3rd weekly reflection

Last week will be the shooting and editing week where the actual video will be coming together. We started the week by shooting all the night scenes that require staying up late. In order to avoid crowd and disturbance, we usually won’t start shooting until midnight or later. Because we need several good footages so we can have choices later when editing, we had to shoot many times in order to be sure that we have enough footage to use in the video. Then we also need to shoot from a different angle so it won’t be boring. We also had a lot of equipment that we had to set up and clean up every time we start and finish shooting. There were also times when we had to get up a couple hours before the sunrise or be ready in early afternoons in order to capture the fleeting sunrise and sunset. In between shootings, I also had to make sure I finish the editing. With at least ten footages for every scene, I had to watch every one of them and compare them to pick out the best footage that I’ll use in the video. Sometimes the same dance will use several different footages that’ll be meticulously edited to look smooth. I also had to make sure that the dance moves and how I switch footages had to match the beats in the music so it doesn’t seem off or inconsistent withe the music. Although editing video was completely new to me, the process wasn’t too surprising. I knew that I’ve always held a high standard to myself, so I expected that editing was going to take a long time. When it comes to shooting, I was only surprised that looking at myself dancing in front of the camera was so different from what I’ve seen in the mirror. Other than that, I kind of had an idea that the shooting process was going to take a long time, and because I was the one to make the call to retake a shot, I knew that I was going to shoot the same scene for more than once. I think this process benefited me because I’m learning new things and challenging myself to get hold of things even though it’s completely new to me. In the end, life is all about learning new things and challenging yourself. 

2nd weekly reflection

Second week was similar to the first week. Because we’re learning five choreographies in total, we’ll be finishing the two choreographies that we haven’t learned. Other than the same practice routine, I also had to make plans about the shooting. I had to talk to the film crew members about some of my ideas and we’ll decide which of these ideas are achievable and which are not. Then we pick the location for a couple shooting scenes. We also have to have a complete and detailed list of what scenes we’ll be using to fill the entire music video. After that, I need to give them a shot-list so they know how I want the video to be shot. Finally we had to settle down a schedule for when and where and what the shootings will be. I also had to remember the special props to bring to each shooting scene. These things had to be settled early so we can be efficient and productive in the next week when we’ll start shooting. It wasn’t easy having to take care of so many things at one time, but I liked the feeling of being in control and being organized. I enjoyed the feeling of being a leader even with the stress that came with it. I learned to collaborate with others and the process of discussing and sharing ideas made me feel like I’m the leader of something very important. With the great responsibility and challenge to juggle so many things simultaneously came a great sense of accomplishment. I’m definitely benefited from this week’s activity because it forced me to be creative and collaborative. I had to have conversations with people who takes care of different things. I had to talk to the production designer to make sure that we have the apparels we need for the video; I had to talk to the drone operator to make sure the drone can be operated at the locations we picked during the time we scheduled for shooting; I had to talk to the haze operator to make sure we have enough haze to use for however long we need when shooting. I had to make sure a lot of things on top of our daily practices that’s still happening four hours a day. It was a lot of preparation to prevent us from having a chaotic and crazy week with a lot of shooting and editing. 

1st weekly reflection

For the first week, my mentor and I started with deciding the song that I want to make a video for. Then, for the rest of the week, I found dance choreographies on YouTube and started learning and practicing them with my dance partner. I loved the whole process since I’m doing what I’m passionate about. So far I’ve been doing what I’m familiar with, which is dancing. Mostly things were as I expected since learning choreographies can’t be too different than what I’ve been doing in the past. However, there are some little things about learning these choreographies that surprised me. The difference between learning choreographies on my own and learning choreographies with more experienced mentor and partner is the pace of learning. I usually spend an equal amount of time on both processes of learning and practicing. At first when we started learning, I found our speed of learning exceptionally fast. I think it was due to my higher concentration when I’m slightly pressured because I was with two others. Just as the speed of learning the choreographies surprised me, the later process did too. I thought the proportion of learning and practicing should be almost the same, and if we learned it so fast we could’ve finished faster as well. However, my mentor was very fastidious about every move when we tried to speed through the choreography, she emphasized on the quality of moves. Because we had a more painstaking way of practice, it took us a surprisingly longer time on practice. I benefited by exercising everyday and having motivation to seriously learn and practice these choreographies with high concentration. I also learned to be patient and persevering through these practices. What I did this week will improve my dancing skills and the choreographies I learned will be shown in the dance video I’ll be shooting on the last week.

