Update 14/3/14

Update 14/3/14

Long time, no blog! A lot has gone up since my last update. My video is done, with some difficulties: My video camera broke, so I had to use my phone for about 4 shots, and I was unhappy with one of the split screens. Apart from that, I'm fairly happy with it.
I'm now adding the finishing touches to my ancillary tasks for the Monday deadline which is vastly approaching.
I will try and do an update everyday 'till Monday to keep you up with what I'm doing. Final video will also be posted this afternoon/evening

Update 24/1/14

Update 24/1/14

Having started my evaluation analysis questions at home, I was unable to continue them at school, due to the fact that my software is not compatible with schools, as it's newer. With this, I started planning my own question 3 answer. So far so good, but I will have to carry it on over the weekend which is going to be a busy one for me! 

Past Student Evaluation Analysis Question 1 Declan

Declan Question 1

Here is my first evaluation analysis ... I will put all 4 analysis' onto a prezi, and also post them individually like this one.

Update 23/1/14

Update 23/1/14

Recently I have been focusing on looking at other peoples evaluations and have been carefully analysing them, going into as much depth as possible, so I can pick out the do's and don'ts of an evaluation answer.
I have been in the process of making a podcast for one of the questions, which has taken far longer than I could have imagined. I began using iMovie, because I was doing it from home, and didn't have access to FC. This proved harder than I imagined and gave up! I finally got myself the FC app, and have been working 'till late this evening perfecting it, and its finally done! That's now 3/4 of the questions done, just one to go before I can blog it! It seems as though I have done very little work recently, but actually, I have been hard at work doing the analysis'!
I should have finished all of them by tomorrow, and will be able to post all 4 up via prezi.

Update 16/1/14

Update 16/1/14

As of recent I have been looking at past student evaluations. I have been analysing them in depth using different technologies, so I can try and get used to different technologies in preparation for the evaluation. Its going quite well! I have learnt a lot of do's and do not's in the making of evaluation, which I feel will be very helpful for me later on. I will continue doing evaluation analysis', probably doing one for each student evaluation from last year at this school, and then one on a students evaluation from a different school, as I think the questions are the same for everyone.

I still need to finish off my website and really get stuck into my digi-pack, which is still at a very basic stage at the moment. This will be done soon, and a classmate has recommended a good program to make the digi-pack; GIF. I will take a look at this program tonight and will have a play with it and see how I feel about it, and whether I think it will be one I use. 

The music video hasn't really changed much at all. I have struggled (as mentioned before) to gather my actors together of recent due to work, or other reasons for unavailability. Despite this, I recently passed my driving test, which should make things a lot easier, as I can pick them up, making transportation not an issue at all. This should mean getting the filming finished and everything topped up should be done very soon, and I can then take a breather, because I've been very nervous about it recently, as the deadlines loom closer and closer. I have no doubts that I will have everything done in time, its just the case that I really want to be able to spend a decent amount of time doing the evaluation questions and the ancillary task so I can gain the highest amount of marks possible, to further boost my grades. 

Update 10/01/2014

                                                               Update 10/01/14

 My first update of 2014, and there's not much to say, compared to last time. I was going to film a few days ago, but one of my actors came dressed completely different to last time, therefore it was completely pointless to film at all, because the continuity would be awful! This was really frustrating for me, because getting the four guys together is quite difficult, so to have a potential filming day wasted is annoying for me. Since then, all four of the guys and I have not had a day where we are all free - I'm hoping that the guys can be rounded up for next week, maybe in the latter half of the week, most likely Friday.

 I have done a little bit of work on the ancillary tasks, but without the main bits having been filmed, its impossible to fully complete them, because the next scenes I will be shooting will be what most of the ancillary's will be made up of. Miss Hill has stated that the evaluation drafts are in for 3 weeks, which I'm really worried about. I feel that its going to be really tight to make something up in time, considering I still haven't finished the actual task and the ancillary task, which is what we are evaluating; how can I evaluate something that I haven't done/finished! Its clear to me that there is no room for error anymore. One mistake could ruin my whole project because it can take some time to make corrections. With this in mind, I will definitely be 'Over-shooting', getting a lot more shots than I need, just in case something is wrond; with extra shots, I could replace/fix it so much easier. I have a feeling that continuity could be an issue. I'm going to be very thorough when checking my actors, the weather and every element that could affect the quality of my film.

I feel that the targets which have been set are reachable and achieveable, with a lot of hard work, and the up-keep of my efforts to protect my self against mistakes.

Website - Day 1

Website - Day 1 

I've done a screen cast taking you through my website from home. Please excuse my horrible, boring voice, I had to be quite!

I will continue doing little bits to it, but until the last day of filming, finding things to add will be tricky, as the last day of filming is the most important!! 

Update 19/12/13

Update 19/12/13

Today has been a very busy day for me, because it was deadline day for our drafts. Unfortunately I was not able to get the last bit of filming I needed to get done during the week, so I have had to hand in an unfinished piece, which is something I really do not like doing. The Christmas holidays give me a great chance to catch up however, and I will be caught up when we come back next year. 

