Jonathan Williams: 2016

Wallpaper Script Breakdown and Updates

7.11.16

Share |

Anyone Like You - Meeting #2

7.11.16

The idea itself has developed significantly since the first iteration was created. Thanks to our meeting with Chrisen, we were very inspired and felt we had more of a focus an a drive to get this music video done than any time before. After several discussions, Jamie drew up a draft of a script and on 1/11/16, myself, Jamie, Klara and Emily met up with Chrisen in Guildford and went through numerous points of discussion, all the way from conceptual ideas down to budget and plans for the music video.

Item #1 - Discussing the script and lyrics

The first item on the agenda was going through the script with the artist and showing him which bit would go with each lyric/part of the song. Jamie guided us through the first draft of the script, and here are some of the notes I took from his feedback:

Throughout the music video, dancers have been written in to portray guides through these abstract spaces and to portray a progression of time. One scene in particular takes place at a dining room table with two full glasses of wine. The original intention of the scene was to have the talent to enter the room and sit down at the table and continue to sing, but Chrisen told us how he wanted the dancers to represent the person he wrote the song about. For example, the lyric "I've seen that look before..." With this line our artists' action would be to talk across the table to the dancers, as he imagines him talking to the person he wrote the song about.

Regarding the presence of dancers in this video, the artist (who has dancers lined up, and are his best friends, would like them to give their own impression and choreography of the song, as they viewed and experienced the situation in a very different way compared to the way the artist experienced it. Chrisen also suggested that in each 'zone' we move through, the costumes of the dancers change with each one. This would be to indicate that with each zone comes with it different effects and costume changes. He also suggested that he really likes dancers as he feels that they add movement and energy, and that they have the capacity to facilitate the character

Item #2 - Costume

The second item on the agenda was costume, a topic that Emily took the lead with. Through discussion, we learned that it would make sense for Chrisen not to undergo many costume changes, but maybe pick up small accessories from each zone that add to his flamboyance. The reason he doesn't want to change costume as much as it should not be a central focus/theme of the music video (the theme being the development of light). Some of the materials he said he liked were:

Textured fabrics such as Leopard prints, fake fur, velvet.
Described his look as "Neat, but with flare" - meaning he doesn't want to be too flamboyant but wants the style to be true and authentic in order to accurately represent himself.
Compared himself to "Old School Boy George and Elton John." - showing colour, not generic suit and tie style as shown by Sam Smith.
An important thing to note is that he would not like to obstructively wear his sexuality so that both he feels comfortable performing and that the audience feels comfortable watching.
Strict focus on the costume not being primary focus - lights being main focal point of the piece.
Dancers to remain anonymous (faces obscured by masks, people can attach their own meaning to it).

Item #3 - Props and Budget

The third item was talking about budget. as it stands we are all donating money out of our own pockets, but realising we would need money for items to make the film come to life, we felt that it was necessary to approach Chrisen and talk to him about contributions. What I have to do now is draft up a shopping list, send it to him, buy the props and do all the paperwork so that we will be ready to shoot in the last week of November.

Share |

Preliminary Equipment List and Sound Recordist

25.10.16

Share |

Marketing and Music Video Promotion

13.10.16

Recently I was recommended to attend a lecture at UCA Epsom that was hosted by the Music and Marketing course from that university. Speaking there was Heather Swaine, the Director of Digital Publicity for a music PR company called WMA, and she was speaking about her career in music promotion and her journey of how she got into the role that she is in.

As I am planning to set up some for of Company after university, I couldn't pass up the chance and so Jamie and I drove to Epsom to see what she had to say. I was a bit hesitant at first because I wasn't sure how relevant it was going to be for me. However I was deeply surprised and picked up a wealth of useful 'tips and tricks' that I will certainly be able to apply to my current project as Producer for a music video.

Anyway, here are some of the notes I took down that I feel I ought to share:

When contacting a client you need to tell them what they can get out of it e.g. Free promotion or whatever.

This is essential. People aren't going to help you if they don't know how they are going to directly benefit from working with you.

Make sure you know your client - Know the answer to a question before you ask it.

This was definitely something that really resonated with me. Knowing your client and their target audience is going to be critical to how you approach them with an idea. Our lecturer suggested as well as pitching an idea to your client. She also suggested that It’s about approaching bands with a pitch and a strategy plan of where we intend to distribute and what you can offer to the client. This involves devising a marketing plan, schedule on when you intend to release things and maybe even some pre-visualisations and press-releases. This is definitely going to affect the way I operate as a producer on this project

For us, this was a really helpful experience for us as it gave us a great insight into the way the publicity side of music production works. I feel like we have only just scratched the surface of this world, and as we are intending to start a Production Company following University, this lecture has definitely begun to point us in the right direction

