VIDEO AND SOUND PRODUCTION / EXERCISES

29.3.2021 -30.1.2021 (week 1 - week 4) 
Phoebie Ng / 0341172 / Bachelor of creative media

Video and Sound Production / Exercises

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LECTURE NOTES

week 1 (30.3.2021)

Mr. Martin brief us about the assignments that we need to do throughout this semester and some of the exercise that need to be done in week 1. Video Sound production which is a time base project module, which we have pre production, production and post production. 

Pre-production 

• Idea development 
• story
• story board
• visual reference
• Location / Props

Production

• Lighting 
• Costume
• Principal Shooting

Post production

• Offline editing
• Online editing
• Audio editing

week 2 (6.4.2021)

In this week, Mr. Martin brief us about the shot size and composition of videos. We had watched some videos to observe on their composition and shot size. Some shot size was introduced in class, below are the lists of the shots size. 

• Wide shot
• Medium shot
• Medium close up shot
• Over the shoulder shot
• Extreme wide shot
• Medium wide shot
• Close-up shot
• Extreme close up shot

The camera angle is also one of the important element on taking videos

Rule of thirds

Facial modeling is best when subject is turned 45 degree. 

3D solidity is most pronounced when 2 or more surfaces are photographed.

Angle the camera so that parallel lines diminish and converge preferably toward the right. 

Camera height is as important as camera distance and angle but often disregarded. 

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INSTRUCTIONS

fig 2.1: Module Information Booklet (29.3.2020)

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TASK

week 1 (30.3.2021)

Exercise 1

we were asked to use Premiere Pro to stitch the video clips of the advertisement of Mints in class. 

fig 1.1 Mints ads 31.4.2021

Exercise 2

After that, we were asked to combine another videos of Doritos advertisement. A little bit different from exercise 1, the exercise 2 video clip is not according to the order, so I need to watch each of the videos and stitch them together into one. 

fig 1.2 Doritos ads progression 31.4.2021

fig 1.3 Doritos ads final outcome 31.4.2021

week 2 (6.4.2021)

Before the class start we did a Lalin in and out exercise according to Mr. Martin's instruction on YouTube. Those video clips are created by our seniors and we need to trim the video clips and put it together. 

fig 1.4 progression of Lalin exercise 6.4.2021

fig 1.5 Lalin in and out exercise 6.4.2021  

After that, in class, Mr. Martin taught us about the shot sizes and we were asked to take videos according to the 9 shot sizes that was given and stitch them together into 1 video. Each of the video clip need to have at least 5 seconds and in the video, each video clips need to have 3 seconds. 

I was thinking about shooting my brother eating cereal, but at that time, I was shooting the video at night, so the video quality is not that good. At the same time, my friend was asking me to hang out at Solaris on the next day, thus I thought of 'using' her as my model XD. Then, I prepared my camera and it was the first time I bring it out for shooting after I bought it. 

After I took all the videos, I import them into Premier Pro and edit it to 3 seconds each. As I am doing vlogging style, I did add music background that its not so distracting from the background noise. I did 2 version of 1 with the template given by Mr. Martin and another version with full vlogging video. 

fig 1.6 progression of shooting exercise 10.4.2021  

fig 1.7 progression of shooting exercise 10.4.2021

fig 1.8  full version of final shooting exercise 10.4.2021

fig 1.9 shorten template version of final shooting exercise 10.4.2021

I was really happy that I could hang out with friend and complete the exercise at the same time. I think this exercise is quite fun to do and I have positive feedback from my friend about my shooting skill. She was jealous that I could having fun while doing my module task. 

week 3 (13.4.2021)

Royal Madness plot segmentation

fig 1.10 Royal Madness plot segmentation

1. Background story narrated by the King's daughter

• some snakes or small dragon appear from the floor
•  A soldier behind with a bunch of soldier running down the hill
•  The King running towards the dragons and killed all the dragons with the axes on his hand by chopping of their heads
• The King had killed a lot if dragons 
• After all of the dragon had been killed, the Kings shout sadly. 

