FINAL - Project: 'Marcus Jefferson's - My Inner World'

(Notes: A problem happened in the uploading process which meant that a while line comes down the right hand side of the screen a few times throughout the film. This was unintentional and is not on the original, something caused this to happen, as it was being uploaded and happened every time.)

Week Twelve.

For the final week of post production, it's been all about finishing up both the essay and film and getting everything completed to a high standard. Once I had the audio completed, I went through the film and finalised all the text and tweaked a bit of the colour and contrast throughout the film to make sure it's to the best that it can be. For the text I still feel that it may be a bit to revealing and let to much of the story unfold to early, loosing some of the surprise for the viewer. But the story needs to progress as the film does and I feel this was the only way I could get it across.

      Here are some shots of a few of my story boards I drew up in the early weeks, my scanner didn't work so I just took a picture of them on my phone. Here are some examples:

Story Board 1 - The Introduction.

Story Board 3 - Streets Sequence.

     Overall I feel the project this term has gone quite smoothly, only facing a few minor problems as the film progressed. I still feel the concept of the film is original and interesting. I have also learnt from some mistakes I've made this term and also from things I've done well to. I will take this on board and make sure my project next term is even better.

Week Eleven.

In the penultimate week leading up to the deadline, work has solely been focused on both post production and starting to evaluate my progress and reflect on my project so far in the essay. I also had a few last minute shots I had to capture, including some close ups and alternative angles for the in house sequence making it a bit more interesting.

    After I sorted out the audio last week through Soundbooth, I took all the audio, cut it up into each section of the film then placed it all into the Logic Pro file where I had already been messing around with different sound effects. I then fine tuned these, using just a fraction of a variety of different effects to create my sound.

Heres an example of the sound I've created. The clip consists of sounds of the toilet, the shower and then the washing machine. Effects I used to create these were a Channel EQ, Compressor, Autofilter, Space Designer, a Pitch Shifter and a Flanger. Take a listen.

 Householdsoundstest by Dynamik

Bare in mind this is still a work in progress and the sounds will probably be edited further before deadline. But I wanted to display a taster of what the sound is going to be like. To create the washing machine effect, along with adding a number of other plug ins, what I did was, with auto filter, I latched the lfo rate and then manipulated it while playing the sound back, I sped it up as the washing machine went faster and then slowed it down just as the machine did to stop. Creating the sort of helicopter sound which really intensified the noise of the washing machine.

As for editing the footage has all been put together and now needs some tweaking to get it right. The text also needs a lot work, as it needs to tell a story while not revealing to much about why your hearing like you are. This information will all be displayed in the last shot of the film.

Finally, I've been trying to create my project to fit with the surrealist movement of film, as this is quite an unordinary piece of work. While researching the topic I came across a great quote from Linda Willams in her book Figures of Desire: A theory and analysis of surrealist film. She described the key objective veyr well by stating that 'the main goal of all surrealist art is the liberation of the expressive powers of the unconscious from the inhibitory and rational powers of  the conscious mind.' (1981, p.41)

Week Ten.

I found a big issue with my audio this week. Because you have to plug the microphone into either the left or right channel, and use the camera microphone for the other, it creates a very unbalanced sound, having one output record very loud and clear and the other only picking up fragments of the audio. As my film's key element is sound this couldn't do and so I needed a way to fix this. How I went around doing this was to 'render and replace' each sound file on Adobe Premiere to Adobe Soundbooth CS5, and it came up like this:



As you can see, the sound has been picked up perfectly on the left channel but only fractionally on the right. To fix this problem firstly was to turn the audio into one mono track, so both left and right would be merged into one. This looked as so:



Now the audio is even but only coming through one track, which is not right for film, audio for film needs to be in stereo, so to solve this I had to save the file and convert it to stereo so it finally ended up looking like this:



Now the transition is complete and the audio is both stereo and even, now it can be put back into Premiere and then later on edited through Logic to create my fictional hearing. I had to do this for every clip on my film, but now the problem is sorted.

