Tom Pearson's Multimedia

Blog Moved

2010-06-03T06:42:00.000-07:00

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

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

Thanks

Tutorial on capturing HDV

2010-01-21T02:48:00.000-08:00

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.

Capturing HDV / Update on mock client

2009-11-18T06:41:00.000-08:00

...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.

Writing my proposal

2009-10-29T07:18:00.001-07:00

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.

The idea

2009-10-28T09:29:00.001-07:00

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

Client project ideas

2009-10-28T08:20:00.000-07:00

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.

PRP title

2009-10-26T06:02:00.000-07:00

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.

Client Research

2009-10-22T04:58:00.000-07:00

This is a word file I've been writing to help with research in regards to client project -->

Client Project Initial Research

Background to file sharing and Internet piracy

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_sharing

A short intro to file sharing.

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2007/10/riaa-shifts-legal-battle-to-a-new-front-sues-usenet-access-provider.ars

RIAA starts to sue Usenet providers moving away from p2p focus.

http://www.usenet.com/usenet.html

A provider for Usenet. Proposes access to articles and discussion forums on UseNet

http://www.computerworlduk.com/management/online/e-business/news/index.cfm?newsid=13443

Internet users are converting from p2p to UseNet and file hosting for illegal downloading. Reasons for this maybe because of lawsuit actions taken by the entertainment industry. Results we commissioned by Ipoque

http://www.ipoque.com/company

Ipoque is a company that offers products that allow you to view data traffic. These products can measure peer to peer (p2p), Instant messaging (IM), Voice over IP (VoIP) and more.

http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/news/index.cfm?newsid=103218

Lady who uploaded a game got fined £16,000 in charges.

http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article721133.ece

Two men prosecuted for uploading over 8000 songs online. Once again uploaded not downloader prosecuted

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1046607/Up-25-000-British-illegal-downloaders-
sued-300-games-developers-turn-courts.html

More and more people being prosecuted.

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/news/the-net-closes-in-on-internet-piracy-1772820.html

Lots of info on what is being done about Internet piracy.

Wired UK magazine 08/09

New approach to how digital distribution should work alongside Internet piracy to create better sales.

Similar Adverts

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2p8o467rWts&feature=player_embedded

Student produced work from Andover College. Not great and a bit long for an advert. Copies’ similar adverts made by the industry. Kinda naff

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orEhUEcxHeY

A pro-piracy advert. “Sharing is caring”. Make’s you feel a lot less guilty about illegal downloading. More enjoyable to watch

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=soRDTbkZSM0&feature=related

Another pro-piracy campaign. “Sharing is fair”. Same comments as above

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmZm8vNHBSU&feature=related

The well know advert of Internet piracy. Often shown at the start of DVD’s. It is loud, annoying and somewhat frustrating to watch.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALZZx1xmAzg&NR=1&feature=fvwp

Funny spoof highlighting the problems with the above advert

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LkWKvMCzqA&feature=related

Famous actor appealing to stop Internet piracy. Comical and amusing to Jack Black lovers like myself and it did appeal to me greatly because of this reason. However It might not of done if it was anyone else.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lE9-W9JNjio&feature=related

Another verbal reasoning scheme. Except this time its targeted to (I’m guessing) on people aged 15-25.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=685wtb-j3xU&NR=1

Another famous person talking about Internet piracy including scare tactics. Once again it was speaker specific, although she may be a big name somewhere she really isn’t to me, so I care a lot less.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wssfl22Hhp4&feature=related

Scare tactics used to stop people downloading. Somewhat ridiculous “Piracy funds terrorism”. Can also notice sounds of jail door slamming, subconscious scare tactics once again. Not enjoyable

Conclusions and suggested ideas for project

• There are many types of online downloading taking place, examples found include: Peer to Peer, UseNet newsgroups, File hosting websites

• It is illegal to upload or download with out copyright permission. It is ok to do these things with copyright permission (obviously, duh) for example, if you already owned a CD.

• Not many people are being prosecuted for Internet piracy in the great scheme of things. However this is becoming more common with public attention

• Those who are being prosecuted are generally the people who upload files for mass distribution rather than people who download these files

• Types of prosecution include: fines, IP and web provider restrictions, Prison

• The act of aggressive court proceedings by the entertainment industry in regards to internet piracy has suggested a decrease in illegal activity

• It was also suggested that decreases have been because of users migrating to other forms of online downloading such as UseNet and file hosting websites, rather than p2p services

• Therefore piracy has not ultimately been affected by court proceedings

• Other suggestions also show how internet piracy and file sharing has improved sales of music

• Many adverts trying to promote anti-piracy are fairly negative, choosing to scare the viewers. This is not only annoying but also depressing for the viewer.

