Finished!

Finally finished, and i'm really pleased with what we've done. Think we've done well and it sounds good. Some of the recordings could have been better, but otherwise its good, think it flows well and most of the sounds are ok. Actually looking forward to getting some feedback on it.

Editing

These are some of the stages in our editing.

This is us trying to change the EQ on a clip to get rid of some distortion.

We went through each of the tracks and labelled them and coloured them to make it easier to find each one during the editing process.

This track was too quiet so we're using gain to increase the volume.

This is our final edit ^_^

Release Form

Back In York

So went back to finish our recordings today, very last minute I know, but couldn't be helped. I'm really pleased with how it went, managed to get practically everything on our list, even after managing to forget it. Had a bit of a fail with the tie clip mics though. Couldn't get Chrissie to stay still while trying to sort it out and was too scared I was going to break them, so I just kept to the rifle mic and ran beside her (not easy either mind, she's fast!).

Anyway, really pleased with how it went and think we got some really good recordings. Sooooo, just the editing to do now.

Equipment List

Marantz 661
Rode NT 4 Mic
Tie Clip
Hydrophone
Rifle Mic
Soundtrack Pro

Plan for next recording

Not exactly a 'detailed' plan, really just a list of the recordings we need to do.

• Atmosphere of garage - empty
• Mum putting lead on Chrissie (Dog)
• Chrissie when she's calm; heartbeat, breathing.
• Chrissie's reaction to being on lead, i.e. excited to be going for a walk.
• Walking towards woods.
• Atmosphere of woods - hopefully with some birds.
• The whoosh of the ball being thrown.
• Mum calling Chrissie.
• Chrissie playing with other dogs.
• Chrissie's heartbeat, now she's been running.
• Mum giving Chrissie a treat.
• Chrissie as she's running after the ball.
• Chrissie carrying the ball around.
• Mum saying something like 'Time to go home'.
• Chrissie wondering around on her own, hear mum walk away and Chrissie follows.
• Opening gate back home and closing garage door for ending.

Gonna try a different range of mics to try and get the best sounds.

Our Final Idea

So, this is our idea now.

It's gonna start at home, where Mum is gonna put the lead on Chrissie, and take her for a walk. They go in the woods and basically just gonna record all the different things that happen on a dog walk, like throwing the ball, getting in the puddles, playing with other dogs, etc. Just going to be a recount of this but in Chrissie's POV. Then gonna finish with them going back home and closing the door.

Pretty simple, but hopefully it'll still be good.

Inspiration

The inspiration for this project has actually come from my own experiences in life. Because we've always had a dog in the family, I've been taking them on walks since, well, before I could walk basically, and so I'm pretty much an expert on the things that can happen on a dog walk. Also, my family used to always go on different wood walks, so i had a fair few ideas to take from them as well. For example, how although most dogs hate baths, they actually love playing in water, not sure how that works really but its true. So the sounds that can come from that alone are endless. I think it would have been great if I could have chosen one of those as our location, but there wouldn't be enough time to get there unfortunately. There could have been so many more interesting sounds to record, like dogs crossing a bridge, or going through a farm, fields, interacting with the sheep.
I actually might try and do something as an independent project one day, because I think it would be really interesting recording all the different sounds, not just from the dogs or nature either, but from the walkers too.

Rough Edit

Managed to get the rough edit done in time for Debbie, although alot of the recordings weren't great, and we definately did not have enough to use.

Again, Debbie gave some good advice about making our sounds into more of a story, so we're gonna try again. Unfortunately its gonna be another last minute job, due to schedules, but we're gonna get a detailed plan done, so we know exactly what we're gonna record.

Recording In York

Went for our recordings, but the weather was rubbish so didn't get nearly as much as we wanted. It wasn't a complete loss, we got some good tracks and at least got more practice with the different mics.

Since this was the only time we could get to York, we only have tomorrow to make a rough edit for Debbie :/ So hopefully the recordings we did will come out alright.

Microphones and Sound Patterns

We were taught about all the different mics we can use for our projects and the different polar patterns each have, which is the shape of sound the mic picks up.

The smaller fluffy mic is called a Rifle Mic and has a cardioid pattern. Which is basically a heart shaped sound range. We use these mics for one specific sound source i.e dialogue or sound effects, normally keeping a 2-3 ft distance away from the source.

The hand held mics have an omni pattern, which is a circle shaped, picking up all sounds around you, so should be used for atmosphere recordings.

