the plans for today are that we shoot the piano recital. last night, we found that a local university actually has a grand piano, and it turned out that the hall with the piano happened to belong to the hostel, which, incidentally, JY's friend was staying in. so after making a few calls we managed to clear the hall for and evening shoot in the early morning. (the university, hostel and name of the student there will not be named)
however, when JY went to recee the location, he asked the wrong admin woman, who flat out rejected his request. so for a while we had no location to shoot in. in the end, we decided that we couldn't care less and sneaked in to film. a few students came in and saw us, but we acted like we were students and they left us alone. good thing the admin woman didn't come to make trouble for us.
I arrived in the late evening with aloysious and his rented tuxedo outfit. the out fit was too big for him, but it was the best that we could get. it was either we got the largest kid size which was for 7 year olds, or we got the smallest adult size, which we did, but still looked too big for him. so we compensated by hiding some parts of the outfit. we ended at close to 10pm, and wetook a cab back to pasir ris to fetch aloysious home before going back to school to deposit all the equipment and upload the footages, before going back home at 11+
-Betty
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Monday & Tuesday
the past two days were spent editing. we pieced together majority of the clips, although we still lacked the audio. thus, we used tuesday to record, and we roped in a couple of our friends to help us with the piano piece.
on tuesday, we had our second interim meeting, and this time we saw the progress of all the other groups. some of them are already almost done while we are still struggling to meet the dateline. it's already confirmed that what we can screen on friday is not the completed work, but we're trying our best to at least make the whole film have a flow, and not let it look too amateurish, otherwise our efforts for the past 2 months would be wasted. we tried asking for an extension, but it doesn't seem possible, so i guess we're going to have to slug it out now. as the editor, i'm feeling alot of the pressure, and trying to edit the footage where everyone is happy about it is not an easy task. plus there's still the lack of the piano recital scene, which is quite crucial for us. i guess we're doing it tomorrow, but i hope it turns out well.
-Andrea
on tuesday, we had our second interim meeting, and this time we saw the progress of all the other groups. some of them are already almost done while we are still struggling to meet the dateline. it's already confirmed that what we can screen on friday is not the completed work, but we're trying our best to at least make the whole film have a flow, and not let it look too amateurish, otherwise our efforts for the past 2 months would be wasted. we tried asking for an extension, but it doesn't seem possible, so i guess we're going to have to slug it out now. as the editor, i'm feeling alot of the pressure, and trying to edit the footage where everyone is happy about it is not an easy task. plus there's still the lack of the piano recital scene, which is quite crucial for us. i guess we're doing it tomorrow, but i hope it turns out well.
-Andrea
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Sunday
today is hazel's last day with us, because i don't think we will be able to get her back when the school term starts. so for today we cleared the most important scene, the piano in the garden.
to get the piano into the right location, we had to drive it up to the spot near the tree we had selected. at times, the car's tire got stuck in the mud, probably due to the heavy load, but eventually we moved it into the right position. it was getting the piano down onto the ground that was the hard part. it took 5 people, andrea, her dad, JY, sholleh and I to get the piano down, and afterwards we still had to shift it to the right angle. quite a challenge, but in the end we still managed it.
for today, we started shooting only at 3pm, as that was the time the piano was ready, and we couldn't split up the work of filming and moving the piano as the piano required all of us, so in the end we were only able to shoot this one scene. at least it was a key scene, and we didn't waste the day.
end of the day, wei hon came, and moving the piano became the guys' job again. moving it back all the way from pasir ris to potong pasir, then back to pasir ris, was quite a challenge, but thanks to andrea's father and wei hon, we were able to do it.
-Betty
to get the piano into the right location, we had to drive it up to the spot near the tree we had selected. at times, the car's tire got stuck in the mud, probably due to the heavy load, but eventually we moved it into the right position. it was getting the piano down onto the ground that was the hard part. it took 5 people, andrea, her dad, JY, sholleh and I to get the piano down, and afterwards we still had to shift it to the right angle. quite a challenge, but in the end we still managed it.
for today, we started shooting only at 3pm, as that was the time the piano was ready, and we couldn't split up the work of filming and moving the piano as the piano required all of us, so in the end we were only able to shoot this one scene. at least it was a key scene, and we didn't waste the day.
end of the day, wei hon came, and moving the piano became the guys' job again. moving it back all the way from pasir ris to potong pasir, then back to pasir ris, was quite a challenge, but thanks to andrea's father and wei hon, we were able to do it.
