METADATA

Final Video

Foley Sound Research.

Foley Research!

A Foley Artist is someone who creates everyday sounds to add to a film to make the quality better. These sounds that have been created can be anything from the swishing of clothing and footsteps to squeaky doors and breaking glass. The best foley art is so good and sounds so realistic that it goes unnoticed by the viewers It helps to create a sense of reality within a scene. Without these  background noises, movies wouldn't feel natural and instead uncomfortable.

The order the foley artists create sounds starts off  by doing the footsteps of the main character and then the background footsteps and then they go through the 'prop pass' which is where they provide a sound for anything moving on screen.

The key skills and qualities foley artists need are a creative mind, a good imagination and good timing as well as the ability to think outside the box because these types of artists have the ability to come up with unusual ideas to create a certain noise. They will also need a good knowledge of computers and technology as they will be working with lots of different electrical equipment.

Here is an example, in this clip from star wars, he began to hit a guy wire from a radio tower, and it bumped and made a twanging noise and this is where the laser gun came about

Composing for films

Guide on how to compose music for films.

Firstly, you want to watch the film without any sound or music. This will give you more concentration on the film and help you to notice more detail of certain things in the film. Keeping the sound on will also distract you which means you wont be able to focus on whats going on.

Another thing to do is to select the instruments. You need to do this because instruments are normally chosen depending on the atmosphere and if they are not selected you may end up using instruments you've never used before.

Make sure you understand the beat. You need to do this so you can stick to the rhythm of the editing as it may be fast or slow and it may vary throughout the video so you need to be able to change it.

Stick to the feeling of the film. When you are making music for a film, its all about emotion. You need to be able to understand this in the film so you can give off the right feeling to the audience. 

Experiment with music. It is really important to do this so that you can get a feel for less obvious music choices. This allows you to have a wider variety of choices to work with.

How Hans Zimmer and Christopher Nolan worked together to create the music for Dark Knight?

Hans and Christopher spoke about it early on and Christopher would send Hans stills and shots of clowns to help each other with ideas. 

What was the process that Hans Zimmer used to come up with the music?

He was after music that built lots of tension. He tried to use as little music as possible, but still say what he wanted. So you could hear something really small but you would identify easily that the joker is close by. He also recorded lots of extraordinary sounds that he may use.

What was Hans Zimmer's intention when making this soundtrack?

 

they were too not make a summer blockbuster. He wanted something that people could really hate because it was uncomfortable to listen too.

What qualities did Hans Zimmer want the music to have?

He wanted it to be very small but very effective, as well as be able to build a lot tension. 

How do you feel about the final score and explain why you feel it works or doesn't work?

I think it works quite well because it's very minimal but still builds tension in  a mysterious way and helps you to sense the danger as well.

Recording Ambient Sounds and Dialogue

1) Recording Ambient Sounds
Ambient sounds is the sounds of a given location or space in the environment. The sounds can include things such as wildlife, wind, rain, distant traffic etc.
For example, in the film 'Hunger Games: Catching Fire' when they had a forest scene they'd take a microphone to a location (jungle, ocean) which would give them good quality sounds and would record them themselves, he used libraries as well but his helped supplement and this meant they didn't have to completely rely on sound libraries. This helped them give a better atmosphere and show claustrophobia. It also allowed them to build up the 'world of the sound' very early on in the process so they didn't have to wait till the end and start over as such. Recording the ambient sounds also allows for tiny details to be heard. In the arena scenes it helped allow them to intensify things and they wanted to make it really dense, really busy and add a claustrophobia to you could get a feel of being with the characters. It helped it become unique to its location.  The benefit of using microphones on location instead of library is that it allows you to not have to do what is called 'looping' which is where characters rerecord their dialogue which is then looped on top of the footage. While recording sounds of location, they would use 2 sets of different microphones and separate them about 70 feet apart, this allowed to get sounds with different qualities as they both picked up different sounds. It also gave them a wider range of sounds to use. Hard cuts aren't often advised for sound mixing, for example in Hunger Games if a shot is done in the arena and then after that, is shot in the capital an ambient sound, such as wildlife, is slowly added which helps interact the audience instead of using a hard cut. The software used for Hunger Games: Catching fire is Dolby.

