Isolated: My Cut

When being hired by professional practitioners, if the work you have produced isn't up to scratch, or not everybody's vision was quite the same or even if there are a couple of minor edits to be done, you have to go and work on what they want. I was never truly happy with my Isolated video and some obvious parts of the video i wanted to change but didn't actually get round to it before the hand in. When i received my feedback i was ashamed that i hadn't gone back and made that extra bit of effort to edit it myself. Some words i've taken out my feedback given back to me from Mike, I wanted to work on parts to improve it even that tiny bit more.

"The Isolated piece was quite good but spent far too long on the build up to the point where the viewer realises what's going on. You spent almost 30 seconds getting dressed (a quarter of the film) before it began to make some sense. If anything it was too subtle at the beginning and for me didn't identify the loss of a friend until much later (Perhaps the Marvel opening wasn't obvious enough and the shot where you were quite tightly in on the photos on the wall could have lingered longer)."


I went back and cut 11 seconds of footage in total, that includes extending a couple of scenes by a second or two, and getting rid of cuts where Joel was getting changed. I extended the marvel comic strip at the beginning and extended the images on the wall.

By doing this it shows I have studied the brief, analysed it and responded to what my client (in this case my tutor) recommended I changed.

The Bourne Legacy

The Bourne trilogy novels were written by Robert Ludlum between 1980 - 1990 who in 2001 unfortunately passed away at the age of 73. The 3 books, The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum were slightly adapted for the screen and made into a film series based on the character Jason Bourne, played by Matt Damon, who was a former CIA assassin who suffers from extreme amnesia. The action/thriller spy films are noted for it's realism, in contrast to the growing use of CGI in the action genre.

The Bourne Legacy, which is the fourth of the series, will be scheduled for release in early August. There was no novel for the Legacy, it was written by Tony Gilroy who has also co-written the first three screenplays will be directing the latest of the Bourne series but without Matt Damon.

The trailer itself is extremely enticing and quite unique. The black lines that go across the trailer leave the audience eagerly anticipating whats going to happen, and leave the viewers wanting to know more about the mystery behind the lines. Automatically it makes people assume that behind the lines is a mystery and gets the viewer to ask the questions for example, is that Matt Damon? Is that the new Jason Bourne? There's a lot of talking and sound that isn't shown but you picture behind the black screen and very quickly make assumptions about what maybe going on. The idea of showing as little to the audience but  leaving them wet for an appetite makes sense to me and can only imagine as part of that audience we lean forward and ask more of these questions to ourselves like, what are they doing to him? A little after half way of the trailer more of the screen is filled with footage of the film and it's like they've removed those bars to allow us to be teased some more. I feel it's very cleverly put together with the theme obviously being these black lines which work smoothly and flow well making each cut of each scene more epic and the music and sound effects playing a large part. The heart beat sound effects gets your own heart pumping and your already feeling attached to the movie itself, with 1 black line ending the trailer as he shoots at the plane. I like the trailer very much, it's enticed me and got me wanting to go and see it which is the main purpose of a movie trailer. By using a theme throughout this clip can go as far as to making the difference in keeping the viewer interested.

British Film Certificates

Capturing your target audience is the most important ingredient to success. A great way to generate an audience is to work with a certificate, depending on the genre and theme of a film, will determine which area the film lies in. Obviously, if it's a marvel comic film, the director will aim to capture all generations as most people nowadays have either grown up reading about their favourite super-heros, watching or currently learning about them. If it's a horror or thriller movie it will depend on how much violence, swear words, nude scene and drugs are involved which could potentially limit the audience figures.


Prior to 1912, there were no such rules that imposed certain groups of people to not be allowed to see a film. Local councils often enforced their own rules and regulations depending on the film and it's conditions or restrictions. Since then, The British Board of Film Classifications (BBFC) decide the UK film ratings but have have no actual legal power over. The councils decide who and who isn't allowed to see these films, but tend to follow the BBFC guide certificates. There have been exceptional cases where councils have lowered or raised the certificate for a film allowing the minimum age required to change. 


The very first certificates were given in 1912.

Symbol	Name	Definition/Notes
	Universal	Suitable for children
	Adult	Some councils ruled that children must be accompanied by an adult

A third was certified to alert parents to horror-themed material in 1932, which was then replaced by an X in 1951 by all councils which would allow ages 16 + to view the film.

