Week 5: Feedback and Reflections

For the past week we have been tweeting on our Twitter accounts to try and gain followers and promote our “Hello” project. In this task we will be looking into the analytics of my Twitter and YouTube accounts and how my views and engagements have changed in the past week. We were using the hashtags #ccfilmsquad and #cchalloproject to promote our films.

Here are the stats for my Twitter account:

Excluding re-tweets and non related tweets these are the 4 times I posted my “hello” project and a Screen Motion test that we made at college. I got around 25 extra views on my “Hello” project YouTube video from my tweets. I was followed by a professor from a university in America and by a YouTuber with 5k followers. My most successful tweet was the first time I posted my “Hello” project on Twitter and it got 4 re-tweets and 3 likes. I now have 23 followers too and about 6 are not from my college group which is quite successful. I’ve also had 1,078 Twitter impressions since last Wednesday. The ease of use of Twitter was helpful when using the social media and it was probably the best method for promoting our “hello” as they were already done, however due to the length of the video it could have fitted better on Instagram with a short video. I would probably prefer to use something like Instagram during the production process of my next project as well as Twitter. As that is good for posting pictures. I do think though that Twitter is a very good platform to self promote on, as it’s simple and easy to tweet a lot, whereas for Instagram or YouTube it takes time to setup and take a photo or film a video.

I will continue using this Twitter account in the future to post about future projects and things I am doing at college, as I like the social media a lot and think it would be a very useful tool to have and skill to learn about how to utilise Twitter properly. I think this task was very helpful in learning about how to fully utilise my tweets and how to find out about the analytics of my account which I didn’t know about before this lesson.

Week 4: Work Produced

Location Recce

Sound:

Is there any background noise?

Is there echo in the room?

If outside, is it windy?

Is there the sound of traffic or trains?

Can you turn off or remove any of the unwanted sounds?

Visual:

If it’s a public place will the general public get in the way of shots?

Is there natural light?

Are there any unwanted items at the location and can you move/remove them?

Are there reflections that could show any of the equipment or crew members?

Technical:

Is there a power supply to power any equipment that is needed?

Is there sufficient space for all equipment?

Are artificial lights needed?

Here is the professional Location Recce that was provided:

Location Recce Sheet

The professional Location Recce that has been provided is so much more detailed than my own. One of the checks is if a permit is needed and who you need to get it from, e.g. Police, Parking and Fire Dept. This is something I didn’t think of when I was putting together my own checklist. Some things I put that are also on the professional location recce are: sources of power, traffic noise, and public interference. I also didn’t think about putting any information on which project it was, the date of it and my name in case I need to do more than one location recce it would get very confusing.

Social Media

We created Twitter accounts for our film course that we can use to post about the work that we’re doing to do with all of the film projects that we have coming up. We use social media as it is an excellent way to get our films out into the world and for a large amount of people to see it. Basically every single TV show or movie that comes out now uses social media to promote it; usually the actors and directors have accounts that help advertise the movie as well. I setup my Twitter account with the handle (@Bradley_films) as this has my last name in it and has films in it so people roughly know what I will be tweeting about. I am on social media so that I can get more attention on my videos and production processes and get some feedback so that next time I can improve. I thought who I can follow on my account and decided on following some actors and directors, different production companies and some large franchises. I followed Edgar Wright and Evan Goldberg who are famous directors and writers, I also followed Star Wars and Lionsgate. As a class we decided to use the hashtag (#ccfilmsquad) and (#cchalloproject) so that we could all see each others projects. We then made sure to follow each other and retweet each other in order to get maximum reach. So far I have tweeted about setting up my account and have posted my “hello” project with the relevant hashtags. By posting my previous work on the twitter page I have the potential for it to get seen by more people and can then get more feedback on my work.

As I missed the filming and editing time for this task due to illness I used a classmate’s interview footage so that I could still learn the editing skills from the task. I just used one of the questions and answers so that I learnt how to sync up the audio recorded from the shotgun mic and the video footage. To do this I had to set in points at he clapper board on both the video and audio file I was trying to sync; then I went onto AutoSync and set the clips to sync at the in points. The audio was then perfectly in line with the video.

 

Week 3: Feedback and Reflections

Reflections:

This week I mainly focused on doing research into different social media websites, what they are, what they do, the limitations they have, and if they are right for me. I did detailed research into Twitter and Instagram as they were the first sites that I thought of. I found out that Twitter was mainly used for text based tweets which is fine for some things, but I did want to have some more visual based interactive media too, therefore I made an Instagram account, as I knew that this was only for pictures and videos to be posted. Instagram looks like a good choice for updates on production that are visual based. The practical task that we did this week was quite helpful for my project as I got the opportunity to record some more audio which I felt I was quite weak at. I did get to record a small bit of dialogue which is something that I feel that I need more practice on, but feel a little more confident about now.

