zane’s assignment blog

Summary

Font

Color Palette

Pie Chart

Script

My birthday started the night before, on May 29th at around 9:00 pm. I went to a friend’s house where we played basketball, watched tv, played just dance, and just chilled for around 2.5 hours. After that, we went to the store to get supplies for my “birthday cake” and started the celebration at exactly midnight, which lasted for an hour for a total of 1.5 hours. This means that 4 hours, or 16.67% of my day went to hanging out with friends. After the celebration, I went to sleep from 1:00 to 7:00 am, for a total of 6 hours, or 25% of my day. The next day consisted of me getting ready for/going to school for 6 hours, 25%, with a 30 minute lunch in the middle. I also took an hour before school commuting around to both my school, and my sisters’ school. After school, I had to commute to my recruiter’s office which took 30 minutes there, and 30 minutes back. The meeting itself lasted 1.00 hours, or 4.17%. I also had to commute to my birthday dinner which was another 30 minutes to and 30 minutes back, for a total of 3.00 hours of commuting, or 12.5%. The dinner lasted about 1.50 hours, and when we got home we had a 30 minute dessert celeration for a total of 2.50 hours spent eating, or 10.41%. After this, I just watched tv with my family for another 1.50 hours, 6.25%, to conclude my 24 hour time period.

Audio Editing

Storyboard

Video Editing

The Documentary

What I Learned & Problems I Solved

The biggest thing I learned to do was operate Adobe Illustrator. It was a very foreign application to me at first, but watching the videos provided helped me solve the problem, to create the final product.

Session Number:	5
Week Number:	5
Total Estimated Hours Contributed this Week:	5
What is/was your overall goal for this week?	Polish all 3 sections of the production blog posts

Date	Task Description	Time Spent	Was / Were your choices and work Best Practices? Why?
5/22	Did not have class(testing schedule)	1	N/A
5/23	Production blog post: finished editing blog post Pre-prodcuction: also finished editing blog post	1	Yes because my grades were not as high as I would like them to be for these assignments.
5/24	Post-production blog post: summary and sound design effectiveness sections of blog post, will finish rest tonight	1	Yes because it
5/25		1
5/26		1

Personal Comments (Optional) 

Remember reflecting on your own choices and work can help you improve both. Are there any other comments you would like to include for your own reflection? If so, please enter them here: 

Date	Task Description	Time Spent	Was / Were your choices and work Best Practices? Why?
5/15	Post production blog post: Create the blog post, as well as create headings in order to work on	1	Yes because this is the first step to completing the blog post
5/16	Postmortem paper: filled out paper with team	1	Yes because it was relevant to the course work
5/17	Absent	1	N/A
5/18	Watched and reacted to teams’ films	1	Yes because that is what was assigned to us
5/19	Absent	1	N/A

Personal Comments (Optional) 

Remember reflecting on your own choices and work can help you improve both. Are there any other comments you would like to include for your own reflection? If so, please enter them here: 

Summary

During the Post-Production process as a sound designer, I mostly helped edit the audio clips to send to the editor so that they could insert it into the film. I got rid of certain sound clips that weren’t needed, such as the extra options for the principal speech.

Sound Design Effectiveness

I think that the sound design inserted into the film was pretty effective. Artistically, it was effective in my goal to try something new by using off screen diegetic sound through the clapping. Technically, it was effective to use the technique of ADR to enhance the sound quality, as well as add more sounds to the overall film.

Working with the Editor

I gave the editor multiple versions of the sound of clapping, and then told him to play them all at once to create the effect of it sounding like an applause.

How I Could Have Improved The Film

To improve the film, I definitely could’ve rerecorded more audio to replace the original audio. I think that if everything was ADR, the whole film would sound a lot crispier and just simply be better.

What I Learned

During this film session, the biggest thing I learned was to not let stuff outside of film affect the film. My whole team was IB testing and that caused a lot of pointless talking and stress during the film production cycle. I honestly see this film as a failure and one that I am not proud of, and that could be fixed if more time and attention was spent on the film and not worrying about other tests.

Summary

During the production stage in the filmmaking process, I would make mental notes on to which sounds I would have to recreate. I wanted to do mostly ADR so I didn’t really record anything during the actual filming.

Foley Sounds

Collating Sound For Editing

Sound Choices

I decided to record three different versions of the clapping. I did this because I wanted to create the effect of an applause from the background. The different timings of the claps help create this effect. The walking sound was used to enhance the sound of the shoes because it was originally very quiet. The loud shoe sound with the quiet background was used to gain attention towards the main character. The phone call sound also wasn’t as crisp as I would like it to be during the shooting of the scenes, so I went back and recorded it again to add to the loud foreground, quiet background.

Composition Consideration

We, as a team, decided to use no music in our film. One of the factors was time, because of IB testing going on, but we also thought that the quietness of the background would pull more attention towards the main character anyways, so no music was our final choice.

