Minor Project- Continued Research

Though audio seems to be the outright favourite, I want to find more and understand more about why video is the dominant output when viewers are concerned. Eric Lamontagne works in the sound department for many big productions in TV and Film, and was interviewed on this topic and I looked into his responses.

"Saying sound is more important is quite a statement! Many storytellers would argue that moving picture started silent and that audiences were entertained. That said, I believe I do understand the need for sound that supports the image but sound must only carry the story naturally."

Lamontagne believes sound is necessary to support the story, if and when its used. He goes on to talk about how many blockbusters now are overshadowing that with their visuals and it can take away from the storytelling. Of course there is ADR and replacement processes but Lamontagne likes to capture the best audio he can, on the day.

"It has been my goal to capture as much live performance on the day of production as possible, a personal and professional goal that I share with many fellow sound crews. At the end of the day though, my role is to do my best to capture the performances to support the story."

This got me thinking about silent films again, and how is the music and score that accompanies the film, necessary to support the story? In many cases the audio can add comedic and dramatic effect with its timing in certain instances. I believe this certainly supports the entertainment of the film, it helps keep audiences engaged, but does it support the story? This gives me three ideas. A silent film that is completely silent with no music, a silent film that is accompanied with random musical score, and a silent film that is accompanied with an original synced score.

The outcome of this will help me understand how audiences will rank the viewings of silent films, and if audio really does matter and support the story of a silent film.

"But for the most part a silent film was silent unless accompanied by live music. But was the music always there? When films were first exhibited commercially, in 1894, via the Edison Kinetoscope peepshow, they were silent. You peered down into the machine, paid your cent or penny, and thirty seconds of so of silent miniaturised action played before your eyes. Edison wasn’t happy with this, and in 1895 introduced the Kinetophone, an adaptation of the Kinetoscope with accompanying (though not synchronised) phonograph recordings. Yet for the most part people started seeing silent films silently."

From the early days of silent film, most of the audiences were seeing them silent and still enjoying them. For a time, unless accompanied by a live orchestra or such, the film you'd be watching was in complete silence. I want to find out why this changed. 

Sources: http://www.reelmarketer.com/interview-how-sound-is-everything/
https://thebioscope.net/2011/08/29/when-silents-were-silent/

When researching audio vs video, there is an absolute handful of books, websites and articles that are pushing the point of audio been better. This one is no different. But this one gave me new ideas.

Why Audio Matters Most for Audiences by DaCast.com goes with the argument that "our sense of sound is the most integral when it comes to communication, making audio an essential aspect of any broadcast." I can't debate that at all, it's a hugely valid point. Our main sense of communication is talking to each other, which for lack of a better term, is sound orientated. It only make sense that the easiest way for us to follow a story would also be through sound. 

The page goes on to offer a test to any readers that doubt their opinion. 

"Don’t think sound is all that important? Try this exercise: pick your favorite scary movie and watch it on mute. Meanwhile, play a nice, relaxing song in the background, or a comedy track from your favorite standup comic. Stripped away of its intended audio cues and music, which are designed to build suspense, tension, and terror, it’s doubtful that scary movie will have the same impact."

This exercise is a great insight into the modern horror film, that features too many jump scares and not enough actual scary footage. Although there are plenty of horror films known for their hauntingly visuals and films such as 2015's The Visit which actually as no score or soundtrack at all. I'm really interested in doing something like this for my experiments. Using some horror footage and seeing how much of the audio actually elevates it from just the visuals. Showing the clip with high quality video and low quality audio, and then low quality video and high quality audio, will show which of the two is more important to the production and the audience of a horror film. Then if in the future if any of us are making a horror film, we'll know to maybe focus or lean towards one because the audience get a bigger kick out of that one. 

