Exercise

Jennifer Tan Qing Ni
0333137
Video and Sound Production
Exercises

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WEEK 1  |  1st April 2019

For the first week, Mr Martin gave us a brief introduction about the importance of sound. Without sound it would make a video very boring. He first showed a video without sound then with sound, to show the drastic difference it makes. Then we had a video editing exercise in which Mr Martin showed us a small clip of the popular Netflix show Jessica Jones. We then had to edit a set of videos the same way as the clip.

Figure 1.1 Progress

Figure 1.2 Progress #2

Mr Martin also briefed us about our final project in which we had to make a stop motion video. He showed us a bunch of examples and we then had to watch a few more at home and describe why we like the videos we chose.


#1 Western Spaghetti by PES

This video is one that I never saw anything coming. It turned everything of what I expected to something completely opposite. I really love how the video is about food but its not literally food. It managed to get the message across by using things that didn't even look like food, for example: rubiks cubes, sticky notes as butter, candy corn as fire. It is so unique and creative in a way that is weird, but a good kind of weird. It really makes me question how they even do it and how did they even come up with it. PES makes a lot of content like this, and one of the video was so creative that it was nominated  for Best Animated Short Film by the Oscars.

#2 Last Leaf - OK Go

For this video, they decided to draw each frame for an animation but instead of just a normal digital animation, they decided to draw each scene on a piece of toast, making the bread "come to life". When I saw it the first time, I thought, "WHY?" but at the same time I thought "WHY NOT?" Its really weird and a creative way to bring animation to life by drawing each frame on bread. I really love the originality of it and also how smooth the animation is. I can see it being a really lengthy process but the outcome is really amazing. 

#3 Honda 'Paper' Commercial

For this stop motion video, its a commercial for Honda to show how long of milestone the company has come. This isn't just a typical stop motion where different items are moved. More so, they decided to hand draw each frame and kind of make it look like its moving on its own, with the help of the animators adding a piece of paper in each frame. Kind of like old school animation. The thing I really love about this is the hand drawn illustrations and also the sound effects added into the different elements. I also like how each vehicle is different but the same type of tech or engine is used in each vehicle, which perfectly delivers the message of how long they have come.

IDEAS FOR STOP MOTION VIDEO
Then we were asked to come up with a rough idea of what we would want to do for our final project and come up with something for our final project which is the stop motion video.

I have 2 ideas one that is literally the title but another not so literal.
#1
A little girl will be going to bed. A few seconds after she falls asleep, suddenly her rooms turns into space without her realization. Suddenly, someone (maybe an astronaut or a mermaid) will wake her up and they will suddenly float due to the lack of gravity in the room (since they are in space). They will then fly out the window and it will have stars everywhere as they are in outer space, but suddenly a whale will pass by them, and the little girl will realise that it isn't just normal outer space, but sea creatures are swimming in it as if its the sea. Then the adventures will take off from there. Below are some pictures to serve as a moodboard to give a clearer picture.

#2 

It can be something about what we hope for in the future that is really possible, a literal dream. Basically it could be a video that is empowering and inspiring. Something we all hope for:

• no more discrimination towards gender
• no more discrimination towards race
• no more discrimination towards beauty standards
• no more discrimination towards religion
• no more wars
• no more animal abuse
• equality
• no more pollution
• world peace
• cure for cancer
• a better environment
• no more poverty 
• no more anger

WEEK 2  |  8 April 2019
SOUND
For our second week, Our lecturer first gave us a lecture on how sounds work and also a little bit about how we humans hear sounds. Then, we moved on to learning how edit sounds using Adobe Audition. He commented that different headphones may produce different levels of sounds and that we should look out for it. For our exercise, we were given 7 music clips. One of them is an original (flat) and the other 6 are the same music but the bass and all has been altered. Our task is to match the audio clips to the original by using the parametric equaliser. 

Figure 2.1 Matching the eq to the flat

Figure 2.2 progress #2

We then were given another exercise, which is to enhance the sound effects that were given, which was a bomb sound and also a punch. We were first given a small lecture on how to do it. 

Progress for Punch

Progress for bomb

VIDEO

After that, for video, we were given a lecture on the different types of shots. He showed us a few videos that uses the main types of shots. 

• Wide Shot (WS)
• Medium Wide Shot (MWS)
• Medium Shots (MS)
• Medium Close Up (MCU)
• Over The Shoulder (OS)
• Close Up Shot (CU)
• Extreme Close Up (ECU)

Then he showed us a Thai ad in which it shows multiple genres for an ad for soap. Then we were given a genre from the Thai ad and we had to identify the types of shots used. Mine was horror. Below is the ad that we watched. 

Then, a template was given to us so we can screenshot and put what type of shots we're used. 

dead

WEEK 3  |  15th April 2019
SOUND
For this week, we were given an audio of a woman talking and we were asked to edit the voice as if she was talking on the phone. We were first given a lecture about it, then it was up to us to edit it using the parametric equaliser.

Figure 3.1 Editing the phone voice

After that, we were given 4 other task, in which we had to edit the audio to 4 types of voices.

• Hearing it from a bathroom 
• Stadium
• Airport announcement
• Monster voice

Figure 3.2 Airport

Airport Audio

Figure 3.3 Bathroom

Bathroom Audio

Figure 3.4 Stadium

Monster Voice

Another exercise of ours was to add sound effects to a muted iron man scene. We were asked to find our sounds on free sound.org.

Here is the final outcome.

VIDEO

For this week, we were given a few clips that were shot by our seniors, which was them acting out a scene that we watched from the Thai ad. We were then asked to edit it using the skills that we learnt from the pass 3 weeks. 

Figure 3.5  Progress of editing

After that, there comes our shooting exercise, in which we were split into different groups and we were asked to shoot the given cinematography shots using a DSLR camera. There were 9 shots that needed to be shot. 

After shooting the videos, we were asked to compile and edit it into a video and state what type of shots they were. 

Below is the video. 

Reflections for the exercise
I quite enjoy this exercise to be honest (despite the hot weather for good lighting). I got to use the camera and shoot small videos. I had a lot of fun in this exercise and there were a lot of bloopers.