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This is the Gantt Chart for my group's Foley project. My group consisted of Kate Callard, Jemima Barry, Isaac Gray, Jack Robinson, Tanye Chauruka and George Martin.

Foley

Jack Donovan Foley started the art of Foley back in 1927, even though previously he had worked on silent films with Universal studios. He worked on many films, including: Melody of Love, Show Boat (1929), Dat Ol’Ribber, Spartacus, and Pink Submarine. Because microphones of the time could not pick up more than dialogue, other sounds had to be added in after the film was shot.

Foley is the art of adding sound effects over the top of the video recording in post-production to enhance the audio quality. These sound effects can vary between anything, from the clicking of horses hooves to the sound of a light-saber being activated. You can tell tell if Foley has been mastered if it has been so well integrated into the film you can watch an entire feature length and not notice that the sound has been added after the video recording. As well as making the sound overall better, Foley helps to add a sense of atmosphere to the film. Without it the film can seem unnaturally quiet and uncomfortable. The reason anyone even started using Foley is because no matter what microphones you use, or even where you place them, the sound you get from them will not be as high quality acoustically. Jack Donovan Foley was extremely dedicated to this art, and would reportedly spend hours and hours in the recording studio getting everything just right.

“Jack, estimated that he walked 5000 miles in the studio doing footsteps. He characterized the footsteps of stars in this manner: “Rock Hudson is a solid stepper; Tony Curtis has a brisk foot; Audie Murphy is springy; James Cagney is clipped; Marlon Brando soft; John Saxon nervous.”

Even though we still use Foley just as much as we did back when it was first created, it was much more essential then than it is now. This is because they did not have the high level equipment that we have access to now, meaning that barely anything above dialogue could be picked up.

Even though the concept of Foley is relatively simple, if the sound is not in time with the visual images it will look ridiculous and completely ruin the film, meaning the utmost care and attention has to be applied to this art when practiced.

British comedy group Monty Python made a literal use of Foley in their hit film 'Monty Python and the Holy Grail' when a knight rides up to a castle, he has a servant running behind him clicking two halves of a coconut to replicate the sound of horses hooves trotting. This is an example of something you could uses, other examples include acorns, small apples and walnuts on wooden parquet surface being be used for bones breaking. It shows how Foley is such a long process, its a process of trial and error to start with, so you can work out which sounds work for what action.

Final Foley Project from Nick Bennett on Vimeo.

References: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foley_(filmmaking) http://www.marblehead.net/foley/ http://filmsound.org/terminology/foley.htm http://www.sound-ideas.com/what-is-foley.html

9:30 Review - My Recurring Dream

This film is a music video for the song 'My Recurring Dream' by the band Cold Mailman, directed by Andre Chocron who created Frokost films. We have studied a few videos by Chocron but I can safely say this is my favourite, partly because it reminds me of the one shot music video we did as a class earlier in the year which I particularly enjoyed. The video shows 9 different scenarios which are filmed as if through the eyes of the viewer (first person perspective), with some technically intriguing transitions between them. The whole aspect of the video is, like the name says, a dream in which the viewer is trapped in these same scenarios over and over. Throughout the production there were two things that really grabbed my attention. First, the aforementioned transitions between the different scenarios. To get them interlinked to each other, the two shots must have been timed perfectly so they looked uninterrupted. The effort this must have required would have been massive and it's something I would absolutely love to learn to do. The graphic side of these transitions was something I also found very impressive, in particular when the waves spill out of the painting.

The second thing that I found interesting was the use of a camera crane in every shot, rather than a dolly. I'd never noticed the use of one of these before so prominently, and it really worked in the way of making the camera seem more 'in the first'.

"The narrative is just free imagination, visual ideas I’ve wanted to do for a long time, and stuff I came up with while listening to the song. Matching the energy and the beat of the song is something I’m very concerned with in general, and especially on this one." - André Chocron

Overall this was probably one of my favourite music videos that we as a class have reviewed this year. The concept was very simple, but one that Chocron pulled off fantastically. The fact that he's been making music videos for bigger and bigger names in the music industry shows that he is a young talent on the rise, and deservedly in my opinion.

My Recurring Dream from André Chocron on Vimeo.