2. In a village

• Pictures of the King was shown on the wall
• The princess trying to play with the King
• Picture on the wall fall as the girl throw her crown angrily 
• The king stand up, taking up the picture of the map that all of the monsters crossed and hang it on wall
• King walking slowly with the head down
• Little girl angry and turned her head around
• King walked out to the door
• The sun rise and sunlight fall on the picture on the wall, the girl seems think of an idea

3. In the forest

• the girl is shouting on the horn
• The girl almost fall down, but the soldier catches the chair
• The girl climbed to a bucket and raise her hand
• the soldiers raise their hand
• The are planning on something 

4. In Kings room 

• The king sign in his room, he was disappointed. 
• A big sound appear outside the room
• the king walked out

5. Outside the King's room 

• The big dragon showed up 
• It reminded the kings memories back then when he was fighting with the dragons
• The King shout and run to the dragon
• The girl was on the dragon's hand
• Inside the dragon it was those soldiers who controlled it 
• The King run to the dragon and chopped the dragon's hand and the King saw the soldiers 
• The soldiers run away with the chopped hand
• The King realized it was a fake dragon
• The girl almost fell down 
• The King run and catch the girl 
• The fake dragon fell down
• The King put down the girl 
• The girl looked at the King thought he was angry
• The King throwed the girl and catch the girl happily.

week 3 (20.4.2021)

In this week we were asked to do our shooting exercise 2 and 3 act structure about 2 films that was given by Mr. Martin.

fig 1.11 shooting exercise 2 progression 26.4.2021

fig 1.12 shooting exercise 2 26.4.2021

In this exercise, we are required to take the shoots of us dancing according to the shot sizes that were given. 

fig 1.13 3 Act exercise 26.4.2021

After that, we need to do 3 act exercises according to the film that was given. 

week 4 (27.4.2021)

fig 1.14 30 seconds video 29.4.2021

In this exercise, we were asked to trim the Lalin video in 30 seconds and add title, end credit. Above is my attempt at this exercise. 

week 5 (4.5.2021)

This week, we were asked to adjust the color of our dancing exercise according to the practice in our class.

fig 1.15 30 color correction video 8.5.2021

week 7 (18.5.2021)

This week, we were introduced to new software called Audition. I followed the tutorial of the Audio equalizer sent by Mr. Martin, and how to adjust the audio to make it sound similar to the original audio.

fig 1.16 EQ 1 22.5.2021

fig 1.17 EQ 2 22.5.2021

fig 1.18 EQ 3 22.5.2021

fig 1.19 EQ 4 22.5.2021

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FEEDBACK

Feedback on Exercise 2 

• Medium close up shot should be more close up
• too much headroom at medium close up shot
• Over the shoulder, MCU needs to have the object to be the focus on to differentiate if it's a medium close-up shot. 
• Close up should need to be differentiate with an extreme close up shot
• The frontal closeup shot is not focused 
• Frontal means facing the camera not a 3/4 angle shot
• Close up should have objected to focus on
• Profile shot need to be shoot at the side

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REFLECTION

week 1 (30.3.2021)

Experience: This is the first class of VSP in this semester, with the briefing of Mr. Martin, there was a project that we need to do which is a stop motion video, I am really looking forward to the project, because I always wanted to film a stop motion video, but I don't know how, I hope through the lectures and classes, I could make one stop motion video myself. 

Observation: While doing exercise 2, I found out that although the final outcome is short, it still requires time to stitch the video. It is pretty simple, but what if it is a 1-hour long video and all the order is not according to the number, it would take a very long time, so what we must do is we need to label the video clips according to the scene next time while we are doing our project, to avoid these things happen. 

Finding: I found out that we should be consistently updating our blog to record our progression to refer back to it next time. 

week 2 (6.4.2021)

Experience: I am really happy this week that I could complete tasks while hanging out with my friends. How ever, I think the composition of my videos need to be improve. As I am too 'distracting' from hanging out with my friends, I forgot to plan on the composition of my video.

Observation: While I was doing the Lalin exercise, because I need to focus on the director's action and cut, I noticed that in some video clips the actor already start acting before the director said action, which some of the acting scenes cannot be trimmed into the video. 

Finding: While I was taking the video, I had learned more about the composition and the shooting size. I also notice that some scenes that we see in movies or videos, it might look simple and we didn't notice that the shot size and the composition that was taken. Although it looks easy, it must take a lot of time for them to plan and set those shot sizes and compositions. 

week 3 (13.4.2021)

Experience: Wow while doing this exercise when I was shooting outside my video, my neighbor is washing his car opposite -_-. It soo embarrassing but quite fun to do. In this exercise, I clearly understand more about the size of the shoots and also how to zoom in and blur the image. 

Observation: Editing the videos need to be careful on the object size, to make it align

Finding: I found this exercise quite interesting and dance is very hard;-;