Directions Unit - Ophelia Process

I decided to spread out my story to help me with what sounds effects I wanted to add.

Here's the story outline.

'Woman is running a bath and lets it over run, she comes downstairs, takes some pills and lies down in the water.'

Here are the close ups I wanted to include in the story.

- One of the windows

- The clock

- Photos on the wall

- Photo on the bookcase

- Telephone

- Lampshade

- Vinyl Record

- Table

- The woman on the floor at the end

I used most of the images in my story, except for the photo on the bookcase and the lampshade. I didn't end up putting in the image of the photo because when I zoomed into the image, it became very pixelated and was too blurry to make out what the images were. I tried zooming out a bit but it didn't make much of a difference. I wanted to include the lampshade so that I could add a buzzing sound effect to represent the light buzzing. I thought this would be quite an interesting part to include, but when I added this into the story, it didn't make sense, so I ended up taking it out.

Here is the sound effects I used in my sound story.

- A woman sobbing
- Birds singing
- Water dripping
- Water running in the bath
- Squeaky tap turning
- Walking down the stairs
- Pill lid opening
- Shaking pills
- Gulping a drink
- Walking in the water
- Children playing outside
- A sigh

Even though it doesn't seem like I added a lot of sounds, most of them from this list go on throughout the story, which made it hard to add other sounds on top. I feel that I picked out the appropriate sounds needed to help tell my story. There may have been a couple I could have added, but I decided not to otherwise there would have been too many sound layers.

Directions Unit - Ophelia Sound Story

Here is my completed sound story that I did for one of Gregory Crewdson's images 'Ophelia'.

I am quite happy with my end result and feel that I chose the right amount of layers in this piece. There were a couple of times when I was watching it through where I could have added other sound effects, but after thinking about it if I added anymore sound effects it might have got a bit confusing. The effect I used over this video (Artifacts) worked great and I feel it made the image brighter and stand out more.

Directions Unit - Researching Sound Effects

When I decided on what idea I was going to do I decided to look into what type of sound effects I would need.

Here are a couple of the websites that I used.

Soundbible.com
Soundjay.com
youtube.com - converted the youtube videos into MP3 using youtube converter

There were a couple of sound effects that I struggled to find online, so instead of constantly looking for them I decided to create the sounds myself. I looked into foley artists, as I thought it may help me with some ideas on how to re-create certain sounds.

Here is some information on Foley Artists

Foley artists reproduce sounds effects that are later added in to films, video in post-production. These reproduced sounds can be anything from footsteps to squeaky doors. Foley artists are quite important as they help create a sense of reality in a scene and can help with covering background noises and other unwanted sounds captured on set, i.e. passing traffic, etc.

Here is a video to show how what type of work Foley Artists do.

This animation is a good example of foley artists work. This video shows the scenes as well as what objects/items the artists used to create each sound.

After researching into foley artists I created one of the sounds myself of someone walking down carpeted stairs. This was very hard to find online as most sounds of people walking down the stairs were on wooden floor and it just didn't sound right. I used my recorder on my phone to record me walking down my stairs. The overall result actually turned out better than what I thought. There was no echoing in the background luckily, which can happen if your recording sounds using your phone.

I have definitely learnt that if you need sound effects, that you don't always have to rely on websites and that you can actualy create them yourselves. Sometimes re-creating the sounds yourself may even end up sounding better than the sound effects you find online. There are also many youtube videos and websites that can help give you ideas on how to create different sound effects that you may be looking for.

Directions Unit - Ophelia Research 2

While thinking about my story idea I wanted to make sure that I looked into every detail in the image. The first part that I wanted to figure out was the era of this image, to help me with what I could include as sounds. The overall decor came across to me from something in the 70s, but I still wasn't sure if that was the correct era. Some objects in the image would help classify that such as; the vinyl record player, the pill jar, the outfit the woman is wearing, the people in the pictures by the staircase, etc. but there was one thing that I looked into that threw the image's era off.

When I was looking at the table on the left side of the picture, the red book on top caught my eye. I was able to zoom into the image enough to get a rough look at the author and the title of the book.

I found out that it was a book called 'Inner Harbour', written by Nora Roberts.

Here's a bit about Nora Roberts.

