Mark Marquez

Screen Media Fundamentals

Assessment 2: Completed Action

Cooking Rice

For this assessment, I needed to decide on a task that was easy enough to plan, storyboard, and film; yet was complex enough to justify a three-minute video. I ended up going with “cooking rice”, since I knew it was the easiest of my options. Other options included “doing laundry” and “cooking dinner”, but “cooking rice” was such a recurring task, it would be relatively easier to find the appropriate time to film. I was already familiar with the process, growing up in a Filipino family, so I knew what steps to film and what angles I wanted to film, and it was unique enough of a task to stand out. It was just a matter of getting the appropriate subjects and time.

The project was relatively simple. I had done a simple storyboard so I could experiment with some angles for a visually-interesting presentation. All I had to worry about was the subject and a good time to film the project. Unfortunately, a lot of the subjects I thought of were busy when I was available, and I would be busy when they're available, making it more difficult to begin filming. Thankfully, during a public holiday, my father was available to do the project. I preferred not to use the Sony cameras from the loan store, so I used the FILMIC Pro iPhone app to shoot the film, using the 2.35 ratio to create wider compositions. However, as much as I would've liked to spend more time on finessing the small details, my concern at the time was getting the footage, as I knew I couldn’t do reshoots any other day, resulting in a rushed production that affected various aspects of the filmmaking process, as detailed below. I had realised that some angles that I initially storyboarded were impossible, due to limitations of space, resulting in the slight camera movement sourced from me trying to shoot these impossible angles. Exposure was also a problem since it was a particularly bright day and I didn’t have lighting gear at the time, so it became an afterthought. I attempted to fix it through colour grading to no avail. Due to the aforementioned inability of doing reshoots, I had to shoot missing coverage myself, which I attempted to weave seamlessly into the edit, through transitions signifying passing time, but it wasn’t enough.

As a result of the aforementioned shortcomings, I ended up with a video that I’m not particularly proud of. I managed to depict the process in a way that felt visually interesting, but I felt there was much more I could do, especially with the footage itself and the edit. Despite my hopes of getting enough for a three-minute video, I realised that with the footage I had, I ran into a catch-22. The footage assembled was over three minutes, but it would've made the final video drag, yet the footage, when cut down for cohesion, would’ve been severely under the timelimit.

Despite the amount of shortcomings, there were some lessons that I took away from this project. I had underestimated the relationship between time and production value. The more time dedicated to getting things right, the more likely the project will have an increase in production value. I had also learnt that I can’t exactly “fix it in post” all the time. A lot of the problems could’ve been fixed during production if I just had an inch of patience. One thing I think was useful that I could utilise in future productions was getting as much coverage as I could, such as getting various angles and shooting for longer to potentially reuse for parts of the video. Having the extra bits of footage saved me a bit in trying to create a cohesive edit. Overall, despite all of the above, I needed this type of experience to understand how complex film production truly is. I will definitely consider what went wrong to improve my filmmaking process.

The video.

The camera setup used during production.

Sample of storyboard (1).

Sample of storyboard (2)

Screen Media Fundamentals

Assessment 4: Interview Sequence

A Chat With Students

Once the assessment had commenced, I knew it needed to be a group project, otherwise I would’ve failed this assessment instantly. I barely knew anyone who had time to interview, so it had to be someone from the group. We decided on the theme of “Getting to know the students”, a topic we tested during the mid-break intensives. That way, there was flexibility in choosing a topic. We came up with a variety of topics involving a student’s life, such as their studies, hobbies and personal stories. We selected these topics based on likelihood of getting B-roll. We also decided that we wouldn’t ask too many questions, so that it would be easier to reach the timelimit of three minutes without sacrificing too much.

The crew involved with the production was Jai Meyer and Alexia Vidler, mainly in charge of the two cameras used in production. I was responsible for managing the production and also appearing in the interview as the subject. Alexia was the interviewer for the purposes of filming.

We formed a Discord group to discuss the project and who would be appropriate as a subject. Out of all the members within the group, it was decided that I had more interesting stories so we began the production process with me as the subject. Hobbies and interests were the most likely topics to get B-Roll as it was simple enough to come up with a variety of B-Roll ideas. We also decided to shoot within the campus as it didn’t require us to get permission, it fit our theme, and contained some spots that would create great backgrounds for the B-roll. I was scared of losing any of the footage from one camera if the storage media happened to fail. Thankfully, I happened to have my phone and a spare tripod, meaning we could use a dual-camera setup. The “A” camera was a Nikon D5200 operated by Jai, and the “B” camera was an iPhone using the FiLMIC PRO app, operated by Alexia. This was perfect as it allowed us to cut between the two angles for shot variety. Problem was the colour grading, which I managed to fix through editing. We had a RODE mic plugged in on the A camera for sound, but we also had a backup recording near the subject through the Auphonic app. Ultimately, the RODE mic was inferior to the iPhone backup and the backup was used for the final video. The backup was still very quiet, so I experimented with the editing software’s EQ settings until I got decent-leveled audio. Getting B-Roll was a collaborative effort, coming up with situations reflecting the answers. We shot around various parts of the campus, getting as much as possible for the edit. Though battery issues caused the Nikon to fail and we shot the rest on iPhone, which should explain the sudden degrade in quality. In regards to the “interests” questions, we couldn’t get any B-roll on campus given the nature of the answers, but we came up with B-roll that I could film at home, or source from my private photo collection.

Because we didn’t have too much or little to work with, I was able to cut the interview with the best questions we had, and the B-Roll we shot was enough to place in the timeline. One regret was not getting enough original B-roll for the “interests” questions, as we relied heavily on footage from the past, and I feel we could’ve come up with something. Other than that, the final interview video came out great.

Everything about the interview that we had planned had mostly gone the way that we had hoped. There were a few technical issues along the way, but because of our preparation, we were able to fix these issues easily without affecting production. Overall, compared to the last assessment, I consider this a success and something I can look back feeling satisifed. One thing that I unexpectedly ended up learning was project management. As the person leading the group, I needed to keep communication with team members, organise OneDrive materials and creating the schedule for the shooting day. I found that this skill contributed to the efficency of the production, allowing me to execute the entire project within a week. These are skills that I will definitely utilise in future media productions.

The final video.

Testing the A camera.

Filming B-roll outside.