Horror

Some councils ruled that only those aged 16 or over could be admitted

The certificates kept continually adapting, and new category logos in 2002 replaced the previous ones that had been in place since 1982

Symbol	Name	Definition/Notes
	Universal	All ages admitted, there is nothing unsuitable for children.
	Parental Guidance	All ages admitted, but certain scenes may be unsuitable for young children. May contain mild language and sex/drugs references. May contain moderate violence if justified by context (e.g. fantasy).
	12A	Cinema only. Introduced in 2002. Films under this category are considered to be unsuitable for very young people. Those aged under 12 years are only admitted if accompanied by an adult, aged at least 18 years, at all times during the motion picture. However, it is generally not recommended that children under 12 years should watch the film. Films under this category can contain mature themes, discrimination, soft drugs, moderate swear words, infrequent strong language and moderate violence/sex references and nudity.
	12	Home media only since 2002. 12A-rated films are usually given a 12 certificate for the VHS/DVD version unless extra material has been added that requires a higher rating. Nobody younger than 12 can rent or buy a 12-rated VHS, DVD, Blu-ray Disc, UMD or game. Films in this category may include infrequent drugs, infrequent use of strong language, brief nudity, discreet sexual activity, and moderate violence.
	15	Only those over 15 years are admitted. Nobody younger than 15 can rent or buy a 15-rated VHS, DVD, Blu-ray Disc, UMD or game, or watch a film in the cinema with this rating. Films under this category can contain adult themes, hard drugs, strong language and one use of very strong language, moderate-strong violence/sex references, and undetailed sex activity.
	18	Only adults are admitted. Nobody younger than 18 can rent or buy an 18-rated VHS, DVD, Blu-ray Disc, UMD or game, or watch a film in the cinema with this rating. Films under this category do not have limitation on the bad language that is used. Hard drugs are generally allowed, and strong violence/sex references along with strong sexual activity is also allowed. Scenes of strong real sex may be permitted if justified by the context.
	Restricted 18	Can only be shown at licensed adult cinemas or sold at licensed sex shops, and only to adults, those aged 18 or over. Films under this category are always hard-core pornography, defined as material intended for sexual stimulation and containing clear images of real sexual activity, strong fetish material, explicit animated images, or sight of certain acts such as triple simultaneous penetration and snowballing. There remains a range of material that is often cut from the R18 rating: strong images of injury in BDSM or spanking works, urolagnia, scenes suggesting incest even if staged, references to underage sex or childhood sexual development and aggressive behaviour such as hair-pulling or spitting on a performer are not permitted. More cuts are demanded in this category than any other category.

I wasn't even aware that only one use of very strong language was allowed in a 15.

This is something i need to be aware of when i am making future films and games i will always have to consider which is going to be my audience and like a brief, aim to link my material with with the right guidelines.

The Bourne Identity was the first 12a certificate.

Alastair Fothergill Frozen Planet

Alastair Fothergill was the executive producer of BBC's documentary Frozen Planet last year, aswell as Blue Planet in 2001, and Planet Earth in 2006. The viewers and I included, were taken on a magical journey through the North and South Pole narrated by Sir David Attenborough. I was so inspired by the jaw dropping series i've had to go research on the creation of the program and how it was filmed.

I've researched part of this interview with Alastair by Daisy Cropper, Issue 123, October 2011.

It took Fothergill and his team 4 years dating back to 2007 to make Frozen Planet, which has happened to be released exactly 100 years after Scott and Amundsen, the first humans to reach the South Pole.

"When we started there were lots of reports about how the Polar regions were changing and we saw that. There is no doubt that, I’m not saying this is the last chance to see them, but I don’t think anyone will raise the funds that we have raised to work in the Polar regions at this high quality again for a very, very long time. And when they do, the Arctic in particular, will have changed."

There are so many things to consider when working on a large scale project that we as humans no very little about, especially safety. In todays world it's all about capturing the best images and showing off the best quality possible. The world of media demands the best of the best and it takes a vast amount of experience, and skill to produce this which makes a young beginning film maker and producer so intimidated. 

"It takes about a year of really good research, which involves talking to every scientist on the planet, trying to find really new stories. In the polar regions, where the scenery is amazing and the animal spectacles extraordinary, the variety of species in the polar regions is effectively limited, so when we say 'let’s find new behaviour, let’s show people new things,' you really are pushing the boundaries further than people have ever done before and you really do a lot of work just to be sure about that.

