what is story?

it's hard - I don't have a story to tell.

Story telling has never been something i find interesting, more the reason why I've spent 20 years of my life without creative writing, except once.

There isn't anything I connected to - and then I remembered there is one thing that won me a round of praises back at GCSE creative writing - divorce.

It is strange to say, one can portray the term in so many different ways it is almost like untouched diamond ore, all it needs is polish over and over.

Who knows? It's something I did want to expand on when writing the story.

I have no experience in script writing or story development (and I'm not going to start pretending I do) so to aid the objective I'm currently reading this book called Developing Story Ideas by Michael Rabiger.

(I found this book when researching about his other book - Directing - film techniques and anesthetics.)

The book is useful and guides me every step of the way as to how I could get that imaginative brain of mine to start working magic.

I found myself asking the same question from day one

what is story?

here's the perfect answer I found

'"Art", said the French realist writer Émile Zola, "is a corner of nature seen through a temperament." By deliberately seeing through your own vivid and particular intelligence, you give us the causes effects, injustices, and beauty of a world that nobody else has seen in quite your way...' (page 17 - Developing Story Ideas by Michael Rabiger - accessed on 23rd Dec 08)

reassuring - I'm starting to get excited about this, it feels like an untouched mine - so many unforeseen opportunities, each and every one of them unique.

lovely orange production

the final product of the 4 minute documentary

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=EKCG0ZZ5mkE

little end of term review

right, another term gone, time to do a little review so I dont forget where to look when I need to reference.

Mainstream lectures and seminars
all lectures and seminars this term had been based around the project - 4 minute non-fiction documentary production. I found all the lectures and seminars really helpful as it reassured me that I was on track doing the right thing, and to be fair, not much chance of going off track and going wrong at all!

Voluntary group meetings to aid project production
those were fun - it helped put into perspective what it is like working as part of a team - especially from a producers' point of view. Prior to this term I had little knowledge of what the role of a producer is. Sure I knew what they do, but I didn't know know what they do if you get me.
I had always thought it was pretty easy but turns out it was a demanding role - so much so I felt I was smack in between the directors' orders and the rest of the team who're disagreeing to the director.

External amatuer jobs
for PhoenixPlus.co.uk - two videos this term for them - however I will no long be violating music copyrights as all videos for next term will use music from a different source.
I felt I have benefitted from the external amatuer experience - though it may not be the real deal, it is still practice and improvments happens with practice and reflection.
this will be an on-going battle

Books I've read to aid study

1/The Technique of Documentary Film Production by W.Hugh Baddeley
a useful book for me as it put into perspective how a production of a documentary is managed. Though some details are slightly out of date(such as sycning audio with visual) the basics are evergreen and fundamentally they will never change.

I thank god for this book - this was my Bible for the term - this was the book that kept me a step ahead of the game and kept me organised, whilst raising questions that otherwise nobody else would've ever thought about. Key to my sucess this term I think.

2/Lighting for Digital Video & Television by John Jackman
an extremely technical book explaining all the physics I once aced in back at college but have forgotten. Volts, Watts, basic Physics theories like the Kevin scale (which to be honest I have never thought about prior to encountering the chapter in the book). Real useful technical background stuff that just fills all the gap in your knowledge and all that I've ever wondered about lighting and the science attached to it.

In the duration of reading this book, I had many 'ahhh I see now' moments.

3/Making Short Films by Clifford Thurlow
Lots of useful resources, plenty of 'reflection' sections at end of each chapter and in between to aid self learning - such as '10 things you should ask yourself when writing a script'.

Personally I found it a pretty general book of how it's done, but there is not much on how to do it.

I've just started out on a new book too
In the Blink of an Eye - A perspective on Film Editing by Walter Murch
awesomely interesting - made me realise things I never thoght about before, bringing me a brand new perspective of how to look at it. So far so good. A full review will be included at the end of all this definately.



Pretty good term i think. Productively fun and actively enjoyable.

Writing for Screen Media

Lecture by Jools

Recognizing the versatility of script, difficulty of creative interpretation and speaking to the audience.

BUBBLES
transitory - energetic - beautiful - collaborative - engineered

The development process involves three key stages -
ideation/idea development
story development
story editing

all of which essential and needs to be repeated and repeated and repeated to gain perfection.

