alan

final year client project

2011-02-08T04:12:00.000-08:00

As part of my final year client project I am producing a film for a competition for aesthetica magazine. I am going to be be producing this film alongside Duncan leigh who will be producing the film.

The film in which we will be producing is called "how you spend it" (written by duncan leigh) which is a film about euthanasia. The main theme of the story is the connection between a father and daughter and the fathers struggle of the fathers terminal illness.

We aill also be producing a second film called bathroom mirror which we are producing as practice and preparation for our main production.

Bathroom mirror is a short film that is about a man who meets a girl and struggles to pursue her causing him to spike her drink. the reason in which the film is called bathroom mirror is because every scene is located within the bathroom of the mans apartment and it shows the film from the mirrors perspective apart from the end of the film which takes place in the mans bedroom.

title sequence

2010-03-20T13:49:00.000-07:00

I have given this assignment alot of thought and have decided to do theres something about mary. The reason i am doing this is because i beleive that i know alot about the film which will spark a few ideas in which i want to do.

i have had a few ideas so far and wish to develop them further. the areas i want to cover are love and rivalry, i also want to reflect the opening scene so my first idea is to do a school like desk with a "mary" section of the desk with love notes etc and the credits to be written out in school like handwriting, whilst animations of the characters appear on the paper, below is a lay out of what i want it to look like:

yet another update (its been a while)

2010-03-02T01:31:00.000-08:00

During the last month we have actually filmed our documentary and it has been a bumpy ride. However we did get some really good interviews and i hope some good establishing shots. It has been a rough time on all of the group as we have all been really busy i just hope as the producer i can help pull every one together so that we can create a successful edit.

More about the documentarty however, the interviews that we have had have all been different but just as powerful as eachother, here is a list of the interviews and why they were important to our documentary:

john stapleton: fan of notts county for 75 years
pete ironmonger: relative of player for notts county from 1910
iris smith: head of the notts county supporters group
colin slater: commentater for bbc radio nottingham (50 years at notts county)

we also had two other interviews with people out of the blue which i cant remember the names of but will have the names for the final edit.

overall i think that every member of the group has tried there best to contribute to the documentary itself and that everyone is going to get a good grade on the upcoming peer assessment

update on documentary

2010-02-04T07:19:00.000-08:00

Its been a busy week of producing but i think i am finally getting somewhere after meeting and greeting a few people.

Me and ben the director went down to an interviewees house (pete ironmonger) and had a talk with him to see what sort of stuff he knew about notts county and to tell us some stories about his relative who played for the club in the early 1900's, this was very useful.

Later on in the week we had a trip to three places, bbc nottingham to get in touch with colin slater who has been commentating notts county for 40 years, the evening post to get copy right for images out of a book and finally down to notts county ground to talk to the head of supporters group. This visit to the ground was very useful as iris (the head of the fan club/supporters group) is helping us get interviews with some hardcore and longlasting fans who will have hopefully many stories and many views on how the club has changed over the years.

Development

2010-01-28T01:50:00.000-08:00

Changes have been made to the ideas of the documentary, We as a group decided to change our approach on the subject of notts county as it was too cliche, so we have decided to look at the "unseen heros" of notts county to get their views on the club and what they do to contribute to the team, This will include interviews with people such as the club chaplain and the groundsman of the stadium and people who are actually unrelated to football.

I as the producer have been contacting the press officer to try and arrange the meetings with these people and to actually get permission to film. It has been tough but I think and hope that I will be able to pull it off or we might have to use our back up idea and do a documentary on the fans of notts county rather than the people who work there.

Further updates on the subject coming soon.

documentary

2010-01-21T01:13:00.000-08:00

So we have had our first meeting as a group to decide on the roles for the documentary and what we want to base it on:
The documentary that our group is going to do is about the rivalry between notts county and nottingham forest this will include things like the history between the two clubs and why two football teams arose in nottingham, also we will be talking to the fans of both teams to see what their views are on the rivalry between the two teams and how they respond to how hooligans act etc.

