#12: The Drawing Board... March 26th 2009

I conjured up numerous storyboard ideas in my head for this new project prior to the lesson, and I had these designs with the assumption that I would be working with my previous project members and had their assistance and contributions in the various aspects of creating the video. However, Ms. Wong then informed us of a change in plan, that instead of working in our original groups, we would be working in pairs. After being notified of this alteration, I realized that some of the ideas that I had beforehand needed to be modified as well because then I would not have enough manpower or assistance to fulfill the responsibilities that came with the original plans such as very thorough video and audio editing and sound mixing, multiple filming dates, casting of actors, diversified utilization of camera shots etc. This would have required me to work extremely hard to complete the project and most likely not complete it by the due date.

Nonetheless, within minutes of being notified, I created new ideas in my head that would suit my circumstances. I chose Justin (and vice versa) to be my project partner because he is my best friend and we work very well together. We spent this lesson trying to not only come up with plot ideas for the 30-second video, but also on other specific details such as choice of music, required actors etc. Since intellectual property is basically one's creation, such as art work, music, invention, literature etc, my idea was to film a bunch of my friends who are artists/inventors/musicians/writers/directors and film them performing the routine tasks of their individual occupations and also say "My (intellectual property)" and "Protect Intellectual Property Rights". The music track I chose for the video was titled "Campus Circus" on the competition's web page. I chose this music track because it was joyous, uplifting and upbeat. These themes in the music fit my storyboard perfectly. That was it for the lesson.

I felt that today's lesson was quite productive. Although Justin had not formed a full-length plot for his video yet, he did assist me in creating mine by suggesting possible actions, helping me out with song choice etc. I am very excited about my idea for the video. I think it is cheerful, engaging and at the same time delivering a serious message to the public of a devastating crime many of us are exposed to in today's cyber-era. The idea reminds me of today's "preventing breast cancer" and "get health insurance" commercials in the U.S, in which they exhibit various parties of jubilant people endorsing a product/precaution and benefiting from it.

#11: Start Anew!!! March 23rd 2009

During today's double-period lesson, we mainly watched the remaining groups' videos and documentaries, and evaluated them accordingly. Although I was ill last lesson, I still managed to view the final exported product of my group's video and documentary, and I loved watching every single second of it. Not to sound conceited but I truly believe that my group's video and documentary were the best of all (Ms. Wong said it herself! or so I heard..). Now back to business.

The first group that presented their stuff today was Group 4, which consisted of Clare, Stephie, Benny and Kevin. The video was very mediocre. There was a very limited array of sound effects utilized, and the ones that were were used too repetitively (such as the hawk's cry and the rocks falling) , destroying the intended desolate, lonely atmosphere of the first half of the scene. The narrator's voice did not fit the video's setting, the voice was too calm, girly, and immediately made the video seem amateur.  I am really unable to recall much of the video but I do remember that there was no background music to compliment the dialogue and atmosphere of the video, which of course left the video to rot in its dullness due to the lack of foley effects, effective dialogue and more. Plus, there was no foley effect of the assassin walking, panting etc, and his voice was not realistic either. It sounded so much like that of a teenager, which of course makes the video unbelievable and thereby eradicates the illusion of film. To sum it up, the video was a waste of 1 and a half months.

After watching the comic video, I was hoping that the documentary was of somewhat better quality in terms of demonstration of knowledge and enjoyability. However it was not. The documentary only starred Clare and Stephie, and they did not present well either. They were both just sitting in front of the camera, fidgeting around, neither composed nor looking like they know anything about the process of creating foley effects and sound design. Their demonstration of knowledge was very limited, only illustrating and displaying briefly on how they created 1 or 2 of their basic foley effects (not the cool ones like the hawk cry either). Plus, they did not use an array of different methods of communication. There was a little bit of voiceover when they were showing how they created the foley effects, but that was it. The documentary was boring and not informative enough. I did not gain any insight from it.

After watching the documentary, the group's main justification for their obviously lackluster products was that they did not have enough time, among with "Oh it was Benny and Kevin's fault!" and "Others have more experience than us". I found this actually quite deplorable because all the other groups had the same amount of time to finish what we had to do, and some of us did a fantastic job. It is no excuse to say you did not have enough time to create something that is half the quality of someone else's creation when you had the exact amount of time and manpower. 