She is a bestselling novelist in America, and was born in Silver Spring, Maryland, USA. She is best known for her romance novels and has written more than 209 of them. She came to fame in the 1980's and continues to write novels today. Her pen names include Nora Roberts, J.D. Robb, Jill March and Sarah Hardesty.

I was able to look at all the books she had written and found out that 'Inner Harbor' was published in 1999.

This image 'Ophelia' was part of Gregory Crewdson's Twilight series and was taken in 2001.

Which would be around near enough the same time the book came out. So to answer all my questions this image is based around the late 90's early 2000's. Even though this information might not seem like it helped a lot the information I was able

Here is the book cover of 'Inner Harbor' and about the story.

'The third instalment of the lives and loves of three brothers on the windswept shores of the Chesapeake Bay and the highly anticipated close to the story, finds Philip, the last unwed Quinn brother, hugging his high-powered advertising job and caring for his young adopted brother Seth. When Dr. Sybill Griffin shows up in the sleepy town of St. Christopher, Philip makes room in his hectic schedule for the mysterious woman who stirs his senses and threatens his heart. And while Sybill can't deny her own growing feelings for the charismatic Quinn, the secret connection to Seth that she hides may destroy any chance of the two young lovers have at happiness'

I looked into the book and started to think that maybe this novel by Nora may have helped Gregory Crewdson create this image/story basing it on one of the characters in this book. The woman in the book, Dr Sybill Griffin, falls in love with Quinn who lives by the shore. The reasons why I though this all connected was because, 1) the woman is laying in water, 2) she has pills on the table and 3) she doesn't look dead in the image only unhappy due to her not being able to be with the person she loves (the male character in the book).After finding out this information, it helped me create an idea that I could use for my sound story.My idea is to tell a story about a woman who lost her fiancé in the forces and has a mental break down. She runs herself a bath and leaves it to over run causing it to flood upstairs and downstairs and then lies in the water.I thought this might be a good idea as it's kind of similar to the book in the way she loves someone but in my idea the man dies and this causes her to have a mental breakdown because she feels she can't live without him. Also because most people who are doing the same image are killing this woman character off and I wanted to do something different and make it look like she's alive but just gone mad.

Directors Unit - Ophelia Sound Ideas

When I fully decided to use this image to tell a sound story, I looked through different ways in how I could tell a story. The image I chose has so much potential, that there are so many ways of telling a story. The two main ideas I had are:

1) Someone breaks in and the woman comes downstairs and gets attacked by and ends up getting knocked out/killed

2) She has schizophrenia and lies in the water that has over flowed from the bath

I'm not 100% happy with either idea, even though both are easy enough to create a sound story from. I thought about it for a while and decided that i'm not going to go with either of the ideas. I'm still having the part in the second idea where the woman lies down in the over flowed water at the end, but not including the mental illness part.

I looked into the image at specific objects that caught my eye (research of it coming later) and decided to tell a story about a woman who lost her fiancé in the forces and has a mental break down. She runs herself a bath and leaves it to over run causing it to flood her front room and then lies in the water.

I feel that this idea will be a bit harder to do, but if I research into my idea and choose the sounds carefully I think that I will be able to create a good sound story. Even thought this is going to be a challenge I want to create something different to the other people in my class, as most of the people in my class who are doing this image are killing this woman character off.

Directions Unit - Overview On Auditions

I'm glad that I was organised for my auditions, especially with the paperwork side of things, i.e. forms for them to fill out, etc. I asked Helen and Ren if they would be able to help out for my auditions. They both agreed to help me, which was great as it's good to get more than one opinion, especially with an audition. I got Helen to film the auditions with my iPad, I was originally going to have it stand up on some books, but the iPad kept falling. Ren was the one who greeted the people and brought them up to the boardroom, where I had my auditions and she would take them back down to reception when the audition was over.

A day before I scheduled to have my auditions one of my actresses turned up. Luckily I was at the studios having a workshop, but unfortunately I had to leave earlier due to her turning up. The audition with her went ok; overall I felt that she was telling me how to run the shoot. I decided after auditioning the others over the days due to her turning up without confirming it with me, I also felt that she might just turn up to shoot dates when she would want to.

The auditions on the Thursday went great! Most of the people turned up, except three people.

On Friday the auditions didn’t go as well as the Thursday as only one person turned up. Three of the people told me in the morning that they wouldn’t be able to make it and one other person didn’t turn up let alone let me know she wasn’t coming to the audition, which I felt was rude as I could have been waiting around for ages.