Sources: http://www.dacast.com/blog/audio-matters-audiences/

Minor Project- Research into Audio Vs. Video

I've started research looking into debates and discussions of Audio Vs. Video to help me understand both sides of the argument, and where I should start and go next in my experiments and work. Many of the articles and videos I've found heavily lean towards audio been the dominant answer to this debate. Video Entrepreneur Magazine have an article that backs up the argument of audio been a higher priority than video. In their article "Audio is More Important Than Video Picture Quality" by L. Scott Harrell, he talks about how video picture quality is some what mistaken for been more important and gives tips on how to improve you audio quality.

"Most inexperienced video entrepreneurs make the mistake in the beginning of their careers focusing a lot on capturing the best quality visuals for their videos and, all too often, completely blow the sound." 

This can speak heavily towards students such as myself who are just starting out and developing their filmmaking skills. From an outsiders view, audio isn't talked or thought about much when discussing a film or it's production but its one of the most important elements, and If done correctly, its quality will go unnoticed because it's done its job. For many of us on the course, it wasn't until the editing stages till we realised just how important and skilful audio capturing is to the final edit of a film. Now this is not to say that you can neglect the video quality of your production also, but the misconception of a videos quality needing to be high for it to be successful just isn't gospel. L. Scott Harrell goes on to talk about how that even if the video component turns out to have flaws and be less than perfect, that with the right quality audio, that is clear and free of distractions, that production can still go on to be a success. This talks mainly more to the pre-production and production side of making sure you always capture high quality audio. The article however goes on to discuss the opposite side of this and how studies have shown that even if the audio quality of your production is just medium to marginal quality, then no matter how high quality or good looking the video picture turns out to be, that audiences are likely to react to the production as a whole negatively. But again, just another reason to be precise in your audio recording. The article is accompanied with a short list to help you capture audio better.

Tips for recording superior quality audio:

1. Voice-Overs are Easy and Reliable!

There’s no doubt that while shooting video and sound in an outdoor location, recording high quality audio can be quite difficult. However, with a little preparation, you can prevent a potentially disastrous situation. Perhaps your best option in windy or noisy outdoor environments is to record most of your audio track indoors, or in-studio, and simply apply it is a voice-over. In other words, you will be recording the audio off-camera separately in a different location and later add it to the video during the editing process. I know several very successful video entrepreneurs that don’t even bother shooting video and use only b-roll or stock video clips that they’ve either shot previously or have purchased online instead. They tend to focus more of their time developing a killer script and recording great audio for their projects.

2. Set Up a Sound Booth

It is best to record audio in a small, carpeted room with wall treatments (pictures, curtains, etc) in order to avoid a harsh sound characterized by an echo. If audio is more important than video for you then you should be recording in some sort of studio. When it comes to make-shift recording studios, closets are actually the best choice.

3. Be Prepared and Have the Right Equipment

If your video production requires you to record your audio and video at the same place and time, then be prepared for the wind and ambient noises you may very well pick up from the background. Try to choose a quiet location and shoot the video when there’s no wind if at all possible. Definitely use a dead cat, or wind muff, windshield which are microphone covers designed to minimize wind noise when recording in less than perfect wind conditions. Keep in mind that a little wind noise is enough to ruin your audio track and is almost impossible to edit out. With most camera configurations you can monitor the quality of your sound during or immediately after recording using a pair of headphones. They’re a pretty cheap insurance policy against leaving the shoot only to find out that what you’ve recorded is essentially garbage.

4. Get Close!

Getting the microphone physically closer to your subject ensures better audio quality, less background noise and better fidelity in your sounds. Although, a full length body shot may seem like a better option, the audio quality will be affected, since you will be far away from your mic. Make it a point to plan your outdoor shots at a closer distance to the camera if you must use a smartphone, iPad, tablet or other mobile device or your camera’s onboard microphone.

5. If You Are Going to Be a Video Professional, Use Professional Gear

Most of the microphones built into cameras are omnidirectional and record unwanted sound from every direction, the microphones in mobile devices like iPads can be even worse. When recording audio dialogue a uni-directional mic is really best. If audio is more important than video in your situation, the perfect situation is to use even a decent quality off-camera directional microphone plugged into a separate audio recording device. The second best option would be to use a microphone plugged into your camera. For professional video content creators and entrepreneurs running video businesses, we consider an external microphone a MUST HAVE piece of gear.