Also, we work on lots of technical developments. To give you an example, when we made Planet Earth, we developed a special camera that could shoot film from a helicopter and still stabilise a very powerful lens. This was significant because it allowed us, for the very first time, to film complete behavioural experiences from the air.

Previously, you couldn’t do that – to fly low enough to get a close up you’d frighten the animals.

One of the big technological breakthroughs with Frozen Planet was to take this idea and mount it onto a boat. This was relevant because we knew that a lot of the seas in the southern oceans and in the Arctic are very rough and to film some of the behaviour and use a long lens we had to find a way to stabilise that lens on a ship rather than on a helicopter. So a good year of preparation is needed."

"Another thing is, I always go for an absolute minimum of two years (and ideally three years), of filming. That’s because you need to experience each season twice – two Arctic summers, two Antarctic summers. Often we’ll try a sequence and we’ll get half of it and then we’ll go back. The reason for that is we want to get every angle – to get the whole story.

It very quickly ends up as being five years in total."

To become successful boundaries and risks are taken, as well as getting the best out of your team by demanding the extreme yet also being patient. A project of this scale can't be done over night.

"We asked ourselves the question: why was it so popular? I think it was a number of things: it felt epic. It felt as though you were sitting and being taken on a journey that you could never pay for in your life.

The programme showed you the best and most spectacular places on the planet that you wouldn't necessarily see on your own and we’ve definitely done this again in Frozen Planet. To be honest, that’s one of the reasons I wanted to make Frozen Planet – most people will never go to the Polar regions. Of course, there is tourism to the Polar regions now but it’s still a very, very small percentage of the public and these programmes will show them things they wouldn't have seen otherwise.

The second thing that worked for Planet Earth was the cinematic  storytelling; using music, using storyboards. We had numerous stories where people got very emotionally engaged in the character. A classic example of this in Planet Earth was the story of the baby elephant who got lost in a sand storm in the desert.

In Frozen Planet there is another extraordinary sequence where killer whales cooperate to wash seals off an ice flow. That was an eight-week shoot, with two cameramen working around the clock, they actually filmed 27 encounters and it was edited down to just that one encounter. If you were to storyboard it like a director every single shot and angle you’ve got would be there.

The other thing was just not compromising. Remaining intelligent – having a really good story and not being frightened to tell hard stories. And cutting shots slowly – if you took the average 50 minute wildlife film now there would probably be over 500 cuts, maybe as many as 800 cuts. Planet Earth only had 300-350 – Frozen Planet is similar. We're saying that if the images are really beautiful have the confidence to run them long. Now, so much television is bam, bam, bam; we’re just saying no: this is really beautiful so just look at it and enjoy it. I think that we stand out as a different cinematic experience and I think people are desperate for different experiences."

Fothergill made his first feature film during his time he was at university, for a BBC competition,  shortly after he joined the BBC Natural History Unit. This just goes to show when you put the effort into something your very passionate about, the possibilities are endless and there are great results out there. I highly recommend anyone who hasn't seen Frozen Planet to go and see it.

Music Video

I received an email from the college a couple months ago regarding anyone wanting to create Goldfrank a music video. I got in contact with Frank and we exchanged a couple of emails until we met up to discuss ideas we had for a song of his. Accompanied by Tom Bone we came up with moodboards and shots from previous music videos, followed by a storyboard to present to Frank the second time we met him.

Frank has tons of tattoos so it's a good focus point for a lot of the video. The song is quite dark with deep lyrics about Frank not being able to think straight, loving a drink, enjoying his drugs but knows they aren't good for him. Describing how he's feeling after a night out, that his surroundings a wreck, and that everything is just a viscous circle.

Down Day timeline

0:00 camera faced on top of bed, pans up slowly at the same time cuts to and from another location. Other location chilled, bopping head. Back and fourth camera shots

0:10 ‘here we go yeh’ studio cut and focus on tats

0:20 studio/chilling/smoking/scenery shots

            build up to bed location

0:30 open door into club, walk through club camera leading the cast, camera speeding up as franks walking through the crowd everyone saying hi.

Upset a few, maybe people he has beef with.

Shots running parrellel with Frank walking through in with his top off and drunk, perhaps acting like an idiot.

Morning blues, waking up in his bed from a POV looking down his body in bed, just a completele mess

0:40

minds all blank, going back to shots of frank rapping

purple smokey haze

0:50

wallets empty – said u spent me

at the bar, taking shots, camera shot from behind the bar can see red eyes looking a mess.

