Skills Task

Research

Research is a crucial part of my work. I use research to find out more about different things that I will use in my projects. For instance, this could be editing techniques, contextual points, historical points or how to use equipment and make it look good. There are three main forms of research which I will conduct. These are: primary research, secondary research and practical/action research. These all work well when used together but overall are extremely beneficial to my projects.  These are my main points of research which I have found makes my research the most beneficial.

• In depth, detailed, and backed up

• Different information from different people (surveys, focus groups, interviews)

• Testing and making first drafts of work.

• I would prefer to do extra research than not do enough however in my last project I felt that I did some research which was not necessary.

In comparison to my research  from last year, I felt as though my research was detailed but often unnecessary. I want to conduct more action/practical research. This is because when editing and filming I felt as though there were lots of things I didn't know that would be helpful.

In my EPQ I wasn't to take forward my practical research in the forms of editing techniques and visual effects linked to Film and TV. This is because I though it would be a really good technical skill to add to my project and if done well can help mine stand out from the crowd. I have often felt that within my work my editing is not as good as I would like it to be however I would like to change that. 

Something I would to be able to use would be more motion graphics. This is something I have tried to learn in the past but would like another go at creating something special. This is my past work using After Effects to edit. 

Part of my research will be looking into is a job role which interests me. As I am interested in Film and TV I am intrigued by the role of a editor. I will be looking into what editors do before I complete my action research. 

Editors for film and TV production are in charge of editing footage and reviewing footage. They work closely with the writers and directors to make sure that the editors understand what the director wants in the edit. Editors use software to carryout cutting, adding effects, putting sequences together and adding sound. Editors may use software such as Adobe Premier Pro, Avid Media Composer and Final cut. 

Editors not only edit the show or film itself but also edit the trailers and their content can also be used in marketing. This is why editing is so important as it is not just the show or film on its own, it is all the content surrounding it. I find editing interesting as it can majorly impact the finished product as well as give the audience a visually pleasing piece of media to take in. 

When thinking about how scene like explosions or fights, as a viewer you may often think "wow that's cool" and part of the reason that you think that is due to how it has been edited as it is what you are actually seeing. This is why I want to look further into editing. 

Based on motion graphics which I enjoyed making. I would want to make something like a Lyric video using after effects. Inspiration for something like this would come from lyric videos such as Taylor Swift - Look What You Made Me Do or Olivia Rodrigo - Brutal. 

I like these lyric videos as they use a range of different graphics as well as transitions between words and lines. This is what I think would be beneficial for building my editing skills and my usage of after effects. 

This is my short test of using graphics and trying to use lyric transitions. 

To begin my EPQ, I will be testing a few editing techniques to prepare me with ideas for my EPQ. 

To start off I will be testing cloning.

Cloning

After completing my pre production, I went out to film. I filmed in a classroom due to when I had used cloning before, I noticed it was difficult to edit due to the change of wind effecting the trees and bushes surrounding. I though that If I did it in a classroom there would be no background movement. Once edited, this is how my cloning looked. 

I was asked to make a video showing cloning and was given different locations, I chose to film in a classroom.  as previously filming outside was difficult when editing. As I had previous experience I understood what needed to be done. I prepared by doing a storyboard and script before booking the equipment I needed. 

I worked with my friend Zoe who helped me record and plan my filming. I communicated with her by explaining I needed to have separate sections of the filming grid. I set this up by sitting in each chair before filming so that I did not have to move them and they would be continuous in each shot. Zoe communicated with me so that I knew when I needed to do certain actions such as walking into frame or speaking. 

I needed to do cloning that showed multiple versions of me so I had aimed to make 4 clones however when editing this was not the most beneficial for my final product. When I added in the second clone the chair had moved and I struggled to get it line up without cutting the other clone in half. This is something I will need to take forward to ensure that I get the cleanest version. I also tried to add the fourth clone to the bottom of the screen but this ended up crossing over with the clone furthest to the front of the shot. I may look into another method of clone editing to see if I am able to change this outcome. The biggest challenge I faced was making sure that the shots didn't cross over. This was the reason the chair was moved for the second clone as Zoe explained that she felt as though they would cross over. The method I used to edit I believe was easier than it was when I had previously used cloning however was not as precis. 

If I was to do my cloning again I would definitely ensure the shorts did not cross over and the chairs were in the correct position to start with. I felt that I had successfully completed the brief of the task however needed some work to make it better. This is something I will work on later in my EPQ.

Foley sound

Sanaa later explains what items she uses for certain characters and how she can alter them to give a different feel to the sound. She explains that by adding tissue and duct tape to a plunger to take the "hollowness" out of it and give it more of a thud. Foley stages are the room or workspaces wear artists and mixers work. The room may include different surfaces for walking on, different objects, a screen where artists can watch the scene to recreate the sound and microphones. Foley sounds are often created with commonly owned objects and can be layered, edited and mixed with other household objects.  The different surfaces may be a wood flooring or a concrete flooring. They also may have boxes or pads which contains sand or corn flour (corn flower is what foley artists use to mimic snow). These are used if in a scene a character walks or runs on a certain surface, they can re make it and put this over the original sound.  The most common objects for making specific sounds are: celery for crunching or snapping, a wet cloth for splashing or squishing sounds, coconut shells for galloping of horses ect. There are some diegetic sounds which are re recorded the same way they are made just because the sound needs a higher quality. For example, if a character reloaded a gun, in post production the Foley artist may reload a gun to get the same quality of sound. 

