Ollie Tristram

Showreel

2010-05-03T23:00:00.002+01:00

Features work I've made from late 2008 to the present.

PRP - Artefact 4

2010-04-20T16:36:00.002+01:00

For this artefact I moved on from musical genre as I felt artefacts 1 to 3 answered what I had set out to discover - how musical genre can affect the audience's perception of film.

I decided to look into Foley sound effects and how that can affect people watching film. Personally I think Foley is most notable during fight scenes, because the hit sounds are most exaggerated here than in real life and generally people recognise this.

The way I have gone about it is to find clips from different decades and survey people as to whether the older clips sound more or less realistic than the newer clips and whether realistic Foley sounds can help the audience become more involved with the film itself.

Here is the video:

Here is the survey:
Click here to take survey

PRP - Artefact 3

2010-03-14T16:35:00.002Z

With this artefact I wanted to use a film clip that was fairly neutral in emotion. The previous artefact was a fight scene so obviously the fast paced music worked better with it. In this clip I used a scene from Goodfellas but edited it to cut out the character pocketing a gun (as that would influence the audience's opinion of the character even without music) and also cut the scene before any conflict started. This gave me a neutral clip and allowed me to insert 4 different genres of music and survey people to find out how they felt the music affected the on-screen action.

PRP - Artefact 2

2010-03-14T16:32:00.003Z

One I had established my first artefact I went on to investigate how different genres of music affect the audience's perception of a film clip.

I chose this clip from Kill Bill with 3 different genres of music, all composed by myself in Apple Logic.

After watching the video I had arranged a survey to filled in with a few questions about the genres so I could gauge peoples' opinions.

Client Project: Bishop of Southwell installation (First Edit)

2010-03-09T15:29:00.002Z

Edited by Tom Pearson
Static Camera Jason Bickers
Mobile Camera Ollie Tristram

Client Project: BCS DVD Animation into Menu

2010-02-18T17:07:00.001Z

An animation into the DVD Menu for the work we are filming at university for BCS. The start animation will be displayed on a green screen where Brian, the presenter, will be introducing the DVD. As he finishes the menu will come into focus. This is not the final design.

Client Project: BCS DVD Cover Drafts

2010-02-18T14:37:00.004Z

(Above) Final design idea.
(Below) Final idea with tweaks after feedback.

BCS Broadcasting - Occam Networks

2010-02-14T17:56:00.001Z

A film created for BCS to use with one of their clients, Occam Networks. This was made as part of the DVD we are producing for our client module.

PRP - Artefact 1

2010-02-14T17:51:00.003Z

My first artefact for the PRP module of the course. I composed a piece of music to give to this car chase, which doesn't originally have one. The purpose was not necessarily for the music to fit with the film, but to show what the film could sound like had it had music originally. I then asked people their opinion on whether the soundtrack affected their perception of the film.

The outcome was that some people think it does improve the film, but then some people thought it worked better without... However, most people would've liked to have heard a more matching soundtrack with the film, which leads me onto Artefact 2...

Client Project: BCS DVD Cover

2010-01-21T01:38:00.001Z

First solid effort of a DVD cover for the client's work.

Animator vs. Animation

2010-01-08T19:11:00.001Z

Nice flash animation my friend linked me to. Not related to my pathway but cool nonetheless and I'm sure the animation-bods will like it.

http://fc01.deviantart.com/fs13/f/2007/077/2/e/Animator_vs__Animation_by_alanbecker.swf

Client Project: BCS Menu Design

2009-12-10T14:16:00.004Z

Here is a really quick and amatuerish design idea for the DVD menu that will go on the BCS promotional DVD. It's simplistic and in keeping with the company's colours, much like their website.

For the final version I would want to use much more professional looking fonts and buttons and possibly motion graphics in the background.

Simulated Client Project: First Edit

2009-11-18T20:20:00.000Z

We Are All Connected

2009-10-28T12:56:00.001Z

We Are All Connected - Watch more Funny Videos

Fantastic use of a pitch-shifter such as Melodyne. I never thought to put recorded speech through one of those to make a melody.

Simulated Client Project: Design Idea

2009-10-22T13:00:00.004+01:00

After research came thought into what I wanted to do with mine.

I came to the conclusion that the best way to stop people pirating is to scare them into thinking they will be caught, this is why the message of my advert will be that your IP address can be tracked.

It will start off with a student (as they are probably the biggest culprits of file-sharing) entering his dorm room, sitting down, turning on his computer and clicking to continue a download amongst a lit of other downloads. Then his screen will go black and a message that fills the whole screen will display text saying that sharing copyrighted material is illegal, it will then go on to say that the IP address can and will be tracked. The students happy face turns to a sad one and he looks out his window to hear police sirens.

The audio will be a fast-paced electronic song until the warning message comes up, where the fast-song will fade out and some dissonant audio will start playing.

Here are some pictures that give an idea of what it will look like:

Comments and ideas welcomed.

Simulated Client Project: Research

2009-10-19T21:51:00.003+01:00

I have visited the website www.visit4info.com as well as YouTube to have a look at a multitude of different ads that I can draw inspiration from for my Simulated Client Project on file-sharing.

Here are a few that caught my attention and why:

London Rugby Sevens ..
Watch the ad...

The reason I like an advert in this style is that not only is it shot professionally, but it surprises you. It adds humour to the situation by showing the audience something out of the ordinary and they can relate to what they would feel like being at a funeral and then having a rugby streaker ruin it. Even after the streaker is seen we still don't know what the advert is about, and when the text confirms its for rugby everything falls to place in the audience's heads.

This is a very effective message making the audience feel guilty for breaking the law. It's hard to watch due to having a dead child on screen the through the whole advert which really shocks the audience into remembering it. With this message it is very personal as it only focuses on 2 people. File-sharing affects industries so something so direct would be much harder to pull off.

From the Hong Kong government comes a direct message that puts the audience into the crime world itself. Seedy clubs and sleazy people are seen thanking the audience for their contributions. It's intended to make the audience feel seedy and sleazy themselves. I feel it works in a way, because it does remind you that you are doing something illegal, but still you know you're not as low as the criminals seen in the ad, therefore wouldn't stop you.

Here is an example of a pretty poor student-produced advert on anti-piracy. It uses the same repeated message of comparing stealing other things, like shoplifting, is the same as stealing media content. However one way I think the message is affective is that it says it affects individuals rather than big corporations.

Related links worth visiting:

http://www.mredkj.com/other/sharing.html - A list of pros and cons for music file-sharing.

http://l3rady.com/2008/11/29/top-tips-on-how-not-to-get-caught-file-sharing/

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/08/19/file_sharing_gamer_fined/

http://www.ghacks.net/2007/04/15/how-logistep-catches-file-sharers/ - A short bit of info on how anti-piracy firm Logistep can catch you.

Simulated Client Project: The Pirate Bay trial

2009-10-15T12:31:00.005+01:00

Taken from Wikipedia:

The Pirate Bay is a Swedish website that indexes and tracks BitTorrent files. It bills itself as "the world's largest BitTorrent tracker" and is ranked as the 104th most popular website by Alexa Internet. The website is funded primarily with advertisements shown next to torrent listings. Initially established in November 2003 by the Swedish anti-copyright organization Piratbyrån ("The Piracy Bureau") it has been operating as a separate organisation since October 2004.

The Pirate Bay trial was a joint criminal and civil prosecution in Sweden of four individuals charged for promoting the copyright infringement of others with the torrent tracking website The Pirate Bay. The criminal charges were supported by a consortium of intellectual rights holders led by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), who filed individual civil compensation claims against the owners of The Pirate Bay.

Swedish prosecutors filed charges on 31 January 2008 against Fredrik Neij, Gottfrid Svartholm, and Peter Sunde, who ran the site; and Carl Lundström, a Swedish businessman who through his businesses sold services to the site. The prosecutor claimed the four worked together to administer, host, and develop the site and thereby facilitated other people's breach of copyright law. Some 34 cases of copyright infringements were originally listed, of which 21 were related to music files, 9 to movies, and 4 to games. One case involving music files was later dropped by the copyright holder who made the file available again on the website of The Pirate Bay. In addition, claims for damages of 117 million kronor (US$13 million) were filed. The case was decided jointly by a judge who was a member of several pro-copyright organisations and three appointed laymen.

The trial started on 16 February 2009 in the district court (tingsrätt) of Stockholm, Sweden. The hearings ended on 3 March 2009 and the verdict was announced at 11:00 AM on Friday 17 April 2009: Peter Sunde, Fredrik Neij, Gottfrid Svartholm and Carl Lundström were all found guilty and sentenced to serve one year in prison and pay a fine of 30 million SEK (app. €2.7 million or USD 3.5 million). All the defendants have appealed the verdict and the appeal court trial is due to begin in November 2009.

Year 3: Start! Simulated Client Project

2009-10-15T12:19:00.004+01:00

The Brief
The Copyright Protection Society is starting a public information campaign that illustrates and explains what file sharing is, when and why it is illegal and also the consequences of being involved with this illegal activity. They want you to produce a piece of multimedia that will address the points above. You have six weeks to complete the task and you are required to produce a short proposal of your designs and ideas then you will produce the multimedia product.

Produce a 20 second advert for broadcast on television that answers the brief above. Hand in a data disk with the digital file and also a DVD that will auto play on a PC.

Schedule
30.10.09 - Submit a short proposal that justifies your decisions and shows your multimedia designs and project schedule AND you will give a formal aural presentation of this proposal to your tutor in the following week (time and day TBC).

27.11.09 – Submit an agreed multimedia product presented with user instructions.

A History of CGI

2009-08-31T11:39:00.000+01:00

The History Of Special Effects In Movies - Watch more Funny Videos

No Matrix in there but nevertheless a nice little video.

Fantastic 8-Bit/Lego Animation

2009-08-25T23:20:00.001+01:00

8-Bit Stop Motion Trip With Legos - Watch more Funny Videos

Just brilliant. And excellent music too!

BCS - Work Experience

2009-08-24T19:01:00.002+01:00

Today I started work experience in the PR department of BCS, the company of whom I have produced a few previous pieces of work for (see below). This time instead though it is in PR as opposed to broadcasting, so no cameras in sight yet.

My main hope for doing this work experience is that I can build a stronger bond with the company and it's staff to help me further when I work with them for any third year projects.

BCS - Curry Lounge World Record

2009-07-23T15:35:00.004+01:00

Yesterday I was asked by BCS to film as video evidence, the world record of the tallest stack of poppadoms at the Curry Lounge restaurant in Nottingham.

