For my investigation, I focused on foley and adobe after effects; specifically, trying to create the effect of a camera passing through a wall or floor to serve as a transition. Because of this, I will be separating my experiments into different sub-headings to accommodate them both.
Class reflection
Paul whipped out the markers and A3 paper again, and we were back to brainstorming our ideas for our experiments for the next few weeks.
To be honest – I don’t feel like I got much out of this session. But what I did realize after jotting down ideas and discussing with Sem – is that a narrative might help with our experiments.
My first experiment with 3-D layers
So during the weekend after the project pitch – Sem and I journeyed to the lands of Yarraville in search of an abandoned factory.
Upon arriving, we scouted the area to see what we could find. The walls were lined with graffiti, the skeleton of the building walls stood exposed, and spray cans and other pieces of junk lay scattered across the ground. The fact that it was a huge ex-factory meant that there were different pockets of spaces – meaning this location had plenty of potential for a film or photography shoot.
Project Pitch
There are a number of things I want to explore and experiment with over the next few weeks. I think my main focus is to work and experiment with foley, which; for those who don’t know, is the creation or alteration of sound in post-production. Foley is used to give a scene its life.
Learning after-effects
So for my series of experiments – my goal is to be better at foley sound effects, more comfortable with Adobe After-effects, and overall just a better filmmaker.
With foley FX, I think it’s just a matter of being able to record the right sounds in the right context, in order to create higher-quality sound FX. However, my goal to be able to move a camera through a surface (wall or floor) in after-effects, may prove to be more of a challenge. Why? Well, I have no experience with after-effects.
Pitch progress
I’m interested in working on soundscapes and foley effects within shots. As an overall goal – I want to be able to improve the quality of my shots and short films by using my own, original sound effects to create the space in which my characters exist in.
The first difficulty I have is simply the shot I want to edit sound for. I don’t know whether or not I want to work with someone in the class to create the shot – in which I will then foley and soundscape – or if there is a visual element I could experiment with, with which I could then experiment with sound as well.
Writing task and foley experiments
So the writing task we did in week three was designed to give us an idea of what we might like to investigate for our series of experiments. We jotted down people and places we find interesting, as well as actions – interesting or mundane. Then we jotted down ideas of things we could experiment with and investigate.
Now personally, I don’t think this activity helped me at all. I didn’t really get anything from it, and I haven’t even considered experimenting with the things I wrote that day.
Could foley be my investigation?
So I’ve got to come up with something I want to investigate in terms of filmmaking.
When we were given the task to think of what we’d like to experiment and play with – nothing came to mind. I didn’t know exactly what I wanted to investigate; all I knew was that I wanted to come out of this semester as a better overall filmmaker.
The power of folly
So we just created out expertise video and there’s one thing I learnt that I never knew before. And that is how powerful folly sounds are – more specifically, how powerful creating your own folly sounds are.
Common mistakes I made as a novice…
In the week one practical class for true to form, we went out and took shots of an ‘action’ in small groups. ‘Actions’ could’ve been anything, from sitting to fighting to doing push-ups.
In week 2, we reviewed the shots as a class and pointed out common mistakes found in most the shots.