MediaStudies 22/23

 

 

      GarageBand isn't a simple app to use. There are many different buttons and hundreds of instruments available to use. Now, my concept was to go from Major to Minor key and have many instruments playing. Only could I figure out how to go from Major to Minor. I really wanted the music to sound similar to the song Bernadette's is, however the piano was the easiest to understand. The keys don't flow into each other anymore either, now they fight once they met and then the Minor key takes over. The only bad thing about it is that it's very loud and not pleasing to listen to. Which would follow the character's emotions, however at the cost of your hearing.      I created two different songs, one in Major and one in Minor, mixed them together in Rush. The two overlay each other till the panic of the character sets in and it's only Minor Key.      The River scene actually uses the same Major Key song, just at a different point. I felt ...

      Once all the film was finished, it wasn't finished. I needed to get 15 more seconds into this film. I added more reaction shots, since there weren't many to begin with and it gave more emotion to both the character and the mood of the scenes. I also extended some clips, like the black between the Scenes and of the walking at the end. Walking isn't interesting but, there wasn't much else to add, plus it was only a second or two! Other clips extended were of the painting or being at the River. I felt that having longer clips gave a calming element to it. With the fast paced ones, the character is frustrated and angry, while longer ones show that the character is relaxed.      It may seem boring to have a 6 second clip for the river, although having it longer shows less tense (a river wouldn't tense someone for a Slice-Of-Life like a Horror would in this context).     Some of the reaction shots weren't taken as reaction shots eit...

    During the River Scenes, there's a moment where the character is slouching over themselves and looking through the picture they took on the camera. The viewer should be able to see what's happening on the camera, but should also see the character slightly upset still, hence slouching.      The first clip is where they look more relaxed in the area, calmly looking through the photos.     The second is where they appear closed off and probably still stressed. The character shouldn't be stressed anymore (being upset is fine, due to them gaining happiness in a bit, it'll show how a little sunset made them comfortable). In that clip, my head is slightly cut off, which isn't what you'd want. 

      Outside of the Character's room is gloomy and anything they find comfort in will be bright, exciting and colorful. While getting the Tracking shot of the character, the door had to be open, letting the light  through, illuminating the outside of the room. I took a shot of the wall when there wasn't any light and tried to match it with the wall of the door, then fade in to remove the botchy match up, for a better viewing pleasure. 

    The original storyboard never had a moment where the whole canvas was in the frame. There are moments where the canvas is mostly seen, however not clearly.      I tried to add a tilt that would show it at the ending point of the film, then go to the black screen. It looked wrong, like a random clip inserted at a random point, which in fact it was. My shadows were in the way, it looked completely different from any of the other shots around it. The viewer will never see an entire view of the canvas, which could add some type of dramatic suspense that never gets  fulfilled.            Unintentionally, throughout the Room Scenes, the canvas slowly appears more, only seeing the side view, the upper half (not the skull just yet), then at the end the viewer sees the skull. That's basically what I wanted to happen, but rather slow reveal a quick shot with the whole canvas in it. I, honestly, am very happy with how it loo...

    A slight mistake is during the wiping shots. I had cleared, basically, the entire streak of orange off, when there should be a lot left over. Now, I can tie this in with a tiny mistake becoming overbearing: even with the entire streak gone, the orange is still faded/ embedded in the bird, they still feel  incredibly frustrated. It still follows how an insignificant mistake can make someone explode (even when it's mostly fixed), the Slice-Of-Life Genre, a regular person. 

     During filming, I don't tend to think about the editing process, so for the clips to aline almost perfectly when switching angles was a wonderful accident!     I filmed the clips of the entire process, like adding paint to the canvas, so I try to cut down the clips to the exact point where both clips seamlessly match. It allows the viewer to watch a clean film and reduce any jump cuts in the painting process. 

     Scene 1 ended with me painting over the lens of my camera, to then "seamlessly" fade into the red of the sunset.           The sunset never showed red. Plus I had decided to remove the entire shot of zooming out of the sun  anyways, so there was no point for it at all. Moreover, I kept looking directly in the lens every time I tried to put the paint on, when I should be looking straight forward.  Not to mention, I didn't even angrily walk out of the room, this ending was doomed to fail. 

    Panic. Panicking Scene and panicking in general!            The panic scene was added after I completed the storyboard and after I had the entire film in my head. I gave it a general area on where it would most likely fit in, right before destroying the painting, though it didn't feel nor look nice (acting wise). Since I'm an artist, I  generally get frustrated with my art and would quit. I wouldn't walk all around and angrily stomp around, I would just not touch it for a few days. I also felt that there would be way too many camera changes in such a short amount of time, for how I wanted to do it, making the viewer uncomfortable. Shots like standing up, showing me moving around (front and side view) and sitting back down, within ~10 or more second, it would be way too much.       The background wasn't nice to look at either. It was bare and at a diagonal, to remove the sun from the window...

    Grabbing the Red paint is an important moment for the film, destroying the painting. There are two clips that would work good for it.            The first, I grab it quite dramatically (which is a good thing) and it seemed cartoonish (specifically the way my hand widens before grabbing the paint and the sound it makes once I fully grip it), leading to a funnier/ lighter mood. That scene should be filled with angst, frustration and anger, it's not a lighthearted moment. Additionally, Auto-focus was on, for a split moment you can see the refocus, which wasn't nice to look at.     The second clip, is straight to the point, a simple grab. It fits the genre better too, since there's no  comedy. There should be some type of dramatic effect in it, as it's a vital part of the film, however, it makes more sense to be a normal grab. Maybe I could have added some struggle to getting the bottle, except I struggle to sque...

     Editing the Rough Cut spanned over several days from whenever I had time to look through the clips. There was over 2 hours of footage to go through and Rush couldn't handle all the clips in it at once. I separated the clips based on the location and days I filmed, then once I've picked the shots that worked the best, I would put them all in one project.  Sunset Day 1:     The acting was worse on Day 1, however the sunset was beautiful. I separated the shots based on the ones I will not use (top), ones that were acting and if needed I could use them (middle top), the wild sound (middle bottom) and the clips I would absolutely use (bottom). The clips pushed all the way to the right in the middle top were some of the acting ones I could use, however there were small differences that could show that it was different, like the paint on my hands.      The clips I chose to use were the complete frames of the sunset and when I took the phot...

     Day 2 sunset, was visually horrible. There was a fire, or just weird clouds, nearby meaning there was no pretty sunset. However, the sunset on the first day was beautiful and I decided that I could use both day's footage, the sunset from Day 1 and the acting from Day 2! Day 1 Day 2     There are little mistakes with using Day 1 footage, the paint on my hand with the camera is all red, or looking a little physically different during the walking/ end scene. They aren't too noticeable, but it's there and there isn't anything I could do to fix it.  It's hard to tell, but the back of my hand shouldn't be in all red (First photo)      This time I also used the front camera to position myself in the way I want it, meaning there would be more time to film the shots and have it the way I want it. The only downside is that there is a quality decrease anytime I used the front camera. On a positive note, the times ...

     Second time filming was slightly easier, since I knew what I wanted to change from the first time and to add anything new. The most annoying issue was not getting any low angles with the floor and character in the entire shot. There isn't a zoom-out option, so I would have to physically move the camera further away to get everything in shot. The room isn't huge and it was actually impossible for me to get the character and floor in the same shot. The reason I want the floor in the shot is to show the mess of supplies the character has. Doing art isn't usually a clean activity, there's mess everywhere, showing that the character is well into what they are creating. Even when I was painting, the floor looked almost exactly like what was filmed.  My head would've been cut off. Plus there would be multiple shots with my head cut off. The opening/ introduction for the character is changed to have the floor/ mess at least shown. My head is act...

     The name "Canvas' Crimson Canal" was a bit long and the canvas part made overall sense, however it sounded quite horrible in my opinion, so I dropped the "Canvas'" and “Canal”, mainly because I couldn’t remember the word canal, to just  Crimson River.    Another issue was trying to add the title in a diegetic way, like with sticky notes. It is an alright concept, but the way I attempted looked terrible and I scrapped the idea all together. Now, during the river scene and while they take the picture of the canal, they will say "A Crimson River ". It still keeps the title diegetic and it won't look as bad. However I had been informed that the title shouldn't be verbal, but visible too, meaning I'll have to add text of the character speaking like captions. I felt that it would be more seamless to naturally insert the title, rather than "forcing" a random shot of the sketch with words around it.    You can even see me cro...

      I have no experience using GarageBand, nor any (except Violin)  instrumental knowledge of how to play a Piano or the Drums. I basically played some notes, which sounded nice, however I may not use it in the actual film. The music is quite scary sounding, not at all calming, minus some areas. If I do decide to use some of this, it will be hidden way in the background, or I will try to convert the key it's in and make it not as horror sounding. There’s no relation to any of the film in this piece either, there is no frantic playing nor any other instruments.

