Diary

 Diary  

23th of November:  For today, I have used my time to provide more example materials regarding the use of the green screen and its uses for my documentary, also changing the background to provide visual coverage of the change. I have also went onto blogger and made various notes regarding the client brief as to provide for my AC1. 

As for things that need to be provided, I have finished my work for the powerpoint, and shall begin working on AC2.

25th of November: Today, I focused on analysing existing products regarding documentaries on the digital age. I have also made use of my time to create an extra point within my mind map, and what I could potentially discuss, then proceeding to make a slide where I hope to discuss why I have chose not to include this idea within my documentary in order to fill out one of the things discussed within AC2. Overall, I have managed to cover several factors within my product and thing it has went well, almost finishing my Presentation.

30th of November: For today, I have uploaded my final piece regarding my powerpoint, which contains my proposal for my documentary. I have also come up with a shot list regarding my documentary, describing which I shall use and ways I will have them included within said documentary. Overall I think things went well, managed to perform the majority of my tasks, I might take consideration into making a risk assessment next.

2nd of December: For today, I have completed my risk assessment form regarding the documentary, meaning I have kept true to my word of finishing it from last lesson, I have also started producing a survey to provide some intel for my documentary, which has proved well, for next lesson, I intend to finish this and publish it on Microsoft teams, to help provide some responses. 

7th Of December: For today, I have completed my task of finishing the forms, it has been uploaded and gotten some responses, I think the lesson has went well, However next lesson I plan to analyse the data.

8th of December: I managed to complete an analysis regarding the responses made about my survey, which is good as I have some more data to add to my conclusions, for next week, I intend to try and complete an equipment list for my documentary. 

14th Of December: I think today's lesson went well, I contributed my data analysis into blogger, producing it online and have also began my proposal, which contributes towards AC4, my aim for next lesson is likely to finish the introduction task of the proposal and move onto the analysis of a similar product portion.

16th Of December: I think this lesson went very well. Today, I managed to cover the entirety of the proposal rather than just the introduction portion, completing this task has been very helpful for myself, not only as it helps finish one of my tasks but also allows for me to gather perspective upon my project as a whole, from an audience's perspective. We will be breaking up for Christmas, which means I will not have any lessons regarding this brief until next year, however I intend to keep my work maintained and finish any tasks I could possibly have to cover so that I can ensure that I'll be ready to  start filming for my documentary so that I can begin AC5, whilst also covering certain aspects for AC3, and AC4, which can only be done after the filming and editing process. 

11th Of January: Pre-production fully uploaded to blogger and some test footage has been produced, albeit it issues with WiFi have proven to hinder my progress, i believe good progress has been made regardless and my eventual time to begin filming for my documentary will come soon, likely going to do more test footage until I  have gotten fully prepared for the recording process of the documentary. 

13th Of January: Been focusing on test editing, compiling certain clips together along with the usage of titles. Also been looking back at my script and focusing on improving it in certain ways, expanding on certain ideas and such to provide more information into the topic I have chosen. For my next lesson, I hopefully intend to record a reading of my script, or possibly start the actual recording process as a whole. 

18th Of January: Did script reading recording, went successful although led to me making some changes to the script in order to make it sound better. Will likely be recording next lesson, to provide for my documentary. 

20th Of January:Finished my recording and voice over,looking to compile the clips and voice over together and edit next lesson. 

Culture In The Digital Age Brief Notes

 Notes  

The Client is known CMP Media, they have a creative social media content producer who is asking for young producers, artists, and designers to explore and develop ideas for media products relating to the theme of Culture in the digital age.

The requirements will be in the form of a documentary which can be the long of up to 5-15 minutes long.

As for the audience, it will be centered around 13-19, Younger Audiences focus on the visual appeal, which I will have to consideration for my documentary, a brand style will be important regarding this, adopting an important scenery for it.

The deadline is for January the 22nd 2021 and the Resubmission deadline is for February 5th 2021.

