Finishing the Documentary

This week, we finished the documentary. Me and Harry looked over the final edit to decide the length of shots and the text, as well as the placement of the sound effects that I had found. Madgie added in the title and credits, using the font that she had designed. The documentary lasts for 1 minute and 27 seconds which is within the time limit. Overall I'm very pleased with how the documentary turned out and I'm very pleased with the whole team. The press pack that Madgie and Daisy have been working on is really impressive as well.

Collage Animating, Sound Effects and Sound Bibliography

This week, we finished animating all the stop-motion elements of the documentary. We only had to take a photo of a burnt tree, (which would form part of a mainly collage background) so this was easy enough to do. 

Now there were only the collage parts left to do. I joined in with the others to help speed up the process. I put together some of the frames that had the tree and mountain backgrounds. The mountains were easy enough to do, due to their basic shape and I could use much bigger pieces of paper to collage them. The trees on the other hand were very fiddly and needed much smaller bits of paper to cover the detailed areas. Overall, this made collaging a very slow way of animating, and although I like the outcome, I prefer the more regular process of animating in stop-motion. 

In the meantime, I was looking on free sound websites for sound effects. I quickly researched the type of birds that are found in Indonesia and then tried to find their bird calls. In the end, I found bird calls for the Alpine Pipit, the Yellow-Throated Honeyeater, birds of paradise and cuckoos. Additionally, I found sounds of forests, ponds/streams and the sound of plants growing quickly over time. I also found sounds of a large fire, crackling embers, raindrops and gusts of wind. 

Sound Bibliography

• Basoap (2014) Growing Bulbous nose. Available at: https://freesound.org/people/basoap/sounds/233201/ (Downloaded 25th April 2021)
• Bratendu (2020) Cuckoo. Available at: https://freesound.org/people/bratendu/sounds/506675/ (Downloaded 25th April 2021)
• Dynamicell (2006) Fire_Embers_Large_Campfire. Available at: https://freesound.org/people/Dynamicell/sounds/17554/ (Downloaded 25th April 2021)
• FractalStudios (2016) Fire Crackle and Flames 002. Available at: https://freesound.org/people/FractalStudios/sounds/363092/ (Downloaded 25th April 2021)
• Garuda1982 (2021) Wind Storm Gusts of Wind up to 7 Beaufort City atmo. Available at: https://freesound.org/people/Garuda1982/sounds/563047/ (Downloaded 25th April 2021)
• Guyburns (2016) Yellow Throated Honeyeater. Available at: https://freesound.org/people/guyburns/sounds/333879/ (Downloaded 25th April 2021)
• Idomusics (2020) Rain. Available at: https://freesound.org/people/idomusics/sounds/518863/  (Downloaded 25th April 2021)
• Mafon2 (2016) Water Click. Available at: https://freesound.org/people/Mafon2/sounds/371274/ (Downloaded 25th April 2021)
• Reinsamba (2006) Bird in Rainforest. Available at: https://freesound.org/people/reinsamba/sounds/19257/ (Downloaded 25th April 2021)
• Skipjack2001 (2009) Rainforest. Available at: https://freesound.org/people/skipjack2001/sounds/68065/ (Downloaded 25th April 2021)
• Sqeeeek (2017) Wind_Gust_Short_Sqeeeek. Available at: https://freesound.org/people/sqeeeek/sounds/381853/ (Downloaded 25th April 2021)
• Tranquility.jadgroup (2016) Greater Bird-of-Paradise. Available at: https://freesound.org/people/tranquility.jadgroup/sounds/370757/ (Downloaded 25th April 2021)
• Wintuh (2019) Dark Dark Woods Sounds. Available at: https://freesound.org/people/wintuh/sounds/471854/ (Downloaded 25th April 2021)
• YleArkisto (2015) A Tree Pipit Singing in the Forest in the Spring. Available at: https://freesound.org/people/YleArkisto/sounds/265059/ (Downloaded 25th April 2021)

What Went Well

• I was able to find all the sounds required on free sound websites
• We are coming close to the end of the project well on time
• I haven't animated using collage before. I found out it works well for boil effects

Criticism

• The collaging took a very long time, however it was worth it in the end because it looks very good
• The glue smudged the paper after a while but it sort off adds to the texture

Documentary Production 2 and Post-Production Editing

This week we've carried on animating the stop-motion scenes.

