In this collaborative project, my main responsibilities included story design, cinematography, compositing, editing, and sound design. I mainly focused on controlling rhythm and emotion to enhance the overall sense of immersion in the film.
Cinematography
For cinematography, I used a Sony FX3 with a stabilizer to complete all shot recordings. I also handled lighting setup and captured HDRI environment maps on set. For certain shots, I deliberately used exaggerated focal lengths, such as ultra-wide angles, to enhance both dramatic effect and storytelling power.
Background Creation
In the middle part of the film, I used Unreal Engine to build the background for a fully CG sequence. This ensured that the character models and visual effects were consistent with the intended atmosphere and design of the project.
Compositing
During post-production, I completed around 90% of the VFX compositing in Nuke, focusing mainly on colour consistency, depth of field, masking, and subtle camera shake effects.
Editing
In editing, I focused on the progression of emotions and the contrast before and after emotional release. The build-up was mainly driven by the rhythm of the background music and the gradual increase in intensity. To reinforce the tension, I layered environmental and special sound effects such as hurricane and thunder sounds.
After the conflict ended, I shifted the colour grading in the latter half from a cool, bluish tone to a warm orange tone, symbolising a transition from despair and loss to hope and vitality.
Reflection
One of the most noticeable issues we faced during this project occurred after shooting, when I created a rough cut for the VFX artists to work on. Due to my lack of experience and poor communication, the VFX artists were not clear about which sections of the video they should apply effects to. As a result, many of them started working from the first frame of each clip, which meant several effects did not appear in the right places within the footage. This caused significant problems in post-editing and production. I consider this a major collaboration error and a lesson I will carry forward into my future career to avoid repeating.