-Betty
Saturday, March 21, 2009
Saturday
today was, as sholleh put it, the best practice day we had. we moved the piano.
the piano in question belonged to aloysious, or at least his house. wei hon had once again offered his assistance and pickup truck to us, and in the late morning, we, meaning wei hon, betty and I, transported all the equipment to mt vernon, and afterwards betty stayed behind while wei hon and i went over to aloysious' home where sholleh was already waiting. there was no one home yet, and we needed to wait till aloysious comes back from training to open the door for us. so in the meantime we went over to mcdonald's for brunch before coming back, where they arrived a few mintues later.
the moving of the piano was painfully slow. it took 3 people, wei hon on one side and sholleh and i on the other, to move it out onto the corridoor, where we still had to tilt the piano and let it rest on its side in order to fit into the elevator. good thing we had a dolly/trolley. not sure what it's called, but it's something the PID people had made to transport their furniture works.
when we got the piano up into the pick up, which was another challenge in itself, we drove back to mt vernon, just in time to see the storm clouds form overhead and cancelling our shoot. in the end we rushed to a nearby multi-storey car park for shelter, and rescheduled everything, again.
we say it's our best practice run because we wanted to hide from ourselves that the day had in fact been wasted. but at least the piano was out, and we would only need to transport it back to aloysious' home tomorrow.
-JY
the piano in question belonged to aloysious, or at least his house. wei hon had once again offered his assistance and pickup truck to us, and in the late morning, we, meaning wei hon, betty and I, transported all the equipment to mt vernon, and afterwards betty stayed behind while wei hon and i went over to aloysious' home where sholleh was already waiting. there was no one home yet, and we needed to wait till aloysious comes back from training to open the door for us. so in the meantime we went over to mcdonald's for brunch before coming back, where they arrived a few mintues later.
the moving of the piano was painfully slow. it took 3 people, wei hon on one side and sholleh and i on the other, to move it out onto the corridoor, where we still had to tilt the piano and let it rest on its side in order to fit into the elevator. good thing we had a dolly/trolley. not sure what it's called, but it's something the PID people had made to transport their furniture works.
when we got the piano up into the pick up, which was another challenge in itself, we drove back to mt vernon, just in time to see the storm clouds form overhead and cancelling our shoot. in the end we rushed to a nearby multi-storey car park for shelter, and rescheduled everything, again.
we say it's our best practice run because we wanted to hide from ourselves that the day had in fact been wasted. but at least the piano was out, and we would only need to transport it back to aloysious' home tomorrow.
-JY
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Thursday
today was quite a sad day for us. one of our cast members had to leave us forever, and it was all sholleh's fault.
in the morning, wei hon, one of the PID graduates, helped transport us and the equipment over to mt.vernon. aloysious and hazel couldn't join us in the morning, so we had to wait quite abit before we were able to shoot. the day before, we had brought the birds over to andrea's house and we made a makeshift cage to hold them. when we got to mt vernon, we tied their legs to the tent with a fishing line and let them roam around.
it was during the time of our waiting that something tragic happened. sholleh sat on hazel.
ok, not the girl actress. we named the birds after our characters, one called jayden and the other called hazel, as the girl was referred to as "the girl" in our script, and we couldn't call it that. but yeah, sholleh sat on the bird.
at first, we didn't realise what happened, until we saw that the bird was lying on the spot where sholleh's butt had been, and its neck seemed bent in the wrong way. few minutes later, and it died. when we saw hazel in the distance walking towards us, we quickly got JY to dispose of the bird, and told her that we had set it free, which technically is true, just that we didn't mention the state it was in when it was set free. we didn't want our young actress to be traumatized at the start of the day.
andrea and JY had went to set up the swing before the actors came. we already had to the rope and wooden board, but we still needed to get them tied to a overhead tree branch. they did it by throwing the rope over, then coiled it walking in a big circle, each of them holding each end of the rope, and turned many many circles before tieing it to the board to secure it, then doing the same for the other side of the swing. the result looked nice, better than what any of us imagined.
so we did quite a few shots that, although throughout we were plagued by dying batteries that we had to charge for a few minutes at the parlour, before the other one died and switched the batteries, and did this over and over again. the day ended when both batteries died at around evening, and we called it a day.
R.I.P - Hazel, 18th March 2009 - 19th March 2009
-Betty
in the morning, wei hon, one of the PID graduates, helped transport us and the equipment over to mt.vernon. aloysious and hazel couldn't join us in the morning, so we had to wait quite abit before we were able to shoot. the day before, we had brought the birds over to andrea's house and we made a makeshift cage to hold them. when we got to mt vernon, we tied their legs to the tent with a fishing line and let them roam around.
it was during the time of our waiting that something tragic happened. sholleh sat on hazel.
ok, not the girl actress. we named the birds after our characters, one called jayden and the other called hazel, as the girl was referred to as "the girl" in our script, and we couldn't call it that. but yeah, sholleh sat on the bird.
at first, we didn't realise what happened, until we saw that the bird was lying on the spot where sholleh's butt had been, and its neck seemed bent in the wrong way. few minutes later, and it died. when we saw hazel in the distance walking towards us, we quickly got JY to dispose of the bird, and told her that we had set it free, which technically is true, just that we didn't mention the state it was in when it was set free. we didn't want our young actress to be traumatized at the start of the day.