Havoc - Review

After being shown the original 'Havoc' film, our task was to now create our own version of the music video with a remix of the same song. We were given instructions to meet in the theatre, a room that we hadn't as a class previously worked in, so this gave an added element of excitement to the project. When we arrived we found a circular dolly track had already been set up in the centre of the room, roughly 20 foot wide. My main problem I had encountered during the filming of my previous videos was the limited stability of the camera, so I had been keen to work with a dolly track for some time. Inferring from the original 'Havoc' video and the set up of the room, I had a good idea of what this assignment would contain, which only made me more eager to get started. Our head tutor Tim explained to us the plan and asked for people to be in the production team, and due to my prior interest in this area I immediately volunteered, eventually being selected as the lighting manager. When the production team was sorted, Tim asked the rest of the class to form groups of four. We were later told that each group would have an individual segment of the film to perform some sort of action (these included letting off party poppers, balloons and blowing flour). As the groups filed off to gather their various props for the shoot, the production team, made up of Liam Woodridge as cameraman, Abi Cannings as dolly operator and Sam Sheard on the wind machine, stayed behind to set everything up.

Tim working the dolly.

All in all it took about 3 hours to film every single group, which was roughly how long we were expecting. The only problem that occurred during filming is that occasionally the dolly would come apart due to loose connections in the track, meaning we would have to film that segment in particular again. Between each group's performance I had a bit of time to play around with the lighting, and by turning the overhead lights off and setting up four in each corner of the room I managed to create a really good, dark and moody sort of lighting which only lit up half of each person in the centre of the circle's face.

When all groups had finished recording individually, we all piled into the room and began planning recording a group segment. Everyone bar the production team lined up in two different circles around the outside of the dolly, and the plan was for everyone to do the same action that they had done when inside the circle with their groups. The difference was that we were recording outside the circle, and when the camera had passed you, you would swap with the person behind you in the other circle and they would do their action when the camera came past them again.

For this section we brought the four standing lights to the inside of the circle, plus had me walking around just behind the camera with a light facing everyone, giving the effect of the spotlight. To finish off we had a 'celebratory' group shot in the centre of the circle where everyone let off their party poppers/balloons and whatnot.

Overall I genuinely enjoyed being the lighting manager on this project, because all though a lot of it consisted of standing in the same spot for ages it gave me a chance to be involved in the production for the whole time rather than the groups. It also gave me a chance to observe how to properly operate a dolly, which will no doubt become useful in the future. Without a doubt the ,most essential thing I have learnt from this project is the importance of timing, how patient you have to be even when it gets stressful, and increasing my editing skills - having a wider range of knowledge when it comes to transitions.

'Cry Havoc' - ED Creative Media Production 2014 from PCA Media on Vimeo.

9:30 Review: Havoc

When tasked with making the music video for the band 'While She Sleeps' song 'Havoc', indie producers Frokost films decided to get creative. Directed by Frokost's founder Andre Chocron, who's directorial credits include other music videos for stars such as Paul McCartney and London Grammar, the video was shot on a Red Epic and a 75mm master prime lens at 300fps. To be able to capture motion at this high amount of fps you would need the correct sensor, this is so you reduce motion blur as much as possible to create the smoothest shot when slowed down. The original shot was only 18 seconds long, but slowed down to 3 minutes 34 seconds. The high fps rate is the reason the video is so smooth even when slowed down.

This was the first piece of it's kind that I had seen, so it was nice to find something that I thought was original, it also gave me some ideas for future projects. Whilst I liked the concept of the video, I personally thought it was played a bit too slowly for the particular song and there were points where I was almost bored of it. Also, I don't know if it was done purposely, but the acrobats jumping were out of time and it wasn't in style with the sharp, precise quality of the film. All though this is true, you have to remember that there were nearly forty people involved in this production so managing them would have been a monumental struggle. I found the technical aspect of the video stunning, the lighting in particular. Filming was done in a warehouse where there would limited lighting options, so to get everything sorted would have required extreme preparation.

To work out how much he had to slow the video down, Chocron had to incorporate some maths into his production. When filming a regular speed video you record at 25fps. You divide 25 by the number of fps you are recording for your particular video, in this case 300. Now 25 divided by 300 would work out at 0.083, which is then multiplied by 100, totalling 8.3%.

25 / 300 = 0.083 x 100 = 8.3%

HAVOC: Behind the scenes from André Chocron on Vimeo.