• Some adverts have tried to achieve a more positive outlook, where by using celebrities to appeal to the audience to stop illegal downloading. However this then becomes talent specific, meaning that only people who have high knowledge and respect for the person will accept what they are telling them

• I aim to make a more positive advert without relying on having to verbally tell people to stop downloading. Could be done through the use of powerful metaphors. Could use a comedic or inspiring theme.

Something fun

2009-10-22T03:54:00.000-07:00

I'm currently doing some research into adverts that promote awareness of file sharing and internet piracy when I stumbled across a website called Unruly Media. This company basically has everything to do with the operations of seeding viral videos. They have a really good website with a viral video data tracker to see who and when they were watching an online video.

Anyway, I stumbled across this one, it's absolutely brilliant.

Time Management 1

2009-10-21T03:30:00.001-07:00

Last night I was searching for some good software to help me with my time management this year. Currently I'm working on my macbook for all of the time control odds and ends. I found a sterling piece of software called OmniPlan. I am yet to fully complete my schedule but so far its already proving useful.

I have also created my own xcel spreadsheet to see the total amount of hours I'm actually doing. This data coupled with a graph shows how well I'm spreading my real time. It's great as a visual aid.

here is an example of what it looks like:

(click to make bigger)

The data entered is not true as the dates have not come to pass yet. I was testing to see if my formula worked (which is does!). This will help a great deal in showing me where my time is going. I'm currently working on my Gantt chart which I will show soon.

Year 3 intro

2009-10-20T11:32:00.000-07:00

I've just started my 3rd and final year at university so this is just an introductory post to what is to come. There are lots of things to do this year. I have 3 different modules to complete. These include a research project, a client project and another module ( starting next term ) which helps with understanding and become a successful practitioner.

I'm now 2 weeks into the term and have been told the key to this year is time management. This can be done with the aid of software to create a Gantt chart. I will be setting one up tonight to get a good grounding of where I stand currently and what needs to be done when. It has been suggested during each week I should spend 2 days on Client, 2 Days on Research and 1 Day on Successful Practice and Principles (SPP).

Anywho, lots of work to get done and mountains of research to look through.

Feedback

2009-05-21T02:21:00.001-07:00

In last week’s seminars we showed our film's to the others to get some feedback. It was a good opportunity to see what people had to say about my work. From the general consensus people like the way my film looked, the aesthetic quality of it all. However its biggest drawback was that there was no real turning point or "Beat" in the film that people could understand. They said that it was clear that my main character had some issues and it was also clear that he overcomes these issues by the end. But there is no big turning point in the film to show how he has gotten from A to B.

I think they are completely correct. Unfortunately I don't have the shots required to make this better, I really wish I did. This makes think about the pre-production stage where I was first writing the script. It is here where I should be getting my story solid with no flaws! It is obvious, once again, that haven't spent enough time in the pre-production phase. It had showed in the final product and people pick up upon this. They say that a good script can save a film if it is poorly edited, but not even the most excellent of edits can save a film made with a poor script. In my mind this is very true.

Coffee - Short Film

2009-05-11T02:29:00.000-07:00

For that last 4 days I have been working as a runner on set of a short film called coffee. This is the first real bit of work experience I have had so far, and it was a great help to solidify my theory knowledge of AV production. I’m actually quite upset that it's over. Although the long days of filming (9am - midnight hehe) were tiring, I really started to get the feel of the filming process and had made some good friends by the end. I can't wait for the finished product now. Unfortunately, I was talking to the director and they had almost no budget left for post-production and were having to plan some bake sales in the summer to raise the money hehe. Good times. Anywho, here are some pictures that Ollie took from while we were on set.

Editing software in industry

2009-05-04T13:34:00.000-07:00

After having a review with Jools early this term I have kind of made an approach on what I want to do once I leave Uni. Currently I have high interests in becoming an editor. Obviously as an editor you must know your software well in order to proficiently carry out editing tasks. Currently I'm using Adobe Premier pro CS3 and I have recently got Final Cut Pro for my Mac. The question is which software is being used in the industry? Knowing this will prepare me for what is to come. I'm fairly sure AVID is top dog at the moment with Final Cut following behind. I have no idea where Premier sits in all this so I decided to do some research. Here are so forums which I’ve been reading up on the subject:

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=64621

http://digital-filmmaking.blogspot.com/2007/06/best-film-editing-software.html

http://www.brettanderson.co.uk/forum/read.php?3,28536

It seems, from what I can assume, that AVID is still the most widely used package for industry editing. Alongside that are FCP and Adobe suites including Premier.

