Grand Independent, The 72 Hour Project, The Confusion of Tongues funding

The Confusion of Tongues funding

Hey everyone, can you please help fund a feature film I will be a part of, which has to be made in 72 hours. It's called The Confusion of Tongues and we would benefit from any amount you want to give. There could also be a reward in it for you too!!! 

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1852744087/the-confusion-of-tongues

Here is also a link to our Facebook and Twitter pages too if you want more information about the film!

https://www.facebook.com/the72project

https://twitter.com/the72project

Tutorials 2

Tutorials 2

Having uploaded a tutorial before, I wanted to blog about some more for people that have trouble with using after effects, I'm still learning even now.

these are the one's we used in our tutorials

so here's one on Fractal Noise Galaxy tutorial

https://vimeo.com/5260717

Puppet pin tool tutorial

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcp1gubwNg0

and a Grunge text tutorial.

CSR Corporate Video, A Wasted Journey.

CSR Corporate Video, A Wasted Journey.

This was my very first Corporate video, and we all had to pick a subject to work on. Ours was about recycling in halls, and our idea was to show the journey of the waste, so from the minute the students recycle to finding out exactly what happens to it.

The first thing we wanted to get across to the students is that, not everything stays in the one skip, even though it looks like it does, because at the university, there are separate bins for different waste and then everything is thrown into one skip, but, when we went to the recycling plant H. Brown and Sons "(where the waste is recycled) we saw that the waste is separated and sorted into different sections for it to be deposed of.

So this is the journey we wanted to create for our 3 minute corporate film called "A Wasted Journey".

In the edit we started off with students opinions of what they thought happens to the waste, with the questions we asked appearing on screen with transitions of it fading in and off the pages, followed by student interviews. We then showed them exactly what happens with a range of footage from the University of the rubbish being thrown away all into one bin, the journey to the plant and then the separation of the waste. I then decided to create a montage of the shots we took at the plant. (the machines used to separate the waste also the process it goes through) This was to show the students the truth about recycling.  To give the video a more professional touch I intertwined interviews with H. Brown and Sons manager to tell us where the waste goes and what happens to it.  It ended with a range of information about what the university does about recycling through it's range of posters, PDF'S and information on it's website about the recycling.

Having done the final edit for this, I could have done better, maybe if we added more information about what the university and the recycling plant does to help the students recycle.

48 Hour Film Project, Staffordshire University

48 Hour Film Project, Staffordshire University

This was my first 48 Hour Project and at first I didn't no what to expect from it because, I had created shorts before but in sixth form and was still learning the in's and out's of media.

I was also learning while creating this as I was in my early stages of my first year.

from the project we had to write, shoot and edit the film all in the 48 hours.

we had to create our film from a line generated by an app which had to be in any part of the film, ours was - "My friend Joe had an argument with my boss"

Our film was called "Knocking at the Devil's Door"



https://vimeo.com/85100232

Stoke Your Fires, Symposium

Stoke Your Fires, Symposium 

This event was a learning experience for myself and I really enjoyed the three films we saw which were

• "How to Be Happy".
• "After Cease to Exist".
• and" Olivia Twist". 

All of the films seen I enjoyed and they were all different from each other.

"How to be Happy"

How to be Happy was a male character who was a marriage councillor and give people advice on marriage, but throughout the story he gets close to all of his female clients and a private investigator is hired to spy on him to see what he is doing and towards the end of the story the private investigator and the male lead fall in love with each other.

It was a very comical story, and is my favourite out of the three and overall they filmed it 3 weeks I though, characters were funny, the storyline worked with all the characters and each character had a certain role in the story line.

"After Cease to Exist" - John Bradburn

The story line to this film was very complicated and I didn't get it until someone told me after but, the story line was about the characters being in Purgatory and surviving in purgatory for a certain time.

I did like this film but by not getting the story line it was a bit confusing. the camera work was my favourite element of it, mainly some shots that looked like they had used a VHS camera, they really brought a crazy/insane feeling to the film.

Overall the film cost £3000 to make, and when talking to the director earlier he said if he has the chance he would have shot the whole thing with the VHS style camera.

Olivia Twist - Arno Hazebroek

Olivia Twist was an adaptation of the story Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens.

The film worked well with having a change in gender as the main role and also updating the story to the 21st century so it could link to a modern audience.

