Non Narrative Final

I had a fair few ideas of how i was going to do my Non Narrative (no story flow) and i came up with the idea when seeing paint in an art shop, took me a good few hours for it to click then i decided to splash paint on a white canvas and do the brief on colour and create something very surreal.

I went out and bought RGBY colours and also white incase i messed it up at any point, i did have a few rolls of canvas from when i used to paint which was handy. The weather on the day off the shoot was half and half sunny but also looked like it was going to pour down at any point so i acted fast with the help of my girl friend Roxanne who helped to splash the paint on the canvas while i set up the shot. It did start raining but it turned out to be a benefit to my work, i recorded the paint slowly merging when the water hit the canvas so when this was happening i had to think fast of what to do next, i asked roxanne to grab 2 bowls of paint and get ready to pour it on the canvas at the same time as me with 2 bowls. The paint all merged together and had some interesting shadows of a bird flying over us which looked great on the edit, as i was watching the paint merging i noticed it created a type of river i increased the depth of field and got down on the floor really close up recording the paint flow on the canvas.

I was very pleased with the results and it was just a surreal project anything goes and it worked. If i was going to reshoot i would of used a gorilla tripod on the floor to support the camera more.

Resonance Finished PDP

Finally the resonance project is over, not that i didn’t enjoy the experience but standing in one spot most of the day holding a boom mic does take it out of you. we have been all over the place doing shots for what i have gathered a short film version of Resonance. locations:

Mustard gas factory

Underpass with train

Univercity art building, stairs and editing room.

The experience was great to working on such a big project my main role was to be boom man but i did also help Chris from clm to interview people, i found out then i also have a talent for interviewing people which it recent projects i have been for behind the scenes work. I do feel that this project will look great on my CV for future jobs and would be fantastic to work on projects like this again for PDP work, we will be having a premiere soon with the crew which would be nice to say thank you to everyone again for the real hard work.

Making My Own Green Screen

After seeing a video experiment by Dave it motivated me to invest in making my own green screen, i did make an attempt in the past but didn’t work out so well. Me and Chris from CLM went to Duhnalm Mill and bought a 2 metre cut of cotton, also i bought some green dye to push in the washing machine to dye the cloth. Before hand i did ask for advice on dying from one of the employees and learnt a fair few bits on fabrics, might come in handy in future projects.

First attempt of dye failed, turned out lime so i bought a darker colour than last time and mixed it with the same dye i bought first time and washed it with the dye. As you can see in the youtube clip below worked perfectly.

In the video below i experimented by putting a green screen cloth on top of my car windshield and then keyed in GTA IV as if i was driving in the gaming world, from a few attempts i did learn from mistakes, i had a green light reflecting on the dashboard from the outside, to defuse that id use a light on the dash board. Also to make it look more real i came up with the idea of getting the GTA clip on my phone and putting on my lap so i can watch the video while pretending to drive and react properly with the steering wheel.

If you look on my youtube account through this link you might see my latest work on experimenting with green screen, my next idea is to drive off a building, for wind effect put a hair dryer below me. Your probably thinking why drive off a building well pure experimentation with physics and effects making it look real as possible.

Narrative Project ‘Unwanted’ Complete

Finaly the project is over took me a fair good weeks to get it finished i would say the editing and effects took the longest, i did have to reshoot the first scene outside because of crossing the line but other than that i am extremely relieved it is done, I have just had my screening of it today and to shock everyone liked it, i do feel i have worked really hard on the film and do feel i have learned allot out of this. A huge let down for making this film was the camera i used pardon my french but sum tit changed the cam from HD to DV and when it came extracting the footage the macs in the hub would not read it, so i had to extract it on my PC at home using movie maker and some of the quality was lost. So i went out and bought my own equipment with my uni loan. I bought the Nikon d3100, tripod, UV lens cover, new lens plus macro, zoom microphone with stereo  output which can be plugged into a boom mic using a Jac cable to XLR cable which i also bought on the day i did haggle Jessops like mad to see what deals i could get and i am pretty happy with the price and stuff i got with it.

The sound on my film was difficult due to having a dog at home and trying to control him was a challenge as well as filming, from having a lesson with Dave on sound it really helped me build up the atmosphere in my film using MUSIC, AMBIENCE and DIALOGUE. So i think i have achieved the suspense part of my film.

If i was going to redo this film i would reshoot the whole thing using my own equipment. Other than that the actors were great and worked really well with me stressing and did thank them allot for the help which was very much appreciated. I do feel from all the PDP work i have been doing from Resonance project, health and safety project, helping 3rd years with there films and helping Dave with the recycle video i have learnt allot and really come far since the first year.