Moreover, Clare said that others had more experience than them, which was why their group's products were appalling and ours was not. However, for almost all of us, this was our first time creating foley effects or intensively editing sound. This also applies to Film students. The reason why ours was better than theirs was because we did our research, we asked Ms. Wong and Mr. Chang on how to improve our film project. We asked them if we could do this or that to our sound. We took initiative. That's the difference.

After the bombardment of comments and criticisms, Ms. Wong introduced us to our new project, which is to do with a student film competition. This project is mainly a filler between what we just did and our upcoming major task of creating a documentary, since we would like to deviate from creating the same thing twice. The requirements of entering the competition is to create a 30-second video that promotes intellectual property rights (copyrights). We were to stay with our original groups and create 5 30-second videos in them, with a different person playing a different production role for each video, but never fulfilling the same role twice. Each person has to be a director of 1 video. Immediately upon learning of this task, I had an idea in my head. A brilliant one. Now it is up to my earthly capabilities to bring it to fruition.

#10: Double-Time...March 16th,17th,18th 2009

This reflection will cover the 3 days that I had to work in the Multimedia Lab on the video and documentary outside class time. During those 3 days, I primarily worked on really just finishing up the video, making sure that it is perfect, all the audio tracks are in the right place and to make sure I am not missing anything. However, time seems to fly so fast when one is editing and before I knew it the day was over and I had to continue working the next day. On Monday and Tuesday, I managed to complete editing almost all the audio tracks so that they are all distinct and realistic towards their characters. For example, for the Daemon-Queen, Lucas and I added some reverb effect to Joanna Fu's dialogue so as to make her seem mystical. For the Assassin, we had to make sure that each and every single one of his lines were spoken at around the same pitch, and same went for the Charioteer. Also, for the fight scenes, I had to make sure that all the fighting sounds such as the punches, the cracks, the grunts and moans, all had to occur at the right times and have the right volumes, speeds, pitches etc. On Wednesday lunchtime, I worked with Joanna Fu to add the songs onto Final Cut Pro and into the video. We did not manage to complete the whole thing but at least we got some progress. Now all that needed to be done is to make sure that the songs go in the right places, which is fairly easy for Joanna and I already did some of the work. I was planning to work after-school, but since Lucas,Josh,Justin and Joanna were already working on the computers, I did not really have much to do and so I took the opportunity to go home and rest before my rehearsal later that day. I hope this does not reflect me as not contributing as much as my peers for I have, I just realized that I could not really contribute as much when everyone already knows what they are doing.

Over this 3-day period, I learnt how to utilize audio effects to make one's voice seem less normal and more extraordinary. I also learnt how music can totally enhance the atmosphere of a video, making it seem so much more epic. Last but not least, I recapped over the fact that in order to achieve a goal, nothing can stop you except yourself.

#9: Switcharoo! March 12th 2009

During today's single-period lesson, Josh and I worked on the comic strip together, whilst every now and then I would come over and facilitate Lucas on the documentary. Over the last 2 days, I managed to capture all the needed sound effects such as Box Crashing, Sword Flying Through The Air and Horses Running and Neighing. This marked the end of our quest to attain all the required sound effects. Josh and I worked on fitting the sound effects into the video by changing the speeds, re-arranging the volume, the placing, the transitions etc. It did not take long. Now that all the effects were set in place, Josh and I worked on perfecting every single aspect of the video whilst Joanna was on a separate computer searching for her set of music tracks which could be used in the video. I came up with my set over the week, which included soundtracks such as The Last Battle, Target Mission, Storm Intro and Dim Horizon. 

Right before the end of the single-period, our entire group came together to film the closing scene of our documentary, which is basically just us expressing our gratitude to the viewer(s) for watching our documentary. It did not take long, but Joanna and Justin kept on messing up their lines, so they gave them to me instead. After numerous attempts, we successfully filmed the closing scene and thus finished the filming process for our documentary.

Today I did not learn much, but I did recap over the importance of self-contribution, and how it is always necessary to make compromise between group members so that everyone should feel satisfied with the product. The reason why Josh and I never really argue much when we are editing the video is because we both know what is best, and we trust each other's judgments and decisions.

