Skills Development: Cutaways

 A cutaway is typically used to change perspective and bring something else to the audience's attention, disrupting the potential for one large clip, which is typically considered unappealing to the eye. They can also be used to patch potential mistakes within videos, by cutting to a different part it prevents any errors in the original clip from being seen. Such as any unwanted movement or mistakes can be quickly patched up with a cutaway to a different shot, separating the error from the rest of the shot, deciding to go back to the original clip if you want after the error has been corrected in the original clip.

I used this cutaway here to signify the importance of the equipment, along with being able to bring detail to the movements used within the project as a whole when it comes to the barber. It also adds interest to the regular clip, zooming in on certain properties that the original clip covered, but enhancing it and providing a different visual aspect of the footage. This is an extreme close up, to be precise when it comes to shots. The angle is an eye level, which helps categorise and differentiate from the original clip.

Within this clip we get a better perspective of both the barber and the patient's faces, which in turn adds to the visual aspect as we get a far different view in comparison to the original clip, such as the shot being a mid shot with a zoom in on the mirror, it adds importance to the scenery surrounding the barbers along with the two people shown within the clip. It can be seen as more of an eye level perspective for the patient to the viewer, whilst separating the viewing of the barber, being at a low angle, the contrast adds to the relation between the viewer and the patient, however the cutaway allows for a better viewing of the haircut from the front being shown. 

From this cutaway we can see that I have made use of the over the shoulder camera angle, in a somewhat close up, this overall adds the importance of the hand movements of the barber and how they operate, allowing further detail of how they operate to be shown. This shot adds to the appeal as it is highly different from the original clip whilst still keeping the similar premise, showing it from a much different look, adds gains the interest to see how the barber's hands move in the scene.

Foley Sound Final Product Alarm/ Evaluation

 Here's the finished product for my Foley sound project, throughout this brief I encountered a few problems, mostly in regards to distortion, however I was able to overcome such challenges by tinkering with the audio, mostly lowering or removing it. The main setback for this project would be attributed to COVID as the majority of this project took place at home, therefore limiting the capabilities I had at my disposal. Overall, I think I've done well in making this and it features the sounds fitted well to the video, helping create a scenery through the audio to go alongside the video, I am happy with the end result despite the complications of lockdown that has been presented. I showed the final product to my parents, in which they were both happy with the result and said it was good and enjoyable, finding that the sounds were very good in terms of usage and timing,  and managing to help add to the animation.

As you can see within this screenshot I've got, this is the layout of the editing software I used, showing the video preview of the clip alongside the Foley sounds used within it in order to complete the project. 

Mind hunter Analysis

 I'm producing an analysis on the TV show Mind Hunter and its opening sequence. I'm going to be discussing what I see, the genre, how do  know, camera angles, editing, sound and then reach a conclusive point on all of the aforementioned points and the effectiveness of the entire sequence relating to what has been discussed. 

In the opening sequence, we are first presented with audio equipment, and tape recorders, however as the scene progresses into the equipment. All shots featured are very intense close ups, extreme close ups, that limit the viewer's vision, during this opening sequence, we are presented with numerous flashes of dead bodies within it, presenting us with gruesome depictions of their state, very bloody ad fairly decayed, key icons which can also be presented as indexes, this helps set the tone for the series, justifying its claim as a serious crime or thriller, tv show. We can tell this due to the audio equipment being related to what is typically used within crime interrogations, through the use of semiotics, we typically associate said objects in particular with such genres, not only that but the index of an interrogation room and equipment alongside dead bodies leads the audience to draw the conclusion that these two are related and are in reference to the crime of murder and identifying the subject in question. 

