Music Video
Skills Audit
Demo Work
Demo Work
Demo Work
Contents
Demo Work
Contents
> Theoretical exploration of the purpose
and application of research
> Secondary research into
music video genres, codes, conventions,
techniques, and theories
> Primary research with the
client to inform ideas development
> Focus group presentation of ideas for
feedback and review via questionnaire
survey
Moving Demo
See the Journal entries for these weeks ->
This page details the entirety of my Production stage. Within this page you'll be able to view day by day journal entries detailing the production I was undertaking as well as how I felt each of them went. You'll also be able to view behind the scenes photos and videos as well as seeing some raw shots and audio recordings before they were edited.
See all of my shots and recordings on my google drive here ->
Tuesday 19th April
I started all of my production with the recording of Cody’s voiceovers, these are pretty crucial as they help to link the piece together as well as helping to further build Cody’s character. These recordings were fairly easy to complete as both me and my actor had done voice recording for my options project, so we both knew what we were doing.
Cody only has 3 voiceovers and so I was able to get them completed in a good amount of time. I have now listened to them over on the computer and I think they sound good and I’m confident they’ll work within my piece.
I was also able to complete the audio recording for the conversation between the student and the bully today. This conversation needed to be recorded beforehand as the person voicing the Bully is unavailable for in person filming.
This meant that during Pre-production, I planned to have this conversation recorded beforehand and then have a stand in for the bully character when I actually film the scene. Having it recorded separately will also help me as I will only have access to one audio recorder on the day of filming.
But, I’ve listened over these recordings and I’m fairly confident they will be able to be blended in with the rest of the scene. Combined with the atmospherics of the room, I’m hoping the blend of the two audio recordings will be able to work well.
Wednesday 20th April
Today I felt was my first proper day of production. Today I was shooting for Act 1 Scene 1 which is Cody walking across the field at sunset. I decided to shoot this during the holidays as I only needed to use my phone and gimbal which are readily available and so I felt completing this shoot before the rest of the equipment was needed would make the production later on run more smoothly.
​A couple of days ago my Cody actor had contacted me to inform me that they would be unavailable to shoot on this day. This was slightly disappointing however luckily could be worked quite easily around. This shoot and scene only contains Cody with no other characters, and Cody also does not speak within this scene. Additionally, because Cody is animated you cannot see the actor underneath. This means that in this one scene replacing the actor for Cody would be quite easy. And I have checked with the original Cody actor and they are still ok for the rest of the production which creates no more problems.
​To replace Sam (the original actor), I enlisted the help of Gary who I luckily already had a talent release form as he will be playing the body double for the bully. Gary was readily available and willing to help which was really useful. The only slight problem is that Gary is quite a bit taller than Sam however, as there are no other characters within this scene, I don’t think this will be noticeable.
​I had checked during the day what time the sun would set and it was at roughly 20:15. This meant I decided to be there for around 19:40 to give myself plenty of time. I began by setting up my phone and gimbal as they were my main piece of equipment. Thanks to my demo tasks, I was confident in setting it up and knew what I was doing. At this point the sunset looked really nice and I was very happy in my decision to shoot at this location and time.
I was then able to record all my shots. Act 1 Scene 1 is only comprised of 5 different shots and then I needed some footage for shot 38 and so I was able to gather all the shots as well as some re-takes just to be safe. By the time I was finished it was around 20:10 and the sun was just beginning to set. But, I’m very happy with the shots I’ve produced and I think with a little bit of colour correction and grading they’ll look even better.
​I differed my final shots slightly from how I had originally planned them. Originally, I had planned for Cody to walk from screen right to screen left. However, while on location and the position of the sun, I felt it made more sense and would look better with Cody walking from screen left to screen right. I also realised this would help better for shot 5 where the title appears as people read from left to right so it makes sense for Cody to appear from left to right as the title would then be read as he moves past it. Overall, it’s not a huge difference but I think it was definitely a good change.
The very last thing I did on location was take an audio recording of the natural atmospherics. I think it is quite unlikely that I will use this recording as the scene will have a voiceover and music, but additionally, there was a fair bit of wind which has made the audio recording not that great, but it was still worth it as it will provide me with a backup in case I change my mind in post production.
Overall, I’m incredibly happy with how this production shoot went and I think the results from it are almost exactly what I was trying to achieve.
Thursday 21st April
I started my day with the recording of my narrator voiceovers, this was fairly easy to do as the only things I needed were the audio recorder, which I had booked out over Easter as well as the actor for the narrator, who was myself. This meant production ran very smoothly and I was quite easily able to gather all the recordings I needed. I had a little bit of struggle when I was recording my first couple of narrations, which led to my first narration taking about 10 takes for me to be satisfied. The problem was that in the recordings there kept being these little audible bumps or noises in the recording which would then ruin the recording. However, after a couple of tests and trying out different things, I discovered that the problem was my breathing. Because the audio recorder is quite sensitive, it was picking up my breathing and causing these noises. However, I found a relatively simple fix for this problem. Originally I had been holding the audio recorder directly in front of me which was most likely the cause of the problem, however, I moved it to the side of my face still pointing at my mouth. This allowed the audio recorder to still pick up my narration without it picking up my breathing. And after this fix the rest of my recordings were able to be carried out a lot easier and more effectively.
