Friday, 20 January 2017

Cooking with Peri - TV Studio Project - Diary entries

01/12/16

We began our first day on the children's TV studio Project. We first began with Laura pitching her idea on the show we would be making, this consisted of the characters and the information that would be presented within the show such as an educational theme. it would be aimed at children under 6 because of the language and the way the presenter acts in the show which will be very child-friendly. We then began delegating the job roles so everyone knew exactly what they needed to do, I was given the job of the producer which meant I needed to organised the entire project with the help of the director Laura. For the pre-production, I decided to split it among the group so as to make it quicker and easier to get completed. The work I split among the group was (josh) risk assessment, (Nico) location recce, (Conor) Scriptwriter, (Laura) Storyboard, (Me) shooting schedule, (Lucy) floor plan, (Me) shot list.

08/12/16

After giving out the jobs for the pre-production I began organising the shooting schedule so we had everything mapped out and to make everything fit together. The first thing I needed to be sorted was the market scene which needed permission from Ashton Market, I managed to find the number and gave them a call to organize a date for filming, Unfortunately the manager of the market wasn't in so I left a message and was told that they would call me back and everything would be fine.

16/12/16

Today I finished the shooting schedule and Josh and Nico had finished their work for the pre-production, I then got a call back from the Ashton market confirming that everything would be okay to film and that the 9th of January was booked so they were aware we were coming. A disagreement occurred and because of this the decision came to me on what to do, as the show would include the making of a sandwich the decision was to change the ''ham'' to chicken as to make it more inclusive to children in other cultures that do not eat ham. We also finally had the puppet that was going to be used within the show and we named it peri 

20/12/16

 Lucy had finished her floor plans and Conor had finished the script for Laura to look at and make changes. The Christmas holidays was soon approaching so Conor was given the task got gathering the materials for the set that we needed to build over the holidays. Conor and laura began talking more about the script and the changes she wanted to implement and I did more work on the organisation and prep of the show such as the market scene and making sure all the studio stuff was prepared for us to use after we return from our Christmas holidays. 

05/01/17

As the holidays past, I began the treatment and the call sheets and began looking at the revised script that Laura had created from Conor's script, after reading it through I was very pleased with it and was ready to begin filming as soon as we got the talent and the set built. However, I had struggled to find a suitable actor to play the role of presenter for the show and as the days were flying by this because more and more difficult. I messaged some groups that I had found on facebook to see if those communities would be able to act in our show as well as people I knew but so I have had no one be available for the job. 

09/01/17

Today I and laura began searching for a puppeteer as we had not found anyone yet to play the part of the puppet. we found someone and were waiting in to see if he was available for the shooting days I hate selected. we also began getting ready to film the VTs. we met by meeting the talent that Laura had found. we began by filming the outside scenes and then went into the inside of the market with Conor as a stand in because of the fact we did not have a puppeteer or a voice for the puppet so we improvised for the time being. After I had supervised the shots and all was completed that day we had a problem with the legal requirements, the market had not received word that we were going to film that day so I mentioned that we talked to the manager and that the paperwork will be on its way as to show we did book the place to film there.

10/01/17

Today we got the team together and began building the set, Conor and laura provided the materials to build the set such as the framework which was made of wood and was provided with my Conor's grandad and the kitchen utilities, paint and cardboard to construct the set were provided by laura. I noticed that some of the crew members were not putting 100% effort into the construction. Conor was cutting the wood to the correct sizes and laura was making the worktops and fridge, I was helping cut the boxes with josh however lucy was not really helping out as much as I had liked. Because of this we all got together and had a discussion on the time constraints we were under in completing the set. After the talk, everyone was prepared to pull their weight and help out whenever needed. 

11/01/17 

Today I did more work on the cardboard worktop following Laura's instructions and how to do it and making sure I wasn't wasting any cardboard of messing up the set. we also began painting the wooden set to make it look more colourful and friendly for the effect of the children's shows you see on TV, we chose a light purple colour for this reason. After we had a rough set laid out we all began getting used to the roles we had given out. As I was the producer I sat in the gallery with and manned the teleprompter to make sure everything was running smoothly and to get used to the use of it as I had never used it before. 

