And after viewing the rushes, discovered the continuity errors and now we've got to reshoot the last portion. Plus I was horrid as an actor, so this is my do-over. Haha.

Lessons Learned This Round:
1. If ever necessary, inform production crew of the latest time possible, or none at all.
2. Don't rush a shot or let others sway you to hasty decisions. Otherwise doors won't be where they're supposed to be, and there'll be excess props in the scene.
3. Not everyone is a director, not everyone cares about your film as much as you do.
4. Everyone is human, everyone has moods, so patience on set should be the priority.
5. Don't be lazy. Set up the tripod for all stationary shots.

So far that's all I can come up with for now. You can read more here.

Cheers,
Erwin Nah

Labels: school stresses

Yesterday we headed over to Daph's place to begin filming on Wo(man). We had Mac's Drive-thru for lunch, sat around for a bit waiting for Daph to finish eating after she'd fetch Kxxxxx (don't know if they want to reveal anything yet) from his place.

We began filming after that, and I've discovered the versatility of castor wheels. These things are bloody helpful in making a scene more dynamic. The space available in Daph's place also helped, not to mention the flat floor.

Can't wait to begin using the dollies and tracks. That'll really help in getting better shots, as opposed to the static scenes we keep having now.

More practice on using the camera off the tripod, what with experimental shots attempting to mimic snorricam movement etc. Those were hella tiring on the arms and shoulders, but not as bad as Mike Lady Jessie lugging her rolls of wires and batteries and boom mic scythe stick, getting tortured every time the camera rolls into some obstacle. Like BOOMP!

Daph was in director's chair, Phoebe was the actress (once again she shines through, I don't know how she does it, like some people just have the talent) and I've already mentioned mike lady.

We spent 30 mins or so trying to make the lighting right for one scene, toilet light, redhead outside, sidelight, tweaking over and over and over trying to get it to look right. For ONE scene. The rest of the night changed into a rushed let's-get-through-this-quick situation. It's a horrible horrible thing.

You begin everything all happy and nice, taking your time, patiently testing out different types of shots, then the time just disappears and everyone begins to realise that they'll be having a little difficulty going home, leading to a hastiness that manifests itself in the form of rushed exchanges on what to do next, fast walking and prompt movement.

We also discovered the sound connections should be checked beforehand and calibrated correctly without assuming that whatever we take out of the techshop will be nicely fixed. Called up the helpful seniors who kindly saved us from our plight. And we learned a valuable lesson about the camera connections.

That's the most valuable lesson here.

- I EDITED THIS POST WRITTEN 2 DAYS AGO AT THIS POINT FORTH

Turns out that what we thought of as a mistake on our part corrected with the help of the seniors was actually wrong. We should just leave the sound connections where they are.

Another thing to note here:
While everyone's got their youth-portal writing jobs, freelance magazine writing, tuition-giving occupations taking up their time, all I do is waste my day away doing absolutely time-wasting things.

That's as far as the thought went.
Erwin

Labels: rough cuts