It is suggested that we should download and read scripts - something new i have never done apart from for theatre productions. It comes to me like a stranger, an interesting stranger. Something I want to find out about.

imsdb.com / scriptorama.com / www.celtx.com

"and the end of Romantic Modernist notions"

Lecture by Simon Perkins

Summarizing the lecture, I have walked away with the following:
truly original=if nobody else understands it i.e. they can't relate to it as it is brand new

I think that is an essential, lost gem of the true meaning of 'originality'.
People over-exploite the word 'original' nowadays - it's been so commercialize in such a way 'originality' has become the spokesman of 'old school'. Well it aint.

Modernism is about the truth, and post-modernism is all about lies and arguments. Theres logic in trying to find the truth, but its mainly about the process of getting there.

to take things out of context, see problems from a different perspective - its an idealistic opportunity served to you on a gold plate - and it can't get any better than that. By strategically coming up with a solution, it means an advantage, in blatent terms sucess.

Once again, we visit our old friend Schön - the all time great theorist of the reflective learning.

http://www.infed.org/thinkers/et-schon.htm

The book, Reflection in Learning and Professional Development: Theory and Practice by Jennifer A. Moon, is once again useful. Now i understand why the book is useful.
However, I have yet to finish the book since I've started last year, still.

a b s t r a c t

abstract?

I had no idea what it is - so I researched it.
Most of what I found was similarly irrelevant
They were all teaching you how to write a businese abstract - and I saw nothing in common between all of them.

then I did find something -
http://research.berkeley.edu/UCDay/abstract.html

so I based my networking essay on this format.

It sums up the idea of an abstract into 4 main points
1/ Motivation/Problem stated
2/ Method/Procedure/Approach
3/Results/Findings/Products
4/ Conclusion/Implications

using the four points I above from my research, I was then able to expand and go on to summarising what the 'paper' is about. Pretty useful stuff.

this is the end

wrap everything up day today, its not as hard as could be - seeing as we've been quite organised with things since day one.
We've also had to do a self evaluation - I found it really helpful as it helped me pin-point exactly what I found difficult and what coul dbe done better next time round.

n.e.t.w.o.r.k.i.n.g

'What is the meaning of this?'

ouch

I don't know about other people but I'm actually finding this essay not too hard.
Apart from the fact that it's a little boring to do it's not actually too hard.

oh well, the essay won't write itself, better get back to it.

there, a lovely saturday afternoon, gone, just like that.

editing sesh 2

day two of our eternal struggle

we've done pretty well today actually
I started at 1130 to sub-clip all the footage from scratch as the computer crashed yesterday and everything was lost.
(lucky we had just started yesterday)
People started turning up and soon everybody was sat and discussing over clips and what not, only thing we've got on top is we've taken sound into consideration more today

we got up to about 4 minutes of the 10 for the rough edit, looking great! but shall not be giving anything away just yet...more editing tomorrow... :'(

editing stage 1

its awful.
its insane.
its driving every single one of us up the wall.

3 hours of raw footage, excluding alternative angles (another 3 hours on top)

So far we've just chopped the big clip down to subclips of specific action and angles, generating a first edit with the rough footages.

At least then we know where we want which clip when...thereafter it should just be a matter of condensing it down to its finest essence.

"China's Stolen Children"

this is a documentary broadcasted on Channel 4 (again) - the voice of documentaries and home to alternative programs.

The story follows a detective on his job - trying to 'rescue' children who've been snatched and stolen off the streets of China and traded for money.

It involve a desperate couple trying to retrieve their beloved son; another couple who's desperate to get rid of the new born girl as she's without a birth certificate; a detective, a buyer and one of the trafficker.

As the documentary goes on, the audience slowly realizes, that human trafficking is a result of the 'ever-so-right' One Child Policy - which is now the major underlying problem of the policy.

Facts and figures are being thrown at us whilst at the same time we follow the personal stories of these people who are all somehow intricately involved in this process of trafficking.
However, the 'addressing the actual problem itself' doesn't happen til right at the end - without obvious jumps, the director has managed to build the emotive jump for the conclusion.

It's very factual and informative - almost as if the producer was trying to make a point.
I learnt things I didn't, and I took away a lesson of treasuring loved ones.

That, means its a good documentary - not only was it moving and convincing, the audience was also able to walk away remembering a lesson that was taught through the medium of a documentary.

capturing...AARRGHH

capturing is any editors' nightmare if the camera guy filmed too much.

