Rhys Sadler-Scott conducted two experiments to practice skills for his documentary film project. In the first experiment, he edited various music clips together in GarageBand to create an original soundtrack. He aimed to improve his skills at blending different genres and styles of music seamlessly. In the second experiment, he created a poster in Photoshop advocating against littering. He practiced techniques like adding gradients, filters, and translucent text to design an eye-catching public service announcement poster. Through these exercises, Rhys hopes to identify elements to include in the final documentary, such as an original soundtrack or promotional poster.

1. Experiments
Rhys Sadler-Scott

2. PROCESS
• Experiment 1: GarageBand music editing.

3. For my first experiment, I decided to create an original track on GarageBand. When I make my Documentary, I want
most of the music to be originally produced by myself, or under my direction, so I thought it would be a good idea to
make a practice track. Mostly, I did this to practice editing different clips of music together and supplementing them
with additional notes or tunes from different instruments.
First I picked a royalty free song off of sound library on YouTube. Which I then cut down and edited to make the audio
a bit smoother, so that I could add to the track without as much dissonance as there would have been otherwise.
Then I Used a drum kit simulator (SoCal) to add some extra beats and
sounds to the song to enhance it. Once the audio was synched up to my
satisfaction, I decided it was tine to add another song, since I wanted to
practice musical transitions.

4. I used a couple of Tambourine loops to open the medley of music. I was aiming to make the
transitions between the different genres of songs I was using a little smoother. This was done with
some success, but I think there was still quite a lot of tonal dissonance in the track at this stage.
So far I had a 80’s funk style intro, into a 50’s style
mamba, with drums and tambourines added into
the background for effect. Next I decided to ad a
dramatic, cinematic piano based melody to finish
off the mixed track. This and the mambo were both
obtained from the royalty free sound library on
YouTube. But the background instruments are all
my own melodies. I used trumpets n the
background of the final dramatic snog clip, which I
think meshed quite well with the style, though the
timing of the beats could have been better. I then
finished all of this off with a final cymbal sound
effect. Which worked well to finish the jumble of
songs I had blended together, with mixed results.
Overall, While the track I produced bended
together fairly well, I think my music editing skills
will need a large amount of polishing before they
are good enough in quality for me to use in my final
documentary. After this experiment, I think a
licensed, royalty free soundtrack, should be
considered.

5. Experiment 2: Poster techniques on Photoshop

6. For my second experiment, I decided to practice Photoshop techniques on a poster. Though I hadn’t
originally decided to do a poster for my Documentary, I think it would go well with the trailer, in tying the
whole project together. To begin with I decided on what kind of poster to make as an experiment.
Eventually I settled on a quick ad for the prevention of littering. I started by finding a base image.
I thought this city skyline would lend itself well to a poster on keeping a city clean. Since it
would be easy to isolate the skyline from the sky, leaving room for giving the image a more
posturized feel. Since I could make the sky more interesting, while also giving it a somewhat
more whimsical feel, which draws the gaze a lot more.

7. I used the gradient tool (after a short tutorial on YouTube, to help me understand how best to place
the colours) To simulate a sunrise in the background, the effect is a little jarring compared to the
realism of the city, so my next move was to use a filter and posturize the image. I merged the layers to
make sure that each part of the picture would be included in this effect.

8. Now that I had the image as I wanted it, I needed to add in the text I had decided on for the
poster. But I knew that with the coloring of the image, it would look shabby if I put words over it.
My solution was to use a translucent white text box. Which means that both the image and the
test will be visible without looking unprofessional or being hard to read.
Once I had the opacity right. I added in the text. I wasn’t sure what colour to use
initially for the text, so I researched the most eye catching colours and how they are
employed. My decision was to use red, and highlight it with an anti-littering sign.

9. • With a few finishing touches, like dropping shadow and using the stroke effects where
appropriate, as well as adding a small trademark logo in the bottom corner, the poster was
finished. This experiment has helped me to realise how simple and effective posters can be. I
think it would be lucrative to produce one to go with my final project.

10. Reflection
• What elements of your experiments will you
include in your final product?

11. Bibliography
1. N/A. (2018). Documentary. Available:
https://www.audionetwork.com/playlists/documentary. Last accessed 18th April 2018.