Screen two (B) - Evaluation

For the second part of our moving image project we had to pick a clip from a film that had narration in it and evaluate how the camera movements, audio and also narration affected the movie. Our evaluation was to be a voiceover on the clip we chose. It was hard to think back on movies I saw that had narration in it, I was sure 'This boy's life' starring 'Leonardo Di Caprio' had narration but after practically watching the whole movie I couldn't find any. I also searched through 'My Girl' and 'Pearl Harbour' but no luck. Eventually I found narration in this scene of 'Big Fish' :

 

I didn't think the narration worked too well with the visuals in this film so I looked for something else and came across the famous 'Forest Gump' a movie that is practically narrated throughout. After searching through the film I came across this scene (Peas and Carrots), which I thought linked the narration with the visuals perfectly.

 

 

I used Jing to capture the scene and then saved the file. When I imported the file into After Effects there was no audio with the footage. I found out that the sound on the flash file was not supported by Adobe, so I had to download a software called WinFF to extract the audio from the file and turn it into a wav file. Then I imported the footage and the audio seperately into After Effects, I recorded my evaluation on my iPhone and then imported that in also. Because Forest is narrating and then the actors are talking my voice over the top of all this would get very confusing so I decided to freeze the frames to let me evaluate the scene and then play the movie again to show what I am talking about. I found this tutorial on youtube to show me how to freeze frames:

 

 

Towards the end of my evaluation some of my sound clips are getting cut short, I went through everything I could think of to fix this problem and even imported in new sound clips but nothing would work. It is still possinle to make out what I am saying but it's just a bit annoying. So here is my evaluation video on Forest Gump: 

My short film - I love the beach

As it is winter time it was hard to get a good day with some sunshine to go filming at the beach. I eventually did get a bright day and took off. The sun didnt stay out for long as it was quite cloudy but I was able to increase the saturation of my film to make it look warmer and sunnier. The only other factor was the wind. My tri-pod was still a bit shaky as it is quite light but using different techniques in After Effects to remove the shaky look helped me overcome this problem. Running through the water was probably the worst part of the day as my feet were completely numb, but it was still fun!

The two hardest pieces of footage to capture were the waves washing over the writing 'I love beach' in the sand at the beginning and also the footprints at the end. It was so hard to write in the sand quick enough before the wave came in and washed it away again and also to try and film it too was tough. After many many attempts I got a good shot of it. I had the same problem with the footprints at the end of the film, I had to walk across the tide and then run back quickly to film it before the wave washed over them, it was frustrating but I got there in the end. I'm happy with the outcome of my film. Here it is:

Production of Memory Film

I used my iPhone to record the footage and I used this tri-pod I bought for my phone to keep the shots steady:

 

Here are some photos I took of the locations I was filming in:

 

 

 

Here was some footage that didn't make it into the film:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When I had all the footage I needed I took each clip into After Effects and cropped out the parts I was going to use. I also looked up some tutorials on how to remove the shaky hand look and came across this helpful one that showed me how to use the Motion Tracking Stabilizer:

 

 

I also removed all the original audio on each clip as the sound quality of an iPhone is not that good. I then started a new composition and imported each of my clips, I added a sandy looking transition called Block Dissolve between some clips and just lowered the opacity of the others to create a fade out and fade in transition between the scenes. This was the tutorial for the block dissolve transition:

 

 

When I had all clips running smoothly into eachother I exported the film and then imported it in again as one file. I then used the website www.freesound.org to get different sounds for my film. The original footage of the beach looked quite cold so I also increased the Saturation of the colours in the film to give it a more golden summer's day look. I then exported my film out with audio included and imported it back in as one file. I recorded my voiceover on my iPhone and then imported this file in also, I then lowered the background sounds on the film so my voice could be heard clearly but left the background sounds loud enough to be heard also. My film was now ready so I exported it out for the final time.

Research and Development for Memory Film

So after changing project completely, I am thinking of doing a childhood memory of my own for my 1 minute video. I started looking at childhood memories on Vimeo and Youtube, My main focus was on the beach because going there was always one of my fondest memories of being a child. Here were a few I liked:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now that I had some inspiration I started drawing out some storyboards:

 

 

Here is the script I wrote out for my voiceover, this is my memory of the beach:

 

 

Using my storyboard I made out this shot list to help me stay on track when I went filming. This makes it alot easier as you know what shots ya need and how long you should spend on each one.

 

Notifications App

So here is the 'Notifications App' we have to make a promotional video for:

 

I wanted to make sure I could animate in Photoshop first so I done this pure basic animation just to try the technique out:

 

I started by skecthing out my storyboard idea:

 

Here is the script I wrote out to go along with the storyboard, this would be my own voiceover:

 

 

Here are my character drawings, I plan to draw them in Photoshop and save the legs, arms and facial expressions as PNG's so I can use them for each scene.

 

 

Here was a walk cycle I drew out, I just wanted it to be basic so it wouldn't take up so much time. Also I drew out the 4 facial expressions I would need for the anmation:

 

 

This was the character I drew for Tommy in Photoshop:

 

Here are the different facial expressions I done out for Tommy, they each fit perfectly into his blank head on the right:

 

Ok so after having a little chat with Padraic I have decided to go with the memory project instead of this App Promo as I seem to be produce better work through film rather than animation.

 

 

Screen Two (A) - Seeing is believing

Ok so I'm thinking of doing the 60 second promotional video for the 'Notifications App'. I have no idea what kind of style I will go for so I decided to do some research on App promotional videos already out there.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So after doing some research I think I would like to do a computer drawn animation. I have never animated using photoshop before and I think I might try it out for this project. I like the style of this last video I have uploaded, black and white with a bit of colour here and there. My animation would be straight to the point and inform viewers as to what the App does through an animated scenario. Then I would do my own clear voice over narration to explain what was going on.

 

The making of my film

Here is part B of the 90 second city project. A video showing how I made my short film: