Finished Film + Evaluation

Our finished piece is below:

Thanks For The Year from Peter Simison on Vimeo. Production Slideshow: Evaluation
I believe I have really progressed a lot during the course of this module. I have been encouraged and learnt to experiment with unconventional techniques a lot more than i would have if I had never done this module.  Starting with the original sound piece I did in the beginning of semester 1, I got the hang of basic sound recording and using different types of microphones to get different sounds. I also experimented with the fundamental functions of ProTools using crossfades and gains to blend our recorded sounds together for our sound piece. I then expanded on this for our short documentary where we used a variety of various recording techniques such as Zoom h5 handheld recorders, recording directly to the XLR input on the camera and using radio mics. After experiencing the various benefits and difficulties of using each it helped hone my skills of choosing the most effective equipment for given filming circumstances. My audio knowledge then expanded even more when playing around with various effects for our drama short to express hidden emotions and ideas. It helped progress my technique and interest in ProTools and how software can be used to bring audio to life and be a fundamental part of the whole video.  I cinematography skills were also vastly improved through this module. I thoroughly enjoyed going out into the Peak District with a Canon XF305 and filming the country side. Filming like this really helped to improve my composition skills of the image as it gave me the capabilities of long focus lengths to widen the scope of compositions I could film. While not being a cinematographer in any of the other projects I still developed a lot by chipping in in all sides of production. For instance when on set for the drama short, I observed the possibilities and also limitations of using a dolly track. I also found through not using DSLRs the control of the image you can achieve by using interchangeable lenses. My use of experimentation also increased throughout this module. In our sound piece I don't feel like I experimented enough with video as a form. After comparing our piece to everyone else's I began to appreciate the scope of what can be done and shown through video, as our video consisted of just simple cuts and lacked any added  lighting or any interesting sound techniques. My use of experimentation had progressed a lot by the time we did our drama as we added the 90s element to the video. This gave us a lot of areas to experiment.  I learnt to use resources such as Vimeo to watch a complete variety of different videos that inspired me to use many different techniques.

Post Production

This week we were editing the project. 

Tom, the editor, took away all the footage and made a few different rough cuts, uploading them to Vimeo each time so we could all review them and give him feedback. He experimented around with different structures and colour grades until we all decided on a cut that looked right. He also changed the aspect ratio to a more box shaped one that was standard on the box shaped TVs of the nineties, in contrast to the 16:9 that we're used to now. 

Once his final edit was complete he sent the file to me which also contained the dialogue on. I then transferred this into ProTools where I would sound design for it.

I started by adding foley that James had recorded into the necessary areas. In areas where there's music playing from a different room I would add a low pass filter which gives it that muffled sound your used to hearing when your neighbours are having a party.

For the rushing climactic effects you hear when he's looking in the mirror or when he's receiving a phone call I used sound effects such as aircraft noises and traffic and then added LPFs and lots of reverb with a rising volume level. This completely transforms it from it's original sound to the point where it's completely unrecognisable but instead becomes an effective cinematic tool for expression. For example when his telephone's ringing I wanted to express the blind panic and anxiety in his head. I used the interior sounds of a Concorde jet and added all the above effects to the point where it's completely transformed.

To reinforce the 90s time period we decided to use radio sound bites that referred to events in the 90s. I researched appropriate events on the internet and found the original radio news broadcasts. I then wrote a transcript of those original recordings and recorded myself reading it out as if I was the radio presenter. I then imported the audio files into ProTools and increased the gain in the mid-high frequency section on the equaliser. This gives it the tinny sound that's normally associated with a cheap radio.

Adding various effects to sounds such as reverb and delay

Complete sound design timeline on Pro Tools

Recording my voice on a Zoom h5 for radio snippets

Shooting

This week we were shooting the drama.

Baily had finished the script in advance and sent it to us so we could read it and get familiar with it in before the shooting day.

Joel, as the producer, organised a house in which we could film. He was also in charge of supplying the actors. Unfortunately, due to actors dropping out last minute he had to improvise in some areas. The main character was played by his brother, Lucas Young, who is currently a stage actor. Joel himself, filled in one of the other flatmates and a woman called Holly Jenkins played the part of the third flatmate. Joel also provided food on the shoot day. 

