Jake's cartoon evaluation

Cartoon Evaluation

I think my overall work for this project could have been better because I tried to make it humorous rather than making it suitable for children. Although I think the voices and sound effects fitted in a juxtaposition kind of way that might appeal to an older audience, I think I was probably expected to make something more appropriate to children.

I think the sound effects work with the motion on the screen because it is very silly and isn’t really supposed to be typical sound effects. However, there are problems such as laughing and background noise because I recorded in a noisy place. I felt the audio I got off the Internet fitted the piece for the most part, some bits such as the nokia ringtone going off and the horse whistling when Jerry blows the soup were added for comic effect rather than me not being able to find suitable sound effects.

For this task I recorded a lot of sound effects, most of it was dialogue but I also recorded the plates hitting the table and the nokia ringtone as my friend has a nokia phone. To do this what we did was get a college microphone and record the sound effects, then Max, Rob and I watched the clip several times and improvised lines to create some bizarre dialogue, which perhaps looking back on it, was unsuitable.

I got most of the sound effects online as there was plenty of comical, slapstick ones that fitted the Tom and Jerry style. For example I got slapstick running sounds, boing sound effects and gulping down food sound effects that kind of just fitted the style of it.

I was happy with the entertainment of the piece, but looking back think I should have taken it more seriously and done it so it would fit more of the original Tom and Jerry style. The main thing I was unhappy with was all the talking and background noise that was in the background as it made it seem rather unprofessional. 

If I were going to do this again, I would do it more seriously and think more about what is suitable rather than trying to make something that is enjoyable to me. I would definitely record the sounds in a quiet room so there is no background noise, and I would put more effort into editing and find a more suitable backing track. I would also be more sensible with dialogue and restrict it so it was child friendly. I think these things would improve it and make it a better grade.

Jake's Production Schedule

	Week 1	Week 2	Week 3
What you doing?	Recording sounds - black maid singing, black maid talking, female cat, mouse talking, male cat talking, spitting soup	Getting sounds off internet - screams, water movement, slurp, breathing, cooking, running, bounce, ooo, mmm, oh j e tame, male voice sound effect, female sound effects, clanging fork, cutlery movement, yelps, tap dancing,	Editing sounds to footage
Props	People,
Equipment	Sound kit	Computer	Computer

Tom and Jerry

I am doing the violent Tom and Jerry clip, from 0:29 to 2:29.

Evaluation

Our aim was to film a sketch in different environments and to analyze the problems we had and to then re-shoot them and try to eradicate those problems.

After evaluating and analyzing both our first lot of footage and our second lot of footage we realized that our first lot actually turned out better, this was due to us changing equipment for the second lot and not checking it beforehand.

For our first lot of filming we used the college cameras (PD170's) and the sound kits that went with them. For our second filming we used the first year sound kit because Jace's Canon doesn't work with the second year sound kit and this is where our problem laid. The first year sound kits are often unreliable and unfortunately for us on the second filming we had constant noise covering the sound of the actors. This was a shame, if this hadn't happened our second filming would have been better because we had fixed the other problems we had in the first filming.

As a group I thought we worked reasonably well when we were all in but it seemed that every week either someone wasn't in or people were late. Because of these kind of circumstances we ended up being rushed to film the second filming which meant we didn't have time to change the sound kit.

Despite all this I feel we learnt our lessons from the first filming and also the second filming. We now know to make sure the environment is right before filming and we will check equipment every-time from now on and make sure we don't use first year sound kits from now on.

Analysis of Second Filming

Unfortunately our second filming didn't go well for many reasons. Our sound quality was terrible and the actors could barely be heard because the microphone we used had a dodgy lead and it was causing a distorted noise that covered the track and the actors. Everything else was okay such as picture quality and this time round we didn't have interruptions such as people walking across the camera and we remembered to white balance.

Despite this the whole thing was ruined because the distorted noise covered all other noise and this filming ended up being even worse than our first set.

Analyzing our Footage - Task 3

a) Noisy indoor footage: (classroom) - People talking, music, people throwing objects, people walking in front of camera, boom mic in shot, presenters screwing up lines, forgot to white balance.

b) Quiet indoor footage: (classroom) - Someone dropping a bag in the b.g, forgot to white balance.

c) Outdoor - People talking, plane overhead could be heard, lighting, forgot to white balance.

How will we fix the problem/ Revised Equipment List


Turn mobiles off beforehand

Remember to White Balance

Accept no interruptions e.g. people walking in and making noise

Make sure there's no background noise, check sound levels

Kick people out of room beforehand

For our second lot of filming we will use the same equipment except we will use a Canon 600d for better quality recording.

What we did today

Today, Rob filmed Max & I doing a sketch, Jase did the sound. We did the same thing three times in different situations. At first we did it inside in a non-busy location then in the same place but with people going about their normal business (talking, walking etc.). Then we did it outside where it wasn't too busy but a couple of people were nearby and towards the end a plane could be heard overhead.

Locations and Equipment List

Our group is Rob, Jace, Max Wilman and I. We are going to film by the plane, in room 877 and the hallway.

We will need a camera, a tripod, a tape and a sound kit. Rob and I will present and Jace and Max will share camera and sound duties.

Planning to Shoot on Location

1. It is important to make a plan before filming on location for several reasons, for example, filming outside presents weather challenges and can presents continuity errors. Audio can be bad, water can get on the camera and if say you was filming in Iraq you would have to be wearing a bulletproof vest and be wary of buildings collapsing and terrorists trying to shoot you or lying in a dusty trench being shot at by a rag-head.

2. If you don't plan, you risk things like getting your equipment wet, ending up with poor audio quality, getting shot and dying or ending up with a moron making a fool of himself in the background. All these things are distracting to the viewer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-nWrfTZeKw - In this video the news presenter gets attacked. This can be a risk depending on what you're filming because people might not like the story and so perhaps it should have been filmed in a safer location.