CAT109TC is a challenge for me because it is totally new, but the process of learning is also meaningful since I’m interested in it, so I hope that I will master the post-production at the end of this course. For the first week, we learn the introduction of post-production and start to use DaVinci Resolve.The Post-Production process involves a slew of professionals — editors, sound engineers, foley artists, colorists, and more. It takes all the many and varied elements created during film production and transfers image and sound files into computer files to work within an editing workspace. It is highly collaborative, across a few months to even a year, depending on the size and need of the project. From the first class, we know how to import the file into DaVinci Resolve and some simple operations, like adjust the volume of sound, make the picture fade in and out and how to connect the video clips. The following picture is the process of studying DaVinci.

Xinyi Liu, screen shot of DaVinci

Two of my favorite movies

Two of my favorite movies are La La Land and The Great Gatsby. Both of them utilize the strong color and beautiful music to create the magnificent scene to give the audiences’ deep impression. La La Land is a beautiful and romantic love story, but for the main character, dreams are more important than life. In editing, the director wanted to tell the story in "the language of dreams". He uses old-fashioned optical effects techniques -- fade in and out, montage, overlay, cross-cutting -- to show the world as the characters see it in the Cinemascope format. Usually editing is done based on a number of different factors: emotion, story, continuity, structure, etc. However, when the subject is a musical film, not only the above factors should be considered, but also ensure that the camera cuts and music can be smoothly connected, so that the story is smooth, the emotion is natural, and the music is perfectly combined. The director, Damian, would specify which scenes of the film would fall on the downbeat of the music, and later, when the digital model music was replaced by the orchestra, the music had "flexibility", which made the music more percussive. Another goal of the director is to tell the story using only music, without adding dialogue. He used a montage to design several scenes. In La La Land, the montage shows Mia and Sebastian drifting apart, and while they haven't broken up yet, it emphasizes their estrangement by creating conflict and compressing time. The magic of film is most arresting in its montage. La La Land is not only a musical delight for the audience, but also a perfect use of color as following two picture show. In the film, red, yellow, blue and green are used as the main colors, which not only avoids the messy picture sense, but also achieves bold and rich tension. The film uses winter - spring - summer - autumn - winter seasons to divide different chapters, suggesting to some extent the complex psychological changes of the protagonists in different periods. On the other hand, the film uses a lot of pure colors with high purity in color design. The strong visual stimulation brought by pure color can better foil the subject in the frame structure and leave a deeper impression on the audience. Relying on these more bold color collision, create a dreamlike color, but also foil the story direction. With the dancing movements, singing and background music of the actors, the characters become more distinct and three-dimensional, highlighting the protagonist's pursuit and yearning the dream.

Damien Chazelle, La La land(2016)

For The Great Gatsby, it contains many special effects as three following picture shows. The director churned through hundreds of purely blue-screen shots to aid in the story telling as the film was being cut together.He feels that any effort put into effects was always about the story and, given that the ‘Gatsby’ world was essentially synthetic, he was focused on ensuring believability was retained at all levels.The role of CG for ‘The Great Gatsby’ was unusually significant. So much of the world we see in the film was created entirely by CG artists, and so many of the sets, massive themselves, were extended with the aid of CG. Gatsby's ballroom required a full CG ceiling extension to complete and some shots within the mansion were completely CG.The 3D CG software pipeline was based on Maya for modeling, texturing, lighting, animation and effects, plus Mudbox for some of the modeling as well and PFTrack for tracking. Nuke was used for compositing and the rendering was done with mental ray. From the post-production of these two films, it is not difficult to see the importance of music, color and special effects on the picture, and I will pay attention to these points in my future works. 