andrea and JY had went to set up the swing before the actors came. we already had to the rope and wooden board, but we still needed to get them tied to a overhead tree branch. they did it by throwing the rope over, then coiled it walking in a big circle, each of them holding each end of the rope, and turned many many circles before tieing it to the board to secure it, then doing the same for the other side of the swing. the result looked nice, better than what any of us imagined.
so we did quite a few shots that, although throughout we were plagued by dying batteries that we had to charge for a few minutes at the parlour, before the other one died and switched the batteries, and did this over and over again. the day ended when both batteries died at around evening, and we called it a day.
R.I.P - Hazel, 18th March 2009 - 19th March 2009
-Betty
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Wednesday
during the past 2 days, we were in the editing room, putting together a few day's worth of footage. but today, it's back to shooting. by now everything seemed quite normal. betty would go pick up the cast and the rest of us would arrive at mt. vernon earlier to set up the tent and all other stuff. today, however, due to the addition of two new members to the cast, some changes were made.
we couldn't shoot so early today, as aloysious had gymnastics training, so for today the plan was that andrea, JY and I arrive early to set up, and after everything was emptied from the van i left to pick aloysious up while the 2 of them continued.
betty arrived shortly afterwards with hazel and two other casts. they were the birds that we would be using for the shoot. although it wasn't in our original script, we added it in after a late night discussion on the day before our first shoot as the main piece to connect our montages together. originally the idea seemed stupid, but after awhile no one could come up with something better, so we went ahead with it (one of our alternatives would be to use a rabbit instead of a bird).
but we didn't shoot the birds today, but tomorrow instead. today we did the rest of our montages instead. not as productive as sunday, but at least it didn't rain.
-Sholleh
we couldn't shoot so early today, as aloysious had gymnastics training, so for today the plan was that andrea, JY and I arrive early to set up, and after everything was emptied from the van i left to pick aloysious up while the 2 of them continued.
betty arrived shortly afterwards with hazel and two other casts. they were the birds that we would be using for the shoot. although it wasn't in our original script, we added it in after a late night discussion on the day before our first shoot as the main piece to connect our montages together. originally the idea seemed stupid, but after awhile no one could come up with something better, so we went ahead with it (one of our alternatives would be to use a rabbit instead of a bird).
but we didn't shoot the birds today, but tomorrow instead. today we did the rest of our montages instead. not as productive as sunday, but at least it didn't rain.
-Sholleh
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Sunday
today we went back to mt. vernon for shooting. it was quite a productive day i guess, until the weather turned on us.
sholleh, andrea and i met early in the morning again to set-up our field camp, and betty went to fetch the cast and crew. when aloysious came we quickly reshot some of the running scenes, and on that day we completed quite a number of scenes. jeremy, aloysious' brother and our classmate, came over to help us, along with sure-li, a freshmen from another course.
it seemed as if the day would be a good one for us, but in the end at about 3pm, the rain started to fall, and we had to call off the shoot. at first it came as a very slight, short drizzle, and so we decided to start again once it had let up. but withing a few minutes it came again, this time much heavier and longer, and we were barely able to keep the camera in time. luckily this time we had a lot more help, and we rushed all the equipment, including the tracks and the heavy dolly itself, to a nearby empty funeral parlour house.
in the end, quite a bit of the day was wasted, more than 3 hours, in fact, that could have been spent shooting. i guess outdoor shoots will always be like this.
-JY
sholleh, andrea and i met early in the morning again to set-up our field camp, and betty went to fetch the cast and crew. when aloysious came we quickly reshot some of the running scenes, and on that day we completed quite a number of scenes. jeremy, aloysious' brother and our classmate, came over to help us, along with sure-li, a freshmen from another course.
it seemed as if the day would be a good one for us, but in the end at about 3pm, the rain started to fall, and we had to call off the shoot. at first it came as a very slight, short drizzle, and so we decided to start again once it had let up. but withing a few minutes it came again, this time much heavier and longer, and we were barely able to keep the camera in time. luckily this time we had a lot more help, and we rushed all the equipment, including the tracks and the heavy dolly itself, to a nearby empty funeral parlour house.
in the end, quite a bit of the day was wasted, more than 3 hours, in fact, that could have been spent shooting. i guess outdoor shoots will always be like this.
