Video & Sound Production: Project 02
Adena Tan Sue Lynn (0345769) / Bachelor of Design (Honours) in Creative Media
Video & Sound Production
Project 02
DIRECTORY
LECTURES
Week 02 [08/04/2022]
Framing & Storyboard
Earliest Cinema
To overcome the flatness on screen, filmmakers started to breakup the action into shots & sequences (separation) to create fragments of reality.
Cinema technique is about manipulating shots and sequence that isolating part of it to look at and the order to see them.
Cinematography
- Motion pictures/Films/Videos are made up of many shots.
- Each shot is requires the placement of camera in the best position for the specific moment in the narrative.
- Shot is continuous view shot by one camera without interruption.
- Sequence is a series of scenes/shots or complete in itself.
- Scene defines the place or setting where the action plays out.
- Scenes may consist of series of shots or sequences depicting a continuous event.
Shot sizes determine the largeness of area that's visible within a frame.
- Extreme Wide Shot
- Wide Shot
- Medium Wide Shot
- Medium Shot
- Medium Close-Up Shot
- Close-Up Shot
- Extreme Close-Up Shot
Wide Shot - W.S.
Wide shots include the entire subject & important objects in the immediate surroundings. If it's used at the beginning of a scene, it is often called an 'establishing shot'.
Medium Shot - M.S.
Medium Shots show the subject that are important to understand – Gesture & expression from the person waist up, letting the hand and the lower half fall out of frame.
Medium Close-Up Shot - M.C.U.
Medium Close-Ups film the subject character from approximately midway between waist & shoulders to above the head.
Over The Shoulder Shot - O.S.
Over-shoulder shots show the subject from behind the shoulder of another person.
Extreme Wide Shot - E.W.S.
Shows a broad view of the surroundings around the character & conveys scale, distance & geographical location. It is used to show the environment the character is in. (In shot below, you can see the character in blue, compared to the surroundings)
Medium Wide Shot - M.W.S.
Medium wide shots show a character usually cut off across the legs above or below the knees. It is wide enough to show the physical setting in which an action is taking place. It permits a nice balance of figure and surroundings.
Close-Up Shot - C.U.
Close-Ups are used to isolate the most important part of the subject. It emphasises facial expressions or details of an object.
Extreme Close-Up - E.C.U.
Extreme Close-Ups single out a portion of the face and magnifies a detail. The objective is to focus on important details either to increase the drama or impact on a situation to allow the viewers to see necessary picture information clearer.
Camera Angle
Composition: Rule of thirds divides the frame into thirds, horizontally & vertically. The points where the lines cross are aesthetically pleasing spots to place subjects or to have perspective lines converge.
Subject Angle: Facial modelling is best when subject is turned 45 degrees to the camera. Front & side of face, if properly lighted will appear round & eyes are displayed fully.
3D solidity is most pronounced when two or more surfaces are photographed. Angling the camera in relation to the subject so that two sides of the objects are viewed, results in the most effective rendition.
Angle the camera so that the parallel lines diminish and converge preferably towards the right. This is to ensure that viewer's eyes are carried into a distance.
Subject Height: Camera height is as important as camera distance & angle, but it is often disregarded. Artistic, dramatic & psychological overtones may contribute to the story telling by adjusting the height of camera to the subject.
The low angle shot is shot with the camera titled upward to view the subject. Low angle shots can make a character look bigger, stronger, or more noble. It also gives an impression of height.
Eye-Level angles film from the eye level of the observer of an average height or from the subject's eye level.
High-Angle shots is titled downward to view the subject. A high angle shot can make you look smaller, younger, weak, confused, or more child-like.
Screen Direction
Dynamic Screen Direction: Constant screen travel depicts subject motion in one direction only. A series of shots of a person walking, car driving or plane flying should move in the same direction to show progression.
Static Screen Direction: When planning shots with two characters, it is advised to understand the camera movement in relation to the 180 degree rule. It enforces the camera to stay on a horizontal axis and not cross sections that will disorient the viewer. The horizontal axis is called 'Line of Action'. If Camera 02 & 03 are used, the audience stays on one side of the line of action. These are called 'Reverse Angle Shots'.
If Camera 02 & 04 are used, the audience crosses the line of action which causes disorientation & confusion.
Week 03 [15/04/2022]
Story & Plot
Story: The set of all events in a cause-effect relationship which occurs in time & space. Both the ones explicitly presented & those the audience infers, constitutes a story. Is the "What happened?".
Plot: All that is visually & audibly present in the film, and material that is extraneous to the story world. Is the "Why did it happen? How did it happen?"
Plot Segmentation: Best method to understand a film's narrative system is to create a plot segmentation, a scene-by-scene outline of the entire film.