For my analysis upon similar products, take Digital Age: Short Documentary, released by Harry Stainer, it is a 7 minute and 48 seconds documentary talking about the various changes and the gradual evolution into the digital age, with his core focus being film. He includes a very inviting intro, featuring a variety of pictures detailing the use of analog films and movie titles, accompanied by music to make it suit his own narrative on the documentary. Features such as black and white, to help date the products to a further time period than they might actually see, he also shows several newer age film usage, with the digital cameras becoming ever so common in this age. 

The core focus of the documentary focuses on why we are heading into a digital age, specifically focusing on film as the core narrative to relate these points to. Harry also includes an interviewee within his documentary to help detail his points, along by getting a person to help relay his knowledge within the documentary to help create a sense of more people reconsigning such changes within the film industry, and society as a whole.

He uses key factors to help display the change into the digital age within film, his first evidence of such being Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, which is known as the first movie to use digital cameras within such products, this film in particular is important not only for being the first film to rely on the use of the digital age nut also because it features such of both digital and analog cameras, which shows how the change was not sudden. His second evidence is 28 Days Later, his use of this is also a reason behind the digital age, specifically referring to the quickness that the film needed to be made for. The final film shown as his evidence is Star Wars: Attack Of The Clones, this is because it is the first big blockbuster movie to feature an exclusive use of digital filming equipment. 

The documentary also features a wide variety of individuals from various backgrounds and ages, even gender, showing his ability to provide information from different sources to include within his documentary. Despite these variety of individuals they all accompany the same message, perhaps the one that Harry specifically wanted to display, which is a good use of interviewees, which is that although film has a personal value and feels more rewarding in the production of such movies, and that digital is much easier and truly is the way forward.

AC1 and AC2 For Foley Sounds/Sound Design

PROJECT PLAN AND RESEARCH

 

Now that you have produced a storyboard plan for your Foley Project, please answer the following questions about your project intentions and research to date.

 

Describe your project: What do you hope to achieve? What is the purpose/function of the work? Is it for entertainment, promotion, information, education etc.? The purpose of the project is to add to the detail of already existing videos, adding to it through sound design, specifically focusing on foley sounds. The main purpose of this project is for entertainment, highlighting the significance of them and how they can impact videos through different sound effects.

Who is your target audience, and how do you hope to meet their needs through your sound design?  Understanding audiences and users: – demographics and their needs – anticipating their needs – representation and audience theories – audience, e.g. viewer, reader, player (single/multi), user, participant. My target audience will be fans of short animation and seeing the sound flow with animation. I need to make sure that the audience isn’t too overwhelmed by the audio in comparison to the animation as they wish to see the blending of the audio with the animation which means timing is imperative to the project.

What constraints do you anticipate throughout the project, and how do you hope to overcome these?  Constraints, e.g. commercial context, time, budget, scope, format, platform, technical, materials and resources In terms of constraints. One constraint  that may be faced is the ability to get foley sounds, however the vast amounts of royalty-free libraries will allow me to overcome this, along with the problem of copyright being overcome via royalty-free foley sounds.

How do you hope to source the materials required for the project, and where has your research into this led you to? The materials sourced for the project will mostly be centered around either getting foley sounds made by myself or sourced from a royalty-free library. Such research has led me to libraries such as the BBC library, along with Zapsplat, both are reliable sources to help provide the material required for my project.