20th day (last day)

May 22nd

I think I have coffee in my veins instead of blood. Looking at the screen all day made me blind and gave me coffee-vessels. BUT, I finished it. At 11pm, I finished editing the entire video.
Not much to say today. It was all tedious work looking and comparing and combining the footages over and over and over. Although I've fulfilled the 100 hours, I'd say today's total hour spent was approximately 8 hours (at the very least). Tomorrow I'm going to pack my bags and spend some time showing my gratitude to the family that tolerated me and fed me and took good care of me for the past three weeks. Anyways, it's been a great time and I really enjoyed everything about this project (except the getting-up-early part).

Great closure :)

19th day

May 21st

Today was crazy. I planned to sleep early so I could get up at 2am, but I just couldn't fall asleep, and just when I felt sleepy, there went my alarm. Time to get up and shower. I had to head to my partner's house at 3am so she could do my makeup for me. At 4:30 am, I met up with the crew to drive to the beach. We got there and they started setting up as we waited for the sun rise. It was crazy cold and I had to wear a bikini. I'm just grateful that I survived, and the sunrise was insanely beautiful. I wouldn't say it would make me wanna get up early (nothing would ever make me voluntarily get up early), but it did make the all-nighter slightly better. Anyhoo, we headed back to Boston at around 8 am so we can all get some sleep, because we still have another shooting coming up at 5 am. So I got back, didn't even take my make-up off, and slept until 3pm. It was less than a six-hour sleep, but that's plenty already. I got up and my partner was at my place ready to do makeup. Again, similar routine, makeup til 4:30pm and we headed to our shooting site at 5pm. This time, the last shooting scene, is at a friend's house's rooftop. Okay, maybe this shooting might be even worse than yesterday's, since I'm more afraid of heights than I am of people. Both made me uncomfortable, so I'll call it even. Anyways, shooting. Last ever shooting. Usual. Dance. And some other stuff for the video. Again, we were barely done before it goes dark. We kind of already lost the sun behind the buildings, but it was still bright enough for us to wrap it up. We went to the restaurant right downstairs at almost 9pm, and I paid for the dinner as a "thank you" to all the crew members and my partners for putting all the time and effort into helping me complete this project, especially for waking up early or staying up late. And that's pretty much today was. No more late-nights, but I gotta get up early to start editing those footages. There will be a lot of editing tomorrow, no kidding.

Hours of work: beach shooting makeup 2hrs + beach shooting 3.5hrs + rooftop makeup & shooting 5.5hrs = 11hrs

Hours total: 100/100 woot woot!

18th day

May 20th

Today's schedule is a bit different. It's not a late night shooting. I got up a bit earlier than usual to start editing last night's abandoned factory dancing scene. The shooting today will be in the afternoon before sunset. That leaves me exactly four hours to edit this video. So far I've been working non-stop, and I felt like for the past few days, I was either sleeping, editing, or shooting. Anyways, job had to be done. We started doing makeup around 3:00 and it took an hour and a half, since my partner had to do my makeup and then herself's. We headed out a little before five. Because this is our first time shooting at a public place, we had to pick the best place where there're less people passing by. We originally planned to shoot at the location at Charles River. I had to admit, it was kind of the toughest shooting. It just happened to be a beautiful day and there are soooooooo many people there. We started shooting a couple times at a bridge, but there are people passing by in the middle of our dances, so we had to start over quite many times. Since the bridge was not the best place to shoot, I decided to move to a T-shaped dock. It's more open and has a beautiful view and not a lot of people passing by, at least no bikers. The down side was, there were more people. But we didn't have time to care about that since the sun was going down fast. It was still great though, hope it turns out well. We were barely done when it was getting darker, but at least we made it. Tomorrow will be another busy day.