Now that I know this, it’s time for me to get learning some FCP (since I have it) however AVID is going to be a bit harder to have a play on.

Currently I feel very competent on CS3 Software such as Premier / After Effect and soon to know better, Encore (for DVD authoring). By preparing myself like this for industry it gives me better prospects towards my future career.

6 Min Film - hmm it might be too short

2009-04-29T11:57:00.001-07:00

OK, Ive been doing the editing for my 6 minute film. After spending a bit of time with my footage it now seems a little clear that I probably wont have enough usable content for 6 Min's. Oh dear, not good. I'm going to get slated for this if it comes up a minute short... ergggg. OK so plan of action and things to take into account:

. Title Credits must take up about 30 seconds of this piece (in my mind at least)
. Credits possibly another 15 seconds pushing it.
. ......

So basically I'm going to have to work around some problems but it will be ok in the end (I hope).

I'm just very disappointed in how things have turned out. If I could, I would scrap the whole thing and start fresh with the things that I know now. Too bad I now don't have time to do this. However there is a ray of light. I was talking to Jools in review week about the content of my work and saying that the actors and the script were not up to the standard that they are expecting. However my Production and Post-Production skills are much much better and I will be able to prove this in the final outcome. Im just annoyed that im going to be slated for something that I already know about. That once again, I did not put enough time and resources into Pre-Production.

Things to do

2009-04-28T09:55:00.000-07:00

Well, third term has started and I am wearing a little thin. Things have been getting a bit much at home and at uni. But at least the show will go on.

I have decided to write on my blog about some of the things that will be happening soon, and the things I must complete. Here's a quick list:

. Work experience - Assistant to the Director of Photography on a short film being shot in Nottingham over 4 days. The short film is called Coffee and its quite surreal piece. I am excited about this and yet at the same time worried that I might mess up since it will be my first proper AV work experience. Well, good luck to me I guess.

. Editing my own film - I am having issues with this due to lots of reasons. I am not overtly going to spill my problems, as many of them are personal and not technical. I’m not too happy with some things of this project i.e. the actual scrip and acting, but It was a first attempt and I have learnt a great deal. I need to read up a little more on the best way to edit etc.

. EPK - Electronic Press Kit. I need to learn a bit more about this an assemble one for my short film.

There are a few other things but those are the main ones that I must tackle very soon. Blogging It up here helps formulate it in my brain and since it's public to the world, it gives me more incentive to do it quicker.

BCS Broadcasting - IPTV World Forum

2009-04-27T09:58:00.000-07:00

So, on the 25th of March, Jason Bickers, Ollie Tristram and I did some filming for BCS Broadcasting. We filmed clients of BCS Public Relations at the IPTV World Forum event in London Olympia. Things went very well as a group and the outcome was good. Here are the different videos that Brian Dolby (Managing Director of BCS PR) comissioned.

The main piece for clients:

Specific to SeaChange client:

A small clip for BCS themselves:

And finaly an interview with Sam Baird of Whitehill Media:

In Excess Pilot

2009-03-17T02:29:00.000-07:00

Ok so ive pretty much done my pilot edit. What I mean by this is that I've got everything where I want it and how i want it to look before I start tweaking it. However I think some more oppinions would help. I know that most people have already done thier edit a while ago. The only reason for me finishing it now was that I had been so pro-paperwork after last term. Ive been compiling my production file for the past few days and its looking really good. So yeah, watch it, and comment, would be helpful. Its basically the first 50 seconds of the first scene so don't expect huge story line plots and twists. Enjoy.

note: I shot and edited in HDV. Vimeo is currently converting it but here is a DV version, hence why it's slightly squished (sorry i'll change it soon)

In Excess Pilot (Offline Edit) from Tom Pearson on Vimeo.

Title Opener

2009-03-16T09:24:00.000-07:00

Debs' lecture a few days ago got me thinking a lot more about title credits in film. Of what I originally thought not much of, I now have a big respect for.

We watched the intro to the film The Number 23. The title sequence for this film had been heavily designed. We watched it multiple times to see all the layers that had been put into it.

Things that I picked up on were:

-> The progression of music types from historical to more modern sounds
-> Selective vision. The creator gives you just enough time to see relevant information
-> Historical information in regards to the film
-> Blood and the movement of the blood was carefully thought about

All these factors are all ready inbuilt in the film's narrative. But what was most interesting is that although I hadn't seen the film (well I have but can't remember it too well) I felt like I knew what it was about and had a good impression for what I should be expecting.

Time to take these thoughts and project them onto my own work.