Baz Luhrmann, The Great Gatsby(2013)

For this week, we learn different camera shots and angles and storyboarding, and I upload the specific notes about them in the picture link. At the beginning, I actually feel confuse that I can't distinguish different shots because they are too many, and I also can't clarify my thoughts of the self-less portrait. Then, through the professional video explanation of shots, I start to master the functions of diverse shots, and try to use them in my storyboard. The different shots have their own function, like Close-up shots are shots with a certain shot scale that show the character's face from a close distance, making the details of the human face and facial expression visible. Contemporary film scholars agree also that when presenting faces and facial expressions, close-ups can effectively communicate the emotional experience of the character and powerfully elicit cognitive and affective responding in viewers (Bálint, 2020). We can see the different shot size clearly from the following picture.

https://www.studiobinder.com.cn

Camera Shot Size Overview

• Extreme wide shot/extreme long shot : This shot is used to show the subject and the entire area of the environment they are in.
• Wide shot/long shot: It’s used to focus on the subject while still showing the scene the subject is in.
• Medium shot: This shot shows the subject from the knees up , and is often referred to as the 3/4 shot.
• Medium close-up shot: The subject fills the frame with this shot, and it is somewhere between a medium close-up and close-up.
• Close up shot: This shot shows emotions and detailed reactions, with the subject filling the entire frame.
• Choker shot: A typical choker shot shows the subject’s face from just above the eyebrows to just below their mouth and is between a close-up and extreme close-up.
• Extreme close-up shot: This shot shows the detail of an object, such as one a character is handling, or person, such as just their eyes or moving lips.
• Full shot: A full shot is similar to a wide shot except that it focuses on the character in the frame, showing them from head to toe.
• Cowboy shot: This is similar to the medium shot except that the character is shown from the hips or waist up.
• Establishing shot: This is a long shot at the beginning of a scene that shows objects, buildings, and other elements of a setting from a distance to establish where the next sequence of events takes place.

Types Of Camera Shot Framing

• Single shot, where the shot only captures one subject.
• Two shot, which has only two characters.
• Three shot, when three characters are in the frame.
• Point-of-view shot (POV), which shows the scene from the point of view of one of the characters, making the audience feel that they are there seeing what the character is seeing.
• Over-the-shoulder shot (OTS), which shows the subject from behind the shoulder of another character.

For my video, I will maybe use POV at the beginning because the first perspective is easier for audience to immerse and pay attention to the plot. POV also can make audience know who is the main character. Then, I maybe use most single shots and a few of two shots to express others' view, and the main character can realize the truth of her trouble.

I also make notes from the video on the learning mall as the following picture shows.

Xinyi Liu, notes of shots video

the analyze of the shots in the film

For the analyze of the shots in the film, I choose Sicario. Dialogue plays show changes in power relations, so I select an early meeting scene as following pictures show. At the beginning, the protagonist sits outside the meeting room waiting for the notice. When she enters the meeting room, the director uses a POV shot of the protagonist. This shot imitates the protagonist entering the meeting room and makes a push mirror. The seat distribution in the shot is also very exquisite. There is an obvious composition separation between the actor on the right and the four actors on the left, which also implies their respective identities. The actor on the right is the leader of the new team that the protagonist is going to attend. The four actors on the left are the leaders that the protagonist contacts every day, and the leaders belong to the protagonist, which can be perfectly reflects in the use of camera. For example, when the protagonist talks with the boss, the shooting angle is always the eye level angle, which gives the audience a feeling that the relationship between the two sides is relatively smooth and equal. However, when the camera comes between the protagonist and the captain, the shooting angles change to high angle and low angle, giving the audience a sense of unequal relationship. In addition, a full shot is also inserted in this segment, where everyone stares at the protagonist, thus forming a ring composition, occupying almost the entire position of the picture and pushing the protagonist to the edge of the camera. From here, it can be seen that the protagonist is in a weak position. Incidentally, in the actual dialogue, the protagonist is also very passive, and the captain asks the protagonist several questions, but she does not know. So the language of the camera and the development of the plot complement each other.

https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1gS4y1d7Fb/?  Denis Villeneuve, Sicario(2015)

mindmap and three act structure

For the self-less portrait, I utilize the mind map to arrange my thoughts and find what I'm really eager to convey. Mind mapping helps us organize and prioritize, and can also be used for collaborative efforts (Grosskopf, 2020). Since we are expected to submit a self-portrait of ourselves, where  we express the essence of ourselves, the first concept come up with my mind is anxiety. Why? Because with the rapid progress and continuous development of society, the growing population competes for limited resources. When people's expectations do not match reality, it is natural to feel anxious. Therefore, I start to think around this topic with four dimensions which are appearance, peer pressure, relationship and study as the following picture shows. 

