30 Day Drawing Challenge - Most Recent Accomplishment

Day 12 - Most Recent Accomplishment:

Turning  my brain on and actually being creative everyday. It might not sound like much, but it is for me.

30 Day Drawing Challenge - Day 9 - Favourite TV Show

Day 9 - Favourite TV Show:

Breaking Bad, in homage of The Good, The Bad and the Ugly.

I spent about three days on this on an off, reasons mostly because I've been busy with work / social life.

Kind of happy with the end result. Jesse looks nothing like Jesse, Walt's ok, Mike's probably the best part of the image for me. Ended up getting frustrated and just wanted to finish it.

30 Day Drawing Challenge - Day 11 - Turning point in your life

Day 11: Turning point in your life:

I don't believe I have come to any real turning points in my life yet.
Had to try and get this done before work, so it's rushed. 

30 Day Drawing Challenge - Day 10 - Favourite "candy"

Day 10 - Favourite "candy":

Double Decker.

Although half way through I realised I should have gone with these fellas...:

Day 9 is still in progress.

The Break, The Bad and The Ugly

I've started a new piece which is meant to be my 'favourite tv show' from the 30 day drawing challenge.
The show I decided to choose was...

Breaking Bad...one of my favourite shows on TV at the moment.

I decided to try and illustrate in a unique way, and somehow got influenced by a certain film poster:



I've always liked the general style of the poster, and I thought the 3 characters match up to the three protagonists in Season 5.

Anyway, here's a preview of what I've put together so far:

Hopefully you recognize the above character as a Mr. Michael Ehrmantraut.
It's been pretty hard trying to match the style of the above poster, it really is an illustration master piece. I'm fairly happy with the result I've achieved so far though.
I'm trying to get this finished but it may prove to be too much of a time sink, it's already a day late. Also I started the project in low-res which I really need to learn to stop doing. 

Life Drawing

Life drawing #3, about 30 mins. Kept the lines in because I thought I liked it...now i'm not so sure. 

Source:

edit: Even though this is a study I really wish I had put more work into it, it's been bothering me all day how unfinished it looks. 

Ay well.

 

30 Day Drawing Challenge - Day 8 - Favourite Animated Character

 Day 8 - Favourite animated character:

Courage the Cowardly Dog.

Admittedly I've only ever actually seen a few episodes of this show, but I've always loved how pathetic it's main star is. 

How I work

I thought I would share a little bit about how I have established my work set up when creating a new piece.
A few days ago I saw this photograph on a website called reddit:

I really liked the image and it got the old imagination spinning.

As I have not really done any environmental art yet, I decided this would be a good image to use as inspiration for a new piece.

I open the photo in photoshop, but the DPI up to 300 and set to work painting my interpretation of the image.

This is a screenshot I have taken about 2 hours into the project. The psd is split into three layers,  a layer of the source image, which I placed to the left. A canvas layer, which is pretty much the entire painting one one layer, and a detail layer, to sharpen up the edges and work in any details I have missed on the canvas layer.

In the bottom right of the screen I have blown up the image to full resolution to show what it looks like. Very messy. Zoomed out however it gives me a good enough idea of how the piece is going to look when the image is compressed down.

Now I've got the base image established, I will go back to the image and work in the details so it looks more reasonable at full resolution.

After this I want to add a few scenery elements that are not in the original source photograph, which is where the conceptual art side of things come in.

The thing I like about this project is that I have not used any colour sourcing from the original photograph, and come up with the palette by myself. This is something I will probably be doing more when I work from source imagery as I think it ends up looking more interesting.

30 Day Drawing Challenge - Day 7 - Favourite Word

Day 7 - Favourite Word:

 Debacle - A sudden and ignominious failure; a fiasco.

Debacle is an old time word that probably reached it's peak at some point in the 1920s. Those halcyon days of eggs and coffee. Back then a woman was called a dame and a disagreement was simply called murder.

Pronounced 'de-bark-el', you might be able to guess how I arrived at the above picture.