Other press were there including ITV and Trent FM and the record was beaten, standing at 151cm tall.

As well as including a full length video of the attempt from start to finish that was sent off to ITV, I have also done a bite-size version that could be included on the Curry Lounge website:

BCS - Working with Tensator

2009-07-10T12:00:00.006+01:00

Tensator are one of BCS's clients that design and manufacture tensabarriers, those barriers you see for queuing in cinemas, at airports, etc.

They have come to BCS for a new demonstration to be produced to show how their barriers are safer than the cheaper alternative.

There are two animations one showing the Tensator barrier and one showing the competitor barrier and how the Tensator one is much safer. My job is to work out how we can improve on these two animations in making the product look better.

During a meeting at BCS on Wednesday we discussed how filming the 2 barriers would give a better realistic impression of how they work, but the problem was that we can't really show it hitting a child. We could create 2 new animations from scratch but that could be time consuming and again not be as realistic.

What we do know is that we would like both the competitor product and the Tensator product to be in one horizontal split-screen so the viewer can see how both products are working simultaneously, and to include a timer showing how the quicker one is more more dangerous.

**UPDATE** Tensator opted to edit their existing animation for a quick turn-around, therefore I was not needed in the end.

Deadline: Stop-Motion Animation

2009-06-12T12:15:00.001+01:00

Deadline: Cool Stop-Motion Post-It Art - Watch more Funny Videos

The things you can create with Post-It notes!

Summer Plans

2009-06-10T14:15:00.002+01:00

Ok so my plans for doing Multimedia work over summer are not all finalised yet but this is what my intentions are:

1) Filming a music video for a friend of a friend called Sam Bennet who is a singer/songwriter and has just released his HUMMINGBIRD EP. I already have a first draft of the script and it aims to be a narrative-based video in a guy-meets-girl scenario.

2) Some friends and I plan on making a comedy sketch when the 'beach' is created in the city square. My friend Andrew has a wet-suit, flippers and a body board so getting him to walk down in that attire will make for some funny scenes we think.

3) I have asked BCS, who I have worked with for work experience in the past (see earlier blog posts), for some work experience. They are a PR company so it is not directly related to my direction, but they are a well established company with a good reputation so experience with them will look good on my CV. Also, if they have any work at the time I'm there involving broadcasting/filming then I'll be put in too help out with that. Next year, Tom, Jason and I plan on using BCS to create our client project, so this work experience will certainly boost relationships before then.

Admist this work I plan on going camping with friends (although would prefer to be going abroad but nevermind) and... that's it.

Fictional Film: Teaser Trailer

2009-05-19T23:45:00.001+01:00

A creepy, short Teaser Trailer for my film. Be sure to look below for the 'Making of' and the film itself.

Fictional Film: The Making of...

2009-05-19T11:26:00.002+01:00

Whilst we were filming, my friend Andrew, who was cast in the original version of the film to play Martyn, documented the process using another handheld camera. Including interviews with the actors and a couple of outtakes, this is the edited 'Making of...' documentary - Narrated by Josh Parker.

Fictional Film: An Observational Analysis of Behaviour and Effects of Prolonged Time in a Haunted Environment

2009-05-14T23:22:00.003+01:00

My final version!

After a few drafts and a bit of tweaking here and there, I can present to you the final version of my 6 minute fictional film to be submitted on May 22.

I would love to hear your thoughts on the film so if you visit the YouTube page you can post a comment there.

Thanks, and enjoy! :)

Work Experience - "Coffee"

2009-05-11T14:57:00.005+01:00

From Wednesday to Saturday I have been working as the sound assistant for an indie short called "Coffee".

The film is about an underground betting organisation that bets on when volunteering insomniacs will fall asleep. It follows the main character Jeff as he suffers from sleep deprivation and his relationship with his friend Jack who is betting on him to stay awake also.

As for the experience as working as part of a film crew, I enjoyed it so much. To watch professionals at work, such as Felix Weidemann, the Director of Photography and to be using all the proper equipment it was a brilliant insight into how it all runs. I think the most interesting thing I found was how they light all the sets and the different techniques they use to do this.

The days were all at least 12 hours and there was lots of hanging around between shots, but I expected that to be honest, and it was at these times where I got to have conversations with some of the crew. Not only that, but I made friends with some girls from the Design for Film and TV course at Uni, whose roles it was to keep continuity notes as well as props.

I worked with Ian Currie on sound who has been working freelance for over 20 years. He has done a lot of TV work for shows like Derren Brown: Trick of the Mind and Grand Designs, but also worked on film sets with actors like James McAvoy. He gave me a lot of help in knowing how sound recording for the screen works and couldn't really have asked for any one more patient. I will also be working with him on the post-production of the film's audio so there is still some more exciting to work to be looking forward to.

Here are some of the best pictures taken from the 4 days shooting in the various locations.

Fictional Film: Reshoot Production Stills

2009-05-04T16:48:00.005+01:00

I reshot my film on Tuesday 28th April with a modified script and losing two of the five characters. There was just too many characters and too much going on for a 6 minute film and I'm very glad I did reshoot it because it looks a lot better and will therefore hopefully get me a higher mark :)

Anyway, here are the production stills from that day.

Copyright

2009-04-29T20:28:00.004+01:00

Last week we had a lecture on Copyright and it is a good idea that I post some info on copyright from http://www.ipo.gov.uk/types/copy.htm which is the UK Intellectual Property Office government website.

Copyright can protect:

literary works, including novels, instruction manuals, computer programs, song lyrics, newspaper articles and some types of database
dramatic works, including dance or mime
musical works
artistic works, including paintings, engravings, photographs, sculptures, collages, architecture, technical drawings, diagrams, maps and logos
layouts or typographical arrangements used to publish a work, for a book for instance
recordings of a work, including sound and film
broadcasts of a work

The term of protection or duration of copyright varies depending on the type of copyright work. The term of protection in the UK for an original written (literary), theatrical (dramatic) musical or artistic work lasts for the life of the creator plus 70 years from the end of the year in which he/she died.

Similarly, copyright in a film runs out 70 years after the end of the year in which the death occurs of the last to survive of the principal director, the authors of the screenplay and dialogue, or the composer of any music specially created for the film.

TV and Film

For TV productions and films, copyright may exist on a number of its components, for example, the original screenplay, the music score and so on. If you produced the TV show or film then you would normally obtain the rights to, or gain permission to use, the works required to make the production. Films do not have to be original but they will not be new copyright works if they have been copied from existing films.

Music

Copyright applies to a musical composition when it is set down in permanent form, either by writing it down or in any other manner. With a song there will usually be more than one copyright associated with it. If you are the composer of the music you will be the author of the musical work and will have copyright in that music. The lyrics of a song are protected separately by copyright as a literary work. The person who writes the lyrics will own the copyright in the words. If your work is subsequently recorded the sound recording will also have copyright protection. The producer of the recording will own the copyright in the sound recording.

Work created for an employer

In the case of a written, theatrical, musical or artistic work, the author or creator of the work is also the first owner of any copyright in it. The only exception to this is where the work is made by an employee in the course of his or her employment. Where a written, theatrical, musical or artistic work, or a film, is made by an employee in the course of his employment, his employer is the first owner of any copyright in the work.

BCS Broadcasting - IPTV World Forum - Whitehill Media

2009-04-10T16:47:00.000+01:00

An interview with Sam Baird of Whitehill Media about the IPTV World Forum and how his company is doing.

BCS Broadcasting - IPTV World Forum - Chrissie Walker

2009-04-10T16:46:00.000+01:00

An Interview from the IPTV World Forum with BCS Account Manager Chrissie Walker giving her view on the days events with their client Broadband Forum.

BCS Broadcasting - IPTV World Forum - SeaChange

2009-04-05T17:24:00.001+01:00

This is an edit which is an package for SeaChange, another one BCS' clients. It follows a similar principle to the Broadband Forum one below.

BCS Broadcasting - IPTV World Forum - Broadband Forum

2009-03-30T23:57:00.002+01:00

On Wednesday 25th March, Tom Pearson, Jason Bickers and I went down to London Olympia exhibition centre where the IPTV World Forum was taking place. This was to film some promotional videos of some of BCS's clients and this is the first of them, Broadband Forum.

All 3 of us filmed and recorded sound on the day but this time I have the job as editor as I live in Nottingham and can easily show Brian (Managing Director of BCS) different versions of the film while the other two are home for Easter.

The film is going to be sent to the client to be used how they like to advertise themselves, but also on the BCS website.

Fictional Film: Titles

2009-03-17T10:31:00.002Z

Last Thursday (12th March) we had a lecture on film titles. I hadn't previously thought much into the titles for my film, so this helped open my eyes a little as to what I can do to make my film look more authentic.

Now as a video dairy style operated by someone who supposedly doesn't know how to work a camera my advice was to keep titles as basic as possible. This even meant writing titles on using the camera (if it had that function).

My film is in a similar style to The Blair Witch Project, so for me to make titles and edit to suit that kind of seemingly uncontrolled style, it will benefit the look and feel of my film.

Unfortunately my trial copy of Photoshop has expired (again) so I cant show a still of what I mean and I've looked on Google and its hard to find a still of what I mean on their too, so you'll just have to use your imagination :P

Fictional Film: Production Stills

2009-03-02T14:15:00.005Z

This is a collection of the best of the production stills taken during the shoot on Monday 23rd February. They are displayed here in reverse order.

Fictional Film: 6 Minute Version

2009-02-28T21:14:00.003Z

Here is the first draft edit of the required 6 minute version. I don't think its as good as the 14 minute version (which I will be uploading soon) but nevertheless it's still fine. I will be continuing to edit this to meet my standards over the next week.

Fictional Film: Editing Diary

2009-02-27T14:56:00.003Z

Tuesday 24th February 2009

With approximately 40mins of footage in hand, spread over two Mini-DV tapes (one from the Sony Z1 and one from the Sony Handycam), I was ready to capture the footage to my computer, via Adobe Premiere CS3.

Today simply involved just capturing all the footage, but instead of capturing it off one tape in one go I thought it would make editing easier if I captured each scene separately and labeled them all individually, this way I could drag and drop each part onto the timeline in the correct order and cut the starts and ends off, rather than going through a massive bit of footage finding where every part needed to be cut, and then moving it around that way.

Wednesday 25th February 2009

Today involved me sorting between wanted and unwanted footage and then arranging it on the timeline in the order of the narrative. I quickly began to realise I was not going to be able to fit all of my scripted action into 6 minutes. So I thought I would make a full length version which includes everything I have scripted and then cut that down into the required 6 minutes. This way I can showcase my versatility in editing further.