Source: http://vtrep.com/audio-is-more-important-than-video-picture-quality/

It's shocking to discover how much of a disruption bad audio can be to a film production. In the early days of cinema, quality was not to the standard to which we have it today. During the silent film era, the quality of the video was not incredible high, it would be grainy and somewhat shaky but it was very often accompanied by backing music. This might be one of the first experiences of filmmakers using good audio to attract and audiences attention. Silent films completely silent are not the easiest films to watch and keep your attention, but suddenly with the addition of sound and music, they become interesting and easier to view. If this was switched and a silent film had amazing video quality and low audio quality, even though its a silent film, I think the switch would be negative on the film. 

Raindance Canada uploaded a video to their YouTube account in 2014, showing their own example of why they find audio quality to be more important than video quality. He discuss how in some cases the bad audio can be forgiven in such a purpose of stunt videos where a man might be skydiving, the audio here could be forgiven cause its main focus is on the video. Vice versa with found footage films, the video quality is not high but thats to support the style in which it is been filmed. The video discusses how with bad audio, the content is hard to take seriously, insinuating that bad audio may lose you professionalism and give a sign that your work is not legitimate. The video ends talking about how you shouldn't have to choose but if you have to choose, maybe good audio is the way. 

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PLMiA18tBc

The majority of my research so far has strongly sided with audio quality been inferior to video quality, and have made very strong arguments to why. I want to continue my research into this argument and search more for reasons that a film might consider having better video than audio for a legit reason. A case where its more important to its purpose for the picture quality to be stronger than the audio. So far my research has given me new ideas to what my experiment is going to entail, and to try and make it dig deeper than just the surface question. Hopefully finding some useful results worth reporting. 

Minor Project- Audio Quality Vs Video Quality

Minor project, along with dissertation, is the first module of our third year studying Creative Film and Moving Image Production. It's main aims as a module is to helps us focus on a single practice within the industry, and enhance and develop technique and skills within this role. It's a research based module primarily and helps establish opportunities in the future. This is also one of the modules that is heavily focused on the technical aspect of the course. My main area that I want to specialise in throughout my third year of university is writing, but this module I'd like to focus on something else, something that can match the aims and goals of the module better and more suited to the objectives, so I've decided to focus on editing for my minor project.

Specifically, audio quality Vs. video quality. On the surface this doesn't appear to be the most ground breaking area I could've chose, but with been a film student I wanted the area to apply to me as a student now and to be able to have instant results and effects on my work while still at university. It will also be going deeper than just audio vs video, and into editing software, and featuring more technical aspects that can develop and provide solid research that'll support my ideas throughout the module. From my basic research, there is already talk online about this debate, especially on the YouTube space, with content creators wanting the best audio and video quality they can get for their audience. There are articles online discussing the argument and we've also had quick talks about it in sessions and lectures, where the primary consensus seems to be that audio quality takes priority over video quality. An audience would rather be able to hear whats going on clearer than see whats going on clearer. If you can't hear or understand the dialogue, then you're struggling to follow the plot and it takes you out of the movie, no one wants to listen to horrible audio. Whereas if the video quality isn't good but you can still hear whats going on, it makes it a little easier on the audience and helps fill in gaps here and there. I want to be able to put this to the test. I want to experiment with audio quality and video quality to see which means the most to the audiences, but I also want to experiment with different types of genre and different styles of filming to see if this changes from what you might expect. Some genres may find it more beneficial to have better video than audio and this will be an aspect I would like to explore.

