Amongst all this documentaryism I really just want to make something like this...:
Could I combine the two...?
FIRST THINGS FIRST:
These are genuinely some of the most intelligently written and inspiring pieces of text I've ever read.
They really allow me to understand why the send and receive brief is so important to who I am. After coming from advertising (a soulless form of creativity in my opinion) it's so refreshing to read what I have really been thinking for much of my adult life.
The concept that we, as visual communicators, could make a difference to the world is something that I have been waiting for someone to allow me to think. Caught up in a society that thrives on money I feel its time to sit back at take a look at what we have all become, a group of people that only care where the next burger king and topshop is going to be...and how we can cash in on it.
I want to make a difference that is real...fuck this industrialized, fast food world, take a look at what's right there infront of you, poverty, war, prejudice and people who don't give a shit.
No more am I this person who doesn't give a shit.
I give a shit and if I change the opinions of one person, that's one less casualty wounded by our civilization.
They really allow me to understand why the send and receive brief is so important to who I am. After coming from advertising (a soulless form of creativity in my opinion) it's so refreshing to read what I have really been thinking for much of my adult life.
The concept that we, as visual communicators, could make a difference to the world is something that I have been waiting for someone to allow me to think. Caught up in a society that thrives on money I feel its time to sit back at take a look at what we have all become, a group of people that only care where the next burger king and topshop is going to be...and how we can cash in on it.
I want to make a difference that is real...fuck this industrialized, fast food world, take a look at what's right there infront of you, poverty, war, prejudice and people who don't give a shit.
No more am I this person who doesn't give a shit.
I give a shit and if I change the opinions of one person, that's one less casualty wounded by our civilization.
IOU PROBLEMS:
I have put the IOU documentary to the side recently to get on with my personal projects so I was shocked when I heard from other members of my group that many of the parts of the video have been lost off the computer resulting in much of the final documentary to be missing. This happened specifically with Richard's interview, this was a key part of the documentary as it explained the protest, we are able to upload the footage again from the tape, but no one knows who has it.
I think after these events and how much more I'm getting into my individual work I may just edit my own copy of it with what we have left and leave it to rest. This started out as a learning curve and it really has been one and maybe it's time to just leave it at that.
I think after these events and how much more I'm getting into my individual work I may just edit my own copy of it with what we have left and leave it to rest. This started out as a learning curve and it really has been one and maybe it's time to just leave it at that.
LENSE EXPERIMENT:
I decided to experiment with on of the lenses I had, a 55mm. After taking the pictures the first problem I had was when winding the film back it got caught and I snapped it. Luckily I went straight to a film developing place and got them to take the film out in a black sack. I could only afford to have them developed into negatives and then I decided to when I recieved them back i would scan them in and see if I could, using photoshop, turn them into a final product.
I first desaturated them then inverted them. I then had to turn the brightness down and the contrast way up. After this I had quite a grainy look and you couldn't really make out what the photograph was of so the last few I sharpened however I feel that this made them look cheap and fake. Overall a pretty much lose lose situation...I will not be scanning negatives again!
I first desaturated them then inverted them. I then had to turn the brightness down and the contrast way up. After this I had quite a grainy look and you couldn't really make out what the photograph was of so the last few I sharpened however I feel that this made them look cheap and fake. Overall a pretty much lose lose situation...I will not be scanning negatives again!
TEA FILM&EDIT:
The filming for a cup of tea took a while to get going however once it started it was quick and seamless, there where very few problems, which was surprising as I storyboarded quite roughly and from past experience that tends to fault you when you're filming. However once it was uploaded to the computer I saw that the display on the camera itself cuts the edges off and i had managed to get some wired from my TV in on the corner, I felt it wasn't too much of a problem and left it to a learning curve.
The editing that involved cutting together clips was very simple and cutting different angled shots together went very well, then when it came to adding special effects I left Matt to teach me that, we put on lots of effects like smudges and dust, we also desatured it and changed the exposure and offset, I had no idea how similar Final Cut was to Photoshop. I found a really brilliant song which was really appropriate by Louis Armstrong from the 50's called Don't Jive Me which I used as the soundtrack. Then we left it to render...for FOUR hours!
