Tony - RED - 27/11/2018

Typography Project

For this project we were given a different task every week going alongside out main live project. Every week were given a separate short task to add to a main video, the aim of this project was to experiment and give us time with the camera and editing software without worrying about the written sides of a project. For this project I decided to use the word “RED” as my theme. The weekly contributes to this project are as followed:

• Week 1 – Typography (select a word)
• Week 2 - Typography and flat graphics (create an image to represent this project)
• Week 3 - Typography, flat graphics and moving image footage (film footage)
• Week 4 - Typography, flat graphics, moving image footage and SOUND (have sound added and final video finished)

In week 1 I made a layout of different images the word red meant to me, by doing this I displayed all the ways the colour and what it represents means to me and what directions I can chose to take the production of my project (see image 1). I chose my word red due to the colour representing anger and frustration which in the end is the angle I took with this video. Following in week 2 I looked at what anger and frustration can cause a person to do as a reaction. Looking at my own life and how I have chosen to cope with bad times in the past, I made the decision to use the theme of addiction to represent my theme. This is something I have tried to display in my flat graphic (see image 2) by using the blur effect over the picture of pills to show a visual of effects certain drugs can have on people’s vision. In week 3 I set out to film my video. I thought a good effect to add in my post production would be to remove all colours except the colour red. With this I wanted the main cause of addiction to be that colour. Therefore, choosing the use a red vodka bottle to represent the idea of addiction for alcoholics to numb the pain that may exist in their lives. I think I did this accurately as can be seen in my final video. The main inspiration for this video came from the 1997 song Smack My Bitch Up by The Prodigy (see video 1). This video is something I have tried to replicate in my own work by having the jump cuts every few seconds to tell a story. The jump cuts do a good job at showing how things can look distorted and unbalanced when intoxicated. I think I have accurately shown this in my work by using a similar editing technique but less extreme graphic content. Finally in week 4 I applied audio to my final piece (see video 2). For this piece I tried to find a style of music that fits in with that of the prodigy, however, I was unsuccessful in finding a piece I like and instead remixed and reused a song I have used in a previous project, the “Title Sequence” project (See Title Sequence post on blog), with the acceptation of the introduction however, it is unclear that they are the same song as I have used different sections of it to tell a different story in this project from the first. In conclusion, this project allowed me to explore by ideas in a new way and it is something I would be interested in doing again in the future. I feel as though I have experimented with some new camera and editing techniques I may have not thought of using if it were not for his project. It was easy to manage alongside my multi-camera project as shown by the fact they have both been complete in time for the deadline dates.

Image 1

Image 2

Video 1

Video 2

Tony - Hear Me - 02/10/2018

Comedic Sketch

For this project we were asked to make a short 15 - 30 second clip that showed a short comedic sketch. I filmed this project on a DSLR camera as they are more convenient for travel. I decided to keep my idea simple and have a clip of someone falling over; I chose this as it is a classic piece of comedy that is used a lot of films and TV.  using my DSLR to film however, I did forget to white balance and focus; this is compromise my footage however I do feel this worked in my favour as it adds to the low quality effect many short comedic sketches do on platforms such as Vine and YouTube (see below for references). To help capture the mood of my clip I used some sound effects for the first half, then used the popular song "Only Time" by singer and musician Enya. I chose this song to add dramatic effect as it is also used in the comedic sketches I have used as inspiration for my project. To edit my footage togeather I found a spot where my character starts to fall and slowed the footage down by 30%. This made the clip feel more dramatic. To help draw attention to my actor on the floor as she looks up in frustration as she has fallen; I used the motion tracker to zoom in on her on the floor. I feel this added a good effect to my video and helped deliver the emotion I am aiming for my audience.  below can be seen some short Vine videos that use the same style of comedy I am trying to use in my project as well as my video I made with that inspiration.

Tony - Credits - 27/09/2018

Credit Sequence

For this piece we were asked to create an open and ending credit sequence for a thriller. I decided to give my thriller a harbour theme and film my clips at the Key located in Kings Lynn; I filmed my project on a DSLR camera to give a clean crisp image that was appealing to the eye; to help give a more dramatic feel to the film I changed the frame rate to make it more workable to slow motion. doing this will benefit me a lot in the editing process. After filming all these needed clips, they were then transferred to my hard drive for editing. in the edit I wanted a piece of music that I felt captured the mood I was going for in this project by giving it a creepy but simple sound. to show this I have imbedded the clip to show my aims and to help give the viewer an understanding on what I am aiming to make. Looking at my footage I sorted out my clips into folders deciding which clips I thought were best. then placing all my best footage into premiere pro, I began to construct my video fitting in with the song I had chosen and adding effects where necessary to show names and titles of those involved in the film. to give my footage a darker thriller vibe, I added noise effects and lowered the saturation of my footage to make it look dark and gloomy, I also slowed the footage by half giving it a dramatic look in the final product. my final video give myself the impressions of late 1900s horror such as IT and Childs Play. this is a good way to give my film more of a fitted group of films to connect it to rather than just a standalone product with no main audience to appeal to. for my end credits I took a longer clip and used some scroll credits to end my film. I felt as if the clip I used gave the impression of an end event to my film that is left unexplained but shows that something could have happened. Also, with the setting and theme of the footage it fits in with my opening credits to make them feel connected and as if they are part of the same film.

Tony - Sound project - 18/09/2018

Thing of Beauty

We were given the task of creating a short project for our Tuesday lessons with tony. The brief for this project stated we were to find a video on YouTube with less than fantastic audio, to download the video and in Premiere Pro to extract the audio and remake it using our own downloaded sounds and our own foley sounds.  I chose the video seen below as the main component for this project as I felt the visuals had a nice dramatic feel, however, the audio it originally comes with does not sell a specific message or accurately send the correct emotional response to the viewer as the video tries to. To help push this message I used a song for my main piece of audio, I chose this song as it helps fit a mood and has a dramatic feel whilst also being fun and not too uneasy to listen to like that of a thriller or horror film. Over the top of this I also tried to add in some ambiance sounds and some camera sounds which I have timed in with the film appropriately when camera flashes can be seen. I’ve also added in some sound effects of a clock or timer to give the feeling of time running out. On top of the song that can be heard I have gotten an online program to read a poem about beauty. This is because I am trying to use my audio to send the message that the fashion industry is very fake and models act like robots doing as their told with very little else. I feel although I was able to send this message by having an online program read the poem instead of a human, it gives the video a more mechanical feel and makes it sound less human. Overall I feel although I was successful in trying to create this video and am happy with the end product I have mad.

Justin - Short Shot Piece - 12/09/2018

Short Shot Piece

As a start to the year we were set the task to make a short film without the use of sound to tell a story. We were set into teams of three and told to plan our video then start filming immediately, we were given an hour to complete the challenge. The film was to be eight frames, show five different shot types, contain no editing skills and be no longer than about fifth teen seconds long.

My team decided on the idea on basing our short film on the concept of a man trying to get into a room to receive a coat which he has left in there and now needs the keys in its pockets to get it back. The five shot types we wanted to include in this project were wide shots, mid shots, Panning, zoom and mid long shots. Although we struggled we did manage to use most of these and keep our video consistent, so the viewer could follow the story.

As a team we had some small errors when it came to ideas and stubbornness in the team. This meant ideas were not able to flow as smoothly as they could have in some other cases. However, the idea and planning of our project went really well and I feel as though our short project was a good introduction to the year as it felt more hands on and got us thinking about ideas for future projects.