extras bits

I've always been a great believer in practice and opportunities.

Time to do a little review.

Towards the beginning of the term, I took part in filming for the Radiator Festival - that has certainly allowed me to gain further insights into the digital arts industry.

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I then moved on to organising a shoot for a company named BCS who were based in Nottingham - initially they wanted somebody to go down to Bristol and film a 'promotional' video, looking to give potential clients confidence through the viewing of the video - in which we would interview existing clients.
However, the dates did not work out and that sort of blew over :S

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Couple of weeks later, I find myself helping my lecturers run a buddying scheme for New College Nottingham.
These 'kids' signed up for a crash course in how to do Multimedia and were to produce a project by the end of the 4 3hours sessions we had. They were taught the desgin process and how a typical multimedia practitioner would go through with ideas developments. They also learnt how to do script writing, project management, photoshoping and best park of all, film editing.

Through teaching and helping them, I found myself learning things by teaching them. It was suprising not only did I enjoy it, I also walked away benefitting, from explaining to them concepts I had been taught and thought I understood.

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Soon after that, I was put in touch with local digital media company Active Ingredient to 'act'. Not so much acting, more like pretending to get on a bus and commute to 'work'. I had to get on buses for one stop just to get off at the next stop. It made me understand how hard it is for actors to have to keep repeating what they do so many time. Sure made me realise why communication skills are so essential within the industry.
For those who has vimeo, this is the video - http://vimeo.com/3816484

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I then had the luck to once again film for BCS public relations. We had a little trouble regarding the kit but soon after it was sorted me and my crew was on our way. Filming footage for a 'demo' of a product by now is relatively easy. With more than enough material and a simplistic video the client looks for, we now just have to go and draft up the first edit.

Overall, it's been a very productive term, I think.

pilot

40 seconds pilot

all is good, give all the documents a good old wrap and all should be well, ready for hand in on Friday.

"The Number 23"

the title sequence of "the Number 23" has got me thinking about my title sequence - on a much more sophisticated level.

the title sequence was based on sort of 'parchment' paper, with a typewriter font. The feel is eerie, bloody splash seeping through. The jumpiness makes audience feels unsteady and almost uneasy. The number 23 and its association of historical dates of tragedies has been clearly explained through title sequence - without a single spoken word. The music starts slow but gradually the pace picks up and gets stronger, suggesting the pace of the film itself wil start slow but things will get more and more intense too.

I then started thinking about my opening (and closing) sequence.

main menu scene would be the speckles of broken glass hitting surface and resting.
different shards of glass will then be a different 'clickable' menu.
upon clicking the link to view the movie,
(and here comes the opening sequence)
Blank screen - the word 'Shattered' fades on, followed by the definition of the word.
We then see the glass rose in freefall and freezes - we see the two characters sat at either end of the dining table. (first shot)

"shattered" - how to? part II

There is the trying to stick bits of already shattered glass into a glass rose look-alike...that sort of failed badly - for one, none of me or my mates are art sculturing students (in fact we're all audiovisual geeks)...and for two, it was(and still is...and will always be) a hard shape to mock. With the various layers of 'crystal' and the complexity as layers went on...it was impossible! All we had were superglue, hair dryer and well...many bits of shattered glasses...

We then tried using playdoh to mock the shape and make a mould. Again this was an embarassing failure. It should of occured to me much earlier prior to even trying. The shape is extremely complex and it was hard to make a mould that would fit together in the end to make a whole rose.

So after about an hour or two of gluing bits of glass (which was pretty fun) me and my beloved team just gave up!
Instead I've bought a rose online that looks similar to the real thing and I'm going to 'shatter' that instead.

It sure made me appreciate so much more the art of glass-gluing and glass sculturing. If only we had a glass melting torch gun thingeymajiggy (i know that's not a word, shut up y'all)

Conclusion - Was a good laugh and sure is a good sunday afternoon activity.

'shattered' - how to?

the last shot of the short film has not been shot yet...why?
there was no way in hell the glass was going to shatter properly!
so instead, a few solutions came to mind

-sugar glass
-substitute/re-modelling
-ice


sugarglass - most people will know, is not extremely hard to make but very hard to mould into specific shape

subsitute - the idea being i'll smash some random glass and pick up bits that looks like it could be part of the rose and glue them all together - then i let the real rose drop onto a cushion(obviously not filming the rose) then thru editing intercut it into the fake rose falling and hitting the floor.

ice - baking playdoh mould made frm pressing the rose into the playdoh, and making ice with the mould - so it shatters easily!

still contemplating between substitute and ice...but....shall experiment soon!

ready - set - shoot

24th Feb 2009 - the day I dreaded - my shooting day.

Prior to shoot, I prepared everything I possibly could - on set I had child release, schedule, productiong brief, the script, the shooting script, the storyboard(framforge), risk assessments...the list goes on!

The crew consisted of Danny Peachey(sound and general assistant), Adam Sumner(director), Jack Boyles(Director of photography) and Jason Bickers(Light) and myself, producing and doing production stills.

I had a really good day filming - early start and a little stressful, but everything went perfect and exactly how i imagined and planned - the schedule was really useful and fortunately we were able to stick to it extremely well - we were even ahead of schedule by 2 maybe 3 hours and wrapped everything up abotu 5pm (as suppose to 8pm in the original schedule).

I owe a big thank you to everybody who's helped me with this project - the editing war will begin soon enough.

now i'm realllllly shattered

days on end runing back and forth

I have all three locations 'sorted' - still awaiting for the person in charge of the park to get back to me regarding location release. Other than that, all I have left now is cast the few actors and book the hotel room for shoot, book the equipments and get the right forms signed, we're good to go!

hotel room - Hotel Ibis



Park - Victoria Park




Frameforge completed - awaiting park manager to sign my form - risk assessment completed - script completed - casting still in progress, one more actor to go and i'd have finished casting, meeting with make-up artist to discuss my needs. It's all good.

frameforge rendered avi - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtJ1W8OOvME