Furthermore I gathered a few more shots over the weekend and now my film looks ready to complete the structure and start sound editing. I may need to grab a few more shots over the next few days to pad the film out but other then that the filming's done. The duration is only seven and a half minutes long, it may be eight by the time I add a few more scenes though. Its not quite ten but I feel its more effective this way, I think it might of dragged on a bit to long if it was the full ten minutes and I feel my point is made in the space of time I've used.

Week Nine.

Over the past two weeks I have really got on with both production and post production so get this film into motion. To start with I done some post production work on the shots I had already filmed (see the edit preview) to see what I had done so far and what more I needed to film. I found I had mainly collected most of the middle montage shots which connect the film together but not much of the main content that when edited with sound, would be the interesting parts of the film. To solve this I went out onto fishponds high street with a camera to film some building works for the climax to the outdoors section. I had a few problems while conducting this shoot.  Firstly both the camera and tripod I rented had faults, mainly the tripod's spirit level was broken which meant we had to line it up by eye which wasn't perfect. Also the builders I went to film where being typically British and not working much. Which meant I had to spend a long type collecting a range of mundane short clips to put together and then in post production, include some added sound to make it more interesting.

       Another important scene I filmed was the concluding light scene for the end of the film. For this I used a special light which displays a constantly changing stream of red and blue lights across the room. With myself sitting in the corner of the shot, looking out onto the light, I placed a a backlight behind me which created a nice shadow of myself on the wall, placed on the other side of the screen, fitting into the rule of thirds nicely. Problems I found filming this were that the light I was using wasn't as bright as I hoped, and I couldn't make the background light to strong otherwise it would over power it completely, so the shot looks slightly grainy. I'm going to have to spend a while tweaking the colour and contrast in post production which will hopefully sort this problem out slightly.

     So I almost got all the shots I need now. Most of the introduction, outside section and the conclusion are complete. I'll be having another filming session over the weekend to get the last ones, mostly indoor shots of appliances and other loud objects, for the indoor section. This should be able to be filmed without to many problems.

As my film relies on the power of montage for it's visual shots, I researched around montage to gain a better understanding. One example is from Sergei Eisenstein (considered a forefather of montage) in his 1925 film Battleship Potemkin and one scene in particular, the Odessa Steps Sequence. Throughout this scene Eisenstein uses a fast edited range of shots from long establishing shots which set the scene and capture the size of the action. Combined with lots of close ups displaying the people's emotions as they run for safety and deal with the death that surrounds them. This is also all done without speech and so the power of the scene is told through the music, a very select number of subtitles and a very well put together montage. As my film will also not include speech, this is a great example to watch so gather ideas for my own film and how to express emotion without any script.

This is the clip.

Edit Preview.

Heres a preview of the editing for one of the first sequences to introduce the character. This is still a rough edit and needs some tightening up plus some work on the quality and edits themselves. There is also no sound yet because that is still a work in progress.

Test Edit.

Heres a test edit for how I think I'll be creating the sound and displaying the text creatively. I choose to use the basic scene of the kettle boiling to see how much more interesting I could make. This is it:


Untitled from Peter Bailey on Vimeo.

Week Seven

This weeks been all about filming, I rented out the camera for a few days and got a lot of shooting done. Firstly on my own, I shot a series of short clips of myself getting ready for an average day. These will be used to create a montage at the beginning of the film to introduce the character, also displaying a series of text to describe his story. I also shot a a few scenes containing household items which produce noise to see how I can manipulate the sound and include it in the film. While doing this, I attempted to create some depth of field while shooting the kettle but I couldn't grasp it enough to use, the background was blurred but the kettle still wasn't perfectly in focus, I may try this again later in the week.  Furthermore I tried to get a couple of shots focusing on the cats to add a bit more flavour, but animals are very hard to work with. I succeeded to get a few interesting shots but I'll probably need a few more if I want to use them use them.

