Sunday, April 10, 2016
Final Project
Its finally here: the finished product and culmination of the hours of hard work you all saw me write about in this blog! Anything more that I could possibly say about this opening is stated in my critical reflection, which I highly recommend watching if you want to hear more about what technologies I used, some behind the scenes facts, and my overall reflection of the process. This was a truly amazing experience, thank you so much for going on this journey with me. Without further adieu...simply click here and enjoy.
Thursday, April 7, 2016
A Creative Fix
So as you have probably noticed by now, the word "ascension" in my blog URL is spelled wrong...no this was not intentional...but from this point on its a choice. The reason I chose the Ascention Mediums was because through this project I wanted to develop my skills and continue to raise above the level I was before as I continue with my arts career. However, everyone makes mistakes! Mine was spelling ascension wrong, but its okay because after some thought I decided to fix this situation by creating a graphic to enhance my branding and make it appear like a creative choice.
This is the rough sketch for the design, a design deep rooted in all mediums and the arts that ascends up and up and never comes down.
Wednesday, April 6, 2016
Sound: Foley, Voice Overs, and More
One of the most challenging parts of the project as a whole is going to be editing all of my Foley sounds in post production. I briefly mentioned this before, but I wanted to go more in depth with it now. Since the endangerment of the first shots I knew that I was going to have to mute my production and start with the sound from scratch. There was too much unconnected noise in the background to make sense of the scenes without doing so, and there's very minimal synchronous speaking in any of the shots, so I figured that this would be the best process to create my full atmosphere.
The way I began with this, in the realist portions, was going back to the spots that I filmed and recording the ambiance of the room in pure "silence". The only thing diagetic to the ambiance was the sound of the fan whirring, which was easy to recreate. As for the formalist shots, there is actually a shooting range at Markham Park next to the spot that we filmed. Keeping dead silent for minutes, I recorded the ambiance of the forest with the gun shots in the background and I'm planning on using this as the basis for he background of the episode. Of course, I will also include the sounds of footsteps, clothes brushing against each other, breathing, door knobs turning, and any other sound that are diagetic to the scenes. The realist scenes will mainly use synchronous sounds, but the formalist region reflecting the episode will contain but more asynchronous and non-diagetic sounds.
Also in the episode (I've been waiting for the right moment to discuss this!) is going to be voice overs of Teresa's voice and potentially the voices of others that are going to scream and taunt Michael in his episode so as to reinforce and reflect the main themes of the film. In truth, this film is an commentary of the plight of soldiers in society during and after the war. My primary themes include the loss of innocence, the brutality of war, the false definition of what constitutes "being a man", and more controversial issues. Below is a rough script of what I am going to record Amanda saying and how she is going to say it, and I'm going to match the tone of the voice over to overlay with the tone of the snippets on the screen. By the end of the episode, when Michael lashes out and "accidentally" hits Teresa, the sound is going to have built up to and intolerable and complex auditory experience, leading up to the final blow (when all sound will stop). The only thing that will be consistent from beginning to end is a faint ear ringing sound, similar to what someone with tinnitus hears, to enhance loneliness in the realist scenes and disjointed-ness in the formalist scene.
The way I began with this, in the realist portions, was going back to the spots that I filmed and recording the ambiance of the room in pure "silence". The only thing diagetic to the ambiance was the sound of the fan whirring, which was easy to recreate. As for the formalist shots, there is actually a shooting range at Markham Park next to the spot that we filmed. Keeping dead silent for minutes, I recorded the ambiance of the forest with the gun shots in the background and I'm planning on using this as the basis for he background of the episode. Of course, I will also include the sounds of footsteps, clothes brushing against each other, breathing, door knobs turning, and any other sound that are diagetic to the scenes. The realist scenes will mainly use synchronous sounds, but the formalist region reflecting the episode will contain but more asynchronous and non-diagetic sounds.
