Tom Pearson's Multimedia

Well, the documentary is finished and all is handed in. Joy! I've sill got some stuff to post up here but ultimately it's done. The best thing now is to reflect up what we have done and achieved during this project. On a more relevant note, I've taken this long yet important extract from Ollie's blog. He has been keeping an editing diary which has gone into our final production file. If you'd like to look at his blog its here-------> Ollie Tristram's Blog




Wednesday 26th November

We captured the footage to the computer and watched through it all. It came out as 4.5GB and 21 minutes in length, which according to Jules is about the right ratio for a 4 minute film. We didn't get time to do any work on it but Tom offered to cut up all the footage into individual clips at home, so it was easier to rearrange them for our editing.


Thursday 27th November

Today started with us imported all the separated clips, Tom had kindly spliced last night, into Adobe Premiere. It was very hand for him to have done that because it made life so much easier to just scroll through a list of clips and pick out the ones we wanted in a particular order.

Next, we simply began choosing clips, placing them in a provisional order and then began cutting them up - very straight-forward.

After doing so, and getting over 1 minutes worth of footage on the timeline, we began to take a look at the audio files we had recorded during the shooting. The live recording of the busker playing is fine, but we don't want to settle for second best, and we would be doing so if we kept our interview audio file. We have decided that there is too much hustle and bustle in the background, and not only does it make the interview more unclear, but there are sudden cuts between each section of speech. Anyway, we have booked out a sound booth and will be rerecording the interview on Monday.

Wednesday 3rd December

Today Jason was off ill with a cold so Tom and I continued with some of the editing ourselves.

We applied some visual effects to the footage in order to try and get that urban, gritty city look to our film. We did this by applying high contrast and lowering the saturation of the clips.

Also today, the other groups came to look at our edit. The general feedback was that it looked nice and the shots were well framed, but they thought because of our effects that the shot looked over-exposed.

Thursday 4th December

With Jason back in we showed him our new visual style and he liked it a lot. We didn't really do much else to the edit today because Debs came round to give constructive criticism. Generally I think she was quite impressed and the overall tips to take away from her feedback was to rearrange some of the clips as not to mislead the audience (for example, introducing the busker at the right time) and to go all or nothing with the effects so that nobody thinks its over-exposed and knows that we have applied effects.

Also, some filming tips I learnt was that one performing a pan, it counts as 3 shots: still, move, still. This way any still clips that come after it fit nicely. The other tip was to make sure in the future to always use manual controls - exposure in particular. We remembered white balance and manual focus but a couple of the shots that go from light to dark see the auto exposure kick in and the white colour fades in and out making it look more unprofessional.

Our main aim for today was to rerecord the interview with Sam and we booked out a sound booth and Edirol R-09 to redo this today. At 16.30 Sam turned up and we began interviewing. Compared the interview on the street we got a lot more audio, 17 minutes worth in fact, and we got everything we wanted out of him except him talking about other buskers, which was one of the main things we wanted for the voice over of our film!

When I got home that night I spliced up the interview into bite size segments with only the best and most clear parts of the interview. This cut down the 17 minutes into around 6 minutes of roughly 25 clips. This way the edit the next day will be easier to pick and choose each audio file we want.

Friday 5th December

Today our aim was to rearrange some of the clips, but most importantly to put the new audio on the film.

It started off kind of slow, picking the most related audio clips to go with their video counterparts, but once that was sorted we trawled through the rest of the interview/voice-over clips, picked out the best and placed them in the gaps where they fitted best.

When we were happy with the order the main thing to do now was to sort out the levels for the three audio tracks: the live recording, interview and city ambiance. One technique which was important for us to do was the use of ducking the live recording whenever Sam spoke during the voice-over, to make him clearly and more prominent in the audio mix. I spent a good hour or so going through the timeline and fluctuating the audio levels via use of automation at the appropriate parts.

FINISHED! Well not quite. But we were for the day. All that is left is for Tom to put the text on screen when the busker says the important stand-out lines.

Monday 8th December

Today we heard some more feedback from Jools and we learnt of a couple of tweaks we needed to make to our film. The first thing was to rearrange some more clips, most notably the second shot was too dark following the first, bright shot. This was deleted completely. We even added in a new shot we forgot we had of Sam waving at a passer-by. It works because it shows Sam's pleasant attitude and the effect he has on the people.

Another main issue was hearing the sound of some speakers other than headphones. The mixing was fairly bad because there were times when Sam's interview could not be heard over the backing track. We had to get this sorted and we did so by altering the ducking of the backing track more severely.

