VSP: Final Project

23.05.22 - 10.07.22 (Week 8 - Week 15)
Chai Yi Xuan / 0346645 / B' Creative Media
Video & Sound Production
Final Project / Stop Motion & VFX

---

INSTRUCTIONS

To-Do List:

Shoot a 30-sec stop motion or a 60-sec visual effects film with a topic of your own choice

At the start of this assignment, I wanted to do something similar to a horror/thriller story. I already had a vague idea on how it should go, so when we were told to create a proposal, I was quick to finish it.

Once approved, I moved on to the storyboard. I knew that I was going to film in my own home, but it was a little hard to visualize each camera angle I wanted. At the very least, I managed to draw out the general look.

Figure 1: Storyboard for final project

With that done, I started shooting the film. Initially, I want to shoot in dim lighting, in hopes that it would be more dramatic. Though, after the first run of shooting, I didn't like the way it looked. I scraped it and filmed the second time, with brighter lighting. It didn't give me the aesthetic I wanted, but it was better than unclear and blurry faces.

During the editing process, I had to amp up the exposure for most shots because they were still too dark. Coupled with the Lumetri Colour fixing and visual effects, I had a lot to do.

Unsurprisingly, the part that took me the most time is visual effects. The electricity effect, though readily available in Premiere Pro, wasn't exactly appealing to me. I had to tweak it to my preference, and even then, it wasn't really up to my standards. With time and money constraints in the way, I had to settle with what I had. Aside from that, the other visual effects don't really give me a lot of work— just time consuming. Eventually, I finished the editing and exported the video.

Final Outcome: Link

---

FEEDBACK

Week 9

You have a clear direction on what you want to do for your final project filming. You can start filming for your shoot.

---

REFLECTIONS

The process of filming this project was long and arduous. I have gathered a good amount of knowledge from all my previous lectures and assignments, but I felt like it was a challenge of its own to be managing the entire production on my own. Doing the planning, production, and post-production stage all by myself made me miss the Production Shoot exercise where multiple people were working together to get things done.

I wasn't entirely satisfied with the outcome. The shooting was a pain to deal with, since there was a lot times when my camera loses its focus when I'm moving and it was hard for me to do any manual focus on my own. I took a lot of retakes until I found a shot that's acceptable.

The editing process was also a lot for me— since I had to do visual effects, unlike the previous assignments that I have done. I find myself stressing out a little due to the time constraints, but at least I made it to the end somehow.

Overall, a stressful but eye-opening experience. I definitely felt that this assignment had made me appreciate the work that goes into shooting and had raised my respect for the people play the part in writing, filming and editing their films.