16/01/17

we began the filming of the real show. we finally managed to get a puppeteer to play the part of peri, i had begun to have issues with the teleprompter as it would crash or not respond to controls however I managed to fix this with the help of the rest of the crew when filming began it went extremely well, however, there was a member of our group that was sometimes unreliable and that he really needed to sort it out as it was bringing the whole production down. I had a very big confrontation with this person but everything was eventually resolved and he pulled his weight for the rest of that day of filming. the actors worked very well together and the communication between the two felt very realistic and easy to watch and follow. 

17/01/17

Today was the last day of filming and two members of the production team were late which meant we had to delay the filming. This was causing an issue because the cast memebrs were on a time constraint so we needed to film as fast as possiable as to not go over that time. We then began having issues with the sound as it wasn't getting picked up properly by the mic and then began making noises we tried to resolve the issue as much as we could but some noises can be heard in the final take because of the time constartes we had for that day. However we did manage to get the filming done to a good standard and everyone did a fantastic job.    

18/01/17

Today Conor began the edit of the production. I did not follow him editing but I did check in with him to see how it was going at to ask if there were any issues. There was, unfortunately, an issue with some of the footage as it contained a picture of a topless man while we filmed the market scenes for the VTs, This could have been averted if we were more observant of our surroundings. Conor was able to put a blur over the man but it needed a lot of work to look cleaner and less noticeable.  

19/01/17

Today was the last day for the edit and Conor was doing a fantastic job in making sure every fit together nicely, Conor informed me that all that needed finishing was the music and that he was finding some now for the final product. I was very happy with how this production turned out and how everyone the majority of the time pulled their weight and did their job effectively and efficiently. i had a amazing time as producer and felt i did the best of my ability for the job i was given. 




Thursday, 19 January 2017

Women Climb Diary Entry 17th of November to 24th of November

17th of November

Today we started are filming our first scenes which was at the house location. The first scene we began to film was the bedroom scene that involved the actor daydreaming about running, My job was to capture the ambiance during this sequence to make the scene have a realistic feel and to make make the scene boring and flat. After a few tries this worked perfectly however it was also a challenge as there where children present downstairs in the house, this caused me to be very informative with Nico (Director) about if we picked up any noises from downstairs as to make sure the sound was of good quality and not disrupted by outside sounds. we then moved to the kitchen scene where i was needed to capture the sound of running water and washing up, at first i thought that the sound i was recording was very overpowering and would not be of good quality when used to after so to fix this i informed Nico that i would need to check the audio levels and move to boom mic further away as correct this. We finished this scene and moved on to the last scene which was the front room scene, one of the objects that would create a lot of sound was the hoover that Nico wanted to use in the scene to have some action and movement. As to not let the sound be completely ruined by this i moved back as adjusted the sound levels on the field recorder so the sound would be at the correct level of sound and would be intact.

After recording that day i decided to research more tips on how to improve my skills, i found a website that has a short list that showed me the basics on what to do to getting better sound and having an easier experience ( https://blogs.articulate.com/rapid-elearning/4-simple-tips-for-recording-high-quality-audio/).  I learnt that you can have complete control over the sounds that you pick up and the environments you work in. by using this information provided by this list i can better improve in the future to help with contamination with the audio and to get the correct ambiences. I also learnt
to get the best audio you need the best equipment, the collages equipment was very usefull and some of the best you can buy. This made me realise that when i record sound in the future i will need to buy and obtain good sound equipment for the job.