2) Recording Dialogue 

Recording dialogue is much more difficult to be done rather than ambient sounds. This is because of reasons such as ambient noises interfering with the recording, which can effect the quality of the dialogue. As well, sometimes if the camera is a fair distance from the characters speaking, and you had no form of microphone, then often the problem can be that the voices are found very quiet on the footage. This can be over come by potentially using microphones or looping which is where actors re-record their lines in sync while watching their original performances in looped playback, this helps match the wording and lip movement. Ambient noise is important when filming a conversation scene because it helps create an atmosphere, avoids silence in the background and possibly echoing. It can also help the audience understand the situation, depending on what is happening, for example if a tense sound was used, this would allow the audience to know something was going to potentially happen. When they were filming the Hunger Games: Catching Fire, for the jungle locations, when filming they always had a constant presence of canopy leaf movement as useful as this is for the ambient noise, it could have effected recording dialogue.

Use of music - legal considerations

Rights Of Use.


A Publishing licence can be gained from the copyright holder to use their music. This kind of copyright only applies when the music has been noted or written down.

A Recording licence should be gained from the person or people who for example, perform a cover of a well known song.


To clear a piece of music for use in your film or sequence in our case, the first thing you would have to do is message the copyright holder. If the Owner/Creator has been dead for more than 70 years the copyright will have expired which means you will not have to ask for permission.

Incidental Music is music played in a film or a clip and is played as background music to create atmosphere.

2) Creative commons

• What is creative commons?

Creative commons is a non-profit organisation which is devoted to expanding the range of creative works available for others to build upon legally and to share. They have released several copy right licenses known as 'Creative commons licenses' which are free to the public. The licenses allow creators to communicate which rights they reserve and which ones they waive for the benefit of recipients or other creators.

• Why does it exist?

So that you can use the work without having to seek out the individual creator or licensor and ask for permission.

• Explain the 6 different types of license (include the logos if possible)

Attribution - This allows others to distribute, remix and tweak your work, even commercially but they must credit you for the original creation.


Attribution- ShareAlike - This license is often compared to 'copyleft' free. It allows others to remix and tweak your work even for commercial purposes but they must credit you and license their new creation under the identical terms.


Attribution- NoDerivs - This allows for redistribution, commercial and non-commercial but it must be passed along unchanged and in whole with credit to you.


Attribution- NonCommercial - This lets you remix and tweak your work but non-commercially and thought their new works must be also acknowledge you and be non-commercial they don't have to license their derivative works on the same terms.


Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike - This lets others remix and tweak your work non commercially but they must credit you and license their new creations under the identical terms.


Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs - This license is the most restrictive of all 6 as it only allows others to download your work and share them with others as longs they credit you and they can't change them in any way or even use them commercially.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/filmnetwork/filmmaking/guide/before-you-start/music-rights

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creative_Commons

Use of Music in Film.

Use of music in film

• Creates an atmosphere in the clip
• Creates mood
• Triggers emotional cues at point 
• Makes actions stand out more
• Helps narrative flow
• Hints to the emotional state of character/characters
• Establishes culture, time (motifs) and location

Terminology

• Diegetic/Non Diegetic
• Amplified sound 
• Character themes 
• Sound Effects
• Ambient sound
• Aural  Motives
• Contrapuntal Sound
• Sound bridges
• Major and Minor keys/chords
• Cacophony and discordance
• Sound Narrative
• sound scape 
• Sonic Wallpaper

Music Analysis

• Purpose
• Elements (tempo, genre, tone, volume, instrumentation)
• Meaning

Purpose

• Creates sonic wallpaper/background for montage and flashbacks to make it more believable
• Helps the narrative flow
• Gives clues about the characters (Oliver Tate)

Element

Instrumentation

• strings
• flute at the start 

Tone

• Neutral
• Floats between two
• "Thinking" music
• Romantic, Busy, Dreamy

Tempo

• Fast Brisk walking pace
• Andante

Genre

• Classical

Meaning

• Music is sincere and considered describing with comical memories
• Sequence is oliver's thought process ( subjective) 
• The music has a 'busy' quality to it.Resting into a set melody this reflects Oliver's thought process. He jumps straight from thought to thought without any stops.
• Musical has a classic timeless quality giving little indication of location or time. Which suggests timelessness in terms of film themes.

Production Meeting

Meeting started at 9:20am, 31st January 2014.

Peoples present, Myself, G, Katie and Maia.

 

In the meeting we discussed what shots we are going to be re filming and when we will be filming them. We have decided to re film scene 2 on mondays first lesson 9am - 10:30am. Instead of filming all the walking parts we have decided to cut them down and do the whole scene in 2 shots. Walking round the corner of the wall then fading into Reece being pushed over continuing with him being punched. 

On mondays last lesson we have decided to re film scene 5 and if we haven't enough time we will film scene 5 on tuesday. If we complete filming scene 5 on monday last lesson we will then film scene 6 on tuesday, which will be filmed in the refectory. We will all sit round the table and put the camera between two of us to film the other two. this will be a mid shot. 