1:00 I doubled dated with drugs but they just use you

look in mirror, looking a mess

maybe scene with him in toilet, washing his face/ looking in mirror snorting lines, perhaps with a mask (the one on franks profile pictures) on to cover image or to even portray another side to him.

1:10

moderation – never learnt, regretting being so fucked the next morning, rapping from in bed

1:20 ‘here we go’

back to scenes of warehouse shots/shots of rapping

1:30

1:40

I must have blacked out – roach in mouth. Image from day n break black n white video, falling back into his bed.

1:50

Vodka and redball all down me

Stop motion animation? Vodka just magically appearing down franks top in bed, again from same POV view as earlier.

2:00 memorys a slomo dirty t & new photos.

House full of tidy girls

2:10

some girls – maybe  flicking through previous images of being drunk, drinking with girls, pulling and dirty pictures of girls.

Bad girls

2:20

here we go

2:30

 Charlie sheen living like a dream, looking into mirror like a theatre with bulbs around it, murging into dirty mirror in toilets

2:40

paint a picture

2:50

I guess I od’d

All I got a Bloody vest and nose bleed –

Rapping a lot

3:00

got a stitch and im sure it means my livers bruised

turned a bend I wish it would all end

3:10 wake up and do it all again – show scenes of in the club enjoying himself

here we go

3:20

3:30

3:40

3:50

4:00

The videos not yet been shot, Frank has recently come back to us and mentioned he may want one of his more latest songs to be filmed instead without a storyline and to just rap in front of a camera instead.

The making of the Muller Wunderful ad in 2011

The making of the Muller Wunderful ad in 2011 shows that real life practitioners actually create their work in the same manor as we are taught to. This is an obvious statement but when it comes to creating your own work, and seeing professionals finished product, i find it very intimidating thinking to myself how on earth have they managed to do that, and it all comes from scratch. The ad agency was TBWA, London and created by the executive creative director Andre Laurentino. The campaign itself cost originally £25 million.
They started off like we do with moodboards of characters, then drawings and concept drawings with colour and using a variety of mediums plus a storyboard. Then the filming of the ad, using equipment which we've been shown how to use in class like a green screen, trolly cam. Tons of work has been done on post production by using Maya, some special effects like the splashing, creating the clouds and the Muller robot were designed using that software. Aswell as computer animaiton, traditional hand drawn animation was used for the advert. Again more sketches and drawings had been made to find the most suitable looking robot with its assets expertly created on Maya. The extent they go to on designing the set and adding in more set extensions isn't noticeable until you compare the difference between what the set had looked like before and after. It looked as if the building design was all done on Maya aswell. When it all comes together at the end it's quite a magical moment, and I'm sure the designers were happy with their creative efforts.

Analyzing my game environment

I discovered difficulties with unity and the crops. Running through the crops there was loads of collisions and it was stopping the player from running in certain areas. For some reason the plain allows the player to run through it from only one side, so i were able to do it again and allow myself more time, i would have placed a plain back to back with another one, which would allow the player to run through both sides and carry this out through the whole crop field. I feel i should have created different textures on the floor and added in dead, pressed/stamped on crops for the floor to make it more life like. I could have added in more props around the terrain to show an obvious blockage for the player not to be able to get through and played around with the surface of the ground. The texturing for the roof of the barn i should have done again, and created more smaller roof textures and merged them closer together so the tiles were smaller rather than stretched out. Theres a white line on top of all the crops which is small but still noticeable which i should have photoshopped better. I feel i should have darkened the image of the crop itself on photoshop to give it a darker, more mysterious mood.
I was pleased with the overall mood i had set and feel the assets played a great part in that. The rolls of grass, the barrels, although i feel i should have made a couple with different textures. I should have created distractions around the house, maybe a garden and fence. And closed off the back of the house but felt it was necessary to allow the player to be able to see the game design from all aspects.
I was satisfied with the outcome, felt it had a lot more to do to it, and wasn't ready for a real game. If i want to improve on this i should manage my time much better and if i want to become a professional in this and any field that it's extremely important to be more organised, and manage my time well. As a first time game design i can be satisfied that it turned out to a minimum required level of skills, i can take this into account for year 2 and i'm confident of much better results.

PPP Powerpoint

PPP Lecture – 8/9/2011

Powerpoints

Bridgitte March

5 Steps to a good presentation

What is a presentation?

