Photography the traditional way

Had a couple of great lectures with Colin recently in the photography studio.  Firstly he gave us a tutorial on how to use a 5x4 camera. We then were shown how to load the photographic paper into the cartridge that goes into the camera. This seemed easy enough in the light of day but due to the sensitivity of the paper we then had to do this in the dark room! Fortunately there was a safe light in there so it wasn’t completely dark. We had to cut the paper to shape using some scissors and then load two pieces into the cartridge. It was then time to take some portrait photographs of each person in the group and then develop them using the traditional method of developer and fixer chemicals. The results were mixed, some photos were over exposed and others turned out great. They were produced on negative paper so the original picture produced is a negative. However, I have inversed the image in Photoshop so you can see the results. This picture was taken by Gemma so well done to her, I think it turned out really well.

The second lecture was all about pin hole photography. Colin gave us a selection of tins, from large ones that originally had Quality Streets in them to smaller ones that once contained Pringles or coffee. The insides of the tins were painted black and there was a small pin hole to let the light in, with a piece of tape over the hole to prevent an unwanted exposure. After inserting the paper in the dark room we proceeded to the studio to take some more portraits. This time Alex was the volunteer. The tins needed a stable platform due to the long exposure required (around 30 seconds) so we improvised and used some step ladders! We then developed the photos in the dark room. I’m still waiting to see the final results after drying the photos but again there were mixed results from no exposure to some really creative looking pictures! I will post them here as soon as I have them.

NCAR

Had a fantastic and eye opening day on Friday at the North Clywd Animal Rescue Centre (NCAR). We were there to film a documentary about the running of the centre.  Volunteers are an integral and essential part of the running of the centre and the NCAR manager was keen for us to emphasize this in the film.

NCAR is a privately run registered charity that was founded by Anne Owen in 1978. It has grown over that time to take care of over 1000 animals per year.  They take in stray dogs, cats and rabbits. It is entirely dependent on members of the public to help with funding and donations to look after all of these animals. Vet fees can be anything up to £4000 per month so you can see how important the fundraising is to keep the centre going.

We started off by interviewing a volunteer called Adam is a dog behaviourist. Adam gave us an insite into the work he does with some of the more challenging dogs that come into the centre.

Filming the documentary with animals did present some challenges, for example the noise of dogs barking was an issue so we couldn’t do any interviews within the kennels themselves. However, being a documentary the film gives us an opportunity to dub the soundtrack by adding narration and/or music without detracting from the overall atmosphere.  The staff were also very busy so we didn't want to interrupt the excellent work they were doing although everyone was very accommodating and gave us as much time as we needed.

Whilst in the shop a couple had come to bring their dog ‘Oscar’ for his second round of injections. We were fortunate enough to be able allowed to film him having his injections and ask the owners some questions about their experiences at the centre and search for a rescue dog.

We also held an in depth interview with Owen who is one of the Managers of the centre. He gave us detailed information on the fundraising events they attend

It was amazing talking to the members of staff and volunteers and they deserve a lot of credit for the amount of effort they put in to run the busy centre.

If you are interested in adopting one of the animals, becoming a volunteer or making a donation then please visit the NCAR website by clicking here http://www.ncar.org.uk/

 

Barnardos training film day 2

Well that's the filming finished! Had a great day using a great piece of kit, the semi-professional Canon XH-A1 again. Everything ran really smoothly today (apart from the odd door slam in the background!) and we finished ahead of schedule. All that remains is the editing, it will be great to see the end result!

Barnardos training film day 1

Today I started work on a training film for Barnado's. The charity is currently in the process of delivering a training course entitled ‘Interview Panel Training for Service Users’. This is aimed at children and young people who access Barnardo's services across North Wales. The aim of the course is to train this group of people to sit on interview panels during staff and volunteer interviews as the charity believes it is important that they have a say in who works for them.

The brief is to to film 4 different interviews each with the same actors. However, for each interview the actors will be focussing on a particular trait of their character. For example, interview 1 would be competent interviewers and a shy interviewee. Interview 2 would be disorganised interviewers and a strong candidate. The mock interview clips need to demonstrate the different ways in which a job interview can be carried out. The clips will be used as a training exercise where our service users will look at body language, dress, use of words and various other things. They will also be learning to access a good candidate and also how they might come across in an interview

The filming will take place over two days. For the first day I have taken the role of 'boom operator'. Tomorrow I will get to be the Cameraman so I'm looking forward to that! It was great working with a new group of people and working for a charity with a very worthwhile cause.