Roles for Documentary

Alan Vickerstaff: Producer
Ben Thorpe: Director
Umar Hussain: Editor
Chris Swann: Sound
Ryan Carthy: Camera

back to work

2010-01-19T01:59:00.000-08:00

Back to university after a olong but interesting holiday period.

So we have been assigned the groups for our documentary which i am happy with however the subject in matter of notts county football club i feel is going to be hard to work with without making it a cliche documentary, but hey lets see how it rolls.

Bogdan fith update (its been a while)

2009-12-10T01:14:00.001-08:00

right since my last post we have infact finsihed filming bogdan and are ready to go into post production but i will first talk about the day of the shoot.

For me the day started at about 5:30 in the morning because as the producer i had alot of work to be getting on with. Other than getting prepared before leaving the house, my first task was to go down to boots library and print out the images of bogdan's "wife" and "son" so that we had our props for the living room setting.
The second task of mine was to ring up the taxi firm so that I could organise times for picking up and dropping off through out the day so that we could stick to the schedule easily.
After the taxi's were booked me and the crew (excluding the director who was meeting the actors) went to the first location so that we could start setting up the equipment for the first set of shots.
After making sure that it was all in order I headed to the shop as i thought as the producer believed i should make sure that my crew were comfortable as well as the actors so I bought every one a bottle of water to make sure that the didnt get thirsty as we were going to be on the set for a while.
During the first shoot we did encounter some problems as the sound on the camera was not coming through witch lost us some time but after that was fixed we got to work.
Whilst shooting the third shot we encountered another problem as the council decided to start blowing leaves in the cemetery which caused alot of background noise that we did not need so as producer I went across to ask if they could calm the noise while we were shooting, consideratly they moved further up the cemetery but this did not help us however because of the way the microphone was posistioned alot of exterior noise wasn't picked up.
After being 40 minutes behind schedule we finally finished the first shoot and headed straight to forest fields to start shooting the second scene.
While every one was at forest fields shooting the tram scene me and the lighting manager (ryan) headed up to york house with the props and lighting equipment to start preparing the second set ready for when we needed to shoot in order to save time. This was a struggle as there was alot of equipment/props for just two people so after arriving and unloading the taxi at york house it took me and ryan five trips to get all the equipment/props up to the fith floor.
When we had finally loaded the room with every thing ryan got to work with the lights and i started dressing up the set.
The crew arrvied shortly after I finished the set which meant it was then time for lunch which lasted around twenty mins for me as after lunch headed to my house to start setting up the final location, however before I could even reach byron house i get a phone call explaining that some equipment was missing (boom pole) so i had to go back to the first set where i luckily found the piece of equipment which i then brought back to the sound man (umar) so that they could commence with the shoot.
I eventually got to my house so that i could start setting up the location, As stressed out as i was already i realised that i also had work later that same day which meant that theoretically i had to leave half an hour before shooting ended leaving the crew at my house with all the expensive equipment, but as they say education comes first.
After i had set up the location it was getting to four o clock and all i could do from then on was wait for the rest of the crew to turn up so that we could get on with the final shoot.
Finally at half past four the first half of the crew and jarrod turned up so that we could start setting up the lights and camera.
After we finished setting up the equipment it was ten to five and the director was still not here and we only had 40 minutes to shoot the final scenes which meant that we had to cut a scene from the living room set.
Every one was feeling the pressure at this point especially me as i had alot of responsibilty on my shoulders as well as being late for work.
It eventually got to half past five and we had all the footage that we needed luckily to make a descent edit of the film.

Here are some images from the day of the shoot: (coming soon)

bogdan fourth update

2009-11-17T01:22:00.000-08:00

After we had decided what our new sets were going to be we decided to go and test the shots that we were going to use so that we were prepared on the day. The first set that we went to was to the djanogly centre as that is our key scene which we have to be the most preapared for on the day. The shots that we tested were a number of tracking shots a descending shot and a few still shots. The sound engineer also recorded some ambient sound just incase we neededd any recorded for the editing stages
The second location that we went to was to forest fields so that we could get a feel for the atomsophere and the surroundings that we were working in. The first thing that we did was to discuss all the shots that we would like to do before we got the equipment out so that we would save time messing around with the equipment. The shots that we decided to do were mostly still on the tripod but with maybe some pans as the shot is very simple yet meaningful. When we decided to get the equipment out there were a few problems as the weather got bad causing us to pack up our equipmewnt however we are still prepared as we know what shots we would like to do on the day.

