Transitions Proposal Presentation (Reblog)

Here is my presentation for the Transitions project outlining what I am hoping to do and achieve during my Transitions project:

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Studio Production Final Evaluation

My overall thoughts on the Studio Production part of this cause is mostly positive. I found many aspects of this section was a success yet I do feel that some aspects of my own role in particular could have had more involvement thus have a greater impact on the production as a whole.

Firstly, the live show itself was a major success. After watching a rough edit of the final show, I found that the production ran smoothly and everyone involved performed their roles to the best of their abilities. The overall emotional weight behind the show was very positive and everyone, myself included, appeared very satisfied with the production after it had finished. I cannot fault the production itself at all.

I feel that I was lao able to perform my own roles to great effect as well. The majority of the work I was involved in was separate from the actual live show itself. Instead I was involved in the creation of Promotional Material and Behind The Scenes footage, serving as Camera Assistant and Sound Operator for both. 

During Promotions, my work as Assistant Camera was most effective. I had helped the Camera Operator to set up multiple shots and even advice on where the camera should be placed to gain the most effective shots and framing that we can. This shows in the final Promotional material where each shot and camera movement looks professional.

Working as sound operator seem superfluous, however, as we rarely even recorded any natural sound, as decided by the producers and director. This meant that I was just monitoring the sound levels on the camera's monitor rather than listening on the headphones. Even when we did record any natural sound, it was not used during the edit and does not feature in the final promotional material. However, for what I was able to do to contribute, I feel that I did it to the best of my ability.

On the other hand, my skills as sound operator were better utilised during the recording of the Behind The Scenes. As most of the recorded footage was unplanned, this meant that the recording process was a lot more scattered. Therefore we had set up the equipment very quickly and adapt the settings for both the camera and sound for multiple different shots. I had to change the settings for sound with every different shot, meaning that my skills were tested a lot more. It was a balancing act of trying to keep natural background noise, but then allowing whoever is being interviewed to be heard clearly without distortion. Despite this, however, I feel that I was very successful i this and the sound quality during the edited Behind The Scenes is very good and professional.

My last job, which was also successful, was creating and sourcing music for parts of the studio production. I had good feedback from the producers and directors on the music I had created and was easily able to work on what they thought should be changed. Unfortunately, the music I was living up to my own scrutiny and I eventually decided that I should source other music to edit. This gained positive feedback and thus I successfully delivered high quality pieces of music that were eventually used during the actual live show production.

Overall strengths:

- Working as a team.

- Assisting the Camera Operator.

- Delivering high quality sound on shoots.

- Acting as adviser during shoots.

- Creating, sourcing and editing high quality music for the live production.

Negatives:

- Not having all of my strengths properly utilised all of the time.

- Certain mistakes were made on behalf of the Camera Operator and I, meaning that we had to reshoot on of the Promotions.

Overall however, I do feel that the final culmination of the Promotional Work, Behind The Scenes, Music and the final 'As Live' Studio Production was a great success. Everyone had a professional attitude and all roles were performed to the highest standard.

Promotion Material: Final Edits

Here are the final edits of the Promotional Material:

Youtube:
The Teaser/ Title Sequence:

Found at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WrQauL5zzrM
(This is not the final version as it is not available on Youtube, the only difference from this compared to the final cut is the font for the titles).

Facebook:
Promotional Trailer:
https://youtu.be/kbAXA6qj_Nw

Behind The Scenes: Final Edit

Here is the final edit of the Behind The Scenes:
Found at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUU40tAmKLQ

Live Show Filming Day and Final Behind The Scenes Filming

The live filming took place today and was a major success. It was a slow start as everyone was getting prepared and ready to rehearse several times before the live shoot. I, along with the rest of the behind the scenes crew, decided to get some interviews with the presenters, talent, directors and producers in order to get their opinions on the show just before the live event. Overall feedback was positive but there were some definite nerves appearing on camera.

The rehearsals appeared very successful, with each time being called 'the best run-through we've ever done'. This did also mean that tensions were high, needing to make sure that the live show was also of equal quality.

The behind the scenes took the same format as all of the previous days as I assisted on camera and monitored the sound. Set-up was smooth and quick and we managed to get the right settings for both picture quality and sound as quickly as possible so we could start filming straight away. I have found that, I haven't had to change the sound settings too much during the last few shoot days as it is usually at a steady level, though there are some interviewees that spoke louder than others and I'd adjust the sound accordingly.

