Lenny video with sound effects
http://
I found the Lenny sound effect exercise to be challenging, because even though we would literally create the same sound effect as the one in the video, it wouldn’t match with the actions. Often, it was the sound effect that was really quite unrelated to the action that would fit the best.
When we first set out to film the script, we hadn’t considered choosing a part of the script that involved actions with any kind of dialogue or sound effects, which made it really quite difficult to not only choose which actions to add sound effects to, but also to match the sound effects to the actions that were taking place.
For example:
- The sound effect of Helena tapping on the metal railings adjacent the stairs (at 0:04) were unplanned and sporadic, which meant that matching a sound effect to it was nearly impossible, because we couldn’t sync up the tapping of each individual finger.
- The footsteps leading up to Lenny’s arrival (0:14) and wave don’t properly sync up either, they carry on too long. I also really didn’t want to add the dialogue but we had to add it somewhere and it seemed like the only place that was appropriate. The one thing that I do feel that worked in this segment was the sound effect of the jacket crinkling during the wave, HOWEVER vv
- We used the same sound effect for both jackets, despite the different fabrics, not only is it not well synced at all, the sound of the second fabric should be a lot softer, and much faster and louder to accommodate the more enthusiastic wave.
Little other things stuck out to me as well, like the background noise not including the footsteps of passing students, and containing things like knocking and voices that just don’t really make sense in the atmosphere, but I’m not sure if I notice that because I put the film together, or if it’s actually noticeable.
“Sunday Evening” Short
http://
I felt like ‘Sunday Evening’ was a good representation of the editing techniques I’ve learnt so far throughout the course, and although I’m not exactly satisfied with how far away it drifted from the original script. I think we did a good job playing around with different shots, and cutting on action to create a degree of continuity.
The parts I did like about ‘Sunday Evening’ was how I exercised the technique of “cutting on action”. I felt that despite the fact that shots were completely different cuts, they flowed together quite nicely. With my script, I tried to practice cutting on emotion as well, which meant I involved a lot of silence in the film, to experiment when was a good time to cut. I think the actors did a brilliant job with silence, staying deadpan and conveying emotion.
I also played around with the colours, mostly in three-way colour corrector and RGB curves, like I’ve mentioned in previous posts. I think this worked out reasonably well, although I may have taken it too far.
There are editing mistakes in the film that stuck out to me, such as:
- The direction the boom mic was facing gave us some pretty average audio quality at times, not sure if it’s the quality of the boom mic or the direction that it was facing.
- Secondly cutting shots too early was a real problem, I’ve told myself this many times, and it ruined a perfectly good shot that would’ve finished the film a lot better, (not having the actor jab himself in the eye with sunglasses). Too soon after the actors stopped talking, my shadow was seen moving, ruining the otherwise perfect shot.
- Due to the time frame we had to shoot I can’t really kick my self too much for this, but the film location was a real let down for this film. It really kinda took away from the scene and made the wall climbing scene look a little bit pointless. A good film location can really change the quality of the film.
I’d like to work on these mistakes in future films, and I think that if I reflect on the mistakes I’ve made with previous films, I might be able to make something that’s half decent. In the future I should reflect more on the mistakes and successes of previous films before embarking on an entirely new project.
http://
I’ve never really taken the time to properly deconstruct many films, and a film that I’ve always admired, and regarded as my favorite due to its creative and original style was Hunt for the Wilder people (2016) directed by Taika Waititi. I chose the scene where Ricky is running from Paula and Andy.
Video
The first thing that stuck out to me was that there were 8 cuts in the first 21 seconds. I wondered at first whether or not this was intentional, or if it had just proven to be a difficult scene to film. I looked at other scenes from the movie and found that it was predominantly the contrary, scenes would often drag on just a little bit longer than you’d expect them to, and this particular scene has been edited to convey how sporadic the situation was
I also noticed that they are mostly low angle shots, looking up at Ricky. This may be considered a point of view shot from the dog, but it also suggests that Ricky needs to be in charge of the situation.
Lastly, I found that the scene doesn’t focus on his face at all, and the majority of emotion is conveyed through his body language, and other film features
Music
There’s a light orchestral non-diegetic sound track in the background that conveys a kind of “last hope” emotion, The music changes and increases intensity after the 20 seconds, as if to suggest that there’s still hope yet.
Sound
I noticed that obviously the dog isn’t making those whining noises on que, and they’ve been added in post production. The dog doesn’t even move its mouth to make the noises, and honestly, it looks more excited rather than distressed anyway.
We can also hear the gentle crinkling of metal from either the bag or the dogs collar, and occasionally footsteps, whether they have been added in post production or not is up for debate.
Continue reading
