T.M.M.M

Live Client update

2011-11-21T19:27:00.001-08:00

I am giving up on the D&AD brief for my live client project. With less than 3 weeks 'til the proposal needs to be in, I had to look at other options.

I am now entering into the Rushes Soho shorts festival. The brief is simply this:

THE NEWCOMER AWARD

Length: Under 12 minutes

Fictional work from the UK. This category is for entrants who’ve directed no more than one other short piece of film thats received distribution i.e. you can enter one or both of your first two films in this category

So having looked at this brief, I felt this was a perfect opportunity to finally film one of my scripts. The script I am going with is called Interferon which I wrote over the summer. Here is the treatment:

10 minutes long - Sci-fi film set in a world where everybody has super powers. A young minister is struggling to cope after a virus attacks his molecular structure leaving him powerless. His ability was the power of Telekinesis(moving things with his mind) and because of this he has become extremely lazy. Once the virus passes he must retrain his muscles whilst struggling to keep hold of his religion and compassion for the people of his planet.

The script is 12 pages long and needs a re-draft but I am very happy with the way the narrative flows and feel positve about producing a good piece of work.

Here is a Mood board of sorts, depicting how I want my film to look visually. A lot of dark colours and heavy lighting really can make for powerful and intense imagery. Have a look here and see if you can name all the films.

How my research project is going

2011-11-09T14:27:00.000-08:00

Research is fully underway now. I did a 3 hour round trip to Clifton library the other day in order to get 3 books as I needed them. Crazy.

As my research topic is anti-heroes in films, I have been watching some great films and calling it research.

I have watched the Dollars trilogy and the maltese falcon over the last 3 days and there will be far more to come. Here is the trailer to 'For a few dollars more' my favourite of the dollars trilogy.

What I did over the summer - only 3 months later

2011-11-09T14:20:00.000-08:00

Ok, I didn't have a summer break at all. As soon as uni finished I started my 3 month internship at Maek (a designer sunglasses brand) In all honesty I didn't make the most of this opportunity, mostly because of the lack of structure to it. Here is a couple videos I made for them and a link to the youtube channel that I set up for them which contains all the other videos I made whilst there.

Here is the link to the channel in case you want to check any more of them out http://www.youtube.com/user/2011MAEK

That was only a small part of my summer. The rest of it I spent working as a "research assistant" for the university. Basically this was me making them a video. The video was a 3D customised knitwear demonstrator. This does not mean it is displayed or filmed in 3D, it means the item of clothing was knitted in one piece and was seam free. Awesome. I did get an all expenses paid trip to Troyes in France to film this as well which I think is defintitely worth mentioning.

After 80 hours of work (which was paid for!) here is what the outcome was.

Not the most fascinating subject, and I had to include footage that some of the French guys gave us which isn't great. But I think the edit is really good, and I am incredibly proud of myself for putting this together (filming wise) by myself.

Finished Alumni video

2011-11-09T13:57:00.000-08:00

Here it is. Final finished video. Extremely happy with the outcome, only one thing I would change if I had the chance to do this again or more time and that is the voice over. Was debating whether to use one right up until the end, and I ended up doing it myself. People tell me it is good, but in all honesty at this and any level, I think if you are not happy with your work then you haven't done a good job. So I will definitely be getting someone else to do a voiceover for when this goes on my portfolio.

Finished sequences for Alumni project

2011-10-23T12:07:00.000-07:00

I have finally (nearly) finished my edit!

This was the sequence I had planned after storyboarding, so I am pleased with how that has turned out. The Old 70's home movie style works well with the footage and the music. I really like the polaroid thankyou message at the end, the only thing I would say is that without a voicover it is unclear what the thankyou video is for, and is also very impersonal.

So the only thing left to do for this edit is add a voiceover this will then be done and dusted.

Here is where a lot of the inspiration came from for using this style

Loved super 8 when I caught it at the cinema. If you didnt manage to see it, I fully reccomend buying it on dvd or blu-ray. If you loved E.T, Close encounters of the third kind or the goonies, you will love this. Here is the trailer in case you havent seen it.

Anyway, the second edit.

There was very little to change about this edit. Clipping some of the shots and extending the last slide was all I had to do, and also change from '!!!' to '!' on the title cards.

I got the idea to do it as a black and white after watching Young Frankenstein. The idea to make it a silent came once I had converted it to Black and white and saw how the footage looked.

Currently I am canvassing opinion on which one people prefer. It is 50/50 as of this moment in time. When I post an evaluation I will explain peoples opinions in more detail.

New alumni edits

2011-10-21T12:53:00.000-07:00

Ok, here is the next step in the evolutionary chain of my home video style thankyou video.

The time is a minute flat which is what I planned for originally, The effect and colouring has been worked on slightly and I think the video is very nearly there. I think the scratches need sorting out so that they are not so erratic, and also the border. I will do this over the weekend and have it sorted.

Ok, so I am almost there with my original idea, but I thought of something else to do with the footage that might look pretty cool and fitting for the story idea.

Few things that I have noticed after watching it. First thing is I have stupidly left the polaroid camera noise on the timeline, so need to get rid of that. The last slide/title card is not long enough for the message to be read. To be picky there are too many exclamation points, it only needs '!' rather than '!!!'. And there needs to be perhaps some sort of flickering throughout, especially on the title cards to make it look more authentic.

Some good points, the music i found at incompetech.com fits perfectly with both the silent movie style, and the story. The style really makes the video work for me and I dont know which style I like more - this or the 70's home movie style. Will canvas opinion over the next few days once I have both the finished edits. I anybody does read this post let me know what you reckon.

Alumni video

2011-10-20T13:09:00.000-07:00

Ok, haven't got on here this week due to quite a lot of work piling up. But I have managed to plough through quite a lot of editing this week after filming last friday.

I have moved forward fairly quickly with the filming and editing processes but that is because last week I threw myself into the project with mind maps and storyboards, and then set the ball rolling to find people to help me out. Storyboards and mind maps will be uploaded as soon as I have access to a scanner (Hopefully over the weekend).

Ok so here is my first edit. This is very rough and was rendered straight out of After effects and premiere rather than out of encoder, so footage is a bit shoddy. However I hadn't treated this to the levels I want yet and will explain that when I talk about the second edit.

Yea so that is the first edit of my alumni video. It is incredibly rough but there are a few good points in my opinion: It flows well in my opinion, there is a good structure and I encountered few problems with the footage. The music fits well with the style and the polaroid capture with a thankyou message is a good narrative tool.

Of course there were things that weren't that great or things that I still needed to do. The footage although structured well, doesn't look spectacular and I have an idea to make it work with the story being told which I will talk about on the next video. The sequence is a little bit too long, there are parts that drag out for too long such as when Ruth (Top of the pyramid) is climbing onto the top.

So I had things to work upon for a second edit and knowing these things I sat down and with my basic but improving knowledge of after effects went to work on the footage, creating a, what can be described as cheesy, old 70's super 8 style for the footage. I havent perfected it yet, so will continue to play around. This edit is purely for me to get some feedback and for me to track my progress.

Ok, this is a far better edit in my opinion. The style, although quite cheesy, works well for the story as I thought it would. I have perhaps still not cut down the edit enough. I think I have taken 3 or 4 seconds off, but it could do with another 3 or 4 seconds being taken off. There are a few tweaks that are needed on the visual style of the footage, and that is what I will be working on alongside voiceovers over the weekend.

For tonight however, it is time to start cracking on my business report as I havent done nearly enough for this yet and want to have a first draft finished by the end of next week. May put up the first draft of my research topic form as well to show where I am at with that.

Research project

2011-10-14T04:47:00.000-07:00

My research project up until I started the final year was always going to be "How do you succesfully adapt a novel for the big screen?" I did this for the mini research project we had at the end of last year and it was enjoyable, but I think the area is far too broad and the answer far too open for interpretation.

So I went back to the drawing board and started looking at trends in modern day cinema. A massive trend I noticed was how cinema seems to be getting far darker and grittier. The Anti-hero is now common place in most films. The question that I have now come up with is "Does the Morally righteous hero still have a place in cinema?" This is something I am very interested in as a subject and will result in a great project where I can watch a lot of great films in order to help progress my research.

Here are a couple of clips of two of the most famous anti-heroes in cinema history, Travis Bickle (Taxi driver) and Snake Plissken (Escape from New York & Escape from L.A).

Alumni Project

2011-10-13T06:31:00.000-07:00

Ok so first blog of final year, need to ease myself in so here is a quick updat on what I am doing for the simulated client brief.

I am going to create a 40 second thankyou video which will be sent out to donators either in a thankyou email or a thankyou package through the post. I am highlighting scholarships as the area that is displayed in my video and this is my idea...

A group of 6 friends are sat around having a bbq, sharing some beers and some laughs as well. One of them gets up, runs over to an area and gets onto all fours. She waves for everybody to come on over and join her and all except one run over and start to form a human pyramid. Obviously they need 6 in order to get this done, and they are all waving the 6th person over. A voiceover kicks in at this point "Thanks to your donation, more scholarships are available, allowing more people to have the university experience that you remember so fondly." The 6th person runs over and gets on top of the pyramid.

So basically it is a visual metaphor. Shooting is tomorrow and storyboards and video will be up within the next week hopefully, allowing more time to think about the research and context projects.

Here is the latest budweiser advert to give you an idea of the style I am going for:

Amazing motion capture bar scene

2011-03-19T07:22:00.000-07:00

Watching the other guys for the thrid time in 2 days I love this scene more and more. Was intrigued to find out how they did it and found this interview with heroic director Adam McKay:

"My DP, Oliver Wood, and I had seen this Phillips short film with cops fightingclowns," he explained. "We loved it, but I think that cost $4 million to shoot. At first we were going to do digital camera stills, and I just thought that was boring and we kind of did that already on 'Talladega Nights.' Then Oliver said, 'I think we can do the Phillips thing,' and in four days we came up with the plan.

"We got this motion-capture camera that you program so the camera moves exactly the same every time," he added. "It was similar to what they did in 'The Matrix' with the flying bullets. They weren't wearing motion-capture suits. I wish I had thought of that. I would have made Will wear one for no reason. We just wrote joke scenarios of a night gone horribly wrong. We went to this bar on the Upper West Side [of Manhattan] and shot it in half a day. We cast stuntmen and women who could hold poses. Our special effects company, Evil Eye, added all these funny elements."

So I was thinking it would be cool to do something like this whilst at uni. Naiveness was what lead me to search out how to do it, but then again thats how we learn i suppose. Peace.

Robin hood title sequence first edit

2011-03-07T17:10:00.000-08:00

Ok, so have spent the last couple of days holed up in my bedroom editing my showreel, editing this title sequence and giving myself a crash course on after effects. Here is my first edit of the Robin Hood title sequence (ignore the Title at the end, was another mess around in after effects). I really am enjoying editing at the moment and really feel like this could be a route to go down in the future alongside my writing. Anyway watch the video and enjoy its brilliance.

These are the preview images off of youtube. Says a lot about the feel of the sequence I think. Anyways Peace.

Robin hood title sequence #2 + 3

2011-03-06T15:24:00.000-08:00

Here are another couple of attempts at a cool titles. Have really thrown myself into after effects since getting it the other day, and already feel like i have a firm grasp of the basics. Here are the two that i created today (after spending the whole morning 'filming' for my title sequence, I have come home and spent the rest of the day editing - Good ol' sundays) Anyways have been on computer for far too long, Peace.

First attempt at using green screen

2011-03-04T04:50:00.000-08:00

Here is the result of thursdays seminar where we worked with green screen. Was the first time I had used it and i ended up taking quite a hands on role in all areas as I wanted to get as much from the session as possible, which I think I have. Anyway the video is Sonny running from a train that is gaining on him, created to look very slapstick and in black and white as a nod to early era of silent movies. Want to play around with the footage a bit more in after effects and maybe slow the frame rate of the train footage so that it looks more realistic, but for a first attempt, I think we have produced something pretty sweet. Peace.

Train track jogging from Jack Wright on Vimeo.

