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:

Completed Short Film

So after showing my film in class and taking on board the feedback I was given, I went and fixed up all the problems. I added a title screen to the beginning of the film. I changed the font to a more elegant script style. I made two time stretches between the keyframes of the colour change scenes. I added two snapshots of the film to the end scene that were the same size as the screen this time so there was no zoom in and I raised the volume on all sounds. And this is the final outcome for my short film called 'Remember'.

Film Production

When I had all my filming done I was ready to start editing. I took all my video clips into the 'Splice App' and clipped them, then I put all the footage together. I also used this App to speed up my time lapse scene. I then took my video into the 'InfiniFX App' and turned it all into greyscale but I kept the balloon yellow the whole way through, I also done some colour changes at the end. Here is an example of my video before the greyscale colour change and after:

 

I'm not quite sure how to use After Effects and this was the way I figured out how to change the greyscale into colour at the end of the film. I used one clip and changed it into 3 seperate colour schemes, then I clipped each video at a different place and put them altogether to get a gradual change of colour. Unfortunately for me the colour change wasn't so gradual once it was played back. So I found a tutorial on youtube that let me create a time stretch between these colour changing scenes and this made the change over between them more smooth. Here are the 3 different coloured video clips I used:

 

I then took my film into Adobe After Effects and added a title screen, text to the beginning and end, added a time stretch to the colour change scenes and also added two snapshots to finish the film off while the character was in mid air. Here are two screenshots of the text I added in the first and last scene of the film:

'Remember happiness is never far away' is the moral of the story within the film. The character's happiness is represented by the yellow balloon, and it is never far away from him in any scene. His life is portrayed as dull and grey until he is united with his happiness at the end, then his life becomes bright and positive!

I used the website www.freesound.org for all the sounds and background music in my film. I wanted the beginning of the film to feel lonely and sad so I used slow piano music for it. It was very windy the day I filmed the footage and the balloon and trees can be seen blowing about alot in the film so I used a wind sound through the grey scenes also. When the colour change occurs at the end I cut off both the slow piano and the wind and added more upbeat piano music and some sounds of birds singing, this was to show that the character's life had just gotten a lot happier.

When I showed my film to the class for the first time this was what it looked like:

 

When I received the feedback there were a few changes I had to make before my film would be completed. I had to:

1. Change the font of the text on the first and last scene.
2. Make the transition of the greyscale into colour more smooth.
3. Fix the end scene so that it doesn't zoom into the character in mid air at the end, make the transition more smooth also.
4. Raise the sound levels.

And also I wanted to add a title screen to start the film of properly.

Cut Footage

Not everything went right the first day I went filming, my first scene was to be filmed on the walls and there were alot of tourists walking around. I wanted to get empty shots of my character alone on the walls and we had to do alot of takes to get it right. It also started raining and this delayed my progress too. It was also really windy that day and the balloon wasn't behaving as good as I had hoped it would, it kept blowing down towards the ground and I had to do numerous takes to try and see the face on it. I wanted to start the film of with a panning view of Derry but my tripod wouldn't swing around smoothly enough, it turned out very choppy so I decided to cut it and just add a still scene to the beginning. I also wanted to do a panning view of the river Foyle below Sainsburys but again the tripod was not suitable for this type of shot. Here are the two shots I took:

 

 

It took me a long time to get a shot that I could use for the close up of the character staring out over the wall. The wind was really strong and I had to try and balance my tripod on top of the wall which didn't have a flat surface. I also wanted to blur out the character and then focus in on his face, manually turning the lens didn't help the shake either! Here were some of the shaky shots:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Equipment

I used my iPhone to record the whole film. I bought a small tripod online for my iPhone and also bought a 8x zoom lens.

 

Shot List

This is a shot list I made out for when I went filming. By using my storyboard I knew what scenes were to be filmed and when, this kept me on track throughout the whole filming process.

90 Second City Shot List

Shot	Description of the Shot
Shot 1	View of Derry over the walls below the Verbal Arts Centre.
Shot 2	Close-up shot of characters face looking over the walls onto the previous scene.
Shot 3	Distant shot of character sitting on the bench, camera then pans right to shot of the balloon beside the tree.
Shot 4	Close-up shot of the balloon blowing around the bottom of the tree.
Shot 5	Character walking away from the camera down towards The Apprentice Boys building.
Shot 6	Close-up shot of the balloon tied to the bench where the character was sitting before.
Shot 7	Shot of the character walking further down the walls towards the bridge, then the camera pans left to shot of the balloon tied to the fence.
Shot 8	Time-lapse scene where the character is standing outside the doors of the Foyleside Shopping Centre, crowds walk around him. (Lasts approx 9 seconds).
Shot 9	Shot of the character sitting on the bench on the Sainsbury’s path along the Foyle river.
Shot 10	Camera zooms in closer to watch the character taking a cigarette out of the box and placing it into his mouth.
Shot 11	Further zoom of the camera, close-up of the characters face. He lights the cigarette and takes one drag, blowing smoke from his mouth.
Shot 12	Shot of feet walking towards the character, camera draws upwards as it comes closer to him.
Shot 13	Close-up shot of the character being handed the balloon.
Shot 14	Camera draws back slightly to get a better view of the character turning the balloon around to reveal the smiley face on the back.

Shot 15	Camera stays in the previous position as character smiles at the smiley balloon and looks up and out towards the river.
Shot 16	Shot from a low position, character walks away from the camera holding the balloon and jumps into the air.
Shot 17	Still shot of character in the air. (Last approx 10 seconds)