Feedback:

The sounds from your practical are largely good, however the nature recording has a lot of wind and background noise so that is something to work on. Perhaps you could have used a windshield or chosen another location for filming. I also didn’t really understand what the creative sound was.

– Declan Baxter

Week 3: Work Produced

Audio Task: Recording 5 Different Sounds

Audio Task Steven

We recorded sounds for Nature, Technology, Creativity, Rhythm, and Education.

I found that when I set the levels correctly the audio was very clear when recording inside; this can be seen on the technology recording where there was little to no background noise, however if you listen to the nature recording there is a lot of wind and general background noise. I believe this is because I had to turn the gain up due to being far away from the birds and so my audio quality suffered a lot. In retrospect I should have tried to get closer or find another subject to record. I researched into recording audio outside and found this website: http://sound-effects.wonderhowto.com/how-to/record-outdoor-audio-216893/, it had a lot of useful information about recording outside. One element I should consider is using a mic muff/windshield to cancel out the wind and background noise. He also talked about when filming ambient audio for a scene to always film enough to cover the entire scene, instead of just roughly how much you think you’ll need; which was helpful.

Before this task I felt I needed to do more work on recording dialogue, but with this task I did record some dialogue for the education recording so now I feel a little more confident, as that came out with little to no background noise. I would still like to do some more practice with a boom mic however.

I did some further research into recording dialogue and this website came up: http://www.indie-film-making.com/recording-dialogue/ one section says “Lavaliers are the small mics that clip to a tie or shirt and can be either wireless or wired. These are generally suitable for interview-style filmmaking, but you’re not going to want one hanging off your talent while you film action shots or dialogue during a dramatic scene”[1]. This is helpful for me as I would like to have a lot of interviews in my production and so getting some lavaliers would be very useful. I looked into the prices of lavaliers and at http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2/278-2738274-8127626?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=lavalier you can buy one for under £7 and so if there aren’t any available at college I can buy one for relatively cheap.

I also found on the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gs9eBX-61ts that “A shotgun mic is the standard device used to grab audio on film and television production sets.”[2] I then researched some more into microphones and found that the shotgun microphone is probably best for recording dialogue for my production when not an interview scene.

[1] Indie. (2011). Recording Dialogue. Available: http://www.indie-film-making.com/recording-dialogue/. Last accessed 19/01/2016.

[2] Videomaker. (2008). Videomaker – Outdoor Audio 2. Available at:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gs9eBX-61ts. Last accessed 19/01/2016

 

Week 3: Problems & Solutions

Interactive:

In earlier weeks I played around with the idea of using Twitter as my main social network for my project. I made my own Twitter account and checked the type of limitations and features that the site has. An obvious one is that a single post can only contain 140 characters; this is clearly a limiting factor, however I don’t think it would effect me much as I would only be posting about when I’m filming and sharing around the finished project. I tried a recording on Twitter and found out that there is a 30 second limit; this means that I couldn’t upload my finished project to the site as it will surely be longer than this. A solution to this however is to post a link from another site onto the twitter page. Another problem is that Twitter is mainly used for words, and other social media sites like Instagram are more suited for posting photos, therefore I have decided to create an Instagram account for research too.

I used the same username for both Instagram and Twitter so that the accounts integrate with each other and I can put the links to each profile on the other social network if I wanted to so I get maximum reach.

The Instagram account would be mainly for posting pictures of the production process, as this is what people mainly use Instagram for. On the days I am filming/editing or anything else in the production process I can post pictures of what I am doing to keep people up to date on what is going on. A big problem however is that the videos on there have a limit of 15 seconds. There is also a fixed aspect ratio of 4:3 for videos. This means I would not be able to post my final project on here; so instead I’m thinking about uploading my film to YouTube.

This can then be shared to other social networks through a link. I uploaded my previous project to YouTube, as seen below, without any problems so I am thinking about doing that again. An alternative to YouTube is Vimeo; which is quite similar to YouTube in that you have a channel and upload videos, a potential problem with Vimeo is there is a limit of 1gb of data per week for basic users; so I may not be able to upload multiple videos. For instance if I released a trailer and then tried to upload the final product I may reach the data limit. The solution to this would be to purchase a pro account but this does cost $17 per month. According to this website: http://sproutsocial.com/insights/youtube-vs-vimeo-business/ YouTube gets around 1 billion monthly viewers compared to the 100 million Vimeo monthly viewers; so uploading to YouTube may give my film more of an opportunity for views.

