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Film Project
WORK FLOW--------------
I first got inspired by this photo taken by me in 2018 in Tokyo, Japan. And this reminds me the Japanese word "Ukiyo banare'.
浮世離れ---
Otherworldliness---
・世間のイメージからかけ離れた言動や事柄のこと
・周囲の事を考えずひたすら我が道を往くマイペース、あるいは、のんびりしている人のこと
・俗世間のことに無関心がないこと
・Relating to, or characteristic of another world, especially a mystical or transcendental world: "The effect was dreamy, otherworldy" (Gioia Diliberto).
・Devoted to the world of the mind; concerned with intellectual or imaginative things.
・Concerned with an afterlife, especially when inattentive to the present.
Self-Reflection----
I started the research by doing self-reflection such as how my personality developed and who am I because this is the final year and I need to think what I am going to do with my life more seriously. In addition, I was stuck in Japan when I started to think about the concept of the project. Normally I developed my idea by chatting with friends but I could not have time and decent opportunities. Instead of chatting with my course mate I could spent time with my childhood friend since I was in Japan. I felt weird how they saw me when we were in school together and I found it interesting.
To think about it, I always hate school. It was not because I got bullied I think it was because I did not enjoy it or never find it fun. Especially I hate teachers. I wanted them to leave me alone and I was wishing them not to remember me after my graduation. However, in Japan, when people see someone alone they feel insecure or get anxious about it because they think I am not belong to anywhere.
Wanting to be accepted or belonging to a group is one of the biggest humans desire in my opinion. Especially in Japan, I think this sense is more stronger.
Here is the mind map of what Japanese society expecting us to be. As I mentioned before, people would get anxious when they see people alone seems to not belong anywhere. In school, when a teacher see a student alone they would ask the student if everything is alright because they suspicious about if there is a bullying. The only thing I want them to do for me was LEAVE ME ALONE.
One day a teacher came up to me and asked me IF I HAVE FRIENDS. I was so shock also got offended. I did have friends who hangout with after school but we would not be stick together 24/7. Actually the teacher asked my friend if we are close. My friend answered if she measure how close we are with the teachers way, we are not close. I just only found out this happening 2 months ago which is 7 years after since it happened.
This is a clip of walking with friend around my middle school. this is the time I found out she got asked by a teacher about me.
THOUGHT----
All of those conversation I had with my childhood friend made me realise that in school you measured by certain ruler which created by society norm. I was categorised as a girl when I was in Japan, now I am in London, people categorise me as an Asian.
Japan has this saying '出る杭は打たれる'. If I translate in English it would be 'tall trees catch much wind', 'the stake that sticks out gets hammered in' or, 'stand out from the crowd and you just invite trouble for yourself'. It simply means keep your head down.
Each people has different measurement of how you take distance from people. For example, I do not have friends who I always text or call and knowing what they up to 24/7. I am not a person who keep in touch always but all my 'close' friends knows that the comfortable distance in relationship.
In this project, I want to explore the difference between social norm and inside of your brain also the enjoyment of being alone.
IMAGE BOARD ----
COLOUR PALETTE----
ROUGH CUT----
SELF EVALUATION----
First of all, I did not like it. I got few reasons to think so.
First, the colour platte , I thought it would be nice to have cold colours to express the loneliness but it turned out too dark image. When I look up the footage I already noticed the images are too dark so I put a music which has positive vibes. After I watched this I had idea of craziness and chaotic because of the smile and the city sound which I do not expect the audience to feel like. So I decided to change colour platte.
Second, I just had ideas of chaotic and kind of sadness from this rough cut. it made to express the enjoyment of loneliness but I did not catch that kind of atmosphere.
On the feedback day, Andrea told me that I should explore more how I can perform in the film and she game this idea that maybe I can be a guide for aliens to introduce those social norm. I think it is interesting idea. It could be little more comedy narrative.
Before Corona virus was spread around the UK, while I was working in the bar, I got asked by a man said 'do you have corona?'. Because it was at the bar, maybe corona stand for the beer brand but all the circumstances, I know he was asking me on purpose. So I answered 'sorry we don't have. But we have Asahi'. The man looked at me as if he thought I would not understand what he 'actually' means or I would not speak English then after few seconds he left the bar. My colleague who heard all the conversation said I was savage and it was hilarious. From this experience, I really think sometimes comedy or making fun of it has huge power to make people realise what they are doing. So I decided to change the narrative.
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SECOND IDEA----
I did a research about 'Ukiyo-e'. Ukiyo-e is a genre of Japanese art which flourished from the 17th through 19th centuries. Its artists produced woodblock prints and paintings of such subjects as female beauties; kabuki actors and sumo wrestlers; scenes from history and folk tales; travel scenes and landscapes; flora and fauna; and erotica. The term "ukiyo-e" (浮世絵) translates as "picture of the floating world".
