ryan011 – Showcasing work

April 23, 2018

Practical Digital Filmmaking Assignment 2: Short Film

Here is the video:

Concept

For this assignment, a theme was not provided in the beginning so I had decided on doing an action espionage film.

After which, the theme of “Home” was provided and thus I just shifted the setting of the espionage film to Singapore as a country in general.

Here is the pitch for the movie that i presented in class:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1SdOGFpQ_lOgxOlAxXfhpcT17BNdg7aL_

Pre-production

Here is the Storyboard:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1S27U3jRuWwqKTZwPAHDZszMFmSUg2aUQ

Production

The shooting process was done in 3 phases due to the number of locations used.

The Carpark
The Mall, flat corridors and the interior of the house
The agent’s personal room

For simplicity in explaining the production process, i shall use screenshots from the video.

Names that will be featured:

Joseph – Central Intelligence Agent (Main protagonist)

Ming Hai – Joseph’s colleague

Jennifer – Joseph’s colleague

Spy – Foreigner engaging in espionage activities (Main antagonist)

Resident – Owner of a flat that will be featured

The agent’s personal room

For the set design, i basically just stuck random notes around a desk and have a computer set up with documents displayed to create a working space for Joseph.

Online Documents of the death reports for Ming Hai and Jennifer are created to lead in to the information that they were murdered by someone.

Flashback sequences for Ming Hai and Jennifer then provide details on the relationship between them and Joesph: how close they were.

Joseph jotting down timings of past cases

Joseph is then shown jotting down some timings, a shot that will be revisited later
As notes that were written in a hurry, i purposely had many more scribbled across the paper to show that it is just part of the thinking process that Joseph is having while researching on the case.

A map of Singapore is then shown to indicate that Joseph is trying to pinpoint the next location that the spy might be.
I edited a map of singapore to a black-and-white picture to provide emphasis on the red markings drawn over afterwards

Here, Joseph is seen finding out that he has a clue to where the next location the spy might be in, and also finding out that the timing is soon from observing that of past cases.
I used this as a reason to why Joseph has to leave his apartment right there and then

Spy reading something while leaning on a wall

For the mall scenes, we literally just took the camera, got ourselves to the different locations and shot the scenes while letting the crowds move freely.
I used this to my benefit to give more interaction with the outer world for the video and provide movement to the scenes.

Here i had the spy look at Joseph discreetly to give the audience the information that the spy knows he is being followed.
The place that the spy is going into is actually not a pathway but just the entrance of Watsons. However, due to the speed of the clip, this fact is hidden from the audience.

Once again, the crowd was used to its fullest to provide an environment and obstacle that is hindering Joseph from engaging the spy immediately.

Due to the fact that the fight happens in a carpark, i used a mall exit to link the two locations together.

Here, simple after effects was used to create a gunshot which hits a metal bar, causing Joseph to flee temporarily,

In the shot that directly follows, we actually shot this in the other end of the carpark as the actual location where Joseph would have stumbled is the front of a lift.
And the carpark scenes that follows are basically the manipulation of non-existent space in the video using separate segments of the carpark.

Here, an establishing shot of the spy (whom we see up-close for the first time) was used to state the fact that he is holding the gun that was shot.

A tracking shot of the spy was used to establish the fact that he was searching for Joseph
i had Joseph get rid of the gun as early as possible as the fight would ended pretty quickly with it around

I had the gun disappear into the underside of a car to tell the audience that: “it’s gone and is not appearing again”

Spy stating his stand and unleashing a knife

Here, a pause is given to allow the Spy to state that he was not willing to engage in the fight in the first place.
The “Knife” is actually just a envelope cutter, as a ballistic knife would have been hard to conceal in the spy’s disguise outfit.

Joseph using his jacket to block the spy’s knife slashes

Here, i had Joseph remove his jacket and use it to counter the spy’s attacks.
This is due to the fact that Joseph had came unprepared from home and does not have weapons on him, a trend that will follow through the rest of the video

Joseph using broom to get rid of spy’s knife

Next, Joseph uses a broom he finds as a long weapon to counter the knife from a distance, effectively pushing it out of the spy’s hand.

Five minutes for a video is a pretty good time for multiple fighting sequences so i had the characters shift the fight to another location for a cleaner brawl.

Knowing for a fact that connected carparks and flats do exist, i decided to implement it here. (Although the characters enter into the 10th floor of a separate building from the carpark)
The characters wouldn’t have had to enter a flat if they were to exit into the outside streets

Spy pushing a resident away and entering his apartment

I’ve added a resident watering his plants outside his apartment to give a reason for the opened door.

More information about the spy is given here to allow the audience to understand his point of view of the situation.

i like clean endings, and the death of one of the character is a good way to end a video, so i had Joseph finish the spy off by strangling him with a towel he found.

Joseph pausing to reflect on his actions

I had Joseph regret his actions of killing the spy in the heat of the moment in order to produce a conclusion where characters are not just generalized into “good” and “bad” individuals and portray them as people who are just doing things because their own reasons.

I decided not to utilize any tripod shots for the video to provide movement to all of the shots.

Lighting could have been better done for the slow-motion parts of the video as the output turned out darker than expected.

Here are the royalty-free music tracks used in the film:

https://www.sonicliberty.com/en/royalty-free-music-library/destructive-trailers/ready-the-gears-1.html

I edited the music tracks accordingly to fit the different timings required for the video.

All in all, it was quite a fun process making this short film.

March 21, 2018March 21, 2018

Concepts of Digital Imaging Assignment 03: A Short film about Dreams

Here is the video:

Genre:

Short film

Explanation:

It is a representation of a dream that the main character is having.
Unrealistic sequences such as entering a lift through a toilet entrance and people who are supposed to be somewhere else appearing in a completely different location is shown.
The fact that the story still somehow continues moving forward even though strange things are occurring drives the notion of it being a dream.

Process

Storyboard:

Two-Column Script:

MoodBoard:

https://www.walldevil.com/dark-mysterious-wallpaper-114777/

https://www.gamespew.com/2016/04/resident-evil-6-review/

I was intending to go for a cold, dark atmosphere for the short film.

Explanation:

I was thinking of something comedic when i started on the assignment, and wanted to create an exaggerated situation because of the flexibility that the word “dream” gave.
The riser sound effect at the start of the film was to grab the audience’s attention and to set a dark, mysterious tone for the first part of the short film.

The first strange occurrence is the bowl of curry rice turning into a fried snack between two scenes.

The second strange occurrence is the characters entering the toilet door and ending up in a lift

The third strange occurrence is the lift going down, even though the guys were supposed to go up

The fourth strange occurrence is when Su Yang and Hilman appears in Ryan’s room, even though the two of them are seen moving towards other locations in the previous scenes

A surrealistic ending of ketchup splattering on a plate. representing blood, juxtaposed with the sound of a body hitting the floor is used to heighten the impossibilities of a dream state.

February 20, 2018February 21, 2018

Concepts of Digital Imaging Assignment 2: Movie Campaign for your film production

This is the plot for my movie:

A multi-national organization operates the business of allowing illegal immigrants gain access to countries of their choice via stolen passports. The movie follows one of the victims while she is on vacation in a foreign country and an assassin from the organization is targeting her.

Process

First, I had the idea of having the assassin from the organization peeking out from within a crowd on the audience through the eyes of the victim.

So i went around many places to take a few photos of crowds where i can hide the assassin:

After which, I did a further selection for a photo with a decent number of people which also includes a location for the hiding of the assassin.

Which results in this picture being chosen:

Photo 8

This photo was chosen out of all the other photos for these 2 reasons:

There is an event that is occurring which attracts the attention of tourists – the setting for the main character of the film
There are multiple spots in the photo which i can use to hide the assassin – without it being too difficult for the audience to spot him

So now that the location is set, it’s time to get the assassin into the photo.

For this, i wore a jacket and black long pants while holding my little brother’s toy gun:

With the assassin and location decided on, the work on the poster begins:

First, I photoshopped the assassin into the location:

then de-saturated the image for a cinematic effect:

After which, i created the poster with the photoshopped image:

Posters and Movie campaign:

Explanation for image:

The poster is depicting a scene viewed through the eyes of the main character of the film, a tourist who is the victim of the assassin
The assassin can be found at the top of the photo, just a little to the left from the center
Font of the movie title: “Passport” forms the shape of a rocket propelled grenade (RPG) launcher, a tactical knife and a grenade for stylistic purposes

Explanation for movie campaign:

QR code can be found on the bottom right of the poster – which links the audience to this page:

The website will state the id of the poster, player and number of points the player has
The player will then have to tap out the location of the assassin from the poster to gain points
After gaining a certain number of points by spotting out the assassins from many different posters, the player can receive a gift from the cinema when purchasing the tickets for the movie.

