The B-roll
Until Coffee
When I saw it on my friend's ig story, I was already caught. What if I do a moody, black & white and slow video?
Until Coffee may be the only choice in Hong Kong which suits such theme. Honestly, I started filming pretty much because of the color and the visual dynamics based on the incredible speed transitions between shots, i.e. fast forwards and slow motions, that I love so much in the epic B-rolls. I did not expect I am the type to shoot moody, black&white and slow video. Perhaps, this will be the very few videos of such kind in my portfolio. Furthermore, I don't know if I have the instinct to do such moody shootings and the skills to color grade the grayscale and highly desaturated scenes.
However, I really want to try it out.
I went to Until Coffee immediately after the daily infection cases receded. Special thanks to the owner of Until Coffee who is so open to share her knowledge. I love her characters.
If not she voluntarily do the stirring for me, I cannot have such an epic and beautiful shot for the matcha. I was caught on spot when I saw her stirring the matcha for me through the camera screen!
The composition and the slow motion. My months-long efforts were not waste!
The opening
San Po Kong is an old industrial area. Until Coffee's appearance is just so outstanding in such an area. The purpose for the opening was to:-
1. Give an overview of the coffee shop
2. Give a brief view on the environment in the vicinity
3. Portrait the customers' activities in the shop
A hidden message was subtly embedded in the opening shots. The logo of Until Coffee was a simple horizontal black straight line. The first few shots captured the horizontal movements of the cars, the passersby and the owner. This is then followed by the frame within frame technique to draw the viewers' attention to the customers' activities.
The fading in and out and out-of-focus were applied to give a dreamy feelings to the viewers. I hope to make it feels in the way that the viewer discovers Until Coffee in a morning with sleepy eyes and then Until Coffee turns his/her day colorful unexpectedly.
The Color
It was the very first idea coming up to my head to start with black and white and to saturate the scene at a representative shot when I saw the ig story.
Until coffee may be the most white coffee shop in Hong Kong. There may be no better place to test out the idea in Hong Kong. At first, I am not sure whether to do pure black & white or highly desaturated style for the opening of the video. I tried different degrees of desaturation, the results:-
1. colors remain too saturated to my targeted feeling;
2. when desaturation of the colors reached the degree I would like to have, the skin tone just appears too grayish. It looks weird to me. If this is purely black and white scene, the gray skin is just natural. But when the scene is with some colors, I am not very comfortable with the gray faces.
Because of the dynamic range offered by a7siii and my personal preference, I think it is proper for me to make good use of grayscale image with slight leak in of colors. So, I decided to approach it with grayscale and some highly desaturated color leaked into the shots. It was my intention to demonstrate the smooth transition from shadow to highlight through delicated grayscale rather than harsh black and white contrast. The final product is more or less what I want to achieve. But I think it can be far better, if I am more skilful in color grading. I think I will retouch this video after some color grading trainings.
Because I love the shot of flower so much, the desaturated color but not black and white for the flower was too lovely to be missed in this video. I faded in some saturation in the shot filming the owner pouring latte art. It was not as planned to fade in the full saturation in a single shot. Turn out the full saturation was faded in through a few shots.
The two shots of latte were not matched in terms of color. This is currently my limit. I must improve.
The compositions and camera movements
The moody videos should not have so much camera movements and fast motions. I filmed as if I were a photographer. Find the composition and let the subjects move in the camera. I doubted it would be very boring. After months of analysing the compositions of great pictures on different media, I was happy I was able to apply composition techniques, the foregrounds and backgrounds, the in focus and out of focus, the embedded leading lines and the frame within frame.
Light and shadow
This is a white coffee shop. I think that the capture of shadows should be quite a match. A shot of owner's (as far as I know both girls are the owners) shadow was accidentally captured. On the other hand, the tracing of shadow shot was shot intentionally. I wanted to shoot the owner's shadow the wall while she is doing pour over. However, I could not get it. I am not good enough to catch fine moment of the reflection of daylight.
At the opening, the warm tone yellowish lighting was purposely desaturated out so that the scene can be viewed completely white. After the color has been fully set in, the warm tone of lighting was preserved as the owner said that she purposely set the lighting slightly warmer such that the coffee shop is not too tiringly white.
Cross dissolve
Cross dissolve transition was intensively used in this video. I just found it such a great match with the mood of the video compared with straight hard cut transition. I hope it is not so tiring and feels too repetitive. The textured white wall is the signature of Until Coffee's interior design. I wanted to do a moody smooth appearance of the products on the wall. But I found my editing skills so limited that I could not really deliver the idea on my mind. Skills for smooth transitions are to be enhances.
The flow
The outdoor shots were arranged closing in. The outdoor shots ended with seeing Until Coffee's sign through with the glass door. This was designed as the subtle pivot point of the video. Every shot showing the sign implied the entrance position. The rolling indoor shot from the sign to the inside of the shop was to imply that the viewers are looking into the shop from the entrance. After the full saturation latte shot, the continuous panning shots were to imply the change of position from near the entrance to deeper inside the shop. The view angle was changed to viewing the entrance from deep inside the shop. The moving shots and the full saturation transition subtly implied the video is going into the highest point.
I love Until Coffee's matcha so so so much that the making and stirring of matcha latte was arranged at the deepest and highest point of the video. After the circular stirring shot, it was transited into the rotational lamp light shot. Once again, the yellowish lighting is presented. Hopefully, the viewer could feel warmth as intended by the owner from the video.
The final scene was the textured white wall. The signature textured white wall was the must-have in this video, though I was not doing good with the shots. The textured white wall smoothly brought out the sign. With the sign, the ending of video and leaving the shop was signaled.
Music
This was the very first video of sufficiently long length that I edited to the beat of the music. I love the music and I love my editing.
About filming Until Coffee
I filmed there for two days. I reached there at 10am on the second day and left at around 1:30pm. When I reached home, I felt a little bit broken down. Filming with a7siii on a gimbal strained! I spent more than one day to do the color grading, I guess? I felt my energy drained coming to the completion of color grading. My brain was drained so much for just a less-than-4-minute video. Unexpectedly, editing to music and color grading are so brainpower thirst activities. At that point, I really doubted whether could I keep on filmmaking.
Making beautiful products is never easy...
And my products are not beautiful enough...
About Until Coffee's Coffee and Matcha
When I had my first sip of its latte. It was unexpectedly good. The espresso was fruity single origin. The acidity was optimally presented. The texture of the milk stayed great for a long time (I filmed there for a very long time and the latte was not finished until the last moment).
Until Coffee’s matcha is just stunning. It looks and tastes terrific. While I was concentrated on my filming, the owner warmly reminded me a few times to stir the matcha before drinking. The matcha powder, the water temperature, the whisking of milk and matcha, the layering of matcha and milk and the proportions between matcha and ice were all subtly designed. I expected it to look good but I didn’t expect it to look great after stirring. The matcha looked so textured and smoothie-like after stirring. I already felt the mouthfeel when it first entered my eyes. Once again, I filmed for so long and the ice melt over time. The matcha tasted so sweet at first and it still tasted good after hours. You can taste the change of matcha flavors over temperature and concentration.
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