Self Assessment

Unit 1: Research Methods
What Some Might Consider to be Research
Sunday
Blackburn MuseumVisit

Unit 2: Ideas Development
The Reef Initial Response
The 3 Min Project Memory is Key
Memoryis Key Door Has Been Opened
Memory is Key Just Incase You Forgot
Fine Art and Textiles
Even More Fine Art and Textiles
3D Sculpting Pathway
Shisha Awareness Advert

Unit 3: Materials and Methods
Standing Tall Wed11th Thurs12th
Scanning Paul Kenny
The 24 Hours of Dolphinholme

Unit 4: Evaluation and Reflection
Media and Photography 2
Even More Fine Art and Textiles
Scanning Paul Kenny
Editing Memory

Specialism
I have applied for a BA Film making course at Manchester Met Uni. I enjoy creating films. I think I enjoy creating short films more as they are quicker to make and thus I get the feel of completion much sooner. I don't know where I want to work, so for now I'm looking into exploring my ideas in film.

Personal comment
Since September I have engaged in all of the activities thrown at me. From sewing in textiles to creating a scratch film. I comfortably eased into the course and started work as soon as the roundabouts were done. Currently I'm expanding on a few ideas for short films I intend to create over the year.

Derpinholme!

I forgot to put the video from Dolphinholme on here. It may be a bit late but better late than never...

Here it is.

It's a good little documentary. It was a nice warm up piece of work to ease back into college with after the summer holidays.

Editing Memory.

(December, it didn't post this when I wanted to.)
Oh gee...
It didn't turn out how I hoped.
I'm not really sure what went wrong, but I really don't like how Innocence looked on screen. I will not be submitting this as anything. It's main use will be to say what went wrong and how I plan to move on. I want to do that with examples, which I can't get till the 7th of January. So the main review will have to wait.

Not all of it is lost though. I started to make a short piece for Audio Nisual.
Audio Nisual is a small production team that consists of 5 students. We use the footage from our own work and create something completely different. Mostly for comedic use. It's mainly about the way it's edited. I'm thinking of naming it 'The Big Wigs are Watching.'

(January 7th.)
So this is the first day back after Christmas. I wish I could have continued working over the holidays, better than just sitting at home. But it doesn't matter now! I can continue to edit my horrible 3 minuet film. Memory is the Key, and I wish I could forget it...

Too bad it didn't save everything.
The Big Wigs are Coming went from just short of a minuet to 10 seconds. Practically all of Memory had gone. I just continued working on them, redoing most of it again. Oh what fun!

So lets look at the first screen shot.

I think this character is the best lit character in the film. But I think what lets this down is me. I have no acting experience. I don't know how to best show the emotions that I'm trying to portray.
The background may have been a bad choice. But I don't see much of a set to show inside someone's head. My only other option would be a full white background.

So here is the only part where I appear on screen twice. This shots shows just how darkly lit my faces are. Some floor lights would have helped a lot. I also forgot to film intelligence listening, so rather than having intelligence already there he fades in just before he says his line. Thankfully I remained silent after saying my line. I think this could have been a good shot if I had put more work into the lighting.

 Here is a shot of the full sequence I'll add a link to the film later. 

Above is a shot of the full sequence for The Big Wigs are Coming. It's about 50 seconds long and was created from curiosity. I wanted to see how many times we swore while filming Memory is the Key. While editing if there was a point where we swore I cut it out and copied it over to a separate sequence. I then shortened them down to quicken the pace of the entire thing. I didn't use all of the swearing because I had issues with saving. I think it loses it's comedic effect after a while so I wouldn't have made it any longer than a minuet. It wasn't till after making it that I decided on the name. A little reference to the old T.V.

Filming Memory.

I got to film today!
After being unable to film last week I was very happy to film today. I had the entire T.V. studio to myself and  a camera. But what I really needed was a sense of direction. I had the looks the words but I had no idea on what shots to do.
I will never try and shoot with out a shot list. I feel really stupid for trying to just 'wing it'. I did try a few of those I showed in my last post. But I forgot a bit.
For example two of the characters that are stood next to each other talking directly to each other.

Righteousness

How is this so difficult?

Intelligence

Because what we do here will change us forever. We don’t want to it mess up.

Righteousness

Mess up! Look at her.
Those are the lines I'm currently referring to.
We filmed Righteous read his two lines, with enough of a pause for Intel to speak in-between. But what I didn't do is film Intel listening to Right. All I filmed today was people speaking. I should have filmed people listening too. So I might have to do some more filming, but I wont be able to do that till the next year. I underestimated this piece of work. I was so excited about it as well.

As the day whet on I got tired of it quickly, and so did the crew. 

