DISTINCTION!!!!

Just to let all the wonderful and faithful followers of this here blog know, I just got my results for the last three assignments (Crimewatch, Employee Handbook and Stop Motion) I got a distinction on each of them!!!

Evaluation

What role did I play in this production?
Pre-production
In the pre-production stage I played a few roles. I logged the first meeting we had (the original meeting with Adam Perrott), drew the storyboard, helped write the script, helped make the filming timeline, made the model of the snail, and acquired sound and music files.
Production
I animated all the characters during the filming.
Post-production
I edited the footage, added the music and sound, inserted titles and credits, produced it onto a DVD and screened it in front of an audience.


What problems did we encounter?
Fortunately, after the last assignment I had learnt my lesson and with the rest to the teams agreement we appointed a project manager who was wonderful in keeping everything in order and on track. The only real problem we encountered was that we lost one of our members in the middle of the production so all his jibs had to be divided out among the rest of the team. A few other problems included; the dialogue sound not being overly loud so we had to sort that out and re-produce our video.

Was I satisfied with the finished product?
I was very satisfied with the finished product. Taking into consideration that we had less than 3 weeks to complete the entire project from start to finish, I would say I am very pleased with the outcome. The audiences we showed our production to really enjoyed it.

Overall thoughts
This project went better than planned and really enjoyed every minute of it.

About Stop Motion

There are various forms of stop motion. There is stop motion of objects or people and there is stop motion with clay people (more commonly known as claymaiton).

This video is very clever and one of my favorite. The creator took real images (in the same way one would take digital images for an on-screen stop motion video) and strung them together around his house thus bringing the pictures to life and telling a story through stop motion. Very creative.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9Et7UQh1tg [22/6/10 20:12]

Finished!

I think we just set a world record. We completed an entire project in just six work days! Here is the finished product and please, let me know what you think. In the extended article there is a lot more information about the making of "Gnashing Gnasher and the Green Goo".

Welcome back everyone!

Its been a long time! Firstly, what do you think of the new blog? Anyway, in the past few weeks I have been really busy finishing off assignments and beginning new ones.

Evaluation

As always, nothing goes to plan!

FINISHED!

Here is the completed video! I am not very happy with the finished product. You will be able to read all of what i'm not pleased about in the evaluation.

What a great day

I woke up this morning with a dazzle of sunlight and knew that today would me an awesome day, and I was right.

How to make a picture from words

A friend of mine (yes, the same friend from this post) asked me this morning how to make this picture. So I said "easy!" Here is the tutorial.

everything is fixed up (almost anyway)

As I mentioned in this post, we lost half our footage and had to re-film most of it. So, today we decided to come in to college early and get it done. We arrived at 10am and finished all the filming by 2 pm. I am very pleased with it.

I also mentioned in this post that our log sheet supervisor doesn't seem to be too interested in the assignment. Today when we had finished filming and wanted to take the sound off our device we had no idea what sound number was ours because our log sheet supervisor wasn't there to jot everything down (loads of pictures to look at on Facebook today!)

Next week I will not be able to come in to college to edit the footage and produce our masterpiece, this wouldn't have been a problem if we would have been on track and started editing this week, but since we had to film this week I won't be able to help with the editing. Oh well, I hope they manage without me.

'Cos today's gonna be bad day....

Today was as bad as a day could get. It all started with me waking up with a headache and a sore throat and things didn't get better.

Health & Safety and Risk Assessment

I started writing this post about a month and a half ago but forgot all about it, and as Health & Safety is integral for me to pass my assignment I though I had better finish it.
I am first going to list all the locations we are going to be filming and then state the health & safety precautions that will be necessary in that place.
    - Classroom

    - Corridor
    - Lobby
    - On the road
    - Outside the lift on second floor

The set up of crime watch

I will now attempt to analyse the Crimewatch setup. I will be looking at transitions, music, shots and zoom, and lighting.

Finished filming!

Last night my MacBook charger just randomly died so I went online to look for a new one and got a shock to find that they are around £30-50!!! RIP OFF!

What a day!

In this here post I mentioned that we were going to be re-filming the second studio scene as both participants in that scene were not very confident with their lines.

First meeting with a 'real' client

"A funny tale of monstrous humans and humane monsters with a one-eyed octopus called Barbara and a mouse called Alan thrown in for good measure. Oh and a little girl called Deirdre who isn't quite what she seems..."

Update on assignment

Ok, just a quick update. We are almost finished filming but we still have the second studio scene to film. We did try to film it yesterday but we had some trouble with the actors remembering their lines. But to their defence, there is a lot to memorise and they had not rehersed with eachother before filming. Anyway, today we are re-filming a scene we filmed last week as we just procured some fake blood which looks more realistic than ketchup!
The last pieces to film are a few establishing shots and some random corridor shots.

Stay tuned.

How to make part of an image black & white

A friend of mine asked me this morning how to keep part of an image colour while making the rest of the image black and white. Easy.

Click below for the full tutorial.

A trip to the Zoo!

To give us a break from the tremendous amount of work that we are busy with, my college took us on a trip to the zoo. Here are some of the pictures I took with my neophyte photo-taking skills. Enjoy.
As always, comments are most welcome.

      

Many more pictures in extended article.

A few filming laws

This post is way over-due...

How a web design goes straight to hell! (comic)

Read this and have a chuckle... because it is so true!

My screenplay

Today I wrote the screenplay for the part of the upcoming assignment I will be directing. The first part of the script I wrote alone which was nicely accepted in the class. The second part was typed by me but written by myself and the teacher with a bit of input from the rest of the group.
Below is the script I wrote.

Assignment

Below you will find the Scenario brief we were given for our assignment.

Today we had a group meeting and did the casting as well as the story board. I ended up with the role of Director for the studio scenes as well as the Narrator.

The next job is to start work on the script. I'm really looking forward to it.

Assignment!

I received my assignment today.
Film a reconstruction of a murder just like it is done on Crimewatch.
Stay posted.

Movie Scripts

A movie script, or screenplay, is a dossier which has all the information about the movie or soap in it.

Comic strpis and Storyboards.

Aber, does the name 'DC Comics' mean anything to you? No? Don't worry because until about 1:35pm this afternoon it meant nothing to me either!

My first attempt at Final Cut Pro

This was made with 3 identical videos (just taken at different angels) and cut in Final Cut Pro Studios.

Storyboard

 Before any movie can be shot, a storyboard will be drawn up. The storyboard will be a sheet or sheets of paper on which will be draw small sketches of major scene changes.

Making a book illustration in Illustrator

In the following toutorial I am going to show you how to make this book.

Establishing shots and Cutaways

What is an establishing shot and a cutaway? Well you're about to find out!

Movie Cliché and Music.

In this post I am going to tell you about Movie Clichés and music in movies.

Framing

Framing. These are the way the shot has been set up. Here a few of the most commonly used.

When framing a shot the rule of thirds is always used.

How to make a bottle in Illustrator

In the following tutorial I will show you how to make a realistic looking bottle in Illustrator.

What is Interactive Media?

The majority of the morning was spent understanding the different type of interactive media and where it can be found. These included Internet, Mobile phones, information kiosks and ATM machines. Interactive Media can be found literally anywhere! Safety demonstrations, Powerpoint presentations, Rail station ticket machines and DVD menus are all examples of Interactive Media that are used daily by millions worldwide.

A passenger using

an automated ticket machine at a

New York Subway

station