So as for my title credits, I had a think and it’s quite hard to get to grips with ideas. My film is about lack of control and being trapped in this lack of control. I felt this was the way I could go about designing my title sequence. Things that could represent this:

-> Powerless
-> Weak
-> Confused
-> Chaos
-> Anxiety

After brainstorming some of these points, I had to come up with ways that I could put this into my titles. Currently I don't have many ideas as to how I can go about this or what exactly expresses "chaos" or "anxiety, but Debs gave me a few ideas, Such as colouring outside of the lines.

I need to think of some more ideas and choose my best options to reflect my film during the opening title sequence before I go full steam ahead and start designing. Sorry for that lack of example by means of video. I've been searching whilst writing this and can't find it anywhere. I'll have another look harder later and see if it’s about.

Thinking about my term to come

2009-03-07T07:00:00.000-08:00

Well, things are going well. I feel a lot more comfortable with my work now that I know I’ve done it a lot better than I did the first time. However, I was just thinking about my 3rd and final term of this academic year.

This term we are required to give in a 1 minute pilot of our film. This should be absolutely fine for me. The thing I’m concerned about is the next term project which is to give in the full 6 minute feature film that we have been working on this whole time. The only thing I am a bit worried about is my actors. I personally am not happy with the final result. And at the end of the day as Debs was saying if you’re working in the real world and something is not right, you will have no production at the end of the day because it will not be shown at all! So, if I’m not happy with it, then I think it’s time for a rethink.

I also didn't like my ending, it was a bit... how I put it.... LAME. This along with the acting made the overall piece a bit weak. However I did shoot it well and have been told my technical skills and composition are good. Time to work on the narrative again.

My plan of action, since I have until the end of May to actually hand this in. Is to

A) Research some new actors, professional ones instead of just friends
B) Re-work the script to fine tune it
C) Re-shoot at the beginning of third term with A and B ready to go

So yeah, hopefully I'll have time to get this done, I'll be a lot more pleased with myself if I do. I need to make sure I don't overburden myself with work in the third term as I do of course have to do my DVD authoring. Time to get to work ^_^
Oh yeah and here’s a screen shot of my film:

Friends VS Actors

2009-03-03T06:29:00.000-08:00

After filming my script and looking through some of the footage it is clear that there are some minor problems. These problems which I am about to talk to you about is that of the whole actor / friend issue.

I have realised that whilst filming, it was hard to control my actors. I say actors but really I mean my friends. I ended up using two friends here from Nottingham who I know from the university. They are not trained actors and I have little knowledge of their past experiences of acting. Yes, I know, big mistake on my behalf. But at the time it was just ... well.... a lot simpler and easier.

I’ve come to realise that I had to do 90% of the work of telling them what to do, rather than fine tuning their performance. We recently had some seminars on how we should interact with actors and how to get the best from them. Being able to give them emotive actions without actually demonstrating what it is we want. This allows actors to bring more then just what you tell them to the table.

I do slightly regret using friends at this point, although they were brilliant about helping me with the project, they were just not up to acting standards and what I was looking for in my film. It was all very casual and this affected my scheduling. So, my fault indeed.

I think I chose not to use actors due to my confidence in working with them. The easy way out is to get someone you know who you can already talk to like a friend. This was a big mistake. I realise now that I should have used actors and done my research for them. But because I didn't have all the knowledge and confidence I didn't think it would work out as well. I think this will show in my final edit.

From now on I will be using actors for each piece of work I do. It is very important to get the right person for the right job. You don’t get a carpenter to do open heart surgery (but I guess you can try in my case), you will get a shoddy result and that is something I’m trying to steer clear of.

Surgery Reflection

2009-03-03T04:50:00.000-08:00

I've just had a surgery with Deb which was very informative and eye opening to say the least. Well usually when I talk to any tutor is generally helps (although I don't always like it because I usually feel like I’m being told off, but all in the name of progression and learning I guess).

We talked about the briefs so I could get a better understanding of exactly what was going on. I do have a very good picture of what is required but it was mainly just to seal it into my brain.

Many of us (if not all) missed our proposal presentation on week 29. This unfortunately was completely all of the student's fault and I take the entirety of my blame as we were given fair warning. Obviously this asks the question, what the hell were we doing?!?! I don't know what came over me at this point in time and I really regret not turning up. After talking to Deb, it is clear that we are going to get a bollocking about this, but her suggestion was to take the blow, move on, and improve upon the criticism. This is the best way to overcome this disaster.

