INDEX
where to produce?
When to produce?
How to produce?
LOCATION SCOUTING
The mise en scene in my short film (SF) varies depending on scenes rather than the whole SF in itself. For example the bedroom's setting of a character shows their personality and background. How they might be more organised or more of a klutz.
My short film has three parts, character establishment and love interest, lead confesing to an officer about an event, however the viewers see a version of how the event is actually carried out. Finally, the third part consists of the lead telling her father about everything that has happened but this time the viewers are shown a different version of the way the event was carried out. Since, my SF goes through drastic shifts throughout, I wanted there to be simplicity in my shots.
My first scene takes place in a living room because the shot required the comfort of ones home and the second in a outdoor greenary as I wanted show playfulness of my two characters, which I would be best portrayed throughout green because the setting such as bright sunlight and subtle winds create a sense of romance.
My second scene is that of an investigation officer questioning the lead. This will happen in an office setting making the aesthetic less vibrant to create seriousness among viewers. As the lead narrates her flow of events, responding to the officers questions, the viewers get to see all the events she narrates in action. In the sense, we see all the events take place live with the leads narration in the background.
The third scene then takes place in the second lead's bedroom, I chose a house that was more simple with no funky colors or statement pieces in the background because I wanted to portray the second lead as a calm, sober and sorted man. For one of the shots' I required a cafe however, didn't require a seperate clip for it, so by using an aspect of a cafe's mise en scene, I added a cup to the frame of the shot, infering that it was in a cafe.
I then show the leads parting ways, for which I don't really find it
necessary to scout a place for as, beeing young adults and a fast evolving society I figured that it would look unrealistic for them to go too extremes to say 'bye' to each other. So, I just decided to shoot it in the second leads car, emphasizing on how they are in a hurry as well as how they will be busy for the next few hours unable to see eachother, I point this out becuase if they were to meet later on, it wouldn't be necessary to see off eachother. My next shot then
shows the lead in her own house, which has a completely different decour compared to that of the second lead, with more colours, mirrors, art work, etc. I chose this set up for my lead becuase I wanted to emphasise on the fact that the lead is in fact what her surrounding portray. The sixth and seventh scene are then carried out in the same places as before : second leads house and the cafe. However the second last scene happens in a barren land, for the purposes of matching the context of the script. I tried choosing a more plane area, rather than basic steriotypical places that movies show to execute something 'illegal', like an abandoned house or a deep part of a jungle. This was only for the reason, the lead was in a hurry and just wanted to go to the nearest most quietest place she could find.
PHOTOSHOOT : raw photos
I had to take a tiny photoshoot as I had to make posters and postcards, which are a part of my media coursework. But also to promote my shortfilm.
SHOOTING : raw footage
If you want to see all of my raw footage, you have to enter the sacred Chinese temple. (click on the door to go see all of my footage)
It took me a total of 3 days to finish my shooting, however all the days, way apart from eachother. The first scene's shoot was done way back in December as I had chosen to do my previous script, since I changed my story with time, I had scedule a seperate day for all of my scene's shots except those of nature as I did that in my own sweet time.
Sending of call sheet
This is the final call sheet that I sent to all of my cast and crew.
AUDIO RECORDINGS
My short film had indeed relied almost entirely on sounds, that is voice overs, backing music, music tracks and lastly foley sounds. I needed to alot seperate days just for the purpose of music production.
1. Dubbing :-
I did not use the voice of the actual actors for their respective roles, simply for the reason that I could narrate for the lead. What my initial thought was that only I would be able to execute the emotion that I want my audience to understand and for that reason and that reason only I took the initiative to dub for my lead character myself.
In order for me to record my voice clearly, I sat in a quiet room and rec orded my voice on the 'recorder' app on my phone.
For the role of the father, I asked one of my friends, Tharan to do the dub and send it to me via online. I wanted a calm and mature voice and he really did live up to the task.
2. Foley sound :-
I had loads of home oriented sounds, for instance, opening of a door, footsteps on wood, etc. I once again used my 'recorder' app on my phone to record these sounds.
I made a list, so that I would'nt miss out on any of the sounds and once I was done recording one, I'd tick it off the list.
Background music creation :-
I am going to be extremely honest, BGM creation was the part that I most anticapated. I had everything in mind, that is how I wanted it and who I wanted to produce it for me.
Rishi Kumar, my junior in media studies class and my very good friend, him and I sat down and decided on when to do it and how we wanted to that is, via google meet. We sat for a good 5 hours to create the whole short film's audio. From which we chose a perticul section for the trailer.
Why I thought Rishi was the right fit? I did not want to find a music that already existed because I wanted something original, authentic only my short film and my short film alone. Secondly I knew Rishi would give me the best possible music in this world and so I trusted him with my entire short film's sound production. He did in fact serve the purpose of making feelings and depth felt by sounds and I was truly very happy.