On wednesday we will be recording the audio. we will be recording the dialogue and any sound effects that we need. 

And finally on the thursday we will start to put our sequence together and edit in using both adobe premier and adobe after effects.

PRODUCTION MEETING

Date: 30th January 2014
Time: 3:45pm
Present: Katie, Maia and Callum

• We took into account our rough cut feedback and that its hard to establish the change in schools, so we're going to add in a scene of a pan of the new school before Reece walks in and meets Lauren, Rizzo and Kieran.
• Some of the scenes didn't know out as good as we hoped so we'll go out and reshoot a couple (e.g. when Kiera appears)
• Add more sound effects to make the sequence more engaging and realistic
• Add more interesting transitions between shots
• Finish our special effect editing 

Appraising the Rough Cut.

Audio

The strengths of our audio is mainly dialogue but could still be improved and the punch sound effect as we didn't add anymore in. Next time we will make sure we use a microphone to record the audio as it wasn't clear. We will also use sounds for the special effects to make the sound more realistic. I will also add some background music to keep the sequence flowing when there is no dialogue. 

Special Effects

I have only 2 special effects which are the teleportation effect and the fireball effect. The teleportation looks realistic but could just do with a sound effect.
The fireball has a box around it which needs to be removed and i need to add a glow to it to make it look more realistic. I also need to add a sound effect to it.

 

ROUGH CUT FEEDBACK

Feedback from Will

Does it make narrative sense? 

It makes sense however some dialogue is sound is missing. Easy to follow and makes sense.

Do the special effects fit well with the sequence? How could they be improved?

Works well and looks good. Could use different smoke effects. A black box around the fireball. Could add some sort of glow.

Is the dialogue engaging?

The dialogue tells the story and doesn't feel like its there to full time. Some clips need the sound editing (you can hear others talking)

What do the sound FX, ambient sounds and music add?

The punch sound effect sounds really good and is in time. Not much sound FX in the clip yet.

Is it entertaining? 

The story is clear and entertaining. This bits where dialogue stop slightly confuses it.

What would you do to improve the sequence?

More detail to the special effects such as adding a glow to the fireball hand and removing the black box. Add new sounds in where you can "go" signal.



Feedback from Dana


Does it make narrative sense? 

Yes, the talking goes with whats happening.

Do the special effects fit well with the sequence? How could they be improved?

The disappearing effect flows very well but with the fireball you can see a square around it.

Is the dialogue engaging?

Yes, it is very clear and the dialogue used in the bully scene draws you in.

What do the sound FX, ambient sounds and music add?

The noises used in the bathroom scene work really well. It creates the environment of the place they are in.

Is it entertaining?

Yes, I thought it was really good. The bully scene was quite realistic and tense.

What would you do to improve the sequence?

Try not to have the dolly stand and cut out the directors voice.

STUDENTS V ZOMBIES ROUGH CUT

Discussing Problems with Our Project.

At the beginning of our lesson, each member of "Team $wag" wrote down a problem they thought we had within our project. 

One of the main problems that was said was that we had trouble with the angle of the camera in the way we would film a section of a shot then move the camera to carry on filming and it would look out of proportion and wouldn't flow. To resolve this we are going to re film scene 5 tomorrow and make sure the camera is where we need it to be a keep it running instead of keep stopping and starting.

Another problem we picked up on is eye contact with the camera. To resolve this we are going to use a point of view to look at when we are filming.

Production Meeting.

Production meeting started at 11:20am, peoples present, myself, Georgina, Katie, Maia. 

The schedule of last week we completed all of the scenes up to scene 5. Which leaves us with 3 More scenes to shoot. We have decided to film as much of scene 5 as we can today and have decided to move location to inside the front of reception instead of outside due to all the background noise and people walking past and the different angles. 

On Wednesday the 22nd of January, we have decided to start putting the shots together and practice the visual effects. Myself (Callum) will not be present during this process due to medical reasons.

for the rest of the week, we will be aiming to finish all of the shots from all of the scenes so that next monday we are ready to do audio and complete the final rough copy of our 2 minute sequence for the 29th of January.

comparing matte painting

Comparing Matte Paintings.

On the two cards above, the one on the left represents the wikipedia definition of matte painting and the one on the right represents the definition from "The Digital Matte Painting Handbook".

Both of the cards give off the same information about matte painting and all that is different is they are worded differently and say different things.

