Cambridge Blog Post 23

     I have finally finished the final muzzle flashes for my scene. They look really good. I made sure that each flash was slightly different to add some variety to the shot. It would look worse if there was no variety, it would look repetitive. I also had to make sure that the actual flash matched the lighting of the scene. For example, a dimly lit scene would make use of a brighter light from the muzzle flash. And a brighter scene would make for a dimmer light from the muzzle flash. I also made sure to add some light on the assassins legs to make it known that the gun is in his hand. 

     Next, I needed to make sure that the sound is correctly placed. I had to go through and thoroughly check the entire film to make sure it was correct. I went clip by clip and inserted each sound. Then, I rewatched it plenty of times. I found only a couple of errors in the gunshot sounds, they were only a frame or two off. But I wanted to make sure they were perfectly in sync. After that, the sound and lighting was done. I am really loving the way this project is turning out. 

Cambridge Blog Post 22

     Today I have completed the final color grades and the addition of muzzle flashes to my scene. To complete the color grading, I made sure to watch the tutorial again that posted in a previous blog. I had to make sure that the color grading matched the overall theme of my film, as does everything else. 

        To create the muzzle flashes, I had to search for free, copyright free, assets. I found 5 different styles, all of which I used in my film to give some randomness and variety to my film. I also had to make sure that the brightness and opacity of each of the flashes corresponded to the already provided film grading. 

    Moreover, I also had to make sure that the area around the gun was being illuminated, because if you are firing a gun in a closed space there will be light coming off of the objects in  the way of the gun. Therefore, I decided to boost the white levels and use a mask for a short period of time to get the illumination effect. Here is a frame from one of the shots:

    Although it may look silly or unprofessional in this frame by frame view, it looks amazing when played at full speed.

Cambridge Blog Post 21

     Today as I was completing some of the final touches to my piece, I noticed that one of the songs that I used was actually copyrighted. I needed to change it, so I went back and looked for more music that actually was not copyrighted. I found multiple songs on the web page that I pasted below, and I thought that a lot of them did actually fit the theme of my film.

    To my surprise, when dropping in the most recent one, with limited tweaking, I was able to get it to fit the theme and flow perfectly, and I am extremely pleased. I tried out multiple songs from that list, but ultimately landed on the one titled "Super suspense", and "the hero we need". The hero we need was strategically used to create a sad tone after the person was killed by the assassin, which perfectly fits the mood. 

    I am extremely satisfied with the way this is turning out and I am excited to complete the final touches.

https://www.fesliyanstudios.com/royalty-free-music/downloads-c/suspenseful-music/25

Cambridge Blog Post 20

    I just finished the composition of all the sound into the project. At first I only added the video portion of the clips because I did not know where exactly I wanted everything to go and it was easier to do it with no audio. As of now, this is what my project looks like in Adobe Premiere:

    There are many layers of audio. I had to make sure that each clip of audio was mixed correctly and accurately timed. For some of the slow motion parts I needed to make sure that the audio was matching the speed and placement. This is what one portion of the audio looks like:

    As you can see, there is multiple layers, and some effects are applied to some of the audio. For the final slow motion part, I decided to shy away from my original plan of a reverb addition, and I went with a simple slowed down version of the song and audio. For this part, I had to make sure that the audio sound effects I used matched the speed of the video, since it was slowed to 50%. 

    Next, I plan on completing the color grading and muzzle flashes on all of the parts of the film. This will be complicated and take lots of research and time, but it will be worth it in the end.