Post Production - Sound

After we finished the filming process of our Single camera Drama we began editing I decided I would create my own soundtrack for the production then allow the other members of my team to decided if they wanted to use it or not I used garage band for this but I found that quite quickly I couldn't get the hang of how to use it so I decided I would actually record some Folly effects

Foley

 I thought about trying to get a Foley gunshot sound so I browsed YouTube videos and then decided to come up with my own idea I first tried bubble wrap simple but effective it did make a pop but I think it would take considerable amount of editing to make it sound like a gunshot so next I thought to use a plastic bag and pop it, it made a considerably better sound but still slightly lacked and needed more depth to it I then decided to use a sandwich bag with air inside and I popped it, it was almost the sound I was after so I put a small amount of water in the bag and bang it worked I was happy with the sound that it made but we decided not to use this foley effect because we had already found a better one online.

Pre Production - Sound Research

For the sound segment our single camera production I decided to do some Pre Production research by browsing online for some royalty free sound effects ready for when we will need them this is a list of the websites I found.

List of royalty Free Sound Effect Sites:

http://www.freesfx.co.uk/

http://www.freesound.org/

http://www.audionetwork.com/sound-effects

http://www.grsites.com/archive/sounds/

I know that for our production there is a scene in the script where we will require some gunshot sounds so I researched further and found some so it would be easy access when I need them.

I used the first sight listed freesfx and I decided to search gunshot into the search bar. This is a list of the effects that came up once I searched I then browsed through to find an appropriate sounding effect. I then chose the effect bellow as the effect I would put into the single camera production even though its blurry it says Handgun 500 Calibur Smith & Wesson .

Ident Idea 2 Sketch

This is a sketch of my second Ident idea in which your in a first person view of a man walking towards a wall the camera then becomes fixed as he places his hands out in front of him and falls smearing his hand over the wall and written in the blood smear is Blood Smear Productions.





















Next i made a plan incase i decided to make this ident i would have an easy plan to follow and help guide me trough the process of making it.

finally i wrote down the Sound and camera movements that would feature in this ident which was quite simple as there is only a couple of sound effects and most of the movement is fixed.




















Because this Idea consists of footage it is mainly 3D but when the hand will smear down the wall i will have to put in a 2D text layer onto of the blood saying Blood Smear Productions i am unsure how to make the text appear other then key framing the opacity in the transform options this could be difficult to do though unless i try to rotor-scope the hand to put it as a different layer to the wall and then put the text on the wall i will have to look further into this if i choose it as my final idea.

Ident Idea 3 Sketch

This is my final Idea for Blood Smear Productions the plan for this Ident is quite easy to follow i also think this is a rather easy Ident to do and perfect this is the Ident i would be most likely to make.



For this idea the Camera does not move and stats still completely but this idea would feature more sound then all of my other Ident ideas using a subtle horror humming tune in the back ground also other Sound Effects would be needed like a smearing sound on glass and a loud almost slapping sound on the door.


The door in this idea will be a 2D layer whilst the actual hand would be 3D its likely i would cut the hand on the glass from the original footage and put it on a more appropriate 2D png door from the internet this could create a problem for the hand though so i might need to use a matte for the area behind the hand to give me the visual look i would like.

Pre Production - Equipment

These are some Photos of the equipment we're using for our production and what we used them for and why.

This is the 500 Watt Industrial Light we used for our production it has a adjustable pole for hight making it more mobile and help us create unique lighting effects we used this light for a couple of test shoots to help get the feel of an interigztion setting but when it came to actually filming we decided that it would be to powerful and bright and could actually ruin the feel of our interrogation setting so instead we used the lights that were already there giving us a spotlight effect.

The camera we used was a Cannon 550D we used this camera because we wanted a high quality clear image that would look visually appealing when we filmed the footage did seem slightly grainy but overall we were happy with the quality given by the 550D.



We used a Shotgun (Directional) Microphone that was attached to the top of the  Cannon 550D to give us a clear recording of the sound in front of the camera including the Actors and Sound Effects we originally wanted a Zoom for better and a more crisp sound quality but we had to go with this as it was the only one available at the time.

