Wind Issue Solved!

So one issue that has been plaguing me since the very start of the editing process was the wind being too loud in the final scene. However it seems that I have finally found a solution. First I added Greg's music, which does slightly mask the wind. However I then used the Final Cut Pro audio editing software to use sound reduction to make the wind even harder to hear. With this combination, the wind is barely a problem anymore.

Reflective Comment:

I am very happy that I have found a solution to the problem that I was having. Without the wind problem there is very little outstanding issues that still need to be dealt with.

Grim Reaper Wedding Ring

When showing my short film to a few friends a couple of days ago a friend of mine pointed out how the Grim Reaper was wearing a wedding ring. While my friend thought this was an accident,  it actually was intentional.

When we started filming Peter (My Grim Reaper) asked if I wanted him to remove his wedding ring. I decided that he should keep it on, as it gives the Reaper another dimension.  I am already trying to push the idea that the Grim Reaper is actually just a normal person. Having him wearing a wedding ring and implying that he's got a wife adds to this.

Reflective Comment:
The Grim Reaper's wedding ring is more of a subtle signifier compared to other props. I feel this would not be noticed by everyone and would more likely be observed on a re-watch. 

Music Implemented into Film

A couple of weeks ago I sent my friend Greg a small table of timings for the music that he was going to create for me. The table, which can be found here, also included atmosphere examples.

Greg has now sent me four pieces of music. So far I have used two of these pieces. The first piece I have used for the opening scene, as it's quite dark and foreboding. The musical cues match with the cuts in the scenes. The second piece, is more ambient. It's dream like and fits well with when Nathan and the Grim Reaper are talking. Due to the length and variation of the piece, I can cut and splice what pieces of the song I want and different times.

Reflective Comment:

I didn't realise until I added some music how empty my short film sounded. The music compliments the scenes nicely and make for a more enjoyable overall viewing experience. I can't seem to find a way to upload the music to my blogger, but if I can I will add it. 

Creative Careers Fair Feedback

Last week my school hosted a Creative Careers evening. I was tasked to help set up for the night and to make sure things ran smoothly. I also asked if we could show our media productions to gave more audience feedback. We were allowed and Me, Max and Adam had a stall that showed off our posters and our short films.

I also created a short montage of all our productions, which was shown to over 150 people. Afterwards people came over to our stall and offered feedback. I received feedback such as that I need to edit out my wind in the final scene and that the film is severely lacking some music. I was told that my short film was impressive and that many people enjoyed it. I also had some surveys filled out regarding my film and poster.

Reflective Comment:
This feedback was quite unique because it wasn't from people I know. I've showed it too large amount of people in my sixth form and posted it so my social media, but on the night there were people from all different creative backgrounds which gave some very strong and critical feedback.

Third Magazine Draft

This is my third magazine draft. I have moved the grade until what I think is a better position and I also have added a fake author to the article. I'm waiting for more feedback off my peers and teacher so I can improve it further.

100 Blog Posts!

Wooooooooo!

Sound Editing

I've finally downloaded Audacity on to my computer and I am now currently editing the sound levels and trying to fix the wind problems.

My short film's audio.

First of all I just listened to the audio of the short film, without any footage. It's quite interesting and actually makes it easier to notice where the audio jumps a bit, where normally I would be distracted by the footage. Just listening makes it very good for identifying what sounds well and what doesn't.

So to try remove the wind sound what I do is I select a scene where the sound is fine. I then set this as the sound profile. I then highlight the scene with excessive wind, and then I click ok. This then filters the wind sound out of the scene.

It did not work as I planned, I will be honest. Without the footage, I find it hard to tell how good it is. But I do think that is an improvement. I have several saved different audio files and compare them to the footage I have at school. The files are nicely organised, as seen below.

Reflective Comment:

I sort of always knew that I would never be able to completely get rid of my sound issue. However I feel that Audacity has helped a little bit, and it I do think it sounds better than it did before. It adds a strange whistle sound to the audio, however I feel this may fit the film.

Magazine Article Survey feedback

Earlier last week I created a survey to get some feedback on my second draft of my magazine article. I posted it on Reddit, Twitter and Facebook. The responses are mostly positive, but with some suggestions on how to improve the magazine articles. With this information I am going to update my Magazine article and hopefully create a better draft.

Reflective Comment:

I was hoping for a bit more feedback from my survey, but that responses I have got have been very helpful. I'm hoping that with this information I am going to create a better draft.

Marking Criteria for Evaluation and Media Texts

This is the marking criteria for the ancilliary task and the evaluation. I have been refering back to this several times over the oast few weeks. Refering back to this means that I can make sure to maximise my marks.

Second Magazine Article Draft

Above I have attached a second draft for the magazine article. I think it's definitley an improvement on the first draft and is closer to resembling what a review article from IndieWire looks like. I have added a banner on the side, with the 'most popular' articles on the site at that time. I have also shifted the article and main photo to the left to accomdate for the banner.

It does still need some work however. I can't really seem to place where the grading of the film should do. I also feel that some of the proportions of the article themselves are a little off.  I also still need to add a author to the post.

For the 'most popular' banner, I created fake articles about productions from fellow students. These include Max Shephard, Adam Anderson and Fabian Harrison. 4 is a previous project that I have helped create for media and 5 is a mockumentary that I starred in year 10. I added a photo from Fabian's production as the most popular article always has an attached image with it.

Reflective Comment:
I'm starting to feel a whole lot more confident about the final ancillary task. Before it overwhelmed me slighlty, but now I understand what I have to do and how I can improve. My next plan of action is to show my magazine article to some people and get to complete a survey for me.

First Magazine article draft

Above I have attached my first draft of the magazine article. My film would fit well on the IndieWire website as they have a large portion of website dedicated to short films. I used one of their articles as a template and worked off of that.

To improve I think I need to improve the layout of the text and the grade. (A staple of IndieWire's reviews.) I think the photo and everything above it works very well and looks good, and would certainly fit it in with image of IndieWire. 

Reflective Comment:

I'm pleased with my first draft of the magazine article and how it has progressed. It looks like it would've fit in with the IndieWire website. I've already had some over the shoulder feedback and I know how to improve the draft futher.

Testing Some Music

Today I added some of the test music Greg sent me while I wait for him to get back to me about my timings. I added it over the bench scene to try see how well it would cover the wind. And it does cover the wind very well. It also compliments the scene nicely, but since it's only test music it can get a bit repetitive at times. However it works quite well and I am looking forward to adding more.

Reflective Comment:
While the music isn't long enough to fit the scenes it still works very well. Once Greg gets back to me with some more music I'll be able to create some more footage with music.

Music timings table

I have created a table for timings for music for my short film. In this table there is a time-stamp, the mood of said scene and also the actual content of the scene. This is going to be sent to Greg so he can create some music for the short film. Greg has created some test music which has helped us both in deciding what would fit best.

Reflective Comment:

This time-stamp table is going to be very helpful for creating music for my short film. Spilting it all up makes it very easy to make sure that each scene is given the correct music.