Link to DV3 report in google docs

https://docs.google.com/document/d/10sljB30KyiFJucvwtp3_N2A92b6iif-IZyXMLc57Yw0/edit?usp=sharing

Link to DV Assignment 3 on YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRkS7OHGFYg&feature=youtu.be

Editing continued

I came in to class from 9 until 4 today to finish off editing. I messaged the team last night and they agreed to meet me here at 9 am. I did a handover of the files from Mark. Which I completed today. I am happy with the final outcome. I didn't put titles on the video as none of the other LIT promotional videos seemed to have them. I put the LIT website address at end of video instead as I feel this is important and the other videos seem to have them. We weren't going to use dissolves in the video at all but I felt that the video looked too jumpy without them. I edited the sound so that it lowered and went higher in the correct places in time with my voice over. I chopped up Maireads sign language so that it matched up with my voice over. I added cross dissolves to Mairead's signing as it looked a bit strange when she randomly popped up out of nowhere so I feel the dissolves fixed this. Other than that I lengthened the video clips that were our own footage to give them a better show and made sure all other clips looked ok, editing here and there slightly. I added a graphic to end of video so that the logo is one of last things showing. I reversed and slowed down aerial clip at end so that it looks like you are coming away from LIT at end. The video is around 1 minute 50 seconds.

Editing

I helped with editing today. I figured out how to crop the inset video with Mairead doing sign language so that the sides were cropped out. I also cut down the amount of footage we had....Mark had sourced a lot of footage online which we needed to chop down. I will help on Friday also if needed. I'm really happy with how our camera footage turned out. It looks a lot better than what I had thought....We got some really nice shots. I took one of the plane at entrance to LIT and that turned out well. The shots of science lab came out well and Mairead too a shot looking through steam in kitchen that turned out well and I did a handheld shot of some people cooking in the kitchen which looks good. The stock aerial shots of LIT look good so we want to incorporate those as much as possible.

Voice over

I asked Mark about the voice over I did and I heard back that the voice over I recorded last week didn't turn out... I had a feeling that there was an issue with the mic and that this would be the case. So last night I downloaded the app 'Voice Recorder' for my phone and felt that this would be the way to go....it's so clear and the files are output to mp3 format. I recorded a few different versions of the script. Paragraph by paragraph and I sent on the ones I felt were best to the team via email. This was far better because I had more control over the voice over than what I would have if I recorded it on the mic and camera.

Assignment 3 shoot 2

We headed up to the restaurant today to film. I took some shots of the restaurant, a pan of the room and zoomed in on some students folding napkins, and also the 'Taste' logo, we then headed into the kitchen, we got some good shots with steam rising in the kitchen. I zoomed in on the students cooking. I also panned along some interesting artwork in the restaurant. We later moved to the science lab. There we got some good shots of students working. They were kind enough to pose for us. We also ot a pan of the science lab.

DV Assignment 3

We did some filming yesterday. I am on camera, I am sharing this with Mairead as neither of us have had the opportunity to be on camera yet and this is our last assignment. We took a few shots in the street, in the library and the woodwork room. I recorded Mairead signing the script that was provided. I then recorded my voice reading the script using a mic and camera. We are filming some more today. Mark is sound/editing and Cecily is director. Mark has downloaded videos that he will edit. There is some great drone footage available of L.I.T. I particularly like the aerial shots.

Link to DV Assignment 2 on YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-_hNnNvB-Q

Link to my Sound/Editing Report DV2 in Google Docs

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1JPTlBE9bujTO9VfcADe1X0IzDCWrpjPuWTxeD933fmA/edit?usp=sharing

Final editing

We did our final edit today. I'm sending it on to Mairead and she will upload to Youtube. Really happy with the final cut. I adjusted sound in some clips where it was too noisy and sorted out some of the transitions.

Re-shoot

On wednesday we re-shot a scene then came back to class and did some more editing as a group. I'll need to play around with colour on shot that we re-took. We had to use Mark's camera. We hired one from college but there was a problem with it and we couldn't use it.

Editing part 2

I added sound to the piece today and made some more edits, it's really taking shape now. It's nearly down to 3 minutes also. I added 3 pieces of music from Bensound.com. One happyish at start, one running man type music then finally sad music at end. I'm not 100 per cent sure I'll go with these pieces but it I feel it better illustrates the tone of the piece.

