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VIDEO AND SOUND PRODUCTION: FINAL PROJECT

01/04/2022 - 01/07/2022 (Week 01 - Week 14)
ALICIA TENG YI LING / 0345159 / BDCM
VIDEO AND SOUND PRODUCTION
FINAL PROJECT: STOP MOTION / VISUAL EFFECTS


LECTURES
 
Week 01 / Time Base Project

In our first week, Mr. Martin briefed us on the module as well as the assignments and projects that we will carry out throughout this semester. To start off, we were given an introductory explanation of the process of creating a time base project.

Time Base Project & Learning Objectives
  • Pre-production: Preparation
  • Production: Principal Shooting
  • Post Production: Editing

Pre-production
  • Idea development
  • Story
  • Storyboard
  • Visual References
  • Location/props

Production
  • Lighting
  • Costume
  • Principal Shooting
Post Production
  • Offline Editing
  • Online Editing
  • Audio Editing

Pre-production
The pre-production stage is basically the developments of ideas, forming the story and selecting the location and props. It also includes creating storyboards and searching for related visual references. You should start with an understanding of the concept of the project and from there, determine what is required to create it.

Production
In production, you begin shooting your video. At this stage, lighting, props, costumes and the set-up has already been prepared and the scenes are shot according to your storyboard/story.

Post-production
The post-production stage consists of editing the shots (videos and images) you got in the production stage. This helps to create good timing between scenes to keep the flow consistent and the story understandable. Additionally, colour grading and audio editing are part of post-production as well. 


INSTRUCTIONS

      

EXERCISES

Week 01 (01/04/2022)

In the first week, Mr. Martin tasked us to watch three stop motion and three visual effects shorts on YouTube and review them and explain why we like them and why we made the choices on our blogs.

Stop Motion Shorts

Under the Winter Sun
Type: Claymation


Fig 1.1 Stop motion shorts #1

In such a short amount of time, the stop motion expressed an incredible number of emotions. The snowmen characters movement appears very natural with shifting eyes and head motions. Additionally, the environment was amazing with different textures and made full of use of many materials. The lighting was well chosen and controlled to indicate day and night cycles as well as temperature. The choice of mellow and gentle music that eventually shifted to eerie depicted the emotions of the snowmen well. The shapes of the characters eyes also indicated their feelings without the use of dialogue. This was a heartfelt animation that ends in the same way that it begins, effectively creating a loop of happiness and despair. 

Lost & Found 
Type: Object-motion


Fig 1.2 Stop motion shorts #2

Even after watching this stop motion multiple times, it never fails to amaze me with how well written and created it was. Initially, it makes you feel warm when you see small, loving interactions between the two main characters and completely throws you off when disaster occurs, which makes you feel even more distressed as the story progresses. The variety of camera angles that portray each scene is so well chosen and directed. I especially loved the smooth camera transitions in third person view and the realistically shaky movement in first person view. The contrast in size, shape and colour between the two character designs fit the storyline well and shaped their personalities clearly despite there being no actual talking. While there was no dialogue, the characters made short, small sounds to express their feelings. It was a very emotionally impactful animation and it made me cry. 10/10 would recommend.

Distortion by Guldies
Type: Claymation


Fig 1.3 Stop motion shorts #3

This was incredible to watch, it was so smooth it hardly looks like a stop motion. This is a different genre compared to the first two I watched. It’s much more minimalistic and abstract without any seemingly deeper meaning to the storyline. The chosen colour palette is simple and chosen extremely well. The pink background remains neutral while the purple and orange colours complement and highlight each other and draw the viewer’s eyes around with form and movement manipulation. Additionally, the animation has pep to it with bouncy movements that are further amplified by the precise audio editing and sound effects. 

Visual Effects Shorts 

In week 1, we were instructed to watch three visual effects short videos and explain why we chose them based on style, art direction, characters, etc.

Best of Zach King Magic Compilation 2020


Fig 2.1 Visual effects shorts #1

I decided to first start off by watching one of Zach King’s compilations to get an idea of what kind of visual effects I could try. It was pretty entertaining and I enjoyed ‘learning’ from it. At 00:43, I was impressed with how he changed the gym floor and wall tape into a TV screen as it was not only creative but super seamless and almost unnoticeable until the camera angle changes. At 1:24, this is another effect I may want to try, but I think it’ll be difficult as shooting with water can be time consuming and problematic but when it’s done well, like in this video, the aesthetic outcome can be great. 

