Video Killed The Radio Star

Listen to the Radio Jingle

Electro Fm

The radio station indent was personified towards electronica music. We were asked during the brief to materialize with 3 specific radio jingles that could link in within a conventional mainstream radio show. With very little knowledge on the mystical ways of a Mac machine. I found it difficult to get running with the editing as I am known as the grim reaper of today’s technology, due to errors within the software I was limited to what I could actually produce.

The software we were using was (Soundbooth CS4). The software helped us to edit, cut and apply diegetic effects to enhance and to comply with background soundtracks. I used music from my iPod and had to transfer it to mp3 to make it compatible with other operating systems; I cut and selected various samples from a song to make it sound more organic and earthy in some conscious swathe. The music selected was the skeletal spine to the radio station. I try to relate music towards myself. I like a radio show not to be commercial and almost encrypted to a set routine. I prefer radio presenters who paint themselves within the music they persist and talk about with a taunting passion.

I used samples that are in someway in-looks in that specific music genre. It’s almost has that vintage singe by the way the sound effects constrict the music like it was happening on an old dab radio. The sounds divulge the theme, with electrical urges and the flawless sparks to send out the message that it’s live pulsing on air. Records in the genre typically have electronic sounds and some vocals are delivered in a deadpan, mechanical manner, often through a vocoder or other electronic distortion. I wanted to create a jingle similar to it by using tools to morph the music, but Soundbooth CS4 lacked simple features or having the ability to create a new file or to "reverse" a sound, so it made possibilities harder.

I followed the codes and conventions of creating a radio jingle by applying recognisable soundtracks and indicating a selected target audience almost labelling identification, the speech was clear and relevant and informed the listener on the name and advertised the radio station through short repetitive quotes. As I couldn’t get celebrity endorsement upon the jingle, I decided to improvise and searched the vast seas of internet websites to come across a legal sound clip. I did not want to record within the built-in microphones due to interference and noise so I downloaded a voice over to place over the top of the backing track; the jingle I created was a blended experimental mix tape of a variety of electro beats and If I had the opportunity again, I would stick to engaging sound effects instead of taking apart a song manually to fabricate a soundtrack and this time I would stick to being ‘‘old school’’ by using a authentic PC. I would pace out the time, as I admittedly spend a lot of time fusing the first jingle together and due to a series of tedious errors, my time was limited to start and construct more.

The feature I enjoyed most about using the software was having the capability to blend and shorten tracks. The delegation of creating a memorable jingle to a crowd of listeners wasn’t easy; I try to cull a selection that sounded addictive towards the selected audience. The audience I wanted to pursue towards was the younger generation as they reach the seams of rebellion through glow stick jousting and discordant pop noodles. Listening back to the jingle, I was contented on the ending result. I did have a few minor issues with sorting out the volume levels to try to make everything sound reasonable without sounding distorted, but at the ending result through a crusade of insipid software errors, I made a plausible back of the van radio jingle.

For our second assignment, we had to film an 8 shot odyssey of a journey experimenting with a conglomeration of techniques and contrastive camera angles such as a Dutch tilt, low angle and high angle shots. I hightailed around the forbidden depths of the college looking for felicitous locations to forge together while trying to make them enthralling as possible, as these 8 shot journeys were not habituated to have speech or a cappella of music, just the imagination of film making to tell a narrative, in distinction I tried to scrutinize locations that apprehended a lot of ambience such as the atrium. When it materialized to the editing suite, I wanted to desaturate the movie, catching away the colour within the shots to make it more endorsing towards the audience in a surreal manner, I did suffer with a number of technical issues such as scything the movie together and cumbering the tape onto the almighty Mac and commuting it to anamorphic. I allocated a few slide transitions to make my movie run fluently as some of the shots I filmed were out of place due to slipups with the time zone signatures amongst the video camera. The software we were using was Final cut pro that is at professional standard, the software they use to compile within the movie industries. The Final Cut (Pro) interface has four main windows: the Browser, where source media files are listed; the Viewer, where individual media files can be previewed and trimmed; the Timeline, where media can be cut together into a sequence; and the Canvas, where the edited production in the timeline can be viewed. After a few minors of absurdity, I got use to the programme and it became easier to apply effects, render and to stream into the timeline. The best part I enjoyed about the project was being able to have the freedom to illustrate a movie that interrelates with you and shows how a silent movie can have so much meaning towards the audience just on the way the video camera is placed, not just reading upon the moves of a subject or a character but encrypting from a shot within a sequence.