Editing

I did my first rough edit for DV assignment 2 today. I am happy with it so far. It's now 3 minutes, 45 seconds long but I know areas where I can trim it down, I created titles and did lots of dissolves, I'm not sure if I'll keep all of the dissolves yet. Can't wait to hear what the team thinks and see how it evolves once everyone has an input. The sound quality wasn't as bad as we had thought it would be on the day of filming, but as sound person for this assignment I need to look at that more in-depth and think about whether the piece would benefit from adding music in places or not too. I forwarded it on to our Director for this project Mairead. I saved 2 copies of my project thus far also.

Acting

Today, I was asked last-minute to do a bit of acting for another team. They were really stuck so I agreed and we went down to Curragower pub and filmed there and on the waterfront.

Day of shoot

We met at Mairead's house yesterday, she had the shot list lined up. First we had tea and discussed the project. Then we started filming. I have a small part in the piece. I was filmed first, writing a 'Dear John' letter to Mark's character, Mark is the main actor, we filmed the indoor shots first, then we headed outdoors, we had a few takes of each shot. As my role for assignment 2 is sound/editing, I just kept an eye on continuity on day of shoot. I also tried to give a hand with equipment and keeping it safe etc also. One issue we encountered was that the battery of the camera didn't last long. Therefore, we had to charge it up regularly and took breaks while it was charging. Also, the SD card became full very easily so we needed to upload contents to Mairead's computer to save it as we went. At one stage, it started raining so we needed to alter the storyline to coincide with the rain. I had another small part where Mark's character thought that I was his girlfriend who had left him.... I had a small bit of acting to do also. Then we went to the train station where we got the final shots, we had a coffee and charged up the camera one last time. We headed to the platform and got shots of the train pulling away and Mark trying to stop the train. I have uploaded a copy of all the footage to my computer so now I have everything for editing and adding sound. I am undecided at this moment as to the sound, we got some good natural sound, but also the background noise audio wasn't great on the camera so I'll need to figure out how to eliminate that. All-in-all we had a successful day yesterday filming, we filmed from 12-5 and got loads of shots for me to edit with.

Brief

We just had our brief with Mairead the Director about the shoot tomorrow. I'm excited, there is a good storyboard and we have the story set in our heads now. The shoot starts tomorrow at noon in Mairead's house. Looking forward to it.

DV Assignment 2

We had our first meeting today for project 2. We had discussed various ideas previously but settled on a 'Dear John' type idea. The premise is that a woman is leaving a man. She writes a letter on the kitchen table and leaves the engagement ring. He then tries to find her and eventually heads to the bus/train station. He just misses her as she gets on the train. Some obstacles will get in his way as he tries to chase her to the train station. I think this idea will work well. We also decided on who will act, Mark will play the main role and I will play a small female role. We decided on roles for this assignment today also. Mairead is Director, Cecily is on camera, Mark is Production Manager and I will be on Sound/Editing. We have decided to meet on Wednesday to do the shoot in Mairead's house and then move on to the train station.

Director’s Report

A Portrait of a Location

‘The Desolation of Shannon Airport’

For our first assignment ‘A Portrait of a Location’, my team chose the theme ‘The Desolation of Shannon Airport’. I had the idea of doing a piece on Shannon Airport as I find the location extremely interesting. A once thriving location which is now desolate. The airport was built in 1945. In 1947 the Duty Free shop was established and it was the first shop of its kind in the world. A once bustling airport ‘gateway to Europe’, has now been replaced by empty hallways and runways.

My initial plan was to convey the emptiness of the airport in the piece by juxtaposing it with an initially busy setting. When the piece opens we will see shots of the airport, the welcome signs, a plane taking off, a list of arrivals….and then we cut to scenes of emptiness, empty arrivals area, empty hallways, empty desks etc. Hopefully, the viewer will feel at first excited but then sad, sad that a once busy happening place is now lonely and isolated.

I grew up in Shannon and so the airport has always been a big part of my life (even though I have rarely used it to go anywhere). I have always heard the planes roaring overhead. From the back of the airport you can get closer to the planes for a better view. The airport used to put on air shows for the local people. There was a buzz and an excitement about the place.

        I knew that we would have no problems filming there and would get some great shots. I made a precautionary phone call ahead just in case. I made contact with a man called Ray who was very welcoming and told me it was ‘No problem, just leave your name with security in the arrivals hall to let them know who you are.’ I did as instructed on the day of filming and he even came out to welcome us.

