Visual Effect Research

In our script we have a variety of visual effects that occur at different times for different situations.

The first one happens in Scene 2 Shot 8 where our main character Reece will teleport to the bathroom.

 The second visual effects happens on Scene 4 Shot 4 where Reece is told some exciting news and flame balls fire from his hands.

The third visual effect occurs when Kieran introduces himself and turns invisible, this is in Scene 5 Shot 5.

The next visual effect occurs when Lauren is introducing herself to Reece then shows off her unique special ability by lifting objects using her mind and hovers them above Reece's head. This is in Scene 5 Shot 9.

Another effects effect occurs in Scene 5 Shot 11 where finally Rizzo introduces herself to Reece and shows of her super power by stretching and being flexible.

The next visual effect is shown by Reece in scene5 shot 13 where Reece shows of his power by teleporting behind the 3 other people in the scene.

Another visual effect is in Scene 6 Shot 2 where the ground begins to crack. The Next visual effect is where the zombies smash through the windows in Scene 6 Scene 6.

The final group of visual effects happen from Shot 2 in scene 7 to shot 5, this is where all the characters are together using their powers to defeat the zombies.

Similar Visual Effects

Teleport Visual Effect (Star Trek) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNC5iLNguRQ

Fire balls (Sky High) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snf1STjOLoQ

Tutorials
Teleportation - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFC3gSgOzFA
Fire from hand - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCM0h-J4x30
Floating effect - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOdlLYqKFrw
Floor cracking - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eF898Nd75xM

Productive Meeting 2 - Shots

Meeting began at 12.04pm, the people present at the meeting is myself Katie, Maia, Georgina and Callum. For this meeting we are now discussing various shots for our final cut script and whose script we will go ahead with. We came to conclusion to use Maia's script as we decided it was most creative with a lot of different shots but there isn't too many shots and is still easy to work with without getting confusing. We decided that it was better to have more shots because it shows a wider variety, we can even add more if we feel the need too.

In total, Maia has used 49 shots with a wide variety including mid shots, close ups, long shots, wide shots, point of view, birds eye view and over the shoulder.
Although everyone had a strong shot list we felt Maia had the best variety out of the group.

Final Draft Script

Team Production Meeting

Callum's Script:

Narrative - Zombie Apocalypse
Characters - Reece, Chester (dog) and Postman
Dialogue - Descriptive, quite simple
Casting - Callum (Reece), Postman (Georgina)
Time - Present , 1 week to film
Location - Cambridge, Long Road
Range of VFX - Various different ones, zombie attacks, morphing, fire
Impressiveness - Relatively impressive, needs more VFX
Achievability - Yes with green screen

Maia's Script:

Narrative - Zombie Apocalypse
Characters - 3 girls, Lauren, Millie and Katie. 1 boy, Sam
Dialogue - Descriptive, relatively detailed and reasonable amount going on.
Casting - Callum (Sam), Georgina (Lauren), Maia (Millie), Katie (Kate)
Time - Present, 2 week to film as more detailed than Callum's
Location - Cambridge, Long Road (easier)
Range of VFX - Wide variety, morphing, earthquakes, blood, fire, water, air, death
Impressiveness - Very impressive, lot of visual effects
Achievability - Possible if we can get the effects to work

Katie's Script:

Narrative - Zombie Apocalypse, boy gets bullied at his school (Field High) so he transfers to a specialist school for those with powers where they are struck by a zombie apocalypse which they defeat.
Characters - Kieran (Main), Bullies (Sam, Joe and Daniel), New friends (Danny, Richard and Matt)
Dialogue - Descriptive, quite detailed and a lot going on
Casting - Katie (Kieran), Callum (Sam and Matt), Maia (Joe and Richard), Georgina (Daniel and Danny)
Time - Present, 2 weeks to film possibly
Location - Cambridge, Long Road
Range of VFX - Varies between, teleportation, fire, super punches etc.
Impressiveness - Quite as lots of visual effects
Achievability - Yes with green screen

Script Assessment from KatieTurner40

Shot Blocking Diagram

The 180 degree rule is a basic guideline referring to the on-screen relationship between characters or objects in a scene. This is known as an Axis which is an imaginary line that the camera must stay to one side of for every shot in that scene otherwise it can cause confusion to the audience. If the camera goes over the line then it is called jumping/crossing the line.