Hours of work: editing 4 hrs (10:30-14:30) + makeup 1.5 hrs (15:00-16:30)+ shooting 3.5 hrs (17:00-20:30) = 9hrs

Hours total: 89/100

17th day

May 19th

Another day just like yesterday. I woke up in the afternoon to recover from the late-night shooting. Then I started editing the video that we shot at the parking lot, the longest choreography. It was a lot harder to edit because a lot of our moves are not synced, so I'll have to edit it in a certain way to make it seem less obvious. I started at 2pm and worked until 5:30pm. Took a break from the screen, and started pretty soon after. I tried really hard to finish it before I have to get ready for my shooting tonight. I had another two hours in and finally got it done at around 9pm. Then the same routine of a shooting night: my partner comes over and does makeup for me and herself, we get the equipment, we head to our place and start shooting. However, although we planned to shoot at a studio that we reserved beforehand, the reservation was somehow cancelled because the people before us decided to use it longer. I know, that's not fair, but the thing is, Buzz found an "abandoned factory" that is waaaaaaayyyyy cooler than the studio. So yea, something bad turned out to be better for us. The place was awesome, you'll see it in the video. Anyhoo, it was a great time and we had a lot of fun exploring the may-be-haunted building.

Hours of work: edit 5hr + shooting total 5hrs = 10hrs

Hours total: 80/100

16th day

May 18th

Today I learned how to edit videos. It took me a very long time editing the part that we shot last night. I looked at all the footages and compared them. Because we shot at two different distance, I had to combine them and make it look smooth. It wasn't too difficult technically, but I've never done anything like this and I'm pretty fastidious about making this video. Later at night we were shooting at a parking lot. It was also very late. Because this choreography is the longest, it took us a much longer time to shoot than the last time. I find myself making mistakes that I wouldn't have made during practices. Maybe the shooting makes me nervous or something, but my partner and I often find ourselves doing not as well as we did in practices. We finished at around 3am or later. I probably got home at 4am or something. I didn't wake up until 1 in the afternoon today, and we'll be shooting another dance scene tonight. My partner/makeup artist will be here in a couple of hours. Hope tonight goes well.

Hours of work: editing 3 hours + makeup/set-up/shooting 6 hours = 9 hours

Hours total: 70/100

15th day

May 17th

We’re shooting our first dance scene tonight. 

Because we decided that most of our scenes are either gonna be late afternoons or at night, we’ll have to wait until at least midnight to shoot so we can avoid as many people as possible. The setting is in a small alley somewhere near Chinatown. I went with the crew to get lights and cameras and equipment earlier today. We started nails and makeup and dressed up at my partner’s apartment at around 10:30 pm. Then we headed out to the place where we’ll be shooting. We started setting up the generator and camera and lights at midnight. By the time we’re done, it was already 2 am. I was exhausted and cold, but I felt pretty good about the footage. We had some pretty cool features that look really cool. I’ve never been on set at such late hours and it’s just exhausting. I don’t know how film-makers do this. So much respect for them. By the time they cleaned up and I got home, it was 3 am. This is just the beginning. 

By the way, even though I'm writing this on the 18th, this happened on the 17th. Since a lot of our shooting will be from late night to 2 or 3am, I'll have to write my blog on the day after, which is when I wake up. The date of the blogs for the next couple of days will be slightly off, but I'll make sure to post as soon as possible. 

