Video Production

For the video project we had to create 'a short film' which had to be 8 shots in length and had to tell the story of a character's journey from one place to another. Before making a short film first we had to understand what makes a good short film, as well as the how to film a short film.

Their are three stages In Video production: pre-production, Production and Post-production.

Pre-production

This where you write the script, finding the locations where filming will take place, prop building, set design, auditions, etc. Everything that will be needed during production is planned out in pre-production basically.

Production

The production stage is when you record the film/sound and gather any necessary sound FX.

Post-production

Post-production is when you upload all the footage recorded as well as all the sound recordings and start editing. Editing is where you remove any 'takes' that went badly and organise the footage into what will become the finished film. Editing is also where you add any special effects that are needed to make the finishing touches to the film. Lastly post-production ends with a finished film either burnt to a disc or saved as a video file and put online.

Cinematography

A film is made up of 'frames' that usually play at 24 frames a second to create the illusion of motion on screen. A single 'shot' is made up of continuous motion of frames moving at 24 frames a second until the shot ends. A number of shots make up a 'scene.' Scenes are linked together to form a 'sequence.' Sequences make up a Programme or film.

Shot Types



The picture shows all the different shot types.

When filming a scene first you film the whole scene as a 'wide shot' this is so if their are any problems in editing later you always have a safety shot to fall back on. Wide shots are also good for establishing the scene because it reveals a lot of information to your target audience, such as the location, the characters, etc. After you film the 'wide shot' go in closer to the action and focus on the Key characters as this allows the audience to know who the hero of the story is easily, the best shot to use for this is 'mid-close up' or 'close up' as it allows the audience to zoom in automatically on that character.





Rule of 3rds











The rule of 3rds basically means that when setting up a shot you divide the display screen into a grid 3x3 and set the scene up like the one above: the water is within the bottom three squares and the buildings are in the middle block of squares and the sky is along the top three squares. The reason for this is because its easy on the eye, and just nice to look at when its laid out like this. I used this scene because it was the easiest example to explain the rule with, but the rule of 3rds works on other shots too like close ups.




























180 degree line rule
















when filming a scene imagine that their is line across the floor, you must not cross this line when filming throughout the whole scene, no matter how many shots you do because for example if your character is walking right to left, they will always appear to walk in that direction no matter where you place your camera on this invisible line unless you cross it, because then it look like they are walking from left to right instead of right to left even though they are still walking that direction. You can shoot either side of the line but you must never cross the line when filming unless you show a camera move physically moving across the line. The only other time you may break this rule is of course unless you want to confuse the audience because in that case it becomes a stylistic thing that if done effectively can look really good on screen.


Stylistic options



the use of diagonal lines can add interest to the shots as they are have nice composition and provide energy to a shot. whereas curved lines can appear graceful and are very easy on the eye compared with straight lines.
































Another interesting option is how you choose to have your focus for your shot, you could have it all in Deep focus or maybe decide to have shallow focus. deep focus will have everything in the shot in focus and shallow focus could have only the foreground in shot.



































As short film makers you must remember to include something in every 'action plane' action planes are basically foreground, middle ground, background.






















Rules for short films

(1) Keep it simple, no need to over complicate the plot.
(2) Highly visual, try to tell the story with just the imagery.
(3) Not many characters, because the story is only short, theirs no need for lots of characters.
(4) Not many locations, again for the same reason as for characters.
(5) Humour/fantasy, most short films are surreal because its easier to make a short film about something surreal compared to serious drama piece short film.
(6) End on a climax, this is to bring all the lose ends up in one go without leaving too many questions at the end.
(7) Anti-narrative, you don't have to necessarily obey normal narrative structure, you may want to begin your story at the very end for example rather than the beginning.
(8) Avoid cliché, because it is isn't original and not very creative.

Radio Evaluation

I’ve created jingles before, so knew how to produce them really easily and quickly. For the assignment I had to create three jingles: a news jingle, a show opening and a studio ident. I used ADOBE Sound booth, which I hadn’t used before. The program has a lot of ‘teething problems’ and tendency to freeze without warning. Firstly I choose music on www.youtube.com. That I thought was appropriate for a news jingle which I decided to create first. I decided on one which had consisted of beeps. I choose this because beeps are used on the BBC news and I thought it would do the same for my jingle.

