Who knew I could fly! Check out my Green Screen Experimental Video! I am learning how the video magic works!

Tech EX 06 Shot Composition

Extras from Tech EX

What I learned

During this Tech Ex, I learned how to create various kinds of shots and angles with a camera. I found that we really have to use our environment, subjects (and tripods when we have them) in order to manipulate the photos we create into conveying a certain type of message to the viewer. These tools aren’t just available to make things look pretty; they can also send and communicate a message. I found this was most obvious for shots like the ‘cowboy’ shot (where I tried to look as if maybe I was asking someone for help / the concept of cowboy shot had also involved some sort of action near the hip, so I had my hand in pocket,) or the eye-level shot which is about connection. Obviously, each of these different shots can send a message though. One of the main things I found about setting up a shot was that it just requires a lot of adjustment and correction until you get it right. I feel a bit rusty at this so shots like the over-the-shoulder shots (which are arguably just tricky to do alone,) and the eye-level shots were the ones that required the most adjustment. When writing a script or story-boarding, you would also have to eventually factor in what kind of environment you can use (a camera on top of a locker or a fridge, a tall enough tripod, stairs, etc.) in order to achieve what you’re going for. Otherwise, it just takes some adjustment (I spent a lot of time planning out the type of shots with different angles, but some of that changed partway through depending on what was available in my environment.) It’s good to know the differences between these shots because sometimes what I had in mind wasn’t quite within range of an ‘extreme’ shot or a medium shot, so I would just take a new photo with that in mind. I think it adds to how cinematic a shot really looks as well, and the exercise helped me to remember to factor in the rule of 1/3s.

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Image Sequence Assignment

Photo 1

What is implied in the first image is first a sense of time – it is day time. The aspects of this shot include an animal component (the subject,) a sense of urban influence, and the natural world (trees.) The crow adds an element of mystery, darkness and superstition, making us question supernatural themes that may be present. Most of the photos were edited for colour grading in Lightroom, adding blue-green midtones and blue shadow to create hues which add a sense of darkness and ‘loneliness.’ The imagery looks more like a ‘gritty’ type of series or film. This is the only photo in the sequence with truly natural lighting, setting itself apart from what the rest of the sequence is about by standing out in contrast to them. The rule of thirds is employed to enhance the subject, and line draws us through and out of the frame. Soft depth of focus adds a dreamy quality to the background.

Photo 2

In conjunction with the previous photo, we are moved indoors. If it is still day-time, the setting is noticeably darker. The objects in the image are personal items, placed on a modest, tiny bed, and the angle is shot from above instead of being grounded on the mattress in a close-up. The image is one way of telling us something about the character who follows this frame, while also transitioning from outdoors to indoors. It is about the passage of time, and carries the mood over through use of colour grading. Line plays a background character in the areas more soft in depth of focus, like the hollowed out areas behind and beside the bed frame. This area also adds a sense of darkness to the photo.

Photo 3

Next to the previous shot, we take the belongings from the previous shot and attribute them to this character. In this photo, a girl stares at the viewer in an eye level shot. The unnatural lighting makes us curious about where she is or what she is doing. Details like her dyed hair, and t-shirt design are clues about who she might be. Eye-level shots are about connection, and the character’s eye contact feels confident and direct. Perhaps she knows someone or something behind the camera lens? With how confident she appears, is she thinking about us, or is there something strange about her that we don’t yet understand? The reflection of the girl’s arm in the glass places us closer to the subject and it begins to feel as if we are in a real and three-dimensional space. The lines behind the subject ground us into the most important quadrant of the image, where the subject is standing. Rule of thirds is once again used in placing the subject in the photo in a dynamic way. Scratchy details edited in by the owner of the photo are artistic, adding an unexpected quality.

Photo 4 

Another setting shot leads us outside. It is now night time. More neon, unnatural lighting is used, making us aware of an increasingly urban space and setting. Does the main character live or work here? The photo with the bed implied a living space. The contrast of red and blue lighting is intense, and adds contrast with the previous frames. Line follows us all the way through to the back parking lot, and the positioning of the camera makes us feel as if we are waiting for the main character to exit the building. If we imagine her walking towards us from the building, this is the type of feeling that the camera angle would create, which could mean something suspenseful or that the main character is unaware of, especially at night. The line here being an intersection could symbolise a sort of crossroads or a choice that the character has just made.

