Filming of - Errors and Final

We chose to do our filming on a snow and freezing day, this is not a good idea right? But it is the only chance that we can film before Thursday, and it is hard to meet everyone due to the snow. However, we managed to film our final shot at the end that we had spend 2 hours after the seminar.

On the day, I managed to borrow a camera and a reflector from the equipment store. After the seminar, we went to the Arboretum Park start our filming.

During the filming, there are couples of errors, due to our casts and weather. However, errors helped us to improve our final shot; changes are white balanced and position of casts.

Error of our takes:

Final shot:

Lighting Seminar

In today seminar, we had taught about the use of lighting in film. It is interest, and there is a big different with light and without light. And I found out that lighting is the main element that creates the atmosphere in film.

I learnt the four main properties of lighting:

-Coherence (quality)

-Colour temperature (colour)

-Intensity (strength)

-Three point lighting

During the seminar we were given a task to do- 

create an interview in a daylight atmosphere inside a studio.

We did experiment with the position of lights and the gels in order to get the correct lighting. The problems were the face’s looked too dark or too bright, and once the video imported in a PC, the quality looked very poor.

Then we showed our practices to Deborah, she said that it was due to the wrong camera setting. So she told us to adjust the white balance by using a white paper and set the iris to 0db. And the first attempt, the background looked too obvious in the camera. Therefore, she did help us to adjust the height of the main light. The light then shine from the top, which made everything clear and the background was black with no shadows. 

Feedback...

Today, I have made two post s in my Facebook which allow my friends comment on my work. I hope I will receive some feedback by next week , so I can improved my work before my presentation.

Group Meeting 2

Finally, idea of one-shot film has decided and this was agreed by everyone in our group. So each of us have assigned some preparation work, e.g. buy some parties’ equipment before we start filming, costume, birthday card... etc. Also, in today meeting we have decided what people roles are.

The person that left the envelope- Lee
Birthday Boy- Elliot
Party guests- Hollie and me
Camera person- Sam

And today, we have started our risk assessment, some sections that we are not sure. Therefore, we will ask on our Thursday seminar.

Group Meeting & Final Idea

After the lecture that about the DP1 presentation, I was starting to nervous, because it seem the pressures are on the their way (Assignment 1 X DP1 presentation). However, I will try my best to produce my best work.

In the presentation that I will have on the week 20, I am thinking to present my presentation on a website, because this can show what I have learnt in the first semester. In addition, I think it is time for me to do some preparations of this presentation. E.g. Developing it, feedback, improvement etc.

The task that I would like to improve is the interactive space project; I found it was too obvious. I would like to create another on that is more exploring and abstract, and I properly will start do it after I finish my Context 1 assignment.

Anyway, let me write about what I have done in today’s group meeting.  Today, we have shared about the ideas that we thought during the weekend, and the final decision for the twist is having a mini birthday celebration at the end. So the mood of the beginning of the film will be serious, and at the end it will be a happy mood.

Before when draft out our storyboard, we have written out a plan:

Location:
-Arboretum park
   -using the bench where the canons are.

Equipment:
-Video Camera
-Tripod

Characters:
1.) One that left the envelope to the birthday boy -?
2.) Birthday boy -?
3,4.) Party guests- ?

We haven’t decide it yet.

Things that we need:
-Party poppers x2
-Party Blowouts x2
-Party Hats x3
-Birthday card x1
-Wrap present (box) x1
-Mobile phone
-Newspaper/ magazine x1

Costume:
-2- dark and dull clothing
-2- bright, colourful or party wear & hats

Camera setting:
-Zoon once- Zoom in on expression/ action at the end?

Expression:
Character 1- serious
Character 2- serious at the beginning, then unhappy, embarrassed, shocked, uncomfortable, and at the end a smile will on his face.
Character3,4- Cheerful, happy, dancing and singing.

Storyboard:

In addition, we will do our risk assessment today, and hopeful we can start some practice filming on Friday. 

C.R.A.P Seminar Task

In last week seminar, we have been told to do a task in our journal which is to re- designed a layout. I have searched a poster in the interest. This poster is about yahoo has a search engine called "Graable".

For a poster, I thought this was too much, because audience would like to read the main point rather to understand it thoroughly.

Contrast- This is where it made it called the bad layout poster, because the colour of the fonts are too close to the background it was too hard to read. People normally read from the top to the bottom, and for a poster the top section is the most important section, because this will be the point that will audience carry on reading the poster or not?

For me I will stop at this point, cause it was too hard to read and seem too much information given.

This poster did achieved the RAP.

This is the re-design poster that I created: 

2nd Seminar of One Shot Film

As I said yesterday, we have our practice filmed in today seminar. 

Before we filming, we have done a rough storyboard of what our film will look like.

In this task, we only allow to either zoom/ pan/ crab/ track once, and we decided to use, because this could built up the tension and gave a direction of what audience should focus on. In order to create a best film, we must need lots of practice and trail, so we have tried 5 different angles.

During our filming, we received some comments from Deborah; she said that we could added a twist at the end to make it more entrainment and make the audience memorable. At the weekend, in our group we have to think about some ideas and discuss it on Monday.

After an hour film, here are the best 3 that we think:

1st Seminar of One Shot Film

Today, I have my 1^st seminar of this new task was called “You Decide!”. We will working as a group of 4, my group members are Sam, Lee and Elliot. Our task is working together to shoot a one shot film- shoot in on go by without any stop and the film must be short as well 1/ 2 minutes film (maximum).