The end is near! (And I'm not talking about the 21st December 2012)

This the last blog detailing my assignments for the final semester. I still can't believe the first year is over already! I know it's an old cliche but time does fly when you're having fun! Yes I've really enjoyed the first year, I've had a great time working on my assignments and have made some great friends. Can't wait for the second year now. But don't worry I won't stop blogging I've got some projects planned over the summer and will provide updates here so watch this space!

So now for the assignments, these were given to us in a pack with a deadline of 16th May (to complete all of them) so it was up to us which ones we tackled first. The Music video (Pink Skies) and Horror film (The Wrong Way) were also part of these assignments so I won't be blogging about those here as I've already done those (see previous blogs).

The first assignment was a storyboard for a commercial. The brief asked me to produce a 6, 9 or 12 frame client presentation in A3 size. It could be produced using photography, images acquired from magazines or the web with development ideas, images and thoughts to be kept in a sketch/ideas book.  The subjects to choose from were Volvic, O2, Kit Kat and Eggs. I initally thought about some ideas for an egg commercial to do with recipes and making food from eggs when there wasn't much left in the cupboard. However, I thought something similar had been done before so I changed my mind. I then chose the Kit Kat brief which said that Nestle had brought out a series of different flavours and wished to bring this to the attention of consumers. The strapline for the campaign would be 'What colour are you?'. After a fair amount of research I decided on a fairly straightforward idea where different types of people would appear in a montage describing their favourite Kit Kat colour and flavour. Below is the storyboard I produced:

The next 6 assignments were all photography based. I had to produce photographic images for the following:

Shooting for Stock

The brief asked me to produce 6 images within a category that I feel empathy with. After some research I decided to go for alcohol. Below are the images I produced:

Joiner
For this one I had to produce an image that turns a 3 dimensional space or object with space into a 2 dimensional image. I actually produced 3 images for this assignment.

Typologies
I was required to produce an A2 wall poster containing 9 images based on typologies, laid out in portrait mode (3x3). I decided to base my on shop signs from Chester.

Street Photography

For this assignment I had to produce a mini portfolio of 12 images in monochrome or colour. For this assignment I took photos from Chester and also some whilst I was in Sydney. Due to limited space I've only uploaded 3 of my favourite pictures.

Whilst walking in Hyde park I spotted a couple of guys playing 'Street Chess'.

This photo was taken on a street corner in Sydney. I called this one 'Ignored Beggar'.

Men at work!

Still Life

I was asked to use commonplace objects to produce a still life image to illustrate the front cover of a book, the opening page of a website or a poster. After spending some time in the photography studio I decided to utilize some tripods. I also mocked up the image as a magazine cover to demonstrate how it could look on the front of a real publication.

Human Landscapes

The final assignment in the photography section of the brief was to produce 4 human landscape images using different lighting effects and viewpoints.

Thunder, Lightning, delayed trains & Romance at Wrexham train station

On Friday I was asked if I would help Jo (a 2nd year Student) with the sound boom on the shoot of her latest film. Filming started at 9 o'clock at Wrexham train station. Jo had arranged for a couple of actors to participate so it was great to work with a couple of professionals for a change rather than being the actor myself! I won't give the story away (as Jo hasn't finished editing it yet) other than the fact it is a romance. Shooting the film was a bit of a challenge due to the weather we had thunder, lightning and heavy rain showers. There were also delayed trains that were very noisy when silence was required! It was great experience working with Jo and I had good fun helping her out.












I'll hopefully post some further pictures in the near future.

Pink Skies

Well we've finally finished editing our Music Video! It was produced for a track written and sang by Tracey Green (a very talented singer.) see previous blog for a photoshoot she took part in. Gemma, Sue and I filmed the outdoor footage on a freezing cold day on location at Caergwrle Castle. Despite the cold weather we had good fun filming the footage. The indoor shots (for the storytelling part of the parallel edit) were filmed at Sue's house (thanks again to Sue for letting us use her house!).

