uri ilan

Long time no see

2011-10-24T04:22:00.000-07:00

Ok its been a long time since iv even been on this blog, to be honest i had some trouble remembering what it was called.

So whats happening?

Got back to Uni, Laptop broke, met some people, got loads of work to do.

After that?

Fixed laptop after a month (thanks acer, really sensitive to the amount of work iv got to do), attempted some work, finished one deadline, struggling with the rest.

In depth?

Ok so im happy with my research topic, im a tad worried that it might not be relevant at the moment but im sure i can fit in somewhere. I find it really interesting and technology is always moving forward so there has to be something there. The topic is "digital cinema and how it has impacted the movie theater" in short.

The client project iv had a little trouble with, first idea was not going to work, i didnt like it at all. but i like my new one. Its going to be a long the style of E4's Fonejacker, showing a real (simulated) phone call from one of the call centers, getting an alumni to give charity. - I like it.

And the last one is the Business report, my idea is to do with advertising. The idea is to have screens on vans that people can rent out and of course we make a short video for those screens to advertise their event or what not.

FInally, saw this vid and makes me happy im from london. Also its amazing and cant take my eyes off.

London Bus Tour from moritz oberholzer on Vimeo.

Adobe Hell

2011-02-27T02:17:00.000-08:00

I haven't posted in a bit so Ill give an update. Documentary is going well, filmed everything now its just up to editing and possibly a few more montages to be filmed.

Essay is on its way, half way but struggling to be honest. However i am enjoying it more than the previous essays which is odd. I have storyboarded by title sequence and also discussed it with Jools who gave a few good ideas which i will put into it. I was hoping to film this weekend but haven't been able to.

I ordered Adobe Production Premium and it came this week so i have been playing about on it and trying to get to grips with it....finding it hard! I have been watching tutorials and sort of getting the hang of things on AE but Photoshop is a mind boggle and think I'm going to need someone to teach me how to use it.

I have made the title for by title sequence that would be shown at the end of the 20 seconds...

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Its heavily copied from a tutorial but i have tweaked a lot of things to make it more appropriate for the film.

I have also come up with some ideas for the documentary...while the voice over is happening instead of films being shown, we can use 3d moving still images. Here is one i made and i think it will add some uniqueness to the film.

Documentaries and bad food

2011-01-18T01:02:00.000-08:00

OK so I'm not feeling too well, think i had some bad food yesterday and been up all night, but other than that everything is good.

After presenting our film last week, I'm happy to say that I'm genuinely proud of what we made. We first saw film which i thought looked amazing and the presentation of their group work was genius! However i feel i have to comment on their presentation on the film tea. To be honest i was a bit shocked, when evaluating someone Else's work, especially if its a group project i think that you shouldn't give it the 'Simon Cowell' approach. I believe they said something along the lines of "This scene was good and we thought that it was out of place because it was the only shot that didn't lack imagination". Some constructive critism guys! Tea's evaulation of our work was good, i think they did a good job.

Anyway!!

So we have started our documentary project which im excited about, we had an introduction to it with Jeanie Finlay, a documentary maker based in Nottingham. She was really interesting and helpful and i personally think the best guest speaker we have had. We had to come up with ideas for documentaries and film a teaser a proposal for it. Phil came up with loads of good ideas and we decided to stick with a documentary about the characters in an english pub which evolved to the decline of the english pub which was a stronger topic.

We went out with our equipment and went to the nearest pub so that we would 100% have something filmed. We got in and asked to film the pub and they said no problem however they didnt want to be filmed and niether did the custoemrs which was unhelpful but we worked around it. We filmed a lot of shots and then went looking for a different pub down the street, However it was closed which kind of prooved our point. When we got back i started working on a proposal and the other boys in the group worked on editing. We kept our proposal short and sweet and used traditional and patriotic music in th background which helped our proposal a lot!

After everyone had gone Jeanie and jools said that ours would be the film that they would commission because of the proposal which we were chuffed at.

Overall, a good start to the documentary project. (However im feeling awful)

2011!

2011-01-01T06:42:00.001-08:00

ok this is the first time I have had time to sit down and think about uni. I have been working non-stop! as soon as i got home from Uni, that evening I was at work and because it was xmas i didn't have a day off until today...well of course xmas day but couldn't do anything then.