My Best TikTok Magic Videos of 2021 – Zach King Compilation


Fig 2.2 Visual effects shorts #2

My favourite video was at 02:12 in the art museum. It was a funny, creative idea and the paintings looked so still and real until they started moving. It’s a cool concept but I don’t think I can do it myself as it would require quite a few props and actors.

Zach King’s Day Off – Magical Short Film


Fig 2.3 Visual effects shorts #3

The film is shot well and edited very smoothly and realistically. I liked the clothes changing effect as he was falling out of bed as well as how he turns 3D objects into flat images. 

Final Project Video Development (Story Outline & Choice of Direction) - Week 06 (06/05/2022)

In this week, we were tasked to decide the theme of our final project and choose the type of stop motion or visual effects video we want to do. Additionally, we are required to write one paragraph of our story outline and find three references for our final project video. 

After I watched several types of both stop motions and VFX videos, I decided to do a clay stop motion as they look very visually appealing to me and they have great texture and can create very fluid looking stop motions. I wanted my theme to be an abstract representation of mental health issues such as depression and eating disorders. I thought that the clay would be able to mold into the ideas I have in mind to represent this topic.

Rather than VFX which was also equally interesting to me, the deciding factor was that I wanted to try doing a stop motion due to my own personal love of stop motions. Especially because one of my all time favourite movies is Coraline. I always thought it was magical and very hard work whenever I watched them.

Story Outline

First Draft: There is a little white rabbit with a hole in her chest. She is suffering from depression and is doing her best to heal from her grief. She does her best to try new things and push on in her life but she makes a lot of mistakes and gets frustrated by them. She gets overwhelmed and thinks negative things about herself. She falls onto her bed and back into her sadness and feels like she’s drowning. In the darkness, she sees an old drawing of hers that is shining. When she reaches for it, she sees that it’s from her childhood that has the words “Good job for trying your best, rabbit!”. She has a flashback to her past when she was a child. She cries and holds the drawing to her chest. From then on, she keeps trying, she manages to eat and get out of bed and she pursues her new hobbies despite her outcomes not being ‘perfect’. In the end, she is healed and there are flowers growing out of the hole in her chest.

I don’t want to fully remove the hole because I believe it is important to recognize your grief and sadness as a part of your experience and yourself.

Three References for the Video


TITLE01:  Under The Winter Sun

I choose to study this piece mainly because it’s clay like how I plan to do my stop motion. The characters' movements are so smooth and their changing expressions can be clearly identified by the audience. I also like how the environment matches the characters and builds the narrative better for viewers. Additionally, the main point I like about this is how the creators were able to clearly show different times of the day and temperatures with the use of lighting and colours. 


Fig 3.1 Reference Shots

TITLE02: Lost & Found by Andrewe Goldsmith and Bradley Slabe

This piece is amazing in its storytelling, environment and character design. It was able to convey the two characters' emotions clearly despite having zero audio dialogue and words. I want to be able to portray such emotions through the use of different shots and character movements and expression changes which are also super smooth and highly indicative of their personalities. Furthermore, I like their cinematic shots and how they make past memories fuzzy to indicate a different time.


Fig 3.2 Reference Shots

TITLE03: DISTORTION

While this piece is not so much about storytelling, its highly fluid movements are extremely impressive and I would like to study them. The changing and morphing of different shapes into one another and the shifting colours is amazing and addictive to watch. Additionally, the colour palette of the background and moving pieces is chosen well and match together to create a calming and abstract environment with the yellow as a highlighting focal point that draws viewers attention.


Fig 3.3 Reference Shots

Storyboard: Week 10 (03/06/2022)

For this week, we were told to develop our final project storyboard based off of the story outline we made before. I  broke down the story and wrote a Shotlist based on what I planned to shoot so I wouldn't lose track of things. Additionally, I made a draft storyboard to get an idea of the types of shots, lighting and character positions I wanted to implement into my final stop motion video.  

