Initially, I was trying to further the idea of "time" as my main theme, however, I encountered various issues with this topic as it's quite sensitive with how subjective the definition of the term 'time' can come across.
Something we can agree on is the fact that this unprecedented pandemic of a virus of mysterious nature has been very troublesome for all workers and students wether they be considered essential or not. Many students like myself had to scrap a lot of shoots, projects or even change their initial plans because of this event that is still currently ongoing as of the date of postage of this blog.
Nonetheless, I chose a completely different approach as advised by my beloved tutor Anne Parisio and decided to document my 14 days in quarantine at Macau's Regency Art Hotel as ordered by the RAEM's own personal government separate from Mainland China but still part of China.
I had 3 separate 7 hour flights each on the way from the UK to China to decide on a new topic, write down my ideas, how I wanted to shoot and what feelings I wanted to capture both during production and post production.
I remember encountering a lot of people confused and scared in the UK prior to the unravelling of the gravity of said virus by our English government. Walking into a pharmacy and being asked to pay 1.5 pounds for a single mask due to "shortage" of masks and having a woman behind me ask me why I was buying masks and if I was infected. She then went on talking about the dangers and what she saw on the news and at that moment I just felt like sending a letter to the UK's parliament and ask "How is it possible that with all our power economically within the country and oversees we don't have enough medical equipment for our own citizens and our underfunded medical staff? How are we telling people not to wear masks or gloves unless they are sick from a virus that is air born?". Why did I, have to explain that my home country has been taking measures since January? How is Macau lining people up and offering 25masks for 1.8 pounds and I am here having to waste almost 10 times that money and having to explain to this woman that we can't even trust some news reports?
Well sure, in April we are then told that wearing masks is a good idea with news outlets reporting that "Maybe China, South Korea and Japan are right in their way of dealing with this".
It's in our culture over here in most Asian countries to wear masks even when suffering from a minor cold as respect for other people.
So I did this project with some disgust in my eyes with how my second home Portugal dealt with this and many other countries where I have family residing in and they can't even get access to basic needs but also with the intent of showing that no matter how hard quarantine can be it's for the greater good. We are currently facing a virus that has a mutative gene and is constantly mutating and a lot of folks are misinformed, even my landlord told me not to worry because people were not showing symptoms so we were alright and coincidentally she said she took her advice from the news. With something so unknown a lot of people just want to follow what they think is right but with so much fake information out there we can't trust any source or anyone for that matter and the best way is to be safe and take measures - be hygienic, be careful of others with low immune systems and wear masks at all times and maybe... just maybe we can resume our normal lives... well... this new normal way of living like we are here in Macau due to our great health care and assistance from our government with our basic needs.
Research:
During Quarantine I had no way of doing proper research with barely working internet so I just thought about a film directed by Dan Beers called "Premature". His second outing as a director and he copied Groundhog Day's approach to repetition and routine but in a more... confabulate manner and rather less immaculate.
The movie runs 1h33m long and I had to convey the idea of frustration with repetition in 5 minutes on 2 screens. It was a challenge to put my routine in the 4 days because I did a lot. I would start my day and do 100 push-ups, 100 sit ups and 100 squats. On days I skipped the squats I would use my resistance. I was eating 5 times a day with delivery and also government food service, I would shower once or twice depending on much I sweat, I spent a lot of time reading and also a lot of time watching TV, news mostly. But in actuality, a good chunk (around 30%) of my time was spent wishing I could be in my stocked up house in the UK even though it's safer in these ends... I already feel stuck in Macau and now being "double stuck" inside quarantine as well? Come on!
All jokes aside, I was assigned another week of quarantine after quarantine was done because UK is considered to be of high risk, out of 20 people coming back to Macau from the UK, my mum, sister and I were the only ones not infected. I'm quite surprised because in 2 of our flights we had people directly in front of us showcasing symptoms. What can I say? Without those masks, gloves and replenishing our bodies with natural remedies such as garlic, ginger, lime, extracted echinacea we kept our selves protected.