Colin Heron (a Tutor in Sound Production) kindly arranged for two of his students (Jonny and Tom) to provide us with access to the sound recording studio at the main Glyndwr Campus. They 'laid down' three tracks to produce the end result which was a professionally polished song. The track also included harmonies by Tracey and her friend Bryn provided the acoustic guitar track. He also added further depth to the song with his great backing vocals.

 Editing was tricky as we had to match the song to the video but we got there in the end. Gemma and Sue did a great job creating a logo for our groups work.

Below is the a link to the video on YouTube. Constructive feedback is welcome!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szbKNdMgWb4

Guitars, a new rock star and friends

Another day in the photo studio with Tracey and her friend Lucy. Today I was focussing on low key lighting. Tracey is a singer in a band and she brought her guitars along so we could take some shots of her. These shots could potentially be used for a promo or cd cover.

A day in the studio

Back in January Sue kindly arranged for her daughter Kirsty and friend Myra to take part in a couple of photo shoots. It was a fantastic opportunity to practice my portrait photography skills in both high and low key lighting. I took many different shots with the girls in a number of poses. I also experimented with longer exposures and achieved some creative results (see shot of the dancer below)Unfortunately I don't have space to post them all here but I've posted a few of my favourites.

A Good Friday

I'd like to start this blog by thanking Gemma (who kindly sent me a Facebook message whilst on honeymoon!) for telling me there was an opportunity to help out Dave Robinson with a short educational film the week I got back. The aim of the film was to give guidance to people with learning difficulties about how to recycle. I was keen to get involved as this was a good opportunity to work on a project outside of the University and would form part of my professional development.

The filming took place on Good Friday at Talacre. Gemma's sister had kindly agreed for us to use her holiday home as the location which was great considering it was a holiday and the weather was fantastic!

Along with my fellow first year students Sue & Gemma, two second years (Dave and Helen) were also there to help with the film. Dave R surprised us a bit as I'm sure everyone was expecting the shoot to have already been planned out and scripted. However, Dave told us that he expected us to take charge and plan the shoot from start to finish! Dave had also brought along his semi-professional Canon XH-A1 camera so it was great to get some experience on a video camera with a manual mode that gave professional results. Fortunately the controls are very similar to my Canon SLR so it didn't take too long to get used to it.

However, before filming could start the first thing we did was get our heads together to plan the shoot. We had to show how to safely recycle glass, plastic, cans, paper and also food waste. Helen had kindly volunteered to be the actress in the shoot so we filmed her whilst in the kitchen cleaning items such empty bottles and cans and then putting them into a recycle box ready to go outside to the relevant bags or bins.

We all had a chance at directing and also working the camera. The camera was set to manual so it was vital that it was sharply focussed, the f-stops were correct and the tripod level of course!

It was great to work with students from the second year and I got some great help and advice from Dave R on use of the camera. Overall it was a great experience, well worth giving up a bank holiday for. Many thanks to Dave R for the opportunity and Gemma of course! I'm looking forward to seeing the end result.

Creative Futures Day Three

Day three of Creative Futures included a very interesting and helpful talk from Sue Jeffries who has worked in the TV and Film industry for more than twenty years. Sue has worked in a number of roles during her time in the industry e.g. Production Manager, Continuity Supervisor, Line Producer and Director so has a wealth of knowledge and experience.


Sue began the lecture by asking the students to consider the following questions:

Why do you want to be in industry?
What do you want to do?
What are you good at?

She then asked various Students what their answers were to these questions and gave some helpful advice on how to get into the industry. Sue said that work experience is invaluable, shadowing, gaining contacts and learning to market yourself are all vital in a competitive industry. A good way into the industry can be through small businesses that produce for the BBC, Channel 4, 5 etc rather than with these large broadcasters. It would also be a good idea to get hold of the BECTU (Media & Entertainment Union) Crew Finder directory which contains details of industry professionals and potential job opportunities. Sue said that if looking for work experience always ask how long the work is for, the number of hours per day and are you going to pay me?

A question was asked how to become a Director. Sue explained that Post Production is a good route to Director. You can't direct if you can't edit! Shadowing Editors and working in a Post Production house as a runner can also be a good way in. Good runners usual work for 6-12 months before obtaining a more specific role.

