Lvl 6 - FMP: Trick Of The Dark - Radio Mic's

So as it is my final year of Uni & my role is a sound operator i thought that having a chance to use the Radio Mic's was an excellent idea. It gives me an opportunity to learn a new skill and add to my ability as a sound operator. We used the radio mics when we shot one of the first cave scenes inside of the studio. due to there being no outside interference i was able to capture excellent crisp audio from that sequence in particular. I was also using the boom to capture an overall atmosphere of the room & used the radio mics to capture each of the individual actors/actresses dialogue. I will be using the radio mics for the next few shoots which will allow the audio for the film to be to a higher standard than my past projects.

Professional Practice: YouTube Channel - Showreel

So i set up my YouTube channel in 2015 but have very rarely updated it, so i thought now was the time to get on top of it for Professional Practice. I have recently added some of the films that i have helped create and put together my show-reel which will be listed below. I realize that my show reel is predominantly from 3 films, but i could not gain access to footage from past projects such as the music video or Hey Presto. I do like the pacing of my show-reel though i have to admit. I feel like its paced well & catches attention from the get - go.

Professional Practice: Cupeno Shoot

Our second Shoot was suppose to be followed after an interview with the designer of a new brand of clothing/music producer who was wanting to gain some form of mainstream media/attention for his brand. We had to pass on the interview as the designer did not turn up to the shoot & instead used our time to do a further recce of the Cupeno's cafe to gain further insight for the production team on what is achievable with the video.

The idea is to promote the cafe itself & the video was based around showing the cafe in its natural state & fill in the buzzing atmosphere with extras as we were allocated to shoot after hours. Once we had an idea of what we were going to do we had lunch and came back at the set time for the shoot & began to set up the equipment. As we set up i awaited the extras i had gathered in two days notice of the shoot in which half of them turned up. In that case we had to improvise with others on set. We had all the machines turned off for Shaun to collect the greater sound we needed. We then gathered as much footage as possible in our small time of filming. We presented ourselves in a professional manor & made sure the extras were catered for. It was not a hard shoot other than the alarming amount of time we had to gather what we needed, i thought it may have been a good idea to go back and schedule a follow up shoot and will be going forward with Mohammad to set that in motion.

Lvl 6 - FMP: Trick Of The Dark - Television Scene Shoot

Our first shoot for Trick of the Dark was shot inside of the sound stage which is known to have extreme cases of sound issues. We were focusing getting the end sequence finished first as we still don't have the cave at this point that we desire to capture the right atmosphere. we used one of the sets that was there to create the look and feel of a child's television programme. I really liked the design of the set itself, when i get a chance to see the colour corrected version of the footage that was captured i imagine when it comes to the colours, vibrant will be an understatement. as i could not capture sound on set we decided that ADR was the way forward when capturing the dialogue for this scene. We have scheduled an ADR session later in the next few weeks once the actor/actress are available. As i have not yet done ADR it will give me a chance to hone a new skill & further my knowledge when it comes to sound design & taking on the role as a professional Sound Operator.

Reasons behind the sound issues when capturing sound inside of the sound stage are severe as i really had no option but to leave the audio for that specific shoot, we learned that using the sound stage may not be a viable option for the future due to time restrictions of having to set up more & more ADR sessions. This is just an effective use of our time management as we come closer to our deadline in the coming month and a bit. sadly this also means i don't have any shots of myself using any sound equipment for this shot but i do have me holding an imaginary boom pole if that helps visualise what it would of looked like. Some of the issues that we encountered on set were an influx of Avery noise pollution, we also encountered many industrial noises from the roadworks and building sites across the road & the biggest issue was a sound we could not locate which was extremely loud & would of been a hinderance to the whole production if i decided to capture audio. Luckily we still captured what we needed visually and were feeling more confident about the film going ahead.

Lvl 6 - FMP: Trick Of The Dark - Foley/Atmos

So for Trick of the Dark I have decided to look into different types of effects I can create using foley & sound design. I'm looking into youtube specifically to find tutorials on how to create different types of interesting sound effects that I could potentially use on the film to create a more atmospheric experience. Some of the examples I aim to show are basic ones such as footsteps, heartbeats etc.

Above is a video showcasing exactly how you can make sound effects out of everyday objects he uses a t shirt as an example on how to create a heartbeat though I know that you can gain the same sound from compressing a plastic tub and letting it rebound in your hand with control. the scissors being used as the ticking of the clock is also another technique that is interesting though some of these are rather basic that doesn't take away from the overall effect it can have on a scene. its rather impressive from your average persons stand point, someone with no knowledge on film finding out that this is where sound effects are crafted for there feature films. I found another video that is slightly more experimental in the way they showcase different sound effects, what I mean by this is that they are trying to achieve more complex audio. The video below showcases more gruesome sound effects for the game known as Mortal kombat.

Below is some of the fatalities in the game so you are able to see exactly where these noises will have been incorporated in the game & be able to realise just how amazing Foley can be.

So now what I see needing to be done going forward is using jacks script and putting together a list of what needs to be done for the foley design to better the films overall sound quality.

Professional Practice: Conceptual Art - Echoes

I played a part in helping piece together Brad Sampson's Go Fund Me campaign by drawing up and animating some conceptual art for the final video. Brad took me aside and discussed which scenes from his storyboards he would like recreated into digital concept art. Once i had the basic designs i needed i drew them up with pencil & then went ahead scanning them in to Photoshop & digitizing the following designs.

Once i had the images digitized i then took them into After Effects to animate. It was a simple case of making all the layers 3D & splitting the cam,era into two as well as adding a 3D camera object. You then need to set up the layers in order of distance, Once you have the layers ordered you then need to set a motion track for the camera to follow. So to achieve this set up a key frame from the beginning and one at the end & choose the motion in which you would like the camera to move, in this case i chose to do a simple pull out shot to give the concept art more depth.