        My position was Director/Co-Producer, my job was to conceive and fund the assignment. I went location scouting on Friday 23rd of September and we had the shoot on Wednesday 28th of September. I believed in the location and was very excited about it. While location scouting I took lots of pictures of the various shots I wanted and shared these with my team on the What’sapp group that I set up. I showed them the sequence that we would do the shots in.

The only cost we had as a group was parking and coffee! All team mates were very obliging with their time so it was no problem scheduling shoots on the group What’sapp chat.

I met the crew on the day of the shoot at 12:30 at the meeting point I had arranged. I then organised that I would drive into the airport as it was better for safety reasons to only take one car, and also for the reason that parking is paid so no need for everyone to pay for parking. I pulled in at the first shot (the welcome sign at entrance to airport area).

We took a few shots there of an empty car park and the welcome sign. I then drove the crew to the car park of the airport. We then walked Mark's camera gear up to get the next two shots, a pan of the estuary and a shot of the tail wing of an aircraft, which stands near entrance to the car park.

From there we moved indoors, the first thing I did was make myself and the crew known to airport security. The man on security made a phone call to my contact in the airport to confirm that he was expecting us and then we were good to go.

We took various shots of the empty halls, escalator, statue and empty check-in desks. I feel that the piece will have a nod to emigration in Ireland as there are symbols of this dotted around the airport. Our contact who works in the airport then came out to say hello and we chatted with him for a bit. He suggested that we head up to the viewing area.

There, we got a great view of the runway and it's surrounds. Luckily, there was a plane on the runway which we managed to get a shot of. We got a shot of the empty viewing area, the car park and a shot of the exterior of the building before heading back to L.I.T.

For our first production, Mark had his own DSLR camera, and as he was cameraman we therefore didn’t need a Production Manager on this particular shoot. So we decided as a group to divide the labour up evenly and that I would be Director, Mark was camera person, Cecily on sound and Mairead chief editor.

We all edited the piece together but Mairead kindly did the bulk of the editing on this piece. Our main editing day was yesterday the 5th of October. We had chatted as a group before about the possibility of changing the whole piece to black and white to fit in better with the theme. We tried this yesterday when editing and it worked really well so we went with this. We all sat down as a group and discussed each shot, what worked well and took out what didn’t. We shared tips and tricks on Adobe Premiere Pro also.

One issue we encountered on the whole production was that we had originally toyed with the idea of showing busy shots of the airport to counteract the desolate shots. Unfortunately, even though we went to film at the airport’s busiest time, we didn’t find enough busy shots to juxtapose it with desolation so we decided to go with pure desolation on the day of editing. Desolation was the original vision anyway so I feel that we portrayed that really well in the finished piece. I am really happy with the finished piece.

Currently, the shots we have used in the final piece are an opening shot of the Shannon Estuary, followed by a shot of the wing of an airplane, which has the writing ‘Celebrating 70 Years’, reminding the viewer that is a place with history. We then see an empty car park, lonely and empty. Then there is a tilt up to the sign at entrance to airport, I really like this shot as it has the sunlight streaming in the background and a mostly empty road. From there, we tilt down from the statue in the departure hall. In the background we see an emptiness. Another shot of the outside shows empty roads and we zoom in on the airport sign. Then there is a pan left to right of the empty arrivals hall and car rental desks with few people around. Cut to a shot of an empty escalator then empty main area of airport. The shot of the signpost with ‘Boston’ and ‘New York’ follows, for me this is a nod to emigration in Ireland. I wanted to put the sign in there as a symbol of people leaving our fair land for greener pastures. The next two shots are close ups of the empty check-in desks. We then head up to the viewing gallery. The shot where the elevator door was something we added on the day of filming, as was the shots of the empty viewing gallery. Mark suggested the elevator shot and I think it worked well so we added it to the story. The viewing gallery was something that I didn’t know existed until it was suggested to us by our contact in the airport. From the viewing gallery we got a good shot of a plane in the air and also shots of the empty gallery. We added a shot of the exit sign, which was Cecily’s suggestion on the day, also, as we felt it would be a good ending. And finally, the shot of the plane to complete the piece.

       As camera person Mark liaised with me regarding the shots that he would take. We chatted about angles, pans, zooms and tilts. He ensured that all of his equipment was fully charged and he had three batteries on the day. We only ended up using one on the three-hour shoot. We all helped Mark as much as we could with his equipment, carrying it and setting it up at each location. After the shoot we brought the camera back to L.I.T and uploaded the content. I then took a copy and stored it on my hard drive.