Playing with text in after effects

2011-03-03T14:32:00.000-08:00

Ok, just got my new cs5 software installed and I have been messing about on it all night cus i am that sad. Here is something I knocked up that I feel could be pretty neat in my robin hood sequence. based on a tutorial. Anyways I have software I havent opened up yet, so Peace.

BTS - leisure centre event

2011-03-01T04:12:00.000-08:00

Here is an edit of the BTS event i went to last month. A little part of the overall leisure centre project I am working on.

BTS from Jack Wright on Vimeo.

The bamboozlement of rumbustuous treatments

2011-02-24T08:21:00.000-08:00

Ok, a lot of the work this year on the course has been about pitching ideas well and writing sound treatments that make others buy into your idea. I came across this plot summary on imdb and have been bamboozled. It's for the film 'Now' out in November of this year, and it sounds like it could make for a fascinating film, however i'm not sure how anything would work. People trade their money in for time, but then spend their time on luxury items seems to be the simple premise of this, but it got me thinking how I'd pitch that to someone and get them to be on my wavelength.

There seems to be a running trend for complex warped films like this, with inception last year, The Adjustment Bureau and Limitless, both out next month and now this. However I have noticed that Andrew Niccol has written and directed, best known for the Truman show and The Terminal both really great scripts and films in my opinion. Another massive plus point is that it has one of the greatest cinematographers of all time on board in Roger Deakins, who has been nomiated for 9 oscars in 16 years (IMPRESSIVE!) and who shot the visually magnificent True Grit recently. The Team behind the film have high credentials, and the film if kept simple and uncomplicated unlike the summary below, has potential to be a big hit.

In all honesty, If I were pitching the film, I would try and simplify the idea more than the summary has, with an exchange rate example (?) like this for example: Cash - Time - Living costs. Perhaps this could work? Who knows, i may just be being dense. Anyways here is the link to the summary, see what you think.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1637688/plotsummary

This blog was me trying to do some work whilst melting in an unconditioned room and really desperate for the toilet, but wanted to reward myself after I had done this blog, so its probably higgledy piggledy and confusing in itself so if it is then I apologise (Not really). Peace.

New title sequence for Report

2011-02-20T11:57:00.000-08:00

Just over a month to go

2011-02-20T10:52:00.001-08:00

Ok, filming for our documentary is mostly done, now we just have to edit and film a few things that we need. So this leaves the 3 other projects that have to be in on March 25th. Robin Hood title sequence, Title sequence report and Portfolio DVD.

Today I have been looking at buying Adobe Production premium CS5. Premiere, After effects and photoshop alongside many more for £315. To up my computer to the sytsem requirement spec I have had to buy windows 7 64bit which set me back £60 quid. However this will be worth it when I get the new software and can really start to crack on with my work.

The point of this blog is basically me just airing what I need to have done by the end of March. The Robin Hood title sequence is ready to start being filmed, storyboarded and most props have been purchased. Title sequence report I am just about to start, and my portfolio DVD really needs to be thought about, hopefully once I have the software im buying I can crack on and sort something out.

Anyway I gotta start cracking on this report. Peace.

Filming last week

2011-02-15T14:44:00.000-08:00

We did two days worth of filming last week, which is what I had planned in pre production so am very happy that it has gone to plan. We managed to film our montages and transitional shots on the thursday, and on the friday we filmed our interview with Olivia. The interview went really well and Olivia's story was heart rendering and well shot. Hopefully it comes through on screen at the end. Anyway here are a few pictures of last week.

Productive day for a change

2011-02-15T14:34:00.001-08:00

So today I have managed to firstly start editing our Leisure centre project, or at least start labelling the clips that we have so it will make editing easier. This is a big step as we have been slacking recently, but starting this shows that the end is near which is a huge sigh of relief as the project is a bit flat. The experience of working for a client is great though and will stand me, Kieron and Dave in great stead for the future.

After this, I had to get hold of a cinema room so that we can film an interview there for our documentary tomorrow. I rang the Savoy thinking that they would be willing to let us do it for free as they are rarely busy and wouldnt have anything else on until the evening when films started screening. I was wrong. £100 to book a room out for an hour in the morning, £60 in the afternoon. I tried haggling with the guy, but apparently £60 is a reduction. We were very much considering each paying £12 to make this up as we really wanted a cinema to be our location for this next interview, however I decided to take a punt at The broadway to see if they would have a room free on such short notice. BOOM! £25 for an hour, 11 o'clock tomorrow we shall be filming in screen 4.

And just before I wrote this blog, I storyboarded my Title sequence for Robin Hood! The sooner I get this filmed the better as I have a lot of work to do before the end of term. Picture will be up soon of the storyboard. Anyway for now, Peace.

Narration idea for our documentary

2011-02-07T17:02:00.000-08:00

Just wrote this to be a narrated introduction to our documentary. First draft, needs a bit of fine tuning. Length when recorded 90 seconds. I also found out my voice is not suited to voiceovers at all.

Narration:

February. The month of love. Valentine’s Day. Flowers, chocolates, teddies and halmart messages galore. Who couldn’t be happy at a time like this? The smell of freshly cut grass and new perfume, the popping of champagne corks and moans of pleasure fill the air. The undisputed champion of life, Love, is reigning over us, shooting its arrows through our hearts. Hand in hand we run through the airport terminal, trying to catch our last minute bargain flights to Paris. Nothing could dampen our spirits at a time like this. Well when I say our...

(couple seconds pause)

From the Christmas holidays up until February the 14^th, people are more than twice as likely to finish with somebody as they are at any other time of year. By our reckoning, that is a heck of a lot of people who are wishing that all this valentines’ hoo-ha would just sod off, and who certainly are not practising the fine art of multiplayer spaghetti eating. We are going to hear 3 completely different stories, from 3 completely different people, at 3 completely different stages of their relationship break ups. How they first felt, how they are coping/have coped, and how they have tried to and have moved on.

There are a number of old adage’s that apply to the pain and hurt of break ups, two memorable ones are, “It’s better to have loved and lost, than to have never lost at all”, “Time heals all wounds”. Words on their own cannot bring comfort but hearing stories of people who have gone through exactly what you have can go some way to helping you see the light at the end of the tunnel.

One of the coolest scenes in film history

2011-02-03T15:37:00.000-08:00

What I have to re-create

2011-02-03T03:47:00.000-08:00

Not as bas a title sequence as I thought it would be, seeing as we were set this project on the pretense that the titles were awful. I saw the film when it first appeared in cinema, and I hated it. Very boring, no real story behind it, just an excuse to spend a lot of money. I have an idea for something to do for it, and it is quite similar to the dexter and se7en title sequences shown previously. More on this stuff soon. Peace.

Titles for report 3

2011-02-03T03:31:00.001-08:00

Titles for report 2

2011-02-03T02:48:00.000-08:00

Titles for report

2011-02-03T02:40:00.000-08:00

Proposal feedback for our documentary

2011-02-02T13:13:00.000-08:00

Ok, so after friday's documentary presentation session, there are a few things that we need to start working on. Overall the session went well, I feel that our presentation was the best, we had included a lot more detail than the other groups and had produced what was described as a good budget for a first attempt, whereas the other groups didnt really put much thought into that part and missed parts of the proposal out. However, I feel that out of the four groups, our idea is probably the third best. This is, in my opinion, not necessarily a bad thing as the two idea ahead of ours were very impressive but still have to be executed well.

Here is a quick bullet pointed list of things that were pointed out about our proposal that we need to work on:

Title is shit
Characters were not explained clearly enough
Should have been rehearsed a few more times
Structure was not clear, advised to perhaps go with the idea of "better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all."
DO NOT KEEP INFORMATION FROM THE PEOPLE YOU ARE PITCHING TOO!!!

The last one is in Caps Lock because of the importance, I agree completely with what they were saying, we didnt mean to keep information away from them and we didnt, something was said that made them think that it was. Not a big deal though as we managed to explain this in the question round. I will just walk through each point quickly and see what we are going to do about them.

Ok, the title, I hold my hands up here. 'Nomance' seemed like a good idea, its meaning of "relationship that has no love" seemed to fit in well with the subject and feel of our film. Jools told us in no uncertain words "Title is shit". Brought it home a little bit and now looking at it, I cant see what I liked about it in the first place. New idea for title is 'Suffering is optional' have literally just thought of this whilst doing a bit of research so will share with rest of team soon, see what they think.

Characters werent explained clearly enough - easy to understand this point. We should have done deeper research into their stories so that we had a fuller understanding, we have been doing that all this week, so should be on top of everything when filming comes around next week.

Should have rehearsed - Easy. Presentation was only done the day before, late I know, but with one week from being given the word DROP to spark our ideas, we did well I thought. Of course obviously not well enough however, so rehearsing will become an important part of future pitches.

BOOM! This point is where the moneys at. Our idea, is solid, Our pitch was good. However our structure is flagging. Loosely we know that we want to show people that the end of a relationship is not the end of the world. We are following three characters all with different stories and at different stages of relationship break ups. We want to see how people feel at first, how people try to forget, and how people move on from this. To quote the great Dewey Finn we just need to "tighten the screws a lil' bit because we are sounding a lil Sloppy Joe".

Anyways, I am writing this and doing research at the same time. Really want to try my hand at reviewing in the next couple of weeks as have seen '127 hours', 'Black Swan' and 'King's speech' in the last week and am hoping to see 'The fighter' and 'True Grit' next week, both films I have been looking forward to for a long time. Anyways Peace.

The demise of the valentines bug eyed bear

2011-01-26T14:24:00.000-08:00

Here is a lovely picture of our friend the bug eyed bear/monkey/who actually cares.

Here is a slightly less happy shot of the "thing" sitting against a wall. What is he up to?

Ah, it was so obvious, he wanted to go and look at the barbecue.

Wow, those flames look awfully high.

Yea, enough of that, as if you can't tell what is going to happen. Here is some short video footage of what we are wanting to use as transitional shots through our satirical documentary. THIS IS PURE SATIRE!!!

Obviously we needed to put the fire out...

Obviously we didnt really pee on it. It was water. Anyways peace.

Nomance (Under development)

2011-01-25T13:43:00.000-08:00

Ok, three days left until we have to pitch this so, here is a quick run through of our plans for our documentary.

Kieron Powis - Director + Assistant editor
Jack Wright (Me) - Producer + Set P.A
Uri Ilan - Camera operator + Post sound production
Laura Read - Sound recorder + Title sequence
William Sanger -Camera assistant + Editor

Our buzz word was drop. From this we came up with a number of ideas, but our strongest and favoured was about relationship break ups. We are creating a satirical observation documentary because with valentines day coming up, we felt it would be an interesting to investigate how people cope with break ups, and to show that there is light at the end of the tunnel. The title for this project is still being discussed but the word Nomance seems to have a simple but powerful effect, so I am instating that for now.

We are going to follow three characters and hear of their stories on being dumped and how they moved past it or are moving past it. The three characters we have are, a guy who met someone on the internet and was left heartbroken until he found new love (again on the internet) and has now had a baby. A girl who has only recently split up with her boyfriend after she found out he was cheating on her, and hopefully Laura's grandma whose story seems intriguing and will work well in this film.

Locations wise for this project, we are going to partly stage in order to add to the cinematic approach which Kieron seems to be wanting as director. Obviously for Laura's grandma we will go to her to film (if we are allowed) as she lives in Nuneaton which is about 40 minutes away. We will probably be looking to have her sitting in a couch and looking at photographs perhaps. For our guy, we will be looking at having him sat at a computer screen, talking us through how he went about finding love online and how he got through his break up to find new love and happiness. For our girl we are thinking of having in the park. This will tie in with transitional shots that we are thinking of, like the flower idea in my previous blog.

So, for now in minimal detail until we can expand, this is how are documentary is shaping up. Peace.

Transitional shots and feel for our documentary

2011-01-25T06:57:00.000-08:00

According to Kieron, this documentary is going to look very cinematic. We have a number of ideas for transitional shots that involves destroying a valentines bear that we bought today. However alongside this cynical and satirical outlook, we want to involve beauty and show how moving the story is.

This is an example of someone picking the leaves off of a flower. V/O would be chanting "he loves me, he loves me not". Here is some test footage to show how we want it to look and feel.

Another couple of blog coming later on today about how we are moving forward with content and structure of our documentary, and also a quick review of Black swan, which I am seeing in a couple of hours. For now, peace.

