My Reoccurring Dream - Creme de la creme

For the second half of this project it was a very similar to what we did in the previous week. On Monday we had to problematise and solutionate and plan what we were doing, Tuesday we had to film and Wednesday we had to edit. We had very similar groups to the previous week, I worked with Olivia Searle, Tanye Chauruka, Chloe Binding and Kim Noot.

Our group risk assessment. 

On Monday we did the risk assessment, storyboard and floor plan. The idea that we had was that we would have 5 actions. The first one would be the first transition which was of a person shooting a gun at the camera, then paper planes would fly in front of the camera, next two people would have a fizzy water fight, the fourth action was that a person would sparta kick the other to the ground and we would finish with a blindfold put to the camera. We thought that it was a pretty simple idea. I spoke with Tim and Neil and we decided to change some things around to make sure that the transitions went well with the previous group. We stuck with the concept that we originally had, this is because we decided that it would be a good idea to film in reverse, although this made it hard to work out how to do the actions however it proved successful.

Floor Plan and Storyboard

Our final idea was that the blind fold comes off the camera then briskly moves backwards, paper planes would then be thrown into shot, then someone would be kicked, however the kicked wouldn't be shown because the camera would have already passed by then and finally ending with a cup of lime aid. On Monday we had our location all planned out, it would be outside on the hoe. We felt like this was a good location because it is hardly ever busy.

However by the time Tuesday, there was thunderstorms therefore we had to change our location to give us the best footage, we decided not to film outside however we did film in one of the new buildings in college, this was a great place to film because it was really light and therefore the lighting looked great. Although we did however have to share our location with someone else which got a bit stressful but we managed to sort it. We started practicing and we then decided to change somethings from our original plan. Due to the fact that Chloe only had one hand that she could properly use we thought that it would be good idea to cut the kick to save any more injuries. Also we had to change the Lime Aid to Irn Bru because we couldn't get any. To start with the cup of Irn Bru was on the floor however after 5 or 6 takes we decided that Tanye would trip over it and knock it over therefore changed it so that Olivia would be holding it.

Therefore the shooting started with Kim holding a scarf at the camera and taking it off after a couple of seconds by wrapping the scarf around her eyes, next was myself and chloe who threw the paper planes in opposite directions and then turned around, next Olivia would throw her paper plane and then walk towards the camera with the Irn Bru. These shoots took us a lot longer than we originally planned and in total I think we had about 20 shoots. I think that it was important that we didn't give up because the final result was amazing and it was definitely worth all of the bad takes. I think that the hardest part was the timing, this is because we knew that it had to be between 7 and 8 seconds so that we could slow it down by 50% to make our sequence 15 seconds long.

After we had made our video we had to make a soundtrack therefore myself and Olivia recorded different sounds because there was so much echo in the room which gave it a really nice sound. The sounds that we decided to include was various stomping of feet, paper rustling, paper being thrown to the floor and hitting metal. Although we didn't need the sound for the main edit, I felt like it was important to have it in our edit because this one we were adding the soundtrack to.

This is my edit of just our sequence with the soundtrack that we recorded.

On Wednesday we had to edit all of the footage that we had each done, I would say that this was probably the hardest edit to date because off all of the different clips sizes and how some needed to be cut down and others didn't. Also the soundtrack was longer than what we had clips for this made it really tricky because it meant that we had to work out a way to make sure the soundtrack was on time with the clips. I did this by slowing down the first couple of clips right down therefore this meant that the start was very slow, however I think it worked out well. I decided to colour grade every clip this was because I had decided to colour grade our clip in the previous edit therefore it looked a bit weird with just our clip being colour graded and not the others. Although this took a lot of time I think the outcome was worth it.

I think that this project worked out really well and i'm very happy with how both the first week and the second weeks clips came out. I think it showed us just how much work goes into slow motion.

This is the My Reoccurring Dream edit. 

My Recurring Dream - CRÈME FRAICHE

On Tuesday we went over to Mount Edgcumbe to do our 'creme fraiche- practice' this is so that we got an idea and we could film a series of sequences. This way any problems we had at Mount Edgcumbe we could hopefully overcome by the time the actual production came along. We were split into a number of groups I worked with Chloe Binding, Tanye Chauruka and Kim Noot.

Map of our area we were aloud to film in. 

