Blogging with beans

While I am sat here eating my very student stereotypical bowl of beans and sausage (so, it's bloody cold outside and I'm working!) I have had a realisation.

Today was our presentation of our final documentary. To be very honest with you I am not happy with it, at all, but that is because I know it could have been something much better, if people would have actually listened to me. This is the biggest problems I've faced over the past few years. At first, when I started doing media properly when I was about 13, I actually just thought  I was trying to be a control freak and should step back because other people know better/more. Now I'm at uni, I am quite young in comparison to some of the people I work with, but I have been doing media much longer than them and it just makes me want to scream when I do not get listened too. I may be younger, but have you thought that I actually know what I'm on about?! I am now one of the people that knows something.

To take the most recent example, this documentary for my single camera project, this has happened yet again, but not because I wasn't assertive (believe me, I was). I have been saying from the beginning about certain things not going to work or not having enough screentime etc. I kept repeating myself practically everyday, and in the edit this didn't change.

So as I sat in my presentation hearing feedback on our film I had to hold myself back. My tutor was picking out everything that I had warned the group about and been saying was not going to work. If anyone was to look at me they would have thought I wanted to tear the room apart with my mind, I was holding back that much. I just wanted to burst out!

But I've realised how I've become a bit more professional in the past few weeks because of it all. I have never had to shout at someone I worked with before. I don't take members of my group to the side to 'criticise them as a professional' when I'm actually gonna tell them how awful they are or always tell members of the group to always act professional. (There are 2 types of people: 1: professionals- that don't bang on about being professional and do it   2: idiots- who actually know nothing and have to cover that up by saying the word professional as many times in a sentence as they can)

I am now just sat in my chair, smug in the comfort that I was right and I know that I was. At least I know I have really grown as a person.

But mark my words, I will never be spoken down to again...

Why oh why have the DVD gods forsaken me?

I am in the edit suite atm, have been for 5 hours. We need to burn stuff to.DVD and its being a massive pain! It's been interlacing all of our video for the sake of 1 button. I am annoyed to say the least.

My new enemy- adobe encore

Step 1...

Well After Effects and I had a little tiff yesterday. I was in the middle of something and didn't realise that somehow my motion track had disappeared so everything went to pot and had to start again right near the end as it just would not go back to normal. But I am glad to say I have finished it now! I am not happy with it though, I just don't think my idea is good enough and would have loved to change it, but I just don't have the time. My tutor said as long as we covered the skills he taught he didn't mind, and I think I've done that.

So here is a screen shot of each of my stages!

                                                                   My original footage

                                                                       Final Image

I have learnt a lot but it could be so much better.

Oh the pain of being a perfectionist...

Time to open my toolbox...

As you may fully be aware, After Effects and I have a love/hate relationship. But we have been to relationship counselling in the form of Graham my Digital Media lecturer. I used to look at it as a massive obstacle that I had to do all in one go, but I realise that it isn't. He explained that every tiny skill he learnt goes into his 'toolbox' so when he knows how to do something like keyframe the position of something or how to scale something then that's a skill, and you use all of these to do bigger tasks like set extension.

And I just did my first ever After Effects work on video yesterday and today :) even overcoming some of the worst problems ever! I am really pleased with myself, eventhough the piece of work could be better I learnt:
- Sky replacement
- Using masking (auto and by hand)
- Motion tracking
- Null objects
- Chromakeying properly
- How to use curves to add depth
- Change my image to black and white

And that's from a 20 second project!

My toolbox is starting to fill up nicely...

Do you have a weakness?

Wow! I am in week 7 of uni now, I was going to blog more but the documentary has taken up a lot of my time for single camera.

So what has happened the past few weeks, well, I didn't go any further with the Campbells Soup competition (I didn't place in the top 6) and I also haven't got anywhere with the Pepsi competition either. My time has been taken up by the Parkour documentary I am currently working on and digital media has already moved onto the 3rd project! I'm about to start my after effects work to be handed in for thursday.

These past few weeks have also made me realise something, a person is determined on how they deal with weak moments in life. Around week 4/5 I had a time where I thought I couldn't do it anymore, there is too much work and I didn't know how to cope. But I got through it. And the other day my friend went through a few days of turmoil, but he got through it too. It just makes you realise how strong minded you can be if you put effort into it and the weak moments you have can shape the person you are.

Let's stay positive :)

What a weekend!

From wednesday onwards it has been a crazy end of the week/weekend. I shall make a little list of what happened:
- Got on the team for the LAFTA's
- My Campbells Soup viral ad has got the final of the competition
- My camera came and I went straight out to take some photos of Hull Fair
- I finished the temple in Maya after 6 hours! Pictured below:

Phew! Been rather crazy. I'm in Lincoln now, chilling for a few weeks, mainly so I've got time to do my digital media project. 1 week to go and my creature hasn't even been built yet! However, I have made my little model to help me build it in the programme. Here he is:

Bring on week 3 of uni!

I'm expecting!

A Canon 550D that is! Ordered it yesterday and I'm so excited. I'm coming back to Hull on thursday to pick it up, just want it to come asap. To be honest, I have an extremely busy week ahead so it'll fly by! Today alone has been really busy, 3 lectures and then making my model for digital media. We have to create a creature to animate for our mini project, i find it hard to think of drawings as 3D so I'm actually making my model out of childrens modelling clay! Photos are going up tomorrow of all the different stages :)

I also went around to my friend Daves to work out Maya. I'm sort of getting through my temple! It's coming along okay, just taking me a really long time to understand it but I started going through it quicker just before I stopped. Here is the screenshot before I saved it:

I also applied for the LAFTAs, Lincoln unis media awards ceremony :) I have my interview on wednesday afternoon so I'm gonna be preparing myself for that tomorrow.

Busy busy week!!!

Choo chooooo

So my day consisted of seminars, a digital media workshop and running for the train home, which was delayed at one of the stops so i missed my train. Im posting from a hull trains service to, you guessed it, hull. Today i learnt quite a lot, had my first digital media workshop where i learnt Maya (photo attached of my first attempt). Its really hard, and thats a huge understatement. In 3 weeks im expected to have made a creature on there and animated it for use in a film or video game. Imma die. Me and my mate dave may be having editing parties as 2 of us could work out the basics and thats it. My work for the next lesson is to build a temple. Yes my dear readers, a freaking temple!! Bit of a step up from the weird shape on my picture.

This is gonna be interesting...

It's like someone lit a rocket...

Well, how times can change extremely quickly. With the combination of sweets, boredom and being able to organise my brain on my blog, not long after I posted my last update things suddenly changed. By sunday evening I had completely edited and had done the voiceover for one of my films and submitted it 24 hours before the deadline! Remarkable considering that at 3pm on saturday I had like no footage or any clue what I was doing.

I then got myself organised and applied for work experience at my university, setting up their awards ceremony for the media department. Should hear back from that soon but yeah, things just happened.

To be fair, my website is still no further and the next film that needs submitting really quickly has not even been captured onto my hard drive yet.

Meh, it'll all be fine!

Nowhere is everywhere

So since I last posted, nothing has really happened. I haven't done any more to my website and I still haven't written my script idea that I've had for months. I haven't done any photoshop training from this thing I bought and I still haven't edited either films for 2 competitions.

But I feel like I've done a lot...

I have read my amazing screenwriting book, Crafting short screenplays that connect by Claudia Hunter Johnson. I may have not done a lot but this book has made me realise I need to change my mind set. My mind has become more open to the world around me, teaching me to go out and live the feelings I want to write. Like I am petrified for big rides, no idea why though, so when my boyfriend took me to Alton Towers, I went on 4 of the 5 big rides, Oblivion being the one I was extremely scared to do (pictured below)

I am quite an open minded person to begin with but I need to be like a sponge and just absorb everything around me. I have lived so much this spring/summer, it has been the best of my entire life and I feel I have grown up not just as a person but my perspective on my work.

Bring on 2nd year of uni!

Oh the cliche!