Ok so that's my excuse.

I have to write up the notes I have on our film as well as write about the film my group will be evaluating (Feel). We showed our film and it had some mixed reviews. My group think that it was very good and actually told a story as well as made the audience have to think rather than watch....I have to admit the music was a bit overpowering but it will be sorted out by the time we are back. have to give praise to Alex for editing the film so well.

The film that we are evaluating is Feel, which i have to admit looked amazing and Ben did a fantastic job directing it. there were a few bits which i didn't like as well. Il get on the them in detail when we give our presentation but they were mainly things like continuity errors.

Other news, I've been looking at the essay brief and just wrote up a quick swot analysis so it should come along in a bit.

O almost forgot, watched a couple of good films during Christmas, as you do. Christmas Tv was bollocks this year btw.

The films were Prophet, a french film about a north African prisoner in France and the divide between the french and Arabs, as well as how he coped and survived in prison. the next film was Lebanon, an Israeli film about the 1982 was in Lebanon. The majority of the film is filmed inside a tank with some shots looking through the scope of the tank to see the outside. I thought this film was amazing and so clever. Recommended and if you do watch it, let me know what you think.

Behind the scenes

2010-12-02T11:32:00.000-08:00

Heres the behind the scenes for Train....

Train. Behind The Scenes. from Petalblossom on Vimeo.

Ooops forgot about you!

2010-11-25T07:45:00.000-08:00

K i haven't posted in a while, must have slipped my mind which is not a good thing at all. But anyway here's whats gone on in the time I haven't posted:

- New Project, so the project was to make a 6 minute film in a group. We were in groups of 7 and all had a role to play, I was the producer. I got the role because basically I just asked for it and it seemed that no one else wanted to do it. Was quite happy about that one! Some of the other roles were fought over but sorted out nicely. After we agreed on the roles we read our script, Train which was written by Jools. At first we didn't like it that much, we didn't think that it ended very well so changed it, MASSIVELY!!! then a whole lot of organising and planning went ahead. I found the location which was a student house in west bridgeford that suited the script so well, it was if the house and street were made for the story! so we got risk assessments and recce forms all made up and we were set to make a proposal to the group and our lecturers. OK so all was good, or so we thought...turns out we got the script so wrong and jools was furious (in that situation he seemed it, I bet he really wasn't that bad) so he explained and we saw the error of our ways and changed it. All coming together nicely now. We got our second set of storyboards done and then it came time to rehearse. Rehearsals went really well, this was when we met our actors for the first time and they were perfect, this made director, assis director and I really excited to film now.

The day was finally upon us, shoot day! so i had all the equipment in my car and the actors wanted to drive themselves to the location which meant all of us had a ride there and back which was amazing! it started of slow, this was no ones fault really was just a case of getting used to how to work with the actors and get the best performance and footage. it all started to flow better and everything was done....There were no hiccups really, just losing the chalk a few times and Alex losing his keys which after 20 minutes of searching found them in his pockets.

Now were are just waiting for Alex (Editor) and Andrew (sound) to finish it all up and then we can all move along.

Another thing that happend was the Network Essay. I quite enjoyed this essay, didnt find it as boring or pointless as the last one I did and also got a desent grade on it, B-, think il just say B from now on!

Researched Companies

2010-11-02T01:52:00.000-07:00

Just some of the companies that I have been looking at for context 2 Essay:

Company 1 – Raw Cut TV

www.rawcut.tv
Small company based in London

Creates Police/crime shows however delving into new areas and shows

already completed 2 weeks of work experience there

Company 2 - Radical Media
www.radicalmedia.com/
Large Company (International, base in London)
Music Videos, Adverts, Entertainment, Photography

Company 3 – Scorch London
http://www.scorchlondon.com
Based in London
Web videos, Cinema/TV Adverts, Short Films

Rejected Companies
• Skeleton Productions
- www.skeletonproductions.com
- Nottingham

• Hub TV
- www.hub.tv
- London

• DocuMovie
- www.documovie.co.uk
- London
- Makes Very short documentaries

• Landmark Films
- www.landmarkfilms.com
- Documentaries

Fasion Show

2010-10-31T09:41:00.000-07:00

KK so me and will got some work filming a fashion show for Baa Bar. It was an experience but really hectic...

