First Rough Edit and Retakes

We had our first rough cut viewing of our People on the Move Project and we got positive feedback, but the lecturers noted that we had too many long shots and so needed to re-shoot some cut away shots to make the film flow more. taking there advice we went out again filming and got some nice shots to add into the film. Editing was a hard process, it was the first time i had used such software and its not that complicated just quite awkward but it went quite well, and im sure as time goes on i'll become a pro at editing. I also found the rough cut experience a valuable one, its important to get feedback to be able to improve your film greatly. and once we'd made the chances, the lecturers commented that it was like a different film, which I was pleased to hear.

Film Language Class Test

The next assignment we had for Film Language was the class test. We were shown a ten minute extract from an extract twice. We didn't know what the extract was until the day, it was a scene from 'North by Northwest' directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Once we'd seen the scene we were given an hour to analyse it. I was really nervous about the test, I hadn't really critically analysed anything in a while and was hoping I could work to university standard, but after the test, i felt quite positive about the outcome, I did better than I thought I would.
A few weeks later we got the results back and i'm please to say that I got a mark of 65 (I think out of 100) I was really pleased with this, it meant i got a 2.1, only 5 marks of a first. The feedback commented that i would have gotten higher had i not made as many generalisations and taken more care over language. I'm hoping to take this into consideration for the next assignment we have for Film Language and hope to get an even better mark!

2nd brief for Contemporary Media Issues 'Play'

For our next brief in Contemporary Media Issues we were asked to work in pairs and design a play experience for people in the screen school building. The game could be digital, on a phone app or wall/floor based, there were many options to choose from and the goal of the game was up to us, whether it was competitive, a game of chance, a role play game, or even a game that was designed to develop certain skills. And so in this session me and my partner got thinking of different kinds of games there are and how we could play them around the building, we created a bubble map, using divergent thinking and then narrowed it down through convergent thinking. Here is the bubble map of ideas we had:

Finally we came to the conclusion of the creating a game based on snakes and ladders but instead called 'shoots and catapults'. The idea of the game was based on the fact that the building is very long and getting from one end to the other is an annoying process, and so we decided to play on this and make it a fun process instead. The idea was to have a competitive game between classmates to get from the entrance side of the building to the automatic, whoever got there first won. (we thought of different prices such as credits, free food from the cafe) Here is where 'shoots and catapults' came in, you had to go through each room in the corridor to advance, as you'd enter each room the interactive boards would activate and a lecturer would ask you a question in relation to there module, so it could be a question related to the rule of thirds or what mise-en-scene means. If you got the question right you would be catapulted to the next room, but if not, then you would shoot (like a slide) back to the previous room. 

And so that's the idea, here is the prezi we made to show the idea:

http://prezi.com/iziqtjpm3kbo/chutes-and-catapults/

Digital Tools - Stop Frame

Part of our digital tools was to create a one minute stop frame animation, it could be to do with anything and so in my group we came up with a number of idea's but we finally settled on something easy yet humorous. The story of a cutlery affair, it was like an episode of Hollyoaks. One of the group members drew up a story board for the story, here it is:

Once we had the story figured out it was time to create with my friend digital SLR camera, which was a long but hysterical experience. we had a lot of fun making the story come to life, moving the spoons and forks around step by step and with half a minute filmed by the time we finished the first day, we still had a lot left to shoot, but we would be able to narrow it down some way in the editing process. I'm really excited to get the animation finished and see the final product, I hope it will be something i'm proud of! :)


Here's some pictures of the process in action:

Lego Serious Play

I didn't know Lego Serious Play existed until we had a session for our creativity and concept class. And although it sounds silly, university students playing with Lego, it was a really fun, interesting and creative experience. Plato said 'You can learn more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation' and the Lego Serious Play workshop is designed to enhance businesses, making their teams more creative and open, especially when it comes to ideas as many are too scared to share as play is a simpler way to express yourself rather than conversation. And so for four hours we sat and played with Lego. But its more serious than that, we were asked to create towers and the only rule was that it had to be on a green base and a Lego man must be on the top. we came to find that the towers we created, represented us as people. I found from mine that I like things to be neat and organised and I like to be able to oversee everything, almost be in control. But I also like to set goals and reach them (represented by the ladder I stuck in the middle of one of my Lego creations)
I really liked the Lego Workshop, it was a fun way to become creative and learn things about ourselves, it felt like a safe environment to express ourselves and once we'd created these pieces we were asked to find a way to link them all together in relation to how a successful team would work, we then found that parts of making a successful team were missing such as the need for communication and so we all created a Lego piece to represent this. Once we were finished we added sticky notes to the models to show what they were to other groups and then went and looked at others, it was fun to see how other peoples minds work!
The experience taught us that not everything has to be literal and we can take whatever meaning we want from things and so the pictures below probably don't make sense to anyone else, but they do to me and my group..

Scene Analysis

For our first assignment in Film Language we were asked to analyse a 3-5 minute long sequence from a film. We were proved with grids to analyse the shots and there were specific things we had to analyse. Here's a PrintScreen of the grid to show you what we what we had to do:

For the analysis I chose to look at a scene from Stanley Kubrick's 'The Shining'. I looked at the famous scene in which Jack (Jack Nicholson) breaks through the bathroom door and shouts 'Here's Johnny'. I liked the scene a lot, its why I choose it, however having to analyse every single shot, replaying each over and over again to fully understand it and find out all the relevant information was tedious and tiresome, it got very boring. However I was quite proud of work that I completed.

Reading Week - Filming

During reading week my production group took up the opportunity of the free time to start filming our 'People on the Move' film. This was the first time i'd filmed and used professional equipment and I was quite excited. Its not as glamorous as you'd think, a lot of standing around, re-shooting from multiple angles and walking around. However even with this, I really enjoyed it. I loved being on a 'set' so to speak and using the professional equipment and watching our film slowing become reality. and afterwards I was excited to edit and put the film together. Here are a few photo's of the filming in process:

Creativity Recap and Assignment

We have an assignment for Creativity and Concept in which we have to reflect on all the thinking techniques that we have looked at in the first semester. Too help us with this assignment we had a recap lesson in which we were put into groups and told to research a technique each and write about it on a big piece of paper. Once this was done we put them all on the wall for people to look at and take pictures to help them with there essay. This was a really helpful session, I hadn't been in for some of the classes and so I was able to see what I missed and take a picture of it for future reference when it came to my essay. Here are some pictures of the posters:

Digital Tools - Animation

In Digital Tools class we looked at an introduction to animation and the different types there are. whilst telling us about 'Stop Frame Animation' (Stop Motion) our lecturer showed us a video that we all found really interesting and enjoyable to watch, so here's the video for you to enjoy 'A Brief History of Pretty Much Everything':