Work produced – Week 6

This week, we learnt about foley and audio. After an in-depth lesson about how to create foley and what it is, we were given a short video (Lifted by Disney Pixar) with no audio and we were set the task to out to create and collect our own sounds to fit the video.

Replicating the appropriate sounds seemed like an easy task, but there were a number of difficulties which came with the recording of our audio (which I will talk about in more detail in my problems and solutions post). But our main problem was most definitely the ambient sound that occurred when trying to record various sounds, especially sounds that had to be recorded outside when it was windy.

Here is my finished Lifted project:

 

 

 

 

 

Problems and solutions – Week 5

This week I realised I want to learn more about camera movement and how to create aesthetically pleasing shots. We had a lesson on camera movement and I realised just how important movement actually is in film- it can tell a story better than words can if it’s used effectively.

In order to improve my camera skills, I plan on watching more clips from films and videos where movement is the main focus, so I can get ideas for my future projects. I have two examples of effective movement in my last blog post (scenes from Run Lola Run and Amelie) and I will continue to look at the movement and camera techniques from these.

 

 

 

Work produced – Week 5

This week, we learnt about camera movement and the significance of movement in scenes. We watched a clip from “Amelie” and analysed the movement of the character in the particular scene. We looked at the way the camera followed them as they ran and the shots that were used. The scene didn’t rely on dialogue to tell the story, it relied heavily on the movement. The scene included a lot of action and high anticipation as the protagonist was constantly moving throughout the scene. We learnt that movement in film can come in different forms- the movement of the actual characters, movement in the background and movement caused by editing in post production.

We also looked at a scene from “Run Lola Run” and there were a number of interesting and significant movements and camera angles included in the scene, mainly focusing on the movement of the main protagonist.

 

The two main points I found most interesting in this scene were the first shot and the shot at 2:53. The first shot followed the main character as she entered the building- this showed that she is a significant character and the one we need to be focusing on. The shot at 2:53 is of the ball rolling round the wheel accompanied by the sound of the character’s piercing scream- these two together (the sound and the on screen movement) create anticipation and tension.

After an in depth session learning about this, we then went out and created our own short videos that show our understanding of camera movements. I will post this here once I have finished editing it.

Discussion about storyboards – storyboards are used to organise your idea – when creating storyboards, you must include other crew members such as cameraman, director, sound man, lighting etc. Also remember to include the technical names of all shots required.

 

Feedback and reflections – Week 5

 

 

 

This week, I carried on updating my college Twitter account. I have gained 26 followers overall (6 since last week) who are mainly college peers and a couple of YouTubers. I have been using the hashtag “#ccfilmsquad” when tweeting about work or college matters. I have also tweeted some accounts with large followings asking them to look at our hashtag or tweet it- this way, we would all gain some recognition on Twitter.

I have learnt a lot about camera movement this week. Before the lesson on camera movement, I never looked closely at the movement of characters/anything else in the shot but I now realise that the movement can highly affect the overall mood of the scene and can tell the story on its own, without dialogue being needed – e.g. the scene from Amelie we watched earlier in the week- it made the story clear even though dialogue was not used.

After an in depth session learning about movement, we then went out and created our own short videos that show our understanding of camera movements. After I had finished my edit I showed it to a college lecturer and received some feedback- he gave me some editing tips to make my videos look smoother and generally better. He told me that the background music should indicate when to cut a scene- “cut on the beat”. He said that whenever there’s catchy, upbeat background music, there should be a new cut per beat as this is what viewers would find the most aesthetically pleasing. This is definitely something I will take into consideration when filming my Winter project and my final major project.

 

Problems and solutions – Week 4

This week, whilst filming and recording our interviews, there were a few problems that we came across. Firstly, we had to choose a suitable location- at the time we wanted to film, everywhere seemed to be busy or overcrowded so we had to find somewhere that was relatively quiet so there would be no unwanted ambient sound. After searching for a while, we decided to look in the sports hall for a quiet spot to film in- thankfully, we managed to find somewhere secluded that was ideal to record in and was the perfect solution to our problem.

