CRANBLOG

check out kranblog!

2012-02-09T03:02:00.001-08:00

ill figure out a way to stream my posts from kranblog to cranblog... until then follow this link yo! new post up

in the mean time heres a little piccy to entertain you all...

WOW, its been a while...

2012-02-04T07:21:00.000-08:00

got a new wordpress blog just started, not done much over the last year except graduate from uni and have about a million and one jobs that ive done, ha. ahwell, working on some new video work at the moment and a new skate edit coming soon too. you can check it out by looking at my wordpress blg or by checking here (on this block of text...) as im sure ill update both of them soon also a new deflated TV coming soon!

this is what i get upto in my boredom!

deflated tv?

2011-01-16T17:04:00.000-08:00

New Tv Critique Blog

indoor skate

2011-01-16T16:57:00.000-08:00

some videos part 1

2010-11-25T11:37:00.000-08:00

the starting line - the best of me

- arctic monkeys - when the sun goes down

millencolin - fox

death cab for cutie - i will follow you ino the dark

Cold World music video shoot

2010-06-19T08:46:00.000-07:00

last sunday i filmed for a music video for noodlez and krazy out of bristol. here are a couple of screen grabs from the video that will be online from monday 14th june 2010

a day in bristol in burning sun turned into an evening at clifton bridge in pouring rain but we got what we wanted even if the last thing was in a smokey tunnel after finding a random fire that kind of smoked us out.

Some Skating I Filmed or Edited...

2010-06-06T05:08:00.000-07:00

finally

2010-05-16T07:02:00.001-07:00

finally in relation to the event, i would have liked a bit more time before hand to go through all the things that needed setting up and to get a couple more people involved in the rigging and de-rigging to the point that they could have set it up with out help from rich wood or myself, especially on the vision mixer.

media event blog two

2010-05-16T07:00:00.000-07:00

(lesley please note i typed all three up as one...)

during the media the guests seemed to enjoy the greenscreen room but i think the informality of the room also helped them to relax a bit and get more involved. even their lecturer took part at weather presenting. i even saw one of the students who came along a few days later in saisburys and he came upto me and said how good the green screen room was

i think they saw it as fun at the moment but also gained a bit more of an understanding about greenscreening, how a whole set up would work, how complicated but also how simple it can be too once you get everything sorted.

Media Event 1

2010-05-05T02:49:00.000-07:00

well, the media event was last friday and i feel it went pretty smoothly. on the day it didnt help that i had and still have some serious tooth ache (which i needed to go try and get fixed at some point that day, which led to me missing the guest speaker) and that i was a little late due to buses but i think in the end we got set up just 5 minutes late and got all the tech problems sorted with rich woods help. the day went smoothly from what i saw and i think everyone put in a valued effort.

end of day 4

2010-04-12T01:56:00.000-07:00

well im back in the shire of licoln now at my rents after goin away for a weekend away from all internet and technology.

and well, BDA are already chasing me up. well, checking on everything that i was assigned was done as best as i could. i rather enjoyed friday, got the boots sorted, might have sorted out the picture frames, well i hope i did, lots of running tapes.

not sure what else to put here, to me you either get on with the job or jog on, and i feel i got on with the job, did the best i could and at the end of the day a lot of the staff i said good-bye to wished i was coming back this week to help out, now that may be another story however...

day 3

2010-04-08T13:16:00.001-07:00

more prop sourcing today, plus duane who had been there on a temp basis through an agency had an opportunity he couldn't miss and so there was also more running and general jobs that needed too. i've managed to source all the props they require except for a pair of vintage football boots which ill be on the case of tomorrow after being an idea by someone i know, cheers dad!

anyway its turning out to be some long days really, doing over 9 hours each day plus all the walking and the travelling etc its a little tiring although id love to go for a couple of drinks right now im going to stay in and have an early night as i have travelling to do tomorrow after i finish and also need to be there half an hour early to help set up for a large meeting at nine.

day 2

2010-04-07T14:01:00.001-07:00

busy day today in the end, trying to source props for a shoot next week whilst running tapes about, fetching tea and coffees and preping meeting rooms for clients etc...
tired
bye

BDA Day One!