Photos 5 & 6

These two photos are of stairs, and describe the passage of time, and a sort of descent. The setting becomes almost exclusively urban compared to all previous shots. The size and distance of the shots (more wide than medium) create distance when we imagine a character travelling through each frame. Would they be walking, running, or perhaps looking over their shoulder? Texting someone? Counting their steps and talking to themself? These things could reveal character traits and story details as to what the narrative is trying to convey. Line creates a feeling downward, and feels jagged in comparison to other frames. We know the purpose of the shots, which are a transitory stage and the passing of time, regardless of how slow or fast. Both settings feel isolating because of the distance from the camera, the lighting, and the hue. Repetition of line and the amount of floors in the second photo add to a sense of how long this journey would take.

Photo 7

At the bottom of the stairs, we reach a strange bunker. Line and negative space draw us into the space towards the door. This shot is a play on perspective and we take on the role of the main character, looking in on an unusual setting. This shot is a question mark, and a cliffhanger ending. We know we are in a strange environment, and the journey that it took to get there, but we don’t know where we are yet. The negative space between the character and the door creates a sense of distance, or hesitation. The lighting is blue, dark and unnatural. The only lit area is the space against the back wall and so our focus is also drawn there. Paired with a breaking of the rule of thirds (which breaks a pattern used in the other shots,) our attention is forced inwards to the center door. There is a sort of radial framing of the imagery through the arch of the bunker and the way that it frames the back wall, and therefore the majority of the shot. Doors are symbolic as well – we always wonder what is behind a door, what is waiting on the other side, or what will happen in the shots leading up to a character opening that door.

Photo Credit – Image Sequence:

https://pixabay.com/photos/woman-model-glasses-youth-colorful-8035752/ (Woman)
https://pixabay.com/photos/bunker-dark-basement-soprum-554239/ (Bunker)
https://pixabay.com/photos/subway-stairs-stair-handrail-4950141/ (Stairs 1)
https://pixabay.com/photos/stairs-building-window-architecture-7231312/ (Stairs 2)
https://pixabay.com/photos/crow-bird-fence-animal-feathers-8346196/ (Crow)
https://www.flickr.com/photos/stjamesgate/53257674629/ (Office)
https://www.flickr.com/photos/21906247@N07/7120527361/ (Headphones)

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Video Assignment

Written Proposals

Idea #1

My first idea revolves around the idea of a ‘love’ that exists out in the world, but that the narrator has not yet met in real life. The poem which it follows is an ode to this person and a love that might become one day, but does not yet exist. To make this video more manageable and realistic for me to complete, I have chosen environments that feel like an ideal place to follow this narrative regardless of weather. Most of the video takes place on or near the beach, the marina, and at home. Although I look forward to the possibility of getting help with a short video like this, it’s difficult to guarantee, and so I ended up choosing something that I would mainly create myself which would feature me as the main subject. This was not originally what I wanted, but because I wrote the poem and don’t want to solely rely on others to finish it, I will be filming it and using the necessary props myself. The theme carried throughout speaks about love, the past, and the future, while showing a lack of urgency, yet curiosity about finding that abstract future love. As such, I chose to focus on natural and familiar elements and environments to weave into the storytelling. This idea was reframed from a previous idea that I had about long distance love, which also included using string as a means of symbolising connection. Instead, the yarn will represent relationships or a prospective future love, and how the main subject has this abstract possibility of a person in their mind as they progress through life.  I feel as though I went slightly beyond my capabilities at the time with my sound project even if it was a success, and I bit off slightly more than I could chew, so this project contains elements which hopefully will make this assignment overall more accessible for me.

Idea #2

My second idea follows a similar vein of sentimentality as the first one. This concept was aimed at expressing a love of the simple things in life, and how they stand out amidst the mundane. The simple things prove to make our life better, and sometimes provide more comfort and moments of mindfulness or introspection than the less common ‘big’ victories in life. The simple things don’t depend on our failure or success; they are simply something that if we are lucky, we will happen to notice along the way of life or notice within the pattern of our day. The simple things may be things that we are grateful for; that first sip of morning coffee, or a humorous piece of spray-painted graffiti on a wall that we aren’t sure was meant for us, but we sure as Hell enjoyed seeing it. It can be tripping and laughing, or a semi-distant memory which reminded us of something else which is infinitely more important to us, like family or friends, and being able to share that with someone else. I think that this is the less defined story, and although I had thought about this idea over weeks, I had forgotten to write down some of the details which would have made each individual idea really stand out. It’s easy for the ‘little things’ to get lost in a day, and I think that in terms of gratitude and storytelling especially it’s these details which would really allow the idea to come to life in a way that feels unexpected and tangible when communicating it to others. I feel like my narrative poem has more opportunities for clear storytelling.

Thumbnails for Idea #1

 Sound Edit Basics

This sound exercise taught us how to become familiarized with Adobe Audition editing tools. Some of the main tools included the move tool, the razor tool to cut and delete clips, and the Time Selection Tool. We also learned how to place markers.