I’m being totally honest here and I can probably say that at the time I just couldn’t be bothered, or that I hadn't done enough work and was too scared to turn up with nothing. But I have to realise that I'm here for 1 reason: To get myself a Job in this industry. There is no point flouncing about with the projects if I’m not going to learn anything relevant for the working world of AV production, I may as well quit. But I don't want to do that because this is something I'd really like to get into because I do enjoy it.

I think it's very important to remember that they are assessing us on how professional our work is and how assimilated to the real world of work it is. To go above and beyond the simple briefs that the uni set and produce something that can be recognised as professional work rather than just "uni work". So yes I regret not going to my proposal presentation because I realise that this is a key factor in AV production. Asking for funding to produce a piece of work may not be relevant for the work I’m producing now but will be for when I leave and I have to start thinking like this always when it comes to uni work: To treat it like professional work, as if I’m being paid to do it.

Although this is quite a depressing rant and it feels like I’ve been lazy, it’s all true. I should be doing more work and learning as much as possible to excel my career and prospects. I think the best plan of action is that I have realised this and have turned it into a blogging post. This not only puts it down on paper, it seals it into my brain and is something I won’t be forgetting about. I have to be able to look at the big picture from now on by seeing where my work is able to take me for the future and not where it will take me for now.

One last comment which is completely different to this issue is that I always like to have some form of picture or video in each post, makes it less boring and the big scary wall of text won’t scare people away so much, so here’s something a little random.

Fictional / Personal Project Progress

2009-03-02T03:04:00.000-08:00

The last few weeks have been quite hectic. I've been to America, finished pre-production ready for production, filmed my production alongside another project for my society all in the space of two weeks. And thought it was about time I posted something.

So far work has been going ok, the filming is now done and all is digitized. There are a few problems with some audio with some of the shots but since I took so many I'll hopefully be able to work around this. I'm yet to start editing due to the fact I’m working on another project for my society. In all fairness my course work should come first but I’m just enjoying this other one so much since it wasn't something I was asked to do.

My production file for my uni work is coming along nicely and is much better than first term. I have learnt a lot during my time here and especially in my second year. I was told by Deb we are marked on where we are at the end of the year and not how well we do during the year. This makes sense because surely if you do an outstanding piece of work during the first few months when you are still learning the basics then you will certainly improve upon this to keep the same standard or better. So hopefully my work will be significantly better, I can already feel it becoming a much better rounded project.

Anywho, that’s what I've been up to. More posts to come after I've done a bit more work.

Gripes with Frame Forge 3D

2009-02-20T08:01:00.000-08:00

Erg. Where to start, I'm generally a happy person. But when you stick a program such as Frame Forge 3D in front of me I seem to just turn into the green hulky thing. However I don't really get green and I don't go around trashing the place, I just sit there in my chair getting upset at how annoying the program is.

We were asked to use frame forge to visualise the main shots that we will be using in our fictional work. Basically they wanted us to use it like a story board. While this program suits people who can't draw to save their life, it is a pain in the ass to use. It is very time consuming and in my personal opinion it looks rubbish when you see the final result. I would much rather have just shown my storyboards as they are so much easier to do and give you the option of drawing much more detail. So yeah, that’s all that I had to say. I don't like frame forge :( ha

Arnold Town Football Club

2009-02-09T00:25:00.000-08:00

I recently did some portfolio work for a PR company called BCS. We were asked to create a 3-4 minute piece on Arnold Town Football Club just outside of Nottingham. I've uploaded a good version to Vimeo (woot, I have Vimeo plus now so no more suffering with YouTube) which I will embed below. Any comments are appreciated. Thanks.

Sound Design

2009-02-08T08:56:00.000-08:00

Recently had a seminar on sound design and how important & integral to AV production it really is. A film is 50% video and 50% Audio. Any unequal mix of these will result in a weird quality of production. I was asked to find an example I liked depending on it's sound design. My example would have to be the intro to Apocalypse Now.

It’s non-diagetic sound overlays the napalming of jungles from the Vietnam War. It gives the viewer a dream like state, an out of body experience. This is emphasised by the transparent images that are over-layed on top of the helicopters. However if the sound of the helicopters were to play, you would be much more focus on what was happening and have a much more selected focus on what you want to view. I think it’s a good example of sound design in film. This scene could be made so many other ways but the sound really makes it what it is.

YouTube vs Vimeo

2009-02-08T07:37:00.000-08:00

Ok I've got some beef with YouTube. As everyone knows YouTube is a free video viral site which you can host your lovely homemade videos. I personally have a YouTube account (hence the nature of my course) but unfortunately every time I upload a piece of work, the quality gets ripped out of it and I’m left with a tiny tear-ridden screen with poor images. Vimeo on the other hand is brilliant. You can also get a free account on this but it limits your upload to 500 mb a week. Compared to YouTube’s unlimited upload amounts, it's quite poor. Anyway... Vimeo's quality is far superior to that of YouTube's. Have a look for yourself. Two identical clips: 1 from YouTube and 1 from Vimeo, I’ll let you decide which is better.

