Lvl 6 - FMP: Trick Of The Dark - Research 2

For my second instalment of research for my role as the lead sound designer/operator i have decided to look into Skywalker sound. It is the sound department in charge of all the sound effects, editing & design behind the production company at Lucas film. They were influential for the time when Star Wars was set for the mainstream audience back in the 1970's. To this day Lucas film are still known for there creative & awe inspiring sound & visual effects for there blockbuster franchise. I thought it would be a good idea to delve into the the behind the scenes work of lucas film and understand exactly what goes into there films & why it took so many heads to create such a masterpiece for the the 1970's. One thing to take away from this was the Sci Fi genre that was sweeping over the 70's & how Lucas film took it upon them to stand out from the rest such as the Predator, Alien & species franchises. Now that Disney has bought out a lot of the huge franchises such as Marvel & Lucas film & now owns the rights to them its not surprising to see Skywalker sound working on such films as the latest Marvel film Thor Ragnorok. Its fitting for such a huge Sci Fi flick & shows how big and inspirational Skywalker sound really is.

Here you can see two time Oscar winner Randy Thom the creative mind behind such films as The Revenant, The Incredibles, The Right Stuff, Cast Away & Forest Gump. He has been nominated for over 15 awards & is inspirational work ethic shows without a shadow of a doubt what it means to be an achieved lead sound designer & director. He is only one of the people listed on the people section of the Skywalker Sound website. The origin of Skywalker sound began in 1975 when it was known it was just a mere thought in George Lucas' mind. It was only when they decided to bring on Ben Burtt onto the project known as Star Wars as the lead sound designer that really stumbled upon something magical. They pushed on to create sprocket Systems which in 1987 moved onto the accomplished Skywalker ranch. It was from here that they went onto be known as the people behind such sounds as the burning blaze of the lightsaber & the thundering footsteps of the Tyrannosaurus Rex.

Above are a bunch of the services that Skywalker sound offer to potential clients and partners in the industry for production & more predominantly post production. Here are what some of the services consist of:

Re - Recording/Mixing

• Skywalker Sound has six feature mixing stages, a scoring stage, two Foley stages, and an ADR stage at the Ranch staffed by a pool of over 35 Re-recording

Sound Design & Editorial

• Sound and storytelling go hand in hand. Sound helps to create atmosphere, elicit emotion, and set tone. The Sound Designers and Editors at Skywalker Sound are not only able to team with filmmakers to create an impeccable track, but are also able to tell a story that would otherwise be difficult to tell with picture alone.

Foley

• Performance-oriented sound elements can be created and recorded on site by a team of talented Foley artists.

Atmos, Auro & Immersive Sound

• All six of Skywalker Sound’s feature mixing stages are equipped for immersive sound mixing. Skywalker Sound has collaborated in the development of new theatrical and venue-oriented audio formats for over two decades and remains committed to providing filmmakers with as many tools and formats as possible.

Music And Scoring

• Skywalker Sound’s Scoring Stage main room measures 60 feet by 80 feet with a 30 foot ceiling and can easily accommodate a 125-piece symphony orchestra yet is flexible enough to provide an intimate recording environment for a solo performer. The main room features an adjustable acoustic system which allows the reverb time to be varied from .6 to 3 seconds. Three isolation booths, measuring 16 x 16 long with 12-foot ceilings, are located at the end of the main room opposite the control room; a fourth isolation booth is located directly off of the control room. All the rooms are extensively equipped with audio, video, SMPTE and MIDI tie lines. Control Room size is 26’ wide by 23’ long. Premium mic/line cables are also available running directly from the stage to the control room for use with outboard mic pre-amps. A large, private lounge is located next to the studio.

ADR

• Skywalker Sound can accommodate original cast members in a comfortable ADR studio to re-voice essential dialogue lines at the Ranch. Skywalker Sound has also developed remote collaboration tools that allow the director, talent and ADR Supervisor to be in separate locations while working together seamlessly.

These are the different techniques and functions that i will have to be developing throughout the production of Trick of the Dark, i will take my research further into Foley & Atmos to understand how to capture the right atmosphere of the film.