Last Minutes of Oden

2011-01-24T09:57:00.000-08:00

This short documentary is a beautiful story and is shot brilliantly, making this a very moving film and reducing most people to tears.

Will told me and Powis to have a watch earlier, as this is a documentary that is about someone coping with loss, which is similar to what are documentary is about. Anyways take a look.

http://vimeo.com/8191217

Documentary idea so far

2011-01-21T14:09:00.000-08:00

The word that our team got, to spark ideas off of, was Drop. We had a quick discussion about certain avenues we could go down and we came up with 2 solid ideas. One was about dropping weight, and was about being dumped. Both a lot of potential for ideas, but we were all veering towards the dumped idea.

Today we decided to set this as our subject matter. We set about coming up with a structure for the 10 minute documentary, which I will talk about in a minute, but we also tried to think about what characters we will want to use, and what style we want.

I'll talk about what we discussed about style firstly. We want to create an observational documentary. An observational doc is made in order to introduce audience to an unfamiliar world. In terms of what characters we are going to use, we want to use a wide demographic of people, so both sexes and all ages. We are going to post messages on realtive forums asking for anyone in the local area if they would like to be part of a student documentary. We will ask friends if they have any stories, and if they would share their experiences of dealing with breakups with us. Laura has said that her gran, if she is up for it, has an interesting story, and could recount her experiences. At the moment, depending on whether anybody gets back to us regarding the forums, we have covered students, and the elderly with our characters. What we discussed earlier, was getting in touch with a school and getting their opinions, because as a youngster I remember not being all that bothered about relationships ending as they lasted 2 weeks on average, and 2 weeks later you'd class somebody else as your girlfriend. We came to a sticking point on this, as half thought 8 or 9 year olds, and the other half thought 11,12 or 13 when relationships start to become appealing. There are of course other options that we can go down, asking people in the street to get a general feel could be one, and Kieron had the idea of going into pubs and talking to some of the lonelier regulars as they perhaps have some interesting stories to give. Jools suggested speaking to landlords, one for permission to film inside the pubs and two, so that he could introduce us. We have a week to try and hone these ideas down and get people on board so we need to start now really.

Just a quick mention of the structure we are thinking of using, after todays session. Starting off with a quick montage of answers from the main characters giving their views on what love is. We then move into a bit more in depth answers about the initial feeling, impact and fallout of a break up. Moving on towards the end where we tie it up with how they moved on, or how they intend to. The aims are to show people that being dumped is not the end of the world that it seems as first, and you can and will move past it. It will also show how different people react in different ways.

Another thing whilst im writing this, cutaway shots could eprhaps have this kind of feel to them:

Who knows, it is just an idea. Anyway, Im off. Peace.

Finally started getting footage for the project we are doing for the leisure centre!

2011-01-15T07:54:00.000-08:00

This morning, Me, Kieron and Dave went to the William Gregg leisure centre in Heanor to film one of their BTS events. I didnt know what it was either, but from what Roucelle (Our contact at the leisure centres) told us it seemed to be where instructors were on stage, with disco lighting and very loud and fast paced music.

We were filming it from start to finish, which was about 3 and a half hours and I feel we got some top shots, that will look really cool in our overall edit. I took my camera with me to film a few things and to put on here which I have done. Unfortunately a lot of the footage isnt in focus, this is my fault as I wasnt paying much attention to the quality, because none of these shots will be used in the edit. Anyway from the couple videos that I upload you can get a good sense of what BTS is and what its all about. Peace.

What makes a good short film

2011-01-14T10:14:00.000-08:00

Just read this cool little blog post about a short film festival and the content of the shorts that were on show.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/filmblog/2011/jan/14/best-short-films-london-festival

Sets the question, does a short film need to be witty, gritty or is it just a chance to make something beautiful? Take a look as it makes for a decent read, certainly made the 40 minute bus ride I just took a bit easier. This is my first post of 2011. Have been a bit slack as of late, but going to up the ante over the next couple of weeks and really push my work this term. Peace.

I'm still here Spoilers

2010-12-16T12:43:00.000-08:00

This is the Documentary that charted Joaquin Phoenix's progression from the movie world into the music world. The reason he grew a gurt beard and dreads - To become a rapper. My opinion of it was that it was good but quite hard to watch as it was so cringeworthy. Before watching it I knew that it was all a hoax, which fortunately made it a little bit easier to watch. I felt that the film was 20-30 minutes too long, and that a lot of it was pointless drivel. But would I have felt as cringeworthy if it had been at a faster pace? Would I have started to feel empathy for Joaquin? Who knows.

I definitely reccomend seeing this film when it is released on DVD. I found it brilliantly worked out and thought Joaquin's performance was superb. If you havent heard of it, then check out the trailer here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wz6CU7pgiKc

What does Diesel mean to you?

2010-12-16T05:55:00.000-08:00

OK, this project took a couple days to put together and we had a hell of a lot of footage to try and piece together but I feel that Dave (Roddis) managed to put together a quality edit of the footage we had.

This project was made for business students who were doing a presentation on Diesel (clothing brand). They wanted us to create a 10 minute documentary about what Diesel represented to the general public. We filmed a lot of interviews (which the business students did) and a lot of footage of the store and the products.

Feedback on the documentary was brilliant. Their lecturer asked to keep their presentation so that it could be showed to future years as a good example of the project that they were doing. This project was the first time I had been in control of the camera (as in, on a proper shoot) and I thoroughly enjoyed learning different techniques and trying new things.

Anyway here is the link to the video, (taking too long to upload them on to here) It is 10 minutes long, so maybe just watch a minute or two, you will get the idea after that amount of time anyway. Peace.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXAQcE9VnZA

Really?

2010-12-16T04:59:00.001-08:00

I'm in the middle of watching 'Metropolis' and thought that this might actually be the most complex blueprint I have ever seen (Sarcastically raised eyebrow right now)

This was a groundbreaking film with phenomenal set design, which you would expect from one of the masterpieces of german expressionism (and cinema). The film is completely over the top, both with the art direction and the acting, but that is what makes this film so brilliant in my opinion. This isn't a review, just wanted to show the brilliance of the blueprint. Peace.

Train "the first edit" (and some stuff about how it went)

2010-12-16T04:55:00.000-08:00

Here is a link to the brilliant first edit of our groups film Train:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxLw3lMgJDA

This is my first blog postabout this project and I am going to write a summary on pretty much everything about the project through my eyes right now.

A quick evaluation of the film first. I feel that we have managed to put together a quality short film that really tells a story of defiance.

There are a few things that need sorting out by the time hand in comes around, things such as; The sound, needs tweaking slightly as there are bits that are dramatic when shouldnt be and vice versa. Getting rid of the boom within a few frames, luckily this was just at the top of the screen so will be easy to cut out (this was annoying as I was the camera operator and didn't even notice it, sorry guys). And also a new title sequence and credits, which me and kieron filmed straight after the seminar last week.

We are all pushing forward with our roles for the hand in, and feel that we will have a brilliant piece ready for final hand in, of which we can be proud.
Summary of how we worked together

When given the group for this project, straight away I felt good and confident of how it would go. I knew most of the group quite well and knew we would be able to communicate issues and be able to create a quality piece of work if people pulled their weight.

Here is my group and our roles:

William North - Director
Uri Ilan - Producer
Kieron Powis - Assistant Director
Vytaute Zaliskeviciute - Art director
Jack Wright (Me) - Camera Operator
Andrew Mthunzi - Sound
Tash Gaynor - Lighting
Alex Langworthy - Editor

We all performed our roles well, but I feel that some only stuck to their roles and did not offer anything else to the project. I know that I did everything I could to help, including doing the recce, getting all of the props, doing the shot list, going out and filming additional footage that we needed all of that as well as my general role as camera operator. My overall feeling is, I am glad I did all of these things as I gained more experience, but in a selfish way I feel that people who did nothing apart from their role on set, are going to be marked similarly to what I am as it was a group project, and I just feel that others should have come forward to at least help, if not take on one of the tasks.

Things I thought went well on the set, was our groups communication and work ethic. We all got on well and all worked hard in order to get all filming done by the end of the day (even though it was a little rushed towards the end). Will's direction I thought was good, he expressed his thoughts and ideas to the actors and rest of the group brilliantly, one thing i would say is that we spent too much time trying to over perfect simple shots. We had a strict time limit and I think we could have saved a lot of time by not filming more takes of shots that we knew were good, but everyone has their own style.

In the editing process, huge thanks has to go to Alex, who worked tirelessly on it since he got givent the footage. He has produced an amazing edit which pieces together brilliantly. This is where peoples absence really started to show, it seemed that now the film was shot, people just assumed it was done. I'm not slagging anybody off, we all worked well as a team, its just that we could have been even better. Peace.

Documentaries

2010-12-01T04:17:00.000-08:00

Haven't posted in a while, been pretty busy over the last month on fiction film project. Blogs will appear soon about that, once film is finished and can post the video and an evaluation.

I follow Guardian films on my twitter account (Jacks_on89) and about a month ago they posted a number of tweets about sheffield documentary festival so I watched a video about what makes a good documentary and how easy it is to get involved for new directors in preperation for next terms project. The debate was between a member of the BBC and a menber of Channel 4. It was only a short video but contained a lot of information.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/video/2010/nov/09/sheffield-doc-fest-documentary-debate

I got a few decent points from this video, and a couple of follow up's which I will also include in this blog.

A question that was asked within the video was - How much does the treatment and the idea matter for a new director against an experienced programme supplier?

(In my opinion this is a pretty straight forward question but it sparked an interesting argument)

Channel 4 : The director is vital. The way that they think, what they like, how they act is all very important and influences what they are making. One of the interesting things about channel 4 docs, is that they have first cuts* which enables first time directors to get a foot on the ladder. Also they have a big popular genre of multi camera* observational documentaries which has spawned things such as 7 days, the family and one born every minute. This gives a lot of people employment as they need a lot of people to help work on these projects.

BBC: When i first started, i worked under a lot of really talented directors and learnt a lot about the structure of documentaries and how to adapt and put them together. With Multi cam ob docs you are not really learning that much as you are not asking yourself; What story am I telling? How am I telling it? What do i tell next? What questions do I ask? This is because its more based upon what might happen or does happen instead of you creating these moments.

Two conflicting ideas, but both giving insight into what they think is best for up coming directors, which is what I want to be hearing at this very early stage in my career.

Two things that I flagged up in this video were the terms first cuts (seemingly a channel 4 initiative) and multi camera documentaries (a type of doc obvioulsy but what type?)

First cut is a new strand of 30 half-hour primetime documentaries, aimed at the brightest and best new directing talent. Films will be showcased primetime on More4, with the best running as a series on Channel 4.

First Cut is part of the Channel's passionate commitment to nurturing people looking at breaking into the industry, and forms a clear rung in a ladder leading from FourDocs through to Cutting Edge and feature-length documentaries.

The strand will be eclectic in style and subject, but all films should be bold, attention-grabbing, entertaining, original, contemporary and accessible. Ideas must comfortably sustain 24 minutes and hold their own in a primetime slot.

What you get

A fixed budget of £45k per half hour and the support of Channel 4 who will pair you with an experienced exec and a production company to "warehouse" your film.

Who is eligible?

This is not an entry-level strand. You should have several years of production experience under your belt, perhaps as an AP or even as an up-and-coming director of broadcast or non-broadcast films or shorts in any genre. You should be a generator of ideas, have real visual flair and be looking to get your first primetime network terrestrial credit.

So that's what first cut is. What about Multi camera documentaries?

Wikipedia's definition is 'The multiple-camera setup, or multiple-camera mode of production, is a method of shooting films and television programs. Several cameras—either film or video—are employed on the set and simultaneously record or/and broadcast a scene.'

The Family was Britain’s first-ever multi-camera ob-doc. Delivered with conviction and aplomb. It achieved consistently high ratings across its eight-week run, and provoked much debate, not just about parenting, but about new ways of making television. It’s now about to return for its third season.