     On Friday, with the help of John Howell we went down and filmed along Gloucester Road. The purpose of this was to create another sound montage of the outside world, showing how with this hearing disorder the world can sound really hectic as there's so much going on at one time. The text will describe how he was able to overcome it and deals with it now but it was hard for him as a child. We managed to get a range of successful shots before sadly, the rain stopped us,  these focused on myself in the outside world, traffic and other loud objects. Hopefully these will be enough to create a smooth a continuous montage.

     I came into a bit of luck while having the camera over fireworks night. Without knowing, the school next door put on a big fireworks display for all the locals and school goers and I managed to get some amazing shots out of our top window looking out to them. I thought I could easily find somewhere to add these, as the films all to do with sound I think I could make fireworks sound quite intense and extraordinary. Plus they look great visually to, with big bold colours on a night sky. Heres one of the shots I managed to capture:

      Finally I am still having trouble finding relevant theory for my film. As its just a made up symtom that I've created, I'm not to sure about what Im challenging theoretically. At the moment I have to concentrate on both filming and starting the post production phase to get this film in motion. When I start to get a little more time, I'll do some more research into this and gather some relevant sources.

Week Six.

This week I've done some more test shooting and also done a lot more storyboarding and shot planning to give me a better understanding of how I will put this film together and visualise what the finished product could look like.

     Firstly I did some test shots of the kettle, I started with something basic to get used to using the camera again. What struct me first was how much harder and longer the process is when trying to film on your own. Previously all my projects have been made in groups and so you delegate different jobs to each member to help the process run smoothly, get the best qualitiy out of each shot and also get the most out of your time spent shooting. Being on your own I've found its hard to even get half the amount of shots you planned to achive in the time planned as everything takes a lot longer then expected. Learning from this now, I am going to have to allow myself more time for each shot and plan to rent the cameras out more then I expected. I will also have to ask other members of the class to help out with some scenes to make sure they are filmed to the best that they can be.

 I then took the footage and feed the audio into Logic to try out some test audio bits for my fictional hearing. This screen shot displays the audio from the kettle in Logic. It wouldn't let me take a screen shot with all the effects up too but what I've done is run a filter, a flanger on it, tweaked the EQ and added both a compressor and limter to control the effects. I found that just adding lots of different effects but only using each one a very little bit worked very well, distorting the sound out of recognition.

 

     I also had problems at home converting the files and spent a good few hours trying to convert to .avi without watermarks and in the best quality. I have now found the best codec to use in which to get my files sorted. So this week has not been as productive as I had planned but it has helped me to iron out any problems and get me on the right track so from here on in I know what I'm doing.

     Furthermore I have now got a more descriptive and planned out shot list for my film, so I have some sort of vision to how the who piece should look once completed. I have found that a lot of my shots will be a bit mundane, but included with the text to tell the story and all the post production work needed to create the soundscape, that should be what will make this film interesting and engaging to view. My shot plans cover the whole film but are still a bit rough, I'll post up some examples next week when they have been written out a bit more fluently. Next week I'll be doing this plus getting on with production, shooting my household shots, my streets shots and hopefully some which also experiment with lighting.

Week Five.

This weeks I've taken comments on board and had more thoughts and slightly changed the direction of my film to allow more freedom and expression while making more original. I've also done some test shots and test sound edits to hear what I can create.

     Firstly I have decided to get rid of the documentary style, and with that the interviews and voice overs. This may have given the film a bit of a generic feel and make it not very original, this is turn could make the film a bit boring. It would have also hindered the creativity throughout the production process. I have now decided to go with any idea which is closer to my original thoughts and make the film as a home movie main by the main character, about himself and his condition. This now allows the soundscape to run through the whole film but also means there will be no speech throughout, though this could create an interesting effect. The characters story and comments will be displayed in text on the screen as we travel through the film, in hopefully a cleverly edit way. One problem I am having is coming up with a substantial amount of visually interesting content. As there will be no speech the sound must be gripping and there must be enough going on to keep the viewer engaged through the whole film. I guess more planning will have to be done to make sure there is as much content as possible.

