Behind the scenes

photography and audio techniques explored

For this term in audio we explored techniques in order to create a mix between a film and photography, in the first two lessons we researched different video/media platforms and the differences between them, we also began to plan out our own photomotions (link to blog post). Over the next few weeks we experimented with audio, standing by busy roads, in places where crowds of the public were and attempting to record a conversation over the top of the background noise. This was so that we could learn about microphone position and where it should be held to find the perfect balance between clear conversation and background noise. After some struggle we discovered that holding the microphone just under the chin helped use achieve that so I knew if I wanted to add speech into my photomotion this what I would have to do.

When it came to creating my photomotion I created a storyboard which would allow me to create an idea of what i wanted to film to create my project, unfortunately I could not do a practise shoot as I was creating my photomotion based on a gig, so instead I did practise shoots of things like me moving on transport and walking around like the images show around the paragraph as I wanted to incorporate both of these into my film. I stuck with my plan of shooting the entire photomotion on my phone, however on the day I found it exceptionally difficult due to running out of storage. I came up with the solution of using a friends, and had no issues however videos of the gig were unable to be sent to me so I ended up without any audio, which was really unfortunate due to the fact I wanted to add the video in as sound and fade a track in and out of the band to go with it as backing for my photomotion but this is something to learn for next time. The 'burst' tool on my phone really helped my along with this photomotion because as we were moving along or the band was playing the phone took multiple photos one after the other so that the photos were consistent. As the filming process continued throughout the night i found it difficult to change camera positions as i was crammed into one small space therefore it does not change that much, also due to this my photomotion ends abruptly which i am also disappointed with.

Once I had completed and collected all the footage I wanted, I imported them to google drive ensuring that the photos were in order so that when it came to exporting them to Adobe Premier there was no issues however there were due to the fact that I had deleted some images my photos were no longer in a sequence meaning I had to use Automator which can change the files for you therefore making them into an order. Editing on Adobe Premier was quite difficult as i have never edited something like a photo motion before, however once understanding the process and editing the speed and duration to look like a photomotion I had no issues and I was somewhat happy with my photomotion. As I said previously, I had no audio available so I added audio from youtube of one of the bands songs, which fitted really well.

Overall I enjoyed creating this photomotion (not just because I went to the gig) but also because it challenged me in a way that helped me to learn for the future like the image sequencing. If I was to create another photomotion I would definitely do something a lot more simple so that I could focus on the important fundamentals like adding my own audio and properly ending the film. I would also want to use different angles and camera shots to add variety,  I would also try shortening down my film to be under 60 seconds however this taken I wanted to ensure I got enough footage of the performance.

Finale project;

60 second sequence that contains either tension, anger or romance

The film i created is based around the high pace adrenaline sport Parkour which is mixed with athletics and gymnastics, my team and I thought that for someone to perform moves around the college as he was late to a lesson and needed to rush. We thought this would make for a high tension film as a wrong move can mean a ruined sequence or even injury to the performer. We wanted to get a variety of shots that would match our high tension film however were limited due to the location of the film being inside our busy campus, the shots also allowed for our film to be more interesting to viewers.

At the beginning of the film we see our main role run down the hallway, he begins to run behind close doors so that it when it opened showing him running towards the camera. We thought this would be a good way to begin the film as the quick shot of him running towards the camera would create intrigue to the audience and suspense over what will happen next.


The next scene we see in the character jump down a set of stairs from a camera angle slightly below the set of stairs so that the audience doesn't know where the character will land. The fact he jumps down the stairs suggests that the character is in the rush to be somewhere also adding to the developing tension.



In this shot we lowered the tripod to be at level with the roll, we did this for two reasons. The first reason the first being that we thought it would be more effective if the tripod was at the level to make the roll seem more dramatic as it was the only thing in shot, another reason we did this was to add more action into our film as it is about Parkour.




The next shot I will be talking about is the scene in which the audience can see that the character is running out of two lots of doors in into the outside, we thought this would add this because it gives a variety in our scene options, not making it too boring for the audience. I also added this scene because we see him burst through doors instead of skipping from one scene to the next in my editing.


Our finale shot is outside, we thought this was a good destination to end in as it shows the character running from one place to another, giving the film a purpose. We decided to shot from this angle as we could shot him running to the pole and then into it, giving the ending some context, after running into the pole the camera was in a good enough angle allowing the audience to see the facial expression of the character as the film ends.


On reflection I would have added context to him being late, like pans to a clock or him visually rushing before the parkour began as I can sympathise with being an audience member that would be confused by the film beginning straight into action which is why, if we had enough time I would have wanted to do. However this was supposed to be a short film, therefore i am happy with the film as it fits the brief and our initial plans for the film.

