Camera Angles

Camera angles are used for the purpose of conveying different meanings about what is on screen to the audience.

Eye-Level - This is the standard angle and the most common. It shows what how we would see an area or person in real life. For example in Men in Black this shot shows an Eye-Level shot of Jeeb's, the shot is to show where he is looking at but other than that doesn't have any other meaning angle wise.



High Angle - A high angle is when the camera is positioned high and looking down on an area or people. this can be done to show status, the characters positioned high has higher status then those positioned below. It can also be used to portray the hight of different characters, in Rush Hour 3 the camera is positioned at a high angle to show how much taller the man is to Carter.

Low Angle - It is used the same as high angle but from those from the lower status view so the camera is positioned down looking up. The soldiers at the bottom are at the lower status looking up at Farquaar who is the higher status. And in rush Hour 3 instead of being from the view of the giant man looking down on Carter it is from Carter's view looking up at the giant man, again this is done to show how tall the man is in this situation.

Bird's Eye - Is a angle that shows a scene from either directly above or high above. It is often used in establishing shots to show a city so the audience know where the events are taking place. It can also be used to show a lot of the scene and the space between characters as well as other objects in the scene that otherwise wouldn't be seen by the audience.

Dutch Tilt - This is where the camera is purposely tilted to one side so that the scene is at an angle. This can be used to portray the mental unstableness of the character in the shot or that something isn't quite right with what is being shown on screen. In the Dark Knight while the Joker hangs up side down the camera turns so that he is right side up but the horizon in the background shows that the camera is at an angle to connote the Joker's insanity.

Idiot's Guide To Post Production Process

First you must create a folder that you will store all of your work, this folder must be in an area that you know you can always find so that you don't loose your work.





To do this you can simply right clicking on the desktop and clicking "New Folder," this will make an empty folder that is easy to find however this means that anyone logged in can also get into it.

You can find an area in the computer and create a new folder if you feel it would be more secure. Click "Finder" on the bottom left (picture of a blue face) and choose one of the folders you want your work folder to be in, then right click and select "New Folder." Or you can save a folder on a memory stick using the same method of right clicking just in the memory stick.

                                                                             You must then ensure that all the files you want to use for you production are in this new folder you have created. Do this by finding any files you may have downloaded from Youtube or anywhere else and dragging them into the new folder you have created.

If you have filmed footage on a camera, connect the camera to the computer use "Spotlight" at the top right to search Final Cut Pro. You must then create a Scratch Disk so that any files you capture will be stored in this file including rendered files, waveform, cache and autosaves.












To do this open Final Cut Pro go into the "Final Cut Pro" tab and select "System Preferences," next to the line of ticks click "Set" and use the drag down menu to find the location of the folder that you previously made for all of your work. This is now your Scratch Disk were all the files you put into Final Cut will be stored.















                                                          To get the footage from your camera onto Final Cut Pro go into "File" and then "Log And Transfer" to copy all of you footage from camera in Final Cut Pro. If you have made your Scratch Disk all of your footage will be saved into your folder with all of your work.

In Final Cut Pro you can create a Sequence this is the order that you put your footage on the timeline to do this drag the footage either from your folder or if you have logged and transferred footage from a camera it should already be in Final Cut Pro and you can then drag it into the timeline. A red line may appear on top of the timeline, this means it needs to be rendered. To do this go to "Sequence" and then "Render All" and then it will take a few seconds for the video to render and it should now play.







To add crossfades to you clips simply go to the beginning or end of the clip. Right click and select "Add Transition 'Cross Dissolve'.











If you want cut a clip move the mouse to the side bar on the far right of the timeline. There will be a razor blade icon. Select this icon and the mouse will change to have a cross next to it. It will change into the blade when you scroll over the video track.










 Then simply click on the section you want to cut and it will be split so you can move the two sections apart.












If you want to crop the image shown in the video, go to the first window that shows the video. On top of the screen it will say "Video/Filters/Motion. Click on motion and scroll down until you find "Crop." When you click on crop, multiple buttons will appear that you can click and drag.






By dragging them parts of the image on screen will be cropped. you must make sure you double click on the part of the video on the timeline that you want to crop.

                  You can also have multiple Sequences on one project, doing this allows you to create a rush which is were your sequences can be reviewed quickly because they are in the same project meaning you can receive feedback for all of them quickly. To do this right click in the big box that has "Sequence One" in it and click "New Sequence" this will create "Sequence Two."





Videos can be exported in different files, this is because different files have different purposes. For example for the video to be the highest quality you may want it to be an MOV format and uncompressed.  in Final Cut Pro you can use Quick Time Movie  a high quality compressed version of your current sequence in a MOV file which is an Apple format. Or you can use Quick Time Conversion which means that the video can be converted to a wider choice of formats. To do this go to "File" then "Export" and select "Quick Time Movie." Name your sequence and save it to your folder, wait for it to finish exporting.