30 Day Drawing Challenge - Day 6 - Favourite Book Character

Day 6 - Favourite book character (Can't be a movie):

Smaug the dragon - The Hobbit (technically not a film...yet)

I always liked Smaug, he gets to sit on a pile of gold all day and kills people he doesn't like. Where can it go wrong?

Life drawing

Life drawing, the mark of any good digital artist. Both are from source images and done on the same day (Aug 26 Sunday) - the ballerina one is a bit stunted, the legs aren't really long enough, but I kept it that way to remind myself about proportion.

Image #2 was done immediately after, and I think there is already an improvement from #1. Again it's been about 4 years since I've done life drawing, so getting back into it is a learning process.

30 Day Drawing Challenge - Day 5 - Best Friend

Day 5 - Best Friend:

This image really isn't meant to be as emo as it comes off haha. I was in a pretty lame mood when I painted this though and didn't really want to pick one friend. Again the source image was a google image search for 'empty chair'.

I could not be bothered when it came to painting this - took about 10 minutes, which is why it looks like shit. 

/teenage girl

30 Day Drawing Challenge - Day 4 - Favourite Place

Day 4 - Favourite Place:

So this isn't a specific place...and not actually a place I've ever been to. The place in general is 'a country road on a bright autumn day', and this was the best source image I could find.

Took about 2 hours? some of the colours are sourced from the photo, which feels like cheating a bit. I don't know what the ethics of this whole thing are. Used a speckley brush for the tree leaves, really like the sun coming through the leaces in the rop right, best part of the image for me. Again I can't remember the source, but it's on my computer somewhere if anyone really wants to see it.

30 Day Drawing Challenge - Day 3 - Favourite Food

Day 3 - Favourite Food.
Couldn't pick one, went with bacon and profiteroles motherfuckaa:

Kind of looks shit! But the bacon looks a little bit like bacon at least.

30 Day Drawing Challenge - Day 2 - Favourite Animal

So I decided it wouldn't hurt to do this. I only discovered it today (Aug 22nd) after completing a self-portrait I've decided to skip day 1, and move on to to day 2 - favourite animal:

 So there it is. It's an octopus. I drew it from a source image, but can't remember where I found it. Probably page 1 under google image search for 'octopus' so go there if you want it.

Took about an hour I think? I like how it came out anyway. Painted it all on one layer like a moron. Lesson learnt.

Self-Portrait

I got bored and decided it was time to pick up the tablet again...and this was the result.

First self-portrait I've ever done, took me 5 days in total, I'd guess-timate about  20-30 hours. I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out, considering I've not done any painting for about 4 years now.

I think this has woken up 'the artist in me' again any how, and I feel like getting back into digital art. I will now be using this blog as a documentation of that progress. 

Client Project #10: Final Project

Below is the completed version of my client project:

The above video is represents the alternative proposal I had to put forward when I came to problems with previous project.

Overall I am quite pleased with how the final version has turned out, I think the content within the final video strongly reflect the aims mentioned in my proposal.

Following from this I will write a 3,000 word evaluation detailing my thoughts on this project and what might I change if I were to ever do it again.

Client Project #9: Solutions Appear

"Student Living" Proposal

Introduction & Summary

This project consists of a short documentary piece focusing on a small group of students living within Nottingham, focusing on their thoughts and opinions on university life. This documentary will focus on an intimate perspective into student culture and university life, offering perspectives on the current job market post-education and if higher education fees will discourage future students from coming into higher education.  

The resulting documentary will be displayed on the exhibition circuit, (SoHo shorts, Encounters Festival, Exposures film Festival) with a final cut time just under ten minutes in length. An additional longer cut may also be exhibited should there be interest for one at a later time.

Problem Statement

Nottingham is very much so a city built upon its student culture. With a population that changes drastically each time students come and go over half terms and summer breaks, a reduction in student numbers means a reduction of customers for many local businesses.

