2D animation! that's what we chose to do. but ill get to that. first off I want to stress that this was a neat little project, only took about a couple of months, wasn't too hard and I learnt a lot from it. perfect. It was nice of Steve to let us decide as a class what we wanted to do for this project and most people did want to do this so it was all good. It was a little bit of an inconvenience as we were also doing our FMP along side this and If im honest my main priority was my FMP but I still enjoyed this project.
we looked at different forms of animation through the years, from the early Victorian Practinoscope to the modern 3D animation films like Toy Story and Wall.e, this was interesting especially to see how little it took to amuse people in the 19th century. the first stage of the project was to assess the different forms of animation throughout the years, I did find it hard to keep interested in this subject as some of the early forms of animation were extremely basic. It didn't help that I broke one of the models Steve brought in to show the class, my bad. we did son get to the more interesting stuff like Disney and stop motion animation, which I had always found fascinating. I was first set on doing a Claymation animation for the finished product but knew that they never really turn out as good as you expect, I had tried before in school and it was never as good as my expectations. we had a few laughs making our own thaumotrope when me and Tim Oates made an R rated animation of Ralf Harris with a Didgeridoo and a young boy.
when we came to choosing our groups I was determined to go with people who I haven't done before as I had generally stayed in the same groups throughout the two years and was kind of fed up with it so I looked for someone different. I went with Liam Foster and Claudia, we worked very well together and even come up with the story for our animation in about half an hour. we all then agreed to split the pre production between us and all did a fair share which was really professional of us and something I knew I wouldn't do if in my usual group. we decided that there wouldn't be a script as the charaters weren't really say anything during the animation, instead we thought of a soundtrack that would play for each location on the screen, for example in London there would be 'hail Britannia' playing over it.
the animating process was fairly straight forward we made paper cutouts of our characters and placed them flat on a green table which would act as a green screen for the characters to move across, the backgrounds would be added in post-production. we stood above the table with the camera pointed at the area where the animation was taking place, we took a single picture then moved the pictures slightly in each shot. we took Inspiration from south park which also use 2D cutouts on a flat surface to make their animations. we where stood above the table until Stephan came in and suggested that we mount the camera to a pole and face the camera down to get a steadier picture. this did at the time prove useful, however we were quite happy with the way it was before this suggestion by Stephan and we had to adjust the animation according to the new way of shooting. we wrapped up the filming feeling that we had made something better than we expected, we looked forward to seeing the final result once it had been edited.
We put all the clips onto the computer and put them in order, it took a little while for us to put it all together and we had to repeat some shots as there was a large chase scene in the film. Liam showed me how to add our animation to 'After Effects' and add in the desired backgrounds to each shot, I was amazed to the amount of possibilities After Effects had and the pictures looked great on the new backgrounds. Once we had all the backgrounds we put it onto premier pro and put them all in order, we now had a watchable animation but something key seemed missing, the sound. i took the liberty of filming myself watching the animation all the way through and speaking in the voices of the characters and then added them to the soundtrack. I did two voices, Neil and the French Unicycle guy and Claudia did the bride using the same process of watching it through and speaking into a camera. once the voices where all put on the only thing missing were the soundtracks to each locations, there were 10 locations and each needed a different music track on them. I downloaded some music and sped them up for each location to give it a more rushed feeling as if they were actually running through the locations, this worked brilliantly and all that remained was changing the sound levels which I did whenever a character said something interesting I turned that track up and the other down.
Once it was done we showed it to the class and people seemed to enjoy it which was a bonus, mainly because it featured the legendary Neil Hunt which seemed to make people laugh. The main criticism was that you couldn't hear each voice all the time because they are talking over each other, however this was deliberate and some people even commented that this worked well. It was good that Neil himself actually found it funny and enjoyable, he mentioned that the idea was clever and that the animation itself was impressive. So overall the animation turned out pretty good and the project was quite the success, i have learnt a lot about how stop frame animation works and i have a good experience a piece of work that i can show off.