Or select "Quick Time Conversion" and click the drop down option that is on "Quick Time" by default. Choose the option best sooted to your need from the drop down list. This may be because the video you want needs to be in a format for mobiles specifically, or the internet or DVD's. 

Avatar - Foley Sound

https://vimeo.com/81506278

0.02 secs need the sound of the clip need the sound of the rope swinging the through the air. I will record the sound of a wooden pole being swung hard through the air to make this sound.

0.00 - 0.32 secs. The reptile also needs to making growling noises I will use human voice to try and make the sound of the creature.

0.00 - 0.34 background noise is needed, the sound of wind/ birds needs to recorded. I may also more noises similar to the reptiles to but in the background.

0.05 - 0.17 secs. The reptile flaps it's wings during this time, I can use the sound of fabric waving in the air like a leather coat to make this noise.

At 0.14 secs the Na'vis start cheering, I will be using human voices to create this sound and since they are holding arrows I will be banging pieces of wood together for when they wave their arms.

The man tries to ride the reptile from 0.03 sec to 0.34 secs so I will be using human voices to make grunting sounds to match with him struggling against the reptile as well as when he nearly falls of the cliff.

At 0.34 secs the man gets flung to the edge of the cliff, I will need to make noise for him bouncing along the ground and grabbing the vine on the cliff. I will do this by hitting a material bag and crushing some rocks against each other.

Throughout the clip jungle sounds are in background.

Since I worked alone I recorded all of the sounds in the video. The reptile noises seemed to match with the action and the patting on the ground also seemed well timed. The added background noise also helps all of the sounds link together and not sound out of place or sudden. Although the flaps of the wings fit with the video it is also very quiet and if done again should be louder. The sound of the clinking of the bows is missing but it doesn't seem to impact the video to much. However the sound of the man's voice trying to ride the reptile is also missing which is a bit more noticeable. The sounds where fitting for the films target audience as it was intended to sound as realistic as possible and no effects where added. Panning was used to make the sounds of the wings hitting the ground sound like it was coming from the appropriate sides, this was also done with the shouting.

Cables

Multiple cables are made with different purposes and qualities. Some are for audio and others for visual.

Such as the composite (analogue) video cable, this cable is yellow and allows visual with analogue transmission but no audio. It carries standard definition typically at 480i and 576i resolution. It is used for standard formats such as NTSC/PAL and SECAM. It only carries one channel and doesn't have as high quality as other cables. 

   

Separate video, more commonly known as S-Video (analogue) cable has a higher definition then the component cable and can carry two channels by separating black and white colour signals meaning it makes a better image but at lower resolution than the composite video cable. It also carries the standard definition of 480i and 576i. Each signal pin is paired with it's own ground pin which is why there is four. The fifth is used to hold the cable in. 

The component video (analogue) uses red, green and blue coloured cables to distribute the signal three ways. It allows resolution up to full HD but because of digital TV's, conversion is needed to create artefacts with edge clarity.

   

VGA (analogue) is usually used for connecting computer monitors, the fifteen pins can connect to video cards, laptops and can be bring the screen of the computer on to HD TV's as well as other equipment. It uses the same red, green and blue method like the component cable and allows high resolution from 640x400 up to 2048x1536 but needs coaxial wiring and insulation for higher quality and doesn't carry audio meaning another audio cable is needed if videos are to be watched on the HD TV screen from the computer.  

Digital Virtual Interface or DVI cable is a digital cable which means it uses a binary code of ones and zeros to transfer the data meaning there is no loss in the quality. It is used on HD TV's and video cards. The interface is designed to transmit uncompressed digital video and can be configured to support multiple modes such as

DVI-D, DVI-A, DVI-I. The cable comes in single and dual link and uses resolution up to 3840x2400 but doesn't have audio.  

A single cable that can carry both audio and visual is the HDMI cable which uses digital meaning it like the DVI uses binary to cary the data meaning no signal is lost. It is used for computers, cameras, monitors, blu-ray and gaming consoles like the playstation 3. There are different versions that allow different quality like version 1.0 for  1920x1080p and version 1.4 for 3840x160p at 30 frames per second (fps) and also supports 3D. There is also a version 2.0 which supports 3840x2160p at 60 fps.  

The RCA cables (analogue) are used to carry video and audio signals through different wires. It is primarily used for stereo equipment and is still used for other devices from before and after the digital switch over like VHS, DVD players and TVs. However the longer the wire the more of the quality is lost and a lot of it can even pick up radio waves meaning other noise and hum can show up in the audio. 

Phone connector (analogue) uses 1/4 jack and 1/8 jack (3.5 mm) which can be found in phones, DSLR's while the 1/4 jack is typically used for audio recording equipment, stereo equipment and guitar and bass leads. The tip is the positive part while the rings are negative and the sleeve stands as the earth. 

XLR conector (digital) is the most common cable used for microphones, the three to seven pins work in a similar way to the phone connector jack's. There is a female connector (left) and male connector (right). Te female is used for source while male is used for input. The are clips on the connector so that they are held in and don't disconnect if something pulls on them.