Hafsa Imran talks about palmistry and its possible effects on people from a psychological perspective. She explains how palmistry can negatively effect people's minds if they believe that the lines in their palm control their life and start relying on palm reading.
Monday, 20 February 2012
Thursday, 9 February 2012
Professor Amjad Waheed's Interview.
The complete interview was 38 minutes long with a lot of details and elaboration. But since we have to make a short documentary with very brief and to the point information, we selected parts of the interview which we thought were suitable enough for our documentary and compiled them together in one video using Windows Movie Maker.
The interview is in Urdu language, so we recorded a voice over for it in English. The voice over was recorded in the handy cam that we have used throughout the production. The audio was upload on SoundCloud. The link to the voice clip: AW Interview Voice Over
Posted by Shahbano.
Monday, 6 February 2012
DAY 2
FINAL SHOOT - Interview
LOCATION: University of Management and Technology
At 9a.m, Shahbano and I left for our final interview shoot. Through a reference, we got to know about Professor Amjad Waheed, who is a professionally trained palmist, and has excelled in the Dept. of Islamic thought and Civilisation. We decided to interview him as he could relate palmistry to our religion, Islam and thus, would be perfect for our documentary.
We wanted to shoot the interview in his office so that we could show that he his a professor in a university. We took 10 minutes to test the lighting, background, angle and sound. We had a friend with us who helped us in the set up. We made him sit on Dr. Amjad Waheed's seat. There was a window with blinds on the left side. We thought that it would be a good idea to use the natural light. So we switched off the lights to keep half the face dark and sunlight on the other half.
The angle didn't work out. When the subject looks at the camera, the face tilts a bit too much, making the shadow cover the face.
This angle was showing some problems too. We had zoomed in the camera a lot. We also tried to change the settings of the blind but it didnt turn out to work. abgle,shadow
We placed the camera in the front now. The blinds were set evenly. Half of the face was covered in shadow. The person would be a little on the left side of the frame. Natural light actually looked good and the shadow of the blinds gave a nice and soft effect.
We chose the office to shoot our interview because then we could avoid the noise as well. The room was quiet and the sound was captured perfectly. We used our previous technique and placed our 2nd handy cam on the side of the table so that the voice could be recorded perfectly. We tested the lights, sound capturing, background and angles before hand so that when we call in Dr. Amjad Waheed, we could start our interview right away. We also brought our tripod with us so that we could avoid the problems that we faced on the previous day.
After our final set up, we called Dr. Amjad for the final interview. We asked him about:
FINAL SHOOT - Interview
LOCATION: University of Management and Technology
At 9a.m, Shahbano and I left for our final interview shoot. Through a reference, we got to know about Professor Amjad Waheed, who is a professionally trained palmist, and has excelled in the Dept. of Islamic thought and Civilisation. We decided to interview him as he could relate palmistry to our religion, Islam and thus, would be perfect for our documentary.
We wanted to shoot the interview in his office so that we could show that he his a professor in a university. We took 10 minutes to test the lighting, background, angle and sound. We had a friend with us who helped us in the set up. We made him sit on Dr. Amjad Waheed's seat. There was a window with blinds on the left side. We thought that it would be a good idea to use the natural light. So we switched off the lights to keep half the face dark and sunlight on the other half.
The angle didn't work out. When the subject looks at the camera, the face tilts a bit too much, making the shadow cover the face. 
This angle was showing some problems too. We had zoomed in the camera a lot. We also tried to change the settings of the blind but it didnt turn out to work. abgle,shadowWe placed the camera in the front now. The blinds were set evenly. Half of the face was covered in shadow. The person would be a little on the left side of the frame. Natural light actually looked good and the shadow of the blinds gave a nice and soft effect.
We chose the office to shoot our interview because then we could avoid the noise as well. The room was quiet and the sound was captured perfectly. We used our previous technique and placed our 2nd handy cam on the side of the table so that the voice could be recorded perfectly. We tested the lights, sound capturing, background and angles before hand so that when we call in Dr. Amjad Waheed, we could start our interview right away. We also brought our tripod with us so that we could avoid the problems that we faced on the previous day.
After our final set up, we called Dr. Amjad for the final interview. We asked him about:
- His introduction
- His general view on palmistry
- The conflict of believes
- The authenticity
- The technical aspects
- Other paranormal sciences
- Palmistry with reference to religion
- Examples and facts to prove his opinion
- Suggesting people how to judge palmistry
Posted by Ifrah.
Saturday, 28 January 2012
Segment 3: Public Opinion
Our survey video for the research on palmistry gave an interesting variety of responses. Therefore, we decided to use it for the public response in our documentary. However, the video and sound quality is poor and there is a lot of background noise.
We have used only the relative part of this video in our documentary.
We have used only the relative part of this video in our documentary.