2010-04-06T11:55:00.000-07:00

Well my first day at Bruce Dunlop and Associates is done and I'm able to post this little blog for you.
Today I was mostly learning: that FCP is bollocks and avid is the 'industry standard' if there is one; running can involve a lot of waiting (though I have been assured today was a freakishly quiet day); that there is also a lot of walking involved sometimes with a runner position, I was sent out into Central London on foot with a google map to aid me to find a number of places, the first of which was a stationers, the last was a large office for a media distribution company; sometimes the job gets dirty, and finally; ALWAYS check if on the lunch run the executive producers salad is missing her favourite ingredient whether she would like something else.

Otherwise my duties today included checking through the fridge, capturing some screen grabs, setting up a meeting room for a meeting, fetching coffee, tidying up, running tapes and promos around Soho, removing fake plants from certain areas and generally helping the place run by doing the little jobs others don't notice or are too busy to really bother with.

I did find out that all the edit suites are avid based except for two with FCP which they sometimes use for throwing a rough assembly together. Also they don't just supplying branding and awareness solutions but also co-produce shows and provide promo material. The design side of the business is not actually BDA but a sister company I never found out the name of.

Tomorrow however I have been informed I will be with the production department and so should have something completely different to write about tomorrow evening.

BDA!

2010-03-30T11:36:00.000-07:00

BDA (Bruce Dunlop Associates) is the creative agency for global media owners; from broadcasters and entertainment networks to banks and telecommunication companies, their clients number some of the worlds biggest brands. Working in every form of communication and delivering on every platform.Channel branding, set design, promotions internal comms, intergrated campaign; you name it they do it with creativity and flair.

Currently they have worked with ESPN, FX UK, ABC Austrailia, MTV, 2008 Beijing Olympics, Channel 4, Paramount Comedy Central, Johnny Walker, ITV News, Newsnnight, Al Jazeera and Sky News.

I am looking forwards to the challenges and experiences next week that i will encounter and hopefully will have a really good week with them at their offices in Londons Soho.

wow, its been a while... well, editing...

2010-01-18T02:36:00.000-08:00

today i enter the editing suite to work on the behind the behind the scenes doc that jess, rich, nathan and i are working on for leslies module. today is the first proper day i can sit with something to work from and try and piece together a rough edit over the next couple of days.

meanwhile im still unsettled about my individual project for phils module and what im going to do for the third year.

do i turn no more noodles idea into my indie project and create it as a test to see if the format would work for the BSU.TV channel or do i film some of my script for gordon bennet? im leaning more and more towards the No More Noodles idea to be honest, now all ive got to do is re-pitch the idea so it would appeal to my lecturers. why can i never make up my mind?!?

Revamp!

2009-11-26T13:17:00.000-08:00

thanks to finalsense i now have a jazzy new looking blog. hope you all like it.

i dont have an i phone however and find this a novel substitute.

i know...

Now and then... or BSU:TV

2009-11-25T23:51:00.000-08:00

hi, i havent posted in a while but thought id drop a quick note on setting up a web.tv site for the uni. liquid soap was refused funding by the uni and so we have had to set it up as a student led iniative as an SU society.

with the aim to showcase emergin talent from across the uni, including writers, performers, designers, musicians, media and film students and to offer them the opportunity to better their skills in readiness for emlpoyment.

this seems to be going well with about 20 initial members and more and more people getting involved with recruitment drives planned over the coming weeks.

ive knocked together a logo that will also act as a screen ident and although not final gives an idea of the thing we are trying to do with it.

the website will feature a constant stream of videos and viral advertising of interest to students and also feature an i-player type archive of all programmes featured on the channel.

hopefully we will be able to start producing content and gathering other footage for broadcast come april.

ill try and keep you all posted, cheers

'A Dress For All Seasons' The Fashion Vid

2009-10-15T03:35:00.000-07:00

for more designs go to jan knibbs website

jedi squirrels

2009-09-24T22:17:00.001-07:00

this might need a (C) to lucas arts/starwars though

lightsabre fighting squirrels?