Wednesday 12 June 2013
Radio drama evaluation
A good experience. That's how I would sum up the radio drama assignment, its been a fun process and I have taken a lot from it. I have always been curious into how to create a radio drama as I listened to a lot when I was a kid, so to have the chance to compose my own was a good bonus. I had a good background on different radio dramas so when I had to choose two to analyse in a presentation I was already experienced enough.
it started off when we were in class and had to decide our groups, i had the idea to put everyone's names in a hat and then pull them out to determine the groups. Without cheating i picked George Woodward Georgie Mould and Tim Oates to be in my group, which was a coincidence as we had been together in the multi camera assignment. we threw around ideas, if i'm honest they weren't serious ones and Tim was suggesting ludicrous ideas. However i figured a radio drama would benefit from being ridiculous as it would help the listener to understand and be interested in the story more. so we did something ridiculous. we thought of doing a noir sin city in space kind of idea where there was an intergalactic 'Brothel War' going on, it was just stupid enough that it might work. we made up the main characters, The sheriff who is the tough experienced main character, Elin who is the maniac pimp who has a vendetta against the sheriff and whichanus who is the sheriffs daughter and the sort of damsel in distress.
the story was coming together very well but the group kept falling out mainly due to Georgie Mould's constant absence. we were struggling to write the script because she had a lot of the notes on her and would only show up occasionally. so one day me Tim and George decided that we should just get on with the pre-production and try get it finished in one day. George managed the sound effects, Tim booked everything and did some paper work and i wrote the script. at this time Georgie had gone on holiday to Amsterdam and taken her laptop with her, therefore i had to memorize the script as best i could. I actually managed to remember it very well mainly because i used to read out the previous one i did on georgie's laptop out loud to get the pacing right, i guess that payed off well. once all the pre production was finished we booked out the studio down in the music department and decided on actors. I was always set on playing Elin the antagonist and the sheriff but we had to make changes to Whichanus because Georgie was away so we got Claudia to fill in, Tim played another minor part to fill in the gap.
the recording process went very smoothly and we managed to get it done in just over an hour, George was in the studio recording the process and setting up the mics, he was always going to be the technical member of the group so we let him be. there were only a few mishaps during recording mainly because of me and Tim laughing during takes but there were only a couple of them. we wrapped up the recording and went straight to the computer to start our own individual edits.
the editing was brilliant. there is so much you can do by adding in wild tracks, music and sound effects to bring it to life. i was amazed how many loyalty free sound tracks were available to download which means you can be even more proud of your radio drama knowing its not ripping off anything else. It took a little while to getting used to the cutting tools on audition because they are slightly different to that of Premier Pro but it was fun to play around with the different effects you can put on tracks. there is so much you can do that you can give the impression your radio drama is the audio track to multi million pound blockbuster film Without spending a penny. the finished result was good and im proud of it, i like the fact i am both the main character and the main villain because its like im having a conversation with myself which is cool. It was nice to see everyone elses followed the same format which led me to believe the script i wrote was easily followable and that the audio was clear enough that people could understand the story. i enjoyed this project and it means i have something else to add to the growing number of good work I have.
it started off when we were in class and had to decide our groups, i had the idea to put everyone's names in a hat and then pull them out to determine the groups. Without cheating i picked George Woodward Georgie Mould and Tim Oates to be in my group, which was a coincidence as we had been together in the multi camera assignment. we threw around ideas, if i'm honest they weren't serious ones and Tim was suggesting ludicrous ideas. However i figured a radio drama would benefit from being ridiculous as it would help the listener to understand and be interested in the story more. so we did something ridiculous. we thought of doing a noir sin city in space kind of idea where there was an intergalactic 'Brothel War' going on, it was just stupid enough that it might work. we made up the main characters, The sheriff who is the tough experienced main character, Elin who is the maniac pimp who has a vendetta against the sheriff and whichanus who is the sheriffs daughter and the sort of damsel in distress.
the story was coming together very well but the group kept falling out mainly due to Georgie Mould's constant absence. we were struggling to write the script because she had a lot of the notes on her and would only show up occasionally. so one day me Tim and George decided that we should just get on with the pre-production and try get it finished in one day. George managed the sound effects, Tim booked everything and did some paper work and i wrote the script. at this time Georgie had gone on holiday to Amsterdam and taken her laptop with her, therefore i had to memorize the script as best i could. I actually managed to remember it very well mainly because i used to read out the previous one i did on georgie's laptop out loud to get the pacing right, i guess that payed off well. once all the pre production was finished we booked out the studio down in the music department and decided on actors. I was always set on playing Elin the antagonist and the sheriff but we had to make changes to Whichanus because Georgie was away so we got Claudia to fill in, Tim played another minor part to fill in the gap.
