For the past few weeks, I have worked with Conrad, Duncan and James to create a musical film. This has been the most challenging film I've ever had to make so far in my life. It was definitely a step up from the western film. Today we screened our film for Ms. Ward and the whole class and I am extremely happy with what we were able to produce as our final product. It has been a journey of ups and downs but was worth it in the end.
One of the best parts of our film, but also a large factor to why it was so hard to make, was how our film is so unique. Most of the musicals we were shown as examples had the story of bullying, a love story or any story that felt good and had a good moral to the story. Our film was the opposite of that. I am very glad we got to produce such a unique story. However, portraying this was very hard. We had to use Mise En Scene very wisely to make sure the audience understood the film and the story. Props were a large part of this. Luckily, Conrad already owned many gun props and costumes which we used for our film, and without them, our film would definitely not have been nearly as good. Although, besides that, we also spent time at the start of this project building a bulletin board. This board didn't have a large amount of screen time, but I think it really helped to set the scene. It was placed in the headquarters, where the team was planning their attack. By having a bulletin board full of ideas, red string, blueprints and pictures of victims or people of interest, it helped to show the audience that the team had been planning this attack for a while. This iconic prop helped the audience to further understand the story and the setting those scenes were in. Another factor of Mise En Scene which benefitted our film was the filter. The filter we added made it look more dark and cool toned, which creates a more mysterious and scary feel. In contrast to a warm toned and saturated happy look, which might have been used for a happier musical. These are just some of the components of Mise En Scene my group and I considered to make this film as realistic looking and understanding for the audience as possible.
Another part of this film I am proud of is the songs we chose. There are not many songs that could go along to this film, especially with its plot, so this was a slightly challenging task. I thought that "Stressed Out" was a good choice for the classroom scenes, since the lyrics are "Wish we could turn back time, to the good old' days, when our mamas sang us to sleep, but now we're stressed out," which is a good and accurate description of how the students in the scene felt. Furthermore, the lyrics to Bohemian Rhapsody related well to our film as well. Although those lyrics might've originally written metaphorically, (i.e. "Mama, just killed a man") in our film they fit very realistically. I think the songs did really help to move the story along and were a good replacement of dialogue.
In my opinion, although filming was hard since we had to find a time where extras were free, and where we ourselves were free, the hardest part of this experience was the editing. When we first went to fine edit our film, after we had only rough edited, we had 30 minutes of footage. Our maximum was 7 minutes and 30 seconds. Cutting it down to that amount was extremely hard. However, that was only one of the hard parts. Another part was the fact that the audio we had from the school scenes were very all over the place, some were loud, some were quiet. We fixed this by adding ambience noise in the background to make everything more cohesive. Furthermore, adding all the muzzle flashes and the bomb took a little while to learn, but once we learnt it is was easy. Most of the problems we ran into we had solutions for, but everything was very time to consume. We spent many lunches editing, times in the morning before school started, and some of us stayed after school. At the end, when we had 9 minutes, cutting down to 7 minutes 30 seconds was challenging, but worth it. I think that our film is much better now that we had cut it down, since before it was a bit slow, and seemed to drag on. Editing was definitely hard, and we had many issues with it, however, we made it in time and I am happy with the final result.
My worst favourite part of our film I would say were the small inconsistencies. In comparison to our western film, we did not have as many, but there were a few. For example, when Duncan (acting as the guard) took my (Montange) gun away from me, we didn't have a smooth shot of him turning around. This meant the transition was rather abrupt. We had a few of these types of rough transitions throughout the film which I wish I could make smoother. However, with the time given, we didn't have time to go back to the location and re-film them. This is something I must consider next time I make a film, that I must leave time to edit and be able to re-shoot in order for me to have 100% smooth transitions.
I was lucky enough to have the same group for the musical as the western. I truly believe that the 4 of us work really well together, we are able to have fun, but still get work done. (Photos below of behind the scenes!) There is no doubt that I would not have been able to do this project without them, even if I had 3 different group members, I think that we had best people to work with for this film. Conrad, he provided the amazing props and the even greater idea for the film. He also gave great ideas of ways we could improve our film. He is also a great actor, both when we were Capitao in this film and Wyatt in the last one. Duncan, he was a really good director. He got frustrated sometimes, but we needed him too, or else we would just talk the whole time and never get anything done. I first made a film with Duncan back in Year 7, as a side project for a leaving English teacher. We always wanted to make an actual film together in a class, so being able to do it this year was really fun. James, he was the light one in our group. He was always making jokes, even when the rest of us were stressing out. A major actor in both films, performing great in both. The memories made within the group and the inside jokes we share is something I am very glad we now get to share and have. Even if we didn't finish the film, and didn't pull it off, the process still would've been worth it. Furthermore, we were lucky enough to get extras for our film, so that the four of us didn't have to act as 20 different people at once. They were cooperative, and overall very excited they got to be a part of this project. I am very happy with my group and all the friends that helped us, and all the memories and fun times we shared over this project.