Finale film

my design process and self evaluation

My design process took a long time, in the lesson we had to pick two films or television series which could be merged together, choosing different elements from each into one poster. I made the choice to do Monsters Inc and marvel villains as they both have contrasting themes and thought the two together would be comical. I decided to take the back ground from the Monsters Inc 'scare floor' as it looked quite industrial and added comic drawn marvel villains and created my own 'Suicide Squad' due to its recent popularity. I thought that by adding comic drawn marvel characters it would help me to merge them into a group like a 'spin on a classic' influence. I had to apply my own font to the poster that I thought would be appropriate, as the colours of the poster and characters were bold and colourful I decided to contrast this with red lettering like that of blood, in reflection I could have used the title lettering from Monsters Inc but I could not find the exact font, If i was to copy font of off the internet, i would need to add a new layer in photoshop and then paste the text in, using the magic wand tool to remove the white background around the image and then moving the text to position it where I would like it. Applying my text was simple, I created a new layer and selected the 'T' for text tool, typing in the title and then playing around with font size and colour as to what suited me.

Once I had created a layer and added in my background, ensuring to play around with the brightness and contrast so that the shadows and overall shade of the background was what I wanted, it was time to add multiple layers in, for each character a new layer must be added so that you can manipulate the image without it affecting the rest of the poster. I wanted to manipulated my images by using the crop tool to cut images down to the size I would like and also the rubber tool to get rid of any back ground that does not need to be there. This was simple as the rubber tool can be found on the tool bar section on the left hand side of photoshop, pressing cmd-spacebar to zoom in and out. I did this so that the villains in my poster would fit in with the scene rather than looking like clearly cut images. In the images around this paragraph you can see the eraser tool and an image before and after, although this is a different poster you can see the effect;

After applying all of my villains I played with the blur tool slightly

just to ensure that they all looked apart of the scene I decided to play with brightness and contrast so that the background and characters were within the same colour theme, however on reflection of this I decided to leave the background slightly darker because I preferred the depth of colours in contrast to the vibrancy of the villains. Here is my poster with the colour of the characters brightened;

Once my villains were in place I decided to add in my title, slogan and production company. As I was happy with the positioning of my main focal I wanted my title to fit around them as well as everything else, so thats what I did. My title is set slightly above the villains so that this catches the eye well, setting it above on a beam in the factory so that it has some fit to the poster. I also did this for the catch phrase and added a HBO sign in the corner which I attempted to look like a peeling sticker or a piece of wall that had been shot at. I angled both of these on small beams slightly away from the main focal point as I wanted the attention to be on them and information subtile, using separate layers for both so that I could move the image in anyway I wanted.

This is my finished image (see below) which I am happy with, at the beginning of this project my knowledge on photoshop was small, now I feel a lot more confident in what I am doing and know the types of tools I will need to be successful in photoshop. If I was to do this poster again I would like to incorporate more of the Monsters Inc side of things into the image however I am just glad to have extended my knowledge of photoshop

Types of Shots

Film uses camera shots to change the way an audience would perceive a certain scene in a film, the more close up and quick changing the angles and shots are of a film usually mean that it is an high intensity moment, if that be angry sad or happy, shots like these are associated with heightened emotion but also it almost suggests the closer the shot type is to the character to more the audience can get inside the characters head. Where as the wider the shot the more visually important they as the camera attempts the cram in all of the background and subject into as much will fit. Camera shots can alter the emotion and adrenaline the audience feels be drawing you in or pushing you away to see the wider picture, different forms of shots add depth into films which is a key part of filmmaking. Here are some other examples;

A close up shot

A close up shot is self explanatory, the shot is taken in a tight frame focusing on a person or object with an out of focus background, characteristically only focusing on one thing means it is key to the film as that is that the director is wanting you to look at. An example of a close up shot would be; 

A mid shot

A medium shot focuses on some part of the subject without giving away the entire shot, this tends to be characters from the waist up, mid shots also has some focus on the background yet not entirely clear. An example of a mid shot would be;

A wide shot

A wide shot has the entire subject in full frame, if a character is in frame then we would see whole length of their body, a wide shot also included a wide range of background in shot. 

Cut ins

Cut in shots are close ups of something visible in a main scene however cut away from the main scene into another, for example, this film clip;  

Primary and Secondary Research

It is important for media practitioners to use both Primary and Secondary research as both forms of research can benefit those who need it. Primary research is research that you conduct yourself,(link) such as surveying people or using focus groups whereas secondary research is gathering data that already exists, an example of secondary data can be seen here; as the information is found in a book uses qualitative data. Both methods of research will achieve helpful information however Primary research can help as the research you find will be most up to date information therefore more accurate.

