[levellounge-blog]

Bethell’s and O’neills Beach

I took out to Bethell’s and O’neills beach where I was able to experiment with the different scene selections and settings available on the Sony HXR mc1500p. Night scenes are a no go for me.. I’m unable to acquire the resources in such a short amount of time and they aren’t necessary at this point.

Here are some of the shots I was able to capture...

Shot in HD fx mode capturing the coastlines with different scene selections. From this I decided that the auto selection was the best option. It allows me to have the flexibility of doing what I want with it in post as opposed to a sunset scene setting which filters too many colours of orange..

[levellounge-blog]

New Scene | Experimentation

The settings on the Sony HXR MC1500 don’t present common video options. It’s a little strange.. You’ve basically got your normal white balance, exposure and scene selection. The ISO and Shutter speed options aren’t displayed despite the Sony documentation saying so.. 

With this in mind, I started thinking about the scenes that I could create that would allow me to learn something and also deliver results. I decided to storyboard a scene of Logan at West coast beaches that help to appeal to emotion. I’ve seen a few of these documentaries. One in particular, is Denali from Felt Soul Media. The doco is tragic but really well done. It consists of various slow shots, shots with a long durations, ambient sound and a voice-over walking the viewer through the experience. This combination tied in with the narrators trip down memory lane while exploring issues in the present begs the audience to consider the important things.. a very successful documentary in terms of building on viewer emotion.. 

Anyway.. I wanted try see if I could try create a similar scene. So I decided to take the HXR out to Bethells & O’Neills beach to get an idea of what locations I could utilize while experimenting with different lighting options. This was important because I didn’t want to experience another Ellen Melville Hall disaster... 

[levellounge-blog]

Felt Soul Media created this short documentary. They have quite a few..  I’ve noticed that their concepts are extremely simple in terms of storytelling and theme, which makes for a very clean documentary. 

This doco for example, profiles two rowers of the gran canyon. Amber Shannon boats a baggage boat in hope that she’ll one day row a Dori like John Shocklee does, down the Canyon. It features the beautiful nature of the job, Shannon’s ambition and John’s leadership conveyed through the extensiveness of how long it takes to be able to row a Dori - somewhat 20 years. 

What’s really impressive about Felt Soul Media Documentaries are the visuals. I went through their website in hope to find some information on this and found this image.. 

Shot on Red of course.. cameras with 4k Red resolution sensor, a hugge framerate option of up to 120fps or alternatively in RAW 2k at 240fps... Fantastic for high perfect cinematic shots with motion options at your disposal. Of course I can’t use these cameras, as they come with hefty price tag, valuing from as little as $5000, but it’s good to see what’s available out there. 

[levellounge-blog]

Lighting

I was hoping to spend more time practicing film shots and less time on overall film techniques. But it seems, it’s hard to learn one technique without integrating the other. As a result, my film shooting at the the Ellen Melville Hall resulted in noisy visuals from poor lighting. So I decided to investigate basic lighting techniques do that I could spend more time on practice. Here’s a few videos I’ve found that demonstrate this..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15tYFWR4cvA

Highlights - The lower the ISO, the more quality in the picture but less light gets in.  - The higher the ISO, the more grain and noise but more light gets in - Bouncing Light  - requires an LED board.  - Dial lighting in camera first before post-production.

Most of the LED boards I’ve viewed online are costly. It’s not something I’m willing to invest in for this particular project where I have no planned dark room scenes. I’ve noticed while videoing, Sony cameras have a really dull blue shade. I think lighting in camera deals with this but it might not necessarily be what you want..

[levellounge-blog]

Ellen Melville Hall

Over the weekend, the third planned scene of this doco took place at Ellen Melville Hall. Gaia’s gig (Logan) was up first and fortunately, his performance pulled in a large crowd. His movements around the stage and the crowd engagement made for a good closure to this developing Transmedia story. 

But this didn’t come at no cost. Unfortunately, the lights blew and the bass on the speakers had to be turned towards the end as the sound engineer had concerns about the speakers popping. This translated to poor footage with no available flash and inconsistent sound. I thought maybe that the best thing I could do was try to post-edit the footage and try to increase the exposure around each clip. The result was a highly grainy and extremely noisy frame around the shots that were really important. In the end, I was unable to use the camera footage from the camera I set up as low angle shots looking at Logan in the crowd and a camera on stage that was taking a side medium close-up of Logan performing. This lead to my next investigation.. Lighting. Of course this is a huge aspect of video recording which is something I need to integrate while recording in future scenes. I’ll also need to find a work-around for this project which might change the direction of the documentary in terms of narrative and scenes filmed.

[levellounge-blog]

Exporting Scenes

wThe first scene I worked with was an experimental scene recorded using the Sony HXR-MC1500P. I used a 1920 x 1080 progressive format at 25ps and used the storyboard I built as a sort-of guideline because we had moved scenes and the atmosphere was different. 

