Multimedia Project - Critical Thoughts

Multimedia Project - Final Day - Editing

Ok so I talked briefly before aobut what I was having to do to get my work done. Here is a verbal demonstration.

Spend days filming documentary
Realisation that voice overs and shots I want are unachievable
Decision to film 100% of the content as a video diary
Decision to use iPod to film them, small mobile tripod etc
Regretting using iPod due to stupid orientation of video
Converting all of my files to MP4
Inverting the majority of my recordings
Rendering said files the right way up
Finding that due to the poor microphone on the iPod 5 of my clips are out of sync
Spending 3 hours fixing and re-rendering

So now I am finally working on the actual edit. Being a video diary I'm keen on having rough transitions, just stopping and starting new clips. But I have to demonstate some editing so I am adding in transitions effects between each clip. So far the video stands at around 25-30 mins in length.....Alot longer than I had expected but for an authentic feel that I have planned and researched it can't really be any shorter and hold it's informative value.

Rendering such a length of film takes a loooooooong time. For some reason the render that I did before saving didn't stay. Half an hour and going strong!

I discovered I had enough time to add in title frames between sequences. Actually makes it look much cooler and more interesting than it looked before. Even managed to add a credits on the end. Changed the feel of the video completely.

Encoding is prooving a problem. 30 mins in the process errored. With a bit of tweaking in the settings the file size has come right down. The only downside is that it's so far taken an hour and ten minutes, with at least 20 left to go.....

All done, can't upload to youtube, it says the file is too big. Will have to try Vimeo.

Stop Frame First Cut

Audioboo

Got my Audioboo account all up and running, now that I actually have some content for it!!

http://audioboo.fm/azdavies

Website is fairly straight forward, a few glitchy little things here and there and the interface is not all that friendly. The Record/Upload a video button being a single icon that's split in two has led me the wrong way more than once. But overall it does the job.

Technical Studio Finishing Touches

Last ever day of Technical Studio Recording today.

Mixed emotions from me here..... This module has given me the fuel to survive here. The oportunity to play the drums has given me a great way to vent and be creative. The recordings that I have been a part of have given me some real hard evidence of the things that I have achieved so far. It definately helps keep my motivation and drive up. It gets drained by the attitudes of some people....I won't name names. But this module has definately helped me keep things together.

I hit the MIDI suite big time and produced final edits of quite a bit of work. Still got a few more sound clips I'd like to work on but I will come back to that if I have time......

For now. Enjoy some of my works!

House of The Rising Sun

Funky Pigeon!

Jam with tutor Charlie

College Congas

Monty Python - Four Yorkshiremen

Evan's Zombie Proofing

Stop Frame Re-Shoot

Ok so I have re-shot my stop frame. It did the same error twice more!!! TWICE!!!! I hate this damned software. If it doesn't work why must we use it? *sigh*

Cost me another hour today at least. Plus it decreased the overall potential of the project to look as good as it could.

It was an interesting day for me, having to re-shoot everything I did before I expected it to improve. It seems to me that it is slightly worse than the origional shoot, however I recognise it as an achievement in an area that I have 0 experience in.

I had to use anything and everything at my disposal. A big piece pf green cloth helped block out unwanted light along with an envelope and my bag haha. Resorcefullness aware is won by me there I think!

The video will be posted as soon as there is a first edit ready, couple of days I imagine.

Till then here are some pictures of the work in progress!

 

Loving the Theatre

Buzzing!!!

Today was probably the day that I was most proud of. Our second Core Theatre assessment was today. I think it went really well!

The task was the choose a piece of music and identify key changes in the music. These changes represent lighting states that we have to create and upon arrival and seeing the rig, plan a series of different states and cues.

I choose 'Wo Bist Du' by German metal band 'Rammstein' -

The lighting I did for it captured it pretty well I think. Didn't get to do it quite as I would have wanted but I did what I could.

The whole thing was recorded I think so I should be able to get hold of and upload that soon.

End of the Hovercraft?

It's been a number of weeks now since anything has been done. Twice I showed up to work on it and was left waiting for half an hour with nobody in sight. After some very easy detective work I have discovered that the project is on hold and will probably be axed and gotten rid of.

