Christmas Holidays

DUE TO EXAMS - 

THE CHRISTMAS HOLIDAYS WILL COMPRISE OF REVISION. 

I'LL CONTINUE TO WORK ON THE 'THRILLER OPENING VIDEO' PROJECT.

AS OF 

WEDNESDAY 9TH JANUARY 2013.

Recording non-diegetic sound

When recording the non-diegetic sounds of dialogue to later externally put into the video, I decided to use my Iphone. (Chris then recorded his voiceover parts as 'the witness' on his iphone).

Initially I considered the technicalities of recording audio. As I have previously recorded and done some producing on Cubase and Logic this was a platform I considered. However, because the quality of the microphone on my Iphone I felt this was a justifiable option and instead opted to use this. 

By doing this we now have the audio of Tommy (The main antagonist) to put into the sequence. The dialogue of both the characters will feature in between the cafe shots, as well as over the sequences of flashbacks. This will be a great way of integrating the two different spaces of time. 

Draft #2

Here is the second draft of our thriller opening video. 

We realised on upload that the video had not been exported properly, hence the poorer quality video. However it will suffice as a draft and demonstrates of all the frames of the video we now have in place. 

The following parts of editing will consist of:

Recording Non-Diegetic sound.
Further sound consideration.
Considering a limited use of special effects.
A title screen. 

This draft will now be loaded into Final Cut Pro X on my computer. As a group we have agreed that my knowledge of the program and its greater 'bank' of effects and video tools will be of much more use to us than Final Cut Express. 

Filming #4

By piecing the footage together on Final Cut, we were able to find out which shots were left to get. I broke this down into 3 shots that were crucial to the story:

1) Chris (Witness) exiting shops.

2) Witness walking onto the estate.

3) A shot of him dropping his shopping bag when he notices the mob and victim. 

The jump between shots from the shop exit to the estate, is narrated over. Between the estate shots we have made references back to the cafe to avoid jumping shot to shot on the estate which would not look right or portray the flashback narrative correctly. 

Sound Scape

Since my research into sound featured within thriller films, I have begin giving consideration to the soundscape of our group's piece. A Soundscape is a very important aspect of a film, especially within the thriller and horror genres. As part of our group's research into sound, I have been looking into the possible avenues of royalty free samples to guarantee us the right type of sound for our thriller opening. I have browsed through pre-recorded diagetic sounds to place into our thriller during the last unsupervised lesson.

"Sound is 50 per cent of the motion picture experience" - George Lucas.

Though we might think of film as an essentially visual experience, the importance of film sound cannot be underestimated. The entire sound track is comprised of three essential ingredients:  

• the human voice (Dialogue) 

• sound effects (Ambience and Effects) 

• music (Soundtrack, Score)

These three tracks must be mixed and balanced in order to produce the necessary emphasis on effects and to create a desired audience response. These comprise to form the Soundscape. They are analogous to elements in the real world.

I have looked into various websites such as SoundJay and Sounddogs. I found both of these sites very useful, when searching for free audio. Here are just some of the sound effects we have considered:

'heartbeat' effect - This can be layered on top of the running scene during the beginning and at the ending of the opening when this scene is repeated, to realistically emphasize the character's emotions.

Cafe noise - Adding to the background scenery during the shots. Because the dialogue will be imported, we therefore need to essentially build our soundscape back up, so creating realistic cafe noise is a must. This is something we may also record ourselves instead of simply sampling it. 

'Eerie Atmospherics' - Providing a transition between the flashback sequences and the 'real-time' as the Witness narrates the story. This is something I am going to look into further because it is important we harness the right sort of music. I.e. Too over-the-top  could quite easily be mistaken as horror music which is not in keeping with our genre. 

A screenshot of one of the Sound archives I have been looking in to.

Animated Title Experimenting

I spent some of my time experimenting with Titles in our unsupervised lesson. 

After designing the logo in photoshop for our thriller, I will then move onto Apple Motion on my laptop where I can then create a full-working animation sequence of approximately 5 seconds.

Here are a few of my plans in photoshop so far: 

Here is my first attempt. The 'Bebas' font was something I found online and will definitely be using in the animation. By making this short animation, it will give my video more of a commercial-look, thus more realistic and professional as a music video.

With my second attempt, I focused on drawing more attention to the director name. Across the 3 lines I included an 'outer glow' effect and on the bottom line, included an inner shadow angled to give an effective shadow. 

Here's my third attempt, similar to the first but I took into consideration the screen placement. This will give me an idea of how I am going to go about making the frames of the sequence. (i.e. splitting it up into different colour effects and font manipulation). 

Although our project will read as 'The Witness', I was merely experimenting with my name, effectively as a director's title. This will be very helpful when it comes to constructing our final title. 

