Mr Megabyte - Dance! Dance! Dance!

'Mr.Megabyte' is also known as Leslie Wai and he is a Multi-Genre Composer who focuses mainly on electronic music, which he produces and performs himself. As well as having a music career, he is also a freelance Visual Media Artist specialising in Editing, Visual Effects, Motion Graphics and Sound Design. During his spare time, he likes to create five to ten second videos consisting of shots of certain clips put together and uploaded onto an application called 'Vine'. This ‘Vine’ application can also be linked to Facebook or Twitter.

Over the Christmas period I was struggling to get work experience within the television industry. The companies that got back to me were either too far for me to travel to, or the work would not start until after May time. Every Christmas my family and I would go to my Uncle's to celebrate, and I was talking to one of my cousins about having to find work experience for my final year and he directed me to his cousin, Leslie Wai. I contacted Leslie and he told me he needed a runner to help him with his new music video that he was shooting in London. The music video was shot all around London's iconic places and was directed and produced by himself and Huw Samuel. 

On the day of the shoot, we arranged to meet at 11:00AM at Leicester Square underground station, this is where I met both Leslie Wai and Huw Samuel who took part in the music video. Throughout the day, I was helping them carry the equipment and props all around London. As we met at Leicester Square, we started to film there by the China Town car park, where we set everything up. They filmed using a Canon 550D mounted onto either a tripod or the stedicam and the props that they used consisted of an old fashioned speaker with an iPod Classic, a bag of ‘Mr. Megabyte’ leaflets and a suitcase. We travelled all around Central London to get different shots of the Capital City, as this is where Leslie grew up. We were also talking to members of the public and handing out leaflets to help advertise ‘Mr. Megabyte.’ whilst creating the music video. We travelled to different places by foot, by bus and by tube, which I thought was very convenient seeing as we were only based in Central London. One of the shots towards the end where Huw joined Leslie meant that no one would be behind the camera, but seeing as I was there to help, they asked me to step in. I just had to make sure that the composition was right; making sure the shot size and angles were correct. I offered to help them get some lunch and snacks, so it saves them time to go and buy it whilst they can still carry on with the filming. 

In my opinion I thought the filming went smoothly because there were only three of us, keeping the crew to a minimal amount, so that it would be easier to get around to different areas of Central London. We separated the equipment and props between us, which was just about enough things to carry between us. As all the locations were around Central London we didn't need to travel very far and could just get the tube, bus or to even walk! We managed to spontaneously get a few members of the public to join in with the music video, since we wouldn't know how they would react with Leslie dancing around London trying to interact with them. The majority of the time they reacted with a positive gesture. This video was mainly to help 'Mr. Megabyte' advertise one of his new tracks that he'd produced, talking to different members of the public and giving them leaflets about him and his music. Travel was not a problem for me, as I live in London; it took 30 minutes for me to get into Central London by the underground. The weather was not a problem, the sun was shining and it was dry all afternoon. The music video was all shot in black and white, meaning that the weather didn’t really matter as long as it did not change drastically. Leslie and Huw were very well organised and managed their time very wisely, as they had everything they needed from equipment to props and they also kept to the scheduled plan. I thought the locations they chose were definitely suitable. Seeing as Leslie is British born, his Capital City is London, so for his first music video he wanted something that would represent himself and using London's most famous iconic places worked really well. He had a high angle shot of the London Eye with him positioned just in the centre of the Eye, which was a pretty nice shot and the shot with Big Ben in the background, whilst Leslie and Huw dancing in front of it. The shots were simple and it still made a brilliant video, they used a brick wall and plain wall to get a mix of different backgrounds.

There was not much that went wrong during the shoot; the only major problem was that one of the crew members pulled out last minute, who was originally helping with the shoot. We were initially going to shoot on his GoPro Hero 3+ Silver Edition but unfortunately they couldn't make it. Leslie wanted to use the GoPro to get point of view shots of him handing out leaflets and shots of people watching him dancing around London. We couldn't find a GoPro to replace at such last minute, which was a shame. This meant we had to change the shooting schedule round a little bit. There was one shot I didn't like, towards the end of the video there’s a low angle shot of Leslie dancing, casting a silhouette of him. This shot was slightly different to the rest of the shots, as the whole music video was well lit apart from that silhouette shot. Seeing as it is an up beat music video, I thought that this shot did not fit in. Being in Central London during a sunny afternoon means that there is going to be a lot of people. Filming when it was busy was quite stressful at times, as some people were getting in the way whilst we were filming.

We couldn't really do much about not having the GoPro camera; we just stuck to the one DSLR camera and cut out the point of view shots we were going to include. There was not much I could do about the silhouette shot of Leslie but to just tell him that I didn't really like it. Seeing as he was the one who produced the video. Patience was key, as the Directors decided to film in Central London but some members of the public were polite about it and waited for us to finish the shot, where as others would just rush past.

Triumph In The Skies (衝上雲霄) shoot in London

'Where I think the most work needs to be done is behind the camera, not in front of it.'

On the second day of the shoot, they shot in London instead of Brighton this time, which made it easier for me as I know London better than I do Brighton and I am closer so I didn't have to travel as early. I was standing as an extra again and I was allowed to watch over the same camera operator again. As the Chinese say: ‘一次生, 兩次熟.’ This is a Chinese saying, which literally means first time met as strangers, second meeting as friends. The people there didn’t seem as scary as the first time. The shoot in London didn’t last as long as they Brighton one, as they did not need us for that long for the London scenes. We filmed in Brick Lane and also Mill Hill Studios, which was only a 15 minute journey into Central London. 