i dont normally look at the sun unless theres a pair of reasons that look good but this did make me chuckle...

and i think i saw jim carver from the bill the other day at uni walking his daughter around the campus and charlie higson of the fast show (swiss tony) walking through bath town centre. may bit a bit 'heat' of me here but they are what i consider celebrities not twats like callum best! who wants to know what some alcy footballers (now dont get me wrong here, besty was good in his day but an alcy) son has been upto over the weekend and who he has been shagging. who gives a fuck really? id rather hear about charlie higson getting a parking ticket or adam buxton releasing a new video online! THE RAT CONTROL THE COOK!

A Dress For All Seasons

2009-09-24T22:08:00.000-07:00

well, i have finished the fashion video and have it set up on a projector at Sion Hill ready for the Bath School of Art and Design MA students marking (which should have happened last night) and for the private and public viewings starting next wednsday.

after a summer of the odd week where i would get to follow some models around as they walked through gardens and did as i told them the video came to fruition. i think i did four or five edits before Jan Knibbs was happy with the short film.

it shows the models wearing some dresses that she designed like the summer dress

or the winter dress

if you get a chance to go along to the show during the open viewing session they start at 10am and run till 5pm from thursday 1 to saturday 4 oct and on sunday 5 oct it runs from 10am-pm.
get along and look at some of the ideas that may well be in our everyday lives soon, like a compact full size stand up dyson ball.

ill post the videos on youtube next week so if you cant wait get to the show and view the video and all the MA students hard work.
peas

Sublime 2

2009-09-18T13:58:00.000-07:00

well i think its kind of mind game bollocks!
fin

Sublime or something else?

2009-09-18T13:53:00.000-07:00

just watching derren browns control the nation. i cant explain whats happening to those who may have been affected by the video but i wasnt glued to my seat. i went into this open minded and watched it with my partner. neither of us were stuck. obviously through out the show the trick of saying you will be stuck has stuck in some peoples head. it is just before he takes his first caller and ill update again soon.
intriguing television though

nearly new is nigh? or getting back to uni, the time is coming

2009-09-02T21:25:00.001-07:00

ITS early, i have some kind of stomach bug that makes me feel like im being sodomised by a red hot needle every hour or so and uni time is nearly upon us again.
how-bloody-ever my camera has decided to be a bit gay whilst capturing som footage for this fashion vid the other day and i cannot find a half hours worth of footage that the computer says it has captured and wont capture again for some reason. damn the way i end up having to do things. new camera time me thinks. i recokon a good old, reliable sony vx 2000. sod all this high def malarky unless your able to properly make somehting look amazing. by the time everyone gets round to high def, well we all know there will some new tech sitting on the side lines waiting to pick over the remains of HD!

so here i am with a weekend of editing infront of me and i need to spend ages finding each clip and re-capturing and re-logging it, oh the joy.

so anyway, been watching much tv recently? i have and i have been enjoying CSI, i know maybe im a bit late in getting into this but the wire is on so late and well, i dismissed CSI as another US flashy detective show with too big a budget and too little substance to keep me entertained. how i was wrong. however i can go onto BONES now which is exactly the opposite. Kathy Reichs books made into a TV series? when i read that i though wicked. when i watched i was sick, sick with disgust that a tv show like that could be released. it has that guy from buffy in, the one who was a bad vampire then a good one then an angel (or an angle, i cant remember which he turned out to be) and some bird who whilst not being ugly sure isnt pretty and far too young to play temprance brennan (sorry, i enjoy the books and thought the show could really be good) and cannot pull off the socially inept, self consumed brennan at all in my opinion.

so yeah. whilst we are on US imports what about K-Ville? i didnt catch much of it and i couldnt tell what the fuck was going on and when it was set (exactly after katrina, a while after, an alterative universe where katrina didnt hit new orleans a nuclear bomb did?) but i think i will be tuning in again at some point to catch up with and see where it is heading.

anyway im getting imprints in my legs from the lap top and the heat is making my nutsack an unpleasant place to be, why cant they put more efficient fans and colling systems on a lap top? why cant i just open it and clean it and re-lube the fan and preform general maintenance on the bloody thing with out voiding my warrenty?!?!?!?!
oh no going grumpy
peace out

Down the tunnel

2009-07-02T03:54:00.001-07:00

100_0478
Originally uploaded by mammulzog

a pic from my flickr account, banging innit?

