7. Capturing audio and recording dialogue

Following the idea I had thought of after seeing that last class was a massive waste of time, I suggested that we make a plan at the beginning of the lesson today before we started doing anything. We decided to capture and do a bit of editting today, but Ms. Wong countered this idea, saying that it was a waste of time to capture - we should be doing something while capturing to make maximum use of the time. We thought this was quite a sensible idea, so we split our group into two. Marcus, Jerald, and Lok Lok went to record their dialogue since they had not yet done any of their recording, while Michele and I stayed at the computer to capture and edit.
However, since, as Ms. Wong had predicted, we had a huge amount of footage, we soon got bored sitting at the computer and decided to watch the recording. As usual, especially with Jerald in our group, this was a very interesting and entertaining experience. Today, I got to use the headphones and listen to the recording while the person was speaking. I had never done this before, so I had no idea it would sound that different from the sound that naturally came out. Listening with the headphones also made me realize how important the mic is during the recording - holding it just a little farther away really made a difference to how the sound came out. With this in mind, we experimented with making the sound less clear. This would help us because there is a scene in our section of the comic where two characters are eavesdropping. To create the effect that the characters speaking are not supposed to be heard, they have to sound a little distant and muffled. This is where the farther placement of the mic would come in. I think it worked out pretty successfully, but the sound still needs a little editting to improve the effect.
Occasionally, I went back to the computer to check on the capturing tape. Watching what we had been doing the past few classes was both interesting and shocking at the same time. Firstly, I can't believe that we have over an hour of footage already. Secondly, the content of our footage is... I can't believe we wasted that much time. We argued over the most trivial things, and while there was a lot of laughter involved in our making of the comic, it was a great waste of time. I didn't expect to learn anything from watching our footage, but I guess there's something to be learned everywhere. Hopefully, after watching the footage, everyone else will get the same message as me, preventing us from wasting so much of our precious time again.

6. Starting to record audio

Okay, so there was a lot more wastage of time than I would have liked, but we did get a few things done. We got a start on recording some of the dialogue needed for the comic. We filmed in one of the music practice rooms to avoid background noises from entering the film. It was a failure as Marcus, who carried the most important part in the comic, was absent today. We managed to record the dialogue for a few scenes before realizing it was a hopeless cause. Ms. Wong taught us an efficient way to record - run through the same scene a few times, trying different things (e.g. accents, voice tones, expressions, etc.) each time, before moving on. When editting, this allows us to look through the different 'takes' we had and choosing the best one, instead of having to pause between each try to watch and give comments. At some point during our filming, the music room was taken back, but Ms. Neil offered to let us use the storage room instead. After deciding that it was no use to film the dialogue, we moved on to creating some of the sound effects. As we were in the music storage room, it was the perfect opportunity to use the instruments. Michele suggested we use the drums to create the sound of the horses gallopping on the first page of the comic. LokLok and I experimented with different rhythms and sections of the different drums, but nobody was satisfied with the sounds the drums produced. Sadly, that was quite a lot of time wasted on something that didn't work in the end after all. We then looked to create the sound of the bedsheets rustling on page 2 of the comic. Someone found a roll of toilet paper which was for some reason placed among the musical instruments. We tried rubbing the toilet paper together, and, to my surprise, it actually produced a sound quite similar to bedsheets rustling. After getting that filmed, we decided to put a little more work into the documentary.
As you can see, there was a lot of time wastage, but the class wasn't a total loss. I think that we should begin next class by coming up with a plan for the time instead of playing it by ear and thinking about what to do next after each step.

5. comic audio lesson 1

Today we discussed what we had done for our 'homework' - analyzing the sound effects on one page of the comic. We had all found our homework quite hard to do as 1. the pictures were quite dark, so we couldn't tell what was what in the comic, and 2. we were very confused as to what the story was about. We spent much time trying to figure out the roles of each of the characters today, and it was only when Ms. Wong came and told us what the comic was about that we actually began to get a grasp of what was happening.
At the same time, our documentary has also begun. A lot of our discussions was filmed today, but because (thanks to Ms. Wong's advice) we did not want to have hours of unwanted footage to watch later on, we only filmed parts of the discussions. As a result, the camera missed quite a lot of interesting arguments, especially ones involving Jerald. Overall, though, I think what was filmed wasn't bad.
In the way of the comic, though, we really did not get much done. Since we had sorted out what the comic is about, we have assigned each person a character to narrate for. Our 'homework' is to think up ways to portray the sound effects that Marcus had written down on a list during our discussion. I hope that next class we will be able to get something done in the way of actually adding audio to the comic, so that we are not too far behind time.