Once I had the stack of footage, I imported the clips into Adobe Premiere. I read through the Adobe Docs and learnt shortcuts and editing techniques which was enough for me, to begin organising and cutting clips. The storyboard had already given me an idea of what I wanted so I began mix and matching clips. What the visual side of things told, was a in introduction to Logan’s environment, followed by his mixing and performance. This was obviously too confusing as a story and even more devalued without a voiceover to guide the viewer. But this was perfect for me to understand how I could refine my work and plan something that makes more sense. That is what the film paradigm is for. It keeps this in process in check. With that in mind, I have to reshoot the first scene with only Logan writing lyrics and playing around with the mixer. That shows his ambition to be more creative.

In addition to the filming side of things, the environmental sound needs more focus on it and will serve as the backdrop to the documentary. I’ll post more about this later in a dedicated audio post. 

After working with the first scene. I exported it using the Quicktime format and I think I might have used the HD1080i preset - an interlaced codec. BAD MISTAKE! It came out compressed and the video itself looked a little warped. Here’s a screenshot. If you zoom in a bit, it looks bad. 

I fixed this by watching some more adobe docs. It explained, the uncompressed H.264. A very common and high format option. Use an HD 1080p preset and we’re off.... 

[levellounge-blog]

Paradigm Film

After shooting the first scene with Logan, I ran into a few issues. The first is the structure of the scene. The second is the audio and the third is the interrelationship between each element. There is no guide or film screenplay to go by and the disorganisation of theses aspects has created a sloppy story. So, to tackle this issue, I’ve targeted the documentary at the development of Logan’s progression which is outlined in the film paradigm as well as factored in different audio elements (which I’ll talk about in a separate post).

The film paradigm is the sequence structure of the film. It considers the relationship between the parts and the whole. A table for example, is made up of four legs and a table top. No matter which way you shape it, it still consists of it’s fundamental parts and still forms a table. Similarly a story is depicted by it’s paradigm (the table) consisting always, of a beginning (the setup), the midpoint (the middle) and the end (the resolution). Culminations also locate a spin in the story. The first culmination point is located just before the midpoint and the second plot is located just before the last scene. These components are the legs of the table. 

Here’s a diagram of the film paradigm to help me visualise Logan’s doco easily.

[levellounge-blog]

Scene One - Logan’s Garage

Time for some shooting! The first I want to capture introduces Logan’s atmosphere. After some long hard thought, I realised the setting of the first scene wasn’t going to capture Logan’s atmosphere. The best place for this was going to be somewhere Logan practices - his home where he grew up! It’s fantastic for shooting. The backdrop has a huge combination of contrasting colours and a collection of unused items that support Logan’s character. Wilberforce used the same approach as well as Dancing in the dark. Placing the subject in a place that they know produces a more energetic response and a more contextualised video story.

Here are some of the snapshots!

[levellounge-blog]

First Prototype StoryBoard

I thought I’d try my hand at storyboarding some scenes of Logan. 

The rough layout introduces Logan’s atmosphere as he practices composing music as well as a progression scene that serves as development clips to place between central scenes. 

view storyboard

[levellounge-blog]

Inside Wilbur Force

As I put together other artists documentary pieces and look inside the techniques behind them, the wider my understanding of the artist processes. 

When thinking about the production of this documentary, what I find really interesting is the level of drama conveniently delivered to the viewer as if each scenario was just fall in place perfectly. For example, the scene where Will get’s emotionally worked-up then J jumps on his back to soften the situation and consequently get’s thrown off, heightens the impact the absence of wrestling has had on Will’s life and also shows the side of him emerging. It’s all very convenient for the viewer to watch Will charge at J who embodies his weaknesses in the next scene that has been progressing throughout the short doco. 

I’ve analysed the shots, techniques, settings etc. to my best knowledge which will help guide me in developing my own scoreboard. 

Click to view Inside Wilbur Force

[levellounge-blog]

Sundae Sessions: Home Brew, Dedicated To

Home Brew perform Dedicated To, from their self-titled album that debuted at number one on the New Zealand album charts. This is the first of seven songs per...

Sick little performance by New Zealand band Home Brew. Think I might capture the film language from this one. There’s a lot of information caught on camera for only a small set so there’s definitely some value there. And it’s dope?!?!

[levellounge-blog]

Getting some practice in with the camera in week 6 to discover limitations so it’s important I begin building a strategy around culture of the film. I found a really awesome guide on documentary script planning and thought I could build some research questions using the same method. 

I’m creating a mini-documentary on Gaia, a musician who is planning on performing his first gig in a month. I’ve been watching him improve himself for a while and I thought this would be a good opportunity to practice filming. 

