Finishing up

Now i have got my audio finished along with my video, I have now completed the step of putting it altogether. after laying it all down the track i played it through to see the final outcome. Overall i am very pleased with the final outcome and i feel that it has come out well stylistically. I was then happy to start rendering my project in order to see the final edited quality. Again i was pleased with the results and i am happy to submit this work as my final piece as i have worked hard and have fulfilled my potential of directing and camera work, which i am very pleased with.

I have found this module to be useful to myself as it has challenged me into creating pieces in which i wouldn’t normally do. When experimenting with power, spectacle and memory i was able to try out different techniques from animation to experimental film and this has benefited me to produce my final project. Also during the module i have been able to work alongside others on my course helping them with their final projects. this gave me a lot more experience for working in as a team, which, i enjoyed very much, i learnt about setting up professional shoots as well as learning on new equipment such as JVC HD cameras and audio equipment which will be helpful to me in the future if i wish to go into the media industry.

Narration – Edited

this is the finished edited narration in which i might be using over the final footage. when put together it works well and during this edit i used the pan tool to create the binaural effect of the narration. to achieve this audio i used the effect ‘echo’ over the audio and used the razor tool to roughly chop up the audio to create that jump effect as it plays over and over.

its not the same style as the one in the Jonathan Glazer video but i feel that it still has the same effect especially when played through headphones.

Comments will be much appreciated.

Audio – Narration

After discussing narration with Jonathan he mentioned that one video stood out to him by Radiohead ( UNKLE ) for their music video.

within this video which is directed by Jonathan Glazer, we see the man walking down the busy road. During this time we hear him mumbling to himself in which we cant seem to make out. Jonathan then told me that the way they achieved this was because the actor in the video was French they gave him a recording in english to repeat the best he could.

So from this i headed down to the radio studio with Andrew and Sid. during my time in the studio i got them to record several sentences in which i did as well. So now i had three tracks in which i could work with. My plan with this now is to edit within final cut pro in a random order to achieve the effect of thoughts in the mind. Hopefully this will work well as it is a hit and miss chance i am taking but i am looking forward to the end result.

Interim Critique

At the interim critique i got a chance to show my fellow students and Jonathan Lee what i had so far for my final project. I firstly showed Jonathan my photos from the photography side of my project in which, he seemed very pleased with and so did the others on my course. so this was a big plus for me as i know that on the day of the degree show i should hopefully get a good response. i then showed Jonathan and the others in the room my final piece.

Everyone seemed to enjoy it and gave back good comments. Jonathan mentioned that my audio for my piece was really good and worked well along side my footage. I then mentioned to Jonathan that i was planning on putting in some narration to go over the top which informs the state of mind. He said that it might work and it might not but it was something i was going to try.

So after today i was ready to finish my film and was going to get the narration to start working with that and to see the final outcome.

Holga experiment

i have had a Holga 120 medium format camera for a while now but had never really used it. I then had the opportunity to use it when i went on a trip to help andrew down at Weymouth. i took my camera and then came back with some interesting images

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As you can see from the pictures i have taken, each image appears to have a faint black outline surrounding it. when first looking at the pictures it appealed to me as the border gives the images a dream feel or even a thought. So from this i decided that the border would work well within my piece as, the piece i have created is revolved around thought and mind state so this could be something to give it that edge for the final production.

I quickly edited a border in Adobe Photoshop in which i would then lay over my footage to see if it had the same effect. here is what i got.

Before   After

as you can see from the two screen grabs the image has improved dramatically, and which i feel helps the film give a sense of the mind state and a feel of looking into the persons state. This is one experiment which i think works well and i will be using throughout the rest of the film as i don’t want a crisp clean image to my piece as that is not what it is about, it is more about the shots used and how i have represented each state.

Piecing it together film – audio.

Now i had my audio and my video footage, it was time to put it together.

i had to make sure that when putting the audio in, that it fits in time wit the visual otherwise the audio will not look like it relates the footage and therefore being pointless.

