Kez's Blog

Extra Terrestrial Cattle Mutilation

2010-09-21T06:11:00.000-07:00

More fun with motion -

Going Through The Motions...

2010-09-08T06:26:00.000-07:00

Just started playing around with Motion on the Macs at work, it seems like a really good program! Here's a little alien I made, more to come soon...

Supersonic Loops

2010-08-07T06:35:00.000-07:00

Here are some of the videos I took to the Supersonic interview, as ideas for visuals that could be projected whilst a band plays. I didn't get the job, but I still kinda like these loops, especially the Melt Banana one.

Melt Banana Loop from Kez Whelan on Vimeo.

Swans Loop from Kez Whelan on Vimeo.

Inside The Monkey's Studio

2010-06-15T05:12:00.000-07:00

More stop motion coming soon...

Calvin Chimp

2010-06-03T16:03:00.000-07:00

What if primates had their own pretentious perfume adverts...?

Calvin Chimp from Kez Whelan on Vimeo.

Show Reel DVD

2010-05-18T11:48:00.000-07:00

Here's the DVD design for my showreel -

Showreel - First Edit

2010-05-15T14:04:00.000-07:00

Here's the first rough edit of my showreel. It will most likely be changed around a bit before I've settled on the final version.

Showreel from Kez Whelan on Vimeo.

PRP Artefact 6 - Terrifying Telepathy

2010-05-14T14:23:00.000-07:00

Here's my sixth (and probably final) PRP artefact, a short film entitled Terrifying Telepathy.

PRP Artefact 6 - Terrifying Telepathy from Kez Whelan on Vimeo.

Once again, after watching if you could fill out this survey - http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/YZ3SZRY that'd be grand. Cheers!

PRP 5 - Pork Peril (Speech & Silence)

2010-05-13T07:37:00.000-07:00

Here's my fifth PRP artefact, a short film entitled 'Pork Peril' shown in two different styles.

If after watching the film, you could fill out this survey - http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/LFQBVFR it would be a great help. Thanks very much!

The Unexpected Feast

2010-04-23T19:31:00.000-07:00

A short film, made for my own personal amusement, and born out of a fairly stupid gag that occured when ordering pizza a few months ago. Enjoy. =)

PRP Artefact 4 - 'The Laughing'

2010-04-13T12:34:00.000-07:00

Here's my fourth artefact, a short scene from 'The Shining' with added sound effects.

PRP Artefact 4 - 'The Laughing' from Kez Whelan on Vimeo.

If you've seen the film 'The Shining' before, then taking this survey - http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/FMCTPCX would help me greatly.
Don't worry if you've never seen 'The Shining' before, there's a seperate survey here - http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/FMZNQGN that's designed specially for you!
Enjoy =)

PRP Ideas

2010-04-06T04:40:00.000-07:00

I've got two more ideas lined up for my PRP artefacts, one that continues in a similiar vein to the earlier videos, and one that explores the extent of sound's abilities in film from a slightly different angle.

The wondrous 20p and the evil penny (definitely a working title, haha!) –
A guy goes for a stroll and encounters two coins on the floor. The first is accompanied by pleasant, triumphant music whilst the second is soundtracked by an ominous, menacing theme. This video and it’s questionnaire will be designed to observe the soundtrack’s ability to create character, which is quite similair to my third artefact, 'Dog Whispers', but it has the advantage of starring two inanimate objects. In 'Dog Whispers', the music for each dog and their different voices are a large part of their character, but the dialogue itself is also a big factor. Here, I think it will be easier to see the effects of the audio itself without any extraneous factors to confuse matters.

The Laugh Track idea –
This idea is to take a scene from a film that is either very melancholy, harrowing, or disturbing, but definitely not funny at all, and add canned laughter to it. I was thinking maybe the scene from ‘The Shining’ wherein Jack Nicholson first confronts his wife, wielding an axe. The aim of this is to discover whether or not the laughter of others actually influences us to laugh, and whether it’s possible to recreate this effect in film. I would definitely think that the laughter of those around us has a strong influence, but this may be more of a social effect than a physical one, and so I think it'd be interesting to see exactly how canned laughter, detached from any kind of physical presence, affects us.

The Brain Centre At Whipple's

2010-03-31T18:24:00.001-07:00

Just found another awesome episode of the Twilight Zone after investigating the story behind a Melvins song title... check it out!

The Disc

2010-03-26T07:18:00.000-07:00

Here's a picture of the final disc, big thanks to Tom Pearson for helping me out with this one!

All of which means the DVD is now totally finished and ready to go!

The Final Edit

2010-03-25T18:19:00.000-07:00

And here it is, the final edit! Enjoy! =D

The Heavy Sounds - Viking Advert from Kez Whelan on Vimeo.

DVDs!

2010-03-25T15:54:00.000-07:00

The final edit is done and dusted, and an HD version is uploading to Vimeo as I type this. In the mean time, here's an example of the DVD cover the final disc will be housed in -

Third Edit

2010-03-23T17:48:00.000-07:00

Ok, so quite a lot has changed here from the first edit. The music is now totally different, some of it still sounds pretty rough and needs ironing out but I think this is pretty much what the film will look and sound like. The intro voiceover has been completely changed too, as the original files were all too muddy, but this one is a lot clearer.

Second Edit

2010-03-22T06:17:00.000-07:00

Client Project - Second Edit from Kez Whelan on Vimeo.

The second edit of my client project, a good two minutes have been shaved off! I'm not sure if this one is a bit too short though, some of the shots seem to fade out as soon as they come in. There's no music on it yet either, but this will obviously be changed for the final edit. The voiceover is also going to undergo some drastic changes.
I just realised as well that you can hear someone chuckling right at the end of the final shot too, which I'll have to get rid of in the final edit!

First Rough Edit

2010-03-19T09:06:00.000-07:00

Here's the first rough edit of the client project -

Client Project - First Rough Edit from Kez Whelan on Vimeo.

This is still quite rough, the levels need a lot of work and I'm expecting the voiceovers to change around quite a lot before the final edit is finished. The music will almost definitely change too, the song at the moment is something me and my flatmate recorded a little while ago for fun, and is really only used here so I could get an idea of how the footage would appear with a soundtrack, and also so I could try editing it to a beat.
I'm gonna get a shorter edit done this weekend, and change around the shots of the viking going through the woods. At the moment it's a bit too long, and the shots where he slows down kinda break up the flow a bit. Some of them also look a bit odd too, like the shot of him sat in the tree and the shot of him pulling out his sword moments before he pulls it out again. Work to be done!

First Edit

2010-03-15T09:12:00.000-07:00

So, the filming went really well, I got over an hour of footage so there's no shortage of shots that I can use. Plus it's all in glorious HD! I've just finished the first rough edit, without sound, but there's still a lot of work to be done to it. The basic structure of the film is all in place, now I'm just going to experiment with the different shots I have and refine the film before adding the soundtrack.

Filming!

2010-03-09T14:34:00.000-08:00

OK, so I've acquired a viking costume (with satisfyingly large horns on the helmet!), got someone to act as the viking, and decided Bakewell is the best place to shoot for the forest location, all of which means I'm set to film this weekend. Now I just have to refine my hand drawn storyboard so I know exactly what shots I need to get, and finalise the script.
I'll be filming all day Saturday in Bakewell, and then Sunday morning/afternoon in the Heavy Sounds.
I'm still undecided on the soundtrack, currently I'm thinking I might record my own music so I can get it to synch up perfectly with the on-screen action.

PRP Artefact 3 - 'Dog Whispers'

2010-03-02T08:15:00.000-08:00

Here's my third artefact, a short film entitled 'Dog Whispers'. If after watching it, you could fill out this short survey, it would be much appreciated! Enjoy -

Client Project Animated Storyboard

2010-02-17T16:44:00.001-08:00

Here's an animated storyboard for my client project -

Client Project Storyboard (Silent) from Kez Whelan on Vimeo.

It's currently without sound as I still have a few things to work out with the script as well as the soundtrack. The animation is also pretty crude, but I think this gives a good indication of how my idea will look.

PRP Artefact 2 - The Wire Montage

2010-02-14T14:58:00.000-08:00

Here's my second PRP artefact, experimenting with how different music can change the mood and feel of a montage. If after watching the clip, you could fill out this survey - Click here to take survey it would help me out. Cheers!
The video consists of an opening montage taken from 'The Wire', with 4 different soundtracks. The songs are Johnny Cash - Walk The Line, Cephalic Carnage - Litany Of Failure, Bob Marley - Judge Not, and the Melvins - Bar-X The Rocking M, in that order. Enjoy.

PRP Artefact 2 from Kez Whelan on Vimeo.

I tried out loads of different songs over the top of this footage, and interestingly enough nearly all of them seemed to sync up really well (the bit where Herc snatches the tape in Clip B is crazy). This is probably because the footage was all edited with music in mind, which means even songs with only vaguely similar tempos still seem to fit well over the top.

Bakewell

2010-02-14T14:32:00.000-08:00

Here's a possible location for my client project. There's a nice variety of different looking woodland areas all quite near to each other, and whilst walking through there I found it really easy to visualise the viking going on a quest through here, there's plenty of oppurtunities for some really nice shots. The downside however, is that Bakewell is a good two hours away from Nottingham by bus, and then this location is roughly half an hour away from the bus stop. Travelling out here with crew, equpiment, and an actor, could be problematic, but is not entirely out of the question. I'll try and scout out some nearer places but Bakewell is a definite possibility.

One Rode To Asa Bay

2010-01-27T14:52:00.000-08:00

Here's another film that has a lot in common aesthetically with my Client project idea, the music video to Bathory's song 'One Rode To Asa Bay'. The whole thing was shot in Norway, and apparently cost Quorthon, the band leader, $5,000 to film. Around 60 hours were filmed, but most of this was apparently erased by the director, leaving the band with around 18 minutes of footage....whoops!

There's a lot of fading transitions in here, some of which work really well (the bit near the start where the viking stands up, layered over the monks, looks great) and some of them are almost disorientating. While the story that's being told here (settlers bringing a new religion to a land) is quite different to mine, a lot of the shots of people walking through woodlands are quite similar to what I had in mind for this project.

Client Sketches

2010-01-25T07:53:00.001-08:00

Here are a few sketches for my various client project ideas -

This is a storyboard for the viking idea, here's a quick sketch to illustrate my idea where there are two screens on screen, and the viking walks between them -

And here's the first half of a storyboard for the animation idea, along with a few ideas for the little animated character -

Client Research

2010-01-24T15:52:00.001-08:00

Here's a few adverts I found on YouTube, there don't seem to be an enormous ammount of adverts for small independent record stores, so some of them aren't entirely relevant, but still quite useful.

This one is fairly straightforward, just says where the shop is, how to contact them and what they stock, and consists pretty much just of shots of the store. Doesn't do anything flashy, but serves it's purpose.

Not for a CD shop this one, but for a local, independent business nonetheless. Again, quite basic, just shots of the store again, but this time we have the store owner talking us through it.

This is truly horrible. A song and dance number for K-Mart's media section. I'll make a note to make my ad absolutely nothing like this one.

This is an ad for a compilation album, and again, it's pretty terrible, but it's a simple idea based in and around a CD shop.

Most of the ads I found seemed either very straightforward and to the point, and the few ads I did find that tried to tell a little story or do anything else (like the previous two) just came off seeming really cheesy, so I'll have to find a fine line between the two I think.

Njorl's Saga

2010-01-24T14:26:00.000-08:00

Here's a Monty Python sketch that bares a large of ammount of similarity to my viking idea for the client project -

Around 2 and a half minutes through is the bit that's like my idea, with Njorl riding a horse through the wilderness before ending up in North Malden. The transition between the two locations is class, there's a zoom into a close up of Njorl and then we cut straight to the sign, and voila, we're there!
I don't have the budget to get a horse however, so in the ad the viking would have to wander about on foot. To make this idea work, I think I'd need a really good location too, maybe Sherwood Forest?

More Client Ideas

2010-01-22T07:34:00.000-08:00

I've had another idea for the client project for The Heavy Sounds. We open with Clint (the shop's owner) sat in the store, reading a magazine or checking some stuff online. A series of different people walk into the shop, starting off with a few music fans, and then progressing onto some kinda iconic metal figures. I'm still a little unsure as to what I could have here, maybe people dressed as identifiable musicians, the viking from the first idea, and then maybe ending up with someone dressed as Satan walking in to browse through the CDs. Every person who walks in is greeted with a casual "hey man" from Clint.
I like this idea as it shows the shop as a kind of meeting place and kinda shows more of the social aspect of record stores. I don't think it's as good visually as the viking idea though, and the ammount of costumes needed could be problematic and would look really naff if the costumes looked bad.
I'm trying to think of some way of combining the epic voyage of the viking idea with the community element from this one, I'm not really sure if this current idea is the best way to make the idea of community look more visually interesting.

Artefact 1 - Fridge Inspection Survey

2010-01-21T15:36:00.000-08:00

Here is the first of my PRP artefacts, a short film called Fridge Inspection with two different edits, the only difference between the two being the soundtrack.
If you could watch both these films (which will take about 2 minutes) and then fill out this short survey - http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/WPP9MZS (which will take about 2 minutes too, if that!) it would help me out a lot. Thanks!

Fridge Inspection A -

Fridge Inspection B -

Online Location...?

2010-01-21T14:35:00.000-08:00

I've been looking through a variety of different independent music shops' websites, and the vast majority of them are very basic, serving as an online catalogue of what's in the store, and none of them utilise any kind of video at all. All the sites are perfectly functional however, and serve their purpose, so this leads me to wonder where and how my video is going to fit into the site.
A YouTube video would be the easiest and most straightforward way, and would get around any sort of bandwidth issues. Having it near the catalogue section (which is pretty much the bulk of the website) doesn't seem hugely relevant, so I think maybe the best place to put it would be the front page, underneath the logo. (Here's the site, as you can see there would be enough space in this area for an embedded YouTube video.)
This would also maybe make the site stand out from other record store websites, as so far I haven't found any that incorporate video of any kind.

Fridge Inspection!

2010-01-20T14:43:00.000-08:00

Here's a rough edit for my first PRP artefact. I'm gonna do two more edits with different sound, a creepy one and a funnier one. Enjoy!

There are a couple of sound issues I need to sort out, all the shots from inside the fridge have loads of that fridge hum in the background, haha, so there's a bit of work to be done on it yet, especially before applying the soundtracks.

The Heavy Location?

2010-01-20T13:42:00.000-08:00

After talking again to Clint at the Heavy sounds, he said that an embedded YouTube video will be fine for the site, so that clears up the problem of bandwidth.
I'm in the process of drawing up a few storyboards for various ideas, which I'll put up on here when they're finished.
Here's a few pictures of the actual shop, it's very small, but I think it would be really cool to actually see it in the final advert -

Sound FX & After Effects

2010-01-19T08:00:00.001-08:00

I've just finished some filming for, potentially, the first of my PRP artefacts. There's a fair ammount of editing to be done, but the bare bones are there and I have a rough edit rendering at the moment. The film makes heavy use of After Effects, and I think so far it's probably the best work I've done with that programme.
I've been having a look around for various sound effects too, and have found quite a large ammount but with varying degrees of quality. I've been thinking about how different pieces of music can work here too, and thankfully this time I'm not restrained by copyright, as the film is not for commercial use, it's just to illustrate a point.

Client Project Ideas

2010-01-14T08:27:00.001-08:00

Here's some initial ideas for my client project, which I'm doing for the Heavy Sounds in Nottingham -
- A man puts on some headphones and presses play. The camera zooms into his eye and then a short animated sequence takes place, maybe with a little devil character travelling through scenes reminiscent of classic metal album covers. At the end we cut or fade to black, and see the tagline “....because life’s all about The Heavy Sounds.”
- A customer walks into the shop and as he picks up various CDs, different metal legends (or people dressed as them haha!) appear behind him. For example, he picks up a Motorhead album and Lemmy appears, and says something like “Ooh, that’s a good’un, that one!” [I have a feeling this idea would look pretty tacky, so maybe it's back to the drawing board for this one....]
- We see a viking out in a forest, who tells us about a 'sacred' place. He then goes on an epic voyage, eventually ending up outside West End Arcade, and then ventures into the Heavy Sounds.

Here are some other things I'll have to consider as well -
- If the video is designed to play on a site, how will this be done? It could be embedded on the site, or the site could link to a higher quality version. Will there be bandwidth issues here?
- Copyright....that old chestnut! I was originally thinking of having some classic songs to soundtrack the ad, but this may not be a possibility if the ad is being used for commercial use. Maybe I could get in touch with some local bands to provide music for it?
- As well as (or maybe instead of) focusing on the musical aspect of shop, it'd be nice to be able to show the shop as a kind of meeting point for like minded people, but how to actually achieve this is something I need to think about.

PRP Artefacts Ideas

2010-01-12T04:50:00.000-08:00

So, one of my initial ideas for the first one is to re-edit a piece of existing film with different music to change it's atmosphere. I'm still not entirely sure whether to do this with just one scene from a film or attempt to make a re-edited trailer instead. Another idea I had is a short scene that I can edit in subtly different ways to make it either appear as a comedy, a horror, a drama, etc etc. but at the moment I'm having a few troubles trying to think of a basic, easily adaptable scene. It should be something fairly mundane to allow scope for the sound effect to drastically change our perception of what's happening on screen.

Nightmare At 20,00 Feet

2010-01-08T16:30:00.000-08:00

What a classic! It's really cool how it manages to make a pretty basic story so compelling, and allows it all to unfold in the same, again pretty basic, location. Good stuff.

Intro / Outro Idea

2009-11-18T06:52:00.000-08:00

Whilst looking through all the file sharing footage, I thought this could make a cool little intro or outro to put on the end of films that I make -

I'm not sure what kind of sound to put on it though.
And here's an edit I did purely for my own amusement, and to try out reversing footage. This won't be handed in, as it's really stupid, but enjoy -

Second Edit

2009-11-17T11:34:00.000-08:00

Here's the second edit for my advert -

This one's exactly twenty seconds, which is cool, but I think some of the cuts are a little too fast. Again, I'm not sure about the soundtrack either, so there's still some work to be done.

Heider And Simmel Animation

2009-11-16T14:31:00.000-08:00

Here's an interesting animation I found whilst doing research for the PRP essay -

This was an animation made in the 1940's for an experiment into 'apparent behaviour'. Participants were asked some questions about the three shapes after viewing this video, and, unsuprisingly, the majority of people viewed the large triangle as a villainous bully, the circle as tense and scared, and the small triangle as more relaxed, and more eager to provoke the larger triangle. This is pretty much the impression I got from watching the film too.
Later on, an experiment was carried out by Sandra K. Marshall and Annabel J. Cohen, whereby the same experiment was carried out but this time played to different participants with and without sound. Different sounds were able to distort or strengthen the emotions and actions percieved by most viewers.
This is great evidence for my research project, and I also think it'd be useful research for any animation topics too as it demonstrates really well how you can give an inanimate object a clearly defined character.

EDIT : Here's another awesome example of how sound can give and emphasize character.

