GOODBYE trusty old Blog...

I'm jumping ship to a new blog.

I'm wanting a fresh start for my next film production. The new blog will be super in depth on how I create the film, from start to finish. Development to exporting.

www.atinyadventure.com

I hope you join me there!

Rejection.

After we chose not to go through with the seance sequence I drew up some rough storyboards for other possible sequences. Graeme and myself reviewed them, but made the decision that if we didn't have time do the seance sequence then we didn't have time to replace either.

Looking back over the project we definitely had time to fit in a replacement shoot. I'm actually a little disappoint we didn't try filming some of the seance sequence or given the visual effects a demo.

The idea behind the seance sequence was to have a go at some visual and sound effects. We cancelled the shoot because getting the actors schedule to coincide with when the lecture theatre was available seemed a impossible task. We had thought about re-casting it with fewer actors and scaling the project down, but time was running out.

We did storyboard some of it, wrote a script, bought the wood for the set and cast it, but it wasn't to be. As I said I am disappointed with not given the visual effects a test shoot.

(the reject storyboards will be part of my hand in)

Edit.

Edit.

In pre-production we intended to have the sequences that nailed the edits would be a breeze.

Mark put together some really good shotlists/storyboards for the shoot, he also made a corresponding list where one of the crew was making notes on the takes.

(they will be part of his hand in)

After numbering the clips and having the notes on which was the best take, I just followed the storyboard and put the sequence together.

This almost worked perfectly, on the Torture shoot there were a couple of shots that we didn't follow the storyboard exactly. We didn't do this purposely it was an accident from rushing and not reading the storyboard properly.

These few mistakes on set meant the Torture sequence needed shuffling in the edit. The NN storyboard pretty much worked with only slight adjustments. However there was one big problem, two shots didn't edit together well. In one shot Eric has his hand on the door and the next it is on his face.

With us shooting in a strict manner this meant we didn't have any extra shots to play with. I've tried making use of what we shot, but we could have really done with a re-shoot to get some cutaways.

Overall the edits work and this way of shooting makes life easier. The shoot it self even went smoother. A little more work in pre-production and more rehearsal time will mean we'll have this down to perfection.

My editing skills have grown a massive amount over the past year. I'm starting to be able to pre-vis if two shots will edit together and my problem solving as improved. My work flow has also good better and has a group we are improving.

Colour.

I went into some of the stuff I'm doing with colour in the post COLOUR CORRECTION about creating tension with tone.

I'm still new to colour, one of the reasons I chose to do it on this project. I have been teaching myself Red Giant's MAGIC BULLET: LOOKS. This program is very easy to colour correct and style. I have been using it for over a year now. Everything I shoot goes through a Magic Bullet session. The software is set out with an easy-to-use interface and the effects and tools are split up so a novice could find their way through it.

I've been colour correcting images for years using Photoshop, transferring that knowledge over was relatively easy.

Neither of the two sequences needed a whole lot of colour. We wanted to achieve good colour on set through good lighting of the actors. The lighting on the Torture sequence was pretty much how we wanted it. There were only one or two shots that needed correcting. As for the NN sequences we did the best we could with the location. As mentioned in the previous Colour Correcting post the location was very dull.

For the Torture sequence we wanted a sore colour palette. When preparing for the shoot we looked at films such Saw and Hostel. When Saw has a doctor style setting it uses a blue sterilized look, but when it has a dirty surroundings lots of reds, yellows and greens are used. This creates a scab looking palette. That is the look we are going for.

In the colour edit I only used two tools. A colour filter and crush. I used the colour filter to increase the red tones, and crush was used to push out some of the blues.

On the NN I used the same two tools, but also adjust the curves. I used the CF and Crush in the same way as the Torture. I adjusted the curves to increase the shadows. The picture was somewhat monotone and changing the curves brought out the blacks. Giving the image more depth.

The two shots at the end when Eric is walking away from the house needed the most treatment. Just before these shots Sally looks through the blinds, in this shot the outside as a blue/green tone. When we shot Eric the outside had a really nice colour palette of natural browns and creams. Unfortunately it didn't match the shot looking out the window. They needed a grad exposure and colour contrast to darken the image. On Sally's shots the colour filter was in the golden cream area, but Eric's were in the blues. I did this to create tension.

I also tried this tone tension when Sally is hiding behind the wall and you can see Eric at the door. Her side is bright and warm and his is dark and cold.

(there are screenshots of MB and image comparisons with the hand in)

Sound. Part 9. Looking Back

Looking back at the sound process it's probably 3 jobs, foley, on set and music. I initially planned a week to complete these task, when actually they could have done with a week each.

