'It's Liverpool' again.

So for the past week my film group has been cramming a lot of filming in between lectures and everything else. It's been a bit hectic because of the weather and every other issues we seem to come across. We have managed to get everything filmed however for the 'It's Liverpool' project; we even got passers-by to be in the film. We made cards for people to hold up with phrases about Liverpool on them. For example, we had 'Its Music' and we got a guy with a cello who just happened to be walking past to hold it up.
For each card we decided to try and find people who were related to the words. We managed to film all of these in one afternoon which was very good going! Now that we have all of the correct footage that we want to use (and a hell of a lot extra!) we have been able to edit a full version of our idea. The only thing that we need to do now is pick music to go over the film; we do have atmospheric sounds already included but using music will give the film another layer.
I have every confidence that we will have a finished piece for the deadline! As per usual I have done all the paper work for the project to hand in as well. Hope we do as well as last time!

Speak soon!

Film Language - The Development of the Western

In today's Film Language lesson, we spoke about the development of the Western film throughout the decades. We talked about themes that many Westerns contain and also actors and directors involved in them. Here are the lists of films through the decades:


1960's - 1970's:

• Ride the High Country
• The Wild Bunch
• Little Big Man
• McCabe an Mrs Miller
• Buck and the Preacher
• The Shootist

1980's:

• Heaven's Gate
• Pale Rider
• Young Guns

1990's:

• Dances With Wolves
• Unforgiven
• Posse
• The Ballad of Little Joe
• Bad Girls
• Legend of the Fall
• The Quick and the Dead
• The Postman
• Ride With the Devil

2000's:

• Brokeback Mountain
• 3:10 to Yua
• The Assassination of Jesse James By the Coward Robery Ford

2010's:

• Jonah Hex
• True Grit
• Meeks Cutoff

What I would like to try and do is watch a film from each decade to get a feel for how the genre has changed over the years. Of course, I have seen a few of these so I am going to watch ones that I have not yet seen. It is interesting to look at how the genre has changed because there are so many variations of Western film now that it is hard to distinguish. We also spoke about different styles of Western:

Spaghetti Westerns:

• A Fistful of Dollars
• For a Few Dollars More
• The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
• Django
• Once Upon a Time in the West

Acid Westerns:

• Ride in the Whirlwind
• The Shooting
• El Topo
• Dead Man

I had not heard of Acid Westerns before so this was beneficial to discuss what they were. I discovered that Acid Westerns is a sub-genre of the Western film which tries to avoid typical conventions of the Western genre however they are still set in the west. They look very interesting and also, as our lecturer pointed out, the name does suggest some sort of acid trip. We saw this through a few stills of these films and they are very crazed and deranged.

I feel that the presentations that we have before our screening each Friday are very beneficial because I seem to learn a lot from them. I also like to apply what we learn (if it involved theories) to the screening that we have straight after. This allows me to put what we learn in to practice. Glad to be back in Film Language after the Christmas break,

Speak soon!

Ideas for the Profile piece

After 'It's Liverpool' is all finished, we have been asked to create a profile piece. We can choose anyone we like as long as they are a good speaker and has an interesting story to tell. It is hard because of course it is easier if it is someone that we know, but half of the group is not from Liverpool so of course they probably wont know many people outside of university.
I have came up with three ideas for the profile piece; they are three people I know from my local area in Liverpool. I think all three would be happy to take part so we have a choice really.

First, I asked my Dad if he knew anyone who would like to do such a thing because he is a fireman. I thought it would be interesting to interview a fire-fighter because they lead eventful lives and have a pressured job. The footage that we could collect would be nice because we would have access to the fire station and engines. We could even film the exercises that they do in the yard for training; for example the fire tower training where they use the BA to train their breathing.

Second, I have a local jewellery designer who happens to be my boyfriends sister. She owns her own business and has jewellery cabinets all across Liverpool in various shops and salons. This would be a good piece because I would have permission to film in her home and also follow her around to the shops where she sells her products. She has done interviews for the Echo and bloggers so I am sure she would be fine doing one for us students!

Third is a local actor who is up and coming and has made his name in films and programmes such as 'Nowhere Boy', 'Shameless' and 'Just Henry'. His name is Josh Bolt and he went to my secondary school, he is also a good friend of mine. He of course has done many interviews and so would not have a problem speaking. We could interview him somewhere like the FACT where his work has been shown. I think this would be a big profile to do and could also benefit Josh as an actor.