So my dream of racing across land and sea in a hovercraft that I helped build seems to have come to an end. :(

Inspection Day

Today myself and Laura were picked out to have lunch with one of the education inspectors. Unfortunately the presence of other students makes it impossible to be honest about my time here. I love the classes and am proud of my achievements, however some of the other students make it impossible for me to achieve more. Causing me more stress and anxiety than the actual course. It needs to be sorted if I can hope to finish this year.

Stundent Union

Nearing the end of my term as Student President. So I thought I'd give a run down about what I have done/seen.

Vending machines are coming to the main building.
The washers and dryers have been serviced.
The student bar is open every Friday.
An outing to Ruthin this Friday is on the cards.
A few other bits here and there.

Here are my words of wisdom.....

Everyone is fast to demand, but when it is provided don't actually show up to support it.
Everyone is ignorant of what you do for them, yet quick to notice when you stop.

I would like to thank everyone who has been coming to the union meetings, even when there was only 4 of us. At the same time I want to politically condemn the absence of voted in members......you let us all down.

Heartbroken, more reason to hate Apple

Well today I spent around 5 hours working on my stop frame animation asignment. I was soooo pleased with it! 570 frames in all and only one real mistake that would be easilly fixable. Unfortunately the software we have to use 'I Can Animate' clearly can't. It lost the first bit of work I ever did, now it's lost the most important..... I loathe Apple as a product manufacturer, I think they are more fad than substance. Today has proven me correct.

So yes, I will have to re-shoot my ENTIRE animation. So that's another day of filming when we are down to our last week. Not impressed at all.

Here are the shots of my model I made for the animation anyway.

Video Diary

I mentioned a while back my Multimedia project. Well the idea was to film a false documentary about the Holy Grail being in Harlech. Hence all my filming days in places where there are castles. Unfortunately it's yeilded little in the way of results. So I have decided to change things a little and film the whole thing as a video diary rather than a decent quality documentary.

It means a bit more character acting on my part but alot less hassle having to get quiet locations and record voice overs n such.

Update-
I have taken all my film clips in to look over and guess what? The iPod shows the video you record as always being the right way up, even if the camera is upside down. So when I was filming, it showing me the film was the right way up, it was infact all upside down. So not only do I have to convert every single file to a format that the editing software can work with, I also have to invert about 8 videos and re-render them the right way up. Then I can finally actually work with the clips........not going to be a fun few hours.

Studio Day

Today we recorded the song that I have been working on in jam sessions with some of the Music Technology guys, Ivor and Isaac. Pretty pleased with the results, Phil from the class played bass in place of Ivor, shame really because it was Ivor's bass line that it was based from. Having said that Phil did well and it was still much fun.

Again, upload coming soon. Just need to get it all finished.

Stop Motion - First Attempts

Well crunch time!! Going to do some experiments with stop frame animation, see what I can do!...


Just managed a pretty awesome little short of some playmobil men fighting. A roman walks up to another and salutes. Then a medieval king rides in and teaches them a lesson in pain. Unfortunately the software decided to delete everything I had done :( total disapointment. Will have to try something else now and only got a few minutes of the class left!....


Huzzah, made this for your enjoyment!

Premiere Fail

Well another wasted day. Spent ages filming in Conwy over the weekend. The software we have refuses to accept some of the files some of the time. It contantly changes what it does or doesn't accept too..... Really caused me headaches today. Went through over 40 videos I shot and now can't edit them. It's been put forward that changing the format may help... We will see if that works. If not all the work I have done is wasted. Fingers crossed.

Logically Using Logic

We have been introduced to the Logic music editing/creation software. I've been having a lot of fun making songs for an imaginary fighting game. Really enjoying messing around with samples and seeing what I end up with!

Studio Recordings

Ok so there have been lots of goings on in the studio. I've spent a lot more time playing on the drums, getting fairly competent at it. Had 2 songs recorded now, that I will upload once they are editied properly. We have also done the Monty Python scetch called 'Four Yorkshiremen.' If you fancy a read here it is:

OWAIN:

Aye, very passable, that, very passable bit of risotto.