To get the music from YouTube and downloaded into my documents I had go to a website called www.video2mp3.com which converts files from video to audio. Once downloaded it was just a case of importing it into ADOBE Sound booth by clicking Import from file, within ABOBE itself. Then I used the ‘Inbuilt microphone’ to record my voice directly onto the computer, and imported this as well into ADOBE sound booth. I then clicked the ‘multi-track’ tool which allowed me to view them both within a timeline. I then began to edit the tracks by clicking the edit tool which can be found on the corners of each piece of audio.

Within this menu you have complete control over the audio, by right clicking and dragging over the audio you can either delete sections of audio or access other editing tools. I mainly deleted sections of audio that included vocals because I wanted and knew from previous experience that jingles sound distort when rerecording over vocals with other vocal audio. The only other thing I did was fade in and out the audio at the beginning and the end to make the jingle seem more professional. Once I’d done that I exited the edit mode by clicking the back button. The changes where done and then it was simply a caser of clicking and dragging my vocal recording in place to where it I wanted it to be within the overall jingle.

After I had placed the vocal recording of my voice in place I saved my work as ‘Jinglemark1’. Then I clicked the ‘export’ tool which had a side option called save as audio mix down which I clicked I on and saved again but this time, I saved it as a MP3 file so it would work on other computers and could be burned to a disc. I used the same processes to create the other two jingles; the only differences were that I had different music and vocal records for each, and the durations where different. Longer duration for the show jingle because this has to advertise the radio show, the studio Ident was shorter because it only has to advertise the radio station.

I found the program was hard to use at first because I hadn’t used a MAC computer before and didn’t understand what I was doing until I was shown. What I found easy was that I had past experience at making jingles from last year and knew the basics of their creation. What went wrong was the program kept freezing and the fact I was ill at the time, didn’t make things any easier so I didn’t have a lot of time to produce the jingles. Next time I’d put more effect into the jingles because hope I feel better next time I’m asked to produce them.

My Radio Jingles

Below are links to my Jingles, just click on the name to of the jingle you wish to listen too and the link will open to a website that will play it:

Jingle show

News show

Studio Ident

once on the website just click the play button on the website, here is a screen shot of the website:

Radio Jingles

A Radio Jingle is designed to advertise something such as a radio show, station events or other media products like upcoming films or TV shows and of course commercial products. Other Jingles include station idents which are important for listeners to know what radio station they are listening too. All Jingles are different as they each have their own target audience they appeal too.
When making a Jingle it’s important to know what it’s for, and who’s it for? A BBC radio 1 audience for example tend to have jingles with lots of sound FX and echo affects that feature lots of non-diegetic sounds that are constantly changing and have been computer edited. Also the voice over tends to contain an echo also. The Jingle tends to last for at a minute which is quite long for a Jingle. They sometimes will play lots of small sections from songs that might be played within the show itself to allow the audience to know the theme of the show that Jingle is intended for.
However a Jingle for BBC radio 4 targets a much older audience and they tend to be much shorter in length only about 30 seconds at most. They feature soft melody background music that can be linked to the host of the show. The voice over is softly spoken in an clear manner that is easily understood, there are no sound FX or echo’s used at all.
Station idents are different from normal Jingles as they never change and always sound similar no matter what station you listen too.


Codes and Convention of a radio Jingle

• They always contain speech in the form of a voice over that provides clear and relevant information.
• They always have music that is also relevant to the target audience.
• Station idents occur frequently and are always the same sounding on every radio station.
• Radio Show promotions always give the name of the show and who is presenting along with the time of day the show is on. They might also either play clips from past shows or play clips of music that relevant to the show.
• News shows always play a formal piece of music or have beeps that signal’s to the audience the news is about to begin.

Three Jingle Ideas for SNC LIVE the college radio station

Here are three possible ideas for Jingles that could be used on the Suffolk New College radio station SNC LIVE, one of these is a station ident.
“This is SNC LIVE” – the music I’d use for the station ident would be a mellow chilled out piece of music that would be easily recognisable and catchy so you would remember it. It would be perhaps 10 seconds in length.
“Welcome to heavy metal rock show with me Mark Clowe, it’s the only rock show for students” – I’d use a wide range of different rock music within this Jingle to express that I’m targeting a teenage audience of students who listening to alternative music. Sounds FX that I could use would include roars and screams and maybe an echo effect on my voice to fully express my target audience. This Jingle will last about 40 seconds.
“This SNC LIVE NEWS” – For the news Jingle I’d use a piece of music that either features a drum beat or beep sound within it. Because most news programs have beep, beep sound FX at the beginning to allow the audience to know that the news is about to start and I want to do a similar thing with my Jingle. This Jingle will last for 15 seconds just long enough to say what needs to be said.