we are going to test the next location on the wednesday so we have more time to set up and test the lights as well as the camerea shots as the next scenes are interior

bogad third update

2009-11-17T01:18:00.000-08:00

After some changes to the script and errors with locations i had to go out in search of new locations. that fitted better to the script and looked more realistic for the set.

the first set i had to change was for the djanogly centre we still used this building but we used an exit at the other side of the building rather than the one we had orignally decided to use

the second location that we had to change to fit the script was the forest fields shot. instead of having it on a grass verge we decided to have bogdan sat at the tram stop as it fitted in with the story better and gave it more meaning.

When we had agreed on the locations i had to again take risk assessments for the locations to once again make sure that they were safe for the cast and crew to use.

bogdan second update

2009-11-17T01:13:00.000-08:00

Now we know where we are shooting and have the final script sorted out we thought we would get a head start at learning how to use the equipment as some people had taken on new roles:

this is one of the cameras we tried out:

this is the crew having a script approval meeting with jools:

bogdan update

2009-11-13T00:56:00.000-08:00

This week has been very hetic and there has been alot of work that has had to be done but I will start from the top:

1. locations

This week I set out around looking for locations for bogdan this was difficult as i had to find three different sets all in near by location so that we could have more time to get between locations but finally after a long hard look i found the three locations.

location 1 Grass verge (forest fields)

location 2 Bogdan living room (my living room)

location 3 Bogdan lawyer office(smoking area) (D.I.C.e centre city campus)

Risk assessments

for each of these locations i had to undergo a risk assessment to make sure that they would be safe to use for both actors in the scenes and the production team.
during this risk assessment i didnt find any major hazards that could harm either the actors or the production team so i feel that if we all take the right precautions then nothing could go wrong.

Bogdan The Making of

2009-11-09T11:35:00.000-08:00

On the side of the bogdan project I have decided to do my own separate project to give myself a bit of a challenge and also experience in doing my own work so I have decided to do a short documentary about the making of bogdan and include it in my final edit for when we finish the bogdan film. Im looking forward to it but its going to take alot of work.

Bogdan

2009-11-06T13:50:00.000-08:00

New Post new film.

We have been given the new script for our assessed group film which is called bogdan It is about a romanian man who has come over to england and the story revolves around his financial and cultural struggle, I will have more information when The director has re wrote the script.

The first thing we did when we got our script was to assign eachother with roles i again chose location manager but I am also now the producer, duncan is our director again, diana is our camera operator,umar is our sound guy, ryan is in charge of the lighting and abdul is our editor.
We had our first meeting yesterday and we have all settled into our roles and know what we are doing and are now getting on with their assigned jobs but thats it for now.....my next post will be up shortly

Malac Finished

2009-11-04T10:13:00.000-08:00

After alot of discussion and work finished the final edit of the malac project and feel that we have done a pretty good job so here it is enjoy:

Malac shooting

2009-10-30T14:37:00.000-07:00

Before we started shooting Malac we changed the title slightly to "malica" to make it sound more like a model or object.

The first thing that we did to start shooting was to let the actors come round early so that they could rehearse there lines and get used to working with eachother, the set and the script:

When they had rehearsed the crew and I went to the first set to start shooting the establishing shot:

After we had finished shooting the establishing shot we went back to the set too start shooting the kitchen scene but there were a few problems as the actress got seriously delayed and we lost two hours of filming time. However when she got back we started setting up the set for the kitchen scene and started shooting:

After we had finished filming the kitchen scene we started to set up the main basement scene taking health and safety precautions first obviously:

After the safety measures had been taken we started to set up the scene and got the actors ready to start shooting. To get an effect that the characters had been there a while we used oil and water to make it look like they were sweating and dirt to make it look like the guy had been pushed around by the dominant woman:

When we had added the effects we started to shoot and after filming from all different angles and nailing the set and script we managed to finish at the early time of 11:30 but now we have all the footage that we need in time to edit for next thursday when I will upload the final video so look out for my next malac post

Here are a few promo images:

Malac update

2009-10-30T02:55:00.005-07:00

Right since my last post a lot of things have happend which means that this is going to be a long post.