Well it's nearly time to go back to Lincoln uni to go into my 2nd year of Media Production. Doesn't time fly? This summer I have learnt a lot of life lessons, things I think you can only learn with age and experience. After working at Cott High and winning that award, I've learnt not to take things too seriously (as the crappest thing i have ever made actually won an award after years of trying!) I also have had lots of different experiences too which has made me think about what makes a good connecting film, with help from my scriptwriting book ;)

I need to get myself out there, which is the one thing I am struggling with atm.

Update on my website: I HAVE A NAME! Thank God, it took a while but I got there in the end. Now it's just taking on the website design and getting that done!


The search for inspiration continues...

Indigo Monkey??

Since the last post I have had a lot to think about. I want to set up my own company, get some business cards and a website done. I'm rather stuck on the name though, not good at choosing them at all. I found this random name generator and I'm stuck between a few. Indigo Monkey is a favourite but it reminds me of a clothing company. 

Not gonna reveal the names yet but I'm trying to make sure it's good.

58 days of Cott High...

Why hello,

All I can say is it has been crazy since April. Had that massive schedule of deadlines towards the beginning of April for uni, came home for easter and was asked to work as a Media Technician at my old high school and was doing that until today. Been so busy but it's been amazing, did the media awards ceremony, Coscars, for the 3rd time, did so many styles of print media I could make my own magazine, taught kids for the first time and did an amazing photo shoot with them and I won an award at CineClub for the Best Teacher film and got to meet Dexter Fletcher, who gave me his email address ;)

I've started uploading stuff to my flickr and vimeo site (well the vimeo stuff is slowly going on) but hoping to get the ball rolling on stuff soon.

Yeah, it's been a hell of a 58 working days...

Just for a recap...

I was reading my older posts recently and i've realised how far my idea has come from my starting point. A lot has changed since then, so I'll just list stuff that has changed.

- The whole black and white thing

My original idea was to use black and white with one item of colour in my pictures. I researched films such as Sin City and looked at various editing styles that changed the concept of the photos. I completely dismissed the use of colour all together as I didn’t think it would be appropriate but now I am using full colour, maybe because it was such a sunny day and didn’t want to waste the opportunity.

- Street photography style

It is still street photography, just in a more documentary style. My original idea was to use a similar style to ….. but it changed due to my circumstances as people not turning up etc. It is still posed but it is documentary as they socialized in each of the locations.

-Extremes of people

It was such a sunny day that people did not really wear their most extreme clothes to portray their stereotypes. In the beginning, this was my idea, to clearly show all of the subgenres of youth fashion culture. But then this developed to be a documentary style of photography after looking at the book Fruit and was pleased with whatever they were wearing on the day.

I never realised how much my idea developed...

It's all about the organisation...

So I've started putting together my sequence. I've done so much today. The overall style of the piece wasn't exactly what I wanted, wanted it to be more gritty and urban, but in the end it turned out to be colourful!

So the sequence, I'm finding it quite hard to choose the photos that i want. I think it still fits the brief in general, as it is following the group that I stayed with all day. It was quite a shock when I realised what sort of photos i got, i was expecting dull but the change really threw me off. Unfortunately, all the good photos are of the same few people, as most of them didn't turn up for the photo shoot, but that is all that I've got to choose from.

I've let my instinct choose what the sequence should be, what I feel looks right and has a flow through it. I've tended to go for portraits, as all of them show the personalities and the social environments that they inhabit. Most of them are posed but I have stuck a few random shots in there, that they didn't know that I took, just to break it up a bit and show them as a group of teenagers. hopefully the documentary style I was going for.

I think it's gone quite well...

First quick edits...

I took one of my photos and edited them in 3 different ways. To be honest, I didn't pick the best one at all, just the first I clicked. Here they are:

I like the full colour. I feel it be a shame to waste what is unique about these people. Placing the photos in black and white may take the individuality away from the people in the group, which is not what I want. The more saturated one doesn't really do it for me, however in this next image, I feel it works.

In this next image, I decided to take the picture of my sister with a flower in her mouth as it can be edited in various ways.

From these, I have decided that colour must be used in every photo, so black and white is out of the question. The sun brought out some interesting textures and colours so I must embrace them!

Ideas on editing...

Here has come to the part that I have been dreading, the photo editing. I am really not sure what will suit my photographs and convey the style/ purpose. Everything I do is for a reason and this is no different. i want the same editing style for the whole sequence.

Black and white

The roots of street photography stem from black and white imagery and I also feel that I lean towards it when doing this style. It also looks very stylish but it could take away from the environment and the uniqueness of the people. Also, it may not be the best option, as I was taking pictures in very harsh light and the shadows may become too prominent.

Sections of colour

There is quite a lot of photos that I have taken that involve a lot of colour. If i wanted to go down the black and white route but bring out key items in the photos, this would be the way around it. But I'm not sure if this will be right for it or not.

Sepia tones

This is a way of editing, without giving away or bringing forward too much colour. I quite like it, but it is all a question of if it will take too much away from documenting the people in photos.

The only way I'm going to find out is to just do it...

The unpredictability of teenagers...

I had everything planned, I took a lot of inspiration from Jacopo Pandolfi and had a lot of shots lined up in my mind. For my steam punk, I wanted to get a shot of him in the old part of town with the cobbled streets, stood isolated. I then wanted an image of him leaning against a worn brick wall staring at the camera with his gas mask on, to create a gritty street photography style.
I wanted a small emo girl, and to bring her sparkling black wings to stand her against a graffiti wall.

All of the very unusual and extreme stereotypes never showed up for the shoot and the majority of my photos had to be re-thought on the spot. So on the spot I used what I had around me. As it was an extremely sunny and hot day, the people I was photographing weren't exactly wearing their most extreme clothes. But then again, is that what the shoot was about? Yeah it was about youth fashion culture, but I had a look at the book Fruit by Shoichi Aoki. He captured Japanese youth culture and took photos of random people in the city. I like this documentary style approach, so I feel it may have been better that they were wearing what they wanted instead of being made up just for a photo shoot.

So I decided that I would follow my sister and cousins main group of friends around town, see the places that they naturally went too and then set up photos there. they went to a wide range of places, they went to the grassy park, to the main shopping area, to the marina and around the older parts of the town. Along the way, they bumped into more friends that were different and they all came together for a group photo (you'll know which one it is Mike).

All in all, it was a different day than I expected. Not the gritty street photography style that I was really after, but you never know, it could be just as good...

Posed vs Candid

I love my natural photos, just taking pictures of whatever goes on around where ever I am. It's probably why I love street photography so much as the most natural things I think are the most beautiful and interesting. However, for this project, I don't really think it is appropriate for this project. So I'm going to look at photography styles with and without posing.

One of my favourite photographers, Elliott Erwitt, did a mixture of posed and candid shots, but my favourites of his are the natural ones. This next one was a natural shot, he set it up for focus but the subjects were just passing by:

It's great for the right purpose of capturing the French culture.

This next one is also candid.

It's the right environment for this sort of shot, it wouldn't look as good posed.

Next I'll look at posed shots also by Elliott Erwitt.
This next one is of Marilyn Monroe, it looks right posed at it is a portrait

It may be due to the fact that she is an icon and we expect her to be picture perfect 24/7 but I think that it wouldn't have looked as good if it wasn't posed.

This is also posed and tbh I really like it. It fits its portrait purpose.

So, what do I think is best for this shoot?
Well, I think that posed shots would be best. As it's people in their environment, I really do think it would be more suitable. On the shoot I will take some candid shots too and see what they look like some may fit quite well in the sequence. These would be of the group of people together, could make some great shots.

All systems go!

I sent the message to my younger sister to tell her to gather the minions ready for saturday! I'm going to take a few approaches to make sure I get everything I need. One of my main subjects is my cousin, who is a very elegant goth, she's already got some photos done of her by various people. Here is one of the only examples i can find of her on facebook but there are some fantastic ones of her in a graveyard but i can't get them.

I have a feeling she will be one of my main subjects.

Other sorts of people I have that agreed to come and meet me on saturday are:
- Skaters
- Steam Punk
- Indie Kid
- Other goths
- Emos
- and i think a pirate?!?!

Just to do an evaluation of what sort of places are in the area when I'm shooting, I have a small church/graveyard, record stores, a marina, the whole facilities of the town in general and the place where all of these weird and wonderful teenagers meet every week (basically this massive hole in the ground).

My idea, to shoot them in this very plain environment where they meet, basically a bit like street photography. I think i have found an interest in this area of photography as I just want to keep revisiting this style. I'm not sure if they should all be posed or not yet, but I'm trying to think for the sake of the sequence. Here is an example of the sort of style I want to shoot it in:

I was also thinking to take photos of people in their stereotypical environment such as goth in graveyard etc but maybe them outside of where people would expect them to be.

Not sure yet, I'm gonna have to decide in the next few days.

Lets take a trip to Sin City...

I have found a new inspiration for my photography project. Bombastic to me means colour, but I don't think that full-blown colour would be the best way for the photos to be edited. For a start to my research, I looked at one of my favourite films Sin City. I love the way colour is used to highlight key objects or characters. Here are some examples underneath:

The only thing about Sin City, is that the colours are over exaggerated and the rest of the image is in black and white. I kinda want to lean away from black and white. I feel it's too overused for no particular reason. But what i want to do is use the image, tweak the brightness/contrast but to keep a key object or element in the picture in full colour. This should fit into my colour criteria.

To be quite honest, I will probably slip into the black & white street photography image style but at least I'm trying not too...

I've had a break-through!

My photography project has started moving, finally, less than 2 weeks before the deadline. Bombastic to me means in your face and reminds me of younger teenagers (15-16). So I went on a few digital dictionaries where I got the definitions pretentious and inflated. But what got me thinking was the rhetorical meaning "emphasizing style at the expense of thought" How many times when you were younger did you brave the extreme cold or heat just to look good? I know I did quite a few times!


So then I liked my idea, my younger sister has an array of weird and wonderful friends, but earlier I lost confidence in it. But then I came across Jacopo Pandolfi. He photographs youth culture in London in an environmental portraiture style. It is exactly what i wanted! So this has really sparked my idea! Here is his website.


Must remember this to go in my research file!

BOMBASTIC!

I hate that fucking word! It has been the bane of my life for the past week. I have a photography project on environmental portraiture and this was the word I picked out of the teapot (don't ask). Being a very random word, all i can think of is Shaggy- Mr Bombastic. So, 12 photos on the topic in 2 weeks, any idea on what theme I can do for it?

In other news, I have done quite a few other photography projects. I did the alphabet street photography project, as shown earlier in the blog, raggaphotos and an Elliot Erwitt style collection of photos. All can be found on my Flickr site. www.flickr.com/photos/aleyshaminns

Comments are muchly appreciated.

Marmite syndrome...

I have been the worst person for keeping up this blog. Over the past few weeks/month I have learnt a lot about myself, about what I can actually achieve in media and where I ultimately want to go. I'm right at the end of my first year at uni, only 2 weeks and 3 days left! Eeep! I've made my choices for next year finally, after changing them around 3 times, running back and forth to and from the office asking for my form back! If you saw some of my earlier posts, you may know that After Effects and I aren't the best of friends. However, I am glad to say we have made up! I have started to really enjoy it and it is one of my 2 options for next year along with single camera.

Me and After Effects have such a love/hate relationship...

Tropical fruit juice- Lifesaver

Oh writers block, how much i loathe you! Considering a script has to be in a week on thursday, you really aren't helping me with the whole idea situation. The words will come when you give me a concept! You stopped me from posting Fuck Yeah! of the week, as nothing has really inspired me in the last week. 

But tropical fruit juice drink from Iceland makes the world a much better place! And Fuck yeah! of the week will be here posted if I can find this video i remember seeing.

ARRRRGHHHH!

