Editing

During the editing stages of this project, both Hannah and I took on the editing role, taking it in turns to edit and having a fresh eye on the project. This meant that once of us had edited a section then we would both listen and suggest ways of improving it.

Here is a screen shot of the first segment as we were laying down the basic tracks that we wants in our overall project. As we were having a ‘Ticking’ noise throughout we decided to first lay these down the gradually go through and layer up the other sounds.

To make it easier to follow, we decided to colour code our tracks. We coloured them in relation to the colour on the sound plan. The Pink was the continuous ‘Clicking’, the Orange was the continuous rains sounds, the Yellow was the speech and the green were the other sound effects that we wanted to use. This made it a lot easier when looking for a certain track to edit.

We placed each of the separate effects on a separate track in Soundtrack Pro. This was so that if we were to add an effect or changed the sound or direction then this wouldn’t affect any other sounds.

Sound Plan + Call Sheet

When trying to organise our track that we had recorded we came up with a sound plan. This then gave us a basic outline as to what we wanted from our project and helped us through the editing process. In order to organise it we colour coded the different types of sounds that we were having in our piece. Such as the speech Yellow, atmospheric sounds of the rain were Orange, continuous foley recording of ticking was Pink then the other sounds green.

Here is the copy of our call sheet that we used for our production. 

Produciton

While recording our tracks we used Dynamic microphones, Riffle mic and Hydro-mic. This meant that we were able to capture a wide range of sounds to edit together to create out final piece. Here is the draft for our script and the sound log following our recording.

Dear Journal ...

When trying to think of inspiration for our piece and the style in which we wanted our narrative to say through our piece i remembered Glee. throughout the series they have a character, Sue Sylvester, write in her journal and you hear her thoughts as she is writing it. Here a copy of some of her entries:

(http://cliqueclack.com/tv/2009/10/08/the-unpublished-journal-of-sue-sylvester/)

When Hannah and I read over some of here entries, it inspired us into how we wanted our. We, like Sue's, wanted our entries made up of very short sentences. This is so that they don't go into to much entail but get across what they mean, straight away. we also decided that we would have the narration speak as if she was speak in the past and writing her journal about what had happened, rather then as if she was speaking in the present. We also had a look at Clips from Danny Boyles film, 127 Hours.

This was inpirering as he used a camera to document his days stuck in the cannon. I found it helpful to watch as this was the sort of style that i pictured out narrative to be. Talking about the past.

Ideas Development

When Hannah and I met to develop our idea we discussed the basic outline as to what we wanted to achieve. This idea is that you hear a girl talk about her day as if she is reading our her journal. we used several examples that we had seen to help describe what we were both thinking of the piece.

We looked at an advert for orange that had been on TV recently. This advert is what helped me see the style of piece Hannah was explaining. i really liked the concept of the mans voice talking then in the background hearing, in this case seeing as well, what he is talking about. i helps you really listen and experience what he is talking about, not only by trying to imagine but it prompts you to all think the same and helps you create a clearer image in your mind. 

Tutorial

For our first tutorial both me and hannah didn't have a clear idea but had talked about our project experiment with "Time".

I really liked the idea of time as it is to manipulable and can create good effect with it. Hannah really liked the idea of time due to the fact is unknown and complex. During our tutorial Dom suggested that we figure out why time, what do we like about it and the rational for our ideas.

Initially we were thinking about manipulating time by slowing it down, maybe with a clock ticking increasing further and further between each tick. I think the whole concept of slowing time down is more relatable as we've all experienced moments when time seems to slow right down. practically thinking slowing things down would create a more clear senesce of space, if we were to make it feel like time is passing quickly we could loos the quality of the recording and end up confusing the listener. As long as we have a clear narrative and story to our piece it should be clear to follow, not just random recordings of clocks.

Tunnel Vision

By Pejk Malinovski 

The subject of this pieces were men talking about seeing girls on the tube and the amount of people they have had sex with. 

Tunnel Vision was a lot different to the other pieces that we listened to during our seminar. There is use of atmos ambient noise to create the sense of being on the tube underground. You can here a quiet beat form the train so this would suggest its not that busy. This could be due to the fact that some contributors wouldn’t openly talk about sex and looking at women on the tube, with people surrounding them.  You also get the illusion that the train was moving and they were travelling along the underground as near the end you hear the breaks screech. Indicating the end of that journey, and our journey into their mind and thoughts.

What made this piece feel really realistic was the fact that the mistakes in the voiceovers were not edited out. The ermm’s and arrh’s were left in which shows a more relaxed and casual feel to the piece, almost as if you were in a conversation with them yourself.  This almost implies that the men had to think carefully about what they were saying, almost embarrassed, making them seem that much more realistic to the listener.

Child of Ardoyne

Click here to listen to Child of Ardoyne

Produced by Alan Hall

This piece is the story told by the adults that were kids in the 1980's during 'The Troubles" and the children that  live there today. This give a contrast on what has changed in time regarding the fighting in rural Ireland. 

