CLASS TASKS
On this page I will be uploading and reflecting on each task our class is set.
ARCHIVE FOOTAGE TASK
TASK DONE FROM HOME!
SENNA & DID WW1 LEAD TO WW2?
WATCH BOTH CLIPS BEFORE READING!
1) How did the archive footage within these clips work?-
To start, both of these videos have drastically different tones and are aiming to appeal to different demographics, for example the "Senna" trailer uses videos of intense racing but also includes a variety of light-hearted scenes of the character and his companions to produce a informative yet entertaining production.
Whereas the 2nd video has a completely different goal, mainly to inform the viewer of the horrors of WW1 and WW2, they do this by using depressing black and white archive footage while the voiceovers are talking about how the world was shook by the war. They also include shots that they recreated themselves with actors to fill the roles and to get some shots that they would not be able to achieve if they only went off and used real footage.
2) What perspective and themes were covered on the documentary?
For the "Senna" documentary, the editors go for the theme of elevation and rising up to the challenges whereas the WW2 video decide to go for a more depraved and shock value tone to help emphasize the horrors of the war. This is done in the right way as if the editors of the WW2 video decided to include contrapuntal music over archive footage of war, it would give off mixed and confusing tones.
3) Are there benefits of using archival footage?
For a short and simple answer... Yes. The benefits of using archival footage is that it really enhances the visual aspect and enhances the entertainment value for the audience, for example, if there was no archival footage for either of the videos, personally it would be quite boring as we can only have the audio aspect instead of both and within a documentary, the visual aspect is very... very important in keeping the audience engaged.
4) Are there disadvantages for using archival footage?
It simply depends on HOW you use the footage, If the editor is doing a terrible job of apply the footage to the voiceover then yes it can actually make the documentary worse and less professional, however this is unlikely to happen as editor would of most likely reviewed the footage over and over again to be certain what footage would fit best in each segment.
Short Documentary Analysis Task
"WHY CANNABIS IS AN IMPORTANT MEDICINE"- VICE
1) Did the documentary include archive footage?
Yes. A lot of it.
2) What types of archive footage was used within the documentary? What did they include in them?
Within the short 15 minute documentary, they used all 3 types of archive footage, that being videos, photographs and illustrations. They used a multitude of footage ranging from real life videos and reconstructions but mainly they used videos from their own recording and research. There was footage from multiple countries and places around the world to demonstrate the magnitude of the crisis.
3) How was Mise-en-scene used to set the tone and mood.
The Mise-en-scene of this documentary was mainly to be informative and produce more facts then fiction, Each shot used some type of editing and graphics design technique to make the video and audio more easy to follow along. They also used a vast range of music to emphasis certain parts of the video, But overall the editing style and music really sets the serious and important tone of the documentary.
4) Was there any interviews?
Actually, there was multiple interviews during this documentary, with multiple different people with different opinions.
The whole video is mainly narrated by the vice correspondent Jamie Clifton, Vice uses voiceovers with archive footage to help the audience understand the reason behind the documentary better. They also get loads of people from around the world to speak about their experiences with cannabis and let them state their opinion on the topic.
PRACTISE INTERVIEW TASK- 19/03/21
For this task, My teacher Paul put us into pairs and allowed us to experiment with different types of sound recording equipment and do a test interview just so we get a little refresher on sound recording!
"MONO-003" is me asking Sohaib the questions we had wrote down and "MONO-004" is the other way round where Sohaib was asking me questions!
We used the "Pistol Grip" sound recording equipment to record out interviews.
ALPHA MATTE AFTER EFFECTS TASK
During the same session as the "INTERVIEW PRACTISE TASK" we were given some resources and a YouTube tutorial to make our own "title matte"... this will help us when it comes to editing together our final edit of our documentary, we can use tips and tricks like this to make our final documentary more entertaining for the audience!
In basic terms, creating an "Alpha Matte" is an effect that is utilized in Adobe After Effects that helps enhance the visual elements and titling to make a more intriguing design.
LENSES & CAMERAWORK
On the 17/03/21, Our teacher Sam did us a recap and practical lesson with our class where he demonstrated and talked to us about the large range of camera lenses and camera shots that would help us create a more interesting and audience gripping documentary.