Here are a few other examples of the posters featuring different photos in different advertisement outlets:

As shown, the location of the sniper changes for each poster and this encourages the audience to hunt for the many different posters shown across the country to gain points.
A leader-board system may be implemented to award players that scores the highest points with greater prizes.

February 11, 2018February 13, 2018

Digital Flimmaking Assignment 1: SPLIT – A 7 Shot, 3 min Sequential Audio Video Narrative

Video

The term we were given for this assignment is “Split”, and i decided to go with the theme “Split-Personality” for my work.

Process

So firstly, i came up with a storyboard for the video:

After which, filming began.

Sound

Since we are not allowed to use sound effects or music downloaded from the internet, I create sound effects by myself.

Ambiance sound for classroom (because classroom was occupied during filming, resulting in conversational sounds)

Sound effect during screen flash (During the character 1’s consciousness shift)

– recorded a metal spoon hitting against a glass table

Sound of character #2 writing and closing his book

– recorded myself writing and closing a book

Noise of character #2 hitting the leg of character #1

– recorded the sound of me hitting a leather bag

Sound effect of Character #1’s heart pounding

– recorded myself thumbing my chest with my hand

For the scenes where the “other personality” of character #1 is active, I increased the pitch of the background sounds to create a distinction between them and the other scenes where the “normal personality” of character #1 is active.

It also serves to create an uneasy feeling in the audience, setting the mood for a situation that isn’t going to turn out well.

Visuals

For the scenes where the “other personality” of character #1 is active, I had the video colors turn red through Adobe Premiere Pro:

I want the audience to instinctively understand that this is not the “normal” character #1 so i used this obvious change in visuals.

For the last scene after character #1 has killed character #2, i purposely reduced the brightness of the video to create a dark atmosphere, to induce a mysterious feel to the overall strange event of the video:

Video analysis

For the first scene, I had character #1 be established as a victim of bullying through the use of the letter he finds in his locker.

After which, character #2 hits his bag against character #1 to further bring this message across.

For the second scene, I had the setting be a classroom where both character #1 and character #2 were having a lesson in.

The camera is fixated mostly on character #2’s table as the book that is on it will be the point of focus for the next scene.

For the third scene, the audience would be taken aback by the change in visuals and sound.

After which, this confusion would be resolved when character #1 starts ripping up character #2’s book, as it would imply that this is the work of a “character #1” that is different from the one we saw earlier.

In the fourth scene, character #1 is woken up by character #2, and he goes into a state of confusion before running off.

This would suggest that character #1 has no memory of ripping up character #2’s book as he does not seem to have any emotion towards character #2.

This would lead the audience to understand that the previous “character #1” and this “character #1” are separates entities that are sharing the same body and thus bring the term “Split-personality” forward.

In the next part of the scene, character #2 finds the torn-up book, which sets the logic that whatever happens during the red scene, does indeed happen.

This will be important for the later parts of the video.

For scene 5 when character #1 is about to enter the room for the meeting, I had the actor retrieve the letter from his pocket to suggest to the audience that he is now entering to the room for the meeting.

For the part where the sender of the letter meets character #1, i had him ask for money to answer the question of “why did character #1 have his thumbdrive stolen”

I decided to go with an exchange of the thumbdrive for money instead of the whole thing just being an act of bullying as it felt like a more compelling reason for going through all the trouble.

When character #1 picks up his thumbdrive, I had the sender throw his wallet back at him as an act of humiliation fit for a victim of bullying.

After that, I had the camera zoom onto character #1’s face to show a buildup of anger and hatred.

Flashes and the beating of a heart is also added here to link it to the next scene.

In this scene, the choice of red for the “split-personality” scenes is further explained as this “personality” of character #1 is violent.

The camera stays on the bag and slowly zooms in to create a feeling of tension between the audience and the action that cannot be seen.

This tension is used to further alienate the audience from this “personality” of character #1 for him to appear more foreign and mysterious.

For this scene, I had character #1 wake up on the floor, similar to that of scene 4.

After which, he checks the room to find that nobody is there, suggesting to the audience that whatever happened in scene 6 could have not happened at all.

But due to the logic set by scene 4, the audience knows that whatever happens in the red scene does happen. This hence creates a temporary conflict between what is expected and what is happening – a twist to perk the audience’s attention.

