Video & Sound Production / Exercises

29.8.2023 - 7.11.2023 (Week 1 - Week 11)
Elysa Wee Qi En / 0355060 / Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media / Taylor's University
Video & Sound Production
Exercises

LECTURES

Week 2 / Framing & Storyboard

Types of shots:

Wide shot (W.S.) - Includes the subject and other important objects in the surroundings. Often called an 'establishing shot' when used at the beginning of a scene. Establishes location.

Extreme wide shot (E.W.S) - Shows a broad view of the surroundings. Conveys scale, distance, geographical location.

Medium wide shot (M.W.S) - Character is usually cut off at the legs, above or below the knees. Wide enough to show the setting while still placing importance on actions and expressions. Provides a nice balance of figure and surroundings. 

Medium shot (M.S.) - Shows only the parts of the subject(s) that are important to understanding, like expressions and actions. For a person, usually shot waist up, where the lower half of the body falls out of frame. Leave some head room at the top of the frame.

Medium close-up shot (M.C.U.) - Frame shows from around midway between the waist and shoulders to the forehead.

Close up shot (C.U.) - Used to isolate and showcase the most important part of the subject. Can be the head of the speaker and their facial expressions, or objects to show details.

Extreme close up shot (E.C.U) - Magnifies an important detail. To enhance drama or impact of a situation or scene.

Over the shoulder shot (O.S) - Shows the subject from behind (usually the shoulder of) a person. Person might be out of focus if of main importance. Just to establish who is looking at what, establish a POV. 

Other details:

Composition:
Facial modelling is best when the subject is turned at around 45 degrees.
When the shot involves a 3D object or area, angling the camera to show two surfaces of the object/ room is more effective.
To carry the viewers' eyes into the distance, angle the camera to show parallel lines converging and diminishing (preferably to the right of the frame)

Subject height:
Camera height can add artistic, dramatic and psychological overtones.
Shooting from eye-level of the subject or average height is common.
Shooting from a lower angle makes the character or subject appear lager or more powerful.
A higher height makes the subject appear smaller, younger, weaker, more vulnerable or more childlike. 

Screen direction:
Dynamic - Constant screen travel shows the motion of a subject in one direction only. A series of shots of a moving object should move in the same direction to show progression. 

Static - When having shots with two characters, camera should stay on a horizontal axis and not cross sections to not confuse the viewer. The horizontal axis is called the 'line of action'. Establish who is on which side of the frame and don't change their positions midway. 

Week 3 / Storytelling in Film

Story = What happened? 
Plot = Why did it happen? How?

Fig. 1.1. Three act structure

Act 1:
- The beginning/ setup
- Introduction of the world, characters
- Leads to the dramatic incident that complicates the story (plot point 1)

Act 2:
- Known as the 'rising action'
- Develop obstacles and complications
- Leads to the climax of the story (plot point 2)

Act 3:
- Ending of climax
- Tying up the loose ends

Film sound:

Footsteps can be around -15db
Ambience should be lower than -20db
Dialogue should be between -6 to -12db
Add fade ins and outs for all the audio

Week 4 / Mise en Scene

French term, means 'putting on stage'. Refers to elements like the composition, lighting, set design, costume and props, depth of space.

Composition: The selection of frames and camera angles. Can help to emphasise the emotional themes of the story and relay the meaning to the audience.

Set design: Encompasses everything the audience sees in the scene. The details help build the world and add more context. 

Lighting: Helps to convey mood effectively. High-key lighting reduces shadows and is often used for romance and comedies. Low-key lighting is often used for horror movies. 

Fig. 1.2. High vs Low-key lighting

Costume: Can convey a character's thoughts and journey. Can be metaphorical.

Props: Drives the narrative or helps to establish the themes of the film.

Depth of space: Depth is determined by the distance between objects, people and scenery. 
                            Shallow DOF = Portrait mode on phone
                                                       >50mm, wide F-stop on DSLR

Week 6 / Sound Design

Use sound effects to tell a story. 

Sound effects can establish a point of view by making specific sounds loud and pronounced to tell the audience that it's important. 

Subtraction of sound can also serve as a buildup of the climax, not just the addition of sound.

Week 7 / Audio Editing and Sound Shaping

Human hearing lies between 20 to 20,000 Hz. 

Fig. 1.3. Ranges of frequencies and type of sound

In decibels (dB), human hearing starts from 0 dB SPL (sound pressure level) and the threshold of pain and instant damage is is 130 dB SPL. 

