Tom Pearson's Multimedia

Hi,
I'm closing this blog down soon. Here is where you can see my work:

http://www.youtube.com/user/acandymancan

Thanks

Hello. It's been a while since I've updated this blog. My new year’s resolution is to make myself post more about the work I've been doing, not only is it a requirement of the course, it also helps me clear up things in my head.

So onto the subject of HD capturing. I promised Jools that I would put up a tutorial on my blog. This was last term, eek. Sorry Jools. I have instead decided that I WILL eventually put up a tutorial on how to capture (at NTU specifically) HDV. However I am a little busy with 3rd year things. So expect to see it possibly sometime after Easter when the majority of my work would have been handed in.

...is a pain. I’ve been trying on different devices and different computers including my own at home and the university provided ones. No such luck. My peers and I are all having problems with this and have had to eventually capture our HD 1080i (50) recorded footage in widescreen DV. At least the aspect stays a nice widescreen.

I think the majority of people have now filmed. We each helped others out. I recently finished helping on Jason and Ollie’s production. Both of theirs went smoothly.

Other then that PRP is going fairly slow as I am putting most of my time into client. Oh and as I remember my live client is full steam ahead. Plans to go film a lab opening in Hull on the 27th is underway. So I'm pretty much sorted as far as client is concerned.

Currently writing this I'm trying to recapture my footage in HD with no luck. I think I'm going to get on an edit the DV version anyway.

I started writing my proposal yesterday after finally settling on an idea for my 20 second advert. I have all my initial research plonked into a word file for easy access and referencing for later on (for times like this when I had to write my proposal) however I've now hit a few bumps and am a little confused. I looked up the guide on the NTU NOW to see what they required format and structure wise. It was simple, an intro/ background & context / designs and justifications / Time management plan. I started to go ahead and work on writing it up, on what I would be producing and why etc.

I then had a look at my housemate’s version. His proposal was short and sweet: Bullet pointed, concise and easy to read, however not much information. I had initially done some research on the web to get some tips on writing proposals. This led to lots of information which was really good. It made the structure given to us for writing a proposal seems so basic. I wanted to make so many more sub-headings. However the guide told me otherwise. So basically I've had to stop and rethink about my structure of my proposal. Whether I have too much spiel in there and whether I need to get rid of it. Sigh.

Ok, well after trying really hard to think of more ideas I kind of just kept stumbling back to my old ones. My favourite one of which was the one below. Here is a very short description I emailed Jools:

A band starts playing their first song. The lights are set, the atmosphere is electric. The shot cuts to each of the band members starting to play their instruments. As the song progresses, the atmosphere and set starts to subtly disappear. The light show and quality of sound progressively gets worse. The instruments are replaced by cheap alternatives of cardboard cut-outs. Drum sticks turn into flumps ( http://www.sweetgreetingsshildon.co.uk/images/uploads/soft/barratt-flump.JPG ). The list goes on. Eventually the band stops and have a look around. They look at their equipment which is now almost non-existent. They look bemused and amazed at what has happened. The shot then cuts to one of them members, POP, his shirt is gone. He runs off crying hysterically. Screen cuts to black with a written message and voice over. " Illegal file sharing ruins the entertainment industry" "for more information about illegal file sharing go to .... "


He said it was an alright idea, however I should lose the flumps (it was just an example of what I could do in the first place) and focus on exactly how it should look and the visual style. He said I needed to be confident on this. I am fairly adept at after effects and feel I can pull this off well.

Great, now I can finish my proposal

After going to Jool's tutorial, it was clear to me my ideas had not been thought through enough. I already knew they were only the first works of ideas but it seemed as if they were all shit in what he was telling me. (quite upsetting because I chose to actually think of something different rather than the usualy boring scare tactics they always use). No worries I guess. Ive been totaly stuck on what to do. And what with hand in tomorrow, I have all the research done but no proposed product. Sigh.

Basically it comes down to a few key words. I would like to base my project about either : Browsing, Intamacy or Timeline. Just working out exactly what to do is hard. Especially since I only have myself to come up with ideas. Friends and peers have had the usual suggestions explaining old piracy adverts which have been done and are now getting dry and used.

I'll post up here tonight what I've got.

I had a chat with Danny a few days ago about my research title. I initially had something along the lines of this.

" How has online distribution of moving image material affected viewing behavior?"

I later found out I had somewhat been going in the wrong direction with my question. As I explained the above question to Danny he went on to talk about distribution to cinemas and the costs involved and so forth. What I was actually trying to get at with this question was "why do people choose to view audiovisual material in their chosen environment, e.g. a cinema / TV screen / Online viewing etc". After I explained this he went on to talk about more cinema related topic of which it occurred to me. So thanks Danny for help rounding my question. The new question goes as follows.

" How have the improvements in cinema quality changed the purpose of visiting and viewing moving image at cinema venues?"

Ultimately it is in the same direction I am wanting to go with my research. I'm still refining it a bit so it may still change. But if Danny thinks the topic is ok, I'll defiantly be looking forward to working on it.