After which, the conflict is subsequently solved with the appearance of a blood-stained knife – that confirms the occurrence of the events of scene 6.

However, even after this conflict is solved, the audience would still have a thought lingering on in their minds – what about the split-personality of character #1? What is going to happen after all this with a serial killer on the loose?

That is where i would end the video with questions for the audience to think about after it finished playing.

February 7, 2018February 8, 2018

Concept of Digital Imaging: Assignment 1

For the first assignment: 6 Human Emotions with Digital Images, I have decided on the narrative:

“Camera shots taken from the inside of my mind through a day”

Research

Having the idea of showing the hallucinations i have through a day, i looked up on some images pertaining the subject and found these works:

http://neurosciencenews.com/hallucination-psychology-visual-5277/

http://www.toptenz.net/10-strange-facts-hallucinations-around-world.php

Through these works, it is evident that hallucination is usually represented in photos through fantasy-like effects and the presence of fictional objects.

Process

Image 1:

For the emotion of sadness, I had the idea of having a fast-paced environment being portrayed in an image.

Thus, i took this photo:

However, it does not present the speed of society enough, thus i went on the search of a site that has a clock.

Thereafter, I edited the image into a black-and-white profile, created motion blur among the different elements in the photo and then altered the clock to achieve the effect that was required:

Image 2:

For the emotion of Fear, I decided on having an image of a creature emerging from the bottom of a flight of staircases.

Here is the photo of the first staircase that i tried taking a picture of:

However, this staircase is too narrow and after going through a few other staircases, i found this one in a multi-storey carpark:

After which, I added a bluish hue and a vignette effect to the photo before drawing in the creature digitally:

Image 3:

For the emotion of happiness, I decided on a image that portrays a dream-like happy scene.

For that, i went ahead to McCafe to order some props for this photo:

After various shots with the two items at various positions, I decided on the following shot:

After which, I increased the brightness of the photo and drew in some characters digitally for the final image:

Image 4:

For the emotion of disgust, i decided on an image of someone leaving food trash in a public area.

Thus, once again, I bought some food from Macdonald’s to use as the props for the following image:

I staged the scene by having the half-eaten macdonald’s meal and an extra packet of spaghetti sprawled across the table.

Then, i waited for a passerby to pass by the table before taking the camera shot in order to use him as part of the composition.

After that, I added a brown tint on the photo and then digitally manipulated the image to get the effect required:

Image 5:

For the emotion of anger, i have decided on having an image based on a past accident i had which made me feel frustrated at myself.

Thus, i cleared my table, placed a white vanguard sheet over it, and staged the scene of my ink bottle getting toppled over with ink splattering across a manga page i am working on:

Next, I applied an effect over the photo that further intensifies the splattering quality of the ink, added a red hue and then digitally edited ‘blood stains’ onto the edges of the image:

Final works

Emotion: Sadness

Meaning:

There are times when i find myself unable to catch up with the speed of the world due to many challenges and setbacks
However, the world is unforgiving and moves on without a single thought towards any single individual
It doesn’t matter what i think as one out of countless number of organisms living in the world, the world will still continue in its processes, everyone will be out and about, busy with their own lives
Even without me, tomorrow will still come and continue onward

Explanation:

I chose a grey tone for the image to give it a melancholic feel
The blurred lines represents the world’s rapidity and as the viewer, one would feel slow in comparison to the surroundings
The clock’s hands are spinning furiously to echo the speed of the world
A crowded area full of people is used to portray the sense of the world

Emotion: Fear

Meaning:

I have a fear of heights
Whenever i am near a ledge facing towards a deep drop on height, i feel like i’m falling, as if something is pulling me down towards the floor down below

Explanation:

I added a blue hue to the photo for the chilly feeling, similar to that of a spooky scene – setting up the mood for the ‘black creature-like being’ in the photo
A ghastly being with claws reaching out to the viewer is utilized to portray the sense of being pulled down into the bottom of the stairs
A vignette effect is added at the edges of the photo for a tunnel vision effect – to emulate how i feel like fainting whenever the fear of height catches onto me

Emotion: Happiness

Meaning:

I get elated over the small little joys of life – like having a nice slice of cake and a frappe
When i’m feeling happy, i start seeing visions of anime characters frolicking around in a paradise-like environment – like how angels come to bless a happy scene
Everything turns a bit tipsy and i also start seeing sparkly effects and manga effects appearing around objects

