Video & Sound Production : Project 2
MODULE VSP60104: Video & Sound-Production
Tristan Vaughan Sleep - 0365120
Video & Sound-Production / Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media
Video & Sound-Production Project II: TikTok/ Instagram Videos
MODULE INSTRUCTIONS:
“SEPT 2024 - JAN 2025: GCD 61104 / ANIM. FUNDAMENTALS MODULE INFORMATION BOOKLET”
Part I: Group Video Production (Weighted 30%)
Video Production & Editing: Students of the cohort are expected to sort themselves into a group and work together to re-create a series of scenes from an existing film. Each student is to be assigned a production role and need to support their team as per their role. With the completion of the filming, students are to make their own individual videos, showcasing a false trailer. All videos and audio is to be edited and balanced. With their work completed, students will then need to post their work, findings and developments to their e-portfolios.
Part II: Instagram/TikTok Video Treatment (Weighted 30%)
Video Treatment: Students of the cohort are expected to produce and document a short-video in the style of videos commonly found in social media such as Tiktok or Instagram. Students will need to shoot this video using multiple filming techniques and angles which then need to be compiled and arranged into one cohesive video (with a minimum length of 30 Seconds.) Software such as Adobe Premiere Pro, Adobe After Effects and Adobe Audition are expected to be used by the students. 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
Act Structure: The three-act structure is designed to provide a clear framework for designing narratives and storytelling, allowing writers to create well-structured stories which can resonate with audiences.
Act One: This first act serves as setup for the narrative, establishing the protagonist, their world they inhabit, and the situation the narrative places them in. This Narrative will normally end once the narrative has reached the inciting incident: setting the main story in motion and creating the leading problem that the protagonist/s need to solve. This incident needs to be significant enough to the protagonist and must disrupt the protagonist's world and force them to take action.
Act Two: This Serves as the Confrontation act of the narrative and is normally the longest and most complex of the three acts. In this act, the protagonist must face the previously set-up in the first act and they need to face a series of obstacles and challenges as they work towards their goal. Furthermore, This second act is often divided into two parts: the first part mainly focuses on the protagonist working to make progress to their end goal while the second part must show the protagonist having set-backs or complications.
Act Three: This final act is designed to be the Resolution of the story, having it reaching its climax and resolution. In this third act, The protagonist must confront their final challenge or conflict and overcome it in order to achieve their goal. The climax is the most intense and dramatic part of the story, where the stakes are highest and the tension is at its peak. The resolution, on the other hand, is the denouement, where loose ends are tied up, and the protagonist's journey comes to a satisfying conclusion.
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.
WEEK VI: Mise en Scène & Staging
Mise en Scène: A french phrase literally translating to “Placing on Stage.” In the case of theatre film and other mediums of storytelling, it refers to the overall arrangement and presentation of a scene. This concept encompasses all elements within the frame or on stage and how these elements are organised to convey meaning, emotion, and narrative to the audience.
Physical Spaces: Is the main environment where a majority of the action takes place, whether it's a realistic setting like a living room or an abstract, symbolic space.Time Period: The era in which the story is set, influencing costumes, props, and set design.
Props & Objects: Items used by characters or present in the scene that can symbolise themes, indicate character traits, or advance the plot.
Costume and Makeup: Clothing and makeup that reflect a character’s personality, social status, occupation, or psychological state.
Lighting: The use of light and shadow to create mood, highlight specific elements, and guide the audience’s focus. For example, high-contrast lighting can create a dramatic or tense atmosphere.
Composition and Framing: How elements are arranged within the frame or on stage, including camera angles in film or the positioning of actors in theatre. This affects how the audience perceives relationships and power dynamics.
Performance and Acting: The actors’ physical movements, facial expressions, and interactions contribute significantly to the mise en scène, conveying emotions and subtext.
Colour Palette: The selection of colours used in costumes, sets, and lighting can evoke specific emotions or symbolise thematic elements.
Spatial Relationships: The distance and arrangement between characters and objects, which can indicate intimacy, conflict, or hierarchy.
Main Quizzes & Results:
Storyboarding in Filmmaking (9/10): This week’s Quiz focuses on storyboarding and how it is to be used to make a visual sequence of a film used in pre-production. Storyboards are used to aid in planning scenes + shots, narrative flow and communicating ideas in a visual medium. A majority of the questions look into the purpose of storyboards; being used to direct the actors' performances and blocking out scenes, mitigating continuity errors, and providing a clear plan for how scenes should be assembled.
