Umar's Journal

Research Project - Artefact 6 Evaluation

2011-04-30T14:01:00.000-07:00

Artefact six formed a research document that summed up the whole research and came to a conclusion to what the future on online content will be. It shows how content is being adjusted to keep up with the issue of online piracy and presents new strategies that are being used to tackle online piracy.

It argues a case that not enough is being done by big companies and associations to reduce piracy. Issues are raised about these organisations not successfully working together to beat online piracy and how this affects the industry as a whole.

The artefact looks into laws being enforced in countries to reduce online piracy by tracking and prosecuting individuals who frequently share files illegally. It highlights the dispute of anti-piracy technology being introduced to Freeview TV to stop illegal copying of TV shows for distribution on the internet.
It draws attention to the amount of illegal file sharing websites that have been fined or prosecuted and the vast crackdown countries are enforcing in their anti-piracy laws.

This document provides the new ways that are being used to help prevent online piracy and concludes how successful they may be with reference to previous artefacts.
It indicates measures that may be successful in helping, with what is an issue that affects every user of the World Wide Web.

Research Project - Artefact 6 Ideas

2011-04-25T18:22:00.000-07:00

For my final artefact I want to sum up and bring together all my previous artefact's, and come to some sort of conclusion to how the issue of online piracy can be successfully tackled. I think the best way for me to do this is by producing a research document, that looks into strategies that were used previously and ones that are being used now, to ones that are newly being introduced and compare their success rates.

I think I can also look to where the future of online TV and content is leading to with its association with online piracy. I will need to look into new laws and legislations being introduced and how they affect it. I believe the new Digital Economy Act enforced in the UK last year (2010) will play a part in the argument for stopping pirates and prosecuting them for future decrease in piracy.

For this, I will need to do thorough research to come to a strong conclusion that justifies its findings.

Research Project - Artefact 5 Evaluation

2011-04-23T17:05:00.000-07:00

Artefact 5 interviewed a famous Nottingham director called Chris Cooke, well known for his film ‘One for the Road’ (2004). It presented Chris Cooke with a series of questions about online piracy. The aim of this artefact was to understand his view on online piracy and how he is dealing with the change. This artefact focuses on a local person in Nottingham to get a more personal view.
This artefact provided me with essential information as it not only said why piracy is bad, but it also gave reasons why it was beneficial. I received unexpected answers, which in turn provided me with a different side to the issue of online piracy.
When asked about his view on online piracy, I received a strong view in favour of online piracy. The reasoning behind this was that he said a lot of films that were old or rare have been re-discovered by online piracy. He goes onto say that online piracy has been the main platform for films that would be lost, or films that haven’t been seen for centuries and it enables people to become fans of those films and learn from those films. It also gives an opportunity for those films to be re-released or re-mastered, and ‘piracy is what saved those films.’
The thing that struck me was when Chris mentioned being approached and being sold a pirated DVD of his own film, to which he gave a positive response. He said that he was happy that someone had even wanted to even copy his film and re-sell it and no one had really lost money. He mentions that he made it his priority to make the extras on his DVD have ‘real added value’. My next artefact will look into the future of online programming and piracy.

Research Project - Update - Chris Cooke Interview!

2011-04-22T16:54:00.000-07:00

Okay, after a loooong time waiting I have managed to get myself an interview with Nottingham director Chris Cooke, known famously for his film One for the Road (2003) -

I will interview him next week and have written up a list of questions for this. I am hoping to get a very good response from this. I am glad I have managed to get this interview with a renowned director as it will make my artifact have good response and make it strong.

Research Project - Update

2011-04-20T04:42:00.000-07:00

Okay, I have'nt updated my research project in about 3 weeks. I've been really busy with filming my client project. As well as this, I have contacted so many different film companies/organisation in Nottingham for my next artifact and haven't had success. My idea for this artifact was to interview an industry expert and get their view about online piracy. See how they are dealing with it and what measures they have in place etc. Two people I had in mind were Shane Meadows or Chris Cooke (Yes, i may be getting my hopes a bit too high). But the idea I want to put across a more personal approach, hence having a director based in Nottingham and see how they cope with piracy with their work. This will also help me as a practitioner to learn how this could affect me in the near future and ways it can be prevented. I will continue to look for someone and hopefully I will soon!

Research Project - Artefact 4 Evaluation

2011-03-31T12:38:00.000-07:00

For my fourth artefact, I set up a series focus groups in the well-known school called the Nottingham Academy, with the time I had there as part of my PGCE work experience. The aim of this artefact was to see whether students were being made aware about the issue of piracy at school and the role teachers had in this.
It presented a class of twenty-two sixth form students with three popular anti-piracy adverts by to watch and followed by them completing a short questionnaire with feedback. They were also shown an anti-piracy advert I produced as part of this. From the class, 82% of students had never seen these piracy warning videos before.
Most students in the class were aware of what online piracy was and 91% of them admitted to downloading content without paying for it. When the students were asked whether these videos will make them change their minds and stop them from downloading illegally in the future, 21 out of the 22 students said it would not.
These videos were then presented to a series of teachers. I specifically picked teachers that could relate online piracy to their subject of teaching. I showed the videos to a head of Media Studies, a Media Studies teacher, and two heads of ICT for year eight and eleven. When asked whether the issue of piracy is in any way made aware to their students in their subject of teaching, 100% of the teachers answered no.
This is a clear indication that more needs to be done in schools to make children aware about the issue of online piracy, which may help in tackling the issue in some way. My next artefact will interview a film industry expert and see what measures they have in place to tackle this issue.

Research Project - Artefact 4 Ideas

2011-03-30T16:27:00.000-07:00

I have been on my PGCE work placement for 2 weeks now, and I have been given the chance the teach part of the lesson in the ICT class. I was told I could do anything of my choice as a 'task' for the class next week. This got me thinking and it provided me with an ideal chance to get a really good strong next artifact. The questions that arose to me was: What is being told to children at school about the issue of online piracy? I have decided to set up a series of focus groups with students in which I will show three popular anti-piracy adverts. This will follow by the class completing a question with their feedback. This will determine what they know about the issue and what affect, if any, these anti-piracy adverts have on them.

I will do this separately for a teachers focus group in which the same procedure will be carried out, however with a different set of questions. This will hopefully show what is being taught, if anything, in schools about online piracy. I have planned the focus group for the teachers by letting the relevant teachers know to be present e.g. Head of ICT, and media teachers.

Client Project - St. Mary's Church Video

2011-03-22T12:22:00.000-07:00

This is my first edit of the 2-minute video for St. Mary's Church. I showed this today at my tutorial and got some good feedback from my tutor. The feedback included things like re-taking some shots that are over exposed, include interior shots of the church, include images which could include historical images of the church, and lastly include a lot more still shots as there is too much movement e.g. panning, tilting, zooming etc. I will contact Wendy Piece again and schedule a day next week to film these extra shots.

Research Project - Artefact 3 Evaluation

2011-03-20T16:23:00.000-07:00

Artefact 3 followed from the results received from the previous artefact and highlights the issue brought forward about time-shifting in US and UK television programming. It presented users with a task about the availability of programmes online. Two users took part in this experiment; one who watches online television regularly and one who doesn’t.
As the previous artefact made clear, TV shows are aired in the US many weeks in advance and are then available for viewers online to see before being aired in their own country. The task required the two users to go online after the latest episode of a TV show called 90210 was aired in the US, and see how long it would take them to locate it online after its broadcast.
Users were given details of the task in hand and the TV programme. The episode they were required to find was episode 15 from season 3 called ‘Revenge with the Nerd’, which aired on the 14th February 2011 at 9.00pm US time for one hour.
User one, who was a regular online programme watcher, located the episodes availability online in a mere 2 hours and 10 minutes after being broadcast in the US. User two, who didn’t watch television online, located the episode by the early following morning and took 11 hours.
Taking into account that this specific episode was a whole six weeks ahead in programming than the UK, it shows that it is easy even for the people that have no knowledge of online programming to watch these episodes illegally if they wanted.
My next artefact will try tackling this issue and see what children are being told about the issue of online piracy in schools. For this, I will visit the Nottingham Academy and set up a series of focus groups.

Research Project - Artefact 3

2011-03-19T16:18:00.000-07:00

I have now completed my third artifact. I gave both users 90210 – Season 3 Episode 15 – Revenge with the Nerd to locate which was aired in the US on 14/02/2011 @ 9.00pm (1 hour run time).

The user who used online TV a lot managed to locate the programme in a mere 2 hours and 10 minutes. The user who did'nt use online TV located the file the following morning takinf only just 11 hours. I think these results show how quickly ans easily it is to find illegal content that can in effect change the viewing figures for shows in the UK dramatically.

Sound Booth 2 : Voice-over Recording

2011-03-18T17:55:00.000-07:00

Today I recorded my own voice using the mic and edited with Adobe SoundBooth. I will use this as a draft to over the edit which I will do of the St. Marys clip over the weekends. This is because Laura (our voice-over artist) only has this coming Tuesday off work to come in and record. I will use my own voice for now to get a rough draft so that I can show this in my tutorial and get feedback from my tutor.

Research Project - Problem

2011-03-17T16:09:00.000-07:00

For my third artifact, I initially had the idea to look into how easy it is to download content from the internet. This followed up from the results gained from the diary in the previous artifact about time-shifting in TV in the UK and US. This artifact would include two users; one a regular online TV consumer and one that isn't and get both to download a video online after broadcast in the US to see ho quick they can get it.

However, after talking to my tutor Danny, I realised that I could not get my participants to do this as it would not comply with ethics for my research. Therefore, after several discussions I decided to continue the same experiment, but only having the users 'locate' the certain video file online rather than download. I think this will work well and I have got two people lined up to do this experiment.

Research Project - Evaluation 2

2011-03-16T17:28:00.000-07:00

This is the evaluation for the 2-week diary of television viewing habits I collected for two students:

For my second artefact I collected a two-week television diary from two students; one was 20 years of age and the other 30. I have followed this up from results on my questionnaire that showed me that most television is consumed by students; therefore
I decided to get a wider age range to compare.

These results show that the younger student watched a huge amount of pirated/illegal content online whereas the more mature students didn’t consume any content online. I believe this may be due to young people, especially students, being more computer-active and having knowledge of software allowing them to download content for free.

The 20 year old student watched thirteen programmes online that were not yet aired in the UK, in the two-week period. These included American TV series, which were ahead of schedule by as much as 6 weeks. For example, the weekly show 90210 in the UK is currently on Series 3, Episode 9. However, the student had already watched up to Episode 15 online. I believe this shows a huge problem with the programme time-shift between the UK and US and the impact this could have on viewing figures.

The 30-year old student spent a lot less time watching programmes compared to the younger student. The 30-year old student also tied themselves to the main free channels which where BBC 1, BBC 2, BBC 3, and Channel 4. The times they watched their programmes were either afternoon or evening, whereas the younger student had a wider mix of timings for their viewing.

The schedule for the 20-year old student was more fixed as they watched the same programmes daily on the allocated times, both online and offline. For example, Eastenders was watched every day and if it was missed; online catch up services were used.

Research Project - Artefact 2

2011-03-15T17:09:00.000-07:00

For my second artifact I have collected a two-week diary from two students, one ages 20 and the other 30 to get a wider student age range following from my questionnaire.

Here is an image of the tables showing the results:
(sorry about the quality, couldn't get a table into here - click image to view bigger)

Diary of the 20-year old student:

Diary of the 30-year old student:

Sound Booth : Voice-over Test

2011-03-13T17:27:00.000-07:00

I decided it would be beneficial to book out a sound-booth and make sure I knew how to use the mic and software to record and edit sound before I call in Laura to record the voice-over.

Client Update

2011-03-11T13:27:00.000-08:00

This is the title sequence that will be presented to the user upon initially viewing the Lace Market interactive tour. It is still really a rough draft as it needs to be improved further.

Client Project - Filming day Three

2011-03-09T17:37:00.000-08:00

Today I filmed inside The Adams College and got some good interior shots. I filmed on floors one, two and three. Even though I only need a few shots to show the interior I collected quite a bit of shots. I got shots of the fashion rooms, film production studio, the media department and many others. Again, I used the Nikon D200 for higher quality of images as some may be used to go into the final product. Here are pictures from the today:

Research Project - Evaluation 1

2011-03-01T16:58:00.000-08:00

Here is the evaluation for the results of my questionnaire. I got results from 50 people altogether:

Artefact one presented respondents with a total of eighteen questions to gain an insight into their viewing habits. The answers ranged from simple yes or no to detailed answers. I collected fifty responses over a period of a few weeks which gives me a good basis for my next artefact.

60% of people taking part in the survey were female. 92% were between the ages of 18 and 25, 88% were students.

58% watched most video content over the internet narrowly beating television’s 40%, with 43 out of 50 respondents accessing a high-speed internet service at home. 80% skip adverts when watching content online.

When asked ‘How much time do you spend on the internet daily’, 34% said, on average 3-4 hours. However, 92% of people used this time to view video content such as live television, catch up services, films, or television shows.

66% of people were aware that television programmes which are aired in the US before the UK, are available on the internet illegally.

Most respondents stated that the two main reasons they prefer online viewing were because the catch up services are free and they can be viewed at a convenient time. The least popular reason was better quality of content.

The respondents were then asked to rate the website layouts of four online television providers (YouTube, 4Od, BBC iPlayer and ITV Player) on a scale of 1 to 5. The highest rated was BBC iPlayer followed by YouTube, 40d, then ITV Player.

Lastly, the biggest problem users have with online video services is buffering speeds and the time lag between television broadcast and its online availability.

Following up from this, my next artefact focuses on two individuals specific television consumption. Two respondents of different ages will collect a two-week television diary for me to analyse.

Update: personal progress

2011-02-28T17:27:00.000-08:00

Great news. I done my interview for my PGCE and it went really good. A lot better than I expected. I revised quite a bit, and it payed off. And then the following week (which was last week), I got called for another interview for my GTP teaching course. I was more relaxed for this as I was aware of how it went etc. Alongside this, I have also been doing a placement at the Nottingham Academy secondary school to help me get more experience. I am still a little confused of which to do; a GTP or PGCE. I have got a few ideas lined up for completing one of my artifacts at the school and conducting some focus groups. My decision is probably going to go for the PGCE, seen as it is more recognised in other countries.
So, I received a conditional offer for my PGCE the other day! and I just accepted it last night. I'm just waiting on my GTP decision to get back. My life's career is now slowly planning out in front of me.

SPP3 Update

2011-02-25T17:21:00.000-08:00

So, I'm nearing the end of my SPP3 assignment 1. I have done a website to act as an interactive portfolio for me. It's not the greatest website in the world but hey. Here'e the link:

http://www.umar-hussain.com

Client Project - Filming day Two

2011-02-23T16:48:00.000-08:00

My partner in the group let me down massively today! No call, text anything. I turned up at 9.00am at university, waited a while... few hundred phonecalls. Nothing. However, I decided to go and film myself, seen as I went to all the trouble of gaining permissions etc. And yes, I took a Sony Z1 this time, I didn't bother to hassle with the Panasonic. Although I did'nt get any more interior shots, as there was rehearsals going on for a Hamlet play (want to find out more or buy tickets to this play: http://www.em-media.org.uk/pages/news/article?2B399DD7-98AF-45E5-9A95-229DEF0AA266). I did get some exterior shots. Didn't last long. Rain stops play... The sagas continue.

Also, used a Nikon D200 today for better picture quality and testing with ISO, shutter speed etc. This picture was taken using the Nikon D200.

Client Project - Update

2011-02-18T17:01:00.000-08:00

I've collected the clips I shot on the test day and also the first day of filming to edit, both which were shot using the Panasonic 151. I am now faced with a problem. The Panasonic 151 exports video in .MTS files. Now, I've tried to edit using my Premiere CS3 and home, however I have now found out that .MTS files are only recognised from CS3 upwards i.e. CS4 and CS5. Therefore, I edited at university. After a few hours I got the clips to work, however they were playing at a really slow speed. I asked our uni technician to help, but after a while he couldn't also work out what was wrong and said the computer at uni we not fully capable to handle these files and it would take REALLY LONG. And yes, I tried and look how long it told me it would take...

And that was just for 2 clips.

Only other option I could think of was to convert them. After looking/asking around I was given a good .MTS converter by my friend Chris. Okay, this does work (when it wants to), but it takes soooo long to convert. I've converted about 6 of 7 videos so far. Let's see where it gets me. P.s. I'm going to use a Sony Z1 from now on!

Client Project - Filming day One

2011-02-16T16:03:00.000-08:00

Filmed the interior of the Broadway Cinema today. Lack of lights I think was a major issue here I believe (even though I insisted to take them, but my partner decided it would be fine for his video). As it being a cinema, only small spot lights could be switched on from the ceiling. Oh yeh, there was also a guy who came in to tune the piano at screen 2, so we had to deal with constant piano key smashing. Besides that, it went fine :)

Next stop was St. Mary's Church, and as I thought... it was big. Caretaker there was fairly friendly. I got loads of really good shots, from the south, east, north and west side of the church. I mean, I could have been there all day. I took shots of all the the windows, the sculptures, the main church hall, and various shots of the great architecture all around the building. After about an hour and a bit we finished and wrapped up. I will now gain permission from Wendy from St. Peter's Church to film again next week.

Client Project - Update

2011-02-14T15:55:00.000-08:00

Okay, so I've now confirmed all permissions to film our interior shots at both the Broadway Cinema and St. Mary's Church. The Broadway was pretty okay, however for St. Mary's Church, I had go to St. Peter's Church and arrange a meeting with someone called Wendy. After doing this, I luckily confirmed the date the same as the filming for the Broadway, so both myself and my partner in the project can assist each other for our videos. I think there are a lot of shots that can be taken from both of these buildings, especially St. Mary's. I've been reading up about the church on the internet and it has a lot of history and seems pretty huge.
I have also fully completed my risk assessment, after being re-checked by my tutor Deborah Tuck, so everything is ready for shooting this Wednesday.

Client Project: Test Filming Day

2011-02-11T15:06:00.000-08:00

Today we did some test shots of The Broadway, The Adam's Building, St.Mary's Church and The Galleries of Justice. It turned out really good and we collected a lot more shots than we intended. I think quite a few shots completed today can be used in our final videos. We used the Panasonic 151 camera. Oh yeh, I also got someone for our voice-over. Well, I just got lucky really. As we were filming outside the Galleries Of Justice, I noticed two actors all dressed up and make-up on. So I took the chance and walked up for a chat. Few minutes later after a brief chat, I explained what we were doing for our project and if they knew anyone who did voice-overs. It turned out that this girl Laura actually produced voice-overs for the Galleries Of Justice tours. So I asked her if she was willing to help us out with our project and very willingly she agreed. Swapped contact details. She has now sent me a voice recording of herself in the Galleries Of Justice Tour. Voice-over sorted... Bingo!

Update: Client Project

2011-01-29T14:23:00.000-08:00

Today, I went to the Galleries of Justice Museum and took the 'Lace Market Heritage Trail Audio Tour' to get a feel of the tour. I was given a small piece of equipment and some headphones to take with me. After this, I completed risk assessments for the videos I will be filming across the Lace Market.

Update: personal progress

2011-01-28T13:35:00.000-08:00

Just a quick update about my job hunting and postgraduate education. I applied for a teaching course a few months ago. I applied for both PGCE and GTP (graduate teacher programme), which are both held at Nottingham Trent. It was a something I thought through for a very long time, so I thought it was time to try and apply. I want to become a ICT teacher in a secondary school. This includes either ICT itself or Applied ICT. These courses require me to have at least 10 days experience in a secondary school, which I do not have. I do however have a years experience in an independent school. However, I have been told this does not count. I have been in contact with a few schools. The school I really wanted to gain my experience with is my old secondary school, Greenwood Dale, now known as the Nottingham Academy. Luckily, I have had a positive response from them and they called me in for an interview, which was on Wednesday 26th. It went a lot better than I expected.
I met all my old school teachers, talked with the head of ICT and discussed what I wanted to do and how they could help. They have called me back next week and the week after and have also said they will help me with interview techniques etc. To say I am trying to get a job at the place in the near future, them offering to help me with the interview is fantastic. It was great meeting with all the teachers again, and I spent a few hours going around meeting them. I also observed a 6th form ICT class and asked the students questions on the work they were doing to get a flavour of the module content.
I was also asked by my old media studies teacher if I would work with the media department for the documentary film module they have. I also did this when I was in 6th form, so I known everything is covers and how it goes. As well as this, I will be working with the students on a after-school film making class. It all seems really good and I am glad I have been offered all of these positions.

For my PGCE course, I have now been called in for an interview in a few weeks. Hopefully, my interview for the course goes well, and the job with the Nottingham Academy looks pleasing.

Also, I have been in contact with the YMCA media department for work. They got back to me and I was called in for a interview on Thursday 27th. Went really well and they asked me the equipment/softwares I can use, what work I've done etc. They asked me for a DVD of my work, which I did'nt have and will send later. It makes me think that having DVD copies of my work portfolio or building a website may be useful for myself. Anyway, they called me back to a film shooting they are doing in two weeks, which lasts 5 weeks, all across the country to get a flavour of the work they do. Hopefully, this will also lead me to something good.

Update: Client Project

2011-01-25T13:34:00.000-08:00

I have completed all my storyboards and scripts for my Lace Market interactive tour. I have handed them in to be checked so that I can fully finalised them and start filming. I have not heard from my partner on the project, therefore I decided not to complete the storyboard and script for the 4-minute video we were meant to do as a team.

Here is an example of a storyboard for one of my videos:

Research Project - Artefact 1 (re-done)

2011-01-18T13:09:00.000-08:00

So, I have had my questionnaire checked over. A few minor mistakes, and one question was left out. I think it is important to get a questionnaire checked through by several people before distributing it as the results gained will reflect a lot better. The previous link to the questionnaire is now CLOSED, and the following is the link to my first questionnaire artefact.

Here it is:

Online questionnaire

Feel free to fill it out!

Research Project - Artefact 1

2011-01-15T14:32:00.000-08:00

I've been working on my questionnaire today. Haven't distributed it yet as I have given it to my tutor to check over before I do so.

Here it is:

Take my Online Survey

Update: Client Project

2011-01-14T09:23:00.000-08:00

Ok, let me exlain the changes to my Client Project since the last blog. It is now NOT going to be an app, rather it will be an online application.
Brief description:
The application will be a map-based historical interactive tour of the area, which provides small videos about the buildings and their history. The content that will consist of this will be film clips, archive photographs, and further information about each place.

The application will include the historical tour of four buildings in the Lace Market. These are The Broadway, St. Mary’s Church, the Galleries of Justice and the Adams Building. Each of these four places of interest will have a 2-minute clip telling the user about the place e.g. History, architecture etc. These will also be an option to browse through images of the past from that place with other archive material to support it. All clips will be shot in a DV format. Alongside these four videos will be a 4-minute inital video clip giving the user a brief overview of the Lace Market without going into too much detail. All of these video will be backed by a voiceover. We already have in place a series of voiceovers for our chosen places of interest and we will use these only if permission is gained from the owner. If permission is not granted, we will write the voice-overs ourselves. So far, I have done research on the history of the Lace Market and have dug up some useful documents and information from the local studies library of Nottingham. As this material cannot be taken out on loan from the library, getting all the information can be time-consuming as it needs to be photocopied. I still have some archive material to collect. I will get it from the Nottingham Archives, some images from a website called www.picturethepast.org.uk, and I may also use the Nottingham Evening Post.

The Lace Market Today:

A man working on a Lace Machine in the bulding now known as the Adam's Bulding (College):

On completion of the application, it will be available for people to view online.
The proposal and treatment has been written for this project, and I am now in the process of editing my voice-over clips to be played over my videos. Another student Abdul Seedat is working with me, and we have defined roles. I will complete two videos and he will complete two. The 4-minute initial video will be done together. I visited the Lace Market several times over the Christmas holidays to gain a structure and formation of different shots for the treatment that I wrote up.

Update: Research Project

2011-01-13T08:55:00.000-08:00

Haven't blogged in a while. Completed my Research document, and work on plans for my artifacts over the Christmas holidays.

My research project topic is about Online TV. My research question is: 'How has online TV affected the user's viewing experience?'. This researches how online TV has changed users habits for watching their TV programmes. It looks into how online TV has changed viewing figures, how digital piracy links with this, and technoligies that are already implemented to make the user's viewing experience better. I have looked at the various onine TV platforms for my research and read two books (The Television Will Be Revolutionzed, By Amanda. D. Lotz and and a book called 'Online Television). A website that has helped me a lot during research is Pew Internet. It is a website that gathers surveys, and it contains alot of information about online teleivision statistics and figures.
This is an example of a survey that Pew Internet have done, this shows the increse in online video from 2007-2009 by age range:

--------Groups---------------------2007----2008----2009
1.------Young Adults 18-29---------76%-----72%-----90%
2.------Adults 30-49----------------57%-----57%-----67%
3.------Older Adults 50-64---------46%-----34%-----41%
4.------Seniors 55 and Up----------39%-----19%-----27%

I have looked into different research methodologies and I have breifly got an idea of which ones would work with my topic of Online TV, but these may change as my artifacts come along. I want to include questionnaires, expert interviews, gainig information from television companies i.e. BBC, ITV, Channel 4 who also have an online tv plarform, peoples diary of viewing habits.

EM Media Opportunity

2010-11-01T11:50:00.000-07:00

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

2010-10-30T11:42:00.000-07:00

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

2010-10-29T11:31:00.000-07:00

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

2010-10-28T11:59:00.000-07:00

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

2010-10-27T11:01:00.000-07:00

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

2010-06-28T12:13:00.000-07:00

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

2010-05-27T16:19:00.000-07:00

Uni OVER and work progress update...

2010-05-26T15:59:00.000-07:00

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

2010-05-12T04:54:00.000-07:00

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

2010-05-11T08:44:00.000-07:00

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

2010-05-10T07:09:00.000-07:00

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

2010-05-07T05:44:00.000-07:00

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

2010-05-05T05:36:00.000-07:00

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

2010-05-01T05:19:00.000-07:00

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

2010-04-15T09:23:00.000-07:00

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

2010-04-14T12:45:00.001-07:00

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

2010-04-10T11:48:00.000-07:00

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

2010-04-09T11:39:00.000-07:00

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

2010-03-24T10:58:00.000-07:00

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...