Friday 22nd April
The first thing I needed to do today was the creation of shot 33 or Act 3 Scene 2. This is the scene where the Director comes to Cody’s house and finds his room fully animated. To create this animated room, during this production, I placed a greenscreen just inside of my door so that when the door is opened all the camera sees is green. This means that in post I will be able to key out the green and replace it with the animated room image that I will be creating later during post production.
Similarly to yesterday, the only actor I needed was myself and the only equipment I needed was the audio recorder as well as my phone and my gimbal which I all had easy access to. This meant that the production shoot was able to run pretty smoothly, and I made sure to get a good handful of takes until I felt satisfied with the amount and quality of the shots that I had produced. Overall, I feel fairly confident with this shoot and I think the recordings I’ve got from it will be able to work well within the final product.
​To finish off my day, I needed to record all of my foley. As my piece is trying to replicate a documentary, I wasn’t planning to use too much foley as if it became too much or too obvious then I feel it would ruin the emulation of a documentary. So the majority of my foley was focused on minor sound effects that I feel would be important to be able to hear within the scene. This included sounds such as footsteps and clatters for when Cody drops stuff.
​I had done quite a bit of foley work for my options project, so I was pretty prepared and knew what I was doing when it came to recording my foley. The majority of my foley went smoothly as my room is pretty quiet, which I discovered during the options project, and it was good weather which meant rain wouldn’t interfere with the sound recordings. I had a little issue when recording the footsteps outside as there was a decent amount of wind which affected the recordings quite a lot. However, I simply waited for the wind to die down as using headphones allowed me to hear what the audio recorder was recording. And on my re-listens I’m fairly confident that when cut out the wind noise shouldn’t interfere with the rest of the recordings.
Overall, I’m pretty happy with how my foley recording went and I think when it comes to post-production these recordings will help to just finish off each of the scenes.
Monday 25th April
At the end of the lesson I then went to Ash to pick up my equipment. I was able to pick up the camera as well as the boom pole and mic to go with the audio recorder I already had booked out. For this shoot I will be using my own tripod as there were none available to book out. When I returned home, I tested all the equipment before my shoot. The camera and all visual equipment worked fine. However, I was a bit concerned at first when I connected the boom mic to the audio recorder as there was quite a loud buzzing sound. So, I recorded me speaking then listened to it on my computer. The buzzing sound wasn’t there which is good as it means it won’t be in the recordings. I then realised what the buzzing sound most likely is. I think it’s just the sounds of the atmospherics in the room as the mic is a lot more sensitive. This makes the most logical sense, but I have confirmed it won’t interfere with my audio recording so there is no need to worry about it.
​So then I was finally able to do my filming for today. Originally, I had planned to shoot a lot of different scenes today, including cutaways for Act 1 Scene 3, shots for Act 1 Scene 5 and shots for the very end of the film. However, there was nice weather today, and many of the shots I’d planned are shot inside, whereas next Monday I had planned to shoot the interview for Act 1 Scene 3 which takes place completely outside. I had checked the weather for my call sheets today and next Monday was also supposed to be nice. However, I thought it wasn’t worth risking it and so I made the decision to switch my two Monday shoots around. This does not impact me too much as they both use the same equipment and I had already planned something similar during pre-production in case of bad weather. I don’t regret this decision and believe it was the right call.
​When we got to location, I began by setting up all my equipment. It was only me and the actor for Cody there which meant I was working on both audio and camera. Today, I was using the camera on a stationary tripod which made it easier. Setting up the tripod took a bit of hassle, as the ground was fairly uneven, however I know the importance of having straight shots so I made sure to take my time balancing the tripod.
Once the tripod was set up, I attached the camera, and made sure to correct the ISO, Aperture and white balance. The white balance was particularly tricky as I was shooting outside. This meant I had to correct and re-do the white balance quite often as the sun would go behind clouds or come out more. However, I had thought about this beforehand as I didn’t want to forget to do it.
​Once the camera was set up, I set up my audio equipment. Today, I was using an audio recorder attached to a boom mic and pole. I chose the fuzzy boom mic for two reasons, one was as I was shooting outside and the fuzzy mic helps to reduce wind noise and additionally the boom pole helps me to keep the microphone out of shot.
Now that I was ready, I turned all the equipment on and began filming. As I was using both audio and visual equipment it meant I couldn’t keep a constant eye on the camera while filming as I was holding the microphone. This meant, I made sure to rewatch each take afterward to check for any obvious errors such as the microphone coming into view. Luckily no major problems occurred and although checking each shot meant I spent more time on set I think it was worth it as it would have saved me later down the line if any major problems had occurred.
​Before all of the shots, I made sure to discuss with my actor about their performance. One thing I made sure to point out was about their movement. I requested they kept movements to a minimum while still looking natural. This is due to the fact that the more movement there is the more Ebysnth will struggle. Thankfully, my actor was really good and was happy with the performance I was looking for. Overall, I think they did really well with the slight limitations I had to give them.