We learned the difference between working in the multitrack session UI, and the waveform editor. By using these tools and the multitrack editor, we were also able to explore noise reduction, copying clips to different tracks and renaming them, adding reverb by misaligning dialogue, fading in and out, and also altering how to pan from the left and right sides. Panning can help in situations of trying to create a 3D sound effect.

We also learned how to properly open files, export files, save our mix, change the clip volume and use keyframes in order to change the volume of an area of the clip.

 Sound Edit Basics 2

Foley-Notes-Tech-Exercise-2

Because I had forgotten to note all clip recordings, in order of the sound effects is:

• 1 – room tone
• 2 – footsteps on floor
• 3 – door handle closing
• 4 – snap
• 5 – deep sigh
• 6 – brushing through houseplants
• 7 – crickets
• 8 – human voice

Unedited Best 8:

Edited Mixdown Best 8:

In this tech exercise, we learned to log our foley by logging the sounds that we recorded, what they are meant to be, recording the room tone, and general record keeping for recording sounds. We now know the best rough estimate of what volume to record at and learned about trying to record sound effects multiple times, in different ways. This is so that we can use or keep the best clips for editing, and perhaps have extra sound recorded for different situations or different needs in a scene. Using the editing tools from the first exercise, we edited and exported the clips. Because I was using one of the recommended apps which can save files as a .wav, I noticed that it was really easy to edit the titles of the recordings immediately after recording them. This was a helpful way for me to log any techniques used.
I had some confusion about which clips we were to upload at the end, as I think it said to upload more than one, so I uploaded the unedited and edited versions.

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Sound Project

Idea #1: Airship Crash! (Soundscape/’Podcast’)

This idea follows a cast of characters (which may be subject to change:) a runaway princess, the knight who followed her, and the thief who thought he was going to capture her. In a fantasy world or medieval times, a princess might not be so easily recognizable to the average person, but having a princess as a ‘stow-away,’ the characters are still trying to hide her identity from the general public.

This soundscape would be set on an ‘airship,’ a ship that is popular in the Final Fantasy series video games for carrying passengers in the air. It has a sort of steampunk vibe that I really enjoy, and in the video games, scenes (in which dialogue was often not voiced in earlier iterations of the series) would include many steampunk sounds like the compression and decompression of fans or an engine, the creaking wood of the ship’s floor and hull, and perhaps even sounds from the propellers or the wind on the deck. I’d like to attempt to recreate a similar feeling in a scene that is inspired by characters and a setting such as this.

The scene will feature:

• An original script (inspired by, but not using any character names / not loyal to the plot of Final Fantasy)
• Found or royalty-free sound effects, my recorded sounds, and voiced but edited sound FX
• A fantasy setting (think renaissance era / high fantasy fiction)
• Steampunk sounds of the airship and (hopefully) an airship crashing sequence!
• A beginning, middle and end (which may be a sort of cliffhanger) 
• The script and setting should provide enough detail for the setting to be understood

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Idea #2:  Isekai’d (異世界!) (Soundscape/’Podcast’)



In Japan, a genre of fiction that involves a character being transported from one world into another, like from a modern and realistic setting similar to our world, to teleporting into an online game or a high fantasy setting is called ‘Isekai.’

My idea follows a similar narrative in which two main characters are involved. A character from a world perhaps similar to ours is transported through a type of portal (magical sound effects, something seemingly ordinary, or extraordinary in the real world triggers an event which transfers the character into a new world.) They meet their friend on the other side, but the meeting doesn’t quite go as planned.

The characters must journey through the dangerous alleyway of a large fantasy city at night time, in which the main character must remain hidden from the city guards and for other reasons that we don’t know. There are perhaps monsters also stalking the streets at night, so their friend must transport them safely to a ‘rebel’ hideout or to the quarters in which they work.

I have a conclusion in mind for this ‘story’ taking place and I think it would involve some leftover ideas from my ASMR sequence that I had planned, but ASMR didn’t quite seem to fit creating a full narrative and being able to use the flexibility of having unique sound effects at different volumes in order to create a world. However, I’d like to emulate a similar effect and idea with two microphones, with editing the panning and during a soundscape on either idea. In this case I think it would be the conclusion of the main character who transferred worlds, from the perspective of their friend who reveals their identity in this new world at the end of the scene, and the perspective of leading them through the dangerous alleyway. This story would be scripted and follow the requirements for sounds, much like the first idea.

