon to shoot montage scenes nearby the house while waiting for the rest to stick black papers to block the windows for night scenes. It was better for some of us as we didn't have to return the equipment back to Bethanie on that day, so in the end, we get more rest on the second day.

The clinic was so tiny that only a few people could fit in. This slowed down the process of the filming as most of the time we have to keep calling for the people to come in and help with this and that. I also realized small locations do not mean the faster the shooting. This is because when the location is too small, the things are harder to move around.

Last but not least, the hospital scene. This is the scene where we had to rush like crazy as well. This was because we had to wait for the actors and we had to reshoot some shots as there was a small problem with the set. However, we managed to finish everything on time as well, thanks to the tight schedule of our 'father', he had to leave at a certain time on that day to rush to another place.

So far, the experience of the produciton was always about things not having enough time, not enough space or having the need to cut or combine shots. As a D.O.P, the last thing that I would want to do is to cut shots, this is because according to my experience, it's either the shots are normally not enough to cover to story or we haven't got enough films to shoot. Therefore, the lesson to learn during the execution would be to carry out a good pre-production plan, and be flexible on location. It is no use trying to look back at some of the things that were 'initially', instead, we should be more open-minded to find better solutions on the spot.

Sometimes, I understand that I may get frustrated by the reality of the limitations, however, I would try my to keep my expectations as high as I started so that I will not regret after the shooting. During this 10GP02 shooting, I kept reminding myself to remember to do what I think it's best for the film and that every shot must be able to pass my conscience at least.

Last year, I allowed my emotions to take control of the shooting instead of problem-solving. This year, I told myself that I have to focus on the solution rather than picking on mistakes again. I admit that I still have a long way to go till I could grasp the art of filming, but I believe one day I would come to realize that and from then on, I will continue to reach for the impossible!