Alex Media House

Coming up with an idea for a documentary and making one in the short time given us was quite challenging, we wanted to make something “epic” as suggested by one of our teammates but in the end, we decided to do something we could potentially have fun recording. So, we opted fora making reviews on everyday objects and food found around RMIT. We reviewed around 5 different things spanning from food to revolving doors but of course, not all of them made the cut in the edited video. Overall this was a useful exercise to understand how to properly operate this kind of camera and to get used to edit a video in 360.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxVftfo6qjw&feature=youtu.be

In the first class of The Limitless Frame studio, we had the chance to experiment with a 360 degrees Samsung camera. After an initial curiosity and a few problems we faced to get the camera correctly set up, we went out to start shooting some 360 videos. Immediately we decided to head outside and the first thing that caught our eyes were, of course, the busy street and the trams passing by. Thanks to the camera, we were able to have all these elements in a single shot which really opened our eyes to the opportunities a camera like this can offer.

After the shooting, the video we tried editing them, unfortunately, seems like my version of Premiere Pro lacked the video effect that makes the text appear as it belongs in the distorted round-shaped frame problem that seemed to solve itself though once the video was exported.

The Small Things class has been one of the best studios I had the chance to participate in. Since week 1 we started learning basic but useful information on how to set up our equipment in the most efficient way possible as well as looking ‘cool’ while doing it, an aspect our tutor Paul always held in high regards. My peers and I, all had the chance to experiment and learn one by one, managing the equipment and testing various things out. Usually a typical class would go as such: first we would be explained how and what a said equipment piece would be able to do and what it would be for, secondly we would get the chance to set up the very expensive piece of tech (hopefully without damaging it), and thirdly Paul would give us an assignment where we had to shoot or record audio for a certain script assigned by him. The studio had assignments and tasks designed to helped me and the rest of us to develop our ideas while facing limitations such as time restrictions, cooperating with group members and more importantly challenge ourselves to make the best piece of media we could produce putting together our ideas and developing them step by step.

The final project we presented for our final assignment required a conspicuous amount of work since week 8, where we started our pre-production phase. Each group member had an original idea which we used as a foundation from where to build new and more interesting ideas, to do this we examined which parts of the original ideas was worth it to expand upon. We ended up mixing all our ideas together and came up with a general idea of what we wanted to do and achieve. After pushing aside some ideas that just would not have worked out (John, the vampire idea was bad I am sorry..) we settled on the idea which became the short film we presented. We decided roles pretty quickly and I and John started working as soon as possible on the script, meeting up a few times to put everything on paper and as soon as we had an initial draft for the script, we started storyboarding and brainstorming ideas of how to shoot the film all together.

During our pre-production phase, we were constantly getting new ideas and advice, both from the brilliant Paul and from all our other classmates, thanks to this we were able to improve over our original idea and find different ways to bring our vision to life. The script was continuously changing to fit all the input received and we experimented time after time to see how the results could look.

‘Sweet But Psycho’:

This final cut is the closest I could get to realizing my vision in the given time, of course, many things can still be improved about it and it is evident to see the problems we ran into while shooting. Always in the pre-production period, we considered shooting the whole short film during the night, but after scouting the location, kindly offered us from Julian and his family, and trying out some scenes late at night, we figured we were not ready to take that challenge yet, so we decided to go back to the original idea to shoot during the day. This though proved to still be a quite difficult challenge for us, as it is noticeable I was not very able to fix in editing some problems we had with the intensity of the exposure due to the bright lighting of the sun and possibly the distraction of the cameraman. The lack of proper lighting equipment added to the challenge level where we could rely only on a reflector to direct the light bouncing off the sun onto the actor’s faces. Sadly we noticed the issue too late when the shooting was complete, nonetheless, the final result is quite satisfying and still manages to deliver the tension we wanted to portray. The actors and the crew all worked generally well together and luckily we did not experience any technical health issue thanks to all of us being mindful of what was happening on location. While what we shot was not bad at all, I found myself in the editing process wishing we had shot more material and that what it had looked a bit more polished, surely next time, I will check on the work my teammates are up to and share my opinion on it to improve it together and make the best we can do together.

