Video and Sound Production (Exercises)
Exercises
25/04/24 - ? (Week 1 - Week 8)
Rafa Maritza Hertrian 0364958
Bachelor of Design (Honours) Creative Media
Video & Sound Production VSP 60104
Contents
- Instructions
- Lectures
- Exercises
- Projects
- Reflections
INSTRUCTIONS
LECTURES
WEEK 1 (25/04/2024)
Today Mr. Martin introduced the class to the module, exercises, projects, and
tool requirements. He also told the students that they needed equipment for
some of the assignments such as a camera and a tripod. Students were also
introduced to Adobe Premiere Pro which is an application that will be used a
lot in this module.
Week 1 asynchronous class materials
Shot Sizes (reading material)
-
Extreme Long Shot (ELS) or Extreme Wide Shot (EWS): An extreme long shot (or extreme wide shot) makes your subject appear small against their location.
- Long Shot (LS) or Wide Shot (WS): The long shot (also known as a wide shot, abbreviated “WS”) is the same idea, but a bit closer.
- Full Shot (FS): technically, this shot begins in a wide shot, moves to a full shot (seen above), and eventually ends in a cowboy shot.
- Medium Wide Shot (MWS): A medium long shot (aka medium long shot) frames the subject from roughly the knees up.
- Cowboy Shot (CS): A variation on this is the Cowboy Shot, which frames the subject from roughly mid-thighs up. It’s called a “cowboy shot” because it is used in Westerns to frame a gunslinger’s gun or holster on his hip.
- Medium Shot (MS): It's similar to the cowboy shot above, but frames from roughly the waist up and through the torso.
- Medium Close-Up Shot (MCU): The medium close-up frames your subject from roughly the chest up. So it typically favors the face, but still keeps the subject somewhat distant.
- Close-Up (CU): You know it’s time for a close-up shot when you want to reveal a subject’s emotions and reactions. The close-up camera shot fills your frame with a part of your subject. If your subject is a person, it is often their face.
- Extreme Close-Up (ECU): An extreme close-up is the most you can fill a frame with your subject. It often shows eyes, mouth, and gun triggers. In extreme close-up shots, smaller objects get great detail and are the focal point.
Framing (reading material)
- Single Shot: A two-shot is a camera shot with two characters featured in the frame
- Two Shot: A three-shot features three characters in the frame
- Three Shot:A three-shot features three characters in the frame
- Over-the-Shoulder Shot (OTS): Another element of camera shots to consider is the perspective of the shot. An over-the-shoulder shot shows your subject from behind the shoulder of another character.
- Point-of-View Shot (POV): An over-the-hip shot is similar to over-the-shoulder in that the camera is placed with a character's hip in the foreground, and the focus subject in the plane of acceptable focus.
Camera Angle (reading material)
- Eye Level Shot: When your subject is at eye-level they’re in a neutral perspective (not superior or inferior). This mimics how we see people in real life -- our eye line connecting with theirs.
- Low Angle Shot: A low angle shot frames the subject from a low camera height looking up at them. These camera shots most often emphasize power dynamics between characters.
- High Angle Shot: In a high angle shot, the camera points down at your subject. It usually creates a feeling of inferiority, or “looking down” on your subject.
- Hip Level Shot: A hip level shot is when your camera is roughly waist-high.
- Knee Level Shot: This is when your camera height is about as low as your subject’s knees. They can emphasize a character’s superiority, if paired with a low angle.
- Ground Level Shot: A ground level shot is when your camera’s height is on ground level with your subject. Needless to say, this shot captures what’s going on the ground your subject stands on
- Shoulder-Level Shot: This is when your camera is roughly as high as your subject’s shoulders. Shoulder level shots are actually much more standard than an eye level shot, which can make your actor seem shorter than reality:
- Dutch Angle Shot: For a dutch angle (dutch tilt), the camera is slanted to one side. With the horizon lines tilted in this way, you can create a sense of disorientation.
- Birds-Eye-View Shot / Overhead Shot: An overhead shot is from way up high, looking down on your subject and a good amount of the scenery surrounding him or her. This can create a great sense of scale and movement.
- Aerial Shot / Helicopter Shot: Whether taken from a helicopter or drone, this is a shot from way up high. It establishes a large expanse of scenery.
Composition (reading material)
refers to the way elements of a scene are arranged in a camera
frame. Shot composition refers to the arrangement of visual
elements to convey an intended message.
- The Rule of Thirds: It's about positioning a character to show their relation to other elements in the scene. As the camera frames your shot, keep the image on the intersecting lines
- Balance and Symmetry: Shooting a perfectly symmetrical shot, breaking the rule of thirds, is used for very specific reasons. Artists use this technique to direct the viewer’s eye to a specific place. Working in tandem with the rules of composition, blocking, and staging is also responsible for creating dynamic frames.
- Leading Lines: Leading lines are actual lines (or sometimes imaginary ones) in a shot, that lead the eye to key elements in the scene. Artists use this technique to direct the viewer’s eye but they also use it to connect the character to essential objects, situations, or secondary subjects.
