CMP1014 Creative Technologies 2006

I used the lecture notes for compression, what to include and what to expect.

The virtual Campus for the deadlines and brief.

Websites for research:-

http://www.i-motus.com/video-encoding.htm#encodingworks
http://www.videomaker.com/article/8146/
http://www.videomaker.com/article/10103/
http://people.csail.mit.edu/tbuehler/video/codecs/avi.html#xvid
www.10secfilmfest.com

No books were used.

Knowledge from Media Studies A-level

I am not going to submit this 10 seconds film to the website 10secfilmfest. This is mainly due to copyright issues, which i will explain later. However if i did submit the piece there are guidelines that i have to stick to in order to submit it. So for example it needs to be in the following:-

MPEG 4 (compression)
720x576 pixels
25 fps
PAL

or to use Quicktime instead of MPEG 4.

These are the rules in order to submit and that everything else is also your own work and that it does not break the laws of copyright.

Now the reason i am not submitting is due to the fact that the soundtrack that i picked is from Linkin Park, called "One Step Closer". This is copyrighted so i cannot submit to the website due to this simple reason. I tried to search the internet for royalty free soundtracks, but my search for the right type of music and actually aquiring the soundtrack instead of buying a CD or subscribing proved to be too difficult so i stuck with what i had and found the right track to go along with the sequence.

In the future, if i was going to do this again i would aim to look and keep looking, or ask an audio student to help make my own soundtrack so that i get exactly what i want for a particluar sequence instead of editing an soundtrack that is already there and molding it to suit the piece. This is something i have learned throughout this project.

I think that it has gone very well. The piece has been imported and works both on DVD as well as CD. Also that the music molds well with the sequence in which creates the excitement as well as the tension. The way in which the audience can make there own mind up with the ending, many people i think might nt possibly like like, but i think that it is something different as its up the the minds of the audience, gives somehting different. So this could work out to be very good, or very bad, but i await to see how the presentation goes.

Many things i think could of gone differently. For example i could of done the sequnce slightly different by getting rid of like the corridor shot, the point of view and adding abit more shots to add to the storyline, because if the title was not there, as in the audeince missed it for example, it may not make that much sense to them. So i could of left the shot of the victims face and the bounty on the piece of paper on the desk could of done this well.

I was thinking of going down the route of comedy. I could of made the voice over say "His mission is to kill Bob", as the name Bob is short but the tone of the voice at that name could add abit of excitement. The increae in speed of some of the shots, which some already there such as the introduction of the hunter, the pan shot, the point of view shot would of made it very good. Some of the shots that i took i perpursly done, were to do this on purpose, such as the fighting scenes were down to be bad, just in case i did want to go down the route of comedy.

Lastly i considered as i said before about using AVID as another source of editing. I could of done the same edit in that program as well, not only to getuse to it, as it is a well known program, but to compare both edits to see the different types of transition, the types of compression through the different use of codecs. This would of then trained me up abit in both programs so i could compare but also to increase as i said the experience, if i have use both i could put down both on my CV to make me 'shine' out abit more from other people, allowing me if i didn't get the job i wanted, more wide ranges of jobs that is out there.

Exporting video onto CD and DVD.
Process: -

On Adobe Premier 6.0, click file export timeline, then movie. From there give a name and then click setting to change the codec compression, type such as quicktime microsoft avi etc. Then click next to change the other settings. Click ok and then it makes the file.

I did some research on the different types of compression, using codecs, the process of encoding and decoding. I used the following sites to make my decision on the type of ones to use: -

http://www.i-motus.com/video-encoding.htm#encodingworks
http://www.videomaker.com/article/8146/
http://www.videomaker.com/article/10103/
http://people.csail.mit.edu/tbuehler/video/codecs/avi.html#xvid

The main options i have is to create a Quicktime file format. It has a low compression ratio (2:1). It requires not hardware and keeps lossless compression. Due to the fact that it has low compression, means it needs a large capacity in order to store it, and also due to this needs speed, in which case its not ideal for a CD but could be fine to use on a DVD.

MPEG-1 which was released in 1993 (Moving Picture Experts Group) was a standard way of compressing video. It being very popular and also windows comes with a MPEG-1 decoder as standard. Its used for video on CDs and also easy to convert, which maes t a good one to use for the CD if the option is there.

MPEG-2 is also popular, used for high quality video in which would be very useful to use for videos on DVD, another option to use.

Also i have been told a different way of doing this. As it has to play on the university machines, why not be sure that it will play. I will create different coypies, but i have been told by a friend that leaving it uncompressed when exporting, downloading Windows Media Encoder 7.0, and then encode the file that was created using this software. This create a Windows Media Video file and then it can be played on any machine that has Windows Media Player, and as it comes standard with Windows, it should work.