the recording process went very smoothly and we managed to get it done in just over an hour, George was in the studio recording the process and setting up the mics, he was always going to be the technical member of the group so we let him be. there were only a few mishaps during recording mainly because of me and Tim laughing during takes but there were only a couple of them. we wrapped up the recording and went straight to the computer to start our own individual edits.
the editing was brilliant. there is so much you can do by adding in wild tracks, music and sound effects to bring it to life. i was amazed how many loyalty free sound tracks were available to download which means you can be even more proud of your radio drama knowing its not ripping off anything else. It took a little while to getting used to the cutting tools on audition because they are slightly different to that of Premier Pro but it was fun to play around with the different effects you can put on tracks. there is so much you can do that you can give the impression your radio drama is the audio track to multi million pound blockbuster film Without spending a penny. the finished result was good and im proud of it, i like the fact i am both the main character and the main villain because its like im having a conversation with myself which is cool. It was nice to see everyone elses followed the same format which led me to believe the script i wrote was easily followable and that the audio was clear enough that people could understand the story. i enjoyed this project and it means i have something else to add to the growing number of good work I have.
Friday 7 June 2013
FMP evaluation
My FMP. My Final Major Project. Just hearing the words FINAL and MAJOR should be enough to motivate anyone to shoot for the stars and make the best damn piece of work they possibly can. As this is your Final project. The biggest of the lot. Ideas filter through your mind on what this major project could be as soon as the beginning of the first year, how different will my mind set and skills be and how much more motivated will i be by the time i start my final major project i asked myself. Ive always found that if you can look back on previous work and cringe, be it that there is a terrible camera mistake or blatant continuity issues, that you are almost destined to improve. before my FMP my crowing achievement was my children's drama 'The Adventures Of Charlie Squibbs' and when i watched it again before starting the FMP i cringed. I then knew i was destined to improve on this and create something better,bigger,slicker and more entertaining which is ultimately what you want to do in this course, make something entertaining.
i started off like everyone else with 10 ideas, 9 of which i didn't really care about and the one i had seemed a little bit too ambitious. I think it is fair to say i wasn't entirely optimistic at first despite how much i bigged up the project in the previous paragraph. I knew this was a bad place to start and i wasn't sure what else i was going to do, my first idea was for a short film about a shopping center heist, which seemed like an interesting enough idea but the further i got into planning the more and more i thought how hard it would be to film. i knew i would have to ask shop owners to film inside their stores which would only be appropriate at certain times, arrange actors, compensate for if we cant film in a particular store, the realization was really getting hold of me and i was stuck. then an epiphany came in the form of Sebastian White, who over heard my idea and suggested and alternative. He told me about an idea he and Tim Oates had a while back about a man who kidnaps his own wife to get the ransom money to pay for an operation, the idea really grasped me and it felt more Do-able. so i did it! I had to make a few adjustments to my journal which was looking pretty slim at the time but that wasn't a problem. I rang up Sam Goodall who is a friend of mine and has been in a lot of short films for this college, i knew straight away i wanted him to play the main character 'Jerry' because i wrote it with him in mind. Sam was really enthusiastic about it when i asked him he said and i quote 'Yeah i'll defiantly do that!' to which i replied 'sweet!'.
After finishing my script the next mission was recruiting fresh faces to populate the world i wanted to create, Sam was in, he said he was but what about the rest? What about Jerry's enigmatic drunk friend 'Vince', who could bring to life a character that will probably be more loved than the main character due to his comedic input. I'll tell you who, Seb White. Obvious really, that took care of the two main characters and i was happy with that as Seb and Sam have good chemistry on screen and they were perfect choices. over the next week i managed to secure the rest of my all star cast with Claudia Hodgson as 'Sarah', which was a complicated role for her as she had to play 'A bitch', Neil Hunt as the doctor, Steve Launay as the boss and Adam Merchant as 'Corey'. there was still one missing however, a small part who would be a friend of the two main characters Jerry and Vince, i only intended this to be a minor part. However i went to a party with Tom White and he stressed that he would like to be in my film and he would play the part but he wanted to expand on it, his idea was both clever and hilarious and so i agreed.