- Eye-Level Framing: Eye-level framing positions the audience at eye level with the characters, which plants the idea that we are equal with the characters.
- Depth of Field: the size of the area in your image where objects appear acceptably sharp. That area is called the field, and the size of that area is the depth of that field.
- Deep Space Composition: deep focus, and determine how they all relate to each other. Filmmakers use deep space when significant elements in a scene are positioned both near and far from the camera.
Quiz for 1: Shot, Camera angle, and Composition
WEEK 2 (02/05/2024)
In week 2 we discussed shot sizes and angles. Mr. Martin shows us
several example short films and makes us identify the shot types. By the
end of the class, we are told to film ourselves with the shot types that
we have learned in class.
Week 2 asynchronous class materials
The Three-Act Structure
A three-act structure keeps your beginning separate from your middle
and your middle separate from your end.
- Act 1: Setup The setup involves the introduction of the characters, their story world, and some kind of ‘’inciting incident,” typically a moment that kickstarts the story. It’s usually the first 20-30 minutes of a film.
- Act 2: Confrontation or Build The middle of your story should raise the stakes, you want the audience to keep watching. This is the main chunk of the story and often leads us to the worst possible thing that can happen to the character.
- Act 3: Resolution or Payoff The end should bring some kind of catharsis or resolution, (regardless if the ending is happy or sad). It’s a sigh, either of relief or despair.
Quiz for week 2: 3-Act Story Structure
Lalin Three-Act Review
1. Which part is act 1, act 2, act 3 respectively? Describe each act with
ONE paragraph only.
Act 1: Act 1 starts when Lalin introduces herself as a famous person in
Japan. Contrastingly, she tells about her backstory of being bullied for
her looks during her younger years. This made her self-conscious leading
to her wearing a mask all the time. Finally, she moved to Japan where no
one knew her, and wearing masks everyone was not weird. Act 1 ended when
Lalin started her social media life with edited photos.
Act 2: Act 2 starts by showing the difference between her life in social
media and real life where she got a lot of respect from social media while
she was just an average girl in real life. Then she starts talking to a
boy she met online, named Nut. She begins to chat with Nut daily and even
video calls with him.
Nut asks to meet her in person. She is anxious about it but eventually
agrees to meet up with him.
Act 3: On the day she was supposed to meet him, she felt really insecure
about how she really looked and canceled their meeting. Despite that, the
boy still asks the girl to read his book. While she reads his book, it
shows a flashback about how Lalin and Nut have interacted. In the
flashback, Nut was wearing a Santa Claus costume because people told him
to be one because of his size. Nut was anxious about his size but at that
time Lalin still talked to him. However, when they were talking everyone
mocked them because of their looks, hence Lalin left Nut with shame. As
the flashback ends, it ends
2. What is the inciting incident in the movie?
A live broadcast accidentally reveals Lalin's true identity. She has
carefully built an illusion, but this moment-shattering it pushes her to
face the difference between her real life and her online image. The story
is further developed by this incident, which also establishes the
background for Lalin's quest for acceptance and self-discovery.
3. What is the midpoint scene in the movie?
Following learning of her true identity, Lalin must make a decision. At
first, she is heartbroken and thinks of giving up her online identity
completely. However, she starts to get supportive and encouraging messages
from her followers, which helps her realize that the real her is worth
more than the phony persona she had been presenting. This insight changes
the course of the story, encouraging Lalin to accept her true self and
gain confidence in her identity.
4. What is the Climax scene in the movie?
It happened when Lalin read the book given by Nut showing the Flashback of
how they met before and ended with Lalin feeling emotional
5. What is the theme of the movie?
Self-worth and vulnerability
Everything Everywhere, All at Once Three-Act Review
1. Which part is act 1, act 2, act 3 respectively? Describe each act
with ONE paragraph only.
Act 1: The first act introduces a Chinese-American Middle age woman named
Evelyn Wang. She was struggling with things such as maintaining her
family's laundromat, her critical father, and her daughter who was
becoming distant. Then she met with her husband Wayond from an alternative
universe. He explains that to prevent an impending Catastrophe that was
caused by a powerful entity called Jobu Tupaki she had to connect with
parallel universes.
Act 2: Evelyn falls into the complexity of the multiverse in the second
act, where she learns abilities and lessons from her other versions. She
meets several unusual realities that put doubt on her idea of who she is
and what her mission is. Evelyn finds it difficult to fix her broken
connections as she fights Jobu Tupaki's men and makes her way through the
universes, especially with her daughter Joy—who turns out to be Jobu
Tupaki. Because Evelyn discovers more about her own potential and the
consequences of her decisions, this act increases the tension and raises
the emotional stakes.
Act 3: The battle ends in a multiverse-spanning fight between Evelyn and
Jobu Tupaki. Evelyn discovers during their encounter that Jobu Tupaki's
chaos and nihilism are a result of her own emotions of separation and
incompetence. Evelyn chooses to face her own anxieties and rebuild her
relationships, especially with Joy, after embracing the ideas of empathy
and acceptance. In the resolution, the family comes together, finds
purpose in their common experiences, and works out their disagreements.