While I was confident with all of my questions, I had made some unfortunate, simple mistakes which could’ve been easily avoided. In my case, the question I had got wrong was: “What is NOT commonly included in a storyboard;” choosing the answer of Costume designs. The correct answer was “Dialogue.” In my personal opinion, a majority of films do not bring too much attention to what the actor is wearing, if only for a few shots which is why I chose ‘costume design’ and I believed that ‘dialogue’ would be paired with storyboard as shots often have to show who is speaking etc.
Production Crews (5/5): This week’s Quiz focuses on the Production Crew and how this team of film professionals have to work together to create a film of video. All members in this crew have a specific role and a series of responsibilities, which are essential to the overall success of the production. A majority of the questions are designed to confirm the importance of each role and to see if the students understand the importance of said roles: asking about responsibilities and expectations.
Colour Theory, correction & Grading (8/10): This week’s Quiz focuses on theories relating to Colour and design in films and how it impacts the audience. Starting in Pre-production, film Directors begin by using colour theory as a way to guide their visual decisions; looking at how to utilise lighting and visual tone.
Storyboarding in Filmmaking (9/10): For this week, the quiz mainly focused on the importance and design of storyboards in filmmaking and how it can be used to influence a film production. In general, Storyboards are used as pre-invision shots/scenes from the film being created and are used to determine the rough flow of the film and what are the key moments in the film. It can also be useful in a production as it can highlight what order scenes can be shot in (even if they don’t go in that order) as a way to save time. From the storyboard, it can be shown that Scene X and Scene Y use the same background in different lighting or states and thus those two scenes may be shot back to back. The Storyboard is also used by members outside of the shooting crew; being used by costume artists and musicians to help design additional details to enhance the quality of the film.
Project IIA - Group Video Production (WEEK IV - VII):
Group Assignment and Production Roles: For this upcoming Project, students in the class were divided into smaller groups where they would be expected to reproduce a series of shots from the film ‘Everything, Everywhere, All at Once.’ With their shots created, the students would have to individually go off and edit the shots together to create a trailer for a non-existent film; arranging the clips for how they see fit. The importance of this project was to highlight the importance of production roles to the students and how each role is needed to support a production. Furthermore, it also shows what is needed in a production. When it came to being sorted into a group, it proved to be challenging for me due to the large language-barrier between me and a majority in our group. While we were still able to communicate between one another through hand gestures and translators, this highlighted the importance of communication for me and how it can slow down a production. Despite this, it also demonstrated how filming crews would need to be resourceful.
When it came to deciding the roles between the group members, I was ultimately decided to be the Director of Photography (as well as a partial Cinematographer) with my responsibility being to capture the shots as closely to their original. In addition, it was also my job to focus on the framing and setting used on the cameras ensuring the audience to focus on the correct elements of the scene. I would also be supported by the assistant Camera Operator and Director who would support me by helping me operate equipment and recommending minor shot changes. One of the strengths provided by this Role is learning to understand the framing and angles required to shoot a film: forcing me to learn how to correctly frame actors and elements within the scene as well as strengthening my communication with actors and the director. While the role seems effective, the role becomes quite limiting when it comes to using technology you are unfamiliar with as it can slow down production or limit the capabilities of your shot. In our case, the crane proved difficult to work with as we needed to move the crane Vertically, Horizontally as well as operate the focal length of the camera which proved to be difficult.
Film Production: After being briefed and consulting with the director and the Assistant Camera Operator, the group would be able to enter the production phase of the film, working together to shoot the scene for the ‘trailer.’ In order to minimise the impact of the language barrier, I would work closely with the Producer who was the main translator in the group and would help communicate with some of the actors. One section of the role was to work with actors and help them with spacing within the scene; suggesting where they need to stand within the scene as well as instructing them on where they need to look within the scene. Blocking is important within the scene as it can help the audience know where they need to focus as well as prevent them from feeling disoriented when watching the film. Working with the actors is also important as it allows us to capture the most out of their performance.