Overall I think  Oliver Twist has been adapted so many times even though this is the first time I have seen a modern version of the story, but adapting another unfamiliar story might have been better to use, so the narrative can be new to everyone.

Discussion - Why Make Feature Films

This question came up after a Twitter argument spurred up after Digital marketing strategist, Sheri Candler tweeted something on the terms of why make feature films any more?

At the event students, lectures and directors had a discussion about it and here are some quotes I took from the discussion about there feelings on feature films.

Arno Hazebroek - "It's about the journey", "you need to have passion"

Peter Rudge - "that was my escape", "can potentially change their life" "an amazing art form."

Thor, A Dark World: Review

Thor, A Dark World: Review

When I first saw the trailer for this I could see a storyline but there wasn't much of it and from my point of the view the trailer gives a slightly different story to the film, and I thought certain elements of the trailer were going to be in different sections of the film. For example The final battle to pacify the Nine Realms (which is the first time you see Thor) would have been at the end because from the trailer it looks like the final battle scene. 

There is good and bad points about this trailer because the storyline seems different from the actually movie, so you have to go and watch it to see what it's like, but the trailer does give a lot of the action away (but no the plot line) which for some viewers can be boring if they already know what is going to happen.

I did Like the film overall, the use of bring back Loki, really brought his fan base to the film as well and the twist he has in the film really shows he characters personality.

I found the introduction to Vanaheim brilliant and the concept art for Thor's home beautiful. defiantly one of my favourite locations in a film.

The effects used in the film were good very similar to "The Avengers" which worked to give the film a comic book style.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=npvJ9FTgZbM

Short Chase scenes

Short Chase scenes

Getting short practical tasks in tutorials can really help develop a range of skills, including, communication, editing practice and production skills.

The task was to create a short chase scene and it had to be filmed on an iPhone.

We had a week to complete this task, while doing other work and assessments for our other modules.

I did enjoy coming up with the idea for this short, but if we had more time to shoot and more pre-production time to come up with an idea, it would have been better.

The main idea was to see what the key elements were to a chase scene -  the protagonist, the antagonist, the reason behind the chase and the outcome.

https://vimeo.com/88235756

Sin City and 300

Sin City and 300

The film industry has defiantly advanced in it's technology over the last 50 years and is still growing to have the best technology to create films.

The has been a huge range of techniques, equipment and sets to create films, and I wanted to talk about a few in this blog, and they are - 

• Digital Blackbot
• Neo Noir Atmosphere
• Superimposition and
• Chroma Key

I want to talk about two films in particular that use these elements such as "300" and "Sin City"

Now "Sin City" has the Neo Noir/Film Noir atmosphere style which has been around for many years since the 1940's. But now has been updated and uses modern technology to create it, such as a Digital blacklot set by using H-D digital cameras and actors working on a green/blue screen set to create artificial backgrounds, which are then added in Post-production.

"Sin City" is one of the Few fully digital, live-action films to be created including the film "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow".

Facts about "Sin City's" colourisation in the film is that the entire film was shot in full colour and was converted to black and white. Sections of the film that did have colour, including clothing of the characters were colour-corrected digitally, which meant they had to heighten the contrast to show the clear deferences from the black and white.

This technique was also used in "300"

"300" also used other techniques such as Superimposition and Chroma key.

Superimposition - definition, "to print an image over another image so that both are seen at once", to give the image an overall effect or to conceal something in the image. the effect can be done using 2-D and 3-D images.

Another technique used in Chroma key which is a special effects/post-production technique
"compositing (layering) two images or video-streams together based on colour hues" (chroma range)." The technique is used to remove the background from the image/video/object, Or to create a a transparent top layer where a colour range is used to reveal another image behind it.

Chroma Key is also known as colour keying or colour-separation overlay or green/blue screen. Green/blue screens are the most effective in this technique because they differ in the hue from some human skin colours.

Chroma key can be created in software such as, Adobe After Effects, Final Cut Pro, Autodesk Smoke etc. 

There are also other films that use these techniques, equipment and sets - 

• "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow"
• "Spy Kids" franchise
• "Speed Racer"
• "Avatar"
• "Alice in Wonderland"

References

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sin_City_(film)#Proof_of_concept

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Film_noir#2000s

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_backlot

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superimposition

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/superimpose

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chroma_key

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/300_(film)#Reception

Sherlock, Opening Sequence

Sherlock, Opening Theme.

