exercise: create a new soundtrack

OK,  I've changed my mind. It kind of felt bad not doing the exercise, and I really believe sound is half of the image (as mentioned in the course notes) so better practicing a bit... let's try and do the exercise. I have assumed the course notes make reference to the exercise in project 3, the feel of a frame, where we filmed the subjective point of view relapse of an alcoholic at home.
Here is the video, and below the list of sounds in it.

Note that describing sounds, not being an english native speaker, is not my thing. In the notes we are given some clues, like use a flavour, a smell, a colour, an emotion, physical texture...

• the coffee machine: Mechanical, loud, vibrant, sour, dark, frightening.
• the blinds opening: crispy, brisk, sharp.
• the sound of the book pages and the book on the table: soft, melancholic, earthy.
• opening the bottle: musical,  salty.
• pouring the wine: joyous, musical, soft, light. 

Create a new soundtrack

Re-recording the sounds and editing them in the video editor. We need to create a new soundtrack for our video. The next things have been changed:

• I have integrated the coffee machine audio between the two different shots, now the audio track is continuous
• The blinds noise is recorded new, the previous audio discarded. Before we could hear other noises from the camera or the opening rod, i.e. the audio quality was bad.
• In the TV shoot, I have introduced the sound earlier, when we are in the previous scene. I think this is cool, not any other particular reason. It helps to introduce a scene that is different from the previous, and quite different. 
• I have joined the audios of the TV scenes, extending the audio from one scene into the next one and mixing them at the same level, so it seems more continuous, without obvious breaks.
• I have eliminated sharp ends, i.e. when you stop listening to the TV, now it fades away instead of ending abruptly.
• I have re-recorded the noise of the book. before you could hear noises from the camera, and the quality was not good, as the sound was almost imperceptible. 
• I have re-recorded the sound of the steps. Again, the quality of the sound was poor, with some undesired noises. 
• I have deleted, whenever possible, the noises from the camera and my breath. I have recorded "silence" in the room and filled the gaps with it. 

The results are below:

exercise: listening

Find the most silent place you can. Listen. What can you hear?

At home, in the open kitchen - living room, and alone at home. I can hear some mysterious sound from outside, it's always there, and I'm never sure where it comes from, it might be some water pumps from the bay, or some kind of equipment in the office block in front of my flat, but it's continuous, and sometimes it stops, leaving a - sometimes awkward, sometimes peaceful  emptiness. I can also hear the noise coming from the fridge, not the one when it's noisy, but the one that is there when it's quiet. Finally I can also hear the noises that my electric heating does when it's kicking off, like somebody knocking at low pace. 

Then I try to listen the same "silence" through the earphones connected to my camera. None of them, except probably the knocks from the heating, can be heard, as the main noise is created by the microphone itself. 

Can you identify the sound of silence itself?

As a building services engineer, I have studied sound as a physical phenomenon, and the different levels and measurement of sound. I know that silence can be different in different places, I know that in a classroom, in total silence, you might have 60dBA, and to design a hotel room you should select equipment not noisier than 30dBA at night (how, if 60dBA was already silent!? ah, cause silence is subjective to the environment). 

I also know that the purest silence we can create is in an anechoic chamber, and the sensations in it can be really uncomfortable, up to the point that you can't stand in it very long. 

I also know that if you create a very low noise design in an office, the people will complain, because privacy is compromised. Then you have to create some background noise (still people will only hear silence, though) to negate speech sound in adjacent areas. 

To conclude, silence is a weird thing. 

Then the notes ask to analyse the objects that were subject to make sound in the sequence we did for project 2. As I can't find any "sequence" requested in project 2, I leave this exercise... too confusing. Let's move on. 

exercise: atmosphere

Record two very short scenes (either a single shot or a maximum of four shots that edit together). Invent your own or pick from the list.
• A romantic dinner for two
• A depressed person alone at home
• Oh what a beautiful morning
• A stalker arrives
• A child takes its first steps

• Another mundane day at the office

Before you start, clearly define the atmosphere you intend to create. Think about how
you can use lighting, shade and colour to achieve this.
• Find a suitable location. Think carefully about available light and colour.
• Test how the light looks through your camera.
• Use additional materials to create desired colour and texture within the scene.
• Use reflectors and additional lights if they are available.
• Record your image(s) and edit them.

Well, this is not my most successful project. Should I have had some more time I would have tried harder, but I feel under the pressure of time, as I should already be doing assignment 2, so I have not waited to the proper light of set up the scenes properly. Below are the results for A Romantic Dinner for Two and Oh What a Beautiful Morning. 

A Romantic Dinner for Two




I tried to rely on the light of the candle to create the whole atmosphere, and it is not really successful, as we can see. Takes from above to the table, and during the dinner, would have possibly helped. 

Oh What a Beautiful Morning



In this case, it was almost necessary to have a sunny day. With more time I would have shot some takes at the park, with the sun through the trees, or having a coffee in a terrace.  
So, in summary, light is ESSENTIAL to create the atmosphere, and while editing the images I didn't stopped thinking that sound would also give a huge boost to the videos above, so lets move on to Project 10, Sound.

exercise: reflected light

In this exercise we test different reflectors. I tested different white textures, such as a paper and a white cloth. The white cloth reflector gives a very soft and faded reflection that is almost not captured by the camera. The major differences have been recorded in this short clip, changing different coloured hard surfaces and the white paper.
With different colour reflectors we can give the tonal colour we want to the scene, even when the main source is the same.

viewing: light and colour - Matilda

We're asked to do some viewing in project 9, light and colour.
Firstly we need to look for sudden changes of light in a scene, and how are the changes justified or motivated.
Afterwards we need to look for use in colour to represent

• change of atmosphere, 
• emotion of a character
• general mood or atmosphere or
• a range of feelings, emotions and atmospheres.