We didn't plan anything beforehand therefore it was a bit of find the best location and see what you can do with it. I think that the was the best idea because the locations were really great with so much empty space. The weather was great therefore we could go pretty much anywhere in the location, we decided to go into the maze and we found this great location. There was a statue and an arch way with a flower bed going through this path, we thought that it would be a great idea to film our first idea. The idea for this shot was that I would be stood behind the statue I would then peep my head out come back in again then jump out smiling and skipping. I then skipped up to the flowers and smelt them, danced around and went 'ssh' up to the camera. The transition was then to the sky, due to the weather being so good we decided that our transition would be the sky because it was so clear. We shot this seven or eight times to make sure we got it as accurate as possible, this is because it was quite a long shot even though it could only be 7 or 8 seconds long therefore I had to speed up what I was doing from the first time to the last.

The second shot I filmed, it was under a low old tree which was in the shade. I absolutely loved the scenery of this shot because it was incredibly picturesque. Funnily enough the most difficult part of this shot was again the same with the timings, however it was because the shot was so fast. Therefore Chloe counted the seconds while I filmed. The shot started with the camera facing the bushes and then moving towards Tanye and the tree, Tanye ran underneath the tree to look as though he was running away from someone he then ran right and left. I then moved the camera past him and tilted the camera up so that we would have the transition of the sky. Although the shot started with the bushes, we knew that when it came to edited the shots together that we would reverse this shot so that it would look like Tanye was running backwards and start with the the sky transition to carry on from the previous shot.

Our day at Mount Edgcumbe 

The third shot was possibly my favourite of all the shots, this shot starts off with Chloe's face, it then pulls back to show Chloe's phone, it then keeps pulling back until you get to see the waterfall in the background. It then ends again with the transition to the sky. I really love the way this shot turned out because to start with it just looks like a still image, which I think adds a really cool effect. This shot took us quite a bit of time because we needed the sun to be out to get the best lighting, also the waterfall came on every few minutes and lasted for about 30 seconds, therefore getting the timing of this was so important because else it would have gone completely wrong.

The fourth shot was taking from 'see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil' the shot was going to carry on from Chloe's previous shot where it started at Chloe's face and focused on it for a couple of seconds becoming Tanye moved backwards and also got myself and Kim into the shot, he then walked future back focused on the three of us for a second before rolling the camera up into the sky transition. The only problems that we faced for this shot was where everybody was going to be placed because we needed to be quite close together so that Tanye could get all of us in the shot and get the correct timing. However we also realised that we had to be quite far apart so that we didn't look too close, however in the end we managed to get this shot correct. When it came to editing this shot I decided to reverse it and put it before Chloe's previous shot therefore this meant that the sky was at the start of it.

Our final shot wasn't exactly one we planned as we only planned on doing four shots, however we had some time left so we decided it would be cool to do another shot. This shot didn't really fit in with our previous transitions because it started with Tanye walking down the path and stopping half way down he then threw the stone into the water. We decided to do this by the water because we saw how André Chocron had a shot of the man coming out of the water in 'My Recurring Dream' and we took inspiration from it and decided to have our own take on it. I slowed this shot right down and then coped it and took part of the shot and reversed it so it looked as though Tanye was catching the rock which I think gave us a really nice effect.

My Recurring Dream - Practice 

The next day we were told to give it a quick edit and to have a play around and see what we could do.  All I did was slow the clips down, some of them I slowed down to 50 while others at 70. I put it in 50 frames per second because this is what we filmed in as it looks better in slow motion. I also reverse some of them to give them a different feel. I think that considering that this was only a practice that it turned out really well and I am happy with how everything went, therefore I think that I am comfortable that for our main production next week that everything will turn out fine.

My Recurring Dream - André Chocron

My Recurring Dream was directed by André Chocron who is a young film director from Norway. For five years he studied at a Norwegian film school, perfecting his trade. When he graduated in 2010 he went straight into making music videos on a very low budget. This music video is an example of having a very low budget, which I think works to his advantage for this. 

My Recurring Dream 

I really like this video I think that it is really different and unique, Chocron has ideas that nobody else has. He has such a great imagination which I think stands out in a lot of his videos and especially this one. I think the song also gives a lot of inspiration because it has it own story which he is able to tell, with his experience. I think the fact that each of his ideas are really simple but so detailed that they look more complicated than they actually are. I think it is important to keep to a simple idea but complicate it with imagination. 

'The narrative is just free imagination, visual ideas I’ve wanted to do for a long time, and stuff I came up with while listening to the song.'

In this video there is a mixture of outside and inside shots. The outside shots are all different including, cars on fire, men skateboarding and a man coming out of a waterfall, while the inside shots are of a swimming pool and hospital both of these places being very public. Andre Chocron used each of these locations which would have taken time and effort to get all the shots and being able to use these facilities. I think it is great that he has filmed everything on location because it gives it more of a real feel that turns out really well because the effort to find all of these locations were made.