Because we went away on a day trip to an unfamiliar place - it was best to have more on film then less just so we have more choice.

So, my mini dv JVC gave me two tapes, and the Z1 gave us 3 tapes.

It's a nightmare.
Me and Mr Director will be capturing the 3rd tape tomorrow.

I have started editing the JVC tapes, freehand and behind the scene.

Raunds? Raunds!

its late at night (got back at 10.15pm), and im tired, but I'm so excited still!
we did it.

Having nowhere close to enough sleep, we started working away at 7.30am when Liam had to get up for school.

It was a long day, and yes very hectic - but the fact is, I'm happy with what we had managed by the end of the day. It was good fun and we all enjoyed it.

Because I'm too tired right now, pictures will have to follow tomorrow or over the weekend. I have photos to upload and tapes to capture.



(for a few more - http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=48147&l=ce960&id=501853784)

Post production war has begun, yikes.

preping the filming day

so, the day before shooting, we called a meeting to make sure everything that needs doing is done - we're off tomorrow, the remain checklist is here

• schedule - event log needs printing out
  
• call sheet updating with hosiptal info and first aider - and printing
• storyboard needs printing out after scanning and shrinking
• interview questions updated and printed
  
• shooting log needs printing
  
• expenditure log needs printing
• all the battery charged for camera and mini dv
  

bought some spare tapes - thought we better be safe than sorry just incase the one tape we have 'doesn't work' and last minute we'll have to spend the whole day running round trying to get another.

we will be travelling down to Raunds tomorrow evening and will start filming on the Wednesday morning bright and early when Liam gets up to go to school.

"director&producer small talks - sshhh"

throughout the so far preproduction process, I'm required to have small talks with my director frequently, making sure we're on the same track and acquiring his views and so adapting them to make his vision real.

so we had another small talk - sat down and discussed a list of things that needs doing -

• checking train times, availability and prices
• doing recce, release forms, risk assessments
• detailed shooting schedule
• draw up logs such as shooting log, continuity log and event log
• shrinking and tidying up storyboards
• delegate who does what during the shoot

so I'm gonna go now, and do all the above..

"Shot Design"

(source - filmcity.tv/miseenscene)
shot analysis The first thing that caught my eye was the source of light on the right - this is because for one there is an obvious break of pattern but more importantly it is much brighter than the rest of the image - contrast. My attention was then drawn towards the characters face - this was done with a piece of 'string' - a physical(though minor) connection - and the placement of his arm, leading the attention away from the fence but towards the body. The face comparatively is not as well lit - but contrast has done it again as the character has relatively darkish hair contrasting with the paler skin.


(source - filmcity.tv/miseenscene)

Very different from the previous shot - much brighter. However though the shot is very well lit, the black uniform against the white background makes the situation almost cynical (despite the obvious expressions carried by the actors).
Very deep space and feeling very enclosed - as if you can't run away from the situation.
Diagonal lines suggests tension and the position of the black uniform males are above the 'victim' suggesting power over him.

"The Boy Whose Skin Fell Off" - Patrick Collerton

The story follows the last days of a man, Jonny Kennedy, who has a rare genetic disease dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa - who eventually became diagnosed with terminal cancer.

The documentary was very gripping - in such a way I almost felt it was so bizarre it can't be true.

To start the documentary, we see Jonny in has casket - v/o done prior to his death telling his thoughts. We then start on a journey where we follow his last days and sharing his mixed emotions with him.

There were a few specific things I picked up on regarding techniques involved -

• music was very mellow and calm, overall it was almost soothing and soul calming to watch - this was a twist as you would most expect the audio to be sort of sad and well, not comforting to say the least - this re-emphazises how much a difference audio makes
• have the character being engaged in a conversation - trying to hard to tell your viewers what the character now seems to me like a 'i don't know what to do, so i should play safe' type - let the audience decide and judge your character
• when talking about the background, it could be useful sometimes if montages of photos were used

The documentary sent me on an emotional journey as we see his ups and downs that he has to deal with on a daily basis. Roughly about half way through we were given details on change of dressings on his back and we see him in a lot of pain - and for the first time in the whole documentary we see our character with his head down being in so much pain.

That was a twist, a really big twist.