VIMEO

YOUTUBE

The clips are from a band called Fall Of Troy (awesome!) anywho. As you can see YouTube is far worse in quality compared to Vimeo.

So conclusion - Time to get Vimeo Pro!

Gantt Chart for my 2nd Term

2009-02-04T08:31:00.001-08:00

I thought it would be a good idea to organise my time well this term. I made a Gantt chart for this reason. It’s missing quite a few points but I've picked out points which I could remember off the top of my head. There are other things I will be doing that aren’t mentioned in this Gantt chart hence why I have put a sort of overall timeline over the top of it all with Pre-Production / Production / Post-Production and contingency time. I hope to be done by early March, that’s the goal. ^_^

Click to make bigger

EDIT: I had another look at this the other day. I realised that there are some errors which should be ignored. Such as editing and Digitizing should be switched round with their duration!

Character Study for Script

2009-02-03T10:16:00.000-08:00

Sorry for the lack of posting, been a little bit busy with things recently. Here is a character study of my 2 main roles from my script. Will upload the script a bit later.

Sam Smith is a 21 year old male with high ambitions. However small these ambitions are, he is eager to achieve them by any means possible. Sam is an overweight student at university who has indulged in greasy fast foods for too long. Upon reaching university with a higher rule of independent and social control, he realises that he must change his lifestyle in order to be healthy and to gain a wider acceptance in his social standing. Sam likes to be sociable and have friends around him. But only when he has the confidence to do so. Others perceive Sam to be a nice person but someone who shy’s away too much when really he has a lot to contribute. On observing the world around him, himself and his best friend, Sam’s motivation is that of improvement for himself. He is willing to make sacrifices for the greater good as long as he can be happy and achieve what he wants in the end: To be fit and healthy with better social control.

Tim Jenkins is also a 21 year old male at the same university as Sam. Tim is a slender man who is unfit, weak and scrawny compared to his counterpart Sam. Tim has managed to attain this by the same methods as Sam via the lack of control of his diet: Eating little food that is bad for him, which does not give him enough daily nourishment and in turn causes him to look pale and unhealthy. Tim is Sam’s best friend. They live very near each other and have attended secondary school together since they were young. The two get on well with a similar sense of humour. However when they disagree, talks continue with stalemate with both believing they are correct. Tim like Sam does not have many friends but does not care for improvement in one’s self. This causes confliction between the two friends.

Initial Story Outline

2009-01-21T10:13:00.000-08:00

After much brainstorming and messy pages I have decided to go with this story. At the moment it's just an outline and the script hasn't been fully formed yet but it has promise, I can feel it!

I have had a few other ideas such as 2 friends who are hypersomniacs, only 1 of them doesn't realise it. This is more of a comedy then anything. I decided to go with the idea above as I probably know it best and is something I will able to work well on due to my own knowledge. The next thing to do is some more research and character development/study. After that I’ll start to form a sturdier script to show the director and actress and see what they think.

ooo, I also plan to have an unexpected ending. The only problem with this is that it can make the finished story sad :(. However I know a way around this. Exciting!

Self Reflection & Ideations for the Future

2009-01-18T10:25:00.000-08:00

After reading Micheal Rabigers book (which I've posted about before) I've done some of the exersices to help focus which storys I'm best suited to tell. I.e. Which types of stories do I personally know best from my own experiences. Here is what I have written:

One thing is for sure. My hand writting is quite abstract!

A Story by my GF ^_^

2009-01-18T10:14:00.000-08:00

Using words that I spurted out randomly whilst watching TV, she managed to come up with this elaborate story-->

Fish, Horses and Other Animals

2009-01-17T15:18:00.000-08:00

First of all I'm not writing about the ecology of animals, rather more about the creative field of work. This book by Jim Shorthose was on the reading list last term. Actually scrub that, no it wasn't. It was recommended by my lecturer to be used whilst I was writing my essay about networking. Unfortunately due to such high demand and only 3 copies in the library I was only able to read the 3 hour loan version and I didn't get too far on the one. Oh well.

After numerous requests it finally came in with the New Year commencing and I have only just got my hands on it a few days ago. So I thought I'd post a little about it.