Also in the episode (I've been waiting for the right moment to discuss this!) is going to be voice overs of Teresa's voice and potentially the voices of others that are going to scream and taunt Michael in his episode so as to reinforce and reflect the main themes of the film. In truth, this film is an commentary of the plight of soldiers in society during and after the war. My primary themes include the loss of innocence, the brutality of war, the false definition of what constitutes "being a man", and more controversial issues. Below is a rough script of what I am going to record Amanda saying and how she is going to say it, and I'm going to match the tone of the voice over to overlay with the tone of the snippets on the screen. By the end of the episode, when Michael lashes out and "accidentally" hits Teresa, the sound is going to have built up to and intolerable and complex auditory experience, leading up to the final blow (when all sound will stop). The only thing that will be consistent from beginning to end is a faint ear ringing sound, similar to what someone with tinnitus hears, to enhance loneliness in the realist scenes and disjointed-ness in the formalist scene.
Tuesday, April 5, 2016
Formalism at Last
Yesterday I rushed to Markham Park, prepared to film in the forest of a golf field for fear it was closed, and arrived to my favorite spot (one I had actually used previously as the set for a blue grass music video in this class). The spot is on the verge of a lake, perfect for the symbol of life and freedom that I wanted to incorporate. The spot itself a disjointed wood with broken trees and naturally dichotomous wildlife (both disgusting and beautiful). I won't let myself go on my rant about symbolism behind it just yet; but I wanted to set the scene before I talk about some of the more interesting parts of the process.
The theme for this project for me seems to be "...well that went better than expected." On my way out the door, diving for food coloring in case I needed to fashion impromptu blood, I grabbed a bottle of maple syrup thinking "its a similar consistency to blood" while the back of my mind was thinking that I was an idiot. I didn't do any research on the recipes of fake blood, and honestly I'm quite glad that I did not and that I just stuck to my common sense. The mixture of the syrup and the food coloring was so perfect that when it dripped through Michael's fingers and onto the ground I had to film the blood on the dead leaves! It even gathered perfectly in the water! The only problem was that it stained Michael's hands so much that he'll probably be pink for the next couple of days, but I'm sure he'll survive.
Besides that I'm surprised Michael and Amanda didn't go on strike for what I put them through. Having Amanda walk barefoot through icy lake water and having Michael crawl into an all manner of dark and dirty and squirming places was interesting to say the least. He particularly didn't thank me when I asked him to rub dirt on his arms and under his fingernails (though he seemed to be having a little too much fun as he rolled around in the dirt). Don't worry though, the marks you will see on his face are indeed stage makeup and his hair was made damp in certain shots by the use gel, lotion, water, and a couple of other textures that Michael wasn't particularly fond of.
The inspiring parts were when I would see the both of my actors just sitting in though among the ambiance of the forest (or jungle as it is really meant to be, due to the circumstances of the film). Particularly with Amanda, who's character is peaceful and innocent, whenever I would catch her sitting in deep though, I would film her without her noticing, getting a truly organic shot (acting wise).
The theme for this project for me seems to be "...well that went better than expected." On my way out the door, diving for food coloring in case I needed to fashion impromptu blood, I grabbed a bottle of maple syrup thinking "its a similar consistency to blood" while the back of my mind was thinking that I was an idiot. I didn't do any research on the recipes of fake blood, and honestly I'm quite glad that I did not and that I just stuck to my common sense. The mixture of the syrup and the food coloring was so perfect that when it dripped through Michael's fingers and onto the ground I had to film the blood on the dead leaves! It even gathered perfectly in the water! The only problem was that it stained Michael's hands so much that he'll probably be pink for the next couple of days, but I'm sure he'll survive.
Besides that I'm surprised Michael and Amanda didn't go on strike for what I put them through. Having Amanda walk barefoot through icy lake water and having Michael crawl into an all manner of dark and dirty and squirming places was interesting to say the least. He particularly didn't thank me when I asked him to rub dirt on his arms and under his fingernails (though he seemed to be having a little too much fun as he rolled around in the dirt). Don't worry though, the marks you will see on his face are indeed stage makeup and his hair was made damp in certain shots by the use gel, lotion, water, and a couple of other textures that Michael wasn't particularly fond of.
The inspiring parts were when I would see the both of my actors just sitting in though among the ambiance of the forest (or jungle as it is really meant to be, due to the circumstances of the film). Particularly with Amanda, who's character is peaceful and innocent, whenever I would catch her sitting in deep though, I would film her without her noticing, getting a truly organic shot (acting wise).
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)