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Film Production Role 1: Director

The role of the director is to "[interpret] the script and [make] it into a film" considering all the
factors which can affect the mood of the movie, such as "planning locations, shots, pacing, and
acting styles". Especially for a French new wave film, one is required to collaborate with
cinematographers to "[oversee] the cinematography and technical aspect". Furthermore, the
director has a responsibility on "coaching actors towards the required performances, coordinating
staff on set, and directing the shooting timetable to meet the deadlines" ("The Film"). In the
production, I worked on not only planning and directing shots and staffs but also developing my
ideas into the script as a screenwriter and reflecting personal style into my work using auteur theory.

Clip 1: Family 가족 (2:52)

The film was heavily influenced by the French New Wave (Nouvelle Vague), the movement
which dominates films with individual directors' distinct styles and creative visions leading them to
become the author of the film in late 1950s. It illustrates the self-reflexivity and realism by reminding
the audience of their position and recollecting my childhood experiences as Jean-Luc Godard 's
Vivre Sa Vie and François Truffaut's 400 blows did.

Figure 1 Brainstorming the Idea

The film refers to myself who was dissatisfactied with not having a lot of time with my family
under a double-income family. It also criticizes the materialism. It is a belief of people who think the
money is fundamental in nature; therefore, they put a lot of importance on money and want to
possess it. It alludes to the external conflict between a child and parents who prioritizes spending
time with his family and who believes that money is an essential requirement to accompany it. I
wanted to express the irony in the film through the fact that the reason they work is to fulfill their
child's satisfaction but they cannot meet his most desired wants due to their work. They will never
realize that Jiwon feels lonely a lot as they are blinded by their work and money.

The film, Family, depicts the day of one boy with the perspective of a camera as an observer.
In the film, Jiwon always talks to the camera as if it is his friend. For instance, when there is no milk
for his cereal, he says "maybe mom forgot to buy milk" even though there is no one except for him
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and the camera. This leads the audience to feel that they do not just watch the film but they actually
are involved in it as an observer. Moreover, there are more scenes in which he tries to cover his
parents' indifference. He makes an effort to pretend they are a harmonious family. This shows that
Jiwon still do not give up on his hope and his affection for his parents. I broke the rules and used
this film as a medium so the audience and the character can communicate with each other so that
the audience can empathize with the boy's position
as Jean-Luc Godard did.

Figure 2 Excerpt from Shotlist and Storyboard

This production was taken for 2 days, from October 26th, 2018 to October 27th, 2018. Since
the day when we took the film was October, nighttime
was longer than daytime. Therefore, when we start to
shoot the film after school, it would be already dark
enough. This factor was very significant for some
scenes as it will lead us to increase the ISO and
create a grainy texture in the video. In order to prevent
such situations and make the production more
efficiently, I first divided the scenes into two different
Figure 3 Plan for shooting
parts, and separated ones that require a natural light
and planned for the shooting more specifically. Due
to the well-planned pre-production, we were able to take scenes as we planned without any
confusion.

Different from previous productions, this film was taken in Korean.


This was also because the actor was more confident in speaking
Korean, but the fundamental reason was I determined it would be
more appropriate for the theme of the movie. As the film deals with
the materialism of our society, especially in Korea, I felt it would lead
the audience to feel that this film conveys the sense of Korean
culture, and there were some Korean words which do not have the
same meaning when they are translated in English. For example,
the title of the film, 가족, cannot be expressed as I intended by
English. 가(家) stands for house and 족(族) stands for people from
the same blood. Therefore, family means a group of people living in
a house from the same blood. When people hear the word "family",
they easily imagine a harmonious family. However, with the literal
meaning of a family in Korean, it can be interpreted as "people who
are appeared to be harmonious family, but just live together under
the name of family". This is how Jiwon feels during the movie
Figure 4 Excerpt from the original script
and the translated script
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although his parents do not mean it. Therefore, the script was completed in Korean first and
translated in English to the next.