I'm now about 50 dense pages in. Although not a long book it is fairly solid with text and pretty pictures. The concepts it comes up with are good and these are relevant. These are relevant because the book was produced with the Nottingham Creative Network in mind. It gives good foundations for business plans, networking and being successful in the creative field also referred to as the "weightless industry" due to the fact that creativity is a weightless thing (ideas and concepts).

One thing I’ll pick out since this was meant to be a short post about the book and not an in depth review. An issue of working for the industry is that you can lose creative focus. Shaping your own autonomous work made with your own personal motivation can be a beautiful thing. However it is sometimes required to bend the work for commercial success. I think it is very important to keep individuality and autonomy in creativity for work to stay partly unique. Although almost all work is not original, it is possible to have an edge.

Any who, got to get back to finishing this book. Laters

Self Evaluation for Module 1

2009-01-15T05:31:00.000-08:00

MM Student self-evaluation report

Name & number: Tom Pearson – N0179991 Module/Pathway:Audiovisual
Project/ Assignment title: Soul City
Self-evaluation is a reflective process assessing and describing your learning experiences and the results you have achieved in your project. A transparent (fair, candid) and well-written self-evaluation will help you identify and recognise your strengths and areas for improvement. It will also help you become more familiar with your own working and design process for the purpose of improving and implement strategies for your future projects.
(word count- 500-800)

The main ideas and intentions that I was trying to express in the project were:

Initial ideas led us to that of a busker. We found it hard to come up with the idea in the first place and I felt we wasted a lot of time for the first half of creating our documentary. We wanted to show the life of a busker, why he sits on the streets earning money in the cold city of Nottingham. Do other factors affect his busking? and how we can translate that into a 4 minute story about this person.

The methods I use to develop my ideas were: (brainstorming, creating a concept map, visual research, storyboards, try different techniques etc)

I first used self brainstorming to come up with initial ideas. Each person in the group achieved this and we collaborated together to decide on 1 of them. After this we did a storyboard and initial concepts such as post-production filters and text to fit in with our story. We decided on main shots that we should use and what the content should be about.

I took a risk by trying something new. (Explain)

I decide to be director. Personally I don’t know a vast amount about the director. My knowledge is fairly good but it could be better on the subject. I realised that director entails the creative vision of the whole project and that was something I would like to try. To make the project more my own in a way. Although I did enjoy it I felt that I ultimately didn’t have enough control over editing and organisation of the whole group. I think that I would have been much better suited to producer or editor.

Some of the unexpected problems I had to solve while working were:

The irregularity of our busker who we had to interview: It was hard to get a hold of him on the phone. This was due to the fact that his phone was only switched on at certain times. This time was used as contingency as we wasted a day or two trying to contact him. Other problems include general technical issues with equipment. We later solved this by simply re-doing.

The decisions and choices I made to help solve these problems were:

Overall organisation of the group, when and where we meet. The booking of cameras and the collaboration with our subject: Sam Lindo the busker. I felt that I took on the producer role more then directing at times due to the amount of people in our group (we had a total of 3 ). Although this is bad as I wasn’t solely focused on my role I felt it necessary to progress our documentary and therefore had to take actions.

The most interesting or challenging thing that I achieved was:

Actually organising to make a documentary about a person is very interesting. I found that working with another person not part of production is very fulfilling in itself as well. Due to the nature of what we were doing there was a slight lack of control which made it more exciting because although we can shape and model what we want him to say, ultimately he is the one who is saying it and at the end of the day that is that.

The things I have learnt from this particular project were: (Specific examples should be cited.)

. Team needs to work fluidly

. Persuasion from the editor with which shot would look better/shorter/longer etc
. Getting everything organised at the right time is key to success

. Pre-planning is important, the more you do the better it will be

. Don’t fall out with team mates: there are quibbles but ultimately you don’t want the cogs to stop turning

. making sure equipment is setup extremely well before any shot/sound recording.

If I were to do this project again I would change or do differently:

. Find people that you know are good to work with. I could go about this by: word of mouth, research into work they have done, referrals, CV and previous work done.

. I would personally change the roles of some of the group members: we found we were better suited to different roles. I would like to be Producer or Editor rather then director.

. Much more pre-planning and research for a more interesting piece of work. Our documentary was very focused on a busker in Nottingham and the city itself. To broaden this and make the story better in the first place would have been better.

A new project that might grow out of my experience maybe:

Other short films relevant to my interests and those of others around me. I think working as a group has helped my networking and I feel confident in asking for people to help as a team for creating a new piece of AV. I feel that the next project I do will be more closely related to my own experiences. This will ensure I have a greater passion and knowledge which will in due course create a superb piece of work which i can be proud of.