Somehow you knew the weaker inner self is there, but the positivity is so strong (up to this point) it then becomes almost unbearable to watch our heroic character being in pain - that is contrast very well done. You set them up high, and get them down low.

Being an inspiring documentary, the mood soon gets picked up again - tending towards the end, music were not only mellow and soothing, the beats actually started to pick up - almost as if metaphorically making the undefiable death as a relief as we find out more about his dilemma on the views of trying to stay alive.

Right at the end, the funeral was shown, and we all attended, having Jonnys' favourite music played - Queen-Don't Stop Me Now - which again, a total mis-match for the occasion.

But that again, is the contrast card that will ensure this story will stay in your heart now and always.

All in all, it was a well shot documentary, and I as the viewer had been taught a lesson I won't forget - treasure what you have.

http://www.channel4.com/health/microsites/B/boy_whose_skin_fell_off/index.html

Producer - thats me

it's true what they say - everybody on the team is as important as everybody else, but I think being a producer is a very big responsibility.

according to skillset, a producer is....

'responsible for identifying and specifying an interactive media product' highlevel requirements or purpose, and ensuring that its business objectives and creative vision are understood and maintained by everybody involved in the project'

to be honest, I have no idea why they say it like that apart from making it look 'professional' because i don't understand that.

but from what I've learnt and what I know, to my own definition I think being a producer simply means you have to be very organised -

it's all about organisation and communication

Scheduling, call sheets, organising meetings, doing all the bit of paperwork, location release and shooting permissions, making sure everybody knows what the meetings are about, coming prepared and participate, at times (and to be fair most of the time) running the meetings and keeping everybody focused and not side-tracked, and most of all making sure everybody is ON TIME...its a pretty tough role but its all worth it.

I just hope everything turns out right because if they don't I am probably the one to be blamed.

documentary group meeting # 5+6

the proposal

ouch, thats tomorrow, a bit nervous to be honest

Anyhow, we had two meetings of similar nature and since it was based on the same thing I thought I'd just blog it together.

The two meetings were based on the proposal that needs to be pulled together - although we are all very clear as to what it is we're trying to achieve, it was essential that we have it established on paper so there won't be arguments lateron, something to fall back on and to keep us focused.

We sat down and talked about all the shots and have gone deeper and more detailed, planning every shot and transitions - this is much like the shooting script that would usually exist if you work on a film set but we have a small team and we have a clear objective(and a storyboard) it seems hassle to write a script.







The group proposal is all done now - thanks to the 3 hours of locking ourselves in - but now, I'm turning in to do the personal proposal on the role producer.

new video

copy right should've been an issue but I'm not re-producing to make money so..

recently i went partying with my fellow friends and i managed to take along my dv - so heres the result after the mayhem.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Nk-h93TNBU

book research etc

I've been reading up on producing documentaries and related topics - here are the first two books I found relavant -

1/ Technique of Documentary Film production by W.Hugh Baddeley

About the half the book wasn't relevant to what I was doing - as its a very old book, it had parts involving how to sync sound and tape etc. There were also parts involving budgeting and shooting overseas which to be fair, could have been useful but not for now.

I found this book quite useful in terms of getting my self focus so I know exactly what shots I would need to achieve the effect I'm looking for. it also contains diagrams where it was too difficult to be explained in words and be clear at the same time.

A good book full of essential fundamental. I found that stuff in the book I knew most of it in theory, however there were tips and it was useful in such a way it fills the gaps that nobody ever told you about(or that I never found out).

2/ Making Short Film by Clifford Thurlow

Comparatively this book tells you all the theory and has a LOT of history as to how the film industry started in the first place - it has sections of useful tips and bullet points, list of websites and names of organisation - useful book to gain an understanding of the industry.

documentary group meeting # 4

In this meeting we took the liberty of brainstorming - in order to create a list of questions that c ould be used for the interview.

We devided the thinking process into three key stages - past, present and future.

Seeing as we are trying to add more 'energy' into the documentary, we figured one of the two ways to achieve this would be through questions - with the other being audio.

After some discussions, I've taken all the brain-storming diagram and narrowed down to about 15 questions - we are expecting to improvise questions from answer that will be given for questions from the list.