I was able to get multiple takes for both of my angles as well as shooting the close up of the graffiti. This provided me with all the visual content I needed for today. In addition to the dialogue recording I also made sure to do about a 2 minute recording of the location natural atmospherics. This will come in handy if I need to stitch two shots audio together or to provide a backing track to the audio.
Overall, I believe this has been an incredibly successful shoot and I’ve briefly looked over the footage and listened to the recordings and I’m confident that they’ll be able to work well within my piece.
Tuesday 26th April
Today’s shoot was the one I was the most worried for. After losing one of my actors for today there were many things that could go wrong which could then potentially ruin the whole shoot. And with the booking of the location this is the one shoot which would be the hardest to re-organise.
The first problem would’ve been any of my other actors having to cancel. To try to prevent this, I contacted them the day before as well as this morning to double check that they still good for filming. They both confirmed they were and so no problem arose from this.
The other major problem was if the location was in use. I had pre-booked it but there was always the chance it was being used. When we arrived a lecturer was in there, and so I explained that I had booked the room for filming and luckily he already knew and was able to move to a different room.
​So, as I had picked up additional equipment, which contained a tripod and the lighting equipment I could begin filming.
I began by shooting Act 2 Scene 2 which is the interview with the student. I chose to start with this as it was the shortest scene and was very similar to what I had been shooting yesterday which meant that I already had practice. I began with setting up the lighting and camera. I’m really glad I had lighting today as I feel it really helped with the look of my shots.
The only challenge I had with this scene was that there was a slight reflection in the window behind them. I realised about halfway through that part of the other actor (who was behind the camera) was visible. However, it is only very noticeable when the actor was moving. So I made sure that in the next few I recorded the two of us behind the camera stood as still as possible. Aside from this I’m quite happy with how these shots went.
One of the hardest shots I had for today was shot 28 which I discussed yesterday. Because I had lost an actor the Cody actor also had to step up and play the bully. To do this shot, I did exactly as I planned yesterday.
Aside from that I didn’t run into any problems while recording this shot and I’m fairly confident that my plan from yesterday will work meaning the final shot will look how I originally intended. One thing my actor pointed out was that within this shot you see the lighting (that was being used for Cody’s interview) as the camera pans. However, this is actually intentional. This scene is the start of the “documentary” falling apart as well as Cody’s breakdown. And so by showing the lighting, it breaks down the fourth wall showing that everything so far has been part of the “documentary” that’s being made.
​My penultimate shot was the shot that has changed the most. For Act 2 Scene 3 Cody storms out where the cameraman and boom operator follow him as he leaves he tells them to leave him alone and animation bursts out of him. Originally I had planned to do this outside, however there were a lot more people moving around outside than I had predicted. This led to me altering my decision and instead opting to shoot it outside of the classroom location as it had a long corridor that would also work for this scene.
However, here I ran into another problem. At the end of the corridor a class was working with the door open. And not wanting to disrupt them I opted to change it yet again. Instead of rushing down the corridor, Cody would now rush down the stairs which he came up to, to get to the classroom. There is a small landing which I felt would also work for the exploding animation. And although this scene has differed quite drastically from the original plan, I’m still fairly confident it will serve it’s purpose as part of the climax in the story.
​And so to finish off my shoot I shot a couple videos with my phone and gimbal of the Cody actor walking up the stairs to the classroom. This was fairly easy to do and will simply be spliced up in the edit to create the shots leading up to Cody’s disrupted interview.
Overall, I’m very happy with how this shoot went and the footage I’ve gained from it are definitely what I was aiming for.
Wednesday 27th April
I had a dentist appointment today which meant I had to miss the lesson. Luckily, the work I planned to complete today was able to be completed from home. Today was the start of making the smaller animated sections for my Project. However, today were focused on the drawings for Cody’s animated room and the Images of Cody growing up.
​I started with making Cody’s animated room. This is for Act 3 Scene 2 when the Director visits Cody. On the day I shot this scene, I made sure to record a small clip of the room from the POV where the director stands at the door. I then took a frame of this video and used it as my reference for creating the animated version.
Avoiding the door and side of the wall that was in shot I outlined everything in black. I did this all freehand using my drawing tablet as I felt if all the lines were perfectly straight it would remove some of the animated feel to it. And I didn’t want the drawing to feel too artificial.
I then coloured this drawing in and added Cody in his breakdown costume. I completed this all in photoshop as I have a large amount of practice and experience within Photoshop thanks to my GCSE’s as well as I used it for a large amount of my options project. This drawing is what will be added onto the greenscreen from the original video for Act 3 Scene 2.
The second piece of animation work today was the creation of Cody’s childhood photo. I needed 5 different drawings in total for these. One each for; Baby; Toddler; Primary School; Secondary School and Cody currently.
For current Cody I used a frame from my Act 1 Scene 3 production as this image will be used to transition into that interview. However, for the other drawings I decided to use stock photos. I felt this was the best decision as they’re free to use and I wouldn’t need permission from the people in the photo.
However, as an additional precaution, all the people who weren’t acting as Cody in the images, I blurred. This was just to make doubly sure that no problems arose from the use of stock images.
​To actually create the images, I used photoshop and the same technique that I used for the animated room. To make sure all my colours matched, particularly Cody’s skin and hair colour, I used the character designs from my pre-production, and these came in super useful.