Please provide three examples of your research into other existing projects similar to your own, and your analysis of these examples? The three examples I have found which encompass similar properties to the project I am doing, such as Watermelon, a cautionary tale, GLUED, and Spellbound. These examples all contain a wide variety of uses for foley sounds which help add to the animation, completing it, similar to my project and it shows the significance of foley sounds within animation. Although the first two may have music accompanying it which are quite loud in comparison to the foley sounds, they still signify the importance of them as they are ever so apparent, especially in more chaotic scenes.   What was the purpose of your research? What are your observations? How will this help inform your own practice?  The purpose of my research was to develop upon my knowledge of the typical codes and conventions of a short animations, specifically within terms of sound so that I could adapt my project to fit some of these features within it. Music accompanied within these short animations is often a typical feature within short animations however with the type of animation I am going to be using, it is impetrative that I am careful with the placement of music, so that I don’t disrupt from the narrative of the animation, specifically regarding a radio being used, which sticking by this convention could prevent the emphasis of the radio within the story. Although some uses of the codes of conventions could be applied, such as the rather exaggerated sound effects for certain noises, or how significant the quiet moments of are short animation are and how things such as even the creaking of the bed need to be taken into consideration to fill the void of sound being missing, whilst still making it seem relatively quiet but also adding to the scene in motion. Within terms of uses and gratifications, mine falls into the category of Esteem and Self-Actualization, as it deals with morality, problem solving, although it is mostly faceted within entertainment and story.  Interpreting meaning, purpose, impact and function in others’ work: genre conventions, e.g. generic expectations and subversions visual language and creative forms of communication, e.g.: formal elements including media, form, perspective, scale design elements, e.g. balance, alignment, repetition, contrast, space, media and techniques innovation and developments audience reception, e.g. uses and gratification.

 

AC1: Informing Ideas

      Client Brief                       

The client is known as the Happy Foundation, a non-profit orginaztion, this is important as it means their budget is limited in comparison to other clients. They want to help build a happier society by encouraging positive changes (this is their purpose), which is why my advert should relate to this specifically as the core message of the advert is to to be about helping signify the importance of happiness and reducing of stress.  One vital thing that is mentioned is a statistic they provided from the Annual Gallop Global Emotions Report (AGGE report), in which it is stated that of 150,000 people interviews in over 140 countries, a third said they suffered stress, while at least one in five have experienced sadness or anger, this use of statistic suggests important and may be a possibility to be included within it. Their target audience for the advert is to be my own community, this leaves it quite open to interpretation on what is considered the designer's community and allows for some variety for it. This means that there is no specification for age, gender or social grade. They want a creative outcome produced in which it helps make people smile. The TV advert has to be from 30 secs-1 minute and a half. I should also mention that the client is fictional, which doesn't impact the project too much, however it is important to note regardless. 

 Stress And Mental Health 

Stress and Mental health are affiliated with a vast majority of us. Especially in recent times with the whole debacle of corona virus being ever so present within in our life, in fact according to this study the rise in stress caused by the corona virus has increased vastly.

https://www.kff.org/coronavirus-covid-19/issue-brief/the-implications-of-covid-19-for-mental-health-and-substance-use/ (Link to the origin of the statistic, which came from the Kaiser Family Foundation, KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation, which is a nonprofit organization focusing on national health issues)

This is a major issue as stress can effect us in numerous ways, physically, mentally, along with changes in our behavior. According to sources from the NHS, physical ways it can effect us are dizziness and headaches, muscle tension or pain, stomach pains, along with chest pains and even a faster heart rate. On our mental state, stress can induce problems such as difficulty concentrating, indecisiveness, forgetfulness, constant worrying, along with feeling overwhelmed. Changes in behaviour can include, little or too much sleep, eating too much or too little, drinking, smoking or more than usual, avoiding certain places or people. As can be seen by the wide problems people with stress can face, it is made very clear that the issue of stress is of a very serious matter and must be reduced as much as possible in order to prevent as many of these problems as copious amounts of stress can be critical to a persons entire health. Stress effects all of us in a wide variety of ways and can vastly differentiate from person to person. Several factors of our daily lives can contribute to stress, especially during the current years, where the feeling of isolation and the inability to express ones feelings are ever so present within our current society. In more general terms,   students may suffer from stress through academic work, people of an employment status might feel stressed due to a lack of time to themselves or being able to experience much of life outside of work. Elderly may suffer from stress from the feeling of sadness of isolation or the loss of independence to an extent.

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/stress-anxiety-depression/  This link covers what I have talked about, this showing the evidence of stress upon people.

