Today

I have spent some time uploading all the footage I have collected shot so far, and began to edit it together in Adobe Premier Pro CS3, which I like very much.

This weekend

I am going traveling. I am leaving Norwich on the Saturday morning with a bunch of skiers, and driving to Stoke-On-Trent to compete in the Stoke Rail Jam. Then on the Sunday I shall be driving from Stoke to Rossendale to ride the slope there for a few hours. This is a perfect opportunity to get plenty of footage or many different skiers and snowboarders and different slopes. My aim is to have most of my footage by the end of the trip so I can then begin editing over Christmas.

This morning.

I woke up early and got some shots of the sun coming up over the buildings in the distance. There were birds flying around in groupsm, and the silhouettes of the houses make the shot ideal for an early establishing shot for the edit.

At last!

I have been to Maplin's electronics shop and bought a 4 pin to 4 pin firewire cable so I am finally able to upload my footage to my laptop and begin editing.

Last week

I was looking for a high angle on a shot, and climbed to the top of a lift pylon to get the shot. Even though the footage came out quite well, I was getting a little bit of camera shake even though the camera was mounted onto a tripod. This was because the pylon was vibrating every time a lift passed through. After some research, I found the some of the current media production companies film from ladders and mobile platforms to get the high angle shots. So, this evening whilst filming I am going to try and use a step ladder to get some more shots.

Tonight

I have managed to secure a generator and 3 adjustable spot lights through my dad's work and am going to use them to setup my own spot lit feature this evening at the slope to get some footage for my production. This will enable me to get rid of the lens glare and streaking which I was getting on my previous footage.

The making of 'Refresh'

Here are some videos posted by the Level 1 film crew and team documenting the production of their latest movie 'Refresh'

OCR media blog

Here is a link to the OCR media blog with information on the course I am studying

http://www.getaheadocrmedia.blogspot.com/
http://www.virtualmediastudies.com/

For Thursday...

Create a 7 minute presentation per group including:

• Semiotics
• Meta-analysis
• Analysis of directors
• Evidence of criticising/denoting: -Sound (non-diagetic/diagetic/contrapunctural/synchronous/asynchronous) lighting, camera, editing and script.
• Storyboard
• Location

First footage

Thursday night I began to collect some sample footage for the edit. Mostly it came out alright, however, because I am shooting at night, I am getting some major problems with lens flare streaking across the shots from the floodlights by the slope. After some research, there are several different ways to combat the problem.

Firstly, I could rent or buy some cheap spotlights and run them from a generator to light specific features. This is probably the best way to combat the problem as then I can use the lights to make the shots look more professional.  Here is a link to HSS hire where you can rent lights and generators from.

I have also done some internet research on photography and videography websites about reducing and trying to prevent lens flare. The sites suggest some kind of lens filter which could be screwed onto the existing lens. Also, I found that lens hoods are a good way to prevent lens flare. Click here for more information.

JPI 5 is a skiing and snowboarding video contest held Boreal Mountain at the beginning of the season. The video contest, now in it's 5th year sees teams 15 teams of 4 riders, skis and snowboards embark on the Boreal snowpark with a few days to film and edit the best video.

More information can be found by clicking here.


Team Boone Skis: Stand Out Editing Award

http://vimeo.com/7045311">Team Boone Skis - JPI.5 Video Contest Edit from http://vimeo.com/user403134">Martin Rubio on http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=7059922&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1" />http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=7059922&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" width="400" height="270">

http://vimeo.com/7059922">Team CouchBoys BOREAL JPI5 "Live 4/tha Funk" from http://vimeo.com/user974569">Kyle Grant on http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=7037771&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1" />http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=7037771&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" width="400" height="225">

http://vimeo.com/7037771">Team Moment JPI.5 Entry from http://vimeo.com/user399897">Stonebroke Films on

Thursday 22 October 2009

The Age Of Stupid

Yesturday, I had the experience of watching a screening of "The Age Of Stupid" which is a newly released documantary about climate change and global warming directed by Franny Armstrong. It is a post-modern film about a man living in 2055, looking back through video clips and footage of present day life, looking at how we effectivly ruined the earth.
http://www.ageofstupid.net/

4 pin to 4 pin

After some research, I have found that I will need to buy a 4 pin to 4 pin firewire cable to enable me to edit film on my laptop. I have ordered one from www.amazon.com and it should be here within the next few days.