Night Shoot Behind The Scenes

The Night Shoot turned out to be an all nighter i was extremely tired had uni al day then after uni had work until 10pm then straight to the Luke’s for filming the behind the scenes, the experience was great really creepy atmosphere for the film when all the lights had to go out and Luke discussing his house ghost stories, for the behind the scenes i used a HD pocket camera which is easy to move around and i wouldn’t of got in anyones way when filming. The overall shoot everyone was happy we all had a good laugh and i had to act out one part in the end to scream upstairs so Luke could merge my scream with another actors scream and create a paranormal scream which could be the bad guy of the film not all is clear yet.

Non Narrative Project So Far…

For my Non Narrative idea i will be filming a range of textures from static shots to moving all over the place using camera and tripod, then in After Effects put layers together roughly about 3 textures on top to create something surreal and visually interesting to keep viewers interested. Once i have collected enough textures i will then place a sound track in the background.

So far i am just finishing my edit for the Narrative project which should only take a couple more days.

Luke Parry Project CLM 3rd Year Horror Film

I have been asked by Luke Parry 3rd year on CLM to film behind the scenes for his horror film ‘Night Shoot’ all was filmed in one night and to complicate things the style of filming was actors filming themselves with another person filming them and me shooting the behind the scenes, very similar to films like paranormal activity but my behind the scenes footage wont be used in the film you could say my footage will be the reality part of the film when they are not acting because Luke wanted the actors to play there own characters with there own names.

Glyndwr BBC Building Opening Day

It was a great privilege to be part of the team who would be helping film with the open evening of the new media building at the main Glyndwr Campus, there was allot going on in the day and a very unsual battle of who was actually in charge but i did my best to please and by the sound of it everything turned ok ok in the end.

My Responsibilities

• Filmed in the studio using the new industry cameras while the drama group were performing for the guests.
• Interviewed with a reporter some of the important guests also dealing with lighting.
• Organising the drama students and keeping them informed on latest updates.
• Being a runner for a bit getting footage to the editors in the editing room.
• Interviewed the producer and director of the film ‘Hawk’ myself which was a good experience.
• Camera man for certain events.

I would say the highlight of the day was when i interviewed the people who made ‘Hawk’ which was filmed in Snowdonia and funded by Glyndwr University. After the interviews i did ask the director if he was ever doing any films local and needed a fresh crew CLM would love to have the experience and he did agree and does believe in that for professional development due to him being an ex student of Newi.

The only downside to the day was organisation, no one was informed of what was happening next and had many people asking what they do next so i had to take it into my own responsibility to keep a few people informed like the drama students and a few of my friends who were on camera helping. Also there was no person who was officially in charge so i was taking orders from two people which over lapped at points.

Tom Hill ‘Resonance’ BBC

I have been asked by Graham Cooper 3rd year CLM to help in Resonance a film project in which Tom Hill producer and director came to the opening of the new BBC media building at Gyndwr main campus to discus the project, which unfortunately i missed because of interviews, so Graham filled my in on the project and got me to do sound for them.

Time Schedule was to meet at Grahams for 8am on Wednesday, on the way i picked up Luke and Chris and we all drove down to the location which was an old mustard gas building used in the war, very well secluded from society and a beautiful place to film well accept for when your in the place it gets creepy. Everyone arrived in the cars and we set up all the equipment which took a good hour before shooting are first shot, the establishing shot which Graham got out his crane to elevate the camera which i was very impressed with.

The actors were very co-operative all through the day and did recognise a few we worked with in the health and safety project which is still going on. The shoot did go on untill 5:30pm by then we had to leave due to that was the time we were given by the security there.

Overall working on sound was good, its nice to get a taste of everything from directing, camera man, sound, behind the scenes, lighting, producer and runner. Now and then it was difficult because of the elements, now and then we had a gust of wind that distorted the sound as i call the fury thing that goes on the end of the mic wasn’t available at the uni at the time.

Recycle Video For The Disabled

 

 

 

 

 

 

This project was organised by Dave a new tutor training in Glyndwr University, he offered anyone on CLM to help in in a recycle video for the disabled and due to me wanting more PDP work i didn’t hesitate. Me and Helen from CLM year 2 attended and a couple of people from the first year attended which is nice because of future projects we can all work together and help each other out.

We arrived at a nice house to use by a beach i can never remember the name of the place but it was a great place for film, as soon as we got the equipment out Dave surprised us and said “right theres the equipment off you go” it was a shock at first we all thought we were going to watch and learn how he does it, but as a group it brought everyone allot closer voicing out there opinions and i really enjoyed it, at points i did want to take over as i do consider myself a good leader when it comes to projects, there were a few errors the first years made with crossing the line but which thanks to Dave he did discuss with me in good detail and gave me a clearer understanding so it did come in handy when helping the first years.

We all had ago at using the camera and voicing are opinions on shots and agreed with each other, me and Hellen offered to act, Helen was the lady who demonstrated on how to recycle and I was the Bin man who came along in a high vis jacket and took them away, also a first year had ago as well.

After the long day of shooting we all got chips from the fish and chip shop and relaxed in the sun, discussing how the day went.

For PDP projects i would defiantly volunteer again for any project Dave hands out as i have learnt allot.