The tiny mics are called Tie Clips, which are normally used in places like newsrooms, or for interviews where you can get away with them showing on camera.

However, we were also told about if you use two of the Tie Clip mics, you can make an effect called Binonaural, which is used to re-enact moments as if you were there, by putting them to you ears.

Hydrophones are used for recordings with water, as they're waterproof.

Contact Mics give a really detailed recording of surfaces and what's underneath.

I think all of these will be useful in our project and it'll be fun to experiment with different techniques.   

Lack of Film Analysis

I realised that I haven't really analysed the films well, but that's because I don't have access to watch the full films and it's been awhile since i've seen them, or in Lassie's case, never seen. But really what i'm taking from them for my project is attention to detail. To make sure to capture all the aspects of the dog, like breathing/panting, the sounds of them walking, especially on different surfaces. Even their drool and when they eat, all make interesting sounds that I could use. Especially my dogs, they make the weirdest sounds ever, they're definitely not normal. And also pay attention to the environment your in, try to catch all the little sounds there, and just try and spot things that could make some interesting sounds.  

Homeward Bound (1993) - Duwayne Dunham

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8h4hkn_9Be8

This is another dog film, plus a cat, that I loved as a kid. And it's actually really interesting in terms of sound, due to the mix of human voices for the animals, and their own natural sounds too. It's a real feel-good film into how animals think and their commitment to their owners. It's a perfect example to contradict whoever said animals don't have souls, or personalities.

It's got a good mix of dog sounds that gave me some good ideas to try for my own project.

I also noticed that for this and Beethoven, the sound department has like 10 or more people, where as Lassie only had one. Again not really surprising considering the time differences, but still quite interesting to think about.

Beethoven (1992) - Brian Levant

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6CMAH2R2iU

This is film about a dog that I watched as a child. There are a few of them actually. I used to really like it, and now that I think back I never really appreciated how much time and effort that must have been put in to get all the dogs to do each scene right, and stay still for sound recording, etc. Not sure how they would have done it professionally, but I'm pretty sure it's gonna be hard work getting my dog to stay still long enough to get a decent recording, but we can hope.

From what I remember about this film, they did alot of emphasis on saliva and drool scenes, and I remember the sounds being pretty realistic. Thankfully, I won't be doing that. I haven't seen it since i've had to pay mre attention to sounds in film, but I always thought everything about the dog was realistic and just the sounds it made, so they must have done their job.

I think my dog's quite like Beethoven in personality and I think it would be great if I could put some comedy in my project.

Lassie Come Home (1943) - Fred. M. Wilcox

www.youtube.com/watch?v=AgexZ2I7Ink

This is a clip from the first Lassie film, a character created by Eric Wright. I think this must have been one of the first films about a dog, or at least it's the oldest one i've heard about, so thought I should have a look. I've never actually seen the film myself, but from this clip it looks like it'll be quite a touching film, for me anyway since I have a soft spot for dogs ^_^.

I was trying to pay attention to the sound, and it's pretty obvious where they've added the sounds in, but since quite an old film, it's to be expected. Still the sounds of Lassie panting are real and well done. Something I hope to accomplish in our piece. I wish I could watch the film before I did my project, but unfortunately I don't have the money right now :/

Janet Cardiff and George Miller

To be perfectly honest, I don't really get alot of their work. However, I quite liked this one:

http://www.cardiffmiller.com/artworks/inst/ship_o_fools_video.html

Mostly due to its complete randomness. The contraptions were clever and its interesting to think how they made them. The sounds that came from them were random, but put together well to make it quite pleasant to listen to.

Sonic Postcards

Just going through some of the sites Debbie recommended from the listening material. I think Sonic Postcards is quite a cool idea, it's about letting primary school children more aware about sounds the world makes that we tend to miss by creating these audio postcards and sharing them with other schools over the internet. They're all simple recordings, but interesting when you think that we could hear some of these everyday but never really acknowledge them or take them in.

Can't figure out how to upload them on here, but it's worth a look. It had some tracks on animals, sheep and birds, that were interesting, the different tones, and types of noises they could make. Also did some places in nature, like trees and a cave, that I thought were quite good too. Interesting to hear the clear recording of trees; how they creak in the wind.

Research

I was searching through Google about dogs and sound, like how they interpret sounds differently to us, etc. and found out that they pretty much hear the same as us, as fair as modern scientists can tell, as it's too cruel to do more enhanced experiments on them to find out more. The thing we do know is that they can hear higher frequencies than us. Probably pretty obvious to most people, but not something I really paid attention to before so it was quite interesting to find out.