Cracked Phone Screen

2009-07-02T03:31:00.000-07:00

my phone screen is cracked to buggery. its been cracked for a while now, i got out of bed a few weeks ago and stood on it...
anyway, the worst thing is i now cannot tell the time when im out and about on my own. this leads to me having to ask people for the time. and luckily i live in bath where people aint too busy or rude to answer you unlike somewhere like london. lee mack did a great piece on going to london from up north and mentioned asking someone for the time and expecting them to burst out in cockney style 1800s song to tell you the time then says in london it wouldnt happen. of course if wouldnt, last time i asked someone for the time in london i got a leporine stare that left me feeling slightly mollified. i only asked for the time from this guy not to rape him.
however in bath i find people kindly give you the time even if they are rushing along a bit sometimes. normally though, they dont tell you the time they show you the watch and expect you to read the hands yourself.

no problem with this aslong as they are within a few feet of you so you can read the damn thing. the ones that walk past at 10 miles an hour and flash their watch to you as they hurridly walk off behind you leave me feeling frustrated. damn it all, why dont i just buy a watch.
because i have a phone. that doesnt work properly. damn...

Flickr

2009-07-02T03:28:00.000-07:00

ive added a new 'gadget' to my blog but it doesnt look like its working so sod it off if you like and go here to view some pics on flickr that i've taken if you like.

Liquid Soap Facebook Group

2009-06-29T02:12:00.000-07:00

Go here to join

Liquid Soap on the BBC news use my footage!

2009-06-23T13:15:00.000-07:00

Liquid soap was featured on BBC points west 6:30pm edition on monday 22nd of june.
when the reporter and producer turned up we let them have a free range of the set for a bit. eventually they asked to be let up onto the rigging, i had to refuse incae they hurt themselves because of wires and ropes attached, however they asked if mark the student lighting supervisor would be able to film for them, he said yes but was immediately called down to the set and so gave me the camera, i walked around the outside of the rigging trying to get shots down into the set as the cast and filming crew were rehearsing. i think i succeeded in getting them what they wanted as they used a lot of the shots i got in their final edit that went on air.
you can watch it here !

google?

2009-06-21T00:36:00.000-07:00

put either name of this blog into google and look down the page about half way.

if you put kranblog (ignore at the top where it says 'did you mean iran blog?) and look down six entries for my last post listing! woo hoo!
with cranblog im not that far down in 8th.
slowly working my way up the ladder to 1st place in both = more traffic, more readers and more incentive for me to write more articles.

ps. i enterd in liquid soap online soap opera and the first link was this, must have missed it at the time
and i also entered in Talking Ink but couldnt find anything relevant, i suppose it depends on the importance of a film project for it to be listed high in googles results

Liquid Soap = DRAMA?

2009-06-21T00:10:00.000-07:00

well, some of you know i come on here to vent my frustration and anger sometimes at technology and other things. now it is the students time.
i am productio manager on liquide soap, i defer to the series producer Chris Jury and also the exec producer Nic Jeune. in the last week, a week before we start filming this coming monday 22nd june, we have had students who applied for acting roles disappear leaving us short of actors, leading to characters being cut from scripts, and today, 1 day before the first episode shoot have had another actor drop out of a medium sized but central to the story line role, we had the costume designer turn round on the monday and say she couldn't do as she was going to a festival and the scripts, though i know this is getting more and more the case in the real world too, arent all ready yet, two scripts arent at production draft yet and 3 only went to that stage on thursday afternoon.
this is stress like ive never experienced before, but it drives you to get things right even when they are all going tits up.
i do have written on a piece of paper near me at all times 'BE PREPARED FOR CHAOS' so maybe thats helping...
we can only wait and see