I'm hoping to look into how this affects styles such as found footage and audition tapes etc. Different methods and styles of filming but may reflect on how one area maybe more important than the other. The results from this module will help me determine how to improve student quality audio and video and boost it up to an acceptable standard, if not already, and also learn on depending what you're editing that maybe you should focus on one area more than the other, cause the audience is going to appreciate that more and altogether will improve better storytelling through the edit. The finished product of the module along with all the research and development will be a final 3-4 minute video featuring clips and genres with bad audio and good video and vice versa to present in front of an audience with a survey to gather findings. It will range a variety of genres and storytelling styles and will also include my efforts of improving low quality audio and video and trying to restore them to a high level, through the industry and my own techniques.

Live Brief 2 - Visual Effects for Guerrilla Filmmakers (Week 4)

Week 4 of the course starts 29th February and is the final week of the course they have to offer. This weeks focus is on 3D compositing and how it can be used to benefit your film and adds more to your surroundings. As we live and work in 3D why shouldn't 3D play a part in the film industry. The week starts off with articles and videos discussing what 3D compositing is about and a little history about the subject before introducing you to the HitFilm task this week.

The task is to actually do some 3D compositing of your own with the provided stock footage, the shot to work on is like an establishing shot, and will be built up of different 3D layers to achieve the end final shot. Theres a layer of a background of an industrial park, which will be the bottom layer, and then layers to be overlayed such as the actor, the sky and some fire and damaged cars to add atmosphere to the scene. They're all been added using 3D compositing so they're not just flat additions to the scene, but fit in to the scene and the 3D world it's building.

Of course the week continues on with articles from The Blaine Brothers and Haz discussing why and when they use this technique but there is also a video of Haz discussing the power of archive footage and how important it is to keep them if you use them on a previous production. Archive footage has the power to be used multiple times in multiple ways so it's best to to just toss it out. The week is slightly longer with it been the final week and further on discusses Matte Painting and it's uses digitally. With 3D compositing Matte Paintings can bring scenes together and are not just flat backgrounds anymore.

A very interesting and helpful video included in this weeks selection is Haz on marketing your film. As Haz is an independent filmmaker, he has quite some experience in marketing films and he discusses the best ways and why some ways maybe better than others, to get your film out there. Haz recently used a Vimeo account to premiere his latest film, and choose this over a YouTube release and he chose this platform because he wanted film executives to see it and didn't want adverts popping up all the time. Theres a professionalism to marketing and getting across your style and your film, in the manner that you wanna project yourself to be. The course comes to an end with some thoughts of inspiration and a lesson of never stop making films.

Live Brief 2 - Visual Effects for Guerrilla Filmmakers (Week 3)

Week 3 of the course commences 22nd February and is now more than half way through it's duration. Week 3's main focus is on Masking, Cloning and Crowds, these are very important techniques within the filmmaking world and the special effects world, and have been used on many huge blockbusters, to recreate war scenes in films, and to build armies that aren't really there. It's a clever technique and quite tricky to pull off. The course has an introduction to the basics of Masking, Cloning and Crowds, and how you would use these techniques in a film. It also features a short video on how you would prepare for a shoot that was including these special effects, which will be good to show with my crew if they intend to use any of these.

The course also comes with a Masking Checklist:

• If the colour or contrast of the image in your mask is different to the background layer, then sometimes a large feather will help it sit better in the shot, as the edges become gradual.
• A good way to keyframe a mask of particularly complex moves (say someone running in a zig zag across the scene) is to set keyframes at extremes (say every abrupt turn of the runner), and then set more again half way between those keyframes. And then half way between them…until the mask moves with the runner. It’s still easier than frame by frame!
• You can change the opacity of your mask, say to 95%, which can subtly bring the image underneath through to help with making your object ‘sit’ in the shot. Too much and you turn them into ghosts!
• Make sure you have enough points on your mask to accommodate future action in the shot. If you’ve put your actor into a rectangular mask and she starts ‘star-jumping’ later in the shot, you may have problems of overlap with other nearby characters. So, always look ahead through your footage.
• You can keyframe backwards. Start with your difficult star-jumping actress and then move backwards with your keyframes.
• Computers are dumb. If your mask isn’t blue in HitFilm, it’s not keyframeable!
  These are important to remember and keep in mind if ever filming on set for any of these techniques. 
  
