Exercises: Video & Sound Production
MODULE VSP60104: Video & Sound-Production
Tristan Vaughan Sleep - 0365120
Video & Sound-Production / Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media
Video & Sound-Production Exercises:
MODULE INSTRUCTIONS:
“SEPT 2024 - JAN 2025: GCD 61104 / ANIM. FUNDAMENTALS MODULE INFORMATION BOOKLET”
EXERCISES: Learning Animation Systems (Weighted Ungraded)
Exercises: Students of the cohort are expected to complete and document the minor assignments, demonstrating their understanding of Video Cinematography and Video editing. Students will need to produce a series of videos, either fashioned out of student made videos or cut-up videos which need to be rearranged. With their work completed, students will then need to post their work, findings and developments to their e-portfolios.
PARTICIPATED LECTURES:
WEEK II & III: Learning Camera Shots & Angles
Basics: Before students could advance in the later works and projects, the lecturer believes it important for students to look into a series of sources which demonstrate how certain angles/shots can imply a specific concept. This could also be done to ensure that the students are well aware of cinematic techniques as it cannot be said for certain that all students have studied film in some capacity. Furthermore, students are expected to learn more about some ‘off-the-screen’ developments which are required to shoot/direct a scene or film: looking into resources such as storyboards, stage dressing, script-writing etc.
Shot Size: Shot size or shot spacing refers to the amount of space that is visible within a single shot or frame. These shots can be changed in order to connote a different type of message or can apply a different effect. Looking at some examples; close-up angles cut out a majority of space and focus solely on the actors face, emphasising the characters emotions or reaction. Another sample can be seen when playing with placing the characters; having a shot with a large amount of space but reducing the character to a small section can suggest a feeling of cramped or uncomfortableness.
Camera Angles: Camera Angles refers to the position of the camera in relation to the main set of subjects being filled. Different camera angles are able to be used to create unique perspectives which can be used to convey different concepts/themes. The most common of these shots is when the camera is slightly off-kiltered can suggest un-ease of discomfort for the character shown. Another example is positioning the camera above a character to suggest powerlessness or vulnerability.
Composition: Composition refers to the arrangement of visual elements within a given shot or frame. This can include the placement of actors within the scene as well as objects seen within the frame. This can also be enhanced through the use of colour and lighting, the use of balance/imbalance or symmetry of the overall image. Composition can be used to create visual interest, guide the viewer's eye, and convey meaning or emotion.
MODULE EXERCISES:
EXERCISE I & II: Rearranging shots from Advertisements
Recommended Resources: For this brief exercise students of the module are expected to take a series of shots from an advertisement and re-stitch them together in the correct order. Despite being a simple task, this exercise appears to be an introduction to the module and the core software: Adobe Premiere Pro. In the first example, students were provided with an advertisement for ‘Breath Mints:’ although the shots were put in numerical order and students with the original video to compare, this exercise was to be familiar with Premiere Pro’s importing/exporting designs. The Other Advertisement was the ‘Doritos Advertise’ which was uniquely different as the shots were out-of-order and required students to understand shot spacing and timing.
“Completed exercise of the ‘Breath Mint Advertisement’ ”
“Completed Exercise of the ‘Doritos Advertisement’ ”
Again, there was nothing too complex for this assignment as it served to be an introduction to cinematic flow, short comprehension and familiarity with the Adobe program.
Week I Class Quiz - Shot size, camera angle, and composition: A series of
A series of short questions arranged to evaluate the students’ understanding of cinematic elements of a film: focusing on Shot-Sizes, Camera angles, and Composition. By understanding these systems, students can hopefully produce more visually appealing narratives. The quiz mainly poses questions relating to the elements of a shot and how they can be used to alter the audiences’ response to a scene. A Majority of the questions look at shot sizes and how shot types highlight specific elements within the shot. Other questions explore cinematic elements such as Composition, depth of field etc.
Mistakes Made: The mistakes made in this quiz were minor and were cases of were incorrectly answered
Total Score: 13/15
EXERCISE III: Developing a Short-Story based on Storyboard
Storyboards: For this short exercise, students have been given the task of rearranging footage to make a film based on an accompanied storyboard. From this, students are expected to see how the original director of the project wanted the film to look when completed and, from there, add post-production elements such as the texts to further elevate the narrative. In addition to this, students are also expected to learn how to crop, edit, shorten and balance the audio for each clip when arranging them; deepen the students understanding of the editing procedure.
For a majority of this project, I started (and kept) the original storyboards open next to me when working so I had something to reference; looking specifically at determining the shot order as well as the inclusion of any additional elements which would need to be added into the shots. I recommend arranging the core footage in order first before editing; this way you can determine (using intuition) how long each shot should be held for which also determines the pacing of the video. In more conventional films, the average shot length should last around three-to-eight seconds however; this speed can be altered depending on the scene such as action scenes having faster cuts while long-takes (potential one-takes) can be dramatically longer.
“Completed exercise of the ‘Lalin Video’ ”
With a rough order created and edited to an acceptable length, the next task was for me to add additional effects as specified by the storyboard. The first major hurdle was the ‘disappearing shot’ in which one of the main characters has to disappear without disturbing the rest of the scene. One of the more challenging shots to edit was the “fade-away” shot as it featured characters in the foreground which couldn’t be match cut to; complicating the shot. While experimenting with Premiere Pro, I learnt how to create a mask around the man only which allowed me to only apply the ‘cascading fade’ effect to him which would prevent the characters in the foreground from being awkwardly edited, keeping the shot feeling somewhat grounded.
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