The first aspect I’m focussing on is information. Research information that is going to tackle the issues of the film. Here are some of the ideas I’ve put using the same strategic methods. 

Research Questions and Ideas 

Top of the Issue - Asks all of the simple what, who, where how questions ..

Gaia

Spiritual motives

Yoga

Political activist

Musician influences

Mediation

Dayjob

Composition development

Heart of the Issue - Insightful detail around why he is performing and who he wants to influence

What kind of person is he?

How does he want to influence people?

How does his day job affect his passion for music?

Any financial impacts? 

Relationships with friends, family. 

Root - What is the meaningful message you want to convey?

I guess I’ll find this out once I get to know him a bit more :o

Branches 

Relatable stories

Finding Challenges 

How are other people facing the same issues impacted? 

Challenges of music in art in NZ music industry?

Visits to local music academies. What are they doing with their music?

Think i fill this in as I gather information..

Reference

http://www.unesco.org/new/fileadmin/MULTIMEDIA/HQ/CI/CI/pdf/programme_doc_documentary_script.pdf

[levellounge-blog]

Stop Making Sense is an amaze balls concert movie of the Talking Heads live event in 1984. There is a strong theme of progression in the musicians, the audience involvement and production setup. In the beginning, the lead vocalist, David Byrne is the only musician on stage, with only a guitar. As the movie progresses, so do the musicians involvement, the audience density and the digital audio which all work together to create a raging, busy environment. 

There are elements of the movie that seem to drive audience engagement through movement, visuals and audio. As the movie develops, the musicians show interaction with each other through a running styled dance that hints at this idea of progression that seems to be the underlying theme. It also seems as though the musicians in both amount and composition, develop in parallel with the audience which could be a way of giving the audience  some level of control of the event by giving them the idea of there being more progression for more audience involvement. This is reflective of one Andrew Stanton’s insights where he talks about making the ‘audience work for their meal but letting them know that they’re doing it’. 

Just over halfway, the stage lights dim down and visuals in the background begin supporting the performance. I have no idea about the nature of the content of the images but I assume it’s to encourage the audience to think about the relevance of them and its place in the context.

I think it’s important to point out the timing of the visuals. It’s almost as if the performance got to a level where the events parts were altogether and they needed to bring in a visual element to maintain the connection with the audience. As they do this, the musicians dancing settles down. This could be a way of not over complicating things. 

[levellounge-blog]

The clues to a great story

Filmmaker Andrew Stanton ("Toy Story," "WALL-E") shares what he knows about storytelling -- starting at the end and working back to the beginning. Contains graphic language ... (Note: this talk is not available for download.)

Over the next two weeks, I’ll be developing a story, storyboard and short documentary on a person. This is a development practice is to help me get a feel for what’s going to work and to understand the limitations. A big part of this project is storytelling to engage people, to create relationships with people or maximise interest.

Some points I’ve taking from Andrew Stanton’s TED talk presentation where he talks about the elements that help to construct an interesting and meaningful story.

Storytelling Notes

Knowing your punchline, the ending, knowing that everything is leading to a singular goal and something of interest that deepens our understandings of who we are as people

Lead people somewhere that’s worth their time. Make a promise to the audience.

Hide the fact that the storyteller is making viewers work for their the answers. The audience wants to work for the answer but don’t want to know that they’re doing it.

Don’t give them the answer, let them finish the sentence, give them something to be think about.

Viewers need an unconscious goal to strive for.

Life is not static, so if story is static, it dies, make it interesting

“Drama is anticipation mingled with uncertainty”

Have you constructed anticipation? Have you made the viewer wonder what happens next?

Show themes of a person and highlight their may concerns as the central theme.

Can you invoke wonder? wonder is innocent. Can you make the viewer anticipate wonder.

To start with a story, start with what you know, some sort of experience and develop it from there.

Cheers Big Ears

[levellounge-blog]

Meet up with ol kieren roonry budd, a past AUT communications undergrad who’s been stacking up some film awards lately. I introduced him to the concept of level lounge and let him know some of the elements of the project that interested me: The crowd, interaction, how sound can heighten the relationship between the audience and artist, things like that. Together we co-created some ideas that might tackle a few issues I’m having, constructing this idea of filming live sets.

We had to ask ourselves, “Okay, what interests people and how can we maximise that interest? How can we link the all of these different ideas to construct a flowing narrative?” The relationships between narrative aspects, constructs, elements and contexts are all things that need to link together to create a story that makes sense but in a way that can heighten certain film objectives at times and stabilise them at others. Another element we discussed, was audience interaction. We asked ourselves how can we make viewer interaction consistent throughout the film?