We briefly considered the need for a shooting script - however as the nature is documentary and nothing has been planned to the detail in terms of reactions(which we cannot possible guess what they would be) we thought the storyboard was quite enough - we will however be doing a lot of cut-aways and extra filming to ensure our editor will have what he needs.

documentary meeting # 3

we took out a study room at the library at 11am...





we were all half dead, tired and worst of all, not up for any detailed discussions on anything.

the aim was to draw up the basic story board and if time allows fit in the list of shots we would like filmed. After some 15-30 minutes of settling down, we've managed to start working.



Seeing as we are actually filming in Raunds, Northampton, we cannot allow for mistakes and had to be very clear on what we were trying to achieve as we will only have one chance to get most of it right (we will probably get it all right but always leave room for errors right). It is crucial that each and every one of us in the group has a clear understanding as to what we are aiming at - we've decided to let the documentary flow as the day goes by(it will happen in the daily routine sequence)

• intro shot
• dad at home composing - what he usually do during the day, a few questions thrown in: informal interview
• montage with interview answers as audio
  
• pick kid up from school, play in the park
• 'chips on bench in park' as dinner - to show emotive caring side of fatherhood
• dad gets changed at home whilst kid gets interviewed - informal
• on the way to gig - more casual interview
• gig
• aftermath of gig

all of the above WILL be filmed however not all will be in the final edit - it's important we have more than enough clips so to allow options as to what the final edit will be.

we have a vague idea of what audios we would like but nothing has been decided and set in stone yet - we have agreed that for the final credits we will be asking Tom(our single dad) to play us a version of his songs on acoustic guitar allowing us to use music that is not only relevant, but most importantly will save us trouble with copyrights etc.
- however due to the nature of how our documentary is filmed at a travelled location we will try and concentrate on alllowing more time for the editing (hence the possibly excessive amount of footage that will be shot).







we shall conquer, watch this space

documentary group meeting # 2

31st Oct 2008

Since we will be filming at Raunds, Northampton, pre-planning means the world to us as we have no room for mistakes.

we have yet to find out the dates our interviewee will be free and his gig schedules - before that is established, there is little we can do about booking equipments and a confirm date that we will be filming.

(Adam if you're reading this, find out now...!!!)

Meanwhile, we have established the list of equipments that we shall be taking with us on the trip and the long day of doing storyboard. We have booked a room at the Boots library on the 4th Nov to start the storyboard and build the basics.

I realize a storyboard cannot be done in a day and will require adaptations constantly - so we will be building the fundamental idea first, the basic rules that we will all abide by, which will take the longest, then add to it accordingly - hopefully there wont be a lot we need to change afterwards.

Me and Kez will be deciding on the list of shots as the storyboard is built - so we know exactly what we get and this will save us time on both filming useless shots and ingesting the aftermaths.

So before the next meeting, each of us will be writing 10-15 questions we would like use in the interview - these will all then be handed to me and I will then condense and organise the list of questions and make them into doubles. I think this will help us stay focus and not easily be side-tracked as we will have a clear aim and direction.

documentary group meeting # 1

this happened back on the 20th Oct 2008 but I forgot to type it up.
(so i'm doing it now before i forget again)

In this meeting the 5 of us established the roles we would like to participate in the making of this documentary.

initially, we listed the following roles -

• director of photograhy
• producer
• director
• sound and editing(post production)
• script writing and storyboard

after some 20 mintues of discussions we found out that actually everybody on the team is up for doing anything and everything, so we each took a title - I shared mine with Kez, being the sound and editing post production team.

"4 minute wonder - daddy in a rock band"

For our second year, the first project we have to do is to make a documentary -
our documentary titled "Daddy in a rock band"

Behind the glamourous life of being a rock star whose career is starting to take off, 25 year old Tom Robin is more than the average joe who happens to be successful - he holds another identity - a single parent to a 4 year old boy.

The documentary will attempt to identify the struggle between the two contrasting aspects of his life and how he manges to juggle with the two extremes.