We Started filming at my house in Gosport, the brilliant Mr.George Woodward gave us a lift,helped with sound and occasionally operated the camera, Also Tom White came along and helped with camera and sound even though he wasn't in any of the scenes we were filming on the day. we filmed a lot of the talking scenes and i was amazed to realize the extent of the excellent Digital SLR cameras and the quality you got from them, it really helped with motivating me to get the best shots i could. we mainly used a steady cam instead of a tripod, mainly because its easier and it gives the film a more gritty look like something in a Guy Richie film which was exactly what i wanted. All the Actors were brilliant, Claudia did a fantastic job of playing a mean character and Sam is just naturally brilliant and funny as an actor, God i was happy with my choice of actors. The next day we filmed 'The Kidnapping scene' outside my sisters house in Gosport, this was the first time for Seb and Tom to film which was exiting as they are the two funnier characters. i wanted a mid shot of Seb in the front seat and Tom in the back so they could talk through the scene whilst both being on camera. In order to control the light from the blaring midday sun i taped the bottom of my jumper to the top of the windscreen of the car and went underneath to get the shot, it worked like a dream. George put a Zoom H1 in the car so we could sync the sound and listen back. Seb and Tom did some hilarious improvising in the car to build up the tension the timing was just spot on, Did i mention i was happy with my choice of actors? Again we used the steady cam more than a tripod as i came to like the look it was giving. Most noticeably for a running shot which i ran back wards as Seb and Tom ran at the camera i had George behind me with a zoom H1 on a tripod to imitate a boom pole and with his hand on my back to stop me plummeting backwards.
We then spent the next day at College were we filmed all the scenes with Steve, i mentioned to him that there is a line where he drops a very indiscreet F-Bomb and i was curious to whether or not he would even do it, but he held it in until we finished all the bits we needed and then blurted it out in one take. Brilliant. We were aloud to film at the leg care center in 6th form to mimic a doctors surgery where we filmed the scene with Neil Hunt, however the woman were very inquisitive to what we were doing and kept interrupting. It seemed like they could only answer the bloody phone after i shouted 'Action'. Luckily it was only a short scene. we then wrapped up the day by filming the scene with Adam Merchant which was not as solid as i hoped but was good enough as again it was a small scene.
the next scene was the big one, The warehouse scene. I rang in advance to make sure it was okay to film and booked out the Digital SLR early, this was the main scene and it needed to be right. We set out to our biggest location yet Titchfield Festival Theatre and immediately hit an inconvenience, I didn't have enough money for a taxi so we walked on abit so the taxi would be cheaper and I forgot to mention that we needed a 5 seated taxi. So we had to walk a mile and a half. While the walk proved productive as we were all joking around and suggesting ideas for the film, I was feeling a bit foolish because I had not planned the trip well enough and was not 100% sure how filming would go as my confidence had waned. we finally reached the theatre and set up the first shot when disaster, the camera wasn't reading the SD card properly and I could only film for 20 seconds. I needed slightly more than 20 seconds. so I had to get a taxi back to college, run to the studio, change the SD card, ride my moped back and film the scene before we had to leave (we had been told to be out before 6) I was really under pressure. However despite all the mishaps we filmed a pretty kick ass scene and I was so relived to get it all over and done with.
editing went really well, the scenes seemed to work really well with each other and I constantly watched through it and thought to myself how good this is going to be, I mean it plays out like an actual film its great fun. I constantly teased small snippets to people around me to get them exited, this got to the point where I walked into the class one day and saw some of the first year students looking on my computer to catch abit more of the film. this did not amuse me though and I made sure they didn't do it again. I realised I had hyped up this film so much I was in need of a trailer to shut people up, I made one with Eurhythmics 'Sweet Dreams' playing over it, that shut people up for abit. once I had finished I had a 22 minute version of the film, which was way too much but I didn't really mind as I could just have an extended edition. I painfully sliced down my film, which is a soul destroying process to a more acceptable 16 minutes and submitted that as my FMP.
