Author: learningmediawheeler

Editing: The Final and Biggest Hurdle

by learningmediawheeler, posted in Uncategorised

So you’ve recorded everything you needed to record, done dozens of takes on each and have finally accumulated a wealth of footage and sound, time to relax? Wrong.

The most important part of the film making process, the edit is all that’s left but it requires the greatest of care. The editors role is to take all the footage and audio and compile it into one coherent narrative, they will have to sift through every take to ensure they select the best take that they can work with, and if it’s not there, you’ll be doing it again.

Throughout my project, I have had many instances where I have had to revisit tracks that I thought sounded good at the time but didn’t work in the edit, whether that’s because they were too long, too short or didn’t sound as I’d hope. In many instances I simply did not have a wide variety of takes that I could manipulate. I paid great attention in order to mitigate the issues with every single one because the edit in my opinion is the most important part of the film-making process.

How Many ‘Takes’ Will it Take?

by learningmediawheeler, posted in Uncategorised

A lot…

Foley is a very delicate and refined craft that enhances any piece of visual media, it bring to life scenes that would otherwise be fairly stale and to that end, it requires a lot of time to get right. Expect to have to record for a singular sound effect at least five times and upwards of ten, essentially, do it until it’s as perfect as you believe it can be. During the development of my current project I have had instances in which I have had to record effects seemingly infinite times, this can be for multiple reasons such as it not syncing well with the visuals or slight background noise which couldn’t be removed in the edit.

These challenges are especially persistent in our current climate with lockdown restrictions, having to buy your own equipment and dealing with external sound sources which make your work take longer than it already would, all of these exasperate an already long process.

Despite these setbacks, the final result is very rewarding, when the effect you’ve spent so much time on finally syncs seamlessly. I had this exact experience when recording the sounds of tools by scratching my desk, something that I hadn’t occurred to try until I overheard myself doing it by accident.

The Effectiveness and Importance of 3d Audio

by learningmediawheeler, posted in Uncategorised

When planning where to implement 3d audio in a project you’re developing, it is important to determine various things such as:

-Which track will use 3d audio?

-Which direction will the track come from?

-What effect will this have on the listener?

-Does it enhance the overall product?

It is important to consider all these factors when implementing 3d audio. Used correctly, it can greatly improve your project, but if used incorrectly it can also diminish it.

First, listen to your project without any changes and identify where it could be used, think “what does this convey to the listener”.

Once a track is identified, consider all the different directions and altitudes your track could come from, think “Where SHOULD the sound originate from”.

After this you should think about how your audience will respond to this directional audio, think “are my listeners likely to pick up on this, and if so are they going to respond well to it”.

Finally, after implementing your track, listen to your project in full again and think “does my choice of 3d audio change the project in anyway, does it enhance or diminish aspects of it and is it necessary”.

Audio’s Relationship to Moving Image

by learningmediawheeler, posted in Uncategorised

Audio is integral to the success of a modern day moving image piece. This can be evidenced by the state of the acting industry following the introduction of true audio into films. Actors previously praised for their roles were now having to step out of the limelight as their vocal performance did not suit the characters that they were now portraying. Audio introduced and encourage audiences to view cinema in a new light and opened film up to new critique as well. Beyond acting prowess, audio quality was now a thing that an audience could praise or criticise, the voice talents on display and anything related to the soundscape of the piece. Cinema was now being challenged to become better as there were now more categories that a movie could be judged on.

Audio as a whole could be describe as a curse on older actors’ careers, however to the average cinema goer and to film enthusiasts today, it was a blessing.

Comprising a shot list

by learningmediawheeler, posted in Imagining Reality - Video

A shot list is integral to a shoot, it tells you where and when you’ll be shooting as well as what will be in the scene. As such, it is imperative that the list is perfect. If something has no purpose in the shot, it shouldn’t be there, you can think of this as the reverse of Chekov’s gun principle which states that if an object is payed attention to in a shot, it should have some story significance by the end of the plot. “If you say in the first chapter that there is a rifle hanging on the wall, in the second or third chapter it absolutely must go off. If it’s not going to be fired, it shouldn’t be hanging there” (THE WRITING KYLIE, 2015).

During the production of the shot list I regularly consulted the script provided to me which I would then break down scene by scene. I’d think “what is happening in this scene and how do I represent that visually?” One of the scenes in the script describes a montage of a character watching TV and getting more drunk as it goes on, I took that scene and made a list of all the things imperative to that scene. He’s getting more drunk so there should always be a drink in the shot, preferably with it getting more empty with each shot. his surroundings should become more messy to show his lack of spatial awareness and so on, I broke down every scene with that mindset to create a shot list that the rest of the team could refer to over the course of the production.

 

 

 

 

THE WRITING KYLIE, 2015. AN EXPLANATION OF THE TERM CHEKHOV’S RIFLE: WHAT NOT TO DO. [Viewed 1st May 2020]. Available from: https://thewritingkylie.com/blog/an-explanation-of-the-term-chekovs-riflewhat-not-to-do

Social Media Marketing – Unforeseen Setbacks

by learningmediawheeler, posted in Social Media Marketing

As we all sit in lock down, I thought it best to update you on how this pandemic has affected the marketing of Measure of a Man. Part of our primary marketing was backpacking off of the Tokyo 2020 hashtag, however as of the time of writing this, the Olympics and subsequent Paralympics have been delayed to 2021. A consequence of this is that due to the one year delay, less and less people are visiting the hashtag in which our marketing for this video would predominantly feature.