This is a Track and Dolly we used the track and dolly to get a smooth and subtle moving effect for our production to because we decided that we were going for more of a precise movement rather then using just our hands to move the camera which would result in a shakey effect which is not what we were after.

This is a Reflector its used to reflect the current light to try to give you dynamic and unique lighting effects we planned to use this for reflecting the light to try to enhance the visual look and get us a more dynamic lighting effect but we decided not to use this for our production due to the light being ultimately to bright and reflecting it would cause problems with big blotchy circles of light in shot.

Ident Completed

Ident

I took my final idea and put it into action i got a picture from the internet of an office door it took me along time to find the one i wanted and whilst looking at pictures it began to make me change my mind and then i did a storyboard based on my new idea.

I originally had 3 production names i could use JCP Productions, Blood Smear Productions and Scary Door Productions these were my choices once i found the door picture i really liked my idea changed i decided to change the idea completely to Scary Door productions with the picture selected i put it into Adobe Photoshop and removed its background then i saved the picture as a JPEG once i saved it i played around the gradient option and swapped it essentially giving it the complete opposite colours black>white white>black i then saved this as another picture after i put it into After effects and began the editing stage i made it around 8-9 seconds long and started with just the original picture of the door which i changed the Opacity so it gave a fade in effect then after a few seconds it swaps to the second door (the one with the gradient effects) and then i made it so toward the end that door then fades out by again changing the opacity i then put its in the render Que then for the final step i put the ident into Final Cut Pro i then used a screaming sound i found online on a royalty free website and i placed it on the moment the door changes and finally i exported it as a quicktime file and put it on youtube.

My Completed Ident

Evaluation
I think that my ident went well considering i haven't been using After Effects for long i like the whole concept and idea of the ident and i especially like it when the Gradient changes the only problem i think is the theme of the ident it could severely limit what productions i can do as the ident is a horror theme and would seem unsuitable if i use it for say a kids film.

After Effects Lesson 1

After Effects Lesson 1

The Task

In our first after effects lesson we were given the task of creating

After opening Ae you are presented with a blank screen the first thing we did was import the files already given to us we went to File > Import > Choose File we then located the various .mov and mp3 files we then had to select a different type of file a psd (Photoshop Document) with the psd selected we had to change the import to Composition this allows you to change/edit the individual layers of the image with all the files imported we selected the bgwtext Composition along with the dancers,gc_adobe_dance,kaleidoscope_waveforms and pulsating_radial_waves footage items then you drag them onto the timeline panel and i creates a new composition after the you select composition > composition settings you then change the duration of the composition and enter 1:15 and click ok  then click the layers and rename then appropriately click the Dancers layer then go into the effects panel and search radial blur once found drag it onto the layer then change the radial blur's amount option to 200 then go back to effects and type in exposure it will be under colour correction then you drag it onto the dancers then you click the Triangle next to the effect showing settings that can be changed then click the triangle next to master then change the exposure enter 1.60 which will make the image brighter and more exposed 

Ident Idea 1 Sketch

This is the basics of my first ident idea which was where I will focus on a plaque saying J.C.P Productions on a door whilst focusing on this silhouettes of people will walk past I  then sketched it out and labeled the important parts all movement is highlighted by arrows

This is a step by step plan of what will happen in the ident to make it clearer if I decide to use this ident and then underneath I wrote about the camera movements that would take place for this idea it was quite easy as the camera just stays still and only has a small zoom effect

Finally I had a thought about the sound that would be featured in this ident I decided to go for a basic set of office sounds and muffle them so they were not to overpowering and steal the attention.

This idea would consist of 4 2D Elements that would be layered cleverly to make the Ident look 3D the first layer would be the door which is the main focus and the glass part of the door would be have to be edited out of on Photoshop then replaced with something more transparent but still looking like glass next would be the silhouettes that would keyframe there positions and then i would alter the X setting after a few seconds to make them move past each other i will place then bellow the door/glass combo on the after effects timeline which would layer them behind the glass and door giving the wanted effect of people walking past the door.

