Sound Explosion ... learning from the experts!

After completing our Manaiakalani Film Festival movie last term, today we had the opportunity to visit an expert in the field of editing sound!

Ben Sinclair works at Images & Sound in Auckland and we were welcomed into one of the sound studios today while he demonstrated some of the techniques he uses to create a soundtrack of television/movie quality.  

"The soundtrack can influence the mood of the entire movie"

Ben demonstrating some of the sound effects he is able to add

Some of the take away messages from today's session for me were:

• Include an ambient backtrack such as traffic noise to fill 'holes' in your sound
• Film pieces of ambience (eg in the school playground) to use as a backtrack for your movie
• Add sound effects such as footprints, bird noise or rustling of leaves to make your movie appear more authentic
• Capture just the music and effects, removing the voice from your soundtrack to enable voice overs in a different language
• When recording voice, have the microphone above the actor/actress pointing downwards towards their mouth to remove the 'ppppp' effect - use of a filter can also assist with this
• Aim for a 75% voice level in order to balance out your sound so no one speaker sounds much louder than the rest
• Never underestimate the importance of getting good vocal sounds when filming - the better the quality of the original track the more you are able to do with it in the editing phase

We also had the opportunity to experience the sound proof recording room - despite being right next to a motorway with cars rushing by, all you could hear was a slight hum of the air conditioner.

Inside the recording studio

We were also lucky enough to be shown two of the visual editing studios, where colours and effects can be added and manipulated as part of the editing process.  Once again, the importance of capturing raw footage of the best quality was emphasised to enable these editing experts the best chance of making the final cut look the best it can be.

Yes!  That is my movie that Ben is listening too - oh for more editing time!

I'm definitely inspired to explore further following the tips and ideas I picked up today ... I wonder if I can convince Michelle to again let me lose on this terms PENN movie??  Watch this space!

iMovie ... the upgrade!

Over the last school holidays I upgraded my OS to Mavericks and as a result of this, I now have the new iMovie!  I've always been a "learn by doing" person and have definitely found this continues with using iMovie - at the beginning of the year I'd never used it at all, and this week I've finished my 6th movie - this time using the new version!

I actually found having used the previous versions, that the new version was easier to use!  Some of the features that I "knew" existed somewhere, took slightly longer to find in the new version but once I'd located them I was away!

Each term our class needs to produce a movie for PENN (Pt England News) and today is our scheduled turn - check out this terms class movie which explores what Class 20 thinks makes a champion and incorporates some of the exploring we have been doing in class using our QR codes.

With our PENN movie complete and reading for broadcasting, tomorrow is filming day for our Manaiakalani Film Festival movie.  Yesterday we had a "dress rehearsal" with the costumes so I could work out what we still needed.  Thankfully we are nearly sorted and the learners are getting really excited about filming day!  I just hope that we manage to get it all sorted in the one day - I have scripted the movie, and listed out screen shots that we need!  It will just depend on the learners - they always say never work with children or animals - time will tell if that is a wise adage.

Learn ... Create ... Share ... our first PENN video

Huge excitement in Class 20 today with our first class video appearing on PENN (Pt England News Network)!  Our topic was the alphabet, combined with finding our way around Pt England school.  The premise for the movie was developed just over two weeks ago, as we recognised that with swimming last week we'd have minimal time for filming!

I've never used iMovie before and didn't fully understand what it was capable of until I started - and I made some mistakes along the way (but that's when even more learning happened!)  The movie was filmed on the iPad (first lesson - hold the iPad horizontally when recording a video!) and completed in combination with Book Creator so the students have a book to read on their iPads to reinforce their alphabet learning (and remind them of this movie experience).

I tried to scaffold the students really well around movie making and the need to listen to directions, wait for the "action" command, and that sometimes we needed a second take .. or a third take ... or even a fourth, to get it right!

Check out Class 20's video - I'm sure we'll be watching it again in the classroom! Can you pick the scene that they loved filming the most?