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Unit 13 Final Project

19/02/18: Today we have started Unit 13 and I have joined a group of 4 consisting of Matthew Shears, Rebecca Patrick, Rowan Gage and myself, we have been discussing a multitude of different ideas ranging from a film about games, super powers, drugs and carrying on my documentary from the documentary unit. Since hearing the ideas today I am starting to think what would be best for us to do and I personally think Matt’s idea about super powers works best.

21/02/18: Today we have all fallen in favour of Matt’s idea and now we are thinking about what roles we will take, personally I want to carry on with work to do with sound design and this project would be great to show off my skills in this area of film. I have already begun thinking of what sounds I’m going to make, how to make sounds and who I should look to in terms of research.

22/02/18: Today our group has been discussing the rough layout of our films e.g. what the characters look like, what outfits would they will be wearing, what powers will they have, what problems will they be facing, etc

Here is a small bit of what we wrote down, we also have plans to go out next Wednesday to search for locations for our film.

26/02/18: Well today is already off to a bad start it seems as if snow has decided to magically grace the county of Essex, I have the flu and I can’t get into college as no busses or trains are running, so today I’m going to start my project proposal at home and talk about how I have developed my skills over the 2 years of being on this course and talk more in detail about Matt’s idea.

28/02/18: BOY THIS SNOW AINT GOING ANYWHERE!! (College is closed for today and tomorrow). Today we had originally planned to go out and look for locations to film in but I don’t think it’s possible when I can hardly even see my dog in the snow - anyway our group hasn't let the snow beat us as we had arranged to group call using Facebook Messenger so we can help further our idea, as of right now we know how the film will begin and end but as for the middle we are discussing what will happen. The weather forecasts don’t look too good as we’re now in red alert so I have planned to do more work over the week and plan to call my group tomorrow and I also plan on doing some research this week.

01/03/18: IT'S MARCH BOIZZZZZZZ anyway the snow still hasn't cleared and I just finished a call with Matt and Rebecca, we all discussed what research we plan to do and how it’ll help with the film. I plan to look at behind the scenes of some films and I will also look into my work that I did in unit 12 and see if anything there is worth looking into again in this project.

05/03/18: So today I finally manged to get to college as the busses were finally running again, the snows has cleared and college is finally open. Our group looked into the powers our characters could have and one was to have a hologram power so while they were looking at how to make such an effect I got thinking on what sounds I would like to create and use for the effect, for example mechanical beeping and high pitched sounds. Another effect they had looked at was a portal much like the one from “Doctor Strange” a 2016 Marvel movie starring Benedict Cumberbatch. When I get home I plan to look at what the original sounded like and what I could do to get a sound like it.

07/03/18: Today at college we wrote out a general plan for our short so we roughly know what’s going to happen and in what order, we also wrote down sound effects that would be featured and this helps me out greatly as I finally know what to look for, study and create for this short film.

Since creating this with the others we now have a general plan for what to do with the script, storyboard, shot list and all the other pre-production paperwork.

08/03/18: Today we had started to develop the script properly, we decided to write the chase for now instead of the advert as we haven't thought of that part fully yet. We also began to discuss what props will be used during our short film, as a group we began looking into what we could use as a gun prop - we looked into nerf guns and painting them to look more sci-fi, we also looked at masks to disguise our chaser and what clothes they would wear that would fit with their character and story line.

12/03/18: Today we worked on a draft of the script as a group, we all contributed ideas and we have managed to write the middle and end, we originally had something planned for the beginning but have scraped the idea since and we are currently thinking of what to have instead but currently we’re not sure how it’s going to start.

14/03/18: As of today we have completed our first draft of the script which we will now read over and improve over the next few weeks. We also did some experimental research and decided to test out a homemade squib - we used talcum powder, a bottle and balloon to create the squib. The squib was used to make practical effects for our film for the smoking gun and bullet ricochet.

15/03/18: Today we have sat in an edit booth whilst Matt worked on the Doctor Strange portal effect whilst I was giving Matt feedback I was also writing up my blog and doing research. Today I put into research towards Gary Hecker, I was searching on the internet and came across him and his studio. Gary is known for his work on the 2000′s Spiderman trilogy, Tom Cruise’s War of the Worlds, Watchmen and also Master and Commander which won an Oscar for best sound. During the video, he shows us round his studio and shows all the different props he uses to make sounds, during the video he shows us that he is currently working on a video game and also demonstrates some examples of how he layers up multiple sounds for certain characters moves so they don’t seem one dimensional, for example when a character swings a sword there’s multiple sounds being played that have been layered on top of each other like a swish of a bamboo stick and a sword being sheathed.

