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.

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.