VSP - Lectures & Exercises
27th September 2024 (Week 1) - 18th October 2024 (Week 4)
Insha Thahirah Rajab - 0360671
Video and Sound Production - Section 04
Bachelor's Degree in Creative Media (Honors) - Taylors University
Exercises
CONTENTS
Exercise 6
Exercise 7
Exercise 8
Exercise 9
LECTURES
Week 1: Briefing
Week 2: Framing & StoryBoard
Framing
Shot Size
Shot size: how much of the subject or scene is visible within the frame of a camera shot. It’s a key element in filmmaking and photography used to convey different emotions, relationships, or the context of the subject. Here are common shot sizes:
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Extreme Close-Up (ECU):
- Focuses on a very small detail, such as a person's eye or a specific object.
- Used to show extreme detail or emotion.
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Close-Up (CU):
- Shows a subject’s face or a small object, filling the frame.
- Used to capture emotions or reactions.
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Medium Close-Up (MCU):
- Frames the subject from the chest up.
- Often used for dialogue scenes to show both facial expressions and some body language.
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Medium Shot (MS):
- Frames the subject from the waist up.
- Balances the subject with the surroundings, commonly used for general interaction between characters.
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Medium Long Shot (MLS):
- Frames the subject from the knees up.
- It gives more context to the environment while still focusing on the subject.
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Long Shot (LS):
- Frames the entire subject (such as a person) within the frame.
- Shows the subject in relation to the surroundings, often used for action or context.
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Extreme Long Shot (ELS):
- The subject is very small or far away, showing a vast amount of the surroundings.
- Often used for establishing shots or to show grand landscapes.
Each shot size serves a different narrative purpose, from intimate emotional detail (close-ups) to conveying broader context or action (long shots).
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Figure 1.0 Shot Size Cheatsheat |
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Over The Shoulder Shot (OTS): a camera angle used in
filmmaking and photography where the camera is positioned behind one
character, typically showing their shoulder and part of their head in the
foreground, while focusing on what (or who) they are looking at in the
background.
Key Characteristics:
- Framing: The shot includes the back of one character's head and shoulder, and the other character (or object of focus) is in front of them.
- Purpose: It’s often used in dialogue scenes to give the audience the perspective of one character looking at the other, helping to establish relationships or create intimacy.
- Effect: It draws the viewer into the conversation by aligning the audience's viewpoint with that of one character.
Depth of Field
- Only a small part of the image is in focus, while the rest is blurred.
- Used to isolate a subject from its background and make it stand out, common in portraits or macro photography.
- Achieved by using a larger aperture (small f-number, like f/1.8, f/2.8).
- A large portion of the image, from the foreground to the background, remains in focus.
- Useful for landscape photography where you want everything to appear sharp and clear.
- Achieved by using a smaller aperture (large f-number, like f/11, f/16).
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Figure 1.2 Shallow (Narrow) vs Deep Depth of Field |
180 Degree Rule
- Imagine an invisible line, called the axis of action, running between two characters or along the path of motion in a scene.
- The camera should stay on one side of this line, within a 180-degree arc, to ensure that the characters maintain consistent left-right spatial relationships in the shots.
- It helps the audience understand the relative positions of the characters or objects in the scene, preventing confusion.
- If the rule is broken (i.e., the camera crosses the axis), it can result in a "jump" in perspective, making characters appear to swap places or move in an inconsistent way.
- Directors may intentionally break the 180-degree rule for creative effect, but it's usually done with care to avoid disorienting the audience.
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Figure 1.3 180 Degree Rule Illustrated |
Dynamic Screen Rule
Key Elements:
- Consistency: Characters or objects moving in a specific direction (e.g., left to right) should maintain that direction across shots. This ensures the audience isn't confused about the action.
- Movement: Dynamic screen direction is often used in action scenes, chase sequences, or any time a scene needs to build momentum or excitement. The characters may move towards or away from the camera, creating tension or drawing the viewer into the scene.
- Flow: The smooth transition between shots, where the direction of the movement remains constant, helps maintain spatial orientation and keep the audience engaged.
Breaking Screen Direction:
Sometimes, filmmakers break screen direction to disorient the audience intentionally, often for dramatic or unsettling effects.
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Figure 1.4 Example of Dynamic Screen shots |
Understanding Storytelling
The three-act story structure is a popular narrative framework used in storytelling, particularly in film and literature. It divides a story into three distinct parts: the setup, the confrontation, and the resolution.
Act One: The Setup The first act establishes the protagonist, their world, and the situation they find themselves in. This act typically ends with an inciting incident, which sets the story in motion and creates a problem that the protagonist must solve. The inciting incident can be a positive or negative event, but it must be significant enough to disrupt the protagonist's world and force them to take action.
Act Two: The Confrontation The second act is the longest and most complex of the three acts. It's where the protagonist faces a series of obstacles and challenges as they work towards their goal. This act is often divided into two parts: the first half, where the protagonist makes progress towards their goal, and the second half, where they encounter setbacks and complications. The second act typically ends with a major turning point, where the protagonist faces a significant setback or crisis that forces them to reevaluate their approach.