This week has been hectic! I handed in my photos for my alphabet project and there was an overall good response =] very happy. And yesterday morning, I was told about a film competition with a deadline of the 28th Feb! But I got this idea, just hit me in the face like a wet fish. Not had an idea like that in ages so i reckon I should act upon it.

My inspirations for scripts come from realistic films, my favourites being Juno, Little Miss Sunshine, 500 days of summer and Happy-go-lucky. These scripts just speak to me, they always tend to make a connection and provoke an emotional response. I'm going to try something like this, filming all tomorrow, should be interesting to see if I can pull it off in a few days and make a connection in under 3 minutes.

Lets hope! God knows I need the prize money...

Fuck Yeah! of the week

I came across this today in a moment of procrastination (putting off my digital media storyboards) and wow it is just stunning. Every single second is a visual treat and I just love it!

To watch it just click here

I assure you, you will not be disappointed!

Mother nature is evil...

Since my last post I have been rather busy. My brain has been spitting out random thoughts on the script I need to write, but not one has screamed "PICK ME PICK ME!" This is my usual process of selection, let the ideas fight for my attention like 2 annoying brats fighting for their mothers love until I pick one and the neglected one sulks back into the depths of my brain. Now is not the time to mention this though, as they are still brawling as we speak...

My photography project is near completion (outside in the wind and rain all weekend!), I had everything done until i was told to go take some more. I shall show you my favourite from my collection of alphabet street photos as mentioned before, but the one I liked the least was other peoples favourite. If you should shed some light on why this is, it would be greatly appreciated as I can't work out if it's just me or they are a bit crazy.

My favourite photo:

And this was my photography tutors favourite:

Comments?

I quite like photography

I am a moving image girl, like to film stuff because I find it easier to say what I want rather than taking a still image. But today I think I have found a new hobby! For my photography project I have to take 26 photos, each one for a letter of the alphabet using street photography, and I have to say, even though I was battered to death by this horrible wind, I really enjoyed it. I took out a Canon 500D:

I really like this camera! And it has movie capabilities too! I would put up some pictures I have taken but your reaction will probably be "Why has she taken these pictures?" because to be fair, not in context it makes me look like a really crap photographer. Ideally, I wanted to take some pictures of the cathedral and the really pretty part of Lincoln today but sadly, the day is overcast and everyone looks miserable. Good job I have it over the weekend, yes! (but with this being England, you are lucky for 10 minutes of sunshine). Going to the library either today or tomorrow to look through photographers, maybe start with Henri Cartier-Bresson and move on from there.

Oh woe is me...

As I have mentioned before, I'm not the biggest fan of After Effects. For my uni project its all about title sequences, 20 seconds using only stills or our own drawings. Simple? Well, yes, when you know what you're doing. I'm having a few problems just creating an idea as I have no idea what I can do yet! I'm thinking that I am going to do one in the style of film noir. It is one of my favourite genres, writing, directing and acting in this video below last year

To be fair, this post has no significance to exactly what I'm going to be putting on this blog, just needed to get my head into gear and possibly generate ideas. I'll let you know if it's worked.

Fuck Yeah! of the week

At least once a week I see something that makes me go "Fuck Yeah!" so I thought that I'd share them with you whenever I see one. This one I found quite a while ago, well my dad sent it to me, but I just think its a fantastic alternative view on global warming.

As you can see, a bit harsh but what a view on the issue! I couldn't help but let out an evil chuckle...

To blog or not to blog?

I've tried blogging in the past, mainly at the end of my hormone filled high school years, but it never seemed to work. To put it simply, my life just wasn't that interesting. Now I'm in my first year of university, things have started to happen and I've been shown such amazing creative things that are starting to shape my own personal style. So instead of boring people about my life, I'm gonna use this to put down the random things that pop in my head and media things in general.

One thing to know, my number one enemy is After Effects. *Shudder* It gives me nightmares, it's just not my sort of thing, even though I credit anyone that can make something so beautiful with it. I am only a beginner, into my 2nd week of lectures and workshops on it so I'll keep updating my progress (no matter how little it is). I swear I'm keeping an open mind about it...