At first i simply dropped the audio in to see what it looked like. at first it felt like it fitted well but i could tell that the audio was not linked with the video. So to over come this, i analyzed  the video to notice anything such as, trees blowing in the background or birds flying in the background. This would then allow me to use different audio of wind and birds chirping to pan across to get the effect of the wind flowing around the viewer.

this took a while to get right but the final outcome of the audio, i am very pleased with and now my piece seems to have more layers and structure and i am pleased with my results.

video showing audio and video after edit. ( listen with headphones for full effect )

using binaural audio

after my last post i talked about binaural audio in which i intended to use within my piece. after reading on how to do this. i went out to try and capture some audio to use within my piece. the audio i am looking for was to be a natural sound of an environment which has wildlife aswell as a natural clear sound of wind, to grab the effect of whoever is viewing my piece is within that environment.

i read that i would have to capture my audio in mono as this would allow me to change the pan of the audio at a later date.

I then went off to my location where i filmed as i thought that it would work better as it is where i filmed my piece. and this is what i got.

Mono sound 1

Mono sound 2

i was pleased with what i managed to capture during this day as it now allowed me to experiment and create binaural audio. After putting it on the time line with my footage i was able to pan the audio from left to right to give the surround sound feel to my piece when played through headphones. This audio really helps bring my piece together as i have taken a 2d footage and made it into a very basic virtual reality for my audience. There is one down side to this, which is that my piece will have to be played though headphones to get its full effect so playing my piece to a big audience is now out of the question but on the day of the degree show my audience will be able to get a more intimate experience.

Binaural Audio

After thinking about the audio for my piece, myself and andrew reeve starting thinking about Binaural Audio. Binaural audio is a simple recording method, two microphones are placed 18 cm (7″) apart facing away from each other.  The distance and placement roughly approximates the position of an average human’s ear canals. this helps create the sound of what the natural ear would hear. so sounds from the left would be heard in the left headphone and sounds from the right can be heard in the right headphone, therefore creating a atmospheric world to the listener.

Myself and Andrew thought that this would be a good idea for our piece as for both of our instilations we wanted to create a experience for our audience and this style of audio recording will fit well within my piece.

more information can be found here

Editing

after capturing my footage i am now in the process of editing my final piece. this will require time and dedication as i need to pay more attention to detail if i wish to present my piece the way i want it. for the start of the editing i simply laid out all of the video footage i had captured, in which i can now scan through in order to pick out the best parts

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this will allow me to filter my footage and leave me with the final few clips i will need to start to piece together my experimental film.

im feeling confident with this edit as i have been looking forward to finally starting the post production stage of my piece and it gives me a more visual idea of how the end product might look.

after looking through my footage i was pleased with what i had captured, however i did not get the backdrop which i wanted, containing mist but i am still pleased with what i achieved as i feel that the backdrop i have got provides a calm and cold feeling in which i feel works well towards my piece.

other shots i i am planning to use is some of the filler shots i captured on the day. These were captured on the spot as i noticed some visual attractions when i was at my location, and i felt that i needed to capture it for my own benefit. however. i may be using these shots within my final piece as i feel that it will provide a nice opening for my film and will help the audience get a sense of the location before the film start, therefore engaging my audience from the beginning

Contact sheet 11/3/10

as my final piece is both video and photography on the day of filming i was able to get the opportunity to take some photos in which i will then produce to go along side my final piece. below is a contact sheet of what i captured on the day .

i am very pleased with the images i took on the day as i feel that the background provided a nice backdrop to my subject, allowing subtle light to highlight the subject in the foreground. I used a basic rear flash alongside my Sony Alpha SLR camera which allowed me to light up more of my subject rather than the background. some of the image became to dark when i didn’t use flash so these will be scraped, however i feel that overall all of my images will be able to be used but i will have to narrow it down to a final 5 for my final piece.