Making of my Alien Eye

Conceptualisation

For my alien transformation stop-motion GIF, I want to focus more on the changing of the eyes, into the eyes many different species of animal. Doing this will create a subtle, but more mysterious effect. Implying that my alien character can change into any living thing, as seen fit.

Bloktik!

Bloktik is a fun new toy that has kids all over the nation going crazy! There is so much to love about Bloktik, not only is it super addictive and will capture the attention of your children for hours. It is also simple, fun and safe for them to play with. Unlike other construction toys, Bloktik is easy on the hands. Pieces are stuck together strong enough to stay in place, but not enough to hurt the hands of your kids. Not only is it safe on them , but it is also safe on the environment, being made from wood from sustainable forests and recycled materials.

Flash! AhhhhhhAHHHH!!!!

I hope you read the title in a Freddie Mercury voice!  I have been working on an animation in our Interactive Media class. 

Political Campaign

- What are young people interested in?
Young people today are interested in fashion and trends. Wether that is the latest phones or the latest clothes. On the whole, they like bright colours, modern, and minimalistic design styles. This question however is extremely vague as what young persons are interested in varies great from demographic to demographic.

3 Movie Soundtrack Analysis

Sweet Dreams by Emily Browning - Sucker Punch Soundtrack 

Music Copyrighting

Creative Commons - allows you to share your work with no legal obligations. Make sure it is credited, meaning you credit the person who actually created the product, image etc.


Copyright - The right given to the owner/publisher to protect their media (for example music/audio, graphics/video and software) and stop others using it without their permission.

Types of copyright:

Right to copy - royalty free, creative commons (CC)

No right to copy - Copyrighted protected

Royalty Free - is copyrighted material available to use without needing to pay royalties or license fees.

Fair Use - is using a copyrighted material for a limited purpose such as to comment, criticise or parody. These uses can be done without permission from the copyright owner. If your use qualifies as a fair use, it would not be considered an illegal infringement.

Music Licensing Companies
http://www.musicbed.com - Attractive, well designed website with a large amount of free and paid audio.

http://www.beatsuite.com - Simple, royalty free audio available. Music and sound FX.

http://www.eccorights.org - Copyright obtaining service. Based in, and caters for St. Lucia, W.I.

http://www.ppluk.com - Music licensing company

http://www.beatpick.com - Music licensing company

Copyrighted Music Stores:
iTunes

Amazon Music

Google Music

Cliché Soundtrack

For this class we were asked to pick a scene from the film 'Cliché' by last years level 2 film students at the City of Bath College. The scenes they gave us had raw, unedited audio, and it was up to us to make a soundtrack for them so that the appropriate mood is conveyed to the audience.

Pre Production

Pre Production is definitely the most important part of the filmmaking process. It is critical that every aspect of the production is thought out and psychoanalysed, as doing so will save you massive amounts of time and money. It will also insure that the filmmaking process is as smooth and hassle-free as possible.

Don't Get Left Behind

What was the activity I've just done?
In class today I made a poster for our Digital Publishing class, with the aim of encouraging young persons to vote. The video above is sped-up screen recording of me creating the design from scratch.

Colour Harmonies

The Complementary Colour Harmony

Colours that are opposite each other on the colour wheel.

Focus Groups

Today we did a practical exercise on focus groups. One of the more enjoyable lessons so far, as we actually got to eat Sainsbury's Taste The Difference cookies and review them as a group. 

Pro-Voting Campaigns

What helps to get people voting?
Are these effective campaigns? Why?
Would these encourage you to vote or not? Why?
Consider - Mode of address(direct/indirect), mise-en-scene, content, style, camera tech, editing


Get Registered
My initial views of this campaign is that it is stupid and very dumbed-down. No it would not encourage me because it is against my religious views to vote, so nothing will encourage me to. If my beliefs were not a problem, it still would. I think voting is a very serious matter and should not be taken lightly, having this ridiculous advert does not do it justice. Also the colour grading is very grungy, which really does not fit in with it's comedic genre. The computer generated images and special effects are really fake. 

Yes We Can

The 'Yes We Can' song was one of the worst song I have ever listened to. True, it was inspiration, maybe, and the message was good, but as a song it was agonisingly horrible. It was agonising having to listen to four and a half gruelling minutes of it. Never again. If I did vote, then I would say that this would encourage me, but oh my word it was bad. I understood what the director was trying to do, getting singers to sing his speech, over his speech. The execution was poor. The video is obviously geared towards young persons, by means of all the modern celebrities in it. This strategy could however backfire as it means discourage adult voters from voting.

Sherlock Soundtrack Podcast

This is my podcast on the music used in the end scene of Sherlock, Scandal in Belgravia, for my Sound Engineering Class

Research Report

Research is more prevalent in our lives than most of us think. It comes in many types and forms and is used to improve our way of life. Researched is how everything from toothpicks, to highly advanced medicinal feats and advances were made. It is quite simply defined as the systematic investigation of a particular subject in order to establish facts. Or as quoted by Albert Szent-Györgyi, “Research is to see what everybody else has seen, and to think what nobody else has thought.”

There are many different types of research. Such as Primary and Secondary, Market, and Audience Research are just the tip of the iceberg. Quantitative Research is research that comprises of numerical facts on a particular research subject. Qualitative Research is research consisting of organised facts, in the form of structured sentences, paragraphs, etc.

Primary Research is the foundation of research. It is the raw data that the researcher collects and then compiles into comprehensive report. Secondary Research is when you look up and use material that has already bee. Research. For example, the information from a book. Market Research is research that is conducted on the potential consumer market to find out about who they are and what they want. Audience Research is similar, but focuses on who the consumers are and everything about them. Age, gender, occupation, earnings, etc.