Sherlock is one of the biggest TV series in Europe and in the USA and has won a numerous amount of BAFTA'S and Critic's Television Choice Awards.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ApNy2RWzLXA

I wanted to see how the opening credits were created.

According to websites "Quora" and Wikipedia" the opening credits of Sherlock with shots of London were actually a miniature version of London, and to help it look like a real version of London a technique called Tilt-Shift Photography is used."It can be done with a camera that is capable of tilting and shifting, or even in post production by using digital image processing tools like Photoshop"

http://www.quora.com/Sherlock-TV-series/What-are-some-unique-visual-techniques-used-in-Sherlock-the-BBC-TV-Series

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miniature_faking#In_popular_culture

You can also see that a range of shots from the episodes were taken from the series and overlapped in certain sections, to create a montage opening sequence. Effects like this can be done in After Effects and also editing software like Premiere Pro and Avid.

Talking Heads, Replica Documentry

Talking Heads, Replica Documentary

I really enjoyed doing this challenge, one because we had a small amount of time to complete it, which was three days even while we had other tutorials and projects we were doing at the time. Also it meant we all had to pull together to create this video.

We were originally in small groups, but had the idea of working together as one group so we could assign people to certain ages groups.

The video is a representation of Kristoph Kieslowsk's Talking Heads documentry

https://vimeo.com/88444112

Editing: Analysis

Editing: Analysis

One of the Tutorials this week was based on analysis. Analysing editing in TV, Film, adverts etc.

This lesson was to help improve our ability and skills on how we looked at certain clips, through, pace, structure, flow, cuts etc.  We looked at a number of clips - 

A clip from "In The Mood for Love" - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjcTPRkAfL0

A fight scene from "300" - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdNn5TZu6R8

The forest scene from "Sherlock Holmes 2, A Game Of Shadows" - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QR1LGJyTdE 

The clip from "In the Mood for Love" had good pace with the music, and sometimes went in time with the actor's body movements. It also used slow motion to create a feeling of loneliness for both characters and a small sense of interaction when they talk to other minor characters.

There is also a feeling of being lost in your thoughts mainly in sections when the characters are doing small movements (0.31 and 1.13 for the woman and 1.57 for the man). There is one section towards the end where the pace of the clip goes back to normal like everything has been forgotten about.

One of the fight scenes from "300"  also has changes of pace,  and can be seen between the sections of the two enemies advancing on each other. The Persian Army have an effect of slow motion to show the multiple soldiers they have compared to the Spartan Army and shocking moment for an audiences reaction. A normal pace is used for the Spartan Army as they prepare to fight, which can show there aggression and also shows a difference between the two armies. Another good use of editing,  when a Persian leader gets hit with a spear. It's good because you don't know it is coming, and with the use of Mid-shots and Over-the Shoulder shots of the army and also Close-ups of the Persian leaders face, it distracts the audience from the battle and keeps them focused on the Persian leader.

The Forest scene from "Sherlock Holmes, Game of Shadows" is one of my favourites from this film. It has that same style as the first film which I'm glad they kept, through the use of ranges of pace and slow motion.
One good change of pace is used towards the beginning of the scene, to show the destination of where the characters are headed. This shot keeps the characteristics of the film, but also pin points where there going, like on a map. One brilliant edited section, where the characters are running through the forest shows the characters situation and the amount of danger there in. For example the slow motion shot where a bullet fly's past Dr Watson or where a bullet hits the section of a tree and there's detail of the tree's splinters flying towards the screen. For me this was definitely and hold your breath moment. 
The music 24 seconds into the scene has a idea that something is about to happen as it gets louder and the characters see where they can go the escape. This really helps the show that another section is about to happen and more action is about to take place.

Sherlock, Mind Palace Editing

Sherlock, Mind Palace Editing

Sherlock one of the most popular TV series in the world uses a range of camera and editing effects.

One effect used is Motion Tracking.  According to the website "Quora" these techniques could have been done by using "Subtle motion tracking markers" and "a composting tool like After Effects" to track the markers to "create a movement path which corresponds to the movement of the marker on the screen."

http://www.quora.com/Sherlock-TV-series/What-are-some-unique-visual-techniques-used-in-Sherlock-the-BBC-TV-Series

This effect has been used in nearly every episode including "The Hounds of Baskerville", A Scandal in Belgravia and "The Sign of Three".