We have attempted to make the best of the situation and have started to market more around the Tokyo 2021 hashtag in an attempt to regain that foothold however due to the decrease in interest we have seen little to no traction on that front. As a contingency we have resorted to using the pandemic and lock down as a stepping stone for our promotion, urging people to view the inspirational story when we need it most.

Social Media Marketing – Making Teasers

by learningmediawheeler, posted in Social Media Marketing

When marketing a piece of media, it is important to know what you should and shouldn’t show to your audiences. You need to provide a hook which will draw them towards your product while not providing too much to the point where they decide they don’t need to watch the full video. We decided to cut down each video into a 30 second clip which we would then promote on each platform.

These teasers would be further cut down depending on the platform and the audience we were marketing to. statistic_id376128_facebook_-distribution-of-global-audiences-2020-by-age-and-gender

As you can see from this graph I got from Statista, Facebook is primarily used by 25-34 year olds. From this data we decided to upload the full 30 second teaser to facebook. However since other social media platforms such as instagram are frequented by a younger demographic, we decided to cut down the teasers to a shorter length to fit with their attention span.

Social Media Marketing – designing a brand

by learningmediawheeler, posted in Social Media Marketing

An important part of marketing is having a brand that people find appealing and professional. We chose the name “Compass Promotions”. The name was simple and relevant, our thought process with the name was that a compass tells people where to go so we thought it was an obvious choice for our brand. I personally designed the logo which would be the first thing people would see whenever we posted anything:87501387_109584037310591_7277780533558378496_o

As you can see, the logo is striking yet not overbearing. It is important to find a balance as a bland logo won’t be noticed but an overly designed logo will be seen as too intense and not aesthetically pleasing which in both cases will drive away potential audiences.

The importance of a Director

by learningmediawheeler, posted in Imagining Reality - Video, Uncategorised

Despite popular belief, a directors role in a film is even more important than some people realise. While the majority of their work in conducting during shooting, they are typically involved with pre-production and are typically involved with casting. Directors may not pick the cast of a film themselves, but they have a level of influence when it comes to making the final decision. Since directors will be working heavily with actors over the course of the shoot, it is important that they work well together, Ryan A. Piccirillo suggests that it is heavily important to work with actors who share a similar vision for the outcome of a project, “a director may want to select actors who are in line with his aesthetic and tonal vision for the film” (PICCIRILLO, 2010).

876da955-5964-4e78-9870-163785d1a440-2060x1236FIGURE 1: Christopher Nolan directing Matthew McConaughey on the set of Interstellar (2014)

Though it could be argued that the scriptwriter’s talent is integral to the success of a film, there is no greater role in the development of a narrative than that of a director. A director’s role is to take the script, regardless of quality, and transform into something visual that the audience can then interpret. John Hill speaks to the importance of a director in translating a script into a visual media, “the man most in a position to guide and regulate the expressive resources of the cinema is the director” (HILL, 2019).

Many important roles have to be played in the creation of a film from its inception all the way up until its release, however I don’t think that it can be argued that there is any role as integral to a film’s success than the quality and contribution of its director.

 

Bibliography:

HILL, J (ed.) 2019, A Companion to British and Irish Cinema, John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated, Newark. Available from: ProQuest Ebook Central. [4 March 2020].

PICCIRILLO, R. A. 2010. Career Snapshot: The Film Director, A Human Lens. Inquiries Journal/Student Pulse [Online], 2. Available: http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/a?id=196

Figures:

Figure 1- The image depicts Christopher Nolan directing Matthew McConaughey on the set of Interstellar (2014)

SHONE, T., 2014. Christopher Nolan: the man who rebooted the blockbuster [Viewed 3rd March 2020]. Available from: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/nov/04/-sp-christopher-nolan-interstellar-rebooted-blockbuster

 

 

Social media marketing – planning

by learningmediawheeler, posted in Social Media Marketing

In this unit we were instructed to market a piece of media making use of social media such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter etc. Due to our groups massive increase in work force (one extra person), we were tasked with doing double the work, marketing two videos as oppose to one. The two videos we were given were A Social World, a deep dive into the safety and security of technology, and Measure of a Man, an interview with wheelchair rugby player Aaron Phipps who set his sights on the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic games.

Immediately we realised that we could thoroughly market Measure of a Man as the 2020 games are being held this year. I suggested we make use of Twitter specifically as a platform to market this piece of work as Twitter primarily makes use of hashtags to promote tweets and I believed we could piggyback off of the traction that the Olympics would be getting this year.

As for A Social World, the target audience was established to be young teenagers by my group members who had actually assisted in filming this particular piece (another stroke of luck). As such we deliberated and came to the conclusion that Instagram would be the appropriate place to market the video as it tends to be the social media platform favoured by our target audience currently.