South Park: The Movie

The opening shot -












The film begins with setting the scene and establishing the location the main plot will take place in.

Theme stated -

This part of the movie tells us that a new movie is coming out today (this movie causes the debate to happen)

Set-up -

Here the main characters are singing about how great the movie will be and how they 'learn everything that [they] know' from movies such as this.



catalyst -

Here we have a shot of offended people walking out of a cinema, this sparks up the debate as I mentioned earlier.


debate -

In this scene M.A.C (mother's against canada) sing about how they blame Canada for the Terrence and Phillip movie's obsenities

break into two -

Here we have a canadian government official arguing with the American's.

subplot  -













The subplot focusses on Stan's love interest of Wendy, however he assumes she likes a foreign british student called Gregory

Fun and games -

During the 30 - 55 minutes the majority of scenes feature Saddam Hussein and Satan in homosexual relationship.

Viral Advert pre-production

My original idea for the viral advert was to be an advertisement for Starbucks. It was to feature a man walking down the street followed by him randomly shooting up into space, he was to fly around for a few seconds until he got hit by an 'asteroid'; said asteroid would be revealed to be the Starbucks logo.
I was about to begin production on this idea to make it a reality, however I was advised against it due to there being no live-action footage involved. The plan was for it to be totally animated although this was apparently not what Ollie was looking for.

My second (and final) idea was an advert about my FMP (The Box) because it is something I am close to and would therefore be more eager to advertise. This will also add to the Final Major Project assignment as extra work by the means of promoting my FMP.

Although I only had two ideas, the mind map was filled by alternative versions of each advert before I finally decided on an advertisement for my FMP with a humorous
voice over and numerous explosions (effectively combining two of the ideas on my mind map)
I planned to create said viral advert entirely in After Effects although this proved to be somewhat of a task for me so I created, rendered and exported the necessary After Effects elements then placed them into Premiere Pro CS6 to edit them in with shots from my FMP, when the shots and the text animation were placed and the voice-over added, I then rendered it and exported it. I then uploaded the Viral Advert to YouTube and added the video link to Blogger.

Viral Advert

The Box Pitch

Pre-Production

Below are short ideas in  the form of a storyboard for my FMP entitled 'The Box', these are shots in plan to have in the final production.
Although the shots may not be exactly like the ones shown below, that will be fine as it shows idea development.

Shown below is my breif shot list for the opening sequence of 'The Box'. This will be used to help me remember what shots I have planned, as the angle of the camera is not (always) on the script. Although the shots may not be exactly like the ones listed below, however that will, again, be fine as it shows that my ideas have developed over the course of the assignment.

1. Shot of the box.
2. The title fade in as Forsyth comes into focus.
3. Long shot, he takes the box inside.
4. Continuous tracking shot, the agents walking.
5. Medium shot. Forsyth puts the box on the table and examines it.
6. Close up of his face

Above is a YouTube short film that also centres entirely on a box, but for different and more complex reasons. I plan to take this concept (the box being the centre of attention) and cut away all of the suspense and the idea of actually knowing what is in the box.

Below are conversations over Facebook discussing the filming/the dates and other issues that had orison during the assignment:

The Box

Below is my finished FMP titled 'The Box' pared with a comment from YouTube, showing the audiences reaction to it.

Motion Tracking Castles

After Effects wiggle effect

The Box Proposal

Synopsis: 

The idea for my FMP involves a man named John who finds a mysterious box. Originally he wishes to have nothing to do with it, he just wants to go about his day and live his life uninterrupted. That is until two men claiming to be agents are interested in taking the box from him. John then abandons his accustomed life in exchange for an exciting adventure to discover what is inside; The Box.

Aesthetic and Technical strategies to achieve this: 


I plan to use interesting, unique and original choreography; similar to that of BBC Sherlock.
Said choreography will be interesting and have a fair amount of transitions.

My Target Audience: 

I aim for an audience of Male 16-25. However I plan to include female audiences due to
having the entire cast be male. A strong male lead and an action-feel will hopefully draw in
both demographics.

Timescales and how I intend to achieve the project: 

As of today (2nd May 2014) I plan to film at some point next week. The idea is to only film one day
as if we knuckle down and get it done then hopefully we won't have to come back and continue it the next day.

Additional things I will produce: 

I will also make a trailer for 'The Box' which will conveniently tie-in with the viral advert assignment.

John Mcswaggins - The character tree

What does this person look like?

Average ginger, dresses normally; jeans, t-shirt.

Where does he live?

His house is never seen in the film however, he lives in Southend.

Where did they go to school?

Went to the Larry Grammar school in Brighton

Do they have tattoos? why?

No. He does not want them because he thinks they are stupid. 

Who is his best friend?