With 14 minutes worth of intended footage arranged on the timeline, I began post-production on the clips. One of the first things I did was to use colour correction on a few of the introductory clips which I didn't white balance quite right as they were too warm in colour, so I reduced the Red and increased the Blue to try and give a more realistic colour and match the first shot which I did white balance properly. In terms of colour editing, I also increased the green on all the nightvision shots, just to emphasise further that it was using an infra-red nightvision light on the camera. I also boosted the contrast a bit to make the blacks even darker and create an even more eerie atmosphere.

Next, I went on to sorting out that intentionally 'messy' introduction to the film. All I did was use a Gaussian blur effect on the footage so much so that people's features were unable to make out, with the intention of adding the film title on later.

With all my footage looking like it was supposed to look, all I had left now was to add titles and audio. I started with the titles, finding a font from Da Font which was clear to read but looked like a horror text keeping with the film's style. I used a Text preset that gave it a glow, but used a small grey to white gradient and changed the glow to a dull green. I added the title over the blurred introductory shots using a crossfade to fade each section of text into the other. I then went on to adding credits at the end of the film - showing the film title in full, who made it (me), the cast, and a special thanks to the people at The Salutation Inn for letting me film there. And finally, I added text in the corner of every new scene using the Handycam to show that time had paased a lot more than it actually had, to make out that Daniel and the volunteers had spent a long time in the cave, as was intended in the narrative.

Thursday 26th February 2009

With the titles in place all I had left to do was audio. I didn't want a soundtrack for the film as it was in the style of a video diary and that wouldn't have a soundtrack over it, therefore it would sound odd. So instead I went on to add sound effects.

Now I had always intended for there to be a Sheep sound effect and during the shoot we even had to act as if we heard one. I searched the internet and found a Sheep 'Baa' sound on a Sheep website, which was mildly amusing. I had to edit the sound to fit in with two locations it would be used - a cave, and a bedroom. I opened up Logic Studio and applied a considerable amount reverb to the sound effect for the cave, also reducing the dryness of the original sample. For the room, I added a small bit of reverb again as the original sound was fairly flat and must have been recorded outside.

One part of the film is where Warren becomes possessed slightly, and I needed a demonic growling sound to overlay while he had a fit. I did this by recording myself into my flatmates microphone in ProTools and then headed into Logic again to edit the sample. Again adding reverb due to the cave, but as the camera approached Warren the dynamics needed to increase, but I sorted that in Premiere.

Another significant piece of audio was an eerie and strange royalty-free apple loop I found in Logic which I simply lay over the credits.

And finally I found a royalty-free cave ambiance sample, which I overlay on any of the cave sections of the film. When the film is watched back you can hear the occasional drips and a low rumble which really adds to the atmosphere of being inside a cave.

One I had all the audio balanced I wanted to master it. I exported all the audio tracks as a stereo uncompressed WAVE file and imported all 150mb of it into Logic. To master it, I boosted the levels (as the original overall levels were fairly quiet), used a limiter and also added compression. Unfortunately, when I initially recorded the footage on my Handycam the sound was clipping/distorting whenever I spoke. But with a little help from Logic I managed to remove most of the clipping by using a High Shelf Filter, and it came out quite nicely.

With the footage arranged, video effects rendered, titles on and audio processed I was ready to export my full 14 minute 30 second film. Now the task was to be how I would cut it down to fit 6 minutes... hmmm...

Fictional Film: Shooting Diary

2009-02-26T17:35:00.004Z

Monday 23rd February 2009

The weather is overcast, which is fine. I had arranged to meet the actors at my flat for 2pm and everyone was on time which was good. We all then headed down Shakespeare Street at around 2.30pm to begin filming the first scene in the script - the character introductions.

Whilst setting up the camera and equipment and organising the shoot, Josh, one of the actors took photos for my production/promotional picture album and then I began the filming. The first shot was of my character, Daniel, introducing himself and the project. We actually had a funny idea of having Warren, another character, walking on shot on the phone to a friend to emphasise his party-animal attitude. Then shooting continued as scripted, going from character to character introducing themselves.

I then had another new interesting idea of how to introduce the film, and that was to film random bits of footage while everyone was still in character to show that my character wasn't that familiar with using a camera. I also planned on making these shots blurry and have the film title appear on them in the edit.

Around 4pm the first scene was over and we headed back to my flat for a short break. Around 5.15pm we left for the second location, The Salutation Inn. The sun was just beginning to set (which I wanted as it worked with the time of day in the script), but there was enough light to film the shoot without the use of extra lights. I used a low angle shot of me standing in front of the pub to make the pub appear dominant and important in the background.

So far so good and the filming schedule was going to plan near perfectly, without any unwanted interruptions. We entered the pub and took all the equipment and bags down into the caves where the main section of the film was to take place, then headed back upstairs to begin the introduction to the night. This is where I switched from using the Sony Z1 HDV to my own Sony Handycam, as I wanted the film from this point onwards to look less like a professional documentary and more like a home-made investigation, which in the case of the narrative, it was.

From here until the end of the scene I followed the script very closely and as each shot was improvised we rehearsed them first and got the general idea of what I wanted, before I hit record. This worked really well and was efficient. The actors we're all very professional and there was no messing about and unwillingness to perform in the particularly dark environment.

One problem I did have though was that the Sony Z1 was going to be set up in the corner of the room and act as an observational camera so during the edit I could switch between my hand-held camera and the still camera. However, the cave was just too dark and there was no infrared light on the Z1 for me to use. So to work my way around that I shot a part where the camera had appeared to stop working, and we used the excuse that something similar had happened on Most Haunted, blaming the unexplainable.

Around 8.00pm. after filming had finished, we headed upstairs back into the pub for a drink and a reflection on how things went, and then the actors and then the actors and I went our separate ways.

That evening I filmed the final part of the film of my character Daniel talking into the camera in a video-diary-style, summing up the evening. I even changed the time on my radio alarm so that it fitted in with the script and appeared that the time spent in the cave was much longer than we actually did. This part was scripted to be filmed inside Uni the following day but I thought it was unnecessary to go back into Uni the next day to film something which made as much sense to film in Daniel's flat.

Then, the next day, capturing the footage to my Mac began.

Fictional Film: Recce photos

2009-02-15T19:50:00.003Z

I have managed to secure The Salutation Inn's haunted underground caves as the location for my film and last night I went down to be shown around them and took the opportunity to take photos of the caves. Its very dank and spooky down there and is the exact location I had in mind for my film, really adding to the realism for the story.

BCS Broadcasting - Arnold Town FC

2009-02-15T19:45:00.002Z

Tom Pearson, Jason Bickers and I were given the excellent opportunity to go down to Arnold Town FC's new football ground to film a promotional video of the newly built stadium. The opportunity was given to us by Jools and Brian of BCS, a PR and Broadcasting company based on North Sherwood Street. We spent the cold day filming the first match of Arnold Town on their new pitch. I did the sound, Jason did the majority of the camerawork and Tom did the editing. Very much in the style of a news report, here is the end result...

Arnold Town FC from Tom on Vimeo.

Fictional Film: Character Study

2009-01-26T18:35:00.001Z

These are the four main characters of the film. None of them are any more or less important to the narrative than the others.

Warren
Played by: Sam Myddleton

Warren is a third year student on a Sports Science course at the University. He is a very confident individual who has a lot of friends who are equally as confident. He comes from a rich family who live in Herefordshire and is used to having his own way. His favourite activites are socialising, which he does to the extreme by going out partying every week and playing a variety of sports. He is known by most as arrogant, self-obsessed and vain but to those that don’t know him; he can come across lively, chatty and friendly. Another reputation he has is to be quite a stud with the ladies, and this is actually why Warren accepted the invitation to take part in the experiment because he quite fancies his chances with Sophie. Warren’s masculine persona is purely just a front, because the time spent filming in the haunted place gets too much for him and it is soon clear his original persona does not reflect his real feelings.

Peter
Played by: Josh Parker

Peter is a second year Music Technology student. He is quite laid-back and is a well-organised person. Peter’s main attribute is that he tries to make light of any awkward sitautions by telling jokes. He also tells jokes in front of new people he meets to try and impress them, sometimes they are genuinely funny, but other times he tries too hard. The joke telling comes from a low self-confidence that people that know him can’t really see because he is the kind of person to bottle up his problems. He has grown up living alone with his single mother so there is a side to him that is very fatherly and he would be kind of guy you would go to for advice. Peter is very sceptical of ghosts, so his reason for accepting the invitation comes down to the fact that he doesn’t get out much and having been invited by someone to do something quite important he feels obliged to. There is also a small side of curiosity inside him because if he was to see a ghost, he may just believe.

Martyn
Played by: Andrew Bradford

Martyn is a first year Human Genetics student. He is very much the opposite type of person to Warren as he is shy, quiet and studious. He is quite the geek that studies hard at University, comes back to his flat and plays World of Warcraft. He is not a complete nerd though, Martyn does have quite a large group of friends and regularly goes out for casual pints at the pub. One of Martyn’s favourite television programmes is Most Haunted and he has a fascination of ghosts. So when he heard a student was inviting a select few students to spend the night in a haunted location he jumped at the chance, so he can experience what the people experience on the show. Martyn’s overall personality sees him as one of those people who get straight A’s in exams, but is actually quite a nice guy who is easy to get on with.

Sophie
Played by: Steph Dawson

Sophie is a good friend of the Psychology student who is conducting the experiment and is only taking part to do him a favour because no other girls would do it. Sophie did have a past encounter with a ghost when she was younger so she is quite intrigued into the experiment anyway, but when it comes to the night she will be very scared and probably scream quite a lot. She is a third year Theatre Design student. Her personality is typically girly: quite loud, slightly confident, very little common sense and concerned of her image. She likes to keep up with the latest fashions and make-up and reads magazines to learn all the latest tips about fashion and ‘guides’ on men. She has a boyfriend who is not in the experiment so she has no interest in Warren.

Fictional Film: Narrative

2009-01-26T18:29:00.003Z

I have changed the narrative of the film. It is now this:

A third year psychology student is conducting an experiment called An Observational Analysis of Behaviour and Effects of Prolonged Time in a ‘Haunted’ Environment. For part of this study there will be video data collected which will be my film. It will still be shot in the style of a documentary and introduced by the student himself, and act as a sort of diary of events. The student has advertised around University for students to take part in the experiment, but with very little response the choice of students has not been ideal. Although there will be an introduction to the students and location, the main emphasis of the film is now on the night itself and the interactions between the students.