-JY
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Friday
for today's shoot it can be considered both a success and a total failure. success because we got the footages that we needed, and failure because our scheduling broke down. but i'll explain later.
in the afternoon, at hereafter, bertrand commented that our footages were too blue, and some of them being too dark. we initially set the clour balance at blue because after looking at it, it seemed to give the grass a more greener feel. however, we neglected the other parts of the picture, like the sky, actors and their clothes, most obviously hazel, who was wearing white all the time. so now, we have to reshoot a few scenes, and save the rest by editing the colour.
now on to the shoot. we stayed in school till quite late as we had quite a bit of work to do, for example finding the cast and scheduling of everything. the shoot was delayed because we couldn't get jayden to be free in time, so we were shooting at night instead. for the role of the father, since everything was pushed back, JY's father was free and he agreed to help us shoot. so in the late evening sholleh and JY came over to my house to pick up all the equipment, and betty went to pick aloysious up.
by the time we got over to matthew's house, it was already around 10pm.when we got there, matthew wasn't home because he was still in army camp and could only be home at midnight. when we rang the bell and his mother answered, she said that she was only told that the shoot was at 4pm, and did not hear anything about it being delayed. thus it took us quite a while to contact matthew to get him to explain the situation to his mother, and by the time we got in, it was already quite late. at that time, betty had not yet came with aloysious, but was at his house waiting for him to get ready. also, we had asked them not to leave until we could confirm that we were able to shoot, so when we got the word, we called to them and they took a cab over.
the shoot itself was quite long, as we tried many things, trying to see what would work. many of our shots couldn't work becasue the room the piano was in was quite cramped, and we didn't have time to recee it beforehand. so by the time we were done it was already past midnight. i guess for future shoots we would have to make sure everything was ok before we went ahead, and also that a constant level of communication was maintained. but then again, working with people who did not act for a living can sometimes delay our shoot due to their educational commitments.
-Andrea
in the afternoon, at hereafter, bertrand commented that our footages were too blue, and some of them being too dark. we initially set the clour balance at blue because after looking at it, it seemed to give the grass a more greener feel. however, we neglected the other parts of the picture, like the sky, actors and their clothes, most obviously hazel, who was wearing white all the time. so now, we have to reshoot a few scenes, and save the rest by editing the colour.
now on to the shoot. we stayed in school till quite late as we had quite a bit of work to do, for example finding the cast and scheduling of everything. the shoot was delayed because we couldn't get jayden to be free in time, so we were shooting at night instead. for the role of the father, since everything was pushed back, JY's father was free and he agreed to help us shoot. so in the late evening sholleh and JY came over to my house to pick up all the equipment, and betty went to pick aloysious up.
by the time we got over to matthew's house, it was already around 10pm.when we got there, matthew wasn't home because he was still in army camp and could only be home at midnight. when we rang the bell and his mother answered, she said that she was only told that the shoot was at 4pm, and did not hear anything about it being delayed. thus it took us quite a while to contact matthew to get him to explain the situation to his mother, and by the time we got in, it was already quite late. at that time, betty had not yet came with aloysious, but was at his house waiting for him to get ready. also, we had asked them not to leave until we could confirm that we were able to shoot, so when we got the word, we called to them and they took a cab over.
the shoot itself was quite long, as we tried many things, trying to see what would work. many of our shots couldn't work becasue the room the piano was in was quite cramped, and we didn't have time to recee it beforehand. so by the time we were done it was already past midnight. i guess for future shoots we would have to make sure everything was ok before we went ahead, and also that a constant level of communication was maintained. but then again, working with people who did not act for a living can sometimes delay our shoot due to their educational commitments.
-Andrea
Friday, March 13, 2009
Thursday
today was our first interim meeting with bertrand. after looking at our footages, he commented that our footages were too few. i guess this was because we had very limited time to shoot, reason being the two cast also had to go to their respective schools, aloysious going in the morning and hazel being in the afternoon session. thus, our shooting time is limited only to the weekends, and even then the both of them might not be able to go in the early morning or stay till the evening, further shortening our shooting time. however, next week is their march holiday, meaning they would probably be free, but then again we might not be able to get both their parents to agree to come down for shooting everyday.
anyway, the plans for tomorrow are that we go over to andrea's friend matthew house to shoot the scenes of him at home. we chose his house because it was quite a wealthy house, plus it had a piano. we're going to shoot the opening scenes where he couldn't play the piano anymore, and also the scene after the piano in the garden where he finally is able to play again. we're having problems with the casting of jayden's father though. our plan was for one of our fathers to play the role, but if this shoot is to happen in the afternoon, none of them would be free. quite a big problem to solve, but it should turn out ok.