2010-03-22T10:44:00.000-07:00

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

2010-03-18T10:19:00.000-07:00

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

2010-03-16T11:51:00.000-07:00

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

2010-03-15T10:35:00.000-07:00

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

2010-03-03T11:51:00.000-08:00

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

2010-03-02T12:09:00.000-08:00

YMCA London... Shooting complete

2010-02-15T10:19:00.000-08:00

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!)

2010-02-12T10:49:00.000-08:00

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

2010-02-11T10:37:00.000-08:00

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

2010-02-10T09:14:00.000-08:00

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...

2010-02-05T11:09:00.000-08:00

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...

2010-02-05T11:00:00.000-08:00

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

2010-01-29T08:06:00.000-08:00

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

2010-01-28T01:58:00.000-08:00

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

2010-01-27T01:48:00.000-08:00

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

2010-01-26T01:47:00.000-08:00

FILM SCREENING at the Quad in Derby today 26th!

Bogdan: a week on

2009-12-01T05:33:00.000-08:00

So, reflecting on our shooting last week, i think it went really well and we all worked great together as a group. I think in accordance to the 'shooting schedule', we did not follow keep up with it at all. I mean right from the start for our first shot, we were behind with our time. But, as we got on we progressed good and finished on time with all the shots we wanted. I think the good aspect we included througout was communication between the crew and knowing what each member of the group expects, as well as a great relationship with the cast. We got good feedback from the actors, and i believe this is a good way to develop ourselves as practitioners. I think it was good getting good and bad feedback from people who are already in the industry and have experiece, as this gives us a more in-depth understanding of real on-set work and how much work is involved.

We are now in the editing stage, and we have made a good start on it already. We have 6 days left for hand-in, and i believe we will have a good finished edit for then.

Props List for Bogdan

2009-11-23T17:06:00.000-08:00

EXT. LEGAL OFFICE. DAY (DICe)

handbag
files
portfolio
cigarettes/ bottle of water
folder (for Bogdan)
EXT. DAY. (Tramstop at Forest Field)
cigarettes
letter (with school logo)
watch

INT. LEGAL OFFICE. DAY (York House)

law books from Boots
computer (Macs from 207 Wav?)
desk lamp (?)
pens
mug
files
stationery
graduation photos
picture frame
pins
calendar
diploma
diary
airline ticket

INT. APARTMENT. NIGHT

pictures (son & wife)
picture frames
Romanian/English books
Ro/Eng Dictionary
chessboard
stationery
plate
knife
fork
newspapers
ironing table
Rubik`s cube (?)

Long awaited update... presenting BOGDAN!

2009-11-23T14:32:00.000-08:00

Okay, so as you can see i haven't updated my blog for like 2 weeks! Its been so damn busy these few weeks. 1st with our assignments and then our productions. Be prepared as theres alot im gonna go through so brace yourselves! So yeh, we've got another film to shoot and this one isn't a practice. We've been given scripts from Jools, which we've re-written in the way in which we want to percieve the story. Well, its been re-written like 3 or 4 times to what we've got it to now. Our story is called 'Bogdan', and is about a Romanian man who is an immigrant to the country and the story basically outlines his struggle with having to deal with the seperation with his family and how he tries to bring them over to the U.K and what issues he faces in the process.

So, last week we got our scripts (through a random dip) and our group was glad to have got the Bogdan script, as we all were more drawn to that script on first impression anyway. The day after, we had a group meeting, discussed through the script, and the group shared ideas on what they thought could be useful in the process of getting a meaning to the script and ideas on how we might approach telling this story in the most effective way possible. Luckily, we have Diana in our group, who is from a Romanian background, so we were given a head start in the background knowledge and how our character Bogdan may appear and what his characteristics may be like. Diana has done a character study on our character 'Bogdan', in which she outlines what our character will be like and what type of clothing would be suitable and what props may be effective with our Romanian character (http://duckieontrent.blogspot.com/2009/11/bogdan-capitan-de-plai.html).

We then discussed everyones roles. The main idea we had was for everyone to try out a different role from the one we had in our previous film. This is turn, would help each of us to understand the other roles more and, in essence, this would be better practice for ourselves in learning new skills. I myself was incharge of all the camera-work in the previous film, however in this film i think i want to discover more of the sound side, as i believe this is my weaker side. Therefore, i have chosen to be incharge of the sound design for Bogdan. As well as this i am the assistant director and assistant producer. I have been reading a book called 'Sound for Film & Telivision' by Tomlinson Holman:

(http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=wBlRtAlKPFsC&dq='Sound+for+Film+%26+Television'+by+Tomlinson+Holman&printsec=frontcover&source=bn&hl=en&ei=HhMLS83eHZT54AbI3OS3Cw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CBkQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=&f=false).

This book has helped me develop many interesting ideas, which were are fairly new to me. In the book i learnt about ''Hyper-REAL'' sound and the way in which this works and how sound recorded as natural may not sound 'real' when recorded (in the viewers perspective). Therefore, the technique relies with the sound being exxegarated a little during post-production. We see this in nearly all films, yet it goes un-noticed. This exxageration of sound adds so much effect to what is happening visually. Watch a film next time, and realise how the foley sound effects (e.g. footsteps) are alot louder than they would be in reality (exxageration of reality). I believe sound plays a massive part in a film, yet is is the thing that goes un-noticed the most. I think sound is VERY crucial, as it works with the audience unconsciously (as it can't be seen) yet has a MASSIVE effect with how a story is told. An identical scene played back with different music, can have a completely different meaning and message to an audience.

This is me collecting Foley sounds to include in post-production. In this specific picture i was collecting a sound for footsteps. I was completely caught off-guard :D

An example is in the film Citizen Kane, a scene where the sound can be contrasted with that in the next scene of Kane and his girlfriend in the back seat of his car. In the first scene, the sound is emphasising the seperation of the characters, Whereas, in the second, the sound is very intimate, emphasising the change of scene and moment or even change of emotion between the characters. All in all, i believe sound plays a massive part in directing the viewers attention and witl all the things i have learnt about so far, i am intending to incorporate all these ideas into our next film Bogdan as head of sound. I have written down a long list of sounds for what will be taking place in each of the scenes and i intend to collect these sounds seperately also to 'hype' up in post-production. This will all help me in the process of me learning new ideas and skills.

We then as a group decided on some location for the scenes in the script. We had 2 exterior and 2 interior shots. We had some discussion, and changed our locations around a few times and finally came up with the locations. We will have an exterior shot at behind the university DICe building, an exterior shot at the Forest tram stop, an interior shot in an office, and an interior shot of a house. We went to all the locations with the all equipment and had trial runs, just so we known and are confident that everything is right for the shoot. If any problems occured, we could then solve them on the trial run ready for the shoot. Here are some of the pictures of the locations:

Oh yeh, and we met the actors we have been given for our film today too. It was a great opportunity go through everything with them and understand their professional perpective on what they thought. We also ran through the script and went through any problems they had and rehearsed each scene until we felt it was ready for us. Both of our actors come mainly from a Drama and theatre background. For example our female actor has been in Heartbeat, Doctors, Casualty, Holby City, Children Of The Crown (Nottingham Playhouse), and has also been in some feature films. Our male actor has been in The Execution Of Damiens, Coronation Street, Holby City, Coke Zero Advert. These are just a small few from a big list of things the actors have done.