In addition to working with the actors, the Director of Photography also needs to work on the cameras and their settings to ensure that we capture the scene in the desired style. One common example is the focal length of the camera; mainly being used to focus the attention on the actors or other important elements of the shots. While a simple change in between shots, this would prove difficult in later stages of the production when shooting more dynamic scenes in which the camera is constantly moving. Unlike professional productions where cameras can be remotely changed or even programmed to change, in this project we would need to change the camera live to ensure that the actors remain visible in the scene. One example of the difficulty experienced was the Crane Camera which required us to move it both Vertically and horizontally as well as adjusting the camera’s rotation and focal length. This shot proved to be too difficult to use the crane and thus alternate means were used.
An important note to make is that difficult shots can be made however, it may require you to think of alternate ways to shoot the scene which makes it more easier. It is an important skill for Camera operators to be creative in getting a desired shot and for directors to be flexible enough to experiment with getting other angles. For the scene where we were supposed to use the crane, we recommended switching to a different camera which was suited more for hand-held use which would allow us to move and change focus with ease. In addition to this, we would be able to remove the shaky look by stabilising the footage in Post production which was something everyone was fine with.
Post Production: With the final footage shot and distributed, all students were able to disperse and begin editing together their own interpretation of the shots to create a short trailer. The other main importance of this project was to teach students about the process of Image Colour Correction and Grading, being needed to mainly ensure the colour within a scene has balanced and (if desired) to have a specific stylisation applied to it. In regards to Colour correction, a majority of the work was trying to restore the white-balance of the shot as well as changing the values of the whites and blacks to not be too deep. This can be done with the Lumetri settings in Premiere Pro where the editor can use the ‘tint’ slider to correct any ‘greenish’ or ‘purple-ish’ colouring which appears due to an undefined white balance. Further alternation can be made by increasing/decreasing the value of highlights, shadows, whites and blacks settings.
“Examples of Colour Grading in Shots”
For Colour Grading, the editor is able to alter the shot’s colours to create a more stylised look to their shots such as making specific scenes look warmer, colder or to have a custom colour to communicate a theme or concept. Furthermore, with advanced tweaking, editors can change the colour of items within the scene should they want to enhance its appearance and can make it stand-out. For this project, I mainly used colour grading to make our recorded shots look more like the one’s seen within the film which was sometimes challenging as the grading is somewhat dependent on the scene. When editing the shots, I wanted to change some of the shots to have a warmer colour in appearance without making it feel like an orange tint; lowering the values of the shadows and blacks as well as increasing the highlights to make it appear like an overhead light. In the scenes between the two actors, I wanted to achieve the opposite effect and make the scene appear more cold however; keeping the highlights to keep focus on the actors.
“Final Video For Group Project”
Another requirement of this project and the trailer is for the students to include additional Audio tracks such as Sound-Effects and Music in order to improve the final video. To match the style of the core material, I used music from the original film’s soundtrack which needed to be cut up a little bit to match up with the action. In addition, copyright free sound effects have also been added to create more depth within the scene and make the audience feel more present.
Project II - Social Media Video Treatment (WEEK VII - X):
Personal Project Inspiration: For this Major Project, the students were asked to come up with a short video concept which could be uploaded to social media with the students focusing on themselves or their interests. Students are encouraged to highlight aspects of their personality or a subject matter which they believe to be important to them; however, it is not a requirement. This idea further supports the format in which the videos are expected to be developed, in the style of Social Media post; commonly used to express peoples’ everyday lives and what they believe to be valuable to them. The video is expected to be around 30 - 40 seconds and is to feature a series of edits which are important to the project.
For this project, I came up with two potential ideas about what I can focus my video on: the first option being a newer hobby of mine and my friend group which is Urban Exploration in supposedly haunted locations. The Second option is a more retrospective piece which would see me recollecting on previous events of mine and how to make a more positive change - more important to me in the moment as I needed something to feel better about moving forward.
Idea Concept I - Horror: Partly inspired by the season and media releases around the time; the main concept for this short video would be to imitate the ‘urban-exploration’ videos found on social media and add additional sounds, camera angles or lighting to invoke a frightening scene. In addition to this trend I also want to base some of the videos on a trendy Youtube series where the main producers explore urban environments with the intention to discover paranormal activity. For this concept, I want to show a group of friends exploring a place believed to be haunted; a voice-over explaining events like a ‘camp-fire ghost story’ as characters slowly disappear and are not seen again.