As the government has recently voted to increase the basic costs of higher education to almost £9,000 a year, this will surely be a factor that effects how many students decide to make a move into Nottingham in the next couple of decades. This reduction in incoming students is effectively going to severely affect many local businesses that depend on students numbers and will also affect the a large percentage of students that won’t be able to afford higher education with increased fees.

Purpose of film

The purpose of this film is to make people aware of how government money is being used to bring young people through higher education and out into the real world. This documentary will question whether higher education organizations in their current state can suitably bring a generation of people into a future career that will benefit the economy.

Is it academia in its current state a model that successfully educates an entire generation of young people?

This documentary is topically relevant as it also explores how an increase in tuition fees will affect the next generation of students coming through the ranks.

The aim is to spread awareness of the current education model in the UK and how effective it actually is. With a growing sub-culture of binge drinking being fast tied to student subculture, can an institute of academia effectively serve as a place of education and a platform for partying and socialising?

Who is your audience?

My audience primarily begins with anyone that lives in the Nottingham area, or anyone who might be interested in student culture.

As higher education is something that a lot of people in the UK can relate to, through either direct experience or knowing someone that is in higher education, the audience can be seen as quite a varied group.

Realistically, it will most likely appeal to people who are 14, as this is the age people are starting to think about higher education and if it’s right for them. Parents of children thinking of applying may also be interested on perspectives that current students can offer on the education climate.

Why I’m interested in this project

First and foremost, I am interested in this topic as a student myself. As someone who has over £20,000 who student loans now to my name, it is important to start examining whether or not this is a system that is going to produce a generation of educated people that will make a real benefit on the future.

As a student that also has a younger sister that is about to come through higher education, this is a topic that personally affects people that are close to me.

Arguably the fore front of any government would be a focus on improving education standards and making sure they can provide a system that will secure the future of the country’s economy.

Looking back to my parent’s generation, when students could get grants that effectively covered most of their education costs, there seemed to be a much larger incentive for people to go into higher education.

By increasing the cost of education, a plan that seems to be long term, in an effort to generate more interest from holdings by the government, it’s important to question why an increase in government revenue would be valued over accessible education for several generations.

There’s also the question of whether or not the current system of education is an effective one that can successfully raise job prospects and new business opportunities for students who go to university. 

Brief Strategy - a description of the approaches 

The core elements of this documentary will focus on people I have met at university who I believe will be suitable candidates for the documentary. Overall I will focus on no more than four people, as the ultimate aim is to have a film under  10 minutes, I believe this will allow sufficient time for each person’s responses.

I will film most, if not all of the documentary around a student house, to allow to candidates to be filmed in their own environment and to ensure they are comfortable in front of the camera. This will also provide a suitable back drop, as the sub focus will be on student life style.

 

Production plans and timeline

As this is a revised project and proposal, there will be certain time constraints to work towards and focus on. The primary of these is the project deadline on the 26^th of April. After this are the various deadlines for festivals and exhibitions.

This project will be filmed on the 16^th January and edited in the following week.  With a wrap date set for the 20^th of April the documentary will be completed and finished in time for the hand in and subsequent exhibition deadlines.

Equipment & Crew

The documentary will be shot on a Canon D7, using a 60mm lens and an 18-135mm lens. The choice of this equipment is so to achieve a ‘look’ that is often associated with modern documentary work. This filming equipment is small and discrete and will be easy to move about in small internal spaces. Cameras will be used with a steadicam for hand held shots and use fixed tripod for more conventional shots.

Footage shot will predominately be shot around interior lighting, but a small external lighting kit will be used to assist in any shots that need any extra lighting.

Audio will be captured separately on radio microphones to achieve the best possible sound quality.

I will shoot the documentary and also be responsible for audio capture and the final editing sequence.

All equipment will be hired for free provided as we are using facilities provided by Nottingham Trent University. 

Deliverables & Funding

The resulting piece of work will be issued in several formats, according to various exhibition guidelines.

Ultimately it will be also burned onto DVD, which will be delivered to Nottingham Trent, and a copy will also be hosted online via Youtube.

Most costs associated with this film will be regarding entry to exhibitions, which will be provided personally by the filmmaker.