Next, I'll be looking at camera angles, most that are featured are extreme close ups, limiting our view, and our perspective as a whole, which is symbolism to represent that we don't yet know the bigger picture, and that our knowledge through, it helps create suspense by doing this and builds the entire mystery as our only thoughts so far are on the murder, and the interrogation equipment. The overall effect is limiting our knowledge, yet keeping us invested due to these intense images being presented so close up towards us, along with gathering us to familiarise with said objects used in it. It also maintains a sense of solitude with these camera angles as although the angles themselves are close, we still maintain distant from any characters ashes from dead bodies, leading us to feel quite on edge as a whole, instead to learn more about what the series will be about. I think its overall effective in gathering the audience to feel on edge, it gathers the interest of the audience and makes them feel invested within it. 

Now, we'll be talking about the editing of the opening sequence, specifically the flashes of dead bodies aside the audio equipment, this helps blend the two environments together as we gather the idea that they're related to one and other, related to crime and murders. We often gets fade in and outs, which is useful for transitions and keeping the viewers both literally and metaphorically in the dark, there enchanting the overall ominous environment surrounding this opening. I find that the way the text of the title fades into existence adds to the eerie tone of the opening. Various jump cut are used within the editing when setting up the equipment, for example to cutting when the tape is put on, cutting to the reel being pulled, this adds to the prescience of no peace as whenever a jump cut is present, we are shown gruesome footage, keeping to the constant reminder of what this intro is in regards to.  We have a J cut present at the start, with the audio of the musical score present before the intro is actually shown, the equipment appearing with a fade in. Setting the tone before we even have visuals. You also get an L cut of sorts, when the microphone appears, before it gets fiddled with adding slight distortion effects to it. Various edits are present which overall are effective in creating a mysterious tone, that keeps the viewer starved of information and interested to find out more about it.

We now move on to talking about the sound, specifically the rather mysterious music, alongside the jumps in audio to represent the setting up of it, creating an eery tone that disrupts our somewhat sense of peace within the intro as we are put onto edge from it. The majority of sound used within the opening is non-diegetic, with a musical score being the main function of the sound within it, we also have foley sounds likely used to represent the microphone fiddling which has crackling and distortion, to represent the setting up of the equipment adding to the visuals quite well, as it feels realistic to the things we'd hear when setting up this equipment, therefore being  The distorted sounds when the microphone is being set up is a very effective way to interrupt any form of comfort the viewer may have, disrupting the flow and adding an unsettling tone within it, this is effective in detailing what sort of show it is and putting them on the edge, making them more keen and aware due to this startling noise along with the eerie music which is a constant reminder that this show is very deep and not one of lighthearted content, the feet being very significant. 

Overall I find that all these factors contribute into creating a very unsettling and mysterious opening, the visuals. antes, editing, sounds, all add to making the intro fit this tone, these all prove to be effective and all work in conjunction to making the opening scene set the tone for the rest of the series, mysterious and intriguing.

I've found this valuable and helpful as I was able to develop my skills in analysis, in particular certain threes, such as index and icons, which will prove to be quite helpful in my analysis a whole. It also helped me realise some of the key points I need to mention within my analysis and to separate them in order to make my analysis look more clear and detailed. I feel confident in producing analysis' now and I think going through the process of analysing factors contained within an intro has been helpful to me.

Idea generator

If you're having trouble seeing it, here's a link to it for you to see it better. (Just click on the coloured text) Here is a idea generator I made for my project, for producing my project, where I'd document several of my ideas and talk about my decisions and choices for things, and it gives insight into my way of thinking of how I want the project look, along with aspects to why it looks a certain way, 

Production Diary

 

12/11/2020

Today, I started AC1, this consisted of me researching and informing many ideas into the topic at hand, finding various facts and statistics into smiling and the importance of mental health, I made sure to also look into the details of current times and recent events, specifically the corona virus, in order to provide myself with more information that could help come up with a product that the audience would be able to relate to more, and use that as something to connect people by their shared experiences, promoting smiling and the significance of mental health. Whilst I did that, I also made sure to make to give a summary of the client and what they want, in order to show how my ideas relate to the client and what they want. 

15/11/2020

I have now begun researching and analyzing existing products, which share a similar tone or genre to the ones that will be used within my advert, I took note of various happy and charity adverts, noting and researching into typical codes and conventions used, anything from camera angles, cinematography as a whole, colours, shots, mise-en-scene and musical scores used. I did this for both forms of media, in terms of adverts. 

13/01/2021

Today I began working on my pre-production, starting off with my location scouting for the project, listing my main area of interest for filming, I also made sure to do my equipment list for it, in order to take note of the equipment I'd be using in order to record or take pictures for my product. I also went along and finished it by making a risk assesment form, these were all done in order to live up to the industry standard, as such pre-cautions should be taken in order to make sure proper planning is put into producing these products for the client. 

14/01/2021

I started my rationale, clearly showing my intent for the production of the product that the client had requested, going over various ideas that I had come up with in order to achieve what I had in mind, whilst also showing research in order to back up my points and decisions for such matters. It gave a clear overview of the project as a whole as that point, I displayed it to my peers, as well. in order to get feedback, in which I am happy to say all of it was positive, Along with all this, I also made a flat plan, giving a design for my print advert, which put things into perspective of how I want things to look within it, clarifying the features as a whole and giving a visual look at things before production had been done. 

21/01/2021

I've used this time to produce a survey, in order to provide responses that'll allow me to get a better idea of the stylization that I'd like for my print advert, and what things were important to show, along with certain aspects that were considered quite common with my target audience, and the exclusion of such things would be most unwise. I found it very beneficial as the responses provided, act as a good evidence to support certain things being within it and to appeal to my target audience as best as I can in order to provide a high quality product, which also benefits the client's requirements as well. 

25/01/2021-3/02/2021

From this time period, I have been working on my final product, editing it on software such as photopea, in order to design it, screenshotting my progress, until I reached the 3rd of March, in which I finished my product, and displayed it, as a whole I made sure to include numerous of codes and conventions along with some things to challenge, them, trying to appeal to my audience well. Some things to note include the usage of colours, along with the dominant image and information they said they'd see as important to display within the advert. 

10/02/2021

I now decided to make a cast list along with a shooting schedule, in order to complete the rest of my pre-production information. The necessity of such things is once again to live up to industry standard and provide information into how long it took to create, along with who was involved during such times. 

11/02/2021

I now went and made an evaluation to my final product, going over various things such as what I did along with the reception brought from my product and checking to make sure they could identify certain factors within the advert and clarly understanding the premise of it. 

22/02/2021

During this time, I mostly went about tweaking and reworking things as a whole within the product and project too, in order to ensure it was of high quality. 

25/02/2021-04/03/2021

I then received my feedback and during this time period began working on new additions and improvements in order to fix or add anything that was missing, in order to ensure I was producing the best possible work for my client and project. 

Evaluation

 

(Orignal)

(After the text alterations, in order to reduce the amount of text and make it bigger)

I had my family look at the advert and tell me their thoughts in regards to it, they all commented on it with a friendly attitude, smiling and describing as "really good" as well as "cute", they all gave a smile when seeing it and said the advert was very informative whilst providing scenic and joyful visuals. 

I made sure to ask relevant questions about the advert, asking if they understood what the advert was about. They replied that they did and came to the correct conclusion that the advert was in reference to mental health and promoting people to smile and to keep a positive mental attitude, promoting awareness to the problems but still making people smile. I showed them the requirements for the client: 

They responded positively by saying they agree that I've completed the requirements made by the client as I've "managed to provide a advert which is positive and responds well to the TA, making clear that its for them whilst making them happy, displaying research along with a positive picture that fits well with the topic." It seems through the reception theory, that I have received what is known as a preferred reading as they have captured the perspective on the piece I was hoping for, understanding the purpose, the target audience and thought it looked good and cute. They were also able to identify the fact that it was specifcally aimed at a younger audience, one thing I'm glad particularly about, since it proves that its definitely catering to the TA, whilst still targeting other audience too. Relating this to the reception theory, I can most definitely say this was a positive reading.

