Daffodils

Daffodils was the first ever project where my sole focus was cinematography. The story is about the life of a young woman in the 1960s, trying to escape the oppression and expectations for women to be perfect housewives and mothers, through a magical daffodil.

I was drawn to this project due to its beautiful writing and feminist themes. Through this experience, I’ve gained a deeper-found-appreciation for women-led stories and period pieces.

We shot on a canon 800D with my own Sigma 18-35mm 1.8 lens. There was a lot of moving between 6 scenes in 2 days, including 3 exterior locations. I worked closely with my 1st AC and Gaffer.

It was the director and I’s first time directing and shooting, and we had a lot of fun experimenting and planning---including switching the aspect ratio between 16:9 and 4:3 throughout the film to create a trippy transition effect.

Though we were still unexperienced and had to compensate time for continuity and sound on set--- which made the editing process more difficult.

But these mistakes have taught me that as a cine, I need to think in detail but also the bigger picture. I have since learnt to utilise longer takes to minimise set ups to save more time.

We also had issues with monitoring the footage and tracking shots since we didn’t have a gimbal or field monitor at the time. I had to use a makeshift stabiliser with my camera strap and just trust the LCD screen when we were outside in the sun.

Since then, I’ve bought my own monitor and have learnt how to use various camera stabilisers. Thankfully, my kit is more complete now and my shots have been looking much more stable.

Making Daffodils had introduced me to my favourite piece of software, Davinci Resolve--- and I have fell in love with the process of colour grading since then.

I have found that the process of colour grading similar to photo editing and painting, which my alternative to meditation in my adolescence.

Learning the work flow between Davinci Resolve and Premiere Pro under time pressure was also a testament to my technical problem solving skills and attention to details.