Any costs for hire of equipment will be negated by using the equipment store provided by Nottingham Trent for free.

Costs and closing statement

All costs will be dealt with by the filmmaker and the project will effectively be self-funded.

The client agrees that by reading this document they agree to the plans proposed, deliverables proposed and dates laid down for delivery.

I the client (Danny Kaye) agree to the terms laid down in this contract and by signing this I acknowledge that no further changes can be made to the project proposal after this date.

Client Project #8: Problems Arise

So yesterday was meant to be the day I was meeting with Debbie Bryan and hopefully Amanda Briggs-Goode.

I sent several emails to both parties over the half term break, hoping to get some confirmation that April 12th is still a good day to film.

As of yet, I have received no reply from either Debbie or Amanda. At the moment I can only assume that Amanda and Debbie are too busy to commit to filming. Past meetings with Debbie have had to been made a month in advance and I unfortunately do not think I will have enough time to take these delays into consideration and finish my film on time. While Amanda is more available to meet, I have not heard back from her and can only assume she is too busy with her work to afford time to film.

This puts me in a bit of a tricky position, in the respect that up until now the core of my documentary work has revolved around meeting with the both of them and I will not be able to  meet deadlines if I delay filming any further.

*

I have proposed then to alter the course of my project in a way that will allow me to film and meet deadlines set by the course and various film festivals.

The nature of my project will change to the matter that it will still be a documentary piece, but set around a different subject.

I have been writing an alternative documentary piece that is still set in Nottingham but does not concern the lace industry.

The project I have been working on is called 'Student Living' and is a short sub 10 minute piece, that gets to know four different students and their thoughts / opinions on university life.

I have put forward an alternative proposal that takes into consideration this alternative project, and hope it reflects an evolution in this journey, that has been unexpected, but well accommodated. This proposal will be documented in my next blog entry.



 

Client Project #7: Meeting with faces

Over the past couple of weeks I have been maintaining email contact with Debbie Bryan and Amanda Briggs-Goode, two people who I believe will be important parts of the final documentary piece.

Today I met with Debbie at her store in the lace market in Nottingham.

Our interview lasted just over half an hour and we covered a variety of topics.

Below are some pictures I took from inside her shop:

I asked Debbie if she would be comfortable being in front of a camera and she said that she would not. This appeared as something as a problem for me as I had imagined a 1 on 1 interview where the viewer can clearly see the interviewee's face.

I mentioned this would not be a complete problem however, as the interview could be done via audio and I can use shots of her shop over the top of the interview. I am skeptical to how well this will work, but for now it is the only other option.

Due to Debbie's busy schedule, running and maintaining a shop, she does not have much free time when it comes to arranging a main interview.

However we both agree to the 12th April 2012, 8 am in the morning. Her shop does not open til 9:30 and this will give me an hour and half to get in, get the footage I need and interview Debbie. This should be enough time.

Before I leave we get on to the topic of Fewkes embroidery and Debbie mentions that she is quite close with the Povey brothers. I ask her if she thinks they may be interested in taking part in my documentary, as I am still having no luck getting in contact with them.

Debbie says that she thinks they may not want to talk about Fewkes Embroidery (Fewkes was shut down and demolished last autumn) as the subject is still a fresh wound for them and may be too difficult to mention.

I understand the sensitivity of this topic and decide not to press her any further, but do ask to email them and ask if they will consider.

*

After my meeting with Debbie I send an email to Amanda Briggs-Goode, I inform her that I will be filming on April the 12th and ask her is she would be interested in being interviewed later on in the day. This way I can get the majority of my filming done in one day and I will have three weeks to edit footage I have assembled in order to meet the Soho Shorts deadline.

Client Project #6: Possible Festivals and competitions

The nature of this project has been established in a way that my final project will be uploaded to several different festivals and exhibitions. Below are a number of competitions I have been considering for my project:

Soho Film Shorts

Rushes Soho Shorts is a competition that is structured around first time film makers who are newcomers to the exhibition circuit. They have several different awards that cover various areas in film making, amongst which is the documentary award.