For the fonts, I used Dosis and Fahkwang, which are both sans serif types of fonts, I did this in order to increase the readability of said texts, in order to cater to my rather wide audience and increase the readership by doing so, rather than using serif which could've led to less readership or people having trouble reading it, therefore contain confusion rather than the smiles and happiness I intended for. 

The use of color was blue, due to its calming nature and my intention to provide an almost serene atmosphere surrounding it, promoting calmness along with happiness, in opposition to stress and anger or sadness. 

The shot size was a MCU, or medium close up, this was to provide somewhat of closeness, both in a literal and metaphorical way, in order to provide more comfort, however I wanted to display it in almost a conversation format rather than being too close, as I didn't want to make possible viewers feel uncomfortable by it being too close or too far away, deciding this was the best close up for achieving my effect and intentions.

The camera angle was eye level for this, I did this as I wanted to add onto the effect that was made by the shot size of providing and almost conversational aspect to it, I didn't want people to feel distance or to feel intimated by certain camera angles, I wanted for people to acknowledge that we all share this problem and that we are no lesser or greater for suffering from it and rather wanted to signify the importance of not letting it consume us and to keep on smiling. 

I gave it the slogan "Keep Smiling" which although simple, conveys the point I intended for and is fairly memorable, not only that it is able to help provide a greater understanding of the advert's intentions. I feel by certain usage of my techniques, such as an inclusive slogan, I've made sure to include several codes and conventions of a typical print media advert when it comes to charity, whilst still adding my own touch to it, taking several things into account whilst, providing an informative yet artistic approach to my print media advert.

I feel that the feedback for my rationale was also very beneficial as it showed many agreed I was very well detailed and provided information in a good manner, indicating I was heading in the right direction in terms of my project. Although nothing too in particular was told to work on, it did highlight some features which were especially good and I feel I was able to use that and attribute it to other things, highlighting the importance of mental health and the benefits of smiling, making sure it stayed my core focus for this project, not only to benefit the client but also the audience it was intended for.  

I wanted to present an example of an existing product, to show the similarities between that and my final product, in particular the choice of colour matches alongside that of my advert, which goes to show it was a good idea to have chosen these colours for the genre and tone of the advert, overall helping to appeal to my client in terms of that but also gathering my demographic as it lessens any possible misconceptions based on certain colours. The key theory here would be semiotics, through the study of signs within these colours, we're able to associate them as being rather peaceful choices in terms of colour, blue and white being indexes of harmony and peace, reflecting the mental state is envisioned within Happy Foundations. I manage to provide a slogan that relates well with my product and its theme, primarily to that of this product too. We also provide website likes to provide further information, which is good for the client as it gathers further attention to their company and gets more visitors on their website.   

As you can see from my various screenshots of the survey I made, many of my design choices were based on providing for the target audience and helping to cater to their choices within the survey, as you can see within colour, I chose two of the most popular colours within the survey and their relation to being calm, which I chose due to wanting to provide a colour scheme that put the viewer at ease, alongside a positive slogan, catchy, short and memorable, although simple it would help drive the point home of the significance of mental health and smiling. The usage of a dog within my advert, was also in relation to them majority of people saying that they found such animals to make them happy, in direct relation to the brief in providing something that could make the audience smile once seeing. Talking points regarding the current times, highlighting how Covid 19 has affected people's health, asking for an explnation in order to provide a more beneficial advert for my audience. Along with providing information about smiling, I wanted to provide beneficial things that the target audience would want to see and cater to such request, in order to help meet the brief's requirements, the survey itself also ties in with this as I'm asking my community about said things to include within my print media. 

My initial research was very significant and important as it proved, to give me a good grasp on things such as typical codes and conventions within charity adverts, along with facts and statistics I could use within my advert to help further educate my audience on the importance of maintaining a good mental health and the benefits of smiling, without such research into such products, and information, I feel it would've greatly effected the work I produced and I'm very happy I put the effort in to providing such research for myself. 