Health And Safety

Inside the Photography studio:

• Beware of cables spread out across the floor because they are a tripping hazard, especially when the main lights are turned off.
• The special lights in the photography studio can become very hot fairly quickly which could burn you if touch them. Also the lights are very bright especially the flashes light so don’t look directly at them otherwise you could seriously damage your eyes.
• Be careful of the backdrops in the photography studio as they are very fragile and very expensive to replace if you damage them, also they are very big and heavy to move so take care when moving them into precision otherwise you could get crushed by them.
• Put all clothes and bags in the corner of the room out the way when the photography studio is in use, because they are also a tripping hazard and if you were to trip you possible land on the expensive equipment and break them or injure yourself.

Inside the Dark room:

• Be very careful in the dark room as you can hardly see anything or anyone so it’s a very bad idea to be running into the room in case you bump into someone or worse the equipment which is very expensive and breakable.
• There are various chemicals and amounts of water within the dark room, which if spilled can damage the equipment, become a tripping hazard or possible get into splashed in your eyes, ears, mouth etc which could do you harm.
• Again no food and drink in the dark room because it could ruin the machines or get left on the floor becoming an tripping hazard.
• And don’t bring lose clothing or bags into the dark room in case anyone trips over them.




Digital suite:

• Try and manage to have a short break every few hours when using the editing machines as it allows you to take a step back from the work to obverse what you have done so far and allow to focus on how you can improve it. Also it’s uncomfortable to sitting down for long periods of a time without having a stretch and a walk.
• Try to avoid working long hours if possible because editing can get very frustrating and stress level can grow really easily, which could lead you to either lash out in rage at someone or bash the computer monitor in anger, none of which are professional and could lead to damage to either the machine or yourself.
• No running around the editing areas as there are loses wires trailing about which you could trip over and injure yourself.
• No food and drink in case they get spilled over causing a trip hazard or in case they get into the machine damaging it.
• Whenever possible use headphones when editing sound so that only you can hear your edit and not everyone else which might be very distracting for others.


On location

• Check over your surroundings when on location making sure that you aware of any possible hazards such as traffic flow, construction sites, scaffolding as to prevent yourself from damaging the equipment or injuring yourself. Other things to take into consideration are things like unwanted background noise, weather conditions etc. This very important as you don’t want to risk damaging the equipment via heavy downpours or extremely load background noise which could blow the speakers.


• Be aware of other people when on location as it’s against the law to be obstructing someone’s right of way without their permission and also because they might disrupt your work or break the equipment you will be using meaning you would have to pay for it. Also be aware of when you are filming, as the general public becomes idiots the minute a camera is in front of them, which means often your shot could get ruined.
• Never leave any unattended items such as: bags, camera equipment, boom, etc because its either going to be stolen or damaged accidentally by the public who might not notice it laying their.

Evaluation of Pin Hole camera

I'm very serprised that the photos look really clear, considering that the camera was made out off a old shoe box and tin foil. The reason my pictures look so good is mostly because I made extra sure that my shoe box was not letting unwanted light in from the sides of the box or from the lid edges.

Because I calulated my F-Stop perfectly my photos were exposed to light for just the right amount of time and came out looking really clear. I wanted to take three pictures inside and two pictures outside. I'm very happy with the way my pictures deloped and all five of them came out really clear. Some of the photos are alittle strange looking with lots of blocks of light appearing in the picture, this is caused from many people constantly moving in front of the camera during its exposure. This has created quite an interesting look, that I happen to like alot.

If given the chance to make another Pin Hole camera, I'd try using a different object instead of a shoe box to see if I can make equally good looking pictures from something different other than a box, such as Quality Street Tin for example. What I've learned from making a Pin hole camera is that anyone can make one really easily without any major difficulty. Another thing I learned from this task was to have well calulated F-Stops to ensure the best possible exposure time, otherwise My photos could of looked either too black or too white.

Photos taken with Pin hole camera

the photos develop in negative and in black and white, using photoshop I inverted the negative making the image positive. here are both versions for you to look at.