Fictional Film: Idea

2009-01-21T22:42:00.002Z

This (pretty much final) idea is a mockumentary on the Most Haunted-style TV programmes.

Narrative/Theme

A TV show, which features different groups of people every week and takes them to haunted places to the spend the night, has this week chosen a small group of students from a the university’s paranormal society. The students will also act as the presenters of the show.

Pre-production

The program will be scripted although I do want some of the scenes in the building to be improvised to add a more realistic feel. Also, apart from all the usual pre-production that is expected (character studies, recces, health and safety, etc.) I plan on having the actors and I spend a night at the haunted location for us to experience the same situation the characters in the film will be in, therefore helping the actors understand their roles better.

Structure

Introduction by students on this weeks show
Introduction of the location
Tour round the location in the day with site owner telling stories
Students spend the night at location
Next day, students reflect on the night and a scientist gives his opinion on what occurred.

Characters

There will be 4 main characters of 3 males and 1 female (as we want more humour and less screaming). There is also a secondary character of the scientist.

Character 1 (male): Cocky, cynical and outspoken, but when it comes to the night, is actually a scared little girl.
Character 2 (male): Average, laid-back and curious. The character most people would relate to.
Character 3 (male): Fairly sceptical, tells jokes and makes light of most situations. Will act as the main source of comedy.
Character 4 (female): Typical girly-girl. But really wants to see a ghost because of a past experience with one, so a strong believer. Gets scared easily.
Character 5 (male): Old man aiming to disprove any ghost theories.

Setting

Outside University
Inside and outside haunted location like pub.
Interview room/computer room for scientist analysing footage.

Cinematography

All interview sections will be done using Sony Z1 on a tripod. As will the tour section, but probably be handheld for that. During the sleepover there will be a small, handheld, night-vision camcorder to film the haunted antics.

Post-production

The film will be edited using typical clichés like creating atmosphere using video effects to make the locations look darker and scarier than they actually are. There will also be fast cuts and direction changes in camera to add a disjointed feel to some shots, particularly those outside and inside the ‘haunted’ location.

Audio-wise, I plan on producing the title and/or credit music myself and using royalty-free atmosphere sounds and noise samples to add to the scary tone of the film, which is another cliché.

The Dark Knight: 8-Bit

2009-01-17T13:33:00.002Z

It's been a while since a post, but I thought this video was worthy of a Blog post. It is very cool.

Documentary Project - Finished

2008-12-19T13:11:00.003Z

This is the finished version. The quality is pretty bad because YouTube loves to compress everything to do death, but its not too bad.

If you have me as a friend on Facebook there is a much better quality one on my videos there.

Anyway, enjoy!

Documentary Project - Self-evaluation Report

2008-12-11T13:49:00.002Z

Project/ Assignment title: Documentary, “Soul City”

Self-evaluation is a reflective process assessing and describing your learning experiences and the results you have achieved in your project. A transparent (fair, candid) and well-written self-evaluation will help you identify and recognise your strengths and areas for improvement. It will also help you become more familiar with your own working and design process for the purpose of improving and implement strategies for your future projects. (word count- 500-800)

The main ideas and intentions that I was trying to express in the project were:
In terms of narrative, I wanted to get across to the audience that being a busker is an interesting life and that the relationship between them and the public can be unique and sometimes special. In terms of my own intentions, I wanted to make a film that showed that I can be part of a team that can create an artistic piece showing I have a good eye for composition. Also, I wanted to show that I have a talent in sound recording and mixing, as the live recording of the busker playing turned out very good quality and authentic and the interview turned out quite crisp (via means of equalising, compression, speech enhancing etc.)

The methods I use to develop my ideas were:
Online research was my main method for developing ideas. Watching existing short documentaries, particularly on FourDocs, enabled me to gather ideas for the film, and in the end the artistic style we went for came from a couple of films on there.

I took a risk by trying something new.
I think the biggest risk we took as a group was clinging onto the idea of documenting a busker as the idea was initially disliked as it didn’t have much potential, but since we pitched a new direction to pull it in the idea grew on people. However, the technical ‘risks’ we took were using quite a lot of pull focusing as I for one had never really used much of it before so to get the film looking good via this method was somewhat of a risk.

Some of the unexpected problems I had to solve while working were:
As I was in charge of sound there were a couple of problems we came across. The first problem was when we were recording the interview with the busker on the street there was way too much background noise. This was partly because the microphone wasn’t held close enough to the subject’s mouth, but also because the street was generally too noisy, so when I came to cutting up the interview the audio too obviously stopped and started when the backing noise came in. Another problem with the sound was getting the levels correct. When we heard the film for the first time on large speakers, instead of headphones, it was too hard to distinguish what the busker was saying.

The decisions and choices I made to help solve these problems were:
To fix these problems, we had to rearrange the interview and one of the sound booths were booked out. This way we wouldn’t get any background noise at all and in the end I recorded a clear sound. As for the levels, well they were simply adjusted so that the ducking of the backing track was more severe.

The most interesting or challenging thing that I achieved was:
What I am most proud of achieving on this project is spotting and filming interesting shots that excite the audience and keep up the pace of what could have potentially been a slow, boring film.

The things I have learnt from this particular project were:
I already knew to use manual white balance and focus but one thing I have learnt is to use manual exposure as well. This is because there are a couple of shots in our film where the iris changes from light to dark when someone in a dark coat walks past the camera. I suppose the other thing I have learnt is to allow for more contingency time as things like having to rerecord the interview and even getting hold of the busker in the first place proved to be somewhat of a setback. Another point to add is that we probably needed to film a bit more footage. We had enough, but maybe just a few more shots to play with in the edit could have helped boost the artistic-factor of the film.

If I were to do this project again I would change or do differently:
Probably do a new idea. I think more research and inspiration was needed so the rest of the group and I could have found a subject with more potential to be interesting and entertaining. Although our guy turned out to be quite interesting, he could have also been very boring so it was a risk.

A new project that might grow out of my experience maybe:
I think after this film I could make another documentary. I have never made one before but it is quite a good way of storytelling and interesting to make. It has necessarily inspired me to create a new film, but I will take with me all the experience with the cameras and sound so next time I have more knowledge on how to be more efficient and more productive. Except for what I may create, this project could and should benefit me when looking for work experience with established production companies. It is another project that shows my potential and hopefully people will pick up on it and will lead me into a career in the industry.

I have achieved the following learning outcomes for this module and my evidence is:
I have learnt to be consistent with technical skills and also to work well with your group. My evidence for this is the actual final film we have produced but also all the posts on my blog that show all the research and pre- and post-production I did to go with the rest of the work from the group and into the final production file.

Documentary Project - Production Stills

2008-12-05T11:37:00.003Z

Here are some action shots of us producing our Documentary. These will be included with the rest of the paperwork when the project is finally submitted.

Documentary Project - Editing Diary

2008-11-27T18:07:00.007Z

Wednesday 26th November

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

Thursday 27th November

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

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

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

Wednesday 3rd December

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

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

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

Thursday 4th December

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

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

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

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

Friday 5th December

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

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

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

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

Monday 8th December

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

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

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

Documentary Project - Shooting Diary

2008-11-20T18:45:00.004Z

Tuesday 18th November

Picked up the camera at Waverley building at 11am. The sun was shining and the air was clear - a perfect day for filming.

Our aim for the day was to film creative and artistic shots around the city to represent an image of where Sam, the busker, plays his music. This would include shots of the architecture, the grimey parts, and also all the people that live in the city.

We started off by walking to John Lewis to buy a Mini DV tape because we forgot to provide our own (oops) and then set out onto the streets of Nottingham. As we walked around we got a shot of the Cornerhouse, down alley-ways and down Clumber Street to show all the people walking the busy street.

We experimented with the manual focus and the zoom throughout the day to really try and show-off Nottingham in a fresh and unique way.

Along our travels we came across a couple of other buskers: a violinist and saxophonist. Although not planned, we thought getting shots of these two other buskers would work well in the documentary as they will also show the audience that Nottingham and it's society has some personality to it and of course, mainly that it would run along the same theme of busking.

As the day came to a close and the sun began to set we had gathered a variety of interesting shots which I am personally proud of and looked forward to Thursday to gather more city shots and interview and film Sam.

Thursday 20th November

After Tuesdays rather successful day shooting we were all looking forward to today, especially because we would be filming our main section.

On our way down to where Sam usually plays (outside River Island) we took some more stock footage of the surroundings of Nottingham, keeping in mind all the rules of taking a well framed shot, such as rule of thirds.

As we got down to Sam we said hello and told him our plans for the day that involved him. These were to get some angles of him playing, do an interview using an Edirol R-09, and do an audio recording of him playing live.

Over the next hour or so we got as many interesting shots as we could, focusing on his face, hands and wide shots. We also filmed creative shots like of the money he'd earned on his guitar case and of his amp. All which we plan to use in a montage effect.

After we began conducting the interview. I asked him questions on his busking, on Nottingham and on the people. With the recording the plan was to cut out all the sections where I am asking questions and use only the bits of Sam talking as if to get him telling a story. The only problem with this approach is that doing it in the street leaves you with sudden cuts as the background noise drops out. We will see how it sounds in the edit otherwise we will have to go and record some more city ambience to fill in the gaps.

Finally, after buying Sam a cup of coffee and giving him some change for his time, I set about getting a live recording of him playing and did so by laying the mic close to his amp as to reduce background noise to a minimal and only pic up his playing.

With footage and audio in hand, it's off to the editing!

Documentary Project - Proposal

2008-11-17T13:11:00.002Z

This is our proposal for our documentary film taken from a powerpoint presentation we did last week.

Story

Focusing on a Nottingham busker called Sam. He is known colloquially and mistakenly as “the jazz man”.
He commonly plays blues and gospel music around Nottingham city centre
We want to focus on his relationship with people and society hearing his opinions about the city and the people themselves
One of the key underlying questions is to ask why he chooses to do this for himself and the others around him.
The documentary will be 4 mins long

How it will unfold

Quick background on the busker
Starting slightly negative – society and the city will be portrayed negatively with general stereotyping
This is to be proved wrong by our subject with an increasing positivity throughout the documentary with his views.
His positivty shines through the grimness of busking life, with his music falling on un-caring ears.
The Idea of putting a spin on the documentary comes from the likes of other documentary makers such as Michael Moore

Style/Visual approach

Artistic and creative shots throughout to emphasise the scale of the city and its character. For example, wide shots of busy city streets and close-ups of general city grime.
Shots of the busker performing – mostly close-ups. Example ‘Susan and Susan’ from research post below.
Camera techniques will include pull focus, canted angles, ambiguous shots to make the documentary a good visual experience.
Editing techniques will include contrast variance, a colour tint – to emphasise the filth aspect.
Also text will fade in and out to reinforce particular words and sentences of interest.