Fig. 1.4. Range of decibels

Mono vs Stereo:
Mono - recorded using a single audio channel
Stereo - recorded with two audio channels

Sound editing effects:
Using Adobe Audition to add and adjust reverb of an audio clip:

Fig. 1.5. Reverb sound effect adjustments

Week 9 / Stop Motion

Pre-production:
- Prepare storyboard
- Clock every shot
- Calculate the frames needed (8-10 FPS)
- Start collecting sound clips
- Prepare materials and build puppets and background

Production: 
- Set camera on tripod
- Use manual exposure and focus
- Shoot during the day, but use artificial lighting
- Change aspect ratio of camera to 16:9
- Seperate sequences in different folders

Editing (Premiere Pro): 
- First go to Edit > Preferences > Timeline and change 'still image default duration'
- Toggle on 'insert and overwrite sequences as nests or individual clips' (first button under the numbers)
- Create new sequences for each photo sequence

(After Effects):
- First, change the import setting under Preference to 24 FPS
- Import 'multiple files'
- Make sure that 'Create Composition', 'ImporterJPEG Sequence' and 'Force alphabetical order' are ticked
- Create composition for editing
- To adjust speed: Layer > Time > Time Stretch

Week 11 / VFX Tutorial

Tips for a smoother process:
- Remember you need to mask. Be careful of what colours you wear in the setting you're in
- Shoot all shots first. E.g. if the subject is being masked out, film an empty background etc.
- Use an adjustment layer to adjust colours for all layers

INSTRUCTIONS

Fig. 2. Module Information Booklet

1. Week 1 - Editing Practices

This week, we had simple editing exercises to help us learn and get used to Adobe Premiere Pro, which is one of the main editing softwares we use in this class.

Fig. 3.1. Editing exercise 1 (29/8/2023)

This was a simple exercise. Our teacher gave us the clips and all we had to do was insert them in the timeline in the right order, which was already given to us as well.

Fig. 3.2. Editing exercise 2 (29/8/2023)

A slightly harder version of the first exercise. Again, we were given the clips, but this time we were not given the order they are meant to be in. So for this, we had to watch the clips and piece them together in the correct order, or as close as we could get.

2. Week 2 - Shooting / Framing Practice

Our first exercise this week that we did during class was to film different clips with different types of shots. We learnt about them during our lecture for the week, and we were given a list to film. 

In that list, there are:
Low angle wide shot, frontal medium close-up (soft background), frontal medium shot, extreme close-up shot, side angle medium shot (soft background), 3/4 angling medium close-up shot (blurry/soft background), close-up shot, and eye-level medium-wide shot.

Fig. 4.1. Shooting/ framing exercise (5/9/2023)

3. Week 2 - Editing Practice

We were given another exercise to practice editing this week to do at home. In class we watched the short film 'Lalin', and we were told to recreate one of the scenes using clips shot by students that our teacher gave us. This was mostly to practice cutting clips. However, the scene in the original short film is quite long, and for this exercise, we had to cut it down to 35 seconds sharp.

Fig. 4.2. 'Lalin' short film recreation (12/12/2023)

4. Week 7 - Audio Editing

In week 6, we learnt about sound design, so in week 7 we learnt to edit audio in Adobe Audition. Our teacher provided us with an audio clip of someone talking, and he taught us how to make it sound like the person was speaking through the phone.

Fig. 5. Audio editing exercise (10/10/2023) 

5. Week 9 - Stop Motion Exercise 1

Since our last project is to create a stop motion animation, we started learning the techniques to do so. This week was about getting more familiar with how to use After Effects and Premiere Pro to compile our stop motion animation, especially if we shot them with our normal camera and not a specified stop motion app that lets you immediately export to a video.

I decided that since not much compositing would be done, I'd get familiar with Premiere Pro.

Fig. 6.1. Stop motion compilation using Premiere Pro (12/12/2023)

6. Week 10 - Stop Motion Exercise 2: Trial Shoot

Now it was time to learn to shoot our own stop motion as an exercise. In groups of four, we were allowed to create a stop motion with any storyline just to practice and familiarise ourselves with the process. 

Fig. 6.2. Stop motion exercise 2, trial shoot (12/12/2023)

7. Week 11 - VFX Tutorial / Practice

This week we were guided on how to use After Effects to edit our footage. We did masking and used the puppet tool as well.

Fig. 7. VFX practice (7/11/2023)

REFLECTIONS

Experience
These exercises were good to help me get more familiar with the programs we were expected to use. Not only that, but these exercises allowed me to use the knowledge we were taught during lectures. I got to experiment with shooting from different angles, condensing a long scene into a shorter one etc. 

Observations
Stop motion can take a long time. I partially knew this already, but experiencing it firsthand shows how much work goes into it. Even in a budget production like this one, it was time-consuming, and keeping your hand out of the frame can be easy to forget. Also, if using sticks or strings, those would need to be edited out in a professional production. Stop motion is not easy, but it is unique in the low frame rate.

Findings
I have done masking VFX before, but never with my own footage. I've never really thought about how much footage you need to shoot to create a realistic VFX like in the last exercise. We had a clip of the girl running, one of the hand flicking, and one of a plain background. A lot of effort goes into filming movies and such that require these kinds of VFX.