Finally, we did the most effective thing to it which was when exporting it into a .mov file we changed the FPS (frames per second) from 25, which is reasonably standard for what I was filming for to 12 which was much more commonly used in the 50's and is why the films from then looked almost like they were skipping.
FINAL CUT EXPRESS:
I learnt a lot in this tutorial, despite the fact that I thought I was reasonably literate in the software I was proven wrong as it seemed I was a bit rusty.
After being given a DV Handicam I decided to do what I know best and make a short (really short) documentary.
After being given a DV Handicam I decided to do what I know best and make a short (really short) documentary.
MORE FROM IOU:
Liam and John managed to get to a Union protest at Leeds Uni that was for similar things that LCA teachers had been protesting about and involved Richard the head of LCA union. The footage they got was really good and will look good in the IOU documentary.
A CUP OF TEA:
I was told by Christian that a good way to get into the process of filming and editing is to make "How to make a cup of tea". This gave me an interesting idea to create this but in a 50's style, the first thing I did was storyboard it.
EDITING IOU:
For the editing process for the IOU documentary I initially sat back as I was not familiar with Final Cut Pro, whilst just vwacthing i was able to learn quite a lot:
I learnt how to add a text box to the timeline, which was relatively simple and I think I will end up using in my own work quite alot, specifically for documentaries.
This is a screen shot of one of the shots I filmed by zooming out of the LCA header on the side of Vernon street building to reveal the IOU campaign poster, this was an effective shot however too slow to use, so I was taught how to speed up a shot and then slow it down again once people came into the shot as that was an obvious give-away that the shot had been sped up.
The interview with Richard that I also filmed went quite well however when we watched it back there was a glare on Richard's face which I hadn't spotted through the camera lens. This has definitely shown me to be more careful when filming because it doesn't always look the same on the computer.
I learnt how to add a text box to the timeline, which was relatively simple and I think I will end up using in my own work quite alot, specifically for documentaries.
This is a screen shot of one of the shots I filmed by zooming out of the LCA header on the side of Vernon street building to reveal the IOU campaign poster, this was an effective shot however too slow to use, so I was taught how to speed up a shot and then slow it down again once people came into the shot as that was an obvious give-away that the shot had been sped up.
The interview with Richard that I also filmed went quite well however when we watched it back there was a glare on Richard's face which I hadn't spotted through the camera lens. This has definitely shown me to be more careful when filming because it doesn't always look the same on the computer.
PHOTOGRAPHY LENSES:
I recently acquired a film SLR and 5 lenses which I have been wanting to try out.
The camera body is a Pentax KM, over 20 years old and still in full working condition. Plus a few different lenses and a tele converter.
The camera body is a Pentax KM, over 20 years old and still in full working condition. Plus a few different lenses and a tele converter.
AV INTRO:
The introduction involved an intro to the three different cameras we have on offer. I want to make the most of all the equipment in the AV suite as I won't get an oppertunity like this once I leave LCA.
I learnt about:
Mini DV Sony Handicam
This is a low spec camera and is good it you just want a bit of easy filming. I don't think I'll be using this much if at all as I know from past experience the quality is low and makes things looks a bit like high school work.
HDR Sony FX7
I have also used this camera before, this is medium spec and is appropriate for this level of learning so will therefore be the main camera we will be using.
I also learnt about a high spec camera that we can't use at the moment as some parts are missing, it can shoot up to 40,000 frames per second.
I learnt about:
Mini DV Sony Handicam
This is a low spec camera and is good it you just want a bit of easy filming. I don't think I'll be using this much if at all as I know from past experience the quality is low and makes things looks a bit like high school work.
HDR Sony FX7
I have also used this camera before, this is medium spec and is appropriate for this level of learning so will therefore be the main camera we will be using.
I also learnt about a high spec camera that we can't use at the moment as some parts are missing, it can shoot up to 40,000 frames per second.
FILMING IOU:
The first day of filming for the IOU Campaign went well. The need for 5 people working together was maybe unnecessary, however you don't realise that in a documentary you need your interviewer, your cameraman and your soundman, which is a lot of people when you're attempting to do an on the spot interview with a passerby.
