Rob here.

I have completed 5 of my 6 videos to date. I have neglected my blogging of late as I have been concentrating on producing each film.

Here is the treatment for my 3 small screen media films:

THE LEGEND OF APPLECAT
MORNING MOOD
LOGIC

SMALL SCREEN MEDIA MICROMOVIES

Premise: Three micro-movies based on the themes of ‘Microcosm’, ‘Town and Country’ and ‘A New Decade’. These films will be shot on small format recorders and exported for low quality broadcast methods.

Synopsis:
The Legend Of Applecat: This video will show the ‘Legend’ Of a mythical cat which delivers apple pies to the residents of a Scottish island village. The video will start with the mayor’s wife of one village making a pie and sending it to the other, she feeds the peel to her doting cat. However one decade the Mayor’s wife is ill, so the mayor has to make the pie, he refuses to give the cat peel and gets annoyed and so places it in a box on a shelf. The cat then leaps out and drowns in the pie mixture. When the mayor realises that his cat is missing he thinks someone in the other town killed it and doesn’t send it. The story then cuts to a current retelling of the legend ‘every decade the cat rises from the sea to deliver pies to all of the children.’

Morning Mood: This video will feature lots of shots of very ‘uninspiring’ locations in the town, featuring rubbish littered corners, broken windows and generally dingy shots. I will then contrast this with Grieg’s Morning Mood from The Peer Gynt Suite and a slow reading of the following quote from Oswald Spengler; “Long ago the country bore the country-town and nourished it with her best blood. Now the giant city sucks the country dry, insatiably and incessantly demanding and devouring fresh streams of men, till it wearies and dies in the midst of an almost uninhabited waste of country.”

Logic: I want to film the first part of this video on four mobile phones, I will have all four images on screen at once in a horizontal line. The images will show a guy tied to a chair in the centre of a white room, he is gagged with tape crosses over his eyes and a white shirt with the word logic scrawled on his back. He is thrashing around on the chair and constantly screaming. The sounds of muffled and echoing voices, distorted sounds and dripping play constantly. He becomes more and more distresses and eventually thrashes around so much that he falls to the ground, all four screens cut to one image of static (still within the same frame) the shot then zooms out revealing the static is on a television screen, the screen is placed on a desk beside a man sat in a chair, there are wires going from the top of the TV set to a makeshift pair of headphones on his head. There are no titles with the world logic.

Notes:
Style:
The Legend of Applecat: This video will be completed using stop motion cut-out animation using a mixture of found images and images drawn with wax crayons. I want the film to feel like a children’s picture book, fitting the feel many story videos on children’s entertainment sites like Cbeebies. The sound will feature jolly Celtic music and over the top narration by (hopefully) someone Scottish
Morning Mood: I want this video to feel very sombre in the contrast of grim images and cheery music. Not what the audience would expect to see with the music. I want to increase the contrast and decrease the desaturation slightly on the images to add to the grey city look.

Logic: The four screens will feature a green tint with raised contrast, this is to make them seem like closed circuit television cameras, this same tint will also be applied to the static on screen, however the footage outside of the screen will have a slightly blue tint, making it appear as to normal life. The sound will be very disorientating and layered; when the camera zooms out from the TV the sound fades out ending the film in complete silence.

Intended Audience:

The Legend of Applecat: The intended audience for this piece will be predominantly young children- acting as an educational video to teach the children about the ‘real’ legend of Applecat.
Morning Mood: This piece will be aimed at late teens/ early 20s, possibly people with an interest in politics and who like to comment on society, the contrast can be used to spark comments without saying them.
Logic: This Video will be aimed at people aged about 16 to 25. Mainly fans of films like the Saw Series due to the dark psychological nature.

Rob.

Hi Guys,

I have been a little bit slow with updating my blog for the 2nd semesters work.

I have 6 videos to make.

3 on the theme of celebration. (One classic style, one avant-garde and one in one take)

3 filmed on a low quality camera (One about Town & Country, One about A New Decade and One About Microcosm.

Planning is complete for all 6 videos and I will post later today detailing each one. So far i have completed two, filmed one (that didn't come out how I wanted) and began preparation for the rest.

Rob.

Rob Here,

Just a quick note to say that 'Pndora' is finally fished and was handed in last week, so all of my work from my very first semester at uni is complete. I am very happy with the outcome, i do prefer it to Narcissus but they both have thier charms. You can watch it by going to my youtube channel at

http://www.youtube.com/user/thesmellofclouds

feel free to comment and favourite it!