We went there a week in advance to see the venue and get some ideas, one the night (a week later) all was going to plan until WIll realised that we were running out of memorey, fast! so after 10 mins, £10, awkward taxi convo and me catching a cold we had more memory.

Other than that all went well and hope you enjoy...

http://vimeo.com/16194833

Fashion Show rehearsal edit

2010-10-14T11:35:00.000-07:00

So we went to the rehearsal fashion show on Wednesday, I got a parking ticket which I'm not happy about. However it was a real eye opener! There were so many idea going about and me and Will were just bouncing those ideas off each other.

Will went back to his because the videos were not working on my computer and just threw this together. I was listening to loads of tracks and found this song, "Battlefields" by Fenech-Soler. The song goes amazingly well with the video and the way we want it to turn out, So i gave it to Will and he added it.

Hockleys Test Footage Cut from william on Vimeo.

BMX vid

2010-10-14T11:30:00.000-07:00

Not really a big fan of BMX vids but as soon as this video started I couldnt take my eyes off it.

I think it goes on a bit but i really like the slomo they use and the lighting is amazing.

See more funny videos and Funny Videos at Today's Big Thing.

Fashion Show

2010-10-12T12:20:00.000-07:00

So on Sunday my mate Will went to film the rundance event happening in Lace Market. He got talking to some people and got a gig filming a Fashion Show next week. He told them about me and got me involved.

So me and Will, are off to rehearsals for the Fashion show tomorrow. We got the equipment out and are trying to learn how to use the new Panasonic Camera before tomorrow. Ive been watching some fashion shows and taking notes because i have no idea what to expect.

But I will update on how it goes and hopefully will get some more stuff to do from this...

Another video im a fan of

2010-10-07T08:21:00.001-07:00

Sorry but over the summer ive seen some preety cool stuff and thought id share. This video is really good, goes so well with the lyrics and you notice something new everytime you see it. I should know, iv seen it over 30 times!!

Best thing ive seen in a while

2010-10-07T08:18:00.001-07:00

Have to give these guys some credit, not only a catchy song but what a video! Genius!

Back to uni and work experience

2010-10-07T07:50:00.000-07:00

So the course has started again and im surprised at how many people are doing moving image! However they all seem to be good guys and hopefully good to work with this year.

After working a part time job and a bit of work experience I am looking forward to start learning again. Not that the job and work exp wasn't fulfilling but i guess i get a lot more out of this course now.

The work experience that i did was with a company called Raw Cut tv. This company produces Street Wars, Police Interceptors etc. I got the job because my dad knows the Boss as he was on the show a couple of years ago from being robbed. So i had one week planned to go and work for them.

I knew the jobs that id be doing; mainly making tea, washing up, cleaning, sorting etc and i was right! but while i was there i realised how much i could learn from the people working their, with actual experience of the industry under their belt. So i started talking to everyone there (it was a small company) and asked what uni they went to and how they got the job. By doing this, i got a lot of information on what to do in the future and what the industry expects. at first this made me panic as i found out that making tea is a big part of it! However with anything you want, you have to work hard at it and be persistent. After my week was done, i got a call from the Boss asking if i wanted more work, even though i had plans that week, i would have been a fool to turn it down. So i went in with the expectation of making tea for another week. But this week was different, some of the staff had gone to Glastonbury to film for Green Peace and they had a lot of footage that needed to be watched and sorted. This was really good as i got to see the fun side of what i could be doing in the future. The best part of the whole experience had to be the last day. One of the Assistant Editors (he was like my sensai) asked me to have a go editing some footage of a skate park that was made from recycled wood for green peace. He put me on a mac with final cut pro and taught me the basics. so i was on that for the whole day and what i made i was really happy with. My sensai came in to look at it and was shocked, a real confidence booster! Unfortunately i was unable to get the video off their system as it crashed and was my last day. But i will get it!

what a documentary...or should I say ROCKUMENTARY!!

2010-05-11T13:37:00.000-07:00

I just watched Anvil, a documentary about a Heavy metal rock band that started off 30 years ago and got nowhere.