I did most of the filming for the first day which was fun, it was interesting seeing how the lighting affected pretty much everything, and also getting to grips with a tripod I hadn't used before, which sounds simple but unfortunately can pose you many problems. I ended up filming a lot of it at a very slight angle as I couldn't work out how to tilt it!
I had a quick go on the mic which was something that I hadn't used before with video, just a small handheld, I have used tie mics before but not a handheld. Getting the right sound on the cans was a bit of a pain but I think Liam pulled it off really well.
I did most of the filming for the first day which was fun, it was interesting seeing how the lighting affected pretty much everything, and also getting to grips with a tripod I hadn't used before, which sounds simple but unfortunately can pose you many problems. I ended up filming a lot of it at a very slight angle as I couldn't work out how to tilt it!
I had a quick go on the mic which was something that I hadn't used before with video, just a small handheld, I have used tie mics before but not a handheld. Getting the right sound on the cans was a bit of a pain but I think Liam pulled it off really well.
SEND AND RECEIVE 01:
After reading the brief for send and receive I initially thought that I would really enjoy this brief, it allows us to go out there and experience the world, make us rounded and see things that we may have been unaware of.
My first ideas were to volunteer in a psychiatric ward. For a long time now I have been interested in outsider art and the way the the human mind works, what makes us the same, what makes us different.
I am a very liberal person and I have no want to discard my views however I feel it is important to see things from another perspective.
What goes on in a psychiatric ward, how are the patients treated and most interesting of all, what are they thinking?
My first ideas were to volunteer in a psychiatric ward. For a long time now I have been interested in outsider art and the way the the human mind works, what makes us the same, what makes us different.
I am a very liberal person and I have no want to discard my views however I feel it is important to see things from another perspective.
What goes on in a psychiatric ward, how are the patients treated and most interesting of all, what are they thinking?
IOU CAMPAIGN:
After joining the video group we all decided to do a group documentary (as that was the genre we were all most into) to get us started and so we could play around with equipment etc.
We chose to do it around something that effected us all at the current time. LCA is one of the few colleges not enrolled in a national scheme which allows fair pay for tutors, and because of this many of the colleges and our tutors set up the IOU campaign and went on strike.
We thought this would be a perfect time to get the opinions of tutors in and out of the union but mainly focus on the problems it poses for the students.
We chose to do it around something that effected us all at the current time. LCA is one of the few colleges not enrolled in a national scheme which allows fair pay for tutors, and because of this many of the colleges and our tutors set up the IOU campaign and went on strike.
We thought this would be a perfect time to get the opinions of tutors in and out of the union but mainly focus on the problems it poses for the students.
THE BNP:
This image could sum up the BNP entirely. Why they place this on their website I have no idea, Nick Griffin claims run a non-racist political party however implying that all immigrants are terrorists isn't boding too well with his statement.
After watching documentaries on neo nazi's and prejudism I have realised that I would like to do some of my work surrounding this topic. I got in touch with a skinhead from Leeds and asked him questions about his beliefs.
I also attempted to get in contact with Head of Publicity in the BNP, self confessed Nazi and former Head of Youth BNP Mark Colett.
After watching documentaries on neo nazi's and prejudism I have realised that I would like to do some of my work surrounding this topic. I got in touch with a skinhead from Leeds and asked him questions about his beliefs.
I also attempted to get in contact with Head of Publicity in the BNP, self confessed Nazi and former Head of Youth BNP Mark Colett.
CHRIS CUNNINGHAM:
This is one of the most talented users of CGI I have ever seen.
Not just that but he uses it in such a different and creative way, in my opinion you don't have to have the biggest amount of creativity to do the effects in War of the Worlds (possibly one of the worst films I've ever seen) it's basic and dull. However Cunningham takes a dream and makes it real infront of your eyes.
One of my favorite things about his work is his involvement in music, he has worked with Aphex Twin, Bjork and Portishead and when watching the videos you can tell he really feels his art and the music, he merges them to the extent that you wouldn't know where the noise started and the visuals stopped. He makes the most unreal subjects seem like a warped, often quite scary reality.
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