After initial discussions, the theme and the general feel of the outcome has been decided(and so will be steered towards that direction)

• It will fall in the categories of an observational biography
• the two persona will be emphasized (the caring parent and the rock star within)
  
• so to enable the amplification of the 'struggle'/how he manages - the conflict that exist and ways to have them co-exist
  
• it will be narrative based with mostly open questions (so to save the crucial few seconds spent when questions asked have to be put into the final outcome)
• slow beat, mellow background tunes to bring out the more emotive side - the "awww" factor
• both fly-on-wall and upfront technique will be used to show normal day-in-day-out and the attachment between father and son
• will be shot at 3 - 4 locations, with them being the park(for a bit of football perhaps), the gig venue(where the kid will also be present), the kitchen and the living room of Toms' house.

editing

A new academic year, and my internet is down again.
Good start that, but then over the summer holiday I've saved up and bought myself a little treat - a camcorder.
although it's a Mini DV with the old fashion tapes etc, I like it - in fact I do prefer tapes, it's easier!

Anyhow, I taped my cat for an hour or so, and then something hit me.
Out of so much recording, when you start editing most of the clip becomes 'throwaways' simply because when viewed by a second person they don't need the whole clip to understand what is being said.

That's why I love editing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDa_fJxz-yQ

here's the link to the cat video.


I've been asked by a friend to video a student night party in town, including the aftermath editing - so now I'm working on ideas and concepts, hopefully it'll be good fun.
(though it means no alcohol for me, and walking round a club risking being splashed at by pukes or more alcohol)

coldcut / ninja tune

after some heavy clicking on the net, I found somebody else

Coldcut

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&VideoID=730284

English DJ Matt Black and Jonathan More - the founders one of the most popular mixing program VJamm, also owes a second record label called Ninja Tune.

Ninja Tunes leans strongly towards electronic, abstract hip hop, instumental hip hop, nu jazz, drum and bass and chillout music (sourced http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ninja_Tune)
After looking into the companies' style I think it's good - I'm a person who begs to differ and has a strong liking for unique 'things' in general, be it music, interest or even just food.
I do have a strong preference in music leaning towards drum and bass / metal, personally I think it allows for much more interpretation visual-wise. Often with the help of no lyrical element involved therefore the music sets the mood and is open for endless interpretation.

More and more I've been looking into the matter of audio-visualization which to me now literally means translating the sound into something people can see and understand.
(if you're at all interested it used to just mean 'combining sound with videos')

I look forward to winning my MIDI keyboard on ebay, hopefully!

it's all about VJs

BOPA / Ne1co / Eclectic Method Bopa is a she... began her career as vj in 2001 - pretty much developed a growing interest in the combination of club culture and the art of the moving image

Her style is subtle, often packed with colour and like work done by most other vjs it flows with the beat of the music.
Her work includes adverts for Vodafone and Bacardi -

http://www.bopa.tv/samples3.html
http://www.bopa.tv/samples2.html

She now works in connection with Ne1co

Ne1co, agency opened by VJ Anyone, is a hybrid startup fulfilling both duties of label and agency for selected audiovisual artists.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BM64qxBtdn4




















Associates inclueds Ecletic Method -





http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xarca1AFAHE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwWsbNL9xXE

i know I'll lose important notes like these so I thought I'd make a reference point like above.

what next?

I know I have no interest in animation and virtual enviroments so I thought audiovisual would suit me best

As I've looked further and further into the topic audiovisual I found myself shocked.
There are jobs out there associated with audiovisual yet it's never hit me that they are

for example, a VJ

"VJ -video performance artist" someone who creates moving visual art (namely video) on large displays or screens, often at events such as concerts, nightclubs and music festival, usually in conjunction with other performance art. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VJ_%28video_performance_artist%29)

it interests me that audiovisual is so different from each other yet they coordinates with each other so well that we're even allowed to blend audio and visual into one word.

I like it when you go clubbing and you see the massive screen, usually behind the dj booth, flashing with visual elements that flows with the music, giving so much more vibe and brings the house alive.
If you haven't tried it already, go to gatecrasher down town.
In conclusion though, I think drum and bass music makes great bases for sucessful vj-ing

Starbucks Coffee

http://www.starbuckscoffeeathome.com/

Simple layout, easy to use, simply Starbucks offering more of what they do best online!
It reflects the brand identity flawlessly, a perfect website for it. Colour-themed with earthy tones and that exactly heart-warming feeling you get when you go into Starbucks, and buy a hot chocolate(with marshmallows and creme) on the coldest day of winter.
It's not scary, its not dramatic, its not overly complicated, its what starbucks being themselves.
It also reflects the company's brand philosophy - its the image that they environmentally friendly, organic coffee, honest people who makes coffee with honest ingredients.