The first draft

Research into Sound of Thriller films.

The Sounds featured within thriller films are used to create understanding and meaning for the audience. This will then help create an audience's response to the film. The sounds are predominately used to illustrate the characters feelings and emotions, allowing a response to be generated from the audience. This will create a certain mood and atmosphere that is in the context of the visuals and genre, which is often used to symbolise both the protagonists and antagonists actions during a scene. There are many different sound techniques that directors use including: diagetic, non-diagetic, parallel sounds, on screen sound and off screen sound.

Diagetic sound can be anything that a character would hear within a scene; for example, a telephone ring, dialogue and dogs barking. It is also used to distinguish elements of tension from the rest of the scene. Diagetic sound tends to be used to convey realism and meaning within a scene, however the sounds can also have hidden connotations. One example of this could be heavy rainful, which often connotes sadness and stress, whilst the onomatopoeic, 'pitter patter' of slow rain can connote a long wait or gradual build in suspense.

Non-digetic sound does not exist within the narrative of the film, but is placed into the soundscape during post-production editing. Examples of this sound include, a music soundtrack, a voice-over or other sounds that can enhance the meanings and elements of the film. For example, the building of a thick texture of orchestral music within a minor key, would connote extreme tension and infer that something fatal or enigmatic is about to take place within the scene. 

Parallel sound is when the sound we hear goes hand in hand with the events on screen. An example of this would be if we were about to witness a murder and dark, fast tempo music would accompany the action. The opposite of this would be 'Contrapuntal sound', when we hear sound that would not be associated with the events on screen.

'On screen' sound is used to illustrate an action. For example, a shot of the character switching the radio on. 'Off screen' sound does not accompany a visual action, for example somebody shouting in a room next door to the person who has just turned the radio on. Both of these 'Screen' sounds are examples of diegetic sound.

Research into how sound is used within the Film Industry:

Randy Thom, is the current Director of Sound Design at Skywalker Sound.

He has worked on many award winning films including Star Wars Episodes V & VI, Temple of Doom, and the second and fourth Harry Potter films.

Here he discusses:

•  how 'real life' vocalisations are added to a film to convey certain emotions. For example, a manipulation of pitch is often made or a transition to other sounds, i.e. the sound of a tiger. 
• For his sound work he uses Pro-tools and Sound search libraries at Skywalker. 
• He emphasizes the importance of having portable recording setups when coming across inspiration. 
• The use of volume variations between sound and the consideration given to real world sound vs synthesized sounds, where he often favours real sound as storytelling sounds over synthesized, electronic ones.
• Challenging scenes, such as action packed scenes of gun fights and car chases take a while to produce sound for, in order for it to be coherent to the audience. 
• The use of Dynamics.
• The future of sound and how he feel it will develop; increasing advances in technology. 

These were particularly interesting considerations I will take when creating the soundscape for our group's thriller film. 

Filming #3

I filmed the whole of this - Part III of the filming comprised of tying up specific scenes.

After looking over our first parts of filming on the estate, I broke down the main parts of the flashback sequence that need to be finished:

Introduction Running scene, interaction between the Witness + Gang and several establishing shots (including the victim entering the estate by car). 

What I focused on also was incorporating the entrances of the mob members onto the estate so I included shots of 2 men walking down from the alley next to some bins (as seen above). Although this may not be used, I made a habit of filming more than I needed so that it is useful for cut-scenes during the later stages of editing. 

What we needed was a strong establishing shot of the mob and their placement. I decided to film this shot whilst I drove up the road, because of the scarcity of people and obstructions present, I was able to do this with ease. I decided to film it like this to get the point of view of the driver and to hint to our audience a connection between the driver and these men later. By filming it with somebody sitting in the passenger seat, it simply wouldn't have had the same effect. 

At stage 3 of the filming I am happy with the outcome of my filming so far. At this penultimate stage, we have just a few more bits of footage left to capture. 

Motion 5

As part of the editing process, I am going to be using Motion 5. The video above explains the basics of the program and how to animate text.

Motion 5 will be a great way of creating a full-working animation sequence of approximately 3 seconds during the start of the video.

Here is some of my research into Motion so far:

Anchoring text is something else I am considering using during the the credits of the video. 

Key-framing will be important in animating the text/logo. 

I also have the option of going down the route of developing text as Kinetic Typography.

I have also recently discovered the Trail effect that can be made in Motion. I think this might be particularly useful during the shot from the victim's perspective, where we see him being attacked by the mob. 

Planning Filming part III

Editing #2

Today I wanted to focus on the estate scene and figuring out exactly how the interaction between the witness and the mob would occur. 

