Every year we did something different on April Fool's
And each year, we get a bit more ambitious
For this year, I knew I wanted to film something
But with limited time, limited budget, and various Covid precautions
The project has to be small
So, a fake movie in a fake video essay sounds feasible
[IDEA]
I knew from the beginning that it'll have to be a fake documentary
That way, I can justify having only one location and one character
Which would make the film shoot a lot easier
I also knew it'll have to be a Chinese documentary
Because most people subscribed to us for Asian cinema content
I knew everyone expects to learn something factual
In this case, the negative side effects of the economic reform
Lastly, I have to write it quickly in a tight schedule
Which is why I turned to the genre I'm most familiar with
Horror
With these limitations in mind
The rest is just a lot of idea grinding
Well, I said "a lot"
But the idea surprisingly came to me rather quickly
No idea where the concept originated from
It just came to me
[LOCATION]
Going into production
We only have one day to shoot
And by one day, I mean 5 hours
We didn't even get to see the location beforehand
It was an Airbnb
We just checked in, set up our equipment
Moved some furnitures around
And winged it from there
These interview shots?
We had to remove this table
And turn this couch around to get this angle
The BnB host lives downstair
Thank god she didn't find out
[CAMERA]
Since we were faking a movie
We needed a cinema-quality camera
So, Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera it is
Yep, that is an SSD on top of a monitor on top of the camera
It's a low-cost camera
But it doesn't mean the image quality is bad
It just means it's less versatile
A typical cinema camera can look good
All the way up to light sensitivity of 8000 ISO, if not more
Blackmagic, I'd say, looks good only at a maximum of 1600
But as long as we keep its sensitivity low
We can still achieve cinema-quality visual
We just need more lights
So we shot in the day instead of night
The Blackmagic does have its own set of advantages, too
For example, you don't need a whole team of people to operate it
Sometimes, because of the room layout
We have to put the camera on the bed
With a small camera, we can just grab this... door thing?
And put the camera on top
That, right here, is filmmaking
All of your favorite movies are made
With endless duct tapes and garbage bags
[LIGHTS]
Lighting was equally low cost
Typical film lights have a power output
Of anywhere from 500 to 5000 watts
The LED panels we used are more like...
200 watts equivalent, if that
While the luminosity is enough for modern cameras
It does, once again, limit our options
That is a shame, because a well-placed light
Is enough to make an empty wall look interesting
It's the difference between a vlog video
And a film production
Luckily, my cinematographer is always efficient
Even with limitation
[CHINESE FOOTAGE]
Halfway through writing the script
I realized I'll need to have Chinese footage
So, I put out a call for Chinese videographers
And basically got overwhelmed by the number of responses
Big thanks to everyone who responded
Despite this being a... shall we say, less than glamourous project
Our videographer nevertheless captured some stunning footage
Multiple takes per shot requested
And some additional shots that weren't requested at all
Dude, I have no idea how you managed to know what I need
But I really appreciate it
All in all, 90GB worth of footage was filmed
And it took something like 8 hours to get them across the Earth
We had to find a Chinese cloud storage
And I had to route the whole thing through a Hong Kong VPN
Let's take a few more seconds to appreciate them
[EDIT & COLOR]
It's so nice to be able to hold onto shots for longer than 5 seconds
Most of the clips are original footage
I can show them at length without fearing copyright issues
A few comments pointed out how the editing feels better than usual
And I think that's the reason
I just have way more creative control over the project
Still, with just a 5-hour shoot
We didn't capture everything we needed
So, we have to throw in quite a few stock clips
This shot, for example, is stock footage
I change the sweater to match the character's costume
And hide the shot even more with some glitches
Speaking of color
Originally, we were looking for a colder color palette
Similar to An Elephant Sitting Still
But the location we booked ended up having a much warmer tone
So we ended with a warm and low contrast visual
As you can see, a simple color grade can change the footage a lot
[VFX]
Another thing we have to do is the video glitch
The thing that gives this video its identity
It's a process called "datamoshing"
I won't be going into details here
Simply put, I used some outdated software
To delete frames from videos
Without those frames
The files don't know when a cut is made
So, old pixels stay longer than they should
It required a lot of tinkering to get it to feel right
But I think the result is worth it
The intention is to mess with your head
Making you question what you see
That said, because of the tight production schedule
Not everything was perfect
The VR goggle we used, when turned on
Would light up like a Christmas tree
We didn't have the processing unit, so...
The plan was to add the LED lights in post
That means doing all these lights frame by frame
My cinematographer told me to ignore it
And focus on more important parts
I think she was right
[CONCLUSION]
After everything
This overly elaborate joke caused about 1000 Canadian dollars
I will never be able to recoup the money spent on this video
But the reaction I got from you all is priceless
It may just be a short video
But we treated it as if it were a film production
From the actors to the crew
To people who offered help
Everyone who participated in this project put in their best effort
And, judging from people's genuine disappointment
When they found out the film isn't real
I guess the grind was a successful one
In a way, it's very flattering