Having auditions for this short film was definitely a learning curve for me, and I really enjoyed the process with it all. I found that it wasn't as stressful than I thought it would be and I was able to meet great people!

Directors Unit - Preparation For Auditions

When I started getting applications and replies back from people who were interested for auditioning, I was ecstatic! I was getting people who were actually interested in my project and that were happy about not being paid (which was a big issue for me, as I didn't think people would apply). I contacted each person to give them more information just in case they were sure about what they were auditioning for.

When I confirmed the dates and times for the auditions, I wanted to make sure that I had most information confirmed as these people needed to know exactly when the shoots are, how long the day would be and also travel information. I also wanted to get each person to sign to say that I could film their auditions and then once they're not needed anymore that they will be deleted. Also so that I could use it towards this blog, if I wanted to.

Signing Form

First of all I wanted to make sure that I had an applicant form, so that I had key information about them, i.e. if they had any health problems that I should know about, etc. I made this application form by thinking what were the key pieces of information I needed and instead of asking them constant questions. I'm happy with my applicant form and will probably keep this as guidelines for future projects, depending if I cast again (which will probably happen).

Applicant Form

A couple of days before my audition I sent an email out to all the people who were interested, with their scheduled times. None of the people had a problem with the times I gave them which worked out well, as it saved moving times about. Here are the list of the people who came to my audition over the two days.

Talent Names and Audition Times

I decided that it was a good idea to make notes for myself as there were quite a few points that I definitely wanted to go through with each person, i.e. shooting updates, information about the character they're playing, etc. I'm glad that I had notes with me as there were times where I would go blank on what I was going to say next.

Notes For Me

When I spoke to my lecturer about the auditions, he told me to hand a note in to reception on each day so that they can contact me when each person arrived. Also so that they would know who will be entering the building, in case of a fire hazard. The receptionist was very cooperative and didn't mind at all.

Note Handed To Reception

As well as having notes with me, I had a couple of copies of the script so that I could show them where their roles took place and also get them to act out a part from the script. I felt this helped with the people who auditioned with speaking parts, as I was able to give a copy to them as well as give one to one of my helpers to act out the other part.

I'm glad that I was organised and had these forms ready for the auditions. If I didn't have the applicant form and my notes, I would have definitely forgot to ask important questions as well as give important information at the audition.

Directions Unit - Casting Websites

For my 4 minute drama I decided to cast people as my characters. I wanted to try and make a film realistically on how it is done in the industry, i.e. by casting people, scouting locations, etc. I think this is a good habit to get into as it gives you more of an idea on what it is like in the television/film industry.

We were given a couple of website names that we could use to post free castings onto, they were called 'Casting Call Pro' and 'Star Now.' These two websites are quite popular already so I had a good feeling that I would definitely get at least an application from either of these. Most websites used for casting today, you have to pay a subscription for the website to be able to post up castings, which is very annoying especially when your trying to post up on as many websites as possible. Even though I already had a couple of casting websites to use I wanted to branch out as much as possible and research into to see if there were any other websites I could post free castings onto. I found two 'Now Casting' and 'To Be Seen.' I didn't get any responses from 'Now Casting' and it made me think if people actually go on there, however 'To Be Seen' turned out better than what I expected. I ended up getting three applications from that website, more than I did from the main ones I used.

Here are a couple of websites I used:

Casting Call Pro - castingcallpro.com

Star Now - starnow.co.uk

To Be Seen - tobeseen.co.uk

Now Casting - nowcasting.com

I felt that I got quite good responses from these websites (except Now Casting), and was surprised on how many applications I got. One thing I did do was contact people on each website personally, as I felt this would help try to get more people for my castings. I'm glad I did this as I had more responses from people who I contacted personally, more than the people who applied for the role.

One of the people I messaged personally, sent a message back that surprised me. He answered with sarcasm and practically made fun of the message I sent him, despite me asking kindly if he would like to audition and if so contact me back. Just to confirm it wasn't just how I took it, I showed my lecturer Simon and unfortunately I was right. I can't believe that some people out there reply to a message like that on a casting website. It was a very unprofessional thing to do and it has made him look very bad. However instead of giving him the same attitude back I just sent him a message saying that if he was interested let me know what audition date he would like to attend, if not I wish him well for the future. I didn't receive any other messages from him again after that.

