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