Explanation:

I increased the brightness of the image to achieve a dream-like touch to the photo – setting the tone for anime characters appearing
I had the characters interact with the food so that they would mix in well with the entire composition of the photo

Emotion: Disgust

Meaning:

I find disgust at people who lack basic courtesy and social morals – such as leaving trash at public areas
To me, it feels like the peace within our living realm is being torn apart due to the misdoings of certain individuals

Explanation:

I had a brownish tint placed over the photo to enforce the sense of disgust in the viewer – since brown is equivalent to rotting and all the disgusting things
I had the objects in the foreground ‘disintegrate’ into small pieces for a feeling of the peace in the scene being torn apart
The different pieces are floating to signify how they tore up on their own accord instead of someone physically pulling at them
A man walking away from the trash on the table is included to reinstate the idea of the trash being left on the table purposefully

Emotion: Anger

Meaning:

I don’t hardly ever get angry at anyone so i decided on anger that is directed to myself instead
Whenever an accident happens, i naturally blame myself for causing it
The accident portrayed in the image did happen before, and i sincerely hate myself for not handling the ink bottle properly while inking the manga page

Explanation:

The color red is used extensively to portray the emotion of anger
All drawing tools are positioned to face the ink bottle to lead the viewer’s eyes towards the cause of the incident – allowing them to understand the situation more easily
The red blood-like stains at the edges of the photos represent my bleeding heart and frustration at the scene

January 29, 2018January 29, 2018

Practical Digital Filmmaking Exercise: Miss-En-Scene Analysis

For the Miss-En-Scene exercise, I have decided to use a short excerpt from the “The Dark Knight” by Christopher Nolan.

Here is the analysis for the Miss-En-Scene element of the scene:

Scene starts with very low light in a quiet room, light is shone only on the characters’ faces for a heavy mood.
When the lights are turned on, bright light is shone from the top of the characters for an intense, heated atmosphere
The interrogation table is placed in the middle of a large room with a lack of other furniture to provide focus on the conversation.
When Batman starts to get aggressive on the Joker, the assault progresses into a corner of a wall, showing that the Joker is cornered (literally and psychologically) and has no means of escape.
During the onslaught, Batman has light shone from the back of his head, which causes his face to be covered in a shadow, showing conflict within himself.
Choice of interrogation room by the Joker to question the Batman’s role in society gives the feeling of an enclosed, trapped, cold and dark environment for internal reflection.
The position of the interrogation table is set such that the Batman and Joker are seated with the police observing them from the side, implying that both of them are being judged, not just the joker.

Here is the scene:

November 18, 2017May 1, 2021

Foundation 3D Project 4: Individual Mood Box

So we were placed into various groups for the 4th project and were tasked to create a sound piece with some musical instruments provided.

I was sorted into Group A with the following members:

Tricia
Dhanu
Jia Yi
Ryan

And these are the 2 sound pieces that we have came up with:

Model

Using the first sound piece as the music model for my Mood Box, I constructed this:

Model Analysis

Here’s the sound piece again:

It consists of 5 instruments listed according to the time they appear:

Scrubbing blocks
Scrapping blocks
Xlylophone
Humming
Sand shaker

Instrument:

Scrubbing blocks

Explanation:

The scrubbing starts off soft then gets louder and louder with time.
The rhythmic movement of the scrubbing is shown from the waves that gets progressively bigger with time as the sound gets louder

Instrument:

Scrapping blocks (Shown in blue)

Explanation:

The sound of the scrapping blocks has a sharp feel to it as if it is jutting into the sound composition
This is portrayed through the green plastic pieces being pierced into the art card, disrupting the flow of the model

Instrument:

Xylophone (Shown in pink)

Explanation:

The tone of the xylophone sounds smooth and lingers for a while before disappearing
This is shown in the model through long smooth strips being cut into the art card
The shape of the strips start off sharp, becomes larger in the middle then ends of sharply, echoing the rhythm of each beat of the xylophone

Instrument:

Humming by Jia Yi (Shown in peach)

Explanation:

Jia Yi’s humming sounds circulatory and is thus represented by a spiraling metal wire

Instrument:

Sand Shaker (Shown in purple)

Explanation:

The whole sound piece ends with this sand shaker and is thus being portrayed by a plastic wheel rolling at the end of the model
The texture of the plastic wheel is pierced with holes, mirroring the sound of sand being rough and irregular

In all, even though the model did represent each instrument of the sound piece through it’s different parts, it did not adhere to the set expectations of portraying the number of beats for each instrument.