#8: Alone Time... March 9th 2009

Today Josh,Joanna and Justin were out capturing more foley sounds so it was just up to Lucas and I to work on the documentary and the comic strip. I took responsibility of adding in and editing all the sound effects and dialogue in the comic strip. During this double period, I managed to perfect the first half of the comic strip whilst already adding in the dialogue and the majority of the sound effects into the second half. Before I knew it, the hour and a half of class were over but I was able to work very productively with no one distracting me or causing a fuss. Now all that I need to do is to add in the music and a couple more sound effects, which will be done so over the week. During editing, it is good to use audio transitions every now and then because sometimes an audio clip ends abruptly or suddenly follows in to another audio clip which sounds quite different. By utilizing audio transitions between audio clips, the change from 1 clip to the other is smoother and less surprising. This will therefore enhance the realism of the video.

This week, I will go onto Freeplaymusic.com to search for more music tracks that could be used in the video. Joanna Fu will be doing the same.

#7: The Ugly Side... March 5th 2009

Today I continued my task on capturing foley sounds around school. This time I,along with Josh who was filming for the documentary, concentrated on capturing the sounds of walking/running/sliding on mud, and sword fighting. We went to capture the sounds concerning mud first. Firstly, I went to the Science Department to get some gloves, then I took a large box (those lunch trash boxes around school) and filled a part of it with soil. After that, I added water to it and then brought it down to the Lower Gym Changing Room for recording. When soil is added with water, the result is mud, which is why I performed that whole dirty process. Oh and it gets worse! I then took two large stones to act as shoes and stomped on the box of mud using my hands. During recording, I experimented with the speed and power that I laid on the stones, making sure that I create realistic sounds of walking, running and sliding. After about 30 minutes of re-enacting sounds by placing my hands into a box filled with mud and ants, we finally captured what we wanted and the gruesome ordeal was finished. 

To capture the sounds of sword fighting was very simple. We went to the DT Lab and used saws and an array of tools, and experimented with clashing them together to re-enact the sound of swords clashing and scraping across each other. We finished the task within about 15 minutes.

Today I learnt of the dirty, grimy side to the foley process, and also of the lengths that one must go to in order to capture the perfect sound. By the end of it all, I felt pleased that we managed to successfully capture 2 vital sounds in our comic strip. However, one thing that really bugged me was that Josh, who was there the whole time, did not help me with anything. I had to do all the grueling work myself while he just stood there and did nothing. He did not need to record for the documentary the entire time, he could have at least helped me carry the box, or put mud inside it. I felt used in a way, and that he would still attain the same credit as me for capturing the sounds of mud when actually I did all the hard and dirty work. Oh well, what's done is done. Hopefully he would contribute more in the future. 

#6: Raindrops are falling on my head... March 2nd 2009

Today Justin and I focused solely on capturing foley sounds of rain and punches. First sound we captured was that of rain. Rain is plausibly the most important sound in our entire video since the presence of rain is evident throughout the entire comic strip. Because of its importance in setting the atmosphere, we had to capture it with total focus and awareness of the presence of other sounds, because in order to make the sound of rain seem as authentic and realistic as possible, all other sounds should be omitted so as to retain its realism and make our video seem less amateur. 

We captured the sound of rain by heading to the Lower Gym Male Changing Room to record the sound of water from a shower tap. Justin and I first made a test run by experimenting with distances between the Boom Mic and the Shower. This is so that we are able to pinpoint the optimum distance which gives us the closest-to-perfection sound of rain. During the test run, we realized from hearing through the headphones that we could hear drainage noise coming from the water entering the drain. In order to prevent this from happening, I placed a lot of tissue on top of the drain so as to mute or reduce the sound of drainage. It turned out to be a success.

To capture the sound of punches, I brought cabbage and celery to school so as to act as body punching surfaces. Since I only brought a limited amount of cabbages and celery, Justin and I had to make sure that every punch or crack we make is absolutely vital and perfectly executed. It turned out to be a success too. I managed to punch the cabbage 3 times so as to create 3 different sounds. For the celery, we had to place the Boom Mic really close so as to capture the cracking noise as I break it apart. There was no option for test runs due to the limited availability of resources.

Today I learnt that test runs are of great importance and can prove to be extremely beneficial in terms of sound quality and time consumption if carried out properly before the actual recording.