Visual:

I’d like my footage to be free hand as for the current idea I’m roughly pursuing; it’d need to look spontaneous and so having it on a tripod would look out of place and fake, however this means the camera footage will more than likely be shaky. To counteract this I thought about using a steadicam to still give the effect of free hand recording without all of the  shakiness. I researched into potential steadicams on the internet and found: http://www.hireacamera.com/en-gb/products/HAC00-02231-gibbon-gn1-gimbal-system/ which is a handheld steadicam that would cost about £45 to hire for 3 days. This isn’t too expensive and if I managed to condense the scenes I needed the steadicam for into a 3 day period and film the other scenes on other days then this could be potentially viable, however I also heard the media department does have a steadicam so I could check that out and see if that is what I am looking for.

Audio:

One problem I was having with audio is not knowing the kinds of mics that are good for interviews; I did some research and found this blog post: http://stillmotionblog.com/howtorecordaudioforaninterview/ they recommend using a shotgun mic on a boom pole above the person for the interview, and having a lavalier mic on the interviewee as a backup in case the subject moves and so the sound isn’t picked up or if one recording is lost there is always a backup. If the equipment is available and if I choose to use interviews in my project then this is the kind of setup I will try and use.

Week 2: Work Produced

In this task we created a mind map of what we are going to research in week 2 of our project

mind map research

Interviews:

In retrospect I feel that I could have used more angles for my interviews in order to make it more interesting; because as it is both interviews are recorded at roughly the same angle, however as we were only using one camera I would have had to stop the interview and move the camera. This could have been potentially problematic. I also could have positioned my interviews better, as I did it against a blank background it is quite dull. The blank background does however put attention onto the person and what they’re saying instead of the background. I had the interviewee in a position so it fit with rule of thirds and so that he was talking into space. A problem we had before we went out filming was that the camera had low battery; this meant we had to wait a while before going out filming whilst it was charging.

Week 2: Problems and Solutions

Audio

One problem I could have if I chose to do a mockumentary style film is that I will have to follow actors around when they move and so there will be the problem of having the audio recorded in multiple rooms. To solve this I will have to set mics up in different rooms and have someone with a boom pole and mic following the actors, but out of shot.

Visuals

I will need to research into the filming style of existing mockumentaries like The Office, Parks and Recreation, and Modern Family, but I will also need to research into documentaries so I know what I am parodying and can do that effectively. These mockumentaries I have mentioned all have something in common; they don’t revolve around anything too eccentric or special. The Office is set in the office of a paper company and Parks and Rec is set in an area of small government, therefore my potential story about a kid in a small village would fit this kind of theme.

The style of documentaries and mockumentaries are quite improvised and so mostly the cameras are not on a tripod; therefore I will have a problem with the footage I take being shaky. This won’t be a problem for the interview scenes as they will be taken on a tripod. From watching a lot of examples of existing mockumentaries the footage is quite shaky anyway; I believe this gives authenticity to the visuals as it looks like it’s just being filmed as it happens and it isn’t a proper production.

Interactive

Parks and Recreation, which is a mockumentary sitcom that ended in 2015, used YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook for their social media.

mind map research

Week 1: Problems and Solutions & Work Produced

One of the biggest problems with this project is that I’ve never attempted something on this magnitude before. Also trying to come up with an idea for a film to make based on the title “winter” will be in some ways easy and difficult as it is quite broad. In order to combat this I will read through the brief and sort out what work I am going to be doing.

As I am going to be doing a short film for my project; I will have to do some audio recording outside. This will be an issue as it’s quite hard to record audio outside due to wind distorting the sound. To solve this I’ll try my best using a wind guard top clear up the dialogue, and I can use a directional microphone to block out some of the background noise like traffic etc, but if it doesn’t come up alright I’ll have to dub over the speech in post-production. When I am recording inside there is potential for there to be echo; so if this happens I’ll need to fill the room with soft objects to dampen the sound.

I’ll also need to make sure that my video quality is good. There is potential for the video quality to be grainy if I don’t use the right white balance setting, therefore I’ll make sure to keep checking the footage as the locations change.  I’ll need to do storyboards to plan out my shot types and framing. I will use manual focus and keep checking it so that my shots aren’t out of focus.

One problem that I am going to have with my production is that it will be based around Christmas, however as we will be filming in February there won’t be any decorations up which will be a challenge. To solve this whenever I am filming I will have to put up decorations in order to keep the continuity.

As my film will be documentary style we will be filming in public places; this can be a positive and a negative, as the public reacting to a camera being there will give authenticity to it, but the public could also disrupt the filming.

Here is my PowerPoint:
Winter Project – The Boy Who Believed

Interview:

I did interviews with random people to practice my interview skills and see if there will be any problems with recording audio.

Here are my recordings:

Winter Interviews

One big problem that I had with these interviews was a lot of background noise; a solution to this could be to take an interviewee to a quieter location than near the busy entrance to the college, however people may not want to move so I would use a cardioid polar pattern on the microphone in order to cut out some of the ambient background sounds and talking. I could also turn down the audio gain and move the microphone closer to the subject in order to eliminate more background noise.