Anyway, with the absence of any new film, I cracked on with the start of my ancillary tasks, and have got off to a good start. A basic template has been made for my website, and I am now in the process of filling it all in with the nitty-gritty stuff, which I am enjoying thoroughly right now. I am finding six very easy to use, and I am enjoying using it, and I think the website is coming on relatively well - I think it will be done to a good standard by the end of December. 

I will create a new post at the end of the evening with my process.

Update 12/12/13

Update 12/12/13

Today was mostly focused on editing little bits and bobs, and perfecting the intro split-screen, which is looking a lot better now. I made a list of the things that I didn't like, and things that family didn't like, so that I could edit/replace that today. I think that was successful. I changed one clip completely, due to it being a bit jumpy, I aligned some lip syncing a bit better, and just added a couple of shots of the guys in the car, to fill in some minor gaps. All I have left to do is film the final part, which is the party. I am going to try and round the guys up for a midweek filming session next week, probably tuesday, assuming that works for everyone. This will be the best time to do it, because the sunlight should be very similar to what it was when we filmed the last shots, providing there's no sudden weather change! I don't think it will matter too much though, because the rest of the filming will be inside - providing I avoid the window, I will be fine!

Update 11/12/13

Update 11/12/13

Today I put my new footage from the weekend into my music video, to replace what I previously had there. I am slightly nervous, because as it stands, I don't think it's quite as good. I think it needs quite a lot of work to get up to scratch. However, the car scenes have not turned out too bad, considering it was a slight last minute job, and a lot of re-arranging had to commence!

The new split screen intro is looking quite good, despite the fact that its so hard to maintain and get right. It's hard to explain why, its just perfecting timing and sizing is something that I am finding difficult. I have exported the clip to put on youtube, so I can analyse it at home this evening, to plan what I need to do during tomorrows lesson, so I don't have to continuously watch it.

Update 8/12/13

Update 8/12/13

Yesterday afternoon I had to go out and do some filming, and quite a lot of re-filming. I got the individual shots that I needed to get for the introduction section of the film all done, and hopefully ready to go up. I had to re-film all of the car scenes, due to the unavailability of the original car driver, and to keep up continuity, everything had to be re-done. A new location has been selected, however, it's somewhat worse than the original. I have had to go for my next best option, which is my games room, which is small and in a state; meaning I have some work to do tidying it, before the next filming day!

As far as I'm aware, it all went well yesterday. I am slightly concerned that the low, bright sun may have caused some issues with the car scenes, and might make the footage hard to use. I'm sure with some colour manipulation, this issue could be resolved fairly easily. 

I will be uploading and editing what I got today, starting from Wednesday, and should be ready for the weekend.

Playing With Wix

Wix Practice 

I had a go on wix today, so that I could get used to it as best as possible. I think the website itself is good, and its fairly easy to use, but its really, really slow and laggy, which at times, can get very aggravating. In the end, I have came up with a sample first page. Its really rubbish, but obviously I don't have some of the material necessary to make it! At least now, I am familiar with it, and would feel confident using it for the real thing. Below are some snapshots of the first and only page that I did ... 

Refilming

This Weekend's Refilming

My Plans For Ancillary Tasks

My Ancillary Tasks

I have probably mentioned it at some point throughout the blog, but I thought it necessary to completely clarify it, and make it clear what I actually intend to do. I have decided that I will be doing a website and a digi pack for the ancillary; I feel that these two are the easiest to link together and I think give me the greatest chance of achieving the highest marks I could possibly achieve. 

From research, I have realised the importance of linking the two products to each other. Things like the same colours and fonts etc is a really easy, yet effective way of making the two products almost like one. It also makes it come across as a more professional piece of work, rather than what I would call a 'Mish-Mash'. 

The only difference I intend on is that the digi pack will look into the party side of the video, whereas the website will be more based on the softer side of the video. I will be doing this because I feel that the digi pack is something that the consumer wants to look at, more than read. I think a cd's digi packs selling point can be if it's cool or not, especially within this genre, and I feel the party scenes can bring this out of the digi pack. The website, however, is something that users will use to acquire information, and the party pictures will be a lot more ecstatic, and could make the website horrible to look at, especially when users are trying to read any text that will be included. The website does have to be interesting to look at as well though, so I think I will have some pictures on every page, and then have a dedicated 'gallery' page, where lots of different pictures will be available, ones that I have taken throughout the filming process. The fonts on the website will be identical to that of the digi pack, but the colour of the website will be a much softer colour, that still has links to the digi pack. (I will be doing some research on the idea of pictures being more appealing on a digi pack)

Next lesson, I will be looking into wix and disc wizard (the two softwares I will use to produce the products) and learn how to use them, as the class did last week with PhotoShop. That lesson was really informative and I learnt a lot of different methods. The problem is that this was teacher led; I will be trying to teach myself, so youtube may be a useful tool tomorrow! I really hope the two intertwine - and have similar features, so that making the fonts match up etc is easy, otherwise I might find it difficult to do so. 