Between the animated room and the childhood photos, I thought of the idea of using a screen recorder to make a timelapse of me creating the drawings and these are the videos that are presented on my Production page. These childhood photos comprise Act 1 Scene 2 and provide some backstory to Cody’s life as well as being a comedic part of the piece.
Overall, I’m very happy with the work I completed today, especially the childhood photos and they were definitely what I was aiming to create. The work from today will be used next within my post production and help to bring Cody’s side of life into the final piece.
Thursday 28th April
​As I had completed my drawings yesterday, it meant the only piece of work I had to complete today was the short animation for Act 1 Scene 4. In this scene the Doctor briefly mentions their theory about why Cody is animated, mentioning TV Waves. Then a short animation appears demonstrating what the doctor is saying.
To create this short animation, I used the skills and techniques that I had developed during my options project. This involves drawing all my frames within photoshop and then exporting them individually as PNG’s and finally collating them into the final animation within Premiere Pro. I created this animation within College which meant that I didn’t have access to my screen recorder, so for the production today, I had to resort to just screen captures.
​I began the creation of my animation by first finding an appropriate image of DNA. While looking through potential ones, I realised a lot of them would be unusable as the images already looked drawn or animated. In the end I found one that looked like it could be some form of CGI, but it looked appropriately different enough to what my final one would be.
​Then taking this into photoshop, I first cut out the strand of DNA and began duplicating it and placing it around the frame to create multiple copies. I then duplicated this layer and moved their position slightly so that when put together it would look like the DNA was moving slightly.
​I then created the TV drawing that would come into frame to project the TV Waves. I used rectangles to form the base frame and then duplicated the drawing positioning them all slightly apart to create the final wave movement which is what I was going for. I then created the TV Waves which are added on once the TV stops. These contain about 12 frames of drawing each and I planned to repeat it later on to keep the wave effect.
​Then it came to the creation of the animate DNA itself. This was quite an arduous process. There were three components for it. The first DNA line, the second and finally the Chromosomes. Each of these had 12 frames and then I had to duplicate each layer and resize and reposition it onto each of the other DNA strands. This resulted in me having lots of different folders containing dozens of frames each. But thankfully because I’d put them into folders they were easier to navigate through.
Now that all my frames were complete, I exported all of them. I separated them once again into folders to correspond with each part of the animation. This was not difficult but did take quite a long time.
​And now I could finally start the process of collating the animation. Thanks to my research into Ebsynth I now knew that you could tell Premiere to interpret PNG sequences into an image sequence which allowed me to convert the PNG’s into videos a lot easier. I had to do a little positioning and speed duration adjustment to make sure everything played in time with each other but once that was completed the base of the animation was created.
​At this point I knew I needed a background video to provide a backdrop for the animation. I found a good one which was a video of blood cells flowing throughout the body, and although the video is not scientifically accurate, I felt it worked well for what I was going for. When I put the video into the background it created a couple of problems which I needed to fix.
​​The first was that because the background was comprised primarily of reds, it made the blue pieces of DNA stand out and look quite out of place. To fix this I adjusted the colour of these frames to make them more red. This made them blend in a lot more and make it seem more like one whole video.
​The only other problem was that the animated pieces of DNA had black lines which slightly blended in with the background near to the end of the video. To fix this I simply slightly turned up the exposure and black highlights in premiere just to make it stand out slightly more and this helped to fix the problem.
And with that the animation was complete.
Overall, I’m very happy with what I’ve created today and I think it will definitely work and fit in with Act 1 Scene 4 as well as the piece as a whole. I also feel the style of animation that I’ve developed through options and used today will blend in quite well with the rest of the animation that will be within my FMP final piece and that’s a really good thing.
Saturday 30th April
My task for today was shooting for Act 1 Scene 4 which is the Doctor’s interview. Prior to this shoot I had shot several other interviews so I was able to get the framing a lot quicker than previously.
Before I shot I changed my mind about the framing and thought that I’d prefer to have the Doctor framed to the right of the screen rather than the left as I had originally planned. However, after playing with this thought I realised it wouldn’t work as the wall to the left of the actor is a shade of blue and I needed the light yellow that was consistent with the back wall. This meant I had to go with the original plan of framing the Doctor on the left. However, I’m considering flipping these shots in post so that the doctor would be framed right. But, I will experiment with this idea later on down the line in post production.
The actual shooting of Act 1 Scene 4 went pretty smoothly. It was only me and my actor so it meant once again I was working both the camera and audio, but I had experience from last Monday on this so I was prepared. I was able to get multiple takes of both the primary and secondary angles and so I think I have enough possible options for myself to choose from in the editing process.
The only major problem I faced was the lighting, and I’m still not entirely sure if I’m happy with it. When I originally placed my lights, I realised there was a similar problem to the one I had on Monday where it almost looked like the actor was on a green screen. To fix this it meant I had to move one of my lights from the side of the actor to slightly behind them, so that the lighting would separate the actor from the background. And although it fixed the green screen problem I felt it harmed the lighting slightly. However, I think fixing the green screen look was more of a priority.