A third thing to change was to add more text from what Sam says during the voice-over. This keeps in the style more and also helps the audience follow the narrative easier.

Here are some new production stills of us in one of the sound booths in the waverly building. Here we were able to get better quality for our interview:

Here are a few photos which I forgot to take off my camera a while ago. They are production stills from when we were shooting. There are some pictures of us at work with our good ol buddy Sam the Jazz man!

Sorry for the lack of posting on my part recently, we've been thick deep in our documentary work which I will be posting up soon. It’s all coming together nicely apart from the fact that our interview audio quality is not quite what we wanted. To solve this we are hiring out a sound booth and an edirol sound recorder to get some clear crisp voice quality. The other problem we have been facing is our busking subject himself. He really doesn't like picking up his phone. It's been hard contacting him and this affects our contingency time. We plan to get the final audio recording tomorrow (Thursday) And we will put this into our edit for the mastered version for the following Monday.


Back on track for what this post was about now. I found a great website called booooooom (yes the 6 o's are a part of it hehe). I don't remember how I came across it but when I did stumble onto its turf I was quite chuffed with what I had found. Jeff Hamada, an America designer, has created this website / blog containing relevant and interesting projects that are current with the times. Here is a more about it on the website, from the man himself:

" Hello friends! My name is Jeff Hamada, I am a designer from Vancouver. I created Booooooom in hopes of fostering a community of people excited to go out and be creative!

For your convenience the site has been broken up into six areas of interest, as well as a seventh section for on-going projects. The projects in this section are open to anyone! So if you’re browsing the site and you suddenly feel like ‘Hey, I want to make something’ - head on over to the projects section, follow the directions, and submit some work! Hopefully, as more projects are launched, the most inspirational work displayed on the site will be found in this section!

You may subscribe to this site via RSS or EMAIL, and if you do, you will also have the ability to indicate which sections interest you. This way you only receive notifications when there are new posts related to your interests!

Take some time to really explore the site, and feel free to contact me if you have something interesting to share or you just want to say hello!"


I felt the need to post about this due to relevant learning outcomes of my course. As you may or may not know I have to write an essay on the importance of networking. A key issue of networking is viewing other creative practitioners work and to critique it. This website helps facilitate this, consolidating lots of current designers work into one area. It’s very supportive and handy for an aspiring practitioner like me. Hope you like the website as much as I do.

After focusing our proposal and treatment we have put together a list of quesitons to ask our busker. See below:

Personal Questions

. What is your full name?

. Where do you live now and how long have you lived there?

. Have you always lived in Nottingham and where did you lived before?

. Do you have family or friends in the local area?

. What else do you do in your free time?

. Do you have another job and how long have you done it?

. On an average busking session how much money do you earn?

. What do you spend it on? Anything specific?


Nottingham Questions

. What do you think of Nottingham as a city?

. Are there any aspects of it you like/don't like?

. How has the city changed in the time you have lived here? For better or worse?

. Where is your favourite part of the city? Why?


Busking/Musical Questions

. How long have you been busking and how did you get into it?

. How long have you been busking and how did you get into it?

. Where did you learn to play guitar and how long have you been playing?

. Do you play guitar and/or sing anywhere else other than busking? If so, where?

. Why do you busk?

. Why do you choose to busk in this area all the time?

. What music do you listen to in your free time?

. Does this influence your busking style or even your mood and personality?

. What do your family/friends think of your busking?

. What is your opinion on modern pop music?

. Are there any particular modern artists you like/dislike?

. What do you think about most modern music being electronically produced on computer?

. Would you encourage more people to busk? Why?

. Would you encourage young people to learn a musical instrument? Why?

. Does it not bother you sitting out in the cold for hours and how do you deal with it?


Society Questions

. Do you enjoy meeting new people and are there any regulars that you see when you're busking?

. What do the regulars say to you?

. Have you made friends with anyone you didn't know before busking?

. Do you get any trouble from any of the public? If yes, who? What did they do?

. Who are your favourite types of members of the public? e.g. businessmen, couples, teenagers, the elderly etc. Why?

. Do you care what people think of you while your busking?

. What do you think they are thinking?

. Some people stereotype buskers as homeless people playing for money, does this bother you? What would you say to those people?