1st Shot (Dutch Tilt) 3rd Floor Atrium

I'm going to shoot in black and white to persevere a surreal tone to it. The shot will take place on the 3rd floor and the camera will be set on a Dutch Tilt to make it seem abstract and peculiar. The shot will show a person walking towards an exit to pursue to the next shot. The shot will show a foreground, middle ground and a background to captivate every aspect of the audience attention.

2nd Shot (Low Angle) Stairs

A Low Angle increases height and gives a sense of speeded motion. The reason why I’m using a low angle shot because it conceives a sense of confusion towards the viewer of powerlessness within the action of the scene. The background of the subject will lack in details adding to the disorientation of the viewer. The object or character will get swallowed up by their setting- they soon become part of a wider picture. The shot will only show the top half of the person walking down a flight of stairs and then enrols on to a close-up cut-in clip of the hand dragging from the stair banister only concentrating on a specific intimate detail. The added height of the character may inspire fear or insecurity towards the viewer, who is psychologically dominated by the figure appearing upon screen.

3rd Shot (Extreme Close-Up) Door Swipe System

The shot will magnify beyond the human eye would experience in reality. The shot will focus on exiting from the stairs by swiping a card to open the door; the camera will concentrate on the swipe system and the person swiping the card to be able to exit. This shot will be blurred only pin-pointing details upon the card to capture the importance of this particular item. This show will be a very-artificial shot and will build up a dramatic effect. The tight focus required means that extra care must be taken when setting up the tripod and the lighting and keeping the camera still as any sign of camera movements will seem very noticeable.

4th Shot (Long shot) Corridor

The shot will capture everything in life size corresponding to a full shot showing the entire human body, with the head near the top of the frame and the feet near the bottom. This shot will focus upon the character and will still have plenty of background to be able to establish where the camera is filming; this shot will only film from the back of the person leading toward the atrium exit. A long shot will denote a precise location and the character will seem to get smaller in a blurred constriction.

5th Shot (Mid Shot) Atrium Entrance

This shot will show the knees/waist up and will capture some sense of action. The shot will focus in upon the characters surrounding through the eye of the character almost a variation of an over-the-shoulder shot, which positions the camera behind a figure, revealing a background, object or figure. The camera will be placed behind the character just dipping from the Atrium so the audience can slip through as the observer experiencing a new surrounding as some hallucinating experience.

6th Shot (Bird’s-Eye view/High Angle) Atrium

I’m using this shot as I’m shooting a scene from overhead, a very unnatural and strange angle. This shot personifies the audience in a godlike position, looking down upon the action. People can be made to look insignificant, ant-like, part of a wider scheme of things, almost in the style of Hitchcock; this shot will be elevated upon the 3rd floor to give a general overview of the Atrium. High angles make the object photographed seem smaller, inferior or scary. The shot will focus upon the character walking towards the exit swiping out towards the main entrance/exit.

7th Shot (long shot) Atrium Entrance/Outside

This shot will be limited and short just specifying a new location. The camera will be placed as a long shot capturing the whole embodiment within the lens capturing the character exiting the building. The lighting will also have an effect upon telling the story as it will seem brighter compared to closed locations.

8th Shot (Extreme Long Shot) College Path

The shot will signify the end by escaping from the building. The camera will be placed at the outside of the entrance and is a scene-setting shot. There will be very little detail visible from the shot it’s meant to give a general impression rather than specific information. The character in this shot is running away from the establishment escaping from reality into a trance of surreal taunts.

