"Tea Time Out" vs. "Trouble in the Kitchen"

This is a comparative reflection of two short videos I helped create, "Tea Time Out" and "Trouble in the Kitchen". If you haven't seen either of these videos, you should check them out in my previous blog post. Also, here are the links for Tea Time Out and Trouble in the Kitchen on Youtube.

 When we wrote up the scripts for the two videos, we had to abide by one guideline: they both had to be based from the same joke. So we had to decide on two different genres/approaches for our joke. What we came up with is two coming of age stories, one being set in the late 40's and one being modern day. We also used contrasting cinematography for each video to create a subtext for the approaches to this same joke.

The first big difference between the two videos cinematography-wise is the depth, or space, of the scenes. In "Tea Time Out", all of the shots done by Yuxi were intended to be up close and personal with Megan as the girl character to give an enclosed feel to the audience. It is supposed to make you feel like you are in this other world which Megan's mind is in when she has pretend tea parties. Also, all of the points of interest are within the boundaries of her "world" so that the audience doesn't realize they are in such a small box.

The next big difference between the videos is the element of movement. Although we were allowed no camera movements, even zoom, we were able to create dynamic movement between the two videos within the frames and sequences through object movement and point of interest. In "Trouble in the Kitchen", we even started the video with alternating points of interest in the establishing shot. The shot is divided up into four parts by the window frame, from which you focus on using the rule of thirds. Throughout the scenes, you can see how much more complex the movements are within the frames compared to "Tea Time Out". This are just two of the different focuses we had when producing these short films.