Video and Sound Production - Task 2

22/4/19 -  20/5/19 (Week 4 to Week 8)

Jasmine Teoh Lee Suan (0331993)

Video and Sound Production

Task 2: Video Shooting

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Instructions:

Module Information Booklet:

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Lecture Notes:

Week 4 (22/4/19) 

We had a lecture on film production by Mr Martin, these are the notes that I took down during the lecture:

Terms

• Panning - Pan left and right
• Automation
• Track level
• Expand reed
• Show envelope
• Pan - show blue line
• R100 bottom right top left
• Can create keyframe out of track or on track (you can move it)

Film Production

1. Pre-productions : cast and film crew are hired, locations are selected, sets are build. Ideas in film are created, rights to books/plays
2. Production : raw shooting
3. Post Production - film is edited, production sound, music tracks, color correction

Production

1. Producer - initiates, coordinates, supervises and controls all aspects of a production, sees project through the end, get things done on time
2. Director, directing the performances of actors, advices the Director of Photography, instructs major technical people, administrates the flow of people
3. DOP determines the camera angles, shot composition, camera movement for every shot, decides lighting equipment, type and number of cameras that will be required for shooting
4. Production Manager - personnel, tech, budget, props, scheduling
5. Assistant Director run the set to allow the director to focus on the creative aspects of the film. Responsible for the routine tasks, such as the call (summoning actors, crew, and logistical support to the correct place at the right time)
6. Camera operator - cameraman - rolls and stops the camera on cue - achieve smooth camera movement + camera assistant
7. Lighting Crew - maintain lighting
8. Sound Crew - operating audio recording equipment
9. Make-up artists - makeup, hair and outfits

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Task 2:

Week 4 (22/4/19)

Production Planning

For the second task of our Video and Sound Production module, we were briefed to shoot and produce a short video based on the Thai advertisement for Samsung Galaxy Note 4. Our lecturer prepared the video references and the storyboard for us already, and we had to film and shoot following those references.

The original advertisement has two versions, one is from the guy's perspective, and the other is from the girl's perspective. Our class was divided into 2 groups, where one group will be shooting scenes from the guy's point of view, and the other group will be shooting from the girl's point of view. My group was doing the guy's point of view, and so initially we named ourselves His-tory. This is the original advertisement video on YouTube.

 We also received storyboard reference from our lecturer here:











Pre-Production

After being split into the Guy version group, we had to start dividing tasks and positions in the production team. I volunteered to be the director of the group, and guide the team during shooting time. After much discussion, we finally have a list of our team's positions.

Figure 1.1 Production Planning Notes

Production team:
Director: Jasmine Teoh
Assistant Director: Joanna Terence Patrick
Producer: Ng Mae Jane
DOP: Andrea Choong
Assistant DOP: Izac Low
Light: Wafir, Felicia & Catherine
Sound: Joseph
Actor: Ian Chew
Art Director: Felicia & Catherine

After that, we discussed where would be good shooting locations in our university and went to the places to take trial shots. Here is the link to the google drive with the shots we took: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1VhKUz-U4ssy_c5q2apHaKLS8XFt6hxX8?usp=sharing

We created a group chat on whatsapp that day and started discussing about the wardrobe for our actor. We also worked together to get props that we needed for the shoot and confirmed with each other on whatsapp before the day of shooting. We met with Mr Martin on Thursday to confirm with him on where our shooting location would be and how our actor would look like. We also had to discuss with the other team on their shooting locations so that we do not clash with them.

Here's the pdf version of our actor's clothes for each scene:



Our assistant director also created a shooting schedule so that we would stay on track during the shoot:



I printed out the shooting schedule and also the storyboard so that I could make notes on them and refer to them easily during the shoot. Here's my printed storyboard:

Figure 1.2 Printed Storyboard Notes

Figure 1.3 Printed Storyboard Notes

Figure 1.4 Printed Storyboard Notes

Figure 1.5 Printed Storyboard Notes

Week 5 (29/4/19)

Shooting Week

We were scheduled to shoot for our short video today. The other group went first, and our time slot was 12pm, but we came early to prepare the equipment and the actor.

I listened to Mr Razif explaining how to use the microphones for recording, and learned that there are different microphones for different settings, mainly because there is wind outdoors and no wind indoors.

Figure 2.1 Preparing Sound Equipment

The cameramen and assistant director were setting up the equipment for shooting.

Figure 2.2 Preparing Shooting Equipment

Our actor all dressed up.

Figure 2.3 Actor Dressed Up

The producer helping out with the makeup for our actor.