Deadline

4th May 2012.

Format

"You have two options for submitting your film.

1. Our preferred method of entry is you uploading your film here. You can upload a Windows Media or quicktime file directly to our server. We recommend encoding your file with a bitrate of 1 megabit/s. Note that file sizes larger than 100MB may not be accepted. Depending on the speed of your network connection uploading the file may take some time. Don’t try and upload a full broadcast-quality copy of your film – it just needs to be good enough for viewing – if your film is shortlisted you will be asked to provide a broadcast quality copy on digital beta or HD cam...
   
2. You can send a physical copy of your film on DVD. Once you have completed your online submission form you can mail us your DVD. You should be sure to mark the DVD with your reference no., name of the film, contact name, email and telephone number then send it to: Rushes Soho Shorts Festival, 66 Old Compton Street W1D 4UH. Please do not put address labels or stickers on your DVD - it will disturb/ unbalance the playback ability on the DVD and may prevent us from watching the film. If you can’t write on the DVD itself, write the details on the DVD case."
   
   
   
   Entries must be under 15 minutes in length. 
   
   
   "Our preferred technical spec is listed below, and should your film be shortlisted we would require this format.
   However your initial upload could be as AVI MP4 WMV MOV MPEG formats if easier.
   
   Video
   • h.264 / AVC 900Kbps CBR
   • 640x480 (4x3) / 640x360 (16x9) square pixel
   Audio
3. AAC audio 96Kbps CBR

Container

• mp4 container (.mp4)
• 1Mbps bitrate total
• "Web Optimized" (moov atom at beginning of file)"
  
  
  

Encounters Festival 2012

"Encounters Short Film and Animation Festival is the UK’s longest running competitive short film and animation festival. The festival presents one of the world’s best-known showcases and meeting points for emerging talent, and seeks to promote the importance of short film as a means to develop the next generation of filmmakers and animators."

Deadline 

6th June 2012

Format

Submissions can be entered physically and digitally. 

Student Film Festival London 2012  


Exposures Film Festival 

Client Project #5: Finding faces

This past week has very much been a process of finding people who would be interested in being in my documentary.

Based on my first meeting with Danny Kaye, I have emailed several original lace houses that remain in Nottingham asking if they would like to be involved with the documentary.

I think perhaps the email I sent out may have given the wrong impression because I have been met with less than enthusiastic responses.

Overall I have found three places in Nottinghamshire that still manufacture lace, but all three have showed no interest in appearing in this documentary.

I think that perhaps from the nature of my email they have implied that I am writing this documentary in a manner where I have labelled the Lace industry as something that is already dead, and cannot be saved.

One manufacturer replied with as follows:

"We have had enough of the word "decline" and are now hopefully on the upward phase.  For this reason I am sorry to advise we would not be a typical example for you and would not want to waste your time."

This unfortunately, serves to be evidence of the typical responses I have received in face of my enquiry. 

For context, this was the email in question, sent to several different lace manufacturers:

"Hello,

My name is Alex Lea-Hayes and I am a 3rd year multimedia student at NTU. For a final project this year I will be producing a short documentary about the decline of the lace industry in Nottingham.

As a person involved in areas that are relevant to the subject of this documentary, I think you could be a valuable person to interview for the documentary and may even know of others who would be of interest.

If you would be interested in taking part I would ask to meet with you in the next week or so for a short preliminary discussion (15-30 minutes) and sometime in the next month to film the actual interview (30 mins-1hr). I understand you will have a demanding timetable and I will arrange to meet whenever is best for you.

If you are interested in taking part and believe it will not infringe upon too much of your free time, feel free to contact me via email or you can call me on (redacted).

Sincerely,

Alex Lea-Hayes."

*

After the unsuccessful attempts on the email front, I have arranged to set up a meeting with Amanda Briggs- Goode, head lecturer for Textile Design at NTU.

I met with Amanda on the 19th of January. Our meeting was approximately half an hour long and we covered a range of topics.

