Recording Sound on Location & ADR

When filming video footage you may wish to also record the audio at the same time but their are a few issues with this and they are...

• The sound of wind
• Background sound 
• You can't create perfect silence without a sound proof room (expensive)

There are way in which you can resolve this and they are...

• Record sound on a day when there's no wind
• Use wind shields
• Film in a sound proof room
• Record audio separately and edit it in 
• Record the audio by having the microphone directly next to the thing producing the sound.

There are different pieces of equipment that are used to record audio and optimism the quality of the audio and they are...

• Lavalier Microphone

The purpose of this mic is to record voice.

• Directional (supercardioid) Microphone

This mic can be used to enhance a particular sound and can diminish background sound.

• Boom Pole (which can be used with the microphones above, man not included)

A boom pole can be used to record sound from a distance as someone can hold it from a distance and point it towards to the production of sound.

• Audio Recorder

An audio recorder can record and playback audio.

• Radio Microphone

A radio microphone is another type of microphone which can record audio.

• Pop filter

A pop filter is an anti-pop noise protection filter for microphones, typically used in a recording studio. It serves to reduce or eliminate 'popping' sounds caused by the mechanical impact of fast moving air on the microphone during recorded speech and singing.

Below I'm going to embed a video explaining what different sounds with in media productions are. These types of audio could either be filmed on or off set.

                
Audio Technical Codes from Gavin Hood on Vimeo.

"The Other Side" Film Pitch

This week me and my team had to pitch our ideas across to the studio about the film we wish to create. The goal was that the studio commissioned our idea and gave us the go ahead on planning and production. 

Below is a video of our pitch and as a team we are happy with what we put across and are now going to share it with you, enjoy!

                  

So as you can see from watching the pitch that we had our film commissioned and we are most proud. 

The studio were happy with our ideas and liked what we have planned to do but there was a few key points which they told us to be careful of and here they are.

• We could confuse the audience with our idea of having a different actor as our protagonists split personality. 
• People may be confused by the plot of the film and might not understand whats happening.

To avoid this from happening we need to keep asking different people when filming/editing if they understand whats happening.

Other than the few things we need to think about when putting this production together as a whole we are happy with our ideas and the constructive feedback we received and are even more confident with our product.

The next post will be on recording sound on location.

Identified Target Audience

Now I need to look at who my film will be aimed at so I can ask myself with every choice I make "Is this suitable for the audience I've chosen".

Target Audience: 15 - 25 year olds

So you can see the audience I've selected is 15 - 25 year olds. The audience chosen only has a range of 10 years so you could say it's quite a narrow audience choice. After doing research on media products that have similar situations and themes I made the choice to choose 15 - 25 year olds. I made the decision on the locations, situations and how the characters act in films that had similar ideas to what I want to incorporate into my film. I did my research on the Pearl & Dean website.

Saw

Genre: Horror, Thriller

Released: 2004

I decided to use the audience profile from Saw as it's a thriller and has elements of confusion within the characters which is what Kyle feels in the story. In the film also the characters wake up in an unknown area just the same as Kyle does in the story. 42% of people viewing the film are aged between 15 and 24 which fits perfectly with my target audience, the majority of people viewing the film fit my target audience. Saw has been rated an 18 due to its gore and strong language other than that themes and ideas from the film fit well with mine.

The Incredible Hulk

Genre: Action, Fantasy

Released: 2008

I decided to use the audience profile for The Incredible Hulk as the majority of viewers are 15 - 24 year olds so it fits well in my target audience. In the film Bruce Banner has an alter ego (hopefully you know of the Hulk) which in this film he tries to control it which in the rest of the film Kyle would attempt to do. The Incredible Hulk has been rated PG but the theme of the film fits well with mine which is why I'm using the audience profile.

This information that I've found is from a website called Pearl & Dean. Pearl & Dean collect information on films. The information usually contains the budget and earnings of the film, ages of views, types of viewers, date and description of the film. The type of data they also store information for you to find specific audiences like information on class, age and gender.