Happiness has numerous benefits, improved mood from smiling releasing endorphins and cortisol which makes a person feel happier and positive. Smiling is also able to contribute to pain relief as previously mentioned the endorphins are able naturally reduce the amount of pain felt. Smiling also helps with lowering a person’s blood pressure to a slight extent. It is able to help with reducing a person's stress , making them feel more comfortable just from the act of smiling. This article is where I got some of the statistics from, helping me cover some of the various research shown for the positives of smiling. https://www.henryford.com/blog/2017/10/health-benefits-smiling

All this information provides me with a clear idea of what I intend to cover in terms of topics within happiness and mental health in my product, I hope that by using some of these statistics within said product, it will provide awareness of the seriousness of mental health and how it needs to be taken care just as importantly as physical health whilst also emphasising the importance of smiling and the countless benefits it provides to us. 

McDonald's: #Imlovinit24

While the original campaign asked people to talk about their happiest moments in McDonald's, the new campaign actually created memories. Taking shape over the course of one day, McDonald's set out to bring "moments of joy" to 24 cities across the globe. 
As a result, people associated feelings of happiness with the McDonald's brand, creating an emotional connection built on joy. This is a good idea as it highlights how McDonald's changed their advertising strategy and created memories rather than associating with past memories, it creates new experiences for people and the similarities between mcdonalds and that emotion become closer, this is something I need to consider when making my advert, possibly creating new memories within it, to a certain way. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRYmtgQwXuU&ab_channel=McDonald%27sUkraine

Typical Codes and Conventions in charity adverts

The setting and locations are quite articular when it comes to charity, typically shown in the worst of environments to emphasise the importance for people to donate to the charity and the necessity for a charity of their likes to be required. Although sometimes charity adverts will have rather standard environments to emphasise how these problems are involved within our daily live and how it relates to us in some way, shape or form. Typically within certain adverts, payment will be shown as an option to help with these problems, used within the outdo, however one key element shown within charity adverts is an outdo, typically a phone number or website, detailing the contact information to the public to make it more easily accessible and therefore more likely for people to contact them.  Direct address is another factor used within these forms of adverts as they involve the viewer within the piece of media, allowing them to feel a connection and feel they need to make this their endeavor to help. They also include musical scores within it, to create tension and tug on the viewer's heartstrings and make them feel compelled to donate. They sometimes show a positive transition to signify the importance of this chair and their contributions to this cause. Ambient sounds are often accompanied to help create the realism of the advert. Perhaps things such as voice overs will be used to add more information about the struggles and the necessity for said charity.

A few examples of charity adverts which have these factors include: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idfu6O6qFRo 

The main focus for this advert particular is its use of technical codes, specifically upon pace and transitions. 

In this instance, we can see that the pace is rather slow, which allows to emphasize the intensity of the situation that the people they aim to help are in, which allows for the viewer to feel in a rather somber mood and soak up the responsibility and how they feel it necessary to help provide for this cause as a whole.

The use of mise-en-scene helps emphasise the danger that children are in, as she is surrounded by people wielding large guns as they run past her, this helps the viewer see the this for themselves, feeling responsible for helping her get out of this scenery as they donate. Relating this to semiotics as we when we often see guns, they often signify violence, danger, and death, which is what helps get people to feel the need to donate to such causes. 

Relating this to cinematography helps, as it maintains a steady shot of movement throughout the advert, keeping a clear focus on the girl, who's the protagonist for this advert. Pace and transitions are shown through the change into a classroom, showing a positive transitions from the intense and dangerous scenery from before, she now wears a smile on her face, this is done to help signify the purpose of having donations to the viewer, and show how they are helping within this cause with their donation. 

In contrast to the original shot displayed within the start of the advert, there is a wide differentiation shown within it as, the scenery is of a much sunny outlook, clear to be shown, to represent the positivity and change people's donations will have on her and other people's lives.  Not only the shot is much more up close in contrast to the original starting scene, to highlight the closeness of how the viewer's donations will have on people like her and how their help is intertwined with such progress and happiness.