Firstly before the filming could take place we had to find a location so the director (duncan) and I went on a hunt for locations for the three scenes. The first set we looked for was for the establishing shot which we wanted to be in a secluded quiet and middle class area, so we headed for the park. After half an hour of wandering we found two houses in the same area that we thought were perfect for the part as they were right in the area that we wanted but we could not decide which one that we wanted to choose so I took pictures of both the houses so that I could show the rest of the crew and make a group decision and also so that people in other roles could decide what setting would be better for them for example camera man (umar) and lighting manager (diana). Here are the pictures of the two sets. Also because I chose two different houses I decided to risk assess the whole area so that we could use either house incase there was a reason that we had to change the house that we shot.

house 1:

house 2:

After all the risk assessments had taken place and we had made sure that we had made the right decision about the setting we started discussing what set we would use for our main scene and the director mentioned that he had a basement which might fit the mood for that scene so we went to this basement to see if it was useable for the setting. After looking over it I did a risk assessment just incase we used this room but I thought that there would be some space issues so I went to look for a backup setting which I thought would also be good for the setting so I looked over the script to see what would be relevant and I thought that my sisters flat could be good as it had a nice red interior which could reflect the emotion of the film.

Here are pictures of both the sets:

Basement:

Flat:

Again after I had risk assesed both sets I took the images to the rest of the crew for the same reasons and after long discussion and organising we decided to use the basement for the main set as we all agreed that we wanted the film to have an eerie aspect to it which this basement gave off as you will see when I publish the film.

The last set we had to decide was for the opening scene and we thought that because it was supposed to be every day life we would just use an every day life kitchen:

When we had finalised our decisions about the film and how we would go about shooting it etc we started to make sure that we all knew our roles and made sure that we knew what we were doing (even though by this point my part was nearly over) so we hired a studio so that we could experiment with the equipment:

Here are a few examples:

After we had tested the equipment we got in touch with the actor so that we could run through the script with them and get them familiar with the story and there characters so that they were prepared for shooting

The day before we started filming we took the equipment to the set so that we could decide what shots we were going to take and where we would put the lighting here are some pictures that I took while this was taking place:

While the rest of the crew was setting up the equipment the sound man (ryan) and I went to the first set to record some ambient sound:

Malac

2009-10-22T11:21:00.000-07:00

Today we were assigned into our groups to start our practice project for project three which is the fictional film.
Before we started planning "malac" we were assigned a task in which we had to shoot different shots to get the jist of the sort of advanced shots we need to take into account when shooting which were deep flat limited and ambiguous. When we finished shooting we took our shots to get analysed and I will admit that there was more negative then positive feedback but if anything that made our group more determined to make this film better, I would go into more detail but I like to get straight to the point.
To start planning our shooting for malac our group met up we organised ourselves into specific roles so that we knew what part of the film that we were responsible for so that we could also organise our time better The role that I took on was the location manager/health and safety/photographer. After we sorted our roles out we started talking about the script and what we could do to improve the script and to make it unique from any other and I would say how we did that but you will find out in a week when the project has finished. I like to think our team worked well together as we all chipped in ideas for the film and came to a mutual decision. When we had discussed what we were going to do in our roles we each went away to start what we had to do in our area of responsibilty, I personally went to go out and find sets for the film so that I could choose were I want to film it so that I can risk assess it so that we can get the filming up and running but thats all to come so look out for my next post.

This is us working on our script:

the imaginarium of doctor parnassus

2009-10-21T12:33:00.000-07:00

Today I went to go and see the film the imaginarium of doctor parnassus. I did not intend on going to see this film I was technically dragged down however knowing I was going to see this I looked up the synopsis and thought that the plot was quite interesting and I also found out that it was directed by terry gilliam who had produced directed acted and wrote alot of the monty python films which I am a great fan of so I was then extremely looking forward to go and see the film.