22nd of November

Today we all got the crew together and went to Dovestones Reservoir  to film the next few scenes of the montage which was the running and overtaking scenes. When we arrived Conor gave me the job of recording ambiance for the film so i gathered my equipment and walked of to a location far from the car-park and higher up away from everyone as to not capture natural noises. When i reached my location i calibrated my field recorder and began recording the ambiance unfortunately i soon realized there was a background noise behind the ambiance so i began looking through the possible problems or that the field recorder had malfunctioned. After much thinking and checking i discovered it was a massive nearby waterfall that was causing the problem so i walked back to the group to help out and inform Conor and Nico of the problem. As the far away running scenes didn't need sounds i helped out whenever it was necessary. As we got further into Dovestones i was able to get a much better and clearer recording of the ambiance that we needed without the background noise. After i had recorded my 2 minutes of ambiance we packed up and returned to the car to finish up filming and return to collage.

24th of November

Today we went to Debdale Park to finish of the recording of the project which was the biking scenes. We began by finding a very secluded park of the park that would help with the sound recorded and that no people would spoil the shots. When recording the first bike scenes i worked with Nico to get the correct sound for that scene and made sure the audio was not contaminated by outside noises and the sounds we might create because of the locations we had to be to get the shots we needed. As we progressed around the park we unfortunately had interruptions a few times by a certain group of people, we where patient and continued on with the recordings but this became annoying to us but the only way to fix this was to continue with the filming. after we had walked around the park and completed all are recording and audio we went back to the car to return to collage so we could begin editing and reviewing the audio.


Sunday, 4 December 2016

Diary Entry Week 21/11/16 to 25/11/16 Radio Production

Monday 21st of November

Today it was our last day to get the draft done so me and josh where putting our full concentration on the edit to get a draft complete as soon as possible so that we could get feedback on how to improve the overall quality of the production. We both worked together on a large majority of fixing the audio levels and took opinions onboard of the scenes that we edited as to get a better understanding of the quality of the bits we worked on and how to fix/improve upon them. We both where very tired after completing the production and really needed feedback on how to improve the parts that really needed it as we has put are all into that first draft to make all the noises fit together and create a real atmosphere so we where excited for the feedback but also exhausted as we worked for very long to complete the draft to the best of out abilities.

Tuesday 22nd of november

Today we sent the draft off to charlene for the feedback we really needed hoping that the draft we presented was up to the standards that see expected (https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwkxF0H_NJkDRnZmenNIUmFrNGc/view). I personally felt very happy with what we had done and was less worried than is was in the past few days because of time constraints with the project. with time left till friday to complete the project I was very confident in the abilities of me and josh to get this at the bast standard possible for the final edit.

Thursday/friday 24th/25th of November

On late wednesday we recived the feedback we needed from Charlene ( https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1ZxOJhUwfVqTlVWVHNhbWd3Vlk/view) this was extreamly helpful as it showed is what exacly needed to be improved upon. This was surprisingly a very uplifting piece of feedback as it gave me confidence in my abilities and the current quality of our production.

Nico gave us a very rough list of things to improve on which we followed as well as Charlenes list of needed improvements. Me and josh got right into the edit and focused on getting better sound effects as well as more ambience to add to the diary entries that tom evans records. The three biggest changes where the introduction, re recorded dialogue and the biggest change the ending. When we made changes to the introduction we decided that it would make more logical sense to have the news report after the Russians invade as to give you a better understanding of what just happened. A large section of audio also needed to re recorded as the voice acting had less emotion and needed to have a better quality, me and josh went to the studio and recorded a better version of the dialogue. The last big change was the ending and this was the biggest change, me and josh made a decision and decided to change the ending of the production as the original didn't fit well with the way the production was going, we knew that this was going against Nicos original idea but we asked around and knew that this would be a significant improvement in the overall quality.







Diary Entry Week 7/11/16 to 11/11/15 Radio Production

Monday 7th of November

Today we did alot of thinking how how to improve our current ideas, the reason we decided to take a break and brainstorm is because we all thought it was a good idea to step back and evaluate the situation we had. we all evaluated the things that we had done for example the script to see if we had any new ideas and changes we could implement to improve upon the idea. we also began setting up our pre-production so that it would be all ready for use to use when the time came (https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0Bx0G2iRgsM_mMnNoLXFHaUhPVWs) to implament the pre-production as well as the production items needed such as sound clips.

