Two different genre of my film. Birth and Death by Scrabble.

In my MA phase, I have done two films. One is Birth, it tells a story about a man was saved and asked to help save his relationship with his girlfriend. The story is written by my friend Roy. It is a little complex because there are 4 actors in the film and I just explain 3 actors' relationship by some actions and dialogue.

The Death by Scrabble is telling a story about a mid-aged man wants to make his wife die and they are playing the scrabble game. The story is written by Charlie Fish. It got 2 actors and in the same room so it is easier than the first one.

To compare the two films:

From the directing:

In "Birth", the actors are both Chinese, so I can direct them easily. I make a rehearsal before I start to shoot, that can help a lot to find out which part I need to consider more. Also I teach the actors to use body language to express feelings, but it is not enough.

In "Death by Scrabble", the actor is from Greece, sometimes there are some misunderstandings of the words, but finally when I show the action to the actors, they can understand. So the body language in this film is including in the whole film.

From the story:

In "Birth", the story is written by my friend Roy, the relationship is complex, it is more like a Chinese story. In the film maybe the relationship is not clear enough, sometimes it will make the actor feel confused.

In "Death by Scrabble", the story is very clear. However, the problem is I need to find a way to express the actor's inner feelings.

From the camera position:

In "Birth", I use a lot of long shots to display the actions made by actors, some close shot to express the expressions on actor's face to show their body language.

In "Death by Scrabble", I use a lot of close up shots and close shots, it is useful for creating a tense situation. The close up shots can express actions well.

From the editing:

In "Birth", I think the color grading is light because it is a romance genre, also some body language in it. So the color in this film is light.

In "Death by Scrabble", I think I can use color grading to create suspense, meanwhile the use of body language works well.

To conclude, the two films are different from genre. At first I try to focus on body language, so I shoot the "Birth". After shooting I find out it can't express body language well. So I find the story "Death by Scrabble" and begin to finish the film. The "Death by Scrabble" I decide to avoid using dialogue and voice-over, just using body language for story telling. It works,and I have tested it with some audiences, the body language can improve the suspense in the film.