Charles Pipping the 4th, the current king of Fenchurch Street

What is his occupation?

unemployed, used to have a job at a veggie place but got fired for sneaking bacon when no-one was looking.

What does this person want? 

To find out what is inside the box and to escape the clutches of the agents after him. 

How does their sexuality manifest itself? 

To John, it really isn't a big deal. 

How does he feel about the classic "sins"? 

He acts upon most of them; he is an all round terrible member of society. 

What about him is very basic and puerile? 

He finds other peoples misfortune funny. 

What does this person need?

To go about his daily life and get rid of the box (it keeps appearing when he gets rid of it) 

What will make them a more functional person? 

If the box was out of his life. Every time it shows up,  the agents show up. John just really wants to get on with his day. He is fairly self confident and believes in himself quite a lot.

how does this person sound? 

Well-spoken and attempts to come off as an understanding person when in fact he couldn't care less.

What is their intelligence? 

He is fairly intelligent and is able to overcome nearly every task he is given

How does it manifest itself? 

In the way he uses words and his ability to think quickly.

How practical are they?

Very. He is able to work with what's around him and is able to get good results with almost everything that he does.

What is their artistic capacity?

He has no interest in being creative. Although this does not mean that he cannot be creative, he often accidentally creates things without meaning to.

What elements of them are NOT practical? 

He has hardly any motivation to do things. The only time he does things is when he wants to or when the moment calls for it.

What is their spirituality? 

He is an atheist, he has no religion. He believes it distracts him from his daily life.


Review your answers. Do they represent a coherent character? 


What are their defining memories?

Working at the veggie place, it was a fun time and he had a good laugh with his friends there.

How, in a nutshell, do they behave?

Well behaved, polite member of society. He is very single-minded; he only wishes to go about his day, if anything derails his schedule, he gets frustrated, confused and panicy.

Colour Finesse

Here is the shot before colouring, as you can see  and after colour correcting.

To do this, I was required to change the gammar (the red, the green and the blue) 

the pedestal and the gain to cause the brightness change.

Although I needed to play about with it in order to get it right. 

As with the above, I need to adjust the Gammar RGB (red, green and blue)

Formats Case Study

Formats:

MPG is a standard for lossy compression of video and audio. It is designed to compress VHS-quality digital video and audio down to 1.5 Mbit/s without excessive quality loss, making video CDs, digital cable/satellite TV and digital audio broadcasting possible. It is the most common format when it comes to internet video (YouTube or any other video sharing site) 

MP4 is a digital multimedia format most commonly used to store video and audio, but can also be used to store other data such as subtitles and still images. Like most modern container formats, it allows streaming over the Internet. The only official filename extension for MPEG-4 Part 14 files is mp4 but many have other extensions, most commonly m4a and m4p. M4A (audio only) is often compressed using AAC encoding (lossy), but can also be in Apple Lossless format.

MOV (also known as a 'Quicktime file format') is the video format most suited for editing, it was developed by Apple and enables you to import and edit in place without data copying. 

AVI is a video format made by Microsoft and is therefore commonly used in PC's.

WMV (windows media video) was developed by Microsoft and used in all Windows systems to add the file to the internet.

FLV is similar to WMV in the sense that is can be used to send videos over the internet, the only difference is that unlike WMV, FLV uses adobe flash player.

Shockwave flash (SWF) is used for uploading small videos to a video sharing site. It has a similar function to WMV and FLV.

3GP  is a multimedia container format used to stream audio and video files; Available on 3G mobile phones but can also be played on some 2G and 4G phones.

ASF files (Advanced Systems Format) were devolved by Microsoft and are specificlly meant for streaming audio files used in video games. 

Resolution - The video quality. This is dictated by the X and Y.

Data rate - How quickly the image data is transferred between different sources.

Frame rate- The number of frames per-second in a composition/rendered file.

Keyframe rate - The rate that dictates the beginning and end point on any animation. 

4:3 - Standard size for any traditional television or computer monitor


16:9 - HD (high definition) video in the UK or any digital broadcast TV in the US

Flash Player - Used to play almost any animation video found on the internet. 

QuickTime is a multiplayer for sound or video that can be used by both an Apple Mac and a Microsoft PC; it can be made in an editing software such as something similar to final cut pro (found on a Mac)

Windows Media Player was developed by Microsoft and is used to play audio/video files (very similar to Quicktime on Macs, Media Player is like a Quicktime for PC)

RealMedia is used to stream audio and video over the internet, like a virtual Media Player or Quicktime available for the internet itself.

The above short film trailer is by YouTuber, Bertie Gilbert.