Thursday, 26 January 2012
Segment 2: The Street Palmist
Before we begin with our discussion on the topic; Palmistry, we thought it would be better to introduce it to the audience first. We wanted to show a stereotypical perspective that majority of us have about Palmistry in this country. So we went to the place where all these "fake" fortune tellers or charlatan are found. We were surprised to see so many of them sitting on the footpath with their boards and stuff.
As we had to shoot the scene, we took a friend of ours, Hamza Khan, with us to be the client. Hamza could also be seen in another part of our documentary where we took the public opinion. Hamza was dressed in shalwar kameez to represent the local majority which avails such services.
THE MAKING
This was a test shot. We were checking the zoom of the handy cam. The zoom button when pushed, zoomed in or out very quickly. So in order to zoom out slowly, it had to be controlled carefully to keep the zoom smooth and steady. The surface was uneven, so we had to adjust the tripod properly to avoid any jerky movement or a canted shot.
This shot is similar to the first test shot. We recorded it again to ensure we were doing it right. However, we used this shot in our video because the hand gestures of the palmist give a more realistic impression to the viewer.
This is an over the shoulder shot of the palmist just as we have drawn on our storyboard. It was a fairly easy shot. We managed to zoom out properly in our first attempt.
The knob of the tripod was too tight, which caused friction and irregularity in the pan movement. Also, Hamza Khan, the palmist's client, turned his head around which caused the entire shot to be certainly unnatural.
The second attempt at this shot was not as much a fail. The pan movement was smooth and steady. So it was an acceptable shot.
We wanted to take a shot of the client's hands so that his lines could be shown clearly. In this particular shot, Hamza's hand was half covered by the palmist's hand and so the lines were not prominent.
This is a pan movement to show the client's face, but Hamza smiled by mistake
and the camera didn't pan smoothly so we couldn't use this shot.
We zoomed out from Hamza's close up to mid shot. The way he nods while listening to the palmist seems very natural so we decided to use this shot.
We took this shot to introduce the palmist by showing his board. However, we used only first 2 seconds in slow motion.
This shot was unnecessary. The angle was not correct as Hamza's hand could not be seen clearly.
We tracked the camera from top to bottom but it didn't seem to work because it took quite a few seconds to cover the subject (Hamza's head to hand). We couldn't use such a long shot because of out time limit.
This shot was not very hard to capture and we nailed it at out first try.
This is the ending shot of the first scene. Hamza was not in the middle of the frame plus the camera did not zoom out at the right time.
Posted by Shahbano and Ifrah
Monday, 23 January 2012
Segment 1: Location
Now that the story board is ready, we have to film our shots. We our beginning the documentary with introducing the primary location i.e. the city of Lahore. Thus, we decided to film the main historic monuments of Lahore i.e. the citadel of Lahore, the Shahi Qilla (aka Lahore Fort) and the Badshahi Masjid.
So we took the storyboard and the handy cam and went to the Walled City Lahore, where these great monuments are located. Ifrah didnt want to do the camera work so I filmed the shots while Ifrah explained them to me as they were written in the storyboard.
The structure of the Lahore Fort is so huge that i couldnt fit the whole of it in the frame. However, I crossed the barbed wire, securing the Hazuri Bagh and somehow managed to capture most of it.
So we took the storyboard and the handy cam and went to the Walled City Lahore, where these great monuments are located. Ifrah didnt want to do the camera work so I filmed the shots while Ifrah explained them to me as they were written in the storyboard.
The structure of the Lahore Fort is so huge that i couldnt fit the whole of it in the frame. However, I crossed the barbed wire, securing the Hazuri Bagh and somehow managed to capture most of it.
It wasnt easy to shoot how we had planned. We shot each shot 4 to 5 times until we got it perfectly.
This was my first try to take this shot. I was trying to pan it slowly to give it some time to show properly in the video, but the pan wasn't smooth at all which looked inappropriate. Also, as i was filming, the pedestrians showing in the frame interrupted the shot. Thus, the first try was clearly a fail.
This was my second try at this shot. This time there were no pedestrians in the shot and it was relatively better than the previous one. However, the pan movement was still jerky. So we decided to try again until we could get it right.
This time I panned it quickly to keep the movement steady with minimum jerks possible. Fortunately, i achieved a smooth pan, however, it was a bit fast. But we thought it was good enough for it had to appear only for a few seconds at the most.
This was the third and successful attempt. The pan movement wasnt too jerky so it was a pretty much acceptable shot.
Next, we moved on to film the other great monument, the Badshahi Masjid, which is situated opposite the Fort.
We wanted to film the Masjid, but the security guards didnt let us take the handy cam and the tripod inside. So we shot the entrance of the Masjid instead. There wasnt much space in front of the structure so I took the shot from the side. Coincidentally, it was exactly how we had drawn it on the storyboard.
We wanted to film the Masjid, but the security guards didnt let us take the handy cam and the tripod inside. So we shot the entrance of the Masjid instead. There wasnt much space in front of the structure so I took the shot from the side. Coincidentally, it was exactly how we had drawn it on the storyboard.