With One Born Every Minute, we took our multi-camera approach into a maternity hospital, and achieved chart-topping ratings success and huge critical acclaim. This has been a real breakout hit for C4 docs – important, entertaining and stunningly well-made - and we’d like more of those.We are itching to do more big series that combine scale with simplicity in the manner of The Family and One Born Every Minute.

For 2011, the gaps to put these series into exist mainly at 10pm. This means that we will be selecting ideas which put a premium on humour, and on young people’s perspectives and activities.Elsewhere on our slate, we are excited to be in production with Notting Hill, the UK’s first “borderless” reality programme: a weekly fast-turnaround docusoap about young people’s lives set in the iconic London borough. Notting Hill keeps us awake at night with excitement and anticipation. We would like at least two more ideas each year of the same scale and ambition – so that we never attain that perfect night’s sleep.

Feedback on my script from a professional writer

2010-11-06T12:52:00.001-07:00

Hi Jack,

Good luck with the comp. Best idea is to keep writing and rewriting to improve the script and to try to get stuff made and read by producers/directors/agents. Lots of good sites like BBC writersroom,script factory, writers guild of GB, film council, emmedia, film council...

On your script - it is well written and nice a short and simple and clear to understand. I like the secret and surprise and the violence. I think you could make more of it and perhaps mix it up in story terms even more. I also wonder whether you need to have it all so clear cut - perhaps the detective/diary is a bit too simple a devise? Maybe all you need is to see the mother's suspicion and something that points to the boy having been abused? A drawing? A photograph? A message to childline or something similar? Maybe the headmistress or school shrink? Social worker?

Perhaps mother is pushing and pushing for an answer and the dad is trying to downplay the whole thing? Also wonder whether the knife is too obvious and whether it could be something that relates more to something they do at school - woodwork? metal work? hockey stick? The kid fights back against the bullies and we cheer but then he continues the violence is a cold determined way and we start to worry and he keeps on hitting? Maybe he deliberately traps a kid's hand in a vice and we think that's his revenge but then he picks up a hammer and splat he keeps hitting the kid...

Be careful working with kids and animals and school classroom scenes might be expensive/difficult to organise - especially if there's violence as the authorities might disapprove? Sorry to be negative in parts but you can obviously write - it is sometimes just the practical aspects...?

Also perhaps look at at least a bit of humour even if it is dark - some light and shade is always good - make 'em smile then shock them??

Good luck.

Phil

Took some really good points from this email, and feel a lot more confident about my ability to write after hearing that a professional writer thinks that I can "obviously write". Anyways just a quick post to boast (LOL) Im off. Peace.

Manhattan

2010-10-31T15:59:00.000-07:00

My second post on a Woody allen film in 2 weeks, I warned you that there would be more to come.

I love Woody Allen, He looks like he should be very awkward and geeky, but he goes against this strongly in his films and is a very articulate and intelligent man. The roles he plays are all very similar, he definitely typecast himself and by that I mean you could take his character out of Manhattan and swap with his character in Annie Hall and you wouldn't notice.

With Manhattan, I again loved the opening sequence, where as in Annie Hall he uses a monologue, In this he goes with a voiceover over stunning shots of New York, describing how a character in a book he is writing sees New York. He says how the character sees the city in black and white, which is a nod at the films art direction which is very visually stunning, and all in black and white. Basically, this film is about somebody loving someone, who loves someone else etc etc. Stripped to its core, it is like the song, 'love stinks' by The J. Geils Band. Simple but good idea that intwined with Allen's originality and some beautiful art direction makes for a brilliant film.

Here is the opening sequence just for your viewing pleasure. Peace.

My script has been entered!!

2010-10-31T15:35:00.000-07:00

Finally uploaded my script to circalit for the competition I have been banging on about for the last couple of posts. I am quite proud to have finally finsihed a script because I have had a few in the pipeline for a long time. As I have said before, this script took 3 or 4 hours from the idea to finishing my first draft. And for what it is I think it is pretty good, but I am biased of course. Here is the link to my amazing script, called, 'Plastic Lunch boxes':

http://www.circalit.com/jackwright1989/projects/plastic-lunch-boxes/

To get to read the magic you have to be a member of circalit, however it is free, doesnt take much time at all, and they don't spam your email inbox with loads of crap. If you do read this post, and go on to read the script, please let me know what you think. Be as critical as you like, the only way I will improve is by working on my weaknesses. Peace.

MALac (Minus the titles and credits)

2010-10-30T16:57:00.000-07:00

Here is the edit (Minus the title sequence) for my groups version of MALac. Once the completed edit is sorted amd fine tuned I will post a new blog up and give a quick evaluation on how I feel the task went and how I thought I performed in my role as producer. Anyway's here is the film:

I have now, completed the edit of my script for the student competition I spoke about in the post before. Excpect a link very soon to the uploaded script's URL. Peace.

NSFA Screenwriting Competition

2010-10-25T15:34:00.000-07:00

Here is a quick blog about a screenplay writing competition just for students. Basically you can write a script about whatever you want, the only rule is that it is a maximum of 5 pages long.

Here is the link to the page:

http://studentfilm.org.uk/competitions/screenwriting.html

I wrote my script yesterday, and once I have edited it I will put it on here to see what people think. This is the first script I have finished so am quite proud of this achievement, especially as I came up with the idea and wrote the whole thing in a few hours. I have been writing a feature length script for some time now, and am only 40 pages down so am quite far off completion. I will try my hand at creating a proposal for that script soon and put it on here to try and gauge public opinion. Anyway I am only writing this blog because I couldnt work out how to delete individual blogs, so until next time, peace.

MALac title sequence idea research

2010-10-21T05:16:00.000-07:00

For the title sequence for our film, I have been looking at a few simple ideas that would be effective in context with the film idea. I really like the Saul Bass title sequence method, just using simple flat graphics and 2 or 3 colours to announce the film and give it an edgy approach. That is why Hitchcock used him for most of his titles. Here is the title sequence for 'Vertigo':

I love the simplicity of these titles and feel it sets up the film brilliantly. Here is a link to a website that contains what they think are the best title sequences of all time. Not surprisingly Saul Bass is featured on the list a number of times.

http://creativereview.co.uk/cr-blog/2009/july1/film-titles-list

It has taken me a while to get round to finish this blog, that is because I have been working on my essay and also a script that I have written for a competition. (see blog after this) A link to the script will be posted within the next couple of days once I have edited and uploaded it. Peace.

Annie Hall

2010-10-20T16:02:00.000-07:00

I watched this film on sunday after reading about it in a book that my mate has called '101 greatest movies of all time'. I am very glad that I bought this film, as a lot of the techniques and ideas that are used within it seem to be the base of what a lot of modern comedy is, and something that goes a part of the way of proving this is that this film topped the Guardians poll of comedy films of all time. I really like Woody Allen in this film, and think the ideas were fantastic. I am looking into alot of his other stuff as I write this and will definitely be blogging about him a bit more in the coming weeks. Peace.

Film shoot for MALac

2010-10-20T14:04:00.001-07:00

These are a few shots from our film shoot for MALac. It was a very long day, but looking at the footage that we captured, it looks as though it will be worth it. As a group I think we all worked together well and that we managed to keep our spirits high. For our next shoot I think a shooting schedule will be ideal as we will know timings and be able to work quicker and a bit more organised. Hopefully tomorrow we will be able to put an edit together and I can analyse and critique the final outcome. Until then, Peace.

Inspiration for ideas for MALac script

2010-10-17T09:04:00.000-07:00

Three scenes, that have been the inspiration to my way of thinking for this script.

The first scene is from a film called '123' and it shows a man who is suspected of being a Russian spy of being tortured by having to listen to the same piece of music over and over again.

The second scene is from 'Pulp Fiction' - one of my favourite films. This scene is infamous for movie fans, but its so good that it has inspired alot of my creative ideas for this project. Mostly to do with how we get the tortured man to act.

Finally, the last clip. Very obviously 'Reservoir dogs' and you are probably thinking right now that I may be a Tarantino fan. If you are, then well done, you are correct. This scene is absolutely brilliant. Mixing dancing with horrific violence. Everything about this scene has sparked ideas. The movement of the characters, the location, the lighting and a few other things too.

I have kept this blog short and sweet compared to my others, because until our filming is done (by tomorow hopefully) then I don't want to give much away. And also these things are just my input of ideas and havent been fully discussed as of yet. Peace.

Mark Gattis's A history of horror

2010-10-13T13:54:00.000-07:00

"The cinema was made for horror movies" is the opening quote from Mark Gattis in this series about the era's of horror films.

The first programme, looked at the first great age of Hollywood horror, which was, looking at the dates I have in my notes : 1925 -1950.

The first film that we look at is: The Phantom of the opera (1925)

This film starred Lon Chaney and is regarded as the first real horror movie. Lon Chaney was an amazing actor and even more amazingly he did his own make up in all 0f his films, and went to extraordinary lengths. For example in this film he used thin metal wire to pull his nose right back against his face to give the impression he had no nose. see image

The second film Gattis spoke about was Dracula (1931)

This was the first horror film to be created that contained sound.

The year 1929 was the start of the great depression and spending was at a minimum. Universal pictures had to keep spending low, so had to run Dracula on broadway first before they could raise the funds. And then they just took the show from the stage and put it on screen, using the same cast and script. The surprising thing about this film, was that there was not a single sign of blood or fangs.

The next film, was Frankenstein (1931)

This film came a few months after Dracula, but already you could tell the difference in quality and it was a massive step forward. This was the start of a great career for director James Whale. And also a great kickstart to the virtually unknown at this point, Boris Karloff, who had appeared in 80 films before he landed the role of the monster. The iconic make up for Frankensteins monster, took 2 weeks to create, and 6 months worth of ideas.

This film had the first truly iconic scene in horror film history. Take a look:

Other films that were inspired by this era:

Rouben Mamoulian - Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

Michael Curtiz - Mystery of wax museum

Neither of these films had the same effect as Universal's big hitters Dracula and Frankenstein.

Universal were desperate to capulate on Frankenstein's success. To do this they gave complete creative control to James Whale. This led to the next film the programme spoke about being - The Bride of Frankenstein.

This was to be Whale's last horror film, and he took the film to shocking new levels with alot of the symbolism being quite blasthemous, such as the scene where he is about to be burnt at the steak.

Here is what sems to be one of the most controversial films of this era.

Freaks

Directed by Todd Browning who was also the director of Dracula.

The controversial part of this film was how Browning used real circus freaks instead of make up. The film starts off by portraying them as respectable citizens until the story unravels and they start to become monsters. I really want to try and catch this film as it looks very strange and caused so much controversy back in the day, here is a clip that shows why

This concludes my blog on this first episode of the series. I will be doing a few follow up blogs on a few things that I discovered through this episode. But for now its late and Im tired so Peace.

My opinion on the coursework set for this year

2010-10-07T16:33:00.000-07:00

Here is a blog, just quickly saying what I think of each of the projects we have set for coursework this year.

Project 1 – Produce a DVD showreel- individual work

Produce a showreel that showcases your development as a Moving
Image practitioner.

This project, is basically my C.V and what is going to get me noticed by employers when I am looking for work experience placements. This project will only be as good as my other projects, but will need to be done professionally as to do my work justice.

Project 2 – Practitioners Essay - individual work

After investigating three experienced practitioners working in Moving Image Production
e.g. writer, producer, cinematographer, director, editor, VJ, etc produce
a 1,300 word essay that explains which specific skills, knowledge and
attributes are essential and desirable to be employable in these roles.

The area of Moving Image that I am most interested in is Direction. I am aspiring to become a script writer and am currently 40 pages through a script that I have been working on for 2 months, and I feel that being or trying to be a writer gives me good vision which is key to good direction I feel, but that's moving away from the point. I feel this is very similar to the visual essay from last year so am not sure whether this will be beneficial but I can see that it is building on last years essay, and maybe next year we will have another practitioners essay to complete a series.

Project 3 – Produce a six minute film – group work

In your give teams of 7/8 produce a six minute fictional film using
the given script.

This project is an extended version of last years Moving Image project, and the scripts are just as warped as they were then. I loved last years project and cannot wait to get started with this project. Last year I was director and I would like another high power role in this project but realise everyone has to take their turns and in actual fact I feel I would learn more if I had chances in the lesser roles so to speak.