       As sound person Cecily shared a piece of music with the rest of the crew on the group chat, it’s called ‘Conor Walsh: The Front.’ It’s a beautiful piece but due to copyright issues we weren’t able to use it. Instead, yesterday, Cecily found a free piece of music called The Kyoto Connection on freemusicarchive.org which we used as the main music piece, then, at the start of the project, there is long grass which rustled in the wind, Cecily found a soundbyte to go with this from Felix Blume on freesounds.com.

Link to finished 1st Assignment 'A Portrait of a Location'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwxeTEhMH7k&feature=youtu.be

Day of shoot

We did our shoot today. Luckily we got all the footage we needed and it didn't rain! I met the crew at 12:30 at the meeting point I had arranged. I then organised that I would drive into the airport as it was better for safety reasons to only take one car, and also for the reason that parking is paid so no need for everyone to pay for parking. I pulled in at the first spot (the welcome sign at entrance to airport area).
We took a few shots there of an empty car park and the welcome sign, I feel like this spot is really in keeping with the theme of the piece 'Desolation at Shannon Airport'). I then drove the crew to the car park of the airport. We then walked Mark's camera gear up to get the next two shots, a pan of the estuary and a shot of the tail wing of an aircraft, which stands near entrance to car park.
From there we moved indoors, the first thing I did was make myself and the crew known to airport security. The man on security made a phone call to my contact in the airport to confirm that he was expecting us and then we were good to go.
We took various shots of the empty halls, escalator, statue and empty check-in desks. I feel that the piece will have a nod to emigration in Ireland as there are symbols of this dotted around the airport. Our contact who works in the airport then came out to say hello and we chatted with him for a bit. He suggested that we head up to the viewing area.
There, we got a great view of the runway and it's surrounds. Luckily, there was a plane on the runway which we managed to get a shot of. We got a shot of the empty viewing area, the car park and a shot of the exterior of the building before heading back to L.I.T. We uploaded the content to Mairead's machine and I copied a version onto my hard drive as back up. All-in-all I would say it was a successful day of work, we were on the shoot for 3 hours and we have plenty of footage for our piece.

Location scouting

I went up to Shannon Airport today to explore the location. I am the director on this project and I am living near Shannon Airport so I told the team that I would go there and take pictures on my way home. I have organised it with the team that we will shoot on Wednesday. Everybody is available and looking forward to the shoot. I took pictures of all the shots that I would like, and I sent them to the group chat in sequence of how I would like the piece the run, so that everyone has a clear idea for the shoot on Wednesday.

Shannon Airport

I called Shannon Airport to enquire about using the space for our project. They said it was no problem but that we need to let the security guard know when we get there. We would only need to get permission if we wanted to shoot past the security gates, but for the main space in the airport we should be fine. We are going to go out there on Tuesday to check out the location. I will then plan the shots in more detail and we will shoot on Wednesday.

Class groups

We were assigned our groups today for our first project. I am with Mark, Cecily and Mairead. I have offered to be Director on this project. Mark has kindly offered that we can use his camera for the shoot. This will greatly help us going forward and he has volunteered to be cameraman. Mairead or Cecily will be Production Manager. I set up a What'sapp group which will make it easier to communicate within the group. I had an idea to show a portrait of Shannon airport as the piece. We can show the desolation particularly. Shots of empty halls, check-in desks, empty car parks and establishing shots of the location in general - the wetlands, outside the airport etc. The piece must be between 1 minute and a minute and a half at the longest. I am looking forward to this fresh challenge and working within a group. It seems like we have a good group and everybody has plenty of ideas.

K00223369 D.V

Portrait of a location

Our class was told of our first Digital Video assignment today. I am both nervous and excited about the prospect of working in a team to create a 'Portrait of a location.' The piece of video will be maximum one minute long. We need to tell a story about a location within a one-minute time frame. There will not be any humans in any of the shots, this should make it an interesting challenge. We will use a soundtrack or pre-recorded sound on the edit to convey the feeling of the location. My initial idea is to try get into Thomond Park as I feel it would be a very visually appealing piece about rugby and rugby in Limerick/Munster. But on chatting to my fellow student it becomes apparent that we would not get permission to use the venue from Munster rugby. I feel proximity is key as we don't want to take the equipment too far away for safety reasons. Golf is another idea that pops into my head, telling the story of a golf course and the serenity that comes with it. What I would really like to do is film my dog on a beach around the West Coast of County Clare....watching the joy he gets from running around, and also hearing the sound of the ocean in the background. However, I'm not sure that this would be a feasible location in a group. I will ponder nearer locations over the weekend.