Week 13

Day 1 (12/01/2015)
We visited Expression College in Oakland in the morning where we were given a tour. I've analysed the advantages and disadvantages of the Digital Film making course that I'm interested in and listed them out.

Advantages:
Relaxing Environment
Freedom to shoot/do whatever you want in whatever style you wish
Equipment is more familiar to what I've worked with
Incorporates visual effects into its curriculum 
Equipment can still be loaned out even after you graduate

Disadvantages:
Indie style of shooting and cinematography. Not really to my liking.
The way of working is only "semi-professional"

After the tour, we went to the nearby Guitar Centre to take a look at musical instruments and audio equipment. We then had lunch at a food court nearby where my cheese dog and chocolate shake that I ordered took ages to arrive. After lunch, we went downtown to pick up a package from the Warriors office and then drove back to Silver and played around with the Steadicam, this time trying to put an EX1 on it instead of the large PMW 300. Unfortunately, it didn't work due to issues with the base plate screws not being the right size.

Day 2 (13/01/2015)
We visited the Academy of Arts University (AAU) in the morning where we were given a tour of the facilities used by the Motion Picture and Television course. Once again, I listed the advantages and disadvantages.

Advantages:
Industry standard style of working and equipment (Mole Richardson lights may be similar to the ARRIs but somehow speaks of Hollywood professionalism)
Cinematography is more to my liking

Disadvantages:
Not as relaxing as Expression College
Facilities are located all over downtown San Francisco. Requires a lot of travelling around. Although there is a very impressive shuttle bus system that they provide
Seems rather competitive although that may be a good thing.

After the tour, we had the rest of the day off and we walked around Union Square and somehow ended up in Chinatown.

Day 3 (14/01/2015)
We returned to Cambridge today to set up some tables and chairs in the Social Hall (Apparently last week was not the end of our job at Cambridge as I previously mentioned.) We also cleaned and polished the wall ledges, the window ledges and the doors of the rooms.

Day 4 (15/01/2015)
Today, we are to shoot an introduction video for Cambridge. We picked up some equipment from the studio which included a tripod, a slider, a light kit and a monitor. We then drove to Cambridge where we had to pull the mirrors that we stuck on the wall the previous day as they were out of alignment. It was then a painful process to put the mirror back on the wall with the correct alignment. 

After that, we had lunch before driving back. During the journey, I felt sick and had to throw up. I probably shouldn't have eaten doughnuts and a cup of terrible tasting macaroni and cheese before going to a buffet. 

I took a 20 minutes break in my room before I felt restless and decided to walk over to Cambridge. We started shooting the video. The first shot took a while as we were still figuring out the equipment and the 'set design', but the rest of the shots took less time and we finished enough shots for the day. The remainder of the shots were to be completed the next day.

Day 5 (16/01/2015)
We returned to Cambridge in the morning to continue the shoot. The shoot went smoothly and we were able to complete the shots that we needed to do before lunch. The remainder of the shots such as the Teachers' dining room and the mirror room were to be done on Monday as we are only able to set those rooms up on that day itself.

After lunch, I edited the GoPro time laspe footage of the English ChristmaSing setup. The editing part was easy. Its just the lag and the rendering time which I'm not really sure what the cause is but I believe it is the large file size of the image sequence. We then had the rest of the day off to go to Chinatown to buy some souvenirs for people back in Singapore.

Returning home from the Chinatown trip, I continued editing the GoPro footage and rendered it.

Day 6 (17/01/2015)
Today, we helped out in a music video shoot that is directed by Traci. She requested our help as she only had a skeleton crew for the shoot. We drove over to San Jose and picked up the equipment before driving to the location. I had the opportunity to touch the GH4 and the FS7 even though it was only a quick look at the cameras. It was probably the first camera that I touched that had internal 4K recording capabilities. 

The lighting setup was somewhat problematic as the lights kept casting shadows and the back light was difficult to setup due to cramp space that we had to put the light in. After some tweaking, the shadow problem was reduced and we started shooting. I could see that their method of shooting is different from Singapore. Its what I call the "American" style of shooting similar to what I've read in books and watched on Youtube. I of course prefer that method of shooting.

We finished the shoot and dismantled all the equipment which was quick and efficient and drove the equipment back to the company that owns it. We then return back to San Francisco.

Day 7 (18/01/2015)
Today is the final day which we are going to do the church service. For the Cantonese service, I was the Engineer and for English service, I supervised and taught kids that were in training on how to operate the equipment during the service.

We had the rest of the day off and I decided to stay in, take a nap, fix my fellow intern's laptop adapter and pack my room as well write some farewell letters to the people that I met here in SF.