Production - Behind the scenes

I was responsible for filming and taking photos of the behind the scenes of our single Camera Production I did so on my phone so the footage is slightly shakey.

Behind the Scenes Part 1

In this first shot Alex and Christian were setting up the shot and they were  both discussing the shutter speed and practicing test shoots.

Behind the Scenes Part 2

In this shot I captured Christian filming whilst using the track and dolly for our smooth motion i also captured part of the scene to show how we effectively used the lighting to create our desired Interrogation effect.

Behind the Scenes Part 3

In this final recording I again got a shot of the track and Dolly being used and how we used the light to our advantage again 10 seconds in where the Guard pulls back the man being interrogated's head and the light reveals him

These are a couple of photos I took of our production including a shot on the right of how we set up the shot and the production team and director on the left.

Pre Production - Budget

I made a budget for our Production so we could plan our expenses and know how much we were going to need for this production.

Pre Production - Risk Assessment

This is the risk assessment i did for out Night club location i only did a risk assessment for this location as i believe it was a more professional filming location and possessed more risks then our other location. 

1960's and 2000's

We were given a task to look at two separate decades and finding out what events were going on in the world and how Hollywood used these events in there films. I was given the 1960s and the 2000s I started with the 60s there was a lot of different things going on at the time like in 1961 the first man went into space this prompted lots of panic and curiosity of what could be out there which ultimately created opportunity for film makers to create space films that would really react with the audience such as The 2001 Space Odyssey http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0062622/.Also in the later 1960's a massive string of radioactive monster films came along with the attacks on  Hiroshima and Nagasaki which happened prior to 1960's such as Godzilla and the rest of the Shōwa Franchise.


2000s

911's - world trade centre (film) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0469641/

natural disasters- day after tomorrow http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0319262/?ref_=nv_sr_1

diseases(mad cow,swine flu) - resident evil http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120804/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2000s_(decade)

Ident Pre-Production

Ident Pre-Production

The Task

We were given the task to create our own functional Ident to use for anything we produce in college the Ident must be unique and not directly copy another existing Ident we must create our Ident using Adobe After Effects.

Target Audience

My ideal target audience is young adults between 18-28 because the things I produce I want to be aimed at older audiences and I think my Ident would need to reflect that also its easier for me to reach people around my age rather then a younger or a lot older audience.

 

Mind Map of Ideas

These are the four possible ideas I came up with for my Ident I think I like idea 2, 3 and 4 the best and these are the three I will now take further.

Existing Ident's

Existing Idents

What is an Ident?

Station identification (Ident) is in basic terms a moving logo usually shown on TV channels such as Channel4, ITV, MTV, CBeebies, ect. Idents could last anything between 5 seconds to 30 seconds depending on the channel and their audience most Idents are just to remind you what channel you’re watching but most of the time there not long enough to make you lose interest or want to change over.

Channel4

Channel4 has a cool and complex design to their Ident as the camera moves these random floating blocks from one angle turn out to be the number 4 at another angle the picture to the right is the Channel4 Ident I chose to look at which is 28 seconds long like most Idents this one creates an identity for the channel for example if you were to show this to people they would probably know what channel it’s from so they have created a worldwide image and achieved world renown for this special design of Ident there is quite a big limitation with this Ident in particular because its 28 seconds long which means you would need to have a lot of patience to watch this Ident but you could make it more bearable by having someone talk over the top saying what’s on next or you could try to cut it shorter but the problem with cutting this Ident is it may lose its achieved effect of everything coming together.