I cleared the forest from the main set and replaced it with the red plant and a tree for the close-up shot. Once again this took a long time as the plant had to be re-rigged with thread. The threads must have got tangled because during animating, the mechanisms that controlled each individual petal often jogged the petal next to it, however we eventually got the footage, which only required a bit of painting out rigging in editing. 

The leaf close-up didn't take as long to set up as this wasn't animated on set, but green-screened instead. The first attempt at animating the leaf reacting to a water droplet looked unnatural as the tips of the leaf seemed to coil up too much. The second attempt however was much more successful as the whole leaf shudders this time.

Next we animated the silhouette shots. We used the cardboard cut-out Daisy made, and slotted it into the vice I made on the side of the table so it stayed still during filming. Moss was added in a way that it wouldn't easily fall off. This was necessary as we animated the moss by gently blowing on it between each shot - animating the moss by hand would've been too tricky as it is so delicate. Despite the odd jumpy movements, the moss animates smoothly.

For the scene with the forest silhouette at night, the lighting was focused on the front of the trees. For the fire scene, the lighting was focused behind the cut-out forest. This created different effects on the tree edges.

With these elements complete, it was time to start editing. We decided I'll be editing the stop-motion and text parts and Harry will be editing the collage parts. 

The silhouetted forest is composed of the same duplicated footage. The further back through the forest, the darker, blurrier and more contrasted it becomes. It was placed on the glowing blue backdrop used for the tests. Meanwhile, the fire silhouette gets lighter the further you go back and a cross-blur best conveyed the presence of a fire. It too was placed on the same oil background used for the test. Harry will edit in the smoke.

The first layer of the panning shot is of course unedited footage. The four layers behind are then keyframed (at faster speeds the further you go back) using easy ease to make the pan look natural. Once again, it gets darker and blurrier the further you go back. 

The scene introducing the weaving palm oil was the most problematic shot. Due to the fact we animated the trees and background together, I couldn't edit the palm oil to weave between these layers, and masking the moving trees would have taken far too long. Instead we reshot footage of the grass and trees as individual elements, and changed the framing of the shot to be more focused on the ground where the transition takes place. I then edited in strips of paper that settled on the tree trunks, using the Page Turn effect. This was very effective for conveying the presence of a wind. Harry will edit in the wind collage elements. 

The same Page Turn effect was used on some of the text transitions. For this, I previously cut out each word from a book and stuck them to a green-screen, which took roughly a day. The paper the text is on compliments the paper that is seen blowing onto the trees during the collage take-over. 

What Went Well

• The editing revealed if anything needed to be reshot
• The leaf close-up is the smoothest animation we achieved
• The Page Turn effect is really good at making the still footage we have look like it's moving in a wind

Criticism

• The palm oil scene was very problematic and meant reshooting, however if anything, the new scene looks closer to the storyboarded idea
• Jobs like rigging the plants and cutting out words from the book were time-consuming, taking most of the day

Documentary Production

Our group is now in the production stage of the documentary.

We started with the panning shot. The pan is a lot smoother when filmed rather than taking individual photos.

The blue backdrop was slightly creased so wasn't the best for green-screening but it will do. The blue screen lifts up too high in areas and these needed to be masked out by hand. Otherwise, with the stabiliser effect, runs very smoothly.

Next we animated the palm oil weave element. 

The animation is very smooth and will be able to be duplicated in editing to look like it's covering the whole forest. There is only one strand of paper that we forgot to animate for one frame, however I went back and edited this in photoshop after - it is not noticeable.

We next animated the trees blowing in the wind on the main set. Initially we tried animating them altogether, however found it impossible to loop them seamlessly. We also started animating them from their midpoint rather than at their extremes, which in hindsight made the loops impossible to produce. 

We also realised halfway through that one of the trees was moving in the opposite direction. 

So we started again, this time animating each tree individually, and they'll be edited together in one frame in post-production. We started animating the trees from their most extreme-left position to their most extreme-right position, making the loops achievable. 

For variety, I switched the positions of the trees and re-rigged them up, which took a couple of hours as the strings were so complicated. This was a good time for fixing the strings that had got tangled during animating. 

