T351 Week 14 - Spring 2008

Advanced Techniques for field and post-production

Agenda:

• Reality Check
• Production techniques
• Begin review for final - 10:15 am - 12:15 PM Friday, May 2 - Studio 5

Reality Check

• Should be editing final projects. Aim to finish by the end of this week's lab. We'll watch them at the start of lab next week!
• Next week during lecture, we'll review for the final exam and take care of the class evaluations.
• Next week in lab, in addition to viewing your projects, we'l carry out the Internet Resource Exercise - This will take you through some excellent sites where you can find questions to troubling problems, or maybe get inspiration to try new techniques.
• Multimedia Exercise is due by Monday, April 21. You can leave a CD in the T351 bin in the production lab (or leave a copy in my 2nd floor mailbox).

Production Techniques

Follow the basic guidelines:

• Always start and end in black
• Use the safe text area
• Proper framing, focus, and exposure
• Avoid jump cuts & flash frames

For advanced classes or videos that are a step up from amateur:

• Every shot should be well composed and interesting. Think of different angles and ways to add depth. Block action and compositional features along the Z axis.
• Dialog isn't always needed to drive the story or convey information
• Don't rely on ambient lighting. Lighting is not just used to make your subjects visible- it is to draw attention to what's important, evoke a feeling, make a statement.
• Don't rely on the camera mic
• Consider the "mis en scene" Everything in the frame should be in there for a reason.

Cover exporting for DVD and the web.

Export -> Using Quicktime Conversion ->iPod is a pretty convenient way to easily get your work out to share on the web. It maintains the proper pixel aspect ratio.

 

 

What to shoot - Whether you are working on fiction or non-fiction, you need to establish your scenes. We need to know where we are, what time of day it is, where objects and people are, and the layout of the space. Always be sure to establish this in the first few shots or you will confuse the viewer.

Storytelling - If you are telling a story, you first off need a story. A story has a beginning, middle, and end- and most of all, it needs to contain conflict. There's a concept called "first action" that addresses the very first time the audience sees a character. The idea is that we find out something about the person that identifies who they are and that provides insight into their character. Maybe the first time we see "Joe" (the hero in our short story) he is coming out of a building and holds the door open for someone coming in. It takes 4 seconds to show this and establishes the fact that Joe is probably an alright guy. Maybe the first time we see "Pete" (the bad guy in our short story) he is honking at the slowpoke in front of him who is trying to park.

Just having people fight or make love is not storytelling. We need to know who our characters are and why they are fighting. You need to make us care about the characters and the story. In my cinematography class, one of the basic goals in storytelling is to make our audience think "What's going to happen next?"

When you are telling a story every single shot in every single scene must push the story or the plot along. If it doesn't you really need to question why it's in there.

There was only two projects I saw that needed to be longer- and this was because the story that was being told was incomplete. Almost every single storytelling project I saw could've used some serious trimming to clarify the story and make it more concise.

Audio - remember that we often have to make the audio perspective match the camera perspective. In other words when we are far from our subject, we expect the sound to sound like it's further away. When we get close to a subject we expect the sound to sound like it's closer.

Sounds can be used to "justify" video edits. [Pellucid example]

Room tone - Your timeline should always have something in it - as almost all spaces have some amount of ambient noise. This includes, fans, air conditioners, electronics, outside background noises, etc. When shooting interviews or storytelling pieces with conversation, always record  30-60 seconds of "room tone." This gives you audio filler materials to use in your editing timeline to bridge gaps between exchanges in conversations, or to cover while someone is not talking.

Lighting - Except for shooting B-roll, you almost always need to light your subject. (And sometimes I'll even light a space in order to shoot B-roll.) It doesn't matter if it's for fiction or non-fiction- you need to illuminate your subject. The idea is that you make your subject about 2 stops brighter than the background. Yes, there are exceptions, but almost always we need to make our subject stand out. This is especially true with interviews. This is why you usually don't want to place subjects against a light wall- the wall would be brighter than the subject. If nothing else, always try to get some soft key light on your subject. (This can sometimes be done with a reflector providing there's a good light source to use.)

Shots - Every shot should be strong. This means every shot needs to be well-composed, properly exposed, sharp and in focus, and appropriately placed in the context of the scene.

Continuity - Unless you have a very good reason for doing so, follow the rules of continuity.

Editing - Follow the editing guidelines in the cybercollege readings.

Lay music down in your timeline. Many did not have enough subtle mood music or SFX.

Edit on the phrases or to the beat

Your input is requested -

You've produced four projects so far: a storyboard/continuity project, an art video, an interview/feature story, and lastly the storytelling projects. Think about the issues you had with these. Did spring break, which came right after you got started with these, impact your work? Was it tough working with a partner? Did you need to see more examples or . What can be done to make next semester's class produce stronger projects?

[brief input session]

5-point exercise

Consider the work you did iin T351. You participated in various rotation exercises and produced:

• a storyboard/continuity project
• audio/news/reflector exercise
• art video
• storytelling video
• final project

Write down at least two things you (personally) had problems with. (completing pre-production work, scheduling time with your partner, etc.)

Write down at least two suggestions to improve the flow of things in the future.

If you missed lab, you can still get 5 points credit for this if you email or give it to Jim by week 15 lab time!

 

 

 

 

 

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