Xinyi Liu, mindmap and three act structure

The idea of my preliminary film

For my story, I choose appearance as my main theme as shown in the picture above. In today's society, the appearance anxiety is a huge problem, especially for female. I want to discuss this topic to reflect that everyone has their own beauty and need to be confident. So the first step is to realize why appearance anxiety exists.

1. "Flaws" and "Frustrations" in building relationships
Intimate relationship is a close dimension for people to construct community relations, and its quality will directly affect emotion, cognition and behavior. To a large extent, human behavior depends on self-awareness, which is mainly formed through social interaction with others. The evaluation and attitude of others to oneself is a "mirror" reflecting the self, through which individuals understand and grasp themselves. In the process of interacting with close neighbors, the evaluation of their own image is an important factor in forming cognition, and women will regard the "defects" of their own body image as the root cause of interpersonal problems and life failures. In their self-reports, many young women have talked about the disturbance and influence on their normal life caused by the "defects" of their external body image. Not only have they suffered communication difficulties and mental blows in interpersonal communication, but many interviewees even mentioned that they have suffered unfair school violence and language violence due to the "defects" of their body image. "Frustration" experiences in intimate relationships are a significant factor in women's low level of body image self-identity. The individual can fall into self-doubt and anxiety.

2. "Dress up" and "transform" to seek social approval
If intimate relationship is the micro distance dimension of social relationship construction, then social identity is a broader distance dimension of social relationship construction, showing social members' cognition of similarity and difference of social group category to which they belong. In the process of social identity, the reference group used for comparison is of great significance, and the media plays a key role as a reference. The body image promoted by the media has become a template for women to take as reference and yearn for, shape and create, which also makes the vast majority of women feel dissatisfied, confused and anxious about their own appearance.

3. "Spotlight Effect"
It refers to: people tend to over magnify their own weaknesses or strengths, too concerned with the opinions and evaluation of others. For girls, the love of beauty, want to show their best side, is a woman's nature. However, if "beauty" becomes a burden, it can be very tiring. Beauty is first for oneself to see, second is for the outside world to see. Please yourself, is the first choice; Pleasing others is secondary. But a lot of girls don't understand this. They walk down the street expecting and afraid of being stared at. Look forward to is, want someone to praise their makeup, dress, beauty; The fear is that others will judge you and think you don't look good. This is the spotlight effect.

I want audience know that beauty should not be single, nor has it ever been single, but should be diverse and inclusive. The difference in appearance is the reflection of personality, because everyone is unique. We don't have to change ourselves to conform to someone else's aesthetic. We can embrace a better life by accepting ourselves. To love ourselves, to please ourselves, to appreciate ourselves, is something we have to learn throughout our lives. 

Quick operation

Clip: [shift] + []
Add transition: Ctrl + T
Slice: [B]
Copy: [Ctrl] + [C]
Add clip: [Ctrl] + [/]
Adhesive attribute: [Atl] + [V]
Select the segment: shift + V
Close/Start segment: [D]
Variable speed control: [Ctrl] + [R]
Ripple Trim: Ctrl + shift + []
Delete;;【DELETE】
Move up and down one track: Alt + Up + Down
Key frame compilation: [shift] + [Ctrl] + [C]
Ripple Delete: shift + Delete
Fast forward/stop/Fast forward: [J] [K] [L]
Mark the entry point: [I] [O]
Insert material: [F9]
Jump up/next clip point: [Up] [Down]
Jump forward/back one frame [<-] [->]
Jump forward/backward 5 frames [shift] + [<-] + [->]
Find the source of the story in the story monitor: [F]
In the Media browser to find the source: [Alt] + [F] [Ctrl] + [A]
Select all segments backward: [Alt] + [Y]
Forward select all segments: shift + Alt + Y
Timeline Summary: [shift] + [z]
Full screen: [Ctrl] + [F]
Zoom Timeline: [Ctrl] + [+/-]
Lock audio track one, two, three: [Alt] + [shift] + [F1/F2/F3]
Lock video track 1, 2, 3: [Alt] + [shift] + [123]

Basic knowledge of Davinqi

1. What is the framerate?Framerate, also known as FPS (frames per second), is a term used to describe the number of “frames” (individual images) that a film, video or game displays on screen in the space of a single second.