Gary Hecker - Top Foley Artist: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQs0UyK8958&index=6&t=4s&list=PLKqDOw3Lo5aCVwjaaQ2vrWf_MnfXuuVNX Gary Hecker’s IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0373036/

16/03/18: Today I conducted a survey because I was struggling to find information on Foley because it seems as if it’s not that popular of a job, I also wanted to conduct this survey to see how much our audience pays attention to sound and what sound meant to them. I messaged the survey to a few friends and family members but only 10 have responded to the survey so far, the results may change if more reply in the future.

From this survey I have learnt that the audience does tend to care about sound in movies but also only pays slight attention to sound in movies, this could mean if I was to mess up on a sound during our short film that they might pick up on it even if they aren’t listening out for it specifically, it also seems that our audience pays attention to the background sounds (e.g cars, wildlife, etc) so after finding this out I will try my best to create a soundscape of the scene - for example birds and trees rustling. It seems as if a majority of our audience is unaware of what Foley is and also haven’t really looked into how sounds are created so I will try my best to make the sounds sound as natural as possible so that they don’t notice that something is being tempered with.

19/03/18: Today I mainly caught up on blogs as I haven't done it in a couple of days because I went on holiday for my birthday (today’s my birthday wooooooooo!) I have also been trying to look for sites for sounds like soundblocks, this will come in useful during filming if I accidentally mess up a sound I’ve recorded and need a sound urgently to replace it.

21/03/18: Today we have done some test shots for our film, we went to a location at our college and filmed on Rebecca's camera (a Canon EOS 750d), it was a practice to see if Matt and Rebecca could edit a shield effect of a real human target and for me it got me thinking about sounds that I could create and use, especially for this scene.

22/03/18: Matt asked our group today if we’d be interested in an fight scene within our short film during the chase sequence we’ve planned. The only down side to this on my behalf is that I was planning to record sounds whilst we filmed the fight however we can’t find another actor to add into our short film and I’m having to act - meaning that I won’t be able to record all of the sounds I want to on the day and in person so most of my sounds will have to be created in foley including ones that I wanted to record outside of foley - e.g: birds, wild track, sounds of nature, trees swaying, sticks being stepped on/snapped, etc. I’m hoping that despite all this I’ll still be able to record the sounds I want to, whether or not I have to do it in my spare time or during a time when Matt and Rebecca don’t need me with them.

26/03/18: Today we started creating our storyboard alongside that we planned our schedule for the next few weeks for when we're going to be filming and planning, we worked out that we need two weeks to complete all of our work - this includes paperwork, recce, costume and prop organization and our research. We plan to get as much work done as we can during these two weeks so we don't have to complete it during the holiday.

04/04/18: Today was our recce day, Matt drove to college and meet me and Rebecca there and took us back to Matt's house, we collected everything we needed which included the Nerf gun prop, protective costume and Rebecca's EOS 750d camera. We then went to our location which was Highwood's Country Park (Squirrels Field) where we came across our first issue which was the wet grass and mud in the park, we didn't realize that it would create an issue before we got to our location so we didn't come prepared with boots or wellies so to counteract this, next time we'll check the weather and bring them if we need them. Our other main issue was that the sound wasn't fantastic as whilst I was practicing I could pick up the sounds of the road (A12) that was close by, I will try and combat this by creating a soundscape foley. Apart from this, our recce went well - we found a good area for our chase sequence with a decent amount of coverage from the mediocre weather and our location was also private enough so that we won't be disturbed by anybody that passes us. On site we practiced camera angles, sound and the choreography.

11/04/18: Today is our first filming day - because of the lightning we have decided to film between 9 AM - 3 PM, the weather was not as good as the forecast predicted as it was raining but it did give the film a good moody atmosphere. We ran into difficulties when my phone broke when I first woke up, this sent me into a panic as none of my busses going into town where we were meeting were showing up, so I decided to walk home and message Matt from my pc where he suggested that he'll wait in town until I finally met him an hour or two later than we expected, I managed to meet up with him and the others in a beautiful Poundland car park but it did set our filming hours back but due to our previous recce day, we decided to bring boots/wellies with us. Despite our filming hours being set back a few hours, we arrived at our location and I began to get into my costume but the mask didn't arrive in time so Rebecca had brought a spare mask and painted it beforehand so we decided to use that, however we had to change the story slightly and this is something we have to explain during our opening advert. Matt used the squib today as well but we also did the same shot without a squib just to have it there as a back up in case we decide that we don't like the shot with the squib.