Once again, the weather wasn't too great, it was raining in London whilst we were shooting. The cast and crew were running out of time to film in England, as they had to travel back to Asia. 

As I have said before you can't really control the weather forecast, but water proof camera bags and umbrellas did the trick. Luckily the studio they were filming for a different scene was only 15 minutes away, so they managed to get some shelter whilst waiting for the rain to calm down. As they were tight on their time schedule, they were forced to film in the rain. As it is a love story, it would give it more of a romantic feel it it.

Triumph In The Skies (衝上雲霄) shoot in Brighton

Triumph In The Skies (衝上雲霄) is a Hong Kong drama television series that aired in 2003 on TVB, one of the largest commercial Chinese programme producers in the world. After two successful series, in 2014 they created a film adaptation due to be released on February the 19th. During a few days of production on September, I was lucky enough to become an Extra that was shot in Brighton.

I came across a post on Facebook posted by 'JnG Promotions,' a group on Facebook that post Oriental events for young working professionals, which led me to e-mail them as it would be good experience to be on set watching real life crew creating a feature film. My details were then passed onto the Casting Director for Triumph In The Skies (衝上雲霄), I soon got a swift reply from them containing a call sheet and from there onwards I was planning my journey to Brighton.

On the first day the call time was at 7:00AM at Lido park in Brighton, which meant I had to leave London around 4:30AM. Upon arrival, I signed in and filled out a release form, then went straight to the costume department to get changed. Throughout the whole day, there was a lot of sitting and waiting around for instructions. I noticed that the majority of the crew were from Hong Kong, but there was an English Director and English Assistant Directors, as well as a Chinese Director and Chinese Assistant Directors. The Chinese Assistant Directors would help the Director translate instructions to the cast and crew. Around midday we had a little break, which was when I met the English Director. I told him what I did at University and that I was interested in film making, so he asked me if I wanted to speak to the camera operators, as I could get a closer insight on how the film was made and what equipment they were using. Fortunately I could speak Cantonese, so I was able to communicate to them and they asked me if I wanted to shadow for one of the camera operators when I was not needed on set. I then shadowed for the majority of the day, the man who I was shadowing for was using a Red Epic camera with two main lenses, which were; a Zeiss Ultra prime lens and an Angenieux Optimo lens. They also used a DSLR mounted onto a drone to do some aerial shots of the beautiful park we were in. 

Overall, I think that everything went smoothly with a few problems here and there. The aerial shot with the drone only took two takes, which I thought was pretty impressive, as it takes a lot of experience to control a drone perfectly and to maintain a certain height with a impeccable moving shot. All the crew worked hard together to keep the process going, making sure they kept to the schedule. The main cast members were great, they did as they were directed to and only had to re shoot a few of the scenes, just to make sure that they were on point. The crew members were also very organised, they knew what they were doing and sent the actors to the right direction. They booked out a community centre for the dressing room and toilets across the road from the location; they also hired chefs to cook lunch for the cast and crew members. They hired two double decker buses for everyone to take breaks on when needed, also to travel to and from different parts of locations around England. Having a Chinese Assistant Director who was bilingual was important, considering the majority of the crew could only speak Chinese and the majority of the cast could only speak English. This factor is important in the film industry, due to the fact that communication is key and without communication there would be no show. Communication for this film was quick and easy, as the Assistant Director would liaise with the Director and feedback to the rest of the crew and cast immediately. The Director would watch the shot back to see if it was up to his standard and if not then they would re shoot that one shot. The crew knew were experienced enough and knew what they were doing, so the Director rarely did have to re shoot. I managed my time quite well, as I arrived 15 minutes before the call time; this gave me time to greet a few of the cast and crew. Hot food was provided for me during our lunch and also water, tea and biscuits were also provided throughout the day to keep us going and hydrated. When I arrived I met two extras that were also from London and strangely we had a few mutual friends, so luckily I had people to keep me company for the day. The cast and crew that I came across were really helpful and were really friendly; they directed me in the right direction.

The weather was a bit of a problem, even though the weather was beautiful and sunny it was still a bit chilly and cloudy at times. This would affect the continuity editing of the film, if they captured some shots with sun and other shots without sun. Another issue was the travelling, as I had to travel to a place I had never been before and making sure I had plenty of time to spare in case I got lost. I spoke to Amber Kuo, who was one of the lead actresses and she told me it was difficult to communicate with the crew, as she was from China and could only speak Mandarin. The majority of the crew could only speak Cantonese, as it was a film from Hong Kong. Once I arrived at the dressing room, the costume designer thought my clothes I bought did not fit into the theme that they wanted.

The problems that were encountered were immediately fixed with the weather going from sunny to cloudy, we couldn't really do much about that apart from wait for the grey cloud to pass. As the majority of the cast and crew were flown all the way from Hong Kong and China, the weather there is a lot warmer than England, therefore they aren’t as used to the British weather as we are, meaning it felt cold for them. The crew were wrapped up nice and warm, where as the cast had to wear clothing suitable for the theme of the scene. Julian Cheung, one of the main lead actors had to get someone to pass him his dressing gown each time they were not filming, which I personally thought was pretty funny. The communication between Amber Kuo and the Director had to be translated by Julian Cheung funnily enough, as he can speak both of the languages. As my outfits were not up to their standard, they had spare clothes that they had lent me to fit the theme.