2. What is the inciting incident in the movie?
Evelyn Wang is at the IRS office for a tax audit, a reincarnation of
her husband, Waymond, unexpectedly approaches her. This other Waymond
shows her to the idea of parallel universes and tells her that she
holds the secret to rescuing the multiverse from a powerful evil. This
scene sets the tone for the rest of the film by bringing Evelyn from
her everyday existence of struggle into a fantasy adventure.
3. What is the midpoint scene in the movie?
Evelyn meets Jobu Tupaki, who turns out to be her daughter Joy and they
have a major fight. Evelyn's realization of Jobu Tupaki's actual
character and the depth of her power defines it. Evelyn faces off with
Jobu Tupaki's overwhelming nihilism, which puts doubt on her
understanding of reality and her responsibility for preserving the
multiverse. The story's direction is drastically changed at this point,
escalating Evelyn's internal and external tensions.
4. What is the Climax scene in the movie?
Evelyn is completely embracing the fact that she may access the
knowledge and skills of her multiple selves anywhere in the multiverse.
Rather than turning to physical force, she employs empathy and
understanding, extending kindness and love to Jobu Tupaki (Joy) and
other opponents. By settling their strong family difficulties and
preventing the multiverse from being destroyed, Evelyn helps Jobu Tupaki
(Joy) find a sense of purpose and connection in this emotionally charged
and transforming finale.
5.What is the theme of the movie?
acceptance, forgiveness, and the strength of love.
WEEK 3 (09/05/2024)
Storyboard (Reading Material)
A visual representation of a film sequence and breaks down the action into
individual panels. It is a series of ordered drawings, with camera
direction, dialogue, or other pertinent details. It sketches out how a video
will unfold, shot by shot.
Traditional story Board: basic pencil sketches that include
detailed information like arrows for camera movement, characters, props,
etc.
Thumbnail style storyboard: have any writing. They’re not
used as often as detailed ones. But then again, if it’s just you, or a small
team, writing might not be necessary.
Quiz for 3: Storyboards
WEEK 4 (16/05/2024)
Week 4 Asynchronous class materials
the entire process of a film’s inception, creation, and release.
Production is sometimes also used to refer to one of three steps in the
filmmaking process, where the cameras are actually rolling — but more on
that later.
Stages of Film Production
- Development: This is where it all begins. Development is the spark. A producer or a screenwriter has an idea, and they begin to make that idea into a movie
- Pre-production Time for the hard part: making the movie. Pre-production refers to all the preparation necessary before filming begins. In other words, it’s everything that happens between financing being secured and production. Three major things have to happen during this stage.
- Production: call sheet, a document sent out by an assistant director each day before a shoot. It tells each member of each department what their call time is and what they should be planning to do for the day. A lot of work happens on set before the camera starts filming. The grip and electric departments work to set up the lighting for the shot, which can take up to a few hours.
- Post-production: This process includes picture editing, Sound Editing, and additional visuals.
- Distribution: To get people to see your movie, you need to tell them it exists. Film marketing is a complex beast, and will look vastly different depending on a film’s budget and projected box office. After marketing, securing distribution is a crucial process. Securing distribution is a bit like the Development process part 2 — it’s about who you know and being able to sell your vision.
Week 7 (06/06/2024)
EXERCISES
Week 1 in class Editing Exercise and Independent Learning
Video Arrangement Practice- Mints
A simple practice for an introduction to using Premiere Pro. Mr.
Martin assigned us to create a short film out of given clips. He
taught us which tools to put all the clips together.
Video Arrangement Practice- Dorritos
Mr. Martin assigned us to an exercise similar to the previous one. We
need to make a short film out of the given clips but the clips are not
ordered. Hence, we need to figure out the order of the clips to make
the short film.
Week 2 Type of Shots Exercise
Type shot Practice
During class, after Mr. Martin explained about type shots and angles, he
told us to go outside of the class and get different types of shots that
have been reviewed. Then, we need to arrange the clips on Premiere Pro
and add a caption that labels which type of shot is the clip.
Week 3 Lalin Practice
Lalin Exercise
We were told to watch a short film called "My Name is Lalin" and we needed
to recreate one of the scenes in the movie. In this exercise, I practice
how to arrange the clips and add effects.
REFLECTIONS
Week 1
Mr Martin's explanation regarding the module tasks and projects enlighten me to prepare for the upcoming weeks. The lecture also gave me a brief understanding of what video and sound production is about.
Week 2
I get to understand the fundamentals of using Adobe Premiere Pro. From this, I got visualizations of what other work I could do with this application. In the future, I plan to dig deeper into how to use better works using Adobe Premiere's features.
Week 3
I began to get the hang of video production as the techniques and skills have been taught through asynchronous classes. I now understand that creating good movies or even short films takes several techniques such as shot sizes, shot angles, framing, composition, hard and ambiance sound, and many more that have not been covered.
Week 4
The process of finding sounds for the project "Everything, Everywhere All at Once" challenges my creativity skills by predicting which sound is suitable to use in the scene. It made me focus on every detail of a very short scene and it made me realize that there are a lot of things that we might miss when watching a movie. This made me appreciate the effort of movie producers.
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