Today seminar, I have been taught about what is the task about, and we have went to the arboretum park and walked for 30 minutes to get some ideas.

During the walk, I did came up some ideas:
1. Hide and Seek
2. A group of family member taking their family album- this sounds interesting, because during my AS I went to the Tate Gallery, and inside there one of the room was showing a video that a group of people standing in a room, the video seem took forever, the setting looked like they were taken photography. But instead of having still image, they were being video. From the video, we can see the people facial expression, scratch their head, looked boredom etc. Unfortunately, I can’t remember the artist name and the title of that work, I wish I can post that video in here.

However, these weren’t use for our final decision. The main idea that arose in our group after a half hour walked was confrontation between two characters in a suspicious style, like when we watching a cops and robbers’ film when they exchange ransom.

The film will start with a character walking toward to a bench with a bag then sit on it. Another character will meet the first character, then sitting on the bench and looks strange with each other. However, when the character gets to the meeting place, a homeless person would steal the bag and run.

This is what we have discussed in our seminar today, but in tomorrow seminar, we will shoot some practice to see what the film will like then we will have some discussion and make our final decision of this task.

Finished Piece of Your Station Ident

I had spend two days to edit my animation including the timeline mistake that I made before, and also I had added some sounds track into my final piece- is super mario!.  This animation is different to the one that I made before, because I have set the time line to 900 frames, and this is exactly 30 sec. Therefore, the animation was finished as what I planned at the beginning of this task. 

However, there are lots of improvement that I can made. For example,
1. The character can looks more interest and similar to me.
2. At the end, the background music can goes off smoothly. 

C.R.A.P Lecture

In today’s lecture, I have been taught about the C.R.A.P knowledge.

C- Contrast
R-Repetition
A-Alignment
P-Proximity

We have been told to do a task during the seminar, which is using the images that brought from our course mate and improve the layout by drawing out a draft. The image that I picked was a CV, and my views are…

CV which is a formal document. I could guessed the why the writer use this style to present his CV, because she want to show her skills and expertise. However, I thought this was not a good idea, because it looks frustrating and informal, but it could be improved by the C.R.A.P objectives:

Contrast-
Small, big, bold and normal fonts- make the document looks plainly.

Repetition-

E.g. Subtitle can put in bold.

Alignment-
All the text should push to one side, the best is left to right, because this is where people start to read.

Proximity- The writer did this, but each section should place it in order. E.g. what is most important on a CV should place it at the beginning, hobbies could cancel (people may not interest with this section).

I wish I am nearly there...

Basically, today I have finished my animation project. The last bits that I need to do is try to figure out how the camera work. When I exported it in Premiere Pro my animation will have different angles’ views. So I wish I will finish this tomorrow. I knew I did not update my process of this project regularly, because I have not decided my final idea until the last week of the deadline of this task .

As 3D max is new to me, I am not familiar with this software. Therefore, I have spent lots of the time to explore it, because I would like my work looks special and unique, and match the title of this project “Your(My) Station Ident”

In the beginning of this project, I did not have many ideas.  However, after 2 and 3 days, I was wondering "Will my ideas be those that I want, but possibly I am not a professional..."  But I wish at the end of this course I will build up an expertise (Auto desk 3D Max).

I thought I have finished my animation, but I have made a mistake when I imported my render output in Premeire Pro. The mistake was due to I thought each frame was equal to one sec, but it wasn't. Therefore, I have to edit the time line in 3D Max again.

Final idea for my station ident & conceptual influences for my piece...

This is my final idea. This is influence by Pixar and my interest. 

Pixar is a company that develop computer-animated feature films with memorable characters and heartwarming stories that appeal to audiences of all ages. I love to watch Disney’s film, every time at the beginning of the film; we will see the Pixar’s Ident. When the light jumping on the “I” and the sounds effect did very well, and this inspire me to create some jumping movement in my animation. 

 
My interest- I’m an active person, I like traveling, I don’t like sit down and read. I like eating. I like playing games, e.g. Super Mario. This animation will tell you a bit who am i? As this task is to create a station ident animation that represent myself instead of my Facebook.

Therefore, I thought this idea will be the best one for my animation project. In order to make this animation interest and unforgettable, apart from the animation effect, sounds effect are playing the second role. The sound tracks that I will use are the sound effects that in the super Mario games.


This is the character that I designed for my animation. I wish I can create this character.

Ideas...??

Here are some ideas that came up in my free time and the seminar that I had on Thursday.

Idea 1:

Jelly climbing up the stairs from the ground to the sky. When the Jelly arrives, once it looks down. The camera will zoom to the A and zoom out again. At the end, my name will appear on the ground.

Idea 2:

This is an animation that a gold fish trying to tell it’s name to it’s owner, because it is a fish, it can’t speak.  So it decide to use the bubble to create some words and tell it’s name.

Idea 3:

This is an idea that I came up in my seminar on Thursday. It will start with a spot light, then my name will gradually appear on the screen. A girl stand in front of the name. Suddenly, the girl jump on the button. Then AMANDA falls to 90 degree. Once it falls, my Chinese name will appear.

Idea 4:

This is my final idea. This is influence by Pixar is a company that develop computer-animated feature films with memorable characters and heartwarming stories that appeal to audiences of all ages. I love to watch Disney’s film every time at the beginning of the film, we will see this and this made me memorable especially when the light jumping on the “I” and the sounds effect did very well.