I've been meaning to do this post for quite awhile. After next year's on-location production and film-making elective (I've already decided on the module), I'll probably have more to say. Maybe then I'll do a new list.

So I kind of have a love-hate relationship towards filming, and it may be pretty obvious already that filming is tough. Let me talk about the things my classmates and I have done in the name of filming, for most of the camera-related projects so far. Some are pretty fun and some are just bweh.

1. Smear dirt all over my shirt
This was for a photo-based video about me being a beggar who turns into a dog in the end o.o Being a beggar, I had to be dirty, so we literally stick mud on my shirt, tear my unwanted shirt, and, for a scene in which I die, spam ketchup. It was really dirty, but I'm glad it was shot near my house :)

2. Carry a recycling bin across the campus
Okay, this is the strangest. We actually carried a recycling bin across half of SP for a video about recycling. If you're from SP, you'll know how far is it to carry it from the Spectrum area all the way to the SP's apartments. After filming, we had to carry it back to the Spectrum.

3. Poke a recycling bin with an abandoned broomstick
In the recycling video, we wanted the bin to talk agitatedly, so we had to shake it. But, in the screen, we cannot show that someone is shaking it. So, someone hid in a bush behind the bin and used an abandoned broomstick (which came out of nowhere) to keep poking on it.

4. Make plastic bottles into all sorts of things / put soil and plant on it
This is not my group, but I know that another group made plastic bottles into pen holders, paper holders, and stuffs. They were spending much time preparing the soil and stuff. It ended up being the best video.

5. Stand under the hot sun for hours, carrying heavy equipments
This was freaking tiring, and not fun at all. We had to lug the tripod + camera from one location to another while shooting a video about Arab Street. Under the hot sun. But it ended up being my lecturer's favourite video for that assignment :D

6. Bug shop owners to let us film their shops
For that Arab Street video, we had to beg the silk shop owners to let us film. Then for a documentary about Ghim Moh, we begged butchers and fishmongers to let us film too. All these begging just don't end.

7. Climb under bushes and stuffs, and go on an adventure
This is not my group. I heard that one group who was doing a video on some abandoned railway tracks climbed here and climbed there to take shots. It was like an adventure, but not a fun one for them.

8. Play 'Draw Something' with one another until we reach 99
Only in the creative industry do you do fun things until it becomes boring. For a short romance film, my groupmates had to play the game for like 99 rounds. And we had to film the last 10 stages, which was super annoying because the game loads super slowly.

9. Film in the toilet
Once again, this is not my group. But I can't imagine how tough it must be to shoot in the toilet. The smell is one thing, but the toilet is a super hot and crammed place. Takes a lot of endurance.

10. Buy food for our talents/profiles
Because we need shots of our talents and profiles eating, we need to treat them. Funny thing is, it always happens. Common.

11. Bug people to help us act/let us film
We are becoming nuisances already. Especially for our documentary, we have to keep calling people and beg them to let us film them.

12. Wake up at 2am in the morning
Luckily this isn't my group. Mine was 5am - not as bad as this. This group did a midnight filming on a fishmonger. Sounds quite fun, though.

13. Go to the same place again and again
This was horrible. My group went to Serangoon Gardens again and again, hoping to capture good shots but ended up with no story to tell. So tiring, which leads to point 16.

14. Walk through mud
So 3 of us walked through mud and all our foot went ankle deep in and became dirty. We did this because of point 15.

15. Spy on a dormitory from the back
We wanted to get shots of the dormitory, but the guy in charge of the dorms did not reply to our email, so... And that leads to point 14.

16. Shout at the computer and feel like throwing it
And despite going to the same place again and again, walking through mud, and doing (ahem) sneaky things, the shots were not as we desired. It was pretty bad as we had no story to tell. Editing for awful. I really felt like throwing my computer somewhere, smashing it into pieces. But I persevered. Till today (which is not so long later), I'm still super unproud of this particular video.

17. Call our profile 3 times a day
This is Joey's duty in my group. Poor Joey :/ In our film about an undertaker, she had to call our profiles again and again because he needed a lot of reminders and rescheduling.

18. Film a dead body
This is just me, since I'm the cameraman. Honestly, I find it pretty fine. Maybe it's because I'm used to it, not that one can get used to death.

Filming has good and bad memories. I just tend to remember better the good ones. Some stuffs we did were a little crazy, but I enjoy it. So when we finish editing the video, and when we look back to it, there is this sense of pride. Like, "hey, I did that". It's pretty fun.

Labels: dtvm, production