Another person asked about becoming a Photographer in the industry. Sue said Photographers are needed but they need to find a niche. Broadcasters only seem to have the money for them. If you someone has recently won a commission, then it's good to ask if you can go and take photos for them, you're likely to have to do this for free but it will be good experience that you can add to your portfolio.

For camera roles Sue said that a good show reel demonstrating film making skills is required. I asked Sue if it's possible to get a commission from one of the broadcasters if you have a small business. Sue said a one man band can produce films cheaper for small production companies.
Sue asked how many sub-sectors are there within the industry? She said there are around 12

Tv
Film
Radio
Animation
Computer Games
Multimedia
Adverts/Commercials
Corporate
Post Production
Fashion & Textiles
Photo imaging

Well that's it for the Creative Futures week. CLM are off to Paris this week to do some street photography so I'm looking forward to seeing the results!

Creative Futures Day Two

The second day of Creative Futures week began with a lecture entitled 'Art, life and change' by Andrew Richards a Teacher/Potter/Family Man. Below are the notes I took from the session:

Andrew started by telling us that "you have to adaptable and think in many directions. No job is for life".

He went on to tell us how on leaving school he wanted to go on and do an apprenticeship. However, he was persuaded to go to college instead (Chesterfield college of art) to study for a higher national diploma in art/ceramics. He gave an overview of the tutors he encountered during his time at college, their personalities and the impact they had on his there. It was two years of joy and deep learning in all aspects of running pottery. Building kilns and developing style.

Opportunities
Andrew explained the opportunities that came his way during his early career.

Camp America 86, 95,96,98,99

• A journey of discovery and a chance to travel across the states at the age of 20
• Being professional teaching arts and crafts in a beautiful setting
• Growing up and also letting go

238 & 138 kids over two camps. Andrew had his own accommodation and earned more money each year he was there. However, he wouldn't go back, feels he's done enough. He believes his experience at the camp taught him patience and how to react to rich kids who have everything.

Running my first business
After college Andrew decided to set up his own business in Edinburgh. He built a wood kiln to make production pottery. The kiln was enormous and if there were technical problems nobody knew how to help him. There's potentially lots of waste if things don't work. Potter Mike Dodd gave advice on how to change his chimney to make it more efficient. This made his life much easier as pottery could be fired more quickly.

Hard work and long hours
Andrew felt he was enthusiastic but naive at first doing every show he could possibly find to gain as many orders as possible. The first 2-3 years was a struggle and he only just brought in enough money to pay bills. It was a roller coaster, some months bringing in up to £5k, other months nothing. After 5 years he was very tired and decided to close the business. Andrew told us an interesting story about how Harrods asked him to produce hundreds of pate jars. He thought he'd hit the big time but unfortunately the person he dealt with moved departments so it was a 'one hit wonder'.
After finishing the business he needed a degree as he had a desire to go into teaching. This would open new pathways for him.

He had an interview with Cardiff University to start on at second year. Andrew ended up with a 2:1 after 2 years. Then had to decide if he wanted to go into teaching or back to being a potter.

During this time an opportunity came up to do charity work in Albania establishing a self sustaining pottery. He then went on to work with Mike Dodd in India at Golden Bridge Pottery. It was a self sustaining pottery run by the local community and many international students visited. Andrew spent a few weeks there and travelled around India for a couple of months.

Professional practice outside of teaching.
Andrew asked himself why am I making pots when I teach? This is Andrew not letting go of his passion, his freedom what he does to relax. You can jump in with both feet (i.e. set up a full time business) which will cost a lot of money or work for 3 days and then do work on other days. It's also advisable to keep costs down in the first few years will help.

Teaching Art & Design AVCE-A Level-GNVQ-GCSE & Special needs
Andrew told us it's a fantastic job, one of the best but has changed over the last decade. Inspections scare teachers and have had an impact on the way you teach. Paperwork required to fulfil criteria has increased significantly. Taken on as PGCE student teacher at Whitchurch, he was thrown in at the deep end. It was exhausting and he threw everything into it in the first couple of years.

He recommended that you collect as much resources as you possibly can. Professional practise different departments, photograph people and techniques. Sketchbooks are incredibly personal. It's a challenge to get the de-motivated to a position of a C grade or above. Careful about child confidentiality when reviewing sketchbooks.

Sticking to deadlines when teaching. You are judged on your results, they count for an awful lot. A good track record can get you into a powerful position. Need to do a lot of research and get involved by putting in the extra hours. Creative people can go off on a tangent so learn to reserve energy (takes time).

A PGCE is a 3 year degree condensed into one year so very hard work!

Social Media
The second session I attended was entitled 'Social Media' by Steve Graves who works in the Glyndwr Marketing Team. Below are my notes:


Social media is happening very quickly. Traditional media has not got a handle on it yet.

Facebook & Twitter are the most widely used tools. These may be replaced in the future, possibly by social networking focussing on smaller sections of society. Some are dedicated to specific areas of business, e.g. education.

Glyndwr generally uses Twitter for information such as fees and specific info as it has a more targeted audience. Facebook is often used for events.

One of the advantages for the Marketing team is that Social Networking has a much wider reach. It can also be monitored so that publishers can see how people are engaging with the content (frequency, volume etc).

Twitter is so effective as it's about short pieces of information, sharing, networking at the very heart of it. Trending - what are people watching and talking about? News stories. Glyndwr follows students, other universities, businesses etc on Twitter as well as creating its own feeds.

It's essential to embrace social networking if you plan to work in the media. It's important that traditional and social media works together. Traditional media should embrace new technologies. Networking is essential.

Businesses don't always get positive feedback on social media sites. However the view is you don't try to censor people. Listen to online debate about your brand.

The future
People are paid to monitor Twitter & Facebook. This will increase over the next few years.

Individuals will blog, Twitter & Facebook. It's as important as picking up the phone and writing emails, it will increase job opportunities.
Tumbler is a combination of Twitter & a blog. Content/sharing based. Will be more widely used in the future/
Celebrities can and will manage their brand via Social Networking, many can change the way they're perceived through it.

Creative Futures

This week is 'Creative Futures' it's designed to provide us with an insight into the realities of working in the creative industries as well as giving us an opportunity to meet and network with industry professionals to help develop our future careers.

The first speaker of the day was Dr Stuart Cunningham who is the Academic Leader for the Creative Industries. His presentation provided an holistic view of the creative industries in the UK. Below are the salient points from the presentation.

He explained that there are 400+ creative businesses in the Wrexham area and over 3000 within a 1 hour drive of the university. The good news is that the industry is easily accessible and highly scalable.

Creative industry facts:

• The UK creative industries make up over 7% of the UK's GDP. It's the largest in Europe although there is increasing competition from France, Canada, the Middle & Far East.
• 1,165,500 people are employed in 157,400 businesses and there are 805,700 people in creative occupations outside outside the industry, 19,000 in Wales
• Consistent employment growth

67% of those working in creative industries are graduates and success isn't random.
Creative people understand entrepreneurship and enterprise.

• Without creative content technology achieves little
• Creative talent is highly mobile and it needs to be retained for the benefit of the UK
• 80,000 Brits work in Hollywood (twice the number that work in the British Film Industry

Important themes for success are:

• Ability to communicate
• Focus on clients, customers, audience and participants
• Central importance of creativity for achieving business success

Creative Industries in the UK benefit from the following:

• A key strategic priority for the UK economy
• Welsh National education priority
                     -Digital economy
                     -Printing technology
                     -Product design and rapid prototyping
                     -Visualisation
• UK is the largest publishing industry in Europe
• UK has the largest number of games development companies in Europe
• 3rd largest filmed entertainment market in the world
• By 2014 £56 billion of entertainment revenues

There are a number of challenges but also opportunities:

• Embracing technology and challenging creative ambition
• Cementing Wales and the UK as worldwide creative leaders
• Maintaining skills and expertise
• Work to create content for an increasingly media hungry market
• To stand out from the crowd

Barry Purves, Animator 
The second speaker of the day was Barry Purves an established animator who gave a presentation entitled 'Passions and Passports'.

