Evaluation:
Evaluating on my new wave film, I am overall very pleased with the outcome. I felt it had stylistic choices due to the influence of Wong Kar-Wai. I used a combination of clips shot in Coventry and a few from a previous film project, that never made the 'cut'. The concept was very similar for both of these projects so the footage blended well. The concept for my video refers to handover in the style of a train journey, following the narrative of a citizen thinking about her life and her memories.
Camera & Lighting:
Shooting the project in Coventry went well, despite overcoming some issues. The weather forecast was predicted 'cloudy' all day, however, to my surprise it started to rain; in that moment, I had to consider the safety of myself and the equipment due to not being fully prepared. I therefore made sure it wasn't raining heavy when filming to protect equipment where possible - however, thankfully I realised that the weather was the same when filming in Birmingham, so when editing, this became seamless. In terms of the exposure triangle, I knew that due to the overcast sky that lighting could variate, so in regular shots, examples being mid shots of the city life around 12pm, I used ISO 200, F12 and 1/50. When it became a darker setting, such as the train, I used ISO 800 with a shallow depth of field around f4, shutter speed maintained the same. I feel that this worked well, however I noticed one shot in particular that the iso was set too high, despite it being an overall bright condition - I think this due to the quick handheld spontaneous idea for the shot, I should have stopped and planned the shot in order to ensure the settings are correct. Lighting was something I struggled with, due to as mentioned - the weather being overcast; this prevented me from shooting conventions such as shadows and neon lighting, which would have allowed conventions from Wong Kar-Wai's films. I could have resolved this by filming at night time, using neon lights - however, i did not feel safe to do this, especially in Coventry/Digbeth - Birmingham.
Editing:
Within editing, I wanted to make the concept a little clearer in conjunction of being experimental, I decided to experiment with time due to Wong's influence on time in his films. I focused on editing for this so i could change the pace of audio/jump cuts between the videos. I also experimented with overlaying two videos at once - using these videos allowed me to create a sense of disorientation in my short film, and i think this worked successfully. I used the opacity tool to do this, alongside experimenting with different styles of overlays - the most common was 'saturation', 'difference' and 'normal' - this added a more stylistic approach to the the final footage as it alternated colours and created some subliminal messages, including the odd scene featured with cages overlaying people walking; representing the entrapment of HK in the handover as they were no longer in control on how they wanted to live. Audio was something I changed half way through the project. I was initially going to add a soundtrack, however, I couldn't find one that fitted into the theme I was going for - so therefore I would experiment with ambient sounds. I immediately found an audio track of a journey on a Chinese train, I thought this would be a good convention to use as I could edit this in conjunction with a breezy outdoor audio track to create the narrative of a journey to the handover. The traditional Chinese subtitles on certain clips elicit the quotes that were mentioned in planning, with one extra stating 'will we ever be free?' - self explanatory of the attitude of citizens in HK around the handover. Due to the narrative, I decided to call this narrative (translated:) 'The Journey to Transition'.
Conclusion:
In terms of this project, I'd like to say I'm 100% happy, but there are little things that I wish I could change, an example of this is the location in which I shot in Coventry, I wish I'd have shot near the Cathedral as well, just to add some variation to the footage, I feel the ruins would be 'chilling' (if edited/shot in particular settings). I would also like to experiment further with different lenses, as I only used an 18-55mm, getting some macro shots with a macro lens would be another bonus - for shots where I could use texture as a subliminal message. I can say I'm proud of this project though, due to the time spent and the footage I initially shot with.
Editing:
Within editing, I wanted to make the concept a little clearer in conjunction of being experimental, I decided to experiment with time due to Wong's influence on time in his films. I focused on editing for this so i could change the pace of audio/jump cuts between the videos. I also experimented with overlaying two videos at once - using these videos allowed me to create a sense of disorientation in my short film, and i think this worked successfully. I used the opacity tool to do this, alongside experimenting with different styles of overlays - the most common was 'saturation', 'difference' and 'normal' - this added a more stylistic approach to the the final footage as it alternated colours and created some subliminal messages, including the odd scene featured with cages overlaying people walking; representing the entrapment of HK in the handover as they were no longer in control on how they wanted to live. Audio was something I changed half way through the project. I was initially going to add a soundtrack, however, I couldn't find one that fitted into the theme I was going for - so therefore I would experiment with ambient sounds. I immediately found an audio track of a journey on a Chinese train, I thought this would be a good convention to use as I could edit this in conjunction with a breezy outdoor audio track to create the narrative of a journey to the handover. The traditional Chinese subtitles on certain clips elicit the quotes that were mentioned in planning, with one extra stating 'will we ever be free?' - self explanatory of the attitude of citizens in HK around the handover. Due to the narrative, I decided to call this narrative (translated:) 'The Journey to Transition'.
Conclusion:
In terms of this project, I'd like to say I'm 100% happy, but there are little things that I wish I could change, an example of this is the location in which I shot in Coventry, I wish I'd have shot near the Cathedral as well, just to add some variation to the footage, I feel the ruins would be 'chilling' (if edited/shot in particular settings). I would also like to experiment further with different lenses, as I only used an 18-55mm, getting some macro shots with a macro lens would be another bonus - for shots where I could use texture as a subliminal message. I can say I'm proud of this project though, due to the time spent and the footage I initially shot with.
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