Overall, this has experience has been one I will not forget for a long time at least. I am immensely proud of what my group and I have created. I have learnt so many new things. I am excited to take film next year in Hangzhou, where I hope to learn even more.
One of the best parts of our film, but also a large factor to why it was so hard to make, was how our film is so unique. Most of the musicals we were shown as examples had the story of bullying, a love story or any story that felt good and had a good moral to the story. Our film was the opposite of that. I am very glad we got to produce such a unique story. However, portraying this was very hard. We had to use Mise En Scene very wisely to make sure the audience understood the film and the story. Props were a large part of this. Luckily, Conrad already owned many gun props and costumes which we used for our film, and without them, our film would definitely not have been nearly as good. Although, besides that, we also spent time at the start of this project building a bulletin board. This board didn't have a large amount of screen time, but I think it really helped to set the scene. It was placed in the headquarters, where the team was planning their attack. By having a bulletin board full of ideas, red string, blueprints and pictures of victims or people of interest, it helped to show the audience that the team had been planning this attack for a while. This iconic prop helped the audience to further understand the story and the setting those scenes were in. Another factor of Mise En Scene which benefitted our film was the filter. The filter we added made it look more dark and cool toned, which creates a more mysterious and scary feel. In contrast to a warm toned and saturated happy look, which might have been used for a happier musical. These are just some of the components of Mise En Scene my group and I considered to make this film as realistic looking and understanding for the audience as possible.
Another part of this film I am proud of is the songs we chose. There are not many songs that could go along to this film, especially with its plot, so this was a slightly challenging task. I thought that "Stressed Out" was a good choice for the classroom scenes, since the lyrics are "Wish we could turn back time, to the good old' days, when our mamas sang us to sleep, but now we're stressed out," which is a good and accurate description of how the students in the scene felt. Furthermore, the lyrics to Bohemian Rhapsody related well to our film as well. Although those lyrics might've originally written metaphorically, (i.e. "Mama, just killed a man") in our film they fit very realistically. I think the songs did really help to move the story along and were a good replacement of dialogue.
In my opinion, although filming was hard since we had to find a time where extras were free, and where we ourselves were free, the hardest part of this experience was the editing. When we first went to fine edit our film, after we had only rough edited, we had 30 minutes of footage. Our maximum was 7 minutes and 30 seconds. Cutting it down to that amount was extremely hard. However, that was only one of the hard parts. Another part was the fact that the audio we had from the school scenes were very all over the place, some were loud, some were quiet. We fixed this by adding ambience noise in the background to make everything more cohesive. Furthermore, adding all the muzzle flashes and the bomb took a little while to learn, but once we learnt it is was easy. Most of the problems we ran into we had solutions for, but everything was very time to consume. We spent many lunches editing, times in the morning before school started, and some of us stayed after school. At the end, when we had 9 minutes, cutting down to 7 minutes 30 seconds was challenging, but worth it. I think that our film is much better now that we had cut it down, since before it was a bit slow, and seemed to drag on. Editing was definitely hard, and we had many issues with it, however, we made it in time and I am happy with the final result.
My worst favourite part of our film I would say were the small inconsistencies. In comparison to our western film, we did not have as many, but there were a few. For example, when Duncan (acting as the guard) took my (Montange) gun away from me, we didn't have a smooth shot of him turning around. This meant the transition was rather abrupt. We had a few of these types of rough transitions throughout the film which I wish I could make smoother. However, with the time given, we didn't have time to go back to the location and re-film them. This is something I must consider next time I make a film, that I must leave time to edit and be able to re-shoot in order for me to have 100% smooth transitions.
I was lucky enough to have the same group for the musical as the western. I truly believe that the 4 of us work really well together, we are able to have fun, but still get work done. (Photos below of behind the scenes!) There is no doubt that I would not have been able to do this project without them, even if I had 3 different group members, I think that we had best people to work with for this film. Conrad, he provided the amazing props and the even greater idea for the film. He also gave great ideas of ways we could improve our film. He is also a great actor, both when we were Capitao in this film and Wyatt in the last one. Duncan, he was a really good director. He got frustrated sometimes, but we needed him too, or else we would just talk the whole time and never get anything done. I first made a film with Duncan back in Year 7, as a side project for a leaving English teacher. We always wanted to make an actual film together in a class, so being able to do it this year was really fun. James, he was the light one in our group. He was always making jokes, even when the rest of us were stressing out. A major actor in both films, performing great in both. The memories made within the group and the inside jokes we share is something I am very glad we now get to share and have. Even if we didn't finish the film, and didn't pull it off, the process still would've been worth it. Furthermore, we were lucky enough to get extras for our film, so that the four of us didn't have to act as 20 different people at once. They were cooperative, and overall very excited they got to be a part of this project. I am very happy with my group and all the friends that helped us, and all the memories and fun times we shared over this project.
Overall, this has experience has been one I will not forget for a long time at least. I am immensely proud of what my group and I have created. I have learnt so many new things. I am excited to take film next year in Hangzhou, where I hope to learn even more.