What I Learned and Problems I Solved

I learned that time management is very important to the filmmaking process. The whole team was rushing to finish as we were nearing the due date, and the only way to work around this was to work on the film after hours. Next time, we will be better with our time and make sure we are comfortable the whole time.

Session Number:	5
Week Number:	3
Total Estimated Hours Contributed this Week:	5
What is/was your overall goal for this week?	Goal goes here

Work Tasks 

Date	Task Description	Time Spent	Was / Were your choices and work Best Practices? Why?
5/1	Continue production: filmed the front of the school	1	Yes because it was relevant to the class’s task
5/2	Production: filmed zoom in on papers	1	Yes because it was relevant to the class’s task
5/3	Stressed over ib testing	20	It definitely wasn’t, should’ve been doing film work but I am scared for ib test.
5/4	Not much, discussed more ib testing. Couldn’t film because actor forgot wardrobe. Created Production Blog post	1	Not in the first half because work for this class was not getting done, but turned it around in the second half.
5/5	Production: filmed scenes where main character receives diploma from principal	1	Yes because work was getting done that was relevant to the coursework

Personal Comments (Optional) 

Remember reflecting on your own choices and work can help you improve both. Are there any other comments you would like to include for your own reflection? If so, please enter them here: 

Session Number	5
Week Number	2
Total Estimated Hours Contributed this Week:	5
What was your overall goal for this week?	Fully finish pre-production blog post and start the production process.

Work Tasks 

Date	Task Description	Time Spent	Was this a Best Practice?
4/24	Pre production: test audio deck, document workflow, and scout out film locations	1
4/25	Pre production: Input storytelling elements from Cinematic Storytelling and justify why	1
4/26	Pre production: finish pre production blog post	1
4/27	Start production: set up film location, record day 1 shots, upload audio	1
4/28	Continue Production: record day 2 shots, upload audio	1

Personal Comments (Optional) 

Are there any other comments you would like to include? If so, please enter them here: 

Summary

SMART Goal

By May 10th, as part of team 7, I will explore and implement elements regarding both diegetic and non-diegetic sounds into my team’s film by following the book Cinematic Storytelling by Jennifer Van Sijil.

Cinematic Storytelling Elements

• 35. Realistic Sound (Diegetic) (Character)

Realistic sound, or diegetic sound, is sound that would logically fit into audio depicted on the screen. In other words, it is sound that even the characters in the film can hear. For character specific diegetic sound, the sound is used to reveal charater.

• 36. Realistic Sound (Diegetic) (Emotional Response)

Emotional responsive diegetic sound is another type of realistic sound that is used to evoke an emotional response.

• 37. Expressive Sound (Diegetic) (Outer World)

Expressive sound is another type of diegetic sound that has been altered to create a dramatic effect.

• 38. Surreal Sound (Meta-Diegetic) (Inner World)

Surreal sound is the sound that is in the characters’ head. It is used in order to, again, create a dramatic effect.

Test Recordings

• Background chatter is present
• For final recordings, make sure area is fully clear before recording
• Record multiple takes to find the best one

Equipment Checklist

• Audio deck
• Audio deck Cord
• Boom mic
• Boom mic pole
• Computer
• Premiere Pro
• Soundtrap

Recording Workflow

Steps for set up:

• Carry equipment to location, unconnected
• Attach cord to both audio deck and mic pole on the spot
• Do a test record and start filming!

Location Maps

Foley Sounds

• Shoes walking
• Papers shuffling
• Phone notification
• Outdoor room tone
• Indoor room tone

Discussions with Director

We decided to use no soundtrack to surround the main character with attention without taking any away.

Influences from Films

North by Northwest – Sound designed by Bernard Hermann

When the camera cuts back to the character after it shows the plane, you can still hear the plane sounds. I would like to use this sort of thing as well in our upcoming film.

What I Learned and Problems I Solved

I learned the different types of diegetic and non-diegetic sound, as well as how to incorporate them into our film.

Session Number	5
Week Number	1
Total Estimated Hours Contributed this Week:	5
What was your overall goal for this week?	Pre production

Work Tasks 

Date	Task Description	Time Spent	Was this a Best Practice?
4/17	Brainstorm film ideas	1
4/18	Brainstorm	1
4/19	storyboard	1
4/20	storyboard	1
4/21	Blog post	1

Personal Comments (Optional) 

Are there any other comments you would like to include? If so, please enter them here: 

Session Number	5
Week Number	4
Total Estimated Hours Contributed this Week:	5
What was your overall goal for this week?	Completion of Comparative Study

Work Tasks 

Date	Task Description	Time Spent	Was this a Best Practice?
4/10	Work on CS script	1
4/11	Continue CS script	1
4/12	Finish CS script	1
4/13	Work on Video	1
4/14	Prepare completion of video	1

Personal Comments (Optional) 

Are there any other comments you would like to include? If so, please enter them here: