Making of Modern Family - PL4880G edition

 

The idea came randomly.

We were discussing how we could present our Positive Psychology project, and someone threw up the idea of a Modern Family kind of theme. I latched on it immediately, and we explained to the rest what it was, and I happened to have some episodes on my laptop so we watched a few scenes for the sake of those who had not watched it before.

Ideas began forming in my mind, and I volunteered to write the script for the 'episode'.

Inspiration came from Ryan Higa and Modern Family itself - I ripped off quite a few used ideas. For instance, the opening scene of PL4880G edition was the opening scene of Season 1's pilot episode, albeit much shorter. The whole 'going into the room to check out on son and girlfriend' plot was also taken from Modern Family, though it was daughter and boyfriend there. The last 'pun/blackout' scene was clearly inspired by some of Ryan Higa's puns, with some of my own slipped in.

The characters were also inspired by Modern Family of course - a controlling mother, a thinks-he-is-cool Dad (the name Chill is a reference to Phil), and three siblings (though the genders are slightly different).

It was a great process producing this short film. The filming process was a real bitch, taking up well over 6 hours (though I guess that's really short for film standards) and multiple takes. We compromised a little on quality towards the last hour which was rather unfortunate, as it meant some jokes being cut out or accidentally left out.

I learnt quite a bit editing the film too. I learnt the importance of 'B rolls', the name given for those random scene shots like some cars passing by... a shot of the house ... a shot of birds running around.. some random calefare cycling.. basically filler shots. These filler shots help to make transitions a lot less awkward and jarring.

I also learnt the importance of multiple takes from different angles - they help a lot when you want to cut from one shot to another, to reduce the 'jumpiness' of the jump. We didn't have the luxury of having multiple takes from different angles so I had to make do with amateurish transition effects to reduce the jumpiness.

 

Here's the finished product!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCegYKMjXJo