EM Media Opportunity

Last week, I was asked by someone from EM Media to help them with a film. They asked me to be a sound man, and this wouldn't be a paid job. I'm not too fussed, as long as I get to work on a film EM Media have done I'd be delighted and it will look really good on my CV.
The only reason I was approached is because I helped with a green screen shoot last year, as an external project and they really liked the project and the way we worked. So all the extra hard work put in last year with my external projects, has payed off.
I spoke to the guy again on Friday and he said he has passed my details onto the person in charge on the film. Should be good!

PRP - Personal Research Project

For my personal research project, I will be looking into Online Television and the ways in which it has made an impact on our daily lives. I will gain data from TV companies, for example ITV, BBC, Channel 4 and Sky and use it to compare the change in their popularity in comparison to Online TV. I will also use the data figures for Online TV to examine how it has changed since it first was introduced.

I beleive with this topic, I can lead onto other artefacts that discuss online piracy and how some programmes can be viewed online before broadcast, if shown in other countries i.e. America, and also all the other issues relating to online piracy.

I hope the TV companies will reply back and I can get hold of some sort of statistics. This project is the one I am a bit worried about.

Client Project

After having a meeting with Deborah, I know know fully what my client project will be about (as Deborah is my client). I will be, along with Abdul Seedat, be designing an App for the iphone to be used in the Lace Market area of the city centre in Nottingham. It will be an App designed as an interactive tour, informing people of what places of interest there are to visit. There will be three profiles for which this will be done; a student profile, a business man's profile, and a historical profile. We have the job of making the video content for this. The project seems very interesting, but at the same time very hard as there will be a lot of work and time needed to do it and as Deborah has already mentioned a lot of research will be needed.

The App will be an interactive tour for a certain pathway in the Lace Market area, which will start on the street where the Broadway Cinema is and will go along that. We will need to do a lot of research for this i.e. the History of the Lace Market and the way is which to make an App, and the coding etc. We will also look at existing App like this one and see what things they offer, and analyse these to see how the users experience of using the App can be made better.

Piracy Advert

This is my finished piece. If you want to view it in a bigger screen, copy the link below the video to the youtube version:




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Nsos6ceAFM

Simulated Project

Back to uni, and we have completed our Simulated project. I haven't blogged these past few weeks, but i'll run through how the project went. Our simulated project was about digital piracy, and my idea for the simulated project was to make a 40-second advert informing people of why digital piracy is wrong. It was to include 5 actors doing vox pops, showing something or share an idea they have created themselves, showing the sense of creativity and ownership.

Each of the characters were from a specific creative background. They were an App designer, a software developer, a games designer, a film director, and a music producer. I chose a diverse range of backgrounds to show how digital piracy can affect all kinds of different people working in the creative industry and how much of a mass effect it can have on the industry as a whole. A statistic is shown after each actor of how it has affected that particular industry.

So, that was my idea. I got hold of 5 actors to take part in the advert. I had a problem finding a location, as I wanted a white back-drop behind my actors. However, eventually I got hold of a photography studio and shot the film there. The filming lasted about 2 and a half hours and went well.

In editing, I came across a problem, I realised I shot in DVCAM! After hours of trying to get the footage to be played in Adobe Premiere, and Owen (the technician) who also spend an hour trying to fix the problem. However, I had to capture my footage using the Matrox, which however tied me down to only using the universities computer. I did get the edit done, however I now know for next time to check and RE-CHECK what format I am filming in and this will hopefully save me a lot of time.

YMCA National Conference Speech Video

My speech at EMCC for the YMCA England project, after the screening of the film:





Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPIUH9QQLq8

Article on YMCA website about our film

Uni OVER and work progress update...

Well uni is over for this year... and damn its a relief! Past few weeks I have been working on my final project, Making a DVD menu of all of our work done this year. Handed that in last week after hours in Adobe Encore, but pleased to say I am now finished.

Okay, few things that need to be done now. Met up with Jill Robinson last week day after hand-in, to wrap up our work. We have been asked to produce a batch of copies of the YMCA Documentary film, as it was requested by several people from YMCA's over the country. I suggested for this, that I will make a DVD menu. So I guess the next few weeks I will be doing that. Short clips from the film will also be produced to be put up onto the YMCA website.
Besides that, I have tried to get a copy of the ALIVE project, the green screening from the people we worked with. However, they have not yet completed the edit. So as soon as I get that I will post it up here!

Umm what else... Oh ye I have a client for our final year project. Just to be a bit ahead of the game, Im going to be meeting up with Deborah to discuss the project and hopefully meet the client to sort things out. I have also come up with ideas for my final year research project and some artefacts, but I think I will need to think up a few more. So thats a task for me to think over in the holidays!!

Just realised I haven't uploaded the full version of the YMCA film. Will post that in the next blog. Have a great summer guys and enjoy!

Artefact 1

Today, we filmed our first artefact for our practice experiments. We have been asked to complete a plan of 2 artefacts, with an abstract explaing them, and if we can, make at least 1 artefact.

We have chosen the subject of Online TV, and the question we experimented was 'How has Online TV affected the viewer's experience?'. Looking at research, we realised the main audience that watched online tv are `8-25 year olds.
Therefore, we went out today and filmed 30 young 18-25 ear olds and asked the the question, along with what method would they prefer to watch their TV progammes on?

Take a look:

YMCA Update ...National Conference Speech

Just checked my e-mails and I have recieved an audio recording of our film screening at the YMCA National Conference, from one of the organisers of the event. I have asked for the video recording of this also.

YMCA Update

Met up with Jill Robinson today from the YMCA Insync Standards to discuss how we are going to take the project on further. We discussed some extra clips to post up on the YMCA website. We have also been asked to put the final film onto DVD and make about 25+ copies to give to all the participants and other YMCA's across the county who want to make use of it.

I suggested we make a DVD label and also a DVD menu to go with it (put our practice to the test!) as it being a real client, and this will also be good practice. A few YMCA's have requested the film also.

However, we will do this after 2 weeks, when all our university deadlines are over and we agreed to meet up again then.

Jill also agreed to write us up a reference for the work we have done.

New Project/Client taken up....STAR Access Alliance

I have taken up a new project in the past week. I will be working with a company called STAR, which manages the 'Access Alliance Programme' in Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire, which funds transport projects to improve access to employment and training. The 4-year Programme is due to come to an end in November 2010 and the company would like to have a permanent record of the achievements of the Programme.

They require a 5 - 7 minute video, which would include interviews with the project funders (Derbyshire Economic Partnership), a selection of project managers and a selection of end-users who have been assisted to access work and training.

I have an initial meeting with two of the people from the company this Monday at 10.30am, in which we will discuss what they require.

YMCA England Project Update

Well, we have had a little break after our film screening at the YMCA National Conference. We are now going to meet up with Jill this Monday at 12.00pm to wrap up and discuss what we are going to do further with the project now that the film has been completed. We have now been asked to produce short clips to take from our completed film and make them for the YMCA England website.

Fashion Shoot Day 3 complete... and further progress

We have filmed our final day of interviews for the fashion exhibition last week and it was a long day. We have also captured all the tapes from both cameras (yes all 15 and took 3 days) and it is now ready to be edited.

We have spoken to the three fashion students we are working with and have discussed the way in which they want us to make certain aspects of the film. They will come along when the edit, as they want to gain a little experience in editing.

Today, I will start editing the film and will have a draft version done by next week.

Collaboration with Fashion Students... End of Year Fashion Exhibition...Day.2

Just finished day two of our filming for the Nottingham Trent University Fashion Exhibition. We interviewed a lot of people again today and did a similar thing to the last time. There were no problems, besides one of the lights not working. In all, a good day of shooting and we got some good footage, from both cameras. The third year fashion students end of year exhibition is coming soon, and we have another day of filming this Monday.
Here are some stills from today:

Title Sequence Complete

I chose to do The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. I used both Adobe After Effects and Adobe Premiere Pro, as well as Adobe Photoshop. Here is my finished piece:

YMCA National Conference film screening... complete

It was great! I mean we were worried that the resolution may appear different on the screen at the EMCC, but it was fine. All the people loved it and we got a big applause at the end! The speech was a bit nerve-racking in front of a few hundred people, but it went good. I did mention in the speech for the opportunity for future projects to take place (for our third year projects).



Many people at the tea break congratulated us on the good work. At the end of the conference, we were approached by a few people for some potential third year projects. More on that soon!

The YMCA National Conference

Maybe, I forgot to mention this earlier on, but when we finished our YMCA Project, they wanted us to screen it at the annual YMCA National Conference (now thats a big deal!). All the editing for this has now been done, and tomorrow is the big day. The conference which is held every year by YMCA England, will take place at the East Midlands Conference Centre (EMCC), at the University of Nottingham.
There will be a few hundred people present at the screening, and yes we have to make a small speech about our film. After a unanimous decision (of course) its me who is going to do the speech. I'm writing up my speech right now, even though I was told something brief, it is rather long.
We will be recording the conference and screening for our portfolio's, so make sure to watch here for the video.

Dome ALIVE Project - Green Screen

I have also accepted an offer from NTU researchers to help them film in green screen for a dome project. I know it's so much with collaborating with fashion students to film their project, and working with YMCA England filming in various locations across the UK, and all the work from uni. But I think doing all of this will help me gain experience that will be valuable for me in the future. Not only will it provide me with practice, but also give me potential companies to work with in the future. So, for this Dome Project, we booked out a fairly large room in the new Newton building (I think its called) and set up a green screen. I've never done this before, so this was new to me. Also, all the equipment was fairly new to me too. We were using the new Panasonic cameras with the green screen attachments. This is an easier way to make a green screen, rather than having a green drop-down to work with.




















We interviewed about 7 people behind a green-screen back-drop. As this film is going to be shown to attract students coming to NTU and attract them to the course, all of the people interviewed were involved in the film industry some way or another. There was one person who owned his own film company in Nottingham called Shadow Smith Film. Another person who was a freelance play writer, a freelance editor and camera-operator, someone else who works with Spool Films and the EM Media Development Agency, an actor, someone who has been a runner on This Is England (2006) by Shane Meadows, and a 2D animator.










































































































































In the end, I learnt how to use green-screen and I networked with people who are in the film industry successfully. I got a few business cards from some of the people and talked about our projects, and talked through with them about how they made their way up in the industry.

Collaboration with Fashion Students...

Accepted an offer a few weeks ago from fashion students at NTU to help them with a project for their course. We filmed and interviewed about 30 fashion students, using two cameras. We were fortunate as we filmed in a studio where photo shoots take place, therefore most of the lighting was already in place and we were given various backdrops. We have a few more dates set to film some more things. This is all for their end of year fashion exhibition.

Feedback for Notts County Film

So today we showed our films and I believe we got good feedback. Feedback received was that it was a lot better than the previous draft, the interviews interlinked well, the sound worked well where it was used, however could have done without at some points, and the titles sequence and voice-over worked really well.



I believe this was well-deserved feedback, as I spend A LOT of time changing/editing (not being big headed), so getting the good feedback felt good. A group that worked well to achieve a good result.

Notts County editing editing editing CRAZYY

Ok, so i've been editing our Notts County documentary for a few weeks now and it's honestly doing my head in! I've spend a crazy amount of hours on it, due to changes etc. I took out a whole interview, added the voice-over the second time after re-recording, and cutting each of the FIVE tapes and taking out what was needed was a mission in itself. However, I have now editing a final piece, just under 10 minutes. With all this effort, I hope everyone likes it!

Meeting for YMCA Proj

Met today with Jill from the YMCA to discuss how we are going to go about editing. We discussed the length and we were also asked to produce short clips (taken from the documentary) that would be put up on the YMCA website (and potential payment may be in place for us to complete this task). Editing will now go on it's way, should be done in a few weeks!!

YMCA Project Video Blog (Liverpool) - 10/02

Video blog for the first part of a project we have done for YMCA England. This took place in the YMCA in Liverpool on the 10th of February 2010.

Link for it on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KM6h6BmsjWs

Notts County Update

YMCA London... Shooting complete

Back from London, and it was a very good day filming. Today, we interviewed three people, however in a slightly different way. We interviewed the three people together, so it was more like a discussion and they shared ideas to each other. One of the people we interviewed at the Parket Street YMCA was the CEO Head of YMCA England.
We got this interview done and we also got some GV shots and archive footage to be included also. I think we followed our shooting schedule the way we intended, and included everything we wanted in the time we set. It was alot easier setting up than it was the time before, as we knew where and how where were going to set up, and this in the end, saved alot of time for us.

Notts County Doc update... SVEN RESIGNS (and makes our doc even more interesting!)

Went down to Notts County ground today for some GV shots and footage that could be used as b-roll. Oh yeh, between today and yesterdays interview with John Staplton, Sven Goran Eriksson has resigned as manager from Notts County!

At first we thought that this will make our documentary harder to film, due to all the media attention, and we also had good comments from John about Sven's arrival and how it will serve Notts County well in he future. However, we could incorporate this into our documentary and link this in with the issues of why fans have decreased and the how the change of so many managers over the years have affected the club.

As we were not given permission to film anything within the ground, we got alot of GV shots from all around the ground. As well as this, we got gained alot of good stills also.

Given that there was loads of media attention at the football ground today, we were lucky in gaining an extra interview. We met someone who worked as an accountant for Notts County. Due to all the problems etc the team have been facing recently, he refused wanting to be interviewed. But after a bit of persuasion, he agreed to do a short interview for us, but NOT mentioning anything about the issues of finance and just talking about the club in general. We did get some VERY interesting stories about Notts County from him, but it was a shame we couldn't get them on film as he didn't want to disclose anything on camera.

Whilst filming all around the ground, we also met a VJ (video journalist), who was also there to film the ground, who gave us a good few tips. Me and Chris, asked the reception if we could film in the ground (again, just in case), however we were told by the receptionist that it would be really difficult, as there was alot of media around. He did, however, tell us to come back next week and we may be able to do it.

Notts County Doc update... Interview with John

Today we have filmed an interview with John Staplton, who has been a Notts County fan all of his life. I believe we got alot of footage that will give ease in the editing phase. Ben, our director, wrote down a set of questions, and I believe from them, we got good detailed responses.

Tomorrow, we will be visiting the Notts County stadium to film some GV shots (and obviously much more), the more the better i.e. what I said in my earlier blog that because we will have limited time given by Notts County, and all the group will be coming along, we will use all the equipment we have to get more footage completed.

YMCA Liverpool... Shooting complete

Its 09.15pm and we have just got back from Liverpool.

Two and a half hours on the train damn! Really tired now, but it was a great day. We got alot of footage and some really interesting and very moving interviews. We interviewed four people in total. The interesting thing was that each person had a different story to tell and where they have come from, to how they have bettered themselves by being part of the YMCA organisation. We chose to do the interviews in two separate loacations. We also got some GV shots of the surrounding area of Liverpool YMCA. I was very pleased with the support we got from Jill and Darren from the YMCA.

I have also filmed a video diary for this project, and I will be continuing this for London and Nottingham. Keep an eye out!


Next stop is the London YMCA this Monday the 15th. Looking forward to it, should be good.

YMCA doc update...

All arrangments have been sorted for the days. Both sets of train tickets to Liverpool and London have been recieved to myself. We had a meeting on Wednesday, with Jill, Deborah and the whole group and discussed everything and made final arrangements to be set for filming on the 10th February. Alan just needs to have a look at the pictures Jill has sent and complete risk assessments. We are going to have another meeting to complete the shot list, shot schedule, and other things prior to our filming day. I have contacted Jill for some archive footage that we can include, however she is still in the process of getting hold of that. We will also, after the next meeting, meet John and re-check all the equipment and check that the tie mics are working as they were not previously.

The roles of group members are:

Abdul Seedat - Director and editing and camera assistant
Umar Hussain - Producer, and Sound recording and post production music/effects
Duncan Leigh - Camera/Lighting, and post production visual effects
Alan Vickerstaff - Locations Manager, titles designer, photographer

Notts County Doc update...

We have found a person who will be the key person who drives our story (Pete IronMonger - a relative of the IronMonger, a goalkeeper who played for Notts County in the early 1900's). This person has been a Notts County for a very long time, therefore we will be able investigate Notts County through time in a good way. This is what the theme will be for the documentary - Notts County through the eyes of a long term and dedicated fan. We will show Notts County through the years and how it has development/changed and how this has had an effect on other things like the number of fans and why their popularity has changed and the causes of this. In the meeting today we discussed all of this and identified five points that we will include to make it an interesting narrative.

Trips have been made to the BBC nottingham to get in touch with Colin Slater (Notts County commentator), and the the evening post to get a copyright for some images we want to include in our film. Finally to the Notts County ground to talk to the head of the supporters group. We have now got someone (Iris - Head of the fan club/supporters group) who is now helping us to get interviews with some real dedicated fans who will hopefully, have many stories and views on how the club has changed over the years.

FAIL

We have abandoned our idea of the 'unseen heroes' theme of our documentary because we have not been given permission by Notts County Football Club to film the interiews that we needed to. However, they have allowed us to have a 30 minute slot in which we will be allowed to film GV shots. We have discussed in our meeting today about how we can make the most of this 30 minute slot, as this is the only time we will be given. We will take two Sony Z1's, a camcorder, any relevent sound equipment, and a stills camera to get as much footage as we can. The whole group will be present on this day and given individuals jobs, so that everything can be done on time and within the allocated 30 minutes.

However, on the good side, for the YMCA project, I have spoken to Jill about some other arrangments about tickets to the locations and she will be posting them soon. Jill has also proposed another meeting with the whole group sometime next week, in which we will also meet Simon from the communications team from the YMCA.
The only concern I have is clashing of days, as both of my projects will be running alongisde each other. If we arrange to interview someone on a day (for the Notts County Doc), it may be on one of the dates I am doing the YMCA shooting, mentioned in my earlier post. However, as of now, I know for sure the dates of the YMCA project, and we have planned to shoot one of our days for Notts County on the 11th February, which is the day straight after our filming in Liverpool. Hopefully, it will work out well, because the way I see it is, the YMCA project we are doing will help me and give me a real-life experience on working with a client and getting valuable work experience. It will be good practice for me for my final year clientel project also, as I have spoken to a few finals years and they have mentioned it is something similar to what they are doing in their projects.

YMCA Project

Ok, there is another project we have took on a few weeks back. Its a project that the YMCA have asked us to do. There are three other people as well as me who are doing this. We have been asked to make a documentary about the various YMCA centres across the UK and show what work they do and how they help young people. Basically we will show the hard work and contribution of the YMCA throughout the documentary. We have had a meeting with someone from the YMCA and have discussed how we are going to approach the film and we also organised the days and travel etc.

We will be filming in Liverpool, London, and Nottingham. The dates are as follows:
Liverpool - 10th February
London - 15th February
Nottingham - 3rd March

Should be good!

Documentary For NottsCounty

So, we have been given our groups and our topics for our documentary projects. Our topic is about the Notts County Football Club. We have already had one meeting to understand how we are approaching the film. We have come up with many ideas, but the one we have chosen to stick with is a 'unseen heroes' theme of the football. Hence, we will be interviewing thpse people who work behind the scenes to make the football club and run it. We have come up with a title 'Notts County: The People behind the dream'. The sort of people who we are aimed at interviewing are people who have been working at NottsCounty Football Club for a long while. In this way, we can get a more better understanding and personal experience from these people.

Roles for Documentary

Ben Thorpe: Director
Alan Vickerstaff: Producer
Umar Hussain: Editor
Chris Swann: Sound
Ryan Carthy: Camera

Quad

FILM SCREENING at the Quad in Derby today 26th!