As heavy metal goes, im not a fan at all. But this film was amazing! it had great music during the scenes when it mattered, great shots and most of all the story of the band was great.

Really recomend it!

House

2010-05-11T11:37:00.000-07:00

I just watched the new episode of House and realised how they used light to show a flashback or in that case, inside House's mind.

Every light or reflection of light was really bright and glared across the screen. It was a really good way of showing that what was happening wasnt happening at that exact point and was a recollection of what had already happened.

Update

2010-05-11T08:32:00.000-07:00

I havent been on this is ages and therefore have not written about all that gone on in the past few weeks.

So the film is now finally done...after 4 attempts. I'm just finishing editing it and it looks good, the sound has come out better than expected but of course there is a a lot that i don't like and need to get rid of. We all worked really well as a group and there were only three of us which meant that we all had two jobs each. It was a bit more work but 100% worth it.

Now I'm starting my 3D lair, which i have decided to not make a "secret lair" but just a lair. My inspiration has come from a film i just saw a few weeks ago, Centurion.

The film was about a Roman Legion and there were many scenes inside big tents with elaborate furniture and weapons scattered around. It really interested me so i decided to base my lair on that.

I have also spent a lot of time on my Visual Essay which im not so cinfident about. I think i have included too much writting and completly missed the whole point. However i like it and think that it shows what i really do enjoy about my chosen path way...its a work in progress.

Seriously Strong Chedder

2010-03-24T13:10:00.001-07:00

My friend showed me this advert which i thought was so clever and funny, thought id share it...

Disaster

2010-03-24T13:06:00.000-07:00

So we got a new actress for our film really quickly, this meant we could get straight onto filming. Everything was going well, we had the storyboard and shot list to hand and everything went smoothly. There were some hick ups, the tripod was loose again but that happened just at the end and the camera battery ran out.

Today we went to edit the film and capture it...

However we couldnt because the picture was awful and this is because the camera heads were not clean. SO all our footage has to be scrapped and we wont be able to do any until after term. On the positive side, the shots looked amazing and everything went to plan. Hopefully this is just something we can learn from and take positives from it.

Long Two Days

2010-03-21T12:23:00.000-07:00

After filming last week and deciding that we needed to re shoot most things. Me and Will have come up with a new storyboard, new shot list and even new script. We Have also encountered a major problem. The actress that we used for the first day of filming cant do this week. This means that we cant use any of the previous footage because we will have a new actress.

Filming Day 1

2010-03-17T10:48:00.000-07:00

Today we had an early start so that we could get our film filmed for Fridays lecture. We went to our location and started rehearsing, then we started to get our equipment out and discovered that we had not been given a microphone. This set us back a lot because Ben had to drive back and get it. Once we started, things started to go well. We were getting good shots, the actors were doing well and the location proved to be a good choice. Then we started to run out of time and because one of the actors is in a play on Friday, today would have been our last opportunity this week to film him...So we rushed! this caused us to get the worst shots and to be honest nothing flowed. The sound from the buses outside was awful and this meant stopping and starting a lot. Once we got back we decided to watch through what we had filmed and try and edit it. This just proved to us how much rushing it had cost us. Were planning to re shoot everything next week and hopefully spend more time on it.

Filming

2010-03-10T07:45:00.000-08:00

SO our new project is a moving image one which im really excited about because its what i want to move into. We were put into groups (ours is a a group of 3) and then were given a script which we had to read and interpret. We were give the script "Ticket" which was quite a hard read but i think we interpreted well. We then had to choose our roles in the film making... I got Director which means i have to rewrite the cript, create some storyboards and work with the actors. I also have to work with the camera operator for camera shots. Im enoying this project so far a lot more than flash because flash was just me in my room working till late and getting really frustrated.

The other day we went looking for a location to film in...we have altered the story so that it does not take place at a bus stop but a cafe. We decided to try the a cafe which we thought would be perfect first just to get the dissapointment out the way, however we got really lucky and they said it would be no problem, so we had a drink, got some contact details and were on our way.

Now im in the process of rewriting the script, i have all the camera shots on a seperate piece of paper and am including them in the script. I just have the last scene to write which is the one we are adding.