Stop Motion Details
  • Characters
    • Lily - rabbit (main character)
  • Possible Background Song Choices:
    • New Home (Slowed) by Austin Farwell
    • Animal Crossing: New Horizons - Ocean Exhibit Ambiance
    • Tiny Light - Jibaku Shounen Hanako-kun Piano
  • Equipment & Props
    • Camera: Sony Alpha a6000
    • Tripod: Manfrotto MKC3-H01 / Table
    • Editing software: Adobe Photoshop
    • Stop motion software/app: Premiere Pro and Adobe After Effects
    • Character material: Clay
    • Background set: DIY, coloured lamp.
  • Shooting Dates
    • Week 12 - Shooting (20-22 June)
    • Week 13 - First Draft
    • Week 14 - Final Revisions and Cuts
    • Week 15 - Submission


Fig 4.1 Scene Shotlist


Fig 4.2 "LILY" Draft Storyboard

My plan is to have dramatic lighting or very strong colours and exposure to indicate the mood of the scenes as seen above.

Stop Motion Group Shooting - Week 11 (10/06/2022)

In class this week, we had a studio practice shoot where a group of us tested out shooting a scene from my storyboard that I had planned for my stop motion. In my group was: Sasilvia, Yi Ki, Adline, Adriel and Adriel's friend. I brought my clay character for the shooting as well as my camera and tripod. I sincerely apologise for not catching Adriel's friends name. ;-;

Roles:
  1. Alicia (me) - Director
  2. Yi Ki - Director of Photography
  3. Adlina - Assistant Director of Photography
  4. Sasilvia - Art and Costume Director
  5. Adriel - Lighting Crew
  6. Adriel's Friend - Lighting Crew
Mr. Martin suggested that I be director as it is a scene from my stop motion that we are shooting so I can direct everyone on what the shot should look like. 


Fig 5.1 Shots Taken

I decided to choose a scene that I thought would prove very challenging for me to do it solo which was the rabbit falling down in darkness. We tried many ways of getting her to "float" such as using white string to hook her up like a puppet but she proved far too heavy as her head was comparatively larger than her body causing an imbalance in the weight distribution. Another method was holding her up using a black clothing which camouflages against the background, it worked but blocked parts of her which made the shot look off. Finally, Mr. Martin gave us a skewer stick to impale the bunny and it worked. 

The lighting was a single yellow studio spotlight. Because it was such a dark set-up, the pictures were taken in low ISO and high shutter speed leading to slightly shaky shots but I liked that as it adds realistic movement to the images as she falls. 

Following that, Yi Ki is an angel and edited the pictures into a stop motion in Adobe Premiere Pro and added the music I will be using (New Home, Slowed) as well. She compiled the shots into a nested sequence with two frames per second. Additionally, she removed the skewer stick using the masking tool and keyframing. This is how it turned out. 


Fig 5.2 Yi Ki removing skewer stick


Fig 5.3 Edited Sequence

Stop Motion Shooting & Editing: Week 12 - Week 14 (17/06/2022 - 01/07/2022)

Stop Motion Prop Set Up

I began by creating the main character rabbit model. I used children's modelling clay so that it would not dry out as easily as regular clay and I may continue molding it for use without issue. This would prove to be a good decision. I used disposable chopsticks to shape out her ears and eyes and to create the hole in her chest. The only drawback about using clay is that it picks up literally every piece of lint and hair wherever it passes, leaving what was once pure and clean, full of dirt. 


Fig 6.1 First Rabbit Model

Later on, I wanted to fix the shape of the rabbit so I decided to remodel a similar one but with more even proportions. Mr. Martin also said she looked weird without legs even though I thought it was a good aesthetic choice so I decided to add legs but it also helped to balance her easier on the ground. 


Fig 6.2 Making Second Rabbit Model

Stop Motion Shooting

I used my camera to shoot everything. Depending on the lighting, the camera settings and shutter speed were vastly different due to the extremely contrasting set-ups (white and black backgrounds). This was to represent her mental "fall".

The total number of frames is around (including duplicated frames): 354 frames. 

The frames with the white background were shot during the daytime to make use of the natural sunlight but there were additional usages of artificial lighting from lamps. 


Fig 7.1 Push Up Shot


Fig 7.2 Impact After Falling Shot

All of the shots with the dark background were filmed at night time with minimal artificial lighting from ceiling lights, in order to make it easier to edit a very strong contrast in later. I want to edit it so that the background is pitch black and it looks like she is floating in complete darkness.

I ended up deciding to cut off the ending scenes that I planned to do as I would have gone way over the allowed time. Additionally, I think it would be interesting and create more emotional drama if it ends suddenly and in a sad manner. 

Stop Motion Editing

First Editing

In this edition session, I decided to simply compile all the shots together to get feedback about the shooting from Mr. Martin because I could not share my screen due to an overexposure issue I have when trying to do so. 

