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.

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. 

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.

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.

Music for short film

For the music in my short film I turned to my friend Greg. Greg does A-Level music and was a part of my group last year for our starter task. I showed Greg my first draft and told him what type of music I wanted. I told him I wanted a curious and dreamy song, and he said he'd get back to me. Soon after he sent me a draft of a song. I liked the song and me and Greg had a bit of back and forth on how to improve the music.

I have now sent Greg my second draft of my short film with notes on what type of music I want for each scene. Greg is currently on holiday but once he is back he's going to work off my notes to make some more draft songs. With those we can test it with the footage and go forward from there.

I am having issues with attaching the music to my blog, but I will try get this sorted soon.

Reflective Comment:
Music is something that I really struggle with so I am glad that I am starting to make progress with. Hopefully I can get it out of the way sooner rather than later.

Photos for the posters and outside lighting

While I did spend the most of my time on the 23rd filming, I did try get a better photo for my poster. I was able to get some really nice photos that I think will fit very well. It was 2 o'clock when I started meaning that I was fighting against the sun, but I managed to make it work in my favour. Thankfully my good friend Fabian let me borrow his camera.

We will now go through the photos.

So first we tried from behind the two actors. The sun was coming in the from the top left corner, and made the lighting a little too harsh. I didn't really like what the lighting was looking like. However I did still like the way the sky faded with the blues.

I then tried the photo from the front. This worked even less. For a start, I don't want the poster from the front and this didn't convince me otherwise. I think it's too bright for the subject matter of the film and you can also see the shadows. The sun was behind me.

I then tried directly from behind and closer up. but this again made the sun too bright. Also, I didn't like the shadows that the actors were casting. It's also a little too close for my photo. The sun was directly on my left during the shot.

I then moved in line with the sun to experiment with what it would look like. This was a lot closer to what I wanted, just a bit too close and not at the correct angle. The lighting just looked perfect for the poster.

This was the photo I most happy with. I think the lighting here is best, with the two actors looking like silhouettes and the sky looking a nice faded blue. I think the photo is taken at a good distance, and the photo fits the rule of thirds quite well. I can have the information at the top, the title in the centre, and the two at the bottom. To capture this photo I had to go down the hill slightly, crouch down, and keep the out of shot. The sun is just on my left. This is the photo I am going to be using for the poster.

Reflective Comment:

I'm really happy with the photos that I was able to take. Working with natural light can be difficult and I'm glad that I could test out different angles. I am hoping to get another draft of the poster ready for the end of the week.

Music creating software

I have little experience in creating music, so creating some pieces for my short film is a daunting experience. My two friends Greg and Wil are both experienced in music creating so I know that I can rely on them for help. However I have found a list of potential music creating software, that is available for free, that I'm considering to use. The list can be found here!

Reaper

Reaper is a music creation software that is free for sixty days. The free trial is fine, as I only really have about sixty days until the deadline, so that's fine. It looks good, and looking on Youtube, it seems pretty good. There are also a lot of tutorials and comparison videos, so I'll have plenty of resources to learn from. 

Here are some videos: 1, 2, 3. 

Tracktion 4/5

Tracktion 4 is supposedly similar to Reaper except for free and better looking. It's very similar to Reaper in what it offers and how many tutorials there are online. My one worry with Tracktion 4 is that it seems to be more revolved around electronic music, which is not what I am going for at all.

Here are some videos: 1, 2, 3.

GarageBand

I'm pretty sure I've used Garageband before in music or something along those lines. Reviews say that it is user friendly, which is my biggest concern at the moment. It works on Apple Macs which is helpful due to the fact that's what we have to use at school. However I am unsure of how good the music itself will actually sound.

Here are some videos: 1, 2, 3.

Reflective Comment:

The next step forward is to actually test these programmes. I'll probably do this after Christmas, as I am revising for my mocks which are in January.