Tom and Jerry Production Schedule

Date	Production	What needs to be done	Equipment
09/03/12	Copy sounds from college. Finish off any storyboards or paper work.	Look for suitable sounds that may be used in the clip.	Mac/ memory stick
10-15/03/12	Download sounds. Finish off any paper work.	Look on the internet for sounds that can also be used and download them.	Mac/ Laptop/ memory stick
16/03/12	Record live sounds.	Record sounds that may be used on the clip.	Recorder/ Mac
16/03/12	Edit sounds.	Clip and clean up any sound that may have any unwanted noise.	Mac
23/03/12	Download clip Edit clip.	Make sure to download the correct clip and cut away the unwanted footage. Then edit clip to making sure the sounds fit and suite the part of the clips properly.	Mac

Tom and Jerry Evaluation

For this assignment I was asked to recreate sound for a Tom and Jerry clip. This needed to be two minutes long and was not aloud to have any sound from the actual Tom and Jerry clip. Overall I think it was done well I do think the sounds fit the video well as some of them were made for the clip.

Some of the sounds used in the clip were hard to find and some of the recordings did have a noisy background due to the recording being done in the college hallway which was a bad choice but lucky didn't affect the sounds to much.

when I was recording the sounds i mainly recorded some of the hitting noises and a little bit of the talking for Spike which was mumbling a sentence as well as the humming for Jerry at the start. Most of the hitting sound and object sound were done by either clapping with bangles on or no bangles on other were by taping a note book on the leg to give it more of a harder hitting sound as well as making sniff noises or using my vocals.

Overall I am happy with the out come although I do feel that if I had a better place to record the sounds they would have been more clearer. Other than the recorded sounds I am happy with the video.

SFX

• why do you think we use SFX's in television and film productions?

I think it is used to help create a sense of connection between the audience and the film or television  program because they are or can be sounds that we are formula with and relate to sub-concisely. So I believe we take comfort in the sounds while we are watching the production but I do think it is also important that we have the sound because it helps bring the story along like brig the thriller out of a thriller or the happiness out of a happy film. 

• what are the advantages of using SFX's in tv and films productions? what do they add to the overall production?

There are so many advantages in SFX'x and a lot of them we don't notice. the advantage can be things like making you fell sad due to both the right sound and image on screen for example a character could have just found their long lost sibling as long as the sound fits that moment you can feel what the character is feeling (depending on how into the production your are). so by all means with the right SFX's and images they can bring out the emotions in the audience to help them relate to the images.

• what are the disadvantages of using SFX's in tv and film production?

The disadvantages are very high as sound is one of the trickiest things to record a false move on sound recording and you can not only lose your audience but you can also ruin and good scene.  for example if you were recording sound for a animation film and you are reading a script if your were out of time with the animation not only would it look like a badly dubbed film it wouldn't flow with the scene as with as muck up the scene so getting timing right is also consul as well as the right sound in tone of voice or just the sound in general

• what is the job description of a foley artist?

A foley artist is the person who sound records noises that would be relevant to the film or TV productions. They can use anything from stamping on gravel to breaking glass to create the right sound for the production. It is said that the best sounds that are recorded can be found in films rather then television productions as they can create a connection of reality in the film although this can be done with television productions. This is an important thing because it can make thing uncomfortable and very unnatural if the wrong sound is recorded or is too quite.( unless it's a horror/ thriller genre)

Evaluation for a Three Shot Sound Sequence

For this task in a group of three being Jack, Aden and I we had to film in three different locations and try to get the best sound possible from our three locations. The locations needing to be two interiors one being quite and the other being noisy in back ground sounds and our third location just needed to be outside.

First off Jack, Aden and I where in a group together and we filmed our first locations with a shot gun mic and didn't really think of the angles we were filming at as well as not worry about the sound to much. When we then reviewed the filming quality it the sound wasn't very good in terms of we could always hear what Jack and I where reading to the camera. We then decided to change our angles and agreed to try and get quieter  background noise so that it would be less disrating to the viewer when watching the footage.

The next time we filmed Aden was absent so Jake filled in for Aden and I filmed instead of read. While doing this we filmed our first quiet location and used a shot gun mic then decided to change to tie mics for the other two locations. When we reviewed this we found the sound qaulity in getting the speak was much clearer with tie much and the background noise wasn't as loud compared to the shot gun mic.