A clear outro is shown within the end, providing contact information, it differentiates from typical codes and conventions in terms of charity adverts, as it features no amount of money, rather focusing on the children themselves and to hear other children's stories, which shows the significance of how they care for them and how they want the same feeling to be shared with the viewer, rather than focusing on specifically the money, which helps put viewer's at ease and more comforted by the fact of it. One thing of importance that watching this advert has brought is the importance of the eye level view within such adverts, I intend to use this within my product as it helps build somewhat of a connection between the audience an gain more sympathy between them, closing the distance that would be provided by them not acknowledging the audience. The cinematography within this advert plays a rather crucial role, as the main character for this advert starts at a long shot, showing a sense of distance within the advert from the audience at the start. Throughout the advert we see the angles progressively change, going from a long shot to a medium close up, and ending on a close up. This is done likely to represent the relationship between the audience and the girl, perhaps done as a way to represent the potential bond created by the charitable donations provided by them. One thing to bring up is the mise-en-scene, as we see the progression of the scenery become gradually better, along with the tone, as the conditions become more comforting, another way of signifying the effects of the donations as a whole, a very smart usage of the transitions within the advert. 

https://youtube.com/0bTd0PA4ABQhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdJeCefyGMY

This will help me understand the typical features of a charity advert, and how I can adjust my advert to fit a similar narrative typically displayed within a charity advert, features such as the outdo, the use of a positive transition which could help emphasise the benefits of smiling and how the use of one can help differ the adverts along with people's stress. A musical score to help create an atmosphere and add to the positive transition's contrast. Ambient sounds to help create a realistic scenario within the advert. A voice over could be possibly used to highlight either problems of being stressed or highlight the importance of smiling.

 Here's an example of an existing print product, providing some folio with their website along with a positive slogan that provides direct address, making it feel more inclusive. It provides somewhat of a positive outlook, showing the effects that the donations they've had so far and what they've done with then, which leads viewers to feel more opted to donate to this brand due to them being aware of the changes they are making. This also as I get a clearer idea of what I envision for my advert, and benefits me in considering some aspects I could add, I definitely want to add a positive look on mine, similar to the existing product. With this print advert, we have an eye level shot, which helps build a connection between the image and the audience as they're able to put a face to the people who'll be receiving the benefits of their charitable donations. This challenges the typical codes and conventions of a charity product as rather than display a rather dull ans saddening tone, it provides a more joyful approach, and it covers more the effects of the presence of such donations rather than the lack of them. The colour scheme fits the joyful approach of the dominant image, featuring a house style of green, white and brown. Colours such as green and white help not only highlight the text shown but brighten up in contrast to the dark background, although the colour used isn't extremely dark which helps provide a more comforting effect rather than just settling for something that is completely dark, I hope to adapt a similar style with bright and calming colours however I wish to challenge it by having a bright background rather than a more darker one which this one contains. I think by doing something similar yet keeping my own touch to it that I will provide a nice display to compliment the dominant image. 

Rationale

For my unique selling point, I hope to show the contrast by showing the effect of their donations and how we aim to help with happiness, but mostly focusing on happiness and the importance of it, whilst showing the effects stress can have and how to avoid it, presenting it as almost a warning for the print media, whilst focusing more on the positive side on the tv advert. I want the core message of my advert to be about community, and how we can provide happiness for each other and reduce stress, it is a team effort. I tend to gain an audience by trying to be relatable to most, by trying to cover as many people as I can within it, trying to show that stress is a worldwide problem, shared by many, unique to none, reminding they are not alone, and do not have to share their burdens alone.

Here's an image which covers the client's needs for the brief and what to produce, along with the target audience.

Audience Profile

I've created an audience profile as it helps display some of the characteristics for my target audience and compiles it into one profile in particular. However I would like to clarify that even if a person doesn't particularly fit into all or most these characteristics doesn't necessarily mean this advert isn't for them, the key characteristic and the main basis for this advert is to reach people in hopes of making them smile and hopefully help with their mental health, hopefully improving it in some way and bringing awareness of the problems that it can cause, juxtaposed by the benefits of smiling. In particular, the main one I would like to point out is age, as although I have mentioned a specific category for this, mental health is something deeply important to us all and the age that has been placed as the target demographic is more based on their likelihood of witnessing such an advert.