    I have learned that having the entire film depend on the natural light is an awful idea. The lighting was from my window, which was  askew right of the character, there was no direct harsh light, but there was a glare from the window. I fixed it by angling the camera away to remove the window from view, however it slightly ruins some of the shots with the character in the direct middle of the frame.     Getting help for this film on short notice wouldn't be possible, so I resorted to using the front view of the camera, it does  decrease the quality of the overall film, however a reduced quality is better than no film at all. It was much easier to check myself and not have to guess where I should go, which wasted a lot of time.    (Back camera, I couldn't tell where to sit so most of my head is cut off) (Front camera, Easier to situate myself, slightly worse quality in terms of lighting. This feels warmer, while the back looks cool to...

      This blog is the creation of my painting. I decided to get a time lapse to show my process of making art. In addition, this film is centered around an  artist and I felt that needed to be more art in the blogs.     The character goes through many frustrating, angry, happy, etc. feelings while creating their painting. I can confidently say that I felt horrible pain while painting. I personally don't enjoy painting, however a large canvas is more pleasing to look at rather than a tiny paper. One of my problems during the chess film was not understanding the other character and not knowing how to show them in editing. For this film, I am the character, I have lived being the character and I know how I want the character to be shown to the audience.  https://youtu.be/_QD4H6ydbhk

      The first day filming was quite awful. The original location was scrapped due to there being almost no room for someone to sit, let alone an entire tripod, plus the sunset was no where near I wanted it. The new location, is more spacious, however the sunset gets blocked by the houses across the river, meaning there was even less time to film and the part I needed, the red, was blocked as well.  (The camera makes it look much brighter than it actually was at the time, I couldn't get a decent shot of myself without the light)     Unsurprisingly, help was needed, since the sun was rapidly going down, I quit being stubborn and got help, not much help but it would do.      The sunset itself was also not the nicest, lots of clouds and very yellow, not to mention when I went to zoom in on the sun it was terrible looking, you could count all the pixels. I was hoping for a vast array of yellow and orange in the sky, to a...

    The film's name had been an obstacle I had been avoiding for majority of the time. There is a lot in the film that needs to happen for the title to make sense. The biggest problem? The sunset. The sunset is both an aesthetically pleasing visual and an important symbol for the film.     The character is established as an artist immediately. They are painting on a canvas and if the film were to continue to the end, then the painting would be shown and slowly fade out to the river again, showing the canvas is prominent throughout the entire story.         The character will inevitably die in the river and dying means blood. The river would be painted with the blood (not literally as they would only jump into it, not be stabbed, etc.) the color of blood is usually described as Crimson. It could also show the reflection of the sunset on the water, making it red.     Canal is just another name for a river. I decided to ...

      The film will relay on music and the visuals together throughout the film. A Silent Voice has many of the examples that I will try to incorporate into the film.      The music punctuates to the sound of the firework. Similar to the scream in the film, along with some of the brush strokes following the music.      An example of calming music, fading away with the butterfly leaving the frame.      This clip is similar to the scream clip that will be in my film, however in the movie the character screams and then it cuts off into music, whereas mine will cut the music off instead. 

      To create the emotions the character feels, I'm going to try and move from a major key (typically happy, positive, tranquil) to a minor key (usually restrained, anxiety, negative, sad). It will still crescendo towards the end, however slowly switch into a minor key.  Specific songs in Major: -Imagine (John Lennon) (Slow, light piano, vocals have more of an impact to the song as a whole) - Time After Time (Cyndi Lauper) (Repeating instrumental, lyrics contribute to the Happy feel) -Use Somebody (Kings of Leon): (Drums, guitar, Burst of instruments between lyrics) - You're My Best Friend (Queen) (Loud drums, guitar, lyrics contribute to Happy feel) Specific songs in Minor: -While My Guitar Weeps (Beatles):  (Minor to Major. Major has a sad feel) (0:44-1:15 Video) -Happy Together (The Turtles): (Minor to Major. Sad to happy) (1:25-1:38) Songs that go from Major to Minor: -Norwegian Wood (Beatles): (Feels strained, slightly echos, shifting on the modal spectru...

      The music of the film will reflect the images projected in the film, following the emotions that the main character feels. The character starts (Scene 1) from a tranquil atmosphere, to a panic, then ending in pure chaos and frustration, where the music will either completely cut out with the scream, or slowly echo out. For Scene 2, there will be mostly wild sound, not too much music, maybe some light instrumental when they decide to take a picture of the river (Shot 23) indicating that the photo has significance later on in the film. I plan to create my music using GarageBand.       During Scene 1, Shots 1- 6, will portray a calming music, the character is peacefully painting, they're quite happy with how it's going on, mostly using a piano. Shot 7 is where they mess up, the music will start to pick up a little, maybe adding more instruments, other strings. The continuing shots will continue with a quicker tempo, instruments getting louder and ov...