Overall, I am happy with what I produced in today’s shoot and I feel it will be able to achieve what I wanted from it. Although I also feel this may have been some of my weakest work yet. I think by fixing the colour grade a little bit in the editing process, the final product will look a lot more like what I was originally aiming for.
Sunday 1st May
Today was the day of my penultimate shoot. This was for Act 3 Scene 1 which is the Director’s interview. At this production there was only me as I was acting as the crew as well as the actor. I chose this as this half of the “documentary” kind of falls apart and breaks the fourth wall and I felt it was fitting for me to play the director as that is what it is in real life. But as it was only me on set it meant taking BTS Photos was a bit harder. So instead I filmed a timelapse to show me setting up the equipment as well as short videos of me explaining my idea.
​When it came to setting up all the equipment it wasn’t too hard, mainly because I’ve had several shoots before this one so I have become fairly comfortable with the kit as well as setting it all up. But additionally this scene is also supposed to be intentionally more simplistic than some of the others.
This is due to the fact that at this point it is only supposed to be the Director there as the rest of the documentary has kind of fallen apart around him. To symbolise this I used more simplistic lighting, simply having two lights on the right and left of me shining at me as well as making the framing more simplistic and making the character sit in the middle of the frame which juxtaposes to a lot of the earlier interviews where all the characters were framed slightly off centre. I also made sure to speak to the camera more, whereas I directed my actors to look slightly over or next to the camera.
Hopefully this’ll make the scene feel more genuine as well as helping to convey the message that the “documentary” that is supposed to be real within this world is truly falling apart. And one final way I tried to break the fourth wall was by including the microphone in shot which once again reinforces the idea of the idea falling apart.
When it came to actually filming the scene it wasn’t too hard. I had already learnt the lines and there weren’t any complex camera movements so the actual recording went quite smoothly. It took me a little while to get the camera properly set up and framed though. This was mainly due to the fact that it was only me there. In order to properly frame myself I took a couple of test videos of me sitting in front of the camera. You can see my trying these out on the timelapse as I was setting up. But once I was able to get everything set up I was good to go and I didn’t run into any other problems.
Overall, I would say I’m very happy with this shoot. I think it definitely achieves it’s goal of breaking up the flow of the documentary and the framing as well as the lighting are exactly what I was picturing in my mind. And now that I’ve finished this shoot, it leaves me with only my final shoot tomorrow. Hopefully everything will go smoothly then and that’ll mean my production will be fully completed.
Monday 2nd May
Today was my final day of production. Today’s shoot was quite a mishmash of lots of cutaways, and smaller shots that didn’t easily slot into another shoot. This involved the cutaways for Act 1 Scene 3, the shots for Act 1 Scene 5 and a couple for Act 3. Before production began, I went over the shots one last time to check what I needed to do, but I also decided to change a couple of the things about the shots. Originally, Act 1 Scene 5 was handheld although after all of the work I've done so far, I now feel it makes more sense for it to be static using a camera and tripod. Lots of my other handheld shots are used to display more out of control moments in the story, or shots that look unintentional and I feel by using it for ACT 1 Scene 5 it would start to break up the that motif a little bit. Additionally I planned for shot 37 to be a zoom rather than a pull out. These were some simple changes but something that I felt would make the shots better or blend them in more with the rest of the piece.
To begin shooting, I produced my shots depending on their location. I began with the two shots which both took place within the kitchen location. This included the shots for Act 1 Scene 5 where Cody is eating breakfast and one of the cutaways for Act 1 Scene 3 where Cody drops the cup. These were fairly simple with the first shot only using the camera and tripod and the second making use of my phone and gimbal. I took a couple of takes for each of these and that will provide me with what I needed.
As my phone was already on the gimbal, we then travelled to the garden and shot, shot 11 for Act 1 Scene 3 where Cody struggles playing sports. Once again this was fairly simple and I was able to gather several takes. Me and my actor experimented with a couple of different ways of kicking the ball. Sometimes the actor would just miss the ball completely and other times they would kick the ball but quite badly. These alternative takes give me options later on down the line.
I then moved onto filming the rest of the shots that comprise Act 1 Scene 5. These are of Cody leaving his room, in the bathroom and exiting his house. Once again these shots were fairly simple as they only utilised a camera and tripod. I had to pay close attention to ISO, Aperture and especially white balance between all of these shots. Mainly as all the locations has quite different lighting and so making sure they all looked good in their own ways was important.
I didn’t run into any major problems, but regarding Cody leaving his house I made a small change. After Cody goes past the camera, I panned round and followed him for a bit. This was just something that I felt could look good while I was about to film it. However, in case I later changed my mind, I only started to pan as Cody left frame so if I decide I don’t want to include this change then I can easily cut it out and just use the original stationary shot.
My penultimate shot was of Cody watching the old interviews on his computer. Originally it was a handheld pull out however, I decided I wanted a smoother look to the movement so I changed it to a zoom out still keeping the over the shoulder. As the footage isn’t edited yet it meant, I didn’t want to put the actual interviews onto the computer screens and so instead a placed a green screen on one of the screens so that during post production, I can track the footage onto the green screen. Originally, within Act 2 I was going to include a reference to my options project on a computer behind Cody, however I changed my mind that day and framed Cody where there wasn’t a computer. However, today there was a second screen and so I took this idea from Act 2 and instead implemented it into shot 2. It doesn’t make any major difference to the overall plot but just acts as a little easter egg within the film.