Character Bio

Kiera  

The story goal of my character, Kiera, is to change peoples perspective of her. This is because at the start she gets bullied by a group of boys, but by the end her aim is to have defeated the zombie attack which will help her come across as a stronger person. Kiera's motivation is fulfilling his goal is because of the bullying. She wants people to stop picking on her so her only hope is to do something about it by proving herself to be better than people think. Kiera's flaw is that she has superpowers to do almost anything, this holds her back because it means she is different to everyone else which although people don't necessarily know she has them, people are aware that there's something dodgy about her so she has to try and hide his superpowers.

Kiera was born in Cambridge on the 13th of April in the year 1998. She lives with her Dad and brother then occasionally her mum as they split up over Kiera, as they are aware of her superpowers but her mum didn't quite want to believe it and it made her feel stressed. Kiera is into general chart music and watches a variety of film genres such as comedy, action and thriller. When Kiera is at Field High, she has no friends because she finds it easier to hide away to avoid anyone finding out her secret. However when she moves to Merriweather academy she becomes relatively popular and makes a group of friends who are just like her and have the same interests as well as similar powers, they are called Lauren, Rizzo and Reece. Kiera is about 5ft 1 in height, quite slim build and an attractive face. She has long brown hair (often scraped back into a pony tail), green eyes and is quite a chavvy in the way she acts and dresses. The situation in Kiera's life which caused her to acquire these super powers was a major car crash which she was in the car with his uncle who did die but something strange happened which allowed Kiera to survive and acquire these superpowers.

Sam

Sam doesn't necessarily have a story goal because he only plays a small part in the script. If i were to give him a story goal I'd say it's to be a bully and to make Kieran feel really low about himself. So this character is meant to be a dominant person as he's trying to be 'cool' by picking on someone lower than him, so he thinks. The thing that's motivating Sam to be like this is his social status because if he loses this then he'll no longer be 'cool' and he will get picked on himself, so this shows he's a selfish person. Sam's flaw is he's not very tough and quite insecure, so he puts on an act to make himself look a big person but in reality when he comes up to a fight he doesn't perform as well as he initially makes out. As well he acts all big but if someone makes a comment about him he doesn't take it so well.

Sam was born in London on December 9th in the year 1997. He lives with both his mum, dad, brother and sister who all moved to Cambridge due to not finding it easy living in London as he has various family members which were involved in crime meaning they had to move before they were targeted. He is a very 'chivy' kind of person so he's into average rap music and crime films. his main friends are Daniel and Joe who are similar kind of people to him but Sam is known as the 'main leader'. Sam's look isn't the most attractive, he has short blonde hair, regularly uncleaned an quite a thin face with droopy green eyes. He wears a snap back with relatively loose clothing.

Daniel

Daniel is a close friend of Sam's, this means that his story goal is pretty much the same as Sam's so his goal is to cause havoc and make Kieran's life hell basically. He also want's the social status and feels that if he doesn't achieve this goal well enough to get Kieran to move schools then he will lose his status and Sam will ditch him as a friend. This is basically his motivation to achieve his goal because he will most definitely not be 'cool' if Sam removes him as Sam is pretty much the leader. Daniel's flaw as such is that he's scared of Sam. This means that he will do anything to please Sam.

Daniel was born in Cambridge on the 4th of June in 1998. He lives with just his Dad as his mum died due to an illness. The reason he is like he is, is because of his mums death as he found it hard to cope with it. He's into the same style of stuff as Sam which is rap, hip hop music and crime films but also likes a bit of comedy. As we already know, his friends are Sam and Joe who are all similar type of people and share similar interests. Daniel has medium length brown sweeped/messy hair with quite a rough look to him.

