Comments from friends and viewers

After uploading the rough cut onto our shared YouTube Channel, my friends gave me a lot of useful comments on what I should do to improve my footage.

I really wanted to retake some of the scenes but couldn't, because my brother has now cut his hair, and Dan has now started university in Hua Hin. Therefore, I need to go with what I have. It would be a lot better if I  can add some more shots of the wall with the child's drawings to emphasize the fact that he draws everything he saw in his dream onto paper. However, the wall can not be recreate now, for the original drawings in the footage were thrown away.

Apart from what my teacher had said, there are more minor details I have to fix, such as the audio and the color grading.
On screen, the apartment scene was unexpectedly orange. I decided to fix this problem by redoing the color grading of the film. [There's a blog dedicated to this process below]

A lot of my friends commented that the voice overs were the main error that made the opening mistaken as a trailer. On the other hand, quite a number of my friends thinks that the voice over is the main thing that made the film interesting and unique from the others'.
I plan to fix this problem by reducing the voice overs. This means that there would be no narrative voice overs in the apartment scene anymore, as the chaotic feelings in the dream should stop when he wakes up.

More similar texts from movies

It appears that there are more films that are similar to mine. Below are some similar texts and convention:

Mercury Rising (1998):

similarities:

• The FBI action man takes the (now) orphaned genius boy into custody, and they developed a father-son relationship.
• The boy is able to crack codes and puzzles and a hidden genius.
• Got neglected from society
• Victor is not in a good stand with his colleagues in the detective firm and decided to take the case to himself as a private eye.

differences:

• My characters are not against the government.
• The boy in Mercury Rising has Autism, while Scott does not.
• No assassins or agents are coming to get the boy in my film.

Safe (2012):

similarities:

• The main protagonist is a Western action man - a fighter who loses his job and is depressed from losing his loved one, while the other main character is an Asian child with extraordinary ability to crack codes.
• The two characters form a bond as the story continues on.

differences:

• The antagonist is not aiming for the child in my film, it is only a one way cop and robber plot. However, if the film does goes on, there would be times where the boy gets warning from the murderer.
• The antagonist in my film is a serial killer who only kill small girls, not international mafias.

Solace (2016):

similarities:

• A psychic main character who has the ability to solve crime and an FBI agent - the action man
• The main psychic character was asked to help solve the crime of a serial killer.
• The serial killer is way ahead of the psychic character as he tries to do his best to catch up. (Although the serial killer in my film has no psychic powers, he is very smart and manipulative, being able to escape the police. And with the main characters have him at their hands, they could not find any back up evidence to charge him guilty.)

differences:

• Solace's psychic character is an old man who had experienced life and knows how to control/use his powers. My psychic character is a young boy who had yet to know the extent of this extraordinary ability and is scared to use it.
• The serial killer in Solace is also a psychic.
• The boy in my film lives with the action man.

Color grading experiment - Trying the art

Although I have finished the editing and color grading of the sequence, I still wanted to know how differently the scene would turn out if I have used another color palette. Below are my experimented samples: 

After the first edit (the rough cut), the majority of my friends said that the Apartment scene's palette is too orangey vibrant. Therefore, to solve the problem (and because I am a person who just love colors), I asked my parents and my brother to watch me color grade the outcome. At first, I tried using two contrasting colors to color grade. The outcome was pretty nice, however, it did gives a feeling of this being a fantasy-dreamland-adventure type of movie. As a result, I lowered the opacity of the adjustment layer in which I worked on in Premiere to get the final outcome.

What I found is that two contrasting colors help creates a sense of depth in the footage, outlining distinct shadows.

(This is the one I chose for the first editing)

(Red makes the scene looks more scary than friendly and safe. Although it can represents blood and murder, it is not suited for this particular scene.)

(Original footage, contrast and vignetted adjusted.)

(This palette resembles the Dream Sequence. It does not make the apartment ore Victor's presence seems safe for poor Scott at all.)

(The green palette gives off the same feeling with what I got from red. It represents the concept of danger and mischievous rather than the safe nest of home.)

Preparing for coursework - DAY 18 - Deciding on the Title name

One of the most exciting steps into creating a successful film is to think of the right title that grabs the audiences' attention even before seeing the trailer or the opening.