Filming The File Sharing Frenzy

2009-11-16T06:58:00.001-08:00

I filmed my footage yesterday in the Arboretum, and it went pretty well. I have pretty much all the shots I need, and it was fun to film too. Big thanks to Will, Matt, John and Realexis who helped out as both cast and crew!

And here's another version of the first edit, but with a different soundtrack. I'm not sure which I prefer really at this stage, but I think the first is maybe a little more succesful.

Annoyingly enough, in the second shot, where the file sharer is shown buying a CD, you can see the other table in the corner of the shot. I'll see if there's any way of hiding this, as although not enormously noticeable, it's quite an irritating error on my part haha!

First Edit

2009-11-16T04:00:00.000-08:00

Here's the first (and really rough) edit for my file sharing ad -

There's still a lot of work to be done, this edit is twice as long as the brief states, and some of the cuts look a little rough. The sound too is in it's first stage, and will likely change drastically before the final edit. There's a silent edit here - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhhhdRXE9Gk
However, I'm pleased with it at this stage, I'll be posting up tighter edits as I make them, as well as some production shots and more about the filming process.

Location

2009-11-09T07:47:00.001-08:00

Here are some shots I took in the Arboretum for possible locations -

The Arboretum is a good location for this, and is pretty convenient as it's in walking distance both from Waverley and my house, so will be easy to transport equipment and props there.

Car Boot Sales?

2009-11-09T05:22:00.000-08:00

After having a look at some car boot sales to get ideas for the stall in my film, most of them seem to simply have a table -

I think I'll still need a sign to make it totally clear what's going on, but this sign could be like the one in front of the stall in the second picture, just written on a piece of card and rested in front.

Pre-Production

2009-11-04T05:53:00.000-08:00

I've chosen to use my idea with the two guys sat at the stalls, as I feel it's my most concise and effective idea. To begin filming, I'll need the following things -

- People
I'll need two guys to sit behind each stall, and react accordingly with what's happening, and then around 6 or 7 people to run to the download stall at the end.

- Filming Equipment
I'll need a camera and lighting equipment, but not sound recording equipment, as all the sounds in the advert are non-diegetic (none of them are created by any of the things we're actually seeing in the film). I'll make a short piece of music to accompany it, and provide a voiceover, but at this stage I'm unsure whether I should add any sound effects or not. This is probably something to worry about in the post production however.

- Location
At the moment I was thinking of filming in the Arboretum, I'll need to take some photos tomorow to help me visualise this.

- Props
I'll need several CD casess for the file sharer to copy, and I'll need to print out a front cover for each one so that it looks like an actual CD. I'll also need to make two stalls, which will need to be easy and quick to set up. I was thinking of making small structures out of wood, or maybe just use a table with a blanket over it and attach a wooden sign above it. This is probably the main concern at the moment, I'll need to figure out how to make them, and quickly!

Problems With Idea 1

2009-10-22T08:47:00.000-07:00

After discussing my idea for the simulated client project, I feel a lot clearer about the idea. However, there are a few small problems, the main one being whether or not the fact that the second guy has copyed the first guy's CD is clear enough. I'll have to find a way to show this that fits neatly into the story, and doesn't disrupt it's flow. I'll also have to think some more about the aesthetics of the film, and exactly how I'm going to make the two stalls. They need to look home made and amatuerish, but not look like I've just kinda rushed them off.
Also, I need to emphasise the point that something wrong is taking place here. At the moment, I'm thinking the first guy should maybe burst into tears eventually or something, or perhaps, going with the idea of 'damage' to recording artists, that the crowd of people rushing to the free download stall damage or destroy the first guy's stall, or trample and damage the environment around it. These are just ideas at the moment, I need to solidify them a little bit.

I had another idea too, based around the idea of intimacy, for instance, when you download a CD, and miss out on the artwork, physical object, even the excitement of something like finding a rare album in a record store, you're losing out on the intimacy between you and the product. For this idea, I was thinking you could have two guys at a fairground, one with his arm round a CD, and clearly having a great time, and the second guy with his arm round a harddrive, who looks really miserable and keeps glancing jealously over at the other guy. I don't think I'll use this idea, but thought it'd be a good idea to have it in writing!

EDIT : I've had an idea for this, if we show the first man’s CD as clearly being a well produced CD, with artwork and packaging etc., when the second man buys it, and after we see the first man glance across at him, the second man puts the CD down on his stall, and points next to it and another identical copy appears in it’s place. He points again and two appear, then four, and so on. Then everyone rushes in and gets them. Still just a possibility at this stage, I'll try and think of some more ideas.

The Mighty Riff VS Terror Torrent

2009-10-22T06:32:00.000-07:00

Here's another short animated storyboard for the simulated client project -

This idea doesn't fit as neatly into 20 seconds as the other one does, and would obviously be a lot harder to film. For this reason, I think I'd be more likely to go with the first idea, just because it's a lot simpler. However, I'm glad I finished this storyboard, purely for my own satisfaction!

Animated Storyboard

2009-10-19T07:10:00.000-07:00

Here's an animated storyboard for the first file sharing idea, the one I already drew up a rough storyboard for -

The idea fits quite neatly into 20 seconds (this one clocks in at 24, but 4 seconds won't be too hard to trim off. I doubt the final film will have the 'The End' bit either), and stands as a solid little story. The music in this one is a Boards Of Canada, but this is used only to illustrate the kind of music I want to have in the final one and give a taste of the atmosphere I wanted to create. For the final one, I would create my own piece of (non-copyright!) music.

I'm still considering other ideas at this point, but this one does appeal to me. I'll try doing a storyboard for the second idea, and also keep trying to think of new ideas.

More File Sharing Risks

2009-10-16T07:33:00.001-07:00

In terms of the risks of file sharing, I had so far only really identified damage to artists, the risk of finding spyware or viruses in the material you download and the possible risk of arrest. But I found this on Wikipedia that has given me a few ideas -

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_sharing

"Recently, there has been a drastic increase of inadvertent P2P file sharing of personal and sensitive information. This became evident in 2009 at the beginning of President Obama's administration. On February 26, 2009 the blueprints to the helicopter Marine One were made available to the public through a breach in security through a P2P file sharing site. Access to this information has the potential of being detrimental to national security.[47]

Two days prior, the Today Show reported that more than 150,000 tax returns, 25,800 student loan applications and 626,000 credit reports were all inadvertently made available though File Sharing.[47]

Over the last six years identity theft has become more prevalent. On July 9, 2008 there was another inadvertent revealing of vast amounts of personal information through careless use of a P2P site. The “names, dates of birth, and social security numbers of about 2,000 of the firms clients, including Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer were all exposed.”[47]

In an attempt to avoid these security leaks, current legislation in the United States is being debated, the Informed P2P User Act.[48] According to this act, it would be mandatory for individuals to be aware of the risks associated with peer-to-peer file sharing before purchasing the software. Informed consent of the user prior to use of these programs would be required. In addition, this act would allow users to block and remove P2P file sharing software from their computers at any time.[49] The Federal Trade Commission would enforce these regulations"

An advert illustrating this risk could be a lot more sinister and scary than the current ideas I've been having. For example, my first idea was to have someone downloading material online, and then a shot of over their shoulder where you can see bank details and personal information on their screen as they're downloading. Then cut to another shadier individual downloading these personal files, and then maybe, I don't know, the original man finds all his bank details stolen and becomes bankrupt, or gets kidnapped and bundled into the back of a car whilst the other guy steals his identity. Needs a bit of work this idea, but thematically could work really well and be quite unsettling. I'm not 100% sure if this is the route I want to take with my film at the moment, but it's something to think about.

More Ideas!

2009-10-16T05:01:00.000-07:00

I had a few more ideas for the simulated client project, which are -

1. A man stands behind a home made stall, selling some CDs. Another guy comes up to him, and buys one. Both men seem pleased. Then the guy who bought a CD sets up a stall right next door, and starts running off loads of copies. Whenever people walk past the two stalls now, the second guy hands everyone a free CD-R. The first guy looks a little bit uneasy, and gradually more and more people flock to the second guy, whilst the first guy starts to look more and more exhausted. It ends with a tagline along the lines of something like "Don't take the easy way out. Sharing copyrighted files online is harming musicians."

2. We see two characters, one representing, say, an independent band and one representing file sharing, presented as two characters in a fighting game like Street Fighter or Tekken. We cut to clips of people downloading music, and after each one cut back to the fighting game style footage where the file sharing character starts to pummel the band character. A voiceover could say something like "File sharing is harming music. Help it fight back - buy a CD", and then we cut to footage of someone buying a CD. After this the band character begins to start beating the file sharing character.

EDIT: Here's a rough script for this idea -
Flashy intro, showing two names and character’s faces bursting onto the screen. There’s Independent Band, and Download Dan (names not final, haha!). Band is shown to be very heroic looking and noble, Download Dan however resembles a villainous, cackling madman.
VOICEOVER – It’s the rumble of the century! A brave Independent Band with bills to pay takes on the mighty tyrant of internet file sharing software! Who will emerge the victor? Let’s find out.....FIGHT!
Cut to the two characters standing next to each other, with their names and health bars at the top of the screen like Street Fighter. The two size each other up, then Download Dan lunges, and we cut to footage of someone downloading an album online. Cut back to the fight and Download Dan attacks Band.
VOICEOVER – Oh, and that’s a nasty hit!
Cut away again to someone else downloading music, then cut back to Dan attacking Band again.
VOICEOVER – Ouch, and that’s another whack in the gut! Band isn’t taking this very well! Let’s see what our ringside commentator has to say about this!
Cut to a man stood in front of the pair fighting.
COMMENTATOR – Well Larry, file sharing is certainly battering independent music! If this continues, he could be outta the ring all together! So come on music fans, let’s help the big guy out!
VOICEOVER – Wise words there, but is all hope lost for our plucky pugilist?
Cut to someone buying a CD, and then cut back to the fight where Band begins to fight back.
VOICEOVER – I don’t believe it! What a turnaround!
Continue to cut away to people buying music, and after each one cut back to Band unleashing more and more intense attacks on Download Dan. Eventually Band beats him, and the ringside commentator runs in and awards him a medal.
COMMENTATOR – Ohhhhhhh, and it’s a knockout! Well done, music fans, I knew you’d do the right thing! Winks at camera
NEW VOICEOVER – Downloading copyrighted material harms independent artists. Help support art and the people that make it.