12/04/18: We spent today filming as well, we began filming whilst we took Matt's dog on a walk and the footage that we got then we plan on potentially using on the opening advert, we walked back to the woods and began setting everything up. We’re still using Rebecca's EOS 750d camera as we think it’s our best available option right now, the fight scene took a long time for us to film because we wanted to make it look realistic and we had to pace ourselves and film carefully to avoid any real injuries. The good thing is that we had rehearsed prior to this and it defiantly came in useful during us actually filming the scene.

13/04/18: Today was our final day of filming, Rebecca checked the footage and had a few things to add and Matt made a rough schedule for us to follow so we could use our time wisely. Our rough schedule was as follows: 09:00 - 11:00 - recording sound. 11:00 - 13:00 - filming the end sequence. 13:00 - 14:00 - extra film shots. 14:00 - 15:00 - more additional shots. (New location - lake). We completed our tasks quicker than we expected which was a good thing because it meant we could do our tasks slower and dedicate more time to them than we originally thought and planned.

For the audio recording, we used Rebecca’s mic - I recorded simple audio of the woods for foley and also recorded Matt running around, logs hitting the floor, branches snapping and a woosh of air to mimic the sound of someone punching, etc. We might have to return to our location to record more equipment but this time we’ll bring the colleges equipment. I’m fairly happy with how today went, we managed to record the shots that we wanted and some extra ones, the only thing I wish we did was record more sound.

16/04/18: Today we started putting together our timeline, our aim was to only put in the clips we wanted to use. We don’t believe we’ll need to re-shoot any of our shots which is great as it gives us more time to each focus on our dedicated roles but we’ll know for sure by the end of next week if we’ll need to re-shoot any. Like I mentioned, we’re all having roles and Rebecca is working on the timeline and Matt is working on special effects meanwhile I’m still looking at sounds and practising them. Due of me having to act, I’m having to look into Foley much more than I had originally planned because this is probably going to be my primary way of recording audio.

Today I watched “Art of Sound Ep.3″ (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EB6Wjty-MNk) and I found it really useful as the main focus was on Foley. In the video they talk about how Foley is essentially recreating sounds that blend well into the film so it doesn’t take you out of the film whilst you’re watching it and make you realize that the sounds you’re hearing haven’t been filmed in time with the film, it talks about how you want sound to just blend seamlessly into the film. They have cue sheets in the beginning before they start recording and read over them and also have a screen in front of them playing the scene that they’re currently recording for so that they can see how they want it to sound and look. Some of the items you see them use are watering cans to create the sound of rain fall, shoes walking on concrete and a small amount of water to create the sound of someone walking through the rain and crushing ice cream cones for the sounds of eggs breaking/cracking. They talk about how Foley artists used to be called Foley walkers but now that they’re called Foley artists. One big thing that I’ve realized watching this video is that they have a team whereas most of my audio I’ll be recording, I will probably be recording all of mine solo.

18/04/18: Today and tomorrow I’m working on pre-production paperwork which will have a separate post.

23/04/18: Today I watched “Foley Artists: How Movie Sound Effects Are Made” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_tqB4IZvMk&index=7&t=260s&list=PLKqDOw3Lo5aCVwjaaQ2vrWf_MnfXuuVNX) where they talk about creating Foley sounds and how they re-create sounds for media.

In the video, they talk a lot about how they want to get the right feel of the character and really channel the audio with how the character and character’s personality is and how they really immerse themselves into the characters they’re creating audio for. They also show off how for some sounds, they have a screen playing the scene that they’re creating audio for but also that they have a streamer that plays from the left to the right to indicate where the audio needs to be made and help them sync it up perfectly to what’s being shown on screen, along with this they also have A-B Reels and lists of sounds they need to record/create. They also have someone to help them do timestamps which we have all decided to do together. Background audio is very common for having to be recreated as the audio that’s usually focused on when the film is being created is usually dialog. Footsteps are one of the most popular audios that have to be recorded however they can’t just use the same audio of footsteps for every character they film for since footsteps actually hold quite a lot of importance towards characters, it can make them seem more menacing or more kind so shoes are also really important, certain shoes give off certain sounds. One thing that really stood out to me is that they use coffee grinds to create the sound of grit on a surface - this might be really useful for my piece. Foley can actually be quite a dangerous thing to film as well, the Foley artists in the video talk about how they’ve accidentally injured themselves before whilst recording their audio. Another thing that they talked about is how they sometimes use their voice to create sounds, not just props and objects - and how they layer sounds to hide his voice, this is all done with a Mixer who he works with for most, if not all of the day.

