Date: 18/02/2024
Time: 07:00 a.m. - 13:00 p.m.
Location: Bach Dang Wharf, Neu Mot Ngay Studio
Personnel: Jennie, Anna (1st AD), Sasha (Actress)
Equipment:
- Camera: Nikon D5600 (Mr. VZ)
- Tripod (Mr. VZ)
Costumes & Props:
- Bag (Sasha)
- Carton box (Jennie)
- Cigarette container (Jennie)
- White cardigan & black trousers (Sasha)
My Responsibility
Director: As a creative head of the film, I make sure I'm involved in every stage of the production process and make all the creative decisions.
Camera Operator + Cinematographer: I am responsible for operating the camera for all of the shots, and setting the camera for each shot, which was a major problem since I didn't have any storyboard (drawing is not my field). More importantly, since I was planning on using a lot of my raw footage sound, I had to make sure the surroundings were quiet enough to minimise the noise, which was a hard job to do since we were filming in the middle of a busy city.
Personnel
Anna (Nguyen Thuy An) - 1st Assistant Director: Anna was extremely helpful during both filming days. She was in charge of filming behind the scenes, fixing the actress' small details like hair and clothing, and also giving ideas and advice (honest advice) on how to operate different camera angles.
Sasha Le (Le Quoc Nam Quynh) - Actress for "Irene": Sasha did an excellent job of being Irene. Although her personality is bright and energetic, she got into the character really quick and was motivated to try her best. She conveyed the character's feelings really well, which helped the filming session a lot, and most of the shots were taken only once.
Challenges
On the first filming day, the big problem was planning everything perfectly on time so that after we finished filming the first few scenes at the Bach Dang Wharf, we could have breakfast and move to the next filming location exactly on the renting time, which is 2 hours after the starting time. Fortunately, everything went on just like the planned timeline, so there was no dead time and we minimised the work on camera so that the battery didn't get used up.
However, one of my worst fears did turn out to be true. The camera's battery ran out in the middle of the filming session when we were filming inside the studio. I rented the place for 4 hours, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., and according to the production schedule, the whole filming session was supposed to be done within the 4 hours. The battery ran out at around 11:30 p.m. when we only had a few shots left (literally, the second day of filming only took 1 hour), but because I had no prior experience with working with cameras, I thought it was a technical issue and had something to do with the camera lens. I spent the next hours trying to figure out what went wrong, while constantly charging the battery and putting it back into the camera. Later on, I figured out it was the battery's problem, but we wasted the next hour and a half doing nothing, which was a waste of both time and money. One possible solution for this is to have an extra fully-charged battery, but that was not an option for me since I only had one to work with and the battery is unaffordable.
Lessons learned:
- Be mindful about the shots you're about to film. If you're not satisfied with them, even because of the smallest details, reshoot them.
- Be mindful about how you spend time throughout the filming day. Do not waste time fixing small details, leaving it to the 1st AD.
- Having an AD is nice, they can keep track of the shots you're filming and help with arranging props and backgrounds.
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