Up

2009-10-14T06:26:00.001-07:00

WARNING! SPOILERS!

If you haven't seen this film, go see it! This review is intended as a discussion point after seeing it.

Up has a fair few suprises up it's sleeve, not just the plot which, whilst not totally devoid of predictability, is more than entertaining enough to keep you enthralled throughout, but also because some of it's themes are pretty dark for a Disney film. The opening montage, in which we see Carl and his wife Ellie get married, try for a baby and have a miscarriage, grow old together and then Carl at Ellie's funeral, is moving in a much deeper way than say, the death of Bambi's mother. It feels more real, this is a film that may be more likely to make the parents cry rather than the kids. Beginning our story with a grieving old man who feels lost and alone is heavy stuff for Disney, and it definitely pays off. Call me a cynic, but often with these films I kinda feel they get a little too bogged down in phony sentimentality, it often seems quite tacky, or cheesy, but here the entire film has a genuine warmth to it, and you do actually care about the characters. The severity of the subjects lend the film a weight and emotional depth few Disney films manage to achieve. In the final moments of the film, as the house Carl met his wife and grew old in, and his childhood hero plummet to their doom, it's quite a powerful moment.
However, whilst Carl's character feels wonderfully realised and is suitably fleshed out by a solid back story, Russell's character isn't explored quite as deeply. we know what we need to know about him, and he becomes a likeable character (it would have been perilously easy for him to have come off as annoying, but the film manages to avoid this), but the bits where he talks to Carl and provides a bit of backstory don't quite fill in the whole picture. In a way this is good, as it leaves some things open to the viewer's imagination and tries to get our brains working, but at the same time it means Russel's happy ending isn't quite as satisfying as Carl's. But this is a minor point, Russel is not the main character and certainly works well.
The film looks awesome too, with a whole army of lovingly rendered dogs and some beautiful looking landscapes. All in all, a top film, I'd say, and one of the best Pixar films I've seen in years, both in terms of style and substance.

It's Kyle Cabinet!

2009-10-14T05:22:00.000-07:00

A reeeeeeeeeeeeally rough idea for a character -

I'm still not really sure if it's a good idea for the character to be a literal visual representation of a 'file', I toyed with the idea of just making it a file with googley eyes and legs, but I couldn't really make it look very likeable at all. Then again, how likeable is Kyle Cabinet here? I'm not too sure...

More Simulated Project Ideas

2009-10-14T04:25:00.000-07:00

So, after studying the brief and finding out I only have 20 seconds for my short film, I've been thinking about what could fit comfortably into this time. I don't think I should throw my original idea out of the window, as it won't be impossible, but it would have to be incredibly fast paced! This isn't an enormous problem though, or even really a problem at all as it could make for somewhat of a sensory assault, which could be fun!
My other idea was to do it kind of like those Oxfam adverts, the one where it shows slow motion shots of poverty stricken countries and then says "...but for only £1, you can help" except replace the starving children with musicians. The voiceover could say something like "This is Larry, he's a band. He has to walk three miles to get to an amp everyday, etc. etc...but for the price of a CD, you could help!" This only really addresses the problem of downloading music rather than file sharing as a whole, and still needs a bit of work, so I'll keep thinking.

The Third Term Begins!

2009-10-13T04:30:00.000-07:00

I've had a few ideas for our first project, to make a piece of multimedia that illustrates when and why file sharing is illegal and it's consequences. I think a short film would be the best way to do this, and was thinking it could be hosted by some kind of animated character, talking us through what file sharing is. I have a few ideas for what this character could look like, and once I've sketched a few out I'll post them up on here.
In terms of the consequences of file sharing, I need to do a bit more research as I could only come up with a few off the top of my head. There's a chance you could be arrested, but it's a slim one, and it probably won't act as much of a deterent. Instead, I think it'd be a good idea to highlight the damage downloading music can do to independent musicians and artists, as this is something some people may not be fully aware of.

Filming!

2009-05-13T08:11:00.001-07:00

OK, so the script is finished (I went with the spoof documentary idea, and I'm quite pleased with how it's turned out) and has been emailed to both the actors, who are going to head down to Nottingham on Saturday 16th to film it. The rooms in the uni I wanted to film in aren't available this weekend however, so I'm going to have to film it in the library (in the study rooms for Tipler's office and the interview room, and then in a separate room for the room the time machine is kept in), downstairs in the student union (for Tipler's workshop), and then outside the university (for Roger's links to camera).
Hopefully this will all work out ok, it won't look exactly how I planned it, but as I'm running out of time I'm just going to have to go with it. I'm sure with a little imagination these locations will look fine.

A Slight Setback...

2009-05-06T07:48:00.000-07:00

Unfortunately, I'd forgotten that the deadline is actually the 22nd May, so the room that was booked from the 25th to the 27th is now no use to me. However, I've adapted the script, and personally think it is now a lot better than the last incarnation. The film is now a spoof documentary that focuses on Dr. Tipler's attempts to build a time machine, hosted by a Louis Theroux style reporter. The film starts off with the presenter stood outside a university, explaining that he's about to interview esteemed scientist Dr. Edward Tipler. However, Tipler doesn't really know what he's doing... The presenter knocks on his office door, finding him asleep at his desk. Then we get a bit of backstory on Tipler, framed through a talking heads style interview with him, interspersed with old footage of him and photos of him as a kid, etc. After this, Tipler shows us round his workshop, shows us some old, failed attempts at time machines, get's heckled by a group of students, and then finally shows the reporter his latest time machine, which is a chair like object you get strapped into. The reporter nervously straps in, and then the machine is turned on, causing a powercut. The lights go out, the screen goes dark, and we hear a large thud and the presenter in pain. Tipler manages to turn the lights on, and finds out that the time machine has disappeared into the past, however the reporter has not and has fallen onto the floor. The final shot is the reporter, back outside the uni, wearing a neck brace and summing up his experience with Tipler.
This will be pretty easy to film, and I think it has a lot of potential comic opportunities, the only problem now is whether or not the actors can make it at such short notice. If not, I don't really have time to find any more so will have to use people I know...!

Another Update!

2009-05-05T12:51:00.000-07:00

Things are coming along quite well, with Elliot's help a room has been booked for filming between the 25th and 27th May, I'm just waiting on responses from the actors now. I've got quite a few props to gather, and a few to make, but nothing too difficult!
I'm currently re-writing the script again, to try and get it as tight as possible. If anyone reading this would look to see the script in it's current form, just give me a shout and I can email it out, all feedback is welcome!

Going Through Changes

2009-04-26T14:01:00.000-07:00

After the feedback I received from the presentations at the end of last term, I've made some fairly big changes to the script. The story is fairly different now, but is definitely more suited to the 6 minute length, the original script was in danger of turning into a feature film!
In this version of the script, Dr Tipler is running a business to send people back in time to eliminate past regrets, for a small fee! Roger goes to visit him, we join them mid conversation as they’re discussing Roger’s regret, so we’re not entirely sure of what it is. Roger discusses it ambiguously but with enough detail for us to piece together a vague idea of what it was he’s done. Then, just as the Professor is about to pull the trigger to send Roger back in time, another Roger runs through the door, all battered and beaten up, a little worse for wear, and screams at Roger “Don’t do it! You’re making a big mistake!”, just as the trigger has been pulled and Roger disappears.
I'm in the process of scripting this out now, I have a first draft, the bare bones of the scene, so just need to flesh it out a bit. As the original time travel scene took around 4 minutes, I think this will fit nicely into 6.

The Problem Of Time (In A Film About Time Travel...)

2009-03-26T06:53:00.000-07:00

In the presentation today the problem of my film's running time was brought up again. It seems my initial idea of splitting the film into three segments doesn't really sit too well with the brief, so I may have to do some severe editing.
Here's an extremely shorter version of the first half of the pilot.

I don't think this version is anywhere near as good, and doesn't really get across all the information you need to know. I think to shorten the script I will have to re-write large chunks of it rather than simply cutting some lines.

The Quantum Matter Oscilator

2009-03-25T15:31:00.000-07:00

Here's the latest photo of the time machine. This one appears in the pilot, but in the actual film it'll have more wires and stuff all over it, and be plugged into a larger piece of apparatus.

The Pilot

2009-03-24T07:40:00.000-07:00

Here's the pilot for 'Chuck Voyager' -

As one of the actors in the scene was unable to film before this deadline, I had two of my friends stand in for both the actors (it seemed pointless to get the actor playing Dr. Tipler to travel down here just to film a pilot that won’t actually be in the final film), so the cast in the final version will be totally different, as will the location, props, etc. The footage looks a little rough around the edges but I feel it gives a relatively good indication of how this scene will look in the finished edit.
The scene is a LOT longer than I imagined it would be! However, Elliot suggested allowing 6 minutes for the first scene on the film set, 6 minutes for this one and then 6 minutes for in the future, which is probably what I'm going to. This would give me 6 short films that could (kind of) stand alone but also work as a whole.

I just had a talk with Deborah and Danny as well about my third year project. Danny said my idea of doing a music video for a band isn't quite enough, so suggested doing a full audio visual package for a band, which is a cool idea.