During the production, we encountered a huge problem of


lighting. The places where we shoot the film used incandescent
light which emits a soft yellow light, and especially for some
places, natural light did not reach the area of filming. Due to the
lack of light, we increased ISO and it created grain. Different
from our original intention to shoot the film with natural light, we
attempted to use the light kit to solve the problem. This worked
for some scenes. However, it could not be applied for the
Figure 5 Grain created by increased ISO
opening scene of the film. It required the light assistance to
move following the actor's movement as the camera did.
However, since the actor went down the stairs and the wall was
white, the reflection of light on the wall was quite awkward. First,
we tried to reduce grain, however, it lowered the quality of the
footages and made them look like artificial. After a discussion
with the editor, we decided to add more grain by applying the
effect of a 8mm film camera. I think this was a good solution
Figure 6 8mm film camera effect since adding 8mm film effect gave a sad atmosphere by
lowering the chroma of the footages. Cinematic introduction was also utilized to add the sense of it.

In the beginning of the production, the actor was really nervous in his acting, especially when
shooting scenes with dialogue. However, I could not remove such scenes since the interaction
between Jiwon and the camera was one of the most significant part of our film. This leads the
audience to feel that they do not just watch the film but they actually are involved in the film.
Therefore, instead of removing the amount of dialogue, I determined to change the content of
dialogue so that he could say it more naturally. After the change, he became more confident in
acting and even showed some improvisation.

For the TV scene, I was concerned


whether to show the content of TV
commercial or make it blurry. After the
small discussion with the
cinematographer, I decided to focus
on the facial expression of the main
character and used it as an indicator
Figure 7 TV light reflection
of his isolation. Furthermore, different
from what I planned originally, while we
filmed the scene of watching TV, the light from the TV did not reflect on the actor's face. I repeatedly
turned the lighting kit on and off toward the face of the actor to give the effect of reflection. Just
showing the facial expression with the light reflection highlights his loneliness.

After the production, I realized the importance of the director in the film. Although I set a very
detailed plan, difficulties always occurred. Despite of such hardships, I believe that my performance
as an editor was quite successful. I was able to overcome all the ordeals that I encountered, had a
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detailed plan for the shooting, and also gave instructions to both of the cinematographer and the
actor for the successful production.

Film Production Role 2: Editor

The role of the editor is to select the footages and make the best combination of them through
a meeting with the director and the screenwriter to understand their vision for the film. The editor
should be in the locations during the shooting to acquire the knowledge on how the production is
going on. In addition, the editor has a responsibility on reviewing the edited film and making
corrections by confirming with the director before its final release. For the production, I participated
in as an editor and completed the film by actively presenting my opinion and fulfilling the director's
specific requests.

Clip 1: Green Zone (part 1) (1:14)

This clip shows the first part of the short film, named Green Zone. In 2018, an opinion rigging
scandal was a controversial issue in Korea. One blogger, under the alias Druking, supported
President Moon Jae-in's liberal Democratic Party by manipulating comments on online articles and
stirred up the audience using a computer program. Similarly, the Jang Ja Yeon Scandal, in which
the agency threatened several actors and led them to the death but fudged that they committed
suicide, was concealed by attracting the audience into other sensational issues. The film deals with
the theme of conformity, which is the main cause of such issues. Conformity is the phenomenon
that individuals change their attitudes and behaviors by group pressure. From this, a person may
lose the ability to make a decision by themselves and the ability to distinguish right from wrong.
Therefore, it increases the possibility that the society makes a wrong choice. The film criticizes
those blind followers who match their behaviors with socially accepted convention.

Figure 8 Brainstorming the idea

After the script was created with


the ideas from brainstorming, I
met with the director and
discussed with her to find out the vision for the film. She showed me Lee Won-suk's "How to Use
Guys with Secret Tips" and wanted to apply the interaction between the main character and TV in
the film. As the production team was not able to find vintage CRT TV, I was the one who was
responsible for the making of the footages appearing on TV. However, I did not want to adjusting
Figure 9 Excerpt from "How to Use the the footages size and put the
Figure 10 Excerpt from Tikitik's "Let's stay at home"
Guys with Secret Tips" TV frame layer over it like figure
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10. I personally believed that it would highlight the division between the reality and the videotape
by putting another frame on the videotape scene. Since the screenwriter and the director wanted to
demonstrate Devo's assimilation to the videotape's idea, supporting conformity, I had to find another
method.
As an alternative, I determined to create a black screen and
made text appear as if someone is typing it for communication.
By using "Adobe Premiere Pro Software", I put linear wipe
effects on each text and changed wipe angle to 270 degrees.
The last part of the text would appear first in 0 degree, so in order
Figure 11 Screenshot of Typewriter effect 1 to make it start from the first, I reversed the angle. Then, I
created key frames on transition completion and adjusted the
speed. In order to make the text cursor, I added the white layer
above the black slate. After changing its size, I created various
key frames and differentiated the opacity of them for flicker effect.