Audio

Voice over of Sam through majority of film which will come from questions we ask. This is what will tell the story. Example ‘Three Cherries’.
Soundtrack will be recordings of the busker playing live and also general city ambience.
We will record all sound using Edirol R-09 recorders.

Why

It will be interesting to find out why someone has made a conscious decision to sit on the cold, busy, dirty streets with the main objective of performing his music and meeting new people
He is obviously somewhat religious so we want to know why his religion drives him to perform this act.

Mise-en-Scene Seminar

2008-11-13T13:53:00.004Z

Shot 1

There is not much to say about this shot other than the man in the foreground is obviously in focus and more important to the other man. The brown clothes and background probably represent supression and a poor, dirty surrounding.

Shot 2

The characters are both lowly lit to represent a seriousness and cold aspect to the shot. we can tell the shot is structured due to the characters being on perfect thirds of the shot, but our eyes are drawn to the topless man first because of the light reflecting off his skin - compared to the darkly dressed man.

Shot 3

He is quite low in the shot and the colours are dull leading us to assume the character is depressed. The lack of eye contact with the camera also represents that he is thinking. apart from this, the shot is quite busy so we can understand the characters souroundings.

Shot 4

The lines of the walls draw us to the central character in the lower part of the shot who is less powerful. We are led to assume that he is the protagonist becuase of his lighter image compared to the dark, more official 'police'.

Shot 5

Drawn to the character. he looks like he is caged in and sad due to the lack of light, scruffy long hair and mesh on the window. His eyes are looking down so we are drawn to what he might be looking at. the patch of light open in the mesh could represent some hope for the character.

Documentary Project - Treatment Tips

2008-11-10T18:08:00.002Z

From the website that Adam gave us in the lecture last week I have just picked out the most important parts for when we come to write out our treatment/proposal this week.

"There are several key elements that make a treatment good and worth reading. The first is keeping it relatively brief."

"Another key is to keep the treatment user-friendly and straightforward."

"The purpose of the treatment is to describe the events of the story so that it can be visualized and brought to life. This should be done using the least amount of words possible."

"...the writer should highlight the major points of the story, the necessary details that are essential for the story to make sense...The writer should use it to urge the reader into asking for more..."

"The treatment focuses on the story's backbone, allowing it to be seen clearly..."

"include a solid opening that takes hold of the reader from the very beginning. There must also be a climax to the film that strikes and satisfies them. In between, there must be a protagonist (or main character) that the reader can relate to in some way."

"The story must also contain a central conflict around which all the action in the story revolves."

Documentary Project - Initial photos

2008-11-08T17:13:00.003Z

The other day after the lecture me and Tom Pearson went out around the town to take some shots of the surrounding location that our documentary will be set. There are still more to come but this is the general area.

Here also is a photograph of the busker we will be using in our documentary. His name is Sam also known more colloquially as 'The Jazz Man'.

Finally we took a quick video of him playing just so you can get an idea of his sound and style and probably gather a little about his personality from his musical tastes.

More to come.

Documentary Project - Research Ideas

2008-11-06T20:10:00.006Z

A 4 minute short from FourDocs called 'The Garage Wars' about a couple who have very opposite views on the man's layout of all the old bits and bobs in his garage.

My Opinion:

I love the way the two people have such contrasting views on the 'mess' in the garage and how serious they are when they try to explain why they do or do not like the state the garage is in. In terms of how the film has been edited, it was a clever, if not obvious idea to inter-cut both separate takes from the man and woman because it keeps the pace up hearing the opposite opinions so frequently. The camera is very straight forward, mixing in a standard handheld shot with an occasional low-angle shot through a couple of bikes - so simple, yet so effective. The general concept of the documentary is really original and it is interesting for the viewer to not only see all the weird and wonderful things in the garage but how the couple bounce off each other - they are like a comedy duo!

A 3 minute 20 second short which is completely different from the video above about a woman who found comfort in playing with snails.

My Opinion:

This is a very interesting and unique way going about making a documentary. At first I thought, how is this documenting anything, but as the voice over comes in of a woman documenting how she came to befriend snails it hit me just how stylistic and conceptual documentaries can actually be. The images on screen represent what the woman is saying and not always literally, but metaphorically too, such as the plastic people possibly representing her parents arguing. It is quite beautiful to see all these unique and artistic shots the producer has imagined and it really makes me think if something in that direction is the way to go.

A 4 minute 30 second documentary about a chef who also performs street magic for pleasure as well as business.

My Opinion:

This is a much more traditional documentary, but what sells the idea is that this person at first seems like just a flamboyant magician, but we see that his actual day job is as a chef. It is an unusual mix that grabs the audiences attention as we want to find out why this guy wants to juggle these two passions. I think in places it slightly loses track and has some more irrelevant sections like in the nightclub for example, its not really related to either of his jobs, but in terms of interviewing and using the public as side-characters it is a good solid short documentary.

Documentary Project - Busking

2008-11-06T18:38:00.004Z

To do: In groups of 4 or 5 plan and produce a 4 min non fictional “character study” that entertains and informs the audience of one interesting character.
Presentation: Your group will present all the work you have done at the end of this non fictional study. To evidence your work every student will be expected to provide:

1. In your Journal: A Character study on your chosen subject, (research of subject) Research
carried out for film script project - (Stage 2).
3. A production file (group copy) containing production research and paperwork treatment ,
photographs, locations, script, storyboard, call sheets, schedules, VO, paper edit, book references
etc.)
4. On a CD: a 4 minute DV documentary with title and credits. [720x576 DVAVI 25fps none
compressed PAL].
6. In your journal - entries that document and reflect upon the work done during this module.
7. Completed group peer assessment form

We have decided to do ours on busking, but on one man in particular, called Sam, who plays Blues guitar and sings. As yet we are somewhat undecided in what interesting spin to put on the documentary, but our main ideas are to show his interaction with people, and maybe do it from his point of view, such as using him as a narrator.

A quick description on busking can be found on Wikipedia @ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Busking.

"Busking is the practice of performing in public places for tips and gratuities. People engaging in this practice are called buskers. Busking performances can be just about anything that people find entertaining.

Busking is a British term used in many areas of the English-speaking world. Buskers are also called street performers or street musicians. The place where a busker performs is called their pitch. People busk for a variety of reasons, for money, for fun, for the attention they get, to socialize or meet people, for the love of their art, or to practise their skills or try out new material in front of an audience.

Some buskers only work part time, while others make a living performing full time on the streets. Some buskers do professional entertainment gigs in addition to working the streets. Some people manage only pocket change from busking, while others can amass substantial incomes. A busker's income depends on many conditions including, the type and quality of the performance, the composition of the audience, the weather, the location and the time of day. Competition from other buskers can also play a role.

Walk by acts are typically with the busker providing a musical or entertaining ambiance. There is no distinct beginning or end and the crowds do not particularly stop to watch. Sometimes an intended walk by act will spontaneously turn into a circle show.

Some people stereotype buskers as being unemployed, homeless or beggars. Most buskers are not, and these terms are normally derogatory when referring to a busker. Some people will heckle buskers and stigmatize them as such regardless of their social status."

Some parts of what a busker is and does will be relevant to our project. From the above, we should consider;

Reasons for him busking.
How much he earns.
His opinions on being stereotyped and/or his opinions on what other people think of him and his music.

Obviously it is important to consider a lot more, but when our 'hook' finally comes together and we have properly settled on an idea we can really start to develop exactly what we intend to find out.

"The essential point of networking is human contact. Business has killed networking by making it something for the career orientated person".

2008-10-21T18:37:00.003+01:00

Networking, as defined by my Mac's dictionary is 'to interact with other people to exchange information and develop contacts, especially to further one's career'. Now this would agree with the title statement. But to break the statement down further, here is what I think about networking.

It is clear that networking is a massive part in any business, and due to businesses evolving with technology it is no wonder the traditional methods of networking, such as seeing each other face-to-face or having group discussions in a meeting room, have probably decreased compared to 20 years ago. New technologies like e-mail and web-conferencing have pushed networking to be less social in the sense that people don't meet in person.

Personally, I would associate the term networking with businesses anyway, so to say that business has 'killed' networking I do not agree with. I would think all businesses use networking in one way or another as a strong relationship between the business and the clients is necessary for a successful year of trading. With these new technologies it saves time and money and therefore can result in a business to excel.

However, I can see why networking in person can be seen as a preferred method. It is easier to communicate and get the message across when face-to-face if a message needs to be conveyed and set solidly.

Besides from a business point-of-view, networking can be between children in a classroom at school, a group of musicians at a concert or even between players on an online game. Examples all in everyday life situations. But with the gaming example, even communicating between peers that way means that it doesn't always have to be in person, or business-related for people to network.

So to summarise the title statement, I do not believe business has has killed networking because networking has never been essentially about human contact and to say that it is for the career orientated is true, but to call it solely for that purpose is an overstatement. Networking can be for anyone in any situation that involves any means of communication with a particular purpose - and that purpose is what has created the network.

Year 2 Imminent

2008-10-02T19:00:00.003+01:00

It's been over 2 months since I posted on here last.

The main thing I have been doing over Summer is writing, recording and producing music, most of which will be heard on my band's soon-to-be-made MySpace once we have finished mixing the last song.

Kamikaze Cocktail are a three piece electronic rock band. So far I have written and produced all of the music at home which includes two songs of original material and two covers. My friend Sam is the singer which has been recorded and mixed using ProTools. When we have written a couple more song we intend to start looking for gigs. We will effectively play to a backing track of our own music using a sampler and then live bass (played by me), guitars (played by Sam and Andrew) and Synths (played by Andrew) will be played on top of that.

Video-wise over Summer I have been very uninspired. And it has annoyed me.

The only video I have produced is another strange, eerie and pointless video titled Fusty Olde, that just makes me look a little weird. It was edited on Adobe Premiere CS3 and features a few effects and a little stop-motion bit on the end. Talking of inspiration, it was inspired by David Firths video, Crooked Rot, below.

Fusty Olde

So really, I'm quite looking forward to getting back into the swing of things. On a side note, I now have Logic to create music and audio on which really should give me a bit of a boost when it comes to audio.

"Crooked Rot"

2008-07-27T17:03:00.000+01:00

The set and the Foley sounds are amazing. It's inpiring. I might make a stop-motion with a similar style very soon!