References: andrechocron.no http://petapixel.com/2013/02/10/bts-slow-motion-music-video-shot-using-one-continuous-18-second-shot/

Shooting at Mount Edgecombe the other day✌️🎥

Zombie Short - Review

Filming The day prior to us returning to college after the Easter Holidays we were sent a briefing for our first project. We were given instructions to bring in tattered clothes that we didn't mind getting ruined, plus any make up/fake blood we wanted to zombify ourselves. Apart from this, and the obvious fact that we would be making a zombie film of some kind, we were told nothing else. When we came in on the Tuesday morning we were asked to devise a quick 'Zombie Survival Plan' (see below) that included weaponry, shelter, plus food and water. After this, participating people donned their zombie gear and as a class made our way to Plymouth Hoe, where we would be shooting the film. When we arrived at the Hoe we were split up into groups of 8 and were then given instructions to go and film the beginning of our short. This would mean that each group would have a different beginning/build up of their film and everyone's ending would be the same - a GoPro strapped to someone's chest running through the full horde of zombies. Our group went searching for a place to film and after about 10 minutes we found somewhere absolutely perfect - an abandoned outdoor swimming pool complete with storm damage (zombie damage for the purpose of the film) and trashed changing rooms. The broken windows and bits of broken concrete were absolutely perfect in setting the scene. Before we could start shooting we needed to decide as a group how we were going to do this, whether we would have an all out zombie attack (28 Days Later-esque) or whether we would have the more common slow, lethargic zombies like Day of the Dead. We agreed that we would try something different, that we would find the zombies passed out on the floor, and it would take them a while to properly regain their strength after waking up. This would make it a more interesting process. Because we had decided on our ideas prior to filming, it actually only took about half an hour to finish shooting our intro. Satisfied that we had gotten everything we needed, we headed back up to meet the rest of the team and shoot the GoPro shot.

Editing When it came to editing the group and I decided that we would all chip in and do a group edit, therefore saving time and effort as our films would have been similar/exactly the same anyway. Whilst editing we decided a good idea would be to portray the film as if it were flashbacks, eventually leading up to the point where the protagonist attempts to run through a group of the zombies. Working together we produced a film that we were all very happy with.

Zombie Short from Nick Bennett on Vimeo.

Work in motion

Working on the dolly at college, first time using the tracks🚂🎥 #lifeonthedolly #seewhatididthere

#seewhatididthere #lifeonthedolly

Zombie Survival Plan

Weapon: My weapon of choice in a zombie invasion would be a samurai sword. It's easy to carry around and useful in close combat whereas a gun would not. It would also be lighter than a big gun so you could carry it around on a back-strap and have your hands free also. I imagine that an above average amount of running would be involved in a zombie attack so manoeuvrability for me is essential.

Mode of Transport: Speed would obviously be vital in a get away, but you would also need a heavyweight vehicle in case it became necessary to ram your way through a horde of zombies. Because of this I would choose an off-road Land Rover Defender. With guns and stuff.

Source of Food and Water: Because zombies aren't known for their wide-range of food preferences (primarily focused on the brains thing) this leaves supermarkets, like Morrisson's for example, otherwise untouched. As well as the almost endless supply of tinned food and loo roll, supermarkets also, with the right modifications, make a pretty impenetrable fortress. This leads me to my next point;

Shelter: Morrison's makes a good HQ, also big enough so that people can have some time to themselves with a machine-made cup of tea and a £3 book if they needed some space. Zombies are known for being pretty 'in your face'.

Form of Contact: Since all internet and electricity has been cut off, the only way to contact people sheltered in neighbouring supermarkets is by smoke signals. If they're not in visual range of the signals, they're probably dead.

Shooting at abandoned outdoor swimming pool #professionalasfuck

#professionalasfuck

Final Documentary - Review

FILMING It was time to start filming our final 6 minute documentary, and I couldn't wait. I had had this idea for a long time and now that I had the chance to begin I couldn't start quickly enough. I booked out all the equipment I needed from the ERC (Equipment Resource Centre) a week in advance, and even managed to get my hands on some new stuff that I hadn't used before. This included a 35mm lens that I used for my close ups - it has a very shallow focus so I did a lot of focus pulls too. I started off filming 'the band' in one of the actor's bedrooms. I didn't necessarily tell them every time I started to film because I wanted to get a lot of natural dialogue going for filler shots. This was meant to be where they practiced, so I had props such as guitars and drumsticks lying around for added effect. I conducted interviews with each member of the band which were completely improvised, and asked them to express their feelings about being in a tight-knit group of friends who spend as much time together as they do, and whether it affected their music. I also asked them to talk about their influences and why they started a band in the first place. I had based the band in a modern day setting but had the idea that they should be heavily influenced by late 80s/early 90s bands such as Pixies, The Stone Roses and Oasis. After getting enough filler footage and the interviews in the room, we headed down to the local pub (after getting them to sign a release form of course) and started filming the band playing pool and darts whilst having a few pints. Considering it was a Wednesday night it was surprisingly busy so the atmosphere was lively, which really helped with filming.