We have also got a list written up of all the props that will be included in each scene, but i'll just include that in a seperate post as iv'e written sooo much already! Well i guess thats due to the fact so much has been going on the past 2 weeks. Neway, we are going to film tomorrow, so lets hope all goes well!

MALac complete

2009-11-06T13:43:00.000-08:00

On Tuesday, Me and Alan, after alot of discussion and work fnished the final edit of the MALac project and we think we did a pretty decent job of it. We were however, as a group, in some concern about certain elements (E.G. sound, lighting) which we changed and then did a second edit. The first edit can be seen from the following link:

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

Shallow Focus & Cinematographer

2009-11-06T01:54:00.000-08:00

Ok, so this was work we got for last week so its a little overdue. I'm not sure its come up properly however with the quality, but I used the MF function on the camera after asking somebody, to get shallow depth of field (or there abouts):

.

Film Production : MALac

2009-10-28T08:35:00.000-07:00

So, today we completed filming our MALac storyline. After a veeeeeery long day we finalised and were happy with what we had. The only complications we had were that the actors we got tunred up quiter late. Given the fact we had to rely on them, we didn't really have a choice except chase them up. This consequently affected the lighting we had set up because we already had our lighting up and ready. However, by the time our actors came it got a little dark, therefore we could not go ahead with the lighting we had set-up initially. We then had to re-set the lighting to how we needed, which took up more time than expected. Besides this, our filming went all according to plan. Every memeber of the group did their roles as expected and altogether I think we worked very well as a group. The things we would do different next time is make sure the actors turn up on time and also take out equipment a good few days before to the actual location we are filming and practice and get ideas of how we can any overcome problems that may occur. This will, in result, help us work more quicker and efficiently when we film.

Here are a few photos on the day of filming:

Actors learning the script

Filming the house we had for our establishing shot

Sound guy checking sound levels

In action.. take 2!

Alan taking care of all health and safety measures

A few extras added by the director to add realism

A bit of dirt won't do any harm!

<< And finally, our cover images, but which one to pick? >>

Film Production: Practice Day: MALac

2009-10-27T05:50:00.000-07:00

Today, we hired out all equipment that in going to be needed for our actual film. We went to our location and we set them up however we wanted to be set for our set. Here are some pictures showing what we did:

Camera Practice

Setting up lights

Picture of our location

Our cellar location for MALac scene

Minutes for the day:

-Final draft of the script, discussed and agreed upon.

-Studio light and camera rehearsal

-Booking equipment for Tuesday (on location rehearsal) and Wednesday (shoot)

-Health & Safety, Recce sheet completed

Overview - MALac Meeting

2009-10-22T09:33:00.000-07:00

Today we were given the groups for our production of the film MALac. We then assigned each member of the group with a role, which they were comfortable with and then had a group vote. I chose to lead camera and assist lighting. After choosing the roles we had a meeting after our seminar and planned how we were going to go about everything to help us be more time-managable and meet all targets, as well as gather ideas from each member of the group.

Minutes for the day:

• A new member has joined the group, who will take up the role of sound recording

• We have got interested actors and actresses who have e-mailed back to take part in our film

• We have sent details and asked the actors to call back

• Completed a schedule for the filming and practice for all roles

• Tuesday at 2pm after lecture we will do a set rehearsal

• Wednesday at 9am we will do a dress rehearsal

• Monday at 9am, lighting and camera practice will be done before filming on Wednesday, by people undertaking these roles

• Script will be finalised on Monday (all changes)

• The risk assessment has been scheduled to be done on Monday as well

• We have had another discussion regarding our location, after having a sound lecture. We then decided a bedroom, but have now gone back to our original idea of the cellar due to sound and lighting purposes

• For all filming we have got permission from the technician to borrow equipment (e.g. camera, lights, mic etc) on specific days, when needed, whether for practice of actual filming

Film Review: Couples Retreat

2009-10-21T14:33:00.000-07:00

Ok, the only reason i decided to watch this film was because it starred Vince Vaughn in it, and his films are pretty funny. So, this film is a comedy about four couples who undergo relationship therapy, which has its fair bit of laughs.
The unhappily married Jason and Cynthia, who decide to mix therapy with pleasure by holidaying at a tropical resort. There the activities include jet-skiing and swimming with dolphins, along with marriage counselling.
Vince being reluctant to go at first is persuded by his friend to come along as they get a discount if they go with three other couples. So they go along thinking they will have a great time at this exotic holiday resort.
Upon arriving at their 4 srat hotel and resort the couples are amazed to what they have come to, however not realising what is to come. The holiday resort they have applied to come to comes with strings attached. Along with having a great time, they are reqired to have realtionship 'therapy sessions' which none of the other groups feel comfortable with, especially the yoga training with the 'tight-trunked' yoga instructor.
After feeling that this trip wasn't what the group actually bargained for, the group go off and do their own thing. After going to the 'dark' side of the resort, and revealing the true fun time they wanted to have on the Eden resort island, they come to realise that it was all part of the therapy in which the couples took part in to reveal their true feelings about each other.
So, overall i'd give this film 3 stars, as yes i think it had its fair bit of comedy in it but yet it could have been alot better through its storyline as more realistic. As far as i know this film was written by Vince Vaughn himself, so yeh i guess there could have been a lack of storyline, due to lack of experience as he dosen't really write or produce in many of his films, but only just act. However, other producers involved Victoria Vaughn, sister of Vince Vaughn, who has produced three films, but being famously known for The Break-Up (2006).

Location Manager

2009-10-18T07:24:00.000-07:00

The location manager, as the name suggests is basically the person who is responsible for finding the location for a film set. However, there are more roles to be played by a location manager. The location manager finds and secures locations to be used making sure it is relevant for the production to successfully complete. They are also responsible for resolving any issues that arise during this time and. If, during production, there is any impact of affect on the outside people/community, the locations manager is responsible to resolve them. The location manager has to visit a place, risk assess it, before actually choosing it as the best place for the film to be shot. They also identify and problems that may occur for e.g. accessibility, food, weather etc. They make arrangements for filming to take place, including co-ordinating parking facilities and fees for the location, available power sources, and permissions from relevant authorities. Therefore, a lot of planning in advance is required to successfully secure locations for a set in a film.
I have never really heard of this job role before having the lecture with Deborah. I have heard of the obvious roles likes director, producer, editor, but it was interesting learning about different roles. I think it is a great job to do, i mean i myself would love to do it! However it does come with alot of responsibilites and work (but i'm sure i could overcome that).