The second problem that occurred for me this week was the fact that I wanted to gain more followers on my professional college Twitter account and wasn’t sure how. I decided that the way to gain more followers/recognition on Twitter was to keep following more accounts and interact with them by tweeting them or retweeting their tweets. I learnt that if I did this with smaller Twitter accounts (ones with not much of a following) they would be more likely to notice me- this worked and I gained more followers in the duration of two days, proving my solution to be very effective.

Feedback and reflections – Week 4

This week, we conducted more interviews in teams. I enjoyed this task because I am thinking of conducting interviews as part of my Winter project and this gave me a chance to gain more experience with recording and filming interviews. We switched group roles with every interview we filmed so I got the chance to be an interviewee, director and also learnt more about using cameras and zoom mic’s which is useful for if I do decide to go forward with the interview idea.

Also, we created professional Twitter accounts to broadcast our work and update others on our filming progress. We created the hashtag #ccfilmsquad so we can get our work and tweets noticed. I also followed some popular, verified and professional film accounts, such as IMDB, Film London and Film Slate Magazine. By following and tweeting these accounts, there’s a possibility we could get recognition (and possibly comments) for our work.

Work produced – Week 4

This week, we conducted more interviews in teams – I will upload my finished, edited interview this week.

We also researched the benefits of social media in film and television.

Interactive media

Social media is used for/by

• Politics
• Businesses
• Celebrities
• General public
• Public services
• Local councils
• Education
• News

Films – use social media for tweeting cinemas, tasters, 360 videos

Music – use social media for YouTube, Soundcloud, Facebook, viral videos

We also created our own individual Twitter accounts to broadcast our future and previous projects and updates on all the work we’re in the process of doing. The first thing I tweeted was a link to my “Hallo” project so I can begin the sharing of my videos. As a class, we created the hashtag “ccfilmsquad” so we can post it with our tweets and interact with each other over Twitter easier. I will link my Twitter account below.

Tweets by hannahfilmscc

 

 

Problems and solutions – Week 3

I have been thinking about the Interactive sector in terms of my Winter project. I evaluated various different social media sites and realised that not all of them were a good idea in terms of posting my work to them.

Using Snapchat, I realised, wouldn’t be a good idea. I wanted to use it, but realised that it has its faults (not being able to save photos and videos permanently for others to view whenever they like) which I was disappointed about as I firstly thought Snapchat would be a useful app to use to document progress.

My solution is simple- I can take photos and videos using Snapchat, but then save them to my phone to later upload to Facebook and Twitter. Snapchat gives you the option to add a caption to your photo/video which is useful as I can caption what the video or photo is about/what is happening in the scene.

Moving on, I have also identified some problems that could occur with audio. As I realised that even in the quietest of locations you can pick up ambient sound, I decided that dubbing my recorded footage would be an easy and effective solution. I can record a voice over once my video has been filmed and this way I won’t have any unwanted background noise.

 

 

Feedback and reflections – Week 3

This week, our main focuses have been on audio and the interactive sector. In this time, I have had a lot of thoughts about my Winter project.

After going out and recording the sounds we found last week, I began thinking about the audio situation for my Winter project. In terms of audio, I need to think about what mic would be best for certain situations and locations and also- would I maybe need to record a voice-over if the risk of loud ambient sound is too high? Even in fairly quiet locations, ambient sound can still be heard. I discussed this with my peers and decided dubbing over my video would maybe be a good idea.

In terms of the interactive research, I evaluated which websites would be best for putting my work on- I came to the conclusion that the main ones will be Facebook, Twitter and YouTube as this way I can get more views and recognition as these particular sites are the most highly populated. I thought about using Snapchat too but came to the conclusion that it wasn’t the best form of social media to use in terms of professionalism, mainly due to the fact you cannot permanently save your recorded material to the app.