the reaction to the film was brilliant I was so happy to finally show everyone who was involved the finished product, plus to show everyone who had been eager to see it. I was a little bit sad that I couldn't show the full version but I was just really glad that people actually did enjoy it. the most amazing part was when people gave me feed back they mainly mention what they thought the story would be and nothing about the technical aspects. the main problem technically was the sound levels were sometimes too loud but that's easily fixable, also Neil Hunt mentioned some more suggestions to how I could change the story slightly such as if the character who got the job at the end could have been my character 'Ricky'. so all in all the feedback was very positive which I was hugely grateful for.
So there you have it, I did it! I took the step up and made something entertaining, it had been a strange old road to making 'Lets Kidnap My Fiancée' but I have enjoyed every moment. I even had a little look back at my previous legacy 'The Adventure of Charlie Squibbs' and my got it was cringe worthy. I can look at this film and feel satisfied enough that its better than anything I've made on this course. well I did get a distinction so that says it all I suppose.
i started off like everyone else with 10 ideas, 9 of which i didn't really care about and the one i had seemed a little bit too ambitious. I think it is fair to say i wasn't entirely optimistic at first despite how much i bigged up the project in the previous paragraph. I knew this was a bad place to start and i wasn't sure what else i was going to do, my first idea was for a short film about a shopping center heist, which seemed like an interesting enough idea but the further i got into planning the more and more i thought how hard it would be to film. i knew i would have to ask shop owners to film inside their stores which would only be appropriate at certain times, arrange actors, compensate for if we cant film in a particular store, the realization was really getting hold of me and i was stuck. then an epiphany came in the form of Sebastian White, who over heard my idea and suggested and alternative. He told me about an idea he and Tim Oates had a while back about a man who kidnaps his own wife to get the ransom money to pay for an operation, the idea really grasped me and it felt more Do-able. so i did it! I had to make a few adjustments to my journal which was looking pretty slim at the time but that wasn't a problem. I rang up Sam Goodall who is a friend of mine and has been in a lot of short films for this college, i knew straight away i wanted him to play the main character 'Jerry' because i wrote it with him in mind. Sam was really enthusiastic about it when i asked him he said and i quote 'Yeah i'll defiantly do that!' to which i replied 'sweet!'.
After finishing my script the next mission was recruiting fresh faces to populate the world i wanted to create, Sam was in, he said he was but what about the rest? What about Jerry's enigmatic drunk friend 'Vince', who could bring to life a character that will probably be more loved than the main character due to his comedic input. I'll tell you who, Seb White. Obvious really, that took care of the two main characters and i was happy with that as Seb and Sam have good chemistry on screen and they were perfect choices. over the next week i managed to secure the rest of my all star cast with Claudia Hodgson as 'Sarah', which was a complicated role for her as she had to play 'A bitch', Neil Hunt as the doctor, Steve Launay as the boss and Adam Merchant as 'Corey'. there was still one missing however, a small part who would be a friend of the two main characters Jerry and Vince, i only intended this to be a minor part. However i went to a party with Tom White and he stressed that he would like to be in my film and he would play the part but he wanted to expand on it, his idea was both clever and hilarious and so i agreed.
We Started filming at my house in Gosport, the brilliant Mr.George Woodward gave us a lift,helped with sound and occasionally operated the camera, Also Tom White came along and helped with camera and sound even though he wasn't in any of the scenes we were filming on the day. we filmed a lot of the talking scenes and i was amazed to realize the extent of the excellent Digital SLR cameras and the quality you got from them, it really helped with motivating me to get the best shots i could. we mainly used a steady cam instead of a tripod, mainly because its easier and it gives the film a more gritty look like something in a Guy Richie film which was exactly what i wanted. All the Actors were brilliant, Claudia did a fantastic job of playing a mean character and Sam is just naturally brilliant and funny as an actor, God i was happy with my choice of actors. The next day we filmed 'The Kidnapping scene' outside my sisters house in Gosport, this was the first time for Seb and Tom to film which was exiting as they are the two funnier characters. i wanted a mid shot of Seb in the front seat and Tom in the back so they could talk through the scene whilst both being on camera. In order to control the light from the blaring midday sun i taped the bottom of my jumper to the top of the windscreen of the car and went underneath to get the shot, it worked like a dream. George put a Zoom H1 in the car so we could sync the sound and listen back. Seb and Tom did some hilarious improvising in the car to build up the tension the timing was just spot on, Did i mention i was happy with my choice of actors? Again we used the steady cam more than a tripod as i came to like the look it was giving. Most noticeably for a running shot which i ran back wards as Seb and Tom ran at the camera i had George behind me with a zoom H1 on a tripod to imitate a boom pole and with his hand on my back to stop me plummeting backwards.