Similar businesses to the client

One business I'd like to talk about in particular which shares similar goals to which the Happy Foundation holds is the Mental Health Foundation from Scotland. their vision is for a world with good mental health for all, they hope to help people understand, protect, and sustain their mental health. In particular, I'd like to cover their 'More Than A Condition Campaign' which covers experiences for people with long term conditions and how to deal with their mental health during the harsh times of COVID 19 and how these additional problems brought by COVID 19 has affected them. They aim to spread awareness of the problems young people in particular with long term conditions are facing, covering numerous facts and statistics in regards to these issues. They went about spreading the information and word by making various print adverts along with videos of people that all share long term conditions and how COVID 19 has affected their lives. This managed to help them create various partnerships in order to spread awareness and offer additional opportunities to do so. 

Here's an example of one of their print adverts, which offers a statistic on children and young people, specifically relating to the coronavirus. One thin g they did was also create a hashtag, this was something very smart as it helped relate to the youth audience and allow for the message to be spread more through social media. The dominant image relates heavily to the statistic and helps create awareness of some of the experience someone in that experience would feel. The framing of the image, along with the angle creates and scenery of loneliness, showing a long shot that helps create that picture of loneliness for the audience that much more. 

Overall I think this business helps create a good idea for something to relate to in terms of marketing stargeies and how to present my advert as a whole. Its relation to the project is something I must keep in mind and I think is something that has definitely shaped how I wish to present my advert along with giving me a clear idea of how to produce something good for my client that can help spread the awareness of smiling and the importance of mental health. 

https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/scotland/programmes/more-condition-campaign

-ALARM- Story Board Planning By Levi Phillips

                                                  -ALARM-

For my Sound Design Project, I will be doing the video known as -ALARM- in which it features numerous sound effects which will need to be replaced.

The foley sounds required for this will be wind noises in order to provide a sense of the wind, this scene also includes some clicking from the music player. This small opening takes place from 00:15 to 00:25, no dialogue is shown due to it being the opening of the actual video. A few light car noises to emulate background scenery would be a good idea too for myself.

In this scene, the sounds required are a small musical number to fit the tone of the radio which provides some waking up music. This begins around 00:32 to 00:43, which is turned off by the a rather flicking sounds, to interrupt the radio as it is turned off.

From 00:47 to 00:59, there it begins with a small vibration before the audio becoming more clearer and it is realised to be a phone alarm, accompanied by some vibration, a small groan mid-way through, before a power off of the alarm is done.

From 01:03 to about 01:04 there is a small dropping of the phone which will require a noise to accompany it.

From 01:05 to 01:34 there is an alarm clock that rings constantly, which will require a foley sound to emulate this ringing. Along with some groaning noises, and some fiddling noises to emulate the finding of the model gun.

From 01:33 to 01:34 there is a brief firing of a model gun, a propelling sort of foley sound could be used for this, I will have to correspond this with the accompanying ringing of the clock.

From 01:36 to 01:44 there is some movement noises of the gun initially before the model gun is dropped onto the ground. 

From 01:45 to 02:35 we have a collmonataion of the alarm clock ringing, the phone alarm, along with the radio playing, the audio for said will either have to be boosted or make the original audio lower to compensate for the volume difference.By 02:33 they began getting shut off due to the character's frustrations with them, the crinkling of his bedsheet when he gets up could be a possibility for a foley sound as well.

Once the beset falls back onto him, which will also need a sound for, a shot is shown of the bedroom, when the title of the animation flashes on at 02:41, with some ticking noises to emulate the features of a ticking clock,refrencing the alarm clock. This is done until 2:50, in which an alarm bell is played until 3:00, where the screen has already faded to black.