 CBeebies

The next Ident to look at is completely different from the Channel4 Ident and that’s because of the difference in audience this Ident is only 19 seconds so it’s around 9 seconds shorter then Channel4. The Ident starts with just 2 blobs climbing over each other simple but effective then after a quick transition there are lots of yellow blobs playing around and the title of CBeebies it mainly targets its audience by being playful and bright which would draw in a child or people of young ages also if parents saw the Ident they might think the channel is suitable for their children which would ultimately increase their audience this Ident is also very limited for example this would work great for bringing in people of a younger age but on teenager this wouldn’t work I don’t think that many teenagers would want to watch this channel after seeing this Ident so it limits there target audience but in saying that as I said earlier some parents might want to watch this with their children but mainly this restricts the channel to only children or very young people’s programmes. 

ITV

This is one of ITV’s Ident’s called “Pugwash” ITV are famous for how simple their actual ident’s are for example you have “itv” come in there’s no real complex design to it this Ident  is around 30 seconds which is really long for an Ident but it seems quite easy to cut it if needs be unlike channel 4 but without cutting this Ident down I think that no matter who the audience is it might make them lose interest but I think that point is up for argument because they decide to put in a “cute” dog being washed in a sink which could actually keep the audience’s attention I would think that ITV has a worldwide audience because I know personally they have shown for all age ranges but this Ident in particular targets a younger age and at risk of sounding sexist I think it leans more towards female who would find this sort of thing cute which although it helps target their audience it also restricts it and might be placed incorrectly for example if it’s put on before a show a man might be watching they might be put off by this Ident.

Comedy Central

Next I Looked at a Comedy Central Ident this Ident was a lot shorter than I expected this Ident is only 15 seconds long but that may be down to the channel considering is a comedy channel with funny entertaining show they might only want a short Ident so you don’t want to turn the channel over the Ident consists of the Comedy central Icon rolling on a train and a bridge simple but effective I don’t think that this Ident has any restrictions I think due to the fact it’s you could probably replace the Logo with that of ITV or Channel 4 but not CBeebies because I think that this Ident seems mature and sophisticated which a child probably wouldn’t enjoy watching this and may find it boring so I think that this targets a mature audience maybe from about 18+ but I personally don’t get this I mean it’s a Ident for a comedy channel so I think it should be funny so I think this Ident is slightly misleading.

MTV

Next I looked at a MTV Ident at 28 Seconds long which is longer than expected consider it’s a music channel the Ident  features four birds on a line singing different notes then a fifth bird comes along playing a really high note then the bird actually explodes I think that this is maybe the most misleading Ident I have seen because it’s quite graphic it starts the birds are colourful happy and playing a nice tune then one just explodes I personally think that it starts out looking suitable for children to watch and they would like it but if a child watches the bird blow up it may not like it whereas older audiences may find it funny so I think this is majorly restricted to an older audience which is a bad idea to do considering that it’s a music channel and would like to have a broad audience.

 BBC

Next I looked at a BBC Ident the Ident was only 19 seconds long but I was surprised to see how boring the content actually was even though the image to the right looks interesting it wasn’t the Ident consisted of a flock of flamingos that’s all then the BBC name comes up very basic and really puts you off the programs that are coming up I would actually change the channel if this came on but to improve it I would cut it to at least 7 seconds long I think the main reason I didn’t like it maybe that it targets an older more sophisticated age then myself but clearly this Ident limits the channel.

20th Century Fox
The Final Ident I looked at was for 20th Century Fox I think the Design of this Ident is both clever and simple  because at first look you think its basic but after looking at it again you begin to realise all the small details involved but I doubt with my level of After Effects knowledge I could create this Ident I think the Purpose of this Ident was to create a global recognisable brand that everyone would know when they saw it The Intent of this Ident is to grip peoples attention and establish the company allowing them to be recognised by this Ident.

Pre Production - Location Report

This is a location report for our nightclub I chose only to do a location report for this location as it was a more professional and interesting location.

Location Report

Location: Night Club

Contact Person: Mark

Position: Manager

­

Feasible shooting space: Yes

Electricity

Available if needed

Audio

Noises from ballroom above

Lighting

Shooting in a dark space some lights available more light required from additional sources

only 1 extra light is needed. 