Update 5/12/13

Update 5/12/13

Its been a while since I've done an update, and in this time, I have actually made quite a lot of progress, albeit several minor improvements in quite a few places. The most dramatic decision I've made is to split screen the intro. This means that I will need to gather more footage for this section, because instead of one 4 second shot, I will need four 4 second shots in the longest example. This means that I will have to take extra care in my continuity, making sure the costumes are exactly as they were in the previous shots that I did, and am keeping. The picture below shows what the current state is. There will be two other shots in the two corner gaps of the other group members from the latter shots. There are 5 lads, so to make the split screen work, two of the guys will have to be in the same shot; which is totally do-able.

Split screen

With the fact that the house I was doing the party scenes in, and had begun shooting in has sold completely now, and is no longer owned by me, I still need to find a location to shoot the party, and I have no idea where to do this! I may have to do it in my games room at my house, which would require a lot of work, as it is disused during this period of the year. I will also be missing out on some cool features that the other house had, such as blue plinth lights, which would have made the 'party' seem more 'party like!'  

I was going to look at doing some ancillary task work, but I feel that without having at least all the shots done, I can't really start the proper tasks. I just feel that the party scenes may offer a lot to me, and will make things fall into place. I think the ancillary tasks probably should be based around the party, or at least the digi pack should in some manner! 

Learning Photoshop

Learning Photoshop

I had a go on photoshop today, and I quite liked it! I found it quite difficult to come to terms with at first, but picked it up really quickly. I made a small tester, which is rubbish, but obviously, I wasn't trying to make anything spectacular. I used all of the basic tools that you can use, and dipped into the more complex stuff, but didn't delve into them in too much detail. Below is what I done ... 

What I came up with!

Update

Update 28/11/13

Today I have added the keyboard shot that I said that I needed to do yesterday. I think it actually looks alright as its in time well with the music, which has been a problem for me, plus, it answers the question of "Who is the driver?"; well now he's the keyboard player!

The house that I was planning to film in (the yellow house that features) was my house, which was up for sale. Well, as luck would have it, it is now completely sold and I do not have access to the house; this therefore deems a couple of my shots useless because you can see it in the shots. This means I now have a little bit of re-filming to do as well - which also means having to re-film my favourite shot, which was really hard to time right! Also, I am wondering where I am going to be able to use the techniques that we learnt, ie colour manipulation and key framing? I can only imagine that the 2nd half of the narrative will open up an opportunity, because it will be several party scenes, where loads of wacky stuff can be done, and gotten away with, as seen from previous music videos (Last Friday Night, Katy Perry - Which I done an analysis on! :D ) 

Other than this problem, its all coming on quite well. I'm starting to feel more confident in the video as time passes and more of the intricate editing takes place. I am now debating whether to split-screen the intro or not? I will have to decide soon; maybe asking people after watching would be a good idea? 

One of the few shots that I now cant use due to the house!

Whether to make the two highlighted shots split-screened or not ... Note: Two more similar shots will be added up to 16s (yellow marker) to make up a 4 way split screen

Editing Update

Editing Update

Since I last done an update, I have added my performance shots and completed the basic editing of them (size and timing) and it looks okay at best. I'm not too happy with the lip syncing, its a bit out of time, and some of the notes are not help long enough etc ... There's not much I can really do about this, except from replacing it with some other clips of either other performance, or I'll add some of the narrative that I still need to film.

I also realised that there is a keyboard in the song, I don't know how I missed it, but its extremely annoying. I think that it's vital that all of the instruments get a mention, because otherwise it comes across as a mistake and looks stupid, so I will go and film that very soon; it wont be hard to do at all!

Other than that, there are no major catastrophes to report, and it doesn't look too bad, so I'm quite happy overall. Everything that needs changing, can be changed fairly easily without causing too much of a problem. 

Filming - Day 2

Performance Filming

Yesterday evening I began and completed my performance filming. It seems as though it went well, although I haven't watched it back at all yet, so I am ready to be disappointed when I see it in a moment when I upload the new footage. My biggest concern is the fact that none of my actors can actually play instruments at all, so I hope this doesn't come across too bad on screen. 

I will now start to edit the footage, and see how it looks!

Filming Day 2 (Plan)

Performance Filming

Today I will be filming my performance section of my music video. This equates to roughly 60 seconds worth of footage. I have made a quick, rough plan to help me do it all efficiently. Luckily for me, I have a good amount of actors to perform, with one person on each instrument needed. There is a section that uses a xylophone once, and a different section which uses a tambourine once, so the person who plays the xylophone, will also play the tambourine. Hopefully all goes well! Below is the list I made up; I thought it would be worth putting on here:

My plan