Locating Locations...

2009-03-17T11:57:00.000-07:00

Here are some shots of an old railway track up by the Butler's Hill tram stop. I think this would be the perfect setting for the scene in the future where Roger meets the robot. Having them walk down this abandoned rail way as the robot tells Roger what's happened to mankind will make for quite a striking image.

Logos

2009-03-12T09:26:00.001-07:00

Here are a few ideas for how the opening title could look. These all look a bit rough at the moment, but they'll give me something to work from -

Final Scenes

2009-03-02T10:04:00.000-08:00

Here's the Frameforge storyboards for the final scenes of the film -

Time Machine

2009-02-26T06:52:00.000-08:00

I started making the time machine for the film, by painting up an old water pistol. I gave it a layer of white first to help the silver paint show up -

And then added several layers of silver paint -

This should be dry by now, so I can add more details in pen, and I'm thinking if I can find a clock face to fit in the back of it this would look pretty cool. It'd also mean as Dr. Tipler uses it on Roger, he could dial in the time by moving the clock's hands around, which would be cool!
I started painting a mask for the robot too, I was thinking if I get like a cheap bike helmet from somewhere, I can paint that silver too and it'll start too look more robotic. This mask still has a way to go however, it needs all kinds of wires and maybe some LEDs slapped all over it -

Robots!

2009-02-19T13:59:00.000-08:00

Here's the storyboard for the first time Roger meets the robot -

And here are some more robot designs -

And here are some designs for the time machine itself -

Dr. Tipler, I Presume?

2009-02-15T10:52:00.000-08:00

Here's another storyboard, this time for Dr. Tipler's laboratory. Once again, I've provided Frameforge and hand drawn storyboards, but unfortunately in all the Frameforge ones the time machine does just look like a gun...! It will look different in the actual film, there'll be some time machine designs posted up here soon. Here are the storyboards -

Here's a sketch of what Dr. Tipler could look like -

Storyboard For First Two Scenes

2009-02-15T08:24:00.000-08:00

Here's the first two scenes (Roger on set, and then Roger and Laura having a break by the set) drawn out with Frameforge -

I'm finding Frameforge quite limiting at the moment, and definitely prefer drawing out the storyboard by hand, so I think I'll do both for each scene. Here are the first two, the rest will come later on -

Forging Frames!

2009-02-13T06:51:00.000-08:00

Here's another storyboard for the first scene, using Frameforge. I've drawn out a storyboard for the second scene and third scenes, with Roger and Laura on their coffee break and Roger meeting the scientist, respectively, and I'll post them up on here as soon as their Frameforge counterparts are complete.

Storyboards

2009-02-12T11:11:00.000-08:00

I've started drawing a storyboard for the film, and attempted to make one on Frameforge too. However, as I don't yet have the full version, just a demo, it's very limited as to what I can do with it... Hopefully I'll be able to make a more accurate representation soon.

The Almighty Dollar!

2009-01-29T09:33:00.001-08:00

Me and Elliot were talking about how to raise some money for the film project, and came up with the idea of putting on a night or some kind of event to gather some filming funds. If anyone's reading this and has any ideas or wants to help out at all, just leave a message or comment or whatever on here!

None Of Them Knew They Were Robots

2009-01-29T07:33:00.000-08:00

I've been thinking more about the original script and how I would actually film it. Fitting the story into six minutes is gonna be pretty much impossible given it's complexity, but would split nicely into three short films, the first ending just after Roger goes forward in time, the second ending just as Roger gets into a fight with the robot, and the third part would be Roger returning home and changing his life.
I was talking to my flatmate Elliot about how much this film could end up costing, and Elliot estimated around £500-1000... I'm not sure if this guess is a little too high, but either way I'll have to raise a bit of cash to help build the set for 'Chuck Voyager' and the robot. The set will be appropriate if it's really cheap and tacky looking, so with a bit of imagination I'm sure this wouldn't end up costing a great deal. The robot, on the other hand, could be a little trickier. It's okay if it looks a little cheap, as after all it was made on a budget in the actual plot, but I don't want it to just look like a load of cardboard boxes...
The robot should be humanoid, and as non-threatening as possible. Maybe a robot that looks sort of like this would work -

It wouldn't be too hard to make a reasonable robot suit by sticking chunks of painted card onto a jumpsuit for added flexibility, and then modifying a bike helmet a little to act as it's head.
A robot like this would be quite easy to achieve too -

- but I'm not too sure I want the robot to look like this. It doesn't have much of a personality, and looks quite ominous in a way. Even the robot in this film is meant to be slightly incompetent, it's still supposed to be quite a lovable character. I want the audience to feel kinda sorry for it when Roger has a go at it, and I'm not sure a big chunky box would be able to convey things like this...

This is a kinda classic robot style, which I think would work really well given that 'Chuck Voyager' adheres to so many sci-fi stereotypes and conventions, so the film will be quite consistent stylistically. I also like the idea of robots getting more and more complex as the human race advances, then cheaper and poorer as it declines, meaning that the final robot that was produced does resemble something out of 'The Jetsons' rather than 'I Robot'.

This is a similar design to the last one, but I like the rounded head! If you were to make this into a costume, you could put eye holes in the mouth bit, and then put big LEDs or something in the eyes to give it a little bit more personality.

Another pretty classic design, this robot looks awesome and is actually quite a basic design - human body shape with dials and switches on the chest, and connections on all the joints, it's just the head that could pose a problem. However, I'm sure with the right lighting, and from the right angle, something like a bunch of bottle tops and old loo roll tubes stuck to a box and painted silver could look like a fairly convincing robot face...maybe?

Whilst searching about for robot examples I found this awesome picture too -

More Scripting Fun!

2009-01-26T16:41:00.000-08:00

I had another idea for a script that may make a good film, about a guy who feels the music scene in his town is sorely lacking, and goes about putting on a gig to showcase local talent. However, the only venue he is able to secure is an old lecture theatre, which is less than ideal, and all the bands he wants to book are unavailable, leaving him with several poor, but well meaning bands. The gig looks like it's going to be an absolute disaster, with members of the different bands not getting on well, the music sounding generally terrible, deadlines looming and a mountain of logistical nightmares. Eventually however, the gig turns out to be shambolic fun and is enjoyed by all.
This is just the bare bones of the story at the moment, there needs to be several good obstacles in the man's way, and the bands also need to have their own distinct character, and be bad in a so-bad-it's-good kind of way. I was thinking sort of like the battle of the bands scene in Cheech and Chong's Up In Smoke mixed with Spinal Tap, but with contemporary sounding bands. At the moment, some of my ideas include an aggressive but woefully out of time straight-edge hardcore band, a drug guzzling drone/doom band that are more than happy to let a single sustained note ring out for about 50 minutes, an pretentious art-rock kinda band, and a kind of gabba or breakcore DJ. These characters would all find conflict with each other, but eventually find a kind of middle ground to all get along...possibly? Still needs a LOT of work, but I'll keep thinking about it!

I've been reading 'Adventures In The Screen Trade' by William Goldman to help me with the scripting, and it's been really useful. There's a chapter where he takes an old short story he's written, and then tries to adapt it into a screenplay. Seeing the thought processes he goes through and the changes he makes the initial story is really interesting, and I'll apply some of the questions he asks about his own work to my scripts. I'd recommend this book and it's sequel ('Which Lie Did I Tell? More Adventures In The Screen Trade') to everyone on the AV course!

Voyaged!

2009-01-26T01:55:00.001-08:00

I just finished writing the first script, which ends with Roger finding out the robot is the time machine, and then being sent back to the point in time just before he made the phone call to apply for the time travel experiment. He takes Laura's advice this time and doesn't phone them, and instead asks her out for a drink, which she agrees to!
I'll bring this finished script along to the script workshops and make some improvements to it, but the first draft is now complete.
I also started writing a script for an idea tentatively titled 'Kebab Quest'. This would start off with two students out on the town, who decide to head to a kebab shop after going on a brief bender. Once there, they're disappointed with the menu, saddened by the staff's uncaring manner, and sickened by the grotty mess of a kebab they receive. The pair decide in a drunken stupor to start their own kebab shop, which would be the greatest takeaway of them all in their minds, out of their own window. They set about ordering large ammounts of cheap meat and make a massive sign that says 'Kebab Quest'. They wake up the next day, open for business, and gradually become incredibly popular. The pressure begins to get to them however, and rival kebab shops try to buy them out and sabotage them, before eventually they pack the whole thing in and decide to go get a cheese burger instead.
I kinda like this idea but also think it's pretty stupid at the same time, haha! It'd need a good solid script to actually work, and a good chemistry between the two lead characters. Regardless of whether I actually decide to use this idea or not, it can't hurt to script it out and see how it goes.

Alternative Endings

2009-01-25T16:46:00.000-08:00

I've now come up with a few ideas on how to end my current script, and I'm going to try scripting them now and seeing which one works best. The one I'm liking the most at the moment, is that when the robot sent itself and the time machine forward in time, the two merged without the robot realising. The pair find out when the robot inadvertently points at Roger and they're sent back in time by a few seconds. However, once Roger finds this out, there are several possibilities for what could happen. One idea is that he returns to the exact spot where he left the studio, and comes to appreciate his life a lot more, kind of like Scrooge in A Christmas Carol I guess, heh! Another is that he goes back to the original audition for 'Chuck Voyager' and does his best not to land the role...? I'm not sure if that's really a solid, satisfying ending though.
As well as this, I'm also going to try scripting another idea as a back up plan. It's kinda hard to leap into a totally new project after putting so much thought into this one, but I think it'll definitely help having a few good scripts to choose from, just in case one of the ideas is too complex, expensive or ambitious, but also if any of them turn out to be kind of weak as stories.