Set

there will be various props and set pieces in the background

we will need to rearrange a few different pieces of the set like chairs and the stereo system

Logistics

Close to the college 5-10 minute walk

parking is available nearby

Pre Production - Costume Design

Costume Design 

I designed this costume for  our drug dealers/thugs they will wear hoodies and tracksuit bottoms this is only a basic template and can be changed if needed. I designed this costume on photoshop using various pictures from the internet.

Vlog Plan

Clash of the Titans Plan

-What country and era were they made and the impact on how they were made?

-clash of the titans (1981) was made in USA

-clash of the titans (2010) was made in USA

-These two films were made in completely different times and both were amazing for the time they were produced for example the 1981version technology was limited but they used what they had at the time like lots of stop animation fighting scenes and whereas the 2010 version had much more technology available including using 3D cameras

-What were the films budgets and how did the budgets impact on the production?

-Clash of the titans (2010) Estimated budget $125 million

-Clash of the titans (1981) Estimated budget $15 million

-Both films had considerably high budgets for there time 1981 had around $15 million and the 2010 version had $125 million so a massive $110 million difference which would heavily influence the quality difference between the films. for example 2010 had enough money to create around 1600 weapons for the film including swords, daggers, darts and a blowpipe. there high budget also allowed them to create the 40,000 square foot city of Argos and finally they had the money to spend 5 months designing the

Kraken.

-Are the intended audiences the same for each version

-Clash of the titans (2010) Pg-13

-Clash of the titans (1981) Pg

-There are slight differences to the target audience the original Clash of the Titans film aimed for a U classification because the director Desmond Davis wanted to reach all ages but instead attained a pg. rating whereas the 2010 version got a pg-13.

-Other successful productions at the time that could of impacted this remake 

-Before clash of the titans remake was released in april earlier in the year Percy Jackson and the Lighting Thief was released which features lots of the greek gods and has a similar theme to clash of the titans and due to getting mixed reviews on sites like rotten tomatoes the director of clash of the titans  probably thought that this was the time to release the film.

-What Social or Polictical issues were going on at the time of this version?

-Clash of the Titans (1981)

Around the time of this film there were massive conflicts arising in Rome which amassed to a bombing in one of there airports

-Clash of the Titans (2010)

-Were the Reasons for remake artistic or financial?

-Artistic Louis Leterrier decided to remake the film in his image he also believed the story needed to be retold and modernised originally he didn't want to remake the  film as he loved he actually said to Warner Brothers "I understand why you’re remaking it: It makes sense, it’s exciting. But you shouldn’t. It’s bad. Don’t do this." then after thinking it over and reading the screenplay he decided to go alone with it.

-How was each version Marketed?

-Clash of the Titans (1981) 

there was very limited resources available at the time for marketing and so the biggest marketing technique was putting the film poster everywhere for people to see before the actually film was released

-Clash of the Titans (2010)

2 months before the release of the film they released movie posters and banners and a sneaky campaign was launched to steal peoples attention away from kickass by placing an add on the side of google every time someone searched kickass a side add came up for clash of the titans saying to go watch it but kick ass respond by placing a add beneath clash of the titans saying "Don’t Be Conned. Heroes Don’t Clash, Real Heroes Kick-Ass. Join Up Now"

-How did production and distribution technology impact on each version?

-Clash of the titans (1981)

Clash of the titans technology was very limited and resulted in stop animation fight sequences and low budget sets that had to be reused. 

-Clash of the titans (2010)

In the 2010 remake of the film there was very little limitation on distribution and technology allowing them to achieve outstanding visuals and very few limitations on worldwide distribution allowing them to bring in a bigger audience.

-How was the news of the remake received by audiences and there views after the release? 

-When the film was announced people generally thought it was a terrible idea fans of the original thought it was a disgraceful idea and really were not happy and once the film was released peoples views were proved right as the majority of people got together and shared there views.