If you have ever used a phone or camera you have already experimented with some different lenses...
Every camera lens has a duty to fill... these range from
CONTROL OF APERTURE
This is basically a scientific term of saying the light is controlled and passed through a hole within the lens which can determine wether the shot is blurry or in full focus.
FOCUS PULLING
This is when you change the lens's focus distance in relation to the subject your filming... this could be if your filming a moving or stationary object.
IMAGE STABILIZATION
This basically means the reduction of vibration within the frame... this technology on cameras allows photographers and videographers to capture shots in environments that before this technology would be next to impossible to get a clean and sharp image.
Above are two examples of different cameras and different lenses!
"SLR" means the camera has a single lens and a "reflex mirror" that morphs the light into the path of the frame, where on the other hand you have the "DSLR" which in simple terms is a digital SLR, meaning that it has a digital sensor to record images instead of a reflex mirror.
Each camera has different advantages and disadvantages.
FOCAL LENGTH
Optical focal length is measured in MM for lenses... Here are a few examples.
1MM = 0.1 CM
55MM = 5.5 CM
135MM = 13.5 CM
300MM = 30 CM
This will help us ease into the understanding of DIFFERENT LENS TYPES.
18mm - 55mm is known as a "STANDARD KIT LENS"
18mm - 135mm is known as a "WIDE ANGLE LENS"
70mm - 300mm is known as a "ZOOM LENS"
50mm is known as a "FIXED LENS"
This practical lesson on camera lenses was beneficial to us in a multitude of ways as it allowed us to experiment with a range of lenses as well as being able to understand why different lenses are used!
FOCUS GROUP TASK
This was done over the span of 2 days- 24th & 25th/03/21
Previously our class had done little focus groups in other projects and this project had a slightly different variation of the old focus group style! We got into groups of 3 and was asked to come up with questions relating to your documentary topic and ask them to the interviewees and record their answers.
FOCUS GROUPS are source of PRIMARY RESEARCH as I am actually conducting the research myself without using any external sources. So this class task is very good for not only allowing myself to think about potential questions relating to my topic but it also allows me to do some research into my target audience.
PRACTISE INTERVIEW TASK- WITH FOOTAGE + CUTAWAYS
This task was set just as a little mind jolt to help us remember how to film a good interview. I had 3 people in my group including me; Sam was the cameraman and Sohaib was asking me questions (Chosen by him) and we just had to create a short practise interview but after we finished filming, Paul asked us to include some cutaway shots and edit them together in Premier Pro so thats what we did!
ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS
SUMMARY OF TASKS-
In our morning lesson on Monday 29/03/21; Paul had set us a few Adobe After Effect tutorials to complete in order to have experience working with different types of effects on texts.
LEFT: This is the final video that I uploaded of the MOVING TEXT EFFECT, This effect and all the others on this page are a great and useful tool to making a intriguing video.
RIGHT: This is a screengrab I took while in the process of creating the effect.
The MAIN ELEMENT of EACH EFFECT is the ability to make a plain text and transform it into a visually pleasing effect.
LEFT: This is the BLUR EFFECT which was the second effect i created during this session.
RIGHT: The screengrabs show Adobe After Effects layout as I was finalising the effect
LEFT: The FINAL effect I made was the ROTATING TEXT and this one had many layers to which you can alter the effect and make it your own so this one personally was my favourite to create!
RIGHT: Simple screengrab of the process and getting ready to render and upload.
FINAL THOUGHTS...
Overall I feel this task was a great way to re-introduce me to adobe after effects while also making me feel comfortable in my ability to create a visually pleasing element in my final documentary! Im 100% going to use either one or all of the effects seen above as they would be great to talk about in my final evaluation.
Scaling Task- 13/05/21
This task was basically to inform us on techniques on Adobe Premier Pro to help us make our AF (Archive footage) such as still images and videos more entertaining, We loaded into premier pro and was asked to download a picture of a location that makes me happy so I had no other choice then Stamford Bridge! Our teacher taught us about ASPECT RATIO, KEY FRAMES and SCALING. We applied each to our chosen image and the video above is my final edit... NOTE: This was only a test and a run through! Don't get angry if the video isn't Quentin Tarantino level