Project 4 – Produce a Documentary.

As a group of 4/5 produce a 10 minute documentary programme.

This project is the one I am most looking forward to. To be part of making a documentary will be great experience and will have a lot of different avenues to explore in terms of ideas and techniques so cannot wait for this project to come round.

Project 5 – Produce a 20 second title sequence for a given
film - individual work.

Research a number of titles sequences examining their technical and creative conceptual underpinning. Create a 20 second sequence for a given film using specific techniques and
creative concepts you have identified.

This sounds interesting, but I am not sure how we are going to go about creating this, whether we have to go out and film things for a title sequence or whether it is about editing and we rip stuff from DVD's and do a lotof editing. I am assuming it is the first one, and this will make for a very exciting project as the film we are doing 'Robin Hood', had some great cinematography and will allow for some great filming to take place.

Project 6 – Research Project- Individual work

You are to find an area of Moving Image that you wish to investigate. Within this
area you are to find a question that can be investigated using short artefacts.
An artefact should be considered as a practical investigation into the subject
under discussion.

I enjoy research projects as I am a keen learner and like to learn more about my interests, which surprisingly enough include film, Directing and script writing. Will be a decent project that will allow me to improve upon my presentation skills which is an area that I do feel I need to work on.

Project 7 – Design and produce a sound mix using Protools.

Students in teams of two will produce a sound mix using ProTools.
The students will then complete a mix of a piece of recorded music
or a soundtrack.

I'm not sure what this project consists of and whether we are creating a piece using software such as 'e-jay', whether we are merging songs together into a medlee style piece or something similar, or whether it is completely different. Either way I can't really evaluate this bit as I don't even know what we are doing.

So that is my summary of all the projects that I have for this year. A hectic schedule, but I thrive in situtions like this and won't find myself stagnating like I did at certain points of last year because of the lack of work. Most of the projects sound exciting and I am 110% sure that I have chosen the correct pathway.

Summary of Ethical sheets

2010-10-05T14:16:00.000-07:00

From what I have read of the Research and Practice ethic sheets, I have understood that when doing anything involving other's I should adhere to a strict code of conduct.

When collecting information, I should always be straight with the participant unless I wanted to see how they reacted to the situation first, in which case you would tell them at the end and ask for their consent.
I should have had prior training before starting any research.
All methods should be suitable and easy to understand.
They should always be informed of what the study is for, why and how the information will be used.
They should be told of their right to withdraw from the study at any time.
If working with specialist groups (Children, elderley, Disabled) I would need to have specialist checks, called a 'Criminal Record Bureau check'.
All information should be anonymous and confidential. Apparently this right can be waived if the participant agrees and signs in writing. All information must be kept secure so that confidentially does not get breached.
Of course if illegal activities are brought to light then the supervisor/tutor should be informed.

When using the information that I have gathered:

I must make sure that all work is honest, that I haven't taken from other surveys, and have used all of the information gathered.
I am accountable for how the participants are represented, making sure it is fair and sympathetic.

A big no-no in collecting information from the general public is the use of sensitive subject matter, such as abortion and/or pro-life or pro-choice; alcohol; gambling; guns and
weapons; medical and mental health issues; negative financial portrayal; political fanaticism;
religious fanaticism; sexual and sexual health issues; tobacco.

So yeah this is the understanding of the sheets. Basically as long as I check my questions before hand with a supervisor and are sensible when running the interviews and get the participants to sign all of the declaration forms and make them aware of what I am doing and why then I should be fine.

This has been my first blog since the end of the first year, and I am determined to create a lot more blogs this year so that I can trace my work back and give the tutors a better idea of my influences, Ideas and plans for the future.

500 word evaluation for Film project

2010-05-26T10:46:00.000-07:00

I had coming into this project just made my mind up that this will be the pathway that I will be taking over the next two years. So I was raring to go, both because of that reason and also because this was my last project of the year and I wanted to go out with a bang.

The script that we got for our film, was a slightly wierd one if i'm honest, and was quite open to interpretation. It is about a man who for some reason is acting like a dog. The amount of ideas that were swimming around my head was what made it so much fun to film, and also why I threw my name into the ring to be director right from the off.

We, as a group had a large number of ideas for why this man was acting like he was ranging from mental illness to magic dog food, and as you can tell whichever idea we picked would have an outcome on the seriousness and the genre of the film. The idea that we liked best as a group was that the guy got hypnotised and that was the reason he was acting like a dog. This idea had alot of many possibilities as for how we would explain the hypnotism, but we made the message clear by showing a ticket, and we also showed why he was still hypnotised with a clever voiceover at the end that said "Ordinarily I wouldn't have considered it but...I shouldn't have heckled the hypnotist". Originally we had a bit of a problem with how to end the voiceover, but I thought of the voiceover ending whilst on shoot and I think that it works really well.

When it came to shooting the film, we went prepared. We had worked out exactly what we wanted to do for each scene and I had storyboarded and made notes on the script what we were thinking for each scene. I had brought with me all the props that we could think of, and this only came unstuck when we got to Eric's house ,where we were shooting, and found he only had one plate, one bowl and one spoon. So for our eating scenes we had to adapt and work around it which I feel as a group we did well. We had planned all of our locations beforehand, which was great as we managed to get permission to film in a cafe which was a big scene for our film.

The entire film we managed to film in one day. This sounds quick, but we were filming for around 12 hours so got quite exhausting at times. Luckily as a group we were working well and we all got on which made it easier to push through and get it done. The editing took a long time as we had alot of footage to sift through, but we managed to tie it all together nicely and I was able to make the P.O.V shots black and white which was something I had wanted to do from the start, as it shows warper perception - like a dog.

Overall I feel this project went really well and thought we produced a quality piece of work that I am very pleased with. I thought I managed to direct the film well, and feel that aside from one member of the group we all performed very well within our roles which is why the film is as good as it is in my opinion.

Here is the video of my groups film project, incase you havent seen it yet.

500 word evaluation for Interactive Narrative quiz

2010-05-26T09:40:00.000-07:00

Here is the link to the Deviantart page where my quiz is:

http://jwright89.deviantart.com/art/Final-Quiz-piece-163890263

This project was the one I was least looking forward to, as I am not a fan of flash. I did the best job that I could, and went through alot of tutorials trying to get everything working to a reasonable standard and I think I have achieved a good outcome.

The idea for my quiz, was based around my pathway choice, moving image. I originally had an idea to create a quiz similar to the final round of catchphrase where you had to work your way across the board but couldnt go diagonally, so if you got one wrong then you had to go down and across. Although there would have been about 700 frames once I had thought it through, so I turned my attentions to something else. I wanted to create an aesthetically pleasing piece that met the requirements of the brief, so I had the idea to create a Television quiz and make the imagery for the questions a Television screen. I also wanted a menu screen where you could see what the rules of the quiz are and where you can move onto the next question from. For the menu screen I created an image of a remote control and used the buttons on the remote as links to the questions and rules. For extra effect I added a cup of coffee alongside the remote, and of course the title.

To meet the requirements of the brief I needed to have a video that plays in the quiz, sound and also an animation. Firstly, my animation. The idea for this came from the bonus round on the interactive quiz 'pub quiz' which is an addictive game that they have in pubs. Basically it is 'which cup is the pea under' although things got complicated so there is no pea and you just have to follow the middle cup and show where it ends up. This went easily enough and works nicely within the quiz as a bonus round. The sound was alot trickier to add in however. Luckily the tutor Andrew helped me out with some of the coding, as I was completely at sea. But it plays through well now, and the play and stop buttons work aswell. The video was quite straight forward i thought, and plays well in flash player.

Now for the problem I have had with this project. When I uploaded the finished quiz to deviantart.com, that works fine in adobe flash player, It does not play neither the sound nor the video. I am not the only person who has had this problem and I think it might just be a problem with deviantart. If not, then I do not understand why it works fine in flash player.

Overall, I didn't enjoy this project as much as the other two. But i did enjoy it more than I thought I would which was a bonus as it enabled me to concentrate that little bit more. And my quiz turned out well in my opinion, and the only thing I was/am dissapointed with is the fact it won't play anything within my quiz ( sound and video).

Finished edit of our film - DOG

2010-05-18T15:46:00.000-07:00

Here is the link to the finished edit of my groups film:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNkFFASGm-Q

I will post an evaluation up shortly, saying how i felt the projetc went, but for now, enjoy! Peace!

Film shoot

2010-05-05T16:01:00.000-07:00

This post is all about my first day as a director on a film set. I was really happy with how it went and feel we managed to get alot of footage to sift through when it comes to the edit, (I think it was about 40 minutes worth of film in the end and for a 3 minute film thats alot). In all we spent 11 hours filming on Tuesday, and we all got a bit flustered under the heat of the lights but I managed to direct well I thought and we managed to get most if not all of the footage we needed. The group worked really well together and thats what made it easy to get through the day under the lights.

Here are some images from our shoot:

Ideas and influence for Film project - DOG

2010-04-21T11:59:00.000-07:00

I have spent this week doing both my visual essay and the new film project we have. Seeing as I have got hardly anywhere with the visual essay (i think I am just going to do a powerpoint and narrate over the top) I dont have anything to show for that up on my blog. However I have dived into the new film project as i am pretty sure this is the pathway i want to do now, and as the director I have been looking for influences on how I want our film to look.

Our film is about a man who on the surface looks as though he is crazy. He is eating dog food, chasing his tail and studying dog shit in the park. The script is called DOG for obvious reasons. I am happy with the idea that we have about hypnotism but our new scene still hasnt been confirmed as we have a couple of ideas in the air which we will hopefully have reigned in by this fridays seminar.

The style of work that I want to show is very Martin Scorcese esque. I love this man's work and how the mind of the characters is put into question examples being 'The departed', 'Shutter island' and 'Taxi driver'. Whilst doing a bit of research into his films I came across his amazing student films which if you havent seen you should check them out as they are brilliant, and the one which I have a link for here is incredible and is also labelled the quintisential student film.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83i8G6o0quc

Here are some images from some of Scorcese's films:

I have also been looking at point of view camera shots, which is what, as a group, we think bits of our film should be shot in. Peep show is the best example for this kind of filming I feel, as it has worked so succesfully for David Mitchell and Robert Webb. Here is a fantastic clip of what I mean:

http://www.youtube.com/watc h?v=JkrGOhLJuhY

If we are doing this for our film then I think perhaps having it so it looks like a dogs vision could be quite a cool technique to try. When I first thought of this I had the simpsons episode in my head 'Barts dog gets an F' this is the episode where santa's little helper goes to obediance school and he can't understand a word they're saying to him and it shows them through his eyes and everything is distorted proportion wise and its all black and white. We could zoom in and out to get the proportion thing going on, but I do not think this part is neccesary, black and white could work just as well. Unfortunately I couldn't find any images or video clips online that showed this so have tried to explain as best I can.

I looked around looking for examples of animal point of view in films, and I couldn't find many but this example was definitely worth showing as I think it could work great in our film. It is Reuben Mamoulian's 'Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde'. Basically there is a different style of view for each side of Dr Jekyll's personalities.

Here is a link to a clip of what I am talking about:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVESREi5JhU

This is a great example of what I am trying to get across with my vision.

Anyways Im gonna get cracking on some more research for my visual essay which will be fun. Peace.

First draft of my interactive quiz

2010-03-31T11:21:00.000-07:00

This is my first draft of my interactive narrative. I will put a 500 word evaluation up in the next couple of days as I have just got back to Somerset from Nottingham and am tired from the 4 and a half hour train journey. I will also be showing some progressive sketches for how I created the aesthetics of my quiz.

http://jwright89.deviantart.com/art/Television-quiz-158479080

Finished 3D work and evaluation

2010-03-24T14:09:00.000-07:00

Here is the link to the youtube video for my finished 3D project:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNv_Af1yMCY

My super hero was the second coming of Jesus Christ, and i set up my lair to match the specific needs of him andd his disciples. I have created more of a dwelling than a lair because I can't imagine Jesus wanting something as sinister as a lair. So I have created 4 rooms which are:

Hall/Entrance area
Dining area
Bedroom/Carpentary workshop
upstairs hall

The building is shaped like three crosses. It is done like this so that it represents Jesus's crucifiction, where he was left to die upon the cross, and two thieves were being crucified either side of him. The entrance room is set out with a huge painting of god (who of course is his father) and this is set next to a couple of candles and a couple of Omni lighting spots light the way with dark blue shadows creating a dark yet comfortable atmosphere. The materials used were the same as all of the other rooms and were marble floors and ceilings along with cream walls in order to create a regal feel to the lair (dwelling) as I think Jesus would be like that with his interior decor choices.

