Dario's+Film+Reflections...

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**Dario's Film Reflections**

__Bad Cop (2011)__
Bad Cop was filmed exactly on the 25th and on the 31st of March 2011. It was the first film I made entirely by myself, and it was supposed to be a tribute to Hong Kong cinema. I believe, after having worked for the whole research+film for 3 weeks, this film was the best one I made so far for Film Studies. I came up with the story after watching 3 films: //Hard Boiled//, //Infernal Affairs// and //In The Mood For Love.// I used these films to come up with a draft for a potential tribute to H.K. cinema. The first draft came very quickly: a policeman has to kill a gang, he succeeds to do so, but the big difference with what I made later was that I planned to include a female actress for the final scene. In the final scene, the policeman was supposed to have dinner with a lady possibly dressed up in a //cheongsam//. The final scene changed because none of my female classmates/friends were able to take part in the film. So I made a film only with actors. I made Lok Chan play the role of the cop, Tan Yong Jun as the police superintendent and David Park, Derek Mui and Josiah Seet as the members of the gang. The whole film was shot in and outside school. **What I did right**
 * //Lighting//. Mr. Reich made me use 3 different types of lighting for this film. I succeeded in doing so, by filming two scenes outdoor and one indoors. Since I was the only one working for it, I asked David and Derek to help me with it. In my opinion, considering that I was the only one working for this if we count out the actors and that it was necessary that I had to use three types of lighting per scene, I believe I have reasonably well.
 * //Camera shots & angles//. Using a tripod for the first time made my film look very neat.
 * //Choice of actors//. I have previously worked with Lok Chan and with Josiah Seet, and so I could trust them for the film. I have chosen my actors well, I doubt they need any negative comment.
 * //Story/Plot//. The story was, in my opinion, 100% Hong Kong. I found the theme of friendship between colleagues a lot in //Hard Boiled// and //Infernal Affairs//.


 * What I did wrong, also referred as What I could have done better**
 * //Guns//. Instead of using BB guns or proper guns, I went for toy guns, which included an imitation of the common Nerf gun. This made the film's shooting scene a little bit comic and unrealistic. To be fair, I didn't want the shooting scene to be "serious". H.K.cinema is also known for action comedies after all, and so I thought that using toy guns along with a slice of comedic entertainment would have made the film look good. Was I right? 50% yes and 50% no. My classmates liked the film while the year 13s looked a bit perplexed by it, probably because they are used to their classmates films. But, I still think I did good job. So maybe in the future I'll use BB guns, because they are more similar to the real guns.
 * //Mise en scene//. Again, like in the Film Noir, I did not think too well about this and so if you watch the video you can see a map of the school cafeteria in the shooting scene. The fact that the film was shot in school shows how I was tempted to take off any poster/image that would recall a school, but I was blocked because I thought it was illegal. This means I either need more courage while filming in school, or, I need a better location where I can break stuff without being suspended.

As a conclusion, what I have to do for my next film will be
 * 1) Look at mise-en-scene.
 * 2) Use proper props for the scenes.