Here is a good video to check out about the roles of a location manager:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qr3Elpsjtwk

Jurgen Wolff

2009-10-18T06:41:00.000-07:00

To follow on from the lecture i attended earlier in the week with Jools, we discussed the ideas of Jugen Wolff

and creative writing. I especially liked the idea of capturing and preserving new ideas as they occur and

doing so without judging them. i.e. every idea/opinion counts, regardless of what it is and how or when you take

down or preserve an idea. We also discussed how people do this in different ways for e.g. taking the main words or points from

an idea and putting them forward. However, the way in which i myself preserve ideas, is as i think of an

idea i write is down straight away. I think, for myself, this is the best way in which i keep my ideas together.

I also agree with Wolff's idea that the more diverse a persons knowledge and experiences are, then the more creative

they can be.

Ok, so we have been told to 'do something different', to help us become more productive. So i did the thing i hate the most;

sitting through a film i don't like. So recently, i watched District 9 (which i didn't like), so i watched it over again

but this time with an open mind and i actually sort of erm liked it. Maybe because i took notice of certain things more for

e.g. how it was put together in a sort of documentary way, but yet still be action-packed with sci-fi.

I have also been looking through Wolff's website and have come across some interesting ideas. Here is a short piece about

ideas and thoughts i read from Wolff's blog:

http://timetowrite.blogs.com/weblog/2009/10/to-change-your-thoughts-change-this-too.html

IDENTITIES FEEDBACK

2009-05-14T09:55:00.001-07:00

HEY PEOPLE! could you please take a look at my 'Identities' package (1st link) and fill out the feedback form (2nd link)

This is the link to my Identities Package:

http://maeda.ads.ntu.ac.uk/~N0220002/Copy%20of%20mein3d-flashh.html

After viewing, please follow this link to complete a questionnaire on my design:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=emCtnBSxKQHEwkl9128p7g_3d_3d
Click Here to take survey

Thanks!

P.S. Were all going to have to do a questionnaire anway, its only takes a minute And i'll fill yours out in return :D Thanks again!

Box Update

2009-04-27T03:06:00.000-07:00

AVATAR

Ok, i know i haven't uploaded for a while now. But dont worry, i have been getting my work done! :D Iv'e had my avatar done for a while now, about a month ago to be exact; but i now just need to get it into flash and work with it as it will be the idea for my actual box i.e. other elements linking from it. I've also got my flash done. This is a quiz about me, giving the user a more in-depth description of what sort of person i am.

This is my avatar from all angles:

Logos

2009-02-27T16:08:00.001-08:00

Ok, so i've been working on my logo for my box. For this i used a few softwares. Firstly i designed these logos in Adobe Illustrator, i then edited/designed it further in Fireworks. I created quite a few and got a bit carried away. Hmm... now is the part where i have to choose!

I worked with 2 designs:-

First set of logos:

Chosen Logo for 1st set of designs (Above)

Or maybe this (Above)

Second set of logos:

Chosen logo1 for 2nd set

Chosen logo2 for 2nd set

3DS Practice - Hand (F*** You!) lol

2009-02-27T13:27:00.000-08:00

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wy0etK97sxg)

Just some experimenting i've been doing on developing ideas for my box. Its a little out of place... but HEY!

Portrait Task

2009-02-26T15:50:00.000-08:00

At first i wanted my portrait that captures me as a person as an image i made on photoshop, however after re-thinking i decided to make it a more real-life image with a realistic environment. This image not only captures my personality, but also my qualities & charcteristics. This is through how they are represented and how they are shown in accordance to other objects in the image. Hence, showing the significance of each item with myself. Some show my strenghths and some weaknesses and also emphasises importance linking with me and things that mean a great deal to me. Overall, i think the portrait is a good way to explore ideas of identity.

(Click to see a larger view of the image)

My 3D Avatar

2009-02-17T15:35:00.000-08:00

This is the 3D avatar we did in Andy's seminar today. Hopefully i will use a similar idea for my box with the avatar and build on it. However, i'm not too sure whether to have my 3D avatar like this one or use the material editor in 3DS and draw on it e.g the face. I personally think the avatar would look better fully in 3D, rather than having this layer so i'm going to have to decide.

This is the avatar with the biped attached. With this i will now animated fully i.e. every body can be altered.

3D Car

2009-02-10T14:57:00.000-08:00

3D car in 3d studio max. Not a very good outocme, but it gave me great ideas for my identity box witH the idea of the material editor in 3DS.

Hovering Monster In 3DS!

2009-02-09T09:17:00.000-08:00

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDmZAGZEqco)

The 3D Monster we worked with in Andy's Seminar =)

3DS Modelling

2009-02-05T15:00:00.000-08:00

This was my basic model once completed

I now needed to colour both the body and the teeth.. therfore i used the material ID tool to seperate both of these objects

I now added the colour to my character using the material editor making the body red and teeth white

Once coloured and turbosmoothed, my character was ready to be animated! I had to clone my original character and make others to animate. These were some of the various examples i did for the facial expressions.

This shows my final character and the order in which i animated the sequence of expressions, using the Morph modifier.

Another video for Unilever!

2009-02-04T13:29:00.000-08:00

(Following from my previous blog) Check it out, this video shows how young girls are influenced by the beauty industry so much everyday through ads, billboards, magazines and beauty products. YET UNILEVER DOES THAT THEMSELVES... WITH THEIR PRODUCT LYNX AND THE ADS! DAMN UNILEVER!)

Identities

2009-02-04T13:03:00.000-08:00

The Hypocrisy Of Unilever – Dove and Lynx

After reading a journal from one of our Multimedia students Steven Carroll, I decided to write my own journal and my views on the subject.
‘Dove’, a beauty brand under Unilever, was first launched in the 1950’s in the US, and then in the 1990’s in the UK. From this time Dove has come along way in developing further products such as deodorants, hair care products etc and is well known all across the world.
In 2004 Dove launched a ‘Campaign For Real Beauty’, which supposedly highlighted Dove’s commitment to broadening definitions of beauty. Here’s a video showing the ad shown on TV for this Campaign aimed at our young generation (I’m sure many of you have seen this before).

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RADYaTvTGts&feature=related)

Following on to this in 2005, Dove launched the ‘Self-Esteem Fund’, which acts ‘as an agent of change to educate and inspire young girls on a wider definition of beauty. It aims to boost the self-confidence of young girls and women, enabling them to reach their full potential’ (As written on Dove’s website under ‘How it all started’: http://www.unilever.co.uk/ourbrands/personalcare/dove.asp ).

