The presentation form of our group final project will be a separate video, so we hope to use single page for the idea of ​​website production. In this page, final video, title, subtitle and video introduction will be placed. The title of “Chrono Cross” is set by the overall feeling of final video. We want to create a feeling of parallel space and time for the audience. Some stories are being staged in different corners of the world simultaneously, but they have certain connections or similarities, which is exactly what the subtitle “encounters in parallel time and space—distant similarities” wants to express. In addition to these contents, we will also place a picture library (all screenshots from the video), which are used to display some characteristic screens and scene to make the content of the webpage richer, thereby increasing the fun. We hope that the audience who come to watch our page can see all the presented content at a glance, avoid the cumbersome operation of jumping the page, and ensure that all details on the page can be followed. We feel that the placement of titles and subtitles first reveals the theme of the video, and secondly, it can fully arouse the curiosity of the audience, thereby prompting them to watch the video with doubt and curiosity and feel the scene displayed in the video. If you still have some questions after watching the video, you can use introduction to further understand the theme. In Wednesday’s class, we have shared the intro of our video to Charlotte’s group, although it was only a rough cut, Charlotte and her group members said that they were quickly substituted into the emotions of the video, which was very interesting and magical. In addition, they also give us some suggestions about the symmetry of the scene, which we will apply to the later editing.

The cameraman determines the field of view and scene that the audience can see by adjusting the angle of the lens. For the sound, its lightness, distance and even the use of left and right channels can substitute the audience into different emotions and produce a sense of image in the mind. Our group chose to shoot in the supermarket and take the items from the shelves. Because changing the camera angle can change the perspective, we took wide shot, mid-shot, close-up, and extreme close-up shots respectively. We found that using close up and extreme close-up can highlight the movement of hands touching objects, let the audience focus on the action and perspective. The use of wide shot and mid-shot is more suitable for exposing the environment and telling the audience where they are. For the sound, it is a good aid for video images, allowing viewers to feel a specific location. Using the sound clips taken by our group as an example, when we record the sound of a hand holding an object at close range, we can probably guess the action in progress even if we cannot see the screen, and the sound recorded nearby is relatively single, which is easier focus on it. The sound recorded from the distance of a mid-shot is rich in content, giving people a feeling of being open and wide. Although it is not easy to notice only one specific sound, it can receive a variety of information. So if I want to show the sound of a specific action, I have to record at close range (nearby) to avoid the noise in the surrounding environment. As same as recording video, using the length of the lens to place what you want the audience to see. If it is a display for environment, it is necessary to record the audio from the distance of a mid-shot and with a wide shot to record the video. Using different distance to record the sound makes me feel very novel. The recording of the same sound at different positions will change a lot, with your eyes closed and you may even feel that the scene is constantly changing. Both video and audio clips require multiple attempts to get close to the effect I expected. These findings are very helpful for the completion of our final project. We will try to use different shooting angles to shoot video footages. For the recording of sound effects, the distance will also be adjusted to enrich the material and strive for the best results. At the consultation meeting on Wednesday, we consulted on the stagnant group issues and work. After the consultation, the disagreement among the team members was resolved. We reassigned the part to be completed. As of today (Sunday), most of the footages have been filmed and the editing work is ready to start.

IMG_5966

In my words, texture exists in any object, equivalent to their unique “identification code”. In other words, it can be a sign of the object. Without contrast, I never seem to notice what is texture. After watched the media work shown in class “Why is texture so important in filmmaking?” (Aidin, 2017), I have firstly felt the comparison of texture to no texture in a shot. What surprised me most is the shot with no texture is just several shapes, geometric shapes, the whole scene is without beauty. This proves the importance of texture, it can create the mood and tone of the image in the video. In the video, light, color can be edited, but texture cannot. Even, texture can be used as the reveal of location. It makes the image in the video full of unique vitality. In the audio, what texture evokes are different from its in the video. When you describe an object, the texture will appear in my mind. Even if you have not seen or touched that object, you can generate imagination through description. But in the audio, the change and diversity of texture is unimaginable. Even if you see the picture, you can’t believe the texture of the sound of that object. In “Inner Out-Excerpts” (Nicola, 2015), I deeply realized this. The ice cubes that appeared in front of them could make these sounds by rubbing and knocking. The texture in the audio does not match the image, but it has a magical charm that attracts me to explore. After watching our groups’ exercise, the other group found the interests from the audio part. The sound effect let them to guess the location and where it from. In the assignment 4, we try to use texture to show the unique of different leaves, trees and buildings between China and Australia. I really like a quote from the reading, “I’ve come to hear sound as a movement that gives us each other, as both gift and threat, as generosity and agitation, as laughter and tears, marking listening as a highly provocative and relational sense.”(LaBelle, 2010). It inspired me and made me find that sound and movement are intimately related. Not only that, we can also feel different emotion expressions through sound. This gives me a lot Inspiration, let me show the relationship between sound, movement and space in final audio, I will also explore this idea deeply in the future media work. At the moment, we are still shooting footage continuously, the next step will start to discuss and plan to collect sound effects.

LaBelle, Brandon. (2010) ‘Introduction: Your Sound is My Sound is Your Sound’. Acoustic Territories : Sound Culture and Everyday Life, Bloomsbury Academic & Professional, New York: xv-xxvi

Affected by the COVID-19, two members of our group are in China. Since the problem of network signal interruption persists, we chose to use voice chat in the Wechat group instead of collaborate ultra for group meetings. Since this is a group assignment, it is quite essential to learn to listen to the opinions of other members. All ideas and opinions also need to get the consent of other group members before further operation. The most test of teamwork is the ability of communication and collaboration among team members. Good and smooth communication is the first step to complete the work. And I think it is very important to actively participate in group discussions, and absenteeism is not allowed, which is also a disrespect performance for the other group members. The feedback from three lecturers gave us a lot of suggestions and inspirations for improvement. We will continue to discuss in depth how media editing technology can change the effect of video effects on the audience’s senses. Changing the color tone, saturation and using sound effects are the main means we will use to change the video effects. But we will unify the color tone of the final video according to the suggestions given by the lecturers. This will make the image more comfortable and the audience will see it at a glance. I think this advice is very helpful to us, so we decided to just adjust the color tone of the left and right sub-screens to produce color contrast, so that the audience can clearly feel the contrasting scenery of the two locations, and it will not cause confusion because of the continuous change of the color of the scene. In the new week, we will start shooting footage officially. We will focus on changing the shooting angle to ensure that we can collect more interesting footages.