Practice In Action: NEW MODULE

Practice In Action:

The new module is underway and as such we had to assemble into groups. Our first task was to each draw a simple picture that could tell a story and create a theme. In my group, this is what we came up with:

From Left to Right:
Alex Record Player, Fi TV and viewer, Oscar babies climbing the walls of a hospital ward, Ellie person alone in the dark.

From this, our themes were Mental Health, Addiction/Obsession, Loneliness, Trapped and Opression.

Dawn After Deadline

The deadline for the project I've been working on has passed leaving me plenty of time to experiment; this time with photography. Using  my 100D Cannon camera for it's intended purpose, photography! I used a 55mm lens for the first picture and a 300mm for the bottom picture. White balance was adjusted to no flash photography and the ISO was about 800. This gives you "Dawn After Deadline"

Post Production: Creating Non-Deigetic Sound

With the video and diegetic sound in place, the final element to complete my short film was non-diegetic sound. First, I reviewed the video clips to get a general feeling of the scenes that needed music. I then experimented with a few strings and notes on both guitar and piano. Once I had acquired the right melodies, I set about recording each of them in Garageband on my phone.

 The files were then exported from my phone and into my iTunes library where I created a soundtrack album to place them in.

Finally, I set about creating an album cover for the songs as if they were part of a published soundtrack that would be released with a motion picture film:

The three final tracks were "Lucy's Fear", "Lucy's Dream" and "Lucy's Reality" all of them reflecting different moments that the main character "Lucy" is placed in.

Post Production: Editing Live Action Sequences

Editing Live Action Sequences:

Today, I officially started piecing shots together into the first sequences of the short film. As the rotoscoped sections are still in progress, I began with live action. For example, in the scene where Lucy looks through the keyhole "Lucy's Dream", the shots have been blurred and altered to have a cooler, misty looking effect in order to imply that what the audience sees is a dreamy vision. Using temperature and compound blur settings, the picture above shows the original shot (left) and the edited piece (right).

Also during production, I took two shots of the same scene but with different white balance settings. This is because these scenes will be shown twice in the film; once in a dream and again in the real world. For instance, the shots above have two different white balance filters applied. The one on the left is daylight and the other on the right is indoor lighting. 

Production: 2nd Location Shoot

2nd Location Shoot

Today was the 2nd day of filming on location. I selected Donisthorpe woodland trails and Conkers Water Side, Moira. The purpose today was to complete the scenes for the dream that the rotoscoped character has of a better reality. Also, the ending scene of the main character redrawing a sketch with a more optimistic outlook.

Post Production: First Scene COMPLETE

First Scene COMPLETE:

After rotoscoping every frame of the live action shot, the first animated scene for my short film is complete. It's the scene that transitions from animation to live action, a vital point in the films plot revealing that the main character's cage was nothing but an illusion.

Production: Creating visual effects with food colouring

Creating Visual Effects, with food colouring:

Whilst I'm at home for the Christmas Holidays, today I had a go at creating some of my own visual effects for my short film; using food colouring and water. Quite simply, I placed my Cannon 100D camera close up to a clear bowl of water in front  of a plain white board, prepared two types of food colouring and separately filmed them being poured into the bowl.

The concept of this idea for visual effects came from the exhibited film Everything and More  by Rachel Rose. In the film, Milk and oil was used to create a nebula effect to link to the film's narration from a former astronaut on the topic of Space.

With this footage, I intend to alter it in post production to make it more 'mystic looking. The concept of this is to be used whilst the main character is dreaming inside their cage of black and white. Dreaming about this colour and brilliant swirling clouds shows what they would long for outside their cage; if they had the courage to step out of it.