I also never read the script to anyone until today. After reading it in my head and aloud to myself it sounded great every time. But when I read it to my crew it sounded a bit stupid and silly. Hopefully it wont when I piece it together on screen.

Tomorrow I plan to review the footage and make what I can from it.
Also 25th post! (Favorite number!)

What some might consider to be research. Unit 16.

So I finally figured out at least one other place that has the same actor on screen more than once. And I have some examples too.
It's Dr Who. The two episodes I'm looking at are Almost People and Nightmare in Silver.
Firstly, Almost people.
Here is a link to the scene I'm looking at on Youtube.

So this is the first shot I want to look at.
The two Doctors are stood so close that their arms overlap. Meaning that the one on the right is closer to us, but he is smaller. I can't remember if thats because he is the clone ore just the BBC struggled with editing. I hope it's not to hard. I should have probably looked into how to edit this rather than hoping I'll learn on the day. I'm assured it shouldn't be too difficult. Anyway, comparing this to what I'm thinking in my head. My 6 characters are all arguing

with each other and so I don't think they would stand this close.

However, I do think a shot like this would work. Quickly skimming though my scrip I see a few places where this shot could work. It could work well to show two of the characters listening to Darkness if I decide to have him as just a voice.
Filming this shot should be easy as I intend to have a solid black background.

Here we have a low angle looking across the chest of one Doctor and at the face of the other. It's a good shot but one I don't think I will use. Why? because it requires someone of a similar build as I am. It was tough enough to get some one to help me film, never mind getting some one to stop with their work and then wear my clothes. Another point, I would have to acquire a costume for them so that they don't look out of place. Skimming though the script again, I don't see anywhere where this shot could fit. I might give it a go on the day but I doubt it will be in the final cut.


Moving onto Nightmare in Silver. I can't find a clip of the scene but I do have a picture.
I think this scene would show what I want to create better than the other. As this time the two versions of the Doctor are  against each other. Also it is set inside his head. Very similar to my plan. I think a shot like this would allow for me to fit all 6 characters on screen at once. That isn't really needed for the film but I think it will make a cool picture for Facebook, if I have time.


I will try to film all of the shot above and many more! Nothing too ridiculous though as this is a serious piece of film. Started this with the idea of it being funny, ended with something that could be very dark. Innocence is pretty much the only cheery character. I knew this would happen, I did have a dead woman in it. And some suggested necrophilia. Maybe my next piece of work will be side splitting. It the funny way that is.

Memory is the Key (Just incase you forgot the title)

So I think I'm all ready to film.
All of the costumes are ready. The script is done. And I think I'll do that many different takes that a shot list would just be a list of every shot I could do. I'm thinking of having a low angle panning shot. A hand full of close ups and a truck load of medium shots. But like I said, I plan to do at least 5 takes of this so I can get loads of shots. It's better to have too much footage than not enough.

Here is a list of the final costumes!

So Darkness and Panic stay the same. I don't think Panic could be improved in any way. I'm still not too sure if I will have Darkness on screen. I'll be testing it when I edit on Wednesday.

 Righteousness now has a slightly brighter purple tie but really nothing has changed.
(Note: Must clean mirror again.)

 Anger now has darker braces thanks to my good friend James. Again, not much change.

 Intelligence now has some proper glasses. A nice pair of reading glasses from Sainsburry's. There were some that I liked to look of more but they were £15+ and as much as I want the right look, these £8 ones work just fine. Both for reading and for acting.

Innocence will not have a blurry face when filming, I just moved my head at the wrong time.I decided to scrap the lollipop idea and just put an old hoodie on. I'm keeping the ducky tie as I still think that aids the childish look I want.

Standing tall! Wed11th-Thurs12th

Today, I stood still.
Today, Andrew and I filmed a series of help videos for JTRS.
He is a link to their website.
I would put some pictures up but there is a bit of a problem with them.
The camera set up was quite simple. One shot of the tutor from the waist up sat at the desk. The second of his hands and the keyboard. That meant I had to have the tripod fully extended and on top of one of the stage boxes.

Thursday!
So I'm the only one here.
Andrew is busy working on his 3 minuet film, as are most people, and a hand full of students are late. So it's just me running two cameras. Cowman and the T.V. studio. I set everything up and suddenly a James appears. Helpful. Just in time.
We finished filming the tutorials for the laptop and quickly moved on to filming the ones for the Ipad mini.
This required a new shot as he was no longer using a keyboard, nor was he capturing the footage of the screen on the Ipad.
We moved the 2nd camera to the other side of the studio and raised it up onto a 2nd stage box.
I had my own little tower.

So even though I was just stood still for most of it. I had a lot of fun and I'm glad I agreed to do it.