Act Three: The Resolution The third act is where the story reaches its climax and resolution. The protagonist must confront their final challenge or conflict and overcome it in order to achieve their goal. The climax is the most intense and dramatic part of the story, where the stakes are highest and the tension is at its peak. The resolution, on the other hand, is the denouement, where loose ends are tied up, and the protagonist's journey comes to a satisfying conclusion.
Overall, the three-act story structure provides a clear and effective framework for storytelling, allowing writers to create engaging and well-structured narratives that resonate with audiences.
Week 3: Storyboarding
Storyboard in filmmaking is a visual representation of a film, animation, or video game, much like a comic strip. It's made up of a series of illustrations or images displayed in sequence for the purpose of pre-visualizing a motion picture, animation, motion graphic or interactive media sequence.
Storyboards are used to plan shots, understand the narrative flow, and to communicate ideas to the production team. They can include details such as camera angles, character movements, dialogue, and even notes about special effects or sound. This helps the director, cinematographer, and other crew members visualise the scenes and prepare for the shooting process.
Storyboarding is a crucial part of the pre-production process because it allows filmmakers to experiment with different visual approaches, identify potential problems, and make necessary adjustments before the actual filming begins, saving time and resources.
Traditional storyboards are what we see above — basic pencil sketches that include detailed information like arrows for camera movement, characters, props, etc.
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Figure 1.5 Example of (Traditional) Storyboard |
Thumbnail style storyboards that don’t have any writing.
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Figure 1.6 Example of Thumbnail Storyboard |
Animation storyboard and animatics are fundamental steps, not just to refine the specific animation and movements but to craft story beats and character behavior at the same time.
Week 4: Production
Week 5: Colour Correction & Colour grading
Week 6: Stage Placement
Key Components of Mise en Scène
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Setting and Location:
- Physical Space: The environment where the action takes place, whether it's a realistic setting like a living room or an abstract, symbolic space.
- Time Period: The era in which the story is set, influencing costumes, props, and set design.
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Props and Objects:
- Items used by characters or present in the scene that can symbolize themes, indicate character traits, or advance the plot.
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Costume and Makeup:
- Clothing and makeup that reflect a character’s personality, social status, occupation, or psychological state.
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Lighting:
- The use of light and shadow to create mood, highlight specific elements, and guide the audience’s focus. For example, high-contrast lighting can create a dramatic or tense atmosphere.
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Composition and Framing:
- How elements are arranged within the frame or on stage, including camera angles in film or the positioning of actors in theater. This affects how the audience perceives relationships and power dynamics.
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Performance and Acting:
- The actors’ physical movements, facial expressions, and interactions contribute significantly to the mise en scène, conveying emotions and subtext.
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Color Palette:
- The selection of colors used in costumes, sets, and lighting can evoke specific emotions or symbolize thematic elements.
- Spatial Relationships:
- The distance and arrangement between characters and objects, which can indicate intimacy, conflict, or hierarchy.
Week 9: Sound Shaping
INSTRUCTIONS
EXERCISES
Exercise 1: In-class Editing
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The video exercise was easy to do and was a good warm-up. This
is the final result finished in class:
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Figure 1.9 Exercise 1, Week 1 (27/09/24) |
Exercise 2: Independent Editing
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Figure 2.0 Google drive files to be edited, Week 1 (27/09/24) |
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Exercise 3: Shooting practice, shoot & editing
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Figure 2.3 List of shots to include, Week
2(04/10/24)
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Figure 2.4 Screenshots of videos taken by teammate,
Week 2(04/10/24)
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Afterward, we were required to watch a video tutorial on adding captions and compiling and editing the video on Premiere Pro at home. We needed to shortlist and organize the clips in order, add captions, and a suitable soundtrack.
I started using the "Editing" workspace and put my clips in order:
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Figure 2.5 Premiere Pro workspace, Week 2(07/10/24)
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Figure 2.6 Adding captions on Premiere Pro, Week
2(07/10/24)
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Exercise 4: Editing Practice 1(Lalin)
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Figure 2.8 Drive folder with footage files, Week 3(11/10/24) |
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Figure 2.9 Screenshot of Short-Film reference, Week
3(11/10/24) |
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Figure 3.0 Screenshot of YouTube video tutorial, Week
3(11/10/24) |
This is what the storyboard looked like:

Exercise 5: Understanding Storytelling
Now, give your knowledge on 3-act structure a run for the money.
By now you should have already watched:1. Lalin, 2. Everything, everywhere, all at once.
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Figure 3.5 Lalin Poster
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Figure 3.5 Everything, Everywhere, All At Once
Poster
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Based on each of the movies,
1. Which part is act 1, act 2, act 3 respectively? Describe each act with ONE paragraph only. Answer the questions twice, separately for 1. Lalin, 2. Everything, everywhere, all at once. Post it in your blog under exercises.
Lalin
Act 1 - Introduction of Lalin (MC) and her backstory. It shows her always wearing her mask and the story of how she moved to Japan due to lots of hate comments on her appearance. In Japan, she is free to wear the mask on the daily and her social media no longer receives hate.