Mid-Summer Post

2008-07-10T15:04:00.002+01:00

Hello.

Results are in and i got a 2:2 for my first year. I'm satisfied with that result but I wouldn't say I was pleased with it. Although, I got a 2:1 in the module which was most suited to me (Narratives) becuase it was mostly AV and thats what my pathway is for next year so on that basis I should be aiming to maintain and improve that score for next year.

Also, I found this awesome stop-motion of someone creating a spaghetti meal using household items.

Stop Motion Spaghetti Cooking - Watch more free videos

That is all for now.

Interactive Showcase - Part IV

2008-05-05T16:55:00.003+01:00

Well, I have finally finished my interactive showcase and to be honest it hasn't been that stressful. I haven't tried to be too adventurous, but I think the main reason I haven't had too much grief is because I have been using ActionScript 2.0. All the tutorials I used online to help me were all in AS2.0 so I would have been buggered if I used 3, and when I used 3 for that last Flash project I did it turned out well crap.

I will post the showcase soon, but I just need a few people to test it for bugs etc first.

P.S. I know I haven't posted in a while but I've been playing GTA IV too much! Ha!

Feeder - Miss You (Music Video Competition Entry)

2008-04-22T14:14:00.002+01:00

The above video is a competition entry made by me and my friend Andrew (who did most of the work). The competition was to create your own music video for Feeder's new song "Miss You" and the prize is to have it featured in the extras on Feeder's upcoming DVD, plus some other stuff I think. The quality is pretty poor because it has been compressed so much (I think I'll have to let Andrew know), but you can understand it lol.

The video is mainly old footage from our A Level music video to a different Feeder song which we have re-cut. Other footage you will see is from my Uni work such as the One Shot Film and Pixelation. We did shoot some new footage in the same woodland area so not to lose continuity, but on saying that, the video doesn't really have any particularly continuity to it other than repeated effects. Nonetheless, Andrew has done a very good job editing it and is easily in the top 5 compared to the other competition entries.

Have a look at some of the other entries by clicking this link: http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=feeder+competition

Over and Out.

Interactive Showcase - Part III

2008-04-21T17:25:00.004+01:00

The stress has begun. On saying that, things have gone reasonably well for me on day one of creating the showcase in Flash. What's been the main issue is time. I have only got as far as creating a preloader and creating buttons for the 'homepage', and it's taken me nearly 3 and a half hours!

I'm not even sure if the preloader works because the document seems to just load on frame 2 everytime I test it, i think it might be because there is so little information for the preloader to load its loaded and gone in an instance. If that is the case then hopefully we'll see if it works by the time I have added videos.

I have been browsing tutorials most of the time, only finding the preloader one most helpful. I sort of found out on my own how to made the buttons work and they do so as I intended which I am very pleased with.

Here are two screenshots of my days work:

In my next session I am to begin importing videos, pictures and music onto the frames which the labelled buttons lead to.

Interactive Showcase - Part II

2008-04-17T16:50:00.006+01:00

After today's lecture on Flash and the Interwebs this idea came to me. It is an idea (which will probably be final) for the 'homepage' of my Interactive Showcase. It's simple, which I wanted to originally go for, and also a memorable layout idea.

I started with a basic image of me and imported it into Photoshop. Then using the Polygonal Lasso tool cut myself out. Next, I inverted the selection and painted the background white but because this gives you hard edges I used the blur tool to soften them up. I tampered with the brightness, contrast, hue and saturation until I ended up with this final image. I altered the canvas sizes to divide the image into six segments, five of which can be seen in the image. I changed the dimensions of each to give the image a distorted perception and finally added drop shadows. Also seen there is my logo idea which may act as a button to bring users back to the homepage.

In the image you can see my colour theme, which I explained in my previous post. The five images of me will act as buttons to take you to the next frames hosting various things about me and my identity. For example in the image you can see one will lead you to videos I have made.
With the other four, I am planning on these being Pictures, Music, Avatar and then for the other I'm not entirely sure, but I'm thinking of writing a short Multimedia Autobiography that will let users read my life so far using Multimedia and my influences.

I am planning that when users hover over the buttons a blue border will highlight it and the title of where the button will take you will appear.

Now just to put it into Flash... :(

Interactive Showcase - Part I

2008-04-15T15:40:00.004+01:00

Right I have been looking for ideas and inspirations for my interactive showcase.

This website http://www.martingarrocho.com.ar/main.html which is a portfolio of some foreign guy's work is an example of what direction I would like mine to take. Although his is very well made and with my completely noobish Flash skills it won't look anything like that, but the design style is what I like.

So I am aiming for a simple layout possibly with one object in the middle which can act as the base and then the five interactive things can branch off from it. Either that or I will just have five interactive objects lined up across the page. Basically, I don't really know what I'm going to do lol.

However, I do want to create a techno-styled theme as I am quite into gadgets and technology so that kind of theme would represent my personality somewhat. The colours I am considering using are Black, White and Ice Blue as they are crisp and bold and the blue represents my 'chilled' personality.

Here are three logo designs which I have created. The one which I decide on will be displayed on the preloader screen and probably in one the corners of the main frame of the project. Feedback on which one you like best would be appreicated.

Easter Update

2008-03-29T16:53:00.003Z

Hello blog.

Feeder (the band) have a competition in where they invite fans to make a music video for their new single "Miss You". As my friend is a big Feeder fan he pointed it out to me that we should make something, and as it is helpful towards Multimedia and AV in particular, we have begun.
Using past videos - primarily our Feeder music video from A Level (which can be seen at the start of this blog - we have re-cut them to fit with the new song, Miss You.
The prize for winning the competition is get your video in the bonus features of Feeder's upcoming DVD. Some of the videos already posted on YouTube are somewhat, er.. n00bish! So hopefully we have a good chance. When it's finished it shall be posted on here of course. I will also be using this as the 'work I have done outside of studies' at the review in a couple of weeks.

Another thing I would like to mention is a couple of ideas that I have for my next Identities project. I think I'm going to make it personal and by this I mean everything in it is going to be by me, or at least co-produced by me.
An idea for my layout will be my bedroom in its usual state as it represents who I am. Users will then be able to interact with different parts of the room to reach different aspects of my Multimedia personality. For example, clicking on the TV will bring you to be able to watch videos I have made or clicking the guitars will bring you to all the music I have made. Each of these sub-screens will give users an idea of my tastes and abilities - or even my potential. Somewhere in here my avatar will be included.

See you soon.
x

A.I.

2008-03-15T17:51:00.002Z

http://www.thatvideogameblog.com/ -

Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have created an entirely synthetic “child-like” artificial intelligence and introduced it to the virtual world of Second Life. “Eddie”, as he was named, is the result of a complex model of AI components. Eddie can reason on his own and has a belief system unique to his own experiences. He runs on a supercomputer that is claimed to be the most powerful university-based system of its kind. The system can produce over 100 teraflops (that’s a lot) of computing power, and runs through Blue Gene supercomputers, Linux and AMD Opteron clusters.

Eddie uses what is called “Theory of Mind” that gives him the ability to interact with other avatars within the virtual world in a dynamic way. He can reason independently of direct input and can arrive at conclusions in a way that mimics a child’s own mental processes.

Eddie, of course, is only the beginning and the researches are already looking far into the future for applications that may benefit from an advanced AI such as Eddie’s. “The apps, frankly, are endless,” says Selmer Bringsjord, the head of the institute’s Cognitive Science Department, “Imagine being able to step into a simulation environment in which you interact with synthetic characters as sophisticated as those seen in the Star Trek’s holodeck.”

The implication of this technology to the future of videogames is almost inconceivable. Can you imagine playing a shooter where the virtual enemies can actually adapt to the way you’re playing and learn your weaknesses? It would introduce a whole new level of enemy AI that has been promised for many years but has never really materialized. Currently, most AI is derived from a series of If/Then commands.

IF Player 1 is firing his weapon // THEN Hide behind a wall

IF Player 1 stops firing his weapon // THEN fire at Player 1

An ideal AI would think dynamically and remember the player’s previous habits.

IF Player 1 is firing his weapon // Notice that Player 1 is in an enclosed location and would be vulnerable to a grenade thrown with a short delay. Remember that Player 1 favors the crouching position when shooting with the M16. Remember that Player 1 frequently uses the knife on enemies within close range. Etc…

It sure would add replay value to nearly any game that could be conceived, and it truly would make the gameplay experience unique to each and every person that plays the game. While this kind of AI is probably so far into the future that we’ll all be old and gray by the time it finally shows up, and there’s currently only one computer in the world that can handle a primitive version of it, I’ll certainly be looking forward to it, should it ever become a reality.

Project 1 - The Second Self (Final Piece)

2008-03-09T15:31:00.003Z

My Avatar and it's Environment

Add to My Profile More Videos

Its quite self explanatory, but its just me and my different personalities in an environment which I can relate to.

The music was created by me and can be heard in full at www.myspace.com/pyrodrifter.

Project 1 - The Second Self (Post II)

2008-03-07T17:34:00.005Z

Safe!

Here is the environment with the avatars, lighting and textures included. Im quite pleased with it. Now just for the fly-through which is coming soon.

Notice the bartenders and notice the DJs arm just poking out in the booth.

(compare it to the initial design in the post below)

Project 1 - The Second Self (so far...)

2008-03-04T16:44:00.006Z

Yello.

So this is what I have so far for the first project of the Identities module. I am going to use a 2D avatar in a 3D environment.

The avatar is simply me, but in various poses and performing activities that represent who I am and what I enjoy. I may not use all of these pictures in the final piece though and there may be newer ones included in that too. I chose for the photos to be me in normal clothes as it reinforces the idea that I am just the average multimedia student, and this is also the case when describing the editing on the pictures - minimal and simple.

As for the environment, it's supposed to be a nightclub. It is still in progress but this is its current state. There is a disco ball thing, a dancefloor, some capsule seats in the corner and a DJ booth and bar to the right. I may possibly include some more seating on the left. I also intend to use different coloured lighting and depending on how difficult it is, use flashing lights in the final animation. The final scene will include textures on all surfaces to give a more realistic image.

The various avatars of me will be dotted around the club in their different poses and the animation will be of a camera flying through the scene to explore it.

thefwa.com

2008-02-28T15:19:00.002Z

Here are some of my favourites from the thefwa.com and a short description about what they're about.

1) http://scruffs-game.com/ (26th Feb 2008)

This is a highly-flash orientated point and click game about a family known as the Scruffs. The idea of the game is to find out what Grandpa's secret is by searching the family home. A download is required for the full game. The music in particular is one of the stand-out features of this website as it completely sets the mood for the kooky and cartoony atmosphere of the game. Each section of the website has its own music and interactive element - for example on the screenshots page hovering your mouse over a fly on the desk causes it to buzz, then you have the option to splat it!