Pearl & Dean have a huge role in advertising. When you go onto their website you hear a jingle which you might recognize as it is played cinemas before the trailers for other are played. This is because they advertise films at the cinemas which is how they make money.

So after doing research on real media products I feel that the film I'll be producing will appeal towards the audience I have selected and because of this the rating for my film is.

I have done this according to the BBFC, British Board of Film Classification, as this is the proper guideline used to put ratings on to cinema releases or DVDs.
This means that no one under the age of 15 is allowed to view the film in the cinema or on a bought or rented film.

What you might find in a 15 rated film are: Strong violence, Frequent strong language (e.g. 'f***'), Portrayals of sexual activity, Strong verbal references to sex, Sexual nudity, Brief scenes of sexual violence or verbal references to sexual violence, Discriminatory language or behavior, Drug taking

I have chose this as I might want to use strong language and another reason is because the target audience fits into the rating of the film too. It also shows some issues that younger audiences wouldn't understand. The younger audience would not understand my film as much and from the target audience research I have gathered, they wouldn't be all that interested either

Below is a target audience profile of a typical person who would come and see my film.

Target Audience (TAP)

Name: Russell Newport

Age: 17

Profile: Russell has recently started sixth form and is looking for a job to get themselves some money. He loves going to concerts with his friends which is why he is currently learning to drive because as in the past he wanted to go to see his favorite band but couldn't get there. He loves music and can play guitar and enjoys jamming with his friends. He loves all kinds of music.

At sixth form he studies psychology, English and media.

He studies media because he is fond of thrillers and wants to understand how to produce one. One of his favorite thrillers is the Saw series as it's a psychological thriller. He also loves se7en as one of his favorite actors Morgan Freeman stars in it.

He studies psychology as his mother suffers with severe depression and wants to try and understand how his mother feels as he wants to help her. With the film we are planning we hope that Russell with find help within the film due to the themes.

Production Name & Logo

So recently I have been put into a production group which I will be in for the rest of the year. So taking into account that we're going to spend a lot of time together we came together and thought about a name and logo.

We thought about ideas that we could bring to the table and after the ideas we put out for the film we finally came to a conclusion.

We are Depth Productions.

The initial ideas we put to the table were so elaborate and in depth that we decided to go for a name which points out how in depth all our ideas are so we came up with Depth Productions. 



As you can see by my groups logo there are a couple significant features for example, the raindrop represents the emotional drama of the film we make in any type of genre's. We have also added a film clapper to help represent which part of media are company is involved in, which is film. D and P is in here to act as a secondary logo for the company so it simplicity will make it more memorable.

I want to tell you what the name really means. Well the word depth links with the meaning of complexity or obscurity of a person. Meaning that are stories go deep into the person mind and bring an interesting complex story to the audience. The word depth links with emotion because we want are story to mess with the audience emotions. We want them to feel conflicted of the choices are characters make, we want them to question is he a hero or villain of the story or is it no one at all. The word depth can link with intensity for example, in this film we focus on two things suspension and intensity like between the two characters.

The next post will be our target audience for our media project.

"Show ,Don't Tell Me"

Last week we were given a task to create a short film but on one condition, strictly no dialogue or sound. So the main aim of the task was to edit in our own audio to make it seem realistic and that we had recorded sound.

Here is the story line that we had to follow.

Two characters (character 1 and character 2) are sitting at a table, and are playing an intense game and one of the character 1 is losing. Suddenly, the character 2 gets up and runs to the toilet because they are not feeling well and while they are in the toilet, the character 1 takes the opportunity to cheat so that they are able to win. When the character 2 comes back, they sit down and both continue the game where character 1 immediately wins.

So here is our "Show, Don't Tell Me" task, enjoy!

                      

So there it was our "Show, Don't Tell Me" task.

As a group we are happy with what we have created and were happy to accept constructive criticism to help us improve our work.

After our work was published we were given some feedback which was useful for us so that when we next given a task we will be prepared and will be about to put out a video that is near perfection.

Below is the feedback we received.