Chuck Voyager!

2009-01-22T11:40:00.000-08:00

Here's a little back story for all the characters included in the first part of the script. All of them are accompanied by crude sketches, which are for my own benefit rather than anything else, and should not be used as a definitive reference point for the character's appearance (especially as many of them are extremely poorly drawn, haha!) -

Chuck Voyger AKA Roger Tillsdale

Roger Tillsdale plays the part of Chuck Voyager in the TV show of the same name, although after initially showing interest in the project, after filming a few episodes become disillusioned with the show's formulaic approach, poorly written script and abysmal special effects. From an early age, Roger had been interested in science fiction, but more importantly, scientific research and exploration. Roger has a relatively short temper, dislikes small talk and hates the feeling of wasting time. He can also be quite unaware of the emotions of people around him. Despite this, Roger means well and is a good person, but often fails to entirely understand a given situation, and can be too 'gung-ho' for his own good. Roger doesn't really get on with the rest of the cast or crew, aside from Laura, who to some extent shares his view of the ridiculousness of 'Chuck Voyager'. Despite having a good chemistry together, Roger has never met up with Laura off the set, as he doesn't think she feels the same way towards him.

Lieutenant AKA Laura Stafford

Laura is a kind hearted, optimistic person. In her ideal world, she would be starring in theatre productions, rather than 'Chuck Voyager', but she tries to make the best of it, feeling it could lead to her 'big break'. She has a soft spot for Roger, and is the only cast member he gets on with. At the same time however, she can become frustrated by Roger's headstrong attitude and his apparent lack of feelings towards her.

The Director AKA Theodore Goldman

Theodore has supposedly worked with the best, although none of the rest of the crew are too sure of his credentials, or whether his frequent anecdotes about working in the industry actually happened. Goldman is irritable and hates slackers. His hard work ethic means he often doesn't treat his actors with much kindness. Goldman is fast talking and very business minded, and has a very clear vision for how he wants 'Chuck Voyager' to be filmed.

Dr. Edward Tipler

Edward is a very well spoken chap who is passionate about his work, to the point where he may seem extremely eccentric. Although Edward's scientific know-how seems to be perfectly articulate, he often overlooks or has trouble with normal, everyday tasks, leading experiment participants to feel quite uneasy. Edward can be distracted quite easily, but when working on some new theory or idea, can become very animated and involved.

A Trilogy?

2009-01-22T07:09:00.000-08:00

Several good ideas came up in the script workshop today for my script. Even though everyone agreed that my script was going to be much longer than 6 minutes, it was suggested that I could split it into parts. This would give me a lot more space and time to develop the characters too, and the script could be cut into at least two, maybe three parts. However, I'm not sure if the brief will allow this?
I also need to make all the characters a little more solid. The character of Laura at the moment isn't able to extend much further than just acting as a plot device whilst Roger reads the newspaper aloud. I'll try and build more on their relationship, as well as writing up some character outlines to help me get a better idea of who they are too.
Another idea that was brought forward was that instead of a TV crew, the sci-fi series could be being made by an internet based company instead, filming in their basement, as a full film crew will be harder to film, and this will make the show seem even more tragic. I like this idea, but I'm not totally sure I need to make a point of it, as just seeing a smaller crew filming him will achieve the same effect.
It was also mentioned that when Roger goes to the time travel interview, the scientist could recognise him from the show. This could lead to some good dialogue and could potentially strengthen the connection between Roger's 'fake' sci-fi show and the reality of his time travel experience, but it could also make Roger out to be more famous than he actually is. I'm not totally sure whether this would help the story or hinder it yet.

Scripting!

2009-01-21T06:00:00.000-08:00

Just came back from the first lecture and seminar of the year, and even though I didn't get feedback for my script as we ran out of time, it was still very useful. However, seeing the length of many of the scripts compared to mine has made me doubt whether I can actually squeeze this story into 6 minutes... I'm not going to totally discard the idea at all, but I'll try working on some other scripts tonight just in case. This will mean tomorrow I can gain feedback on all my ideas, and then choose which one is best to go with. I have a few other ideas for stories knocking about in my head, but at the moment none of them are as solid as the time travel one, which still isn't even totally solid as it is, haha!
I was also thinking of how I would design the robot. Building a plasticine robot, animating using stop-motion and then blue screening it into the film would look awesome, but may not be entirely feasible... I was thinking I could just build it out of cardboard boxes, and the robot explains that as he was created when the science department's budget was at an all-time low, he had to be constructed out of waste materials. It's a bit of a cop-out though. I also thought maybe the robot could have been built so well that he does just resemble a human being, but this is also quite a lame way of doing it.
Here are some sketches for the sci-fi idea -

First Script Idea

2009-01-16T08:32:00.000-08:00

I've thought a little bit more about some of the ideas I had, and managed to flesh one of them out somewhat. It's still not entirely strong enough to carry a whole film though, so I'm thinking maybe if I write out a script for it, I'll be able to visualise it a bit better, but I'll still keep trying to think of different ideas in case I can think of a better one, or if this one doesn't work.

So, basically, there's a man who plays the starring role in an extremely cheap and cheesy sci-fi TV programme. The film begins with the crudely animated opening to the series, and then continues on with the episode. At some point our protagonist messes up his lines, at which point we hear the director yelling "CUT!", and the camera pulls back to reveal the set and film crew around them.
We then see the man talking to one of his co-stars about feeling like he's wasting his time working on this terrible show, and that he wants to actually do something with his life. He then sees an advert in the paper for a group of scientists looking for someone to test out a prototype time machine they've made. Our man thinks this is a golden opportunity to do something with his life, and to become the first man to travel through time.
He goes along to the interview, where he's told he will be sent several years forward in time, then when he's there will be sent back to the current time. He agrees, and is sent forward thousands of years into the future. Once there, he finds himself in a field with no traces of mankind or civilization anywhere to be seen. After a brief period wondering where he is and what's happened, a small robot appears on the horizon, running towards him. The robot tells him the scientists who sent him forward are unable to meet him, as the human race has been totally destroyed. The robot tells him (maybe through use of flashbacks?) that the governments of the world began losing more and more money and becoming more hostile towards one another, and withdrew all the money they'd put into scientific research and used it to build up their military, launching into a full scale global war which kills thousands upon thousands of people. The robot was one of the last models made, but due to the lack of funds has been built quite poorly. It's equipped with a device that allows it to see into (or predict) the future, but this doesn't work quite as well as it should, and is always missing a few key facts. The robot, sensing the inevitable destruction of mankind, sent himself forward to meet our protagonist and try and help him head back to his own time, but mistimed his arrival slightly, hence why he was a few minutes late. The robot tells him there is one surviving time machine somewhere on the planet, but he isn't exactly sure where. The man and his new found robot pal must try and find it to send him back, and try and stop the eradication of the human race!

I'm gonna try and have a rough script for this idea ready for the workshop on Monday, but I'm still not totally sure if I will use this idea. I have some thoughts on how to achieve many of the effects I've mentioned here, but I'm not sure whether the plot is solid enough to carry itself, or indeed whether it can do this comfortably within 6 minutes....but I'll give it a go!

Eat Songs

2009-01-15T04:55:00.000-08:00

My brother recently showed me this trailer for a documentary two of his friends were planning to make, but unfortunately ran out of funds and had to abandon the project. However, the trailer is still a great example of ways to grab people's attention and make them want to see the film -

Here's their website for some more information, and another longer (but maybe even more intense!) trailer - http://www.siamesecrocodiles.com/

My brother also showed me this pretty cool stop motion animation another mate of his did -
http://www.pebbleandhoof.com/louiemczap/
Good stuff!

Film Ideas

2009-01-09T12:38:00.000-08:00

I've been thinking of some ideas for the second term project, and so far have come up with a few vague starting points. I've been trying to think of ways to achieve the fantastical and outlandish on a student budget, rather than just thinking of a basic story. This may prove to be too ambitious and more of a hindrance, but here are a few ideas (more for my own benefit than anything else) anyway :

- A zombie film! More an urge to fulfill a childhood dream than a fully fledged idea, really. A few props and a little imagination could go a long way here, although there's a always the danger it could just look way too crude and rubbish, haha!

- A sci-fi spoof? Still not entirely sure on this one, but I had an idea that basically involves some guy that plays a role in a TV series like Star Trek or something, with really terrible looking sets and effects, then goes home after getting off the set one day and is abducted by aliens, who then steal his body and go to his place of work and then, erm....do something. With hilarious results. Needs a lot of work if it's gonna be a worthwhile idea, but it'd be fun to film a really poor looking sci-fi show (along the lines of 'Garth Marenghi's Darkplace' or something similar), and then contrast this with more understated, mundane looking 'real-life' aliens. I dunno, I'll give it some thought.

- The use of basic props to convey different time zones or eras, for example 'Planet Of The Apes', a replica of the statue of liberty gives the impression of the absolute desecration and destruction of planet earth. I'm not entirely sure yet how this could be used to my advantage, but it's a good thing to start thinking about. Maybe a film about cavemen would be good fun, or a primitive race in the future finding remnants of our civilization. In fact, how about a film where someone is chryogenically frozen, wakes up in the future, and finds the earth totally devoid of mankind's influence apart from a few select artifacts? I dunno, that's an idea that just popped into my head whilst typing this, haha!

- A film that drifts between someone's conscious and unconscious thoughts, like reality and dreams. To create a dream-like atmosphere wouldn't be too hard to achieve on a small budget. 'The Science Of Sleep' achieves it through the use of stop-motion animation and some fairly elaborate props, but Chris Morris' 'Jam' manages to get a dreamy, delirious feeling simply through editing, relatively simple effects in post-production to manipulate the footage and audio, an ambient soundtrack and the sheer surrealism of the sketches.