For this film my tasked was to handle audio recording and sound, my job was made easier thanks to Peyton and Gill who helped with the equipment and in writing on the log sheet all the names of the different files. A special thanks goes to Payton’s claps, audio syncing was a breeze most of the time and we managed to get crisp audio in all scenes. Researching audio was a crucial task to give the film a totally different vibe, so we looked for good eerie noises that would set the right mood, this taught me the importance of sound design and the effects it can have on the final product. The sound of the knife, the tension music, all had to be coherent and credible so that the scenes would not lose credibility and weight.

The group work was generally very good and all group members did the part that was assigned to them, one of the reasons why I am so proud of this project is definitely because we all had a fun time together making it. Since the planning stage, we all cooperated with our unique ideas, building on top of each other and creating a very nice and friendly environment to work in. thanks to this we all became quite good friends making this one of the best group works I participated in since starting my course at this university. On another note, I would have appreciated help with carrying the equipment back to RMIT after the shooting, but sadly the group member who initially offered to help with this task, changed his mind leaving me to carry all the stuff by myself the day after the shooting. Not only this left me quite disappointed but also it is very risky to leave only one person to handle all the equipment alone since there is always the possibility of some accident occurring when handling a lot of expensive stuff all by yourself, luckily some group members gave the help they could. Despite this accident, I hope I can work again with people capable and creative such as the people present in this group in the near future and I hope to have as much fun as I did this time around.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Reflection 1:

Small Things Assignment 2-Reflection 1

Reflection 2:

Small Things Assignment 2-Reflection 2

Scene deconstruction:

Small Things Assignment 2-Scene Deconstruction

Colour Grading:

Small Things Assignment 2-Colour Grading

Updated Idea Development:

Small Things- Idea Development

Reflection 1: Making my bed

For this exercise, we were requested to make a video illustrating how we go by our daily routine of making our beds after waking up in the morning. The video I made is quite simple and right to the point which is like most things I make. While shooting I had to go through the difficulty of having to deal with a very small room where it would have been difficult to get wider shots of the action of making the bed so, I decided to use many close-ups being limited also by the big mirror on the wall in my bedroom which would have reflected the image of the camera reflecting on it.

 

Another challenge I had to face was being able to get a nice frame without having a tripod at my disposal and to overcome this, I used a chair where I stacked up a bunch of other objects on to hold the camera at a higher position and record the scene.

Even for a small project such as this one, I went through a preproduction phase where I decided and experimented with various camera positions but many of the ideas I had did not end up appearing in the final product. For instance, what would have happened if I decided to incorporate music or give the video a more comedic mood?

I decided to start off with a cut in action because I wanted to experiment with that technique and see what could have been done with while paying attention to the sound of the sheets moving from one point to the other. Perhaps if I get more time and with the right equipment, it would have been easier to deliver something that would have made even a simple action such as the one portrayed in the video, more interesting and enjoyable to watch as some of the videos produced by my peers.

 

Reflection 2: TV Scene Script

 

This reflection will focus on the group exercises where we were asked to produce a script of a scene idea made by one of our classmates. My group and I were tasked to shoot the script made by Francesca talking about two friends watching television.

We began by storyboarding the shots we would have liked to use, planning carefully where the camera position would have been with a birdseye view. This helped us plan and consider a large number of ways we could frame and see many options available to get the best result.

Storyboarding was something I never really had done before that time, and so I never was able to grasp how important it was, but after this exercise finally opened my eyes to the benefits of going through this phase which also helps your personal visualization on paper of what you are going to shoot in real life.