I did a little research on how titles conventions work and came up with some ideas of my own.

I know that my story revolves around the idea of dreaming and reality, so as crime. Therefore, I did a vocabulary research on words that have relations with the topic area.

Originally, I wanted my the title to be 'Mirage', for the main protagonists will have to go through several layers of illusions before being able to capture the murderer. However, It does not really relates why I have 'the cards' as the antagonist's symbol. In films such as the Zodiac and 7ven, the titles are made to match the characteristics of the murderer.

I then did a research on 'The Ace of Spades', the murderer's main symbol. Below are what I found of the card, as it is interpreted in dreams:

The Ace of Spades represents Death. This matches the theme of my film. Calling himself the Ace, but leaves Spade cards on the bodies of his victims relates how the murderer warns off the polices and investigators not to interfere. Not only that, But as stated in the dream interpretation website, seeing the Ace of Spades in a dream can represent the ending of something old and the beginning of something new. Scott, in this case, develops through the story as a troubled child into being a confident optimistic boy in the end where people notice him as a part of their society as he find who he really is (as in coming of age). It's the death of his old way of life and a birth to a new one. The same goes with Victor, Spades cards indicate troubling times in the future. This prediction is well greeted by the struggle to capture the murderer for the rest of the story and the things he needs to go through.

Therefore, I decided that the title of this film should be

"ACE OF SPADES"

Preparing for coursework - DAY 17 - Editing the Apartment scene

I started editing the moment I got home. First, I did the rough cuts of all the scenes. The scene where Scott flips through his sketchbook was made frantic by the three camera shots.

The more cuts there are, the more it makes the scene look chaotic and panicky, very much alike when you feel nervous and your eyes dart around.

For the sound effects, I deleted all the tracks from the videos and downloaded royalty free soundtracks from YouTube instead. This is to reduce the noise and the ambient sounds (AC winds) and other unnecessary echoes.

LAST SCENE

As for the last scene that serves as the end of the credits, I found a video clip I took earlier along the year from the top of the Shanghai Pearl tower. It shows a wide view of the city. I think that it could  be the first scene of the film where the real movie actually start.  I got this idea from the opening sequence of  'Zodiac'. By showing a city in a completely different country implies that this particular murder case does not stop in Bangkok, or Southeast Asia, but throughout the continent where special elite forces (helicopter sounds show that it has to be a figure or group of authority ready to do 'business') are also trying to solve the case.

(Time indicator pic)

I added in the time indicator in both the apartment scene and the Shanghai scene to inform the viewers that these two events happen at the same time.

*NOTE THAT THE LAST SCENE WHERE IT CUTS TO THE MOVIE MIGHT NOT BE INCLUDED IN THE FINAL PROJECT FOR IT WAS SUDDENLY CUT AND REALLY DOES NOT HAVE A NECESSARY LINK TO THE DREAM SEQUENCE OR THE APARTMENT SCENE.*

Below is the outcome of my rough (first draft) editing in 360p. My teacher said that the sequence could be refined by noting the quality of the sound effects (the gun part) and by cutting out the millisecond when my brother looks at the camera. Also, it would be much clearer to the viewers to know that the 'spades' have an important part in capturing the murderer if I add in some more details onto the scene when Victor realized their connections. Another tiny part he advised was the scene where it shows the distance between Victor and Scott in a over the shoulder shot. It is more interesting than the one after.

Preparing for coursework - DAY 16 - FILMING THE FINAL SEQUENCE : VICTOR'S APARTMENT

(All the equipment and props ready for our filming day!)

It was a very busy and tiring day both for me and my mother. We had to rush all over Bangkok that morning to work on several businesses. This results in having less time to work on my crime board and setting the place up. We ended up having only 30 minutes to get our location ready before having to head off to dinner with Mr. Williams. The tapes we bought did not work well with a 'foam' crime board, therefore, I need to make a run to Seven Eleven to get us a new set of tape.

And water...

Our crime board process:

It was very fun yet tiring. My brother was not in a very good mood that day due to all the filming he needed to do throughout the morning and the afternoon. However, the fact that he had been practicing all morning had left him in a good performing 'state of mind' and it didn't took us long to get what we wanted. Towards the end of the day, he was more than happy to film again.