Share |

Resolution

3.10.16

Share |

Uni again

16.9.16

Share |

Water Experiment

DFSA Year 2 27.4.16

Share |

Non-Newtonian Fluid

DFSA Year 2 27.4.16

Share |

Fields and Frames: Evaluation

DFSA Year 2 27.4.16

EVALUATION

Looking back on this project, I feel as though we have all learnt a lot about the nature of sound and learning to experiment with more abstract concepts. One thing that we all struggled with was finding a way to make something like this interesting to watch. We wanted to create a series of films that would visualise the physical properties of sound, and so we were tasked with the challenge of researching and finding different materials that would demonstrate this effectively as well as being aesthetically rich. In the end we created 3 films, displaying them in the format of a twin screen production to be uploaded to both YouTube and Vimeo. Due to the nature of the experiments and their presentation, they could definitely be adapted to be exhibited in a gallery, which is something we have all considered when creating these audio-visual experiments. I feel as though in a gallery the environment is more controlled and the individual can be more immersed in the sounds and the imagery. Furthermore, another thing we considered when thinking about the progression of our piece was making the experiments live, so that the individual could modify the frequency of the sound and create their own patterns, granting an extra level of immersion and interactivity. Another thing that was valuable from creating experiments before the final production was that it helped us gauge what were the optimal frequencies. We were able to play around with different variables such as consistency of non-newtonian fluid, the surface area of the tray and the amount of water. The volume of the speaker was also a key factor as it affected how apparent the effect of the sound was. In conclusion, I feel as though this audio visual experiment was an overall success. Yes, there were a few things we could have done differently, such as find a more imaginative way to present the project, but other than that we achieved what our goal was which was to explore the hidden nature of sound.

From a technical perspective, there wasn’t really much that was challenging about this project. Even so, that wasn’t the motive. Over the period of the tests and shoots, we took a further look into how audio can interact with and generate physical formations.

Taking a closer look at these patterns, and deciding how to capture and present them was a question we toyed with for a long time. Typically in the other films I have worked on, I have focused on a larger, typical subject. This project relates more to my photography work, in which I like to focus on set-up scenarios and pick out smaller features (see typewriter closeups and Ink in Water). Ang this methodology to video was a new experience for me, and something I consider a success.

We went through various methods of presenting the piece, toying with the idea of multiple screen setups, and after effects generated visual assistants. The subject matter itself is in the center of this however. These effects are the kind you would see applied to another film, such as an advert. But I having this entry into this kind of “macro film-making”, I think it gives us some great experience to apply these experiments to other media.

EXPERIMENTS

We conducted experiments for the materials that we were going to use, initially starting with non-Newtonian fluid. We made a video about it here:

And another one about water here:

These experiments helped us to visualise our workflow, as well as teach us about what looked good and what looked not so good. For example, in the water experiment the inks looked very dramatic, however they would not affect the vibration on the water very dramatically. What definitely struck us from the experiments was that a number of variables could affect the overall outcome. We did have a number of failed experiments, including a graphite powder one that was simply not fine enough for the sound to have any real impact on it. This was a wake up call for us and so we gathered the appropriate materials (such as real graphite powder) and conducted the final experiments in a studio which became our final submitted piece which can be seen here:

Editing this was a rather tricky feat. Much of it was finding the places where the effects of the sound were most dramatic. Since we had two cameras: one for slow motion shooting at 96 frames and one shooting at 24 frames in 4k resolution. This meant we could crop into the 4k frame whilst not losing any quality. We chose to show a full shot of the material in real time before juxtaposing it with the twin screen slow motion footage. This allowed us to give the viewer a readier understanding of the effect of the sound as well as give show the effect in a more visually rich way. Perhaps a way to improve this would be to have the frequency that is being vibrated at the bottom of the screen. We considered animating a sound reactive sine wave that would correspond with the frequency of the clip. This is definitely something we can implement in the future.

In Conclusion, I feel that this project was a resounding success as it taught us so much about experimenting with abstract concepts whilst applying our practical skills to make it look good. When we were shooting we were constantly amazed at the impact sound had on materials, and the limitless ways frequencies can manipulate materials.

Share |

Professional Toolkit : Studio

Advanced 31.3.16

Share |

Lightroom

Advanced 16.3.16

All the shortcuts

Lightroom is a crazy program allowing one to organise and effectively edit and sync large amounts of photos. It differs from Photoshop in the sense that it offers a more comprehensive workflow and over the past few weeks we have been developing our skills with the program.

The Library Concept

Lightroom essentially makes visual copies of images rather than opening the actual file like Photoshop, meaning that one can work with the preview and make changes that are saved in a catalog.

Importing Files

To add images into your catalog you first must import your files. To add images to the catalogue use ctrl + I or the "Import" button.

Select the folder in your drive with your Camera RAW files in and hit the 'copy' option and wait for your images to load into a new library. From this I can export the library as a new catalogue.

The above window provides an easy preview system which allows one to compare two or more images simultaneously. Below shows how one can begin to organise and categorise images by using star ratings and colour ratings. To enable these features, click the drop down menu (1) next to the Thumbnail slider (as circled) below and select the Star Ratings and Colour Ratings options which will appear on the tool bar under (as circled). For photos that did not pique my interest or were simply poorly composed and/or badly lit I would rate as 1 star and a red colour rating (these photos will not be used or even edited). Yellow ratings would typically be between 2 and 3 stars and would be kept as backups if needed whilst green rated photos would be typically rated 4-5 stars and would go into my collections and eventually be edited as a smart object in camera raw. All of my imported and rated photos are part of my primary catalogue from the portrait studio shoot.

However, Once I did this I needed to create a collection within this catalog of my favourite photographs. Go to the Collections drop down menu and delete the adobe preset Smart Collections.

I then created a new collection and selected this as my target location.

From this I can select all of my photos labelled green in my primary catalogue and hit the B key . This will send my highlighted images to the target collection that we set earlier. This little trick is incredibly useful for both small and large amounts of photos and is an essential asset in streamlining the overall workflow.

Once I have created the new collection I can right click on it and select 'export as new catalogue'. In this catalogue I will be able to trim down my selecttion and remove photos I feel don't make the cut. This will not affect my primary catalogue and thus is an incredibly flexible and non-destructive workflow.

Now that I have two catalogues (a primary and secondary), I am able to effectively manage my data without damaging the original images as they are copies.

Share |