Automatic to SCAMPER?

Thursday 27th October 2011


During today's session I learned some more about different ways of developing concepts and how to rationalise abstract ideas in order to achieve an 'original and do-able' artefact.

After being divided into small groups, we were given a brief which was to adopt a hypothetical task. 

Working for fictional design company 'Snow Fun', our groups were tasked with thinking up a new idea for a snowmobile, then another fun product relating to 'Snow Fun' and finally an innovative concept for an idea for a product generated by random stimulus, but this time not snow related in any way

Some ideas we brainstormed were:

The Snowball Cannon (just add water)
The iPen
Retro-look Snowmobile (Think Lambretta/Vespa in style but with cutting edge Blutooth technology and side-car)

Each individual team was provided with one of the product ideas/concepts that had been created by our groups in a previous session.  Ours was 'Mood Changing Chair'.  We then adopted the SCAMPER method as a way of determining how a new idea could be shaped using different thinking techniques.

5 shots and a man falls unconscious...But what about the After Effects?

Tuesday 25th October 2011

Today was my first experience using Adobe After Effects and an introduction to basic animation.  Myself and Nicky (who took this shot) created a short 25 second animation using some of After Effects' many tools to move a virtual rostrum camera around a sequence of 5 images.  I intend to spend many more hours using this software as there are just tons of features available to use and I have only had chance to use a few of them so far. 

An Avid Learner?

Monday 24th October 2011


Myself and one other member of the production team for 'People on the move' (Tommy) had the opportunity to discuss our ideas further today with our tutor.  We were provided with the necessary paperwork for location sign offs, which are based on industry standard health and safety regs, introduced by the BBC after an Anthea Turner incident some years ago. 

My next task before shooting this film will be to draw up some more storyboards and Tommy will do some more location 'recce's' and hopefully we will be in a position to start on it soon.  We both feel the idea is good and are excitied about getting out there to make our film.

We also received our first introduction to editing this afternoon with a workshop based around AVID software.  We cut together a small video.  The piece?  - Zumba Clowns. :)

MOFILM

Thursday 20th October 2011


I attended a MOFILM workshop today.  MOFILM are a multi-million pound international company who source advertising video content for huge global brands.

They are currently running an online competition and looking for film makers to create a short TVC (Television commercial) which will attract a massive audience during the NFL superbowl final.  

They are also running a competition for a trip to Khatmandu, to an awards ceremony being held there for the first prize winner who makes a successful 15-25 second advert for the Hindustan Times.  Shortlisted entry winners from LSS will receive a pocket video camera. 

For the competition, we formed small production teams consisting of individual groups of 3-4 students. A brief was provided at around 11:00 am and we were given the rest of the afternoon to create a concept, draft storyboards and shoot the film.  We quickly came up with a few ideas as a group and decided that given the budget, deadline and location restrainsts, our film was to be made within the confines of the Screen School site.

It is currently in the editing stages and this is to be completed before 21 November, which is the competition closing date.

I feel that I learned a lot from today's workshop because I was able to see the standard of previous competition entries and this gave me an insight to the standards and qualities of films accepted by MOFILM.

MOFILM's staff on the day were helpful and and one of the directors is an ex-student of LSS, so again this confirms to me that I've made the right choice by signing up for this course as it highlights the fact that I will have a career in media by the time I graduate. :)

'We are all in the gutter but some of us are looking at the stars" (Oscar Wilde)

18th October 2011

As it's about six weeks since I started keeping a journal, I've found that I've been updating that more often than I've been blogging (as you can see by the entry dates on this page).

Anyway, oddly enough I'd been flicking through the scrawlings in my notebook and reminded myself of how many times I'd been referencing 'The Spirit' film,  (Robert Rodriguez & Frank Miller).  I didn't imagine that during today's session about sequential imagery, I would be learning more about The Spirit's influential conceptual artist and writer, Will Eisner.

His name cropped up a few times in today's lecture to do with panels, gutters and graphic novels.  Today I learned some more about how understanding the way in which narrative is portrayed in comics and comic art, can be a massive aid to the art of film-making and story-telling.  I predict that I'll be spending some more time and money on Amazon buying a few books by Will Eisner and Scott McCloud in the next few weeks.