There is also another technique used called The Bullet Time Effect.

This effect was used in the episode "The Sign of Three" to represent the pictures being taken at their wedding.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UyoX-8hl10E

This effect was created by using a number of camera's while everybody stood still as the cameras panned and recorded.


This effect worked surprisingly well to show the happy couples day and it has the effect of a real wedding. with the facial expression of Mary and John, also Mrs Hudson.

Adobe Photoshop and After Effects Tutorials

Adobe Photoshop and After Effects Tutorials

Using Photoshop and After Effects can be difficult to use sometimes, because of the range of different things you can create on these programs.

So here is one tutorial, on a technique in After Effects.

Muzzle flash for a gun

Here is a smoke cloud to use

And here are a range of images to use, but any image similar to these can be used :)

Film Review: Frozen

Film Review: Frozen

A learning point from this film would be to look at the detail of the animation  

This new Disney film has been created with a use of extreme detail in mind.

The characters - the detail for characters would have been spread over all areas, the way they look, costumes, movement in their body and facial expressions and also the way they sound.

The characters of Anna and Elsa have a similarity in facial structure and movement to the character of Rapunzel in Disney's 50th animated feature film "Tangled" but has expanded since then to be more life like. for example in the song "Love Is An Open Door" the movements between Anna and Hans mainly in the shadow section become so life like which in my opinion has it's pro's and con's,

Pro's being the development of Disney's technology and making animation close to life. But the Con's being it shouldn't be too life like because it can ruin the illusion of the story and for some people that might use films such as this for escapism and it could change there opinion of the film.

Setting - The amount of detail used for the setting would be on a wide scale because of the size of each location e.g. the city of Arendelle would have detail of the castle (it's doors, windows, turrets, the walls, inside detail, of the paintings, furniture etc.) it's grounds and the surrounding area which changes for both seasons in the film to Summer and Winter.

There is also immaculate detail in the castle that Elsa creates mainly as it grows out of the ground and the detail of inside from the ceiling to the floor.

Ice and snow - one of the best sections the show the detail of the ice would be when Elsa reviles her power at her coronation and creates sharp ice sculptures to show her anger and the detail of the frozen fountains which was clean and crisp to have a realistic look.

As a review as an opinion I found the film one of the best Disney animated princess film's for a long time apart from "Tangled". I would say the story line had real emotion towards it and all the characters had there own unique personality. I think everybody can relate to each character and is a brilliant family film which has happiness, humor and sadness all rolled into one.

Frozen won a BAFTA for Best Animated film this year and is nominated for two Oscars in Best Animated Feature and Best Original Song - "Let It Go."

My Personal Journey Through Cinema

When thinking about what I should do for my personal journey, I found it difficult because we only had 2 minutes, and I really couldn't explain everything I wanted to say. About all the different films that have inspired me though the years.

So I thought why not start from the beginning...

My Personal Journey starts with some of the best memories I have from these films, how they used to make me happy, laugh, want to dance around and want to be every character in every film I had seen.

So I wanted to start my Personal Journey with... DISNEY!!!!!

https://vimeo.com/85722038

Disney was a huge part of my childhood and still is now, I feel like i'm betraying Disney if I haven't seen a film. which I am slightly now because there are some I still haven't seen like "Frozen" which I really want to see.

Every time I watch Disney it's make me feel so happy and I can just get away from life whether I'm having a good day or not.

The reason I like Disney so much is because nearly everybody has a happily ever after and the animation, the characters and the story lines work brilliantly to draw there audiences in.

I am a big fan of Disney princess films, and they were my favourite when I was growing up, some of them still are. 

The Disney film that has stayed the closest to me throughout all my life is "The Little Mermaid".

The reason I like this film so much is because she follows her dreams and having this inspiration from this film has helped me to think about all the different things I would like to do with my life, and being a part of film was one of them,  and since starting Stafford University I have learn't so much even though I'm still in my first year. 

Jaws. Opening credits

Jaws theme music. opening credits

http://www.anyclip.com/movies/jaws/3XcwJtuh44b/#!cast/

Just under halfway of this clip about 1.30 in the famous theme music is used to show the tension within the scene and to have the audiences hiding in there hands or jumping on there feet screaming "get out of the water".

The music for this film is one of the most iconic theme tunes in the world and scared audiences all over the world in 1975.