Personally myself I am much happier with the sound outcome on our last two filming locations when we used the tie mics because I feel the sound quality was much better; I believe this because when we were picking up a lot of unwanted sound with the shot gun mic whether or not the room was quiet I think this is mainly to do with not how loud the recording was but because the shot gun mic picks up a lot of general sound in it's surrounding. Also I feel I know  more about sound and have learnt to be more cautious about the quality of sound I record and will try my best to get the best sound possible when recording.
The only down fall I think that was inconvenient was the fact that when there is a need to rely on people being on time or showing up for the filming/capturing and they don't show up this could be a major set back.

Analysing 2nd filming

For our second attempt on filming we tried a few different ideas to try and reduce background noise or hear the vocals more clearer over the back ground noise.

2nd Indoor Silent
For this we use the shot-gun mic again and had pretty much the same response as the last time we filmed it although i believe this was less noisy in the back ground.

2nd Indoor Noisy
On this one we tried tie-mic instead of shot-gun mic in a noisy room this worked well because the mics were picking up more sound from jack and jake the background noise sound a bit like quite noisy background.

2nd Outdoor
We also used tie mics on jake and jack the sound again improved compared to the first filming of this that we did. the vocal pickup is much more clearer  and back ground isn't as loud as before.

List of Equipment

While we were filming our list of equipment was:

• Camera
• Batteries 
• Tri-pod
• Ear/Head phones
• Sound mic (shot gun mic)
• Sound cables 
• Scripts

In future to prevent the disruptions in the filming we may try using tie-mics instead of a shot gun mic and tell people to be quite during filming. If people are on the way to where we are filming we might put up some signs and jack and I should try a few practice runs of the script.

Analysing Our Footage

Outdoor
The were quite a few a problems with filming because there were a few people talking behind us which was picked up by the microphone, the other problems like the sun was causing a glare on the camera lens which was hard to try and remove, there was also problems with a slight bit of wind in the air which was picked up on mic, jack and I didn't really know their scripts very well  and the last problem was cars that drove past which you can hardly change because its out of our hands.

Indoor Noisy
The were a lot of problems with filming indoors like there was a couple of people throwing a bottle in front the camera while talking to each other, the sound recording of jack and myself reading the script sounded echoey, there was shouting in the background, walking passed the shot in front of the camera, we also had people deliberately interfering with the mic by talking into it, we had whistling as well as music in the back ground being played.

Indoor Quite
There was practically nothing wrong with it accept the noise from chairs, fizzy drink bottles and the very quite pen taping. although again the camera and mic was still to far away from jack and I so our voices still echoed on the sound track.

Filming Day

Today we filmed a scripted fictional news piece in three different places as we need at lest one noisy location and two quite locations.

We did this in group my group was with Aden and Jack. Aden was on camera and sound and Jack and I were both reading the script.  

We filmed in 877 twice first was meant to be quite and second was noisy and we also filmed outside by the car park and college air craft.

Preparing to shoot on location

1. Why do you think it’s important to make a plan before you go to shot film or audio on location?

It is always important to plan before filming or recording mainly because if you want good quality or the best quality for your video then you need to be prepared.

When you are planning the things you want done before you film or record it’s best to try and cover things like how accessible is the location?

Why? Because incase if you need to return to the location to reshot or re-record something you know what the possibilities are and how easy it is for the cast and crew to get there.

The next thing that would also be really good to do if possible is to make a short trip down there with a camera (just a good handy cam at lest) and a mic (whatever mic you have chosen to use) and preview the location with the equipment if you wish take different microphones down and test them to see which one suites best.

Not only by previewing the location would you find out how well your equipment will work at the location it also gives you a chance to get used with the location you can risk asses it and document where you would need to cameras to roughly be when your filming you could also preview the point you mark with the equipment to not only give an idea of what it might be like but also to use as evidence to show how accessible it is to get to the points.

It is also good to plan to film more then once one the same scene to make sure you have back up footage as well as maybe considering how long you will be at the location because not only do you need to plan you footage and sound you need to look after you’re cast and crew (don’t want a shaky camera guy/girl)

It is also good to have a back up location just incase the first location you choose in accessible

2. What might happen if you do not plan?

You will be very unprepared for example if you where to find some problems with either you sound or footage and found out you can not return to the location for some unknown reason then you will be left with not only bad quality footage or sound you are left with a choice to either change the idea last minute, drop the footage and use something else or use it and hope no one notices.

Also if you didn’t plan to film or record more then once then it could also be a problem because you might have had a chance of catching something useable and if you didn’t plan a back up location then this may also be problematic if you can not return to your old location but need to re-film. 

an example of this that I have found is of a group of weather report that have gone wrong both inside and outside of the studios 

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7H7mHShcp8