Crypto News Documentation
The idea for the cryptocurrency originally came from Harry, as both me and Adam were struggling with an idea to agree on. As the teams were still segregated into four teams at this point, as well as the run-up to Christmas caused a few team members to travel back home making them unavailable during this period, it made the initial conversations quite difficult, but cryptocurrency was decided, now all we needed to do was get planning underway, roles assigned and find our lane.
I thought from early on that it would important to create a shared folder, to which we could all upload our work, and it has been well utilised by every team member, making the entire process clear-cut as to who has completed what task. On top of that, our group chat on Whatsapp has been very active since day dot, making for communication that has been healthy and active between the team, open and honest to keep development honest and real. This distinguishable difference between talking and doing can be seen between these two platforms.
I decided that I would be in charge of looking for actors for this project, and we did not come back disappointed. Mandy is a platform recommended that we use for this production as it allowed us to hire professional actors in an industry-style casting call. It is so tightly professional that when it comes to putting your job up, it has to go to an administrator on their team to be verified first. Our post went up a few hours after applying to be put up, without issue, meaning that actors could then begin their application process.
From the four people who applied, the group decided to go with Bhasker Patel, a well-established actor, for roles in Emmerdale, Doctor Who, Thunderbirds, Goldeneye and many many more. We were overjoyed when he said he was on board, and since then I have been filling him in on each and every detail along the route to ensure that the product will turn out well. I just hope that when it actually comes to filming it will all turn out well.
Planning:
When it came to writing the script, Lily smashed it out across a day and a night, which both she and I went through the next day to iron out any grammatical errors and just create a second more thorough draft. The script of course has all the words within it alongside stage directions, the location being used and whether a part of a script will be a piece to camera (PTC) or a voiceover (VO). It is a well-put-together script, however, Bhasker did request we make a larger version of the script for him which is the template that will be used on the teleprompter.
This photo above was from the dry run that we did and alongside the teleprompter, there was a lot more equipment than we initially anticipated. For example, we plan to have plenty of lighting rigs to use due to the natural light and room lights being quite cold. A lapel/lavalier microphone will attach to our presenter, and then will feed back into the camera. On top of using the Panasonic 4k cameras, we are utilising a fancy tripod which will allow for more fluid movement on top of support from the iPad for additional support if needed. With everyone also knowing their role and utilising their skillset professionally, it will allow for what will hopefully be a successful shoot.
Call Sheet (Lucy)
The documentation created by lucy was interesting, it was something that included an external party meaning the details were crucial. Contact between the group and Bhasker was conducted by myself and I did end up using this worksheet to find said details.
I created the contributor form ready for a few contributors that we were going to get on board. Above, I have put Bhasker's signature as it is a paper form that was signed, But we also ensured that we got everyone else's signature so that our shoot was legitimate and the contributors were on board.
The risk assessment went well too, not many improvements were needed from Laura's feedback and it lead to a quick turnaround for such as quick document because it was quite a gruelling process trying to get to that point. It was fun going through and seeing every aspect that could have gone wrong, and I am glad I filled it out as it allowed me to have that opportunity to negate risks and keep Bhasker in the loop with what is going on.
The shot list was at its best here, as it allowed for a more complex piece of work that gave us some more forward-thinking when it came to doing things like the editing process. It gave me an image in my mind of the direction that our group was going in and boosted morale and confidence.
This template allowed me to give questions and answers to some of the contributors involved. I was really often struggling with what to write each time I emailed, so having insurance to know I have said the right things was very important to secure and lock down contributors and presenters.
This was our collaborative research resource list that we all decided to do together. As what we were doing was quite a niche subject, it was important that the information we were going to give was concise and effectively informed. Over the last few weeks, I have learnt so much about this space, far more than I ever thought I would do before that and it has been a real eye-opener to see how big a not-so-well-known community can be.
This was unfortunately never truly utilised. Locations were changing regularly and because of that we never really had a secure location list to use, especially since our location changed very last minute as well. That last-minute switch did actually allow us to have a better room to use as it was a conference room, being big and filled with meeting chairs for each of us.
This last document here was often used when we were giving the contributors interview questions to work with. What happened was when it came to working with our interviewees these were used as an outer basis, then expanding our questions further as we went on.
(Thank you Adam for ringing potential contributors)
Production:
The production went really well, in the picture above you can see myself, Lily, Adam and Harry all setting up for the day, with Lucy being the one behind the camera for this picture. It was very much a team effort, collaborating to ensure every bit goes according to plan. Next time I would make sure that I bring my screwdriver with me as there were a lot of issues with the security of the equipment on set. Thankfully the advantage of filming in the studios means that we can utilise Fergus' equipment and skills for assistance, ensuring everything was well set up for this shoot.
We all stuck to our roles during the production as well, allowing everyone on the day to know what they were doing and get their job done. It also helped that we had accomplished a dry run, days before the production began allowing us to come into our element on the final production day. This really meant that we could do things a lot more products within a shorter timeframe instead of faffing about with equipment. It's very exhilarating to have the positive affirmation of a hard-working team that has been collaborative and open to ideas and opinions. It is something last time I said I wanted to improve from my personal stance, and it is a grovelling journey to get to that point, but based upon feedback I have from this project, it has been a strong improvement in my ability to work in a team.
Bhasker was a pleasure to work with during the day as well. Not only did he have extremely friendly advice but he also allowed us to work as a group in an element that really worked well for us 1st years. He did have a stronger connection with me as I was the one that set everything up with him for that shoot day. When I had lunch with him, he gave me a ton of industry advice that was invaluable and was only achievable from an industry veteran like himself. I want my mindset of working that day to have reflected back onto Bhasker and I do think it has. After the shoot that day, we dropped him off at the pub and he said if he is available he would love to work with us again, proving to me that he was there for the right reasons and the team gave off a very strong and positive impression.
After this, we decided to do some audio work with Bhasker, to get the voiceovers completed for certain parts of it. This was where Lucy was in charge of what came out, it was an overlay from the microphone XLR cable into the Tascam that allowed the sound to come through, it was a workaround that was necessary for this part of the production as we needed these voiceovers to happen no matter what. They sound crystal clear and have worked immensely well for this production as a whole in my mind. It will look good once these are paired with an animation that will be created inside after effects, giving it a full picture in the grand scheme of things. It's an exciting opportunity to hear him in his element and it allows for a good contrast between visuals and graphics.
Lily's footage had the same quality issues as mine (1080p-2160p) which of course were fixed. The main issue I has was when it came to the lack of steadiness of the shot. The reasoning was to not attract attention to herself in public which is completely reasonable, and thankfully in this instance, the shots were steady enough to where they were fixed with a no-motion warp stabilization within Premiere Pro. Getting shots of the banks as well creates that subconscious link between reality and the digital space, allowing the audience to understand the direction in which we are planning to take our story for this production.
Post Production:
Post-production was definitely an interesting experience overall, it was a good combination of utilising Premiere Pro, After Effects and Blender. In the end, I took a large amount of the work on this part, as when I get invested in the computer and the editing, I really enjoy the puzzle-solving side of bringing the edit to life as it is vital for me to bring the whole edit together. I struggle with understanding why that is, but in all honesty, it is probably something to do with the final outcome, a slow build-up to a big adrenaline release at the end. In the grand scheme of things, I found this to be one of the simpler edits.
In terms of colour correction, it was on the simpler side of things. a cooler scheme with more faded colours allowed for more of a professional look, something more business-like and presentable. I once was able to have a presentation from a photographer who told me to always start with the auto button in my edits as it gives me a great basis to work from, and then I apply the manual tweaks from there. It is much more efficient and can save time in the grand scheme of editing.
One of the effects within Premiere Pro that I used was the previously mentioned warp stabilizer. This was to fix some of the shaky footage that we had. It makes it far easier to work with some of these scenarios like this in the edit, rather than loading up After Effects and trying to fix it that way. It is a quick and easy process that can make the world of difference, but of course, it won't fix every situation ever. The original footage needs to be stable enough so the effect can function effectively, its purpose is to be invisible, if you don't know the effect is there then it has done its job.
When it came to Mike's interview, there were a lot of additional noise edits that needed to be done due to some unknown crackle being left in the background. It is unfortunate, but something that Premiere Pro could fix fairly simply. Each one contributes to the removal of that noise, whilst trying to keep Mike as clear as possible. What we end up with is a cobbled-together audio experience where it can be apparent that there have been some effects applied over the top of this, however, if anything in some small parts it has also improved the clarity of his voice. The strangest part was that this crackle wasn't audible on the shoot, so it is one of those unfortunate things that can only be done after the fact. Thankfully nothing like this was necessary for our online zoom interviews.
When utilising the Tascam, it can sometimes only come out of one ear and that can be unfortunate. This is due to the device's default set-up always beginning in mono. Again, this can be rectified and go unnoticed in the final export due to how naturally stereo it can sound after applying the right channel mixing. It essentially copies the left channels mix to also come out of the right side meaning that it sounds better to headphone users. That was it in terms of Premiere Pro effects though, in the end, I spent a lot more time working within After Effects.
Before beginning there that though I imported a 3D model of a bitcoin into Blender, which I coloured in. From there I put the centre point onto the very bottom of the coin and span it around on its Z axis. This then also had to have its camera in the right place to where it looked straight on at the animation and front lit with sunlight so that the coin went from light to dark accordingly. It also allowed for the reflected light to bounce correctly and shadows to be naturally cast too. This was then exported, frame-by-frame as 200 PNGs into a folder, which After Effects read and automatically converted into an image sequence, allowing it to play out, in real-time, due to the Blender export also matching the UHD footage (and its framerate).
The first thing I did within was the title sequence, as I thought that would put me in the right mindset of using after effects. It was quite a convoluted piece of work that took around an hour to do, not only due to the complexities of using the After Effects 3D function to extrude text alongside that. I also needed some time to refamiliarise myself with the parent and link functions that allow multiple things to move as one and took some time to understand what moved with what. Thankfully whilst being linked each element can still be moved on its own. I also grabbed some royalty-free stock footage from the internet that makes for a good background, and it was here I also incorporated my spinning Bitcoin within my title sequence. What we ended up with is something slick and simple to understand.
The next thing I made was my interview tags, which move slick and fluidly using clever After Effects keyframing. I loved establishing branding at this point, something that matches the classic Bitcoin logo, like the one that can be seen at the top of this page. I love the way in which the little tag appears as well, it is super smooth and functions far better than I originally envisioned. When it came to exporting these After Effects pieces I had to use a method known as lossless with alpha. What that means is that it will export all of the graphics at its composition setting (in this case 3840x2160, 25fps) whilst removing the black background of the rest of the composition. That is how I can keep solid black text and a solid black background, but only the latter disappears, essentially it's like exporting a video version of a transparent PNG.
As Harry had created a custom logo for this production that genuinely looked incredibly slick, I was trying to think of ways in which I could cleverly incorporate said logo into the work and what I came up with was a fancy transition. It lasts for just over a second each time so that it is clear branding whilst also not overstaying its welcome. On top of that, I used the same branding and exporting methods as last time to ensure the transition could be seamlessly overlayed with the work. When that happens it allows scenes to link really well together, and I believe I used it five times within the final edit.
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