- Concept & Story
- What is the concept & the story in your project?
- The concepr in my project is to show the transformatino of emotion of a man in a city from enthusiasm to inanition. At first, he regard the new city he met is his new destination. He yearns for living a luxury and dissipation life there. He wants to convert the money he earn to status and reputation not just earn a living there. But as he lives here for a long time, he finds that everything arround him becomes meaningless like any other city he had lived. And he becomes a person like ordinary being again.
- How were you inspired to create this project?
- I am a freshman, new to Shanghai. And for me, Shanghai is a city like Phyllis we show in this project. Everyear, amounts of people flood into this vibrant city with their dream for money, status, reputation, etc. They were full of aspirations to make a difference here. But the truth is ,there are also amounts of people, in fact, the same people who were full of hope before, living in this city with numbness, or going on to find their destination in the next city. And according to the book pushed to Ethiopia, the author depicts a condition in China that labors migrate to Ethiopia not only for the fresh air but also for the first bucket of gold, house, reputation, status, and security. They think everything they want can obtain in Ethiopia. But when they start to work there, they find they have to work from 7am to 7pm, and they sacrifice their family, their time, their self-awareness. Finally, they become numb, doing the same things on the assembly line, shouting their slogan but don’t know for what. We notice this phenomenon, and we don’t want to become a person like them. So we choose this topic.
- Why do you want to explore this topic?
- We want to awaken awareness of people’s original aspiration
- Creation Process & Execution
The creation process is quite hard for us. At first, we didn’t really understand what the metaphor is, so the storyboard was too obvious but then we made some changes. Because we want to show the contrast between the two different emotions, so we plan to use some color, speed, angle and scene change in order to show the contrast better. So we use party to show vibrant color, and some low degree of saturation color.
- Share your storyboard and describe how it helped you in your project.
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- That can help us to arrange scenes and shoot. It is very help to reduce times of reshoot. Because when you have a storyboard, you can know what to shoot and how long to shoot.
- Describe the challenges you encountered during the content creation process, and how you solved or overcame them.
- First is the broken cup scene. We had broken 2 cups but when the cup was broking, it was barely in the center of the screen And it was too difficult to clean the glass splinter. We then designed the arc when drop the cup and shot along the arc. So the cup could be shot in the center at the end.
- Second, is the rhythm control. We planed to use some quickly flash scenes in order to show the speed change. But then we found that the effect was not good. Even though we thought those scenes can show our skills, we still changed our plan because of overall effect.
- Green screen was hard to delete radically. In addition, it will have a negative effect on white balance. We then adjusted white balance to remedy the defect.
- We planed to shoot a string dropping from the top but as a result of gravity we failed. We then made the scene looks more smooth by editing the cuts.
- Describe your editing & post-production process. You may share a few screenshots from Premiere about the editing techniques and effects you learned.
- Collaboration
- Describe your own role and contribution to the project
- Plan the storyboard and draw it.
- Participate in all scene shooting
- Capture the casual moment like the fish in the ground.
- Edit the clips.
- Express appreciation for the work your teammate did.
- Yongxin shot with me
- Crystal edited the most and was very careful for all clips.
- How did the collaborative process and exchange with your partner inform your project?
- At first we had some divergence but then we discussed and consult a plan. We also divided work that made a higher efficiency. I draw the storyboard, Yongxin and I shot all the clips and Crystal edited most of the video.
- Was there something you learned from your partner?
- I learned I should be more careful when editing, notice all the details from Crystal. She would notice the minute details’ wrong .
- And I learned I should reference from peers when doing some projects together
- I learn some skills of Pr from Crystal.
- Aesthetics & Results
Consider the aesthetics you choose to pursue your concept and story such as the following, tell us why do you think it is effective and you may also share your inspirations and references:
- Camera language (e.g., long-shot, different camera angles)
- Different types of shot in one scene. We use establishing shot, medium shot and close up shot in the scene of party to make audience follow the speed and narrative.
- Color correction/adjustment
- We use some bright color in the party scene to show the enthusiasm, and some low degree of saturation to show the inanition. It have a positive effect on comparision.
- Tone/Pace of video
- The overall pace of video is low. Because our narrative is slow and we wanted to change to a faster pace, but it is not easy to be immersed in. So we thought the pace should be slow.