浮き世←→憂き世
Japanese Ukiyo-e had influenced on European painter such as Vincent Van Gogh. He collected about 600 ukiyo-e paintings and he learned its skill. The skill can be seen 'sunflowers' in1888 or, 'bedroom is Arles' in 1888.
INSPO----
京華図案(keika-zuan) is a textile book released in meiji era in 1897. It was created by Keika Hasegawa and Kourin Furuya.
The image on the left inspired me so much and I started to develop my idea from this image.
SECOND CONCEPT----
THE COMFORTABLE DISTANCE IN RELATIONSHIP.
RESEARCH----
Hand holding fan was used in our life before century. According to the historical reference, the fan which doesn't close and open was used in China before century and you can see Egyptian wall painting has feather fan on it.
The one which made with wood and paper and can open and close was invented in Japan.
I went to a restaurant in Japan and they gave me a hand holding fan at the entrance. I thought it was a little gift or something. But it was actually for covering our mouth when we having food. When you are eating you cannot wear face mask. However, talking while eating give off germs more than you talk normally. So they asked us to hold the fans in front of the mouth when you talking.
COLOUR PLATTE----
COSTUME-----
I chose this fabric because the choreograph has a lot of moment and it would looks nice if the costume has the moment too.
LOCATION VISITING----
>Trafalgar Square
Vicki told me to I should think of filming with the green screen and put the Trafalgar Square photo as background because it would take long and cost me a lot for the filming permission. I went to video and edit workshop to get some advice on it and the technician there told me its very difficult to do without any knowledge and even if I got the right materials to edit it still looks off from reality. Then I got the email back from Trafalgar Square says student filming guideline so I don't need permission for it as long as I keep the guideline.
>St Pancras International (Stop S)
I really liked the colour of the red and the building back ground because it has the city vibes as the same as the Trafalgar Square.
>Chenies Place
This is the place I originally thinking of because I liked the green background which has different impression to the Trafalgar Square. Also my sound for the film will be really calm so want to have some different vibes by image.
I couldn't decide between two bus stops so I will film in both place and will see how it looks and decide which I will use for the film.
ORGANISATION----
CALL SHEETS----
PROPOSAL----
PROPS----
I painted with water colour because it will be the most close colour to my Inso image.
Because the fans were made by paper I thought the water destroy the paper and asked bout it Rosa. She did the same thing before and told me make sure let them dry completely before using the it should be fine.
So I decided to go for the water colour and I really liked the result.
REHEARSAL ----
MY FIRST SHOOTING -----
The footage from first filming looked fine on the camera and on my phone but when I import to Premiere to edit it it turned out to be really grainy because the footage is too dark and ISO was too high.
I asked the technician is there anyway I can get rid of it, they said I can't so I decided to re-film again.
SECOND FILMING ----
I loaned sonny video camera from loan store to avoid the low quality image also asked video and edit technician to have a look on our camera setting to make sure it would be fine. The footage was amazing.
EDITING----
When I was editing on my laptop it was perfect but I imported to university computer to do the colour correct so I could watch them on bigger screen. I found out some of the scenes are little off from the focus. I didn't have enough time to do everything again if I wanted to hand in on the showcase deadline so I decided to put some effect to looks like I shot with film camera and it matched with the film atmosphere and I really like it.
TEASER----
FINAL----
SELF EVALUATION----
I am not completely satisfied with my final. I didn't say about it but my set got stolen 2 days before my shooting and my filming space which was studio theatre was taken away on the day I booked. Thanks for the technicians and MA student they let me use the space after the finished but there wasnt enough time and I was very in rush so the result wasn't good. The 2nd day of my filming which was 25th of May, one of the dancer got in the car accident when he was on the way to Trafalgar Square so we needed to cancel the filming. the 3rd day of filming which 26th of May, the other dancer texted me that she wasn't feeling well so I needed to cancel the filming again. At that point my whole planning is being messed up and because it was last minutes from the deadline it wasn't easy to find the reshooting place. And I need to replan how I am going shoot every scenes. The tutor was nice enough to offer me a space to reshoot without asking me the schedule so I made my crews to fit in the schedule that they gave us. Because of the deadline and the dancers school schedule I gave up to outside and decided to shoot every scene at the studio.
It is sad to say but when its on the show, the audience would never know what I've been through. if I submit some shit work they would think I was just being lazy to push myself forward. So I wanted to make sure it still looks nice even it is not what I was aiming for.
I am proud of myself I still made it for the original deadline and try to put everything together. I'm proud of myself that I wasn't crying in the corner of the room and keep moaning about what happen to me.
What I've leaned in this unit is ANYTHING CAN HAPPEN IN ANYTIME. This could happen in a professional industry too. What I need to have a thik skin and pretend like it nothing happen and don't stop moving forward and push myself. Maybe do not push too much because I got health condition after what happen to me and I got doctor stop from any kind of work which I still did ;)
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