We then spent the next day at College were we filmed all the scenes with Steve, i mentioned to him that there is a line where he drops a very indiscreet F-Bomb and i was curious to whether or not he would even do it, but he held it in until we finished all the bits we needed and then blurted it out in one take. Brilliant. We were aloud to film at the leg care center in 6th form to mimic a doctors surgery where we filmed the scene with Neil Hunt, however the woman were very inquisitive to what we were doing and kept interrupting. It seemed like they could only answer the bloody phone after i shouted 'Action'. Luckily it was only a short scene. we then wrapped up the day by filming the scene with Adam Merchant which was not as solid as i hoped but was good enough as again it was a small scene.
the next scene was the big one, The warehouse scene. I rang in advance to make sure it was okay to film and booked out the Digital SLR early, this was the main scene and it needed to be right. We set out to our biggest location yet Titchfield Festival Theatre and immediately hit an inconvenience, I didn't have enough money for a taxi so we walked on abit so the taxi would be cheaper and I forgot to mention that we needed a 5 seated taxi. So we had to walk a mile and a half. While the walk proved productive as we were all joking around and suggesting ideas for the film, I was feeling a bit foolish because I had not planned the trip well enough and was not 100% sure how filming would go as my confidence had waned. we finally reached the theatre and set up the first shot when disaster, the camera wasn't reading the SD card properly and I could only film for 20 seconds. I needed slightly more than 20 seconds. so I had to get a taxi back to college, run to the studio, change the SD card, ride my moped back and film the scene before we had to leave (we had been told to be out before 6) I was really under pressure. However despite all the mishaps we filmed a pretty kick ass scene and I was so relived to get it all over and done with.
editing went really well, the scenes seemed to work really well with each other and I constantly watched through it and thought to myself how good this is going to be, I mean it plays out like an actual film its great fun. I constantly teased small snippets to people around me to get them exited, this got to the point where I walked into the class one day and saw some of the first year students looking on my computer to catch abit more of the film. this did not amuse me though and I made sure they didn't do it again. I realised I had hyped up this film so much I was in need of a trailer to shut people up, I made one with Eurhythmics 'Sweet Dreams' playing over it, that shut people up for abit. once I had finished I had a 22 minute version of the film, which was way too much but I didn't really mind as I could just have an extended edition. I painfully sliced down my film, which is a soul destroying process to a more acceptable 16 minutes and submitted that as my FMP.
the reaction to the film was brilliant I was so happy to finally show everyone who was involved the finished product, plus to show everyone who had been eager to see it. I was a little bit sad that I couldn't show the full version but I was just really glad that people actually did enjoy it. the most amazing part was when people gave me feed back they mainly mention what they thought the story would be and nothing about the technical aspects. the main problem technically was the sound levels were sometimes too loud but that's easily fixable, also Neil Hunt mentioned some more suggestions to how I could change the story slightly such as if the character who got the job at the end could have been my character 'Ricky'. so all in all the feedback was very positive which I was hugely grateful for.
So there you have it, I did it! I took the step up and made something entertaining, it had been a strange old road to making 'Lets Kidnap My Fiancée' but I have enjoyed every moment. I even had a little look back at my previous legacy 'The Adventure of Charlie Squibbs' and my got it was cringe worthy. I can look at this film and feel satisfied enough that its better than anything I've made on this course. well I did get a distinction so that says it all I suppose.
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