When you look at them you can see that they do have their similarities in the way the Wikipedia definition says its a "Painted Representation" and the Handbook defines it as a "Painted Image"  Another difference is that the Wikipedia definition tells us that a matte painting is a "painting of environment that would be to expensive to create or visit" and the Handbook says matte painting was used "instead of building a set or carting a mountain range"

Although these two cards have their similarities they also have their differences. The hand book explains that a matte painting is "A sheet of glass between the camera and the scene filmed" which wikipedia does not tell us. Wikipedia tells us that a matte painting "Allows film makers to create the illusion" where this is not stated in the Matte Painting handbook. 

Health And Safety

Health And Safety

- Don't go on the roof
- Climbing on things
- No skateboarding on things
- Take care filming on stairs (use filming sign)
- No liquids on floors (especially corridors)
- Take care outside with weather conditions
- Be aware of other people
- Risk assessment

Casting Notes

Casting Notes

Students vs Zombies

Henry - Bully

I am looking to cast a boy, aged around 16/17, for the part of 'Henry' in 'Students vs Zombies'. He will need to have short hair, a british accent, a slight build, and over 6'0.

Potential actors for the part - alternatives -

• Charlie - short ginger hair, 6'3, british accent
• Matt - short brown hair, 6'2, british accent

Matt fits the part better because he is better at acting the bully and being intimidating.

Reece - Nerd

I am looking to cast a boy, aged around 17, for the part of 'Reece'. He needs to have short hair, be around 6'0, and has to have a british accent.

Potential actors for the part - alternatives -

• Callum - short, mousey brown hair, 6'0, british accent

Callum is suitable because he has the suitable acting experience for the role.

Lauren - Indie/Hippie

I am looking to cast a girl, aged between 16 to 18, for the part of 'Lauren' in 'Students vs Zombies'. She will need to have long hair (or be willing to have extensions put in), a british accent, and she needs to between 5'0' and 5'4 in height.

Potential actors for the part - alternatives -

• Georgina - long brown hair, 5'3, british accent
• Katie - mid-length ginger hair (will wear extensions), 5'1, british accent
• Maia - long brown/ginger hair, 5'1, british accent

These actors all potentially fit the part because they meet the requirements of the character casting note and have the relevant acting experience to fit the role of the character.

Rizzo - Fashionable/Glamorous

I am looking to cast a girl, aged between 16 to 18, for the part of 'Rizzo'. She needs to have medium-length brown hair, and should be 5'3.

Potential actors -

• Georgina - long brown hair, 5'3, british accent
• Katie - mid-length ginger hair, 5'1, british accent

Georgina is most suited for the part because she is taller and has the most relevant acting experience.

Kiera - Chav

I am looking to cast a girl, aged around 17, for the part of 'Kiera'. She needs to have hair that can be easily tied up, and should be around 5'l.

Potential actors - 

• Katie - mid-length ginger hair, 5'1, british accent

Katie is the most suitable for the part because she was the most successful candidate as she had the best accent for the role.

Peter - Bully's friend

I am looking to cast a boy, aged between 16-18, for the part of 'Peter'. He needs to have short, blond hair, a british accent, and should be around 5'11.

Potential actors - 

• Alex - british, blond hair
• Sam - british, brown hair

Alex has been cast as Peter because he is blond and has the relevant acting experience.

Paul - Bully's friend #2

I am looking to cast a boy, aged between 16-18, for the part of 'Paul'. He needs to have short, brown hair, a british accent and should be around 5'11.

Potential actors -

• Alex - british, blond hair
• Sam - british, brown hair

Sam has been cast as Paul because he has brown hair and has the relevant acting experience for the role.

Zombies #1, #2, #3 and #4

I am looking to cast four zombies, of any age, two girls and two boys. They need to be at least 5'6 and have to be willing to have lots of make-up on and can play a persuasive role as a zombie.

Potential actors -

• Alex - british, short blond hair, british accent
• Sam - british, short brown hair, british accent
• Katie - ginger mid-length hair, 5'1, british accent
• Georgina - long brown hair, 5'3, british accent
• Callum - short mousey brown hair, 6'0, british accent

Even though some of the actors are under the required height, they are considered because of their convincing zombie acting skills.

costumes for characters

 

Name of actor: Katie Turner
Name of character: Kiera
Height: 5 ft 1
Hair colour: Ginger/Red
Eye colour: Blue
Accent: British/English
Style: Chav
Costume: White flat peak cap, white oversized man's t-shirt, grey Nike jogging bottoms, white Supra high-tops, and hair tied back.

Name of actor: Maia Creed
Name of character: Lauren
Height: 5 ft 1
Hair colour: Brunette
Eye colour: Green/grey
Accent: British/English
Style: Indie
Costume: Floral top, black leggings, white converse, brown fringe bag, denim jacket, lipstick, and hair in a plait.

