After effects of After Effects

Ok, now, for the first time, I’m wondering what I got myself into by getting into NM3208…

I get giddy after attending After Effects workshop. I’m starting to google for tutorials as the 2 hour workshop is SIMPLY not enough…. My attention span is getting shorter and I’m starting to be distracted… I think I need another round of workshop again… Or else, find Jia  Xiang… wahaha… he made a grave mistake by asking me if I need help… Going to pester him from now on liao… muahaha… If I can find him in the first place…

Here are some websites, for those who are lucky enough to see my blog article… If not, you may even get it easily from Google…

After Effects
1. Basic Training: http://www.videocopilot.net/basic/
2. 50+ effects: http://naldzgraphics.net/tutorials/50-most-amazing-adobe-after-effects-tutorials-you-need-to-learn/
3. 60+ Kickass effects: http://designrfix.com/tutorials/effects-tutorial-60-kick-ass-effects

NM3208 Presentation 3iii

II. Write the script for your assignment II (Ken Burns).

I’m not sure if I want any narration for my Ken Burns video, but if there is, this will be the script for it.

1. Opening

“Fun” and “Career” (APPEAR)
Can “Fun” = “Career” ?  (APPEAR)

FAD TO WHITE. IMAGE A CROSSFADE IN.

“Relations” (APPEAR)

IMAGE A ZOOM OUT

Advocator of “Relations”
PR Practitioner  (APPEAR)

IMAGE A PANS DOWN

 Buzz  (APPEAR)

IMAGE A ZOOM OUT

 Composer of “Buzz”
Journalist (APPEAR)

2.

ZOOM OUT AND PAN LEFT
IMAGE B CUT

 Media Trends & Statistics (APPEAR)

3.

IMAGE C CUT
IMAGE D CUT

Investigator of “Media Trends & Statistics”
Researcher (APPEAR)

4.

IMAGE E CUT. ZOOM IN.

 Beauty (APPEAR)

5.

IMAGE F CUT AND ZOOM OUT.

 Captor of “Beauty”
Photographer (APPEAR)

IMAGE F EXTREME ZOOM.
IMAGE G ZOOM OUT

Fun (APPEAR)

IMAGE G ZOOM OUT.

Creator or “Fun”
Game Designer (APPEAR)

6.

IMAGE G PANS TO IMAGE F TO IMAGE E TO IMAGE D TO IMAGE C TO IMAGE B TO IMAGE A. = IMAGE H

Creativity

7.

IMAGE H ZOOM OUT.

(Wo)man behind the “Creativity”
Videographer/ Video Editor (APPEAR)

8.

FADE TO WHITE

Communications and New Media
where work = fun in real life. (APPEAR)
(Narrates: Communications and New Media
where work equals to fun in real life. )

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III. What are the differences between scripts before production and scripts which are ready for production (if any)?

Sample script: not intended for production, but to showcase the screenwriting skills of the author, in hopes of attracting the attention of an agent or producer. Often a spec script which fails to sell goes on to be a sample script.
Spec script: aka (speculative screenplay) is a screenplay for a movie that is shopped or sold on the open market, as opposed to one commissioned by a studio or production company. It is written without being commissioned on the speculative hope that it will be sold.
    * for easier reading, often avoiding camera angles, editing directions, and technical intrusions
    * by writers who hope to have a script optioned and eventually purchased by producers or studios;
    * by writer/directors who want to direct a film themselves;
    * by amateur writers hoping to convince a literary agent to represent them or a producer to hire them.

Script: The blueprint or roadmap that outlines a movie story through visual descriptions, actions of characters and their dialogue.
Manuscript: a script before it has been published.
Master Scene Script: A script formatted without scene numbering (the usual format for a spec screenplay).
Shooting Script: A script that has been prepared to be put into production (used in production of motion picture). They make use of scene numbers (along with certain other formatting conventions described below), and they follow a well defined set of procedures specifying how script revisions should be implemented and circulated.
Production Script: A script in which no more major changes or rewrites is anticipated to occur, which is used day by day for filming on a movie set.

I did a simple mindmap of the difference made to a script at different stages of the production. Hopefully this will be clear enough…

NM3208 Presentation 3ii

I. Find 2 scripts of well-known films. Select minimum 5 pages (each) of the two scripts you selected and analyze them by answering the following questions: Which are the characters /roles in this script? Point out the voice over. Point out the camera movement Point out the transition How does it present place and time?

Film 2: Catch Me if You Can (2002)

Scene used 17-23 (See video clip)/ download pdf from the link below to see view the selected scenes.
http://www.4shared.com/document/HYA4KiPb/Catch_Me_If_You_can_script_ana.html

Which are the characters /roles in this script? (names in red)

Frank/ Mr. Abagnale – main character, fake relief teacher
Ms Glasser – teacher on medical leave
Girl – student in class
Teacher – Real relief teacher
Principal Evans – Principal of the school
Frank Senior – Frank’s Father
Paula, Mrs Abagnale – Frank’s mother
School Administrator
Joanna – New friend
Jack Wright – Paula’s affair, Frank Snr’s friend
Point out the voice over (highlighted in yellow): NIL

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Point out the camera movement (highlighted in magenta): NIL

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Point out the transition, How does it present place and time? (highlighted in cyan): Day and location were written at the start of every changed scene.

NM3208 Presentation 3i

Scripting

I. Find 2 scripts of well-known films. Select minimum 5 pages (each) of the two scripts you selected and analyze them by answering the following questions: Which are the characters /roles in this script? Point out the voice over. Point out the camera movement Point out the transition How does it present place and time?

