Final Project
Soo Wen Yi (0334653)
Video and Sound Production _ Final Project
INSTRUCTIONS_
FINAL PROJECT _
Week 01Project 1
We're told to have 3 stop motion short videos that we like and put it in the blog.
This first is called "Shiny", it is entirely made up using clothes. First of all I like how the story is shot in one set camera position so the movement of passing by the street is all by shifting the clothes. The environment sounds set the environment, we know it is set on a street based on the start where there were walking sounds and car noises. There was also a perspective change when the diamond flew up, it came closer to the camera so that was interesting. I also like the attention to details on the way that the dress flows with the wind and how the clothes were manipulated by twisting/rolling (green jacket and jeans) and acted like a solid stick.
The second is called "Negative Space". Again the attention to sound was good in this video like walking on the snow/wood/carpet, number of steps (the build up and stopping) etc. The transition between scenes are interesting I like the scene where the car was coming out of the tunnel onto a zip, and that zooms out into a car unzipping a suitcase. That is also a good way to unfold the story visually.
The last video titled "The Fish". This story has a clear story line and progression. It kept the sounds of the plastic objects when the fish moves and not try to mimic real fish, but the movement of the plastic fish is mimicking real fish to convey the message.
Week 02
I have not chosen a partner to work with yet, I will talk to my classmates this coming week to decide who to work with. With that being said, I would like to work with a partner that wants to convey a heartfelt/deeper meaning through the stop motion. However I couldn't come up with a story with deeper meaning, so I decided not to pursue in that direction.
This is an example of what I would like to work with. Clay as the medium and some shape morphing.
Week 03
I have decided to group up with Gordon and we discussed possible ideas. I found out that he wanted to create a visually interesting story like the reference "Shiny" that we both choose as one of the stop motions we like. After that I gave some thought to it and so my first rough idea was to have a kid sleeping and entering the dream state. Scene is flying with seagulls above the sea suddenly falls into a black hole and wakes up. But I was thinking this idea would be overused and general. Gordon's idea was to have a really eye catching/cute little monster character with cute sound effects. Having an interesting and lively stop motion.
Week 04
I put some thought into our ideas and came up with a story line.
Idea
Character: little monster
Story: drops down from off camera, squeaky sound when hit the ground. Shakes head, walks a bit. Rolls down a small hill, slams into the base of a wooden artist model. Gets back, walks in front of the wooden model. Stares at it, then copied the pose of the wooden model. Laughs at itself . Turns to the front camera waves goodbye.
With shot angles: drops down from off camera (WS,front camera), squeaky sound when hit the ground (MS). Shakes head (CU), walks a bit (MS). Rolls down a small hill (MS from the back of the monster, WS while rolling down), slams into the base of a wooden artist model (POV of monster, MCS, low angle). Gets back , walks in front of the wooden model (MWS with monster and model).Stares at it (CU on monster, then CU on model face), then copied the pose of the wooden model (MWS with monster and model then MS on the back of the monster with pose). Laughs at itself (O.S, MS on the model leg to monster). Turns to the front camera waves goodbye (MS).
Medium
Clay? objects?
Visual style
The selling point/I like the most of my stop motion project is being visually interesting.
I have not chosen a partner to work with yet, I will talk to my classmates this coming week to decide who to work with. With that being said, I would like to work with a partner that wants to convey a heartfelt/deeper meaning through the stop motion. However I couldn't come up with a story with deeper meaning, so I decided not to pursue in that direction.
This is an example of what I would like to work with. Clay as the medium and some shape morphing.
Week 03
I have decided to group up with Gordon and we discussed possible ideas. I found out that he wanted to create a visually interesting story like the reference "Shiny" that we both choose as one of the stop motions we like. After that I gave some thought to it and so my first rough idea was to have a kid sleeping and entering the dream state. Scene is flying with seagulls above the sea suddenly falls into a black hole and wakes up. But I was thinking this idea would be overused and general. Gordon's idea was to have a really eye catching/cute little monster character with cute sound effects. Having an interesting and lively stop motion.
Week 04
I put some thought into our ideas and came up with a story line.
Idea
Character: little monster
Story: drops down from off camera, squeaky sound when hit the ground. Shakes head, walks a bit. Rolls down a small hill, slams into the base of a wooden artist model. Gets back, walks in front of the wooden model. Stares at it, then copied the pose of the wooden model. Laughs at itself . Turns to the front camera waves goodbye.