The site itself was also highly interactive - in terms of how the user gets to intereact, not only does the user find stuff out (which is what they want to show you, as a customer caring company), after what you've found out online, you can go into their shop and buy that exact product that you found on their online quiz would be 'most probably suit your taste'.
That is clever advertising.


now thats starbucks you can serve yourself at home - another successful but lesser known advert campaign

walkman - 'like.no.other'

http://www.walkmankomiks.pl

oh my god its polish!!

nevermind, its a nice flash site anyways.
It was nice to see during 'loading' right at the beginning - a story unraveled itself.
I found it hard to navigate round mainly of a language barrier but if i was Polish, I think it's a pretty awesome site - it's flashy, colourful, done with cartoon characters and what makes interesting is that it has a storyline to it - people want to find out what happen next and thats us being caught out by the curiosity.

Common layout within all pages, easy to navigate round, hassle free site to be truthfully honest(apart from it being in Polish)

I think it reflected the walkman range identity fairly well - because I think they'd be aiming at the teenage market - and cartoon is a perfectly good connection with teenagers that I myself would make too.
Plus, it's part of the 'like.no.other' campaign promoting its uniqueness and that special experience that you and only you will encounter is unique, in comparison to other products you may have tried before.
That, is some serious good advertising campaign.

In terms of the flash interaction design element I think it's well thought out - it works, its interesting, thats the simplest basic that some company fails to achieve.

To me, I think as soon as the user closes the browser(from viewing a page) immediately that page has failed because it hadn't been able to keep the user engaged.

So all in all, another job well done.

got milk?

http://www.gotmilk.com/

this website has awesome layout.

the one thing i can associate with milk the most is probably the milk carton. On entry, when you're waiting for the flash to load(into the home page) a milk carton popped up and twirled itself, on each of the 4 sides having different prints and by the time the first side comes back around again, it's a different print again!


possibilities are endless here.

anyway, I manage to get into the website, and the layout was very interesting indeed. It took me some time to find out exactly what I was doing - a lot of hidden buttons and i had a lot of fun playing round.

I wouldn't say its the easiest site to navigate round with - it was sophisticated, both good and bad. From a design point of view, the site was well built, very well managed and layout-ed. The themes from one page to another matched and coordianted flawlessly.

From the usability point of view, if I was no clever cookie who worked well with computers, it is total internet nightmare. I can imagine it being a hard to navigate round site for people who are unfamiliar with online environments(but thats hard to achieve these days).

Content-wise, it was rather confusing to be highly critical. Upon hovering over a logo that said 'Bone Chilla', i clicked and entered it not know what to expect. I then realized to my surprise I was expecting something - certainly what turned up on screen! I was expecting some form of information page or perhaps an advert campaign (i.e. Sony Bravia - Colours like no other) but what i got was an interactive game.
Which is thinking out of the box - I didnt get what I expected.
I then moved onto trying out other buttons but it turned out they were all games :'(

And I just found out, whoever designed this website must have been a total idiot!
After all that time spent getting confused over why there are only games on a website that promotes milk, I found out why I was being led to think that way.

Half the menu you will NOT see unless you scroll down
like this!



So i take whatever I've said back - and its suddenly now become a very fun site to go round!
It had recepies, news and events(recent updates etc) and even a shopping cart!
But what it also has, is a branch of the site dedicated to the brands' identity - the got milk? brand. How it came about, why it came about, and even with people gradually growing out of the line 'got milk?' how they come to refreshing the brands image without going to far removed from its original tagline.

Basically, it has taught me stuff, I participated and gave them a hit, they in return has given me new knowledge and a good time mopping around on it.

Very good interactive website - apart from the scrolling down and finding out theres some much more to the site!

something facinating

Oskar Fischinger

Many may not have heard of him before...and it took me a while to find his name - but it's all worth the while.

To me, he was the true founder of Visual Music - whereby a 'conceptual design that might be formulated in one's mind when listening to symphony' and classical music are blended together, giving not only the pleasure on the ears, but the exhilarating experience of visual impact synced with the music.

Some of his more famous works includes 'Komposition in Blau'(Composition in Blue) - and this won him the Brussels and Venice Festival of 1935 - bringing attention of the Hollywood directors.