-betty
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Monday & Tuesday
yesterday, betty, andrea, JY and i went to plaza singapura's mcdonald's for a group meeting. betty and i came from school while andrea and JY and went to return the tracks in the afternoon. it turned out that there was something wrong with andrea's finalcut pro, and we couldn't digitize the previous day's footage and review it, so in the end we discussed about what we are going to do for the next few days.
anyways, today, JY and i met early at mt. vernon to find suitable locations for the swing, piano and other miscellaneous areas, blocking the script and figure out where to set up camp. we found quite a few areas where we could improvise and add on to the montages that were not in the script.
we faced quite a bit of problems while looking for the locations, for example, we had to be careful that it doesn't reveal the walkway or worse, the main road. we also had to be careful to avoid some buildings in the area, like the funeral parlour next door.
for most of the shots, we decided fairly quickly where the scene takes place and what kind of shots to do that can help us avoid some undesirable objects in the background. however, the scene that gave us the most problems was the piano scene. we not only had to deal with the problems of the other scenes, we also had the added trouble of whether he could actually physically bring the piano in to that spot. JY found a nice location for it, with a good background and nice surroundings. however, it was quite deep into the forest, and for a while we debated whether we should use it. in the end we found a substitute location that wasn't all too bad, but most importantly, it was accessible. be could probably drive the piano onto somewhere near the tree, as the ground was relatively flat, and carry the piano down.
meanwhile throughout the day, andrea was in school putting the footages together, and betty was planning all the schedule and call sheets. today can be considered one of our more fruitful days.
-Sholleh
anyways, today, JY and i met early at mt. vernon to find suitable locations for the swing, piano and other miscellaneous areas, blocking the script and figure out where to set up camp. we found quite a few areas where we could improvise and add on to the montages that were not in the script.
we faced quite a bit of problems while looking for the locations, for example, we had to be careful that it doesn't reveal the walkway or worse, the main road. we also had to be careful to avoid some buildings in the area, like the funeral parlour next door.
for most of the shots, we decided fairly quickly where the scene takes place and what kind of shots to do that can help us avoid some undesirable objects in the background. however, the scene that gave us the most problems was the piano scene. we not only had to deal with the problems of the other scenes, we also had the added trouble of whether he could actually physically bring the piano in to that spot. JY found a nice location for it, with a good background and nice surroundings. however, it was quite deep into the forest, and for a while we debated whether we should use it. in the end we found a substitute location that wasn't all too bad, but most importantly, it was accessible. be could probably drive the piano onto somewhere near the tree, as the ground was relatively flat, and carry the piano down.
meanwhile throughout the day, andrea was in school putting the footages together, and betty was planning all the schedule and call sheets. today can be considered one of our more fruitful days.
-Sholleh
Monday, March 9, 2009
Sunday
yesterday was our first production day. i got up early in the morning at about 6am+ and went over the betty's place to get her ladder, tent and some snacks for the day, before going over the mt.vernon alone (because betty had to pick up the cast at a later time) and meeting shol at 7am. andrea didn't reach at 7am because she had to unload some stuff off the van that we didn't need that we had put in the day before, so that she could load up some stuff that we did need, like a bicycle. so in the meantime, shol and i discussed about some of the shots for the day. when andrea arrived we set up the easy up and tent (production still will be included in the final submission package) and when the cast arrived we went for the shoot.
we faced quite a bit of problem with the sunlight, as it kept changing and most of the time we didn't have the light that we wanted, so we ended up finishing the running sequence at around 12pm, which was way past our schedule. what's more the light wasn't appropriate, so we ended up deciding to reshoot the whole sequence provided we have the time.
next sequence was the tree stump shot. we initially wanted a log for this scene, but like what andrea had said in yesterday's post, we couldn't find any, so we used a log instead. we didn't had much problem with aloysius, cause i guess he's quite used to acting already, with jem using him so much for his shoots. hazel on the other hand was quite hard to handle. being 10 this year, her attention span i super short, and she is super playful, so we ended up having a super hard time, but all in all, she was quite perfect for our role, so we can't really complain. the light kept changing over time though, i just hope in editing we might be able to salvage some of the shots for this one.
the stump scene however, went over time again, and we ended up being unable to shoot not much of other things, because the light was going down, so we decided to pick up the camera, bring the kids to the middle of a grassy field and got them to play with each other. they didn't seem to mind that we were recording, or at least aloy didn't. i'm not sure if hazel knew were shooting though.
all in all, the day was quite an eventful one, but at the end of the day we had a little bit of a scare, cause apparently the situation wasn't fully explained to hazel's parents, and i guess that's our fault, so her mother was quite unhappy about it and was unwilling to let us use her again. but thanks in much to shermin, hazel's cousin, we managed to convince her to allow us to use her, so thank God we don't have to reshoot totally everything.
