P6 or smth

1. Production Reflection
Your Name

2. Process: wc.11.04
• Music Score Creation
• This week I commenced creation of my score in garageband. I hadn’t
used the software before and thus had to teach myself some of the
basics within it but quickly I understood how to create notes, adjust
them for length etc and adjust panels for sound tweaking etc. I
produced the main melody of my music based on a G Minor melody
that I had come up with on the piano prior.
• Something I had a lot of difficulty with at first was comprehending
how long to make the notes last for and what effect that would have.
What I ended up doing to resolve this is that I would create one
section of the melody and then copy it and just adjust the notes from
that so that nothing of the beat or tempo was changed.
• I experimented with different sounds for my instruments but settled
on the one classic piano synth that I had and later added strings on
much lower versions of the same notes to compliment this.
• I encountered plenty of problems with getting familiar with the
controls that I eventually overcame by simply looking up the controls
list on Google and referring to it anytime that I struggled. One
instance of this was knowing how to place a note. To a certain point, I
was just copying the pre-existent notes and re-adjusting them but
later I discovered that if you right clicked anywhere on the timeline, it
would give you the option to place a note where your scrollbar was.
• One other thing I struggled with was getting to know how to export
the works or save them. I struggled to access files that I had created
on Garage Band through my Macbook at home but through sending
myself copies via email, I was able to ensure that I didn’t lose any files
and instead always had a version to refer to if I lose the one I was
currently working on.

3. Process wc.18.04
• Music Score Creation
• This week I finished off my score both in and out of College sessions,
ensuring that I gave it a section to slowly ease it in and out, as before
it just started and ended abruptly.
• One problem I encountered when thinking about the score
logistically is that I hadn’t fit it to the typical format of a trailer. To
resolve this, I added in a section in the middle that was much more
tame in intensity that could be overlapped with dialogue for a scene
so that the entire trailer didn’t fall victim to contrapuntal music. This
was constructed from the same chords but simply bouncing a semi-
tone and then a tone each time so that the music wasn’t too deviant
or extravagant at this point.
• I also messed around with a lead guitar part to this score, which I
ended up replacing with a choir voice due to the fact that I felt it
conflicted with the tone of the trailer too much and cheapened the
quality slightly. I also couldn’t get the guitar to adjust levels to a point
where it wasn’t either incredibly muffled or incredibly overpowering,
therefore it was replaced.
• I then opted to carry this choir voice on after all the other
instruments had disappeared due to the fact that I needed a slow
and calm fade out to the music and also something to extend the
trailer’s runtime to a point where I could fit in all the concepts I was
working with for shooting.
• I finalised the music and exported it as an MP3 file to be used during
the editing process on Premiere Pro. I sent it to multiple locations as,
with my last project, I had issues of losing work and didn’t want a
replication of that.

4. Process wc.25.04
• Shooting
• This week was primarily based around shooting as well as a bit of
focus on finishing up the powerpoints I was working on.
• The shooting itself was based on what will be the farm part of the
trailer. In short, it consisted of a shot of me walking behind my friend
and then running to catch a ball midair, a few establishing shots, a
few shots of dialogue and a shot of my foot grinding against the
gravel to create a dust cloud.
• The main issues I experienced with this shoot were on account of the
shot in which I catch the ball. Originally, I had framed the shot so that
I was slightly out of the way; It wasn’t as central as I’d have liked it so
I moved the tripod. The camera we were using also didn’t allow us to
see the footage and we realised that if that were the case, my friend
would struggle to understand when they should freeze (something
that was important for us to ensure the superspeed effect looked
good). To do this, I swapped to my mobile phone and recorded using
the front facing camera; Though this meant a dip in quality, I figured
that this would occur to a degree in post anyway so I saw it a worth
compromise. Now that my friend could see themself, they needed to
know when to freeze so that I would start running in perfect
synchronisation. To do this, we put a cone somewhere off camera
and when he reached that point he would make a ball throw and
we’d both know that as our cue.
• There was also a shot we decided not to use in which there was
supposed to be a close-up of me catching the ball in slow-mo. The
reason this was scrapped was that our camera didn’t shoot any
higher than 30fps and the shot would look too poor quality on a
phone due to light from the sky. Also, we had difficulty timing the
catch of the ball perfectly within the framing of the shot.