To make things easy, I chose Matilda, which being based on a Roald Dahl novel, and targeted for all publics, seemed like a good movie to find colour and light use... and I was right.

Avoiding continuity problems
If the light changes within the scene, the spectator should know the reason of the change, otherwise it can be perceived as an error.
Some of examples in Matilda:

Day comes through the window

Someone turns off a lamp which we can see

Matilda tampers with the connection line of the school director's house

In the first and third ones we can see the reason of the light change and the light source. 

In the second image we don't see the source of the image (the window or the sun) but all is understood from the context. 

Colour

In Matilda, colour is also used to infer mood and atmosphere, as can be seen in the images below:

Dark colours, yellowish lights to show the bad tempered adults (though the parents of Matilda, who care little about her, are usually depicted in bright colours and tacky spaces, in situations where the mood of the scene requires it, the light is low and dark):

In the scene below the director of the school is punishing a pupil to eat a whole cake. The colours are dark, almost black in the whole scene, with a pitch dark background, and the only note of colour is from the students, who show hope as they'll begin to cheer the poor kid. He'll finally finish the cake, triumphant. 

Happiness is always shown with a mix of pastel colours and well lit scenes.

viewing: balance

In this project we are learning about balance in the image, the Golden Section and the Rule of Thirds. Looking at the projects I have already done, you can see that I do use regularly the Rule of Thirds when framing, as I have studied some photography and tend to do this quite naturally now.
In the drunk subjective point of view, for example, when the drunk looks at the shelf and notices the bottle, this is located in the upper left corner of the thirds grid, to try to catch the eye of the viewer even when there are more objects in the frame.
The same happens in assignment 1; when the woman applying the lipstick, the reflection in the small mirror is also in the upper right corner of the grid; or the horizon in the last scene is also in the lower thirds line.
What I haven't done so far is breaking those rules to create tension or communicate something, as I haven't thought of the dynamic use of these compositions.

Viewing Detectorist, I found many examples of the use of the thirds to locate the protagonists, but none of the opposite use (breaking the rule examples):

As I've done in other times (here, or here) I have tried to find the specific scenes in thriller movies. Then, I've been viewing Tesis, the first movie of Fernando Amenabar. Here the director uses the change in the frame, breaking the rule of thumbs, several times (case in point below) to create restlessness.

exercise: images with depth

Thinking specifically about the sense of depth within the image, try to produce three
images that each represent one of the following atmospheres:
• Dynamic/exciting /adventurous
• Oppressive/dull/stifling
• Complicated/confusing/uncomfortable
• Refined/mature/reasonable

Complicated/Confusing/Uncomfortable 


I first took this video thinking of dullness, and was trying to get an image plain in colour, and compare it with the second shot, where I have included a tone of blue. Then I realised that the dull image needed not only to be dull, but also stifling and oppressive, which this is not... So I decided to use it to express a more deep emotional, wordiness, complicated feeling.
I think that, in context, this could be use to express this. Would really work well a hard light, creating deep shadows.
In terms of depth, the first image looks plainer than the second one, and yet the blue works OK with the mood in the image, as everything is grey/blue.

Dynamic/Exciting/Adventurous


I chose these three shots for the dynamic/exciting/adventurous subject. I thought that the sunset light would work really good with this theme, with its warm colour and soft quality, creating very soft shadings, and I think it has worked OK.
To create depth I have positioned the camera behind some people who was closer in the first two shots, so I am creating obvious depth with big elements in the foreground. I have also increased the focal length, so the distant objects are unfocused.
Wandering around with the bicycle then I found this kayaking competition. The sun was already pretty low, so the lighting of the scene is pretty poor, and I don't think this works OK with the theme, but in terms of depth it had a good use, as the warmer colour of the foreground light created depth with the shadowed area in the foreground. Depth is also created by the created perspective of the landscape and people (people in the front, and in the background building).
Action and dynamism, though, is mainly created by the subject matter and not by the shoot.

Oppressive/Dull/Stifling


My first go with this video was a shot of myself with a pile of clothes on the couch, and the light set up very low, lighting me from one side at 90deg.
The problem with that shot was that due to the light coming from the opposite side than the pile of clothes, it was difficult to see the pile, therefore you couldn't appreciate any oppressiveness. Also the depth was not very significant. On a second try of this approach, I shot from behind a bookshelf, so the same subject was framed by the furniture, giving the idea of a more closed and stifling space, and including the (required) element of depth into the equation. This didn't work either as you could not really see the messiness from the angle I shot.
Finally, I decided to go for the video above, where Juan is giving a kind of speech (he was actually moaning about having to help me with my homework). The depth has been created with illumination, as I have illuminated the shelves behind from above, in a dark space. The oppressive feeling has been created with the lighting on the actor - from below, and generating hard shadows - and also with the low camera angle.