YouTube supports the formats:

• .MOV
• .MPEG4
• .AVI
• .WMV
• .MPEGPS
• .FLV
• 3GPP
• WebM

Genre

"Genre is an endlessly flexible tool for artists and audiences to understand and define films. It allows filmmakers to connect with the audience most likely to enjoy your work"

I am on the side of this quote. In a world where genre doesn't exist I feel that this quote would describe it in the best way possible. In this hypothetical world, films have to be assessed from scratch with no previous knowledge of what genres are.
The use of the phrase 'endlessly flexible tool' is very much the truth,

48 hour film challenge finished video

COMING SOON

Final video + Evaluation

The corporate promo assignment went okay although I feel it could have gone better, One of my clients gave off a rather negative vibe, it might not have been intentional however but it was not very welcoming.
The editing took around about 2 days which was ideal for me as I had time to work on my other assignments as soon as I completed it.

Overall, I feel like the video went well, the only issues is that I found the assignment itself to be not particularly entertaining although (as if I was in the media industry) I had to put this behind me and carry on as such a mindset is not professional. If I was to do the assignment again, I would plan ahead more, pre-production has never been my strong point so I would work on that.
Also I would aim to be more professional in meetings with the client and discussing things with the client over email as I was told using the greeting 'howdy' in a business email is frowned upon as opposed to a 'I am writing to you to confirm...'

With regards to the editing of the video, I would cut a few shots (as told to by the client) if I were to redo it as some of them linger for far too long or not long enough. Text would have also helped bump up the grade as there were no titles as to what part of the course it was however I aimed to make said video as a promotion for the course as a whole, not individual aspects of it. I know now this was a bad move.

In conclusion, the assignment required a professional look into tasks like the ones set in the media industry that had to be tackled in a just-as professional manner and not treated as merely an assignment on a college course, but as a job in the real world. I feel I did not meet these requirements, I was unprofessional and did not treat it as the latter.

Other Corperate Promos

The above video if for a graphic design studio known as 'Graphistudio'.
It uses royalty-free music as a background score, interviews staff members while showing a variety of things that take place at Graphistudio.
I plan to take all three elements from this particular corporate promo, changing only one; I too will use royalty-free music as a background score, I will also show a variety of things that take place at the college and I will interview staff members/students however I shall only use the audio from said interviews.

The things that make up a corporate promo are always very consistent, they always include interviews with staff members/members of the public/people who are linked with what needs to be promoted in some way. Corporate promo's also have various shots of things that take place in and around what needs to be promoted (in my case, I shall have various shots of students working)
It is possible for those who make corporate promos outside of the company, to get hired by said company due to their work.

Other Briefs

We have been tasked with many different assignments, all were presented to us in different ways.
For the Stig promo, we were briefed verbally; Perry Mccarthy came into the college and told us about the project himself. We were asked to create a promotion for his version of the Stig. In my opinion I prefer this form of brief, we were given complete creative control and had no boundaries, we were not told what he wanted, Perry just let us do what we wanted as long as it involved the black version of the Stig. (the one he portrayed)

Another brief we were given was through emails, our clients for the corporate promo contacted us through email, we then replied via email. However this particular method of briefing wasn't the best. Granted during the assignment a vocal brief also took place however the time and location for it was arranged via email, a downside. Personally I prefer vocal briefs as when emailing it can be difficult to use the right words without being too informal. Also face-to-face meetings are more relaxed than emailing back and forth.

Over the course of the corporate promo we were also tasked with research about film festivals and their requirements in order to find out what we would need to do/have done if we desired to have one of our films shown in said festival.

Any/All pre-production

Questions to ask:

Could you give a brief description of what you do?

How long have you wanted to work with children?

Why do you do this? what is it about child care that appeals to you? 

How long have you been doing this for?


 I will begin the promo with a shot of the college logo, we will hold on this for a while until the shot fades into a wide shot students working. Next, a shot of the hallway as the audio from the interview with Sam Ford plays. The audio will continue until the appropriate cut-off time; when the next interview audio clip will begin.

Motion Tracking Mountain

To do this effect I was required to edit both of the elements together, an image and a video. For the image I used photoshop to feather out the edges so it would blend better into the video footage.
Next motion tracking was required to make sure the mountain followed the movement of the camera.

Film Fesival

We were required to research film festivals.
It began as "Gay's Own Pictures' in 1987.
Having been a two week festival for many years, the festival was shortened to a week in 2011, then 10 days in 2012.

Schedule for the Corporate Video

Business meetings must be had every week up until the deadline date, this is necessary in order to discuss what is happening with the project every week with no problems.

Plan to film every couple of weeks in order to get a variety of different styles of teaching and classes.
The hand-in date is the 15th February (week commencing) The plan is to film Wednesday (2 hours) edit a rough cut on Friday, film any extra filler shots when ever possible, and finally hand in.