Our initial shot list wasn't as specific as I  needed to be to capture the shots, thus I re-thought the shots and planned what else we would need to film. I will be shooting the rest of the footage with a steadicam. (I shot much of the estate shots like this, whilst the cafe was predominately shot with a tripod.)

I'm pleased with how the ending of the video is beginning to look. This is exactly what I had intended and the CU of the head mob member at the end perfectly illustrates the cliff-hanger. 

When I was editing this ending, I broke it up into four main shots that are shown above. We see the mob walk through the doors in the first two shots and I had to take into account certain aspects such as the door closing in sync and making sure the actors were walking through the door at the same point, during the switch over between the two shots.

Editing #1

For the first part of our editing we began sequencing the footage from filming parts I & II.

The screenshots above illustrate all of the footage we have in place and what else we will need to shoot during the third part of filming. 

The thriller first opens with a shot of the Witness running from the estate. This is a shot that is repeated at the end of the video, thus it gives the audience an insight of what is to come. We thought this was a particularly effective introduction, before we are shown the cafe scene below. We can then distinguish between these two different time settings and relate to the estate scenes as being part of a flashback. 

We began to piece together this initial cafe scene, before we broke the scene up with shots of the cafe as the story becomes narrated. 

I decided to change the motion speed of the estate shots, to fully emphasize these establishing shots. 

A series of shots are used before the action takes place (victim is pulled from his car). We are also filming the victim's entrance into the estate via car, to build up more of a setting, before throwing our audience into action.

Final Cut Effects

Here is a list of Final Cut effects I have identified as being useful for the thriller video.

Having explored many video tutorials on Youtube and experimented with Final Cut, I have began to piece together the specific editing style I am after, to suit our thriller video. I am giving careful consideration to effects in order to achieve my desired video, but also to not completely tarnish it with misplaced effects.

We have agreed as part of the editing to first edit the footage and piece it together in Final Cut Express. We will then open the project in my Final Cut Pro X, (essentially as post-production). 

Filming #2

Heres are some stills and some photos of the set from today.

Today I managed to capture the discourse through shots I hope will engage our audience and feel the suspense.

I filmed the whole of the cafe scene, Chris acted and Declan came up with ideas for some of the shots. Throughout I made sure to get enough 'extra shots', acting as more establishing shots. I find this is particularly useful during the editing, where more cut-shots tend to be used than planned in an initial shot list.

Filming update

We were unable to film the estate scenes today due to one of our actors being ill. This has now been scheduled to Monday 26th November. We will be filming the cafe shots this Thursday and editing will then commence next week. 

Planning filming part II

For part II of the filming our biggest obstacle will be maintaining continuity with the weather on the estate scene. 

However this should not be a problem, as the weather on Monday is due to be overcast and when subjecting both sets of footage on different days to colour correction/editing on Final Cut, we can alter this continuity. 

We have maintained using social media as a great way of keeping everything organised and being able to communicate with our actors so readily. 

Research into Sound

In today's lesson we considered the importance of sound in films. The biggest consideration to take is: "what isn't present in a scene is just as important as the sound that is present in another". This is important with building suspense and engaging the audience during film openings, thus it is crucial we give careful considerations to the sound in our thriller opening. 

The websites: 
http://www.looperman.com 
http://www.incompetech.com/music/royalty-free 

are good for accessing royalty free music loops, acapellas and vocals. This is an important legal consideration to be taken. 

When looking over http://designingsound.org, I came across a series of interesting articles discussing the use of sound in film. One in particular, "DTS presents: Music Sound Design with Diego Stocco by Jack Menhorn" explores how soundtracks can be generated by playing unlikely sources. 



This video was particularly inspiring. For our thriller opening we have already considered making our own non-diegetic sounds to illustrate actions such as the kicking of the victim and the scuffling of the witness' shoes. 

This article was also useful: http://mixonline.com/post/features/movie_sound_effects/index.html

It gave me certain considerations to take on-board, for instance, the importance of sound and why it is used. A good example of this is "Although realism is important as a baseline, more often than not the recordings (or library recordings) get beefed up considerably."  

Things such as "A classic technique for making car chase sounds more exciting is to subtly layer in a lion (or other large animal) roaring to add to the tension of the sound. Although that’s become somewhat of cliché, it can be very effective." This has left me considering what can be put into our 2 minute thriller opening across the two different settings (the estate and the cafe) to emphasize the narrative and add to the suspense. 

Experimenting with colour correction

Today I experimented with colour-correction on a project I had recently shot with some friends.

Both of the below, are before and after examples of the alterations I had made.

With the use of effects such as Vignette, Strife and Projector, I have begun giving my video more of the desired 'cinematic-look', in essence, giving it more of a darker look, which is typical of thriller films.

