Can You Teach Me How to Beat the Bully?

As I left the airplane in St. Paul Minnesota, the frigid temperatures gave me a rude reminder of how cold it was when we went to film our final project. After several unsuccessful attempts of bringing our group together we finally managed it on January 10th. However this was not the beginning of our struggles.
After Mr. Daszenski assigned this project I immediately knew I wanted to work with Eric Chen. We have worked well together in the past and he happens to be a talented actor. I know the difficulties of shooting a film with just two people therefore Andrew In and Isaac Baskin also joined our crew. Our first major difficulty was coming up with a script idea. The difficult part for me is telling a good story in about five minutes. After a week or of confusion a kid at my fencing practice gave me an idea about a kid who gets beat up and goes on a vendetta to train with a kung- fu master to mark his revenge on his enemy. However, instead of being successful, the kid gets beat up again. I liked this idea even though the kung-fu idea is a little over used. I wrote the screenplay the night I got home from practice.
After writing the screenplay I showed it to the other group members. As a group we only changed a few ideas around and set our date to film.
While I felt our communication via text messaging was effective it obviously wasn’t. The day before we were supposed to film two of the group members said they had swim meets. We had to postpone it to the 10th which would only give me 4 days to edit.

When I woke up on Sunday January 10th I checked the temperature. Twenty-one degrees Fahrenheit with an eight-degree wind chill. I left the house around noon with my camera, tripod, props, costumes, and additional warm clothing. We planed to meet in town by Geno’s Pizzeria. Andrew was the first one to show up, it turned out he walked as well. As we waited for Eric and Isaac, Andrew and I purchased some awfully stale gummy worms. About twenty minutes later Eric shows up. He came from a swim meet and haircut. After getting impatient, I called Isaac on his home phone number. I spoke to his mother and told her he had a project to do today. He was sleeping but he said he would meet us at Grace Avenue Park, the site of our first shooting location.
After I finished the script, I thought long and hard about our locations. However, after several snow storms and production delays I limited my locations to a few places in Great Neck New York.
The first scene required Yoshi (Eric Chen) to be sitting on a park bench. However, I felt that the swing set would be more suitable. This would be the opening shot of the film. I wanted to show that he was alone, and with no allies. While editing this shot I threw in a sparrow tweet. I’m trying to compare Yoshi to a defenseless little Sparrow. That was the intention, I’m not sure if it worked.
As we began our shooting, Eric discovered it was awfully to cold to wear just a T-shirt. Fortunately, I brought an Under Armor long sleeve shirt. Eric was sincerely appreciative. However, our hands were still freezing. I could not operate the camera with my big Snowboarding mittens. Also, it would look awkward if any of the actors wore gloves so we stuck our hands in our pockets at every opportunity.
Isaac finally arrived and we were all very happy. Except when I realized I left the tripod plate at home in my other camera bag. I spontaneously ran home from the park. The distance was not to bad, maybe ¾ of a mile but I did not want to waste time. I felt like the Lola in Run Lola Run trying to deliver the money to Manni, except I was not delivering money, just a little piece of plastic.
Most of the park filming went very well. We did not stay entierly to the script because we were coming up with new and better ideas. Eric is a great improviser. For example, in the shot where Yoshi is walking with Master Shoebee (Andrew), the Master explains what Yoshi what he will learn and Eric improvises the body motions. They were great and add a lot to the shot.
My inspiration for the training scene was from the South Park Episode Make Love not Warcraft. Their scene utilizes Paul Stanley’s song Live to Win. I used Live to Win as well. I felt the music choice was very appropriate, yet slightly ironic after you view the whole film.
The training scene was completely unscripted. While I did have a vision in my head I wrote nothing down. I knew that the parameters of what we could do would be completely dependant of our location. But before we shot anything, our group took a trip to Dunkin Doughnuts for some much needed warmth. I ordered a medium coffee with milk and sugar. It was delicious.
I believe a lot of the training shots went well. Eric and Andrew did a great job. We had to do many takes, especially on the jungle gym at Wingate Park. I want to give some kudos to Eric for running so much and doing so many pushups, over and over again. I tried to use a lot of cuts and different angles in this scene. There was one shot where Eric goes down a slide and kicks ice into my face. While this was completely unplanned, I think it looks good on camera.
One of the most spontaneous things we did in our production was shoot inside Waldbaums super market. I think this was Isaac’s or Andrew’s idea. The plan was to lift some heavy turkeys and punch (aka tenderize) some meat. We only got to the turkey lifting scene before we were kicked out by the store manager. I knew it was not a good idea, but I’m glad we did not get arrested or have our tape taken away. I think it was because Andrew looked ridiculous in his outfit. Does this count as a stolen scene?