I tried exporting the file this way. It was over 400MB, and using the Windows encoder, it compressed it down to just over 4MB, so there is a big difference. Not much Quailty has been lost when watching it, the sound is fine and will work fine on a DVD. I also tried it on a CD and ran straight of the disk fine with no problems and therefore looks fine. However to be on the safe side, i will create a second one which will have lower pixels and frames per seconds so that it diffiniatly work.

So i will try the different codecs, mainly the ones i have explained. I don't think i will use the codecs such as Xvid etc as these are not established on every machine and may reqired to be downloaded of the interent and therefore not be suitable for this project.

Final Codecs used.

Microsoft DV AVI
Microsoft DV AVI (changed the pixels and the FPS for CD)
Quicktime - Two different compressors for CD and DVD.
Uncompressed - Compressed using Windows Media Encoder series 9.

I did four different copies for each DVD and CD and placed them all on the disk, so that it will work if the file falls corrupt or doesn't work for some reason.

As I said I am going to use Adobe Premier 6.0 that is installed on the machines in the games lab to edit my video footage. I got a firewire lead from the support office in order to transfer the footage across. I turned the camera on and turned it to the video mode to play the footage and in Premier I did capture, then capture movie. I selected the model of the camcorder, selected the highest data rate, also 25 fps and at the start of the project selected PAL for windows, as I am going to create the footage using PAL so it can be played. I then imported the footage and came to about 5 minutes, and taking up nearly a Gig space on the hard drive, quite a large file indeed.

Creating Project.

Capturing Video.

Now because I imported it as one complete clip, I dragged the file into the video1 in the timeline in order to start separating the footage into clips. Using the preview window and the razor tool I cropped the sections that I needed, sometimes having to zoom in on the timeline in order to get exact frames, copied and pasted them into the bins and named them. I organised and created bins and named them after the number shot and what the shot was. Because I had more then one take of a shot I placed the number of the same type of shot under the same bin, giving a sense of organisation. This made it very easy to find the shots I needed and drag them into the timeline.

Image of the cutting and organising process.

I removed the all the footage off the timeline so that I can now place the right shots in order. I found out that when I extended the footage by clicking and dragging It just played the next footage that followed, so by using the razor tool, the in and out points where automatically place and extending the footage just moved the out point which is useless to me. I used the help feature and the internet to look up, and found out how to change the duration and the speed of the footage, simply by right clicking on the clip in the timeline and changing the percentage of the speed and the time in the duration if I wanted to change this.
I used this feature for the first shot for the paper which will have the victims face on it as the target, and as it was only 2 frames long I simply changed the percentage of the shot a lot lower so it would last that much longer. I also increased the speed of the introduction of the hunter and decided on the pan shot as this looked the best, increased it by another 50% so it would not take up much time. I then clicked and dragged the rest of the shots in order from the bins and then noticed it was 4 seconds over the 10 seconds limit, so some major editing was in order to make it exactly 10 seconds. I decided to cut out the image of the victim on the piece of paper completely, speeded up the pan shot slightly.
As I have put several blank title shots in between the punch and the knee shot I just changed them to make them a little shorter. Some of the middle shorts of the sequence such as the hunter walking in, the point of view shot as well as the walking through the door shot slightly shorted. After this it actually came to 9.3 seconds, lower than I expected. To correct this I simply just modified the blank video at the end and extended it slightly to make it a 10 second piece.

Image of the editing so far, with the shots in order and reached 10 seconds.

I then added the credits at the end and a title page at the beginning showing the title of the piece, which is 'The Bounty Hunter', after all i did take a while to come up with one, simple but effective. At the end, who participated, filmed ,edited and the music track. The way I have gone is done the more of a serious route in which a voice over will be added saying “His Mission Is To Kill”, in a deep slow tone to add tension, while the soundtrack is playing not so loud o it can be heard, and then the music kicks in, as in fast paced, again to add the tension, keep the audience excited, a common technique used in the media, espically in films. For the music i took the first part of the music of the soundtrack, and at the end decided to put part of the sound, the ending where it says break and then the music cuts for the black screen at the end, to top of the tension when its at a high. I cut the music, imported it twice to modify both, the ending where it says 'Break', timed to when both of them hit each other, but at the same time is synchronised with the previous soundtrack that is playing, took a while but i think it came out very well. I edited the sound of both audio clips, so that the voice over is louder, i amplified it as well as the second part of the soundtrack, when the beats kicks in after the voiceover so it makes more of an impact.

Image of the music edited in and finished.