​And my final shot was for Cody’s last interview as he talks to the camera. This was the most complicated shot as I used the lighting and audio kit within this shot as well as camera and tripod. My actor was struggling a little bit with the lines here, so to make it easier for them, I shot a couple of takes of them just saying the last line as that is the only part that this footage will be used for. However, just to provide me with options I made sure to get at least one good take of them performing the whole thing. This means I can use either the whole footage or just fade to the one where they only say the last line.
And to finish it all off, I made sure to make a couple of audio recordings of the atmospherics within the location we were shooting as well as in the outside location. This is important for many of these scenes as they will have voiceovers and so getting the atmospherics will help if I need more audio to blend in the background.
Overall, I’m very happy with how the entirety of my production went. The majority of shoots I feel produced results which were exactly what I was aiming for. And I definitely think with all the shots I’ve produced I’ll be able to produce a good version of Cody Soboo: The Animated Man.
Logging
Act 1 Scene 1
Monday 25th April
I then spent the rest of the lesson completing my logging for all the work I had completed over Easter. This included all of the audio recordings such as the voiceovers and Foley as well as the visual production I had produced such as Act 1 Scene 1. Logging is a really important process and comes in particularly useful later down the line during the post production stage. And that’s why getting it completed now is extremely useful. Additionally, I’ve made sure to complete all my easter logging now as it leaves me with time to complete the logging for my upcoming shoots without having to be dragged down by previous work that would also need to be logged. Logging all this work did take a while and I had to finish it off when I returned home however it is now completed which will hopefully help lighten my load in the upcoming days.
Act 1 Scene 3
Tuesday 26th April
Finally, I spent the rest of my day logging all my shots and audio recordings from yesterday and today. This was quite a long process however, it’s really good to get this completed today as it allows for me to continue production with less on my plate as well as meaning I’ve 100% finished all the work needed for the productions I’ve already shot.
Wednesday 4th May
With my audio logging having been completed yesterday, my task today was logging the visual recordings that I had taken over the long weekend. This included logging for the cutaways for Act 1 Scene 3, Act 1 Scene 4, Act 1 Scene 5, Act 3 Scene 1, Act 3 Scene 3 and Act 3 Scene 4. Although this was quite a lot to log, thanks to my previous projects as well as my work so far in this one, I have gotten quite used to logging and how to log effectively.
And so, surprisingly, I was able to get all my last visual recordings logged today. It did take quite a while but it’s definitely useful getting them all logged today. Not only because it’s allowed me to survey all of my work but also as it allows me to be ahead of my production schedule. Originally, I had scheduled the rest of the week to finish logging and sorting everything out, but now that I've completed logging, I’ll hopefully be able to have a rough cut finished by the end of the week. This would be really good as it will provide me with more time to perfect my animation and audio.
Act 1 Scene 4
Tuesday 3rd May
And so today, I started on all this logging. And I was able to complete all my logging for the audio recordings. I thought it best to complete all of these first as they are quicker than the visual logging and there were less to log as many of my shots from Monday didn’t need additional audio recordings.
But today, I was able to complete the audio logging for Act 1 Scene 4, Act 1 Scene 5, Act 3 Scene 1 and Act 3 Scene 4. Throughout all these audio recordings there were no obviously terrible ones. The only ones I marked as bad or not to use were ones where the actor stumbled or forgot a line. It’s good to know that the audio is good as audio is a huge part of productions and so making sure my final piece sounds good is important.
Wednesday 4th May
With my audio logging having been completed yesterday, my task today was logging the visual recordings that I had taken over the long weekend. This included logging for the cutaways for Act 1 Scene 3, Act 1 Scene 4, Act 1 Scene 5, Act 3 Scene 1, Act 3 Scene 3 and Act 3 Scene 4. Although this was quite a lot to log, thanks to my previous projects as well as my work so far in this one, I have gotten quite used to logging and how to log effectively.
And so, surprisingly, I was able to get all my last visual recordings logged today. It did take quite a while but it’s definitely useful getting them all logged today. Not only because it’s allowed me to survey all of my work but also as it allows me to be ahead of my production schedule. Originally, I had scheduled the rest of the week to finish logging and sorting everything out, but now that I've completed logging, I’ll hopefully be able to have a rough cut finished by the end of the week. This would be really good as it will provide me with more time to perfect my animation and audio.
While logging today there weren’t too many shots that were particularly bad. The majority of shots that I marked as bad or unusable were mainly down to either actors forgetting their lines or slightly rough camera movement. The only quite bad shots were in my secondary angle for Act 1 Scene 4 where in a couple of shots the top of the microphone is slightly visible. Annoyingly I didn’t catch this mistake while shooting, however there are a couple of takes without the microphone being visible so I still have good takes of the scene.
Act 1 Scene 5
Tuesday 3rd May
And so today, I started on all this logging. And I was able to complete all my logging for the audio recordings. I thought it best to complete all of these first as they are quicker than the visual logging and there were less to log as many of my shots from Monday didn’t need additional audio recordings.
