Production Exercises
In VCE Media, the production exercises that precede your major project are an opportunity to develop your skill in the use of media technology—exploring technical equipment, media processes and the aesthetic qualities of the media form or genre you’ve decided to work in. You will complete two production exercises under the conditions that your teacher has specified. You may storyboard a sequence to ascertain how you will achieve particular effects, explore the capacity of technical equipment (such as a camera or piece of editing software) or determine how you will achieve a particular effect that you need to use in your film. It’s very important that you document your production exercises.
Documenting your Production Exercises
The documentation for your production exercises should include the following:
Intention. What is it you hope to achieve or learn by completing this exercise?
Realisation. What did you learn from the exercise? What will you do differently next time? Did you achieve your goals?
A detailed overview of the Production Exercise can be found in the VCAA Bulletin (Page 14). Your production exercise cannot be used in the final production in any way.
Sample Production Exercise #1
The video for this production exercise can be viewed on YouTube.
Intention
As my main focus for this exercise is in colour correction and the special effects within transitions. I will need to test and co-ordinate sequences that achieves these experiments effectively.
Colour Correction
Firstly I will begin by shooting a variety of shots on both the GoPro and the Canon Hv40. The use of two cameras here will allow me to see which camera is more suitable for each given scene in my film. Then by experimenting with a variety of colour correction tools I will enhance the visual aspect of each shot. I intend to colour correct this in Adobe After Effects with a variety of tools (levels, RGB curves, brightness and contrast and blurs). After this process I will cut the footage on an angle allowing a small corner of the raw footage to be viewed, creating a contrast from the before and after. By experimenting with a variety of colour correction techniques , I will establish the best approach to colour correct my footage.
Special Effect Transitions
Through the use of a point of view shot I will attempt to establish the best methods of linking two shots together. These transitions are crucial for my production of “Transition”, as they are the backbone for the narrative. Through the use of roto-scoping, cross fading and motion blur I will develop a variety of different alternatives methods to achieve the transition. This will be done in adobe after effects, which will provide me with a variety of choices in regards to these options.
I intend to shoot footage on a canon Hv40 and a Go Pro basically focusing on a point of view shot. In each sequence there will be two shots, with one in another completely different location that would allow me to create the transition. What I aim to achieve is a smooth flowing transition that seems both faultless and believable. I would like the effect to seem simple and not to basic as it is essential for the films development as a narrative.
Realisation
Colour Correction
During the colour correction process, it became quite obvious that it was going to become a key component in my films post production. As I had shot a variety of shots, both indoors, outdoors and underwater, I had to established particular hues and colour correction templates for a given scene. This worked extremely well, as I had to compensate for given natural light and artificial light. The only thing that may need to be improved on is how I colour correct each given camera (Canon Hv40.. GOPRO). This I found to be an issue as each camera, had different levels of background noise, therefore requiring more contrast. But overall I am extremely happy with the outputted results in relation to the colour correction aspect of Production Exercise 1.
Special Effect Transitions
The transitions themselves was quite a lengthy process to create as the both required Roto scoping in after effects. The first one I tried out was rather complex as I focused on opening a door to an aerial view of suburbia. This required a large amount of roto-scoping as I had shot this in handheld. I paced a picture bellow this layer in after effects, motion tracked it to the scene. Although the final product did not look particularly convincing, I established that I will have to use a green screen rather than the roto-scoping method. This I believe will create the effect I required without the jittery drawback from roto-scoping.
The second transition, involved an underwater transition to a bathtub which will be shot on the GoPro. This involved me filming an underwater shot as the camera rose to the surface, then cutting suddenly to a point of view shot from the bathtub. This effect was done through rotoscoping , motion blur and cross fading inside Adobe After Effects. The only thing that I would like to improve from this process, is how quickly I cut to the bathtub. Ideally I would have liked to linger on the water surface slower, which can be achieved through a slower camera movement to the surface. But overall I was extremely happy with the final result in this Production Exercise 1.
Conclusion
I am particularly happy with the outputted result for Production Exercise 1 .The only thing I would change if I had the chance would be to take my time a lot more when it came to shooting the underwater sequences as I felt that I rushed them , which showed in the final output.
Sample Production Exercise #2
The video for this production exercise can be viewed on YouTube.
Intention
The intention of Production Exercise #1 is to test my knowledge of camera equipment and editing software (Vegas Pro 9.0) while working around potential problems that may arise during the filming of my short film, for example, lighting issues, camera/hardware issues or software issues. I want to experiment with editing some of my footage in Vegas Pro 9.0 and investigate whether or not a short montage will be appropriate in the section(s) of the film I intend to use it/them. The sort of effect I wish to achieve is similar to that used in “Spin” by Double Edge Films. Lighting will be experimented with and manipulated in dark environments in order to achieve visually appealing and clear camera shots. Different camera modes and positioning of both placed and natural lighting will be involved in achieving a satisfactory shot. If necessary, additional layering and colour correction may be used in post-production.
Realisation
The first and most exciting thing that I discovered upon arriving at my film location is that the use of external or placed lighting would not be necessary as the basement is well lit by the lights already present. This means that a lighting rig will not be necessary and I will have more time to focus on other aspects of the production.
All of the colour corrected shots that I ended up using were best generated from the cine mode samples. I think this is because the camera is able to detect the best settings for a room with low-medium light (which the basement has) and that manual settings are put to no better use than just minor adjustments. This has contradicted my past experiences with this camera but it isn’t really relevant as the basement is the only dark location I will be filming in and – considering it was the location I was most anxious about – the samples came out very well. I had no major problems with the editing of the montage and it was good to brush up on basic editing and colour correction. Hopefully the sound tests will prove just as effective as the camera and editing in my next exercise.