My original idea was to do our whole piece from the POV of a dog, hearing wise of course, because I thought they might hear us muffled or something, but I think i'll change it to just being at the dogs level, height wise, etc.

Our Star Actress

Just because she's so amazing :P This is Chrissie.

I was planning to make this slightly relevant by showing her height and how we'd be recording from her level, but i have surprisingly very few photos of her, shocking I know.

But anyway, she's very excitable so it's going to be interesting trying to attach a mic to her.

Tutorial with debbie

This was the final idea we came up with to show Debbie.

I was actually quite proud of this idea, however Debbie was right when she said realistically it'd be really hard to try and portray a woodland animal.

She actually mentioned using a dog, which is what i'd originally thought of, and gave us some really good advice about what research we could look at, etc.

So now we've got a new plan and a new location. Because i have a dog, although she's in York, we decided it would be easier to record there, rather than try bringing her here. And it just so happens that i have a nice little woody area right near my house ^-^

First meeting with Owen

Met with Owen and we managed to come out with some main themes. We're thinking Elemental theme, in a wood using a point of view of either a camper or maybe some animal. I think it'd be interesting to do it from an animals perspective. Decided to do it in ecclesall woods, since it's an easy location. Just means that we can't really justify using a dogs POV, which would probably be easiest, but we can try a woodland animal instead.

Mind Map

Here's some initial thoughts I came up with, hopefully between me and my partner Owen Feltham, we can come up with a plan.

New Project - Sense Of Space

So, we've been given a new project, which is all about sound this time. Have to be honest, kinda apprehensive about this one. Really don't know anything about sound, but suppose i'll have to learn. Typically i was ill when this was set, so i missed the introduction and the sample tracks debbie showed. Not really sure where to start with this one. Looks like i'll have to check out the listening material.

POP Project - Finished and Burned

Can't believe how long it took to figure out how to use DVD Studio Pro! But, it is now done!! Got our two dvd's sorted, and they work, so just got our self assessment mark sheets to do and figure out what we're gonna talk about for two minutes. I'm sure even I can manage it for that long ^_^

Not really looking forward to everyone seeing my awful acting though, remind me never to run on camera again. Oh dear.

POP Project - Final Edit

Spending alot of time in the editing suites. It's alot trickier than I remember. Of course that could be because I'm still getting used to using Macs :/ Here's some screenshots of our progress.

This one shows how supreme the difference between the two days were in terms of the weather. The shot on the left is from our first shoot, in POV. Spent a looooooong time figuring out how to change the colours on Final Cut Pro, and then trying to match it to the one on the right. It's still not perfect, but think we got it to as good as we could manage, what with being amateur editors ^_^

This one still annoys me. It really shows how much the weather can affect each shot and frame. It got windier, so when we tried to edit these two frames together, there's still a noticeable jump, no matter how many different times, and frames we went through. Again it's the best we're gonna get.

It's just very, very annoying.

POP Project - Take 2 - Rough Edit

The re-shoot went alot better than the first ^_^ Got alot more footage.

We then had to make our rough edit to show Debbie. We managed to do this in a few hours so quite proud :P

Got some positive feedback as well which is always nice.

We were worried about our plot being abit too simple, but Debbie rightly said to not underestimate simple ideas.

However, our biggest problem was that we broke the line! So our cuts looked strange, so Debbie advised to use some of our original POV footage to make the transitions smoother between cuts and also to add more tension to our film. She also said that our cuts could be smoother and flow better.

So back to the editing suite!

POP Project - Take 2 - Storyboard

This the storyboard for our new version, drawn by Stella.

I'm glad one of us can draw ^_^

POP Project - Take 2 - Schedule

This is our schedule for our re-shoot.

Schedule

9:30am - Meet at car park to drive to edale

10:30am - Arrive at Edale (Rough approximate)