-JY
we faced quite a bit of problem with the sunlight, as it kept changing and most of the time we didn't have the light that we wanted, so we ended up finishing the running sequence at around 12pm, which was way past our schedule. what's more the light wasn't appropriate, so we ended up deciding to reshoot the whole sequence provided we have the time.
next sequence was the tree stump shot. we initially wanted a log for this scene, but like what andrea had said in yesterday's post, we couldn't find any, so we used a log instead. we didn't had much problem with aloysius, cause i guess he's quite used to acting already, with jem using him so much for his shoots. hazel on the other hand was quite hard to handle. being 10 this year, her attention span i super short, and she is super playful, so we ended up having a super hard time, but all in all, she was quite perfect for our role, so we can't really complain. the light kept changing over time though, i just hope in editing we might be able to salvage some of the shots for this one.
the stump scene however, went over time again, and we ended up being unable to shoot not much of other things, because the light was going down, so we decided to pick up the camera, bring the kids to the middle of a grassy field and got them to play with each other. they didn't seem to mind that we were recording, or at least aloy didn't. i'm not sure if hazel knew were shooting though.
all in all, the day was quite an eventful one, but at the end of the day we had a little bit of a scare, cause apparently the situation wasn't fully explained to hazel's parents, and i guess that's our fault, so her mother was quite unhappy about it and was unwilling to let us use her again. but thanks in much to shermin, hazel's cousin, we managed to convince her to allow us to use her, so thank God we don't have to reshoot totally everything.
-JY
Sunday, March 8, 2009
Sunday
The shoot today started off at 6.30. I had to prepare the logistics for the shoot and set off with all the equiptment. After filling up the water tank, loading up the logistical items and the bicycle in my father's van, we headed to mt.vernon for the shoot.
we arrived at around 8am to 9am. by then, JY and Shol were already there, and they helped to unload the van and set up our home base, which comprised of an easy-up and a tent. as the easy up was not sheltered from the sides, we used 5 sleeping bags to cover 2 sides, the 3rd side being the entrance of the tent and the fourth being the entrance to the home base itself. betty arrived at around 9+ with the cast, aloysious, 13, and hazel, 10, and after a little preparation we went on to shooting. throughout the day, quite a few people came and helped us out, like amos, out photographer, shermin, our cast's cousin who had to accompany her, sure-li, who brought some clothes over after we realised that the weather was too hot for what most of us were wearing, and jeremy, our male lead's brother, who came to help out with our production. he alone was the only other MOI video person outside of our group, and lucky for us he wasn't shooting today.
after we set up the base and started shooting, we realised that it was set up at the wrong place, as it was super far from where we were shooting, and when we needed to get something we had to go all the way back, but that had to be dealt with the next time we went back there. good thing i brought my bicycle.
so anyways for the shoot, my main role was to be the one getting lunch for everyone, and helping JY and Shol set up, so during lunch time i had to travel by bike to a faraway place to get food for everyone, then come back with the food balanced on both handles of the bike (food for 8 people) back to mount vernon, going uphill in more than one places.
progress was quite slow for today, i'm not quite sure why, but i think JY will post more about the production later as he and Shol had been there the whole time. what i do know is that lighting played a major factor in slowing all of us down, from what shol had said.
one of our scenes involved a fallen log, where our actors had to sit on it and talk, but we couldn't find any logs in our recee trips and time was running short, so in the end while JY and shol were shooting i went to scout for a place to shoot, and i ended up finding a tree stump big enough for both of them so sit on. after discussing with shol for awhile, while JY and the other guys were tearing down the previous location, we came up with quite a nice shot. but that alone took quite a while to film as well, as we had to get the girl to understand how to act and also wait for the sun. we ended up with quite a nice shot in the end, smooth, although the quality of sound was terrible.
all in all the day was ok, i didn't manage to discuss with the group about everything today because my dad came to bring me and the equipment home while the rest went for dinner, but i guess today's shoot was fruitful, as we had learnt quite a few things that we have never encountered in past shoots, and others that we had forgotten.
-Andrea
we arrived at around 8am to 9am. by then, JY and Shol were already there, and they helped to unload the van and set up our home base, which comprised of an easy-up and a tent. as the easy up was not sheltered from the sides, we used 5 sleeping bags to cover 2 sides, the 3rd side being the entrance of the tent and the fourth being the entrance to the home base itself. betty arrived at around 9+ with the cast, aloysious, 13, and hazel, 10, and after a little preparation we went on to shooting. throughout the day, quite a few people came and helped us out, like amos, out photographer, shermin, our cast's cousin who had to accompany her, sure-li, who brought some clothes over after we realised that the weather was too hot for what most of us were wearing, and jeremy, our male lead's brother, who came to help out with our production. he alone was the only other MOI video person outside of our group, and lucky for us he wasn't shooting today.
after we set up the base and started shooting, we realised that it was set up at the wrong place, as it was super far from where we were shooting, and when we needed to get something we had to go all the way back, but that had to be dealt with the next time we went back there. good thing i brought my bicycle.
so anyways for the shoot, my main role was to be the one getting lunch for everyone, and helping JY and Shol set up, so during lunch time i had to travel by bike to a faraway place to get food for everyone, then come back with the food balanced on both handles of the bike (food for 8 people) back to mount vernon, going uphill in more than one places.