I've been set a new excercise which is to tell a story in 5 frames.  I have paired up with Nicky and today we took around 7 shots to use with Adobe After Effects next week.  The 5 frame narrative is a simple slapstick story about a guy falling over a water bottle, ending up on the floor looking up at the stars (which in this case are substituted by stairs at Edge Lane).  It was an unintentional metaphor and an allusion to an Oscar Wilde quote.  Choosing this course is proving to be a very good idea and I have my sights set on those stars. :)

Ellen Perry - 'Meet The Director'

Monday 17th October 2011

I was lucky enough to spend some of todays session speaking to an award winning director from California.

Ellen Perry, director of a new movie with a Liverpool FC theme was in town to promote the premiere of 'Will'.

The film is based upon the central child character will's obsession with Liverpool FC and the relationship he has with his father, around the time of the UEFA champions league final in Istanbul (2005).

Ellen kindly took time out to answer questions from students and it was an eye-opening experience having the opportunity to speak to a successful fiction film maker for the first time - who incidentally also started out at Screen School. (USC)   

Amongst other things, I used this amazing opportunity to obtain some great advice relating to film making.  

"Know your genre"
"I can't emphasise enough how important planning is"
"Its possible to tell a story successfully in 10 seconds".
"Learn your craft first no matter what type of film maker you intend to be, documentaries or fiction"
"As a director, always have the final say with casting choices, you will know who the right person is"

I explained that our production team had been given the following brief:

Produce a 2 minute short entitled 'People On The Move".  

Both myself and fellow student/group member Tommy pitched our very early ideas to Ellen, who described our situation as:  "One of you is trying to do Chaplin, while the other one does Buster Keaton".  How very hollywood! :)

To think Ellen started out at film school just like me is such an achievement and certainly something to asipre towards.  Here's hoping...

To learn more about Ellen and her new film, 'Will', check out the link below:

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1788079/

The Antichrist

Friday 14th October 2011

Erm, the less said about that the better I think...

'Automatic' - For the people?

Thursday 13th October

I heard on the radio this week that REM have mutually decided to go their separate ways after 31 years.  Today's blog headline is in rememberance to a great band and although not critically their greatest album achievement, 'Automatic for the people' is perhaps their most recognisable.  Check it out if you haven't already.

Anyway, 'nuff said about REM.

Today (Thursday 13th) was my first experience of 'The Automatic' - An innovation studio.  When I walked in there it reminded me of Josh Baskin's bedroom - from the Tom Hanks movie 'Big' (1988).  Scattered with all kinds of kerplunks and gadgetry and a huge projector with anonymous keyboards.  I was duly informed that this site used to house military target manufacture during WWII and at that point wondered just how much thinking and creating had evolved within this space prior to the automatic.

We were split into groups and took part in a few excercises about lateral thinking and between us we came up with some top ideas for a relaxing learning environment concept/conceivable product.

A few of my favourites were:

The Chood (A chair that adapts to an individual's mood)
Bottled firefly illuminations.

Wiki Media

I attended today's session armed with my current issue of Q mag and a few highlighted articles which I thought were of particular interest.

Since I've been harping on about the 'Digital space app' and 'Aurasma app' for the past week, I thought it would be relevant for me to include this for this morning's module.

After another quick scan through the magazine earlier, I noticed that there were a few adverts that I'd missed, which are also adopting this new technology.  Whether this was co-incidence or a clever ploy by the editor I'm not sure, but one advert which grabbed my immediate attention was for the re-issue of Nevermind.  The 20th Anniversary of Nirvana's second and undeniably their most recognised album.

I scanned the page which linked me to a decent trailer to plug the re-release.

Anyway, we formed groups and learned all about wikis.  My only experience of wikis prior to this was using wikipedia.  I learned a lot from today and it was motivating to see how a relatively small group of people can produce quite an informative, diverse and content-heavy site in just over an hour.

As this excercise ocurred in real-time and within a live environment, users have the ability to comment on each other's threads which makes writing a more interactive process.

Have a look and see what you think:

http://contemporarymediaissues.wetpaint.com/page/MUSIC

Deadline achieved :)

Storyboard assignment teaser...

A collection of significant items and a Prezi

It was a wristband.

I chose this object because it signifies a turning point in my life. I found myself in new and unplanned position of independence and I suppose this was the first step into my new single world so the Glastonbury 2010 staff wristband holds fond memories for me.