 "I'm not very fond of green screens, at least not when it’s just an easy way out."

Along with the title of the video 'My Recurring Dream' there is also some recurring themes in this video. In the scene in the train a woman is wearing a yellow dress and as she turns around the transitions fade out. A couple of scenes later a young girl is turning back around running away wearing the same dress. This is because in the previous shot with the older woman she is being trapped therefore the younger girl running away from it. Along with the recurring theme of the dresses there is also a recurring theme with the colours at the beginning of the video. In the music video the colour theme is very light with bright colours but then half way through the colours get darker, this starts with the blue of the swimming pool and then the men riding the skateboard with the purple undertones. I really like the themes that Chocron because it makes the music video so unique from others that have been similar.

There is a lot of transitions, I think my favourite is the T-shirt to the stairs. I like this one because you can tell that it was difficult to put together. I like the way the woman is moving the water with what it looks to be a fishing root and then the man coming up through the water. It's great because it is totally different to any of the other shots. Although they are all great I think this one here just shows how great of an imagination that Andre Chocron truly has. We know this is a difficult production because the image on the t-shirt is a little out of focus. I think that this suggests at how hard this production was to do by showing that a professional can't get it 100% all of the time. I like the little things like this is in productions because it shows no matter how much you know it sometimes wont be able to work because of the complication of the project.

Although the waterfall transition is my favourite I think the train one is very unique. I like this because on the train people are sat in each part of the train, it feels like each of them have their own story. Each individual is either talking to someone else or they are doing something else like reading a newspaper. I like the way this is set out because it feels very real as this is something that would happen in real life, with everyone minding their own business and doing as they please.

I think that this video is very clever and it shows that a lot of work has gone into it. I think the way that each of the transitions are done show that it was hard to do them all in the limited period of time. The band didn't give any money to Andre Chocron and his team therefore all of the money they got came from the Norwegian film fund therefore for very little budget it is a really successful production that a lot of experienced film directors would be proud  of.

"The video wasn’t financed by the band, but by funds our production company was able to get from the Norwegian Film Fund."

I think the words to describe this production are; dreamlike, unique and fantasy. The reason for this is because it is a dream and that is exactly what it feels like.

http://www.onepointfour.co/2013/03/27/emerging-talent-director-andre-chocron/ - 12th May 2014

Foley

Jack Donovan Foley was a sound editor for Universal Studios. He was born April 12th 1891 in New York and died November 9th 1967 in Los Angeles. Along with that he was a sound effect artist used in film-making. His creation was the art of Foley. In this he added sound effects such as footsteps and environmental sounds to films. This is because of using prerecorded sounds, he involved synchronizing sounds to individual productions to give them more of a realistic feel.

Jack Donovan Foley the man behind the idea of Foley. 

Foleying is an excellent means of supplying the subtle sounds that production may have missed due to director calls in the background. Along with director calls the audio can sometimes be forgotten because of the focus on the actual filming. A good Foley artist must 'become' the actor whom they are synchronizing effects or the sounds will lack the necessary realism to be convincing.The most successful of the sound artists can look at an object and know what sound would match to it. The most common objects that Foley artists use include used bath tubes, pieces of large metal, knives and empty cans. This is because these can all create loud noises which adds its own presence.

Jack Foley was working at Universal Studios when he created Foley. It was in 1914 during the silent movie era. This was because Warner Brothers released its first film to include sound and called for all of its employees to come forward if they had any radio experience. Jack Donovan Foley became part of the sound crew which turned the silent movie 'Show Boat' into a musical. Microphones couldn't pick up sound and therefore other sounds had to be added in after the film had been shot. Foley and his very small crew created the sounds while the film was projected onto the screen, they did this while recording a single track of audio that was able to capture their live sound effects. However similar to the way it is recorded today however now technology has been updated so that they don't have to record each of the sounds on a single track of audio. They can be tracked individually and then synced together. Today Foley employs hundreds of people to do different parts of the production.

In my opinion this technique is definitely still used. It is used mostly in action films, this is because the action takes over from the audio.This makes the audio come out not as strong therefore they used Foley to improve the sound quality so that it stand out. I think this is important because audio is incredibly important in the film and the smallest sounds can make the biggest effect in a scene. I think a lot of people forget that Pixar uses a lot of Foley, this is due to everything being animated. Along with the voiceovers they have to make noises for everything; such as footsteps, rustling of a tree or the noise that an animal makes. Pixar's budget is usually pretty high however some of the items they use to make these noises are very low budget and just everyday items, these included wooden spoons and knives and forks. I think that it is important to remember in Pixar films that there needs to be a noise for everything and therefore the Foley used in it is very important. Here is an example of students recreating the Foley sound.