What Went Well

• The trees loop well and combine together on the same terrain seamlessly in post-production
• The actual animating process was fairly quick and simple once we figured out the best approach
• The weave element is very smooth and will look good when duplicated through the forest scene

Criticism

• Re-rigging the strings took hours to do, however this reduced the animating time down to around 10 minutes per tree loop
• Lighting the blue-screen has been an issue in some shots and has meant more work will be required in the editing

Showreel

Going alongside the PowerPoint is the showreel. I collected a minutes-worth of footage that I've been working on this year and edited it together. I picked an upbeat, fast-paced song to play over the top and edited the footage in such a way that it feels connected to the song (eg. the cuts occur in time with the beat). As I enjoy the process that goes behind making animations, I made sure to include behind-the-scenes shots along with the final footage throughout the showreel. 

What Went Well

• The footage goes well with the music and doesn't feel like a minute long
• I was pleased with the smooth transitions between shots
• The showreel shows what goes into an animation, rather than just the finished product

Criticism

• It was hard trying to condense the footage into one minute
• I've had to put a few tests from the documentary in rather than final footage as this won't be completed before the showreel needs to be handed in

Reflection of my Year Presentation

This week, I've been putting together a presentation that reflects on the course this year. It'll be roughly eleven slides in total and last roughly 6 or 7 minutes. I'm talking about are the expectations that I had for this year, new things I've tried, any achievements/failures, my strengths and weaknesses, my personal growth outside of uni, my plans for the summer and next year, and my showreel. While making this PowerPoint is part of the requirements for submission, it has also been useful for myself looking back on the course this year, and how I've changed from last year. I've made a script to go alongside explaining the photographs and bullet points in more depth. I recorded myself reading the script. It's only listening back to the recordings that I realise how much I tend to mumble when I speak. I needed a few takes for the lines so that everything was spoken clearly.

What Went Well

• The PowerPoint addresses many aspects of my experiences in second year
• I've made the PowerPoint a lot more visual than text based, all the information will be spoken rather than appear on screen
• The font of the PowerPoint will match the showreel in-keeping with a uniform design

Criticism 

• I never know how best to layout the images I have on the slides of a PowerPoint, it ends up looking a bit untidy
• Some of the categories took a while to think about as so much seems to happen in the course of a year
• I tend to mumble a lot in the voice recordings

Setting up the Stop-Motion Backgrounds

This week I've been working on setting up the stop-motion background for the panning shot in the forest. First I built up an uneven surface using the wood we had, which would form the terrain.

Then I covered this with wire mesh to smooth out the terrain. Next I worked out the placement of the trees and pond, so they'd look fairly spaced during the panning shot.

Then I attached blue thread to the trees, which will hopefully green-screen out with the blue backdrop. The thread is attached to mechanisms (which I had designed a few weeks ago) under and to the sides of the table.

Afterwards, I put down astro-turf segments to cover the terrain.

Dry moss could fill in the areas between each panel, creating an even layering of foliage on the floor. 

Finally, I tested the scenery with a practise panning shot to pick out if there were any parts that needed green-screening out and I went back and covered these areas with blue paper.

After I'd finished with the set, I prepared the strips of paper (representing palm oil) that will weave through the forest. Of course, this will not happen on set, but on a separate piece of cardboard, and the footage will be composited on in the editing. The only changes I made from the test I did a few weeks back was to have a strip of green paper on either side of the wire so as to hide it. I also put the cardboard on a table with access to the cardboard's underside, so it doesn't move during shooting, whereas previously, the cardboard hung off the edge of a table. 

What Went Well

• With a blue sheet behind, the scenery should green-screen out well
• The moss was a really useful material for filling in the parts the grass panels couldn't
• The thread is strong enough to move the branches but thin enough to not be seen easily
• The pond with water in, stayed completely still during the test shot
• The weaving element is ready for shooting

Criticism

• In hindsight, attaching the trees to the strings after would have been better as it was hard to work around them without catching on them
• Again, the grass panels would have been better to put on before I attached the trees to the terrain
• In the practise panning shot, the camera was too heavy for the springs of the mic stand and snapped them, so I replaced them with a wooden plank, which worked at keeping the stand in place

Responses from Theatres

I got a few responses from theatre companies after enquiring about work experience as a theatre technician/scenic carpenter. The larger theatre companies tended to respond by sending me back to their job vacancies pages so there wasn't much luck there. Other companies responded that they weren't offering apprenticeships at this time due to COVID, which was to be expected. 

I did get a response from an independent production company that uses a small theatre local to me, and they are happy to let me work on the set and the stage (lighting/sound) for their next performance in September. This will be a great opportunity to gain experience as well as to see if I enjoy the role. I had a zoom call with the Director of the production company, who told me that it is a self-funded student-run project. My role will be working on the set construction to begin with and then moving on to stage roles, working with lighting and sound during the performance. 