Also conducting primary research means that you can ask the questions that are specific to you instead of trolling through unnecessary information that secondary may give you through the likes of an article. Secondary research more often than not lacks the validity to be true evidence or research, bias opinions may factor into this as the writer may sawy depending on their agenda. Another issue with secondary research is that the incorrect demographics may be asked for the data you want therefore it is not valid for your research such as age or gender.

Finale design and eveluation-Publishing

My Design process was a tedious one as I tried many different mash ups from films before I found one I was happy with, my idea to begin with was a typical new york sky line image however with the twist that I would add Game of Thrones characters and dragons. Yet I found this extremely difficult to execute, many of the images i found were of a poor quality or wouldn't work with the selected New York back ground, this wasn't specific to just this back ground either as I had tried others and nothing would work. So I tried another Idea, keeping my New York back ground i attempted to add well known Disney and Pixar characters or 'badies' which would then look like they were creating trouble in the city together or the 'badies' ruining the city and the rest of the characters saving it. however a lot of the images were too small to be added onto the back drop without either looking washed out or insignificant so that idea that had to be dropped. My third and finale idea which I stuck with, was based on influence from my second idea. I made the choice to keep with the Pixar 'goodies' and add an Monsters Inc back ground, I choose to incorporate this as i liked the factory setting which would complement my other idea.

I wanted to create my own suicide squad of Batman's enemies, however adding older more classic enemies such as Harvey Dent and Penguin and adding the well known enemies such as the joker and Harley Quinn, I also made the choice to add more female enemies too as recently with the success of Suicide Squad the focus was on Harley Quinn as the only women, so I thought it would only be fair to add others. I thought it would work well as a poster as if the to be a real production it may drawn in a larger female audience. I made the choice to put the villains in contrast to the monsters inc back ground with the thought of it being slightly comical and eye catching on a poster.

As there isnt a 'known' font for the poster I created, i decided on a font that i thought best represented the theme of the poster I was going for. As my poster wasn't gothic I thought that a font that could have gothic undertones wouldn't be appropriate as for my poster to potentially be seen by a member of public I would want them to know subtitle themes of the films, such as the villains however the font is large and 'bouncy'.  I wanted my poster to be perceived as fun, as they're comic drawn villains dressed up, the joker joking like a clown at a children's party and Harley Quinn as his sidekick yet all characters have they're individual stance as power characters. I made the choice to keep the colour theme bright and vibrant to keep with the tone of fun yet the text is red to stand out like the name should on a poster as well as the fact I wanted the red to insinuate blood or evil.

At the beginning of this task I thought I wanted my title to be at the bottom of the poster as I wanted the focus to me on my image, that didn't change when my idea did. instead of putting my title at the bottom like originally planned I changed it not take focus away from the squad at the bottom of the page. Instead I decided to add it just above the image of the villains so that they eye would see the image and then see the title straight away. I also planned to add production information and a release date however because of my busy back ground I didn't want to distract from it, inflection I feel my poster could be improved by my poster by adding starring roles of voices or who was directing or producing. My peer assessment also felt this, stating that my biggest criticism is the lack of information on the page, which I can understand however with such a detailed poster with a lot going on such as the back ground and the drawn villains i felt it would be best left out. My peer assessor also suggesting some of the characters from the monsters inc film, which I think is a really good idea and if i was to do this poster again I really would incorporate them in.
 
This is my finished poster;
                         

Three elements of photoshop and how to manipulate an image- media passport

The three elements of photoshop I will talking about are; Layers, The blemish Tool and the lasso tool.

Layers are like sheets of paper in that every time you add a layer, you add a new layer of paper for an image. Layers can be used to perform tasks like adding an image to then crop (making the image smaller) or blur (making the image fade with the back ground) or add text. Once adding a layer and applying an image you can manipulate the image by adding colour effect, changing the saturation or even just making image smaller.   

The Blemish tool, also known as the spot healing tool can be used to blur out imperfections on an image like spots or marks by blending pixels, the blemish tool is simple to use by once selecting to tool, select the section you want to blend and then the blemish should disappear. This tool can be every popular with those in the media industry who want to perfect images of celebrities.  

The lasso tool is useful for drawing freeform or selecting an image quickly in boarders, it is very similar to the quick selection tool, however the lasso tool you have to manually select around a boarder in comparison to quick selection tool which selects around an image quickly. 