2. What are bins in an editing software?A Bin is a software folder into which video clips and other editing assets get organized in. You’ll have many bins per project and we’ll talk about workflow and naming these bins next week.

3. What to take care of when naming a file?

• Files should be named consistently
• File names should be short but descriptive
• Avoid special characters or spaces in a file name
• Use capitals and underscores instead of periods or spaces or slashes

4. What is a B-roll in film?

B-roll in film is the supplemental or alternative footage that is intercut with the main footage, or A-roll, to enhance the story, create tension, or illustrate a point.

The main elements of the Resolve interface such as: the source monitor, the timeline monitor, the timeline, the inspector, the metadata.

Xinyi Liu, notes

The storyboard and the initial script

A storyboard consists of illustrations or images presented in a sequence that helps film directors and cinematographers visualize scenes and predict whether or not they can convey the intended information and emotion of the film to the audience.They are also used to detect potential creative or production problems before they occur, to save producers' time, and to estimate the overall cost of the production. Storyboards are not only used in film but also in the theatre, novels, comic books, animations, photometric, business and architectural studios, interactive media, software and scientific studies(Angelone, 2021).Black arrows indicate movement of characters, and thick white arrows indicate movement of cameras.

Moreover, It is also the first time I write my own script, so you can see that there are lots of versions of my script, and that's also the reason why my final film may not completely same with recordings in Connect because I always make some changes or adjustments.

The analyze of two films in the class

For today's class, we watch two films in relation to colors, which are Chromophobia by Raul Servais (1966) and Biofinity (advertisement for contact lenses) by Em Cooper. Mentioned to color, it has three properties: hue value and saturation, amd itis significant to the film. The arrival of color in cinema gives it a new and very relevant power. The psychological and affective signifiers of the most varied colors, if properly applied, can give the cinematographic work an extraordinary narrative involvement that provokes a strong affective and dramatic impact on the spectator. Even color can go beyond aesthetics and assuming a prominent position in the field of narrative (Neves, 2022).

For the Chromophobia by Raul Servais (1966), it conveys that the cruel and evil army occupies the city, so the colorful life and character of the citizens begin to be destroyed, and everyone becomes to the same and no personality. The city also turns into a black city of death that everywhere is prison and everyone is enslaved. People are imprisoned and forced to work, and most of the people who can't stand it choose to commit suicide. The innocent little girl plants a red flower, so the city has a little color. When the citizens are attracted, at the same time, it causes the black army in all aspects of the alert. The red flower turns into the red man. He defeats several black soldiers by surprise, but a man cannot fight an army, and finally he fell down. Although he falls, but his spirit is still infecting more people, more and more red people become his comrade-in-arms, the world finally changes back to color. There is a very interesting middle, a black man's face becomes red, after looking in the mirror to cover his face to commit suicide. It may be represents the black man's regret as the following picture shows.

Raul Servais，Chromophobia(1996)

Life is good, but it is clouded by war. The destruction of the environment and human life in the war, both material and spiritual, makes it lost its original color and become gray. In the film, red means resistance, anger, and flowers represent hope, future, beauty. Some in the army are swayed by humanity. However, the government is merciless. This is the color of tragedy, the color of war as the following picture shows.

Raul Servais，Chromophobia

For the Biofinity (advertisement for contact lenses) by Em Cooper, the main color is blue and yellow and the texture is very much like oil painting as the following picture shows, so it gives people a dreaming feeling and make them feel comfortable. Since it is the advertisement for contact lenses, it is necessary for seller to create a feeling of comfortable and clear. Therefore, the sense of this video is soft, just like the depictions of those pictures which are

Standing in the desert night picking out the rings of Saturn from a canopy of a thousand stars

Drifting down the Nile stretched out on a silk pillow fanned by the breeze of a thousand hummingbirds

Cradled by a sun- warmed cloud floating over a crescent beach at the edge of a turquoise sea

Floating in a crystal lagoon counting the scales of an angelfish gliding a hundred feet away

These depictions are perfectly match with the beautiful frames.

