"V" The True Life of a Vampire

Our group worked very well on the mocumentary "V" : The True Life of a Vampire because we were a good team together. Each of us did not have specific roles - we all contributed a little bit to everything. Grace does lean more towards the cinematographer and editor role, Sonoko leans more towards the cinematographer role, I lean more toward the story-maker/director role, and Linda leans more toward the comical aspects and idea-giving role. Overall, we were all great at providing different, new ideas and suggestions which is very important when working on a grand production like this.

During the pre-production, we decided on what kind of film we will make. Then we made a storyboard to think of a nice establishing shot. We jotted down some ideas that we can use to film during the production. New and better ideas were suggested when we were actually filming and producing which led us to have excess amounts of clips. During the post-production, we met at my house to edit the clips, put them together, and add music. Grace was the one using the mouse doing her thing and we were all by her side helping and suggesting. It was very fun deciding on which songs to use for different scenes.

At first, we were inspired by the rubik's cube documentary. Since Twilight and ideas about handsome vampires were such a big part of todays teens' culture, we decided to make a mocumentary on this idea. The plot was to show that vampires in movies are ridiculously fantasized and that in reality they are very much like us. The irony is that they are not like us at all. We used some of Fritz Lang's ideas to show this irony. For example, the "crotch shot" during the scene where I am watching television to warn the viewers not to get too close to the characters and to not believe everything in this mocumentary. Also, in the scene where i am taking out the bottle of red juice, there is pure silence to build up tension as if the red juice was blood but I tell the viewers that vampires are not obsessed with blood, it's just red juice!

I think our film builds up good reasons to prove that vampires are like human beings but at the same time are not. That is why viewers may be confused and think it's pointless after watching it but we like to call this avant-garde. The first few scenes are to show how vampires hunt, are not tree climbers which was a fact in Twilight, and also how they do a not-so-normal butt dance when slipping in the snow while hunting even though the point of showing the butt dance was to prove that vampires make mistakes too. Then the hair sniffing scene was necessary to show that vampires have a keen sense of smell which is not a normal human aspect but the texting scene evens it out because a normal teenager texts all day every day. Finally, the home scenes were necessary to show that vampires are not obsessed with blood, but still do drink blood: Linda humming to herself while licking her nose blood (Yuck!). The "sun tanning" scene was used to wrap up the film and show that it is true that vampires are pale but they don't have a problem with it. They are happy with themselves and have been trying to fit in with the other human beings for thousands of years.

We tried to use many different types of angles and shots. The long shots and low angle shots were memorable for me in the hunting scenes because it depicts the distance of a vampire to a human being. Later on, more close ups are added but the crotch shot still keeps that distance. We also have a semi-match cut when Linda makes a thinking gesture with her finger, and slowly dissolves into me removing my finger from my nose to preach the viewers. Also, Grace's idea to use the camera under the glass table to film Linda doing her work was something different.

My favorite scene from the film was when Linda hums while licking her nose bleed which is not human like but still continuing her work which his human like. I don't have a deep reason for why i like this scene - i like it because it's funny! The whole film was filled with awkward moments which I find very funny. I hope the viewers enjoy awkward comedy too because it's not hard to understand; just watch and laugh!