But today, I was able to complete the audio logging for Act 1 Scene 4, Act 1 Scene 5, Act 3 Scene 1 and Act 3 Scene 4. Throughout all these audio recordings there were no obviously terrible ones. The only ones I marked as bad or not to use were ones where the actor stumbled or forgot a line. It’s good to know that the audio is good as audio is a huge part of productions and so making sure my final piece sounds good is important.
Wednesday 4th May
With my audio logging having been completed yesterday, my task today was logging the visual recordings that I had taken over the long weekend. This included logging for the cutaways for Act 1 Scene 3, Act 1 Scene 4, Act 1 Scene 5, Act 3 Scene 1, Act 3 Scene 3 and Act 3 Scene 4. Although this was quite a lot to log, thanks to my previous projects as well as my work so far in this one, I have gotten quite used to logging and how to log effectively.
And so, surprisingly, I was able to get all my last visual recordings logged today. It did take quite a while but it’s definitely useful getting them all logged today. Not only because it’s allowed me to survey all of my work but also as it allows me to be ahead of my production schedule. Originally, I had scheduled the rest of the week to finish logging and sorting everything out, but now that I've completed logging, I’ll hopefully be able to have a rough cut finished by the end of the week. This would be really good as it will provide me with more time to perfect my animation and audio.
Act 2 Scene 1
Tuesday 26th April
Finally, I spent the rest of my day logging all my shots and audio recordings from yesterday and today. This was quite a long process however, it’s really good to get this completed today as it allows for me to continue production with less on my plate as well as meaning I’ve 100% finished all the work needed for the productions I’ve already shot.
Act 2 Scene 2
Tuesday 26th April
Finally, I spent the rest of my day logging all my shots and audio recordings from yesterday and today. This was quite a long process however, it’s really good to get this completed today as it allows for me to continue production with less on my plate as well as meaning I’ve 100% finished all the work needed for the productions I’ve already shot.
Act 2 Scene 3
Tuesday 26th April
Finally, I spent the rest of my day logging all my shots and audio recordings from yesterday and today. This was quite a long process however, it’s really good to get this completed today as it allows for me to continue production with less on my plate as well as meaning I’ve 100% finished all the work needed for the productions I’ve already shot.
Act 3 Scene 1
Tuesday 3rd May
And so today, I started on all this logging. And I was able to complete all my logging for the audio recordings. I thought it best to complete all of these first as they are quicker than the visual logging and there were less to log as many of my shots from Monday didn’t need additional audio recordings.
But today, I was able to complete the audio logging for Act 1 Scene 4, Act 1 Scene 5, Act 3 Scene 1 and Act 3 Scene 4. Throughout all these audio recordings there were no obviously terrible ones. The only ones I marked as bad or not to use were ones where the actor stumbled or forgot a line. It’s good to know that the audio is good as audio is a huge part of productions and so making sure my final piece sounds good is important.
Wednesday 4th May
With my audio logging having been completed yesterday, my task today was logging the visual recordings that I had taken over the long weekend. This included logging for the cutaways for Act 1 Scene 3, Act 1 Scene 4, Act 1 Scene 5, Act 3 Scene 1, Act 3 Scene 3 and Act 3 Scene 4. Although this was quite a lot to log, thanks to my previous projects as well as my work so far in this one, I have gotten quite used to logging and how to log effectively.
And so, surprisingly, I was able to get all my last visual recordings logged today. It did take quite a while but it’s definitely useful getting them all logged today. Not only because it’s allowed me to survey all of my work but also as it allows me to be ahead of my production schedule. Originally, I had scheduled the rest of the week to finish logging and sorting everything out, but now that I've completed logging, I’ll hopefully be able to have a rough cut finished by the end of the week. This would be really good as it will provide me with more time to perfect my animation and audio.
Act 3 Scene 2
Monday 25th April
I then spent the rest of the lesson completing my logging for all the work I had completed over Easter. This included all of the audio recordings such as the voiceovers and Foley as well as the visual production I had produced such as Act 1 Scene 1. Logging is a really important process and comes in particularly useful later down the line during the post production stage. And that’s why getting it completed now is extremely useful. Additionally, I’ve made sure to complete all my easter logging now as it leaves me with time to complete the logging for my upcoming shoots without having to be dragged down by previous work that would also need to be logged. Logging all this work did take a while and I had to finish it off when I returned home however it is now completed which will hopefully help lighten my load in the upcoming days.
Act 3 Scene 3
Wednesday 4th May
With my audio logging having been completed yesterday, my task today was logging the visual recordings that I had taken over the long weekend. This included logging for the cutaways for Act 1 Scene 3, Act 1 Scene 4, Act 1 Scene 5, Act 3 Scene 1, Act 3 Scene 3 and Act 3 Scene 4. Although this was quite a lot to log, thanks to my previous projects as well as my work so far in this one, I have gotten quite used to logging and how to log effectively.
