NFTS Residential- Day 11

An amazing last day!
Today we reviewed the final cuts for our films in the NFTS Cinema, which are looking great! With the final sound mix, ours should come out really well. Afterwards, we got to talk more to our sound designer, Luke, who's job is to mix and edit the sound in our film ready for its screening at the BFI IMAX, London, tomorrow.
We also had talks from Yen Yau (from Into Film) and alumni students from 2013's BFI Academy on networking and skills for a more successful future, as well as taking a look at other films the alumni students had been working on over the last year.
In the afternoon, we went to Ealing Studios (where they're currently filming Downton Abbey) to visit the Imaginarium Studio, Andy Circus' motion-capture facility, where the motion capture for a lot of films, games and even some TV programmes is done. The room has dozens of infra-red cameras lining the walls, which are able to 'see' the white balls on the motion-capture suits worn by actors. The data is then sent to various computers, which track the points on the suits and transfer them over to a CGI character. If facial expressions are needed as well, a small camera (that looks like a GoPro) is attached to a rig in front of the actor's face, which films smaller, coloured dots on the person's face.
While we were there, two actors wearing motion-capture suits acted out a short sketch based on "Poiro". This was rendered in real-time on a screen in front of us and we were able to see the CGI environment and charcters alongside the actors.
Another feature they had was a handheld device designed to act as a camera. It was tracked by the infra-red cameras and used as the camera for the CGI scene.
At the end of the day, we recieved our references from our lead tutors and were asked to write a general review on our experience in order for the BFI to improve it for next year and to help Pete Fraser to write his references for us.
In the evening, we skyped Nathan Johnson, composer for films such as Brick, Looper and Don Jon. He was talking about how he went about writing the music for films like Brick and Looper. The music for brick was done in his flat with a single microphone and his MacBook, recording instruments separately and creatively- for example, he attached various nails, keys and skrews to the strings of a piano to give it a more gritty, grinding sound. For Looper, the rhythms were largely based on the sounds of everyday objects being used percussively and recorded- for example, one of the things he did was drop several TVs from the roof of a warehouse. The sounds would then be manipulated on a computer and transferred to a MIDI keyboard to give Nathan full control of the sounds.
Finally, we ended the day with presentations in our production groups on what we had learned and enjoyed during the last two weeks. A lot of these presentations included mantages of photos and videos taken during the course. At the end, the Irish girls did the "Irish BAFTAs", a kind of 'spoof awards'!
It's been an amazing last two weeks! Can't wait for tomorrow, when all our finished films will be shown at the BFI IMAX in London!