transcription project- week 1

For our new project, we were taken to London to several specific events in order to inspire our new projects. These were The Southbank centre to see a display by a range of award winning photo journalists, The Photographer's gallery to see the Feminist Avant Garde display, and finished with seeing Louis Theroux: My Scientology Movie.
I am a big fan of documentary film making and so I feel Louis Theroux was the biggest impact on my idea. I was fascinated by how people react on camera, especially when under scrutiny, and this is magnified when you criticise their passions or beliefs, as Louis did when confronting current and former scientologists. This gave me an idea, attending a design and media school meant i had access to people who would also be extremely passionate about things that i could interview them for, and then scrutinise. I decided to run tests without a camera, simply stopping people and asking them about what they care about, their talents, political opinions, from here i could make comments and ask questions that demean them or criticise their view. This process was extremely helpful to me as it allowed me to make mistakes before hand and refine my questions so that my recordings will be efficient and get the best responses.

Who am I?

The Who Am I? project was an extremely difficult one for me as a film maker. The idea was to shoot a 1 minute film that we felt, after a much planning, represented us, or some aspect of our personality.

to begin with we conducted interviews with friends, family, and other individuals to help inspire us as  to our stand our stand out traits and features. I did actually enjoy this segment of the task, it was fun and i feel i will use it in the future.

Problems arose as i moved to filming my piece, i felt a large part of my personality revolved around my job as a barista, which takes up much of my spare time away from class, and so i decided to shoot a comedy on that. I felt the biggest mistake came at the start when i decided to work without assistance from any of my classmates. Though the project had to be individual we could work together to help each others project, but i chose not to and ran into several difficulties as a result. As i was working alone i struggled to pin down a single idea as i was the only judge of their quality, and was constantly developing the idea in several different directions in my own head, with a partner or group with me the idea could be put out their and its development streamlined, rather than expanding in several confusing directions. once i picked a story i struggled to take it further in terms of structure, it was supposed to be a comedy but i struggled to judge whether or not my own jokes were actually funny. after much of these problems and stress i actually decided to scrap the project whilst still in the storyboarding stage and try something new, that i had put far less planning and time into, and relied heavily on improv. i did this because i felt the root of success was to do what i enjoy, by shooting a project i didn't like or care about, i was dooming myself to failure, and so improv comedy is something i enjoy, and i did with my younger brother.

Though this was a much more fun project, it did not lead to success. My lack of planning meant that in post production, several key shots were missing and the film could nit be completely edited, causing me to scrap this project.

Overall i learned to never work alone, films a team project and too much work to be dictated by one person. and to always at least have a story board or shot list or both to ensure the film is entirely shot.

1 day project- radical ideas

In class we were told to consider radical ideas that we could teach the class about. we were shown examples from renaissance era as well as modern scientific discoveries that have changed the way we look at the world. it was important to consider as Radical ideas have been at the forefront of art and media which is constantly revolutionising itself. When in groups we discussed radical ideas of the modern day and started to consider conspiracies theories and the way they are formed, and can then become accepted truths for some sections of society. We then decided to do our presentation on this topic, by inventing our own theory and producing a 1:30 minute documentary on the north korean secrets and then explaining how ideas like these can be quickly accepted.

Film week 2

The weekend created challenges for us. Originally we planned to have one main character at his desk trying to balance work and his social life, with two characters playing his friend and boss, who visit him in his room to attempt to urge him one way or the other. however it soon became clear that more than half our group would not be present on the day of shooting, meaning, disappointingly that the script would have to be ruthlessly edited and cut down to something far more simplistic and with no dialogue, instead showing a build up of pressure and stress from the protagonist as his phone rings slowly build up to exaggerated levels. Though this was not what we had wanted it was a necessary sacrifice to make the film possible.
However this did give us more opportunity to focus on cinematography, with no dialogue and it all being contained to one room, much focus would be on the look of our film,
the lighting and angles that we use had to be perfect to create the sense of anxiety and stress that our protagonist was feeling when he was simply alone in his room.
This was challenging as the main desk was right in front of a large window that let in warm day light, which created the opposite effect of tension.
To solve issue this we covered all windows and main lights, as i learned from my animation project and mentioned in my blog before, this darkness gave us total control over lighting which we could build off. We used several different desk lamps positioned behind the camera and left the back dark to help give an impression of the glaring, eye burning light of the laptop screen. I felt this was extremely effective as it was highly complimented in the criticism sessions. The only negatives focus on the use of the phone, with the sound playing constantly but the screen only one text being delivered. I intend to learn from that by making sure to go over shots we have taken and checking to see we have everything from the shot list so there is no material missing for when we enter post production.
Overall i was extremely happy with the piece, which we named Balance.