There are many actions that actors do for Foley some of these include; walking, running, jostling each other, rubbing their clothing, handling props, and breaking objects, all while closely observing the screen to ensure their sound fx are appropriate to the vision. 

Alex Joseph one of the biggest Foley supervisors in the world, was asked to recreate the sound of a head being chopped off for 'Kingdom of Heaven'. He said that 'Some people would have gone with a watermelon.' 'Or a frozen cabbage.' Instead, However Joseph decided to do something different by using a green coconut. 'The outside is fibrous. So it cuts like skin. And the hard shell sounds like bone. Inside is the jelly, which sounds like blood. When you slice into it, it sounds just like a human head. I imagine.' Other films that he has does have included 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory' and 'Quantum of Solace'. For 'Quantum of Solace' he hired in some scaffolding and mocked up a Tuscan roof with tiles that he bought on eBay, while for 'Charlie and the Chocolate factory' he actually jumped into a makeshift swimming pool with a sack of Nutrient Agar powder to make sure the chocolate river sounded thick enough. He said that he was swimming about in the stuff all day. However “it was very gloopy. I had to take four showers to get it all off.” This shows some of the extreme lengths that Foley artists will go to, to recreate the sound that they need.

College production of Foley 

In college each group was given a 2 minute scene that they had to recreate the sound from. The sound that we had to recreate it was from 'Alien' a Ridley Scott film from 1979 where it is a legendary alien survival horror. In my group I was working with my colleagues; Olivia Searle, Chloe Binding, Sam Shaw and Matt Jury. Before we recreated our sound we had a very detailed plan of what we were going to do and what sounds we were going to use. First up we wrote up each of the different sounds that we needed and how we were going to create them; that was pretty easy to come up. However along with that we also had to create a timeline of how long the sounds were going to last and when they were used. For this we had to watch the clip at least a dozen of times to make sure that we had the sounds in all of the right places. 

This was our timeline and list. 

Some of the sounds that we had to recreate was steam rising, heavy breathing and footsteps. The steam was probably the most complicated to record and put into the edit because the steam was the main sound through the entire clip, this is because in the clip steam was rising. To recreate the sound of the steam we sprayed deodorant for a couple of seconds and then repeated it in the edit. To recreate the footsteps we had to pat our feet against the sound of the metal stairway. The reason that we used the metal stairway was because the sound of the footsteps were pretty loud and therefore we weren't quite getting the right amount of sound by walking on the floor. 

We did one big group edit which I think turned out really well, the sounds were on time and worked really well with the clip, even the breathing which was one that we weren't sure how it was going to turn out because of how ridiculous it sounded when we were putting it together. I really enjoyed recreating Foley sounds because it is something completely different that we haven't done. I also think that it is important to focus on audio now that we have the concept of filming. 

This is our edit. 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/filmmakersonfilm/8853473/Foley-artists-heard-any-good-films-lately.html - 8th May 2014

http://filmsound.org/terminology/foley.htm  - 8th May 2014

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foley_(filmmaking) - 8th May 2014

Havoc - College Shot

HAVOC - College Shot 

In college we did our take on the Havoc video. Along with Tim, Neil and Billy four students were in charge of the equipment; Nick Bennett on the lighting, Sam Sheard on the wind machine, Liam Woodridge in charge of the dolly camera and Abi Cannings pushing the dolly camera. After they were decided we got asked to go into groups of four. I went with Olivia Searle, Charlie Baylis and Sam Shaw.

We left at 10.00 and were told to be back at 12.15 we were the first ones to film our group sequence. This was so that everyone could have time to set everything up, therefore in that time we went to pound land to get the party poppers that we needed. There was a lot of waiting around with this but it wasn't too long and we knew that everybody had to do their own group shot.

We used a lot of top of the range equipment, the equipment that we used was a Canon 600D, a dolly cam, studio lighting and a wind machine. I think that this equipment was the main reason for how successful the shoot was because it was done so professionally. We shot our slow motion at 50 frame rates per second which would then be slowed down by 50% so the action unfolds at 25 frame rates per second and the movement would all be in high definition.