Barry began by showing a film clip from the 'Sound of Music'. It was the lonely goatherders scene where Maria (Julie Andrews) and the children put on a puppet show for Baron Von Trapp (Christopher Plummer). Barry explained that the scene changed his life as it introduced him to the world of puppets.  He informed us that his favourite film is 'Mary Poppins' and he particularly liked the scene at the end of the film where she speaks to the parrot carved into her umbrella. We also watched one of his favourite animations called 'John & Karen', it's a short heart warming tale about the relationship between a polar bear and a penguin.

It demonstrated how the subtle use of animation can make all the difference to the story. Barry went on to show us one of the first animations he created entitled 'Next' it was basically the whole of Shakespeare's works in 5 minutes. We also watched another film entitled 'Overtime' created by a group of French students in 2004. Barry ended the presentation by showing us a number of his favourites images (E.g Warhorse & Swan Lake). Overall it was a very interesting and engaging presentation from Barry. He is very passionate about what he does and I'm sure the animation students in particular would have got a lot out of it.

Portfolio, CV & Showreels The final speaker of the day was Harriet Buckley who spoke to us about portfolio, cv and showreels. Harriet has experience in reviewing cv's, showreels and also applying for a number positions so had some great advice for the students. A businesss card, live portfolio website and showreel are must haves. After applying for a position if no response is received then it's a good idea to follow up with a phone call. 

Other tips from Harriet were:

• Don't be too brutal with editing work
• Sound and music added to animation can boost your work although some reviewers will turn it off
• Showreels should be short and sweet (i.e. best clips of your best work)
• Don't included anything on a showreel that needs to be explained
• Be prepared to create a dvd showreel as well as a website
• A dvd is a physical reminder of your work

When creating a portfolio think about your USP (unique selling point) and concentrate on your technical skills. Life drawings are invaluable, being able to draw detail such as hands a feet will demonstrate that you can draw almost anything. 

When submitting a portfolio electronically Harriet said it's best to ask permission before sending large file sizes. Also get feedback from friends and other students before sending anything.  When writing an application leter keep it to one side of A4 and your CV t o a maximum of 2 sides of A4 and always check the grammar and spelling!

Overall the presenation was very information and contained lots of useful information that will be invaluable when applying for jobs.

  

Horror...... our latest film assignment

Well today I had a very busy day at an abandoned abbey near Talacre. This was the chosen location for our latest film assignment. It doesn't yet have a title but the genre is going to be horror. The story is reality based - Sue, Gemma and I all play ourselves. We've just received our latest assignment and after a discussion at the Uni we're at a loss to come up with any valid ideas. Gemma has a brainwave after seeeing a caravan outside the window she's staring out of. "Let's do a documentary about Caravans!" she says. In the absence of any better ideas we reluctantly agree. So we've decided on the genre and the location is a caravan park near Talacre in North Wales. We arrange an interview with the caravan park owner and make our way over there. After a short interview (the caravan owner is not interested in answering our questions) we decide to go and explore. After following path leading out of the park we end up in a field with a brick wall running next to it. I notice a hole in the wall and suggest to the others that we go and explore. So we all make our way over the wall and into a wooded area. After exploring for a while we come across a graveyard and then what looks like an abandoned abbey. Unfortunately for us strange things start to happen and each member of the group ends up disappearing one by one.... I will post more details of the film once it has been completed and reviewed by our tutors (**See update below**).

We all had a fantastic day filming, it was hard work but very rewarding. The weather in the morning of the shoot was perfect as it was very foggy, this added to the mood greatly. It was good experience experimenting with the lighting, we had to be quite inventive with the torches we carried. We had to produce enough light to film (as parts of the abbey were very dark!) whilst maintaining the mood without making things look too artificial which was quite a challenge. Overall it was a brilliant day, there was some superb acting by Gemma and Sue (and hopefully myself!) and Dawn and Carys were great in helping to film, direct and record the sound. It was a great experience working with the group, we allocated tasks according to peoples strengths and weaknesses but also everyone chipped in when required to do so.
Unfortunately after reviewing the footage it was recognised that some of the scenes were too dark and there were a few continuity errors. We therefore decided that a second days filming was required to correct these issues. Sue, Gemma, Dawn & I therefore headed off to Talacre again but this time we took more torches to help with the light situation. It wasn't a foggy day but most of the re-shoot was inside so it didn't cause us too many problems and we were very pleased with the results. A fantastic job was done by Sue (opening) and Gemma (closing) in post-production with the credits which make the whole production look a lot more professional. Next time I would like to shoot in HD if possible as due to the conversion process (mpeg to Quicktime format) some of the quality was lost. However, I'm very happy with the outcome of the film and I think it's our best production to date.