Script First Draft

Students vs zombies - first draft from KatieTurner40

X-men Sound Analysis - Timeline

The music, dialogue, voice over and sound effects all work well together within the sequence to set quite a calm mood. Firstly, the music works well with the other elements because when a voice over or dialogue is being spoken the music gets quieter, this is so the voices are clear and understandable. The voice overs and dialogue work well together because they never over lap in the sense that if the voice over is being spoken, there won't be dialogue at the same time because otherwise this would cause confusion to the audience. The sound effects occasionally overlap with the voice over but it's at a volume where you can still hear whats being said, as well as understand what the sound effect is for with the music still in the background.

Face Morph

Short Story Pitch

Short Story
From the start, Kieran was an obvious outcast in his school. There was something about him that was different to every other kid, obviously he had different looks and personality, but everyone’s different in there own respect. Kieran however, had something that no one else did; this was in fact a superpower.  He had a tough time at school as it was, so he wouldn’t flaunt this power about because he knew the other children would tear him apart for it as well he was constantly picked on for having an unknown fear of zombies so people would chase him acting as a zombie. It got to the point where he couldn’t be around people who aren’t the same as him so he applied for a college named ‘Merriweather academy’ this allowed him to be surrounded by other students who also have superpowers.

A few months later, Kieran was at Merriweather academy, he’d fought through the nerves and had settled in well.  It was now normal for him to fly and teleport where and when he wanted because every other student had the ability to do things like Kieran. Merriweather academy was a lot smaller than his previous school, this is because only tiny popularity have special powers and actually know about having them, occasionally there would only be no more than 5 students in a lesson, it took Kieran a while to get his head around but found it easier to get on with people and concentrate. A main rule which teachers would constantly make it clear that you are not allowed to miss use your powers, or even use them without a teachers permission.

It was, what Kieran thought, a normal day at college, same old things happening, practicing his powers like usual. But something strange began to happen, the clock struck 12.12pm and the ground started to crack and tremble, everyone assumed it was an earthquake and followed the general procedure. It wasn’t until the sky switched black, a storm came flooding in, that they realized this, wasn’t any normal storm, this was a Zombie apocalypse! Zombies came out the floor, from the sky and just left, right and centre. The problems they were facing could only be stopped by each student’s powers. The only thing they could do was fight back, which they successfully do, but this means the secret about their powers is out because the city witnessed them abnormally defeat the zombies.


Pitch
An outcast student, Kieran applies to move colleges as of his powers. Things begin to finally run smoothly for him, this is until an attack of zombies lets the secret out. #TWEETPITCH

Sound Effect Analysis - Drive

The purpose of the diegetic in the clip is to create/build tension, making the audience feel suspense  and think something bad is going to happen. In the clip it builds tension by giving subtle noises such as a ticking watch, this makes the audience become more focused because they are eager to know why this tension is being built by a loud watch and they want to know the result of this, whether it will end good or bad. Everything happening obviously isn't for a good reason as of the police sirens and talk in the background but by Ryan's reactions and anxiousness it helps build this suspense.

We can kind of grasp bits of information from the story line in the clip, but it doesn't make full sense, all we know is that Ryan Gosling's character is a get away driver who is awaiting two criminals to complete a burglary. He has a strict rule which gives anyone who hires a 5 minute window to commit their crime and get to the car or otherwise he will leave them. The background music beat gets louder when you want to feel tension, for example when the burglars go in the building, it gets louder because it wants you to think, are they going to make it in time before the police get there, which we know are out on look out because he turns the police scanner radio up to listen in. This clip allows you to establish it is a crime thriller because of the police issues and burglary.