Just a few ideas for the profile piece anyway, hope my group likes the ideas!


Speak soon!

Image Credits:

geoconnexions.com

liverpoolecho.co.uk

tvchoicemagazine.co.uk

Filming is a struggle...

The weather in Liverpool can be a bit ridiculous sometimes as it has proved this week. With only having a week to film this piece that we are doing about Liverpool, it is a stretch already. But now the rain has caused more problems with our filming schedule. Of course, we are working around this problem because the deadline is Monday; but if this rain prevails then I cant see much else getting done over the weekend! Our main issue is that all of our plans have been for outside because our location that we have chosen is Bold Street. This makes life difficult because we cannot physically film outside with the camera equipment because it could get damaged.
Not sure what we are going to do if we doing get all of the footage we need; so far we have two half an hour time lapses from either end of Bold Street. Hopefully our lecturers will understand!


Speak soon!

Digital Media Tools - Compression and more!

For the most part, yesterdays lesson was about compression. This was a useful topic to discuss because it enabled me to learn about how to use media and jpeg files in an efficient way.
We spoke about 'lossy' and 'lossless' forms of compression. Lossless is when the compression lowers the amount of data in the video through the loss of redundant content. Lossy is when the compression reduces the quality of the video through the application of a codec.
I didn't know what a codec was until this lesson, so I will explain for those of you who do not know. Codec stands for compressor/decompressor.  They can be hardware based (used in cameras) and software-based available with software. The range available is extensive and the successful application will depend on choice and the nature of the content (film or animation).
Popular formats of film are: QuickTime (.mov), Real Player (.rm), Windows Media Player (.wmv) and Macromedia Flash (.flv). Depending on where and when you need you film, you should always look at what type of format you are going to use. It is important that your content is compatible with the software installed on which ever device you are using.
Here is a similar table to the one we were shown in this lesson, showing the various sources a video may come from and the details of its codec, resolution and bit-rate:

We also spoke about digital camera files which is very useful to me because I do a lot of photography. We talked about the fact that if we upload images on to something, it will take longer depending on the amount of pixels. For example, we were speaking about the websites that we are going to be making. And if the file sizes are too large for other peoples computers, they will take forever to load. The internet is a fast pace process and people want fast results so this would be something to think about when creating my website.

After the presentation on compression, we spoke about the websites that we are going to be creating in the near future. We have been asked to look at what we want our site to be like and what content we would like to include on the site. I am excited about doing this website because I will learn new skills through using Dreamweaver and I will also be able to showcase my work on my own site rather than through a blog or on Youtube. I cant wait to get started!

Speak soon!

Google Maps Location Based Narrative

In our second lesson on Google Maps we had to develop our location based narrative and put it on to the map. We did very well in this session, we completed everything that we wanted to put on to the map. We just now need to sort out what we are going to be doing next week when we actually need to present our location based narrative to the class.
We have put video content, images and text on to our map, however as a whole class there was a problem with adding sound bytes and so we were unable to do this aspect of media. However, in spite of this I think that our narrative is fairly strong and has a lot of detail surrounding the locations that we include. Here is the link to our location based narrative on Google Maps, take a look!

Location Based Narrative - Sefton Park and Beyond!

If the link isn't working, I have taken screen shots of the map itself to show you:

This is where the story begins; Sefton Park. We have images with each of the main locations.

The drunk then dreams of being in a park in Japan. 

He then takes himself to the most famous park in America.

We then are led to the park underneath the Eiffel Tower.

He then wakes up to find himself back in Sefton Park.

Throughout the narrative we have extra icons along the way that you can click on. First we have attached locations where he decides to eat when he is on his travels around the world.

The drunk visits a Japanese Restaurant when he is in Tokyo.

He then goes to the Boathouse in Central Park for a bite to eat.

Then he takes himself to a local French Restaurant near the Eiffel Tower.

We also thought that it would be fun to add icons in Liverpool where the drunk may visit after his adventurous dream. If he is going to get his act together he would visit these two places.

The Job Centre.

Alcoholics Anonymous.

Finally, we added video content for each location showing what it is like in these parks or even just something atmospheric so you can get a feel for the culture and surroundings.

I hope you enjoy our Google Maps location based narrative, based around Sefton Park!

Speak soon!

Just a reminder!

Just a reminder for you all about my photography blog! If you don't know already, I have set myself the challenge of doing a photograph each day. I have a DSLR camera that I am still learning about/with so it is an exciting venture for me to have on the side of university.
Here is the link to my photography blog:


http://stevies1day1photo.tumblr.com/


Here are some of my most recent photographs ust so you have an idea of what my blog is like:

Speak soon!