Amy had taken it upon herself to sort out set and costume design. She brought with her lots of posters from the nineties and other general props, such as an old telephone. She also provided all the clothes for the actors in a nineties style. They really altered the look of the set into an effective nineties time warp.

James, who was in charge of sound recording, brought with him a boom pool and a shotgun mono mic.

We were filming on a Canon XF305 which meant we could plug the microphone directly into the camera meaning we wouldn't have to worry about syncing up sound in the edit.

I was always around on set to provide any technical help and advise James on audio decisions.

We also used a track for the opening shot. This meant we could move and pan around the main characters bedroom providing the audience with an introduction to the setting and introducing them with some of the nineties posters and props to dive them straight into that time period. 

The shoot went very smoothly and the actors were great to work with.

 Amy arranging posters

 Baily testing the camera track

 Setting up the room for the first scene

 Checking Camera Settings

Setting up the party scene from the main characters perspective

Drama Planning

In this weeks session we agreed on a treatment put forward by Baily. 

The synopsis is that 3 people move into a university flat together however the main character, who is a bit of an introvert, struggles to form relationships with the other two who quickly become good friends without him. This results in his mounting anxiety as his social awkwardness around the other two flatmates gets worse. The film will also be set in the 90s to give it an extra creative flair and aesthetic look. This will also veer it away from hopefully not looking too much like a generic student film.

As it's Baily's idea he will be writing and directing it. The rest of the crew is as follows:

Producing - Joel Young

Cinematographer - Amy Smith

Editor - Tom Wilson

Sound Recorder - James Swallow

Sound Design & Editing - Peter Simison (me)

I had an idea that we could use Lynch style audio editing to reveal what's going on inside the main character's head. For example, we had an idea that he would be sat inside his room while there is a party going on downstairs. At first you here the muffled sounds of the party through the wall and then the sound of what's going on in his head will sweep in. It will be a claustrophobic, white noise style sound that will reflect the crippling anxiety going on inside his head.

 Roles, Characters and Treatment

 Locations

 Different scenes we're planning on filming

A list of things we are each going to do before we next meet

I Do Air

I do air is a short BAFTA award winning drama piece directed by Martina Amati. It focuses on a small girl who has a fear of jumping in water from heights and faces humiliation from other swimmers. The film takes you into the little girl's imagination as she holds her breath to experience a "high" inside her own head.

Screengrab taken from I Do Air (2010)

The film makers focus in on certain parts of her to emote certain sensations, such as when we see a close up of her toes touching the wet changing room floor, that sensation of wet socks immediately unfolds in my mind. 

The film makers are also  very careful and creative with their use of sound. For instance, when the girl is on the diving board contemplating diving off, all but a few sounds a drowned out underneath the drone like score. The sound of someone tapping some pool cleaning equipment crescendos before she makes the decision not to jump. They also drown out a lot of the sounds when the girl holds her breath leaving you with the eerie score and gentle sounds of water dripping.

Amati effectively uses post blurring of the image when the girl is holding her breath in the changing room. This helps remind you of the feeling you get when you experience a lack of oxygen and the dizzying effect that takes hold.

All in all I really enjoyed this short film and admired it's ambition with both sound and vision to effectively take you into the mind of a little girl. 

Presentations

We showed the film and presented our production process yesterday.
Click here to see the film.

The presentation on our production process
The film was well received. When our presentation was over everyone watching wrote down feedback on post-it notes for us to read.

Feedback in the form of post-it notes
The feedback here was positive with people noting the high level of research and the sensitivity in which it was produced.
I learnt a lot from this project. In the future i'm going to be extra mindful of deadlines and improve on time management. I think it will be important to leave more time for the editing process next time as you can be a lot more creative with the sound once you've seen a near finished edit and you know the exact feel and structure of what you're working with.

Editing

We acquired our final interview quite late into the production period so we felt it important to start editing with what we had at the moment in time. So far we had the first two interviews with Sarah and Andy and some filler footage. Baily got to work extracting the useful footage from the interviews and starting to create a structure out of them.