After lunch, we prepared for the live event. The audience soon came in after some initial set-up, the health and safety speeches were made and then the cameras finally started rolling. Me and the rest of the behind the scenes crew were behind the set for the majority of the time so we didn't see much of the final show but both the presenters and the audience could be heard and there was a definite sense of energy throughout the show which was great. For the last five minutes, we decided to capture the final moments with the director in the gallery as they wrapped up the show. When the final piece of directing ended and the credits rolled, the energy in the room was fantastic and people were congratulating each other on a job well done.

The footage we had captured all appeared to be of good quality, as well as good sound quality. Before packing the equipment up, we were all congratulated as a whole group. During these moments, I do admit that I felt sad that I wasn't as involved with the work on the studio floor in the gallery itself, only as an observing eye. This meant that I did feel a little left out of the celebrations. Despite this, the feeling as it all came to an end was extremely satisfying. The whole group deserves a massive Well Done.

Behind The Scenes Filming 3

Today's behind the scenes filming was very much exactly teh same as last time. The three of us on the behind the scenes crew took the same jobs as before and the footage, including the sound quality (as monitored by myself) were of a high standard now that we finally figured out the right settings for the camera and microphone.

The difference came in the form of the content that was filmed. Another branch of the UCA in Rochester which focuses in design for sets in theatre in film had come in to build the set for our live show. This took several hours but we were able to get quite a lot of footage of the set being put together. I feel that we captured the team spirit that was being shown throughout the set building as everyone involved was hard at work and appeared to work well and communicate very well with each other. We even managed to get some interviews with some of them as well.

After this, we filmed the first set of rehearsals, now complete with the built set. This run-through did appear very rough as some mistakes were made through communications with the gallery and the people on the main studio floor as well as some technical problems with the equipment. We'd decided that we should look through the footage while the next rehearsal took place and, after speaking to some of the crew, the later rehearsals were a lot better than previously.

Overall, I am very happy with the footage. The lighting was much better this time around and the sound quality was clear with little background noise as usual. There also appeared to be much less footage consisting of the crew messing around, indicating a much more focused mind as the day of the live filming draws nearer.

Behind The Scenes Filming 2

Our second day of filming behind the scenes also went very well, much like last time. I, again, operated sound assisted with the camera. This time, I used the 'Shotgun' microphone and attached it to the front of the camera, just above the lens. This allowed both the camera operator and I to move about more freely without having the cumbersome boom pole and other sound equipment getting in the way. I monitored the sound via headphones as per usual.

The sound aspect went rather smoothly with very little background noise being picked up besides those that were being interviewed. All sound levels were level and there was no distortion form any loud noises present.

The footage captured mostly consisted of more interviews, mostly concentrating on how people felt on the week before the live show is broadcast, as well as cut-aways for the editing process. People seemed a lot more willing to speak to us this time around and end up giving some insightful information and good material that could be used during crucial points in the final edit.

We also got some three minute interviews with some of the people taking part in the show, including both of the presenters and the models who all seemed very positive about their experiences so far.

Everyone seemed a lot more confident this time around than before, perhaps because the run-throughs of the show are becoming a lot smoother thus people are feeling a lot better about the show itself running smoothly on the day. It will be interesting to see if nerves will start to kick in during the days before the live show.

When looking at the footage, there were some problems with the lighting. A lot of the footage captured appeared quite dark due to some mistakes we had made with the camera settings, most crucially, forgetting to white balance. However, we were able to fix most of this with some minor editing picture tweaks and made sure that we captured the rest of the footage to a better standard, which we did.

Overall, I felt this was another great day of filming and am happy with the footage caught.

Final Music

After not being satisfied with the music I had created thus far (and with the deadline fast approaching) I decided that I would source the music instead and edit the material so that they were suitable for music beds. The directors and producers were sceptical at first but told me to send what I could to them to see if it would work.

Upon looking at the music used with the VTs and Promos again, I noticed that the music sounded very similar to an artist I had already looked at on SoundCloud when looking for music inspiration. In fact, this artist is whose music I had based the first original music demos on.