film week 1

To start film we started to discuss the idea that all fits need a clear or at least subjective moral premise. Forming moral premises can be challenging but was made easier as we broke them down in to attitudes, and how this attitude effects a value, from that you decide a consequence, whether good or bad, this makes up a moral premise.
These moral premises became the backbone of each plot we wanted to do.
My Group members analyses different moral premises and tried to come up with anecdotal examples that could then be developed into stories. This worked extremely well for us as coming up with stories and narrative is often the hardest part of the film making process and so to form a moral first and then be able to use that as inspiration to shape a story around it is is much easier, i plan to do this for all future projects.
From this we chose a plot of a young man struggling under the stress of his work life and trying not to neglect his friends, the moral premise being prioritising leads to balance.
Story boarding and shot listing was simple as we learned from our mistakes at animation and were able to go through quickly, planning the shoot for the weekend.

animation week 2

Challenges arose as we started to work on our storyboards and shot listing, we felt that our characters were not facing real obstacles and that the plot had not been properly planned, causing it to become repetitive, and group members conflicting about how to schedule the shoot. to solve this problem I decided that rather than making group decisions i would publish a finalised shot list that was to be followed, the choice to have one decision maker planning the narrative was much better as there was no longer a butting of heads as we all piled in to make decisions. From this i learned that delegating roles at the start of a project based on peoples skills was extremely important and was something i will do from now on.

Another problem arose as we found that the classroom where we were shooting had extremely awkward lighting coming from many angles, causing the legs of tripod to cast unwanted shadows across our space. This is something i personally had not considered until today and so earned to work in locations that allowed complete control over key elements such as lighting. Solving this took a lot of time, we improvised by folding tables onto their side and then using them to block the light that came through, we also scrapped a traditional tripod and use a chair with rope and tape to hold the camera in place. Now that problems with the plot and lighting were solved we were able to shoot what we and our feedback group felt was a successful and funny piece.

Stop Motion worked well for us as it allowed us to work quickly and suited our paper cut out style of animation, using these simple 2D pieces meant we didn't have to worry about many complex aspects such as rigging our characters movements. However it was a struggle as moving each piece inch by inch was an extremely tedious and mind numbing experience. We learned that in order to keep focus one person must always supervise and discuss with the animator to ensure that they are not making mistakes.

Me and the group were extremely happy with the ending result, we felt it was very funny and kept the audience engaged, the only negative feedback being to ensure we have more control over lights next time as our improvisation did not cover it perfectly.

Animation Week 1

 Animation lessons started discussing the ideas of narrative and story telling, stuff that we would need to consider when coming up with our final piece. It was a difficult concept to grasp as a stories must be much more organised and structured than most would think to keep the audience interest and stopping the plot from stagnating. I learned that If a character does not face enough obstacles or challenges in the too great a time the pacing can be off, and it may be seen as a big part of screen time wasted. This was an important lesson for me as now while working on projects i always consider the exact amount of challenges, obstacles and key plot moments that will be needed.

After this we were split into groups to come up with ideas for our film. I feel me and my group were good at this as, after coming up with a  concept, we attempted to bend and plot to make it work against the structure shown to us, ensuring that our plots would not stagnate and would remain entertaining through out.

Coming up with a concept was a challenge as our films were not allowed to surpass a minute. Giving our character personality, then time to experience a challenge, then overcome it, and show the results of that is all extremely hard to do in such a short time. We decided to put in research of one minute films such as Woman With The Red Heels, which was extremely successful at bringing strong characters and an interesting story in a few seconds, as well as current animation success Sausage Party. By The end of the week we had used these influences and came up with a short romantic, innuendo comedy about a pencil and sharpener that fall in love.