However, it still looks visually exciting as it can be seen as a course for skaters in a skate park.

October 31, 2017November 2, 2017

Foundation 4D Project 3: Impossibilities of Being

Hogwarts.

That is the place that i’ve chosen for this project.

Hogwarts is the iconic school in the wizarding world of J.K. Rowling which Harry Potter attended to learn magic in the Harry Potter book series.

Having picked Hogwarts as the location and the freedom of choice for the medium of the final product, I was set on creating a video similar to the Harry Potter movies.

Research

So first thing first:

Spells.

Well, you can’t have a Harry Potter film without spells. It’s like how you can’t have raw eggs without the egg yolk in them. So before doing anything else, I went on to research on how to recreate the famous spells seen in all the Harry Potter films.

Here are some of the video tutorials which I learned from:

Seeing that all these people are using After Effects to create the spells, I got my hands on it and started experimenting with it. I had no prior knowledge of After Effects before this project so everything was new and I had to learn everything from scratch.

After a few hours of testing, here is my first test video:

Alright. This video proved that creating spells for the project is possible and i can move on to implementing it in the storyboard.

Storyboard:

As seen, i did not go into too much details in the storyboard. As it will be a video, the different shots are subject to on-site adjustments such as the shooting angles and speech lines.

Thus, i kept to the fundamentals of how each scene will look like and placed more importance on technical aspects such as the character’s posture and transition between shots.

Creation

So with the help of classmates Shah and En Cui as actors, filming was done within the ADM library and second floor corridor. It was supposed to only take 1 hour since the video was only a minute long, but it somehow got dragged to 3 hours. That aside, the actors’ hard work paid off and the video went into post-production.

Special effects:

Throughout the week, I continued testing the spells on After Effects.

And after multiple test compositions and trial and error, i came up with something that is considered decent:

With this technique in hand, I went ahead with applying the spell effects for each of the film footage that featured a spell.

Here is an example of an After Effects composition that has a spell in its scene:

Scene where Shah gets hit by En Cui’s Stupefy

This composition you see up here is made up of 5 layers:

“Saber effect” spell
Light Flare for the head of the spell
Ripple explosion for the impact
Ripple blur of video for the impact
Blue translucent layer for impact flash

On an extra note: I assigned different colours to each different spell, taking care to assign the right colour based on the character’s role:

Stupefy: Blue (En Cui) – ‘Good’ guy
Reducto: Orange (Shah) – ‘Bad’ guy
Expelliarmus: Red (Shah) – ‘Bad’ guy

It may look like there are many layers in the above composition, but I’m pretty sure that professional special effects editors in the film industry have way more.

The 3rd effect (ripple blur of video) is the effect I’m most proud of as it was an original effect I came up with while learning the other effects from others.

Here it is shown in good extent:

One thing that I could have done better was to increase the contrast of the video to the maximum when the spell hits something/someone. That could have made the impact appear more powerful.

Editing:

For combining all the film footage together, I used the program called Wondershare Filmora.

Sound:

The program also allows for editing of sound so I used it for adding the sound effects and editing the voices of the video.

Here is a screenshot of the video editing composition in the program:

The bulk of the work went into getting all of the sounds right for the video.

All the sounds i used for the spells are completely different from what their files were labeled as too.

For example, i used the downloaded sound file labeled “Avada Kedavra” for the Stupefy spell.

I basically went ahead with what sounded proper based on the visuals of the video.

Most of the time then went to mixing different spell sound effects together such as taking the beginning of one spell and combining it with the back of another spell to create something that fits with the video – explaining all of the short sound clips used.

Dubbing was done for areas of the video were the actor’s voice were not captured/ not said.

It was a great experience seeing Shah and En Cui dub over themselves.

Shah’s panting at the end of the video was actually just a loop of him panting once.

I wanted to do foley as well for all the lost sounds but due to lack of time, I had to make do with sounds downloaded off the internet.

The one part which showcased ‘foley’ best would be the later part of the video where Shah enters the empty dark corridor – The footsteps that imply someone is approaching him really shows the concept of implied meaning through sound.