Amanda seemed interested in helping me with my documentary and has said she is also comfortable being in front of camera and has done so before.

I also found out that Amanda is the curator for the lace archive in bonnington, which may serve as an interesting place to film some locational photography.

From the meeting with Amanda I got several potential contacts that she recommended may help with filming.

Of these contacts, one person she mentioned stood out in particular was Debbie Bryan. Debbie Bryan owns and runs a small shop in the lace market that is one of the last independent design shops that makes products using lace.

I have now contacted Debbie Bryan and asked her if she would be interested in appearing in the documentary, I will post any updates as they happen.

Client Project #4: First Meeting Summary

As I have chosen to take the competition route, Danny Kaye will be acting as my client.
Today was my first meeting with Danny out of the proposed three.

The meeting began with myself quickly summarising in brief what my project is and what it involved.

"It's a brief documentary piece on the dwindling lace market in Nottingham."

DK wants know what type of process I have made over the Christmas break, in all truthfulness, not much at the moment. I'm stuck at a cross roads in where to go.

Initially I wanted the Povey brothers (former owners of Fewkes embroidery, referred to in the proposal) in the documentary, but they are proving hard to get hold of and I have begun to worry.

After the meeting I have been given a few names and places to investigate, that may help kick start my documentary:

Clooney Lace in Nottingham, they still manufacture lace using traditional methods and are one of the last remaining houses that still uses these methods.

Amanda Briggs-Goode, head lecturer for textile design at NTU and person in charge of the lace archive in Bonnington.

Client Project #3: The Proposal

Here is (in full) my written proposal for the client project:

Introduction & Summary

This project consists of a short documentary piece focusing on the dwindling lace industry within Nottingham. This piece will focus on people affected by the recent closure of some of the last factories in Nottingham and how the industry is changing.

The resulting documentary will be displayed on the exhibition circuit, (SoHo shorts) with a final cut time under ten minutes in length. An additional longer cut may also be exhibited should there be interest for one at a later time.

Problem Statement

Nottingham was built upon the lace trade, becoming a world leader in lace manufacture in the last century. At the end of the century the UK lace industry fell into decline as lace production was sent overseas where it could be done for a fraction of the price.

Today very few lace factories remain in Nottingham, and practically no more remain who employ the traditional methods used in the last century. A city has almost lost one of the backbones of its heritage.

Purpose of film

The purpose of this film is to make people aware of how the industry has fallen into decline. Why should an industry that is still demand today be allowed to be gutted from one country and sent abroad to cut costs?

This film will explore how people formerly associated with the field were affected by closures of some of the last factories in Nottingham. It will also seek to find out if things had been handled differently in the last century, whether Nottingham could still have a lace industry that could be economically significant.

As other industries today make their way across the pond for greater profits, people are sold into unemployment and a piece of English culture is taken away.

Who is your audience?

My audience primarily begins with anyone that lives in the Nottingham area, or anyone who might be interested in the history of the lace industry.  A lot of people will have family who have worked or do work in the Nottingham lace, and their family will have been affected at some point by the decline of the industry.

This documentary will no doubt be aimed towards older audiences as I do not think children will be as interested. Audiences will realistically be in the range of 18 and above. I think there will be more interest from 25 onwards, especially from people who work in industries that may also be in decline at the moment.

Why I’m interested in this project

I first gained interest in the subject when I read an article about one of the last remaining traditional Lace embroidery factories in Nottingham.

Fewkes embroidery was one factory among a number of lace giants that supplied Great Britain and the rest of the world with a trade that was in high demand. As the industry was sent overseas, many factories fell to the way side and began to shut down. As more factories began to close, fewer and fewer companies remained that made lace using the traditional methods.

This process continued until Fewkes was the last lace factory in Nottingham making lace using the traditional methods still in operation to this day.

I first read this article in August 2010 and it sparked interest in me as soon as I read it. Up until now I had not an opportunity to pursue but now saw a better chance than ever.