The main hindrances and setbacks presented through this brief were presented through covid 19 and the lockdown made during it, limiting my options in terms of production as a whole as editing software and shooting areas make more difficult and less available due to it, despite this I feel I was able to overcome such hardships and still meet the brief despite such problems by using different equipment that was available along with the limited locations I had for me to use. The benefits of lockdown has also taught me to be versatile and be able to alter certain plans in order to get that finished product and meet the brief, a skill that is quite valuable.

This brief has been very helpful in terms of providing me with certain expectations for what I may encounter in other briefs, and given me an understanding of how to go about them in order to meet the requirements presented within such brief. I don't think there is much I'd do differently the second time around, there's very little things to be changed if lockdown wasn't an issue, perhaps the main things that would be different would be the equipment used alongside the locations available to me during the brief. Overall despite this, I am very happy with the way the finished product turned out. 

PRE-PRODUCTION CAST LIST AND SHOOTING SCHEDULE

                                                     PRE-PRODUCTION CAST LIST 

SHOOTING SCHEDULE

Date	Scene	Location	Completed	Comments
21/01/2021	Levi and Milo smiling at camera, together	Bedroom	Yes- 21/01/2021	Went well. managed to capture several shots of the two of us and determine which was best to be used, resulted in getting a really nice photo which I think captures the essence of smiling and provides a friendly atmosphere.

Adding onto what has previously been mentioned, due to the Covid this limited the amount of people that was allowed in the advert, alongside the location in which the shooting for the advert would've taken place, originally I had decided to do it within the greenscreen, as it would help with getting rid of the background easier due to it being one solid colour and had good lightning, along with being able to use more people within my advert, such as fellow peers, however due to the complications of lockdown this was put to a halt and I had to change my plans, overall despite said circumstances which hindered my progress to a slight extent, I managed to make due and overcome such problems with me and Milo taking the centre stage for this advert. 

Shooting Schedule

 

Here's the shooting schedule which goes over the recordings and such for the documentary. 

SHOOTING SCHEDULE

Date	Scene	Location	Completed	Comments
18/01/2021	Hands typing on keyboard.	Office	Yes- 18/01/2021	Simple process
18/01/2021	Couple doing online banking.	Living Room	Yes- 18/01/2021	Another simple process
18/01/2021	Postman driving with parcels.	Van	Yes-18/01/2021	All is well, no problems so far.
18/01/2021	Young man doing online banking.	Dining room	Yes-18/01/2021	Good, no problems.
18/01/2021	E-pay transaction	Cafe	Yes-18/01/2021	Nothing necessary to report.
23/01/2021	Man handling money(cash).	Office	Yes-23/01/2021	Simple.
23/01/2021	Woman doing online banking.	Dining Room	Yes- 23/01/2021	All good.
23/01/2021	Credit Card Transaction	Furniture shop	Yes-23/01/2021	Pretty good.
23/01/2021	Couple playing video games	Living Room	Yes-23/01/2021	All’s good.
23/01/2021	Women doing online shopping scenes	Living Room	Yes-23/01/2021	Pretty short in terms of length but works out good.
24/01/2021	Postal service scenes	Outside/Beside van	Yes-24/01/2021	Great
24/01/2021	Package delivery	Hallway	Yes-24/01/2021	Very well
24/01/2021	Postal delivery signing	Hallway	Yes-24/01/2021	Also very well.
24/01/2021	Package unboxing	Near entrance to house(inside)	Yes-24/01/2021	Superb
24/01/2021	Cash and coins in a bottle.	Table/bottle	Yes-24/01/2021	Looks brilliant
24/01/2021	Delivery transaction	Hallway	Yes-24/01/2021	Decent
24/01/2021	Person using a gaming controller	Living Room	Yes-24/01/2021	Fairly simple but good
24/01/2021	Woman and children recycling	Kitchen	Yes-24/01/2021	Looks great
20/01/2021	Levi explaining	Bedroom	Yes-20/01/2021	Went very well and I am happy with the result, only took one take.
20/01/2021	Levi explaining	Bedroom	Yes-20/01/2021	Only took two takes and I am very happy with the end result, feel it has went really well.