The next stop on the flythrough is the dining area, where there is a long wooden table with 12 chairs placed around for Jesus and his eleven disciples, whom for this projects sake have been ressurected along with him, however there are only eleven disciples not twelve as i'm assuming he would not want Judas back alongside him. You zoom over the table and chairs and see the holy grail (Jesus's coffee mug of course) set within an ark shaped cabinet alongside two candles and some omni spots aswell. You then turn around to be greeted by DaVinci's last supper above the doorway in remembarance of their most famed gathering.

You then move onto the bedroom and carpentary area. All of the items in the dwelling have a wooden material and look as though they were made by Jesus himself and I like the idea of Jesus being self sufficient and he was a carpenter by trade so I set him up with a workbench and just left a hammer on the side to show he had been working on something before he went out. You then spin round and see a shelving unit with nothing upon it I could say that this was becasue Jesus had given what was on there to charity but in actual fact it was because what I was going to put on there I did not feel would add much value to the project so did not but I still liked the unit where it was so I left it. You then see the bed and bedside cabinet underneath a sword upon a cross shaped plinth, this is the sword that was used to place through his side upon the cross and he keeps it there to remind him how he sacrificed himself for our sins.

When you go upstairs you are hit by a brightness that comes through from the stain glass window at the far end which bares the image of himself and Mary Magdalene. The lighting was created using a target spotlight placed upon the windown and pointing toward the opposing wall. Upstairs is a meeting area for when he would have followers around to listen to his words, there is also a fountain in the center which would be used for baptisms and communion wine when he turns the water to wine.

If I did this project again, then I would make the lair alot bigger asbecasue I did not judge how much space I would need. I did technical drawings before hand but I didnto take into account the size of hallways and this has come off as a negative to my project in my opinion.

Other than that I am happy with how its come out though and for the first time I used 3Ds Max I feel I did a good job and now have a comfortable grip upon the basics now, and even if I don't choose this as my pathway would like to carry on learning the software.

Film or 3D - That is the question?

2010-03-14T18:59:00.000-07:00

I am at a crossroads at this moment in time. I seem to have become addicted to film and cant get enough I am watching at least 2 a day and have written more in the last two weeks than I have in the whole time I have been at uni. Originally I was trying to finish off a script for The young creative awards but I realised the potential in the story and have extended it and it is now too long for me too finish in time (I think, but if i could get it out I would be pleased that i was showing my work). This has become a problem for me obviously as we are at this minute creating visual essays depicting what pathway we would like to go down and I for the life of me can not decide. I am this week going to think about this logically and research careers in both fields and look at second and third year blogs to see what challenges they are facing and if they are happy they chose that pathway. Had to put this down as it will come in handy when looking back for my visual essay content.

Swish flash animation

2010-03-10T15:57:00.000-08:00

Found this whilst looking for Flash examples for the project that I am on at the moment, thought it would be good to shove up on my blog for the tutorial tomorrow.

http://darktwist.deviantart.com/art/I-dream-in-retro-Animation-123553362

Cinema outings..

2010-03-10T15:34:00.000-08:00

I seem to have become a bit of a cinema addict recently going about 2-3 times a week. This week I have been to see Alice in wonderland and Crazy heart in which Jeff Bridges was immense and thoroughly deserved his best actor oscar.

I enjoyed Alice in wonderland but thought that the story was a bit stretched and nowhere near as good as the original disney movie. The asthetics were incredible and really stood out as the highlight of the film along with Johnny Depp's performance of the mad hatter which was great as expected. I didnt enjoy it in 3D and think the experience would be alot better in 2D i say this because of one scene where the lighting is very dim and the 3D doesnt work for it and everything looks blurred.

Here's a link to the trailer if you havent seen it already:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjMkNrX60mA

The second film I have seen this week, crazy heart, is one of the best films I have seen in ages. The story was absolutely brilliant and the acting was what made this film so superb. Jeff Bridges stole the show as he always does in my opinion and his oscar was well deserved not just for this film but for his career.

Heres a link to the trailer, if you get the chance go and see it its a brilliant film:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0349E7kFEM

First walkthrough of my 3Ds Max project

2010-03-10T15:22:00.000-08:00

Finally have uploaded my first run through of the project to youtube so now can show what it looks like. As a whole I am happy with the way it turned out as it was the first time I had used the software and struggled for large portions of the time with it. However at the end of the first 5 weeks of experience with it I feel my understanding has grown and now feel alot more confident within the programme. I will continue to use the software trying out new tutorials and things that I read about so that I can progress further with the software as this is the pathway that I want to go down for the next 2 years.

Here is the link to the video:

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

I am aware that for the brief I also need a 500 word evaluation but I will do this tommorow as again I have left writing my blog until the last minute before tutorial in the morning.

Abstract for visual essay

2010-03-08T08:14:00.000-08:00

This visual essay explores why I have chosen to go down the visual environments pathway, showing my influences in helping to make the decision and why I chose this in the end. I started off studying second and third years blogs to see how their work has developed and also to see which pathway would be better suited to me personally as I did not want to rush into a decision and be stuck with something I was not happy with for two years.

I then moved on and looked into three practitioners that work within this field and showed how I want to aspire to one day be in the same line of work that they are in, I looked at alot of different examples of work from the practitioners including; film, game design, architectural visualisations and a few more, when trying to decide which pathway I will take over the next two years. I got reference for these practitioners from sources such as online tutorials, games, films and books.

In the conclusion I show where I want to go with this pathway in the future and how I will go about getting there using online tutorials and making the most of the experience of the tutors.

Wasnt sure how long this had to be, so i went with a similar length to the abstract that we had to write for our first essays. Anyways peace.

The Crazies

2010-03-03T15:17:00.000-08:00

Went to see this Monday night. One of those films that makes you jump out of your seat every 5 minutes and follows a very similar story telling path strange things are happening they find out what it is and then try to avoid it. Dont have time to write much about this film as it is getting quite late now and need to be up for tutorial in the morning so I'l leave u with the link to the trailer. Peace.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEMZwQulT1Q

3Ds Max work

2010-03-03T15:06:00.000-08:00

I am currently just tweaking the walkthrough for my 3D work and I hope to have a video up in the next few days, as im currently having a couple of little problems with vanishing and reapearing walls. But I think this is because of camera angles and cutting through the walls on the pathway. Anyway in a couple days I hope to have the youtube posted flythrough up here. Peace.

Son of Rambow

2010-03-03T14:57:00.000-08:00

Watched this earlier on today and absolutely loved it. It is set in the 80's and revolves around two boys both from different backgrounds, one from an amish family and the other who stays in the nursing home that his step dad who lives out of the country owns. After the amish boy watches a bootlegged copy of Rambo first blood the two lads come together with the idea of creating a masterpiece of a film to enter it in the screen test competition and a great little film ensues. Here is the trailer to this film:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=em39YmVPTYs

From Paris with love

2010-03-03T14:46:00.000-08:00

Went to cinema on friday to see 'From Paris with love' and came out thinking what a great film I had just seen. The film is set in Paris obviously and stars Jonathan Rhys Meyers as an Embassy aide who is training to become an agent and everything is running smoothly until his new partner arrives from America in the shape of John Travolta who plays one of his best roles since Vincent Vega In 'Pulp fiction'. A great film and really reccomend it, if you're a fan of high octane action then this is a great film to go and watch. Heres the link for the trailer for it below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1sLG0owba0E

A couple of interesting things I have found for the tutorial

2010-02-24T15:33:00.000-08:00

Heres are a couple of short videos I came across whilst looking for something to show in the tutorial tomorrow morning.

The first thing is a pixilation using post it notes that is pretty cool and works really well:

http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1914207

The next thing is a film up on youtube, some guy doing real life Mario Kart racing which made me laugh:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MytfhzcSF-Y

Haven't had chance to put any more on my blog as have been doing alot of 3D work this week and just have not found the time. Have also been thinking about the visual essay and what pathway to do but, as Ive said I want to get the 3D work done so I can concentrate on the next rotation which is the Quiz one.

More work on 3ds Max project...

2010-02-19T10:47:00.000-08:00

Here are the improvements I have made to lighting and the start I have made on bringing the objects Ive made into the rooms. As yet not alot of objects but most of them that I have created have no need to be in there at the moment. Has taken abit more time than I thought to get this far but can see the finishing line now and I am pleased with how I've come to understand the software in a short period of time, and how my project is turning out is how i visualised it so I cant complain.

Imagery:

Improvements to lighting from last post

The dining room for the countless suppers Jesus part II would have to catch up on all he missed

Aerial view of the lair, minus the roofing

So this is where I am to date. But hopefully for my next blog on sunday I will have completed the walkthrough and the rest of the lair and have posted up the completed quicktime file complete with a soundtrack that Jesus would approve of. Peace.

Work in 3Ds Max to date...continued

2010-02-17T17:49:00.000-08:00

Here are some more rendered images from my project that in all honesty only needs a few more hours work and it will be complete if all goes to plan. I have done alot of work with this software now including tutorials - ranging from making objects to assigning materials, and working on my project where I have been putting into practise everything that I have learnt in the last 5 weeks.

Here are the images that I have got:

The outside walls

Lighting

And a good old stain glass window

Obviously I still am making objects and stuff to go inside the place but I havent put them in the lair yet because I'm just finishing that up. Peace.

Work in 3Ds Max to date

2010-02-10T17:10:00.000-08:00

Here are a few rendered images from my virtual environment project - the superhero lair. As I have explained in a previous blog I am using the second coming of Jesus as my superhero and these are a few visuals of the lair that is still under development because I have been taking the time through the past few weeks to do the tutorials that come with the 3Ds Max software and also a few swish ones that I found in a couple editions of 3D art magazine.

Anyway here are a couple rendered images of what it is looking like so far, obviously it's not a complete picture of everything more like a sneak preview:

Staircase:

Perspective view of ground floor:

Anyway like i said this still needs a good few hours work adding to it but I am pleased with the start I have made and I know what needs to be done and have already started on the second floor room which leads to the stairway to heaven so I shouldnt have much longer to go on creating. I still need to learn about animating and cameras with this software and I think the seminar tomorow will be covering this so good times all round. Peace.

Assasins Creed II

2010-02-09T04:51:00.000-08:00

I have been playing this game constantly for the last week it seems and I thought it was about time I wrote a little piece on the gameplay and the visuals seeing as that is what this blog is for.

Assasins creed II is, as a game highly addictive. The story is pretty much the same as the first, the feud between the assasins and the templars, and you just go around assasinating everyone linked to the execution of his family. But this blog is being written to talk about the stunning visuals that they have created for cities such as Venice, Florence and Rome.

To create the stunning scenery, and the incredible crowds that you see as you go through the streets, the developering studio, Ubisoft Montreal, sent out a team to visit the major cities that will be visited in the game. They visited the major landmarks and walked within the streets to get a feeling of how people live over there today and how that would have been different back in the 15th century (when the game is set). They ended up taking over 35,000 photos for referencing during production, and also collaborated for over several months with a historian of architecture who specialised in Italian Renaissance, giving more detailed and accurate information on how cities were built during this time in Italy. Genevieve Dufour, production manager for ubisoft, explains: "We found and used maps from the 15th centuryfrom each city, as well as drawings, paintings and sketches by the most influential people of the time."

That is just a quick blog on how much work just goes into the referencing for big scale games such as Assassin's Creed II. Here is a link to the trailor to show you how good the game looks. Peace.

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

Hammer & Tongs

2010-02-03T14:03:00.000-08:00

Just watched the music video to Blur's Coffee & TV for the first time in about 8 years and forgot how brilliant it was. The whole story of the milk carton setting off to find the missing person whose picture is imprinted on him is a great story and supports the song great. The song is one of my favourites and reminds me of last year when I saw Blur at Glastonbury which is the reason I whacked it up on youtube in the firstplace, because I could not remember the video being that good.