3-Act Structure
Beginning: Set-up/intro of story
Middle: Confrontation of problem
End: Resolution of problem
INSTRUCTIONS
Week 02 Exercise: Shooting Exercise
We were instructed to shoot shots on our phones within a group. My partners were Adeline & Kai Jun.
The shots we had to use are:
- Low angle Wide shot
- Frontal MCU (soft background)
- Frontal MS (soft background)
- Extreme Close-Up shot
- Side angle MS (soft background)
- ¾ angling MCU shot (with blurry/soft foreground)
- Close-Up shot
- Eye-Level Medium-Wide shot
Below is the screenshot of the shots:
Below is the final compiled shots video:
Week 02 Exercise: Premier Pro Editing Exercise
We were given access to some shots by Mr Martin through Google Drive. We needed to edit them according to the storyboard, also provided in the Google Drive.
I imported the clips into Premier Pro and proceeded to edit. After I edited all the clips together, I realised some of them had uneven audios, which disrupts the watching experience. Thus, I lowered the sounds.
Below is the final video:
Week 03 Exercise: Music Video Shooting
I grouped with Adeline & Alicia for this exercise. Together, we chose Kep1er 케플러's ‘WA DA DA’ for our video. We also followed their dance routine for our music video.
I suffered absolute back pain practicing, but I persevered as I really wanted a few dance clips in the final video!
Then, I imported everything into Premier Pro and got to editing!
Below is the final video:
Week 03 Exercise: Three-Act Structure Exercise
We were also tasked in class to analyse three-act structures. Below is the document I worked on in class:
We were also asked to apply this to the movie Munich:
Act 1
During the Munich Olympics, 11 Israeli athletes are murdered by a Palestinian group of terrorists. The Israeli prime minister asks Avner, the main character, to assassinate 11 Palestinians which are a part of the terrorist group. Accepting the offer, he's joined by four team members to help in the assassination.
Plot Point 1
Nervous, Avner's team succeeds in their first kill. They have never murdered before, and it is clear to the audience. Next, they plant a murder bomb in one of their target's hotel room. However, the bomb appears to have been stronger than anticipated, almost killing Avner. Avner gains doubt about their mission due to the loss of an innocent life.
Act 2
Avner and his team anger their contact. This leads them to be locked in a safehouse with a Palestinian group. However, they manage to escape and end up in a shootout. Avner continues to doubt this mission due to the criminalising acts.
Plot Point 2
Once Avner learns that his team is being chased, he finds one of the team members murdered. This leads to their first unauthorised murder.
Climax
Avner and one of the remaining team member try to attack one of the terrorists, but is interrupted by an alarm. Avner then decides to stop the mission, and leave.
Act 3
Avner returns to this family, and experiences paranoia and PTSD.
Describe the main character
The main character if Avner Kaufman, a Mossad agent who works for the Israeli government. The main reason Avner was picked for this mission is that he is not well-known for his work and has knowledge of Europe. Avner officially resigns from the Mossad in order to provide the Israeli government deniability of association. It is obvious Avner is empathetic at times, as shown in when he starts growing doubt about the murders, or even when he tries to cover the Dutch assassin's naked body, but is stopped by his team member. The events lead Avner to suffer at the end, where he is paranoid and suffering from PTSD. In the end, Avner refuses to rejoin Mossad.
What is the goal of the main character?
Avner's goal is clear, which is to protect his family and his country. It would explain why he agreed to go on the assasination mission. Not only that, it would explain why he planned for his family to live in America and immediately went there when he quit the job.
What are the obstacles the main character faced?
Avner faced many obstacles as mentioned above. His doubt once he assassinates, as well as his paranoia that people are coming after him and his family once he stops.
Week 05: Filming & Shooting Exercise
For this exercise, we were tasked to do a group shooting where we recreated some scenes from the K-Drama Trailer, "Happiness". First, we divided into different roles. For me, I chose Sound recordist along with Adeline.
During 22/04/2022's class, we were briefly shown by Mr Martin how to use the equipment.
Then, some of us went for location scouting. Below are the pictures which were sent by Regina.
On the day itself, we met up @ the Photography Studio first, then we proceeded to film. Here is a shot I took on the day when we were taking sounds for ambience.
After this, we went to the studio back to upload the sounds and the shots. For me, I had to rush to leave as I had an emergency, so I renamed the files when I had gotten back home that night.
After this, we were asked to edit the scenes together, thus, I show you my final:
FEEDBACK
For Music Video Shooting: Music video is good with all shots done.
REFLECTION
Overall, this project has been very interesting and eye-opening to learn everything that goes on with filming & editing. For me, personally, the music video was the hardest, as I have never edited something with music and shots (and have never filmed myself dancing oh god...) but I made do with what I was taught and made one I was satisfied enough with. In conclusion, I have learnt a lot from my experience and I am grateful for this project because I will definitely need these skills in the future.