So how is all this data collected? Well there are many different methods, to being interviews and questionnaires. Interviews are useful as they let you speak to your target audience one-on-one, and helps you get much more information than you ever would from a questionnaire. Unfortunately however, as they are one-on-one it is drastically slower than having a mass questionnaire done. Which is our advantage for questionnaires. Speed. However its down side is that you can't always count on all your questions being answered factually nor that all your questionnaires will even be returned.

They both definitely have their uses in research. For example one-on-one interviews ate ideal if you were filming a documentary and wanted an eyewitness account of an event. On the other hand, questionnaires would be ideal for getting concise answers to specific questions from a broad spectrum of persons.

So to conclude, research is imperative in our life, without research there would be no growth as a society and a species. It is also a crucial aspect of any production as it helps a producer know exactly what his audience wants, thus enabling him to tailor it to them. Ensuring that their production is a success.

Swiss Style Timelapse

What was the activity I've just done?
In class today we did a Swiss Style poster tutorial. The video above is sped-up screen recording of me creating the design from scratch.

What was was my ability when I started?

Before I started I had a very basic knowledge of Adobe InDesign, mainly from my prior experience with various other Adobe products such as Photoshop and Lightroom. But InDesign was definitely very different and there is plenty that I am yet to learn.

What skills have I developed? Personal/Technical

After doing this project, I would say I’m a little bit better at using Adobe InDesign. There are a few things that I know how to do now.

Things like rotating the text boxes on any given angle. Connecting columns so that texts flows through them. Or rearranging, adding and subtracting anchor points on a shape to change the layout of text.

Scandal In Belgravia Scene Analysis

To start off with, OTS (Over The Shoulder) shots are used to help visualise the dialog taking place. It helps the audience to get engrossed in the conversation. It also shows the emotion of the person that is being focused on (ie, Irene Adler) where you can see her crying.

My Associations with Colour

Red

The need to move
Speed
Promiscuity
Hunger
Emergency/Danger/Warnings

Our Recce!

Today our class went on a reconnaissance mission (or 'Recce' for short) around the near-by parks in Bath. Our mission was to pick the best suitable park to shoot a Comedy/Sci-Fi/Romance. There were pros and cons to each park.

3 Minute Short Pre Production Process

It’s election year, parties are looking for votes and some will stop at nothing to gain power in Westminster.

If reports are anything to go by it is going to be a closely run race between the 2 main parties, but a Private Investigator with no agenda holds a secret that could turn the election on it’s head. Who is this PI, what do they stand to gain and what decision will they make?
______________________________________________________________________________

Genre Research Project

Sucker Punch Analysis

Sucker Punch Opening Sequence Analysis

In the opening sequence for Sucker Punch (by Zach Snyder), first and foremost, the score is PHENOMENAL! Oh my days! I had chills from start to finish. It was epic and beautifully tied in all the various scenes throughout the clip and conveyed the appropriate emotions.

The genre was most definitely an Action, Adventure and Fantasy mishmash with some Psychological Thriller thrown in there (Basically a Hybrid Genre).

Stupid Girl Analysis

Stupid Girl Music Video Analysis

In this music video we see Pink speaking (or singing) up about the negative effects of how women are portrayed in the media. She conveys this with powerful lyrics such as ‘What happened to the dream of a girl president? She's dancin' in the video next to 50 Cent’ because the views of many girls is focused on that ‘pop star’ lifestyle, rather on hard work, determination and standing up for what’s right. Also, ‘Maybe if I act like that, that guy will call me back’ because many girls believe that to attract the guy of their dreams, they have to act a certain way, rather than themselves.

Anaconda Video Analysis

Nicki Minaj - Anaconda Music Video

Textual Analysis

Background Information - I decided to discuss this music video because of how massively popular and extraordinarily controversial it is. Raking up more than 260,000,000 views in just 4 weeks.

Nicki Minaj has claimed that the barely-clothed booty-worship in her hypersexualised music video Anaconda shows "just what girls do".

In the GQ interview Minaj points out: "I'm chopping up the banana ... that was important for us to show in the kitchen scene, because it's always about the female taking back the power, and if you want to be flirty and funny that's fine, but always keeping the power and the control in everything."

An interviewer wrote that Minaj shrugged in response to repeated questions about the meaning of her video, which features a lot of scantily-clad voluptuous dancers in very close proximity to Minaj: "I don't know what there is to really talk about."

"I'm being serious. I just see the video as being a normal video."

Political Poster Analysis

Poster Number One

Image

In poster #2 for the 'UKIP' political party use a very stern and straightforward approach to their message. It features an image of a hand, a male caucasian hand might I add, firmly pointing with his index finger to the reader. The image is quite simple, and attention-grabbing, which of course is the aim. And shadow is casted on the rest of the picture by the hand, filling in the empty space and giving it a serious tone.

Who's The Prime Minister?

Facts

Out of the 53 people we interviewed, only 5 (9.43%) Did not know who the Prime Minister was.

Out of the 5 persons who did not know who the Prime Minister was, 3/5th were females with an average age of 16. Both guys were 18 years old.

Wooden Train Sets!

Look at how beautiful this rail system is! It's incredible! Honestly, the creative possibilities with wooden train sets are limitless. This has always been one of my absolute favourite toys ever. 

Alien Transformation GIF!

For this animation is was fairly simple to produce. Just time consuming. I just need three pictures of my eye. One wide open, one half shut, and one closed. With those three pictures consecutively duplicated and arranged in the correct order, it can produce an effect that looks like I'm blinking. Once that effect was achieved, I simply need to mask different iris designs on each frame.