When we met with Lee he was anxious as to whether we should be adding potential challenges against the legalisation of cannabis. We talked about MIND, the charity. Seeing as the documentary has a focus on cannabis' treatment of mental health they could possibly have a good contribution. I decided to email them to see if they could come up with a response. Unfortunately they didn't get back in time, however they did reply eventually with a friendly response explaining they couldn't comment on the issue anyway.

The email back from Mind 

Joel and Amy decided it wouldn't be a problem anyway as it's only a 5 minute documentary there's not enough time to make a comprehensive balanced argument. The documentary would be an argument for the legalisation of cannabis in the form of stories from prominent people in the fight for legalisation campaign. We all agreed that this would work best given the short form format.

In Production

Joel had booked an interview with Sarah Sativa, a prominent cannabis campaigner. Unfortunately I could not be there for the interview so James kindly stepped in and offered to record sound. He admitted to being a bit rusty with the sound so I went through the kit he would use for the interview and how best to use it. 

For the interviews I decided it was best to record with the Sennheiser 416 as it is a mono mic with a narrow pick up field to filter out any unnecessary background noise. It would be extended on a boom pole just out of frame to reduce to signal to noise ratio. If we were filming on a DSLR we would record the audio to a Zoom h5/h4n as DSLRs aren't built to handle audio. However if we are filming on the XF305 we would record straight to the camera as it would save time trying to sync it up in post.

Are next interview was with another cannabis campaigner. I was available for this one and we were filming with a Canon XF305, this meant I could record straight into the camera as it has XLR inputs. It did mean however that I had to stand behind the camera while recording so I could monitor and adjust the levels where necessary. Due to standing so far back the boom pole was extended quite far so Joel thoughtfully took a break mid-interview so I could put it down for a few minutes.

A photo of us recording our second interview


We are planning on using some stylish looking footage as cutaways while we can hear the voices for the interviews. I thought it would be useful to get some sounds to go with these cutaways such as the lighting and smoking of a joint. I used a lapel microphone to try and recreate some of the sounds made. I felt it was a suitable microphone as I could get extremely close to the subject due to tiny size of the microphone. I also recorded with a sample rate of 96khz, which gives the audio a higher resolution, to give me maximum flexibility in post if I wanted to slow the audio down.

 Recording the sound of a lighter (using the book as a kind of stand to clip the mic onto)

 Attempt 1. at trying to recreate the sound of a joint burning by placing the mic on an incense stick

Attempt 2. Using rolled up plastic sheet and letting it expand next to the mic

Attempt 3. Rolling up cling film into a ball around the microphone head and letting it unravel. This worked best as it provided quite a realistic crackling sound.

I had to record all these sounds in my bathroom as there was too much background noise in my room due to the busy road outside.

I had seen a TED Talk on YouTube about recording sound effects and it mentioned that the sound of clingfilm unravelling could be used to replicate the sound of a cigarette being smoked. This gave me the idea to try and create that sound.

I also did a small amount of research using the book The Sound Effects Bible (Ric Viers, 2008)

The Sound Effects Bible by Ric Viers  

For our third and final interview Joel had arranged a woman who would like to remain anonymous. By this point I had been inducted and allowed access to radio mics. I decided to use them for this interview as they are a lot less invasive and intimidating to the interviewee than a mic on a boom pole. This means you often get more honest answers as they can forget they're wearing it.

Tom couldn't be there for this interview so Amy and I filmed. We used an LED light panel to fill the background so the interviewee would be in darkness in the foreground. Amy also filmed close up shots that also retained her anonymity.

Radio mic set up with Zoom h5

Interview set up

Sound log sheet for anonymous interview

Sync Sound Session

This week we had a session with Neil Webb and Dom Green on the best approaches to filming with synced up audio. 

For example if I was filming with a DSLR and recording my audio with a boom mic and a Zoom h5 there are things I can do that will help me in post to sync up the audio to the video.

 The most commonly used and effective method is to use a clapper board. This, when written on correctly, tells us information about what we're shooting and when the clap stick is shut it creates a good sharp snapping sound that we can sync up with the frame of the white stripes being joined together. It is also helpful to shout the information on the board so the sound editor has the clip information. Some sound recordists also like to create a sync point after a take is over. To do this they will do the same procedure but turn the board upside down so the editor knows it's the end of the shot.

A Clapperboard

Other techniques I could use is to clap in front of the camera or to tap the bottom of the microphone in shot. These both create quick sounds that match an image.