Figure 2.4 Putting Makeup on Actor

We also prepared some digital props for our video as the scenes included phones and some special visuals. We used Catherine's phone, and I changed my empty instagram account to something that fitted the story, and uploaded these pictures and more:

Figure 2.5 Digital Props

Figure 2.6 Digital Props

Figure 2.6 Digital Props

Production

At 12pm, we headed to Block A of our university to meet up with the other group to shoot the first scene of the storyboard as both guy and girl actors were involved in that scene. As the director for the other group was busy filming the last scene for their group, I was in charge for the first scene and felt responsible for shooting it well.

The assistant director cued the shots and the DOP started rolling the camera, and I shouted ACTION and CUT when I thought was appropriate. This happened for the rest of the filming.

Figure 3.1 Production Shooting Outdoors with Other Group

Figure 3.2 Production Shooting Outdoors with Other Group

Figure 3.3 Production Shooting Outdoors with Other Group

We  needed reflectors to give more light towards the actor's face for this scene.

Figure 3.4 Production Shooting Indoors

Mr Martin giving us all a brief on how to shoot indoors.

Figure 3.5 Production Shooting Indoors + Advice from Lecturer

Behind the scenes footage of us trying to shoot the scene where the actor swipes his phone up.

Figure 3.6 Production Shooting Outdoors

The director discussing with the producer on the shooting.

Figure 3.7 Production Shooting Outdoors

We finished filming in 6 hours. Everyone was really tired by that time and we were all glad that we were done with the shooting. Even though we were amateurs and there were some difficulties and obstacles that we had to face, I think we all had fun and learned a lot from this experience.

Week 6 (6/5/19)

First Draft Editing

We received the footage from our DOP of both groups on Google Drive and started editing the video on Premiere Pro individually. Here's the footage from the girl's perspective and guy's perspective:

Figure 4.1 Girl's perspective footage

Figure 4.2 Guy's perspective footage

I then narrowed down the footage into the ones that I would use for the video:

Figure 4.3 Both perspective footage

I exported all the files that I narrowed down into Premiere Pro and put it into a sequence.

Figure 4.4 Process of Editing for our First Draft

Here's the first draft of my video, without any music or colour correction.

 
Week 7 (13/5/19)

Sound Editing


This week, we focused on editing the sound for the video. During production, the one in charge of sound recording was Joseph, and he took recordings of the voiceover for scene and and ambience sound in each scene location. He uploaded all the files and shared it to us. We also received files from the other team.

Figure 5.1 Sound Files from the other group

Figure 5.2 Sound Files from our group

For the sound part of this task, I created a multitrack mixdown so that I could layer different sounds into one file. I inserted my video as reference for creating the soundtrack. The first track was the voice of the actress. I edited the file and removed unwanted noise from the background.

The second track contained the ambience, where I used the recordings from each group for each location. I controlled the volume for the ambience at different scenes using the volume bar. I had a track for the background music as well, and used royalty free music from YouTube. The music I selected gave a more dramatic effect to the whole video.

Figure 5.3 Editing Sound in Audition with Video Reference

Figure 5.4 Editing Sound in Audition

Video of the background music I used:

Colour Correcting

I also did colour correcting for the video. Colour correction is very important as it sets the mood of the video and it can change the mood depending on the temperature and brightness of the scene. I used the original video as reference but I didn't totally follow the colours for each scene as the scenes were cut and different from the original video, so I used my design sense instead.

Figure 6.1 Lumetri Colour Correction in Premiere Pro

Before and after colour correction:

Figure 6.2 Lumetri Colour Correction in Premiere Pro - Before and After

Figure 6.3 Adding Text to Video

Week 8 (20/5/19) 

Adding Logo and Credits

This week, we were almost done with editing our video, all we had to do is to add in the logo, credits and some extra stuff to touch up. I made our group's logo on Illustrator. Our group's name was Matcha Production because my very lovely group members decided to relate the name to their director's name, which is Jasmine (Green Tea) and green tea in Japanese is Matcha so that's how our production name was born. Hahaha. Here is the logo created by me:

Figure 7.1 Logo of our Production Team

This is how our logo looks like in the video:

Figure 7.2 Logo in the Video

I gave a story title to the video as well, and decided on 29 Days:

Figure 7.3 Short Film Title

I added this text to make it look more like a Samsung Galaxy Note Ad at the end. The quote 'Do what you can't' comes from Samsung themselves and I think it fits the story because it asks the guy to message the girl which is what he 'can't' do.

Figure 7.4 Ending of the Video

These are the credits of the video:

Figure 7.5 Credits in the Video

I also added transitions and effects like dip to black for some scenes in the video to make the video look smoother and more dramatic. 

Here's the final video for Task 2: Video Shooting.