After watching the film I was very impressed by the plot and thought the film was put together very well all though some people may not understand the film. Being a monty python fan I noticed alot of similaraties to the monty python film in terms of the animation that monty python uses, also the way it was wrote and produced you could just tell it was terry gilliam.

I would reccomend people to go and see this film as it is very enjoyable and I feel that it is a film that every one can enjoy.

Task For M.I

2009-10-20T01:53:00.000-07:00

This weeks task was to find out and describe the role of the location manager, so i have gone out and done that.
The role of the location manager is to go out and find a suitable location for either a photographic shoot or film that is taking place. When looking for the setting location there are alot of things that they have to consider such as price of the location whether it is suitable for the film meaning things like; does it fit the genre are the light levels good enough and if the setting is a safe environment.

Act Britain Act

2009-10-19T11:59:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I went to the filming of a T.V pilot called "Act Britain Act" it was sort of like the x factor but for actors. This was the final and there were only three male and female acts left and the audience had to vote on who they wanted to go through to the actual filming of the show, for us to vote they showed the acts acting on film and then live on stage I observed them both and tried to look at them from the audio visual side rather than the drama side. The first thing that I looked at when observing it was from the film that they showed us, personally I thought that the acting and stage direction was all done fine but there was things like the lighting that I thought they did a bad job on for example there was one scene they had to act from Notting hill where they where in a room and the light was glaring and there were parts where I couldn't even see the actress's face and another scene was filmed in a night club and the lighting was very dark and once again you could not see the actors/actress's face. There were other things that went on during the live performance also when the acts got too close to each other and there was a lot of feed back in the speakers or it suddenly got too loud which the acts actually pointed out at the end of the show. But there were some good points about the the show the direction was good and the layout of the set etc.

At the end of the day enjoyed my self and learnt some more about A.V as I also payed close attention to the camera men and I would like to see the programme go to air so I can see how far the contestants get.

New Start

2009-10-17T07:41:00.000-07:00

The academic year has started and I intend on getting stuck in straight away. I have just finished my first week of lectures and seminars of Moving Image and I am very impressed and cant wait to get stuck in to my first project. The project I am looking forward to the most I think is the documentary but im not quite sure what I am going to for it yet as we have not even been set groups but all the more fun to come I suppose.
One of the things that we have been told to by danny kaye was to go home and listen to dark side of the moon to get a good idea of sound mixing as he reccommended it and said that it was perfect and after going home and listening to it I would have to agree that the quality of the album was great and I would reccommend it to any one who is interested in sound.

Now moving on to Spp2 im thinkning to myself that im going to work to my hearts content this year as I would like to do astoundingly better than last year the first thing I am going to do is to go to the libary and get the reccomended books and to do quite a bit of researching and then start to plan my essay but other than that for now I dont think that there is much I can say about spp2.

Finally I move on to the tutorials. My tutor is Jools so i dont know about other groups but I have enjoyed my first tutorial as it was very relaxed and I can certainly say that I look forward to the next and other upcoming tutorials and you never know there might be more cake.

Interactive moodboard

2009-04-17T05:01:00.000-07:00

I have chosen to do an interactive piece as one of my elements for my box. This is going to be an interactive mood board in which i have selected film t.v music and games. This is my mood board.

The idea of it is to select the image so that the clip play, here is one of my favourite videos that i have chosen (this is the video if you select life on mars), The way sound is used is really well edited:

My Box

2009-04-02T05:11:00.000-07:00

My interactive box is going to be a crypt which you can then enter to view my different identities projects which will include two films an interactive mood board my logo and avatar (which will pop out of a coffin).