The wrestler

2010-02-25T08:19:00.000-08:00

Iv just seen the film the wrestler and really liked the way it was filmed. there was a lot of documentary type filming even though it wasn't, this was mainly filming over the main characters shoulder and following him about. The ending was pretty cool as well, it just ended with him jumping off the turnbuckle with no definitive ending of what path he takes.

Finally finished my quiz

2010-02-23T10:19:00.000-08:00

I think iv sorted out all the problems except one which is that the music does not stop when the button is clicked to go to the next question. I have made a note on it on the quiz but that does not sort out the problem...Iv added a bit of animation and from the feedback that i got from some users i decided to add some colour as they said it was boring, Even though i was going for a simple look.

Match It Final by ~uri3200 on deviant ART

Match it - Interactive Quiz

2010-02-12T13:52:00.000-08:00

Just a taster of the quiz, still have to work out how to make sound when the button is pushed and make the ending more exciting

Match it by ~uri3200 on deviant ART

Flash is killing me

2010-02-11T04:00:00.000-08:00

I was up till 5 last night trying to put sounds on my buttons, this meant watching hundreds of tutorials and a lot of trial and error. I realised that i couldnt put sound on with another efffect i had on the buttons. The buttons now move out to the right when the mouse is over them and back in when the mouse moves off. I like this effect but will still try to add sound and if not will put sound in somewhere else.

Flash Quiz

2010-02-08T18:00:00.000-08:00

I'm half way through my flash quiz and am having doubts...the idea is an association game which would include images, words, sounds etc. I tried to base the design on a famous online flash quiz, The stupid Test. However i really don't like the idea now, and i think that i will hate going along with it, so I'm going to keep the idea of the game and questions that i have made and start redesigning it.

Cool short film 2

2010-02-07T06:40:00.000-08:00

Found the original website for "Whats in the box"....

http://babel-research.eu/witb/stream/

Cool short film

2010-02-07T06:37:00.000-08:00

I was watching some short films and came across this one which i really liked...only short but leaves you gagging to know what happens next which is annoying as i don't think they brought out another one. Its not great quality, couldn't find the original one which I've see before, but still a good short film with great effects.

What's in the box? 'Test Film 2009' video

3D Edit

2010-02-05T05:40:00.000-08:00

My friend came to stay with me this week and showed me this video which i really liked and have watched a couple times since seeing it the first time. Its a 3D edit of a cod movie which i have been told the skills are bad. However the editing is really clever, i like how they made someone fall through the ceiling when they were shot through the floor, which doesn't really happen in the game.

Zero de conduite

2010-02-05T05:33:00.000-08:00

This week we watched a french film called "Zero de conduite" (Zero for conduct, 1933). The film was based around the experiences of Jean Virgo, the writer, in a boarding school. The film was created in 1933 and banned in France as it was seen to start influencing rebellion. It was the first film to include slow motion in it as well as being a very influential film to future writers.

However i did not enjoy the film so much as i found it hard to follow. I thought the scenes were too scattered which i wouldnt have minded it they connected better, but they didnt.

Colour

2010-01-25T10:34:00.000-08:00

I recently watch one of my favourite films....Schindler's list. Other than Liam Neesons amazing performance and Spielberg's fantastic job, i realised what made the film so special...The colour! The idea of making the film black and white with only a bit of colour is genius! it makes things that usually wouldn't stand out; The little girls red coat and the glowing yellow shabbat candles each were there to make an impact and keep the viewer involved in the film. Without saying anything, the viewer can see that there is still a lot of hope withing the Jewish people through the colour of the candles. Spielberg did not want to butify the Holocaust and wanted to make the film timeless, colour adds beauty. This was not what the film was about.

I also played a game recently called 'The Saboter', it is a game set during the french revolution. The game is mostly in black and white to show areas where the morale of the french people is low and Nazi power is high, and Vice-versa.

I have spoken about how sound adds a lot to a film in a previous post, I think colour has the same job and should be used to add something more.