The people who created this video are a film company named Hammer & Tongs who have made alot of adverts, music videos and were also the directors for the film 'Son of Rambow' which one best comedy at the 2009 Empire awards. If you want to find out more heres their website:

http://www.tongsville.com/

But here is the link to the music video that accompany's the classic Graham Coxon track, 'Coffee & TV'. Peace.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXRVX1AKAew

The re-branding of pepsi

2010-02-03T13:53:00.000-08:00

Was doin my shopping the other day when I came across the new pepsi logo. They have gone for the very commonly used idea that less is more, but they have ended up changing the image from a soft drink to what looks as though it should be a petrol station.

Pepsi's logo started off in 1898 when the creator of pepsi cola, Caleb Bradham, scribbled down a quick logo script that was very similar to how the coca cola logo looks. The idea of the red white and blue circle started as a bottle cap and developed into the circle that we all know today.

This blog is pretty irrelevant but having been on a Graphics course before this, it is something that I remember looking at for a previous project. Below is an image showing how things have progressed.

Jim Hensons Labyrinth

2010-01-30T11:54:00.000-08:00

Where to begin with this film. A childhood favourite just because of the brilliance of the puppeteering and the stage design is absolutely immense. Produced by George Lucas, it does have a slight amateur feel but that just adds to the genius of it all. I was a big fan of the muppet show as a kid aswell and love Jim Henson's work. I am a huge fan of films like this and had to buy it when i saw it for £2 yesterday. David Bowie's soundtrack was very good and fit in with the film brilliantly aswell. If you aint seen it before this is a definite recognition. Peace.

Progress with 3Ds Max

2010-01-30T11:37:00.000-08:00

I am really enjoying this project, and I seem to have got a basic grip with most of the functions that 3Ds Max has to offer. I have settled upon my idea, but it has been hard to get an idea of how I want the lair to look and what the size requirements are.

My idea, basically, is having a second coming of Jesus, and I want to create his lair using different stories from the bible, such as: stones rolled away from the doorways, representing how the angel rolled the stone away from his tomb. A narrow corridor with water instead of a floor so that only he can get through, this would be to his secret office or something like that, only he could use this becasue of his ability to walk on water, and narrow corridors would rule out someone being able to swim. So the lair will be full of things like this, I just have to create the look of the 4 areas and sort the size specifications out, but I will have a whole day tomorow just messin around with ideas for that, and then hopefully will be able to get cracking on the whole thing. Peace.

Geri's Game

2010-01-28T19:40:00.000-08:00

Here is an animation short that I found from Pixar called 'Geri's game' in which an old boy plays a game of chess against himself pretending he is a young whippersnapper on one side of the board and an old codger on the other side. The film is well directed and beautifully animated by the guys down at Pixar, The director, Jan Pinkava, had a vision to set the bar for human and clothing animation and he did it beautifully with this short. It won the academy award for best animated short film in 1997 and rightly so. Jan, has more recently gone onto direct the film 'Ratatouille' which I think is one of pixars best so I will be taking a look at some more of his work when its not 4 in the morning. Here's the link to Geri's game, enjoy. Peace.

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/2964317/geris_game_pixar_short_animation_movie/

Sarah Lucas

2010-01-28T19:10:00.000-08:00

looking back over my visual culture studies from last year I came across the artist Sarah Lucas's work again, whose work I admired immensely because it was visually incredible and yet very simple stuff. She was a big collage artist and if you have read my last few blogs, I do seem to be a big collage fan. She used to rent a a retail space with her good friend and Turner prize winner Tracey Emin, and they sold T-shirts and mugs with slogans etc upon them. A sentence from my V.C book that sums her up greatly is: Throughout her career, Lucas has continued to appropriate/use everyday materials to make works that contain humour, visual puns and sexual metaphor to discuss sex, death, gender and Englishness. Here are a couple examples of her work:

The miracle of flight

2010-01-28T18:55:00.000-08:00

Just an animation that I found by Terry Gilliam, who i seem to be going through a phase of right now, which is in the style of the Flying circus animations but which is seperate and manages to create a capturing and imaginative tale. The thing I love most about Gilliams animation style is the roughness, it looks like it was thrown together very quickly, but I think this works for the stories and imagery that he uses and if I can find it I will blog on a piece of animation work that I did for my Towns council, where I used his style to convey a message that the town was aimed at the elderly and jusdging by their figures we would have been swamped in them. But anyway heres Gilliams animation:

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

Julian House

2010-01-28T18:26:00.000-08:00

Just a quick blog to comment on the album cover for Oasis's 7th studio album 'Dig out your soul' which was done by a graphic designer called Julian House. Picked it up off my shelf earlier and was blown away by the similarities of the work compared to my Idol Terry Gilliams early animation work for The Monty Python flying circus. Another high profile piece of work that he has done was for Primal Screams album 'Extrmntr'. Collage work is not widely used in the public domain but I feel that when you get it right by using the right media (Gilliam used artwork, old photographs, sketches, anything he could get his hands on basically) it is a powerful tool.Here are a few images so that you can see the similarities between their work and how much influence Gilliam has had on him:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8M3F7do3ao

That is a link to an example of Gilliams animation.

Here are a couple of House's pieces of work:

New ways of learning in the digital age

2010-01-28T17:56:00.000-08:00

On wednesday night I went to one of the distinguished lectures, which was held in the building thats just opened up and which is absolutely awesome. The lecture was titled 'New ways of learning in the digital age' and was taken by Lord David Puttnam who was a producer on films such as 'Chariots of fire', 'Bugsy Malone' and Ridley Scotts first feature film 'The Duellists'. Because of the title and the lecturer we thought it would be strongly linked with our course, however it turned out to be more directed at how teaching can get us out of the recession and develop youngsters for what is arguably the most daunting future mankind has ever faced, what with the ever changing technological side and also the imminent threat of global warming. Basically the quality of teaching needs to be improved so that youngsters can adapt and be influenced to take education further, as a major problem in todays schools is the lack of inspiration students receive. When I was at college It was not my tutor who inspired me to move onto animation but one of the helping hands in the college whose wealth of knowledge on the subject was incredible, and he showed me some great artists work and was who introduced me to Terry Gilliam whom I had never heard of but is now my biggest influence in my work. An interestin question that was put forward at the end was how 3D Visualisations will quite possibly come to play a big part in schools in the future, and this got me thinking about how important a course we are in the scheme of things, but also how this will help students become more involved in school learning as it will be coming to life and perhaps take the pressure of the teachers slightly.

This lecture opened my eyes to the world of teaching aswell and I am now starting to think about perhaps moving into a teaching degree once I have finished with this one, but then again this could just be because of how good a speaker Lord Puttnam was, you can definitely tell hes a politician.

Avatar

2010-01-25T17:35:00.000-08:00

Just got back from goin to see this at the cinema. I'd already seen the film as my mate had a copy that he got back in Vietnaam but that was lacking as it was quite fuzzy and i imagine they probably filmed it from a 3d screen or something idotic like that. When I watched it the first time I just thought that it was aload of tosh if im being honest. Not alot happens its a very basic narrative and very predicatable, and James Cameron manages to drag this out for 2.5 hours which is quite impressive for a story this weak.

However a couple mates were goin to watch it tonight and asked me along and I just thought why not? I had heard that it was a film that was made for the cinema and that Cameron had waited 14 years to make this so that technology could have done it justice. I hadnt seen the brilliance or spectacularness of these effects on the copy so was pessimistic. However the effects and the visual shots are absolutely insane. When you first see the floating mountains you are taken aback, especially watching it in 3d. I am glad I watched it again, but I still struggle to see how and why he wanted to stretch it out for as long as it was, because most of it was just them dancing and prancing along treetops, it may look good but it loses your interest in the story.

Research seminar

2010-01-25T15:06:00.000-08:00

Last week we spoke about research and the many categories that are within this area. We got set some questions to think over and here they are, along with my answers.

What has my creativity been for the past few years?

Before I started this course, I did a BTEC ND in Graphic Design. This was aimed at a career in either animation or advertising, so most of my creativity was angled down these paths. I am also a keen writer and have written bits and pieces consistently over the last couple years. I'm not sure what the outcome of this question really should be, as it is quite open ended and could end up anywhere, but this in general has been what my creativity has been.

Whose it been for?

Most of the creative work I have done was for my ND, but I have done work in the past for the 'Taunton Deane county council' and created a corporate identity for a biofuels company named 'Falcon Biofuels'. I also have my Writings and my sketchbooks, but these were always done mostly for practise and to see what ideas i had lurking in the ol' grey matter.

Why've I done it this way? Has this been my decision or someone else's?

Obviously the work that I had done for my course both BTEC and my degree was set to the educational board's standards so this was not my decision. However when creating my animation for the county council, and the corporate identity for Falcon Biofuels I had creative freedom in these projects and found this alot easier as I could be as bold as I wanted without having to worry about the drabble of meeting unneccesary criteria. My writing is very surreal and out there which is definitely my way of thinking as I feel If you are writing a story you need to capture the imagination not tell somebody something that they could go out and do the next day. Its not an Ikea product manule, anyway I digress.

What's the future of my Creativity?

I would love to work within the game or film industry as an animator and I am choosing the virtual environment pathway in order for me to achieve this. The current DP2 project I am working on is the animation one, and I am loving getting to grips with 3D studio max as it is challenging and keeps the interest even when I've been creating spiral staircases for an hour. I also feel that I am learning a skill that will be required in a modern age with ever advancing technologies. I also have hopes of getting my book out into the public and possibly writing some other stuff but this is a side dream right now.

What specific way(s) can research help me to get to these new places?

Obviously research is going to be a massive tool at my disposal in my future as I feel that you have to always be looking at what has gone before and what is happening at that time. Everything is design. This is a statement I agree massively with and I look to take influence from anything from my environment. What I am doing now for animation research is playing alot of video games with assasins creed II being the one in my Xbox right now and I am also checking out short animated films by companies such as Pixar who make visually stunning pieces such as this short film that I first saw before the film UP which was also brilliant, but take a look at this piece called partly cloudy, directed by Peter Sohn.

http://www.redbalcony.com/?vid=24992

I also read alot of new and old stuff, but mostly old stuff at the minute with my complete works of Oscar Wilde being delivered today, at a sweet price of £1.41. A clockwork orange is the current book i'm reading as i decided to read it before i watched the film which is regarded as a cult classic so am looking forward to that.Also just to add that Jack Kerouac's On the Road was an absolute classic and possibly the best book I've ever read. All these research methods will help to improve me as a practitioner by broadening my horizons and knowlege of the subjects I want to work within.

Which research starting point do I feel most drawn to?

I'm tired and have written an awful lot for this one blog so will start to keep it short. i think this is what we spoke about in the seminar regarding different paths of research, and I feel that the exploratory path is what I'm most drawn to as I am a visual person and like to find new things wheter it be in a book, film or on the street. If its interesting then im interested. Also the descriptive path seems appealing aswell as I love to find out why? How? Hhere? And when? these things were thought up.

Which do I feel wary of?

Possibly Interim research findings and this is only because it seems the most work, which is a very lazy way of looking at it but everything else seems to tie in with what I said in the previous answer about wanting to know why etc. This is tracking progress and thinking about emerging trends.

Which seem irrelevant?

The Pilot stage seems a waste of time if you ask me because it's just a warm up and sounds as if you still have to carry on with the other research pathways aswell so why bother? I dont know ive pretty much beat around the bush with this answer and not answered anything at all but its late and Ive written more than Shakespeare wrote in his life. Peace.

First two weeks back

2010-01-25T06:58:00.000-08:00

Since I have been back after the christmas break and during it too, I have been doing alot of background work for the course, nothing substantial, but I have been watching alot of new and old films that I have not seen and that need to be seen for inspiration or just because I want to see them. As i have already explained in a previous blog I am a huge fan of Terry Gilliam's work as the stories that he works with are very out there and surreal but he does the scripts justice and manages to portray emotion and enable a connection between the audience and the story. Films such as 'The fisher king', 'Twelve Monkeys' and 'Tideland' are three of his films that I have seen since ive been back.