If I only had Sound to concentrate on in post production I reckon I could have done a far better job. However, it is also my job to colour, edit and export. I wanted it that way, I'm not blaming anyone.

On the Torture sequence I would have liked the sound to start muffling when the victim was being hit by the hammer, like the sound was under water or in another room. This would have made the viewer feel disoriented and have a connection with the victim.

The NN sequence need much more depth. The house doesn't feel lived in, a radio or TV playing in the background would have given the empty space an atmosphere and also distinguish the interior to exterior.

To me good sound is when you can close your eyes and know exactly where, who and what is on screening.

On a whole I'm happy with the result. Almost everything is hand made and that I am proud of.

Sound. Part 8. Ambience.

I used ambience tracks only in the Torture sequence. I wanted to use ambience to make a sound scape of something which sounded torturous to your ears.

A track from the Dark Knight inspired me loads for this. It's the Jokers theme called "Why So Serious?" Its a distorted cello slowly moving down the neck. It creates this unbearable tension.

I wanted to make a sound scape that made people want to turn it down or take of the headphones. Its not just the visuals that are making the audience squirm, but the sound too.

I started out by trying out some bassy synth sounds in garage band. I created one that had a nice rumble (file name bass). I then tried counter balancing that with a high pitch note ascending. I liked the feel it created, however it sounded too much like music (file name high pitch).

I then tried doing something similar to what Hans Zimmer did on "Why So Serious?". I got my guitar and a metal plectrum, I chose a metal plectrum because its give the guitar a metallic sound. I scraped the plectrum fast against the E string whist tuning up, wanting the string the snap. Whilst tuning up I thought it didn't sound right, so I scraped the plectrum up the guitar neck and that gave me the sound I was after. (you can hear the session on the hand in, file name guitar). I then took that section and slowed it down. This deepened the sound and time stretch it. (file name deep guitar).

I then took some machinery sounds from the BBC sound library and slowed them down.

This collection is what you hear on the final piece.

Sound. Part 7. Music.

Music is one of the areas we did especially well on The Payoff. My friend Simon did a great score for it. I will be definitely using him again. I knew that he worked, this time I thought we should try something different.

On The Payoff I gave Simon a brief to work to, but I didn't have much creativity over it. This time I wanted to have more control over it. I decided to try and write something myself. A friend, Luke, had been helping me with all the sound. Setting up equipment, pushing record and monitoring. Between the two of us we can play a host of instruments.

There wasn't any music on the Torture sequence. I wanted to create more of a sound scape, building up ambiences to make something that sounded horrible.

On NN we wanted the music to help with the suspense. I had it in mind to repeat the same bar of music. I hoped this would create an irritation, kind of like an alarm. I thought this would be symbolic towards the male character. He is constantly bothering the lady, becoming an irritation.

We played around with the classic orchestral instruments in garage band, but I have a real sour feeling about using pre-recorded or plugin instruments. After not long with playing with the sounds, I thought that if I wanted this sort of sound I should have arranged real people to play real instruments. I definitely want to do this for my FMP, but it would need good organising and time.

Failing that we turned to something familiar, Guitars. I've been playing guitars for many years, electric, acoustic, fretless, bass etc. Also between Luke and myself we have rather lovely equipment, which cost us a lot of money. It would be a crying shame to not use these instruments we love, for fake midi ones.

I wanted the music to sound calm, but also have sense of something wrong. We did this by the main guitar part's second route note being slightly off key. It isn't the note you would predict to follow. The tune is a 4.4 timing, and is two bars long. On the second bar instead of having four route notes, we chose to use two, which created a dragging sense. It also moves up just one note, these two elements help build the tension.

With it looping it gives you a mix feeling as the audience listening. It sounds nice, but keeps hitting a bad feeling. Much like how you feel about the male character. He comes across as a nice person, but you feel there could be something nasty about him.

We layered five guitar tracks to create the sound new wanted, (in the hand in you can listen to the individual tracks and the complete score).

I've already written about the main guitar, but to add further detail we used a capo on the fifth fret. This gave a tighter sound and a usual tuning. To help boost the route notes we record the guitar again, this time only playing the route notes like a bass guitar (file name gbass). We than again picked out the route notes much high, to create a harmony. We used a Vibrato tremolo effect, which gave the guitar a vintage spine-chilling feel (file name gvib). We also reversed that same guitar, which intensified the feeling we were going for (file name gvibrev). The last track is the bass guitar, we played the same notes as "gbass". However we detuned the bass to drop D, to give the whole track a thick underlining.

This was a tough job for the time restraint. I'm fairly pleased with the outcome.