I like his work a lot and the reason is simple because of its uniqueness - there's nothing (not anything that I've encountered in the 20 years I've been around) quite like it. The way it works so flawlessly and it all just seem to fit together so well - I'm absolutely bewitched by his talents and imagination.
It's hard to describe what his style is as there's nothing that I can compare with.

To me, he's one of a kind that has such a big impact on our current techniques that to some extent, I honestly don't think film making could be where it is today without him.

Although you may argue that he's more of a 'animator' than 'videographer' I still think there is a strong relationship between his style and influences and the way we shoot films/videos today.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=C30ekGqY6Mg

"James Wakefield"

exposed

Choices

James Wakefield, recent graduate under Manchaester Metropolitan University, has to me shown great depth of talent and thoughtfulness in his work.

His interesting choice of scenery has led the viewer to finding it almost hard to bear the loneliness one may experience. His work albumed 'Urban Decay' has brought about great trails of thoughts.

And i feel that is what a photograph is suppose to do, get feelings across to you without the use of words. Its a feeling from within that cannot be decribed merely by words.

looking ahead

For my second year, I had to make a decision as to which pathway I wish to specialize further in.

Out of Audio-Visual, Web-Enviroment and Virtual-Enviroment, I went with Audio-Visual.

I feel that the Audio-Visual path will enable me to fully express the way I feel perhaps?

"Paul Politis"

I admire his work.

Most of his work are B+W based and holds a level of details and thoughts behind it.

He's done series of photos on different themes on a wide variaty - the more recent one being urban photography

I've always been a great fan of photographs taken of the city espeicailly in B+W as i feel it futher punctuates the loneliness one may feel within the towns of concrete. To me, the above photo shows the absolute pin-point of how dramatic the feeling really is when one is perhaps depearate for help from within and cannot be reached because he's gone just so far into the oblivion of loneliness.

the 7 happy peas

the 7 happy peas

1/ happy
2/ artistic
3/ friendly, loving and kind
4/ a dreamer
5/ outrageous, adventurous, wild and crazy
6/ outgoing and fun
7/ best cook in the world

there are perfectly good reasons behind each of the personalities I've chosen.

but a shot of what they now look like :)

'the happy peas'

the second self

it took a long time to come to conclusion as to what i'd rather be

though i'm not happy in my current body, i'm very appreciative of what i already have

so then i thought, I'd like to be a pea

a happy pea with no worries of mortgages, how to get through life without money, always looking forward to pay-day so you can get your bills out the way

and the cycle goes on and on and it never ends, like the call it in 'Poor dad, Rich dad', the rat race

I've decided to make 7 individual peas, each representing a personality I'd like to have
As suppose to making myself a superstar, a model, a guy, another human being altogether, 'cause it means nothing to be shallow like that

it's the depth of personality that matters the most in my views

e.n.c.o.u.n.t.e.r

the journey all of us took to get to where we are today

we all went our different ways and made different decisions - yet we still manage to be here, together, at this moment in time

so different, but how come such different experiences and decisions in life allowed us to now be together at this moment in time?

how did it happen?

well, beginning with objects seen on the floor, many may not think twice about its history and how it came about being there at the moment in time when you walked by - but objects like that, in an interactive way of thinking, must have belonged to somebody at some point in time.

it ended up where you saw it either because the owner dropped it by accident or left it there because it wasn't wanted - now whatever the reason maybe the point is at that moment in time, you and the 'object', be it a piece of trash, a toy, a fiver or an earring, you and the object shares one thing that is unique - the encountering of each other, because you're both there at that single moment in time - and the experience can reactions can never be the same

so then it wasn't a piece of trash on the floor anymore, it's now a person - nothing changes, it's the same theory - meeting different individuals gives you different experiences - and can never repeat itself exactly(though it could be alike it will never, ever be the same experience)

asking somebody the question 'so tell me something interesting about you' could lead to awkward silences as most people find it hard to do so - it's such a vague question and i hate it
but by asking the right question, most people will show more involvement and be more engaged in the conversation

this, ladies and gentlemen, is what interactivity is all about

'asking the right question'

by doing that, it could even be easier to share your experiences, feelings and perspectives with a stranger
it works better than the person closest to you asking the wrong question, if asked at all

it all tends to unravel itself - after all, all of us aren't that indifferent and somewhere along the line, even the most unthinkable and unrelated people would share to some degree experiences that are alike


it's all interactivity