Communicating to an audience

Ideas/research

Problem solving

How it effects you

Show images/videos and talk about them rather than reading essays off powerpoints

No clipart

No resolution images

No bullet points

Add videos/images

10 slides – 12 including titles and credits

30 point font – core text

Keep it simple

Make connections – facts – logical sequence but include colour, pictures, and spread it out

Use inspiring images

Visualize – room and audience, naturally run through it, drink water throughout.

Key Points

1.     Know your subject

2.     Know your audience – how many?

3.     Know yourself – know limitations

4.     Prepare your script – intro – body – summary

5.     Choose the right visual aid

Visual aids

1.     PowerPoint

2.     Overhead projects

3.     An object

4.     Video

5.     Handouts

6.     Flips cards

7.     Mime

Key points

1.     Prepare a storyboard

2.     Prepare the visual

3.     Rehearse plenty of times

4.     Turn up early to prepare

Assessed?

Grading criteria

·      Clarity of problem definition – quality of research

·      Level of critical awareness – experts – public opinion you think about what they say? – critics – social comments

·      Quality of your resolution

·      Evaluation – pros/cons – evidence – critical awareness

·      Level of professionalism

Title – what im going to tell you today – what experts think on this subject – research 1-2-3-4 – new ideas – developed from research – what I’ve made of research I’ve found – make use of new ideas, how? – this is what I talked about today - credits

PPP Sectors and Services

PPP Lecture – 24/1/2012

Sectors and Services

Bridgette March

What does what?

Coal mining industry replaced by services leisure etc. Very exciting time for creative artists

At an early age we need to learn where to get our influences from.

UK economy

7^th largest in the world

3^rd largest in Europe

One of the most globalized counties

London is the largest financial center equal with New York

Large industries – aerospace, pharmaceuticals, North Sea oil and gas

Yorkshire mobbing on from steel coal and mining industry

Creative industry one of 4 largest growing industries

What’s an industry sector?

An area of the economy with related products of services

4 sectors:

1.     Primary sector – extraction and harvesting of natural resources

2.     Secondary sector – processing, manufacturing and construction

3.     Tertiary sector - knowledge

Everything we make is from the Earth’s resources, for example oil.

3 sectors we looked at was primary, secondary and TOS’s – third sector organisation’s.

First sector public sector, publically owned. Eg. Local government, NHS etc.

Second sector is a private sector – privately owned and usually run for profit.

TSO’s include voluntary and community organisations.

It’s made up of 3 qualities – being independent from the government, are value driven, and reinvest and supply.

Sectors:

Agriculture, hunting, forestry and fishing.

Construction

Production

Construction

Service industries

Creative industries

Education health and social work

Finance and business

Hotels and restaurants

Other social and personal services

Public administration and defence

Real estate and renting

Tourism

Transport storage and communication

Wholesale and retail trade

Creative industries:

Advertising

Architecture

Arts and antique markets

Crafts

Design

Design fashion

Film video and photography

Software computer games and electronic publishing

Music and the visual and performing arts

Publishing

Television

Radio

Who looks after us? (The creative industry)

Great Britain, or Great Britain ltd. Is like a business making profits.

When GB are making profits they lend money to other countries but when they aren’t making profits they borrow money from the Us etc.

October 2009 we had to cut out on many loses. Creative England picks up responsibility for many of the creative sectors

Job of that organization is to distribute funds and lobby parliament on our behalf. When the government wants to fund arts they will give money towards creative England.

Creative and cultural skill’s job is to monitor how well developed the skills are in different sectors. Almost like a watchdog in the creative industry.

Creative coalition campaign – looks out for people in the creative industries and protect people’s jobs.

Confederation of British Industries chairman has been a woman for the last 7 years, and has many interviews on the Internet so she’s well known.

CBI represents major industries for the industry. Saying that we don’t need extra funding in arts but money has to go towards other sectors like science, engineering etc. in order to support that side of education for the youth.

The government – supported by treasury and civil services.

The department that collects the taxes and decides what the spend goes on.

Looked after by ministries; Transport, Energy, Defence, Home office, Work and pensions, Foreign affairs, Food and environment, Justice, and health.

Effects us:

Local government -  Leeds City council – Leeds art

Education – Leeds College of Art

Business and innovation – sector skills council

Culture media and sport – art council – crafts council – design council – creative England

International development – British council

For the first time in British history, it is now the best time to start up a company!