Figure 12 Screenshot of Typewriter effect 2

Figure 13 Screenshot of short pixel animation 1 Figure 14 Screenshot of short pixel animation 2

As just repeating the typewriter effect scenes is not attractive to the audience, I decided to
add the short pixel animation. When introducing the best-selling book, I created two pixel arts: the
closed book and the opened book. These two scenes are arranged in a crosscutting way to give
motions like in right image in figure 13. Furthermore, I made a LP record and rotated it by putting
anchor point in the center and changing rotation angles, displayed on figure 14.

Clip 2: Green Zone (part 2) (1:46)

In the film, I arranged the scene of Devo uploading


the picture of the book on Instagram and her phone
screen together considering their different sizes.
Different from splitting them into two separated scenes,
this led the audience to be more engaged in the film.
The floating hearts was the essential part of the film as
it demonstrates the outcome of Devo's compliance and
Figure 15 Screenshot of the Instagram scene
is the reason why she became obsessed with the
videotape. Employing a YouTube video, called "Create Floating Hearts + IU's 9 Video Layout |
Premiere Pro Tutorial", I learned that I could express the physical manifestation of many people's
attention by floating hearts with the use of key frames and motion tools in "Adobe Premiere Pro
Software".
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I received help for the color correction


process from free cinematic LUT created by Ryan
Nangle. As it is seen in figure 16, I applied teal-
orange1 to the adjustment layer and changed the
level of intensity and components of adjustments
depending on each footage's look. The clothes of
Figure 16 The Excerpt from watching TV scene after following the
the actor originally had a red and grey pattern, but
videotape's instruction these were changed to dark red and green after
adapting teal-orange1 LUT. Change in the color of clothes caused by accommodating an artificial
LUT intensified the videotape's ultimate purpose to forcibly fit her into the green zone. Increased
saturation level to 135.5 also led the increase in the separation between colors. Therefore, it allowed
the image to have more contrasting and vibrant colors. Moreover, I put sharpness at -12.9 and
decreased edge contrast which was unnatural due to the increase in saturation.

This scene shows the consequence when Devo did not


conform with the videotape's directions and behaved as she
believed. Filming their conversation through a panning shot was
what the director and the cinematographer originally planned for.
However, I asked them if we could film some extra scenes for
focusing on the actors' eyes and their facial expression. After
successfully filming those scenes, I split the screen into four
Figure 17 The Excerpt from Japan Scene
sections and put each footage. I believed it would be more
effective to accentuate the pressure that Devo received from her friends and her reactions to such
situation.
Turning on and off TV scenes were created by differing the
scale height and width of the white video from each key frame.
I referred to the "TV Turn Off/ Turn On Effect in Premiere Pro
CC 2017 l Easy Tutorial" on Austin Newman's YouTube
channel. Adding a fast blur effect and setting the blurriness
as 200 created a flickering light when the TV was turned on
Figure 18 Screenshot of Turning on and off TV
or off. Furthermore, increasing the exposure to 3.4 made it
more natural. Turning on and off the TV scene plays an important role in the film. It is the only visual
evidence which the audience can realize the fact that the reality and the videotape are divided.
However, as it is easy for Devo to access the videotape just with pushing the power button on the
remote control, it is much easier for the videotape to inject its belief and assimilate her when Devo
shows strong reliance on the videotape by time passes.

After the first version of editing is completed, I met with the director again
to receive comments about the editing. For outdoor scenes which does not
contain dialogue, I originally deleted the sound part and put some
significant sound effects since I planned to put the soundtrack for it
because the wind sound was too disturbing. However, the director
requested me to reduce the background disruptive, not completely
removing it. To satisfy her demand, I researched a lot, even asking others
Figure 19 Screenshot of Noise who had experienced editing the video before. After I found out "Adobe
Reduction Audition Software" can edit the sound more professionally, I reduced the
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background noise using the noise reduction effect. Subsequently, I set the screen ratio of the film
as 21:9, the cinemascope, in order to increase the immersion level of viewers.