Work produced – Week 3

This week, we were given the task to go out and record sounds which sound like/represent certain themes. These themes were Rhythm, Nature, Technology, Education and Creativity. I uploaded my sounds to Soundcloud and will post them below.

This was simply created by clapping rhythmically. There is a lot of ambient sound in this recording as I recorded it in the LRC, a very busy location- I didn’t mind this so much as you can still hear the clapping clearly.

To create this sound, we went outside and rustled some leaves in our hands. A flaw in this is that at the beginning, you can vaguely hear the beeping of a reversing vehicle. Next time, if a problem like this occurs, I will wait until all vehicles and other loud, contrasting noises are out of earshot and record again.

 

To create this sound, we simply used one of our phones ringtones (the distinctive new iPhone ringtone), as this portrays new technology.

To demonstrate “Education”, we used the sound of keys typing on a keyboard. As all of our work in lesson is done on a computer, we thought this was relevant as it represents our education.

Lastly, for “Creativity” we used the sound of scribbling pencils on paper, which I thought represented art.

The last three recordings were set in the LRC (a busy location with a lot of constant background noise) but you were able to hear the sounds I intended to record clearly over the ambient sound.

Blog Post Part 2

We also looked at the Interactive Media platform this week – we researched the advantages and disadvantages of certain social media websites and looked at which ones would be best to use for making professional accounts for posting our work/projects on.

Facebook

Facebook would be an incredibly useful site to use to share my work and update people on my progress- as its such a highly populated website (approximately 900 million users), and I have a lot of friends and contacts on Facebook, more people will view my updates. I can make a Facebook page purely for my work so anyone interested can view the page and be informed as to what I’m doing.As for creating status updates, there is no word limit or photo limit so I can write as much as I like in one post, unlike sites such as Twitter which has an 140 character limit per update.

 

Twitter 

 Twitter is incredibly useful for sharing work on, thanks to the use of hashtags. Hashtags help with getting your tweets and your work out to the public, so getting noticed on Twitter is easy once you know the correct hashtags to use. 232 million users are said to be on Twitter (approximately) and although not as many people use Twitter as Facebook, the chances of someone noticing your updates and finding them interesting enough to follow you are still very high. This being said, most celebrities nowadays use Twitter on a daily basis to interact with others, so there is always the possibility of somebody famous noticing your work, giving you feedback and maybe even promoting you.

The one disadvantage of Twitter is the character limit. Per Tweet, you can only post 140 characters, which limits updates. What many people do is split their Tweets into multiple updates, but this can sometimes look confusing and messy to those viewing the Tweets.

Snapchat

Snapchat would be a good app to use for showing “behind the scenes” videos and photos. Snapchat focuses on the visuals instead of being mostly text based, like Facebook and Twitter are. Although Snapchat is one of the most used apps at the moment, it has its disadvantages if you want to use it for professional reasons.

The updates you post publicly to Snapchat only last for 24 hours- they then get deleted. Also, Snaps you send privately to others get deleted as soon as they are viewed- a major flaw if someone wants to view your images or videos multiple times/come back to them at a later date. Although I would use Snapchat to update others on my filming progress, it wouldn’t be my main focus.

YouTube

I will be using YouTube to upload my finished videos and projects onto and then sharing from YouTube to other sites (such as Facebook and Twitter). YouTube is the most popular video sharing website in the world, and with the right tagging and sharing of my videos, I can get them noticed. One benefit of YouTube is that if videos get a certain number of views, the creators/uploaders will begin to get paid (not a lot at first, though).

Copyright is very important on YouTube, and if (e.g.) a song is used on a video that has been copyrighted by the creators, there is a risk of getting your video either muted or taken down from YouTube- ways to prevent this are using your own songs or changing the songs pitch or tempo.

I can create a YouTube channel that is dedicated to my film work so I can link it to my Facebook pages and Twitter pages so people following me on any of these can get direct links to my finished work once uploaded.