I added adjustments layers with colour grading over the top of the nested sequences to test out what I like and also cropped and positioned some of the frames. Though there were no transitions added so there was empty black frames between scenes. I added in a few audio tracks and one background music to get a feel of the atmosphere. This was essentially a very basic test run. 

I noticed later on that it was quite choppy looking because the frames were a bit too fast. Mr. Martin's feedback included zooming into the shots much more for a more emotional effect and so viewers can look at the story more closely as being too far away looks quite stagnant. 


Fig 8.1.1 Peeling body pieces off 1


Fig 8.1.2 Peeling body pieces off 2


Fig 8.1.3 Editing Draft 1

Second Editing

This is where the vast majority of the work was done. Most of the sound effects and music has been added in. I also finished colour grading and adjusting the scale and position of the nested sequences for a more dramatic visual effect. Additionally, I took out the skewer sticks using Adobe Photoshop. Lastly, I added in the words to aid the story of the stop motion.


Fig 8.2.1 Word Example

Mr. Martin said that this was essentially ready to be passed in but I just need to increase the volume in the opening clips and perhaps try a more suitable typeface for the mood of the stop motion. I really like the Serif typeface actually, I thought it gave it an elegant vibe but I shall listen. 


Fig 8.2.2 Editing Draft 2

Third Editing

This is where I did the final adjustments for everything. I double checked the colour grading and re-watched it many times to ensure it was all in place. I'm pretty happy with how it's all turning out.

The sound effects (not including music sound tracks) are from: https://www.zapsplat.com/


Fig 8.3.1 Lumetri Colour Grading in Premiere Pro 1


Fig 8.3.2 Lumetri Colour Grading in Premiere Pro 2


Fig 8.3.3 Before and After Colour Grading


Fig 8.3.4 Timeline in Premiere Pro


Fig 8.3.5 Editing Draft 3

Final Editing

In the final week, Mr. Martin gave me my last feedbacks so I finished editing it according to what he said. I  changed the arrangement and timing of the words in the first mirror scene so they all pop up consecutively then stay for a while before fading away and then finally one last word appears for dramatic effect. 


Fig 9.1 Final Timeline in Premiere Pro


Fig 9.2 Before and After adding Vignette


Fig 9.3 Exporting Time

As advised by Mr. Martin, I added a vignette effect and it helped to create a more depth and a somber mode as well as helping to place more emphasis on the rabbit, Lily. Additionally, I added some sound effects such as breathing, walking, crying, etc. so viewers may feel closer to the story. Lastly, I added a fast flashing images warning for any flash sensitive viewers. The file ended up being really big, about 190000 KB, so it took quite a while to export. My PC became an oven. 

FINAL  STOP MOTION PROJECT SUBMISSION


Fig 10.1 Final Stop Motion Animation Video - "Lily"


FEEDBACK

Week 9
The topic is okay but it's quite confusing for Mr. Martin to imagine it so proceed with the storyboard. 

Week 10
The storyboard looks interesting, test out a bunch of shots. The lighting might be fun to play with. The water scene sounds interesting, maybe we can test it out during the group shooting.

Week 11
The raw shots look good.  Proceed with editing and don't forget to take out the skewer stick.

Week 13
  • Opening shot: 
    • Mirror 1 and pushups are too wide, 
  • I can repeat the roll shot, different speed, different size, to imply the destruction of her inner feeling
  • The emotional feeling is there
Week 14
  • It's pretty much ready for submission
  • Increase the audio volume in the opening shot
  • Maybe try finding a more suitable typeface for the wordings 
Week 15
  • Perhaps add a vignette it would match well with my theme 
  • The two different fonts is my choice
  • The words in front of the mirror can appear consecutively and stay there, until they fade away and the last one will pop up for dramatic effect
  • Add in more personal sounds of the rabbit to draw in the audience closer to the story
  • The beginning of the video would look better fading in from black

REFLECTION

This module has definitely pushed me to the edge of my capabilities especially because I decided to do a stop motion video for the final project and that really stressed me out with the time constraints along with many other large projects I had due. It was tiring and a very lengthy process but on the other hand, it was really fun and I genuinely enjoyed creating everything. From the storyline, to shooting and right down to editing and publishing it. The experience I gained from it was like no other I’ve had so far in my degree. 

The theme of the stop motion is quite personal and close to my heart and I believe I managed to execute it well so I'm very proud of that. All in all, I had a great time learning in this module and I gained many lifelong, useful skills that I will be able to utilise in my design career.

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