Tuesday 8th of November

Today we began the recordings for the main production. All of us got organised and ready to be in the recording studio on time to get the bulk of the recording done as soon as we could as to have more time incase we needed to have any changes as well as the use of an contingency plan. Unfortunately we had to use the contingency plan with the voice actors as they required fees to do the voice acting we needed from them. The recording session went better than we expected and we got alot of the audio we needed for that day and well well prepared to record more in the free time we had. Because the voice actors required fees I took a part in the production as the young soldier instead of the original voice actor. Dan our teacher was also needed as a contingency plan as Sarg as the original voice actor also wanted fees so we went ahead with this in mind. We needed to wait to record tom evan's lines as the voice actor would only be available at the weekend. because of this we was limited on how much we could record because of the bulk of the project being tom evans.

When working in the industry especially sound you need to know exactly how to get the best high quality sound you can so that it sounds professional and clean to listen too. Sound in a radio production is the main and key part to making it as best as possible with the equipment you have to you disposal. One of the main problems with sound is that people have the mentality to fix any problem they have had in post production which should not be a way to record sound as you need to get it as clear as possible and sound can not always be fixed in post production. Doing re records is very important as if any background noise gets picked up by the microphone the scene needs to be re done. In the industryu connars are not cut to get things done and things need to be taken with great care when dealing with them rather than rushing to get a finished product out the door (http://www.raindance.org/top-10-donts-of-sound-recording-for-film/)


Diary Entry Week 31/10/16 to 4/11/16 Radio Production

Monday 31st of October

Today we decided that we should look for voice actors to star in our radio production to give it a level of quality but before we got to that Charlene and Helen wanted to pitch our idea. we began talking about the general idea and the narrative, the idea is about a young soldier that has been drafted as a result of Russia attacking the United Kingdom in an act of war. The story follows this soldier as he travels with his battalion to London and the challenges he faces. We then discussed the targets demographics and the genre as well as what radio show we would host the war drama on. After we pitched the ideas we began our work of looking for voice actors, the first place we found was North West Actors (http://www.northwestactors.co.uk/) which had a range of verity of talent to choose from. After looking through a lot of different actors we found one that stood out and would be a great addition to our radio production (http://www.northwestactors.co.uk/pages/male_page.html?12) ,Mr Mulhern being an ex-army sergeant and would have the experience and voice of how to speak and react in the situations our sergeant character would have to do. While i was looking for actors I realised I needed to get better acquainted in how to hire and find capable actors for my job and future productions I will be working on. I went out to look for useful groups to use for actors and found the Manchester Voluntary Actors &  Filmmakers which is a closed group with over 700 members that I used to see if I could find more voice actors however it is a closed group so you must be approved to use it. (https://www.facebook.com/groups/1639415332998687/)

Tuesday 1st of November

On this day we decided to delegate roles to make the process easier, Nico decided that I would continue the job I was doing earlier and keep trying to get actors on board while Josh looked for sound effects and Nico continued writing his scripts. while I was looking for more groups for the production I decided to email Mr Mulhern to see if he would be willing to do voice acting for us. after I sent the email I decided to help Josh out with finding the sound effects which was rather difficult as many of the sounds were very fake and artificial and others didn't work for what we were looking for. A site we both found was (http://soundbible.com/) which has a wide range of sound for us to use for our production.

Sound effects are very important in creating a real world that's alive rather than just your character's speech within your radio production. One of these is the ability to find the correct sounds for the job however you cant always find everything so you have to make them yourself. similar to a foley artist who make sound effects using certain object we would also need to replicate the sounds that we needed such as a large gun being moved around or a rocket launcher being thrown to the main character. This video help me ut very much in seeing how much goes into creating such sounds for production (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHAIgJsMoXw), this video helped show me how much detail and effort you need to make these sound but theu can be replicated by object that can be found anywhere and becuase of this we had an opertunity to create sounds for our radio production like these foley artists do for big budget film in the industry.