We also learnt about the functions of different microphones:

Omni-Directional mics, such as lapel mics, record evenly around itself but only to a certain proximity.

Cardoid mics have a heart shape pick up pattern, rejecting sounds from immediately behind it.

Directional mics, such as the Sennheiser 416, record only directly in front of the mic only. This is useful for rejecting background sounds and getting the audio from only a certain area.


When recording dialogue on set or in an interview situation it should always be recorded in mono as the dialogue should always be at the centre of the mix as it's normally the most pivotal component.

We were also taught the procedure for recording directly into the camera. This can be more time efficient as you don't have to worry about syncing up the sound in post.



For our documentary I intend to record the interview audio using a Sennheiser 416 shotgun mic as this should eliminate most background noise and records in mono. Depending on what camera we're using I'll either record directly into the camera or record seperately to a Zoom recorder being careful to create sync points to help in post production.

In terms of cutaway scenes in between or over the top of interviews I intend on getting high quality audio of cannabis being smoked. It could be useful to use a lapel microphone to record some of these sounds as due to its size I can get really close the source minimising the signal to noise ratio.

Documentary Pitches

Over the course of this week we discussed various ideas we had for documentaries. We finally settled on two ideas which we presented in our 5 min pitch. Joel, as producer, was very keen on doing a documentary about the Sheffield Cannabis Community. As an active member he has many contacts for interesting people campaigning for the legalisation and/or the decriminalisation of cannabis.   We all felt most confident with this idea due to Joel having contacts that wouldn't be too hard to get hold of and could hopefully add interesting points. The documentary would question whether the health benefits could be strong enough grounds to put it's illegality into question and if it deserves the Class B drug listing it currently has. 
Our second idea was for a documentary on the sex establishments in Sheffield. It would look into the moral connotations of such places and whether they should be a part of Sheffield. Joel knows a stripper that works in Spearmint Rhinos (a strip club). 
Overall though we weren't to confident in this idea as we couldn't imagine many landlords of  these establishments would be too happy for us to be bringing cameras and microphones into their clubs. 

After a 5 minute pitch to the seminar group it was decided that the documentary on cannabis was the best option.
The slideshow from our pitch.

Skateistan - A Short Analysis

Skateistan opens with a stark and grisly view of modern day Kabul, Afghanistan. It depicts scenes of an arduous lifestyle combined with the backdrop of recent wars. These bleak images culminate to a shot of a decapitated goat's head lying on the ground with a 17 year old Murza and his friends skating past it in the background.  

Skateistan is an educational skateboarding school in Kabul. The film shows how this organisation has transformed the toilsome and treacherous lives of these young people and given them something positive to focus on and enjoy. 

Murza comments that passers by look on them skating strangely and that some of them think they are "attached to the boards through some sort of magnetic field.". This reveals the fact that a lot of people go uneducated in Afghanistan as schools and education systems are still quite a new concept there. 

Skateistan highlights the progressive values that the school is introducing in Kabul. It is growing in popularity with females, which for a very conservative country, causes a bit of controversy. It tells the story of Fazilla who is 12 years old and sells chewing gum on the streets. She says her father and many other people disagree with her skating as she is a girl. She says quite profoundly, "their opinions are meaningless to me...I really like skating and I won't stop". Segments like these reveal how intelligent these young children are and how a better education system in Afghanistan would only be a catalyst for their brightness. 

The youth of Kabul skating through a ruined building in Skateistan

Franklin Dow's cinematography is breathtaking and does an incredible job of showing warmth and hope in a seemingly desolate and unfriendly place. Overall I think this short documentary does a great job of showing possibilities and a positive look on the future generation of a country that has stayed in the past through the development of the rest of the world.

Task 2 Groups

Today we were given our brief for Task 2. It is to create a 5 minute documentary in groups of 6. We were then to allocate ourselves into different roles for the film production. Here is our group at the moment:

Director - Amy Smith

Producer - Joel Young

Camera Operator - Tom Wilson

Sound Operator - Peter Simison

Editor - Baily Sutton

Audio Editor - James Swallow

Hopefully this won't be too rigid as I think we'll be more productive if we feed off each other as we all have experience outside of these roles.