For this project, we were given a video with no audio and create our own sounds using foley. We were split up into a group of four and recorded sounds. In my opinion, we struggled a lot recording these sounds. Sometimes they wouldn't sync with the video or they wouldn't create the right sound we were looking for. I also struggled editing the audio tracks into the film. The beginning of my film is decent, but towards the end, it started to get choppy and i didn't know what to do so I left it as is.

 

1. Water - Shaking a water bottle

2. Wind - Blowing into microphone

3. Hair - Brushing microphone on fabric

4. Taking off bag - Shuffling of clothes

5. Button - Button

6. Rummaging through bag - Rummaging through bag

7. Sigh - Sigh

8. Texting - Keyboard

9. Walking - Footsteps

10. Running - Running w/ coins in pocket

11. Stealing the bag - Moving a bag 

13. Taking bag back - Bag movement

14. Running on stairs - Running on stairs

15. Hug - Slap

 

Video credit: Joel Plunkett on youtube

 

Here are some shots of us recording the sounds:

 

For this journal, I decided to watch “Kotonoha no Niwa” also known by its english title, “Garden of Words”, another film by Makoto Shinkai. The film was first released on May 31st in Japan. It is a short film that is 46 minutes long. The film is a romantic drama. I chose this film because I always wanted to watch it and i never had a chance to, I prefer shorter films and cannot stand movies that are over an hour and a half long because I have trouble sitting throughout the whole time.. I have noticed a certain theme within Shinkai’s works and it is distance. In a lot of his films, he uses the effect of distance to create different feelings such as sadness or love. Shinkai is known to create beautiful works of animation so just like the film I reviewed in my first journal, “Byousoku 5 Centimetre”, this film also a beautiful art style. Each and every scene uses different types of camera angles to emphasize the effects and show off its astonishing visuals. Also just like the film I previously reviewed, there is a lot of detail in every object in the scene. Each scene is very colourful and had a realistic feel to it. There is not a very big story and little dialogue in the film, but I think that its because the aesthetic feel was a larger focus when creating this film. The story was well paced in my opinion, I understood most of what was happening and nothing felt rushed even though the film only had a runtime of 46 minutes. The story was well explained by the little dialogue the film had, the visuals, and soundtrack. Though many scenes could be scene as irrelevant, they all contributed to creating a larger atmosphere. Shinkai has a great sense of when to use certain audio tracks in his films. The different songs amd sound effects in the film had a large part in creating the atmosphere too. A large part of the film consists of scenes where there is a lot of objects in the background that would make a lot of noise such as trains, people walking, rain etc, these sounds do not overpower the dialogue. One of the big differences I noticed in this film from “Byousoku 5 Centimetre”, is the voice acting, I felt that there was more emotion in their voices and that they played their part well. Because their was more emotion in their voices, it created a better feel for the atmosphere making it easier to relate to the characters. Even though this is a newer film compared to the first film I reviewed, everything cinematography-wise should be superior but I cannot help but like the former more. All of the visuals, soundtrack, voice acting etc was felt better and more natural in “Garden of Words” but the “Byousoku 5 Centimetre’s” story was more powerful. I would rate this film 8.5/10 and I would watch it again. I would also recommend it to anyone who wants to see something aesthetically pleasing.
 
Here are some screenshots of the film:
 

 

1. What is the purpose of screenplay? 

The purpose of screenplay is to become the blueprint for the film it is one day to become.

 

2. When did modern screenplay format come to use? 

Modern screenplay format first came to use in September, 1911.

 

3. What are the main writing components of the Master Scene format and what is the purpose for each?   

The main writing components of the Master Scene format are scene headings, narrative direction and dialogue blocks. The purpose of the scene heading is to depict the setting of the scene. The purpose of the narrative direction is to tell the story as it unfolds on-screen. Narrative direction can only be recorded in terms of picture and sound, meaning it can only be written about what can be seen or heard.

4. Why is it important to use as little camera direction as possible when writing a screenplay?

Camera directions are the directors job, not the screenwriter's. So it does not make sense to have them in the screenplay. Also these instructions do not add to the story of the screenplay.

5. Why are the rules for formatting a screenplay so rigid?  

The rules for formatting a screenplay is very strict because one page of screenplay should roughly equal to about one minute. So if you had a 120 page screenplay, it should roughly equal to two hours. That being said, if one does not follow the formatting, he will not know the estimated length of his film.

 

Sources:

http://filmmakeriq.com/lessons/the-origins-and-formatting-of-modern-screenplays/

 

https://screencraft.org/2015/05/07/elements-of-screenplay-formatting/

 

http://filmschoolonline.com/sample_lessons/sample_lesson_format.htm

 

 

I discussed my screenplay with Noah and Renz. After reading out my screenplay to them, they felt that there wasn't enough tone or mood in my writing. There is a part where the main character goes through a series of different scenes. They explained to me that I could make this part into a montage. I had a misunderstadning using parentheticals, I thought I could use actions in them instead of tone. Noah and Renz said that I could create an actual action element and move the actions into it. They also said that some scenes did not have an action element but other than that, my formating should be decent. After presenting my screenplay, i answered some questions on the follow up discussion. i realized that part of my screenplay was missing some answers. I edited my screenplay to answer these questions and fit the feedback I received.

 

 

I decided to watch another japanese animated film named "Hotarubi no Mori e." The film was released on Spetember 17th, 2011. It is a 44 minute film that was directed by Takahiro Omori and is also a romantic drama. I chose this film because I finally had a reason to watch it and I had heard very good things about it. This film is quite different from the other two animated films I made a journal on simply because they were directed by Makoto Shinkai and Hotarubi is directed by Takahiro Omori. The story of movies in the previous journals were created and directed by Shinkai himself so could make changes where they needed to be, while Omori had to follow the strict storyline of a story he did not make. The art and animation of Hotarubi are exceptional for a film that was made 5 years ago and can still be considered good now, though there have been other work that displayed an even better quality of art. There was a lot of detail and colour which made each scene flow together very smoothly. I felt that the pacing of the movie was a little off even though the movie only had a runtime of 44 minutes. The begginning felt kind of slow but then it also felt rushed towards the end. The director still got the story through to me and i understood what was happening so I guess it's fine. The film in general did not have much dialogue and I did not expect it to. I thought the voice acting was pretty good, there was a lot of emotion and tone in their voices unlike the other movies I saw. I think that the movie's greatest strength is its soundtrack. The film had very emotional and powerful music that helped convey different feelings of the characters and helped set various moods. The soundtrack really tied everything together. Each scene used different angles and shots. There were various tracking shots and others that helped make the scenes aesthetically pleasing. Nothing in the film felt unnatural. A big thing that bothered me about this film is the fact that I didn't feel any sympathy towards the characters. I watched the film and I didn't feel sad, happy or mad. I was just done with it. I believe i felt this way because the film is short but also it had a supernatural aspect which is probably why I could not relate to the characters or understand them. Overall, I enjoyed watching it and would rate it a 8/10. I would not recommend this to most people because the movie requires a deep-level of thought to truly appreciate it.