25/04/18: Today I did more research as I plan on starting recording my audio tomorrow.

I looked into “Magic of Making Sound”. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UO3N_PRIgX0&index=5&t=0s&list=PLKqDOw3Lo5aCVwjaaQ2vrWf_MnfXuuVNX)

In this video, you see them using items like gloves and paper clips to create the sounds of a dog walker, a feather duster for birds and water, rain boots for the sound of rain hitting something, play sand and cornstarch for snow and pine cones for cracking ice. They show off different surfaces and how important it is to have different surfaces as everything gives off a different sound. They also talk about how important it is that all rain sounds sound different depending on what’s happening, e.g if it’s hitting someone’s face or the ground. If they are recording something with lots of layering, they tend to record the smaller bits first and then the larger sounds. They also tend to go a little bit over the top with their audio as sometimes the audio will also be layered with music or dialog, so it might slip into the background if they don’t make it stand out, but you have to be careful that you don’t make it stand out too much that it takes out the natural audio feeling that ties in with the media that it’s linked to. Alyson Dee Moore - IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0600888/ Chris Moriana - IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0605319/?ref_=nv_sr_1

26/04/18: In today’s lessons I began recording foley for the film, as I set up everything I needed, Matt and Rebecca looked through the timeline edit of the film so far and made me a list of all the effects they wanted recorded.

I recorded some sounds but as I was listening back at them, I could hear that there was a slight buzzing sound in the background of the sounds I had recorded - this was due to the room we were in so we decided to pack up for today and that I’ll resume recording sounds next week when we can get another room, hopefully without the sounds in the background this time.

30/04/18: Today Matt forwarded me a video on how to make punching sounds via Foley. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjABmkGpzrI&index=10&t=0s&list=PLKqDOw3Lo5aCVwjaaQ2vrWf_MnfXuuVNX)

The video talks about a studio called Parabolic and a foley artist called Shaun Brennan who’s worked on The Greatest Showman, Broad City ans GTAV. In the video he talks about how he makes the sounds for punching and how it involves lots of layering of audio and how he beefs it up. He shows off certain items he uses to create punching sounds - such as gloves or an old phonebook wrapped in duct tape - both of these sounds prove to create really bassy and thick sounds that work really well for body hits or punches. Alternatively, Shaun is also seen using a baseball bat on a gym mat. The video also shows off other things such as plungers and sand creating the sound of a horse running, stomping on a bag of corn starch creating the sound of walking on snow, stomping on pine cones for the sound of hiking, a door lock for a gun and the crushing of wet popcorn for chewing food. Shaun talks about how he likes to record all his own sounds rather than using pre-made ones as it gives off a more authentic sound in his opinion and helps to channel the character and the characters personality - for example you could have a more aggressive or calmer sound. Shaun Brennan’s IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1831217/?ref_=nv_sr_1

02/05/18: I couldn’t attend college today because I was ill so I spoke to Matt and he gave me some stuff I could do at home - using the list we made before and research into looking into the sounds and what might help me make them. I also made my own spare of our sound list on my PC so I could use it at home whilst the others had the physical copy.

I looked into the energy gun sound and the best thing I have found on it so far is using an empty can with a slinky attached to it, when the slinky is pulled back and let go it creates an echo effect within the can which works really well for the energy gun as it sounds like electricity is being fired out of something.

03/05/18: Today I organised how the sounds will be recorded and what I’m going to use to record them - I will be taking out a Marantz and a shot gun mic when we record sounds, once this is all completed we will begin putting sounds on the timeline. Along with this, I also went out and practiced recording some sounds, for example I had multiple sounds of twigs and branches snapping and I’m thinking of layering them up to put in our short film when the chaser stumbles over a log.

07/05/18: Today I did more research and watched the video “Where the SOunds From the World’s Favorite Movies Are Born” by WIRED.