4. Start of our first project

Last film class we started our new project. This would be our first graded project, and it involves 4 different criterions. The aim of this project is to add in the audio for part of a comic, and simultaneously produce a documentary recording how we put in the audio for the comic.
Adding in audio to the comic will involve what we have learned about sounds so far: diegetic and non diegetic sounds, and foley.
The documentary will be a record of everything we did to the comic during this period of time. Any 'artistic' decisions we make (and how we make them), how we recorded the voices, how some of the sound effects were produced, etc, will all be filmed in the documentary.
I will be working in a group of 5 this project, consisting of Michele, LokLok, Jerald, Marcus, and I. I am happy with my group so far and am quite excited to start on this project.
Last class, we started to divide jobs between us. We were all given a page of the comic to 'analyze', and think about what sounds should be put into that page. I was given the first page, and have looked at it already. It amazes me how many sound effects can be put into just a few scenes, and I wonder how much time cartoon animators must put into their work.
All this film and audio is really new to me, and, excited as I am, I am also a little apprehensive about how well I will do. I really hope I will be an asset and not a hindrance to my group!

3. Sound Scavenger Hunt

Today I learned about how sound is used in a film to make it more realistic or to enhance different moods. There are two different types of sound: diegetic and non diegetic. Diegetic sound is 'sound that comes from within the confines of the narrative', basically meaning that the viewer can see the source of the sound. (e.g. dialogue, the phone ringing, footsteps, etc). Non diegetic sound is sound that isn't actually in the film (e.g. background music).
I also learned about how sound effects are created. I knew how sounds were added to animations before, and today I learned a few more tricks to create sound. However, when watching movies, I had always thought the sound was real. Today, though, I learned that the sounds are actually magnified for effect. For example, in the video we watched today, the sound of the car pulling up, the sound of the seatbelt, and the sound of the man walking on the gravel were actually recorded after the scene was filmed. A boom mic was placed at certain positions to get the best sound. Being able to record sound after a scene is shot is good because then the person filming doesn't have to worry about getting a nice angle as well as getting good sound at the same time.
After learning about how to create different sound effects, we were set on a sound scavenger hunt. We were supposed to find sounds for different things, such as water, joy, and work, among many others. We were told not to choose the 'obvious', but to be creative. We were also told we could use the computer to search for sounds. Our team (Michele, LokLok, Tiffanie, Francesca and I) split up into two groups - Francesca and Tiffanie filming, and the rest of us looking at sounds on the computer.
Michele, LokLok and I browsed Freeplaymusic.com to look for love, danger, emergency, and destruction sound effects/music. There was a shortage of time in class today as we spent most of it watching videos on how to create sound effects, so we did not have enough time for the actual scavenger hunt. We decided to split the leftover sounds, each person taking one, for our homework, as we didn't finish it in class.

2. Editting for Cinematography Scavenger Hunt

Today, in the same groups, we edited the video clips that we filmed last class using Final Cut Pro. We experienced a few difficulties. At first, we saved the file onto a public space, and after that we couldn't use Final Cut Pro anymore. We had to switch onto another account for it to work. The computer also kept freezing and turning fuzzy. The problems lost us quite a lot of time, which is why we had to rush at the end, and we didn't finish putting in the titles before we ran out of time. Today's class was interesting because I had never used Final Cut Pro before. Not only did I learn how to do a few things on a new editing program, but I also learned how to change the color settings for a video, which I had never done on any other program.
In future, when editing, I think I could manage my time better, worrying less about the small details, and just trying to get the job done, so that my future project don't end up unfinished like this one.

1. Introduction to Film

Today was the first day in film class. In groups of four, we did a 'scavenger hunt', playing with the camera, familiarizing ourselves with the different techniques and functions. I had never taken a film class before, and learning about the few different techniques was interesting to me. My group consisted of Isaac, Shun, Francesca, and me. We went around filming different scenes. We were supposed to use focus, color, and light to make the same scenes have different feels. Not only that, I also learned from Shun what the rule of thirds was, and the 180 degree rule. I also learned how to film from a few different angles I had never considered before.