Unlike the previous piece, Meat Factory Ear Worms, this didn’t have the same personal sense about it as it was told from a group of people rather then an individual story. There was a range of elements used such as the use of speech, from pre-recorded sound bites and newly recorded interviews, and atmos for example the kids and cars in street. All these elements help create the sense of a space in Ardoyne. The voice over of the list of people and the age in which they were killed in Ardoyne highlights the realistic narrative within this piece, creating sympathy in the listener. As it is cut in between the recording of the villagers create the illusion that the lists is that much longer as it is broken down.

 They also use a wide range of contributors, i.e. young, old, male and female. This helps create a whole over view of the place, which is a different approach to the first piece, The Curious Ear, Meat Factory Earworms, as that was focused on one person’s opinions and views not a groups. I think they took this less individual approach due to the fact that they didn't want to tell the story from the one person and their experiences of 'the troubles' but instead the incidences that occurred in the entire town.

Curious Ear: Meat Factory Ear Worms

Click here to listen to Meat Factory Ear Worms

Director: Richie Beirne 
Producer: Ronan Kelly. 

The narrative for this piece is the story of an Irish man who is stuck in his job at a meat factory who uses songs that get stuck in his head, Ear Worms, to keep him going through the day at work and escape.  

This piece is very authentic and personal, I really like the variety of different sounds layered up to create the different emotions, for example the use of speech, atmos, music and moments of silence. The uses of each of there elements all work together to create the overall feeling of the piece and with out one there wouldn’t be a continual narrative. Even the music was part of the narrative and not to just fill gaps and time. There is a lot of use of repetition throughout the piece indicating the repetitiveness of his days. 

There is really strong juxtaposition in this piece. Throughout you have the ambience of people working in the factory, machines working and the harsh sounds of knife being sharpened to build up the image of an unsavoury working environment. In Contrast to this you have his voice over as if you can hear him in your head, much like an ear worm, with his soft and warming voice and the romantic ballads. 

Another Draft, or 2

This third draft was manly changes that Dom suggested during out tutorial. I went and adapted the sequences to create a better pacing throughout the entire film. As Dom suggested cutting down the beginning as there was a lot of unnecessary shot that although they looked nice meant nothing to the narrative so these got cut down or out entirely. As the editing was done on my Mac the footage, up till this point, was still the footage that I copied of Ed, this meant it wasn't very good quality. So I went through and replaced it with the higher quality footage I had from when we uploaded the initial footage.  

Once we had agree that this new pacing work I went through and colour corrected it making the colours in the sequences more contrasting. I really liked this as all the greens and brown from the trees, grass and leaves look more vibrant. I watched a short film called 'Colour Bleed' by Peter Szewczyk and really like the use of colour and how he has managed to portray emotions through the use of dull, eery settings agains vibrant colours of the girls hair and cloths. As ours has such vibrant colours with the greens and brown the white plastic bag stands out that much more. This is good as we was trying to make a point that a man made plastic bag doesn't fit in with all the natural beauty of the peak district.

This is the last Draft that we have done before we submit it, the only things I change is the titles slightly but other then that this is our finished piece. Both Ed and I are really pleased with how its turned out as wasn't sure whether our storyline would be clear but I think we have managed to portray it in a very understandable manner while still capturing creative and artistic shots with the use of depth of field and rack focus.

Second Draft

As Ed had created a first draft i copied this version and developed it further using Final Cut Pro. The main changes I made were in the sequence at the pub and the ending. During the pub scene I just rearranged the shots in order to make the sequence flow better and show that the character  has been drinking in the pub for a while. While uploading the footage there was a short sequence that didn't upload so I went in on Wednesday and uploaded this footage in order to be able to show the bags floating off together. This then gave us our Second Draft to show Dominic in out tutorial on Friday.

During our tutorial Dominic gave us good feed back about the narrative and that it was very effective. The only criticism is that the opening sequence leading up to the pub scene was slightly to long. He said about thinking about the shoots and whether they were actually important to the narrative rather then just a shot that looks nice. He mentioned about the pace of the piece and that we should try and create three different paces, one for the intro, one at the pub then a third pace towards the end. Also he mentioned about just making a few tweaks to the edit but other then that he liked it. 

First Draft

On Monday 31st Oct Ed and I took the equipment back to stores and while in uni we uses the edit suite to upload and review our footage. looking back at our footage i feel please with what we have and i think we have a lot that we can work with that should hopefully make our narrative clear to the viewers.

After uploading all our footage Ed created a first draft of our finished piece in order to get a sense of what the finished piece would look like. looking at this shows a clear narrative following the plastic bag. i was pleased with this as i was unsure whether the narrative would be clear enough for viewer to follow, but watching the draft indicates that it is.

Ed came up with the title "The Existential life of a Plastic Bag". I thought this goes well as has the meaning behind it as it relates to the reasoning for the existence of a plastic bag and the whole concept that plastic canvas bags are suppose to be better for the environment rather then plastic bags.