     Furthermore I did some test shots for my 'introducing the character' montage and also tried some to test audio edits. The filming came out okay but I had a problem converting the files and couldn't get rid of the 'divx' watermark in the bottom corner so I'm going to have to convert my files in class then bring them home to edit. But I did lay some of the sound down in Logic Pro and started adding some filters and EQ effects to see what my soundscape will sound like. Its going to need a lot more work and certain specifics will need to be changed for certain sounds. But overall it sounds like it could turn out quite interesting.

     Next week i'll be doing some more filming and compiling a explicit shot plan/ storyboard so I can use my production time as productively as possible. I'll also convert my first test shots at university and start to edit the montage together.

      Finally I found a great little video on ubu.com/film by a film maker named Luke Fowler entitled Three Minute Wonders: Anna (2009). This is one of four videos which were included in channel 4's 3 Minute Wonder series and showcases a great use of both montage and musical script.


The video can be found here:
Luke Fowler - Three Minute Wonders: Anna (2009)

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Week Four.

In week four I've mainly been getting on with scripting, storyboarding and planning shots for the film. On my schedule, pre-production should be mostly finished this week and production should be starting next week so it was vital to make sure a lot the film was planned and ready to start filming.


Heres an example of my planning so far, this is for the introduction of the program after the title sequence.

Introducing the Character:

 - First Shot, out of nicks window out onto the main road watching the traffic go by. Start with the fx hearing, turn it down when the voice over comes in and edit to the character.

- [Voice over] – ‘In this episode of Extraordinary People we’ll be looking into the life of Marcus Jefferson, a young adult who slowly lost his hearing throughout his early teenage years. What’s so remarkable about Marcus though, is that he did not loose his hearing completely, but instead developed a very rare condition named Synthanesia. What this means is that he still has partial hearing but everything’s distorted in a very strange manor. Throughout the program we’ll be taking you inside the life of Marcus and presenting to you what it’s like to hear and live with Synthanesia.’

 - When talking about loosing his hearing, use a quite buzz in the background which gets louder and louder till it cuts off the speech all together and in effect, kills his hearing.

 - [Voice over] – ‘While Marcus was growing up he developed a ringing in his ears which persisted and didn’t go away. After complaining about it his parents took him to the doctor who diagnosed Marcus with Tinnitus. This is a symptom which develops from something that’s wrong with your auditory system, this may be from somewhere in your ear, the connecting nerve or your brain. But the problem was it didn’t stop, it only carried on getting louder and louder until one day… [Buzz takes over the voice over] … Everything Changed.

[Intertwine Interview One Here.]

- [Voice Over] – ‘We’ll be using this little hi tech device inside Marcus’ ear [Shot showing Marcus inserting the device] to show you what it’s like to hear with Synthanesia.’ …….. ‘As you can now hear, everything is as if it has a very strange filter on it, distorting and manipulating the sounds.’

I still need to include the camera shots I have planned and the shots I want to use but this is just a basic outline of the voice over script and detail that will be used to open the show and explain to the viewer what the program will be about.

Within the research I have been doing, Alan Rosenthal stated in 'Writing, Directing and Producing Documentary Film and Videos' that 'in shooting you ain for one thing, maximum naturalism: your key objective is to get people to behave in the most genuine way in front of the camera' (1996, p.154). As I'll be the main actor for this piece, I will have to make sure at all times that I am composed infront of the camera to really give the film it's natural feel, which will be vital to how good the finished product will look.

 

 

I have also planned some club shots for next week. I have got a gig in the main room of basement 45 and so I want to use this to my advantage and make the most out of it. I have been given permission and got a cameraman to film. I am mainly worried about the lighting for these shots due to the club being pretty dark apart from the lighting in the DJ booth, hopefully this won't be to much of an issue and can be used effectively.