At this point I wasn't exactly sure how I was going to structure my documentary, so I was just getting as much footage as possible so I had more to choose from when it came to editing. I even managed to get some shots of my friend driving on the way home the next day, making use of the mirrors and the passing scenery.

EDITING I sat down at my editing station with a clear mind and tried to think of a way that I could structure my documentary most effectively. After about an hour of flicking through the footage I decided what direction I wanted to head in, and started putting it together piece by piece. Editing is probably my favourite part of any production so I was getting along with it quite well, but the hardest struggle I faced was deciding which music to use. Since it was a music based documentary this was of great importance to me, and I actually spent about another hour getting the songs perfect. Despite this I managed to get the edit done in a day without rushing, and it's safe to say I was very happy with the end result. My footage exactly captured the essence of the style of the band which is exactly what I was aiming for, plus I feel the music added to it perfectly.

Overall I very much enjoyed this project due to the fact that I got to choose the film subject and dictate everything my way (self confessed control freak). Editing was probably my favourite part because I got to see my work coming together exactly the way I had planned which was very fulfilling. You can watch my final project below.

Nick Bennett-Final 6 Min Doc from Nick Bennett on Vimeo.

Dragonfly: Forced Perspective

'Dragonfly' is a song by musician Nick Batterham, with the music video directed by Luci Schroder.

Nick Batterham 'Dragon Fly' from LUCI SCHRODER on Vimeo.

The video, as you can see, plays about with the idea of forced perspective. This is a technique that employs optical illusion to make an object appear farther away, closer, larger or smaller than it actually is. Examples of this are making someone's finger big enough to look like it is pushing a car along, and doing the same thing with someone's hand but instead squeezing a bodybuilder's muscles together. The objective of the video is to accompany the song in an appropriate way, and this does so in a light-hearted manner that has the ability to amuse the viewer.

Forced perspective was used more in the past, before modern film-makers had CGI to create something bigger. An example is of the classic 1954 Godzilla film. The plot tells the story of a huge sea creature that comes ashore in post-WWII Japan, wreaking destruction and death. The films depicts the monster as being hundreds of feet tall, but in reality a miniature set was used and a man was inside a Godzilla costume. The film was hugely successful and showed that you can make truly great films from using forced perspective. A new version of this film is set to be released in 2014, but instead CGI was used over the older forced perspective.

References: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forced_perspective http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godzilla_(1954_film) http://vimeo.com/26269416

All reference links viewed on 26/03/2014

This Is The News

'The 7 Ws' that we had to follow to explain the nature of our news story.

News Report from Nick Bennett on Vimeo.

The 'Taking Something Everyday And Making It Interesting' Project

For this film we were told to make something that would promote creative and original thinking and reflect on how documentary filmmakers deal with the ‘real’, ‘everyday’ or 'mundane’.

First off I discussed ideas with my second team member Keiran (keiranmcclary.blogspot.co.uk) about what we could base our video on. We struggled a bit because all of the basic ideas that first come to mind had already been used by other members of the course, so we decided to do it on the first object we saw when we opened our bags. This happened to be a pouch of Tobacco that Keiran's brother had left in his bag. Tobacco is thought to have originated in native America, but is has been cultivated for so long that it is no longer found in the wild. Forms of tobacco include include cigars, cigarettes, snuff, pipe tobacco, chewing tobacco and flavoured shisha tobacco. Keiran and I had also both recently watched a documentary about a man who was unnaturally emotionally attached to his car, so we came across the idea of a man who was physically attracted to a cigarette he had rolled. We would breathe life into this cigarette by portraying his relationship with the protagonist as if it were between two friends. The film would document the activities that the pair got up to and how their relationship worked, and looking at other people's opinions on the matter.

