12.12

Last week we worked quickly and really started to try to get things going so we didn't have to do too much over the holiday. Today we moved forward from what we had finished last class. We downloaded the clips and started to organize them onto the timeline and we even started cutting and doing some fine editing in terms of the sequence and how they were going to play out in order. We didn't have much difficulty or trouble downloding the files becuse we all knew how to do that. We really didn't need everyone doing something because we didn't have lot of files to download and we only needed one computer to lay out and get all the clips down on the entire timeline. Once we downloaded all the clips I started to cut out the specific parts we needed from those clips and dragged them down into the timeline in the correct order. After that I went in for some fine editing and I started separating those clips and adding new parts in between the original clips because we were aiming for a mashup effect. I thought it worked pretty well because the clips we found flowed pretty well together: the clip with the pranks was set in a grassy background, and the main clip was lso set in a grassy background so that worked well when fitted together. So far the film doesn't seem to be jumping around randomly, which is my main concern when cutting two different clips and putting them together. We alwys referred back to the main clip and used that as our base, like the basic storyline and I think having that worked to our advantage in structuring the whole story.

There was one chllenge we faced, which was the quality of the different video clips. Since they were all different, when we imported those files into Final Cut Pro, the result was that some of the clips were very pixelated while others looked quite good. This caused the entire sequence to be very unbalanced and look a little strange when we were playing it through because you notice the differences in quality immediately. We asked for help, and we managed to find a solution to the problem. The solution was that after importing all the clips we needed into Final Cut Pro and dragging what we needed onto the timeline, we should export the film, then open a new project and import that exported file. We have yet to do that because we said we would do it once we had done a little more editing (we also need to see if we might have to add some more clips), but hopefully that will balance out the video qualities of all the clips and turn it into one complete film.

"Fasten your seatbelts. It's going to be a bumpy night." - All About Eve

8.12

Today we officially started the second unit on making the soundtrack for a chosen comic strip or animation. We broke into our groups and started brainstorming ideas for the visuals. There was lots of choices we could go with; taking pictures (stills) of people and turning that into an animation, drawing and turning that into animation, doing flash animation or taking a comic strip or cartoon and making our own soundtrack to that.

We wanted to make it easy for us to get the visuals, nothing too complicated because we were only focusing on the sound design after all. We wanted to be able to spend the most time on the sound design; but we also wanted something interesting for the visuals to be able to experiment with many sounds. We originally thought of doing a parody of a cartoon or a short video clip, but that was too broad. We narrowed our thoughts and started thinking of our favorite cartoons. I said Pink Panther, Marshall and Cara both said Tom and Jerry. I was fine with that because I love Tom and Jerry as well! We thought about taking clips or even sounds from different episodes and mash them up into one, creating a completely new story (this way we would have made it our own original idea). It would be like creating a remix with the cartoon, which is pretty neat. We also considered making stop-motion as I've always wanted to do something like that, but we couldn't think of any story that really intrigued any of us so we decided to stick with Tom and Jerry.

Our basic structure of the storyline is that in the beginning Tom and Jerry are friends, but in the middle something happens, there's a betrayal of some sort and the truce is broken. This way there are different dynamics, and we would also be able to add in clips of them 'pranking' each other which is the most fun to add sounds to and it also picks up the pace of the film making it more lively. We went on Youtube and started looking for clips that was of them being friends, but because of something unexpected they get mad at each other and are back to being enemies. We weren't really sure if we were going to add in another character, the bull dog, because he comes up in some of the episodes (in particular the one we found of Tom and Jerry establishing a truce) but we thought that if we added him in the film would get a little too complicated. He would have been quite random, because sometimes in the clips we want to use he doesn't appear. By the end of the class we were already going into the details and looking out for specifics, like Tom or Jerry's laughs, for us to add in as sound.

We worked quite efficiently and got a lot done in this class, so that's a good sign. I think it really helped that everybody contributed in the brainstorming and we all agreed with each other when someone thought of a good idea. I'm excited!

"Go ahead, make my day." - Sudden Impact

2.12

We finished watching Billy Elliot in class, continuing to pay attention to the sound design of the film, how it affects our emotions and especially the layering of different sounds, non-diagetic and diagetic.

There were a couple of things I noticed when I was watching the film. The first thing was when Billy and his dance teacher were dancing by themselves in that gym, the music was loud and funky and cheerful. It's very upbeat and it makes you feel like dancing as well, especially because at first all you hear is the tapping of the cymbals. The music is part of the soundtrack, and the film cuts from clips of Billy dancing to shots of what his family members are doing, with that funky music going on in the background. It makes you feel like Billy is completely oblivious to the other world and although those worlds exist parallel to each other, they're not really connected. Billy's family members can't understand his feelings and don't want to. The music goes on while they go on with their daily lives, so it's as if they're ignoring it.

Another thing I noticed is that there's a lot of moments where the music suddenly cuts off, and where it cuts off is usually when the music is the loudest or after reaching the climax. The piano starts, builds up, then when the door opens back at his house the music cuts off again. This reminds me again of the symbolism of jumping up against a wall; this wall of reality that he can't get out of, he cannot escape from. Every time the music cuts off is when he "comes back to reality", and the music in his fantasy world hits that wall and cuts off abruptly as the wall is hard and impenetrable. Another good example of that same symbolism is when his dance teacher is arguing with his brother in the house, he runs outside and the film shows him trying to jump up on the wall, trying to get out. Then he's stuck in between the two walls, like being stuck in a box; although he can see the way out, but he just can't reach it. He finally 'escapes', and the tapping sounds he makes with his shoes overlap with the music (diagetic and non-diagetic) and it's almost as if he's trying to let out all the frustration out through his dancing.

There's another moment in the film which I really liked; it's when he's dancing up the street and he keeps turning and turning and turning until he reaches the end. The important thing about this is that when you spin you have to focus on one point, so that when you spin around you won't lose balance. To me this was like he had what he wanted in mind, he had a dream of dancing, and the spinning symbolizes him trying not to lose sight of that in the face of everything. He really wants to achieve that dream, he really wants to hold onto it despite his circumstances. But at the end, he still hits the wall (that was at the end of the street), which again goes back to the symbolism of hitting against the wall of reality.

"There's no place like home." - The Wizard of Oz