I didn't use many types of transitions, actually ust the one, a simple cut, as its a fast paced sequence and when seen in films they just use the cuts, as its quick and keeps the pace of the sequence the same, and to add to the speed a few quick shots in between the longer shots, such as that when the hunter walks into the room, which is just a split second. Now that the piece is finished all that is needed to be done is to show a few people the sequence and then get some opinions of what its like and then to finally export it into a format using different codecs etc so that it can be played of a DVD and a CD.

The opinions of my friends say it works well, the music is well timed and sounds correct. However the only problem some people said that it may be abit to much going on, but i think that even though alot is going on, i think its enough for the audience in general to take in and understand, as alot is said in the title of the piece and can be put together in how the piece unfolds.

Well I got a digital camcorder out from the office as well as a tripod. I decided to try a range of shots, which followed the design that I showed as well as other types of shots, just In case I decided that that type of shot didn’t work out, therefore I could use different types. Also if I wanted to do more versions I could change the type of shot for variance.
The overall process went extremely well. Two friends who were living upstairs did the acting and I did the filming. One flat mate called Liam and the other called Craig. Liam was the bounty hunter and Craig was the victim. I asked Liam to dress up, and with that a white shirt, black jacket/ blazer and black trousers and shoes. Along with that I asked him to wear a gold chain around his neck and have the top button undone. This achieved the right expression as in a smart but seriously looking style. A look that means business and also a gangster /cool look, and I think it went well along with his hair also gelled up just to add to the look.
Craig I asked to dress like casual, wearing a t-shirt and casual trousers, as he’s meant to be in his home, relaxing and watching TV. This gave a look of a normal everyday person.

Liam

Craig

The actual filming went as follows. I decided to take a picture of the sheet on a desk of the victim, just filmed a blank sheet as I could add a photo later. I done three different views of the paper slighted different ways and then I could choose the better one later. I decided to take the next shot of the hunter outside for his intro by a door so that the light would shine out to give that slight look of importance, but also because it is dark outside! (As many scenes in the past use dark as murders, killings etc because black, darkness is related to evil, it’s where evil lies and therefore why I used the dark to portray this) I did a straight low angel shot looking up to portray power, a few shots of him with a serious face as well as a smile because at the moment I am not sure to go down the comedy look or to keep with a serious tone, I am doing both so that at the editing phase I could do both, or decide on the one to do. The last shot I did is a pan, which will be speedy up in the editing phase as after all it’s only ten seconds long. The movies such a The Matrix use this feature that works out very well; therefore this is why I am using it.
The next shot after this is the point of view of the hunter walking down the corridor and opening the door. I simply just did two shots of this as it is straight forward. All I did was to ask Liam to hold the camera and walk and make sure his hand was in the shot when opening the door so that it is clearly shown.
After this I then did a shot of Liam walking into the room from inside the room. I did a shot behind the door as he comes in, both a high angel as well as a low angle, however I then did a shot of him coming into the room while the camera is facing the door at a low angle, again portraying power, and decided then that this is the shot I will use, as it will only be a split second which will be a straight cut from this to the next.
The next shot is of the hunter seeing and moving towards the victim that he will have to kill, Again I did several shots of this, keeping with the normal eye level shot, a high angle shot and then a low angle shot. The directions that I took it from was behind the door so that the door behind him is closed so that the link between the last few shots flows as the door will be seen opening several times and look out of sink. But I did one with the shot with the door just to see how it would go when in the editing phase. All the type of different types of shots of the same scene is a two shot, so that both people are featured. Craig the victim was standing by the fridge getting some milk.
I then filmed the action shots, both people approach each other and Liam hit Craig in the stomach but no contact is made and I made sure that no one got hurt as a shot of the words “wack!!” will come up, just to break up the seriousness. This also keeps the audience at a distance, as in many films the audience is taken into the shot, but then distanced, to add to the tension, so I have done exactly the same, a shot bringing the audience closer and then a shot taking them away. I did several of the same shot so that I can choose the best.
I did exactly the same for the kick, however from taking different shots, I thought the one with kneeing the victim looked the best and therefore I think I will use this shot, again no contact a blackout with visual language used. I only did two more shots of the last scene, when both of them hit each other in the face. I was going to use a gun, but there was no toy guns lying around so I decided to make the decisions to just let them hit each other. I think it worked out better this way and people may just say that he could have used the gun in the first place so I will stick at it.

That’s the filming now done, and I thought it went particularly well. The next post will be of my editing, in which I have decided to use Adobe Premier 6.0 which is installed on the machines and don’t need dongles. But if I have enough time I will attempt to use avid as well to get used to it, but both programs are very well known programs and I have decide to use Premier.

Image of the sheet of paper.

Image of the hunter.

Image of the hunters POV.

Image hunter walking in.

Image of the punch.

Image of the knee.

Image of both of them punching.