Research

2010-01-25T10:22:00.001-08:00

This is the 2nd part of the questions we were asked to answer about ourselves and research.
By doing research, i will be able to see what is out there that i can extend on or make better. I am also able to find different methods that could make what I'm doing a whole lot better. As research starting points go, i stick to the exploratory method. This method aims to look at what is out there and therefore i can get ideas and extend on my own. I also like the idea of Interim research which looks at trends, this way i can see progression of what I'm researching. I'm quite wary of descriptive research as i know how long winded it is, it takes a lot of time to find out something that can be done quicker using other methods such as using exploratory to see what surveys have already been done.

I find that pilot stage is quite irrelelvant, this is because it looks at developing plans on research, this is seen as a warm up and to me....a bit of a waste of time. I usually know what research i want or need to do and just go with it.

The Book of Eli

2010-01-21T07:35:00.000-08:00

I didn't realise how much sound contributed to the whole viewing experience until watching this film. Of corse i knew it effected the film, but this film does a very good job at utilising it to add more emphasise to each scene. I cant say much about the film without giving it all away but the only thing i will say is that it is based on god and faith and even though the bible plays a major part in the film, all Denzel Washington can teach us from it is treat others better than you treat yourself, which is bull as throughout the film he is slicing and dicing everyone that's in his way. People that i went to see the film with thought that the ending was great and that you have to think about the film to really appreciate it. I do not think that on the other hand but il let people decided themselves and let me know what they thought.

Past, Present and Future.......and Tetsuo

2010-01-21T07:34:00.001-08:00

This is the first part of the homework...i understood it as talking about what i have done in the past, what im doing now and what i want to achieve in the future.

During the past few years, I have not done a lot of work outside of school. Although this may seem a disadvantage to some people, I believe that it helps me push further in the course. I did an ICT course in 6th form high school which involved a lot of designing work on Macromedia Fireworks as well as creating an interactive story for children in flash (which was like the interactive narrative but longer) . With the knowledge of Fireworks, I was able to do little things outside of school that I would have not been able to do beforehand. I designed a few logos, one was used by a friend on an American based site selling electrical products (www.techcrazy.net), I also helped design a website used for a jewellery company. Although this is not a lot of work outside school, it all kick started my decision to take multimedia. I have always enjoyed film and had hour long discussions with friends about what films I like and hate and why. After doing the Oneshot project, I realised this is what I want to do, I also realised after watching Tetsuo: The Iron Man, I knew I did not want to create anything weird with a lot of eerie noises or disgusting images which were obviously there to javascript:void(0)make an impact, but something that people could connect to and realise the situation. This doesn’t mean that I want to create things that happen in everyday life but just things that people could watch and feel something real towards.
While on that subject, that was the weirdest film iv ever seen. At first I was just tired and thought to myself “just get through these two hours”, and then I felt sick due to the disturbing scenes and noises in the film. Honestly a penis drill?! That was a great idea! And why did she it turn his girlfriend on?! All just weird. Also the Uzi at the end confused me, if they had one....why didn’t they use it earlier? However I thought it was a life lesson and a film that I will never watch again.

First Day Back

2010-01-13T11:52:00.000-08:00

The first day back started with a 2 hour lecture, we were mixed with the other art and design subjects for the first time which may have not been a great idea. The lecture was interesting as i learnt that all three subjects had a lot in common, I also learnt that theatre design students were scared of progression and had a problem with most of what multimedia had to offer. A student from multimedia said that the progression from 2d to 3d inspired them to take up multimedia, to which some theatre design students replied "in theatre it has always been 3d and with actors it has much more effect than something popping out at you on a screen", this angered a lot of people obviously. However it was a good lecture and am looking forward to next weeks...

We also had a seminar where we introtuced to Dr. David Downes who would be our lecturer for the next 5 weeks. We were told that over the 5 weeks we would learn action script 3 which i havent used before and so dont know what to expect.

Pixilation problems

2009-12-12T05:51:00.000-08:00

I decided to scrap my previous ideas as it was quite difficult getting people to take the the time and let me take so many pictures of them throwing a ball and was also hard to take pictures of a ball moving every second. I decided to use objects and came up with Jurassic Desk while watching Jurassic park. I used a small dinosaur and bird model as well as a bonsai tree to make scenery. while making it i thought it would turn out really badly so just thought it would be a practice go, however once i added a title and music/ sound effects, it looked quite good and when i showed some friends they loved it and found it quite comical which i was what i wanted. They also could not belive how small the actual models where and liked my camera views. I have uploaded a version without music because im having trouble exporting the finished version on Primeire cs4.