As mentioned earlier, I’m pretty sure my layers are nothing compared to those found in the film industry.

Music

And a second composition was created for the background music:

This portion of the work was particularly tricky as the original royalty-free music track I used did not quite fit with the pace of the video.

I thus trimmed the track into multiple pieces and rearranged their orders to create a single long background music (bgm) which fits with the visuals of the video.

I have to salute the audio mixing engineers for the film studios for providing us with such well-timed music pieces to go along with our movies – it is not an easy feat. But, still fun overall.

I knew that a well paced bgm was key to a good video sequence through this video:

This is the introduction scene to a psp game called Final Fantasy: Crisis Core which I played ages ago.

The reason why it stuck with me for so long: The absolute synchronization between the bgm and the part of the scene. It gets high paced when it gets to the action, and slow paced when it gets to the conversation – all within a single music track

That to me, is the pinnacle of bgm in film.

And that is why i placed importance in a good piece of bgm.

Well, after all that, here is the video for this project:

Update from class:

Rhythm:

There is repetition in the bgm – 3 different parts of the music follow a transition of moderately paced tempo to high-paced tempo with increasing loudness.

Movement:

During the fight scenes, there is successional movement for each of the shots of the characters – eg. the camera follows Shah who is dashing away from En Cui

Causality:

The audience have unclear expectations as the narrative is a battle between 2 people with an unpredictable outcome
The video follows a linear narrative which is easy for the audience to track as it follows Shah throughout his escape from En Cui’s confrontation

Duration:

The duration of each scene in the video was optimized to fit in an overall composition that lasts 1 minute – the time limit that was imposed for the project
The scene of Shah looking at the scroll in the dark corridor could have been longer to allow the audience to properly hear the footsteps in the background .

All in all, I had tons of fun throughout this project.

October 31, 2017October 31, 2017

Foundation 4D Project 4: Research

I picked that picture for the featured image because it has the word ‘time’ in it – since time is the focus of project 4

In this project, the key focus is on time and how to incorporate it into interactive media installation.

I’ve seen numerous installations before in the past, thanks to Singapore’s practice of making all school students go on educational field trips. These range from museum trips to tourist attraction spots to more museum trips. However, as good as they may be, I do not actually feel inspired by them in any way. (Probably because we were forced to go to these places) It may be due to their nature in trying to educate the viewer with information that the museum was built to share, which is why they are not interesting on their own.

Thus, I shall go with an installation that actually sparked my interest. (coincidentally, the one which i went to on my own free will)

Case study 1 ; Lights, Camera, Action! Hosted by Steven Spielberg

Copied from:
http://www.rwsentosa.com/language/en-US/Homepage/Attractions/UniversalStudiosSingapore/NewYork/LightsCameraActionHostedbyStevenSpielberg

Subject

This is an attraction featured in Universal Studios Singapore.
I would consider this an installation as the whole attraction is fixed in a certain location and the audience who enters it watches a show put for them,

Form

The attraction features a “soundstage” which is a movie set created for special effects equipped with fully functional props.

Context

The soundstage in this case would be a boathouse set near the city of New York during a level 5 hurricane.

Content

The audience is trapped in a boathouse as the hurricane worsens and slowly tears the building apart with the progression of time.
The audience stand in front of a soundstage depicting a boathouse – floor covered with a pool of seawater, small wooden boats scattered around, metal framework with lever systems to lift up the boats, a small television set, a toilet, windows showing the New York City skyline, wooden wall and roof.
The soundstage props are engineered to automatically move at set timings to create the narrative of the boathouse tearing apart during the hurricane.
Automated flamethrowers spew fire while pressure pumps created water splashes to engage the audience through the heat of the fire and the water that hits them.
It gets the most intense when the entire platform which the audience is standing on rumbles towards the end of the show.

Here’s a video of the attraction:

Usage of Time and Space:

Time in this installation is shown through the advancing stages of the hurricane. The audience is physically aware of the progress of time as the hurricane worsens.
The concept of space is utilised through the use of a soundstage to create the environment for the show – in this case a boathouse.