 

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Sound Project Draft

Script

wordpress-Copy-of-Airship-Engineer

First Draft

• Many of the areas need added sound effects as that is one of my last steps in my process, the middle section especially needs time to add more to the ambience elements of the airship, the crash, and the creature who helps power the ship
• The added sound effects that still need to be added will roughly be following the script
• If you hear gaps in the audio, they are likely spaces left for the sound effects to go into

Sound File

Sound File for Critique: “Hard to Stand on Both Feet!”

Attribution for Sound Project

FST180081 (Leather Belt, Freesound.org) https://freesound.org/people/FST180081/sounds/441816/

nicStage (Steam Sound, Freesound.org) https://freesound.org/people/nicStage/sounds/197335/

Mike Koenig (Earthquake sound, Soundbible) https://soundbible.com/1131-Earthquake.html

Sound Project Reflection

My intent with my sound project was to create a scripted soundscape with characters who belonged to a type of fantasy world. In this soundscape, we would go on a type of brief adventure in which someone’s “first day on the job” begins to go wrong all of a sudden. This scenario mostly takes place on an ‘airship.’

I began my project collecting sounds based on the different ambient environments which belonged in the script. For me, that would set kind of the ‘backbone’ of the rest of the script and environment, and would help me to make the ship evident or make it a bit more of a living creature, especially once some of the action begins to occur.

Creating ambience was one of the most enjoyable stages for me; people had interesting options available for exactly what I needed, especially the beginning portion outside, some ambience and folio once the character reached the airship cabin, and then what I had the most fun creating was the boiler room. The boiler room was most interesting to me, because it felt like a more cavernous space, the character could descend deep into that room which was a fun transition to create (even amongst the action,) and it also just happened to feature other characters which was fun too. I feel that I was able to use unconventional sounds during this part especially because of the nature of a kind of steampunk, mist-fed airship which you definitely wouldn’t find in real life. These are the elements that remind me of my childhood and video games that I played featuring similar ships.

This airship also would have, and did feature some ‘wooden’ sounds. I recorded a lot of these with folio myself, I also recorded boardwalk running and walking sounds at the pier in Comox, and this was to varying success because of geese in the background. I was still able to compress the noise and extra sounds in the background, but had I had more time, definitely there may have been some more quiet days over there or perhaps others knew of a different but similar location. Sometimes, I was able to make up for the lack of this with my gathered sounds – some people were stepping on a mattress to make walking sounds, so there are many ways even I can get creative about filling in those extra sounds. I believe the mattress walking sounds came in handy to have an extra set of footsteps, and perhaps when the characters first entered the actual ‘bridge’ part of the airship.

I do understand the criticisms of having a slightly difficult time differentiating the different characters in the script and this doesn’t bother me; I did my best with what I had, I’m not exactly a trained voice actor but it was fun to attempt this nonetheless and I think mostly successful.

In terms of dialogue and scripting, I think where I could’ve edited things down a bit in the middle section before the main character is left on their own to commandeer the airship. I wanted this to feel like a chance to show off the different lever sounds, but when I considered how this might work practically I think some of the details got lost in translation. I wanted the captain to show the main character a couple of the levers, but when I wanted it to really start picking up and building traction was when the character began to try these levers himself. I didn’t want to showcase everything right away, but it sounds like it might’ve led to what felt like some empty spaces. For clicking the red switch, the lack of a sound felt relevant to me, because at some point with being left alone, the character makes some kind of mistake that leads the ship a bit astray. I felt like maybe that would be the red switch. So, at times I left things out unintentionally, but I can see how the captain showing him one or two more switches, or simply editing the script may have helped there.

At the end of the day, I think there are so many smaller details with a bit of a longer piece like this that it makes for a lot of editing. I do feel that I learned a lot and wish to see if I can strengthen these skills more in the future, and experiment more with outlandish dialogue or creating my own special effects specifically.

Working with what I had available to me and the different resources ended up being very fun, though I can see how there are some rough feeling areas in my soundscape. I think my biggest struggle was having the intention of certain ambience (especially for the middle / airship bridge,) and then with the sounds that I created myself, ie. some of the creaking for the ship for the middle section, sounds ended up being either too loud and distracting (with having ~2-3 ambient layers already,) or too quiet to the point that only one person seemed to notice the ‘wood’ creaking sounds of the ship. With this, I feel I learned that sometimes with ambience or creating an environment it’s just about adapting and adjusting; I could easily compare the boiler room and the middle section for example and think about how I could make them even more different to each other and not have quite so similar sounds. I feel like for this project ambience worked best with having 2-3 main undercurrents of ambient sounds per area, and balancing them well, or else things just start to get lost, so as to decide which ones to prioritize and be a little selective. So, even though I had difficulty finding the exact sounds that I wanted at times, I did still have a fun time creating my own folio.