How it is obvious from the first video embedded in the post,  we had some problems with the white balance. At the beginning of the shooting, after we found our location, me and my group members adjusted the white balance helping ourselves with a white piece of paper but probably during the shooting someone must have mistakenly reset the value and the footage we recorded from there on out had an accentuate yellowish tone to it, and no one noticed the mistake until it was too late to reshoot. Nevertheless, I did my best to solve the problem in editing with color grading thanks to some video on YouTube, to make sure the colors were consistent throughout the whole video with satisfying results.

One thing I learned going through all these class exercises must be that not everything turns out as planned in preproduction and that, of course, something is going to wrong and might not work as you envisioned it, a thing I will surely keep in mind going forward in the future.

Scene Deconstruction

The scene I would like to deconstruct comes from a TV series I watched recently on Netflix called The Umbrella Academy. The show is one of the best shows Netflix has produced this year in my opinion and has many great scenes throughout the episodes, one of these is a dancing scene present in the first episode which helps understand the characters and their personalities in a variety of ways.

The scene starts with one of the main characters, Luther, setting up a vinyl to playing the song  I Think We’re Alone Now which is the first of many instances that shows how one of the best aspects of the whole show is the choice of music and the soundtrack in general, all the songs are accurately chosen and fit the scene perfectly in most cases. Luther and his brothers, the other characters in the scene, just had a fight and decided to isolate themselves from the others but when the music starts playing the echo reaches the rooms where the other protagonists are located.

The scene begins with a close up of the diamond and as soon as it touches the record, the music starts playing and then we see a medium shot of Luther enjoying the song, and a long shot of our second protagonist, Allison. Nothing special about this shot which could have been done in a more interesting way, maybe emphasizing with a medium close up on the way she looks annoyed by the song playing and then laughs looking down. The next sibling is introduced in the next scene with a birds eye shot from the ceiling with a dolly movement towards the character while also slowly spinning. This might have been done to give a mild sense of confusion to the viewer since the same character assumed drugs in the previous scene. We see the other characters reaction to the music with still shots and then they all start dancing, slowly at first, but as the music becomes more intense, so to their choreographies and the music goes from being diegetic sound to non-diegetic.

After various back and forth cuts between the characters with relatively simple, but functional, camera movements, we are presented which what in my opinion is one of the best shots in the series. We see  the camera moving away from one of the main protagonists, Vanya (who will be very important later in the season) and breaking through the natural confines of the house, presenting us with a shot that frames the entire building split in two giving us the chance to see all the characters at the same time dancing together, while they are completely ignorant of what is going on in the other rooms.

CLIP 1 V.1

In this first edit, I just raised the contrast and lowered the exposure so that the light would look more intense while the shadows would result darker to give more volume to the scene.

CLIP 1 V.2

In this second one, I tried to make the scene less yellow so that it would almost look like it not sunset yet, but still, midday instead even though the sun is low in the sky, to achieve this I did the opposite of what I did in the first image.

CLIP 1 V.3

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Here I just tried to mess around with the colour wheel to give a more blue tone to it making the scene more surreal.

CLIP 2 V.1

In this one there is not much difference since I just tried to make the colours a little more vibrant raising the tint, and lowering the temperature.

CLIP 2 V.2

With this video, I was again experimenting with creating a scene that would look like a romanticized version of the little towns in Italy as portrayed by most of the movies which portray these places.

CLIP 2 V.3

 

In this one instead, I was aiming to give the scene a more normal, cinematic look by tweaking the blacks and the whites as well as the colour temperature.

CLIP 3 V.1

Since this video is recorded on an old steam train, I wanted to give it a look of an old film making the scene more orange overall thanks to the shadow tint wheel and some adjustments on exposure, vibrance, and saturation.

CLIP 3 V.2

As it is quite noticeable, the image here looks rather blue. To do this I first lowered almost completely the temperature and raised to almost the max the temperature, just to experiment and see what would happen. I also tweaked the shadows to make the image softer and raised the saturation

CLIP 3 V.3

Here I just faded the image as much as possible while giving a pink tone to the film, I just thought it looked nice and set a good mood.

Reflection Small Things 1

 

Reflection Small Things 2

 

Reflection Small Things 3