DANIEL'S 8-SHOT JOURNEY

Building Blocks of Cinematography

A frame is a single cell of film. In film-making 24 frames make up one second. So real time film is 24 frames per second (fps). In video, if you wish to shoot real time you will need to shoot 25 fps. In film and video, a shot is a continuous strip of motion picture film, created by a series of frames that run for an uninterrupted period of time. A sequence is a series of scenes which form a distinct narrative unit, usually connected either by a location, unit, or a passage of time. They can also follow a narrative and usually have a beginning, middle and an end of some description. A movie (film) or programme, are entire bodies of work. They are created through frames, shots, scenes and sequences. They also have some form of a beginning, middle and end.

Shot Sizes: Communicating Meaning

There are a variety of shot sizes, from extreme close ups (ECU) to a very long shot (VLS)/ wide shot. Different shots serve a different purpose and they communicate information, emotion and details of the intended meaning of the Director. Generally when filming you start away from the action (LS) and gradually move closer (CU) drawing the viewer into the scene and the action. To establish a location or setting it is best to use a wide shot so the viewer can drink in all of the general information. And as there is a lot of it, it needs to be onscreen for a while. If the Director wants to communicate or highlight something of interest to the viewer, such as an important prop or character emotion, they are likely to use a close up. These need less time onscreen as there is less information to take in.

Composition: Rule of 1/3rds

The rule of thirds is a fundamental rule of composition that objects placed off centre are more interesting to look at. A grid is imagined over the fame (like noughts & crosses) and generally the eyes are on the top line (eye line), the horizon on the bottom (horizon line) and the subject on either of the two vertical lines. The sweet spots are where the lines intersect and where you want to place the subject, considering looking/moving space.

180º Line Rule: Line of Action

The line of action is and imaginary line you must not cross, or the action will be inconsistent when you cut together during the editing process. Position 1: Camera below the line, action is moving from right to left in the shot. Position 2: Camera above the line, action is moving from left to right in the shot. You must always film the action from one side of the 180º line or your action will not edit properly and the movement in the shot will simply not work. The only exception is if you cross the line during a shot by moving the camera across the line during a tracking type shot.

Camera Angle

• High angle shots make the subject of the shot seem weak and inferior.
• Low angle shots make the subject seem strong and powerful.
• Canted angle or Dutch tilt shots make the frame seem awkward and mysterious as we do not see the world this way.

Camera Height

As human beings we generally see the world at eye level standing up or sitting down. If we shoot the camera at eye level it is how we are used to seeing the world, so it is comfortable.

Use of Line and Diagonals

Using lines within your composition can add drama and make your shots more dynamic and lead the viewer’s eye within the shot.

• Diagonal lines add interest and energy to your shots.
• Curved lines can be graceful and very easy on the eye.
• Camera Depth of Field and Action Planes

Shallow focus is when certain subjects are in focus and other elements are not and you have a small depth of field. It draws attention to what is in focus. Deep focus is when everything in the shot is in focus and you have a large depth of field. It makes everything in frame seem important as it is all in focus and sharp. Action planes are the foreground, middle ground, and background. The best and most interesting shots incorporate all of these or at least two.

Film/ TV Conventions

Continuity of travel: If your subject enters the shot camera left and exits camera right, this must continue. Only if your subject changes direction in shot and enters camera left and leaves camera left. This works both ways.

Edit points: When shooting, consider your edit points in your head. A good way to go is to let your subject completely leave the frame and then completely enter again in the next shot.