The same company Unilever also has a brand called Lynx, which I’m sure all of you have heard of. Lynx is a brand for deodorant aimed precisely at men. Unilever boasts themselves with this product with ‘The Legendary Lynx Effect’, which they say is ‘the smell of desire. As said by on their website and adverts ‘Lynx gives guys serious pulling power’ (http://www.unilever.co.uk/ourbrands/personalcare/lynx.asp ).

Ok, this is the thing I don’t understand and I find very hypocritical is that in the Lynx adverts, Unilever show women with hardly any clothes on and portray woman as sex symbols:

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29HXaYkhOzk)

(See more examples at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8eUGtZr4Co&feature=PlayList&p=CD2FE47E1740228F&index=0 ).

On the other hand, Unilever, in their Dove adverts promoting their so-called beauty campaigns, boasting that their products ‘boost women’s confidence’. How on earth can you ‘boost women’s confidence’ with your products? When on one hand your launching Self-Esteem Funds and Campaigns For ‘Real Beauty’ with Dove, and then portraying them as sex symbols with Lynx. This in my view is very hypocritical of Unilever and the way in which they promote their many different products, just in order to draw people in.
And then they say woman are not happy with their figures. Well, of course they won’t be…

A Dove Film called ‘A Girl’s Self-Esteem).

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ytjTNX9cg0&feature=related)

My MoodBoard

2009-01-30T09:31:00.000-08:00

I've created a MoodBoard that visually shows what i'm into.. what i like... and general things that interest me. So take a look and i'm sure it will show you what sort of person i am! This also portrays the characteristics of my avatar.

I used Adobe Photoshop to help me make this. Using the 'Quick Selection Tool' helped me alot in editing the images and overlapping etc. The background of this image is a design from an Adidas hoody.

More Second Life

2009-01-23T15:09:00.001-08:00

Ok, now ive actually understood how to telelport myself and go to other places rather than the place you end up once registering. Ive also changed my whole appearance after asking around and going to shops. I chose a smart look with a suit and tie.

Ive ended up on top of a mountain, and i think thats a ship in the distance and a little house. I went to check it out until it told me i entered a restricted area and i was teleported back to the mansion! ...

I'm a cloud of smoke!

Enchanted Review

2009-01-23T12:49:00.000-08:00

I watched Enchanted a few weeks back, so i thought i'd write a short review on it. After watching it i was amazed by the animation and the special effects throughout the film.
The film is basically about a girl who falls in love with a prince, but before they can live happily ever after, they must survive from the evil wikid queen (So, as you can tell it is a Disney film :D ). Anyway, so the evil queen takes her into a portal which transports her into the middle of Times Square, New York. She is then rescued by a divorce lawyer who dosen't believe in true love. Soon after, both the prince and evil Queen Narissa are chasing after her, and she has to pass the evil queen and get to her prince to finish this great fairytale story.
This fairytale film was great to watch and it just comes to show how animation and film have come along way since hand-drawn animated films. It shows how modern special effects can make a film looked great to see. With Enchanted, you can feel how much effort and work was put into the editing phase. From the magical special effects to the astounding animations, this film just makes you wonder how it can possibly be done! (Oh yeh, and watching this on Blu-ray makes it just that more amazing to watch)

Great Opportunity!

2009-01-17T17:43:00.000-08:00

Ok, as you all might know theres alot of channel 4 films/short films being filmed all around nottingham. About a month back i was on my way to uni and up the road from me there were loads of channel 4 vans parked up and big bright lights surrounding a house. So, i asked the woman there what was going on and she told me channel 4 were shooting a film about a young girl (ive forgot the name of it now even though i could find out if needed). Anyway, i told her i do multimedia and films etc and im interested in this field. After having a conversation with her i asked her that i would be interested in sort of helping out with anything as voluntary if i could. She told me to come back the following wednesday as that was when they were to start shooting. I went down and watched the filming, asked questions, seen how things were done, got to do a few things with lights etc and overall was a great experience!
So find out where and when films around nottingham are being filmed and get involved!

Identities: My 3D Avatar

2009-01-13T04:59:00.000-08:00

Ok, so iv'e just created my avatar. I have'nt got the hang of the controls as of yet, but this stuff looks pretty complicated. So now im going to change the look of my avatar now and put it in the next screen shot.

And so these are the options i had to change the look of my avatar

So, this is what i got. I could change things like the eye colour, height, body width etc...

This is just the avatar flying around

Interactive Narrative

2008-12-10T13:10:00.001-08:00

I CANT UPLOAD MY FLASH arghhhhhh!!

The Meeting

2008-12-03T08:06:00.000-08:00

Here is it ..My final piece.. as you can see i chose the CCTV idea.. hope u like it!

One Shot

2008-11-29T09:55:00.000-08:00

Our group met up today and basically, we came up with many ideas for our one shot. Here's a list of what we came up with:

1. The tree scene at the Arboretum

2. The Speed Camera - on London road

3. The Sleepwalkers at the Maltings

4. Double exposure near Boots Library

5. The pillars - at a place in town somewhere with a few pillars!

6. The Package - City Centre

7. The CCTV - at the tunnel near Broadmarsh Bus Station

So, those are the ideas we had and the video should be uploaded soon! even though i am having a lot of problems with the one-shot video and premiere

Colour & Light

2008-11-24T12:02:00.000-08:00

Figuring light, Colour and The Intangible
Exhibition at Djanogly Art Gallery, Lakeside

After visiting the Figuring light, Colour and the intangible exhibition last week (when I eventually found the place!), there were many different pieces of work that interested me. The one that most attracted me was one by Rebecca Partridge called ‘Dreaming’ shown in the picture. The artist has used different oval shapes and sizes mixed together to get the effect that the shapes to the middle of the painting are further away than the others. The reason this image appealed to me the most was because as I looked closely to the painting I realised that only the colours red, blue and green were used but other colours are emerged as they overlap existing ones. Rebecca Partridge has only used this technique in this piece of work.
Different tints and tones have been used for the shapes and the directions of these shapes are shown cleverly as if they are spinning around, therefore pulling you into the picture. Also, more shapes are gathered towards the center of the piece, which immediately draws attention to the centre where it is just black. As all the shapes get closer to the centre, the stronger the colour and light of them is shown, adding a more bold effect to the art. To aid this the artist uses a dark coloured black background to get the most emphasis from all the colours she has used.
At a first glance of the image, it is like a tunnel and as you go further down the colours become brighter hence the name of this piece which is ‘Dreaming’; it is as you are dreaming to a better future which is more happy and brighter and things can be seen more clearly.
The artist has used colour and light in this piece of work to a very unique way, and mixing different colours to get various blends and tones, therefore making us focus on certain parts of the image more due to this.

The Rule Of Thirds

2008-11-06T15:12:00.000-08:00

The Rule Of Thirds 2

2008-11-06T15:07:00.000-08:00

Just thought i'd do a second video ...