BLOG NO.9 Filming Reflection
- 胤哲 张
- May 17, 2022
- 3 min read
Updated: Apr 14, 2023
How the filming took place
The filming process of our movie opening lasted two half-days and a lunchtime at school with my group, and they took place back in around February/March 2022. The filming/set was at three different locations, one being in Bobby's apartment where we filmed the part when he wakes up and get dressed, one being in Arthur's garage where we filmed the car scene, and the other one being in school where we filmed the elevator (pitch) scene.
The first day of filming was in bobby's apartment. Everything went on pretty well, from checking the costumes to running through the story board, and the filming process was smooth and undisturbed.
cut after first day of filming
The second day of filming was in Arthur's garage, and this is where things did get a little bit complicated. Initially we planned to film the car scene on the move, but after trying it out, we were worried about the quality and safety issues, so that we've decided to settle the car down and film it when it's parked. This, as a result gave us the variable to control the lighting more effectively, gave us more angles to film from (e.g. from the booth), and also avoids the unwanted camera shakes which may have a negative impact to our film's quality.
cut after second day of filming
The third and last day of filming at school under my expectation did ran very well. When we filmed the (elevator) scene, it's already a few weeks after the first two days of shooting. Therefore, in the time period between, we've came up with a very clear plan of shooting this scene, and sticking to that had allowed us to efficiently finish filming just under a lunchtime's time.
The experience of filming
As the person doing all the shooting, overall, I've really enjoyed the filming process of our movie opening. Me and my team had done plenty of planning prior to filming, and this is something that had helped us increase the efficiency of the complicated process. The overall actual filming took us around 3-4 hours over the span of three days which is shorter than what I was expecting, with the other times being used for our actors getting to know their lines and actions, and also setting up the correct scene and lighting.
What worked well?
The above three footages I think are some of the best in my film because they are composed well, focused well, and acted well. Therefore, in the post-production process, I will only have to edit the color and cut out the start and the end part which makes it an easy and efficient task for me to do. And in-terms of referring to the story board while shooting, I think for the majority of time I did stick to it, so the outcome is therefore expected and controlled.
What could have been better?
This is the one major shot that I think can be improved in our film opening. Composition&acting wise, the problem is not significant for us. However, as Bobby walks in and sit down, the light above shines on his face and made it over-exposed. Back when we were filming, I thought that the problem can be fixed when editing the brightness and contrast in post-production, so I didn't bother to reshoot the shot. However, later in the week when I started to edit, I found out that adjusting the brightness and contrast did not work out as well as I was expecting. Therefore, from this mistake, I've learned that for any situation I should at least get the exposure right on camera, so there is plenty of space for adjusting the colors/details while editing the film.
Conclusion
We've followed our plan, script, and storyboard well, and the filming process is almost all very smooth and controlled. We didn't waste a lot of time, and most of the shots are done to a good standard without too much retakes (out of my expectation). To conclude, overall my group is happy about the filming, and I think it was a success.
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