I'd spent the last sixteen years watching and listening to Glasto coverage religiously at home, in the hope that one day I'd make it there. As sad as it now seems, I even used to book time off work to spend the weekend watching it on TV.  The bed's comfier and there's never any mud.

As it turns out, I went and I got to spend a week there, got free entry and a wage. I managed to get behind the pyramid stage during the pre-production days before the event opens to the public and it was the whole experience which had a profound effect and helped me decide to return to education and do something for myself for a change - a change which would hopefully alter my future for the better.

So, today I used Prezi for the first time and we were divided into groups. The other students in my group had  each also brought an important object with them.  As a collective, we discussed the reasons for the selection of objects we had each chosen.  We were able to find a few common connections with these objects and decided to go with the idea that they all conjured memories of some form or another.

I found this exercise useful because it started to make me think in more details about how different types of media can be utilised and presented in a manner in which to tell a story through images, video, text, audio and animation. Check out the link below.

http://prezi.com/1cnl9daob1dv/significant-objects/

Not at all bad for our first effort :)

First storyboard assignment: DEADLINES

A team of four students including myself have been tasked to produce a photo-storyboard.

The story can be about anything, but emphasis is to be taken on shot composition, narrative (a beginning, middle and end) and the tools available to us.

We used a whiteboard to create a crude storyboard which portrayed our short story, in order to plan our shots sequence before shooting.

Its a short dark horror/thriller about a sinister tutor...

An interesting and timely feature arrives, right on Q

My girlfriend bought me the latest copy of Q magazine.

This month they're celebrating 25 years so they've released 25 different covers.  I went for the Dave Grohl option.

Anyway, right down at the bottom of page 10 - the contents page, there was a little feature all about interactive content.  I found this a bit odd considering I'd been blogging about augmented reality and multi-platforms only a few days ago.  It's introducing a new feature of the magazine which utilises the 'free Digital Space App' for smartphones.  On selected pages, a small icon appears at the end of the article, which when scanned with a smartphone camera with the Digital Space App open, takes you to exclusive content.  Not to be confused with QR scanning which is quite commonplace at the moment.

An object which means something to me, which may have a story attached? Hmmm...

When I first started to think about this, loads of stuff came to mind.

I began to compile a mental list, a shortlist of things to bring.  Then I started to really think hard because although I did have an attachement to the following list of objects, they were also connected to something or someone else too, or signified memories and tales of experiences shared with others.

1.  My daughters second tooth
2. Tickets from Foo Fighters at Wembley
3. A titanium eternity ring
4. A book all about happiness
5. A ticket stub for 'Tangled'
6. A card from my daughter
7. A book all about baked beans
8. A retro lunchbox

As I thought more and more about this, I discovered that these things do mean a great deal to me, but its because they remind me of specific people and happy times - milestones in some cases.

All these things are in fact awesome, but ideally I'd like to choose something that is more personal to just me.

I think I've just decided...

I've been giving some thought to shot composition...

So, another purpose of this blog is to document thoughts and ideas.

I've added more photos today, which I've been taking with my iPhone over the last few weeks.  It's just a collection of things which have looked interesting and beautiful at the time.  Now that I've revisited them, I can see that perhaps subconsciously I've been giving some thought to shot composition and framing of shots.  I've always been interested in angles, symmetry and semiology and I will make a point of investigating these areas further as the course continues...

My girlfriend and I spotted this little bridge in the Peak District the other week.

This is already providing some inspiration for future storyboard assignments. :)

MPS Update: Week 2 Complete. Woo!

I'm now the (proud?) owner of a Smörgåsbord of MPS module handbooks.  My first week at Uni is now officially and quite literally in the (Eco-Friendly) bag.  It seems I'll be off Bordwell and Thompson shopping on Amazon then due to a non-win on Friday (30/09/2011).

I'll soon be adding some snaps on here of some stuff I've taken over the summer, in order to get my creative and conceptual juices flowing, the inspiration of which is thanks to Thursday's (29/10/2011) Post-It Note session.  Keep checking back and I'll welcome any constructive and polite comments.  I thank you! 

Hopefully, these ideas might make it into creation - in some form or another - in the not too distant future.  Got my fingers crossed.

Didn't think I'd ever say this so early on in the course, but I seem to be getting quite into all this blogging mullarkey...