SVCTE Film/ Video Production

What did you learn about genre and film from this video? Why is it important to a film? Genre in film gives a ritualistic satisfaction to the viewer. The constant viewing of something from a certain genre distracts them from their real life problems. Genre basically classifies different kinds of pieces of literature and films. 

What is the hot seat technique? How can you apply this to the next script that you write to create interesting characters? The hot seat technique is where the creator of a character puts that character through a series of questions about themselves. When writing a script, it is essential that I fall in love with the idea of the character. Something has to be specifically unique about it. Maybe the character can have a tragic flaw or something relatable for the viewer/ reader. I have to make my character go through rough times or else it's not interesting. 

What is the key to creating empathy with the audience and our characters? How does success play into this? The key to creating empathy with the audience and characters is to make the characters either relatable or desirable. Once the audience see's the motivation behind the character's actions, they can empathize more easily. If the audience see's what they want to be, they tend to empathize more with them. Or they see someone similar to them, status wise, personality wise, etc. they are tend to empathize with the character. 

Reflect on the story spine assignment from yesterday. Copy your story spine in your response. Did the exercise help you craft an interesting story synopsis? If or if not, why? What are two things that you learned from the exercise? Once upon a time there was a sardine factory worker in the industrial city of Monterey. Every day she packed sardines into their cans and went home to her boiler room. She earned a very small wage and her only goal was to save up enough money to move out. With the small wage, she was unable to keep up with her monthly payments so she was constantly stuck in a never ending cycle of payments. One day, as she was on her way back to her home, she was raped by her landlord. Because of that, she was at such a low and depressed mental state, she did not want to get out of bed. As she was running in late, she found she had been replaced with another factory worker. Learning she was out of a job, she went out to search for another form of payment. Unti...

What is good storytelling? Name 3 important key elements of telling a good story. Why are they so important? Good storytelling usually has a quality plot that keeps the reader or viewer's attention throughout the entire story. Good storytelling isn't necessarily required to have a basic plot structure. It can flow different kinds of ways but the only way to see if it's good is based off of the reader or viewer's experience. A story can perfectly follow all the rules in the story arc but if the viewer thinks it was garbage, then it's garbage. There's something about good stories that make it unique from other stories. It's up to the writer to figure out what about it will set it apart from the rest. 

Revisit your earlier blog posts about sound. What are 3 things you you learned during the course of this unit? What did you learn about them? Explain in detail. What are two things that you still feel you need to learn more about? Why? What was one thing that you found the most interesting? Why? Three things I learned from this unit is the importance of the score, Foley effects, and different mic pickup patterns. The score is the music that is made in post production for a film. There are many components to the score such as melody, harmony, and rhythm. Melody is like a motif. It recalls back to a certain setting or character. Such as the movie Up. It has a specific upbeat melody at the beginning but as the scene gets sad, the melody slows down and triggers the viewers' memory about a certain character that has passed away. Harmony appeals to emotions and rhythm hypes up the scene or makes it tense. Foley effects are sound effects made by Foley artists with everyday objec...

What is loudness normalization? Why is this important for video production? Loudness normalization is the consistency audio levels. Sometimes loud noises can create an inconsistency in clips of video so normalizing it will give it a constant volume for the viewer/ listener. It is important because if it is not done, it can result in distortion and clipping in the audio for the video. 

What are 3 separate things that the presenter says to keep in mind when setting up dual system audio? Why are each of them important? It is important to turn off all automatic settings on the recorder and do it all manual because it usually ends up creating more problems than it solves. Set the sample rate to 48 khz for video. Figure out if you need phantom power or plugin power. Use a slate or clap to mark where you have to sync up the audio and video. 

4/11 Summarize 3 different key functions of a lavalier that you picked up from this short video. What is one question you still have on how to setup a lav? Lavaliers are good for recording spoken dialogue on screen. If you set it up correctly and hide it in the correct spots, it will give you the best quality audio. It is important to place the mic so the chin does not distort the sound. Putting it somewhere on the chest in the range of sound the voice makes is the best way to get good audio. My question is how do you do the loop so it doesn't pop off easily?

What are 3 separate things that the presenter says to keep in mind when setting up your camera to record audio? Why are each of them important? What is one different thing that you would like to learn more about? The presenter says that all the buttons on the recorder is extremely important. If one button is off, it can ruin all the audio or there will be no audio at all. For the mic-line switch, it its important to switch it to mic if you are using a microphone. If you are using anything that is not a microphone, it should be switched to line. It is okay to use the mic that is on the camera for b roll though it is not recommended. Do not use it for dialogue. 

What are 3 separate thing that the presenter says to keep in mind when setting up your camera to record audio? Why are each of them important? What is one different thing that you would like to learn more about? One thing the presenter said is important is the limiter. The limiter is basically a safety net for the audio that is recorded. It keeps the recorded audio from going past the point of overmodulation. It is important to keep it on while recording so your audio does not get wrecked. Another thing is the commonly used setting: Internal mic low cut. It is important because it is a wind filter and can save your audio. Lastly, an important thing from the video is attenuation. Attenuation means to soften or dampen sound across the board. Any time you are in somewhere with loud noises and speakers, turning on the MIC/Int. mic Att. settings on will soften the audio so there are no clips where the audio is weird.

Summarize 3 different key functions of a boom microphone that you picked up from this short video. What is one question you still have on how to operate a boom? Three different key functions I learned from this video: boom mics are good at picking up quality audio from different angles. It works best for closeup shots because the boom mic can be as close as it can be to the talent. It is also important for the mic to always be pointed at the subjects' mouth and not their general direction or at the top of their head.

What are the benefits of using a microphone on a boom vs a lav vs on the camera? What are the differences between single and dual system recording? Microphones built into cameras are usually heavily compressed and aren't amazing when it comes to picking up audio. It's good for scratch tracks. Lavaliers are good for interviews and reports etc. but for some cameras, there can be an imbalance in levels. Boom mics are good because they give more freedom for the camera placement.