This is my first basic layout for the outside of my box but it needs alot of work doing to it

Logo for identites

2009-03-04T05:59:00.001-08:00

These are a few logo ideas for my identities project there are more to come feed back would be nice

logo 1

logo 2

logo 3

logo 4

logo 5 (I may get done for copyright on this one but thought i'd put it up any way because I liked it)

logo 6

Mood board 1

2009-03-04T05:55:00.000-08:00

This is my first mood board for my avatar may edit it feedback would be nice

written task

2009-02-22T10:25:00.000-08:00

Over the last four years I have been studying media and have done alot of studying in films tv and music and because of this my interests in this field have grown. This interest has inspired me to create projects in this field such as creative art films and music videos. As years grew on i thought that I should broaden my horizons of the subject which is why i decided to take multimedia. This creativity has been for myself as it is my personality that makes me creative also because I would like to succeed in this area and get a strong careea in this field. After talking to lecturer's and looking over my choices I have decided that I want to take the path way of A.V and study mainly music videos.
The way in which research and help me get into new places is so that I can get inspiration off other practitioners to help me understand what sort if thuings in need to do to succeed in my pathway.

second life

2009-01-28T04:28:00.000-08:00

Ive been on second life and have visited a few places and took a few pictures when i first started to use it i thought it was a bit weird but i reckon that once you get used to it it could be a good way to visit places and a good way to socialy interact. some of the places i visited were just like rock bars manhattan beach and some sort of doctor who conventions here are some pictures:

weird rock bar:

medevil nottingham

another weird bar:

the tardis:

Open Eyes

2009-01-19T08:32:00.001-08:00

After I came home from my review it really openend my eyes to what I want to to when I finishe this course. I reckon that if I continue next year and do A.V I would like to go into the music video industry or something to do with filming. I have decided to research music videos that I personally like and then research the directors and then look at other videos. Some directors names that I have came up with are:

Anthony Mandler
Shane Drake
Tony Petrossian
David Mallet

Here are an example of music videos that these have directed

Disturbia - rhianna
When I’m gone – Eminem
When you were young – killers
Empty walls - Serj Tankian
Beast and the harlot – avenged sevenfold
Tears don’t fall – bullet for my valentine
I want to break free – queen
You shook me all night long – AC DC
The way I are – Timbaland
Paramore - misery business

interactive narrative

2009-01-15T04:16:00.000-08:00

The third project that we were assigned was to create an interactive narrative, which could be either a game or a story etc but to make it interactive we have to give the user choices and let the story have multiple outcomes.

I have decided to do a journey of a rock band, You start out as a amateur band that practices in your mums living room but you could end up as rock legends or washed up drunks you decide.

http://alan2712.deviantart.com/art/journey-of-a-rock-band-106116312

journey of a rock band by ~alan2712 on deviant ART

one shot film

2008-12-03T06:47:00.000-08:00

We have been asked to do a one shot film using but 1 movement .

The one shot film is about a meeting between a boy and a girl after a one night stand but what the girl cannot remember is that she was the one wearing the beer goggles so lets hope she gets away with it........enjoy.

The film quality was crap so you might not be able to read the subtitles (but i will sort that out) so here is a copy of the subtitles so that you get the idea.

B: You alright there, Hayleigh right?

G: Hi, yeah... how are you doing?

B: I'm great did you have a good weekend? Cheesy/ sleazy grin

G: Yeah it was alright, I was a bit of a mess.

B: I think we both were. Small chuckle, grins to reveal ugly teeth.

G: Yeah. Flinches.

B: Are you OK?

G: Yeah I just thought I was going to sneeze.

B: Sneeze away don't stop on my account.

G: Don't worry I wont.

G: So urrr.... what are you doing around here?

B: I'm just going to work, I live just up here. points in the direction the girl was walking.

B: Where are you going?

G: Oh err just going to see a friend.

B: Really it's just I remember walking back form around here.

G: Really it cant be I live quite far away from here.

B: OK I was a state in the morning. Cheesy grin

B: Sorry I left so early.

G: Its no problem.

B: Yeah I had to go back early for my Mums birthday. We went to church.

G: Aww that's sweet.

B: Thanks. I don't usually go but she likes me to go sometimes.

G. Ummm

B: Look do you want to go out for a drink sometime?

G: Maybe, but I'm quite busy at the moment. How about I call you when I'm free?

B: Yeah that would be cool.

G: Cool, but I've got to go and I'm sure you've got to go to work.

B: True, I'll see you around.