The final shot of the training scene is Yoshi pushing a car. Pushing a car is not and easy task, and I believe this shot effectively shows Yoshi’s progress. Thank you too Issac for supplying our motor vehicle needs. There were no laws broken.
The last scene is when Yoshi attempts to get revenge on the Bully ( Isaac Baskin). This is where I have my director’s cameo. I’m standing by the Bully and run away when I see the well trained Yoshi approaching. It was getting dark by now and I wanted to finish this scene as soon as possible. I also found the location to be quite good. I wanted something industrial looking and a little sketchy. However this sketchy looking parking lot was not my first choice. I really wanted the east end of the platform at the Great Neck train station. However, I concluded that this may be unsafe and I did not want to get millions of awkward looks. Also, it would be bad if someone called the police thinking that Eric was really getting beat up. Therefore, I felt a secluded spot was our best bet.
I like MC Hammer’s You Cant Touch This for any fight scene. It always fits in well and is a little humorous. After finishing the film, someone pointed out that Yoshi’s initial punches are actually in sync with the music. That was completely unintentional. I felt that Eric should not get beat up immediately, but I knew the length of the scene had to be limited due to the time constraints. Yoshi gets a few good punches off on the Bully. But after the Bully hits his head on the metal door it all goes downhill for Yoshi. After several punches Yoshi is on the floor, knocked out. That is the end of the film. I added some sad music from The Last Samurai, which will hopefully incite emotion in the audience. After I saw the final copy of this scene I almost cried!
As a Director, I had final cut privileges. I used Final Cut Pro 6 to edit my movie. This platform gave me the opportunity to edit the audio and articulate the film to my liking. I could have used iMovie but I don’t know how to use that consumer garb. Editing is one of the most time consuming processes. First you need to import it, select what shot you want and arrange them, cut them, rearrang them, and cut them again, and again, add sound effects, and then you not even done. As an editor your job is to tell the story as the Director envisions it. Since I was both, I knew exactly how my story was supposed to turn out. I spent 2-3 hours a day for 4 days working on this project. I would not spend so much so much time on it if I did not enjoy it. To do a good job you need to enjoy what your doing and I did. I always look for opportunities to practice my editing skills.
While editing I elected to have my credits in the beginning of the film. Who watches the credits at the end of the movie anyway? I sure don’t! I think credits are a little more dramatic in the front. After Yoshi has his money stolen hope rises in the film, he meets Master Shoebee and trains hard. However, Yoshi’s failure will help avoid the cliché ending of the hero always winning.
We used many cinematic techniques in this film. The one most obvious and most frequently used is the Dissolve. I edited this short film on Final Cut Pro 6 and I believe there are at least 24 Dissolves of all different lengths and types. The shortest Dissolve lasts one second and the longest lasts two and a half. A dissolve is used instead of a jump cut to help smooth the transition between one shot and the next. I primarily used Cross Dissolves, which fade one shot into the next.
The next technique we used frequently are low angle shots. These shots are supposed to show a character of dominance or that they are powerful. Each character in the film at some point receives a low angle shot.
Another type of angled shot I used is a Canted or Dutch angled shot. This is when the camera is tilted to the side to show distortion. I used it as one of the last shots in my film when the Bully beats Yoshi. In most films of this genre the good guy wins but in Can You Teach Me How to Beat the Bully the bad guy prevails. The Canted angle show Yoshi’s defeat and the irony in the story.
To help tell our story we employed the use of Long shots, Close ups and Medium shots. Close ups helped us display some of the characters facial expressions. Long shots helped give a lot of information about the location while Medium shots were quite basic.
While some filmmakers advise never to use the zoom function on the camera. I did use it once as a cinematic technique. I zoomed in from a medium shot to a close up on Yoshi’s face to highlight his facial expression when the Bully approaches him.
I used many Pans to help keep the actors in frame while they were running or walking. One special one I used was during the final fight sequence between Yoshi and the Bully. I Dollied around Yoshi with the camera and went to the Bully’s 1st person view of Yoshi. I had the opportunity to use and actual StediCam, however, it would be very time consuming resetting the weights for this new camera and it is unlikely my audience would appreciate it.
Thanks to Final Cut I was able to slow a shot down by 70%. I used this technique in the shots where Yoshi is defeated and falls to the ground. The plan was to help influence and highlight the emotional effect for the viewer at that specific moment in the film. I think it was quite effective.
I believe there was quite a synergy in this group. Filming went very well, which contributed to a fantastic product. I enjoyed this final project and I hope my peers did as well. I hope our viewers enjoy our film.