My first film making experience

I started an internship at international department of Public Television Service (PTS) right after my arrival in Taipei. The people in my department are all very nice to me. I got the chance to watch many films (which is my dream because I never have time to do that during school year). One day, they asked me if I wanted to join a director in my department for a commercial shooting so I went to help. The filming crew+actor/actress left Taipei at 4am (YES! 4AM!!! I was not awake at all) to drive to Miao-Li, about 1.5 hours away from Taipei.

The commercial we filmed was a charity commercial about a grandma and her grandchildren. The setting of the commercial was in a traditional Chinese housing complex called 三合院. The place we shot the film was a local hostel/hotel called 翠松菀 (Cui Song Wan). The building is very very old but we still saw a room rented to a guest. I guess for those that want to experience living in the olden days, staying here would be an unique experience.

I helped mostly with set up of the scenes. I was surprised by the amount of work and attention to detail that the crew put into the shooting. After set-up, I assisted the two directors in recording the takes into computers for immediate viewing (well, more like just pressing the start and stop botton). It was fun getting to know some of the crew member and the actor/actress. I got back to Taipei at 6:30pm. They all said to me:"Oh, today is such a short day! Everything went so smoothly!". SHORT DAY??? 4AM to 6:30pm is considered a short day!? Well, now I have more respect for those working in the filming industry. This was a very good experience and I learnt a lot from helping out with the commercial filming.
I can't wait to see the commercial once it's done editing!!! *excited* ^^

The location of commercial shooting. We used the main hall for the majority of the shoot.

The yard and rooms on the side (the rooms are available for rental).

All the things you see in this photo were set up by us (plants, decorations on the wall, baskets, etc). The golden stuff on the ground is 金珍 (an edible flower). It costed us $3000NT (~$100 CAD) to buy the bag so that we can set this up in the background. *so expensive >_<*

Shooting the building from the top.

(Note the very "realistic" tree we used in the background)