The Ticking Watch

For suspense to be built, the watch volume is low but loud enough to be hard, this is to maintain it's importance in the scene, if you were unable to hear it, you wouldn't know that it was there to time something. The volume of the watch increases when the camera is directly on it, this is to show its significant to the scene, then when the timer is being set, it is louder, this is so you are able to identify what is being done and so you can see he's setting a timer. This creates tension because it makes you wonder why it's being set, possibly making you think its for a bomb or anything of sort. The watch helps you understand the storyline a bit, as it's about a get away driver who gives only 5 minutes, hence the watch is being timed for 5 minutes because if any longer, he will leave without the burglars. The tone of the watch is very distinctive, repetitive and low, this is so you can easy tell that it's a watch, because if you heard it tick once, you wouldn't understand what it was, so it has to repeat to understand its the watch.

The Radio

The reason why tension is brought into the scene when the radio is being turned up is because it's a commentary on a baseball game thats going on. Tension is built because you don't know why he has put that on since he's literally just turned on the police radio scanner. The volume of it starts off quiet but then as he increase the radio volume  it gets louder so the commantary chat has become more clear and you can hear it better. When it is first turned up the radio is quite muffled until he sets it at a volume number. The tone is quite dull and boring but the words which are said are interesting because it helps you work out what is being said which allows you to understand its about a sporting game. When the camera is directly facing the radio, it appears to be quite loud and the dominate sound but once the camera moves away it begins to get quieter and the police radio scanner is drowned out.

The Police Radio Scanner

The police scanner radio is a little muffled whiles he's trying to tune it to the police talking. The fact he is using a police scanner creates suspense as it allows you to understand what's happening with the police situation. The tone of it is just deep policemen voices, but very clear so they are able to hear each other across the radios. The volume of it is quite low, but not too quiet and not too loud, this is until the volume is increased on the radio allowing you to hear it better. Like the radio, it is louder when the camera is on it, and quieter when its out of shot, this is so you can identify where noises are coming from. The police radio scanner is a helper of understand the storyline and surroundings.

Environmental Sounds (Alarm, traffic, car engine, police siren)

The idea behind the environmental sounds is to make you realise it's not good, and that they are committing a crime. Behind the music is a constant alarm helping you sense trouble, this is also to make you feel tense because you don't know if the police will get them after they've acknowledged an alarm. When they are waiting for the second burglar to get back in the car, just as he's running, the police siren noise increases, almost dominating the original background music, this is so you can tell it's a close call and the police are becoming closer to them. When he's pulling out, the engine becomes loud, this is so you can identify that he is speeding off to avoid being caught. All of these elements increase in volume when they are part of the scene, this is to give you an insight on whats going on and make you realise it's bad. All these sounds are meant to make you feel on edge.



Sounds blend together to create suspense and tension. In the background there is a constant beat which occasionally increase when it wants you to feel like something bad is coming up. The background beat is always there even when other noises are played too, for example when the radio is on, the music is still there but become quieter, so the sounds have been blended. When there is more than 1 or 2 sounds, this builds suspense because it's like so much is going on it makes you feel edgy. Sometimes the second sound, for example the radio, will dominate the sound of the music so that you can focus on that one thing and not get confused. These sounds allow you to become more engaged in what's happening.

Misfits Analysis

The visual effects that are used in Misfits (Series one, Episode One) are:

• Title sequence (2.17 - 2.55)
• Clouds for storm (4.37)
• Ice falling from the sky onto car (4.49)
• Ice constantly falling from sky (4.52 - 6.10)
• Thrown back by storm into black hole (6.12)
• Lightning bolts (6.17)
• Blur between movement on Nathan walking (12.00)
• Blur on Simons head when turning invisible (17.40 and 19.12)
• Probation workers eyes (22.19)
• Characters being thrown back in slow motion and go blurred (30.16)
• Characters freeze in thrown back positions apart from Curtis (30.22)
• Vision of previously happened in Curtis' eye. Turning back time (30.28)
• Screen blur around characters burying (38.40)

Top Trump

Misfits Dialogue Analysis - Opening

The purpose of the dialogue used in the scene is to establish the characters so we get a different perspective of them and find out a bit about them. As well it's the start of the narrative and sets the tone of the programme. It also allows you too establish the genre and most of all to entertain and draw in the attention of the audience.