Where the Sounds From the World’s Favorite Movies Are Born: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GPGfDCZ1EE&index=9&t=0s&list=PLKqDOw3Lo5aCVwjaaQ2vrWf_MnfXuuVNX In this video, WIRED look into a company called Skywalker Sound where they get a tour round the studio by veteran Foley artist John Roesch, the studio was especially built for sound what made me think that trouble might occur for me because the rooms in our college aren’t created for sound especially, other than the sound proof room but the sound proofing isn’t that great and sound from classrooms near by can still seep through, this has ruined one of my past projects when I was in level 2 Media. Also in the video John takes us through some of the items he has laying around the studio like a feather duster what he says can be used to create the sound effect for birds, I could use this for animals in the background for my piece. Some of John’s work include The Dark Knight Rises, Inception and The Matrix. John Roesch’s IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0736430/

10/05/18: Today I was going through my blog and re-read some of my Unit 12 work to reflect on my previous work and see if there’s anything I can improve on with this project to ensure that I don’t make mistakes I did in Unit 12. I also relistened to my experimental research and Foley that I recorded during Unit 12 to know what I can take from it and also improve on.

11/05/18: I was unable to attend college today as we’re not typically in on a Friday and this was planned with short notice but I already had commitments I was unable to cancel and couldn’t make it in, therefore meaning that I couldn’t record the sounds as we had originally planned, as of this moment I’m also unaware of if I’ll be able to attend next week and if I’m not the rest of my group plan on going ahead and filming sounds without me but obviously I’m hoping to be in by next week and able to finally try and record these sounds again.

14/05/18: Today was originally planned for editing my sounds that I had recorded on Friday but like I mentioned I was unable to go in and don’t have the sounds on hand. We are planning to record sounds on Wednesday but this isn’t our only set back as the timeline edit is still unfinished.

Sounds we plan on recording: - Running - Impact sounds - Music - Punching

As I was unable to go in, I also did some more research. Today I researched

16/05/18: We started recording the left over sounds we wanted today, we booked out a recording studio and used the Marantz and a microphone. We discussed how we would record footsteps and Matt came up with the idea of using paper ripped up into thin strips - which was what we actually ended up using for the footsteps audio.

We placed the torn up paper on jumpers, Matt noticed in a previous recording that with the paper on the floor, the floor could be heard so the jumpers was a blockage against the sound of the floor. Rebecca had a timeline on their laptop so we followed that after placing the laptop far enough away that the microphone wouldn’t pick up the fan on the laptop.

Each time we began recording a new piece, I would say what the audio was of at the beginning - this would be useful during the editing process so we knew what each sound was for and where to put it.

We recorded a whole variety of sounds, including footsteps, punching sounds and we also tried to record the movements of clothes - for this we chose clothes that were similar to ones that the characters wore in our recording and we moved them in time with what we saw on the screen. Rebecca also tried to record heavy breathing for the running scenes but she was having difficulty doing so - so Matt came up with the idea of having her do sit ups to help deepen her breath, making the heavy breathing sound effects a little easier to do, we’re unsure if we’ll use this in the final edit though.

At the end of it all, we have recorded all the audio that we can in such a short amount of time, the running sounds could have been better and personally, I’m quite unhappy with them but we don’t have enough time to re-record them sadly.

17/05/18: Today Matt’s picking the audio he wants to use and give it to Rebecca so she can add it into the timeline. After placing the audio in we saw that some of the audio didn’t quite fit with the scenes the way we wanted it to, to fix this for now we’re reducing audio and mixing the background music - Matt is going to attempt to fix these issues on Audition if he gets the chance to.

We placed Sinister Dark Ambient Background Music - The Underground music on the timeline but we found that the music just didn’t fit right, like some of our audio tracks didn’t.

21/05/18: Today we began looking up music and sounds to use in place of the audio tracks we were missing due to the fact we didn’t have the time or situation to record them all, we’re using audio tracks and music from places like Youtube and BBC Sound Effects (http://bbcsfx.acropolis.org.uk/).

23/05/18: Today Matt started transferring all of the audio we planned on using to Rebecca however he did bump into some issues as some audio clips wouldn’t export or transfer correctly - meaning that some of our audio clips will have to be replaced with ones we find online.

25/05/18: Today marks the day for the hand in for the final project, Matt brought in a folder and as a group we all put our paper work that we had done inside of the folder. We had to add a prop/costume list, Foley sound list and facilities list. For this, I made a rough edit of the Foley list and got Matt and Rebecca’s input to see if there was any sounds that I had missed in my list, after this I made my final Foley list.

We watched through the short film and only saw a few things that needed changing, one of which was a missing audio file, one to lower the volume of the music in certain places as occasionally it was just a little bit too loud and remove some bars from the credits as the overlapped. The changes didn’t take long as they were all quite simple.

After we did all our adjustments, we handed in the project and paperwork - Tim was unavailable so we placed the short on hard drive 6 and put it in the H block office.

Overall I’m fairly happy with the end result of the project, I plan on talking more about this in my evaluation which will be a separate post on my blog.

#unit13

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