I'll keep thinking through ideas, it would be silly to build the plot around an idea for a special effect, but I'm really drawn to the idea and challenge of making something bizaare on a budget. I have a few ideas for simple stories too, but I'm not really too happy with any of these at the moment, so they'll need a bit more thought. I'll post them up on here within the next few days if I can think them into anything relatively solid.

'The Host'

2009-01-02T18:12:00.000-08:00

I saw a really good film the other day called 'The Host', a 2006 Korean monster movie about a bizarre amphibious creature.

The film begins with a member of the American military pouring over 100 bottles of formaldehyde down the drain, which leads to Han River, which is how the creature in question comes to be created. Several years later, the creature runs rampage by the Wonhyo Bridge, capturing a slow witted man named Park Gang-Du's daughter, Hyun-seo. Park believes her to be dead, until he gets a call from her and finds how that somehow, she's survived, and is stuck in the sewers, right in the middle of the monster's lair. However, the Korean government are holding Park for tests, as they believe he's become infected with a virus as he was in direct contact with the monster.

Without giving anything away, 'The Host' has an awesome plot with enough twists, turns, and evil fish monster action to keep you gripped from start to finish. There's a healthy amount of satire and political commentary in there too, with both the US and Korean governments coming under fire. There are also some really funny moments, as pretty much everyone in the film has moments of absolute incompetence, which lends it a slight element of bumbling slapstick occasionally which works really well. Unfortunately, the monster is mainly all CGI, which sometimes looks a little unconvincing (especially when he hops back into water), but still looks better than a lot of CGI creatures and seems to have been designed with the same kind of care and attention a lot of the old puppet/animatronic/some-guy-in-a-suit monsters were created with, so this is a pretty easy thing to look past.
I'd urge you all to give 'The Host' a watch, even if for some strange reason you're not into monster films, as it's a pretty unconventional one!

Filming Shots

2008-12-12T11:56:00.000-08:00

Here are some photos I took whilst we were filming the documentary in Raunds -

Pre-Production!

2008-12-12T09:20:00.000-08:00

Here are some of the documents we used in the pre-production of 'Daddy's In A Band', beginning with our proposal -

Daddy’s In a Band
Proposal 12/11/08

Daddy’s in a band is a four minute documentary following a day in the life of a single father as he juggles the troubles of caring for his young son, whilst also dealing with the stress of becoming successful in his rock band.

The documentary will be set in Raunds, a small town 20 miles from Northampton, where our character Tom Robbins and his 4 year old son Liam live.
Our story will chronologically record an average day for Tom and his son. We will be documenting the highs and lows of their every day lives whilst observing from a ‘fly on the wall’ perspective. We propose to film this documentary on the 19th of November 2008.

Starting in the morning, we will film the routine of getting ready and the walk to school. During the ten minute walk, we will film him talking and joking around with his son, using long shots as well as close up profiles to give the audience both the wide and the finer perspective. The audio will be gentle morning (walking music).
This opening sequence will be used to demonstrate that our story is about an everyday father-and-son so that we can build upon this image as the film progresses – which will later be contrasted by a substantial amount.

In the next sequence we will be following the private time of Tom as he goes about his daily rituals of household chores and composing music. This is the point where we get to know him better through a series of informal questions, finding out about his past and how he came to be in the current situation. We will then learn his hopes and fears as we move on to discuss his views on the present and the future for both himself and Liam.
As he goes about his song writing, we will be finding out details of the band and the contrasting side of his story. This is one of the ways that we are going to build up the overall energy of the film.

We will be using a talking head style of documentation allowing extra cutaways for post-production. This sequence will be done mainly with medium shots with close ups on his face and his hands (for cutaways and to demonstrate his abilities in creating songs and playing guitar etc). The mask of the contrasting side of the story will be slowly unveiled to the audience from this point. This, we feel, will also display the emotional depth of their relationship. The bond the Father and son have is an immense dependence. Something that we can hopefully pick up on, this will again increase the energy of the film.

As it nears the end of another school day, we set off to pick Liam up from his class – however due to the complications with filming at schools, we have decided to have Tom and Liam walk through the front door with them in the same clothing they did in the morning to show that time has passed. The audience will accept this cutaway as natural as nothing ‘new’ has been shown. This will not only save hitches with filming at school but also practically speaking, moving the crew around. The next shot will be the pair leaving the house with, setting off to the park for a bit of father-and-son time. The subsequent shots will follow-on from the park playtime to dinner, which will be in the park with chips on a bench somewhere. The style will be similar to the morning scene in which the more emotive side of the story will be further investigated. However, we will start to build up the other side of the story at this point – by perhaps switching the style of audio to something a little more ‘upbeat’.

The succeeding sequence will be the pair once again returning home to get ready for Toms’ gig – during which we will be able to interview Liam informally and alone, finding out about this amazing 4 year kid. Further questions will enable us to gain insights on his thoughts and views on daddy and his career. This will be a build up towards the other side of the story too. When they return to the house we want to have a few clips of Liam sat behind his own miniature drum kit and answering some simple questions, if we include this into our documentary we will be able to get another view on the situation that the father and son are in. As the questions are directed to Liam we know we will get an honest account of his thoughts due to his age and our audience are likely to be moved by this approach.

We will then attend the gig with two cameras, one onstage and one downstage. We will film Tom at his gig whilst Liam is sat backstage/within the crowd to watch his father.
This part of the film will be the ‘gem’ showing the contrasting side of his life. Most of it will be long and medium shots to show less attachment (series of close-ups conclusively leads the audience to feel more personally in-touch). However close-ups will be included during the shooting stage to ensure enough editing material is available for post-production.
We may want to pursue this bit as if he is out there rocking the world, far beyond reach of his child to enhance the contrast between the emotive and the supposed-to-be successful detached side but somehow deep down Tom and Liam knows that there’s something special they have and nothing will change that – and that is what we are trying to show.

We find this story unique and exciting. We feel in most peoples’ minds the idea of a rock star and a gentle caring father simply can’t coexist. We wanted to investigate how this is possible and most importantly, we think it’s a heart-warming story with a twist that’s worth telling.
At the end of this, we hope the audience will be able to hold back prejudice against single fathers and the general perspective of ‘single parenting is bad’. Although we are only students, we feel that this is an important part of the society that is often misinterpreted and under-valued – hence the making of this documentary, to show the public even with such an ‘extreme’ career, a good father-and-son relationship can still be maintained. We think that it is important to put this message across as there are so few single dads in the UK. In 2004 there were 254 single fathers as oppose to 2829 single mothers, Only 2 percent of families had a single father. This shows that Tom is in a fairly unique position and yet he manages to juggle being a good father with trying to become famous.

Here are some of the storyboards we drew up -

Editing Mayhem!

2008-12-11T21:39:00.000-08:00

I managed to upload some earlier versions of the edit at uni today, and here they are!

This first one starts with a shot of Liam at the top of the stairs in silence, as Adam had a song in mind to play over the top of it. It's a good opening shot, and the music fit really well with the footage (unfortunately it's not present in this edit) but eventually we made the decision to use just Tom's music in the film, which I think works a little better.

This is only the first minute and a half or so of footage, and there are some moments where Tom hesitates, repeats himself, or says things that weren't really important enough to make the final cut, so a lot of it had to be trimmed down.

This second edit starts with the opening we used in the final edit, albeit in a much longer and silent form. The film is starting to take shape a lot more by this point, but it's still too long and there's a lot of unnecessary footage and clutter.

The interview with Tom's flatmate and band member, also called Tom, was cut entirely as we all decided what he says doesn't really add much to the documentary and used up time that could be used to show the relationship between father and son in greater depth.

By this stage the film is way past the embryonic stage, and almost ready to stand on it's own two legs and take it's first formative steps. The intro now has music (but still no titles!), but we had to cut out a major chunk towards the end as I noticed Andria actually wanders into shot in the lower left hand side of the screen. I'm not sure how this glaring error had passed under the radar for so long, so we got rid of it! The first few shots were left pretty much untouched in the final version, apart from a few short snippets of audio for the running length. We also chose to discard the footage of the empty playground when Tom talks about childhood, as the shots seemed a little out of place with the rest of the film and just took up valuable time!

The interview with the other Tom has been replaced with more audio of Tom talking about his relationship with Liam and some shots of him, and a lot of the audio has been trimmed down to remove moments for Tom pauses for more than a few seconds or repeats himself. It's also the first time the shots of the band have been included, and is pretty much representative of the final product apart from the lack of credits.

Edit Sweet!

2008-12-08T17:03:00.000-08:00

We just recently managed to sort out the internet connection at ours, meaning I'll be able to post things on here much more frequently now!
I'm currently beavering away with the editing for our documentary, which is going really well. Premiere is a cool programme, which is pretty easy and fun to use. After making an initial attempt at an edit, then scrapping it after group feedback, I got stuck into the actual edit which ended up at a whopping 5:38, and wasn't even totally finished! We've since trimmed it down to 4:38, and need to shave off about another minute or so to fit in the final part of the documentary. This shouldn't be too hard, as there are a number of shots that either don't quite work, have bits of us or our equipment in shot or simply don't serve much purpose in the documentary.
I've been trying to render the different versions, but currently each time my computer's perished before it's actually finished! I'll try doing it in the Waverly building at some point so I can put them all up here, I've still got each significantly different stage of the edit saved so I can revisit them at any point.