I have also been looking at other directors work such as Quentin Tarantino, Shane Meadows and Dennis Durgan, who are all very different types of director but are all still very good in the fields that they work within. Of course not everything that I watch is just for research I seem to be watching more and more bro-mance films of late, films such as 'superbad' and 'Pineapple express' directed by Judd Apatow who seems to have got this genre nailed on.

I have been to the cinema twice since being back here to see 'Daybreakers' and 'The book of Eli'. Both of these films had a very entertaining feel to them and you do find yourself gettin pulled into the stories of both films. The effects used in 'Daybreakers' were stunning and the amount of gore was just incredible for an hour and a half film, whereas 'The book of Eli' was more about the story and relating to the character although the fight scenes were immense.

I have also continued to write my book of short stories, which im sure will one day come in handy, as there are alot of ideas in there that the people who have read them seem to love, so i am optimistic about the book, which is known as 'Succulent Quails tongues and other misdemeanours'.

Anyways this is the background work that I have been doing against all the other stuff such as online tutorials for the 3D studio Max software and some sketching now and again just to keep my skills honed. And I wrote this in answer to Jool's comment on my blog for last weeks seminar where he asked me what films i've been watching and if anybody has read my writings.

Work that i have done so far using 3D studio Max

2010-01-25T06:33:00.000-08:00

Using 3D studio Max has been a real eye opener to me about what skills i need to have as an animator. As Virtual environments is the path that I want to take for the next two years, then experimenting as much as I can within this software is something that I must continue to do. So far in the two seminars which our group has had we have worked on things such as buildings (walls and floors) and fittings (walkways and spiral staircases). I have also been messing around with different tools and using online tutorials to help me gain a better understanding of how this software works. Images will be up soon of work that I have done.

Grzegorz Jonkajtys & Marcin Kobylecki - Ark

2010-01-25T06:04:00.000-08:00

I was looking through some final year blogs and i came across this piece by Grzegorz Jonkajtys & Marcin Kobylecki. The Ark was made in 2007 andwas on the festival circuit enjoying a huge amount of success, which is unsurprising as it is well directed and a visually stunning piece that envokes alot of emotion within the viewer. The amount of detail within the piece is incredible, influence for some of the scenery looks as though it may have come from the matrix when they are in the real world. The effects are well timed, spaced out and work well within the plot. The facial expressions are what make this animation so good as the range of emotions that are displayed is incredible. I am definitely a fan of this work and it is a very inspiring piece.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBlLlxw5yKM

Development as a practitioner

2010-01-18T15:33:00.000-08:00

How i'm developing amyself as a practitioner seems to be the way that most people are. The guys i spoke to in the seminar last week all seemed to be doing similar things, except tailored more toward their chosen pathway. Ways that I am developing myself is by both simple things such as; watching films to discover new techniques and styles, reading and writnovels to develop my storytelling techniques or drawing to strengthen my image making which will help with storyboards. And also with more complex things such as online tutorials to help with my understanding of new software which, as i am thinking that my pathway will be virtual environments, is a very important thing to be doing as i am not familiar with software such as 3Ds Max, but after messing around with the tutorials i will begin to get a better understanding of how it works.

Pete Candeland

2010-01-18T12:17:00.000-08:00

First heard of this guy last week when i first saw the cinematic intro to The Beatles Rock band, which is absolutely incredible - heres the link to the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3KitxQJpZk

I absolutely loved that video, the only word to describe it being epic. The company that created these animations was Passion Pictures. The director for it was a guy called Pete Candeland, whose work includes things such as the Gorillaz music videos working with Jamie Hewlett and Damon Albarn, and the coke zero advert about the well engineered world within a vending machine. His work is awe-inspiring and as animation is the pathway i want to follow the standard of this is something i hope to be able to emulate. Here is a link to the Passion pictures website, which i am studying right now for new names in the field.

http://www.passion-pictures.com/flash.html#page=d3

Re-edited Pixilation

2009-12-15T12:29:00.000-08:00

Didn't realise I hadn't posted this up yet. But here is my re-edited, finished pixilation:

http://www.youtube.com/user/JWLOL89#p/a/u/0/HzG9mq_uZ-A

Finished One shot film

2009-12-15T12:25:00.000-08:00

This is my own personal edit of our groups film. I did this because with ours we couldnt see very much as lighting was deceptive on the camera. I did an individual edit because of problems we had with the one shot project like our tape being chewed up and having to re-shoot the whole thing. And also because we were all very busy with interactive narratives and essays that both needed completing by this week:

Interactive narrative - Influences

2009-12-11T10:46:00.000-08:00

For the style of my narrative i wanted to give it a childrens book look, something with bright colours and simple illustrations. I thought this would give it an innocence that wasn't in the storyline.

Here are a few of the flash artists and different flash narratives that I looked at for influence:

http://coldhardflash.com/

http://www.rrrrthats5rs.com/games/dont-shoot-the-puppy

http://oakland.crimespotting.org/#dtstart=2009-12-03T23:59:59-07:00&dtend=2009-12-10T23:59:59-07:00&zoom=14&types=AA,Mu,Ro,SA,DP,Na,Al,Pr,Th,VT,Va,Bu,Ar&lat=37.823&hours=0-23&lon=-122.258

http://www.hellosoursally.com/

I didn't take direct influence from any of these pieces because i had an image in my head of how i wanted it to look , so i went with it.

Interactive Narrative - Week 3 (Final week)

2009-12-11T10:41:00.000-08:00

This is my finished interactive narrative piece:

http://jwright89.deviantart.com/art/Gorilla-Warfare-146415671

In the end I decided to go for a story that i wrote a couple years back and just adapted it so that i t would work well as an interactive narrative.

I was pleased with how this project went as i didn't encounter any problems of major significance, the only ones that i did were when i first started messing around with flash. But after this project I feel I have a comprehendable understanding of the basics of Flash.

Interactive narrative - Week 2

2009-12-11T08:50:00.000-08:00

This week was the start of putting my interactive narrative together. As alot of us had never used flash before we were given a template to mess around with i.e deconstruct and rebuilding it. If it wasn't for this structure I would have been struggling as I have never used it before, but after about an hour of this i felt i was accomplished enough to complete the structure of my narrative.

The code was easy enough, as it was the same as the template's code you just had to change the button names, and frame number to fit with your layout, the only thing i had to think about was how many choices were needed, but that was simple enough as you just put a new layer of code in.

All i have left to do now is finish my drawings and put them into the flash structure and i'm away.

A serious man = A serious bore

2009-12-05T19:11:00.000-08:00

Last night I took my girlfriend to see the new Coen brothers film down out the ol' cinema. What a waste of my time I am normally a fan of their movies with no country for old men being one of my favourite films but this was just tragically boring. I wouldn't reccomend anyone watching it and would say go and watch law abiding citizen an absolute epic film with the legend that is Jamie foxx :D check both the trailers out and see for yourself:

Law abiding citizen: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w87UlINbcWE

A serious man: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcUTv3LH3ss

Interactive narrative - Week 1

2009-12-05T17:29:00.000-08:00

I went in to this project a little apprehensive as I had heard bad things about flash and that it was hard to get used to and very confusing.

Luckily in our first seminar we only spoke about the basics of what a narrative is, and how to create one. Basically a Narrative is a frame that holds different plots within, whether the plot be linear (example given in the seminar was Hitchcock's Vertigo) or non-linear (Tarantino's Pulp fiction).

I have a couple of ideas that I could use for my narrative. One stems from a story i wrote last year about a gorilla clown within an Orangutan circus i'll say no more as it will ruin the ultimate surprise. The other was an idea i had after hearing something in the lecture at the start of the seminar about looking at things differently. This sparked the idea of maybe having a scenario where the characters keep changing and you get different view points and perhaps you can change to objects like a tap or a phone, but then be transferred to another character via becoming water or the phones signal perhaps. I will go away and look at these ideas and see which one i will enjoy persuing more and also which ones are more plausible.

Finished One Shot

2009-11-22T07:10:00.000-08:00

Here is the link to my groups one shot project:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFTZiSulr8Y

This project was the first time i have delved into film making, and i have to say i enjoyed it. Our idea came from our first seminar in this assignment and gradually developed into what you see before you. We changed certain aspects once we got to location, as it was raining heavily, but we put our heads together and came up with an idea similar, but one which allowed us to still film our piece in the rain. However as i said in my previous blog our tape got chewed up so we had to do it again, but once we had the idea and had already shot the film once, we all knew what we were doing so it was fairly straight forward.

The idea is basically, when you join the film there are 3 characters in a car, having been there for a while because there battery has died (the title gives this away), who are chatting away just passing the time, unbeknown to them (as no-one is looking) 2 guys drag a body into the middle of the road, see the car and run off out of shot, one of the characters decides to go out and check what it is in the middle of the road after a short discussion about what it is once they've seen it. Then the character that went out to check gets done ,by one of the guys you saw before hand, and then gets slammed into the windscreen of the car, causing the 2 characters in the car to scarper in a hurry.

This film was shot from the front seat of a car, and stayed in a fixed position throughout. The influence for this idea was from those tv shows such as traffic cops, where you see them chasing the cars through the windscreen. This idea worked really well with the rain the first time, so because it wasn't raining when we filmed the second time, we just poured water on the windscreen beforehand to give the same effect. Lighting for our film came form the headlights which was an innovative idea, and allowed us to film in the dark and rain. Effects wise, we used some fake blood right at the end, to show that the character had been murdered, this works well i think and adds a bit more to proceedings.

The film was fairly easy to edit, all we did was cut it at the end, where the film finished, and we added a title shot and credits, which give the film a more complete look. Overall I am happy with my contribution to the film, as we all worked well together and everyones ideas were taken into consideration, and the final piece was a mixture of a few ideas which shows how everyone was listening to eachother. I am pleased with how the film looks, and glad that the second time we went to edit the tape didnt get chewed up.

Evidence

2009-11-19T09:21:00.001-08:00

Here are the remains of our never to be seen masterpiece. We have filmed the exact same thing and have probably done a better job now as we knew what we were doing and what not to do this time, it was still very annoying. However it has probably proved to have been a blessing in disguise as after filming and watching it back we felt the work was better than our first shoot. So it was a positive out of a negative, silver lining and all that.

One Shot - Summary so far..

2009-11-17T09:07:00.000-08:00

Over the last two weeks, within our group we have been jotting down and bouncing ideas off of eachother and had also finished and nailed filming our final piece, which came out superb if i say so myself. But today at around 2.45 tragedy struck our group, as our beloved tape got mangled in the machinery and there was only a slight chance of survival. As we waited with baited breath to see if it would pull through, we were told they would have to amputate. We were devastated we all knew deep down it wouldn't pull through...and it didn't.

The plan is now to film the same idea again, tomorow night. This is not a big ask, but we had nailed it first time and were just about to edit it. So as you can imagine it was a bit of a kick in the teeth to our hard work, time and effort.

Le Donk and Scor-Zay-zee

2009-11-17T08:59:00.000-08:00

A couple weeks back during our tutorial we were told about this film, and shown a short trailer for it aswell:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-hmSRgZHc8

Intrigued, I went online and ordered the dvd from lovefilm.com I only just got it through yesterday and had completely forgot about it, but i banged it in and watched it to see if it was up to the hype.

This film was started and finished in 5 days, and was shot on a budget of £48000. Not even taking this in to consideration i absolutely loved it, but then again mockumentary's are always good for a laugh. But if you take these things into consideration then it was absolute genius.

Short film examples

2009-11-16T09:08:00.000-08:00

Here are a few links to some examples of short films i looked at for inspiration for my one shot short project:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QrKnhOJ-R80

The Black button is a quality little video that has an aweseome storyline and the simplicity works so well, the group that created this movie are called Dark Heart productions, i checked out a few other films by them and they were all of high quality. Another good one to watch is The window. The black button is very similar to a film that is due for release at the cinema very soon called the box, here is a trailer for the film:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVK-hVGqCpo

One example of one shot that i looked at, is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDlaVqVz17g

This is a cool and smoothly choreographed one stop film, that is something that we tried greatly to integrate in our own one shot short.