Pixelation idea

2009-11-27T10:38:00.000-08:00

Ive had an idea for a pixelation. I remember watching a short clip of some NFL players doing some amazing things that were obviously not real (however some people believed the video was real) and it gave me an idea for a pixelation. Maybe i can do a version of it but on a much lower scale and just have some fun and see if i can make something look amazing with pixelation. The gag would be that the viewer would know that it is not real but might find it amusing me trying to make it look real with this type of animation.

Pixelation Start

2009-11-27T09:38:00.000-08:00

I had my first seminar and crack and pixelation the other day. We were in groups and had to take around 360 shots to make a short animation. We ran out of time and only got one short animation but it was our first go and we were just getting used to the camera and method.

The Seminar reminded me of a music video that uses different video sequences, ones with different backgrounds and costumes. However the music is the same throughout and it appears as though the lead singer is singing properly although everything is changing. This video is of corse The All-American Rejects's "Move Along". This is one of my favourite videos because it keeps you entertained and does something that's quite simple to film in a weird and imaginative way.

Interactive Narrative Finished

2009-11-20T07:52:00.000-08:00

Ive finally finished my interactive narrative after hours or taking pictures and getting headaches from using Flash! Now that its finished i can see a few problems with it. The text in some of the frames are too small so that its hard to see them against the background. I also had a problem with my camera and ended up using my phone for some of the pictures which is very obvious and lessens the quality of the narrative.

However i do like that ive used two types of narrative. There are a few times where the user gets to make a choice and choose between 2 or 3 options as well as having the stroy line carry on in other slides with an arrow button that takes you back or forward.

The Mouse Trap by ~uri3200 on deviant ART

interactive narrative

2009-11-19T08:08:00.000-08:00

I found an old project that i made in school on flash which was an interactive narrative aimed at children. It was about a dog with super powers that took up baseball. It wasn't a great project and didn't enjoy making it that much because it was on Flash.

This project is a bit easier because now i have a little knowledge of Flash and can overcome problems that i would not have been able to do if i did not do the previous interactive narrative.

ive decided to make mine about a mouse loose in a flat and the user has to kill it or catch it. Im also hoping to put some audio in but not sure where yet.

Stop Motion

2009-11-13T03:54:00.001-08:00

During tutorial we watched a pixilation video and it reminded me of my favourite advert, Cravandale milk. It looks very simple but it uses humour to make it stand out from any other adverts.

2009-11-06T17:27:00.000-08:00

Today I was introduced to the next project, interactive narrative, which isn't new to me as I had to create an interactive childrens story on flash for a project in 6th form.

Finished Film

2009-11-04T04:03:00.000-08:00

Unfortunately I was ill the days the group decided to do the voice overs so was unable to help, however i was on the phone with them quite a bit just throwing in ideas. Because i was there for the filming and editing part of the project, I knew the guys could handle the rest which was comforting. The voice overs bring the whole film together and I didn't realise until I saw it completed how much they improve the film. Before the voice overs, every time we showed it to someone we had to explain the whole situation and the majority of laughs were coming from us. Now the film is much more understandable and also a whole lot funnier.

I also think that the music is too low at the beginning and this is something that I could change.

Bad layout designs

2009-11-02T09:54:00.000-08:00

Been looking all week for bad design layouts for the Context 1 lecture on Tuesday... must of been through hundreds of leaflets, business cards etc looking for bad examples and haven't found any really.

I've thought of some really bad work that I did in school about 4 years ago to use in the lecture. I had to design a brochure, business card, logo etc for a suit company. After reading the lecture i can see how bad my designing was, with everything being scattered around.

Coin Bandit

2009-11-01T05:59:00.001-08:00

I saw this short film and it reminded me of the whiteboard animations that we did in the first week... even though its the same principle, it seems as though this took much longer to film than the whiteboard animations.

