ASSIGNMENT #4 – 360 FILMMAKING TIPS

7 Tips for 360 Filmmaking

  1. If you can see the camera, the camera can see you. Even though you may think something is hidden, make sure you double check the footage on your phone to make sure there is nothing visible that shouldn’t be.
  2. Heavily consider your audio! You can’t have wires hanging around everywhere, or a boom mic just out of the camera’s view like you can with conventional film-making. You have to really think about tricks to hiding the wires required to get good quality audio.
  3. Think of it less like a film, and more like a play. Just like a live play in a theatre, every character on stage who’s on screen / on stage, even though they may not be the focal point of the scene, can be seen. So make sure your actors are completely in character at all times, and are aware of this. Sometimes with the action taking place on one side of the room, the actors can relax but they should be paying as much attention as if they were speaking lines.
  4. The less cuts, the better. Immersion is key to a quality 360-video experience, and when the screen cuts to black and resets, it is lost slightly. Consider having long takes without cutting, as it really gets the viewer lost in what’s happening in the scene, as they can forget for a moment they’re watching a film at all.
  5. Always watch the scene as you’re filming. With the Samsung Gear 360, you can watch the footage you’re capturing live on your connected device. This is a great way to concentrate on certain aspects of your shot, as you can inspect every last inch of the captured area. As you must be out of the camera’s sight-line during filming, you should always be watching on your device
  6. Adjust lighting & ND filters on the Gear 360 App. There are several options to warm or cool the lighting you’ve got out of your 360 camera. This is easy to miss but is especially handy considering how difficult it is to use additional lighting in 360 filmmaking.
  7. Be careful with placing things in the stitch line. By the ‘stitch line’, I mean the line in your shot where the 2 180 videos will be stitched together. Sometimes things can be altered or stretched slightly and it’s safe to try and keep objects or people out of this space. You can check this on the App while you are shooting.

Apologies but I couldn’t come up with 10 so I stuck to 7 quality ones. Hope this is OK as you didn’t explicitly say it needed to be 10.

ASSIGNMENT #4 – PRE-PRODUCTION NOTES

SCRIPT / PLAN

Opening shot. Harrison dealer, shuffling cards. John sitting down already, smoking dart. 

Nick approaches table telling story about killing a lion in Africa, as he sits down. As James sits he skulls his VB before sitting down. 

Maddy walks over with VB, and drinks for Nick & John. Nick & James thank her, John does not.

James: “Are you sure about this place Dicky? 

“Don’t worry friend, this compound is completely secure! I have men guarding every door.”

John : “You need to relax!”

Nick: “You’re right, get this man another can!” 

The waitress walks behind the curtain, out of sight.

John: “It’s just us & the cards. Dealer, let’s go.” 

Everyone nods at the dealer as he begins to deal, each character intently staring at the cards coming towards them.  FADE TO BLACK

All are sitting in same positions, however Nick’s tie is loosened, John’s tracksuit is undone. The waitress is nowhere to be seen. A large pile of chips sits in front of Nick while the rest are down to a small amount.

“Can I get another drink here?”

James’ head is in his hands. “Oh god, oh god. My wife is gonna kill me! I’ll never see my kids again.”

Nick: “Cheer up old chap, one hand and this whole game can turn … not looking likely though! Hahahahah!”

John: “Your luck will run out soon, I’m sure of it”

James: “You don’t even need the money! You’re a millionare!”

Nick: “Ah but you are mistaken … I’m not a millionare… I’m a billionare! Hahhaha!”

Andy kicks down door suddenly, with a pillow case in his hand. They all stand up except John.

Nick: “What the… how did you get in here? My guards??”

Andy “Slow it down your majesty… you call those guards? They were no match… for my associates here!”

Everyone gasps except John.

They attempt to stand up but they get guns put to their heads, as James looks on scared.

UH UH UH UH NOW NOW, I’LL BE TAKING THESE, AND THESE, AND THESE… AND THAT WATCH.. AND THESE LOOK EXPENSIVE

NOW COME ON OFF THE TABLE, ON YOUR KNEES ALL OF YOU, YOU TOO BOWTIE, OK HANDS BEHIND UR BACK… NOW GENTS, IT”S BEEN A PLEASURE, BUT I THINK MY RIDE IS HERE

HE BACKS OUT OF ROOM GUNS FACING THEM

SILENCE

JOHN YELLS OUT MOTHERFUCKER

CUT TO CAR

ANDY JUMPS IN BACK SEAT, POURS OUT CHIPS CELEBRATING

‘DRIVER’ NICE WORK BOSS
‘PULLS OFF MASK & WIG


Pre-production reflection

We were supposed to shoot on Friday but two of my actors had to cancel and instead of finding new people we decided to reschedule. We are now shooting this Sunday, which is leaving it a little bit late but I think I should be done in time.

