The Final Project

Our group has the task to create a documentary on Tropical Storm Nicole that hit Jamaica in the past few weeks. It is shaping to be very difficult as most of the equipment that we need is not provided by the school so i guess we just have to improvise. This weeks class made some valuable points about editing and what aspects come before the editing. We hope to get the information that we want so out project will be the best out of three(3).

We got our midterm project which is a very integral part of our final assignment. The groups have to prepare a script, storyboard and shotlist for the next class. My group has a good idea and we are excited about it , hopefully all goes according to plan and it is executed well.

Learning about the crew list and equipment was interesting and informative and gave me a better understanding of what was done behind the scenes of a video shoot.

Production Equipments and Recordings

Mondays class was very interesting. We learnt about the various camera and equipments used to short and record film. We also did group work and this should be very productive and fun as i have worked with my group members in class. We decided on doing a short film lasting from 5-10 mins.

This Week

Ok so classes for the past few weeks have been interesting. Learning about equipment and persons involved on a set was fun and engaging. Its now down to our mid-term/final project which seems very exciting. Im really excited to work on that project and continue learning as much as possible.

Mid Term Project

We now have our assignment for the mid-term project and already it seems to be a challenge but what would school be without hard assignments. My groups members are very verse in the field and I am sure that we will be able to pull this one off in a bang. The hardest part will be getting first hand views in the documentary meaning, we will have to go in theses communities affect by the passing storm and shoot and evaluate. Well in terms of the circumstances, we intend to improvise if we are not able to get the footage and info that we need.  Mr Wilkins, do you have any advice for us pertaining to going into these areas and or improvising?

Class 5 Summary

We covered equipment this class:
Lights

• HMI lights (energised mercury gas) - low energy input, high illuminance, white light, high cost
• Tungsten Lights (heated filament) - low energy efficiency, yellow light, low rental cost.
• Kino-Flow (Flourescent) low energy input, low illuminance, white light, low cost
• LED (Light-emitting diode) low energy, high luminance, low cost, white light.

Rig

• tripod - a three-legged stand with an adjustable head on which a camera is mounted to help the operator use the camera steadily
• C-stands - A vertical stand that has "C"-shaped legs to keep in upright
• boom - a pole to attached lighting and sound equipment to that can be held by an operator or attached to other rigging.
• dolly - a platform on wheels the camera and operator can travel on
• dolly-track - the rails that a dolly needs to traverse smoothly
• Apple Boxes - small wooden/plastic crates, used to store wires, accessories, provide seating, or anything else a sturdy box can be used for on a set.
• Sandbags - adjoined bags filled with sand. use to keep stands stable or to provide weight on lever-type equipment
• Jib - A projecting arm on a lever that an operator can attach a camera to one end an control it from the other end and get overhead sweeping shots.

Lighting Conditioners

• Reflectors-usually in gold, silver or white, is used to bounce light to areas the light source does not reach.
• Flags - usually in black is used to blog light where it is not needed.
• Umbrellas - used to create a concaved bounce (silver) or a convex diffusion (white silk) of incident light.
• Softboxes - used to focus and soften light from a harsh light source
• Diffusers - used to soften light coming from a harsh light source
• Gel - filters that affect the colour of resultant light coming from a source.

Power Supply

• Generator or "Jenny" - uses electromagnetism to produce electricity to power the equipment on set
• Electrical Ballasts - provide the proper starting and operating electrical condition to power one or more fluorescent lamps and more recently HMI lights
• Stingers - extension cables

We can find examples of each of these terms on www.bhphotovideo.com, complete with specs and prices.


The assignment for mid-term assessment is a to prepare pre-production documentation for either of the following:

A. Music Video [3:30]
B. Documentary [10-15 mins] OR
C. Short Film [5-10]

You are to be as detailed as possible in your preparation including a crew and equipment lists.
You will be graded on creativity of content, adherence to plot arc, level of detail of documentation. Extra credit will be given for a suggested budget.

Due Monday the 25th of October, 2010.

FINAL PROJECT GROUPS

Hello class. The following is the FINAL group assignments for the final project as approved by Mr. Wilkins:

GROUP 1:
Felicia Daley
Noel Roberts
Kiah Proute

GROUP 2:
Lisa-Marie Walters
Amanda Richards
Shamir Brown
Kadia Astely

GROUP 3:
Sherrol Harrison
Enleigh Kerr
Karen Parchment
Ronald Greaves

Oct 4 2010

We are coming down the home stretch now, time for the final assignment. Although it seems early in the semester for the final assignment I know this project will be very time consuming and will cause for us to put in a lot of hard work. Hopefully we know what groups we are in soon and can start on the first stages of the assignment. I just hope the groups can get along and everyone will try their best to make a contribution to this video production.

I am really looking forward to future classes as we begin to work on our final assignment.