drama

2009-06-06T12:44:00.000-07:00

just watching the first series of the new season of ER on C4 and am reminded about how slick and stylish a program can look when you have a big budget behind it. its obvious its got some great writers behind it and can pull in some great directors.
the thing that gets me is that its reportedly filmed in an old hospital but how can they fit in so much stuff, ie: props, cameras, sound recordists, the general clutter needed on a show like that into the corridors, i know they are wide in a hospital and america does have wider roads than here but surely the same doesnt for their hospitals?

Politicians

2009-06-04T01:00:00.000-07:00

not sure i should put this up here, you never know when slagging politicians off how far into the future it might come back and bite you in the arse but well, in the country we are living in today why the hell not.

thank fuck jaqui smith and hazel blears have fucked off out of there at last, the two most ridiculous women in politics ever, smith and her short sighted narrow minded views on everything from drugs to supplying the army, oh and not to mention that 'claim'. blears though, what has she actually done that is worth note? oh she claimed brown was incompetent then withdrew the statement as it had been 'misconstrued' politicians at the moment make me sick. this may be a bit anti labour but also the same can be said of the tory tosspots who crowd the back benches and behave like a nest of vipers behind camerons back. they make me even sicker, they have the money to help themselves, but insist that in helping them selves to more money in relation to most of these bogus claims they have done nothing wrong!?! torys are like the republicans in the good ole u s of a. not the right mindstate for the current world.

here is a short excerpt from an article relating to the oh so exciting expenses scandal and the unrest on all of labours benches,
"The text of the rebel email - which according to reports more than 70 MPs were ready to put their names to - was leaked to the media on Wednesday night. Nobody has so far claimed authorship and it is unclear exactly how many MPs support it."
70 MPs prepared to put their names to this email but no-one to claim responsibility for authorship. will this be a bit like the tory smear campaign the other month?

hang parliament is my only answer here, devolve and re-evolve, bar all current mps under investigation or named in relation to the smears, claims and any other scandal you can think of, present new candidates, chosen by the people to stand as MPs. NOT as it is now, choosing a candidate from a political party that has already been chosen for you by said party.

infact fuck that idea too, bring on the ANARCHY.

Spring

2009-06-01T05:42:00.000-07:00

Spring. roungh edit. first part of a collaboration fashion film. feedback appreciated

Gatehouse Films

2009-05-29T15:25:00.000-07:00

Gatehouse Films, filmed on thursday in the gatehouse at BSU, edited as it should have been done. In 3 parts due the terms of uploading to youtube

i found something

2009-05-19T03:25:00.000-07:00

Graeme Duane this guy is a cameraman of choice for National Geographic among his other jobs and i have rather enjoyed his works on TV and a few of the nature docs i have on dvd.

Production Manager

2009-05-13T12:10:00.000-07:00

well some good news, i have been offered the roll of production manager on liquid soap. liaising with each episodes production team and the of members of crew i will be making sure everything runs smoothly and the shows keep the general feeling throughout. my production assistant is ciarans house mate myles and ciaran himself is the post production manager.
we have a couple of weeks whilst ideas are formulated and first draft scripts are written before getting together again with the rest of the production teams to see where we are.

also i am taking part in a collaboration with a fashion student to create a film showcasing her garments. lots of ideas flying for this, should be good.

well was this intentional

2009-05-10T13:51:00.000-07:00

just watching the great human race on beeb 2 and the bit with the lass in the tent at night at the place where the oldest human remains have been found.
if you watched this i hope you noticed it was like a game of 20 questions. harry hill take note...
im not sure whether i would have used such a piece like that in this unless the idea is to try and keep it light hearted in an attempt to try catch what might be a normally uninterested audience(read fear of loosing mentioned audience if you like)

nearly done

2009-05-07T04:43:00.000-07:00

well the group project was handed in yesterday morning. today, though i was late for the class to view all the projects i understand there was some positive feedback, but also some things that could have been changed.
most of it i think i had already realised, like where mike had too much head room and the lighting problems. also i realised during the editing that there should have been more close ups on the contributors individual tattoos and no actual stills in the project. with hind sight that is kind of what i envisioned but was unable to vocalise. as a group we decided to go with stills as they could be more visually pleasing so we have however learnt a lesson and know where we have gone wrong, but also where we have gone right.

