Haydn Spencer Collaboration Project

Personal Progression Reel

Here is the visual development of the key parts of my project. Overall, I feel like I have had a big input into the project, through the animated sequences I pitched, the props I made, the sounds I mixed in place and other logos and signages. In addition to this, I attended all production meetings on Friday and took all of the notes that are part of the submittables.

While I don’t get a specific header such as producer or director in the credits, and share most of the roles I am credited for, I feel as if I have been a valuable member of the team.

CREDITS VISUALS

SOUND MIX

I was given the sequence to do some soundmixing on. A lot of these are up to being changed in the final edit, I’m not a

CHANGES MADE

- INTRO AUDIO: One of our original ideas, and one that was frequently discussed, was to open our animation with the sound of coins being inserted into a television set and then have the animation turn on, as if the viewer is buying the adverts from CTRLX. This is reflected in the mix of coin slot noises and VCR inserting sounds

- Tweaks to the CTRLX audiobrand with an echo to make it more ethereal

- Static sounds between each advert

- SUE 4 U: dramatic music for the courtroom scene. In law firm adverts, they tend to cut the drama or incident with sad/dramatic music. This I am open to cutting, but I feel like it needs more sounds

- GEL: gel sound effects

- BUYNOW: sound effect for the text passing by because I felt the atmosphere was otherwise dead. I used a fast passing train sound and a deflating balloon sound just to add a bit more kick to it and lowered the sound in the mix so that it wasn’t so obvious or in your face

- Distorted audiobrand

- REPLICATOR: humming sound and ding sound to reflect its microwave like nature

- Added the concussive ORB sound effect in

- Descending power down beep on WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE MORE

- Lowered the overall volume level of the exiting of the digital world so that there wasn’t as much clipping anymore

- Remote clicking sound effect

Most of these things are open to being tweaked, cut or changed depending on the final comp. Things I am unwilling to shift on are the transition static noises, the exiting the digital world sound, and the use of the CTRLX anthem/jingle/audiobrand. I am quite attached to the jingle after all the work put into it, and it was suggested that we replace it with something closer to the original piano placeholder.

Quite frankly, I don’t like this one. Mainly because I was given the task to create the sound for the anthems and the like, and I resent the fact it was changed without my knowing. And secondly, and probably most importantly, this sounds super melancholic. I don’t know what effect was given to it, but it makes it sound washed out and sad. The melody of it also goes down, rather than upwards.

Now, it has always been to my understanding that CTRLX was meant to be a digital threat, that could be on me, but I feel the stylophone suits this more. It also means we can get some more use out of the stuff we got out of the recording session we had so it wasn’t just a session where we didn’t do anything.

CURRENT SEQUENCE

ORB Reoccuring

7th May -  13th May

• Research Sources

BNL Jingle - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6b5mZ2IaXo4

Commuter Glitch - https://vimeo.com/138967681

SEGA jingle - https://youtu.be/Fr6ZxH2ySm0

Cartoon Network Jingle - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2g7JeIh0Gk

Direct Line audiobrand - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qh324Kb_r3g

Article on the SEGA jingle - http://www.sega-16.com/2006/08/marketing-the-genesis-segas-advertising-1989-1996/

Tutorial in imitating the SEGA jingle - https://chipmusic.org/forums/topic/3969/sega-genesis-voice/

Music and sound effect research and sourcing - https://hspencer-collaboration.tumblr.com/post/173794981258/music-research

Visual research into news studios of the 80s and 90s

• Strengths

I feel that this week has been the strongest of the project. Between the finished renderings of the sequences, the collaborative nature of the project has been in the forefront for my side of the production, as I have helped take Joe’s sequences and develop their sets, animations, and look with new logos, iconography and other elements. I have also enjoyed working on the sound this week. While I am not especially musical, I have found reforging the stylophone recordings I played into a jingle to be a fun, trial-and-error, feeling out the vibe experiment.

• Development

I have sent my sequences to the render farm to be rendered and got them back very quickly in very good quality. I have also helped my teammates by helping fill in gaps in the sequence of things that weren’t created or developed from the previous week, such as the news studio scene, the ending sequence and some additional props and logos.

I also worked on the sound for the project, such as creating a jingle for our corporation, researching into music that we could potentially use should the need arise.

• Area for Development

GEL - Development

With gel effects by Joe

Developed the sequence from feedback to improve pacing

Replaced the vocals to be in line with the rest of the Natural Reader voices we’ve used

DATE

11th May

IN ATTENDANCE

Josh, Joe, Haydn

ITEMS TO DISCUSS

Progression

FEEDBACK

Need staticy sound between adverts to make the transitions clearer

CUREITALL

-Twist from the waist, further exaggerations and asymmetry

-Pause and then throw the bottle, more work on the timings

SUE4U

-Boy is a bit floaty before falling

-More pauses needed before we’ll sue for you

-Hold ending longer

-Stronger layout/design

GEL

-Better pouring, see it pouring before it lands (the gel in the glass apparently looks like a fountain)

INTERESTRATES

-Last shot needs work, better punchline? Get rid of box on the street set, maybe make it obvious that he has lost his house

-Pan out to him in the dirt spot where his house once was

ART

-Music change to avoid awkward legal grey area

LEGS

-Remove zoom out frame and just go in on the crotch

-Runway walk change?

CEREAL

-More pauses and holds

ORB

-Make it so that the R of the logo isn’t lost

SEE MORE

-No glitching straight away

-Potentially cut it down to five frames to keep momentum

Make ending funnier

ACTIONS

Include an animatic/rough version of the ending for submission.

Possible music choices to replace the end theme which we can’t use

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https://steviasphere.bandcamp.com/

Creative Commons Licensed music free to use so long as you credit and link to his work

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https://midwestcollective.bandcamp.com/album/odyssey

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https://robotswithrayguns.bandcamp.com/album/wild-style

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SOUND EFFECT SOURCING

Whip sound needs replacing for GEL

https://freesound.org/people/deleted_user_6479820/sounds/394099/

https://freesound.org/people/peterbullmusic/sounds/351267/

CEREAL SOUNDS

CTRLX Anthem 2

ORB RENDER 2

Rendered in VRAY

ORB RENDER 1

Rendered through VRAY

LEGS RENDER

Rendered through VRAY

CEREAL RENDER

Rendered through VRAY

RENDER COMPARISONS VIA VRAY

These are good. Delicious. Wonderful.

As you can see from the comparison, the denoiser has done wonders on the sequence. It’s almost a shame we’re going to have to composite static onto it again, but these denoised versions will make some nice sequences for showreels or glamour shots et al. 

LOGO DEVELOPMENT - Collaborative

Filling in some of the gaps within the sequence by creating logos and iconography for the things that don’t have them already.

I wanted the Food Replicator to include arrows as they proceed and process. I made the main colour of the logo green, suggesting natural ingredients, but it is too bright a shade of green to be considered natural. Green also contrasts against red, which is the colour of the chicken in the replicator advert. I also experimented with adding additional yellow stripes to add to the unnatural colour of the green and I prefer the yellow lines as they keep with the 80s gradient lines.