Stoke your Fires

I visited the 'Stoke Your Fires' moving image festival today with my fellow students. Based in the city of Stoke the festival has been running for three years. It's main focus is animation but this year film and digital media was also included. We were firstly shown 8 films from the awards shortlist, these were as follows:

 

Best Short Animation - Specky Four-Eyes Jean-Claude Rozec, France -

Best Professional Animation - Save our Bacon Peter Baynton, UK

Best Fine Art/Experimental - Birdboy Pedro Rivero & Albert Vazquez, Spain

Best Student Animation - On the Water - Yi Zhao, The Netherlands

Best Short Film Drama - Intercambrio - Antonollo Novoulno, Italy

Best Short Film Documentary - Identity Petrazalkar Juraj Chipik, Slovaki

Best Student Film - Entropy Alexander Thomas, UK

Best 'Made in the Midlands' - Run Anderson West, UK

My favourites film was 'On the Water' by Yi Zhao. This was about the journey through life and propelling oneself forward through its trials and tribulations, ups and downs, the joys, the losses and finally death. It was an emotional animation and in my opinion a powerful way of telling the story about the events that everyone experiences throughout their lifetime.

In the second session of the day a panel of media professionals spoke to us about their careers and projects they're currently working on. Chris Rhodes from 'Hit Entertainment' talked about a new animation series he is producing called 'Mike The Knight'. He told us that much of the CGI animation is now produced outside the UK due to a number of reasons (e.g. tax breaks & budget).Chris also spoke about compliance within childrens programmes and how reviewing content before it is broadcast is an important aspect to his job. The second speaker was called Hans, he is the 'Head of Pipeline' for MPC London. He told us that his team pieces together all of the separate parts that are produced by the different areas of his business, resulting in the final product. Another speaker talked about his role as Producer of a new children's programme called 'Ra Ra The Lion'. 

The final speaker of the day was Gruff Owen. He is a 2d Supervisor from a company called 'Double Negative'. Gruff has worked on many films during his time at 'Double Negative' including some of the Harry Potter and X-Men films. However, today he spoke about the film 'Paul' that has recently been released at the cinema. The main character 'Paul' is completely CGI (apart from a couple of short scenes where a puppet was used). Gruff explained to us in detail how the character was created and the techniques used to bring him to life on the screen. He also told us about the importance of photography and the use of light within the studio, where much of the filming within the vehicle was shot.

Overall it was an interesting day at the festival. Although I felt it would have been most beneficial to the animation students.

Light painting

Had some great fun in the studio today with Gemma and Sue experimenting with 'light painting'. Firstly the camera was placed on a tripod,  I then set a long exposure (initially 6 seconds). After turning off the lights in the studio and beginning the exposure we then proceeded to dance around in front of the camera with our torches (one LED torch, one with a standard bulb) , the results were fantastic.

We also lit some sparklers and interspersed these with the torches to create an interesting effect. A longer exposure was set for these shots as the sparklers did not give off that much light.

I was really pleased with my first attempt at light painting. The backgrounds are very black and the image of the lights are very clearly focussed. In my opinion the images are works of art in their own right.

After finishing the light painting Gemma decided to take a photo of her face with the torch pointing at it, these looked great so we decided to take a number of pictures of varying exposures. The results are below..... very sinister!

We took this one stage further by zooming the camera in and out of the subject during the exposure. This resulted in an even spookier picture....

Well that's it for now I hope you like the pictures. We're off to the 'Stoke Your Fires' moving image festival in Stoke tomorrow so will be reporting on that in my next blog.

Module 2

So onto the 2nd module 'Creative Media Practice'.