mac or pc

2009-05-06T04:58:00.000-07:00

mac
thats the answer, im going to kill my pc, im in the process of trying to recover data from the hard drive so i can copy it onto my portable hard drive and then leave the pc well alone. gods dammit!
yeah so i got a fun day and late night ahead of me, grrrrrrrr

editing trials and tribulations

2009-05-05T12:34:00.000-07:00

well ive been editing the two projects we have been doing and getting stressed when meeting some problems along the way and finding it a rewarding experience when everything goes well.

im editing my individual project in premier pro CS3 and whilst being familiar with the programme and finding it is actually not so accessible when going into advanced features, it doesnt really go into the depth you get in FCP 6 like at uni. it may be that i have been spending more time with FCP as i have been spending more time on the group project to date which has been edited with a apple mac, and not had time to try out techniques learnt in class at home on Premier. ill have to spend some time getting used to using it or upgrade to PPCS4 and try again :)

few problems, my dodgey pc doesnt seem to like at the moment, keep getting the blue screen of death, not good. and the fact i didnt realise that FCP on the power book was set up for HD720 and not 1080i and so had to render every little bit i had edited every now and then. frustrating to say the least.

otherwise its been pretty good and i can safely say i reckon that it doesnt matter which programme is used to edit with, but as FCP is currently 'standard' i will be using this as often as i can. i wonder if i can find a mac OS that would run on an ex windows set up...

phew

2009-04-28T14:11:00.000-07:00

well thats been at times a stressful three week hiatus what with getting everything sorted in all subjects.

success on all fronts. but... well problems aside i think the whole thing went okish.

in the group project we have had problems relating to some of our contributors, a couple dropping completly off the radar and others cancelling at the last minute, re-arranging, then cancelling again. but i think we have managed to create an entertaining and visually pleasing piece. ah well i have time booked into the broadcast lab tomorrow, i think, no email confirmation yet and i booked it on monday, maybe leaving it a little late to book but well, couldn't be sure on when i need to book it what with never knowing if we had someone more to film for the project.

the writing side of things, well, i think im on top of that. drawing on some of my influences i feel i have a nice collection of scripts and treatments for ideas wo put together into a respectable portfolio. just need to manage to print it all off.

in the individual, ive only really had one problem, and thats the other projects, putting too much time into them and less time into this. mr whitlock, the person giving me some footage of freddy, my subject, has had pc problems and i think he has learnt a harsh lesson in backing up all your footage. luckily he still has the tapes and has managed to restore his archive of skating in bath from the last few years to supply me with some footage, today, thank gods.

end of day...

2009-04-14T14:05:00.000-07:00

done and dusted, filmed nathan, stu and mike. nikita cancelled at the last minute because of a doctors appointment so are filming her on friday.
hope you like the picture, thats me that is!
N.B. its not really it comes from a website picture index list here

a long long day, pt 1

2009-04-14T02:06:00.000-07:00

part 1:
1007 hours.
tape striping, equipment checked, breakfast cooking.
megan picking me up about 1300 hours.
ok enough of the sillyness...
doing our filming today. megan is picking me up at 1ish and fiona afterwards and off we go for a day of filming excitment! first we are going... somewhere, to do some vox pops quickly, or as quick as you can do vox pops, then at 3 o'clock we are filming our first contributor, then about 5 we should be filming nikita and her brother, all of this in bristol, then after leaving nikitas we will be heading to warminster to film nathan and stu sometime around 7ish. oh a long day, then its back home to view and log rushes. da di da di do!