Em Cooper, the Biofinity (advertisement for contact lenses)（2015）

Compared with two films, they are totally different. For the first one, the color has the representative meaning, and they use the contrast color such as white and black or red and black. In this video, color has the important role to convey the concept. Although the first video isn't like the second one has the sense of beauty or the ornamental value, it has more deeper meaning and much more contrasting. For the second one, it pays more attention to the balance and beauty of the color because this is an advertisement. The seller uses color to convey the feeling to attract more customers. 

The color of my film and moodboard

For my short film, I also want to make the contrast, so there are two main colors: blue and red. Since the protagonist is unconfident and face some problems at the beginning, the feeling should be depressive. As a cool color, blue can sometimes seem icy, distant, or even cold. Blue can also create feelings of sadness or aloofness. Consider how a painting that heavily features blue, such as those produced by Picasso during his "blue period," can seem lonely, sad, or forlorn. For the details of blue, I'm eager for dull, unsaturated and dark blue because it can show more the sense of stifling or heavy, and there is also the contrast to the subsequent red which is vibrant, saturated and light. Red is one of the fascinating colors that uncover various symbolisms, meanings, and associations. It is usually linked with our strong emotions, such as love, desire, and anger. From red hair to the red carpet in events, it is a color that’s regarded as a head-turner due to its warm, bright hues. Therefore, the red color is consistent with the later development of the plot which is the protagonist knows how to become confident and realize that what she wants to be is her own choice and the others' views are not so important that can decide her life. Overall, I make two following mood boards to convey my concept. Simply put, a mood board is where it all starts and the only way to come up with the essence we’re looking to achieve. Mood boards are like funnels that channel our creativity, going from general to specific (Motor Equipment News, 2020).

Xinyi Liu Moodboard

Some researches about the color

I also search two classical films related the use of blue and red. Blue, the first work in the Three Colors series by the Polish director, conveys the theme of freedom. The bleak color of blue is used to create an overall melancholy tone for the whole work. Through blue, the haunting memory of her husband and daughter is created in Julie's heart. For example, the lollipop, glass pendant and swimming pool of her daughter are all blue as the following picture shows. When blue appears in the picture, it represents the memory of lost loved ones surging in Julie's heart. The area occupied by blue in the film decreases with the progress of the plot, which represents her gradually accepting a new life and getting rid of her spiritual captivity.

Trois couleurs, Blue(1993)

Red appears in the picture of the film for many times, including red cars, red tablecloths, red notebooks, as well as the large gum advertisement with red as the base of the heroine Valentine. The heroine is enthusiastic, kind and beautiful, just as the red touches us who watch the movie. As a narrative theme clue, the red appears very dense, as if the desire for communication between people. Red also represents the heroine Valentine's passion for life, work and love. Toward the end of the movie, a huge picture of the ad with a beautiful girl wearing red and blowing a bubble gun is so impressive. Everything is red in that photo except the girl's dark hair and her rather sad big eyes. It is shot in Geneva. It is dark and dreary. And it is windy. Eventually, the ad was blew away by strong wind when a young guy drove passed it and he saw this ad. He smiled. He must be touched somehow by a huge red image falling down. The strong reddish hue is so contrasting the grayish everything else. And witnessing the strong wind toppling it down which make the girl's face winkled and crooked and eventually disappeared is very dramatic This is a pure visual communication but somehow evoking quite a strong emotions and even memory.

Trois couleurs, Red(1994)

Moreover, we modify colors of some materials, the color modify is interesting that it can make the plot more beautiful. In some ways, the color can show the emotion and convey the information like the mood board shows. 

Video editing is the process of manipulating and rearranging video shots to create a new work. Editing is usually considered to be one part of the post production process — other post-production tasks include titling, color correction, sound mixing, etc.

Soviet Montage Theory is an influential film movement developed in the Soviet Union in the early twentieth century that focuses on the editing techniques of a film over content alone. The primary premise is that different sequences edited together in juxtaposition can express a new and separate complex idea. The Soviet Montage ideology is the primary contribution of Soviet film theorists to film history.