Creative Opportunities

2008-10-30T08:47:00.000-07:00

This week our journal task is -

"Using your own personal experience, write a few lines that describe how a personal contact has provided a creative opportunity for you"

I thought of two good examples for this, one more kind of career orientated, and the other just good for the soul. The first came about through a drama course I used to take part in. After working with the people there for several months, one of the guys who ran it told me about a film company called Suited And Booted. He gave me their details, and I applied for a short film course, and ended up making a 90 second film about a woman who lived with a moose. The experience was very educational, and also a lot of fun! (Incidentally, as an example of something getting in the way of a creative opportunity, I was invited to a film festival in Spain after our film apparently won something over there, but couldn't go as it clashed with my GCSE exams....which is lame, haha!)
The second example is just through friends of mine. My mate Jack, who I'd known for several years, asked if I wanted to go for a jam with his mate Dorian, who I didn't really know too well at the time. Jack invited loads of people over, with loads of instruments, and, erm, we didn't really get much done. However, after a few weeks of 'band practice', fewer and fewer people started turning up, until it was just me playing guitar, Dorian on drums and Jack providing the vocals. We recorded hours and hours worth of jams like this (albeit with varying degrees of quality!), and eventually got to play a gig, just by pummelling away on our instruments...which was good fun, and the start of a beautiful friendship! =D

Editing Test!

2008-10-24T06:52:00.000-07:00

Here's a little test using Premiere Pro to edit together several interviews our group filmed the other day. It's pretty rough around the edges and the sound is all over the place, but, hey, it's only a test!

I found this pretty easy to do, which is a good sign for further editing. I still need to figure out seperating the audio channel from the visual one, so I can use people's answers as voiceovers whilst showing other footage.

Networking

2008-10-21T06:32:00.000-07:00

For our journals this week, we were asked to comment on Jool’s statement ;

“The essential point of networking is human contact. Business has killed networking by making it something for the career orientated person.”

Personally, I’d disagree with this statement. Whilst networking is obviously an essential part of business, it allows companies to expand their reach and for individuals working in business to find and meet more people, I think networking can exist outside of business altogether and for many more reasons than purely financial gain. For example, during fresher’s week at university, students visit bars, clubs, etc. in order to meet new people and therefore gain more from their experience at university in a new city. This in itself could be called networking, even though it yields no monetary rewards (it’s probably actually quite damaging for the bank account, along with the liver), but it’s a prime opportunity to meet new friends and gain more life experiences. This style of social networking may not be as efficient, precise or structured as the kind employed by a business, but it still works very well and it is used by thousands of people who’d never even think of referring to it as ‘networking’.
Sometimes these more social networks can be born out of business like situations, but even still it’s hard to class them as ‘career orientated’. Take things like thriving underground music cultures, particularly evident in the rave scene, communities of people drawn together out of a passion for music and a desire to stage events for people with a similar outlook. The existence of many successful underground dance events owes everything to a dedicated network, and whilst there may be some nice little earners along the way, this isn’t the main incentive or point to organising such an event. It’s the same for many other diverse interests too, like the booming underground metal scene of the late 80’s, built up by many passionate individuals who circulated and traded tapes they’d made of bands who didn’t always have record company backing (appropriately referred to as the ‘tape-trading’ scene). This wasn’t at all business minded, it would have cost a fresh faced tape trader the price of a tape, envelope and stamp to send their bundle of riffs to another like-minded music fan somewhere else across the globe, with only the promise of someone else’s compilation swinging by their way in the near future to show for it (which sounds worth it to me, to be honest!). This stands as a prime example of a thriving, non-career centred network.
I can fully understand the need for networking within a business environment and the important results it can yield, but I don’t think human contact is necessarily driven by, nor relies on financial gain or the need to further one’s own career.

Final Thoughts On Flash

2008-05-17T19:06:00.000-07:00

So, after finishing off my project on Flash and spending a few days enjoying the sun, I'm starting to think about solidifying my reasons for thinking Audio Visual is the best option for me to go for next year.
Looking back on my Flash project, I'm still very pleased with it considering it's the one of the first big interactive projects I've ever undertaken with Flash. There are a few minor presentation points I think could do with sharpening up, such as when text changes size and appearance when the mouse hovers over it for example. In many cases the text becomes slightly off centre and doesn't look quite as good as it could do. I didn't quite get to grips with Flash well enough to execute some of my ideas as well, but this isn't a total loss as I feel I'll be able to approach any more work done with Flash with more confidence and ability now.
Of all the work I've produced so far, I think the ones I'm definitely most satisfied with were the projects in the first term, that included more filming and editing work. I think continuing in this direction would be the most productive and satisfying route for me to take, but I still need to give this a little more thought.

Paint The Town Red!

2008-05-17T18:55:00.000-07:00

I recently had a go at some wall art at one of my friend's houses on his back wall. Here are the results -

I drew the perilous demon, the little rabbit, and Inta Stella Abe was a collaborative effort!
The whole thing was painted onto plaster or something that was flaking off (hence the demon's gaping eyes!) so it can all easily be pulled off.

And here's a cool stop-motion animation I was shown that uses graffiti and wall art, you can see it here!

Flash! Ahhh-aaahh!

2008-05-05T07:57:00.000-07:00

Success! After frantically trying to figure out why my videos weren't working in Flash when I put the box project online, I think I've finally cracked it! I need to go to 'Import video', then upload the film file that's on the Z:\ drive on the uni computers. I'd been doing this before with no luck, but if after this has been done, if I save the whole file as an entirely new one, also on the Z:\ drive, it all seems to work OK!
Here's another very rough prototype version -
http://maeda.ads.ntu.ac.uk/~n0183775/
The Audio and Sight games aren't on this one, I have in fact finished all of the different portions and segments of the project, but these are saved on a file that's currently sat on my laptop at home...d'oh! I'll copy the completed file onto my memory stick and come in and get it all sorted out tomorow, and then my project should be finished!

Nostril!

2008-04-29T10:11:00.000-07:00

Here's an idea of how the 'nose' mini-game in my box project will look -

And here's the original sketch -

And off I go to craft this nose on Flash!

AV Presentation

2008-04-29T09:06:00.000-07:00

Here are the slides for the presentation on a practitioner for the tutorial -

It's felt a little like two steps forward and three steps back with Flash today, as John helped out and showed me some handy hints, like how to make links change colour as you move the mouse over them and add videos, and I've managed to make things look a little better, but now whenever I upload the SWF file and try and play it, it refuses to show the video and says there's some kind of error...Yet the Flash file works perfectly if I preview it in Flash, and if I drag and drop the file into my internet browser....I don't have a clue why it's happening, but until I figure it out, I can't really put it up on the blog...
Here it is anyway, though, just to see if anyone watches it and can figure out what I've done wrong!

[Upload your own video]

Brained!

2008-04-27T17:59:00.000-07:00

Here's an attempt at making the 'Brain' area of my box project -

The Avatar from the last project is in the centre, and then around the sides I'm going to place the other items and pixelation projects.

Mouthing Off...

2008-04-27T17:27:00.001-07:00

Here's another idea for how the Mouth mini-game in my Box project will work -

Once you've opened up the head, click on the mouth to go the interactive segment. This one is slightly different than the one in my sketch, as when you click the burger I lunge in and take a bite. At the moment I think this looks a little clumsy, I wanted the image to flash up quickly and then disappear without having to be clicked, but it's a little too fast at the moment. As the 'eat' picture repeats a few times, you can get a reasonable view of it, but the final 'eaten!' picture is way too brief.
If there's any way of putting time lapses on things in Flash that'd be perfect, I think, but I may be getting a little ahead of myself here as I'm still very much in the first early stages of figuring out Flash!

Severe Facial Reconstruction

2008-04-24T18:25:00.001-07:00

[Upload your own video]
Here's another attempt at a vague outline for the face. I still haven't quite figured out how to remove or resize borders, but it's getting there!

Opening Up The Face

2008-04-24T17:09:00.000-07:00

Finally, Flash has finished downloading! Only took about 8 hours or so...!

[Upload your own video]
A very crude first attempt at making my face open it's eye and mouth once clicked. This wasn't too tricky to do after studying the code for the quiz for a little bit, after a few attempts I could actually figure out what mistakes I'd made this time and rectify them.

Hey Ho, Logo!

2008-04-24T11:53:00.000-07:00

Here are the results of a nice little logo based pencil storm -

I think this one came out really well, I was trying to make it look like the text you get on the front of Jefferson Airplane albums and in Robert Crumb comics, and I think it looks pretty cool. I really like the idea of using a vaguely psychedelic logo, to fit with the surreal theme of the interactive games.

This one is OK, I'm not entirely pleased with it. I just wanted to try out logos that had more than three letters in them, as unfortunately my name doesn't lend itself enormously well to intricate, crazy lettering.

I tried to make the letters look like rooted, gnarly old trees here, but I don't think the Z is quite clear enough. I like the spindly, aged look it gives the letters however.

This one's kinda cool, I was trying to make it look like the band Carcass' logo -

I like the idea of recognised logos saying something different, as it's a little subversive but at the same time seems to being paying homage to it's source inspiration. Carcass were one of the first death metal bands I ever got into, and as I view my interest in music and especially metal as an extremely major part of my life, it'd be cool to include it here. However, I'm not sure that using someone else's logo as the main one for this project is an enormously good idea, and I also didn't do an enormously good job of the lettering. The E is hard to make out, and it looks like there's a T in there, making it 'Ketz'. Back to the drawing board perhaps?

Like the previous logo, this one was an attempt at spoofing a band logo, this time it's Obituary's -

The big problem here is that the symmetry, a big part of what makes this logo so effective, is totally lost when it's reduced to just three letters....which, I probably should have guessed before I drew it out...ah well!

This one was another attempt at making the logo a little more interesting than just my own name, and seeing how other words would fit around it. I don't think the lettering here is too great at tall, but it'll give me some idea of how it could look!

Once again, any more ideas will be put up on here!