Production:
I shot with a Nikon D5600, 2 work lights and a tripod. I used myself as an actor because I was alone in my room as ordered by the government. My work lights work better with close ups and sometimes at distance but not in the setting I was in and for the type of lighting I wanted so with that reason some shots of mine had grain and DSLR shots don't usually look nice with grain unlike film cameras.
I really wish I had an op so he/she could focus pull on the tripod shots and maybe on the moving shots as the lens was quite small and easy on the hands and I like to play with zoom and focus sometimes and have achieved some good shots sometimes but they weren't easy! Loads of trial and error just to achieve one shot like that.
The shots outside of quarantine were the ones that looked prettier as I had more control and my brother in law as an assistant for anything I needed even though he complained to me that I was just making him walk and not allowing him to work at all... (if you're reading this bro I think you were amazing! Next time I'll have you holding my lights!)
Editing And Shooting Overview:
Now, I want to dive into my mistakes and how I could have fixed them, bare in mind I lost around 40% of my footage due to my hard drive not being able to recognize the footage for unknown reasons so I had to work with what I had.
This would have been a perfect opportunity to showcase my lighting on the left.
My lights interfered with the TV and I wanted to keep the same type of lighting to accompany the night time shots maybe had I had a diffuser it would have been different or if I placed the lights on the side or even graded it better or all of the above as we can still see some uninvited grain! More lights!
I should have opened the curtains and applied maybe my two lights and achieve key dynamic lighting because the grain is disgustingly visible even though the shot is cool.
This one is a tricky one. I think I should have turned on the light on the far right, shortened my frame and applied another light directly in front of me or the lamp to generate shadow like the image shows, then reduced the exposure on post as to reduce grain and and capture more detail.
Maybe I could have placed the camera closer to the toilet and aimed it differently then just focus on the toilet and have what's happening in the background completely out focus also... can't forget the grading! I might have reduced the temperature but for consistency I need this to be colder! Blue even! I know now how I have to step up my grading.
Grading on this one is alright but my next task is to put luts and have it in a cinematic blue however, I feel like I should have framed it closer to make the room feel more closed and space claustrophobic to really emphasize the feeling of being stuck.
The lighting here is okay and the placement of the objects but the window is visible in the background so maybe I could have added another light behind me to give it a different feel and further intensify the outside light. No product placement promise, but I think I really would have loved to have an OP to focus pull on this scene and... GRADING... again.
I zoomed in too much and lost myself in the process even though the frame is good.Valuable lesson not every dramatic shot needs a slow zoom or pan. Grading! Also if I had gel I could have solved a lot of these lighting issues because my lights were different and not every light was the same colour in the room.
I should have had quick cuts between these two shots when the actor started breaking down from being stuck because I used glitch type transitions and it would have really added to what was happening inside of the performer's head but nonetheless it was still alright. Can't believe I only thought of this after I handed it in!
Finally, I still have room for improvement in my work but I understood that I have evolved as a filmmaker and when given the right equipment and setting I can do good work but now I must evolve and fix little obstacles or I will not evolve. The shots outside were beautifully shot and didn't need much help grading post to make it standout but they could have still used some. The inside shots were tricky but they helped me learn and now I know what to do next time, I only expect better after this project. My sound design for this one was my best so far for a film because it really alluded to the feeling of anxiety that I wanted to portray and the feelings I felt when I was given misinformation from not only my peers but even social media or news outlets and I'm guessing many felt the same and being stuck in an closed environment in quarantine isn't exactly the best feeling. Some have come out and demonstrated hyperventilating and trouble breathing even at home. Doctors say it's normal for people with anxiety to develop these feelings after being closed for such a long time.
I can say the biggest challenge for me was to grade this with the time I had so I got more research to do on that side if I want to be a complete filmmaker and the lighting as I had no places to place them so they could look natural with the shots I wanted but I tried my best and discovered afterwards I could have done better which means I am looking forward to next time.
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