Act 2 - The rise of her social media presence and how she edits herself to become an influencer. She meets a guy online called "Astronaut Nut" whom she starts developing feelings for. However, she refuses to send him pictures with her mask off and starts feeling more insecure about herself and her appearance. Astronaut Nut flies to Japan to come see her but she hides in the bathroom and changes her mind. She texts him asking to leave as she's ashamed. It is then revealed to us that Lalin has acne and has been hiding behind a fake online presence.
Act 3 - He finally agrees to leave but asks her to read the book he has left for her. Once she's alone she reads the book and realizes he has known her since they were younger and loved her for who she truly is. Flashback scenes are shown and Lalin comes to the realization that she must see him again. She runs to find him before he leaves, but he is already gone.
Everything, Everywhere, All At Once
Act 1 - The movie signifies the start of Act One by calling it "Part 1: Everything". In this act the character and their lives are established: a couple working at a laundromat struggling to pay taxes, on the brink of divorce, and their daughter who wants to be seen for who she is and constantly craves her mother's approval. As Evelyn (MC) goes to meet with the accountant, Waymond (2nd MC) switches into an alternate reality version of himself and tells Evelyn that she's in danger.
Act 2 - The second act, "Part 2: Everywhere" occurs when Evelyn truly understands her new-found abilities to fight and travel through alternate timelines with Waymond to discover herself and defeat antagonist "Jojo Tubaki" (who is in the form of her daughter, Joy). Through this revelation, Evelyn is even more determined than ever to fix things.
Act - The final act, "Part 3: All At Once" is when Evelyn confronts the antagonist and starts to understand the family dynamics. Waymond and her daughter, Joy, finally express their point of view and Evelyn sees them for who they truly are. The movie concludes with a happy ending and a family that tries their hardest to make the most of every passing moment.
2. What is the inciting incident in the movie?
Lalin
The inciting incident is when Lalin moves to Japan and grows her social media following.
Everything, Everywhere, All At Once
The inciting incident is when she meets alternate Waymond who gives her a set of instructions to follow and teaches her to jump timelines.
3. What is the midpoint scene in the movie?
Lalin
The midpoint is when Astronaut Nut shows up at a cafe to meet her and it is revealed that she has acne and has been faking her social media.
Everything, Everywhere, All At Once
The midpoint is when Evelyn refuses to kill her
daughter and wishes to fix things the right way, feeling
full control over her powers and knowing what she needs to
do.
4. What is the Climax scene in the movie?
Lalin
The climax is when she reads the novel Astronaut Nut leaves for her and his true identity and their past is revealed to us. She then chases him at an attempt to catch him before he leaves.
Everything, Everywhere, All At Once
The Climax is when Evelyn jumps in almost every timeline to try to reach her fullest understanding and confronts her daughter Joy.
5.What is the theme of the movie?
Lalin
The themes include love, self-love, honesty, acceptance, social media, bullying
Everything, Everywhere, All At Once
The themes include mother daughter love, family, time, the multiverse, appreciating the little things
Exercise 6: Audio Shaping
Watching the video tutorial through the slides posted for Project 1 sound shaping. A few exercises were done in class to learn adobe audition and prepare ourselves for the project individually.
We start off by downloading the audio file provided in the folder:

As per the tutorial, the file "Audio 2_40" was to be downloaded and opened in Adobe Audition. Following the instructions, I practiced creating 5 different audios: a phone call, muffled, big stadium, underground cave and in the toilet. These techniques were then modified further when it came down to project 1.
Exercise 7: Colour correction
Firstly, using Premire Pro, I ordered and cropped the video clips at their desired start point and end point and exported them as an orignal coppy with no colour correction/ grading.
Exercise 8: Stop Motion Trial Shoot
The storyboard was incredibly rough and simply an idea. I had misinterpreted the story as the brief says Teletubbies in plural form. However, we used this as a rough concept before working on the models for recording. The teams made its own Whatsapp groups and delegated a date and time to meet to buy supplies and work on the clay model before class.
This is how the final video turned out after importing the frames into Premire Pro:
Exercise 8: VFX Tutorial
Following the tutorial, I downloaded the footage and imported them onto After Effects.

QUIZZES
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Figure 2. Asynchronous class quiz result, Week 1 (27/09/24) |
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Figure 2. Asynchronous class quiz
result, Week 5 (25/10/24) |
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Figure 2. Asynchronous class quiz
result, Week 6 (01/11/24) |
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Figure 2. Asynchronous class quiz
result, Week 7 (08/11/24) |
REFLECTIONS
Week 1: In week 1, I learned about camera angles and shots. I watched the necessary videos and took the quiz. I found this quite easy to digest as I watched it last semester for Digital Photography and Imaging.
Week 3: For week 3, I understood the crucial role of storyboarding in pre-production and the basics of how to make a storyboard.
Week 4: Week 4 was about the stages of production including summaries of pre-production, production, and post-production. This includes the roles of crew such as directors, editors, etc.
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