Hours of work: 5

Hours total: 61/100

14th day (first day shooting)

May 16th

OMG this is getting real. We’re starting our first shooting this early evening. Took a day off yesterday to get ready for this, since I worked on Sunday. The first scene will be at the bridge next to Rocky’s apartment. I had that inspiration from the music video of “Greenlights” by Lorde. This afternoon, I went to my partner’s apartment because the shooting crew had to pick up the generator. While they do that, my partner, who’s awesome and just happened to be the crew’s makeup specialist, did my makeup so I could get ready for the shooting later. After the makeup’s done, I went along with the crew to Home Depot to get whatever oil or gasoline they need to start up the generator. There were some complications after purchasing the oil, cuz the generator won’t start up. After a long time of trying and asking associates, they fixed it and it’s ready to go. We drove to my place and my stylist and I picked out an outfit. Then we drove to the bridge near Rocky’s place for the shooting. Although the sky wasn’t really pink and beautiful as I saw from that professional music video, it was still pretty cool. I’m really excited to be part of this shooting process and learn the things that they do. 

Hours of work: 5 hours

Hours total: 56/100

13th day

May 14th

Today we talked about the scenes and decided what we’ll be shooting for every second throughout the song. I expressed some of my thoughts and inspirations, and we discussed if they’re plausible and achievable. We laid out the parts when I’ll be dancing and the parts when I’m not. We figured out the location and apparel for each dance scene. Moreover, we brainstormed the scenes or things I should do to fill in the blanks on the MV when I’m not dancing. When we talked about what my partner and I will be wearing for each scene, my wardrobe was cleared out and my room looked like it exploded. It was a pain to clean up. After we settled down how we’re gonna fill every second of the MV, the locations for the MV, the locations for the dances, and the clothes and all, we also had to make up a schedule of when to shoot which scene. Then we also talked about what we need, such as renting a van for transporting the equipment, renting lights, renting lenses, reserving a studio and stuff like that. It was a lot to process and think about. My brain was half dead and I don’t even have enough brain cells to think about how many brain cells I lost during the process. But at least we finally had a very thorough and detailed and well-scheduled plan. After that, we went shopping a little, looking for some clothes for the video. My favorite part so far. 

Hours of work: 3

Hours total: 51/100

12th day

May 13th

Just another ordinary day at the studio. We reviewed and warmed up by practicing the ones that we've learned. Then we started learning the choreography that we started yesterday. After we went through the tutorial, we needed to put together the choreography and the music. We did the same thing as we did for the other sections, that is to edit and make a clip that has the music of Stay and the choreography of whatever it was originally for. We found the method of watching the slow-motion of our edited video very helpful, so we did that today as well. We don't have a really long time left before all the shooting happens, but I have faith that everything will work out just fine. As for today, we could almost follow the music's speed, and this is already our fourth choreography. Only one more left to go.

Hours of work: 4

Hours total: 48/100

11th day

May 12th

We picked up where we left off from yesterday. We were able to keep up with the music for the two sentences that we used Anthony Lee's choreography for. We started with practicing this piece that we spent a lot of time on yesterday, and then we practiced the whole stanza that includes the part I choreographed. I also asked my friend in China for some advice on these choreographies. After a while practicing that whole stanza, we started a little on learning our fourth dance. It's the third and last Matt-Steffanina-choreography that we're learning (for this song). The original choreography was for the song "Slow Motion" by Trey Songz. We didn't have a bunch of time left so we only learned the very beginning. I know we'll learn a lot more tomorrow.

Hours of work: 4

Hours total: 44/100

10th day

May 11th (actually today's)

Finally caught up with my daily (except for Sunday) blogs. Today is more like a review day. We went over the last two choreographies that we learned from Matt Steffanina, and the one that we choreographed that's pieced with a small section choreographed by Anthony Lee. We had some trouble getting the moves to the beats, since it's a different dance that's not designed for this song. We were able to get it right in the end. Ashley told us that if we want to figure out the right way to connect every move with the music, we'd have to slow the video down. So I put together a new video that has the music of "Stay" with the choreography from Anthony Lee. At first, we slowed it down to 0.2* speed, which is like 1/5 of the original speed. Then, after a very long process of dancing with it repeatedly, we slowly sped it up to 0.3 then to 0.5 then to 0.6 then to 0.75 then to 0.85 then to 0.9 and eventually normal speed. I've never learned a dance in such painstaking way, but I believe it's a very good way of learning and practicing a dance. Honestly I would never have the patience to do so on my own, so I should really thank my mentor and partner for forcing me to learn a dance this way.