  This weeks task in HitFilm is masking and cloning and provides all the footage for you to achieve these techniques. It uses both these techniques to create a scene of a man walking through a location multiple times at the same time. This technique is a great way to increase the scale and production value of your film because it makes it seem like you have greater the amount of people than you do. The week then continues on to have The Blaine Brothers and Haz talk about how and when they use masking and cloning in their productions, which is quite often in their own cases. For me green screen and masking and cloning doesn't seem to much easier and effective as a practical effect, which appears more real on the screen for a film. 

Live Brief 2 - Visual Effects for Guerrilla Filmmakers Course (Week 2)

Week 2 of the course has started, 15 February and heavily features and includes tasks and articles focusing on Green Screen. Green screen is a huge and innovative technique and tool when it comes to special effects and has helped change the game significantly in modern special effects. There are early articles on green screen and keying which are helpful to give a little intro to the history and behind the scenes of the skill and technique, and also build your knowledge on special effects. This weeks task requires to use the already downloaded software HitFilm and goes through layering, keying and masking your shot, as well as stabilising and grading your background to make it more convincing.

I've worked with green screen before in small doses and have had experience using the keying tools in software like Adobe After Effects and Premiere, but this task was good and refreshing because I was using professional footage of green screen work and it made it easier and simpler to actually edit, when it's filmed correctly and with the purpose of been keyed out. The weekly tasks are proving very helpful and offer a lot of room to experiment with after you're done, and even use your own footage in the software with the new technique. The week goes on to feature small quizzes on the world of keying to build your memory of the technique up and features more videos and articles from the Blaine Brothers and Haz. There is a brief mention of rotoscoping which I have knowledge of from college, and an article about the 2004 film Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, which heavily features special effects and most importantly green screen.



Glenn has prepared me that he does have green screen in mind for certain shots and now I have more knowledge and experience on the subject and skill, so if the footage is filmed correctly there should be no problem.

Live Brief 2 - Open Auditions (16/02/2016)

Open Auditions for all productions took place today in the studio at CCAD Hartlepool. The auditions ran all day and everyone was welcome to try out for roles and perform on camera. Certain actors had given definite signs they would attend and the rest we we're open people would just show up... which very few did. John, Drew, Tori, Steven, Simon and myself were present at the auditions and a grand total of 4 auditions took place! The first to arrive was Megan Thompson who auditioned early on around 9-10am, she did a general audition and was open to playing any of the required roles for our productions and was very excited and energetic about the possibility of working with us. Glenn was impressed with audition and cast her as Arienne in his Maniaframe production. The auditions slowed down after Megan's audition and struggled to find actors to turn up, eventually fellow student Dan Whalen auditioned for the role of Reggie Reynolds the radio host in John's Urban Legends production. Dan had an understanding of the character and what we we're going for and pulled off a great audition for the role so much that we had him under consideration to play the character.

Our tutor Mike Boyle also auditioned to boost up the numbers and was given part of the script from Glenn's production and auditioned for one of the clowns that would appear in it. Mike NAILED IT of course as he is a talented and experienced actor with an ability to take on any role :). Eventually later on another actor turned up for an audition, George Collins or working actor auditioned for the role of Reggie Reynolds and absolutely blew everyone away. He was given multiple scripts to work with and to get to the learn the character better but I think Drew and John has already agreed by this point that he was perfect for the part. George was cast as Reggie Reynolds.

Overall I wouldn't say the open auditions were a clear success but we did gain two new actors from it who are pivotal to the cast and productions so it was still helpful even if the turn out wasn't how we may have expected it to be. I think all the producers know that there are more ways now that the could advertise the auditions and to maybe gain more definite auditions for the day so less time is wasted waiting.