Week Three.

This week I started to compile my research that i have conducted over the last few weeks and also thought about some new ideas for the film and how to present it.

     While reading Paddy Ladd's 'Understanding Deaf Culture: Searching For Deafhood', he stated that 'the construction of deaf communitites is deeply woven into patterns of ideas and ideologies placed in your head by people you have never met' (2003, p.11)

     So I had an interview with Mike Hadley, a deaf person, going through a few questions to give me a better understanding on what it's like as I have no first hand experience myself. I did this to give the documentary a more realistic view point, displaying real issues from a deaf persons point of view. This is how it went:

Mike Hadley Interview

1. What do you find most challenging about everyday life?

Communicating with other 'hearing' people face to face or on the telephone. Also, listening to a lecturer/teacher especially the ones with beards which makes it difficult for me to lip read. Another thing is watching something on the telly without subtitles - it's like watching telly without the sound on to you guys.

2. Do you see your disability as a problem, or does it not get in the way too much?

Having being deaf in my whole life- I accept the fact that I am deaf and there is nothing I can so about it, and for it to not get in the way of my life I have to adapt, for example me not being able to use the phone, instead I have to use text Messaging, or a minicom. The only time I would have problem with my disability is other people's view on the deaf society- they usually think deaf people as 'dumb' but that's not the case.

3. If you could imagine sound in general, what words spring to mind? And if you could imagine what some everyday objects sounded like, such as a kettle or a car for example, how would you describe it?

Difficult question, we can never hear sound like the way u hear them, if I would have to imagine them- I would say the everyday objects would be clearer to hear through ur ears. But for an example - when I first had a cochlear implant and when I flushed the toilet it sounded like a round of applause when I heard it for the 1st time.

4. Is there a sort of ambient noise or is everything completely silent?

in my case everything is completely silent- but I have heard of some deaf people which constantly hear buzzing noise, can't remember what is that called.

5. How well do you feel and pick up on vibrations from certain sounds?

I can pick up vibrations very well, but it can be hard to predict what is causing it, all I pick up is how big is it.

6. Do you know many other deaf people? If so, do you feel like part of a separate community with them?

Yes and yes.

7. Without your hearing, do you feel like your other senses are heightened?

yes i feel that my other sense is heightened, especially my eyes as I feel I uses them a lot more to make up for my hearing losses.

I have also been reading the book 'Writing, directing, and producing documentary films and videos' by Alan Rosenthal to pick up some tips on how to construct my film and make it look as real and professional as possible. For example one point he states is that 'In shooting you aim for one thing, maximum naturalism: your key objective is to get people to behave in the most genuine way in front of the camera' (1996, p.154). This is a key point I will have to focus on as all the facts are fictional, so I have to make the audience believe that they are the characters parents and he really does have this special hearing, etc.

This week I am going to have to get down to a lot of pre production, scripting and story-boarding to give my film more substance and to allow me to vision the project as a whole before I start shooting.

Week Two.

This week I have started to gather different bits of research and tried to start creating a plan for how I’m going to put this documentary together. Firstly I have put together a list of questions and have emailed them to a deaf person and am just waiting for the response. These questions I asked included such areas as, what do you find most challenging about everyday life, how well do you pick up on vibrations and without your hearing, do you feel like your other senses are heightened. I have asked these among others to get a greater understanding of what it’s like before I start to interpret it.

     I am finding it hard to find much theoretical material to help me in my project and this is something I will have to look deeper into. I have taken out a few books so far such as ‘Writing, Directing and Producing Documentary Films and Videos’ by Alan Rosenthal, this is to gain more understanding of the codes and conventions of documentary filmmaking. I have also got a book on the ‘Anatomy of Hearing and Speech’ by R.P Singh to find out more about how the ear works. I can also use this book to script the interview with a ‘doctor’ who will describe my characters fictional hearing.