I’m excited for the shoot, as my actors have really come through to help out with prep. They are organising most of their costumes themselves which is awesome, and they’re fully buying into the characters so I don’t have to stress about that so much. I’ll have to do set dressing and getting some props.

I’m slightly worried about the set not being in shape, but I’ve justified as it being a barely-used garage (that they are using due to it’s remote location).

I’m also slightly worried about sound. My original plan was to have lapels on every character but it seems the Zoom microphones only have 2 inputs, and the tech’s won’t let me borrow 2 so I’m stuck with only 2 inputs unless I take the large suitcase audio recorder which in itself will be too big (since it’s 360 everything is in the scene.) I’m also unsure how we’ll get the lapels on and connected without it being visible in the video. The techs told me the zoom would work alone though, as the table we’re using is quite small and close together. We’ll see how it all turns out.

XR MINIFOLIO

WEEK 1 – ABSENT

WEEK 2 – https://www.mediafactory.org.au/kit-bradybrown/2019/08/13/limitless-frame-week-2-sketch/

WEEK 3 – ABSENT

WEEK 4 – https://www.mediafactory.org.au/kit-bradybrown/2019/08/20/week-4-sketch/

WEEK 5 – https://www.mediafactory.org.au/kit-bradybrown/2019/08/27/week-5-sketch/

WEEK 5 SKETCH

REFLECTION:

With the task of making a music video, we decided as a group to employ some stop-start motion editing. We were shown ‘The Hardest Button to Button’ video as an example, and we ended up using a very similar technique. Although we didn’t quite film enough footage to make an entire video, or put enough finesse into timing and detail to make it perfect, I think our result was quite good. We decided to use Billie Eilish’s ‘Bad Guy’ as our song,a track with a nice consistent beat. This made editing harder and easier. I haven’t edited a music video in years, and it is a laborious process, but with some simple editing tricks I found online, I found it not too hard, and the results are instantly recognisable. I’d be interested in possibly doing another music video using 360 video technology.

WEEK 4 SKETCH

With this project we were allowed an unlimited scope to conceptualise an XR project. Our group decided on a Disney’s ‘Alladin’-themed VR/AR experience, designed as an installation/attraction to be hosted at Disneyland and other Disney affiliated sites worldwide.

In the experience, participants enter a small room alone, entering into the VR world as Aladdin. It is designed to naturally prompt the user to ‘rub the lamp”, activating the genie to appear (voiced and acted by Will Smith, as a tie-in to the 2019 film), and taking the user on an adventure, involving the famous flying carpet, and the stunning visual of flying through Agrabah, and rescuing Aladdin’s monkey Abu.

SLIDESHOW

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/10NvA0oSye2Tm2SKXnrKYmwWmhw86JlmmDvDydQNaxMM/edit?usp=sharing

 

 

LIMITLESS FRAME – WEEK 2 SKETCH

REFLECTION

When faced with the task of creating a documentary in just over an hour, we struggled to come up with any interesting or possible ideas. We instead decided to make ourselves and the University’s amendments as our subjects. We walked around ‘reviewing’ parts of the campus, starting with a cafe and it’s food & coffee, turning next to a sculpture nearby, a ‘quiet area’, a revolving door, etc. Although the subject matter wasn’t perfect, I learnt a few things. First of all, make sure the 360-camera is pointing in the right direction so the viewer doesn’t have to turn around constantly. Secondly, editing VR video isn’t too hard! It’s very similar to regular video which was a surprise. All in all a fun hour of work but wasn’t much more than that. It was nice to learn how to edit VR video, and stitch together for the first time so I suppose it was a useful exercise. 

LINK

 

ASSIGNMENT 3 – Links

STUDIO WEBSITE CONTENT

A young man is working out in his backyard. He’s on a rowing machine, and listening to loud music. West Coast Hip Hop is his favourite. As the music gets more intense, he starts to go harder. And harder. Each pull on the machine he begins to grimace more & more, sweat beating down his face. The song nears its climax, and just as he was pushing at his hardest, a polite yet slightly passive-aggressive woman pokes her head over the fence between their backyards. “Could you turn it down please?” she asks, making sure she’s got his attention. He gives her a nod as he puts down the pulleys and leans over to his iPhone to turn it down. He sits there breathing heavily, thinking she could’ve been a bit nicer. He’ll make sure to keep it down from now on.

I took this observation and adapted it slightly to see what might be going on inside his head during this intense but ecstatic moment of clarity, achieved when you push yourself to the limit.