Professional Practice: Company Logo Design

So within the company that we are developing i was put to the task of finding/acquiring the logo that will represent the business & will be posted on both our website & business cards. Seen as though we were scheduled to attend several trade events i thought it be only necessary to attain the logo as soon as possible, so i set out to inquire on how we would achieve having access to a designed logo. I first looked into Fiver which Hutch took us through in class, they were certainly reasonably priced & the turnaround time was more than impressive. Yet my partners Araf & Mohammad wanted the Logo done in house from our Graphics team i had been putting together.

So i enlisted Jamie Williams to put together a template for the logo which resulted in a disappointing turnaround time and a lackluster final design. So Araf let him go as he was needed no longer, I then asked Olivia Foxton who in the space of 9 hours came up with close to 25 logo designs and expanded on each of them to an impressive extent. below are the logo designs that were developed.

So these were the two templates that were drawn up, from here i went on to send these too Araf & Mohammad. I received feedback on how they would like the logo's changed, the word that was used was for the logo to be more "prestigious". So with that feedback i put it forward to Olivia & she developed the following designs below.

I was very impressed with the designs above i personally approved of the bottom right logo, Araf & Mohammad on the other hand were infatuated with the top right design and asked me to inform Olivia that the design they wanted developed further would be that one, so here is her further development below. The main criticism that they wanted changed was the alignment of "Limelight" overlapping the text.

These were the outcomes that were drawn up, Going forward the only change was to add "LTD" at the end of Limelight. the final design that we decided on was the 2nd from the bottom. Below is the final design that was drawn up. We were greatly impressed with the final design and were happy to keep the logo design in house as one of our first projects as a team.

Lvl 6 - FMP: Trick Of The Dark - Research 1

As trick of the Dark was set to be shooting on location inside of a cave local to our area in the north east i thought it only appropriate to find out exactly how i can capture the perfect level of atmosphere & audio quality to create the right aesthetic to the film when it comes to the sound design. i thought that the Descent would be a good place to start as they achieved what i am trying to achieve inside the same type of environment. Yet i know that there was a fair amount shot inside of the studio they had access to. I thought using the most of my time to research into different films that are also relevant to this type of experience with on set locations would be more than beneficial to really help expand my knowledge on crafting the perfect atmosphere when allocating my production time within my role on this film. Below are the sound team that worked on the film "The Decent".

from the screenshot above you can see that there isn't a lot of on set sound recording as most of the crew listed provide sound design in post production such as Foley artists & ADR specialists. From here i can see that it is defiantly going to be tough to accomplish capturing a high standard of audio on set inside the cave as you can see just from this that a lot of what was done here was not recorded on set. So from this i will look into the boom operator to see exactly what he did specifically and if he had any form of experience inside the the cave on location for this film. Colin Gregory has moved onto future work that included the new Tomb Raider film this would certainly be appropriate from the experience he gained from The Descent. Researching deeper into the film & behind the scenes i have learned that all of the cave sequences were actually shot inside of a studio. This is a problem as all that i have learned going forward is that on set location inside of the cave is going to be difficult but it has also taught me that the way in which to get around this would be relying heavily on Foley & ADR which i will be using to create the overall atmosphere of the film.

Techniques that i have already learned throughout my experience as a sound operator will guide me through this production. I will use such techniques as using to mics and crossing them to get a greater stream of audio, it will dampen the amount of mid pollution effecting each scene within the cave & on any out door location scenes. we have a blimp which is useful when trying to lower the amount of wind as well so going forward this is what i will be using instead of a dead cat as i don't think there as versatile on set. I now know that ADR will be ever present throughout the filming process and is a technique that i will need to pick up and add to my arsenal for this film.

Lvl 6 - FMP: Hope - shoot 3

For the shoot in the basement i was allocated as the main camera as Sarah Could not pick up heavy equipment due to her blood being taken the day before, So i did what i could to keep up the quality of the shots we intended to shoot on the day. I set up the camera at the bottom of the staircase for the beginning of the shoot & prepared for a tracking wide shot of Tillie walking down the stairs. I tried to achieve the lighting that Janice had in mind for the mood & tone of the scene, though when looking back i can see the Blue is a bit overpowering at times. I feel like the overall shot itself was well done & using one of the props in the basement to give the composition some depth really delivered a more dynamic look to the overall aesthetic to the scene.

I followed up this shot with a tracking shot down the stairs but we had an issue with sound due to the overwhelming noise of two sets of footsteps going down instead of one. Instead we decided on me staying at the top of the staircase & doing a pull focus shot from the Bannister round to the back of Tillie reaching the bottom of the stairs.