In general, I believed that I performed my role as the editor quite successfully. Despite the
fact that it is my first time to work as an editor, I was able to overcome all the difficulties I encountered
and also created the final product in a way the director wanted through lots of discussions with her.

Film Production Role 3: Screenwriter

The main role of a screenwriter is to derive some ideas from their imagination or inspired by
other existing ideas and works "having an in-depth understanding" of their scripts, such as the story,
character, and narrative. The screenwriter is able to "[describe] stories in detail, including physical
environments and the moods of the characters" ("Screenwriter"). In the production, I worked on
developing my idea into the script and made an effort to reflect what I wanted to express in
collaboration with the director.

Clip 1: Unbekannt (2:59)

The film was heavily influenced by German Expressionism,


the movement which reflects the historical context of the
1920s in Germany. German Expressionist films have highly
stylized visuals, complex architecture, strange asymmetrical
camera angles, atmospheric lighting, and harsh contrasts
between dark and light as F.W. Murnau's Nosferatu and Dario
Argento's Suspiria did.
Figure 20 The Excerpt from Brainstorming

In the film class, I had a chance to watch some films dealing


with mental illness. Among them, the trailer of the movie,
named "Prevenge", caught my attention. The following are
factors of the film which engaged my interest: an auditory
hallucination of the baby and picture drawn by the mother.
Figure 21 Picture drawn by the pregnant in
Prevenge These two scenes led me to devise the idea of "Unbekannt"
with the question of "What would have happened if the pregnant woman was disgusted by her own
baby?". This question helped me a lot to describe the story with the detailed setting. I believed, in
order to make the main character as an individual who does not like her baby, there had to be a
reason behind it since most of the film dealing with family illustrated the theme of mother's instinctive
love. Therefore, I set her as a 17 years old girl who was afraid of being rebuked by other people as
an under-age pregnant woman. She would blame the baby and feel that as if the baby took away
everything from her.
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This is the script which draws the conflict between


Lisa and her baby. Different from my original plan, I
changed Lisa's baby from an existing baby to an
imaginary creature made by herself. Therefore, this
story actually illustrates the internal conflict of Lisa. The
baby is utilized as a medium to criticize a problem of
excessive self-conscious teenagers who concern
themselves too much on what others think of them.

After creating the first version of the script, I had the


meeting to "take into account the ideas of directors and
producers" I was working with" ("Screenwriter"). After the meeting, I
Figure 21 The Excerpt from
the Script received comments from the director and other people that my script
contained some unessential dialogues and awkward expressions.
Since my first language is not English, I struggled with modifying
such expressions and simplifying the dialogue. However, I solved
this problem by having discussion with a few native English speakers.
Figure 23 The Excerpt from the final version Consequently, some parts of the dialogue between Lisa and her
of the script baby was deleted, and Lisa's reaction to her friend also changed to
ignore him.

And most significantly, the ending was changed. In the previous


version, as Lisa strangles the baby's neck in the dream, she
strangles her neck by herself, and the film ends with the scene of
dead Lisa. However, for the edited version, as Lisa tries to kill the
baby, she awakes from the unpleasant dream. It is to leave the
Figure 24 The Excerpt from the Storyboard
chance to the audience to imagine whether the baby and Lisa dies
or not. The final version of script and storyboard can be seen to the
next.

In order to communicate with the director and the


cinematographer about my vision for the film, I wrote down
some elements and mise-en-scene which conveys
significant messages. For example, in the film, Lisa's baby
symbolizes gaze and pressure surrounding Lisa. At the
beginning of the film, I described that after she washes her
face, Lisa stares at her 'burry face' reflected in the 'mirror'
silently, as if she is 'observing another person'. The mirror
reflection is one of the most frequently utilized symbols in
films to illustrate the self-identity. In "Unbekannt", Lisa's
reflection is very blurry at first. It demonstrates that there is
something which obstructs the formation of her identity.
Figure 25 Reflection on the mirror However, at the end of the film, after Lisa kills the baby, she
faces the mirror again, but here, her reflection is clearly
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seen. It shows that the object which obstructs the formation of the identity was her baby, in other
words, it was herself who was too self-conscious for what other people think of her.