Film 1: 17 Again (2007)

Scene used 37-43 (See video clip) / download pdf from the link below to see view the selected scenes.
http://www.4shared.com/document/v9XFBAtF/17_Again_Script_Analysis.html

Which are the characters /roles in this script? (names in red)

Mike/ Mark – main character
Alex – Mike’s son in real life
Samantha, Lauren, Jamie – the trio
Nicole – Alex’s crush
Stan – Maggie’s boyfriend
Maggie – Mike’s daughter
Miss Goodwin – School’s principal
Mrs Mencer – School counsellor
Scarlet – Mike’s wife, Alex and Maggie’s mother

Point out the voice over (highlighted in yellow): Written as (o.s)

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Point out the camera movement (highlighted in magenta): ANGLE

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Point out the transition, How does it present place and time? (highlighted in cyan): Day and location were written at the start of every changed scene.

Final: Initial Chosen Ideas

Video 1: NUS (MTV)
Mood: Cheerful

Adaptation from

Basically, we do not have money nor capability to do the video panning from the top like the video, but we like the concept of passing balloon around and the blocks of words, NUS have them too! Hahah… The famous “I WAS HERE” block…

So after a round of excited discussion, we modified, and included the elements from everyone’s ideas…

On the NUS map, there will be 2 starting point (effect like the marauder’s map from Harry Potter) and the 2 points will move from one faculty to another on the map… This effect will be cut and inserted in the video on and off.
One male and female will start our from a different faculty each, carrying a balloon that carries the faculty’s name and run to a different faculty, entering a iconic place of that faculty and come out in their dressing attire (eg. Medicine – white coat/stethoscope, Architecture – pencil and paper etc, Science – Come our of laboratory with a cylinder and goggles etc )
As the 2 person enters the place and appears in a different attire, they will also have more and more balloons, collecting one balloon from every faculty and they will finally arrive in UCC, and be dressed as graduates. In front of the “I WAS HERE” blocks, the 2 person are actually couple, so they will *kiss* and let go of the balloons which will soar into the air… We will end with NUS- a start for your career, friendships, and even… love.

woohoo, sooooo romantic…. hahah….

Challenge: The balloons with Helium are quite costly, so ahem, yup… and also the planning of the route around NUS.
Another bigger challenge will be to come up with the music and if possible song, for this video, it has to be super cheerfuly like the MV, different from the past NUS slow slow music…

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Video 2: CNM (Advertisement)

Inspiration from:

I’ve shared this video with the class during my photo story critique session, so yup, I think this will be quite challenging as a video compared to the photostory. So I’m thinking if we can do something like a handshake with different people of different league etc… We haven’t really covered this video yet… so wonder how we can work on the filming…

Final: Meeting 2 [Minutes]

We had a meeting today after receiving the requirements for our final project.

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Title: Our University and/or CNM Department
Medium: 2 Videos (.mov)

Design of movies to showcase the various interesting/distinguished aspects of CNM/NUS.

Format:
Maximum 3 mins each

Deliverable:
1. Two different genres/style clips, for instance:
___* NUS and CNM
___* NUS (MTV) and NUS (Documentary)
___* NUS (Advertisment) and NUS (Documentary)
___and so on

2. Both clips should be rendered into
___* low resolution in AVI with no lesser than 320*240
___* high resolution in MOV above 720*480

• Deadline: Monday, 4rd April 2010 (12:00 noon). Submit the final project to the server, youtube, and give the URL in IVLE.

For preproduction documentation, the deadline is Monday, 28st Feb 2011, 12:00 noon)
Styles: Narration, Commercial, Footages, Documentation, MTV and/or Interview

Other requirement: Please see the OAD slides

Objectives:

• Basic digital audio and video production skills
• Optimal use of video compression algorithm
• Basic cinematic skills

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We shared our ideas from the previous discussion and this was what my groupmates came up with…

Helen’s Ideas:

1. Have you watched Forrest Gump? I imagine the first scene of the clip will  be a white feather flying freely in the sky. The feather represents our fate, which is unknown and depends so much on the people and environment around us
2. In the next scene, the feather softly falls into a girl’s hand during the first day she comes to NUS
3. The girl meets 3 friends (I really like Tiffany’s idea that in NUS we can meet many different kinds of people): 1 becomes her dear husband, 1 becomes her best friends and neighbor, the other becomes her competitor from another company in the future. Thus the conclusion is that NUS helps define our future as it brings us not only knowledge and skills but also all kinds of people that will shape our life.

 

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Daryl’s Ideas

1. Nostalgia – NUS is where memories are made. We could model our transitions after a yearbook ala Ken Burns, zooming in and out of the stills our footage, panning across pages. Think this would work nicely with the friends theme the two of you mentioned. Our opening setting could be a couple or a group of friends reminiscing over a yearbook, and our video revisits their memories.

2. Random – We could shoot something totally out of the context or location of NUS and tie it in at the end with a creative catch phrase, something like the example Julien showed in class where a crazy chase through alleyways and parks turns out to be a overzealous headhunt. An idea I had is maybe we could explore the horror theme, something like a student is treading carefully through darkened hallways and a shadow follows him. The suspense continues until he’s cornered. Then it turns out to be his friends throwing a surprise party – again, the friendship theme.

3. Faculty specific – We could focus on a single student at work, showing the passion and fulfillment he gets from his studies. For example, a life science student doing field work would make for great footage.

4.

Think gives a nice combination of the ideas we’ve be leaning towards.

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After deciding on our 2 video genres, we decided to meet up on Saturday evening and work on the storyboards, hopefully getting them out by the next lesson.