A majority of the content will be based around interviews (which will be overlaid as narration on filler shots; cutting back to the actual interviewees every so often)

Those interviewed will consist of students and staff, the interview itself will consist of basic questions about the course and opinions. 

Specific Dates:

- Every week - Business meeting with client

- 24th January - complete questions for interviews

- 31st January - Shot list / storyboard

-31st January - Location report.

- 6th February - Filming 9am and 2pm

-12th February - filming if not enough footage is gathered.

- 7th February - first rough edit of video complete, send to client.

-7th - 14th February - changes to video if client requires any.

- 15th February - Hand in final edit on this date 

UPDATE 31/01/13:
Had a meeting with the clients today. Arranged filming dates and times; during the lessons of Jane and Sam I will shoot filler footage of students working/take students out of the lesson to interview them (once the appropriate paper work has been completed) In Jane's lesson the students will be making bottles and bathing babies. The students will be painting windows in their lesson with Sam. This will be ideal for me to get a variety shots of things that take place on the course.


Interviewees:
Students
Sam?

UPDATE 07/02/13:
Have been emailing my clients and have finally got round to filming. I plan to edit soon and do a rough cut/final version.

Formal Elements of Motion Graphics

Doctor Who - 50 years teaser trailer

2D elements - Multiple promotional images took during production of various eras of the show.
These elements were then put on the X, Y and Z axis and added into a montage of various characters from the shows current production and history moving onto then leaving the screen as the camera slowly zooms past.

3D elements - The advert finishes with the inclusion of 3D elements (i.e The sonic screwdriver, Matt Smith and the text at the end) In some cases 3D elements are blended with 2D elements by transitions so subtle they are almost unnoticeable (0.23) they were again on the X and Y axis but also the Z as the Tom Baker GCI model revolves as the camera pans by.

Alpha Channels - Information about colour in After Effects is stored within three channels: red, green and blue. An image can include an invisible fourth channel too, this is known as an alpha channel and it contains information on transparency. Sometimes, such an image is referred to as an RGBA image, indicating that it also has an alpha channel as well as the ordinary channels. An image with no alpha channel is simply called a RGB image. 

Mattes - When you look at an alpha channel in the composition panel of After Effects; white indicates complete opacity, black is complete transparecy and grey is a little transparency. Mattes would have been used for everything you see in this advertisement except in the background (that being completely CGI and/or stock footage) as Matt Smith would have been acting against a greenscreen and everything else was either images (the original background would be white on an alpha channel)

Keyframes - Within animation, keyframes are used to pin-point every single little bit of movement an object makes. The less keyframes, the less organised the movement is. However the more keyframes a composition has then the smoother the animation will be. Due to the sheer amount of animation in this advert, keyframes had to be used for every image featured. It is likely that the software used tracked the movements of the fake camera and generated keyframes to correspond with them.

Composite Modes - In the Modify menu there are many options that allow you to combine two (or more) images, this is what is known as a composite mode. 

Layers - Elements that make up a composition, any image, video or audio element in a composition is called a Layer. 

Stanley Kubrick Stuffs

Each one of Kubrick's movies had subtle visual elements that made the audience realise it was one of his. For example, it was known that Kubrick used one-point perspective meaning that the shot would be focused on something in the background while the scene happened in the foreground; it was this technique for which he became famous. He also used a POV (point of view) shot at least once every film.

Kubrick's films are almost always about humans and their gradual regression;

'The Killing' showed a character by the name of Johnny Clay, a man who planned to rob two-million dollars from the counting room at a race track but untimely ends up getting arrested. "The Shining" showed the character Jack Torrance who stays in a hotel, goes insane, attempts to murder his family but ends up freezing to death in the snow and lastly "A Clockwork Orange" is about Alex Delarge, a teen who loves murder and rape, goes through a curing process but it is heavily implied he regresses to his earlier stage of murder and rape at the end of the film.

Kubrick's most recurring cast member in all of his films was his own daughter Vivian Kubrick who made music scores for him, acted in the form of cameos and even directed her own documentary on the making of 'The Shining".

Overall Kubrick directed 16 movies from 1951 - 1999

Brief and Responce

Clients Brief:

Company: Destruction Production

Contact: Eve Isle

Name of project: Murder

Purpose: Training

Requirements:
Include bombs and weapons
go through Health and safety

Audience: Terrorists                                      

Distribution: Training room

Time: 1 minute


My Response:

Company: Destruction Production

Contact:  Eve Isle

Name of project: ACME

Purpose: Training

Requirements:
-Include various products which you sell
 -Go through Health and Safety

Audience: New recruits                              

Distribution: Training room

Time: 5 minutes