Foley sound is used in all films or TV shows. Here are a few examples. 

Sounds in a specific genre

Foley sound is used in most fictional work. This can be seen in most genres but there are often  codes and conventions of sounds. For instance, in horror you may hear sounds such as screams, knife sounds and footsteps. In science fiction you may hear the sounds of spaceships and humming of engines. I will be looking at sounds you may hear in action movies that would also be created through foley sound. 

Shaun shows a range of different techniques that he has used for different types of fight scenes, commonly seen and used in action films. To start off Shaun shows how he makes efficient punch sounds. He later layers these together to get a deeper more powerful sound. He tests by just slapping and punching his own arm, and then tests with rubber gloves. This provides an extra thud, this can make the audience feel as though the hit that they see on screen is harder than it actually is, adding atmosphere to the sound. 

As previously mentioned, Fight Club would be an action film which uses foley sound. They also used raw meat for a fleshy punch sound. They used walnuts and chicken carcases for crunching. Next I will be looking at more fight scenes. 

This fight scene in Snatch is a good example of a scene that would use diagetic and non diegetic sound. In the background, Oasis - F**kin' in the Bushes plays. This would be non diegetic audio as it is added in and would not be a natural sound. Digetic audio would come from the rumbling of people shouting in the background as well as the fight itself. Looking and listening  at the fight scene, the added in foley sounds would mostly be started from 1m42s as this is where we can hear the two characters breath and then start punching. The punches  sound like a mix of thuds and slaps. These could have been made using the techniques I have looked at for action films such as using meat to get a fleshy sound and punching your own skin. This is extremely common for action films showing fight scenes like this one and would most likely be what was used as well as a sound bank which had pre made sounds. I will be looking into making one of these. 

Audition foley sound creation

For this task I was asked to record my own sound and find 5 varied sounds off of YouTube library. This was new to me as I did not know that on the YouTube creator section you could go on "Audio Library" and find other sound effects. I chose a ambulance sound, a man crying, a sci - fi vortex, glass smashing, metal falling and the sound I created myself was the water sound. I moved these into audition and one by one added different effects and changes the properties. I have used software such as Logic Pro X before but using Adobe Audition was new to me. In this video I have listed what the sound is and what I added to each one. I found that by changing the pitch of the sound I could get the original sound to be completely different. Once I had changed the settings and properties of each sound, I liked to listen carefully to what each sound could now be. I was most impressed with the falling metal sound and the water sound as I believe these sounded completely different to what they were in the beginning. I felt as though what ever I added or changed about the sci - fi vortex sound it did not differ so I was quite dissapointed with this one. If I was to do it again I would maybe add other different effects to this and alter them to get them to sound different. After completing this task I will add each of these to a sound bank so that I am able to come back to these sounds in the future when editing. 

Microphone test & sound bank

After starting off my sound bank with sounds that I had used from YouTube audio library and one sound that I had recorded on my phone, we started to test the microphones on three different devices to see how they compared with the same or similar sounds. We used a Iphone, a zoom mic and a sound kit. We went out in a group and needed to record dialogue, music, atmosphere and a sound effect. One of us was using each microphone so that we could get the same exact moment of sound but on each device. The Iphone recordings were the easiest as we were able to quickly make sure that we had each audio recording. The zoom mic was the record easiest as we have used them lots over the past year however I feel that we do often have a number of problems with them. However when we went to use the sound kit we were unable to get it all to link up together. We recorded the sound we needed to but when uploading realised we had nothing. In the future I shall do more research into sound kits and make sure I test them thouroughly. We uploaded the footage and I put mine together in this video. I think that for usability the Iphone is easiest however in audio clips such as the Iphone sound effect it is not as detailed and crisp as the zoom mic for the water sound effect. I think that it depends on what your recording for what device. For example I think that for dialogue and voices the Iphone mic would be good as long as theres no wind blocking the audio. I think that the zoom mic would be good for item sounds, commonly used in foley. These sounds will be added to my sound bank for future usage. 

Foley short scene

After completing my research I will be filming a short scene that will use foley sound. I need to come up with 3 different scenes that are all different genres. My scene will need to include 10 foley sounds so I will need to have a scene that has plenty of opportunity for this. Here are my ideas.

Idea 1

Horror

Could have the character franticly looking through a book, almost as if they are looking for some answers. Could have footsteps coming from a hallway outside to build up suspense, adding in breathing sounds. Having the character look around panting, nervously saying that they are running out of time. The door can be opened and both the character looking through the book  and the character in the hallway stop and look at one another. Suddenly both run to try and attack one another, the clatter of chairs and tables are heard as well as loud found steps banging (running) . The first character screams and backs against the wall as the other character pulls a knife from their side and the scene cuts to black.#

Idea 2

Action

Scene starts by showing both people running towards one another before a fight scene takes place. Multiple punches are thrown, one is pushed onto the ground. Slaps are exchanged between the two characters and punches again from both people. They both heavy breath and keep fighting. The scene ends with one person being knocked out. 