    5 Types of Soviet Montage

• Intellectual montage: Intellectual montage is when you edit two shots together to connect them to an intellectual concept. A good example is Sergei Eisenstein’s film Strike (1925), where he edits between the slaughtering of a bull and the massacre of striking workers.

Sergei Eisenstein, Strike(1925)

• Metric montage: Metric montage creates visual pacing within a scene by cutting to the next shot after a specific number of frames, no matter the content. According to Eisenstein, a musical score’s pacing (or meter) influences metric montage. You can use metric montage to ratchet up the tension in your scenes.
•  Overtonal montage: Overtonal montage, also called associational montage, is when you use the other four types (intellectual,metric, rhythmic, and tonal) to create an even more complex and abstract effect on the audience. If you prefer mood or poeticism over logic and story, use overtonal montage.
• Rhythmic montage: Rhythmic montage, also known as continuity editing, preserves the continuity of a scene. The content of the frame is the leading element. An oft-cited example of rhythmic montage is the Odessa Steps sequence in Battleship Potemkin (1925), closely imitated in a similar stair sequence in The Untouchables (1987).

Sergei Eisenstein, Battleship Potemkin(1926)

• Tonal montage: Tonal montage is when you edit together two shots with a similar thematic element or emotional tone. The elements you use could be visual or auditory. For example, in The Revenant (2015), a character’s steamy breath cuts to a foggy sky and then to smoke from a pipe. 
• 

Revenant (2015), El Negro

• The short film playing in the class explains different types of video cuts. I take a note of the names of the six cuts I hear and of their meaning as the following picture shows.

Xinyi Liu, notes

some basic terminologies about sound

Moreover, for today's class, we learn some basic terminologies about sound.

• Acoustics is defined as the science that deals with the production, control, transmission, reception, and effects of sound. Beginning with its origins in the study of mechanical vibrations and the radiation of these vibrations through mechanical waves, acoustics has had important applications in almost every area of life.
• Tempo is how fast or slow a piece of music is performed, while rhythm is the placement of sounds in time, in a regular and repeated pattern. Tempo generally is measured as the number of beats per minute, where the beat is the basic measure of time in music. Rhythm can be thought of as the pattern of music in time.
• A sound wave is the pattern of disturbance caused by the movement of engergy traveling through a medium (such as air, water or any other liquid or solid matter) as it propagates away from the source of the sound. Sound waves are created by object vibrations and produce pressure waves, for example, a ringing cellphone. The pressure wave disturbs the particles in the surrounding medium, and those particles disturb others next to them, and so on. 
• Frequency is the number of occurrences of a repeating event per unit of time. It is also occasionally referred to as temporal frequency for clarity, and is distinct from angular frequency.  Frequency is measured in hertz (Hz) which is equal to one event per second.   
• Timbre is a quality of a musical sound which is used for differentiating two sounds when they are in the same frequency. Every sound that we hear is dependent on its source. Sound timbre is defined by the characteristic sound waveform, which is dependent on the material through which it is produced.
• Bit depth, also known as color depth, can refer to two different instances.  It either gives information about the number of bits used to make out the color of one single pixel itself, or its color component. This information is used in bitmapped image and video files alike.
• Localization is the process of adapting a product, service, advertising or any other content to a specific market. It is often confused with translation, but it actually goes way beyond. Localization requires you to convert text from one language to another, but also to adapt to all the different factors that define a certain group of people: time zones, national holidays, gender roles, product beliefs and cultural references.

Some examples for sound

Diegetic sound refers to sound that originates from within the video or film’s world. It can come either from on-screen or off-screen but it always happens at the same time that the action takes place. Because this diegetic sound occurs in real-time, it’s sometimes called “actual sound” and can include characters’ voices, music coming from instruments, or sounds made by objects in the story space. The primary role of diegetic sound is to help establish and create the world around the characters.For example, sounds we can hear off-screen can inform setting, and they can expand the world beyond what we see in the frame.  When we hear something but can't see it, that's when real suspense can be made. But breaking these rules can make for exciting cinema like this shocking moment from" The Last Jedi" When we expect a massive overload of sound, but instead silence.