2) http://imagemoversdigital.com/ (7th Feb 2008)

The website to film creative 3D studio Image Movers Digital - the masters behind films Polar Express, Monster House, Beowulf and the upcoming Christmas Carol, which uses performance capture technology starring Jim Carrey, due for release at Christmas 2009. This site is nice and simple and gives you what the average internet browser needs to know and nothing more. The page simply contains the links "About IMD", "Projects", "News", "Careers" and "Contact" so its the simplicity and cleanliness of this flash site which I like.

3) http://www.coca-cola.com/template1/index.jsp?locale=en_US&site=../happiness_factory/index.html (31st Jan 2008)

Home to the short movie behind the 3D animated Coke adverts which you have seen on TV or at the cinema. The Happiness Factory is where Coke is made, and when you put your monies in lots of wierd and wonderful creatures do whatever it takes to make sure you get the best Coke taste! The animation of this movie is brilliant and the style of it remind me a bit of the music video for 'Starlight' by The Superman Lovers a few years back. You then get the chance to apply to work for the factory and get to interact with the different types of workers to see what they do. Its quite amusing. Who knew burping was a good thing?

Diary of an Avatar, Entry 2

2008-02-26T17:53:00.008Z

After being fed up with the amount of slow loading and uncustomisability that SecondLife and There.com in particular offer, I noticed that some other students had been using vSide - a music orientated 3D chat program. With music as an interest of mine I decided to check it out.

To begin with, the avatar creation is much more varied as a non-paying user compared to There.com. You can chose from around 10 different hair styles, tops and bottoms and a few different shoes. It was no coincidence that I saw someone wearing exactly the same as me except with a different skin tone within 15 minutes, but still, its better than having everyone look like you. So compare what I like here, compared to There, much more lifelike I think you'll agree.

What makes vSide unique is that when your in the main areas music is streamed to your computer, as if it is being played aloud in the virtual world you're in (as seen in the

screenshot in the bottom left). What I thought was cool is that there are certain clubs around the different areas of vSide, which like in real life, play different genres of music. The music got louder the closer you got to the club and had a realistic club environment once inside, with flashing lights people dancing and even a DJ in a booth.

There are many different actions which can be performed for other avatars to see. Gestures are one type such as smiling, laughing, sitting, waving etc. Another type which is good are Dances. There are at least 50 different types of dance which can be performed which is good because they can represent your personality or you can choose to dance to a particular music style. My favourite was the 'Two-step' which is perfect for dancing to Hip-Hop! It's CRUNK!

General usage of vSide was easy and quicker to. I found with There that some environments took minutes to load, whereas here they loaded instantly.

As for people, everyone seems pretty similar in terms of friendliness and helpfulness as they have done in all the 3D chat programs I have tried. This is good because to say I have never met these people its quite good to have faith restored in humanity, however its quite sad to know that humanity spends its money on virtual items like clothes.

Which brings me to the shopping side of vSide. Again, you can spend real pound sterling to customise your character and from looking in the shops available there is a wide choice of things to purchase. There was also some free items on offer, but you needed a certain amount of 'Respekt' to acquire them.

Respekt could be gained by adding new friends or by finding secrets such as hidden pathways and jumping to new areas. I had earned 220 points but it still wasn't enough to get any of the free stuff in the shops, and there was no indication of how much I would need.

I still wouldn't use these programs for any personal benefit, but so far vSide seems to be the best in my opinion. Check out all the screenshots to see what I got up to.

A Day at D3 Design

2008-02-26T15:43:00.003Z

Hey everyone.

On Friday 22nd February I spent the day at a Multimedia company based on the outskirts of Nottingham (with St. Anns) to see what work they got up to and to gain an understanding of how a company of their size works.

After being in contact with them for a week or two before visiting, I was originally going to attend an on-location shoot for one of their client's DVDs. However due to the nature of the business, the client had some issues to sort out for themselves, so that day (Friday 15th February) did not go ahead.

So a week later, I was invited to spend a day with them. Now, to be honest, I was expecting a big flashy office block with D3 Design in big letters along the side and then to be greeted by a receptionist. Was I wrong! Instead, the company was run from an upstairs room of an ordinary house in which the Creative Director and his partner lived, with their son and two chocolate Labradors.

Adey and Jo were their names and after having spent the day with them they were nice people. Me and Adey in particular had a lot of similar interests, especially that we both dislike coding! It was weird because originally I asked whether to come dressed in a shirt and tie, but after being greeted by Jo in jeans and a t-shirt and then Adey in his dressing gown I can see why I didn't need to.

To cut to the chase, their work room was phenomenal! I walked into this average-sized room to see a desk near the back with two 30" Mac screens on it. I then saw hooked up to them was a graphics tablet, mixing desk, drum machine and full-size electronic drum-kit. Not to mention the machine that was powering everything. I asked him the specs of his Mac G5 and if I remember rightly it was a Quad 3.0GHz processor, 8GB RAM, 4 hard drives equalling 1.5TB and dual top of the range nVidia graphics cards. I might have got those figures mixed up a bit, but it cost £2500. I was quite shocked that a normal house could have such amazing equipment in it.

Anyway, throughout the day I was shown all the different software they used which was pretty much anything you can think of. As a company that produces video, animation, music, graphics, flash, websites, etc for clients - Adey was the one that did all of that, he was so multi-talented. As we went through all the programs I thought I'd take advantage of my time there and ask a few questions about how to do things that would help me on my course, such as music mixing techniques and flash advice.

At the end of the day I was welcomed back anytime and I will still be hopefully going on the next video shoot they have. I enjoyed myself and time went by fast which is a good sign of course. Now after having established myself with them I can hopefully pop round or contact them by e-mail if I have any queries about software, because they seemed willing to help me, and again, they were nice people.

Check out their website at http://www.d3-design.com

Small Update

2008-02-21T21:58:00.004Z

You can watch my weekend break holiday video which I have edited on my Facebook videos page. But if you don't give a shit about what I did then you don't have to (there are ghosts in it though so you should).

Also, I'm going to create my own music to go in my Identities project thing when it is done. But I don't want to give anything away, other than it's very 'personal' to me.

Until next time...

Alien Blob

2008-02-14T18:46:00.005Z

After today's seminar on learning how to create a BBC Three-esque blob character, this is what I ended up with. Now admittedly, I didnt create the spiralling horns/arms, Andy Love did, but that was because I'd dared be more adventurous from creating 8 teeth instead of 4 like the instruction sheet said.

I did learn how to modify shapes a bit more today though which should help me a bit more when it comes to continuing with my avatar.

Another helpful thing I learnt today was using the symmetry modifyer, allowing you to only do half as much work than you need to.

Avatar: The Beginning

2008-02-08T17:53:00.000Z

Andy makes 3Ds Max look so easy. And then when I want to go and use it I think, "oh i'll just do this and then this will happen and its easy to mould shapes etc", but then when you come to do it there is always something which I don't know how to do which prevents me from getting further and therefore resulting in my getting annoyed with the nothingness I've created. Anyway, I made a figure out of using the Line tool and then extruding it. It means nothing really but it could make a cool logo... or not.

And then I began trying to model a person until I couldn't figure out how to make more polygons on a face so I couldn't make any facial shapes or anything so this is as far as I've got so far.

Jail Environment Model

2008-02-07T16:32:00.000Z

As part of the Identities module, our avatar has to be situated in some sort of environment. Here I have modelled a moody, chlostrophobic Jail cell. I shall possibly be using it for my avatar, or at least using it as inspiration for it.

The cell was created in 3DS Max and the blood-stained floor texture was created in Photoshop.

I have also used Volumetric Lighting for the first time in this image which really helps to create the desired atmosphere.

Here are 3 angles of the cell.

Diary of an Avatar, Entry 1

2008-01-28T16:20:00.000Z

The brief for the module says as follows;

"Create an avatar in online 3D environments, like Second Life and Virtual Doppelganger spend some time exploring the virtual environments and communication with the residents. Keep diary of at least four weeks of your Avatar’s experiences and screen shots and publish them on your journal between weeks 20 to 32."

So after testing Second Life and concluding that it is absolutely rubbish and complicated I found another similar online community, There.com. It is much easier to use and for starters doesn't lag so much! It is fairly bandwidth-friendly and I haven't encountered any serious performance issues with it thus far. I could tell I was signing up for a more user-friendly environment just from the initial log-in and welcome pages. It used a lower formality tone and talked of how There.com is just about having fun.

I have used the username of OllieT88 (Ollie Tristram and then my birth year 1988) as its what I've used in the past and its easy to remember. This is what your default avatar looks like.

As you enter the virtual world you start on Fisher Island which has multiple billboards giving you beginner tips on how to communicate, move etc. It's very simple. Use the arrow keys to walk and double tap and hold them to run in that direction. I saw a few other avatars running around the island and went over to one. All you have to do is type and a speech bubble appears above your head. This guy was nice enough and introduced himself as being an Aussie and that a lot of people are quite cool and nice on There.com. I asked him some questions about customisation and what you can get up and he said the 'buggy races' were quite fun and other than that you just make friends. Then came along a female character and we ended having a 3-way conversation. The view switches so that you all become central to the chat. You can even use gestures to help communicate expression and feelings. Laughing, becoming mad and flirting or just a few of these.

There.com uses a currency just like many other virtual life simulators. This time its called 'There bucks' and you can use it to buy land, houses, clothes and many other accessories. Unfortunately, this money system prevents you, from having a different appearance other than the default one. On saying that, you could customise you head size and shape, including nose, eyebrows, lips and ears. Therefore, without paying you are very limited from being individual. I did try however, to make the face look like as much like my real life self as possible, so judge for yourself on how accurate I was!

After getting used to Fisher Island, I looked on the map and one of the 'Places of Interest' highlighted was Motu Motu, so I teleported there. It was a row of houses and if you walked up to them it told you who owned them. You could then click on that sign for further information such as when any upcoming events were at that house.

At the end of the row of houses was a club and on the outside were signs and posters advertising for you to pay 'There bucks' to rent out the club for whatever use. Inside the club were tables and chairs, a dance floor with moving lights and whatnot - all of which you could interact with, and had there been many people about, it would make for a good virtual social hang out.

Next time I log-in I think I shall check out all the different events and 'fun' activites you can participate in.

Some stairs...

2008-01-25T14:32:00.000Z

You see, when you have no lectures and stuff this is what you do. You make stairs.