VIdeo Podcast Notes

-For this podcast i had to pick a film or TV series that had been remade or rebooted i have decided to look at The Clash of The Titans (1981) film which was remade in 2010

-These two films were made in completely different times and both were amazing for the time they were produced for example the 1981version technology was limited but they used what they had at the time like lots of stop animation fighting scenes and whereas the 2010 version had much more technology avaliable

-Both films had considerably high budgets for there time 1981 had around $15 million and the 2010 version had $125 million so a massive $110 million diffrence which would heavily influence the quality difference between the films. for example 2010 had enough money to create around 1600 weapons for the film including swords, daggers, darts and a blowpipe. there high budget also allowed them to create the 40,000 square foot city of Argos and finally they had the money to spend 5 months designing the
Kraken.

-There are slight differences to the target audience the original Clash of the Titans film aimed for a U classification but instead attained a pg. rating because the director Desmond Davis wanted to reach all ages the 2010 version got a pg13.





-Film Stuff (2010) http://movies.about.com/od/clashofthetitans/a/clash-titans-budget.htm
-Visual Effects (1981) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Harryhausen
-Percy Jackson and The Lightning Thief Review http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/0814255/
-About Percy Jackson and The Lightning Thief http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0814255/
-Clash of the Titans http://www.vanityfair.com/online/oscars/2010/04/clash-of-the-titans-director-you-shouldnt-remake-clash-of-the-titans
2010 vs 1981 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5t-_t-fMWQ

Remaking Van Helsing

Van Helsing

The task

We were given a list of films that are currently being reviewed for a possible remake out of this list i chose the 2004 film Van Helsing with my choice made i then had to review the plot, characters and theme of the film and make it apply to a current day audience.

What i did

being a big fan of the original film i decided to make as few changes as possible the first and most important change was i planned to make the whole theme darker and aim for a 15 borderline 12A i would get Christopher Nolan to direct the film to try and give it a darker edge like the recent Batman Series. some verry important changes i would make is to cut the female character from the film eliminating all love interest as it could take the dark feel away i would also attempt to axe most of the monsters instead of having Frankenstien's Monster, Dracula, vampires, werewolves and Mr Hyde i would stick with just one enemy such as werewolves this could also lead to potential for a series of films each featuring different monsters as he tries to track down the killer of his family which would be the new plot of the film which ultimately ties in with modern day fears of losing family members in the first film i think a famous cast is needed i would keep Hugh Jackman as Van helsing but i would make the Antagonist for the first film Sean Bean as the head Werewolf.

The Big Relaunch

Relaunching Goosebumps

Viewers Beware Your in For a Scare!!!!!!!!

Goosebumps was a TV series that aired in 1992 and went on till 1998 it was based on the hit children's horror books by R.L Stine. The hit Series was cancelled  due to ratings beginning to drop in the late 1990's people began to simply loose interest in the series. its hard to avoid this if you were to relaunch the show maybe you could have some younger stars featuring in a few episodes the only problem is that the original series is based on R.L Stines books so the new series would be totally different but i think that there is a open market for children who like scary or gross things and could potentially like to watch these. Another reason i think its time for a relaunch is due to how tolerant the younger generation is now days they can manage to watch more horror based shows and still not be phased. I think the relaunch should be aimed at around 6-10 year olds possibly on Cartoon Network around 6pm any later and they might be asleep and any earlier and it might be targeting to young an audience. you would need a fair budget but not to pricey most of the budget would be on visual effects.

Log-line

After 15 years the Hit TV show is back time to dim the lights hold on tight viewers beware your in for a fright!

 

Perry Mccarthy Ident

Ident Evaluation

I was given the task to create a 5 second Ident for Perry Mccarthy the original Stig on Adobe After Effects I had mixed feelings about this task as this is my first time using After Effects for a project after I started getting my ideas out I got more confident with the creating of this Ident I think my Ident was rather good for a first attempt I’m happy with its content as I thought I wouldn’t of been able to make something like that with only little knowledge of After Effects I think if I were to do it again I would take longer with using Photoshop to edit the Psd files before putting them in the Ident but overall I’m happy with this Ident and didn’t find it that hard to do.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TdnJ6QZ6es&feature=youtu.be