I like how there is someone interacting with the background and how both are working together to make sense of the film. I also think the song fits really well with the aggressive strumming accompanying the shakiness and roughness of the film.

http://www.shortfilms.com/video/291/Coin-Bandit

Editing

2009-11-01T05:49:00.000-08:00

We went in to start editing our film. we hadn't used Premier before so it took us a while to just get the video off the tape and onto the program. We decided on the name "awkward turtle" which was just a random name that I came up with which has something to do with awkward situations. We created the title and the credits and just made cuts and the beginning and end. We were going to make the title fade into the film but i thought this looked a bit amateurish and let the group know this, this lead us to just cutting from title to film which looked very good. We also added 'cheesy lift music' to the film to make it more cringe worthy. Overall the editing went very well however we still need to do the voice overs to finish it.

Filming

2009-10-26T05:36:00.000-07:00

The idea of having different stories taking place on each floor was scrapped and we decided to just go with the story of an awkward guy trying to meet a girl in a lift and asking her out which would play on the One shot idea.

We all decided on a day and time to start filming, however most of my group forgot and i was left with booking and collecting the kit as well as finding someone to play the girl in the lift being chatted up by William. The girl that we found the day before decided on the day that she did not want to be in it. So we were going to be left with a lot of equipment, a set and nothing to do. We were thinking about just using one of the guys in our group with a wig at one point because according to William "all the guys in our group are socially inept hermits". I phoned my neighbour and she was up for acting and was free all day which was perfect.

After looking around different buildings in Nottingham we decided to shoot the film in a lift in trinity in one of the back cores of the building as it wouldn't be so busy. Will came up with most of the script which made it more comfortable to act. After all reading the script, we added and took things away. I was behind the camera for most of the scene and therefore was trying to find a good camera angle before we could shoot. I decided on having the camera high up as if it was a security camera... we also liked the idea of the camera being at an unusual angle rather than looking straight at the actors. We also tried to use the mirror in the film, at first we tried to avoid it but once I found a good camera angle, I was able to move the camera to the side and get the mirror in the shot which gave us more than one angle to work with.

When getting the kit for the film, we were unable to get lights for the shot. Before filming we realised how much of a disadvantage this would be as the lighting in the lift was terrible. To overcome this, we had to improvise. We did this by moving the camera out the lift and using the light from the hall way, we would then have to show the lift doors opening with some very good acting as well as sound effects which would be done in editing. We still did not have good lighting in the lift, so we used a desktop lamp with white paper taped in front of it at a distance.

We had a problem with people calling the lift every 2 minutes which made the lift door close, sending the actors up and down to each floor. This was a problem as we could not cut and wait for them to come back to the floor we were filming on. It took a few takes for us to get it but we got it finally and it lasted for around three and a half minutes.

We plan to use voice overs in the film to show what the boy is doing in the lift e.g. "I've been waiting for this girl for 15 minutes, hope she finds this romantic". As well as using sound effects to make it sound as though the lift is actually closing. I like the idea of having cheesy lift music in the background as the film is a bit cheesy at the end of the day.

One shot

2009-10-19T12:35:00.001-07:00

I met up with my group to discuss ideas for the one shot short film. We took it in turns to throw out ideas which could be worked on.

One idea was to make a reality documentary staring a wacky character that was a leader of some sort in an office. This film would have been difficult to make with the time we had as well as the restrictions that we faced (Camera had to be on a tripod the whole time). Therefore this idea would not have been possible but we decided to keep the character that William had come up with.

The idea that stuck was the idea of the camera being placed in a lift and filming actors getting into the lift with a voice over of there thoughts in the lift. We also discussed the idea of having multiple stories that could take place in the lift. This would enable us to run the film for longer than just having a one short story take place. We also wanted to play on the idea of 'One Shot'. I had the idea of a boy flirting with a girl and having one shot of asking her out on a date however he blows it by taking too long and the girl getting to her floor and getting out the lift.

However there are many problems with the lift idea, the timing would have to be perfect as we only have one shot. There is also a lot of other factors that could affect the filiming, e.g. non-actors coming into the lift, not getting everyone in shot as there is limited space.

We finished the meeting by deciding on thinking of short stories that could take place in the lift. This way we could all contribute to the story as well as having other seperate jobs in the group.