What Went Well

• I've managed to get work experience for the summer at a local theatre
• Trying out the role will be the best way of judging if I would like this as a career
• Most of the theatres I emailed responded with their current situation

Criticism

• Because I'm currently on a degree course, some theatres running apprenticeships stipulated that this meant I wouldn't be allowed to apply
• Some of the email responses I got weren't that helpful

Documentary Script and Storyboard

This week we finished the storyboard as a group. We generally stuck to the idea I had to begin with (seen above), however focused on adding more scenes in collage, to even out the number of stop-motion and collage shots. 

Madgie then worked on the final drawings for the storyboard (seen below). Her drawings massively improve the initial concept and I can see the documentary coming together much clearer now. 

Alongside this, I worked on the script. To begin with, I researched how the scripts of other documentaries are formulated. I focused on the BBC's 'Blue Planet' series, as this is the sort of tone I'm hoping to go for with the text. I analysed three beginnings and three endings to transcripts of this series. 

Overall I found the sentences were generally simple and that the rule of three, superlatives and plosive alliteration were commonly used for dramatic effect. They even managed to contain a fair amount of numerical data without ruining the poetic nature of the script. 

With this in mind, I set about working out the stance the script would take. I came to the conclusion the documentary would start positively, looking at the unique and diverse characteristics of the forest. Palm oil would then be introduced fairly neutrally, but by the end, the stance would twist and look at all the negatives palm oil has had on the forest. I found facts from our research that fit this stance (research that covered the economical, environmental, social and political aspects of palm oil). 

In the second draft, I wanted the script to feel more like a poem, fitting with the expository/poetic mode the documentary will take. The volume of facts in the previous script would be too much information for a viewer to be able to take in, and not particularly entertaining. 

The third draft looked to cut down the sentences to the essentials as only 200-250 words can be read a minute. I was looking to get it down to 120 words as the imagery would speak for itself.

Me and Madgie both worked on the final script. We listened to a podcast about palm oil, which made the point that the West generally focuses on the negative affects palm oil has on the animals. While of course this is a serious issue, the effects palm oil has on the people is generally forgotten. As a result, we tweaked the script slightly to focus more on the social aspects in Indonesia rather than the animals. 

This is the final script we came up with:

What Went Well

• Madgie's storyboard makes visualising the documentary a lot easier
• I'm very happy with the final script - it touches on all the social, economic and environmental elements I wanted to include
• The script research was a good beginning point when looking for inspiration

Criticism

• 60- 90 seconds of documentary is a very short space of time to produce a well-rounded, descriptive script
• We had to cut out the impacts palm oil has on animals due to the time constraints

Exploring Future Careers

This week I've been exploring set and prop building careers, in particular jobs that require carpentry skills. While I'm happy working on small scale set building projects for animations, I've found that I'd be particularly interested in exploring further into larger scale projects as a future career, such as working for theatres and pantomimes. From my research, I've found out about the 'Creative Venue/Theatre Technician' role. This role is responsible for the construction, rehearsal, presentation and removal of equipment from a stage performance. This role stood out for me more than the other career choices such as being a 'Set Designer' as I'm not so interested in the conceptual/design aspects of the set, but rather the actual building process. 

With this career choice in mind, I looked into the ways I could get my foot in the door in this type of job. There are some apprenticeships running for 'Venue Technicians' and 'Scenic Carpenters' around London, which would be ideal, however there don't seem to be any spaces open currently due to COVID, and competition for them would be high. I have also looked into local theatres near me for any opportunities to get work experience, such as helping build props or sets. Again, everything is currently closed due to COVID so there is no work here. I have put together emails and sent them out to theatres and will hopefully get a response when they open up again.

In the emails I ask whether there are any internships, apprenticeships or work experience opportunities once lockdown restrictions are eased. I also mention how my skills from the Animation course can apply to the roles that I'm looking to get into. I also added myself to a few mailing lists to get notified if placements for these roles turn up. 

I emailed the following theatres/apprentice companies and now awaiting responses:

• Watford Palace Theatre
• Watford Pump House
• Watford Colosseum
• The Globe
• The National Theatre
• Leeds Playhouse
• Royal Shakespeare Company
• HOME
• ATG

I'll be emailing more theatres as and when I find them.