As you can see from the image above we set up a spotlight shining upwards to create a more atmospheric visual that was used throughout this scene. Following this shot we moved downwards into the basement for a tracking shot following Tillie through the dark.

You can see in the video above that the tracking shot included Janice following me with an LED to brighten the image as it was too dark to pick up anything. I ended the shot on a close up of a demented lifeless looking mannequin which visually was rather disturbing which could definitely promote a kind of uncanny valley feel. We did not stay down there too long due to the asbestos issue but we got all the shots we aimed to achieve by the end of the day.  Overall the shoot was a success & everything went to plan, so i am happy with the outcome.

Lvl 6 - FMP: Hope - Shoot 2

So for the second scheduled shoot, the location was the local wetherspoons. We set up in the back corner with the actress placed in a confined booth blocking out the public. We set up the lighting to capture the vibrancy of the wine & make sure the highlights and tones of the actresses face were to a substantial effort. We captured multiple shots & i focused a lot of my time on catching cut-away's. We improvised with an on set decision to capture a time lapse of the glass being emptied due to the actress consumption. We made sure the wires were tucked away and bordered off where we were shooting with the chairs behind us. The lighting that was being used was the LED's provided by Hutch as we wanted to see the capability of the whole set. One thing i highly appreciated was the Gel filters that slotted in perfectly with ease and made the metal clips unessential.

The shoot didn't present any issues until we reached outdoors, we at this point used my car in one of the end shots of the scene. We had a time issue present itself as we needed to get a clear shot though a lorry obstructed the composition of the shot. we were able to shoot around it, Janice also put together a few shots impulsively with a puddle outside which was rather nice. I also used my creative input to use one of the bushes outside and pull focus through the branches to show the lead actress smoking in the distance. I did a similar shot with the fireplace inside using a pull focus to create a segmented design to the fire.

Some of the extreme, close ups i caught were pretty impressive for my ability behind the camera so i was pleased with the way in which they turned out. I made sure to use the specified lenses to capture the full detail of the actresses face, especially with the extreme close up on the lips. I am looking forward to seeing the colour correction to these shots as the colors will pop. One thing that i would note is that some of the shoots are starting to feel rather impulsive as a storyboard and shot list has still not presented itself so we seem to be winging a lot of the shots throughout some of the shoots we have completed, though i know that the storyboards are near to completion as well as the script.

Overall the shoot was successful and we accomplished what we set out to achieve so there are no complaints with the overall experience of the second shoot and i look forward to the next shoot in the basement to see what we can do within such a confined environment.

Professional Practice: Practice Shoot

The idea of the practice shoot was to see exactly what the teams chemistry was like, as well as identify how long it would take to set up and pack away after each individual shoot based around the PR YouTube videos that are set to be in development by July. This is a sub section of GMTD which allows us to gain notoriety through fashion shows/events where we can present our team & presenter for our channel, Interviewing and broadcasting our content across YouTube is our aim & being able to fluctuate as much content as possible is our goal for the first 3 month. So this practice shoot allows us to understand exactly what is possible when it comes to turnaround time of the footage we need to capture as and when we allocate it to our working schedule in the company.

Going forward we took note of the improvements needed as well as understanding the power of what an eye catching back set can do to add some life & vibrancy to the background. as you can see in the photo above the background is extremely dull, i have already took to searching for set dressing for when we have our location we will be creating most of our YouTube videos from. The shoot itself went very well & both Araf and Mohammad gelled with each and every one of the team. We had a small De - brief after the shoot to let the team get to know the both of them & alllow them to answer any questions they had.

The turnaround time of shooting & editing the footage was in the space of 48 hrs which was fantastic, This gave Araf a good idea of what is achievable for the future & how we can discuss turnaround times for content in the future. We have several shoots in the pipework but first i am now in need of finding someone with presenting experience willing to be our PR representative, so that is my next task going forward.

Professional Practice: Poster Design

So for my poster designs i chose to keep them simple, i wanted them to be as minimal as possible but still allow the audience to understand the concept of the film, even it isirst went forward with Trick of the Dark as i had an idea in mind to express the brief outlook of what the film stands for. I chose to illustrate it myself through Photoshop & though the film is predominantly focusing on the psyche of the main protagonist, as well as focusing on the dark areas i thought keeping the poster vibrant would catch the audiences attention in which you see below my final design.