Parashoot

Prior to our shoot we have to fill out a Parashoot Risk Assessment regarding all aspects of out shoot. Here is a copy of ours that I filled out before filming:

Further Preparation

When we received our brief we were given an overall schedule for the day. This then meant we were able to create a call sheet. Here is a screen shot of the Call Sheet devised for our production.

During the shoot we stuck to our devised schedule as this meant we had completed the necessary shots to be able to portray out narrative so we then had extra time to gather more GVs and experiment with focus and depth of field.

Heres a scan of the Talent Release for out shot. As I was the only person featured in out film we only needed me to sign one saying that the footage of me can be used without me be able to argue about it.

Preperation for the Shoot

Ed had the main idea and narrative for our film so I'm happy for him to take a more dominant role in the production as I have a better understanding in using Final Cut pro. The only prop we need for our shoot is the plastic bags. These would have to be plain white and then one canvas bag. Ed managed to find a takeaway and got hold of the bags before drew the faces on. Here is an example of one of the bags:

As Ed is away I have booked out and will collect our equipment prior to Thursday morning. We decided on using a Cannon XM2 as i have used one previously at college so was comfortable using this. Ed bringing along his 7DVL1 64 LED light to help us in dark areas such as scenes in the pub, he is also bringing his Cannon DSLR as a backup incase there is problems on shoot when filming in Edale.

Ideas

Last week we got brief about our trip to Edale, in the Peak District. In pairs we have to create a 3 minute silent film that portrays a portrait of a place or person. My pair for this is Ed, to start of with we couldn't think up any initial ideas so investigates Edale as neither of us had been there. we had a quick look at Google Maps and saw that there is very few houses, 2 Pubs and one small local shop. 

during our discussions we were trying to come up with something that would be interesting to watch and be portrayed to the audiences even without the use of sound. we somehow got onto the idea of a rubber duck as this was an usual object to come across in Edale. I then thought about what if we was to show a plastic bag that is floating around in the wind then can use that to move around and follow. We went away and decided that we had to develop this idea further. 

I thought about this idea and thought up a few shot ideas and sketched them out.

For some inspiration i carried out some research by searching online and found a few videos of people filming a bag as it was floating around in the wind. Here is an example :

I really liked the concept of this but think that if we are to use a bag we are going to have to experiment with interesting shots and angles to create a more interesting film to watch. Ed had messaged me on Facebook with a good ideas about developing the idea so it not focused on just a plastic bag.

There not very clear because took them on my phone quickly but walk through here everyday and looks really pretty with the contrast between the grass areas and trees with the trams and building in background. Hoping when its all snowy will look even more amazing.

Ireland !!

When I went to my mates house in Ireland over the summer there is some amazing locations in and around her village which would be such good locations for filming at. The beach is so quiet and would love to go back and film so footage.

I had to post this picture from Ireland because for some people, like me and my mates, it means so much but to others it means nothing. I love how certain things, like pictures and films, mean different things to different people.

The Life Size Zoetrope by Mark Simon Hewis

The tempo of the music really emphasizes the speed in which he is moving in life. 

•       Starts of with no music,
•       As the zoetrope starts and the images of the sonogram start to resembles a fetus, slow tempo music starts
•       As feuts develops into a baby tempo increase until baby is born.
•       Throughout the short film there is the constant beat
•      Once he is dying at the end the tempo slows and music stops.

This is a good way of engaging the audience with the speed of his life.

The use of a zoetrope to create the film symbolises the circle of life and repetitiveness that is experienced in life, for example when he was born  he was at home and says ‘my mum shouting at my dad, my dad shouting at my mum” then when his wife was giving birth to their child they were also at home and say ‘I was shouting at her shouting at me.’ 

I really like this as a short film as how Mark Simon Hewis has used the zoetrope to show his life. When watching it you can not tell easily whether he has enhanced the images in post production or whether all those images were on the note pads that the people were holding. The style in which the images appeared helped with the whole feel to the film as they were not the sharpest of images, so worked well with being all jumpy as it flicked between note pads.  

Steel Homes by Eva Weber

This shorts films theme is all about people and their desire to keep old belongings.  In my opinion it shows almost a negative viewpoint on them as they are holding onto the past, not letting go as they have personal attachments to these old belongings.  This all links into the main focus of this film which I think  is to portray a small handful of the life’s and hidden stories behind some of the locked doors in the warehouse.

I think that Ava Weber was really successful in portraying these emotions but still keep distant and detached with the use of long shots around the corners and not showing close ups on the contributors faces. This is all a way of creating a cold feeling to the film reflecting on the warehouse settings.

Something that stood out in the film to me was the opening and closing of the shutters. This was shown towards the beginning and end of the film as if it was to show the opening and closing of the warehouse. This may imply that the film portrays a full day and the events that occur within the warehouse. 

The sound throughout this film stood out as it was very minimalistic. At times there was only sounds of footsteps, locks and doors opening and closing. This was then enhanced at moments with the use of music and voiceovers. This minimalistic approach with the sound also adds to the empty and quiet corridors throughout the warehouse.