Nathan

The tone of voice Nathan has is very sarcastic and mocking, we know this because of when the probation worker says 'when you see my lips moving, that means I'm still talking' and Nathan responds with 'yeah but you could have been yawning or chewing' which was also said in a very natural way in the sense that he meant it seriously but came across in a mocking way. His tone can come across as quite annoying sometimes with his responses, for example when the probation worker is saying about people thinking they are scum and he says 'Yeah but what if they're right' the reason this can be annoying is because people sometimes find those that back chat about everything annoying because they just don't like the conversation to drag on. The way he speaks is very laid back so he's chilled about everything really and he's not bothered to say anything, like when he says to Gary 'No affiance, but i think some people are born criminals', most people would be scared to say that because if they thought someone was a criminal they would be intimidated. I find his found to be very clear in a way that you can understand everything he says even with an accent. He also seems to be faux polite which comes with his sarcasm because he says things that seem very polite but he says it in a sarcastic way and you can tell it was meant in quite a fake way. Nathan's tone can be quite condescending in the sense he's kind of looking down on the people as he speaks to them thinking he's bigger and better especially when he says to Gary about being a criminal and Gary responds with 'you looking to get stabbed' then Nathan just naturally says 'See my point there' so basically he's making out he can say anything he wants to anyone because he's quite cocky.
The volume of Nathan's voice is quite loud and he's very outspoken. His voice seems to dominate everyone else's and he talks a lot after everything, this suggests he enjoys being heard, his past could be the reason behind why he's like this. His accent seems to be from Southern Ireland, this means that because he's from outside the UK he doesn't have a 'class' as such.

Aleisha













Aleisha's tone of voice comes across as very careless, laid-back and quite flirty. You can see this because in the short clip she answers the phone even though she's being spoken to by her probation worker, and just has a normal chat, whereas most people would try keep it subtle to hope no one would notice but she keeps her normal pitched tone acting like she's with no one else. Even though the probation worker is right there, she still says 'boring as fuck' in a very laid-back tone showing that she is quite fearless as she will say what she thinks even if it involves trouble. She seems very confident in a way that she's quite argumentative, for example when he said 'I'm still talking here' and she responds with 'Well I'd thought you finished', this could prove that she's probably from a rough background. The volume of her voice is relatively quiet, comparing it to Nathan's but she shows that she doesn't need to be loud to dominate the situation, possibly due to her attitude and maybe her accent. Her accent seems to be from London, possibly cockney as from some things she says seem to be a bit chavvy. The way she acts makes her seem quite a flirty person, in the sense that at the beginning when she's playing with her hair and as well she has this sweet tone to her voice.

Curtis

Curtis come across as quite a chilled person and possibly a bit vein. He seems like he might be vein because of the way that everyone else is wearing there orange jump suit properly and he has his tied round his waist and has a vest out, potentially trying to show off his body. The way he stands and speaks suggest he's just very chilled, because his tone isn't anything that's trying to overpower the others as he's just making comments to himself initially, for example  he says 'I shouldn't be 'ere man'. He then goes on to say 'Can I look to move groups, this isn't going to work for me' suggesting he thinks he's too good to be in a group with the others and looking down on the others, this again shows a bit of vein. Everything he says is very relaxed, even though he kind of offends the others, he doesn't really seem to show that he cares very much. His accent is like Aleisha's, so probably from London and you can really tell this when he  says 'Is that for real' not pronouncing things properly. The way he acts shows that he may well be from a average or above background because he seems to think he's more superior but doesn't try and dominate anything.