10:40am - Start filming, shots 1-5

11:10am - Get to start of Grindsbrook walk for shots 6-12

12:10am - Back to car park for lunchbreak

1:15pm - Be back to end location for shots 13-18

3:00pm - Finish shooting and be on way home

POP Project - Take 2 - Treatment

A story of a Rambler, starts with her looking at her map, in full rambling gear including walking stick. She walks down the roads of Edale, trying not to look nervous. She comes across something that makes her stop in her tracks. She's considering whether she dare go in, but decides against it, too risky. She quickly walks past the church, not looking back. She finally finds the beginning of the walk she'd already chosen, Grindsbrook, the sign states. She looks around, starting to get more nervous, now that she's getting closer. She carries on through the walk, across the bridge, up the stairs, all the while looking behind her, making sure no one's following. Making sure she's going the right way she stops for a breather while she takes in her surroundings. On the move again she follows the paved path, stumbling on the way, always looking behind. She's not met anyone yet though, which seems promising. Picking up the pace, she moves on, through woods, over more bridges and rocky stairs. It seems to be completely deserted, so she's looking around for the perfect spot. There's a valley that could be right, but it's too steep to climb down, so she continues along the path. As she rounds the corner, there's a bit of land surrounded by bushes, slightly uphill, it's perfect. She runs towards it, shrugging off the heavy bag and frantically starts to dig, using her bare hands. Judging the hole to be big enough, she grabs the bag and brings it out, the gun. Looking around again to make sure no one's going to catch her in the act, she quickly slings the gun in the hole and covers it, with the dirt, and anything extra she can find for more camouflage. With it finally done, she grabs her bag and quickly runs away, never to be seen in Edale again.



I hope this is right. I read somewhere on the internet that the treatment is suppose to be a more emotional, story-like, telling of your film. More like what you want the viewers to experience from it, so this is what i came up with ^_^

POP Project - Take 2

We decided to stick with the initial plot, just change the shots we're gonna use. This is what i came up with for a potential shot list

However, after some discussion with Stella, we decided that some shots wouldn't really work with the pace, plus that we'd need a typed up version for here, so this is what we came up with.

Shot List

Scene 1 - Edale Road

Shot 1 - Over the shoulder shot of Rambler looking at map. Pan up to follow as she walks down
the road and around a corner.

Shot 2 - Mid shot of Rambler as she walks into frame, and pan to follow as she walks around another corner.

Shot 3 - Mid/Long shot of Rambler as she walks towards camera.

Shot 4 - Close Up shot as she looks uncertain at something off frame. Pan to see a church.

Shot 5 - Back to Mid/Long shot of Rambler as begins to walk towards church, but then walks away. Let her walk off frame.

Scene 2 - Grindsbrook Walk

Shot 6 - Mid shot of Rambler as she walks up to sign.

Shot 7 - Close Up of sign.

Shot 8 - Back to Mid shot as Rambler looks around and walks down the path.

Shot 9 - Long shot as Rambler walks over the bridge, looking behind her and walks past out of frame.

Shot 10 - Long, high angled shot as Rambler walks up the stairs, stops to look around at the top (Mid shot), then pan and follow as she walks/runs down the path and around the corner.

Shot 11 - Mid shot as Rambler walks/runs past camera on/off frame.

Shot 12 - Long, high angled shot as Rambler comes out of woods, over bridge and up the stairs towards camera, while looking behind.


Scene 3 - Secluded Area on Walk


Shot 13 - Long/Mid shot as Rambler looking down into valley, but carries on.

Shot 14 - Long shot as Rambler rounds the corner, comes towards camera, looking around the area. Looks out of frame and runs towards it. Pan to follow as she runs up the hill.

Shot 15 - Long/Mid shot, from a different position, as she runs up the hill, and pan as she drops bag down and starts to dig with hands.

Shot 16- Close Up of Rambler digging a hole, while looking around her. She reaches into her bag and pulls out a gun.

Shot 17 - Extreme Close Up of gun.

Shot 18 - Close Up of Rambler as drops gun in hole and covers back up. Stay on hole as Rambler starts to get up. Pan up to see as the Rambler runs away around a corner.

POP Project - Not Good

We checked out our footage today and it's pretty un-useable. Way too shaky to even attempt to speed it up :/ And our ending footage is so dark we can't even see anything.

So, we've decided to re-think our POV plan, and go simpler with basic shots using a tripod!

Therefore we've had to re-schedule a trip to Edale, where hopefully we'll get the PD170 camera we've been using in our workshops and have a better idea of how to operate than the XM2's we used before. Also the weather should be better ^_^

POP Project - Day Of Shoot

Not feeling too confident about our shoot. We had some camera problems, so ended up losing nearly 2 hours, thankfully we didn't have that much footage at that point. We were mostly checking out the locations, since that was our first time in Edale. The weather wasn't great, but didn't pour down so can't really complain, but the main issue was our appaling camera work with the POV shots. Really don't have a steady hand. Hopefully it won't be too bad, especially when we speed it up in editing.