What I have given particular thought to is the desired realistic look of the video. I did not want to simply tarnish it with effects, but instead maintain a real-life look. Protecting the skin when editing the colour for example, has been one of these considerations.

Filming #1

Today's filming was a success.

We managed to get together the majority of footage for the Estate scene and the ending scene of the mob walking into the cafe.

Here are some stills from my camera.

Next week we will be completing the Estate scene and the scene of the discourse in the Cafe. 

Glidecam

I will now be using a 'Calicocam' Glidecam for the filming. 

For previous final cut tests, I simply fastened my camera onto a tripod which worked surprisingly well as a makeshift glidecam, giving a fairly precise and steady motion for the footage.

However this will make the footage more steady and I will hopefully find it to be of much use.

I have also been looking at several 'Calicocam' videos on YouTube. Here as some examples which I have found useful for deciding whether to opt for using a glidecam or not; the comparison between using one and not, is demonstrated:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjZi1i4ymFk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DC4d5P8z4BI&feature=plcp

Production Schedule

Here is my production schedule for the construction of our music video. 

Study of Mise-en-scene in Thriller Films

Mise-en-Scene is a French term meaning: ‘what is put into a scene or frame’. It can also be defined as the arrangement of scenery and elements to represent the place where a film is enacted. The composition of Mise en scene within film, provide an indication of genre and we as an audience can begin to recognise these set conventions.

Lighting & Colour -  The way lighting is display within a film or scene is a big indication of genre. Thrillers often use low-key lighting because it creates suspense and an enigmatic atmosphere. Whereas genres such as romantic comedies would tend to use high key lighting to produce the atmosphere of romance and love. Colour is key convention, which comes parallel to lighting as we associate emotions and thoughts with different colours.

Black - Darkness/Evil
White – Purity
Green – Envy
Red- Love/Lust/ anger/danger
Blue- Cold/ sadness/ depression
Yellow- sunshine/ happiness

Setting And Props - The setting relates to location. For example, the typical conventions of thriller film settings would be a dark warehouse or haunted house. Depending on the props used, these objects can help determine the narrative, identity of character and genre.

Facial expressions and Body Language -  By the use of these elements, the emotion of characters can be conveyed. Non-verbal communication such as this, helps the audience to assume characteristics about the character and how they are feeling by not being directly told. For example, if a character is scared we can tell by their proximity to the object/person.

Costumes and Make-up/Hair - The use of costume and makeup allow actors to appear lifelike, because how we present the character reflects on how the audience perceive them. Choices of costume and makeup can create a conventional thriller character; i.e. omission of 'glamorous lipstick' and instead pale makeup will make them look dead. If you want to show a woman fearful and in tears, smudged make up can be used to display her emotions. Costumes can carry certain connotations, including the emotions of the character display by colour.

Position of characters and objectives in a frame -  The way characters are positioned within a frame can tell the audience a lot about the character. levels of supremacy can be identified (asserted by Prevelance in editing), by how characters are centred and angled. In murder scenes, the killer is the dominate character, whilst the victim is the minor character. This can be displayed by staging and levels of the characters.

Study of Mise-en-scene within 'Se7en'.

At the beginning of the view there is a shot of Morgan Freeman in his house. The character's tidy and decorated house, showing him as somebody who takes pride in the appearance of his home. This is a complete contrast to the the typical thriller setting which often starts off within a dark and gloomy setting. His clothing portrays him as the stereotypical smartly dressed detective, including a trench coat and hat. This ultimately portrays the basis of the narrative, with emphasis pus his career immediately and that the film will be based around solving murder mysteries and other crimes.

We meet the other detective within the scene, Brad Pitt, who is a contrast to Morgan Freeman, as he is young, a lot more relaxed, and has a cheeky attitude, whilst Morgan remains a lot more serious. Brad Pitt has an individual detective costume of a leather jacket and more casual clothes, which goes against the stereotype that Morgan upholds.Through the mise-en-scene you can tell that the two policemen are binary opposites. As Brad Pitt is the trendy cop with a unique costume and attitude, which is emphasized by him chewing gum. Pairing these two characters together creates conflict, thus one could be referred to a protagonist and the other as an antagonist. These contrasting characters at the beginning create an enigma, to interest the audiences to see the further complications. 

The house that the crime took place in appears smokey, undecorated and has a gloomy, enigmatic aspect about it. This suggests that something terrible happened there and conforms to the stereotype of thriller settings. The two detectives then leave the house and walk into the typical urban city. This gives the audience an idea of the location, highlighting that it is based around the poorer areas of a city in America, with heavy rain pouring down in a lower class, urban city. Ultimately the onomatopoeic, 'pitter patter' of rain has dark connotations and infers that this narrative is going to become much darker, in the hope of solving the criminal activity.