Ben – Ben Wilding

Lighting basics assignment for SAE Thailand

This is the result of my SAE Lighting basics assignment.
Overall, it went reasonably well, but lighting is certainly one of my weaknesses.

Brief:

• Each student is to produce an edited video clip containing of the following shots:

◦ Long Shot (LS) High Key 3-Point Lighting on black background.

◦ Medium Shot (MS) High Key 3-Point Lighting on black background.

◦ Close Up (CU) High Key 3-Point Lighting on black background.

◦ Long Shot (LS) Low-Key Lighting on black background.

◦ Medium Shot (MS) Low Key Lighting on black background.

◦ Close Up (CU) Low Key Lighting on black background.

◦ Medium Shot (MS) High Key 4-Point Lighting on location.

◦ Close Up (CU) High Key 4-Point Lighting on location.

◦ Creative Experimental Shot

◦ Lighting recreation High Key (Select one shot from a movie and recreate the composition and the lighting)

◦ Lighting recreation Low Key (Select one shot from a movie and recreate the composition and the lighting)

• The composition of the shots must give the image context, a sense of depth and a main focal point.

• The student must be the Director of Photography and Camera Operator for this project.

• White balance must be set correctly for the lighting conditions.

• Camera must remain static and focused on the subject.

• Exposure must be balanced with all other elements within the composition to allow maximum modification when color-grading.

• Every shot must run for a minimum of 5 seconds.

After effects lessons

For my assignment learning after effects to create an Ident, I came up with the above video.
It was a fun exploration seeing what After Effects could do – and a sharp reminder that A designer, I am not.

SAE Bangkok – Compositing assignment

For my compositing assignment, I recreated the Coconuts Bangkok logo and branding and presented some of their actual stories that were on the website that day.
Yes – those stories are real.

Scene Recreation – SAE Thailand

For my scene recreation assignment, I chose to do a short scene from Sixth Sense.
It was a load of fun making this, and I think it turned out pretty well!
I love the way Yi runs at the opening of the scene. Brilliant.

Cereal Killer

At some point in everyone’s career at SAE Bangkok, you’ll need to recreate the Cereal Killer scene.
Here’s our class’s take on the classic SAE script.

TV Commercial Assignment

For my TV Commercial assignment, I had decided to do a mattress commercial. You can see the final product below

Logline
Wild-Thing Mattresses – for the -best- night’s sleep Synopsis
The scene opens with the frenetic jiggling of the door handle, the fumbling of keys, and banging sounds – whoever is on the other side of the door wants to get in, in a hurry.

As the door bursts open, the couple fall in and push themselves up against the closest thing possible – clearly absorbed in a deep, loving and passionate kiss.
The keys drop to the floor.
The door is kicked shut, and blindly they fumble their way towards the bedroom, entangled in each others embrace, but they only make it as far as the hallway as he pushes her up against the wall for yet another deep, loving kiss.
Energy in the room is palpable as they struggle to get their shoes off without untying the laces, and while he partially succeeds by removing one shoe, she manages to slip out of her heels as they fly against the wall opposite.
He’s had enough – so he picks her up and wraps her legs around his waist, and carries her, still in one shoe to the bedroom, gently letting her down at the threshold as they look hungrily into each others eyes.
She unbuttons his shirt, slowly at first and then impatiently rips the last buttons open – the shirt falls to the floor as we see his chest rapidly heaving with excited breath and anticipation.

Looking deeply into each others eyes, they walk backwards to the bed, and both hit the pillow at the same time.
Instantly, they fall straight asleep, partially clothed, but completely absorbed by the comfort of their ‘Wild-Things’ mattress. A look of satisfaction is evident on their fully asleep but blissfully unconscious faces.
A voice appears in the room – “Wild-Thing Mattresses – for the best nights sleep”

My first few days shooting – and what I learned

On the weekend we shot my first short scene for SAE.
The idea was rough to begin with, and with the required documentation (storyboard, script, treatment etc) we jumped out into the street to shoot.

If there ever was a way to learn quickly, it’s throwing yourself into the deep end.
Overall, the short scene worked out OK, but that’s with a helluva lot of polishing in post.
I haven’t even come close to finishing the polishing yet, but I’ll get there.

What would I do differently? A lot it seems:

What went wrong

Last minute location change due to too much traffic on the Soi
Sound was not recorded properly – resulting in ADR required in post.
Neighbours started loud music towards end of scene rendering on location sound recording impossible
Video shaky due to using glide cam
Unable to export audio tracks from Final Cut pro x to Logic due to incompatibility (resolved)
Continuity error – phone changes hands halfway through the scene
only just enough footage to tie the scene together due to not properly marking out dialogue to physical cues in the environment
The distance the phone is thrown compared to where the protagonist lands is inconsistent with the following shot
Framing wrong on final shot of Ben

What I’d do differently

Plan to shoot in controllable environments where possible
Use Lavalier microphones where possible rather than boom mic
Minimise use of moving camera until I have more experience with steady cam or glide cam
Triple check for where any continuity issues may appear
Mark locations the actor should be at for particular lines, review footage on-site to ensure all had worked.
Double check all framing

Short scene shoot day – what went wrong?

On the weekend we shot my first short scene for SAE.
The idea was rough to begin with, and with the required documentation (storyboard, script, treatment etc) we jumped out into the street to shoot.

What would I do differently? A lot it seems:

What went wrong

What I’d do differently

The Overture (2004) / Hom Rong

Tonight I had the pleasure of watching Hom Rong, a Thai movie based on the life of Luang Pradit Pairoh (Sorn), a much revered Thai music master who played the Thai Xylophone (Ra-nad) when he was a young child and found his life calling.

The film traces his tumultuous childhood through loosing his brother and following him through to adulthood during the reign of King Rama V, exploring the near demise of Thai golden-age music while Thailand was under Japanese occupation during WWII.

At the time, Field Marshall Plaek Pibulsongkram attempted to make Thailand ‘civilised’ and banned many cultural norms in a bid to make Thailand more westernised – an ideal that at the time was seen as a positive move for the country.
In a somewhat controversial stand against the government and it’s new laws, it sees Sorn stand up for his beliefs in the name of music, and his cultural philosophy which (paraphrased) are like the roots of a tree. In a big storm, if all the roots are dead, the tree will topple, but if they are nourished it will withstand the biggest storms.

In a visually arresting way, the film switches between various parts of his life, and shows how through dedication and pure skill he manages to become the best Ra-nad player in Thailand, congratulated by the king.

Perhaps the most interesting part of the film was the discovery of the ‘accelerated modernism’ dictated by the government throughout world war two, and the impact it had upon Thai culture – something which still saddens Thai’s today.

The film enjoyed many awards, including (alL 2004) Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor (Adul Dulyarat), Best Cinematography (Nattawut Kittikhun), Best Editing (Ittisoontorn Vichailak), Best Screenplay (Peerasak Saksiri, Ittisoontorn Vichailak, Dolkamol Sattatip) and Best Sound.

I would recommend this movie to anyone interested in Thai history, with a rating of 7/10.
IMDB rates the film at 7.9 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0415046/