If for boiler rooms, the main interest, was the crowd involvement, movement and interaction with people or objects, then maybe that’s something that we could expand on. A story that revolves around people within the crowd. With this in mind, we co-created a concept that would focus on three different event-goers perspectives. The filming is concerned with the each participants living environment, their decisions and lifestyles leading up to this event. It aims to highlight different motives, levels of enthusiasm and event objectives that will help the viewer understand the significance of the crowd interaction and consequently create a more emotional response from the viewer. It lets them know the depth of the relationship between the event-goer and the music. We thought maybe the music would dictate the experience by showing it’s relevance to certain personality traits of the event-goer. For example, if house music doesn’t quite fit into an event-goers walk on the beach which may signify his/hers dramatised emotion, then that could hint at the audience, how inconvenient this event could be for them. From another perspective, the event-goer could be in high spirits which suggests a high level of convenience. 

The level of interaction of the viewer is another element we discussed. We asked ourselves: What are the points of interests for each event-goer? Is there a relationship between these event-goers? We thought a really cool idea that would help link these separate narratives together would be an interactive video. It would allow the viewer to switch between perspectives in preparation for the event towards the end of the documentary. This would heighten interest and involvement with the crowd and artist by letting the viewer know more about certain types of interactions and how affective the music is on different people at the event. 

[levellounge-blog]

The Designing Process

If anyone ever needed help with a useful guideline on the designing process, I think this article would give them some great leverage.

For designers, there’s obviously more than meets the eye when it comes down actually delivering design. More often than not, I find myself not really comprehending the extremities of a practice and to really achieve a good development practice, that’s something that needs to be realised. Prototyping is great for really knuckling down the whole process thing. If you really want to achieve value in design work, this is a practice that’s really going to help. 

What Is Design For?

If I’m building a website, I could just start programming. I could try out different options here and there and update my code just as easily. Obviously that’s a time consuming process. Design adds value to your work and makes your workflow more efficient by slicing out the wasted effort in trying several alternative design options - and believe me, I’ve been there, it doesn’t work. So with this set, I’ll be focussing on the concept of levellounge, a Transmedia project focused on film narrative. The design aspect is for the website that is going to centralise this project. But first, let’s set the guidelines for rapid prototyping. 

Rapid Prototyping 

The main objective of Rapid Prototyping, is to prototype various aspects at any fidelity and then to plan incremental stages to review your work, find feedback and refine based on valuable feedback. With this, we get a real-time response and improved efficiency which will save us time in the development stage and deliver us with a powerful interface and 

The Flow

Prototype - give it a crack 

Review - share, share, share

Refine - make changes based on valuable feedback

The Aspects

Visual - How does it look?

Function - static to user interactivity

Content - design placeholders to real content

The Fidelity

Low - a low visual fidelity would mean that it’s far away form the final visual of the product. For example, sketching roughly outlines the basic layout but doesn’t really show off the aesthetics or content.

Medium - some tools help to achieve a closer representation of the final product like photoshop or indesign

High  - Tools that really highlight the the final products interaction, thoughts, guidelines, visuals, content. This can be more time consuming than former fidelities. Adobe Muse is a good example of this. 

Resources

Smashing Magazine - Design Better with Rapid Prototyping - http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2010/06/design-better-faster-with-rapid-prototyping/

[levellounge-blog]

VISUAL RHETORIC

Visual communication is key to making connections between the viewer and visual image. One useful way to understand this is through visual rhetoric. Visual Rhetoric is a way to emphasise an image as a sensory expression of cultural meaning. That means an image is not just about its aesthetic composition but that it recognises that its has some levels of emotional connection to the viewer and acts as a major influence on a persons evaluation within the image processing phase. It also takes into account the construction and manipulation of an image that helps determine its significance to the viewer.

Before diving deep into some video documentaries and interactive videos, I figured a good way to analyse these films would be to learn how to. Here are some guides

CLASSIC RHETORIC - AREAS TO CONSIDER

Arrangment - The organisation of visual elements.

Emphasis    - Making certain parts more prominent than others.

Clarity - help the reader to decode the message

Conciseness - appropriate designs that fit the situation

Tones - the attitude towards the subject matter

Ethos - how does the persuader communicate credibility affectively?

VISUAL RHETORIC: WRITING ABOUT FILM

Framing

Framing - The constructs of the image. The props, settings, placements, camera movements, movement of people

Framing works with mise-en-scene to determine the overall composition of the image

The importance of the image comes from analysis.

Movement

How fast are the movements of people or camera?

What is the synchronisation of the camera and content like?

How long are the shots?

What effect do these all have?

Sound

Dialogue

Sound effects

Music

One of these might be more dominant than others. Others might also be absent.

Tips for analysis

The emotion an image aims to evoke is its function

The evaluation of an artefact determines if the image serves its function

The best way to decode a film is to try make sense of each image an the emotion the image evokes

Sound is a good way to analyse both the image itself and the the functions of sound

References: https://twp.duke.edu/uploads/assets/film.pdf