We recently had a seminar on visual grammar. It really got us to think about how shots are composed and that they are not just poised random elements. Everything is setup in a certain way. And as the classic saying goes "everything is said for a reason in film". Here are some shots from a film (not exactly sure what film but any comments below would be appreciated if you know), I'll add the notes I made in class so you can see what I picked out. I'm not going to edit my notes into something flouncy because when I was writing quickly the main most important factors that stood out to me were jotted down. None of the fancy writing, just raw visual perception and the words that accompanied my feelings:


Eye drawn from him along the wire to the hole of light. Possibly symbolic - hope, because of the way the shot is structured e.g. high contrast with a dark background and white, god like foreground light.


Lighting makes the two prisoners stand out. Very focused on those two. At first you see foreground prisoner but then drawn to background convict due to same colour. Colour proximity. Also a shot of power due to height of the guards in relation to prisoners. Sterile environment - crude / horrible / bleak place to exist.


Camera slightly above eye level. Somewhat gives impression of weakness & depression, looking down. The two shadows on the face makes one think about what character is thinking, e.g. confliction.


Character proximity - legs are almost overlapping, could mean are close but by the way they are sitting (outwardly and away from each other) means there could be some tension. Table segregates them like a barrier. Symmetry of other tables they are not full, just two people in shot. Does not feel restricted. Dullness of the colours - serious feel.


Bigger to smaller eye movement. Slowly drawn to background character - where are they looking? Background golden. (Didn't really feel much from this shot)


Man is on a tilt. Over the shoulder shot - feeling restraint from the man in black, probably to do with script and theme of a prison.

In our latest seminar we had to give a quick proposal on what we were doing and how we were doing it. Along with the general who's and why's it went fairly well.

I found a really great website called Scribd which converts PowerPoint presentations into a web format ready for embedding into websites such as this blog.

Here it is:

Sorry for that image which is blocking some of the text on the second page, just a general upload problem to Srcibd, the image wouldn't normally be there. If you've read the proposal and looked at the links I hope it paints a picture of the kind of documentary we will be making. It is by no means a traditional "sit down and talk" to the subject method (better known as "fly on the wall"), but instead a more stylistic approach which will create a very satisfying experience to viewers. Hopefully something different and original enough for them not to switch off.

To gain a wider knowledge on types of documentaries, it's important to do some general snooping and watching. When I say snooping by no means do I mean to go around in a prying manner. We know what we want to make our documentary about, in our case a busker, but we are still deciding a visual approach. This along with the importance of our audio means research is required so we don't just go ad hock on one thing. The two come hand in hand.

The closest thing to what we are doing now with our 4 minute documentary would be the brilliant 3 minute wonders that 4 Documentaries show. These really are great. In terms of similarity this is as close as you can get, that’s why I’m so excited! Here are two of my favourite examples.

Susan & Susan



This first one is called "Susan and Susan". It’s about a lady who finds comfort in slugs. The way they are so slow and peaceful relaxes her. You never see the lady speaking. Instead the use of strong imagery in conjunction with the metaphors implied. For example: there is one part where she is talking about her parents. Her father likes to drink and this causes him to become violent, whilst this is being described in the audio, visual images of a male doll along with the snail and some alcohol being poured creates a really good visual style. There is never a sit down formal interview; this is the success of the piece: A strong visual experience coinciding with the audio.

Three Cherries



"Three Cherries" follows people talking about their experiences in casinos, specifically on the slot machines. Once again you never see a clear picture of who is speaking, just simple voice over’s. It’s so simple but it works exceptionally well. Once again visual imagery here is very important. However more importantly, the audio plays a bigger part. Mixing in casino sounds with the audio tracks from their subjects, along with the video creates a fine documentary. Something I really like in this one is the added bonus of the text. It emphasises key points of what is being said. This is something we will try to use in our documentary.

After going around town to see where abouts we should film our documentary, we bumped into the "Jazz Man" himself (the person we are doing this on). The "Jazz Man" name does seem a little crude on our behalf as this is the name we have given him. We had a quick chat to him and asked him a few questions to get to know him better in order for character research. His real name is actually Sam, although he wouldn't give his last name to us or his age. No doubt they'll come later once we know him a bit better. We have our subject matter and still no hook. I'm positive that we will get one by the end of the weekend, but when asking ourselves the same question, you get the same generalised response. To break this it is necessary to do a lot more character research and gain depth into the subject of busking and of Nottingham itself. I think this is the next best plan of approach. It will allow us to create a working hypothesis for our subject, almost like a fail safe. So incase he is the worlds most boring busker, it won't flop. After this we can start fully constructing our documentary structure.