In realted news, Pandora and Narciussus will be screened as part of the Borderlines Film Festival, the largest one in the midlands. Here is an image from the official brochure- the article about our screening:

Rob Here,

'Ello All. (Sorry Can't Shake The Pirate Thing Since I Changed My Facebook Language To Pirate, Which I Have Suprisingly Become Used To Very Quickly)

Just a quick update on the production of my other myth video 'Pandora'. I will be filming next week- predominantly tuesday. Hoping to complete all of the shots in the bedroom, city and 'school' then. Hoping to also complete the small stop motion elements aswell.

Also I have screened narcissus to various audiences, either on youtube or in class. The overall concensus is that the video is 'very good', most people have commented on its psychadelic style and said it was 'trippy'. I feel that the video works well, there we're a couple of clips I had issues with in post, namely the clock- which came out badly pixelated, the shot of him looking at his reflection- which strangely came out as a still frame when it moved before I exported it and the shot of his feet jumping into the water- which dissapeared everytime I rendered it... People also said that the music adds to the psychadelic style and so does the lack of sound effects.

Oh well glad to have it over.

Rob.

Hello All.

Just a little note to say that my 2 minute video retelling the Myth of Narcissus was completed over the Christmas break, It was filmed in one day and edited in about 3.

The film stars me playing narcissus and my sister as Ameinias, although we were never in a single shot together. I feel the silhouettes worked wll, especially becuase it was difficult to light the screen correctly causing some issues. The imges of fire were all filmed over christmas and I only managed to get a 20 second clip that I had to loop and felt that some blur effects would merge more of the colours.

The music in the video is from an instrumental track by a band called Nine Inch Nails off thier free album 'The Slip' I then reversed the track and increased the speed of it marginally to fit the length of the video giving amore distorted and obscure sound. I decided to leave out lots of sound effects as I felt that the music signifies the strange experience of fire reading and often the hallucinogenic drugs that the oracles were quite often using.

You can watch the video by cliking on 'My Videos' over there ------>

Enjoy. I will begin production of pandora within the week.

Rob.

Here is the link to my completed blues video, it took me about 8 hours in total split between Photoshop and Premeire. Enjoy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZTIr_ZN21k

Rob.

As Promised here are photographs of the storyboards for both of my myth films some of the Narcissus ones are blurred but they are clear enough to understand.

PANDORA

Rob Here, Just a quick note to give the second draft of the Pandora Script. Any feedback would be welcome. As you can see, it actually looks like a script and contains all of the neccessary details, unlike draft one which was the voice over- which I have cut down greatly.

Rob Here,

Just Another Update About Non- University Related Projects. This has been a long running project of mine, I run a blog for a friend in the US, sharing all of the albums of his old band, I have produced all of the recent artwork for the albums as well as mixed and cut some of the songs and edits themselves. The band is called Smashing Grandpa and they have 6 albums, 1 compilation and 6 singles. You can also follow the twisting story of the band from start to the end. R.I.P. There is something for everyone within thier music, it is all instrumental, influenced by chiptune/ classical music with an industrial twist.

ALL OF THE ALBUMS ARE FREE AND COMPLETELY LEGAL TO DOWNLOAD, AS I AND MUTEANTOWL (My US Comrade) OWN ALL OF THE RIGHTS TO THE MUSIC AND THE ARTWORK.

The blog is here:  http://updownrecords.blogspot.com/

It is also there----->
in my blog list.

Enjoy.

Rob Here,

In reference to our 'blues' project, we have completed 3 briefs of research alread from secondary research, sketches, mood boards, photographs and sound recordings. Today we were given out final brief- to create a channel ident for the new channel 'MTV Blues'.

Now an ident is very short, perhaps 15 to 30 seconds. There are hundered of them to be seen at 

http://www.e4.com/estings/ (including one I produced for college...)

I am perhaps interested into doing an animation for the video because then I will have many more possibilities, I am always wanting to use various types of filmaking and developing my drawing skill.

For my previous animations a method I have found particulary interesting is graphic animation (cutout) as it doesn't require extensive art skills or modelling talent. This style was commonly made popular by Mony Python- used because of ease of use and the ability to add surrealism to any peice.

Here are a few of my initial ideas:

Cutout animation changing moder stars to old blues stars, swapping heads- usinng the cover versions and original tracks.

Some animation of the Logo (design one myself) possibly using older scrawled handwriting representing old and modern font for the present.

From these ideas it is clear to see that I really want to show the connection between the past and the present, the past of the blues as heavily influencing modern music. I want my ident not only to just tell the audience what channel they are watching but visually tell the audience something about the blues.

Til next time, Rob.  (I think that is going to be my regular sign off...)

Rob Here,

I have completed the second draft of the treatment/ synopsis documents for both of my myth videos. I didn't feel that I wanted to upload the original version and the second draft is much more concise and the ideas in it have been developed further.

So here they are.

Rob Here,

For my discourse brief I have to produce a presentation on a specific director addressing thier specific style of directing in relation to the theory of Authorship.