I have achieved the following learning outcomes for this module and my evidence is:

. I recognise the roles required in AV production and feel that some have been done well and some not so. As I have mentioned earlier I felt that the organisation was important to keep things rolling. We did this by face to face contact of discussion, emails and also meetings.

. Choosing the role of director I had quite a command for the visual flow of the whole thing from beginning to finish. I took on my best efforts to fulfil the role of director. However at low points during production, I had to motivate and take action to organise my team to do the best that they could.

. By reading you understand, but by doing you know. Reading books has also helped in understanding the key roles in Av production. It helped focus my work as director and has given me a better understanding of other roles. As director this is necessary as you must command a whole production team. Fortunately for me my team was small during this work. Proof of this can be seen on my blog and older blogs alongside my library overdue loans . A book of great help was Directing, film techniques and aesthetics by Michael Rabiger. I bought this recently and it is the bible for directing.

AV Coursework and Assessment for Term 2

2009-01-11T09:28:00.000-08:00

Here is the brief for term 2:

Stage 2 Fictional Study: Presentation 20/03/2009

To do: Using the research done in stage 1 produce a script for a 6 minute fictional AV work that centres around two main characters. Produce a proposal for your film and Using Frame Forge include
a full storyboard for your film to visualise how your film will be structured, how it will look and feel. Prepare and shoot your film, then from your footage create a 1 minute pilot of your finished film that
demonstrates the quality and content of your work.

Presentation: Proposals will be presented to the tutors in week 29. You will present all the work you have done at the end of this fictional study. To evidence your work you will be expected to show:

1. Production file containing at least - Full script, documentation of research, design, planning and
preproduction material (digital format) including frame forge visualisations.

2. A proposal for a fictional study.

3. On disk – 40 second AV pilot.

4. In your journal – entries that documents and reflect upon your practice.

N.B Every student must produce a film but is expected to use other course team members to help them in the production phase of the project.

Term 2 / Royalty free music and Micheal Rabiger

2009-01-11T09:03:00.000-08:00

Well back to university in the harsh weather that is January. I think It tipped -10 C a few nights ago but at least it will be getting warmer soon.

So what can I say about the break. It was nice, Christmas as usual with the relatives round. Some nice clothes and money to keep me going through this next term of study. It was all very peachy! But back to work. I've been mulling over some Ideas for my script over the break which aren’t quite ready for showing as of yet. This term we must produce a script and pilot for an idea we have for a short film. (I will put up the exact details of what I'm doing in the next post). I'll also be posting these soon enough.

After our attempt at short documentary in the first term, alongside some criticisms that wasn't so great, I have taken on board what has been said and what I must do better to achieve improved outcomes (because If you don't do this you just become an ignorant & arrogant film maker). One point that I thought I'd pick up on in this post was that of royalty free music. Although we didn’t use any music other than a live recording of our subject playing his guitar, it was the content he was playing which might of infringed on some laws. Luckily this won’t be used for profitable outcome. But obviously this won’t happen again and something that will stick in my mind when creating something like this. Nonetheless, there are ways around this. Royalty free music is music created by someone that allows you to use it in profitable work. Fortunately I've found some websites that also give away free royalty free music. This is brilliant! Here is an example: incompetech

My last point of this post was the talk about Micheal Ribiger's book Directing, Film Techniques and Aesthetics. I bought this over Christmas as it was on the reading list and was highly recommended by peers and academics. I have to say it is quite amazing! Although I haven’t read the whole thing yet, it is very enlightening and gives knowledge that I wouldn’t have thought of.

That’s all for now, going to make sushi!

Documentary Progress pt 8 - Editing Diary

2008-12-12T15:25:00.000-08:00

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.

Documentary Progress pt 7 - More Production Stills

2008-12-04T12:41:00.000-08:00

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:

Documentary Progress pt 6 - Production Stills

2008-12-03T12:42:00.001-08:00

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!

Boooooom!

2008-12-03T06:39:00.000-08:00

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.

Documentary Progress pt 5 - Interview Questions

2008-11-23T10:18:00.000-08:00

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?

Mise-en-scène

2008-11-19T13:54:00.001-08:00

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.

Documentary Progress pt 4 - Proposal Presentation

2008-11-13T10:36:00.001-08:00

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.

Documentary Progress pt 3 - Doc Research

2008-11-12T15:01:00.000-08:00

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.

Documentary Progress pt2 - Recce Pics

2008-11-07T01:54:00.000-08:00

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.

Documentary Progress pt1

2008-11-06T11:18:00.000-08:00

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.

Don't Panic

2008-11-05T11:28:00.000-08:00

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<----------------------------

Hello World

2008-10-22T10:10:00.000-07:00

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.