Hours of work: 4

Hours total: 40/100

9th day

May 11th (supposed to be May 10th)

This procrastination thing has to stop. It's a vicious cycle. Yesterday was also another ordinary day in the studio practicing. Nothing special happened. We practiced the one we choreographed and thought about some shooting ideas. Such as how we enter the scene and stuff like that. By yesterday's practice, we settled for just two dancers instead looking for the third. I did get in contact with a girl from Northeastern. She posted a short clip of her dancing Matt Steffanina's choreography "Don't let me down." I thought she has a really similar style with us so she could be the person we're looking for. But after I told her what she'll need to learn and the date we need to start shooting, she said she couldn't do it because she can't learn it that fast. She told me that she spent 2 weeks to learn and practice for that one choreography, and that learning five in one week would be impossible. Well, she was our last hope. After that I figured it's kind of impossible to find someone, for free, in such short notice who just happen to be able to learn five pieces of choreography within a week. BUT, I still have faith that we'll kill it, even if it's just the two of us.

Hours of work: 4

Hours total: 36/100

8th day

May 10th (supposed to be may 9th)

Just another ordinary day of practice. We half learned and half choreographed a new section. The first half of the part, or the first four lines in lyrics are choreographed by me and then we learned a small section of choreography by Anthony Lee. His choreographies are really about control and my muscles felt really tired even though the moves doesn't seem like they require a lot of energy, but also has the strength that emphasizes on beats. It's like soft but strong at the same time, and it was really a new experience from all of us after almost a week of Matt Steffanina. Our own choreography wasn't hard, but the whole piece we pieced together still needs practice. Another problem that I encountered when choreographing is that after I had a whim of moves and danced it out, it was all great until when we go back and review it, I couldn't remember what moves I just did. Then, either one of us remembered what I did, or I just had to think of something else and choreograph a different one. So yea, that's something about choreographing on your own.

Hours of work: 4 hours

Total hours: 32/100

7th day

May 8th

Fifth day in the studio and we're learning the second choreography. After this choreography we still have three to go. Bad news, terrible news: Buzz, our third dancer, is not gonna join us. So now I need to scour for another hiphop dancer in Boston who can learn three choreographies in three or four days. Honestly I don't have much hope in this but I don't really have choices. Ashley said that worst case scenario, I'll have to make up an easier version and have a couple friends who aren't that good at hiphop to just dance at the back. I'm contacting every source and asking everyone I know who's at Boston to see if they know anyone who might be a fast-learning hiphop dancer. I feel like this process stresses me out so much more than practicing and dancing. But this is also a process in life I guess, to have something not go as smoothly as expected and being forced to find an alternate solution. On the good side, at least I still got my partner and my mentor.

Hours of work: 4 hours

Hours total: 28/100

6th day

May 6th

We started the new choreography today. Ashley, my partner, and I decided to tweak the choreography a bit so we can fit it into the section we want. Because the choreography is longer than the part in the song that we wanted, we trimmed the choreography a bit so it could fit into the song. While we learned the new choreography today, we still reviewed the first choreography and Ashley recorded it for us. It will not be the final look because there are still many moves that need more practice on. Hopefully, with Ashley's help and our endeavor, we can improve in the video. We're not having practice tomorrow, so I guess we can all enjoy our day off.

Hours of work: 4 hours

Hours total: 24/100

5th day

May 5th

Another day at the studio. The rain was pouring and one of our member had something come up about school, so we postponed our practice for an hour. We practiced the part that we learned and now we got most of the choreography down. There's only one part that I still couldn't get to the right speed. Anyhoo, we planned on starting to learn a new one starting tomorrow. The plan is to get the two choreographies done within this week. Then we'll start choreographing ourselves starting next week and we'll start shooting that same weekend. It's actually a pretty rushed schedule but that's the challenge, right? I've never tried learning two very challenging choreographies within four days, and I've never choreographed for a 60-second piece then teach it to others within a week. I really hope I can make it. I'll see if I could post a sneak peak video on the choreography that we just learned.