To be honest though, it looks quite a nice image. I followed a tutorial for the general design, but that helped me understand a lot about how to mix and match different shapes to gain desired structures. So i made a floor, etc. and from that I mapped some textures onto the different surfaces to give a more relistic feel.

Squiddy!

2008-01-24T16:13:00.000Z

In today's seminar we made another animation on 3D Studio Max. This time it's a squid! He's a very happy squid.
I must admit that without any of Andy Love's instructions it wouldn't anything like this. 3DS Max has so many features and functions and unless you know the program inside and out, you make 3D modelling and animation very difficult for yourself.

Anyway, enough chat, it's time to meet Squiddy!
(The clip loops 10 times)

3D Space Scene

2008-01-22T17:25:00.000Z

This picture I created again in 3D Studio Max. This time I used map pictures found on Google for the Earth and Moon simply after creating spheres. I also placed a targer spotlight on the planets to give them that silhouette style. Finally, I imported the rendered bitmap into photoshop to touch up the levels and contrast and placed in a lens flare to represent the Sun.

I call it, Orbit.

3D Studio Max

2008-01-18T17:20:00.000Z

Yeah it's good. It's just another one to get used to. However, it seems easier than flash so far. Another thing is that it would help if some of the stuff on the tutorials was actually in the program.

So i decided to sort of help me gradually get used to this technical program I should do some tutorials and I found a good selection on http://www.tutorialized.com/.

After a few trial and errors on some tutorials which apparently were out of my skill-zone at the moment (such as creating hair), I selected to created a wierd ornament thing.

To be honest, the end result on the tutorial was better than mine, but after a bit of Photoshopping mines looks not too bad... although you can't really tell it's 3D anymore.

I call it, Star.

C.R.A.P. Summary

2008-01-07T16:55:00.000Z

This is a summary of Jules' lecture on how Contrast, Repetition, Alignment and Proximity are essential elements for layout design using screen space, or otherwise.

Contrast can mix big with small, wide with thin, warm with cool etc and therefore makes certain things stand out above others thus creating a more varied and visually stimulating piece.

Repetition implies repeating some aspect(s) through the entire piece, but really means to be consistent, as too much repitition can be boring.

Alignment suggests every item should have a connection with everything else. The rule of thirds would be an example of this in the screen world.

Proximity states that by grouping specific items closer together or further away you create new meanings.

All of these work together to help create an ideal image and aesthetically correct peice.

Secondlife...

2007-12-21T21:14:00.001Z

...is a pile of shit.

Interactive Narrative - Insanity Test

2007-12-09T16:57:00.000Z

REFRESH PAGE TO STOP THE MUSIC

As this project was to be completed using Adobe Flash my first thoughts were, “uh, oh!” I have never used Flash before in my life and my first impressions of it weren’t very good. I’m not a coder in any way, it’s like learning a new language, so I had a feeling I would struggle compared to the other narrative projects. Reassuringly though, Jools had produced a template for us to use and said that the project was not about being technical and clever on Flash, but to come up with a good narrative theme. Usually I like to be different and try new things in a project, but because ActionScript 3.0 is way over my head I figured using Jools’ template was the easiest and most stress-free route.

With a set of ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ buttons for each frame I had to come up with an idea that would take the user from frame to frame answering questions with a yes or no answer. Again, I could have experimented with this and created different answers and produced more buttons but I just didn’t want to go there. Instead of creating something rather boring and generic, I decided to go for making something humorous as if it could make people laugh, it would make up for how simple it is.

An ‘Insanity Test’ it is then.

After seeing previous html-based insanity tests in the past, in which questions are asked to find out if the participant is insane or not, I had an idea of how ridiculous and pointless the results really were so I could go for random questions when making it. Therefore one of the main reasons someone would want to play my test is a comedy factor, and everyone likes to have a laugh...

I began by creating rectangle boxes in the ‘frames’ layer of Jools’ template and used fill gradients to make them more jazzy. My intention whilst ‘decorating’ the frames was to make everything bright and colourful which has the connotations of being crazy or eccentric. I included many pictures found on Google to represent the questions in the frame. This gives the user more to look at than just the text.
To keep the user’s attention I also used sound. I created a short music clip at 180bpm, again to give an impression of being wild or mad, which loops throughout the project until the last frame. I had a lot of problems with the music because I originally wanted one clip to loop over the first frame only, and a second clip to loop over the remaining frames. But I couldn’t find anyone fluent enough in Flash (even Jools) that could help me. Still, I’m satisfied with the outcome. Also, I found free wav files on the internet to play when a frame starts coinciding with the image and text on screen. For example, the word ‘headshot’ is heard when the gun-related question is seen.

My project has a replayability factor because you can answer the Yes or No questions in a different order every time thus enabling you to see new frames and answer different questions. In addition, the route you take will also give you a different sound event at the end, so an element of surprise is also included within the project.

If I was to start the project from scratch I probably wouldn’t have changed anything at all, I would now just be prepared that in Flash things don’t always go the way you want them to.

Single Shot Film Project

2007-11-30T14:25:00.000Z

No Time, No Space

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By Ollie Tristram, Craig Thomas, Jason Bickers and Beth O’ Connell

Documentary

08-11-2007

Today we booked out a camera and intended to film our project. We had discussed prior to this what we we’re going to do and Jason had the idea to film a single shot over a long period and speed it up (known as time-lapse photography) to fit the 1 to 2 minute time requirement. This way everything would look frantic and our intentions of filming from the bridge over Parliament Street at all the traffic and pedestrians was a good way of representing a bustling city.
However, our plan of getting around about an hours footage during sunset didn’t go quite so well as the camera was due back to the store at 4.30pm with sunset being around 3.30-5.30pm. We set up and began recording around 3.55pm and finished roughly 4.15pm, obviously only a third of our intended time. With this in mind we are planning to review the recording and test out the speeding up effect on Tuesday. If the footage is still what we had in mind then excellent, otherwise we plan on doing a re-shoot next Thursday.

14-11-2007

I began to edit the footage we had at home to see what it would look like speeded up. I did this by 1300% to make the video around 1 minute 40 seconds long. I showed it to the group and we are all satisfied with the footage, however there are some reflections in the window we shot through.
I cut the clip so I could edit a 10 second slice with some effects, as rendering would be quicker this way. At the end, the effects I had used were altering the brightness, contrast and saturation, adding the ghosting effect, adding the zoom blur effect, and adding a lighting effect with a yellow tint. It quite dramatically improved the overall visuals by giving it a much more ambient feel. It also diminished the reflections somewhat.
Also, I began work on the background music with a friend, which is a downtempo trip-hop tune. It is farily minor, which adds to the narrative of a depressing city lifestyle.

20-11-07

We have rearranged our ideas, and now that the video editing is complete with use of Ghost trials, lighting effects and radial blurs, we have decided to give the project a new theme; greater intelligences watching over us. This way the narrative is more focused and the music, which I have now finished, always connects better with the imagery onscreen.

29-11-07

The project is complete. The new narrative works well with the visuals and music. The ‘overuse’ of effects of the video symbolises the vision of the aliens watching over us. The time-lapse aspect of the project works well with this because when everything is moving so fast, and is a blur, it represents how insignificant one day of one person’s life is out of the history of the rest of the World.
Our idea of having a speech or narration over the top of the visuals and music works very well as it gives depth and meaning to the project. It gives it a point, which is one thing we thought was a neccessity for the assignment.
I had a few problems exporting the video, and one which i can’t understand or get rid of is the small portion of the video that is blacked out at the bottom. But it goes fairly unnoticed.

I like...

2007-11-05T23:06:00.000Z

I thought this was a really cool stop-motion and I might have to steal some ideas in the future.

Stop Motion Stick Figure Body Art - Watch more free videos

One of the Earlier Stop-Motion Animations

2007-10-30T11:07:00.000Z

Here is my first completed project for my degree. A memorable occasion.
It is a stop-motion animation using people. It doesn't have a narrative in particular it's just mainly random.

There are around 470 photos in this, some of which are doubled, reversed etc. We took them as a group (five of us: Me, Scotty, Kirsty, Katie and Craig) but then sequenced and edited everything individually.

The video:
One of the Earlier Stop-Motion Animations

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Unitl next time.

Past Videos

2007-10-15T10:25:00.000+01:00

This is a fairly big update. Not that anyone reads this blog.

Here are some videos that me and friends have made over the past years. Some of them are good. Some of them are not. They're all hosted on my myspace but here they are anyway.

#1
Feeder - Standing on the Edge (A Level Coursework)

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#2
Trigger Unhappy TV (Extended Version)

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#3
Jim1 Music Video

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side note: This was a little piss take on a 'rap' a guy at my school did in year 11. I think the picture timings are out tho.

#4
Psychodistortion

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#5
Bee Boat

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side note: The bee was already dead (sort of).

Thats all you need to see right now. Enjoy!

My Music

2007-10-12T15:11:00.000+01:00

Another update for you.

I really tried to get a flash mp3 player for this Blog so you could hear my tunes, but it's a lot harder than it seems to actually get it to work.

Anyway, here are the myspace links to my music-making site, aka Pyrodrifter which can be found at:
http://www.myspace.com/pyrodrifter.

And here is the link to my band's myspace, Era which can be found at:
http://www.myspace.com/musicour.

Enjoy!

Induction Week

2007-10-08T14:52:00.001+01:00

October 1st was the beginning of induction week at Uni (aka Freshers Week) and it included a couple of sessions of introductory work to the course.

The first 'project' was to create an image through a pin-hole camera. This was created by getting a 440ml beer can, cutting off the top and placing photographic paper inside (in a dark room) and completely seeling the can so no light would bleach the paper. Then a pin hole is created in the side of the can which is covered with tape, light shines through onto the curved paper inside the can and an image is created. Mine is shown below.

The other students' images can be seen at this link: http://www.lab.constellations.co.nz/induction/07-08/pinhole/

The second project was to create a stop-motion animation using a whiteboard which lasted around 120 frames. The objective was to get the box from one side of the tree to the other. Below is a compilation of all the students' work. Ours is the one that starts with the wine bottle-bodied man flying out.

Now the course begins for real so expect more posts soon.

Blog Created

2007-10-08T13:48:00.000+01:00

Hello. And welcome to my blog.

This has been created to share my work from the Multimedia course I am studying at Nottingham Trent University.

As the course name suggests, I will be creating many types of media such as pictures, videos/films, animations, games, music and many more.

I also hope to post any other media-related side-projects on this blog and it will be updated fairly regularly.

See you around.