Jump Cut

The first assignment in this module is based on video 'jump cutting'. The brief is that time is running out and you have to be somewhere fast! We were asked to create a short film in which a person needs to be somewhere else NOW! They have two minutes to make it and obstacles shouldn't stand in their way. Again all of the shot types (CU, MS, LS etc) used in the first film assignment were to be used. However, there was to be no continuity cutting or hidden editing. Instead the sequence required use of the jump cut technique to add energy and a contemporary feel. For our film my group decided that the story behind this would be based on a groom who has woken up on the streets after his stag night and realises he has to get to the church for his wedding. We decided to use a parallel edit to help tell the story. The action switched from the calm of the bride getting ready for her wedding whilst the groom is rushing to get home to change and make his way to get to the church on time. I've attached some screenshots of the shoot. Unfortunately it wasn't a happy ending for the groom as the bride jilted him at the alter, she ran off with another man!

It was good fun shooting the film even though I got some funny looks in Wrexham running around in a suit tripping over and banging into things in the street! It's hard work being an actor! Thanks to my team members Dawn, Gemma, Janet & Sue. The film was entitled 'See John Run'.




Audio

The second assignment was entitled 'Audio'. It focussed on sound track production and introduced digital editing techniques. We were asked to listen to the radio and produce a soundtrack using digital cut and splice techniques. I recorded exerts from news items and chat shows to produce one entertaining sound track. I really enjoyed this assignment although it was quite a challenge obtaining all of the pieces to create the final track (I had to listen to hours of radio!).

Vox Pops

Two assignments were set for the 3rd week of this module. A video in the 'Vox Pops' style and series of photographs based on reportage were required. For the Vox Pops we decided to interview a number of students about the social life around the University and how it varied between age groups. Audio was a problem on the shoot as there was lots of background noise and the microphone built into the camera wasn't very good. We used the sound room for some of the recording which was much better although the feedback we had was that this wasn't really what Vox Pops was about.

Reportage

For the reportage assignment I decided to produce a mini portfolio  (10 images) of abandoned industry in the Wrexham area. I focussed on the Minera open cast lime mines and also a local colliery at Rhos that had been closed down. We also made a visit to an old lead mine near Wrexham. The first image is of the wheel at the top of the mine shaft, it was used to operate the lift. The sun was setting at the time so I got a nice shot in 'contre jour'.

The second shot is inside one of the lime kilns in Minera. It was pitch black down there so I had to use the flash. I changed the settings to second curtain and a strange effect occurred, nearest to the camera the wall is in focus however at distance towards the back of the kiln the shot is slightly blurred. I think this creates an eerie effect! As you can see in the final photo I've posted there was snow on the ground and it was very cold! There were  lots of old abandoned tools and barrels that had once been used by the industry, but long since left to rust.

Photography 2
This assignment introduced competencies in creative photography with emphasis on colour theory and development of the photographic eye. We were asked to produce 3 colour images for each of the following subjects : Monocolour, complimentary and analogous colour. Analogous colours are those that are adjacent to each other on the colour wheel as shown below:

Below are a couple of the photos I produced:

The photo on the left is one of the shots that I took for the analogous colour, the dark blues and purples of the clouds. The second photo demonstrates rhythm. The bikes, roof line and cars all contribute.




We were also asked to produce one picture for each of the following subjects: High viewpoint looking down, low viewpoint looking up, rhythm, frames within frames and window reflection. Below are some of the shots I produced:

The photograph on the left was taken at the gardens of Chirk Castle. I used this for my frame within frame shot. The one on the right is the low viewpoint looking up. I thought the trees worked particularly well for this shot.







Parallel Action
The brief for the final assignment in this module was to create a short live action sequence to show understanding of 'parallel action'. Again a range of shot types was required and it was important to work as a team to produce a satisfactory result. As I'd been the main actor in the two previous films I decided I wanted to get behind the camera for this particular film. We'd previously had experience of parallel edit in our 'See John Run' film so knew what was expected. Having had primarily fast moving chase scenes in the last two films we decided to slow the action down for this one. The story flipped between a female character in an institution and another person who was doing normal every day things such as making tea and walking the dog. However, things aren't quite as they seem as the character supposedly doing the normal everyday task starts to see things (e.g. a doll) that was owned by her twin sister. It then transpires that the sister killed her twin in a car crash and has since 'gone off the rails' and unfortunately ended up in an institution. The film is called 'Dark Symmetery'. Below are some photos of the shoot:










Well that's it for module 2! Stay tuned for the next!