Script for Final Project

ok. to be honest, today wasn't a good day for me. it started off bad with a few unfortunate events and after that i just got threw off my game. as much as mr wilkins was teaching, i didn't really leran much because i was hearing but not listening. just one of my bad days. i hope next class ill listen. the last thing i heared was something about lighting and diffusers. am just gona recap and get the idea of wat was tought. over all though it is goin well.

Class 3 and 4

Class 3 by far is the best class. The preproduction terms and the in class assignment had us thinking..We learnt terms such as Gaffer, Best Boys and your normal terms such as Directors and Producers. It got us thinking.

Class 4 was about lighting and how it is used in a production. We also went in depth about the final project, this should be interesting. Music video, Documentary or Short film... In terms of learning i think the documentary or short Film would be an experience, but it would be fun to do a music video..

week 4

this week was the class about lighting and you know how important lighting is. Without proper lighting your production can become crap even though it was okay otherwise. I am looking forward to the final as was announced and probably a documentary wont be so bad. Guys let us think about a possible one that is interesting and not boring

working on a anamatic

well i has been a tough weekend with me having to learn to draw again. However I think with more practice i can get better. I have some stick people trying to tell a story that Karen, Amanda and I tried to develop. It was hard work and posed some problems but we worked it out and sent something. However this shows that we need better software and I hope that soon it will be on our computers.

Class 4 Lecture Summary

Sounds, play an important role in telling a story, it creates the mood and helps convey the emotion at that point in time to the audience. Music is a loose description of this background sound because of the sound even though played by an instrument rarely follows the rules of song composition and sometimes these sounds may not be produced by an instrument at all, it could be a sound effect produced by something in the story e.g. footsteps, creaking on a wooden floor, gunshots and the ricochet of the bullet on a surface near the protagonist. All these effects fall under the category of scoring and sound design. A music composer with an understanding of the emotional effect of sound s responsible for the scoring film and the changing mood of the story, the sound designer is responsible for the non-music sound effects, to create an audio effects in the film. A foley artist does a different job where he creates sounds not captured in the filming process or replaces sound captured in the filming process. A boom operator captures the dialogue between actors on the screen. A Sound Engineer will mix the audio and put it all together. Assignment 4 (due October 1) is to create an animatic of the "Condom Use Story" using sounds to communicate moods and timing of the images from the storyboard. There will be marks added for the recording and placement of dialogue in the piece. Grading will be based on: Meeting the deadline, Creativity of Content, Adherence to theme using sound, Addition of recorded dialogue. PREFERABLY AS A QUICKTIME MOV FILE.

The second half of the class we discussed the different roles involved in video production:

Client: Wants a story told
Producer: Responsible for getting the story told, sometimes will operate as a writer in telling the story:

Director: responsible for the Performance Style of the Story on Film

Actors: perform as Characters within the story

Casting Director: responsible for the selection of the actors to play the characters in the story

Director of Photography: Responsible for how the scenes are composed and shot.

Production Designer: Is responsible for set/Location Design, usually some architecture/sculpting background.

Art Director: Responsible for the details and the look of the set, elements in the shot it all looks when the actors are in the shot.

Stylist: The stylist is responsible for the look of the actors and will supervise, hair/makeup/wardrobe personnel

Lighting Director: If a DP requires it, a lighting director will solve complex lighting issues.

Gaffer: Responsible for electrical considerations related to lighting and camera equipment.

Key Grip: Responsible for placement, removal and care of equipment on the set.

Best Boy and Best Boy Electric: senior assistance to the Key Grip and Gaffer respectively.

Boom Operator: Responsible for capturing dialogue between actors during scenes

Foley Artist: Responsible for producing sound for the movie after production

Editor: responsible for putting the shots and audio together to tell the final story.

The producer traditionally would take overall responsibility for pre and post production duties, but recently, directors started to take on more responsibilities in post.

In-class assignment identify crew members necessary to produce a 30 sec commercial, given that audio and script is already available.

Class 3 Lecture Summary

When we identify the various plot points we will start to write our story in different ways, namely:

Synopsis - Summary of the story in an order that communicates the plot points in the order it occurs

Screenplay/Script: A detailed layout of the similar to that of a Shakespearean play

Storyboard: A sequential picture story so that the Production personnel can know what compositions they are working with.

Animatic: A recorded dialogue and rough music and sound, usually for the benefit of a client to show how the story will play out over time. (usually used in animation projects, or in films with complex special effects). Rapidly being replaced in the industry by PreViz, a technique using 3D sprites to tell the story, instead of story board sketches.

Shot List: Once a detailed storyboard is done then a checklist of shots are arranged in the order that is most convenient to shoot. It is at this point that you can develop a comprehensive budget and crew list.

The in-class assignment was to prepare an infomercial promoting condom use among teens. Keeping in mind plot points, and developing a synopsis, script/screenplay, storyboard, shotlist (due Sep. 24.) Grading will be based on; adherence to deadline, adherence to theme, creativity in storytelling, clarity in plot points, all in each area of required deliverables.