Here are some of the pictures from the recce whilst we were out in town:





And a quick video recce:




There are more pictures but I will be doing a proper Recce sheet soon. To come tomorrow.

Our initial ideas have been good but not quite good enough to make a documentary about. We are having a hard time trying to find our "working hypothesis" as Michael Rabiger suggests. Something that we want to achieve by creating this documentary. What do we want to tell people? How do we want the audience to feel at the end of it? Both deeper questions then they look. It’s all very well making a documentary on a busker, but it's what you intend to say about the said busker that is the most important part. The "hook" if you like. The only problem we are having is getting this hook. Sure everyone loves a busker, but if we were to just film him playing and talking about his life, it's just another boring story and is ultimately up to the busker himself to be extremely interesting to pull the documentary up.

The next plan of action before anything else is to get this sorted. I’m going to go ahead and brainstorm until I get it because this is now frustrating me quite some bit. I’m also worried that we don't have this done by now. Everyone of our ideas we suggest to our tutor has been shot down, but this is necessary in order for us to understand where we are going wrong and what makes a better documentary. Sorry for the rant and such a short posting.

On a positive note, I've recently done some Recce on the location we are going to hopefully be filming. Pictures to follow soon.

Let me give you a little info on the "Don't Panic" Franchise. They bring out monthly packs which include a competition voted posted and pack. Along with the main bit of random junk about the night-life and so called "culture" in certain areas (such as Nottingham) the only reason people pick up this promotional pack is to get the free poster. Because of course, anything free as a student is good!

The Don't Panic Pack is a unique free publication found in carefully selected independent shops, bars, universities and art spaces. Also distributed outside alternative music events and launch parties, it contains all sorts of arts and culture goodies and information for cities all around the world with the emphasis on design and the future of our planet.

At the heart of the pack find the Don't Panic Poster where a rotation of established and unknown, up and coming artists design around an issue that affects culture across the world.

Each month the poster is picked by the most amount of votes. The poster with the most votes will be put into that month’s edition of the Don't Panic Pack. In addition, each month has one word about which you must design the poster on. The one I have chosen to do was "Chaos".

After some brainstorming or as some like to call it "golden showering" to be politically correct, I came up with the concept of crayons! Crayons you ask, yes crayons. Kids + Crayons = Chaos. My drawing is also crude deliberately, a bit like a kid. I drew it in illustrator with the thought of chaos and messiness. I chose the red crayon to go off on a tangent and write the word itself. It’s always the red one that draws people in, and it’s the red that is more symbolic to the theme of chaos. Here's a link to it, vote if you please, it would be nice. And PLEASE click on the image to view the full size as you cannot see the detail in the small picture. Thanks.

----------------------------> CHAOS / CLICK ME<----------------------------

Hi there and welcome back. I've decided to segregate my first year's work from my second with an all new blog. The website name has also changed so don't go to my old blog as this is where I’ll be posting from now on. So here I am with another year of multimedia to go. I’m now a few weeks into my second year and have started work on my Audio Visual pathway. Things are running smoothly... as of the moment.

Our first project is to create a 4 minute documentary on a person or persons (a maximum of 2 people) of our choice. Obviously the first thing that pops into our heads is, who are we going to do it on??? We have a group compromising of 5 individuals, each taking on a different role for creating said documentary. These roles include: Producer / Director / Camera / Sound / Editor. I myself have chosen to work as the director. This will allow me to visualise the overall look and sound of the project and make sure that the creative vision that I have in my head, is the one that I follow through with to give an overall decent and well made documentary.

Our current idea (which we had to defend today in front of everyone while they were picking holes in it) was that of the buskers of Nottingham. We thought it would be a good idea to get to interview and follow a busker around. When first visualising the documentary you must ask WHY it should be created. We thought that we could create this documentary about the busker's life, more of a biographical documentary then anything. But then again that is too simple and there is no pitch there, the person we are interviewing could be dull and eventless. To stop this I get the feeling we need to re-think what the documentary will be discovering and aiming to achieve. I’ll have to have a sit down for some better ideas and bounce them of my group tomorrow. For now I must go as I’m going out dressed as someone from the rocky horror show if you've ever seen it....... eek.



I've also decided to actually read all of the books on the reading list this year. I read a few last year but personally just not enough. What books I did read were really helpful and I did gain a noticeable boost in my knowledge for those certain areas. And of course, I do love to read.