Film Class DW Entry

Monday, March 02, 2009

We filmed over the weekend in Hugo Lam's house becuase he had a mini-bar in the basement - which was the perfect scene we needed. This was done along with actresses Michelle Lai and Valerie Chiu. We came back during lesson with completed footage on the tape. Immediately, we imported our clip into Final Cut Pro, so we can start our editing process.

We have recorded an abundant amount of clips into our shot log, ending up with twenty minutes of raw, unedited footage. As Elliot and others began editing the footage straightaway, while I supervised some of the action along with planning the sounds I intend to add in. Throughout, I helped synchronize the scene where the glass bottle lands and the "clink" sound occurs. Since they were recorded seperately, we had to drag a seperate bar of background noise into one of the tracks, and stretch it. The clink was placed in the middle of the background noise, making this transition fluent and flawless. I also made a list of sounds I need to record: high heels clicking, shoes walking, gulping sounds, heartbeat and clock ticking. I used my "thinkers" and "knowledgeable" skills in the IB learner profile because as we scroll through the footage, I am generating suitable ideas based on experience and knowledge.

The high heels clicking and walking sounds were fundamental, since they convey methods of movement and emphasis on background tension as each click is broadcasted. Heels clicking was also significant, since the elegance of the sound elevates the femme fatale's status in sex and mystery, and adds to the touch of seduction. During the night when we filmed, sounds were not precise in front of the boom mic, hence I decided to re-record these sounds to increase the pressure in the atmosphere. Other sounds include gulping sounds, because Elliot did not drink the "wine" due to hygiene purposes (which was grape juice in reality) since it was contaminated during the shot. At last, we continued this action by showing him putting the glass down, emptied. To make this more convincing, I needed to record gulping sounds.

Clock ticking and heartbeat are also used to add to the atmospheric details. I plan to record the heartbeat from performing some rapid contraction with my windpipe, and clock ticking perhaps from a real clock. These will appear during the the intensive regions of the footage, when the protagonist wakes up in a midst of confusion (clock ticking can be used as an effect to create time distortion) as well as scenes of him being seduced. These add up as proper characteristics of Film Noir, and such rules state the "principled" factor in the IB learner profile.

Throughout this editing and brainstorming process, my active group members and I were being great "communicators" for exchanging ideas, "knowledgeable" and "thinkers" for generating ideas, "open-minded" and "caring" for respecting each other and giving each other the opportunity to express themselves and contribute to the work, moving towards the goals of IB learners.