I managed to get into contact with them via email through SoundCloud, asking if we would be allowed to use their music for our show. I got an email back saying that, as long as they are credited, we are free to use their music.

I then set to work on two of their tracks and edited them so that they would loop for use as Catwalk Music Beds. Then I edited another piece so that it can used as a Sting. I did also include small pieces of instrumentation of my own such as adding a bass-line to a quieter moment on one of the tracks.

After this, I sent these over pieces of music over to the producers and directors and their reaction was very positive. There were some changes that they wanted me to perform such as shortening certain tracks so that they would be more suitable for their needs and fixing the edit in certain places where it was a little rough.

Then, it was decided by the producers and directors that what I had given them was good enough and suitable enough to be used for the final show.

I feel I am unable to load these edited tracks on to Youtube in case of copyright however I shall put links to the specific tracks I had used and edited and show what they were used for- My edited versions will be heard during the final live show:

The Sting: 'Party'
https://soundcloud.com/dyallas/party

Music Bed 1: 'Spark'
https://soundcloud.com/dyallas/spark

Music Bed 2: 'Weather'
https://soundcloud.com/dyallas/weather

All Original Music by Dyalla Swain
I have made sure to let the graphics creator knows that the original music should be credited to the artist during the show's end credits

I do feel it was a shame that the music beds and stings that I had created myself will not eventually be used but I have made sure that the music that will be used is of high quality. This was also the alternative to creating my own material which was assigned to my production role. Therefore I have successfully both made my own material which I have uploaded, and I have sourced music to be used in the final recorded live show.

Demo/ Rough Music 2

After gaining positive feedback from both producers and directors on the rough demo music I had made for the studio production, I set out to work on some more.

However, unfortunately I was told that this music was no longer suitable as it didn't fit the type of music that was used in both the promo and the VTs, despite the fact that I had already made these pieces of music before the VTs and Promos were made.

Therefore, I had to take a look at what the VTs had used in order to create something that matched along those lines and was stylistically similar.

I created a rough demo similar to one that I had found in a VT, creating more emphasis on piano work with less of a disco vibe that the previous tracks had. There was a lot of back and forth between the producers, directors and I, giving constant feedback for changes that should be made.

I have created another video showing how I changed this one piece throughout the course of a day based on feedback given to me:

These Included:
-Making it more up-beat (changes in bass-line, drum section)
-Less heavy piano (created a more light and melodic piano piece accompanied by piano chords)
-Even less heavy piano (Removed the piano chords entirely)

As the video show, I did create a final version of this piece of music. However, feedback was still very mixed, leaving me to feel that the material I was created wasn't what they were looking for.

I feel there is the problem of having too many mixed opinions between the directors and producers, therefore the feedback I am getting often contradicts other feedback that I had previously. At the end of the day I did admittedly start to feel slightly annoyed.

I can only hope to resolve this situation soon, whether by creating something of my own they they unanimously liked, or by sourcing music from another artist.

Promo ReShoot

Our third and final promo shoot was a re-shoot of the footage captured on the first day. It was unanimously decided that the footage caught on the first shoot day was unusable.

Like last time, the filming went very smoothly as everybody already knew what they were doing. Every shot, action and camera movement was the same as the previous failed shoot.

I helped to assist the camera operator, taking care to ensure that the picture quality was much better and helping to get the right settings on the camera in order to allow this.

I was also able to work as Sound Operator as well as camera assistant. This did seem somewhat superfluous , however, as the promo director did say from the start that no natural/ diegetic sound would be used in the edit. Recording diegetic was a Producer decision and the promo team didn't have much say in the decision. However, I am glad this decision was made as it allowed me to carry out this aspect of my production role.

We simply used the 'Rhodes'/ Shotgun microphone whilst attached to the front of the camera and I monitored the sound feedback via headphones. The sound levels remained stable throughout and I didn't have to ask for any retakes as there was very minimal interference from background noise and the actors were neither too loud nor to quite, meaning there was no sound distortion.

Upon looking at the quick edit of this footage later on, the picture quality is much better. However, in my opinion, some of it looks a little too dark. Also there are one or two shots that seemed out of focus; an error on both mine and the camera operator's part. Despite this, we were assured that these problems can be fixed in the editing process.

Overall, I felt this filming day was a great success with only small problems revealed during the post production process.