G: Sure you will. See You

B: See you

The Rule of Thirds

2008-11-22T10:35:00.000-08:00

The rule of thirds is like guidelines in visual arts and photography. The rule states that an image should be imagined as divided into nine equal parts by two equally-spaced horizontal lines and two equally-spaced vertical lines as shown in the picture below. The rule of thirds can be applied by lining up subjects with the guiding lines, placing the horizon on the top or bottom line instead of the center.

The Mobile phone

2008-11-09T09:40:00.000-08:00

Why is it that we want our belongings to do more for us than to function well?

This question can apply to any piece of belonging depending on the person. Just after World War 2 ended people had the simplest beloingings that did there job and were not fancy or had any thing special about them. Now as time has grown people seem more selfish as they want items that do more than what they were designed for. A good example of this would be the mobile phone. When it was first invented it was just a basic phone that you could ring people on, but now as technology as developed mobile phones have games, cameras, video cameras, mp3 players and even internet access and now phone networks like “3” are known not to have very good signal and find it hard to do what it was originally designed for. This shows that people want there belongings to do more for them then the actual function that they were designed for.

Why are we willing as soon as we can afford it, to pay extra for things with appealing forms?

multimedia essay

2008-11-01T08:51:00.001-07:00

Games consoles have developed widely over the years and with new technology developing games consoles have a lot more to offer. A good development example could be the Xbox. The Xbox offered Xbox live which featured a unified gaming "Friends List", as well as a single identity across all titles and standardized voice chat and communication; a feature that was still in its infancy, even on the PC. Xbox live is now a development in social gaming network and allows people around the world to connect and interact. When the Xbox evolved in to the Xbox 360 the technology of Xbox live also developed. The features the Xbox 360 have a good impact on society because what was once just an online gaming net work is now an entire gaming profile which allows gamers to voice and video chat you can also get a list of other users that you can interact with and a list of the recent users that you have interacted with. Access to windows live messenger is also available. Another good impact that this has on society is that it aims at different target audience for example there are parental controls which limit children’s exposure to certain users and network this is known as “family settings”. There is also a filing system which allows users to file complaints against other users who have broken the terms of use of the system link. All these different advantages of the 360 Xbox live brings the whole aspect of the gaming experience one step into the future and will no doubt develop into a virtual world were people can link up over the internet in different gaming fields with different genres and different virtual rooms were people around the world can interact with each other. Lets just see what the future holds for the world of Xbox live

The Project

2008-10-27T08:19:00.000-07:00

We have been assigned a project to produce a thirty second film using stop motion animation. For this project I have decided to do a "hands trip to wetherspoon" It took alot of getting wet and a total of 390 photos of my hand, I also turned a few heads whilst taking the the photos in the town centre and in wetherspoon. I hope you enjoy the film as it it took alot of time and effort .

Some cool vids

2008-10-27T08:01:00.000-07:00

During the lectures that we have had so far we have encountered some interesting videos that are quite cleverly made. Here are a few examples:

This one is the human skate board and is a very good example of stop motion animation:

The next one is about the iphone and development in technology i just thought this one was rather funny:

Whiteboard Animation

2008-10-27T07:22:00.000-07:00

During the induction week of multimedia we were told to do some animation using only whiteboards and still cameras. The plot was that we had to move a box from one side of a house to the other side of the house using only 120 shots and our imaginations. Here is what we came up with:

What I want to gain from the course

2008-10-08T04:20:00.000-07:00

I have been studying media for the last five years and when i started looking at university courses. Multimedia caught my eye, when I looked at this course i saw all the different types of things that we would be doing and it seemed very intersesting. Now i am actually starting the course I hope to widely broaden my knowledge of the media and get a successful job in this area of work.

what did i do in my first week

2008-10-08T04:04:00.000-07:00

During this week I have attended the welcome week talk and my multimedia induction. During this induction we made a pin hole camera using only a can of strongbow duck tape and a piece of card and managed to take two half decent pictures with this camera. Later that day i decided to go to "kiss kiss" at oceana to meet up with a few friends of mine as I do not know any one (a result of living on my own) the line outside was huge and I was waiting an hour to get in at which point I was told that I could not get in, so I ended up getting a taxi home (bad times). The next day I created my online journal and posted this very blog. Later in the week I hope to attend some fresher week activities so I can actually start enjoying university life.