This theme tune edited over a dark screen starts of with a few beats, which slowly more are added and the pace is quickened. A dolly shot then fades in of under the sea as the camera flows forward through the reeds and other sea plants. The title "JAWS" appears  on screen and fades off. The music has now got a bass beat which some of them are elongated to make the audience jump because of there high jump in key changes. As the camera is still going through sea plants you think something it going to jump out at you. The camera's focus becomes closer and closer and the music's volume levels become louder and louder and the camera closes onto some reeds as the music's pinnacle point happens, which make the audience jump because it jump cuts to another scene.

 

Sherlock Holmes, Slow Motion fight scene

Sherlock Holmes, fight scene, attracting the audience.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltFyEcoGnbQ

This is one of my favourite films, because I love the theme, setting and also the slight darkness the film has through some of the characters and also the contrast off each shot.

This scene I think is quite different and has been rarely done before.

The editing in this scene presents the use of slow motion and quick paced editing, which hooks the audience and also shows the detail damage of what happens to person that Sherlock is fighting.

The impact of each shot is really magnetized when the effect of slow motion is used, each expression and move flows so the audience can see exactly what is happening.

The use of a Voice over as well addresses what happens as each move is used and a description of afflictions pain would make the audience have a reaction.

This scene I think is also quiet similar to the bloody fight scene in Django.

 

First Premiere edit, Scene 34

First Premiere edit, Scene 34 

 

https://vimeo.com/81334366

 

This is the first edit on Premiere and is probably my favourite scene so far because I feel like I have progressed with this one more even though some small sections still need to be finished.

 

This scene was easier to edit than scene 37 because lines and reactions we all rehearsed properly and were all in time, and it was easier to edit certain clips together if some of them had sound interference such as back ground noise, but some of that was fixed by adding more background noise or changing the sound levels to certain clips so the scene could flow.

 

Conspiracy Theory Edit, The Death of Marilyn Monroe

The Death of Marilyn Monroe, A Conspiracy Theory.

https://vimeo.com/81234330

This edit is probably my favourite edit so far, Me and the Reluctant Blogger really enjoyed editing this together, we have learned so much about the conspiracy theories of Marilyn Monroe and also technical elements of audio, pace and timing.

From this edit I learned that creating a structure before hand (like a storyboard) can really help, because you feel like you have something to follow when working, also when to know what clips to put where.

Our structure started off with the life of Marilyn Monroe. So videos of her in some of her films (such as "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" and "There's No Business Like Show Business"), interviews, when she was out or when she was on a film set. We then went onto her relationships and her affairs with the Kennedy brothers, which lead to her last appearance singing Happy Birthday to JFK, we then went onto her death and the conspiracy theory of what caused her death, from the research we had done and also our own opinion.

The music we had chosen for the sequence was originally was "Diamonds are a Girls Best Friend" by Marilyn Monroe, but then having a mixture of images and videos we thought it should be more upbeat, to engage the audience and to grab their attention. So we found a song which is an upbeat remix of Marilyn Monroe's - I wanna be loved by you (Dj Fashion & Andrey S.p.l.a.s.h. Remix). This song worked because it had a modern twist but represented Marilyn Monroe in the late 1950s early 60s. We also chose "Moon River" by Danny Williams which was huge hit from the 1960s for the Affair with the Kennedy brothers because we wanted something from that time and had a love theme towards it. We also went with quiet ere music when she died and intense music when we rounded up the conspiracy theory.

In certain sections of the first song we tried to match the timing of the clips with some of the music such as the lyric "boop boop be do" with Monroe lifting her hands up on the symbol clash.

 

Editing with Avid, Wind Surfing edit 2

Editing with Avid, Wind Surfing edit 2

https://vimeo.com/80779930

This is the second wind surfing edit on Avid software.

From the last post changes were made to the edit, from what was said before.

More up beat music was added, and there was a build in the music to draw the viewer in. Using the different beats in the music helped to edited the clips together.

When the pace in the music sped up, more shorter clips were added to make it more exciting and to keep in time with the music. Certain flips from the videos were used on different sections, including certain beats such as (14 seconds in) which is the first change of beat, pace and key in the song.

I enjoyed editing some of the quicker shots together such as in the build up of the song, but I would like to practice this more to try and get the short shots on each quick beat as it is herd.