The director I have chosen is Christopher Nolan.

On another unrelated note, I have just started my own webcomic 'Mulletproof'.

My initial ideas for the 'MAKING MYTH FOR TODAY' are as follows:

For the video with only static shots, I want to adapt the myth 'Pandora's Box'. I want to set the video in an orwellian world, similar to that in the film 'Equilibrium'. I want to create a voiceover script from THIS version of the myth. I want to make my film look very dark and dystopian, with the box containing all artifacts of human emotion not 'disease' and the like. I also want to use stop motion to show the box has a mind of its own. THis idea is pretty complete, I obviously haven't started on production paperwork or planning, but I have a really strong Idea of how i want it to look and feel.

I am currently quite occupied with trying to find a myth for my second video, with maximum 2 characters that can only speak one line each. I want to make this video much simpiler, but maintain high levels of professionalism. I want it to be simpler, not only because my first video will be rather complex but to prove that I can make professional videos with simple ideas and techniques.

I will continue to upload information as I continue my research, planning and production.

Rob.

Today we recieved our brief for the 'Introduction To Creative Practice' module titled;

'THE BLUES'

We have to produce a 'Sketchbook' based around 'The Blues'

We must research and present our findings about the BLUES in an appropriate form, utilising all methods available to us. The term sketchbook is used very loosely and and our course is 'Film and Screen Media Design' I intend to use videos and moving image to present my findings.

The only direction we have on topic is two wpords 'THE BLUES' not neccessarily the music, but could also be a football team or anything else that involves those two words.

I intend to research how film has had an impact on the blues and vise versa, from the original filmakers to document the blues in the golden age, to new films attempting to revive the history. Initially we have to produce just 15 pages of research abour our chosen topic, I will look at all things mentioned above, and then use other methods of presentation and research. I want to make the most of this blog by posting updates about my research andd using web links, video clips and my own video creations to present my work.

Rob.

Today we recieved our brief for the 'Discourse' module.

We have to produce a presentation of at least 20 minutes and an essay of at least 2000 words.

The presentation will be on a director of our choosing, summerising our research findings for the research file. The director must be different from the Director in the essay if we nchoose thet option.

For the essay we have 2 choices: 'Discuss what constitutes the concept of a film author in relation to a range of film examples'

Or

'Discuss what constitutes the concept of a fil genre in relation to the use of visual style across a range of film examples'

We must analyse and evaluate our subject appropriately. We must also produce a research folder, keeping a log of our work during the module but also presenting all of our key research in one package.


My initial thoughts on the brief are that I want to do the genre based essay, perhaps on the Film Noir genre as there is constant debate about wether it is a genre or style. For the presentation I think I will use the director Christopher Nolan (The Dark Knight, The Prestige), because of his certain filmaking style and the contrast ofthe formal aesthetic and socio-idealogical ideas he uses in his work.

Rob.

Today we recieved our brief for the 'Introduction To Screen Media Practice' module titled;

'MAKING MYTH FOR TODAY'

We have to produce 2 short videos (2 Minutes) based around 2 different myths. We also have various limitations to the 2 videos.

1. The first video must contain only static camera shots, no camera movements whatsoever including handheld shots.

2. The second video must contain a maximum of 2 characters (people or otherwise) who are only allowed on line of spoken dialogue each.

These limitations also enable me to make the most of other elements such as visual storytelling, voiceover and other creative narrative elements. As Part of the Module requirements we also must produce a research and development file detailing our processes and analysis of the module and final videos. I will use this blog as well as a written diary of the project for this requirement.

We will also have to produce;
A written treatment for the project
All required planning paperwork
-scripts
-storyboards
-schedules
-prop lists
-cast and crew requirements
-call sheets
-
A written commentary analysing the final videos.

The first step for me is to research ideas from myths and ideas relating to myths and develop my final 2 ideas to begin pre production.

Rob.

Hey, Rob Here.

So this is blogging? I'm Not really sure how to start off but I definately intend to continue this.

I am nearing the end of my very 1st week in hereford attending HCA, so damn excited to begin work towards my Batchelor Of Arts In Film and Screen Media Design. Compared to Cirencester, Hereford Is A Beast. So much more to see and new and tons more opportunities in any area. I am living awayb from home, surviving on just my student loan but still searching for work here.

As mentioned over there ------------------------->
I hope to become a film editor, as this is an area of media I have always enjoyed and excelled at. I currently edit on Adobe Premiere Pro but I have lots of experience with Final Cut Pro and Sony Vegas Pro. I also have lots of expreience with Adobe Photoshop and I always endeavour to create any design work myself.

This blog will tell my tale of the next 3 years at art college (and possibly further) and my journey to make it (somewhere) in the media industry.

au revior, rob x