5. Process wc.02.05
• Shooting+Editing – Farm
• This week I did a small amount more shooting for the other scenes,
mainly in town. And some editing of the scene that was shot the week
prior while in classes.
• For the shots in town I had to wait for later hours. As a result of this, we
filmed on Piccadilly street to ensure that there were nearby stores and
such that we could go to if we had any troubles. The snicket we filmed in
was empty as assumed but still certain shots had to be taken multiple
times to ensure no-one was in shot too much.
• During editing, I put together the farm scene. The difficulties I faced with
this were plentiful. At first, the effect wouldn’t crop the correct amount
of the image so I would end up with a trail of green following my
character also which looked out of place. I had to go back to a prior save
in order to start the editing process again.
• I encountered an issue where I realised that I needed to have a shot of
the scene that had my character not in it to edit me moving, otherwise I
would appear twice in the shot once VFX were done. To get this shot, as I
couldn’t use this footage otherwise, I went to photoshop and edited 2
images of me at different points in the frame together to cover me in one
of the images with the blank space from another.
• I then had issues where the editing technique I was using for running
relied on a single start and end point. This made me realise that I would
have to edit this effect twice, once for when I get to the ball and once for
my journey back.
• I had further issues due to the fact I ran off behind my friend, when the
effect only allows me to edit over the top of the image. To resolved this, I
edited a still of my friend out in photoshop and layered it over the effect
in post so that he would not longer appear behind.
• After I was content with the effect, I discovered there was a hitch in
lighting after I land. To try mask this, I added a lightning effect by
inserting gifs and adjusting the scale etc of them so that it looked as
though the light flicker was a result of them.

6. Process wc.09.05
• Editing – Farm+Extras
• This week I finished editing on the farm, adding music over the top of
the sequence, as well as editing a few extras such as the sequence
that follows it in the bedroom.
• The main issue I encountered with inserting the music was that was a
point in the footage I had edited where I had dialogue and due to the
poor mic quality, it wasn’t able to be heard over the music, even
when levels were adjusted. Furthermore, if I were to adjust the
levels, the change would seem drastically weird and out of place. I
had two options to resolve this; Option 1 was that I ask my friend to
record a voiceover and I do the same but this would have been an
enormous amount of hassle to fix a minor issue as I’d have to find a
way to get a version of the edit as it is to him, for him to try record a
voiceover with his own resources, to send back to me and if I wasn’t
happy with it, then I would’ve been back at square 1. The second
option that I opted for was to try and make the music cut out for a
second. I realised if I did this in sync with the lightning effect, it
would almost represent some forth wall breaking that would bring
the characters closer to the audience in a beneficial way. It also
meant that the music being cut, which was a troubling process due
to the fading out mechanic requiring a smaller clip, could sound
slightly off as that was the effect of the scene anyway. Therefore, I
clipped the music and moved it further along the timeline to be used
later and cut a small note to extend the existent one out from the
clip. This note ended up clashing with the one I overlapped, due to
the fact it made a hammer noise, so I used the transition effect cross
dissolve to soften that sound to the point where it became inaudible,
resolving that issue and fading the music out so that the dialogue
could be heard. I then upped the dialogue levels and applied various
noise reduction effects to cancel out wind.
• In addition to the farm scene being finished off, I edited the entirety
of the computer scene. I had little trouble with this besides
placement of shots to ensure they fit at least vaguely in line with the
music.

7. Process wc.16.05
• Editing Extras
• This week, I finished the editing process by adding in the final scene
at the start with the extra VFX and the title sequences.
• The main problem I had with my project at the end was that I had
two major gaps in the editing that I couldn’t just compress because
that would require me to change the music score completely and the
rest of the project therefore with it. These gaps in footage were at
the start after the small incursion and at the end before my character
moves slowly away from the screen.
• My idea for these moments was that I would fill the second one with
a dream-like sequence comprised on the one shot that I was still yet
to make use of. I tried my best to make it seem apparent that this
was a daydream or memory by adding appropriate colour grading
etc.
• The first of the moments was where I struggled massively however as
I was out of footage and out of time to record much more. Luckily, I
had the idea come to me last minute that I would fill this moment
with logos as this is the most appropriate and typical place for them
to appear, as it does in many other trailers. It also worked particularly
well as it meant I could add further intertextuality and mention my
previous works for different subjects as though they were movies
people would be familiar of at this point.
• The rest of the week I mainly used for admin and finishing off last
bits of work that were left outstanding at this point still. Overall,
completing the powerpoints was the easier part of my work as it
allowed me to reflect on what my thought processes were at the
time, instead of me having to make executive decisions in the
moment for that piece of work like was the case with Production.