Richard Marquand, STAR WARS VIII(2017)

Diegetic sound can be manipulated to let us hear what they hear or when the character's mental state is compromised, sound can communicate this just as well as imagery.

Non-diegetic refers to the sound that’s added in post-production, such as a narrator’s summary, musical scores, and custom sound effects. Editors employ non-diegetic sounds for a variety of uses — from making small tweaks to creating comedic touches.Non-diegetic sound effects can enhance motion and movement. Listen to how sound effects are added to increase the intensity.

Lilly Wachowski, The Matrix(1999)

The most consistently used non-diegetic sound is the score. It might seem counterintuitive to make a functional world for us to lose ourselves in only then to apply such an invasive element as music on top of it. Non-diegetic music plays a massive role in the film experience. Without it, "Interstellar" would be less transcendent. "Up' wouldn't be as heartbreaking.

Christopher Nolan, Interstellar (2014                                                 Peter Doggett, up(2009)

To sum up, sound is an indispensable part of the film, which greatly affects the quality of the film. In my film, I will adopt both diegetic sound and non-diegetic sound. At the same time, in order to make the narration of the characters from the first perspective more impressive, I will adopt pure music to assist, and collect the sound of the scene to restore the scene.

Typography

Typography is the appearance of text. It’s one of the most important features of every composition, both in the digital and physical worlds. The type choice can make or break every design. It helps to set the mood and emotion of any text and has a huge impact on how the reader perceives it. The art of arranging written letters into visually appealing, legible text is called typography.

Size

Not all typefaces are created equal. Some are fat and wide; others thin and narrow. This means that words set in different typefaces can take up a very different amount of space on the page.The height of each character is known as its 'x-height' (quite simply because it's based on the 'x' character). When pairing different typefaces, it's usually wise to pair those that share a similar x-height. The width of each character is known as the 'set width'. This spans the body of the letter, plus the space that acts as a buffer between one letterform and the next.

Font

A font was the collection of blocks—capital letters, lowercase letters, punctuation marks, etc. in a given size. The font was the literal mechanism of printing a letter or what you have to own to imprint letters. This is still the case today. In modern terms, a font is a computer file. A font is not the shape of the letters you see on the screen. Technically, Helvetica and Times New Roman are not fonts. The file you install on your computer to use Helvetica, typically a .TTF or .OTF format, is the real font.

Leading

We call the distance between two lines of text leading (rhymed with heading) or line spacing. It’s an important factor that makes your text more legible. If your lines are too close to each other, then it will be difficult for people to read them, which you absolutely don’t want. And yet, with too much space between your lines, it’ll also be a struggle. So, keep the balance, and if at times you don’t know what line spacing to use, the default one is pretty fine. 

https://cn.bing.com/search?q=typography&filters=ufn%3a%22Typography%22+sid%3a%229c9b4dbc-8892-9887-1f59-16f6f8352cff%22&asbe=AS&qs=MB&pq=typo&sk=AS1&sc=10-4&cvid=73DEC1EDF7A246309DA4E6BF1B4D1F0E&FORM=QBLH&sp=2&lq=0

Tracking

The space we see between the characters of the text is called tracking or letter spacing. When working with most software and online tools, you can usually apply both positive (making more space between characters) and negative tracking (making words appear tight). Make sure you don’t apply more tracking than needed, so your composition looks artistic and yet professional.

https://cn.bing.com/search?q=typography&filters=ufn%3a%22Typography%22+sid%3a%229c9b4dbc-8892-9887-1f59-16f6f8352cff%22&asbe=AS&qs=MB&pq=typo&sk=AS1&sc=10-4&cvid=73DEC1EDF7A246309DA4E6BF1B4D1F0E&FORM=QBLH&sp=2&lq=0

Kerning 

While tracking is the spacing between text characters, kerning modifies the spacing between individual letters. It’s usually applied to single words like logos, rather than large text. If you apply tracking to a word and still notice a gap between the letters A and W, then you’ll have to use the kerning tool to make it right. Or, if you’ve come up with a one-word logo for your brand you can use kerning to make the letters more noticeable by distancing them from each other slightly. 