     I have also thought more about making my character a DJ in this film. Maybe not so much as a profession but more as a hobby, as something he loves to do and likes to prove he can dispute his disability. I have a few scheduled gigs throughout the time I will be shooting the film, such as one in the main room of Basement 45. This would be a great location and chance to get some good footage.


This is a very brief overall plan I've put together to get me thinking about the structure:

-       Introduction: Create a introduction montage and music for the documentary program itself. (Program Name?)

-       Introduce The Character: Describe his special ability and a little about himself and what he does (Voice Over). Shots can be himself in his own room, getting ready, do general things. Then show him putting the device into his ear and give the audience a preview of what its like to hear like him.

-       Interview 1: With The Parents, briefly describing him as a kid and him dealing with the issue at an early age.

-       POV Street Shots: Show the audience what it’s like to have this sort of hearing and do general things like crossing the road and travelling around.

-       Interview 2: With the doctor, explaining in detail what this issues called, how it works and how fascinating it is.

-       DJing: This next section can look into his hobby as a DJ, practicing at home, playing in clubs, show comparison between normal and fx hearing, voice over explaining how and why he loves to do it.

-       Interview 3: With himself, talking about the problem, why he loves and hates it. This can be intertwined with the DJ section.

-       Closing – wrap up all the ideas and questions raised in the program and come to a conclusion about the hearing issue he deals with and how remarkable and one off it is. 

     I still have loads of pre-production work to do on this film. Over the next week I will be starting to plan out my shoots, create a storyboard and start scripting certain scenes and interviews. I will also be trying to find more theoretical material that covers my project. 

Week One.

In week one we all came together to share initial plans and bounce ideas off each other to help develop our projects. My idea in brief is to create a fictional documentary in video following the day in the life of a deaf person. What’s special about my character is that he uses vibrations to interpret sounds in his own head and the viewer will experience what he believes he’s hearing. It will show how my character overcomes dealing with loud, day-to-day activities by creating his own sound for them.

     To do this project I am going to have to do a lot of research into the deaf and see what they find challenging in everyday life, or if they even see it as a problem and how they feel like they interpret sound. I have already emailed Bristol’s centre for deaf and I am awaiting to hear back, I also have a deaf friend who I'll get in contact with soon. I am also going to look into theoretical research on the deaf, sound manipulation and on the making of documentaries.

     The method I am going to use for this film is to create it in a documentary style, using general codes and conventions to make it look as professional as possible.  For the sound, I’m going to record it all through the microphone and capture everything. Then in postproduction I will feed the audio through logic and start removing frequencies and laying sounds on top, adding effects such as phasers, filters, flangers and some chorus. This will then develop his own personal hearing and create a great effect. For camera shots, apart from the interview sections, which I'll film conventionally, I wanted to shoot a lot of the film in point of view, so the viewer can really get involved and feel like their experiencing what he does everyday.

     

     So the aim of my film is to creatively interpret an experience, using professional sound techniques to give it an interesting fictional twist. It will show how some people have to live and the challenges they face, bringing awareness to a serious matter through an original style of documentary.

    Furthermore I also thought to add some substance to the film he could be a DJ, either as a past time or professionally, and show how he creatively puts music together even though it all sounds completely different in his own head. Victoria Gwen Dobie, a deaf French horn player quoted ‘deaf people hear music, they register it in their bodies. The brain is desperate for music; it will hear it through vibration.’ That’s what my character will use to DJ and to develop sounds in his head, the different vibrations everything makes. I could then also research into the DJ Frankie While, a DJ who through his career ends up going completely deaf but carries on and learns how to do it without his hearing, just through the vibrations.

     So lots of research needs to be done for this project, but the initial ideas are down. Now I have to develop my ideas further and using my research, start to draw out how I’m going to put this documentary together.