With shot angles: drops down from off camera (WS,front camera), squeaky sound when hit the ground (MS). Shakes head (CU), walks a bit (MS). Rolls down a small hill (MS from the back of the monster, WS while rolling down), slams into the base of a wooden artist model (POV of monster, MCS, low angle). Gets back , walks in front of the wooden model (MWS with monster and model).Stares at it (CU on monster, then CU on model face), then copied the pose of the wooden model (MWS with monster and model then MS on the back of the monster with pose). Laughs at itself (O.S, MS on the model leg to monster). Turns to the front camera waves goodbye (MS).
Medium
Clay? objects?
Visual style
The selling point/I like the most of my stop motion project is being visually interesting.
Week 05
no progress
Week 06
We had to discuss our stop motion idea with Mr. Martin today. I was called separately first with another group to let him see our idea. He mentioned that think about it from the perspective of stop motion. Its simple but its ok. More detail on the scenes maybe can start working on the storyboard. I told Gordon about this feedback and while waiting for our turn to discuss with Mr. Martin, Gordon had new idea to add to the story line.
Idea
Character: 3 little characters/monsters
Story: A group of students were studying but the left their stuff on a table to go for a break. Their things are still on the table, after everyone left, the 3 characters would come out from pencil case/backpack/laptop bag and interact with the objects on the table. And after a while they would rush back to their places when they notice the students are coming back.
Medium
Clay for characters and objects for surrounding and environment.
Visual style
The selling point/I like the most of my stop motion project is being visually interesting.
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| Fig. 1.1: getting feedback from Mr Martin |
Feedback:
Uniqueness of it will be how the little monster will interact with the environment/surroundings, give us something crazy or else it's going to be boring, the only way to make your work good is with insane idea and need good cinematography. Use DSLR for this scale to have that kind of depth of field. Discussed about the location to shoot. I suggested to shoot in the photography studio since there’s tables in there and there will also be no people walking around in the background. Gordon suggested to use an open space at C7. Mr Martin said we can do location scouting take some photos and see how we want to use it, but he said it would be better to do the stop motion part in the studio if we chose to use the begining in another location. Also he mentioned that when the students leave the table at the start and came back at the end,could be shot in video and not stop motion because there’s no value. Be aware about the changing of light when we’re shooting. I asked if we could just block out part of the window so we have controlled the lighting, he said it's not necessary for the video part but can do for the close up and have a strict control on the lighting conditions. He asked what is the colour going to be, and we thought of warm because its a very light hearted, cheery and cute stop motion. Need to design the characters and the actions that the monsters are doing.
After the feedback me and Gordon refereed to Minions/Despicable Me clips and discussed about possible actions that the characters might be doing. Our 3 characters will be differentiated by their silhouette/shape. Lazy be stumpy, Calm will be tall, and Active will be small.
Possible actions:
1. a can of chips - someone will push the can causing can to fall and chips to flow out. They'll be surfing when the chips flowed out.
2. artist wooden dummy - different reactions to the pose on the dummy. Active will arrive first, skipping in. Lazy will kick the base of the dummy and fall while Calm will drag them away.
3. open sketchbook - the sketchbook has a sexy character drawing (maybe referencing to the dummy pose?), Lazy will be effected/attracted to the sketchbook drawing and Calm & Active will drag Lazy away.
4. blades & pencil - they will fight with craft blades and pencils and get stabbed having blade stuck on one and pencil lead stuck on one. Then they'll remove the things and smooth out themselves.
5. pencil shaving - Lazy will open a sharpener and make a mess by pouring it out, then eats the pencil shavings with a big mouth and sweep it all in one go.
6. laptop - accidentally clicked on the space bar and music plays, as they stupidly dance to the tune.
Week 07
We were told that we have to present our animatics next week along with a presentation. Animatics don't have to be detailed, its a blue print for the stop motion. First have to do the story board, then put it in premiere pro with proper pace(length of each shot). Music is optional.
