Drama Meeting One

In our first meeting our main decisions were to decide on the main roles for the piece. We also decided on the synopsis, the type of character we wanted and the location that we wanted to shoot in.

The roles were decided as followed:

• Oliver Guy - Director
• Louise Bailey (me) - Producer
• Hannah Grencis - Sound Recordist
• Sarah Cooper - Editor
• Rose Ryk - Camera Operator
• Adam Young - Sound Editor

The roles took a while to decide as we weren't able to do the same roles that we did for the documentary. Due to this some people ended up with roles that they weren't particularly happy with.

After roles were chosen we started working on the plot synopsis:

The View (working title) is a short film that follows a character that struggles with what most of us would see as a simple action; going outside. Suffering from agoraphobia the character takes us through his struggles and torment of this illness and how it can effect a person.

When considering the character we thought it would be best to try to use an older actor as we think this would portray a different mature type of film concerning a serious issue compared to that of using a younger actor.

Deciding on location mainly revolved the idea of the way we wanted the room to look. The film is to be shot in a single room to reflect upon the character's own fears and mindset but alongside this also giving the viewer a feel for what it would be like to be trapped in such a small enclosed space.

Presentation

During the presentation we stuck to a structure about what we were going to talk about. I'm going to stick to this structure to explain how I contributed to the project and what lessons I learnt.

• Role- I took on the role of sound editor where it was my job to make the audio clearer and more defined so it could be mainly used as a voice over. This meant I had to noise reduce certain clips and use EQ to make the pieces clear. I also recorded the violin player for the soundtrack.
• What we wanted to achieve- As a group our aim was to create a film that portrayed Michael Phoenix's love for his violins and the importance of music in expressing yourself. We wanted to steer clear of any other type of messages even though when recording he talked a lot about politics we decided this was not the way in which we wanted to show Michael and his lovely personality.
• Was this a success?- I think we achieved this successfully as we edited the sound and images to fit with the story we wanted to tell about how important music is in the world in Michael's opinion. However we had to go back on a different day and re-shoot the interview as we wanted to capture this more than we originally did the first time we shot.
• Strengths-I think the audio had many strengths. The voice over turned out very clear after the removal of some background noise such as a heater and fridge that was kept on during filming. I also think the way it changes between Michael in a sit down interview then different cuts of him doing work is another strength as seeing what he does while he talks helps the audience to get a better view of his work.
• Weaknesses-Personally I think at times some of the violin soundtrack is too loud and I should have mixed the two together so you can hear Michael clearly throughout the whole film. Also at times there are audio spikes that weren't noticeable when editing but were once we played it on the large screen in the presentation.
• Influences- For the sound design my main influence was the documentary "Pockets" by James Lees. Throughout the piece you would see objects with a voice over before cutting to the person speaking about the object. I used this same idea all the way through the piece such as showing close ups of Michael working while the voice over carries on. Joe and I then incorporated cuts of Michael's sit down interview into the piece where the voice over would link to him carrying on the same audio the same as in "Pockets".

Recording the violinist

Difficulties that I found throughout the piece

As a group we all encountered some difficulties but mostly in the unattendance of one of our members throughout the filming and group meetings. James didn't attend any many of the meetings or contribute to much of the filming process. He also didn't record audio when he was supposed to then lied to our producer about what happened to the audio. This is made clear in a Facebook  post on our group Facebook page that we were using to communicate:

Posted at 5am on the last day of shooting

When asked about the audio from the final day it was later revealed he had forgotten to press record. This could have been due to the late night he had on the 2nd day which effected the 3rd.

A problem that I personally found was that as Joe didn't live in Sheffield but lived in Doncaster he did most of his editing at home. Due to this I found it hard to contribute to the sound editing as we weren't working together any of the time so I feel like I didn't help as much with sound as I should have done. But I was unable to because he insisted on editing at home rather than at university.

Finalised edited piece

Joe, the editor, finalised the piece on the Tuesday meaning on the Wednesday we all watched the piece together as a group. Joe asked for critiques so that he could change any problems that we had before the presentation tomorrow (Thursday 6th). 

The main problems that we found were:

1. Style of the titles- we found that the titles didn't compliment the piece as they were to bold and other the top for the film
2. Some shots too dark- for some reason the piece was darker on the university's macs compared to that of Joe's laptop so we changed the brightness. This was because when presenting the piece will be the correct brightness to be viewed on a university computer
3. Audio spikes- these were noticeable throughout the documentary where suddenly the audio would become louder meaning I had to lower certain selections of audio then the sound would run more smoothly

We planned out the presentation and decided to meet at 10am tomorrow an hour before the presentation to make sure it was perfect before the presentation.

Violin Recording

When watching the piece it was decided that we needed a soundtrack to compliment the film. Paul introduced us to his friend who is a violinist which we felt would be best way to show the emotion and love for the violin and music that we wanted to show in the piece. 

On the 4th of March Paul, Chris and I met at an art gallery that was lending us a private room so that we could get clear pieces that we could use. Anna, the violinist, selected four pieces for us that weren't under copyright so that we wouldn't have to go through a strict process of getting music permissions. These pieces also created different moods such as a fast fiddle piece and a slower more waltz style of piece.

I recorded the pieces using a boom mic and a zoom so that I keep control of the sound levels even though the sound kept peaking and lowering depending on the notes being played. By recording on a boom mic as well I was able to get the full sound of the violin as it reverberated around the room.

Production Folder

As a group we created a production folder of all the ideas that we all contributed along with elements that separate people had to create. For example Paul, the producer, created calls sheets for each day of shooting so that everyone knew where they should be and the rota for the day:

For my sound editing I mainly used two items from the production folder that were created by other members of the team so that I could sound that we had all agreed on and also had an easy way of knowing what each bit of audio was.

The first item was that of a storyboard drawn by the camera operator, Megan, that showed exactly what we were looking for picture so I could incorporate sound to fit that:

While on shoot Myles had also kept a log off all the sound pieces. In his log he wrote what the file was called but also what the audio contained so if I needed a specific sound like scraping of wood I would be able to easily find it:

Editing

To begin with for the sound editing we wanted to try to get rid of some of the background noise that was distracting from the piece. This was mainly due to a heater that was left on during filming.

Myles and I tried two different methods to try to reduce this noise. The first was the use of the EQ level that on Pro Tools where we tried to get rid of the frequency of the heater meaning it wouldn't be heard. 

 However I found that the noise frequency of the heater was very similar to Michael's voice meaning once we began to reduce this noise his voice began to sound like he was in a tin can. Due to this we tried a different method of using Noise Reduction on Soundtrack Pro. 

By selecting a specific part of the audio that contained both Michael's voice and just the heater on it's own I tried to reduce the noise however again I reached the same problem that the frequencies were very similar so I was unable to reduce the noise while still keeping his voice clear and normal.

It was decided that we were unable to use this clip because of the heater. Thankfully it was noticed on set that this noise was effecting some of the pieces so was turned off from then on and didn't effect any others.