LIZ:

Nothing like a good glass of Château de Chasselas, eh, Josiah?

AARON:

You're right there, Obadiah.

PHIL:

Who'd have thought thirty year ago we'd all be sittin' here drinking Château de Chasselas, eh?

OWAIN:

In them days we was glad to have the price of a cup o' tea.

LIZ:

A cup o' cold tea.

PHIL:

Without milk or sugar.

AARON:

Or tea.

OWAIN:

In a cracked cup, an' all.

PHIL:

Oh, we never had a cup. We used to have to drink out of a rolled up newspaper.

LIZ:

The best we could manage was to suck on a piece of damp cloth.

AARON:

But you know, we were happy in those days, though we were poor.

OWAIN:

Because we were poor. My old Dad used to say to me, "Money doesn't buy you happiness, son".

PHIL:

Aye, 'e was right.

OWAIN:

Aye, 'e was.

PHIL:

I was happier then and I had nothin'. We used to live in this tiny old house with great big holes in the roof.

LIZ:

House! You were lucky to live in a house! We used to live in one room, all twenty-six of us, no furniture, 'alf the floor was missing, and we were all 'uddled together in one corner for fear of falling.

AARON:

Eh, you were lucky to have a room! We used to have to live in t' corridor!

OWAIN:

Oh, we used to dream of livin' in a corridor! Would ha' been a palace to us. We used to live in an old water tank on a rubbish tip. We got woke up every morning by having a load of rotting fish dumped all over us! House? Huh.

PHIL:

Well, when I say 'house' it was only a hole in the ground covered by a sheet of tarpaulin, but it was a house to us.

LIZ:

We were evicted from our 'ole in the ground; we 'ad to go and live in a lake.

AARON:

You were lucky to have a lake! There were a hundred and fifty of us living in t' shoebox in t' middle o' road.

OWAIN:

Cardboard box?

AARON:

Aye.

OWAIN:

You were lucky. We lived for three months in a paper bag in a septic tank. We used to have to get up at six in the morning, clean the paper bag, eat a crust of stale bread, go to work down t' mill, fourteen hours a day, week-in week-out, for sixpence a week, and when we got home our Dad would thrash us to sleep wi' his belt.

LIZ:

Luxury. We used to have to get out of the lake at six o'clock in the morning, clean the lake, eat a handful of 'ot gravel, work twenty hour day at mill for tuppence a month, come home, and Dad would thrash us to sleep with a broken bottle, if we were lucky!

AARON:

Well, of course, we had it tough. We used to 'ave to get up out of shoebox at twelve o'clock at night and lick road clean wit' tongue. We had two bits of cold gravel, worked twenty-four hours a day at mill for sixpence every four years, and when we got home our Dad would slice us in two wit' bread knife.

PHIL:

Right. I had to get up in the morning at ten o'clock at night half an hour before I went to bed, drink a cup of sulphuric acid, work twenty-nine hours a day down mill, and pay mill owner for permission to come to work, and when we got home, our Dad and our mother would kill us and dance about on our graves singing Hallelujah.

OWAIN:

And you try and tell the young people of today that ..... they won't believe you.

ALL:

They won't!

 So that was alot of fun. The recording of this will be uploaded soon too!

Location Shots Part 1

I've been out doing location shots a few times over the term. So I thought I should share some of the results of my location/angle scouting. Enjoy!

Filming In Harlech

Stop Frame Assignment

So it's time to talk about another new assignment. Remember the whole Monomyth thing I talked about before? Well now we have to make a stop frame animation, using our story, of maximum 3 mins using 24fps (frames per second).......thats an insane amount of work for a single person. 1 minute would take 1440 individual frames of work..... Worried face.....

Update: Laura (may the gods bless her!) has expressed our concern over the work load and time frame for it's achievement. It has been brought down to 10fps, on the down side there is now a 3 minute minimum.....1800 frames. If you give 20 seconds to set up each frame (thats faster than an unexperienced student could ever be expected to achieve) then it will take 10 hours of work. May not seem that bad.... but it has to be submitted in a month and we won't have the matierals for another week. Along side all the other work we have. I don't see how this can be achieved.....watch this space.