The baby, the imaginary creature, was one of the


mandatory props as it plays a very important role in the
film. When I brainstormed the idea for the script, I thought
it could be created by using computer graphics. However,
after the conversation with the production members, I
realized that the quality of it would not be guaranteed as
we had very low-budget. The film teacher and other
Figure 26 Imaginary creature made by flour
students suggested us to utilize real animals organ from a
near butcher shop; however, we were not sure if they had
it and even did not know how to ask it in Turkish. In order
to solve the problem, I watched several YouTube videos
about how to create the organs. Different from others, one of them did not have a lot of requirements.
It was made by a clay. Instead of a clay, I believed that I could use flour to shape it. After that day,
I shared the idea of using flour to others. We created it together by flour, a plastic bag, a red paint,
and water. The plastic bag is utilized to fill the water and move the creature to give the sense of the
embryo in the mother's womb.

This film is narrated in two different spaces: dream


and the reality. We determined to use intense color
lighting for the dream sequence to accentuate the
difference between them. Employing low-key green
lighting, which is high contrast lighting, gives the sense
of repulsiveness to the audience. Since there was no
green color lighting in the school, we collected several
green plastic bottles and used it as a filter for the lighting.
The use of complementary colors for the imaginary
Figure 27 Low-key Green Color Lighting creature and Lisa also heightened her internal conflict.

Overall, I believed my performance as the screenwriter was successful. For the pre-
production, I created a synopsis and several scenes of a story before I wrote a shooting script,
which included the instruction of the use of the camera, shot, and lighting. I was not only wrote down
about my idea but also reflected the ideas of directors and cinematographers into the script. Also, I
actively suggested my opinion for the hardship that our team encountered during the production.
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Work Cited

The Film Director, www.mediacollege.com/employment/film/director.html.

“A HISTORY OF FRENCH NEW WAVE CINEMA - Pg 2.” New Wave Film.com | French New Wave /

Nouvelle Vague and International Cinema of the 1950s, 60s, and 70s,

www.newwavefilm.com/about/history-of-french-new-wave2.shtml.

“Brightness, Contrast, Saturation, and Sharpness.” Brightness, Contrast, Saturation, and Sharpness - Steve's

Digicams, www.steves-digicams.com/knowledge-center/brightness-contrast-saturation-and-

sharpness.html#b.

Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. “New Wave.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica,

Inc., 29 Jan. 2018, www.britannica.com/art/New-Wave-film.

Dam, Thien. “Create Floating Hearts IU's 9 Video Layout | Premiere Pro Tutorial.” YouTube, YouTube, 18 July

2017, www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFGIUQQLFXw.

Dannenfeldt, Diane. “What Does a Film Editor Do?” HowStuffWorks, HowStuffWorks, 12 Sept. 2008,

entertainment.howstuffworks.com/film-editor1.htm.

Films, Brooker. “Typewriter Effect in Premiere 2018.” YouTube, YouTube, 25 Aug. 2018,

www.youtube.com/watch?v=RuLxkboYMS4&t=193s.

“Free Travel Video Inspired LUT and Adjustment Layer Title.” Ryan Nangle, sellfy.com/p/zfj5/.

McKinnon, Peter. “Editing YOUR Photos!!” YouTube, YouTube, 24 Jan. 2019,

www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpzjvW6nJu8.
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Newman, Austin. “TV TURN OFF / TURN ON Effect in Premiere Pro CC 2017 | Easy Tutorial.” YouTube,

YouTube, 5 Sept. 2017, www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVChQDa3nWs.

Yi, Gd. “남자사용설명서 미리보기.” YouTube, YouTube, 5 Feb. 2013,

www.youtube.com/watch?v=GcoMDmL5qjg&t=294s.

“드루킹: 쉽게 풀어보는 '드루킹 사건' 이모저모 - BBC News 코리아.” BBC News, BBC, 23 July 2018,

www.bbc.com/korean/news-44194845.

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