Filming - It's Liverpool

On Tuesday afternoon our group decided to go and shoot for the 'It's Liverpool' brief. our chosen location is Bold Street so we decided to do the time lapses that we are going to put in the film. Because time lapses take a long time, we used this whole afternoon to shoot half an hour at each end of Bold Street. It was very VERY cold put we powered through and managed to get an hour of footage. Time lapse is one of the brief requirements for this short film so it was essential that we did the time lapse footage when we had a clear day (so that the camera would not be damaged).
I took a couple of photographs of the shoot to document, here they are:

Not only do you get a sense of where we are shooting from the many shops and cobbled streets; but it also allows the viewer to see other aspects of Liverpool such as the Bombed out church. We want the location to be as obvious as it can because we have been told that other films for 'It's Liverpool' have been too generic. I am happy with the footage that we got on this shoot and as you can see I took the liberty of using my Canon EOS 1100D to document the event. The bottom photograph was also my photo of the day for Tuesday :)


Speak soon!

Creativity and Concept - Facilitation

This Creativity and Concept lesson was all about facilitation. Now, what is facilitation? Well it is the process of enabling groups to work cooperatively and effectively. A facilitator is someone who leads the group in the right direction and stops any distractions or tangents from occurring. Facilitators are usually used in business settings where decisions need to be made or ideas need to be thought about. Groups of people come together when ideas need to be formed for new things (for example, toy companies). A facilitator can be an outside person who just simple directs the group to what they need; they don't even need to understand the companies work!

Here is the overview of facilitation:

For all of the group to experience facilitation, we were split into groups of 4. We were given a brief which was 'LJMU are having a festival to celebrate all of its achievements and students. What could they have at this festival?' After we had received the brief we all headed for a board each and one person was the facilitator at a time. We all took turns in being the facilitator; we had to be encouraging and stop anything that wasn't to do with the brief being spoke about. Also, nobody was allowed distractions such as mobile phones. We basically mind mapped (or brain stormed) about the whole festival. We came up with as many ideas as we possibly could; here are a couple of photographs of our work:

 We then had to decide what ideas we liked the most as a group and then pitch them to the rest of the class. We had a couple of great ideas but we narrowed it down to three.

We decided that the idea that we would probably use would be the student Olympics/camp out. This was one of our crazy ideas but we wanted to have something original that nobody else had done. The Olympics would be subject based so you could take part in any but you would have an  advantage when taking part in your own subject. The camp out was attached to this idea because after the Olympics it would be like an after party with fires and marshmallows for everyone. When it all settles down everyone could camp out with their friends for this one night only! We thought that the camping was good idea because the festival was going to be in the summer (we were told). I suggested Otterspool Prom because it would be beautiful by the water, but we could also do it somewhere like Sefton Park or Chavasse Park.


Of course this festival is fictional, but it allowed us to see what we were like as facilitators and also it gave each of us a chance to express ourselves.


Speak soon!

Production Practice Camera Workshop

In this lesson we had a workshop taken by Trevor (Head of Department). We touched briefly on some camera techniques but the main part of the workshop was to allow us to get to grips with using sound when filming. The first project we did was visual only and we were allowed to add music or sound effects. Now we will be recording sound as we shoot to apply it to the visual.
We received booklets that are very detailed and helpful to have when at a shoot; they give you more of an understanding of the camera and also how to use the microphones to the best of their ability.
I found a lot of the information useful and pretty much all of it was new to me. I did like how the workshop was set out because they had a camera filming another camera and this image was on a large TV. This gave the whole class a clear view of what buttons were where and how to use them. I think that without this workshop I would find it very difficult to use the microphones and sound through the camera.
The most interesting thing that I learned is that when shooting a film, the sound guys like to get extra 'atmos' (which is basically the atmospheric sound surrounding the shoot). This enables to editors to have more layers of audio to work with and gives the films more depth. I definitely will be using this technique when we are filming our next projects because I want to try my hand at everything - not just strictly holding the camera and pressing record.
After the workshop we were sent off to have a play around with the equipment to get used to using it and see how everything works. This was a useful exercise because we could actually get our hands on the sound equipment rather than just watching someone else explain everything. I do like active learning more, especially on this course because it requires a lot of hands on practical work.
Hopefully everything that I have learned will sink in and I can use these skills on my next shoot!

Speak soon!