Here are some pictures Stella took during the day. Pretty much the trail we took for our shoot. Even met some locals who'd been stalking us ^_^

POP Project - Documents

Hopefully all of the documents we are supposed to have are included as links in the post of our Parashoot form. These include:

• Shot List
• Contact List
• Equipment List
• Schedule

Since it was me who was acting (badly?!), and it was a very brief role, due to most being POV (thank god!), we thought there wouldn't be any point to fill in a release form.

Risk Assessment Form

This is the risk assessment form that both me and Stella worked on for our first Edale shoot.

Sheffield Hallam University

RISK ASSESSMENT FORM

Moderated By: Deborah Ballin PDF Created: Thu 27th Oct 2011 Form ID: 000015756

Shoot Details

Shoot name: Portrait Of A Place Dates: Thu 27th Oct 2011 > Thu 27th Oct 2011 Creator: Jessica Ingleby Role: Actress/Producer/Director Phone: 07800511141 Email: b1038523@my.shu.ac.uk
Scope: A rambler is going on one of Edale's walks. Camera takes POV of rambler as they travel through Edale.

All Suppliers

Name: Creative Media Centre Email: not set Address: Sheffield Hallam University City Campus Howard Street Sheffield S1 1WB

All Locations

Title: Peak District, Edale Address: Off A625 Castleton to Hope Road Map Link: No map set
Title: The Ramblers Inn Address: Edale, Hope Valley, Derbyshire Map Link: No map set

All Crew

Name: Stella Harriot Role: Director/Producer/Cinematographer Phone: not set Email: stella.c.harriot@student.shu.ac.uk

Safety Officer

Name: Stella Harriot Role: Director/Producer/Cinematographer Phone: not set Email: stella.c.harriot@student.shu.ac.uk
Name: Esther Johnson Role: Group First Aider/Module Leader Phone: not set Email: esther.johnson@shu.ac.uk

Emergency Procedures

Police: Derbyshire Police Address: Silverlands, Buxton, Derbyshire Map Link: No map set
Hospital: Royal Hallamshire Hospital Address: Glossop Road, Sheffield Map Link: No map set

No Comments

People and animals

Crew / Artist / performer control or operation of specialist props or machinery

7.2Does the performer require training on using the specialist machinery and is the trainer appropriately qualified and have you seen evidence?

If the performer needs to be supervised while operating the machinery is the supervisor qualified and have you seen evidence?

Locations: All
Severity: Low Risk

Who: Cinematographer

Working Hours

10.1Working hours of crew and cast will be agreed before filming commences.

Locations: All
Severity: Low Risk

Who: Crew/Actress

No Comments

Environment & Location

Extreme weather and temperatures

1.1We will ensure all members of the crew and contributors have appropriate foul weather clothing and changes of clothing if possible

We will ensure all electrical equipment is appropriately protected from water penetration. Where necessary we will isolate electrical equipment from all but trained personnel

We will ensure there is adequate shelter where possible and we will provide towels and dry changing areas if possible

Locations: All
Severity: Medium Risk

Who: Crew and Equipment

1.5We will ensure all equipment is secured.

We will avoid working at heights where possible

We will ensure that we are not close to structures likely to fall as a result of the high winds

Locations: All
Severity: Medium Risk

Who: Crew and Equipment

Working at heights

2.5We will ensure: there are appropriate handrails, all loose objects are secured, access to the high area is isolated where possible, minimum personnel are in the high area

If the vantage point is fragile then we will refer to our supervisor

Locations: All
Severity: Low Risk

Who: Crew and Equipment

No Comments

Equipment

Added Risks

7.1Fake Gun as prop. Risk is low as won't be used in front of the public. Weapon is BB Gun, without ammo, SAFE.

Locations: All
Severity: N/A

Who: N/A

No Comments

Transport, vehicles and roads

Filming on or near roads

1.1High visibility clothing: All crew will wear high visibility jackets if filming at night or working 10m or less from the road

Distractions: We will ensure we cause minimal distraction to motorists

Safe guarding each other: We will ensure we watch for each other's safety -particularly those unable to see traffic

Cabling: Cables which cross the road will be adequately protected or we will attempt to reroute them to avoid them crossing the road

Locations: All
Severity: Medium Risk

Who: All

No Comments

Docs

• Name: XM2_CUG_EN.pdf - Open
• Name: Map of Edale.docx - Open
• Name: Contact List.doc - Open
• Name: Equipment List.doc - Open
• Name: Shot List.docx - Open
• Name: Schedule Template.xls - Open

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