Photography Crit

Though I feel the work i did was good photography, and the examples i included fit the criteria well, my tutors felt that i could do more to add individuality and my own personality to the other pictures, which they described as "generic and unoriginal".

 after explaining this i feel my tutors were right, though i liked the work it seemed much like something from a brochure for the park and not something that showed my  memories as an individual, and i agreed to go back and try to capture something more personal.

Unfortunately there was a problem as, due to class and work commitments i was unable to free up a day to revisit the park and take more pictures, and would have to work out an alternative.

I solved this problem by changing  my original idea, no long focusing on the park, but contrasting it with may own environments of my local area, which is currently in decline. I felt that the new idea of comparing a fun, family friendly area with an area thats being used for fly tipping and prostitution would be very effective fort the viewer.

photography 2nd week

Over the weekend I traveled to Adventure Island in Southend to shoot memories and environments. I visited the theme park many times as a child and so i felt this would make a good location for me as i knew my way around and had an idea of what would look god on camera. this proved to be the case when i got there, i went straight to certain areas that were very aesthetically pleasing and also utilised the viewing tower that i remembered from my last visit used before.


I feel very positively about the above photographs in terms of the project and our criteria. I feel the colourful bunting against the blue sky that thats fading from light to dark diagonally fits the idea of a memory, its a small glimpse of the park and feels like it could stick in your mind like a childhood memory. i feel the use of 3 not particularly vivid colours works well as it does not stand out and therefore is not abrasive on the eye, the colours feel warmer against the cold blue sky.
i feel the landscape sunset shot appeals to personal memory, as every night i would leave the park around sunset and walk west toward the setting sun. the bright yellow boom of light as well as the twin beams of orange breaking through the clouds was a rare and extremely visually pleasing sight. I used photoshop to bring up the colour of the bottom right side of the photo, making the green of the trees and the cars in the street much more visible. i feel it gives the picture much more perspective in terms of height and size, the cars and street looking tiny compared to the grand scale of the sky and clouds.

Photography week 1

Our first lesson of photography was very interesting as we started by learning about our tutors work and careers and how they have developed style. It was a learning experiences as it made me realise just how many exciting opportunities there are to travel and photograph beautiful parts of the world, and how its beneficial to self publish books. Alyss' projects involved working for travel companies, photographing holiday destination to appeal to would be holiday makers, i learned from this as it made me consider how photography is a business, how i should try to photograph something that is marketable and can be made to profit. While working in the states she worked on her project of photographing the many different people she met walking the huge length of Broadway, New York. i find portrait photography very interested especially when done on the street like this, i feel its good to give the viewer a sense of sonder; making them realise that everyones life is just as relevant as their own, and that everyone has a story.

Othellos work contrasted this, his work examined male masculinity, by confronting body image standards and mans own expectations of himself in the work place. I felt his work using nude imagery in places such as coal mines and trading floors symbolised how men put up walls to cover themselves and hide who they really are, and the pictures exposed this as a sham, and that men are all the same underneath a hard exterior thrust on them by society.

We also studied specific photographers, two that i feel have influenced me and my interest in portrait photography are Vivian Maiers and William Eggleston. What struck me most about their work was that it went against much of my preconceptions and worries about photography; while i saw photography as an extremely disciplined science, they approached their work extremely casually, the subjects often totally unaware pictures were being taken, Eggleston claimed that he worked "semi automatically" and did not allow himself to labour over pictures, as i worried i would have to when working. This informal, non perfectionist approach is how i hope to work when i head into Southend to photograph Adventure Island, as i believe i will be able to work better and more creatively when not overthinking my craft.

We then looked at the different types of lighting but i feel i will work more outdoors rather than focusing on studio lighting. i will however focus on experimentation with different shutter speeds and how that effects my images.