Photoshop can be successfully used for photo manipulation such as the examples of tools above, photos can also be manipulated by being cropped, by cropping out a distracting background or irrelevant space the focus goes to the aspect of the image you want, allowing for the image to be manipulated for the viewer to see what only you want them to see. Another way images can be manipulated is through changing colour balance and brightness and contrast, changing colour balance means that an image is manipulated by atmosphere and mood whether the image be full or light or darkness, if the image is full of dark hues it will give a new meaning to the image with suspicious undertones whereas an image with warm bright light creates an image of happiness. Changing colour balance can also be used to manipulate images such as faces that may have a blue tinge to them from standing next to or in water can be sorted by using colour balance and adding skin tones.

Another way an image can be manipulated is through brightness and contrast. For example; images taken on a cloudy day can be tweaked using the contrast tool to brighten up the image replacing the lost light the sun would have given. The contrast can also be lowered is an image has too much light in it.

Creating a colour wheel and how colour works, white balence and Adobe Kuler-interactive

Colour

During our lesson we were sent out to take pictures of different colours to create our own colour wheels, this could be colour from shop signs, to doors to packaging on food. I found it difficult to find subtle gradients of colours from dark to light like the example colour wheel we were given;

However I attempted to make it work, choosing to leave some colours out of my own wheel which would usually be key. After collecting my images I created my own colour wheel, it became obvious the main colour choices shop signs and businesses would use to represent themselves such as blues and reds. I wanted my colour wheel to look 'textured' using different forms of objects to show colours, which i achieved, however it is not as polished as a colour wheel you would find online. This is my finished colour wheel; 

Cultural Colour;

Cultural colour is the way in which different cultures and societies react to colour or the associations with a particular colour. Particular colours may have positive or negative implication within different societies such as the colour red; in western society can be related to danger or love and passion where as in China the colour red is used for funerals. Another example of cultural colour is the colour green, in Eastern society green relates to new life where as in India green relates to harvest. 

Ways in which colour works together;

One way in which colour can work together is known as 'complementary' in which colours that sit opposite one another on the colour wheel can complement one another or make one another seen more vibrant as they contrast each other. For example; a purple flower would complement a grassy back ground as the colours contrast one another on the wheel however make an image seem more vibrant. Another way colours can work together is through 'tint and shade' the tint of a colour how light a colour is where as the shade of a colour is the depth or darkness of a colour, putting on against the other tint and shade can help to add value (the light or darkness) of an image to create tone.

Analogous colours is another way in which colour works together as analogous colours are the colours found next to one another on the colour wheel, analogous colours work well together as the colours tend to compliment one another well. As well as analogous colour, there is also neutral, cool and warm colours which can work together well. Neutral colours tend to be colours such as grey or brown, more 'earthy tones' which you usually do not find in the colour wheel which can work together to compliment an image with more subtle colour, cool colours found in the colour wheel are what you would relate to the cold-icy colours such as blues and purples and sometimes greens which can be used for imagery such as winter skies. Finally, warm colours on the colour wheel such as red, yellow and orange-colours you would relate to being hot can be used for imagery such as summer or warmth.

White Balance

White balance should be corrected when filming so that you do not have any unrealistic colour tone in your video footage, white balancing sets your camera to identify pure white. As the human eye is more advanced than that of a digital camera, they have the ability to white balance themselves where as a camera lens does not therefore it is necessary for the camera to be manually white balanced. Without identifying true whites, camera footage can have blue, orange or green tinges to it therefore ruin the overall appeal of the footage. White balancing can identify the true white in your footage, the camera doesn't know what the white is until it is identified manually, in doing this the colours level out through the lens and al is balanced.  

Adobe Kuler

Adobe Kuler allows you to create colour palettes which you the have the ability to share in other Adobe programs such as illustrator and photoshop. Once opening up Kuler, you will find a colour wheel in which has five colour arrows that correspond to the colours underneath the wheel, move one of the colours and the colour underneath will change depending on the colour selected. Using the different pointers means that the tone of the shades will change underneath the wheel which you can then use on Adobe software.

illustrator tools, fill, stroke, path and object -interactive, Steve

Illustrator tools

Fill, Stroke, Path and Object; A fill is a colour, pattern or gradient inside of an object or shape created in illustrator where as a stroke is a visible outline of an object or a path in which you can control the width and colour of a stroke. The width of a stroke can be controlled with colour, the size of brush stroke or thickness of the stroke (the thicker the stroke, the bolder the line). When drawing, you can also create a path in illustrator, this path can be created with straight or curved segments which are known as lines (an open path which can create objects like a square) and closed paths which would be objects like the square once finished.  Objects are creations made with pathways, they can be duplicated by selecting Alt-Drag which means a double of the original creation will exist.