Story-line
1. breakdown
-how many locations/scenes
2. then what happens in scene 1 and so on
-listed in point form
-each point is a shot
-if only one location, then its just one scene and number of shots
Story-boarding
-start from EWS/WS then cut into characters/objects
-switch camera position/angle framing
Action & Reaction
-its important to have reaction for a complete story
-cut away for transition of a new scene (example bell rings outside the classroom)
-cut in, not outside the surrounding (example watch)
-drama is created by contrast between the shots/juxtaposed
Kuleshov Effect
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| Fig. 1.2: Kuleshov effect |
-images creates the story/feeling, from the mind of the audience
-it can evoke different emotion from the audience, not only with the visual information
Then we got started with breaking down the story/creating a story outline.
Outline
Act 1- Introduction
- Students go for their lunch and leave their belongings at the table（e.g. Bags, laptop, pencil case, coffee,snacks, etc.)
- Two cute little monsters (lazy & active) coming out from laptop and beneath notebook.
Act 2- Confrontation
1st event
- Two monsters (lazy and active) ran towards each other(bird/top view)- come in while holding the pencils
- Another Taller monster (calm) comes out from the pencil case which exist in the previous scene(as audience[reaction focus])
- Two monsters stab each other’s stomach and both of them fall back with the pencil stabbed in them.
- Them 2 laughs out loud while fell back on the ground.
- Show Taller monster reaction - speechless face and facepalm
- One monster (lazy) laughs and turn on its side and saw a sexy lady on the sketchbook beside it.
- Close up on eyes sparkles
- Crawls first then turns into running towards the drawing and kisses the drawing
- Active runs but couldn’t stop in time, so it knocked Lazy over and ended with them both one on top of the other.
- Lazy kicks Active away, while Active flew across and and fit Calm who’s walking towards them
- They both flew and hit a can of potato chips
- Focus on can fall down and the chips flow out
- Active fall beside the chips
- Active take one and climb up the can
- Jump down and surf on the chips continue to the edge of the table
Act 3- Resolution
- Active saw the students come back
- Active shout
- Show calm and lazy surprised face
- They run back to their place- the end
We asked Mr Martin about our storyline before proceeding to storyboard. He mentioned that he can only roughly get the story breakdown until we do the storyboard and animatic. I asked if we can use strings for the flying scenes, and yes we can just photoshop the string out. We also asked what kind of clay do we need for stop motion, Mr Martin said the actual stop motion clay they use is expensive, but we can just get the cheap ones for this project.
Moving onto drawing the storyboard, Gordon and I thought about the shots together and gave ideas for each shots and the transitions. Gordon drew the storyboard on papers first, then I'm going to digitise it for him to create the animatic.
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| Fig. 1.3:process of drawing the storyboard |
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| Fig. 1.4: storyboard pg.1 |
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| Fig. 1.5: storyboard pg.2 |
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| Fig. 1.6: storyboard pg.3 |
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| Fig. 1.7: storyboard pg.4 |
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| Fig. 1.8: storyboard pg.5 |
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| Fig. 1.9: storyboard pg.6 |
Week 08
We were the first to present our stop motion idea and animatics to the lecturers and the class.
Presentation feedback
Any reason to keep the animatics at 1 min sharp? It can be 1 min 5 sec, 1 min 10 sec etc. don't have to be at 1 min sharp. The pacing is too fast, any reason? (because we thought it had to be within 1 min) Adjust the pacing between the kissing and the potato chips. Mr Razif said that the resolution doesn't help with anything. Have some sort of resolution from the students reaction to the mess that they've made. Pacing has to be adjusted and have a better resolution. Simplify some shots, discuss with Mr Martin after all the presentations. Mr Martin said to me: "there are too many close up shots, the framing is good but that usually works for comic but not stop motion, we can discuss later". They chose the surfing scene for us to make a test shot.
After discussing with Mr Martin, he advised to use more wide shots and only close up on expressions. and to remove the third character that didn't do much in the whole story. He suggest to make the 1st event is the kissing, then they fight and somehow knocked the chips off while fighting. A wider shot challenges the smoothness. Can easily group it and make it as simple as 15 shots everyshot is about 3 secs. If we want to follow follow the original, its gonna be 2 or 3 mins. But if we look at the story structure, it doesn't have to be that long. Test shot can be 2.5 sec.
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| Fig. 1.10: scale of the characters and required clay colours |
Test shot
We did the test shot on Saturday in the photography studio. We started with making the characters.
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| Fig. 1.11: making the characters |
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| Fig. 1.12: clay characters |
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| Fig. 1.13: process of shooting |
This is the result of the test shot.
Week 09
We thought about new ideas to change the story line before consulting Mr Martin.
