10GP02 Self-Evaluation (Pre-production)

PRE-PRODUCTION
SCENE BY SCENE ANALYSIS
LOCATIONS SCOUT

BUS STOP

ACTION: After Hiu Ching sees Dr. Chan, she waits at the bus stop, about to go home. She looks at the leaflet that Dr. Chan gave her and at the same time, a little girl points to her red face and says, "Why is her so red, Mum?" Hiu Ching is embarassed and she leaves the bus stop with Hung Zai following her. She angrily orders Hung Zai to stop following her and walks off.

PURPOSE: To show how Hung Zai causes Hiu Ching to have red patches on her face and how this affects her daily life. As a lady, Hiu Ching of course is annoyed by these weird looks from the people surrounding her and always curious why she's red on parts of her body. This adds up to Hiu Ching's annoyance as she tries to cope with the harsh reality where people tend to pay a lot of attention on body features and may not as open to accept the others as they are, when they look just a little different from the norms.

CRITERIAS:

1. Able to let us shoot from the opposite road.
2. Traffic flow must not be too busy.
3. Preferably to look like a bus stop near the clinic where Hiu Ching went to see Dr. Chan (not too secluded)

BUS STOP 1

BUS STOP 2

OFFICE (INTERVIEW 1)

ACTION: This is the first time the audience see Hiu Ching being interviewed as a news anchor in a big company. It is the first scene where Hiu Ching is introduced as a interviewee with lupus and she is questioned about her health conditions. Meanwhile as she struggles throughout her interview, trying to pretend that Hung Zai is not disturbing her from the bottom of the table, she is hiding her swollen hands under the table. Hung Zai is drawing Hiu Ching's feet from down there.

PURPOSE: This scene is the introduction scene for both Hiu Ching and Hung Zai. The existence of Hung Zai is only known and seen by Hiu Ching. While audience sees Hung Zai disturbing Hiu Ching, they don't see the interviewers noticing there's something wrong with Hiu Ching and her body. At this time, audience do not know whether Hung Zai is real or not, as later only that we reveal Hung Zai is the lupus and only the patients can see them. We will try and hint to the audience that Hung Zai is unreal and has reactions when the word 'Lupus' is heard. This is to indicate that Hung Zai is lupus and he is there being naughty because Hiu Ching's lupus is active again. The hiding of Hiu Ching's hands is also because she doesn't want the interviewers to spot her rubbing her swollen hands which could not be too functional (especially when during work, not able to hold even a pen) and resulting her interview to fail because of her health conditions.

CRITERIAS:

1. Room to big enough to show that it's a big company's interview room.

2. The space under the table must be able to keep Hung Zai from the interviewers' sight to keep Hung Zai's identity a secret it's been revealed.

CONFERENCE ROOM A (CHOICE 1)

CONFERENCE ROOM C (CHOICE 2)

CORRIDOR (INTERVIEW 1)

ACTION: Hiu Ching arrives outside of the interview room and waits for her turn. Hung Zai ties her fingers with red strings while other interviewees beside Hiu Ching seem to ignore Hung Zai's appearance.

PURPOSE: To establish Hiu Ching is waiting a place with many people and she looks a bit anxious waiting for her turn. While she waits, Hung Zai is disturbing her by tying her fingers in front of the others. However, as this is the first time the audience see Hung Zai, they don't know whether the others could see him or not as they don't react to his presence and his actions. Since this is the starting of the film, we will need to show that Hung Zai is being naughty disturbing Hiu Ching but the others are unexpectedly calm while Hung Zai does things to her. The fact that everyone else is there before Hiu Ching shows that she came in a rush and tries to settle down before her turn is here.

CRITERIAS:

1. Long and filled with many people (show the rush in the news company)
2. Curved/with many split ends to let Hiu Ching have to 'search' for the interview room.

CORRIDOR 1

CORRIDOR 2

HOSPITAL

ACTION: Hiu Ching is in the hospital resting, admitted after her faint during work at the news reporting scene. Her parents are worried about her and tells her that she should take care of her body instead of just pushing herself to the impossible. Hung Zai says that he didn't mean to make her fall sick .

PURPOSE: Hiu Ching is weak after the activation of her lupus. She is being told to stop and think about the importance of her life compared to her work. She understands that her parents are really worried about her this time and is upset that she has disappointed her parents, especially her mother. She realizes that health is more important than anything else and she also found that she has been neglecting Hung Zai all this long and is sorry for herself.

CRITERIAS:

1. Big windows to show some 'light of hope and change' as she realizes the importance of her life.

2. Not too big as it should be a quiet environment for her parents to talk to her.

HOSPITAL 1

SLOPE

ACTION: Hiu Ching reports news at the location with the camera crew and works her way up to the slope until she collapse from fatique and over-exposed sunlight.

PURPOSE: To show that Hiu Ching haven't got the energy to fulfil the day's job and since she has been staying overnight to do work for the past few months, she is now tired from the accumulated workload and she faints during her work. She has difficulty walking up the slope while Hung Zai follows from behind and she is just forcing herself to go on.

CRITERIAS:

1. Steep enough to make Hiu Ching lose her breath

2. Preferably somewhere with a historical building (director requests as it would look nicer on screen)

SLOPE 1

OUTDOOR AREA OF THE HOSPITAL

ACTION: Hiu Ching is walking out with her parents after recovering from her faint.

PURPOSE: Hiu Ching to realize the importance of her parents in her life and the most vital thing to her is still her health.