progress was quite slow for today, i'm not quite sure why, but i think JY will post more about the production later as he and Shol had been there the whole time. what i do know is that lighting played a major factor in slowing all of us down, from what shol had said.
one of our scenes involved a fallen log, where our actors had to sit on it and talk, but we couldn't find any logs in our recee trips and time was running short, so in the end while JY and shol were shooting i went to scout for a place to shoot, and i ended up finding a tree stump big enough for both of them so sit on. after discussing with shol for awhile, while JY and the other guys were tearing down the previous location, we came up with quite a nice shot. but that alone took quite a while to film as well, as we had to get the girl to understand how to act and also wait for the sun. we ended up with quite a nice shot in the end, smooth, although the quality of sound was terrible.
all in all the day was ok, i didn't manage to discuss with the group about everything today because my dad came to bring me and the equipment home while the rest went for dinner, but i guess today's shoot was fruitful, as we had learnt quite a few things that we have never encountered in past shoots, and others that we had forgotten.
-Andrea
Friday, February 27, 2009
Friday
Today, Jy and I met early at Potong Pasir Mrt. Today the group was split up again. Jy and I were to do the recce-ing and Betty and Sholleh to meet Betrand. Jy and I were to find the exact tree we wanted and take the measurements, then tailor the swing to it. However, halfway through we had a call from Betty who told us that Betrand thought that the location was not green enough and certain pictures that we had shown him had spots/patches of brown that would not look good on the P2 camera. As such, Jy and I were sent to recce seletar resevoir or some where near there.
Thereafter, Jy and I first took a short break at Macs and then used my NEW PHONE which had wifi to look for golf courses and call them up and ask if we could shoot there as a golf course was the only place we could think of with really flat, green green grass. We also tried sourcing for pianos that were out of tune or had their internal wooden frames/spines broken. Because that would be a cheaper alternative for us to rent rather than a full working grand piano. Besides, we did not need the sound on set. The piano piece would be pre-recorded in the studio and then effects would be added to it to give it a really majestic feel. But all the companies we called up did not give us at least one optimistic reply. Most of them said that they did not have or still charged us at expensive prices.
After that, Jy and I took a bus down to Nee Soon Camp, according to the directions Betty gave us. It was really difficult to find the location! First we took the bus all the way to night safari, Mandai and missed our stop then, we got down at the wrong bus stop and had to walk a very great distance before we reached where ever we were going. Betty told us to go to the executive golf course near Nee Soon Camp but we had no cue where it was. By the time we reached Nee Soon Camp, a guy directed us to the golf course behind Nee Soon Camp which turned out to be Seletar executive Golf course. After walking a great distance again, we reached the golf course and it turned out to be a waste of time. The trees were not suitable, the grass had two different colours which came in strips (light green, dark green, light green, dark green).
However, we found a not so bad location opposite golf course. It was SLA state land. (singapore land authorities) The place was a park like place with a few lamps along the way. The grass was short and green. The trees were pine shaped and not bad looking. Overall, the place was not bad, but lacked the "endless greenery" feel and not at all enchanted. By the time we got out of the place, we were at The Bottle tree park at Khatib mrt station.
-Andrea
Thereafter, Jy and I first took a short break at Macs and then used my NEW PHONE which had wifi to look for golf courses and call them up and ask if we could shoot there as a golf course was the only place we could think of with really flat, green green grass. We also tried sourcing for pianos that were out of tune or had their internal wooden frames/spines broken. Because that would be a cheaper alternative for us to rent rather than a full working grand piano. Besides, we did not need the sound on set. The piano piece would be pre-recorded in the studio and then effects would be added to it to give it a really majestic feel. But all the companies we called up did not give us at least one optimistic reply. Most of them said that they did not have or still charged us at expensive prices.
After that, Jy and I took a bus down to Nee Soon Camp, according to the directions Betty gave us. It was really difficult to find the location! First we took the bus all the way to night safari, Mandai and missed our stop then, we got down at the wrong bus stop and had to walk a very great distance before we reached where ever we were going. Betty told us to go to the executive golf course near Nee Soon Camp but we had no cue where it was. By the time we reached Nee Soon Camp, a guy directed us to the golf course behind Nee Soon Camp which turned out to be Seletar executive Golf course. After walking a great distance again, we reached the golf course and it turned out to be a waste of time. The trees were not suitable, the grass had two different colours which came in strips (light green, dark green, light green, dark green).
However, we found a not so bad location opposite golf course. It was SLA state land. (singapore land authorities) The place was a park like place with a few lamps along the way. The grass was short and green. The trees were pine shaped and not bad looking. Overall, the place was not bad, but lacked the "endless greenery" feel and not at all enchanted. By the time we got out of the place, we were at The Bottle tree park at Khatib mrt station.
