[The Making of the film]

An Interview of
An Ordinary Mannequin

"It is not easy to stand on the stage" -Mr. Mannequin

For this crazy film, I spent more than 40hrs.
It may sounds scary to everyone; however, the 40hours includes:
preparation works, idea developing, the real filming works and post production.

First, the preparation works
include doing research on digital cameras
a Canon EOS Rebel XT, its lens, filters, high speed CF card,
a stable tripod are things that I get for both this project and further digital photo fun.
all the camera technical research(includes on line and try them in stores, about 4hrs),
price field research(includes went to Fry's every weekday afternoon,4days total, about 10hr),
Ads research(0.5hr), read 3 digital camera magazines
while waiting on lines for thanksgiving next day sale at CompUSA(6hrs)
brought mannequin and thick color paper(Blue and Neon-Green),
and a polyester board for the stage.(about 0.2hr)

Then, for idea research, I re-watched 7 movies
(about more than 16hours in total)
1."Madagascar"2."Cyote Ugly"3."She Creature"
4."Pitch Black"5."The Chronicles of Riddick"
6."Doom" 7"Finding Neverland"
I get alot from the first 2 movies though the others are helpful too.
I even think of combine things into the scenes
(that's why I bought the Blue and Neon-Green color paper)
I discarded may ideas because of technical difficulty

Finally , when equipments and ideas are ready.
(I didn't have a clear story script by the time)
I fund my premiere pro tryout version has expired!
I download several other "tryouts," and finaly I got one which is working..
I can barely read it because it is simplified-Chinese version.
(I read traditional-Chinese and my windows can't
display simplified-Chinese properly.)
So I spent some time on figuring out which button is what function.
pregram ready(find and try) time about 2 waked hour
(and unknow sleeping hour for download)

On the "open-camera day",
I shot and photoshoping the "worst thing in the world"
that mannequin was blinded by the light and attack by tissue box
(or attack by an art student who was I/me)
it took me about more than 3 hours.
since I had not enough sleep, my brain works in a low speed.
so I did the rest of other shots later.

I played the mannequin during the two days
(from open camera to final shot day)
to find "all possible poses" on this mannequin.
so that I can filter out some impossible patterns.
(about 2 hours of total playing time with the mannequin,
I also thought of the "pain in the ass" pattern while play with it)

the final shots took me about 5hours.
I'm so lucky(or well prepared?) that I don't have any need of re-shoot
(I spent 3 nights(about 12hours) for shoot and re-shoot on last video project)
after all the photo were taken, I start photoshop works.
(and finding barbie's picture for the barbie part)

Then, I spent 2 nights (about 9hours)
for editing the 655 still images and 54 subtitles(includes title)
in the simplified-Chinese version of premiere pro 1.5

After all, it is a 80% finished film(to me)
and I think it really needs more works on refining the subtitle and film speed.
Since I check dictionary a lot during writing the subtitles,
I guess I may have less typos or spelling problems
It may takes 4 to 18 hours to refine this film
for a quality eligible for a short film competition.

well, I guess I'll have tons of time this winter.
maybe I can do something fun on this project or other film.

p.s: I was thinking about to record all conversation,
but, consider my accent may ruin the film in some way,
I didn't record any voice after all.