Week 3-4: Sound Design

I decided, for my sound project, to do a piece that represented the evolution of education. i found this project challenging for several reasons but also learned a lot.
the first challenge was that i had never used audition before, its an extremely complex piece of software and so had to use many tutorials to understand how to use it to its full potential, it turned out to be worth it as i feel i greatly improved my mixing and mastering abilities. Mixing is the process of adding several different sound recordings and raising and lowering the volume of each sound so that balances appropriately for what you want the audience to hear. an example of this is that with my project i decided to do was set inside a class room and featured the sound of a pencil writing on paper, i mixed the sound so the background noise of students talking was quieter and less pronounced then the sound of the pencil writing, helping them understand what as happening better. i thought my mixing through out was good.
 I felt my project was not so good because i struggled to come up with sound ideas that represented the change from modern to post modern education. i felt despite 4 sounds to play over the background, more could have been added to develop my sound track and make it more complex, many good ideas came to me on the final day but by then it was too late as my truck had to be mastered and exported. and this was clear in the feedback given to me.
 to improve this in the future i will try to experiment more practically to inspire more ideas rather than simply trying to think of them without any creative inspiration.
despite its faults, i feel my soundtrack was a good first attempt with audition and sound recorders.

Week 2- Sound and symbolic thinking

I found the process of  symbolic thinking harder than I first assumed. It is difficult to think of a symbol that isn't cliché or recognisable from other work, as often my ideas are inspired or influenced by other sources I have seen in the past, and therefore it is difficult to find something that is completely of my own creation.
Overall I feel it will have a positive effect on my work through the year as it will help me open my mind more to use original ideas and achieve more as an artist, finding my own personal style rather than taking from somewhere else. However it is also key to reference and give the audience enough to understand the message of my work, rather than confusing them and creating too much of a challenge to understand and enjoy.

Equity and care for the environment in utopia

Talking in class yesterday presented a problem with utopia, being the fact that one person's heaven is boring or unfair to someone else, therefore utopia would have to give equity, each individual getting what they want and need from Utopian society. In this sense maybe Utopia should be sectioned into many different parts so people can move and travel to different parts and experience new things and challenges.

I also read up on environmentally friendly housing, and found ideas for large apartments with roof top gardens, which reduce the amount of Co2 released into the atmosphere, especially in dense cities. I feel designs ideas like this, as well as solar panelled homes and personal wind turbines would be a major and important feature in utopia .

I decided for my Utopia object I would combine my two major changes for modern society to create a Utopia; education reform and Eco-friendliness. To achieve this, I'm going to design an eco friendly school, complete with hydroelectric dam, wind turbines and a biomass farm.

Utopia Project- Day 1

Today was the beginning of my research project into ideas and theories of Utopia, a futuristic "perfect" society, void of conflict, poverty and inequality.
The day started in Hyde Park, viewing a current display of prototyped summer house designs, all sustainable and eco friendly. I found this extremely inspiring for and in touch with my ideas, making me consider a future where all systems of transport, living, and industry are far more sustainable and less damaging to the environment. The summer houses were also extremely spacious and certain features allowed them to be changed and reshaped easily without being fully disassembled. By this logic, houses could be redesigned, easily expanded or scaled down depending on the needs of the occupier. It reminded me of a recent trip to Germany, over three days an apartment building being built accross the road from my hostel came together extremely quickly as the walls, doors and windows seemed to clip together with ease, rather than needing to be built on site.
Overall I feel the exibition was extremely helpful in helping me find inspiration for utopian society.

Authors own, 5/9/16
After this we went to the nearby V&A Museum, full of historic works of art as well as modern master pieces from all around the globe. it was helpful that much of the art was in chronological order, and very well represented the progression of technology and culture through time. By seeing this, I believe it makes the changes of the future clearer in terms of how we can improve society. I feel in the most modern section, photography 1900-2000, showed major signs of growing social consciousness as a feminism and the civil rights movement were regular themes of the gallery. In a Utopian society these struggles will be completed, and all can feel safe, equal, and unoppressed

Authors own, 5/9/16

The glass art section was extremely inspiring in terms of my visual ideas of Utopia. the sleek, colourful designs stood out uniquely from all other art in the museum and had an extremely futuristic appearance. Glass art is very modern and uncommon, this lacking familiarity from the viewer gives the idea that the art is new.












Authors own 5/09/16