My initial intentions were to produce short documentary focusing on Fewkes Embroidery and film around a factory that is the last remnants of a dying trade. That is until I found out the factory had been demolished in August 2011 and the Fewkes embroidery was unexpectedly closed down.

This threw a spanner in the works to speak and I assumed the project was ruined, until I realised that this closure was actually just another part of the bigger story. The people affected by this closure and similar factories that try to keep from this same fate will be the centre of this story.

Brief Strategy - a description of the approaches

The core elements of this documentary will focus on the Povey brothers, the former owners of Fewkes embroidery. By talking and meeting with the brothers I have established a connection that will allow me to interview them for this documentary.

From this point, smaller companies who are still in the industry will also be the focus of the documentary. An ad will also be placed in the paper asking for people who have been directly affected by the decline of the Nottingham industry, I expect there will be a wealth of stories to choose from. 

Production plans and timeline

The primary competition I will focus on entering is called Soho shorts. The deadline for application in 2012 is the 5^th of April. It is essential then the project is finished before this.

Filming will begin in the last week of January and is scheduled to finish by the second week of February. The first three weeks of January will be spent organising shoot dates and meetings with people interested in being interviewed for the project.

After filming wraps at the start of February, the clips accumulated will then be sorted through and an edit will be produced. The final project should be finished by the start of May and any final adjustments that need to be made can be done so I time for the 5^th of April.

Equipment & Crew

The documentary will be shot on a Canon D7, using a 60mm lens and an 18-135mm lens. The choice of this equipment is so to achieve a ‘look’ that is often associated with modern documentary work. This filming equipment is small and discrete and will be easy to move about in small internal spaces. Cameras will be used with a steadicam for hand held shots and use fixed tripod for more conventional shots.

Footage shot will predominately be shot around interior lighting, but a small external lighting kit will be used to assist in any shots that need any extra lighting.

Audio will be captured separately on radio microphones to achieve the best possible sound quality.

The project will be primarily shot by a small team consisting of two people, with myself acting as the documentary writer and scheduler and an assistant acting as the camera and audio assistant.

All equipment will be hired for free provided as we are using facilities provided by Nottingham Trent University.

Deliverables & Funding

The resulting piece of work will be issued in several formats, the first and foremost being a DVD. From one copy will be issued to Soho shorts and 1 copy issued to Nottingham Trent University.

The film will also be hosted online, on sites Youtube and Vimeo.

Copies of the film and appropriate documentation will also be sent to various film exhibitions suited for amateur film makers. Additional copies may also be distributed to Nottingham Heritage Council, to raise awareness and further promote the traditional craft that built Nottingham.

Costs and closing statement

The main cost of this project is the entry fee for Soho Shorts which is £10 for students. For the rest of the projects main costs will be accumulated by travel, which is estimated to be no more than £50 in the two weeks of proposed filming.

All costs will be dealt with by the filmmaker and the project will effectively be self-funded.

The client agrees that by reading this document they agree to the plans proposed, deliverables proposed and dates laid down for delivery.

I the client (Danny Kaye) agree to the terms laid down in this contract and by signing this I acknowledge that no further changes can be made to the project proposal after this date.

Client Project #2: Simulated Client Update

Here is my final video for the simulated client project (will upload a link at a later time) :

Learning how to make Kinetic Typography was a challenge, but I think it has turned out well for a first attempt. There is definitely a steep learning process involved if you are not familiar with software required (in this case I used Adobe Elements) but once you get into a flow of things the process is actually quite easy.

If I was to do this again I'd change a number of things:

1. Slow down the how fast I read the script

2. Find a more appropriate Codec to publish in.
I can't remember the initial codec I went with, but the project playback was choppy and it weakened the effect of the video. I then re-encoded to H264 and saw a little more success but there were still problems.

3. Develop a more detailed storyboard for the camera.
I'd say a mistake was not having a proper storyboard for the camera. The piece does revolve around a key word structure (below):

But I didn't actually consider how the camera would move around the stage. I think this is why the piece may be a bit hard to keep up with in places and read.