("Who is Emily Warhol? Is she somehow related to Andy Warhol?", "Erm... I just combine random names that comes to my head at the time. If you pay enough attention to read what's on there, you'll find even weirder things.") 

("I'm Deadpool, do I have to remind you?")

Bloopers and Out-takes:

'Inception' opening scene analysis

The opening scene started with waves crashing violently on rocks. The sequence carries on for up to 12 seconds before the protagonist is introduced. The waves represent the blur of human emotions. In dreams, waves usually portrays danger and one's subconscious desire or what turn of changes could be approaching in the near future. The white foams of the waves also create a dreamy sense against the violent crashes. These representations of waves show that the protagonist is going to face a series of trouble and chaos in the near future, one that couldn't be backed away so easily like the dark depths of the sea.

Next, the protagonist is first introduced by an angled shot, showing the desperation and pain he is facing. The waves kept churning in his face. This further implies that the chaos is crashing itself onto him. 

However, despite the dangerous waves and a suffering protagonists, the viewers see children laughing and playing in the distant from the protagonist's point of view. This immediately creates a feeling of confusion. Why are there children laughing and playing in a scene which was started with so much sense danger? This then creates the feeling of 'unrealistic' that makes us viewers go... "um... wait a minute,".

That feeling starts to get even more apparent when we see an old fashioned Japanese castle. The protagonist's and the children's costumes were of modern day. Also, we see a guard from some sort of some special security firm poking a gun at him. Why would there be a Japanese castle there? And why would there be children in an area where there are armed people?

The protagonist was then half dragged - haft carried into the castle where everybody wears modern day suits. Judging by the style he was dragged, the viewers mostly believe that he was going to be kept prisoner or was going to be investigated. However, we see him getting food - and not in a cell, but at the dining table with the boss - in the next scene, adding onto the confusion. "So... Wasn't he captured or something?"

We then see the leader of who we assume are the antagonists. The camera changes from a mid close up scene into a close up of his face, meaning that whatever he was saying is of importance. The protagonist then looks up, confirming that whatever he had said is very important.

It became even more confusing when the exactly next shot was of the protagonist but in a different gesture - a more confident and open pose. 

His hair was set up and he was wearing a suit, very much alike the other people in the scene. We can see that the characters were still in the same scene as two seconds ago. There are proper food and wine on the table. Viewers then begins to wonder when has everything changed and what was the reason? What happened?

The old man was replaced by a younger man, presumably the younger version of himself. We know that because he sat at the exact same place where the old man had sit. By now, the viewers know that this is a flashback. Although not yet grasped what happened in the earlier minutes, we know that the real story starts now.

A new character was also introduced, supporting the idea that the settings of the two scenes were not the same. This is another event that happens to be in another timeline.

Preparing for coursework - DAY 15 - GOING SOLO... erm.... SHOPPING

It appeared that Mr. William called me last night, telling us he just got back from the US and did not have any blue long sleeves with him. He also didn't have brown pants - only beige. I told him that beige is totally fine, but I still think that a blue long sleeve would show Victor's exhausted character better than black. Black represents a more quick and modern worker who is very skillful in his own area of work. This is the complete opposite of who Victor is in this first part of the story. Therefore, Mr. William asked me whether I could get him a blue long sleeves.

(I think beige is totally fine when he sent me his current wardrobe supply)

It was a problem. For the intended filming day is this Saturday where my mother's schedule is very  much packed up. My brother also has a Period TV - series he needs to go to for a run-through practice session for several of the episodes in the morning. That left me alone at home working on the crime board and getting the equipment prepared for the evening.

That only left us the choice to find the shirt today: Friday evening. 

We head out to a department complex near our house: Central Plaza Westgate. Mom thinks it is best to have dinner, take our dog to the pet-salon, and get our props at the same time.

(Mom and Kendo at the pet salon)

(I have almost forgotten to buy extra equipment for the crime board.)

It seems like the store we were targeting doesn't have the size we wanted. We then went into the plaza to find the right one. We first got an XL sized shirt and were pretty confident that Dan would be able to wear it. However, as I called him to check on the final details before paying it off, he said he was very sure that he wears XXL.

Mom was not convinced, so she bought XL, and we agreed to exchange the size later if it does not fit.