When it came to filming it was really quite basic, we had a couple of interview shots to interlink into the film and just followed the character around with the camera on a fig rig for the rest of the shots. Because we were a group of two and there was only one person in the film this worked quite well as there was always someone to operate the camera.

Documentary - The Perfect Cigarette from Nick Bennett on Vimeo.

Critiquing Someone Else's Work: The work that I decided to critique was Jade Popham and Katie Patrick's. I really like their work because I felt like it was really fun and a great simple idea. The everyday object that they used was an 'Aglet', an aglet is the plastic part on the end of a shoelace that prevents it from unravelling and fraying. I think it was a good idea for them to ask people what they thought an aglet was, despite it's common use nobody had ever heard of one. As well as the subject, I liked the way that they used charts and board presentations in the actual film. It seemed to give it a more professional feel even though it was quite clearly a mockumentary. The only slightly negative thing I noticed was the sound. The quality wasn't the best and the levels for the different clips were louder/quieter than the others.

Overall I think this was a great documentary with a good subject choice, they managed to make it funny yet still believable. It was also very well edited.

References: http://asylumfilms.co.uk/directors/richard-hunter/ http://www.richardpeterhunter.co.uk http://vimeo.com/richardhunter

9.30 Review - The Work of Richard Hunter

Richard Hunter is a freelance filmmaker from London. "Coming from a documentary background, Richard is no stranger to shooting 'on-the-go' whilst trying to capture the best out of any situation. Having filmed a varied subject of 'micro-docs' that spam from addicts to skateboarders, Richard developed his passion for the story. That combined with his hunger to constantly learn new things, keep them fun and apply them to his work are what truly drives him to stay creative."

Richard Hunter has directed all sorts of films, four of which I will be studying today. One thing I have noticed that all four videos have in common is that the subject of the films are all based on someone's passion. It seems to me that Hunter has thought about a concept of documenting someone else's love for something into a short film. Another similarity I found is that the videos are edited at quite a slow pace, as if everything has a very calm feel to it. The style of them also interlink with one another, in the sense that they are edited smoothly and well thought out. One continuous message I got from all of the films is that no matter what, you should be happy with yourself and be happy with what you do.

The Toy Maker is about an old man who has had a passion for toys for a very long time, his passion is just making the toys. This shows that he is still a young man at heart. It is important to him that he gets to keep making these toys because to him it is what he enjoys doing most in the world. In this documentary he is staring at the camera for a couple of seconds too long and laughing at his own joke, this makes the documentary funny and light-hearted.

The second mini-doc I watched was 'Bowie, the Teddy Bear Stuffer'. This production takes us inside the day-to-day life of a Build-A-Bear worker who spends his spare time impersonating rock superstar David Bowie. This documentary differentiates slightly from those we see regularly, as the narrator is the same person in the film. He is telling us his story of how and why he impersonates Bowie, and how it effects him in the real world. The film follows him around his home and his workplace and gives us a better insight into his head. At the end of the video, he says; "I'm doing what I really like to do. I feel pretty much happy with that." This sums up really well the message I had inferred from the rest of Richard Hunter's videos at the beginning of this post.

The penultimate film followed teenager Caspar Brooker around his favourite place to skate, South Bank. Even though a lot of his friends don't skate there any more, Caspar still does because the place means something to him. Unlike the other videos, this film includes a number of special effects and sound effects that wouldn't suit the generally atmosphere of Hunter's work. I think this is maybe because he is portraying the life of a teenage skater, he may be trying to show an 'edgier' side to them. Like the Bowie video, the narrator is also the subject of the film. I think this gives it a more personal feel to it and enables the audience to connect to the protagonist more, therefore helping them to enjoy the video.

The final, and probably the weirdest, documentary was called 'Amanda's Autopsy'. It gave detailed descriptions of Amanda's hobby - taxidermy. The camera tended to hover above her hands whilst she performed the procedure, showing every little detail. The scene is actually quite graphic, so any animal lovers may want to avoid this video. The lighting was very dark and only lit up Amanda's face, leaving the rest of the room in shadow. I think this portrayed her hobby quite well, there isn't really much enjoyable about a dead rat in my opinion.

References: https://vimeo.com/37592769 https://vimeo.com/37592769 https://vimeo.com/28076278 https://vimeo.com/16663558

All reference links viewed on 24/03/2014

Risk Assessment for my documentary.

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