https://cn.bing.com/search?q=typography&filters=ufn%3a%22Typography%22+sid%3a%229c9b4dbc-8892-9887-1f59-16f6f8352cff%22&asbe=AS&qs=MB&pq=typo&sk=AS1&sc=10-4&cvid=73DEC1EDF7A246309DA4E6BF1B4D1F0E&FORM=QBLH&sp=2&lq=0

Hierarchy 

Hierarchy helps the reader’s eye to concentrate on the most important part of the text. It allows them to navigate easily, know where to start and where to go next according to the hierarchy of your text. To establish a clear hierarchy, first, decide which elements you need the reader to notice and make them stand out. You can do it with a bolder style, varying fonts, colors, or a bigger size of the text. 

https://cn.bing.com/search?q=typography&filters=ufn%3a%22Typography%22+sid%3a%229c9b4dbc-8892-9887-1f59-16f6f8352cff%22&asbe=AS&qs=MB&pq=typo&sk=AS1&sc=10-4&cvid=73DEC1EDF7A246309DA4E6BF1B4D1F0E&FORM=QBLH&sp=2&lq=0

the analyze of the first draft

There are three stories in the first draft, and all of them use the others' perspective. The first one is the beautiful girl can't wear dress because others' accuses. The second one is the boy can't makeup because most boys don't makeup. The third one is the boy can't buy toys because others think boy don't need cute things. For the first draft, I want to express myself through others' perspectives. Use different stories to show one concept, so it contains the diversity and different stages of people.

reflection of first draft

For the suggestions from professors, I realize that my film doesn't completely fit the theme which is the self-portrait. I agree with them because the theme is around self portrait. Compare to others' stories, using the first perspective is better. In the first draft, I convey my idea through others' views because I can't show my face in the film, so the film is lack of my perspective. Even the first draft can convey my main concept, what is more important is the theme. Therefore, I plan to add the first perspective at the beginning and the end, and I also become the participator in this meeting through the first perspective to narrate my story. There are originally three stories in the first draft. To increase my perspective, I change the first story of that beautiful girl to my own story, and the host is also deleted since his part isn't so crucial and the time of the first draft is so long. Therefore, I also become the participator to attend that meeting to find myself. At the end, I know that everyone has their troubles through others' sharing. I realize that we can choose what we want to be and don't be influenced by others. For the sound, I also receive some suggestions that the background music is too loud and noisy, so I decide to remove it.  In the future, I want to try more diegetic sounds and non-diegetic sounds because I only use diegetic sounds and offscreen voice in this film

reflection of final draft

As you can see, there are some changes between the first draft and final draft. I create my own story with the first perspective and delete one story of others. For the beginning and end, I delete the part of the host and add my part. I accept teachers' suggestions that add more my perspective and remove the background sound. For my part, I use POV to convey my story which appears in the three act structure. The conflict plot is that two boys' stories which make me understand everyone has their own trouble, and we should insist our opinions that others' views are not so important to decide who you are. You have the right to choose who you want to be and like to do. A pluralistic society is pluralistic because of its numerous distinct selves. We can't expect everyone to be satisfied. Those who really like you will naturally understand you. It's not wrong to be yourself, and it's not wrong to have the courage to pursue yourself. What is wrong is that the majority who want to change others.

For my video, it is clear to see the color change. At the beginning, the main color is blue. In the end, the main color is pink and red. The color is vital in my film because it represents the change of character's mood like what I mention before.  Compare to others' film, my film adds others' perspectives to strengthen protagonist's idea to make her grow up and understand what she really need. As people grow up, they always absorb experience on others like two boys in the film. Although my film is successful in the story plot, my film also has some flaws. Firstly, although I accept teachers' suggestions which add more self portrait and optimize sound, the others' perspectives may too much and the use of the sound isn't so good because I want to focus on the convey of story, so I delete the background sound. For the next film, I want to utilize more sound and color, and I tend to try more shots and post production. I will make more effort on post production.

Xinyi Liu, final film