This was the first attempt. The shot was fine except for the electricity pole that messed it up at end.
This was the second attempt. The shot was interrupted by the pedestrian's head walking by, so we had to take it again.
Posted by Shahbano Tariq
Thursday, 19 January 2012
Story board!
Never drawn a story board before. But, Yayy! we have Google! our first "fail" attempt at the story board looked more like a 'bored-during-a-lecture-doodling'. Nevertheless, we searched Google for a few samples of story boards, and realised what we were actually suppose to do i.e we have to draw every single shot exactly how we want to shoot it, along with explaining its camera angle, camera movement, lighting, sound and the transition effect. We drew a rough draft of our shots and at last began to properly sketch our new and much better story board.
Fortunately, Ifrah and I, we both are good at art so drawing our scenes wasn't really an issue for us. In fact we enjoyed drawing. Our storyboard turned out to be pretty interesting, as per the feedback we got after a small presentation on our storyboard explaining to the rest of the class how we wish to begin and proceed with our documentary.
Once the drawings were complete, the hard part began. We weren't so sure of the shots and angles and transitions that we could use. So we watched some documentaries on YouTube and learnt how they had used camerawork and mise-en-scene and the transitions between shots. We were inspired by some of the videos and tried to use some similar shots and angles. I quickly studied mise-en-scene and camera work from my A1 notes and decided what we would use for our video. The lighting would be natural as we are showing a stereotype of reality. However, we will add a background music; something local, to give a feel of mystery to the viewer in the beginning of the documentary. I have explained the storyboard shot by shot below:
Shot no. 01
Type of shot: Low angle shot
Camera Movement: Pan from left to right.
Lighting: Day light.
Sound: Non-digetic background music
http://snd.sc/yKQcbe
No digetic sound.
Transition: Dissolve
Shot no. 02
Type of shot: Low angle shot
Camera Movement: Pan from left to right.
Lighting: Day light.
Sound: Non-digetic background music
http://snd.sc/yKQcbe
No digetic sound.
Transition: Dissolve
Shot no. 03
Type of shot: Wide-long shot
Camera Movement: Pan from left to right.
Lighting: Day light.
Sound: Non-digetic background music
http://snd.sc/yKQcbe
Slight digetic sound from the street.
Transition: Dissolve
Shot no. 04
Type of shot: Wide-long shot
Camera Movement: Slowly zoom out.
Lighting: Day light.
Sound: Non-digetic background music
http://snd.sc/yKQcbe
Slight digetic sound from the street. Slightly audible conversation in Punjabi b/w 2 men.
Transition: Dissolve
Shot no. 05
DESCRIPTION
Type of shot: Close-up
Camera Movement: Slowly zoom out.
Lighting: Day light.
Sound: Non-digetic background music
http://snd.sc/yKQcbe
Slight digetic sound from the street. Slightly audible conversation in Punjabi b/w 2 men.
Transition: Dissolve
Shot no. 06
DESCRIPTION
Type of shot: Close-up
Camera Movement: Pan from left to right.
Lighting: Day light.
Sound: Non-digetic background music
http://snd.sc/yKQcbe
Slight digetic sound from the street. Slightly audible conversation in Punjabi b/w 2 men.
Transition: Dissolve
Shot no. 7 is a repetition of shot no. 4.
Shot no. 8 is a repetition of shot no. 6.
Shot no. 09
Type of shot: High angle shot
Camera Movement: Slowly zoom in.
Lighting: Day light.
Sound: Non-digetic background music
http://snd.sc/yKQcbe
Slight digetic sound from the street. Slightly audible conversation b/w 2 men.
Transition: Dissolve
Shot no. 10
Type of shot: Close-up
Camera Movement: Slowly zoom in.
Lighting: Day light.
Sound: Non-digetic background music
http://snd.sc/yKQcbe
Slight digetic sound from the street. Slightly audible conversation in Punjabi b/w 2 men.
Transition: Dissolve
Shot no. 11
Type of shot: Wide shot
Camera Movement: Slowly zoom out.
Lighting: Day light.
Sound: Non-digetic background music
http://snd.sc/yKQcbe
Slight digetic sound from the street. Slightly audible conversation in Punjabi b/w 2 men.
Transition: Dissolve
Shot no. 12
Type of shot: Long shot
Camera Movement: Pan
Lighting: Day light.
Sound: Non-digetic background music
http://snd.sc/yKQcbe
Slight digetic sound from the street. Slightly audible conversation in Punjabi b/w 2 men.
Transition: Dissolve
Shot no. 13
Camera Movement: Tilt upwards
Lighting: Day light.
Sound: Non-digetic background music
http://snd.sc/yKQcbe
Slight digetic sound from the street.
Transition: Dissolve
Posted by Shahbano.
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