Friday 24th February Lesson - Sound/Vocal Recording

Due to being unable to edit my project at school since I have used a later version of Premier Pro, I have mainly being updating my blog with the necessary posts about effects used, progress with tweaks to final cut etc. and going through the music as that is biggest problem in terms of getting it to match the tone and introduce the much needed stings for the earlier parts. Also I started to re-dub some of the audio and get some additional voice over material from Greg to try and add something more to the trailer and fill in areas that seem to be lacking in content. Will update further when more material or thoughts on this arise.

It all turns to ash...

Here is a video of one of the other effects I created for my vampire film trailer. In vampire films, books and various other forms of media, when I vampire dies they tend to turn to ash or burn up like in "Blade" where the effect is seen in great abundance.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTuGK7Ob2QI

As mentioned in my research, these particular features help identify the trailer as in the vampire genre since they are all universal for this genre, every form of vampire media will express these characteristics, each in a different way to suit the project but they are all present as it gives of this supernatural feel to the character and represents them as something beyond human. They never age, stronger and faster then anything else, every sense is heightened to superhuman levels whilst hungering for blood to sustain their unnatural lives. So I decided to make my own version of when a vampire dies, the body burns away leaving nothing behind. Of course, its not as advanced as the "Blade" one where the skeleton is seen before its ashes making it look a more appealing to see and quite satisfying as the vampires are dispatched. In mine I have managed to create a satisfying burn away effect that complete engulfs the body and slowly burns away with a little ashing around the base of the fire to help make it a little more rich and detailed. While it took a long time to make for a a two second clip, it was worth it and needed as well to help sell this trailer as a back to its roots, more action, horror orientated vampire trailer which this effect helps display.

Blood Cell Titles

This video shows the titles I made for my project using Adobe After Effects. Since my original titles were mainly place holders and didn't suit the vampire genre, I decided to create my own unique titles instead of relying on the the simple text and black background and make something much more fitting of the vampire genre. So I came up with this idea of doing someing as if it was inside a vein or an artery and the camera moves along, picturing blood cells before zooming in on the title. Back when I first started this project, that would seem almost impossible to do with the limited knowledge of After Effects I had but as you can see from the video above, I managed to make it a reality and stook close to my original idea.

I went through some more basic tutorils on Video Copilot to brush up on my skills and learn more on how to attempt and do such an effect, mainly this tutotuil.

http://www.videocopilot.net/tutorials/smoke_screen/

It showed me how to do the needed camera movments and other tips to create a more 3D, and visually more interesting set of titles for the project. So I gave it go and replaced the smoke with my blood cell image, added effects to make it rotate slowly and colour a deeper red to emphasis how that red is the most important colour in vampire genre films. This is all down to back in my inital research that blood is one of the most important, if not the most, element in vampire styled films as its what keeps them alive, its the one thing they need in life and crave as without it they will no longer be immortal. It gives them strength but is also their weakness so it furthers the whole idea of being a gift and a curse as if they continuly feed, they are strong, youthful and immortal but attempt to go without it, you become weaker then the food you hunt. This is why I went for this style of titles as it enforces the message about blood being a key part of the genre and is much more enfitting of the trailer by linking the idea across the whole project as well due to same colour being used throughout each part and also blood being used in the title, brand and general imagry like the poster have a blood cell style background.

So, I created the final example of the title effect and simply replaced the text each time with the one needed. The font also used is a parapyrus styled font which connotes an old and decayed feel again linking to vampires as they are hundreds of years old but never decay while everything around them does so very fitting indeed to the genre.

Blood Debt - Final Cut Ver. 2 (Improved)

Here is the improved version of my final cut. Mainly added a little extra piece of music to act as a sting for the front part and actually blended with the rest of the music quite well, increasing the tone and mood of the trailer and that particular moment much more. I also added a few sound effects of the neck breaking and the vampire bite but the latter doesn't seem right but I'll wait to see what people think before removing it. I fixed everything Sir noticed that was wrong or didn't work like changed the dissolves on the flash back and changed that scene where I was talking with no audio to something more fitting and actually a little more menacing. Also added a couple of fades on the title parts to make it a little smoother going into the the title and beginnings.

Will comment on the effects and upload the tests when I finish work.

Blood Debt - Final Cut (Hopefully)

Here is the final cut for my project with most of the improvements done to it that were made aware in the rough cut. Will comment more on the project and upload the supporting videos of the titles made for this and also the various effects after I have slept since it is 4am. Also Sir if you see this tomorrow I hope it has fixed most of the problems and only needs minimal clean up and when exporting it, for some reason it fixed the remaining sound when I played it on my computer which is a lucky bonus.

Final Project - Final Cut (Rough)

Here is the rough final cut of my project. All the shots are in sequence, with basic effects and the specialised effects that are all part of the vampire genre (black eyes, fangs and a basic super speed effect all that are noted in my research). The company logos and Lionsgate opening are put into the correct order now and the ending part is firmly complete with a rather interesting scene of were a voice over plays about Gabriel joking about the death of Matt's girlfriend, giving a bit more depth to the overall trailer even if its very short. My favourite parts are the various vampires effects that I manged to recreate for my project. The black eye effect was the hardest to get right as if the track was off by a pixel, the track points would shift and you would visibly be able to see it was a matte. Thankfully the practise I had of trying it on some test footage allowed me to ensure it looked much more professional and well executed in the final project like when I become a vampire for example, Craig's final scene being the best one I done as it was the most accurate one done with a much better outcome, if the timing or the dissolve is a little off but that is more down to me not being able to do it as he is blinking since the track and matte would have to be different to the overall one. The growing fang effect was technically the hardest to produce due to the need to track then reverse track it otherwise the liquefy effect would not be able to stay in place. Thankfully it wasn't too difficult to produce thanks to tutorials on Video Copilot which guided me through it and helped me learn a variety of effects like stabilising footage, tracking, day to night conversations (weren't used as didn't fit the final cut) etc. The structure of the trailer is fairly modern with narrative shots then action shots at the end with the beginning being a lot stronger in editing then the ending which needs a little tweaking but the order is there, just needs a few extra features here and there and tighter editing.

The only thing not done is the music, proper titles and effects on some parts as they are taking quite a bit of time to perfect and make sure they suit the project. In all the narrative is clearly evident with the action shots near the spread out with a final title screen spilt into parts to help get the last message about the film across. It just needs the final tweaks of certain effects and improved titles to be finally complete.