Overall I enjoyed doing this project, I think I will experiment with Kinetic Typography again, and be able to create something better thanks to this experience.

Client Project #1 : Simulated Client

We have been approached and asked to create a short advertisement for the NTU Alumni foundation.
We were  given a little bit of information about the foundation and what they do (more information here).

With a focus on charity work and giving back to those who are financially not as prepared to go to university, the Alumni foundation has asked us to produce a short media piece spreading awareness about the program.

I have decided to put my focus on the money that the Alumni Foundation provides for cancer research. 
As a moving image student, I figure I can approach this in either two ways.

I can approach this project in the form of a short topical and informational video like below:

I have however developed an interest in another area of moving image, that I think could use to send an appropriate message for the Alumni Foundation.

This area is known as Kinetic Type:

I think considering the quick 2 week turn around for this project, I will have more time to develop a strong piece that is centered around Kinetic Typography, than I will have to film and edit a strong and topical film.

title design, ideas and inspirations

We have been tasked with the project of designing a title sequence for Robin Hood. The sequence must be 20 seconds in length...and that's about the only rule there really is.

I am exploring this task through means of animation, I think it could create quite a quirky and indiviualistic sequence, that works rather well.

Below are some examples of the style I am interested in persuing:

http://www.evilchili.com/videos/8167/The_Simpsons__Catch_Me_if_You_Can

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gaLDyrun_Cc

interactive quiz

I found the visual essay the easiest of the 3 projects within design 2. Although I do not enjoy actionscript, I find it easy enough to work with on a basic level. The screen layout is based upon web 2.0 design using simple colour and gradients to achieve a sleek look. User interaction is meant to be as simple as possible, using the three answers provided with each question, the user must select the answer they think is correct. Actionscript is utilised to track and keep a record of the users score, based upon whether or not they those the correct answer. Each answer that is correct is a button that uses basic actionscript to add one point onto the score box at the end. If the user chooses the incorrect answer, the score will not be increased but the film will still progress to the next question using simple goto functions.

I based my quiz around film because it is a medium I enjoy very much. The questions within the quiz are based on some of my favourite films and directors. During the middle of the quiz is a video round, where the user watches an excerpt from ‘American Psycho’ and must answer a question on the video afterwards. I used actionscript to embed the video into the flash file.

I think a big element of design within the quiz is typography, the main menu and end score page are examples of typography being used to achieve a fulfilling but simple design. At the top right of the frame there is a menu button which will take the user back to the start of the quiz at any given time. At the bottom of the quiz is a link to my blog and my name, the information is not intrusive on the design and tells the user a little more about where the quiz came from.

Some of the issues I overcame with this project where mostly actionscript problems. More often than not, it was me forgetting to label buttons so they were properly tied to actionscript. I also wanted there to be sound when the user interacted with the button. Using the button timeline I learned how to add sounds to the ‘over’ and ‘hit’ areas of the button timeline, so the user felt more feedback from their choices.

Focusing once more on the layout, I intentionally used only a small amount of colour as not to overthrow the design and flood the user with a jarring interface. The background is a very basic gradient element, but with the text positioned over the top adds a sense of depth and ties the interface all together.

From this experience with flash I have determined that online environments is not the module for me. Although I feel I am competent with flash, I feel I am only really associated with it on a basic level. This is a problem for me because learning new things with actionscript was a frustrating experience and most of the coding within this project is taken from things I learnt from the term prior to this one.

v CLICK IT v

anti-american propaganda

propoganda is something that has always interested me, here is a selection of anti-american propaganda posters from that gem of a place...north korea.

i think these images are pretty terrifying, they are designed with only one goal in mind, to inspire hate and fear. you can check the rest of them out here.

Projects Final

Interactive Narrative:
http://checkityall.deviantart.com/art/Steve-Z-s-Great-Adventure-146811899

Pixilation:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDLNbLWvjiY

One-Shot:
http://www.vimeo.com/8139212

Uploaded links for my presentation! Actionscript is a bugger, but I got there in the end.