Cut ins and cutaways: These are shots that can help with continuity and also adds to the action. For instance, cutting away from a LS of someone lighting a cigarette to a CU back to the LS. They add interest and can cover up mistakes. Compression of Time Film editing is all compression and manipulation of time generally to compress (montage) but can also elongate (slo-mo)

NEGATIVES

PHOTOGRAPHY

Photography is the procedure and the art of creativity of still or moving pictures by recording radiation upon a sensitive medium, such as a photographic film, or an electronic sensor. Light patterns reflected or emitted from objects activate a sensitive chemical reaction or electronic motioned sensor during a time emitted exposure, usually through a lens. Photography has many uses for business, science, art and pleasure. There are many ongoing genres in photography leading from aerial to commercial.

Film Stills, sometimes called publicity still, is a photograph taken during the interval shooting of a movie or tv-related programmes used for promotional/advertising purposes. Within a film shot, it lists all the vulnerable conventions of a film still, generally a still photograph that will become involved with the set, shooting along side with the filming equipment and the principle photography crew. Using stills can recreate shots from the movie, or create a posed composition that isn’t present within the movie itself, but still contributes with the movie’s world, featuring the dressed actors and set. Cindy Sherman is famous for her posed compositions shots stylised in a commercial way by endorsing simplistic house-work chores in a saucy way particular aimed in a Gil Elvgren pin-up girl fashion.

The Basics Of A Camera

A camera is a device that records images, either as a still photograph or as moving images known as videos or movies. The term comes from camera obscura for ‘‘dark chamber,’’ an early mechanism of projecting images. In photography, a shutter is a device that allows light to pass for a determined period of time, for the purpose of exposing photographic film or a light-sensitive electronic sensor to capture a permanent image of a scene. The lens of a camera captures the light from the subject and brings it to a focus on the film detector. The size of the aperture and the brightness of the scene controls the amount of light that enters the camera during a period of time, and the shutter controls the length of time that the light hits the recording surface. Equivalent exposures can be made with an aperture and with the shutter speed slowed down.

The Birthing of an Pinhole Camera

A Camera Obscura is a portable optical device and plays upon light on reforming images by using a small pinhole to let sunlight through on a light-sensitive piece of film, As a pinhole is made smaller, the image gets sharper, but the projected image becomes dimmer. With too small a pinhole the sharpness again becomes worse due to diffraction. Some practical camera obscuras use a lens rather than a pinhole because it allows a larger aperture, giving a usable brightness while maintaining focus. Light travels in a straight line and when some of the rays reflected from a bright subject pass through a small hole in thin material they do not scatter but cross and reform as an upside down image on a flat surface held parallel to the hole. This law of optics was known in ancient times.

This particular shot is of the atrium. The pinhole camera, it was made from the insides of a pringle can, the way the light captured certain properties within a set composition and as the pringle can was curved, it created a almost fish eye lens effect. I like the secrets behind a camera obscura/pinhole, as every picture you take doesn't actually look like the object or landscape in front of you, but it captures the spirit of the picture, by recording different contrasts and movements.

I do not worship at the altar of sharpness. I find that the soft details and motion blur of the pinhole image are ideal for making images about memory, emotion, or time gone by or catching the motion of life. Sharpness is fine in some images, but I feel that some images actually are better for their lack of sharpness. Focus can be overrated, especially in the marketing-driven world of contemporary digital photography and I personally enjoy looking out for surprises and mystery in the beauty of the blur.

I really enjoyed it and discovered some quite ghostly pictures in the mists of a pringle can, and I love how simplistic it is to do and how peculiar that pictures can be produced by a box or sealed tin, it's ingeniously mad. The photos I produced all had a blurred type-ecstasy feel, most of the pictures were quite dark around the brim of the edges, due to over exposure, but in the end, I actually preferred it that way, it gave the images depth and a sense of silent auntheticness. A pinhole camera is a very simple camera with no lens and a single very small aperture. I think the point of pinhole photography, is to show the world a different way, a new perspective through the distortion of the photograph, the curve it makes, the interesting mistakes and the way the lights create bewildering shapes, as for any digital form of photography, you know on what exactly you are taking, but when taking it on a pinhole, the image remains a indecisive mystery.