CRITERIAS:

1. Looks like a hospital outdoor area, preferably with enough greens

2. Place with sunlight

OUTDOOR (HOSPITAL) 1

OUTDOOR (HOSPITAL) 2

OUTDOOR AREA (HOSPITAL) 3

OUTDOOR AREA OF THE SUPPORT GROUP MEETING

ACTION: Aunty Wendy talks to Hiu Ching about how to handle Hung Zai. Aunty Wendy tells her that the key is to control her health and her emotions.

PURPOSE: Hiu Ching comes to realize that there is a way to handle Hung Zai so that she could live a better life.

CRITERIAS:

1. Open area with enough space and sunlight to make it comfortable for both to talk

2. Preferably somewhere with chairs/benches

3. Shady or with roof

OUTDOOR (SUPPORT GROUP) 1

OUTDOOR (SUPPORT GROUP) 2

SUPPORT GROUP ROOM

ACTION: The first time Hiu Ching joins a support group meeting. She meets a lot of new friends and tries to introduce Hung Zai to all. However, since Hung Zai is always naughty, he doesn't listen to Hiu Ching when she calls him or tells him to stop. Out of frustration, Hiu Ching locks Hung Zai into a big cupboard but not for long, he is out again. One of the group members tells her that it is useless to do so as it will not work if she doesn't accept him and stay in harmony with him.

PURPOSE: To show that Hiu Ching is clueless on how to handle Hung Zai and she is shy as it's her first time being in a support group. She is anxious and even before she could introduce herself better to the group mates, Hung Zai is being naughty again and it frustrates her. In the end, Aunty Wendy teaches her a way on how to keep track of the good and bad days with Hung Zai around so that in a longer term, she would be able to 'take care' of Hung Zai and herself.

CRITERIAS:

1. Large area with windows (more positive with sunlight seeping through)

2. Looks like a recreational room

SUPPORT GROUP ROOM 1

SUPPORT GROUP ROOM 2

We have scouted a lot of locations during the pre-production as we had lot of scenes. We always made sure that we had make-up plans and locations to support the shooting in case of anything. Though, initially we did have some of the better preferences for our shooting, but due to many reasons, we tend to lose half of them. This was a very big challenge for us as we were going for the most ideal plan, but as time flies, we understood that we have to carry out our best ability even if we didn't have what we wanted most.

GP02 (Norman Rockwell Paintings)

Norman Rockwell's paintings give me a sense of humor while bringing the reality with them. As our story is about a patient who has lupus, we are thinking whether or not to put a little sense of humor in it to make it not too 'heavy'. However, we are still waiting for the first script now, but we are working hard to find references in films and in paintings to get some inspirations for the treatment in the future. We don't want to make the film too sad or too over the top. So things are still in the middle of processing and I'm looking forward to it!

The Ninth Gate (GP inspirations)

The Ninth Gate

Director: Roman Polanski

Cinematography: Darius Khondji

During our Camera and Lighting class today, Uncle Bill let us watch The Ninth Gate to look at Darius Khondji's cinematography, directed by Roman Polanski. The story was about a rare-book dealer Dean Corso (Johnny Depp) hired by bibliophile Boris Balkan (Frank Langella) to do some researching on the authenticity of the 3 books of the seventeenth century copies of The Nine Gates of the Kingdom of Shadows, by Aristide Torchia.

Since Corso's glasses were reflective, in some shots we got to study the direction of the lighting given to him; we could spot the Kino Flo's position (for his key and fill light) and see the effect of the lighting on him. Most of the time, Kino Flo were used for interior scenes such as in the libraries, in the offices and in the cafe.

Besides that, we could also see that Corso and the other characters always had a soft kicker on top or behind his head. This was to make sure they didn't stick to the books cabinet and the dark-colored walls behind them and it worked effectively without realizing there were obvious kickers everywhere. (This is what I'm planning to apply in my GP as most of my scenes could be in the interiors)

I remember vividly one of the shots that made an impact at almost the end of the film; Corso thought he was finally safe in the car outside the fort that was on fire, he took a cigarette out and started smoking. Suddenly, a hand came out from the left of the frame to take the cigarette away from him and that scared both him and the audience at the same time because it was unexpected and surprising. (This approach would be useful to my GP if there happens to be such a moment that needs the surprise)

Uncle Bill also told us about the 'Bleach Bypass' technique again. He said that most of the flashback scenes in the CSI drama that were in black and white underwent through this process so that the contrast are made higher to create atmosphere. Here are some photos from the Quantum of Solace (referred from another blogger's website) with the different demonstrations of effects on the image.

Reference materials from:

http://videoapex.blogspot.com/2008/07/free-cinematic-presets.html

In the afternoon, we did an exercise by remaking 2 shots from the Dracula into 1 shot where Jonathan Harker (Keanu Reeves) was talking to a woman in front of the projection and dragged her into the dark area to attempt to bite her after that. The shot started with a 3/4 wide shot and then turned into a medium close-up of them both.

I was the D.O.P and Wilson was my gaffer so we both tried to remake the shot by putting in the lights that we thought were same as the shots given. There were difficulties trying to figure out how to combine two shots into one since the lighting are not the same and in the end, we made a few mistakes. Benny and Yang Fan tried to redo the whole thing after that, too, after Uncle Bill corrected our mistakes.

We need to practice with SR3 more often as by doing that, then only do we get to undergo the whole process of lining up shots quicker and giving instructions just like how we're supposed to do during our GP so that the shooting would run smoother and efficiently.