Gary

Gary gives the impression he has a bit of an attitude and quite aggressive. He comes across as quite aggressive as Nathan implies he's a criminal and Gary's response is 'You lookin' to get stabbed'. Then again, Nathan blows him a kiss and Gary replies with 'I'm gunna rip out your throat and shit down your neck' showing he is quite short tempered and easily aggravated. On various occasions Gary attempts to attack Nathan, this could prove he's from quite a rough background (and lower social class) because of how easily he'll pick a fight, he also has quite a Londoner accent, it is very chavvy as he doesn't pronounce most of his words very well. He shows that he won't take nothing from anyone and will protect himself if people say things about him.

Kelly













Kelly appears to be a very careless yet fiery person. She seems quite careless when she's just slumped on the fence, showing she doesn't really care and just wants it over with. It is all easily read on her face as well because it's just got a dull look right over it especially with the facial expressions she pulls when the word 'scum' is said by the probation worker, showing that she doesn't agree with it. When a comment is made by Curtis, she responds with 'Err what makes you think your better than us' with a proper chav sound to it and it's said really quickly, this shows she's someone who thinks very highly of herself. She then goes on to say 'you trying to say something then yeah' think proves that she won't take anything from anyone and definitely will say what's on her mind. These things suggest she's lower social class than the others, maybe like Gary, you can also tell by her image. When she speaks she comes across as quite dominating because of her volume of her voice as it's relatively loud.

Simon 









In this short clip of Misfits, nothing is said by Simon. This already goes to show that he is quite and isolated person who likes to keep himself to himself and not get involved with any nonsense. Within a short space of time, he's already a victim by being named as a 'weird kid' by Nathan. He shows that he likes to read people, because the times he showed in this clip he's just looking at the others, maybe trying to work out more about them possibly this kind of is showing he could be insecure. With him not talking I can't identify his tone or accent but his image shows he's possibly a higher class compared to the others. He seems quite vulnerable and possibly someone who was always regularly picked on/bullied.

Point Break Sound Mix

To export my work from Premiere Pro so that I can upload it on youtube I went onto 'File' then 'Export' and changed the format to 'H.264' and the preset to 'Youtube HD 1080p 23.976'.

To do this project we was given a short clip from 'Point Break' to put on Premiere Pro as well as a range of sound effects which were related to the clip, for example there was a sound of someone running. The sequence we had, had no sounds to it what so ever which meant we had to used these sound effects to edit in at a certain time for when is appropriate. To make a sequence you drag the necessary clip to the 'New Item' button which is located at the bottom of the project panel.

Overall, I think that my sound mix of Point Break was quite successful. When creating it I did find it relatively easy to piece together but also difficult at the same time because I had trouble trying to make it sound realistic. I find that in areas it's quite silent with just the sound of running foot step and no background noise, which is something I need to work on. However I think that from around 10 seconds to around 55 seconds it's relatively strong because of the sound effects used, such as while they're running I put in helicopter noises and police noises to create an atmosphere. The weakest section which could do with improvement is when the man falls over the table and the woman screams, this is because I struggled to find an appropriate sounds for the man falling over the table, and same with the woman screaming, I think it could do with a noise of her hitting him because other wises it's a bit quiet. Another thing I think I did well with is the men running, this is because I increased the volume for when they got closer to the camera.

Post Production Houses

Moving Picture (http://www.moving-picture.com)

MPC (moving picture) is a creative studio who create amazing visual experiences 'in any space, on any screen.' For over 25 years they have been one of the global leaders in VFX. They have  facilities in London, Vancouver, Montreal, Los Angeles, New York, Amsterdam and Bangalore.

Moving picture are famous for adding visual wonder and creative skills to the film and entertainment industries. The most famous projects they have done are films such as Harry Potter, Pirates of the Caribbean etc. They also did some advertising campaigns for places such as Cadbury, Sony, Coca Cola and so on.

The kind of work that MPC do is film and advertising. They have a broad range of skill-sets which provide a lot of creative solutions, this includes concept design, pre-viz, shoot supervision, 2D compositing 3D/CG effects, animation, motion design, software development and colour grading.

MPC Global showreels - http://www.moving-picture.com/showreels/