Well, looking back at the installations, films and performances that touched on time from my memory, the first things that came to mind were:

Mission Impossible – sci-fi movie with all the time-attack missions
Looper – a 2012 sci-fi movie about a time-travelling syndicate

But even though these films incorporated time as a core element in their storyline, I still find that one other movie utilized it in a way that cannot be surpassed:

Case Study 2: The Girl who leapt through time

Copied from:
https://nl.pinterest.com/explore/%E7%B4%B0%E7%94%B0-%E5%AE%88/

Subject:

The girl who leapt through time is a Japanese anime movie released in 2006

Form:

Theatrical movie shown in cinemas

Context:

The main character of the movie gains the ability to travel back in time and the movie follows her point of view of time as she continuously travel back to the past.

Content:

The movie focuses on the main character, Makoto, who gains the power to time travel back to the past
She uses her newfound ability excessively to solve all the problems she face and for trivial gains such as eating a delicious dinner repeatedly.
She soon realizes that her time travels cause numerous undesirable rippled effects on others and sought to resolve them.
She then finds out that she has limited number of uses of her ability and matters escalate to the point where she travels back to the moment she gained her ability, effectively cancelling everything that had happened because of her time travels.

Usage of time:

The movie follows Makoto’s point of view, where time that is shown on the screen corresponds to her perceived time. (eg, the time on screen will be the day before if Makoto travels a day back, rendering everyone elses’ self today non-existent)
Time in the movie is thus constantly switching between the past and future, with the present being the current time that Makoto is currently experiencing.

Here’s a video of Makoto leaping through time:

Comparison between 2 case studies:

The linearity of time to tell a narrative is different, the 1st uses the audience’s perceived time that flows linearly, the 2nd uses the character’s perceived time which is non-linear.
The 1st case study is more interactive in nature as the audience can feel the flame and water that is produced from the soundstage, whereas the 2nd case study has the audience simply watch it.

October 23, 2017October 23, 2017

Foundation 3D Project 3: Mnemosyne Planar & Plastic Models

In this project, we were introduced to the Art Card to create planes.

This is my planar model:

In this model, I tried to direct multiple points of the art cards in different directions to provide a feel of balance to the entire model.

This model is an improved version of an earlier one which had the same big central spiral piece but did not reached as high up. Metal wire embedded into the art card was used to reinforce the art card for this model so that it would stand.

I also stuck with using a Styrofoam base instead of the prescribed paper base so that the art cards can be wedged into the base for extra support. The art cards did started to fall apart after a few days of creation though, as the double-sided tape that held the pairs of art card with the metal wire sandwiched between them started to lose it’s stickiness. I shall take note of the durability of adhesives for the next models.

This model turned out a bit differently from the one it’s based on.

I tried to create a shape which was much more visually interesting by twirling the art card in multiple rounds

Since the previous model’s sub-ordinate did not seem to have much of a presence, I tried to play around with its shape to create a sphere within the arch that the sub-dominant in this model. I had wanted this to give it significance within the model as it would have a clear contrast as compared to the other two waves. However, the sphere was devoid of a direction and i was advised to reduce the curls and make the sub-ordinate jut out in a specific direction during the critique session.

Onto the plastic model.

We were first given the task of choosing 2 scents, one pleasing and one non-pleasing.

My scents are:

Watermelon – Reminds me of my late Grandfather who used to always offer me fruits whenever I visited him. Though it has been a long time since he passed away, the memory of him handing fruits onto my hands are still vividly etched into my mind . Eating fruits now gives me the same warmth as when he was around.
Pepper – My mother has a tendency to make her cooking spicy in multiple ways, Be it through pepper or chilli. Because of this, I have come to dislike anything spicy after being tormented to eating horrendously spicy food everyday for many years.

In the model, i envisioned it to be a culinary experience where a person is eating watermelon topped with a generous amount of pepper.

It starts with the lower part of the model where it’s clear and untouched, just like how a watermelon is supposed to be eaten – plain on its own. The ring around the bottom of the model has a dotted texture, which echos the texture of the watermelon as you chew on it. The shape of the ring also symbolizes my grandfather in the way of a halo. As you go up the model, it bursts into sharp waves representing the spiciness of the pepper hitting your tongue and nose. The waves spreads around in all directions, just as how the spiciness of the pepper engulfs the interior of your mouth.

As an added visual aspect, the model was shone with a light underneath to bring about a spectacle:

The green dye of the bottle that was used as it’s base complements the transparent bottle used for the waves at the top as the green light that emerges from the bottom starts out strong and gradually dissipates as it makes its way up of the model. The transparency of the clear waves at the top creates an illusion of a smoke emerging from a flare beneath it.

And that is my plastic model.