Name of actor: Georgina Horne
Name of character: Rizzo
Height: 5 ft 3
Hair colour: Brunette
Eye colour: Blue
Accent: British/english
Style: Fashionable
Costume: Wavy hair, bold makeup, white vest, blue cami, necklace, black leggings, bracelets and boots.

Character Outfit

Health and Safety

Contingency Plan

Nuisances

Remembering the script - Spend time revising it at home, in frees and in-between shots 

Arguing about how we look in the video - just get on with it, theres more important things to do.

Recording sound effects -  Record them and just get it out of the way, use your mouth to make noises or an object if need be.

People messing around - Tell them to grow up and take it seriously.


Minor Problems

Myself going away on 12th Feb - Work hard to complete what we need by the 12th Feb.

Finding the right background music - Spend free time researching and listening to what will fit best.

Someone we need might not be here - Ask someone else if they don't mind and are not busy. 

After effects / Premier / Adobe Photoshop editing - Watch tutorials online.

Lighting - Stand near a light source.

Making sure actors from other groups are available when we need them - Inform them and make it clear to them when we need them.

Effects looking realistic - Keep trying and follow the tutorials carefully.

Locations might be too busy to film in - Find somewhere else that looks near enough the same. 

Bad Acting - Be more enthusiastic and practise more.


Major Problems

The weather - go to an alternative location or film another day 

Lose footage - Film in frees

People not being here (Main character)  - film another shot where they are not needed and film them when they are back 

Commitment - threaten to kick them out 

Finding costumes - Discuss ideas, think and look in your own free time.

People being ill - ask them if they can come in just for part of the lesson 

Getting the sound effects and music - Use a microphone and get it done quickly 

How to get the kitchen scene done - ask politely if we can use the staff kitchen.

Not filming the shots and completing the task in time - Make it priority and film in lessons and in your free time to make sure it is complete.

Casting Notes

Casting Notes

SCRIPT TITLE NAME- STUDENT VS ZOMBIES



Henry: I am Looking for a teenage boy who has greenie blue eyes who is willing to play a male role who can exaggerate due to the character having a super powers. 

Production Meeting

              PRODUCTION MEETING 

Meeting started at 11:15. People present, Myself, Georgie, Katie and Maia. We discussed several things during this process. This meeting was to organise a schedule for filming and different parts of the film were creating and to try and fit in everything we need to work on up until the deadlines we have been given. 

Dead lines:

13th January 2014- The day we get the camera and start to film
29th January 2014- The rough copy of the film deadline
30th January 2014- Feed back and working on what needs to be improved
14th January 2014- Final piece deadline

We have worked out a schedule that enables us to complete all the work need to be done up to this point. 

We have discussed the fact that we need to book certain times with characters in the script that are not part of the group, so it fits around there schedule.

The first few days of the first week we have decided to work on the special effects, the filming and the computer special effects. This is due to the fact that we all need as much time as possible to get the special effects perfect and because there the main part of the piece, they need to be as good as they can be. The special effects will take the most times.

In the group we need to still decide the costumes needed in the piece. But because theres not enough time to get the costumes organised in lesson time we will get together out of the lesson on a free and plan the costumes for the piece. 

The audio we have decided to do near the end. So we can incorporate the other special effects sounds. With some of the shots the audio will be in the shots. 

Because we have 56 shots we need to work fast, organised and we all have to focus. This is because if we don't the rough copy will not be completed to then me analysed and we won't know what to improve on to make the work better. 

Improved Images

This photo has been improved by blurring the background and making the character the main focus point. It has also not been taken with the character in the center of the photo which means it hasn't broken the rule of thirds.

This photo has been improved by taking the un needed posters and displays from the background which as a result give you more focus on whats going on.

This photo has been improved because it has been taken from a different angle and as a result of this there is no clutter in the background which give you more focus on the characters.

This photo has been improved in the same way the previous one has been by taking the photo from a different angle so nothing pointless and un wanted is in the photo.

This photo was improved because of the cluttered background in the original photo. In this photo there is no posters in the background and not so much clutter as such which allows you to focus on the characters and get a clearer idea of what is going on.

We improved this shot by taking it from a different angle because in the original it was breaking the rule of thirds rule as the character was in the middle of the shot. In the original shot the character was also staring a the camera when he should of been looking at who he was having a conversation with. Another reason why we re took this photo was because the original photo didn't give the views much of an idea of what was going on and where it was taken and how it linked to the story.