Semiotics

Semiotics is the study of signs and meanings. The three areas of study in semiotics are:

The sign - the image /object/sound
The system into which the signs are organised
The culture in which the signs operate

For example, traffic lights can be used to exemplifiy semiotics practically. We know that red means stop, amber means get ready to stop/go and green means go. However, in some cultures the amber sign can be interpreted as the ned to speed up to get through the lights quickly before they change. People in these cultures interpret the sign in its original meanings, but choose to read it in a different way.
Semiotics are also important when analysing media prints and images. It raises your awareness of subconcious effects the images are having on the viewer, as we oftebn take this for granted. This is especially relevant in advertising where companies try to sell their products to their target audience by only showing the positive aspects of their product.

Saussure was a structuralist and his work developed many of the basic principles in semiotics. According to his view, the place of the sign within the overall system gives meaning and is subject to change. For this perspective, humans interpret signs accordingly for which Saussure's sign theory has two parts.

Signifier - the actual image / physical appearance or sound.
Signified - The idea/s to which the sign refer to.

Snowflextrowse

Snowflextrowse is a locally produced snowboarding movie made a few years ago, shot on locaton at Norfolk Ski Club, which is where I intent to do the filming for my movie.

Posting videos

Throughout my research I will be posting video examples of the kind of production I am looking to make. To post these video into my blog, I am finding the video either on www.youtube.com or www.vimeo.com, copying the embed code and pasting it into my blog. When I then view my blog, the video will appear.

Unity Productions

Unity Productions are a UK film production company which are now making edits and films for UK riders. Their latest creation is their teaser for their upcoming movie 'Ello, which covers some of the UK's best riders through their skiing season.

'ELLO teaser from Unity Productions on Vimeo.

Inspiration

After some internet research, I have found a few videos of the kind of thing I am looking to produce.

Poor Boyz Productions - Everyday Is A Saturday Trailer



MN Nice Trailer

Nice Teaser from jake s on Vimeo.

Level 1 Productions - Refresh Trailer



Production company's like Level 1, 4bi9, Rage Productions and Poor Boyz are turning out films like this on a seasonally basis, following their team riders through their ski season. Trailers like this are often released a few months in advance of the release of the final production to interest the target market and secure pre-orders for their new film.

Finally.

I Have Come to a decision on what I'm going to do for my media brief. After many discussions, I have decided that I'm going going to work on my own, creating a teaser for a new ski film. I have chosen to do this because it would be a much easier, and more fun option for me. The ski film industry is booming now, with many different large scale production company's turning out films seasonally, which is something I hope to get into later in life. This project will not only be a lot of fun, but will also give me some more experience of filming and editing the sport, which is something I would love to do after education.

Decisions...

We are still undecided on our project brief for this task. We are toying with the idea of creating a music video, but are completely stuck as we have no band / artist which we can use. On the other hand, we would like to try and avoid a short film as we have made several of these before in previous projects and would like a change.
We have a meeting scheduled with the music teacher after school today to find out more information about a school band session we have heard about so this may become a possible lead.

Welcome

Hey,

Welcome to my media studies A2 blog. This will be were all my research, reports, essays, videos and other work.

I will be working with Tom Cowles and Grant Freeman as we have all worked together before and have the same opinions / views on filming and editing styles. We are currently undecided on our project, between creating a music video or a short film. Music video sounds more appealing as we have made short films before and it would be a refreshing change, but on the other hand we have more experience in short film producing and direction. We are due to have a meeting later so a project plan will be sorted out by the end of the week.