-Andrea
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Wednesday
For today, sholleh, betty and I went to school for consultation about our progress so far. Turns out the blocked script we had wasn’t in the right format, so we’ll be changing it and showing it to Bertrand on Friday. Another thing is that after our consultation we realised that betty’s neighbour was too old to play the part of the girl, and that instead of finding a male lead to fit the girl, it should be the other way round instead. So now we’re back to looking for cast, except that we’ve lowered our age group to about 9-12 years old, depending on the rate of the kid’s puberty.
In the afternoon andrea and I got the wood for the prop swing, a 50 by 20 cm jelutong wood, 2.5 cm thick. We got our friend Gaen from PID to help us with the drilling of holes and lacquering, so by Friday night it should be ready, so that’s one good news. We did research on how to build the swing, and judging by the look of the picture on the site we found, it should be quite a nice swing.
However, later on we realised that the piano that we originally had planned to borrow from Yuan Ming’s cousin is now under servicing, and will only be back in 2 weeks, meaning we have to find a replacement for it. Andrea and I have a back-up plan for that, to approach esplanade. We had went there previously on Tuesday to look for a suitable concert hall for our shoot, but in the end, the number the receptionist gave up always went to the answering machine. However, there, we found a grand piano seating in the middle of the esplanade library, looking untouched, so we’ll see if we can go back and ask to borrow it on Friday. Hopefully, with some luck and divine intervention, we’ll be able to do it.
-JY
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Tuesday
JY and Andrea recced the esplanade and called the lady in charge of their concert hall to ask if we might borrow it for our shoot. Our back-up plan is to use Andrea's church building, as she had already asked for permission from her pastor, but offical permission was still pending). The concert hall at esplanade was really grand and perfect for our shoot. However, as the hall was huge, we were afraid that filling up the hall with audiences would be tough. JY and I also found a lot of unused grand pianos at the esplanade! Hopefully we might be able to borrow one if we tried asking.
Afterwards, JY and Andrea came up with the logistics we needed as well as a scene summary sheet to help us with the shoot. Sholleh and I, on the other hand, called up the various drama and music schools to look for the male lead. I also called up Christofori again to ask about the status of our grand piano’s sponsorship of rental. The woman said that the paper work would take a while to process and it would be difficult for the management as none of us were students from Christofori music school. She suggested however that they would help us with free transportation if we had our own grand piano. We then came up with a back-up plan that was to borrow Yuan Ming’s grand piano and then get Christofori to transport it for us.
-Betty
Monday, February 23, 2009
Monday
Overall, we had managed to work on and finalize the script. We also sorted out how we would shoot it and the jobs we would be doing. Today, Andrea played the piano piece that she composed in the audio room for the rest of the group to hear and comment on it. However, the group felt that the tune lacked a climax and the tune was not catchy enough. As such, the piece was scraped. The group then managed to engage other piano players to help create the tune as a back up plan.
Later on in the afternoon, the group went to Kent Ridge Park and Hort Park to recce the place and check if it was suitable for the piano scene. The place was scenic. However, the location was sloped and was not suitable for a grand piano.
So far,
The locations we have recced are:
1) Loyang Ave
2) Potong Pasir
3) Kent Ridge Park
4) Hort Park
5) Punggol
6) Fort Canning Park
As a group, we decided that Potong Pasir was the most suitable. As it was a big land filled with lush greenery. However, we realized that there was much traffic at Potong Pasir. Although the trees diluted it out, still we knew that the camera mike could still pick up certain sounds of the traffic. One of the ways to work around the problem was that when sound on set was not required, we would replace it with the surrounding sound of another nature park. Another way was to shoot those of the scenes that required sound on set at another deeper in area or a totally different location.
Later on, we also spotted another problem. Although the land at Potong Pasir looked flat, it was actually very uneven. As we are using a grand piano for our shoot, we needed it to be placed on a flat ground such that the piano would not be strained and go out of tune. One way we could work around it was to put a wooden circular stage on the grass to lay the piano on during the piano scene. Another way was to find a totally different location for the piano scene.
Also, for one of the scenes, a swing was required to be built. Jin Yu brought the rope for the swing to start building it earlier so that we could have more time later on in production week.
The requirements we had for our casts had changed too. The female lead we had cast was too tall and exceeded our requirements. However in all other areas, she was perfect for the role. (Fair skinned, able to play the piano, pretty) As such, we changed the criteria for the male lead as finding a primary 6 student was also very difficult and impossible as most parents wanted their children to focus on their PSLE. The male lead’s requirement was changed to a 14-15 year old boy, about 160 or less in height and could play the piano.
A rehearsal/bonding session was arranged to be on Saturday so that the actors (mainly the boy and girl) could get to know each other and would be able to act more naturally around each other during the shoot.
- Sholleh
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