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| Fig. 1.14: correcting storyboard |
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| Fig. 1.15: correcting numbered shots |
We showed our test shot to Mr Martin. This is the feedback we got.
Our cinematography with the shallow depth of field is nice and different from the other groups. He mentioned that there needs to be one more climax scene/action after the potato chip. And set the round character to be the naughty one while the rectangle one to be the more proper and organised, maybe introduce them at the start of the scene when they came out of the places. Round will make a mess when it comes out and the rectangle will clean it up behind it. The climax needs to be something shocking and crazy, he gave an example but he said that isn't crazy enough. We need to try and come up with something crazy for the climax.
Week 10
We discussed before this week's class, and decided on the added scenes.
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| Fig. 1.16: process of discussing the added scenes |
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| Fig. 1.17: added scenes to the beginning of the story |
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| Fig. 1.18: added scenes to the end of the story |
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| Fig. 1.19: revised story board page 1 |
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| Fig. 1.20: revised story board page 2 |
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| Fig. 1.21: Mr Martin consulting us on the test shot and revised storyboard |
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| Fig. 1.22: process of shooting |
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| Fig. 1.23: process of shooting |
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| Fig. 1.24: process of shooting |
Before Saturday's shooting, we met with Mr Martin to get the Lumix GH5 to be able to shoot in slow motion. He also showed us how to put it into Premiere Pro to edit.
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| Fig. 1.25: Mr Martin showing us how to edit it in Premiere Pro |
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| Fig. 1.26: process of shooting |
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| Fig. 1.27: process of shooting |
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| Fig. 1.28: process of shooting |
We also did the slow motion scene today.
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| Fig. 1.29: process of shooting |
Week 12
After looking at the shots for the slow motion scene, we thought that it wasn't good enough so we decided to re-shoot it and also use the same camera to shoot the glass breaking. We first did a test shot to decide on the position where the glass will drop.
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| Fig. 1.30: process glass broken |
Week 13
We showed the rough compiled video today, here's the video.
Feedback:
After Mr Martin watched our video, he pointed out that there are continuation problems through some of the scenes.
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| Fig. 1.31: problem 1 |
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| Fig. 1.32: problem 2 |
With this shot, the one on the right Mr Martin said that the framing could've worked if the camera was a bit lower. Because it doesn't show enough of the action; action of arm grabbing the pen and stabbing pink isn't complete. We discussed on how to continue this scene to the next as he mentioned that the arm of orange is not made possible to do the motion that we initially planned. So he suggested 2 options, 1st is to have it kiss and roll down forward and orange stab it with the pen (like waving upwards). 2nd is to have orange kick pink up after the kiss and stab pink while its in mid air.
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| Fig. 1.33: problem 3 |
This we had a missing shot that we didn't realise was missing. Have to add a transition scene in between here.
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| Fig. 1.34: problem 4 |
Mr Martin thought we had forgotten some scenes at the end here, but we didn't shot enough frames that orange completely go back into the laptop. He said that since this is impossible to shoot more scenes as it is impossible to have the exact same position, so we can just photoshop it and push it in completely.
Week 14
After re-shooting the scenes we began editing for the final video.
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| Fig. 1.35: editing, masking |
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| Fig. 1.36: process, editing |
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| Fig. 1.37: Colour correction reference |
We did a lot of drafts and it would be boring for me and you to watch all the drafts with minor changes, so here is a proof for our drafts.
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| Fig. 1.38: draft files that we did |
Mr Razif mentioned there are footsteps missing from the walking on the can scene, the impact sound should be louder than the action sound (pink hitting the glass), sucking sound sound from pink going into the bottle as there was a popping sound at the start when it came out, there should also be sound of the laptop closing. Our sound can be more exaggerated as we already established a more comical sound. Sparkle eyes should have audio, jumping sound make it longer, glass breaking sound continue to the people's expression. Discuss with Mr Martin after the class.
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| Fig. 1.39: Mr Martin discussing about our final draft |
human expression should have been more dramatic, be careful of when the sound cuts off, falling down should be faster, kissing scene should be longer, make sure every scene background should be still and not have people moving in the background.
Here is Gordon and I's final stop motion video:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1KIUlklGmggmGV7sv_T3S0RCD6VbnWMzM/view?usp=sharing
YouTube link to video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJH-nVeK76Q&feature=emb_title
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