When we went in everything was set, the four of us stood back to back with myself and Olivia stood directly back to back with Sam and Charlie doing the exact same. Myself and Olivia were popping the poppers with Sam and Charlie shaking their heads really fast. We had to go through the shot with just the dolly camera to start with to make sure that it looked good. I think the hardest part of our shot was definately the timing because it was hard to tell when you are in shot and therefore when we were supposed to go. The first time we tried it, it was a complete fail because my party poppers didn't actually go anywhere and I had gone to quickly, however then I soon worked out what my timings were and when was the best time to start.

The second time we did it was a complete success with Abi and Liam on the dolly camera, Abi was pushing Liam at a steady pase so that it wasn't too fast that he wouldn't catch the action but fast enough for slow motion footage. Liam went round us on the dolly camera twice the first time we did our movement but the second time we held it as though we in a freeze frame. I think that our idea and timings worked really well and it came out great.

Due to it being on a tight schedule we knew that our planning and organisation was important, therefore we had planned before we went in what we were going to do, our organisation was important as well because if we were late we would have missed our filming slot which would have put everyone behind which we knew couldn't happen. In our small group shot we practised with the equipment beforehand this was to make sure that everything looked perfect for the actual shot.

The group shot; myself, Olivia, Charlie and Sam. 

After that shot we were all told to come back at 2pm. We all came back and we were told to stand between the metal plates with one person stood behind us, this was so that everyone was evened out and so that everyone could be seen clearly, there was 38 people and therefore 19 pairs once everyone had stood behind someone. We had about 5 practice runs where we mimed what we were going to do, we had to do this to make sure that everyone fitted into the camera in the time that we had. It was quite difficult to get the timing of this right because there was so many people and we couldn't actually see when we were going to be on camera. Eventually Liam and Tim decided that it would be a good idea to get each pair a number and make sure that we did our action just after they had called the number before us, this helped so much because it meant that each of us had the correct timings which was the most important part.

There was a lot of similar actions although together they looked incredible. After all of us doing our action we had to hold it for another shot just like we had done in our smaller groups. Once this was all done we had to shoot the transition between the first in front and the person behind. The person had to go right and take a step back while the person behind had to go left and take a step forward. The transition was easy but again it was about getting the right timings which was definitely the biggest struggle. Unlike the previous shot this one only took 2 or 3 attempts to get right, I think this was because by now everyone was used to the timings.

Behind the scenes with the equipment. 

Finally we had one more shot, this shot was of all of us in the middle; some people were sat, some were kneeled and those at the back were stood up. I was sat right at the front on the floor. This shot only took one take because it was pretty simple to do. Tim counted us in with the small explosions such as bubbles going first and being held for 5 seconds before the big explosion of the party poppers and floor going everywhere.

The whole group shot. 

I spent all morning on the Wednesday doing my edit, the edit I did was slightly different to how I would do one usually this is because I wanted to experiment and I felt like this video was the perfect opportunity to do it. In my edit I mirrored some of the footage, I felt as though this gave it a really unique effect. Also because it was in slow motion I had to slow it right down; the group shots I only slowed down by half therefore I put them on 50% while the smaller group shots I slowed right down to 30% which turned out a lot better than I thought. I also decided to add in transitions after each shot, this was so it would look more professional which I think worked well. I was really happy with my edit because even though it was my first time using some of the affects they turned out better than I expected. 

Dolly Camera

It is very popular this because its a great way to create a steady movement which is what is needed in a professional environment. A camera dolly is a specialised piece of filmmaking and television production equipment designed to create smooth camera movements (cinematic techniques). The camera is mounted to the dolly and the camera operator and focus puller or camera assistant usually ride on the dolly to operate the camera

The camera dolly may be used as a shooting platform on any surface but is often raised onto a track, to create smooth movement on a horizontal axis known as a dolly shot. Tracking shots use a dolly camera, an example of this is feet that are walking with the dolly being the same speed as the actors walking speed. This is so that the camera to capture a shot of the feet walking in time. A tracking shot can be used for almost anything depending on how the director uses it.

A push in and push out shot uses a dolly camera a lot because in the push in the audience feels as though they are physically moving with the camera while the pull out is used to distance the audience emotionally from a character, which is especially done when a character has done something bad towards the end of the film.

It is also used for only short movement where characters are sitting and talking which can help pick up the pace of the scene and just in general make it more interesting to watch. Finally it the dolly is used on a more expensive film set they use it as a booming up and down shot, this creates another axis of camera movement at the filmmakers disposal.

http://www.steves-digicams.com/knowledge-center/how-tos/photo-accessories/4-uses-of-a-camera-dolly-in-movies.html#b - 29th April