What you were trying to achieve in terms of critically communicating about extended reality (XR) media and the method in which the editing process was used to attempt this
This time, I began to think about the furthest reaches of what AI/XR could achieve in the future. Initially, I thought of a device that allows you to pick from ‘dialogue options’ that it generates in real time to ensure you are saying what the other person wants to hear, which was based on Azuma’s definition, paraphrased by Hollerer, T and Schmalstieg, D. (2016) that AR requires ‘precise real-time alignment of corresponding virtual and real information’ in this case, dialogue options coming up with a % of which one is likely to be best, however I moved on from this as I thought it wouldn’t be that exciting visually.
I then imagined that with the right computing power, perhaps a method of time-travel in some form could be possible if some corporation managed to create a powerful enough AI, as ‘some of the first actual applications motivating the use of AR were industrial in nature’ (Hollerer and Schmalstieg). I remember reading that Einstein believed that time travel was theoretically possible, but only to the past, and so I imagined the first prototype of a device like this would probably only be able to go back only a very limited amount of time, which was not a concept I had seen before in other time travel films, and so my concept was born. This concept also ties in with what Hollerer and Schmalstieg said about ‘AR turning into a more general interface paradigm’, in this case a device that can send you back one minute earlier.
As with assignment 1, I again went for a lighter more comedic genre, with the main character only using the machine to better his own life, and not for any outright malicious purposes. I wanted the device to follow Jerald’s (2015) thoughts that a VR experience should be ‘a collaboration between human and machine where both software and hardware work harmoniously together to provide intuitive communication with the human’ and although my concept pushes the boundaries of reality, virtual or otherwise, it still applies here. To achieve the time shift effect, I used a combination of green screen in some scenes, and opacity masking as well to achieve the time travel effect. I also used green screen to put the news report on the TV in the final scene as this was far easier to film than actually putting the video on the TV, and also gives a cleaner look, as filming TVs sometimes doesn’t get great results.
How did your preproduction/production/post production process go and what would you do differently/improve next time? Your reflection should also include commentary on what you thought the most and least successful parts of your Film Trailer were, and why so?
During preproduction I also considered a few other shots, such as the character having foresight that someone was about to trip and catching them, catching a glass that initially falls etc, but I just didn’t have enough time with all the other footage. This time I did have a shot list which helped immensely, but the shooting was a bit on the fly for the scene in the ‘office’ which meant I didn’t get the framing or shot I had in mind.
The production phase was relatively efficient, although I was forced to shoot the green screen overlays first, and then the backgrounds, which didn’t really match as the office location was found a bit ‘on the fly’, leading to the abovementioned awkward framing, which I attempted to correct through zoom and motion control in Premiere Pro.
In terms of post-production, to achieve the time-shift effect I utilised green screen and overlaid myself on the background footage that I then reversed and sped up, to give the illusion time was going backwards for everyone except the main character. The second method I used was one where I put an opacity mask around myself, and used other footage of the same shot reversed and sped up, to again give the illusion that everything else was going back except for the main character. This method was far more realistic looking in that the lighting was perfect as I was actually in the scene, unlike the green screen overlay which required a lot of brightness/contrast and colour correction to fit in better, however even this masking method had drawbacks as it was possible to see the leaves behind me not moving fast as they were in the opacity mask. In hindsight I probably could have shot the office reverse sequence with the opacity mask method, but it just didn’t occur to me at the time.
I made extensive use of nested sequences to allow me to apply motion and effects to both the overlays and backgrounds at once, and I also used 3 distinct colour grading adjustment layers. A very cold dreary one for the opening until he finds the device, a much more saturated and warm middle point when he is happy with the device, catching the train, getting the girl etc, and finally another one in a more neutral colour grading, to symbolise the conflict of the news report and girl finding out about the device. I used both LUTs and manual grading.
I initially recorded very sad piano music for the opening scene, which I intended to be ironic, but it just didn’t seem to work, so I replaced it with a dejected descending guitar riff which seemed to fit better. I went with a funky upbeat style for the middle music, to symbolise the happiness and ‘boss’ feeling the character had, and some quintessential rom-com rock music when he gets the girl.
I was happy with how the reversal shots turned out, although I would have liked to reshoot the office background scenes in a better location, with better lighting, as the actual location was far dimmer than the cyclorama where I filmed the green screen overlays. I think the slowing down voice effect really added to the shot, and made it more immersive for the viewer, as they hear what the main character would theoretically hear. I used the Pitch Bender effect in Adobe Audition to achieve this. I did attempt to use optical flow to slow down the footage as well, but I couldn’t get it to look smooth so I just left it normal motion and then froze the image before the fast reverse shot, which didn’t matter once the sound effects were added.
References:
Hollerer, T. Schmalstieg, D., 2016. Augmented Reality: Principles and Practice (Usability) 1st Edition. p.3
Jerald, J., 2015. The VR Book: Human-Centered Design for Virtual Reality p. 10
Blog Post 4: https://www.mediafactory.org.au/jack-purnell/2023/04/06/immersive-sandbox-week-4/
Blog Post 5: https://www.mediafactory.org.au/jack-purnell/2023/04/06/immersive-sandbox-week-5/
Blog Post 6: https://www.mediafactory.org.au/jack-purnell/2023/04/06/immersive-sandbox-week-6/