What Went Well

• The course is helping me to narrow down the exact career that I want
• This process has helped practise my networking skills
• I've kept the search local so far for easy commuting 

Criticism

• With COVID, all opportunities to work in this career are currently unavailable. It also means the theatres may take a longer time to respond
• It can seem a large task trying to find somewhere that will accept me for that first bit of work experience
• Some of the apprenticeship schemes don't accept people taking degrees

Documentary Tests (Carried On)

This week, I've been testing many different shots that will go towards the film.

The first tests carried on from the silhouette shots I was working on last week, however I'm now starting to animate them. I used a better camera, and this time captured the forest in four individual sections. 

I animated each of these four layers ever so minutely (by lightly blowing on the moss) to create the effect of wind. In After Effects, these layers were combined together, the lighting darkened and put a background behind. This concept will form the start of the documentary. 

I then looked into creating the fire effects that will be overlaid onto the scene representing the deforestation taking place. This shot will appear midway through the documentary. The oil tests that Daisy did were a good starting point for making this effect (as seen below).

I went about trying to recreate the oil effect here so I could film it instead of just capturing the one photograph of it. This turned out to be very hard to do, and neither of us could recreate the patterns in the photo above. The oil mixture was creating patterns that were too bubbly/separating into small circles. I also played around with having a direct light in the reflection or a flat light across the whole surface. 

I composited these oil shots on top of the backdrops of the scenes I'd been making, with varying degrees of success. 

The red lines are nice and look like a plume of heat but it's too subtle overall/doesn't look like fire.

The colours are more realistic and the forest is a good colour. The yellow flickering is effective, but overall is too slow and again too subtle. 

The oil here is very effective (looking like embers) and its colour is vivid. The added animation with the falling tree gives a lot of emphasis to the power of the fire. The blur conveys the heat.

The final test involved smoke (made of cotton wool) rising from the scene. An animated plume of smoke also rises into the air when the tree falls down. Overall, it just needs some lighting added to the trees to make the two elements really feel connected.

The next test I did involved building up the stop-motion forest set from multiple layers. 

This shot combines eight or so layers of forest that get darker and blurrier the further you go back to build up perspective.

This shot includes the palm oil that takes over.

This is the animated version, combining the forest with the weaving tests made a few weeks back. I really like this effect and believe it looks very natural. (This will appear midway through the documentary, when the message about palm oil starts to twist negatively).

Finally I tested the panning shot that we were going to include at the beginning of the film. I stuck to my initial design to carry out this shot.

The first video is a quick practise shot using my camera, mainly for testing whether the layers green-screened behind would look realistic being inserted afterwards in post-production. 

Despite how rough it is, I was very pleased with how it turned out.

I tried the same shot again, but this time using the stop-motion software and taking individual photos rather than a film. Overall I wasn't as pleased with this attempt as it is very jolty, although it's cleaner than the previous attempt. I will continue working on this next week.

What Went Well

• I got to a good solution for representing the fire in the forest, using oil in water
• Cotton wool in combination with the oil made the fire even more realistic
• The combination of the weaving green paper and the layered forest works really well

Criticism

• Some of the tests have felt slow and not all that rewarding (when they haven't worked out), but in the long run will improve the documentary.
• More work needs to be done on the panning shot
• It was impossible to get the oil patterns to look exactly like they had done the first time around

Brand Identity Presentation

This week I put together a powerpoint presentation about myself and what I do, to be presented to the rest of the class. I made sure to talk about my practical skills as well as my soft skills. I also mentioned the different projects that I'm working on currently, both to do with animation and outside. In terms of my brand identity, I have set up accounts on Instagram and Reddit. However, with regard to aspects like creating a logo, I do not believe this would be entirely appropriate as my focus is on working for a company, where I can expand my knowledge for background construction (either at a small scale for animation or a large scale for theatre productions/pantomime), rather than going freelance. Instead I have chosen to go with a smart photo of myself on my social media and LinkedIn sites. 

The tutor was pleased with the presentation, especially how I specified the sorts of materials I like to work with. He said that I should look into metalwork more as well as to start thinking about jobs for the future (eg. pantomime set building, which I believe would be a good career idea).

What Went Well

• Concise presentation
• The presentations let me see who I could possibly collaborate with for future projects
• Set building could be a career that spans outside animation, such as for theatre productions

Criticism

• The brand identity online could be stronger (eg. having a logo), however as I'm aiming to work for a company rather than going freelance, I don't think this would be so appropriate