Idea 3

Weston

Two characters walk into shot. Foot steps of each characters is heard. Like a clicking of cowboy boy boots. Close up shots show features such as eyes and mouths. Sound of the wind howling is heard as they each walk further towards one another. They have quick dialogue as a tumble weed rolls past.  they both go to reach for their guns. Their belt makes a clanky noise as they reach for them. Their clothes rassle as they do it. the sound of metal clicking is heard. The guns are pulled up and two shots are heard. 

I have decided that I like my horror idea the most as it uses my 10 foley sounds well and also shows the conflict within the character. I will be taking this forward and developing my idea. 

After completing all of my research and pre production, I filmed and edited my scene. I had no issues when filming but was worried that there may be difference in my video to my foley sounds. As my scene was super short I took different versions of foley sound fo intance, some audios were recorded on my phone and some were on a zoom mic. I think this worked quite well as I was able edit them slightly different, helping me gain more experience. My 10 different foley sounds were; footsteps and clothes russelling, pages of a book, a chair as I sat down, more pages, a doors opening, breathing, heavy footsteps, chair being thrown at a table, a thud against a wall and then a small knife clanking sound. 

I was very impressed with the way the first shot lined up with the different foley sounds. I received feedback from a peer who said he didn't even know that it was foley as it had lined up and layered so well. These specific sounds were the light footsteps, the clothes russelling, the pages turning and the chair. I was very happy with these. Moving onto the heavier footsteps of the antagonist, I think these got quite lost and werent picked up on the mic as well. I used a zoom mic for this so wonder if if would be any different if I had used my phone for this sound. I liked the second chair sound of it being thrown at the table. For editing my sounds it was just trial and error with putting them in the right place at the right time and making sure it was the best cut. This is why that first initial shot was so good as I had took multiple takes of the foley sound and then was able to link up with which one is better. Another thing I would change is making the knife sound louder. In editing I thought this was louder than it actually is but only when looking back I realize it is actually quite quiet and not picked up as well. 

In future projects using Foley, I will make sure the volume is carefully adjusted to the right level, make sure the recordings I have are adequate for what I need them for and make sure I take enough takes so that there are no issues with not having enough. 

Transitions

Camera transitions are used for getting creative visual transitions. This could be by having a character walk past something and the location change or something zoom in and zoom out and its different. We used this video to gather ideas. 

At the end of that video the camera tilts upwards to the sky. This is so that in the next shot we can bring the camera down, again in another location. I think this worked quite effectively As there is only a small noticeable cut. We tested this again in the next transition and also tried to show Ellie on one bench and then on a different bench. This one would need work as there are a few elements that might need work to make them seamless.  The next transition we made was where Ellie was walking away and the camera pans down to the floor and then back up again in another location. I thought this worked rather well but there may have needed to be slower movement on the second clip to make it smoother but I did like how this turned out. For the next transition we zoomed in on Ellies face and then zoomed out on Gemmas face. I think this worked well however will have needed to be quicker and closer. The Last transition we did was throwing a stick up in the air and having the camera follow it so that when it cam back down it was another person who had thrown it. If the throws had stayed consistent this would have worked well. Overall I think that there was good potential and thought with our transitions however they will need a few more tests to ensure that they are smooth and clear. 

180 Degree Rule

The final task we need to complete within the skills unit would be to carry out a scene using the 180 rule. This was a task we completed last year however would be beneficial to complete this again to understand it better and ensure we could use it well. We began by getting into groups and assigning tasks for each person. The first thing we did was choose a script. We then needed to complete pre production. These are our script, storyboard, shotlist and location recce. 

After completing our pre production we went out to film. This was our finished product.

We were asked to create a short scene following the 180 degree rule. We were given three scenarios to choose from. Our main guide for filming was to followthe 180 rule and also use a range of different shot types. This included a wide establishing shot, a wide shot, a close up and a over the shoulder shot. I think that we achieved this well. The only thing about using these shots which effected out scene overall was that in specifically the over the shoulder shots the wind was effecting the audio. As we did not have a zoom mic with us we re recorded our audios and then when editing changed the volume to get the new audios to blend in better. Another factor that effected our final edit was the lighting. Due to the natural lightning not being the best on different shots the quality differs, This could have been fixed by using a reflector or turning the camera settings up to make it lighter. 

We all worked together well, each suggesting what would work well and what would look good. We communicated with what our opinions where and how we could make them happen. 

I like our final product as I belive it is a good representation of how the 180 rule can only be filmed on one side of the scene. I believe that we demonstrated the different shot types well and also worked around the audio quality being poor. Practising this skill is useful for future filming projects. 

Overall, in comparison to last years  180 rule task I think as a group we had all collectively grown. This is because I feel as though last year I only used one or two shot types so using a range made it more challenging but also more creative.