the impact sound had on early cinema

The impact sound had on early cinema

Before the modern cinema that we know today, sound in film did not exist. Methods such as using an Vitaphone were used instead. The Vitaphone was used from 1926-1931 and created by the Warner Bros, it used an analog sound-on-disc system with huge popularity from the filming community. Vitaphone worked by not having the sound effect or dialogue voiced onto the film itself but by being issued separately onto a phonograph record which would then be played whilst the film was projected. One of the most well known films to using the Vitaphone method was 'The Jazz Singer' (1927) which incorporated only music and sound effects into its film to simulate reality and also create mood. Some argue the Vitaphone evolved film and shaped it into what it is today, the transition into sound drew more attention to film increasing its popularity and subsequently films evolution. However, the introduction of Vitaphone also came with its difficulties. As film transitioned from silent into sound, some cinemas experienced issues with facilitating the sound systems needed for decent sound quality and therefore their miss fortune lead to the closer of some cinemas as well as some cinemas not having the correct equipment to play sound. As well as this, synchronization with the film itself had to be perfected with the record, otherwise it would not make sense.  

Another issue some film creators faced was the introduction of microphones, as microphones were new and had not been developed at catching sound quality like they do today, many creators struggled with them catching too much sound. The smallest of sounds would be picked up on set making microphones exceptionally difficult to work with-microphones that this can happen to are known as 'omnidirectional.' Due to the difficulty of working with microphones many found it too hard to adapt to the demand of film with sound. Adding sound into film also created a huge demand in the field for new work that had never before existed. The prospect of this excited many, also allowing the opportunity for African Americans who were still facing oppression to work in a new market. 

Reflecting on the cinema we see today, sound is expected and for a film to not have sound is often considered 'strange' or 'not normal' a huge contrast to when sound was first introduced. Sound is now used as such an important characteristic of a film that for each sound or audio clip used in a film it can be considered 'Diegetic, non Diegetic or internal diegetic .'  Diegetic means sound that we can hear as can the character, where as non diegetic means the sound that we as an audience can hear but the character can't and internal diegetic is the monologue the audience can hear of the characters thoughts for example; the film Jaws. on diegetic sounds would be audio such as the splashing water or characters speaking whereas non diegetic sounds like be audio such as the traditional 'Jaws' theme song we will know. 

Visualising data, interactive-steve

Visualising data

For this project we were asked to use Adobe Illustrator to create pie charts presenting data, although the data was an individual piece per person. My data was based on the question 'If i missed a brief or worksheet deadline, what should happen? we were shown how to create a pie chart, using the pie chart tool. However, we were encouraged to be as creative as possible. So taking inspiration from how a pie chart is created, I made the choice to split my pages into an estimated guess as to where the percentages would be and then write what have been voted for in each box and how much of a percentage it is.

My finished product;

reflection on primary research- publishing

Primary research

During our lesson we were sent out to study film posters, we were told to study specifically fonts used, colours in the poster, the style of poster etc. After, we created tables with our primary research inside. The table also included the target audience for our posters, if we believed the poster was artistic or commercial and constituent elements. By completing our research tables we were able to take this information and then make our own posters choosing which factors would incorporate in our own from the research, the film posters i studied were Blair Witch and Sausage party which were both very commercial. I made the choice to make a poster for the Star Wars Rouge one film, the elements I wanted to focus on were the theme of colours I used, the style of poster and I wanted to make an artistic poster rather than it being commercial because it is Star Wars, meaning that it has such a loyal fan base who will go to watch the film, I wanted my poster to not be about selling the film but the beauty of space and the creative aspect of Star Wars. 

For my poster I added a lot of layers and incorporated a lot of saturation onto may images to really stand out from my dark background. I choose this dark background because not only can it be relative to space but the dark colours can add an eeriness to the poster about what who or what 'rouge one' is. I also added a significant image from the previous star wars in which Luke and another character are Duel to suggest a battle which may happen, adding the blur tool so the image is subtly added. In 'Rouge One' In compassion to the posters I studied, this poster is a lot less corporate in the sense that there is no production information, starring roles or release date. In reflection i would like to incorporate this kind of information into my next poster, however I like the simplicity of my poster currently, I would like to experiment. I believe I will keep the background of my original poster because I like its originality but change up the other images involved, add a date etc.

Here is my original poster;