Hours of work: 3 hours

Hours total: 20/100

4th day

May 4th

It was my second day spent at the studio. This time was from12pm-4pm. Thank god I didn't have to get up early. However, practice surprised me. I was surprised by my first practice that things were going so smooth and we went over the moves so fast, so I was as surprised when our second practice was a lot slower in progress. The moves weren't hard to learn, but because some parts are so fast that there is absolutely no time to think about the next move. We practiced over and over again and it seemed like a tedious work, but every once in a while we can follow the music to its pace a little more than we did last time. At our last hour of practice, we welcomed a new member. My mentor and I think that three people will look better than two while dancing, because the formation could seem unbalanced with just two dancers. With three, a triangle formation will make it more three-dimensional. So for the last hour, we taught him some moves and we will be practicing with him tomorrow as well. Practice tomorrow is from 3pm-7pm. We'll see how we'll do.

p.s. watched guardians of the galaxy at 10:30 pm. it's  awesome. go watch it.

Hours of work: 4 hours

Hours total: 17/100

3rd day

May 3rd

It's the 3rd day of senior project and the 1st day that I stepped into the studio. I danced and sweat and felt rejuvenated. Although I'm gonna be honest and say that waking up early almost killed me, I felt that dancing, or just doing what you love to do, is the best caffeine to wake someone up. I was with my mentor and my dancing partner. We worked on the choreography by Matt Steffanina. It was a 39-second choreography and I'm very impressed with all of us to go through and learn the entire choreography within like four hours. It usually takes me three days to learn a 30-second choreography by Matt Steffanina, but I guess my mentor and my partner really inspired me and made me work extra hard and focused. Still, learning and knowing the whole choreography doesn't mean that we can dance to the song already and catch up with the beats, so we still need a lot of practice. Tomorrow will be another day spent in the studio. It's going great so far.

Hours of work: 5 hours

Hours so far: 13/100

2nd day

May 2nd

My second day of senior project started at noon after I went to Chinatown for brunch. Today was mostly working on the computer as well, since the earliest slot for the studio is tomorrow from 9am - 12. As I've made my decision on the song "Stay," I listened to the song over and over again and jotted down some thoughts. I highlighted the sections in lyrics of where I'll be choreographing and where I want to fill with other scenes. Then I looked for dance choreographies on YouTube for this song. I especially liked the one by Matt Steffanina and I am quite familiar with his dances. I will be learning the section that he choreographed, which is about 30 seconds. I figured I still have a lot to choreograph so I continued looking at videos to get inspirations. Other than dance choreographies, I was also looking at several popular music videos and collecting ideas of how to shoot a professional music video. I have already decided on a couple shots that I am certain to put in my video and where I want it. I also talked to the technology group who will be shooting the video about the dates and locations of shooting. So far we've decided on these listed locations: parking lot, beach, rooftop, alley, and on a bridge. A couple scenes will involve: playing pool, sitting at sunrise at the beach, head-shot with maybe slow-mo on the bridge, and dancing on top of a car in an empty parking lot at night. Some techniques will include slow motion, reverse playing, and blinking. So far so good. Gotta get up early tomorrow. Sigh.

Hours of work: Approximately 4 hours.

Hours so far: 8/100

1st day

May 1st

First day of senior project. Got to Boston, unpacked, and settled down. Today was more like socializing with the family of my mom's friend. I spent a couple hours on YouTube and listened to tons of pop songs. I looked through dance videos and was searching for the right one that inspires and excites me. I also had to think about the length of the song, the locations best for shooting, and the type of dance that matches with the song. Eventually, after hours and hours of comparing, I decided that my dance/music video will be on "Stay" by Alessia Cara and Zedd. I talked to my mentor, Ashley, and we reserved a studio on Wednesday from 9am-noon. And for tomorrow, the plan will be looking at some videos to learn some choreography. Looking forward.

Hours of work: I'd say approximately 4 hours.