ASSIGNMENT 3 – AVP 2 & Reflection

DAY DREAMING

LINK: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1EFj5OumgLtlfyoT-AzXuO5PFjO1TsScH

‘Day Dreaming’ is the second of my Advanced Video Pieces, and my personal favourite. I loved making this, and is probably the film I’m most satisfied with. It is adapted from my 2nd observation from my week 6 observations.

I started production of this film after a discussion with Robin where he highlighted it as a possible observation that could be adapted well. While I hadn’t really considered it before then, it jumped out to me as a good idea for various reasons. I had always wanted to make a piece that was dominated by a piece of music, but not simply in a soundtrack way, but also a diegetic employment also. I found this piece would be a perfect way to blend music, with interesting filmmaking as well as practical achievability.

I shot this at my friend Nicholas’ house in Northcote, with help from him & his two housemates James & Harrison, as well as my classmate Nathan. We ticked off all the shots I was intending on the day, as well as adding an entirely new segment which I think added  a lot to the film. I think I nailed the observation translation, as it is just a simple everyday kind of interaction, but made into an engaging and entertaining short piece. It doesn’t linger for too long, or bore the viewer, and with this format I think that is an achievement in of itself.

The edit came together quite smoothly, as a majority of my footage was shot in order of it’s appearance in the film. A great performer in Nick as my lead helped a lot, as well as various options for which direction I wanted to go with the second character, as explained in my previous weeks reflections. To create the dream sequence effect, I used a few YouTube tutorials to add some blur & increase the contrast, which I think worked perfectly. It is little editing tricks like that this that seperate the really amateur films from the more professional ones so I was happy to have that on my side.

I didn’t settle on my song choice until the day. I had a few ideas but I opened the question to the crew that were there on the day and James suggested Bon Jovi’s ‘Dead or Alive’. Immediately I thought that  was perfect and upon listening I was blown away with how well it would work. We listened to the appropriate parts a couple of times so Nick could get an idea of what he would be working out to, as we didn’t want to have the song playing as we were filming. As you may have noticed, I put a filter over the track so that it sounds slightly tinny and lower clarity, as if coming from a speaker. I then bring the entire full quality track in when the dream sequence kicks in, to fully sell the immersive fantasy idea. I then bring it back to the diegetic tinny sound when he is awoken from his trance.

One thing I’ve noticed during the edit was that I didn’t totally nail the opening pan shot, and I wish I had re-shot it. At the time, watching on the small monitor, it seemed good, but in retrospect it is a bit jittery and janky, and not quite smooth enough. Another let down is the slightly distorted voice near the ending. We simply just recorded this too loud on the day which was dissapointing but it’s not a huge problem.

All in all, as I mentioned earlier, I loved making this and is something I’m now really proud of!

 

ASSIGNMENT 3 – AVP 1 & Reflection

IF NOT NOW, WHEN?

LINK: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1iQQtDOJCyfWDbK2870Ut85y2qlCelkvC

‘If Not Now, When?’ is the title of my first Advanced Video Piece for Assignment 3. Created with the untitled observation 1 from my Week 7 Observations , based around the procrastination phenomena that I have detailed in my past reflections.

While I’m realistic that this isn’t quite a piece of cinematic gold, I am very grateful I got the opportunity to make it as it was a great experience for me to experiment with some ideas I had. I’m happier making this by myself than just latching on to someone else’s idea.

I wanted to explore the idea of time-lapse / before & after on camera while influencing whats in front of the camera while using a static shot. This observation was a good vehicle for this.

I chose Ara Koufax’s ‘Drums Unlimited’ as my soundtrack for this piece. I wanted to add an interesting and slightly left-field element into the mix for what is a fairly straight forward and vanilla idea visually, so the track I think gives the short a nice little edge.

One thing I think I did well was the actual time-lapse sequences. In the edit I meticulously cut up each segment, after increasing the speed 10x, into the most vital little moments of each clean up. I think this works well and is something I’d like to try again in the future, perhaps without being sped up. I think I could’ve blocked out a slightly better shot, on retrospect I think they look a little boring. And the lighting is a little bit dull also.

While shooting I came up with idea of having me walk past the bathroom, notice something and cut to me cleaning in the shower with rubber gloves on. I thought this was a funny addition that really sells the idea that I’ll really do anything except the work I should be doing.

I manually made the document on Google Docs that I used as my ‘Essay’ I should’ve been working on. I originally had just a blank page but it felt slightly unclear so I added the writing ‘ESSAY’ & ‘Introduction’ to make things a little clearer.

Another thing I wasn’t 100% happy with was the ending to the video. Ideally I had the music cutting out, and focusing on the sound of my mouse clicking, with the music then starting over. But I couldn’t find the right balance between the music cutting and the silence, and I also couldn’t get the mouse click to sound appropriately defined, so I stuck with the music playing all the way. I’m unsure if it’s unclear what happens at the end but I’ll leave that to the viewer.