And so, surprisingly, I was able to get all my last visual recordings logged today. It did take quite a while but it’s definitely useful getting them all logged today. Not only because it’s allowed me to survey all of my work but also as it allows me to be ahead of my production schedule. Originally, I had scheduled the rest of the week to finish logging and sorting everything out, but now that I've completed logging, I’ll hopefully be able to have a rough cut finished by the end of the week. This would be really good as it will provide me with more time to perfect my animation and audio.
Act 3 Scene 4
Tuesday 3rd May
And so today, I started on all this logging. And I was able to complete all my logging for the audio recordings. I thought it best to complete all of these first as they are quicker than the visual logging and there were less to log as many of my shots from Monday didn’t need additional audio recordings.
But today, I was able to complete the audio logging for Act 1 Scene 4, Act 1 Scene 5, Act 3 Scene 1 and Act 3 Scene 4. Throughout all these audio recordings there were no obviously terrible ones. The only ones I marked as bad or not to use were ones where the actor stumbled or forgot a line. It’s good to know that the audio is good as audio is a huge part of productions and so making sure my final piece sounds good is important.
Wednesday 4th May
With my audio logging having been completed yesterday, my task today was logging the visual recordings that I had taken over the long weekend. This included logging for the cutaways for Act 1 Scene 3, Act 1 Scene 4, Act 1 Scene 5, Act 3 Scene 1, Act 3 Scene 3 and Act 3 Scene 4. Although this was quite a lot to log, thanks to my previous projects as well as my work so far in this one, I have gotten quite used to logging and how to log effectively.
And so, surprisingly, I was able to get all my last visual recordings logged today. It did take quite a while but it’s definitely useful getting them all logged today. Not only because it’s allowed me to survey all of my work but also as it allows me to be ahead of my production schedule. Originally, I had scheduled the rest of the week to finish logging and sorting everything out, but now that I've completed logging, I’ll hopefully be able to have a rough cut finished by the end of the week. This would be really good as it will provide me with more time to perfect my animation and audio.
Cody Narrations
Monday 25th April
I then spent the rest of the lesson completing my logging for all the work I had completed over Easter. This included all of the audio recordings such as the voiceovers and Foley as well as the visual production I had produced such as Act 1 Scene 1. Logging is a really important process and comes in particularly useful later down the line during the post production stage. And that’s why getting it completed now is extremely useful. Additionally, I’ve made sure to complete all my easter logging now as it leaves me with time to complete the logging for my upcoming shoots without having to be dragged down by previous work that would also need to be logged. Logging all this work did take a while and I had to finish it off when I returned home however it is now completed which will hopefully help lighten my load in the upcoming days.
Director Narrations
Monday 25th April
I then spent the rest of the lesson completing my logging for all the work I had completed over Easter. This included all of the audio recordings such as the voiceovers and Foley as well as the visual production I had produced such as Act 1 Scene 1. Logging is a really important process and comes in particularly useful later down the line during the post production stage. And that’s why getting it completed now is extremely useful. Additionally, I’ve made sure to complete all my easter logging now as it leaves me with time to complete the logging for my upcoming shoots without having to be dragged down by previous work that would also need to be logged. Logging all this work did take a while and I had to finish it off when I returned home however it is now completed which will hopefully help lighten my load in the upcoming days.
Foley
Monday 25th April
I then spent the rest of the lesson completing my logging for all the work I had completed over Easter. This included all of the audio recordings such as the voiceovers and Foley as well as the visual production I had produced such as Act 1 Scene 1. Logging is a really important process and comes in particularly useful later down the line during the post production stage. And that’s why getting it completed now is extremely useful. Additionally, I’ve made sure to complete all my easter logging now as it leaves me with time to complete the logging for my upcoming shoots without having to be dragged down by previous work that would also need to be logged. Logging all this work did take a while and I had to finish it off when I returned home however it is now completed which will hopefully help lighten my load in the upcoming days.
Evaluation
Production is a huge part in the process of making this piece. From my pre-production I had planned 9 different production days in order to complete all of my production work within. I discussed these individual days in more depth within this page and so this evaluation will serve as summarising my thoughts and what I’ve learnt from the process as a whole.
One of my biggest challenges for production was simply creating the look and image that I had been creating within my mind. The two major factors of a piece are the visuals and audio which meant that during production I had to pay close attention to both of these features. This meant for a lot of my shoots I would have to set up the camera and make sure everything was perfect as when I started recording I would have to leave the camera in order to get the audio equipment into the correct position. Although this was slightly challenging it made good practice in multitasking as well as forcing me to stay fluid, especially when it came to problem solving. The most evident example of this is within my Act 2 shoot. Where I needed the beginning of the interview caught by the microphone but I also needed to include camera pans. In order to work around this, I set up the audio equipment and then had the actor hold the microphone between his legs so that his performance at the beginning would be captured. This allowed me to then be in complete control of the camera while still being sure that the audio would be captured.
All the problems I ran into I discussed within the individual journal entries that you can read above but overall, I felt that I was able to avoid many major problems, which allowed my production to run fairly smoothly. And now coming out of production I can look back and appreciate the work that I put into it.
But production is only just the start of it. For a piece like mine, especially the animation, it will truly come to life within the post-production. And I’m confident that with the work I’ve produced in production, my post production will be able to succeed.