In the future I will definitely use these websites again, as they helped me get people to audition for my short film. It has also taught me that not everyone in this industry is nice and if you get a message like I did, just take it on the chin and be professional.

The Watch

In our lesson yesterday we was given the task to get into groups of three or two and each have a turn filming, performing and directing three different scenarios. I worked with Aquila and Helen.

Here are the three scenarios:

1) To sit down on a chair and look at your watch

2) To write something down on a piece of paper, then screw it up and throw it into the bin.

3) trip over with books in your hand and the books have to slide across the floor.

I directed the first option 'The Watch.' Simon said that we could choose a genre to do, so I thought I would try and challenge myself by doing a horror. Helen filmed the footage and Aquila was the one who acted in my scenario.

I came up with the idea that the character could be running in the 'woods' and the rests against the tree, sliding down slightly (to add the sitting part in) and then checks her watch.

When me, Aquila and Helen had a rough idea on what we each had to film, we got on with filming. Luckily I was able to film mine first, to get it all over and done with.

At the time I thought I got enough shots, but when looking back onto the footage to edit there were very few shots of close ups.

From this task I was able to learn that when shooting get as many shots as possible, because the ones you think you won't use might be vital in helping telling the storyline. However I'm very happy with my shots and Helen did a great job with the camera work. Aquila was very easy to direct and she was able to perform what I suggested as an idea.

When we filmed Helen suggested to get a few minutes of the atmosphere to put underneath the track, just incase I needed it. I put the atmosphere track underneath my footage and it made a big difference. The sound was even and it helped with the quieter parts of my footage.

When I finished editing my footage, I noticed that because we filmed out in where the sun effected the shot that all my footage ended up a little bit overexposed. I tried to darken each footage a little bit, but it didn't make a difference, so I decided to go through some of Final Cut Pro's effects. I found one called 'Bleach Bypass' and found that this helped with the overexposure but also created a type of bright dream like footage. It reminded me of flash back/victims stories of murders in CSI, which was great because I wanted to create the story where this person was running away from someone.

When I thought I completed my edit it didn't feel much of a horror, just someone running and then looking at their watch as they stop for a minute. One of my shots I got Aquila to look back as she was running, but when I viewed it back it made sense why she did that but it didn't create enough suspense, which is key to a horror movie. I decided to look for sound effects and found one of a branch breaking, I decided to add this effect in just before she looks, as if to give the character a reason to looks back. By adding this small sound effect made such a difference and definitely creates more of a tension at the beginning.

Here is my finished video, 'The Watch.'

Directions Unit - Synopsis

A young woman Lizzie has been suffering with 

depression since her break up with her boyfriend. 

She had the perfect life, she moved in with her 

boyfriend, had a job and went out with her best 

friend frequently. After her boyfriend broke up 

with her she got sacked from her job due to not 

performing her job right. Her parents haven't 

spoken to her since she moved in with her boyfriend 

as they didn't approve of him and now her best friend 

hasn't been in contact with her either. 

Now she isn't able to pay the bills and has started receiving warnings for her rent. One day she meets up with her best friend to collect some prescription medication from her. When she gets home she takes a hand full of medication and decides whether to end her life.

Directions Unit - Character Profiles

 Before starting on my script for the 4-minute drama, I wanted to get a clear idea on my two main characters so that it would help me write the script.

Elizabeth 'Lizzie' Pierce - Main Character

Lizzie is shy and not the loudest person. She has been suffering with depression since her bf broke up with her which has resulted in getting her sacked from her job and now not being able to pay rent or bills. Her parents don't want anything to do with her, however she is still in contact with her older brother, but only gets to speak to him now and then. In the story she meets up with Rachel so that she can collect her prescription medication from her.

Rachel Parker - Supporting Character

Rachel is quite vain and snobbish, but is nice deep down. She is not seen without make up and wears trendy/fashionable clothing. She is an only child and can have anything she wants, due to her parents being wealthy. Ever since Lizzie broke up with her bf she has had less contact with her. Rachel started hanging out with other people, and felt that if she met up with Lizzie that it would ruin her reputation. She meets up with Lizzie in the storyline to hand over her prescription medication.


Overall by doing a spider diagram on these characters helped me a lot with the script, as I was able to look back to see how they would react in certain situations. I felt that I was able to go deep into both character backgrounds and discover a lot about them.