“Original Storyboard for the Horror Project”
In the original concepts for this project, another influence would’ve been the sound design of the scene: being used to create a sense of unease or unfamiliarity while suggesting something is off-putting. The best example which would’ve been used is the ‘Silent Hill’ series of games and their use of specific common sounds which have been distorted to make the in-game scene feel uncomforting. In addition, the soundtrack would’ve also been referenced in this project due to its oddly adjacent connection with urban exploration with the music commonly appearing alongside horror-related topics on social media. I had considered using some of the more interesting tracks such as, ‘Lurking in the fog, Forest,’ ‘No one loves you’ and, ‘never forgive me, never forget me.’ Thus the series inclusion would’ve been fitting due its common appearance in horror media and its ability to create an ‘other-worldy’ feeling which aids in creating a horror experience.
Unfortunately however, this plan would slowly fall through due to a lack of effective lighting tools, sound capturing equipment, required actors and helping crew and the one location being already occupied by others ‘investigators’ throughout the week which made this difficult. As a result, a second plan was needed to be considered.
Idea Concept II - Self-Exploration: In this second instance of the project, the concept was rather unique as it was mainly inspired by my personal introspection at the time as well as being about my general feelings towards myself and the future. In addition, the videos were also inspired by some videos which were being posted on social media at the time about how individuals were unhappy with themselves and the world around them while trying to inspire change, if not, consideration in their audiences. In a majority of these videos in this trend, they often used long, unbroken shots at a wide-shot to medium-shot resolution to create a more ‘genuine’ feeling and feel more like an open discussion. For my project however, it would have to require more shots as per the requirements.
“New Storyboard for the Self-Exploration Project”
As previously mentioned, another important aspect to consider for this project is the addition of other sound effects and other means of audio to enhance the feeling of the video. Following the development of the storyboard and concluding the filming, I had work to collect additional audio effects to enhance the actions in each scene. To achieve this, I began by breaking down the shots in my scene and writing down what sounds would need to appear within the shots to see what I would need to start collecting. As for the recordings, I mainly created them by recording similar instances in order to get a clean and clear channel of audio which I would then be able to level during the post-production phase. While most sounds were hand created, some sounds would need to be collected using online sources as I was unable to collect certain audio tracks at a high enough quality. Once all sounds were collected, I was then able to add them to the project at the correct sound level at around -10db to -20db.
With the main audio completed, the next difficulty came in finding a suitable soundtrack which could be layered over the final product. This was important to consider as the music selected could not be too overly positive nor overly negative sounding and needed to sound like a mixture of the two - depending on the context, the reception to the music would change. The best Music I could find for this was by the band, ‘Low Roar’ who often write music of a similar nature, feeling more negative or positive depending on the listeners mood or experiences. Furthermore, their songs would be more useful as it mainly features long stretches of only the instrumentals which I could extract and use. Their best song I felt of this project was ‘Give Up’ which was also unique as its message was something similar to the message of this video.
The Final part of audio required for this project was the dialogue recorded for this scene which can be broken down into two types: Live recordings which were recorded alongside the video as well as dubbed audio which could be recorded in post. With the live recordings, I decided to record the audio using the built-in phone microphone hence its appearance in the video. The audio would be synced up with the video by using an impromptu clap board. As for the post production audio, I would mainly rely on the developed script and would appear on top of the shots without discussions. This audio was collected in the same way but needed to be recorded multiple times to match the pacing of the live audio.
“Final Video for the Social Media Video”
With the main work completed, I was quite happy with the final product and would be able to submit it to be checked. However, it was not perfect and could’ve used some minor improvements which proved time-consuming to correct and/or edit. The first mistake which remains somewhat visible within the shot is the vertical cropping which appears in some shots. This unfortunately is a result of needing to use a different camera in-between outdoor and in-door takes which would see the resolution altered in the final production. While using two cameras is not impossible, it is important that both cameras are capable of achieving the same video resolution to prevent this issue. Another correction could be obtained in the audio recordings. While most of it is alright, there are some sections where the audio sounds like it cuts awkwardly which is the result of additional dialogue needing to be cut to fit within the time restraints. For a better result, it is recommended to set a pace in order to stay on time with line delivery.
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