As you can see the poster depicts a hole in the cave ceiling revealing a spotlight shining on a broken television. The point being there is no signal inside this cave, there is nothing working at its full capacity, the television represents the mind, though colour may still be prominent they represent the stand by function of old TV'S as that is what the main protagonist is going through. he is in state of uncertainty, confusion, nothing is quite right. to fix his mind & gain a clearer picture is the main focus of this story. It also ties in with the ending, a side note would be the way in which i have scratched the title into the side of the rock, i thought using a bold colour like red was self explanatory due to the setting, the outline of white adds to the scratched effect. The red represents the blood of the protagonist clawing at his own mind, pushing to try and find a way out of his depression.

The next poster was for the 2nd film i am on board with, It is called Hope. So i found the design for this one harder than the other as the concept is more otherworldly, i tried a few drawn designs but could not come to a final drawing i liked, i felt like i was taking parts of the film 7 simply illustrating over them which was less than impressive to behold. I then thought that i needed to take the experimentation down a notch in which i went for a very minimal design which you will find below.

You will be able to see the similarity between the two posters here as i am using items to represent the main focus of each story. In this case time is of the essence as the main protagonist of this story is slowly losing her life in hospital after a car collision sent her into a dream like state. I chose a very dark and bleak colour contrast for the hourglass & background, this helped the emergency lights for the background really stand out. instead of sand in the hourglass i chose blood, Though that might be seen as too graphic, i still went forward with the idea as it had more of an impact aesthetically & will help when drawing in the audiences attention. I wanted the text to appear ghostly & transparent to represent the otherworldly aspects & give the impression of limbo, its small ideas like this that brought these two posters together.

Lvl 6 - FMP: Hope Shoot 1

We started the 1st of our shoots with a rather interesting shoot using the 2 cameras we had to our advantage. Sarah focused on one part of the scene whilst i focused on another. The aim was to limit the time in which it would take to achieve completion. The shots i set up for were as followed: wide shot, tracking forward shot x2, Close up & over shoulder shot. I used a pull focus from the teddy bear at the end of the bed using my own initiative in the shot decision which i think really worked for the the first forward tracking shot in the scene.

At first i was directed to do it hand held for this tracking shot but i thought that a slider would be a lot more smooth & give me the ability to do the pull focus. The color was impeccable for the overall visual quality of the image, it really lit up when looking back at the footage. When doing the close up on Tillie i made sure that the fairy lights in the background were very soft which was in my opinion a beautiful shot that really added to the overall quality of the scene. After achieving this shot i moved onto a wide in which i captured the design of the bedroom itself.

I struggled slight with the wide & the over the shoulder due to the design of the beds layout. Due to it being on the floor it was slightly difficult to frame it right as Janice did not want the floor in shot. I worked around this and used the extra head space that was there but still tried to have Tillie central for the composition. The layout of the lighting was extremely vibrant & the use of a blue LED behind the curtains to recreate the outdoors was a nice touch to really accentuate the shot.

Lvl 6 - FMP: Introduction

For our final major projects we are first in need of pitching our roles to the group whether it be a script or an actual position. I put myself forward as an editor which is found on my Pitch presentation for my FMP on the VLE. However I did not think that this role was right for me due to my lack of experience. So at the end I decided to make it clear that I am ready for any position that opens and presents itself.

Four films have to be picked and i will need to be present on two of them. The films that were chosen were:

• My Name Is John (Mockumentary)
• Echoes Of Silence (Short Film)
• Trick Of The Dark (Short Film)
• Afterlife (Short Film)

I myself was chosen to be Sound Operator on Jack's film "Trick Of The Dark" & Camera Operator 2 for Janice's film "Afterlife". I was happy with my chosen roles i have experience with both roles and have been told that my sound work on Inheritance was to a good standard. As soon as i have access to Jacks script I will start to layout my Foley list & mark what needs to be completed for the coming weeks. As soon as I have access to the story boards from Janice I will also put my use of time into practicing the coming shots with several test shoots that will be established at a later date. Primary research is key to gain a greater understanding of my role & try and push for a better grade in my final outcome. I will be seeking knowledge from Shaun for sound & Liam for Cinematography as it will be helpful for the production process. I look forward to starting each of the productions and will continue to upload content of this module until completion.