Video and Sound Production

August 23rd, 2021 - November 26th, 2021 (Week 1- Week 14)

Rusydina Fazlin Athirah Binti Fauzi (0344000)

Week 1 [August 25th, 2021]

Exercise 1 / Editing exercise

INSTRUCTIONS

Lectures

Week 1 lecture:

August 25th, 2021

In the first week of Video and sound production class, Mr. Martin gave a brief introduction of the projects and exercises that will be carried out throughout these 14 weeks of VSP.

Lecture I Slides. VSP week 1 briefing

Week 2 lecture:

September 1st, 2021

In the second week of VSP class, Mr. Martin thought the class about framing and storyboarding when filming a video. He gave a brief history on the making of shots back in the 1890s by the Lumiere brothers as seen in the slides.

Accompanied by the slides were also a few short videos that Mr. Martin had the class watch, later then explaining and elaborating each different shots that were taken in the videos/adverts he showed us. other than that, with the videos that were being shown, Mr. Martin explained how important it is to have a storyboard to work out each and individual shot taken.

In conclusion, when framing a shot with a storyboard adds emotion and appropriate feeling to the story with each shot taken at an angle.

Lecture II Slides. Framing & Storyboarding

Week 3 lecture:

September 8th, 2021

The third week into Mr. Martin's class on 'Video and Sound Production', class started off with the third lecture of the week covering the topic 'Storytelling' in film. Mr. Martin gave brief explanations on definitions relating to narrative and how it's perceived in film.

Next up, we moved into talking about 'story and plot'. A story and plot are important when telling a narrative, it helps a story hook onto a specific doing in a particular even, which is what we call plot. It can be further referred to in the lecture slides that Mr. Martin prepared for the class.

Later then we dove into 'plot segmentation', which means 'The best method for understanding a film’s narrative system is to create a plot segmentation, a scene-by-scene outline of the entire film.'

Lecture III Slides. Storytelling in Film_Part A

Plot Segmentation:

Each scene should be described briefly in a separate line.
The plot segmentation helps reveal a film’s overall structure and its smallest details.

Regarding plot segmentation, Mr. Martin assigned the class to work on a small in-class exercise where we have to divide each part of a plot in a story into not so lengthy points.

Week 4 lecture:

September 15th, 2021

In this week's class for VSP, Mr. Martin gave a recap of last week's lecture on 'storytelling in Film', which is when an event happens throughout a film, making sure to have a plot of who, what, and where it and is happing to.

After recapping the lecture last week, we covered a follow-up topic on '3 Act Structure. What is usually contented in a 3- act structure is always the beginning where it sets up or introduces the story to a viewer, then there's the middle part of it mostly more about confrontation or an issue that helps the story be told, and finally, the end, which gives the resolution of problems.

Lecture IV Slides. Storytelling in Film_Part B

Other than that, we moved on to another lecture for this week covering our preparation for our first project. Mr. Martin covered the second lecture of the week about 'Film Sound.'

When it comes to sound, there are its elements:

Speech
Sound effects
Music

Speech is mostly towards, dialogue or voiceover in a film. Speech is one of the most important tools for understanding the story of the film.

Dialogue: Conversation between characters in a movie.

Voice over: The voice of an unseen narrator speaking.

Sound effects focus on ambiance (backgrounds); Hard or "cut" effects.

Ambiance: Audio refers to the background noise present at a given scene or a location.

Hard or "cut" effects: Almost every sound we hear at the movies that isn't dialogue or music is a sound effect.

exp: Train sliding door open and close, footsteps, train moving on tracks, the ambiance in a train, etc.

Music in movie is to enhance the dramatic narrative and the emotional impact.

Dubbing: Or automated Dialog Replacement (ADR), is the process of re-recording dialogue after the filming process to improve audio quality or reflect dialogue changes.

Foley: A sound effects technique for synchronous effects or live effects.

The Foley technique is named after Jack Foley, a sound editor at Universal Studios.

Lecture IVa Slides. Film Sound

After the lecture for the day, Mr. Martin assigned one last exercise for the class to do, which regards practicing dubbing.

Week 5 lecture:

September 22nd, 2021

Week 5 into VSP, Mr. Martin thought us much more in-depth on storyboarding, being that this week we had our proposal for our project 2 stories consulted before filming. Other than that, Mr. Martin covered the lecture on how important storyboarding is in the film industry.

Later then, the rest of the class was held to be consulted by Mr. Martin on our project 2 film proposal.

Lecture V Slides. Storyboarding

No Lecture for week 6, continued on consulting for Project 2.

Week 7 lecture:

October 6th, 2021

This week Mr. Martin, guided the class through a lecture on introducing us to premiere pro. We've already got a lot of practice from previous classes, Mr. Martin just gave more in-depth knowledge on how to function the program.

Later then, Mr. Martin had a final consultation on our project 2, finalizing the final draft to be submitted.

Lecture VII Slides. Intro to Premiere Pro_Part 1

No Lecture for week 8, due to it being Independent Learning Week.

Classes were held physically in the film studio for WEEK 9.

Week 10 lecture:

October 26th, 2021

Since after week 8 of continuing to finish up our second project and week 9 being hectic from physical classes, Mr. Martin had a recorded lecture covering the topic of our first project in audio editing.

Lecture X Slide. Audio Shaping

No Lecture for week 11.

Week 12 lecture:

November 11th, 2021

In today's class, Mr. Martin demonstrated on how we can edit our clips in premiere pro with the help of color correction.

Lecture XII Slides. Color Correction

Other than that, Mr. Martin put up a recorded lecture in continuing our final audio exercise for project one. The slides below demostartees our audio editing task for the week.

Exercise slides. Sound Design

Exercises

Week 1 Task

August 25th, 2021 (Week 1)

Independent editing exercise
Watch stop motion shorts
Shortlist 3 stop motion shorts
Explain reasons being chosen

(style, art direction, character design, etc)

Other than that, Mr. Martin assigned the class in a short in-class exercise where we had a tutorial on how to function Adobe premiere pro. This, resulting in the final outcome of my in-class editing exercise below:

Editing exercise

Figure 1.1 - First exercise on premiere pro in class, August 25th, 2021

The clips were provided by Mr. Martin, from those short snippets of clips the class was meant to put together in order to make up the whole video.

In-class editing exercise video outcome:

So with the exercise given in class, it was a way Mr. Martin was having us practice for our first 'independent' exercise with the same concept but different clips and having to watch each clip on our own.

Independent editing exercise:

Since the footage was different and not in the right sequence it was a really good exercise in editing different clips together. In my opinion, the first few minutes it was quite confusing but in the end, I had to pull up a reference to the clips of the 'Doritos' advertisement.

Figure 1.2 - Editing exercise, Prog #1, August 25th, 2021

Figure 1.3 - Editing exercise, Prog #2, August 25th, 2021

Figure 1.4 - Editing exercise, Prog #3, August 25th, 2021

Final video outcome:

Week 2 Task

September 1st, 2021 (Week 2)

Shooting Exercise: Framing
Premiere Pro Editing exercise 1

Shooting Exercise: Framing

The first exercise correlates to the second week of our lecture where we learned about different kinds of shots. I jotted down a few examples from the slides provided by Mr. Martin as references to make it easier for me to identify which shot is which when filming my understanding of the individual shot names.

1. Wide Shot - W.S

A wide shot includes the entire subject and important objects in the immediate surroundings. If it's used at the beginning of a scene it's often called an "establishing shot”.

2. Medium Shot - M.S

A medium shot shows the subject that is important to understanding - Gesture and expression, from the person's waist up, letting hands and the lower half of his body fall outside the frame.

3. Medium Close-up shot - M.C.U

Medium close-up films subject characters from approximately midway between waist and shoulders to above the head.

4. Over the shoulder - O.S

The over-shoulder shot shows the subject from behind the shoulder of another person.

5. Extreme Wide shot - E.W.S

Shows a broad view of the surroundings around the character and conveys scale, distance, and geographical location. It's used to show where the character is in his/her environment.

6. Medium Wide Shot - M.W.S

A medium-wide shot shows a character usually cut off across the legs above or below the knees. It is wide enough to show the physical setting in which the action is taking place, it permits a nice balance of figure and surroundings.

7. Close-up Shot - C.U

A close-up is used to isolate the most important part of the subject. For a speaker, this is generally the head or small object. It emphasizes facial expression, details of an object.

8. Extreme Close-up shot - E.C.U

An extreme close-up single out a portion of the face magnifies a detail. The object is to focus on important detail either to increase the drama or impact a situation or to allow the viewer to see necessary picture information more clearly.

Shooting exercise: framing

Requirements:

Low angle wide shot
Frontal M.C.U (Soft BG)
Frontal M.S (Soft BG)
Extreme Close-up shot
Profile M.S (Soft BG)
3/4 Angling M.C.U Shot
Close-up Shot
Eye-level medium wide shot

I filmed the required shots and later then, I exported the files into Adobe premiere pro and did the finalizing of titling each and every shot according to the requirements that Mr. Martin assigned us to do.

Figure 1.5 - Clip implementations, September 1st, 2021

Figure 1.6 - Text implementations, September 1st, 2021

Video outcome:

Premiere Pro Editing: Exercise 1

September 2nd, 2021

The second task on the list is an editing exercise where Mr. Martin had us watch a short story video that will be later put together clip by clip in adobe premiere pro with the help of a storyboard also provided by Mr. Martin.

The clips provided by Mr. Martin were a reshoot by a group of our seniors (maybe?) with a similar storyline to the short film where we have to piece together as the whole general exercise.

Figure 1.7 - Short story 'Lalin' remake editing documentation, September 2nd, 2021

Final Video outcome:

In-class exercise: Plot segmentation, Burrow short animation

September 8th, 2021

For the task in week 3, we watched a short animated story titled 'Burrow' by Pixar Animations Studio, the exercise was to make a plot segmentation regarding the short animated film.

My plot segmentation document:

Film Sound [Dubbing] Exercise

September 15th, 2021

In this week's exercise, Mr. Martin provided a clip from a movie and a script on what is meant to be said throughout the silent short clip, thus dubbing over it with our own voices. In addition, Mr. Martin encourages a few sound effects that occur during and throughout the scene in the short video.

Script & Video provided:

Final outcome:

Film Sound [Audio Editing - Sound Shaping] Exercise

October 26th, 2021

Mr. Martin had assigned us to work on an audio editing exercise, to late be submitted sooner or later. Mr. Martin provided sample audio to have us apply effects in the editing software. The audio effect that should be applied to the sample audio have been specified by Mr. Martin:

Voice of phone call.

Voice coming from inside of closet.

Voice of big stadium.

Voice of toilet/bathroom.

Underground cave.

Phone Call:

I started off by exploring the program since I was not quite familiar with Adobe Audition, I was met with quite a complicated UI but with Mr. Martin's recorded lecture on the exercise, I managed to pick up on what to do next.

Figure 1.8 - Phone call audio effect, November 3rd, 2021

The first audio shaping I did on the audio sample provided was the 'phone call' audio effect, It was quite simple since Mr. Martin demonstrated it in the recorded lecture, where he used an equalizer.

Final Results (Phone call):

Muffled:

Next was the voice coming from inside of closet/muffled effect to be applied to the sample audio.

Figure 1.9 - Muffle audio effect, November 3rd, 2021

For this effect, since Mr. Martin demonstrated it as well, it was quite easy to understand it as well. Since it had to do with the treble adjustment decreasing.

Final Results (muffled effect):

Later then, was the big stadium effect that had to be applied on tot the sample audio. But this time instead of an equalizer, it was more towards adjusting and playing around with the reverb.

Big Stadium:

Figure 1.10 - Big stadium audio effect, November 3rd, 2021

Final Results (big stadium effect):

Toilet/bathroom:

Figure 1.11 - Bathroom enviroment audio effect (equalizer), November 5th, 2021

Figure 1.12 - Bathroom enviroment audio effect (equalizer), November 5th, 2021

From what I understood from working out the audio affect for bathroom environment, is that there was a little of mixture between the equalizer and the reverb to achieve the audio effect.

Final Results (bathroom effect):

Underground cave:

Figure 1.13 - Underground cave audio effect (equalizer), November 5th, 2021

Figure 1.14 - Underground cave audio effect (reverb), November 5th, 2021

Final Results (underground cave effect):

Film Sound [Audio Editing - Sound Design] Exercise

November 10th, 2021

This week's sound exercise is all about sound design.

4 important sound design techniques:

Time stretching/ compression
Pitch Shifting
Reversing
Layering

Time stretching/ compression

Time Stretching/ compression changes the length of audio without altering its pitch.

Pitch shifting

Process of adjusting the pitch of an audio signal upwards or downwards, for both corrective (getting a vocal perfectly in tune, for example) and purely creative (changing the character of a drum loop, say) purposes.

Reversing

The end of the audio will be heard first and the beginning last. Reverse audio changes the whole feeling and rhythm of the sound.

Layering

Arranging several separate sounds together, in such a way the overall effect is of a single complete sound.

With the insights given on the important sound design techniques, Mr. Martin provided audio samples to forego the exercise with these techniques on the audio samples.

1. Magnification EXPLOSION sound

2. Variation of PUNCH SOUNDS (Triple punches)

3. MONSTER of ALIEN voice (select one part from sample voice)

Audio clips:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1NGRvzFF9hIyjc0EgwuBBEPIWe-MEXyJt?usp=sharing

Magnification explosion:

Figure 1.15 - magnification explosions, layering, November 14th, 2021

For the explosions I messed around with the pitch and shift before adding the track in multitrack, I had the stretch up to 700+ and the pitch shist a little lower before 20 to have a kind of thundering sound after the explosion. I also reversed the audio track of the explosion started playing.

Final Results (magnification explosion effect):

Variation of punch sounds:

Figure 1.16 - punch sounds, layering, November 14th, 2021

I did layering for the variations of punch sounds as well, I experimented on making it sound as if the sound of the punched was meant for a slow-motion scene. Therefore, one of the audio tracks for the variety of punch sounds was an increase in stretching the audio and decreasing the pitch shift.

Final Results (variety of punches effect):

Monster of alien sound design:

Figure 1.17 - pitch and shifting audio, November 14th, 2021

Before I added the audio track into the multitrack, I messed around with the stretch and pitch shift to the audio. I wanted it to have a sort of scratchy and high-pitched but with a hint of reverb to the audio, to create that monster-like sound effect to it.

Figure 1.18 - equalizing audio, November 14th, 2021

I later then experimented with the equalizer to the audio, until my desired monster-alien-like sound audio was completed.

Final Results (Monster if alien sound design):

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