So what exactly have I done for this project?
This is the fake commercial part of the video, shot in Soho Carnaby Street with my flat mate Tiegan. She did a pretty nice job pretending to have good time there since she just recovered from a quite serious cough, because which I had to put off the plan of shooting to the last week of this project, and returned all the equipment I booked. In the end I did all the shots with my phone. I’m actually not satisfied with the finishing look even I tried my best editing it, it looks bit plain and repetitive. But I don’t think I can blame this on the equipment, I know that there’s film shot with iPhone 5 in the film festival! I feel like I need a more detailed shooting plan, not just thinking “something like that” and see what would happen on the day.
Made the poster for the story happens in my video. Using my bad photoshop skill. Again. But it looks ok.
I borrowed a green screen from school and brought it back to my student hall! This I probably the bravest thing I did for the project. And I did the flashback part in front of the green screen, then replaced the background with ‘old Soho’ view. I was going to use old footage of Soho, and my teachers and librarian helped me a lot with finding footage. However I failed to get any suitable footage as they’re either about weird things like someone giving a speech or unable to download. So I went to Soho and shot something I thought still have the taste of old Soho, and put them in. For the green screen, I certainly had fun using it, but still feel I have a lot to learn about the lighting (see the terrible shadow on the first picture?) and composition.
Adobe Premiere is literary the only program I can use well. And I made the best use of this skill. All the colour correction, effects are all done in using premiere. And I’m pretty happy for the outcome ( just talking about the editing), especially the VHS look like effect I made for the flashback part. But I feel I still have a lot to work on the coherence and clearance of the story (well that of course is not just about editing).
The sound is a DISASTER!!!! I even feel funny when hearing the obvious homemade soundtrack myself. Also because of the copyright, I wasn’t able to use any music from other people, so I sat in the toilet and recorded my guitar playing and also did the narration by myself, with a weird not-very -well American accent. And again, I didn’t make clear plan for the sound recording, so you can hear one person speaks in two different voices, and a lot of things just doesn’t sound to belong together. But I really tried my best. I even made the background music of the fake shampoo commercial using the synth in my phone. (Which is the picture above. Looking pretty badass isn’t it?)
Anyway, I kind of feel I’m doing much better than my last project. Not talking about the outcome, but the whole process. I’m able to direct myself instead of just following what teachers ask me to do, and I made good use of the resource available here, the amazing exhibitions, books and magazines, drew inspiration from other people’s work. I have a lot to learn for operating and realising my idea of course, and I think I still rely on the things I’m familiar with too much, instead of trying to get out of my comfort zone and try something different.
(I can’t think of any conclusion that is not cliche so I’ll just end here. :))