tattoo doc on tele

2009-04-09T12:27:00.000-07:00

on natalie cassidys real britain on BBC3 she has had a tattoo artist from london finding her self a new shop. but whats interested me more is the shots of tattoos that they have shot in a studio. its like they have a revolving stage or something and the camera tilts up or zooms out from a position. damn i want to be able to do that.
anyway, been working on the title sequence as not had any shooting this week. its looking good, just needs fine tuning once the rest of the group has seen it and like how its going.

waiting for the contributors

2009-04-01T06:55:00.000-07:00

it looks like my group and i will now have to travel to see the contributors and take photos and film the interview in their home or a suitably comfortable location. ah well. more fuss but i suppose it gives a bit more variety to the interview pieces with each background being in some way relevant to the subject on screen.

a documentary

2009-03-26T14:10:00.000-07:00

just watching the first 10 minutes of 'pushy parents' on C4.
already i want to thump the golfers dad and the tennis playing lass's dad needs to smoke a joint or have a nice cold beer and relax. im going to get wound up about this for days i can tell. going for a cigarette, will leave a little review after the show is finished.

ps. did watch the show on BBC2 at 8 about the red faced uakari and was thinking about the problems faced by the camera man in trying to capture footage of one of the rarest, most elusive primates in the world.
and the 10 minute piece afterwards about the rabbits on the isle of skomer was a nicely structured 7 minute film about the rabbits taken there in the 16th century by settlers and after they left the rabbits stayed on and are now some of the few cliff dwelling rabbits in the world, sharing the cliffs with puffins and thriving from the relative lack of predators in the area.

my mates tattoo

2009-03-26T14:04:00.001-07:00

my friend went for a tattoo the other day
he went into the tattooist and was asked what he wanted, he replied that he wasnt sure. how about a heart with a banner or something old school like that. when asked what he wanted in the banner he again he didnt know what wanted so the tattooist said to leave it to him and he'll be right.
so half an hour later me mate looks down at his new tattoo. and there is the heart. and there is the banner, and in the banner is the word mum. sound me mate thinks, but then he reads on. inside the banner is more writing. it says, 'mum, if i killed dad could we go out on a date?'
badabum
my research into tattoos is now culminating in this terrible joke i found. oh dear

some archive stuff

2009-03-26T13:29:00.000-07:00

here are some links to archive sites where you could find some footage to add to your projects

bfi creative license group

the national archives (american national archives)

from the channel4 docs site

open university

not too sure about here but have been told there are clips for download and creative use on teachers.tv

internet archive

however when using any of these sights look for the creative commons license on the OU sight it looks like this and they will normally explain the way in which you can use the footage. dont forget though, if you plan on showing your finished piece to an audience other than the class or tutors, i.e. at a film festival or on youtube.com or something you will most likely need to find copyright permissions.

to quote the OU site "You can't use the film to make money or to support a campaign, for example. And it's only fair that if you make something with our stuff and share it with other people, you have to allow other people to use your finished product as a starting point for their creativity in the same way. Share and share alike, in other words."

overtime

2009-03-26T01:22:00.000-07:00

well, ive been working hard on trying to get everything covered for the group project. i have a call sheet done for the 9th, still waiting for confirmation of the tenth from the uni (karen or mike) also given the script a go to see about how it would work in the split page documentary format.
i know my group should be doing some of this too but i thought just incase anything goes wrong, at least we have all angles covered.

in my individual project im a bit stumped as my subject has acquired a new girlfriend and well, hes probably shagging and refusing to answer his phone or go on facebook etc. ill get him soon though. was planning on filming during the easter break anyway after the 12th. i can get the footage of him skating from the other cameraman and get something put together and wait for the interview to place as a VO or something, been giving it thought

on a lighter note, all moved in and even have an aerial so i can finally watch TV, woo, no freeview but do have sky coming round next friday between 9am and 1pm (really precise there aint they?) so have some good stuff to watch on tele soon, and it will have a sky+ box. just a little excited about having the full kit now.

more tats

2009-03-20T07:31:00.000-07:00

we are full steam ahead on our tat documentary, i think.
got an email today from two of the contributors saying that they can make it to the studio shoot that we have booked. we will be taking photos that day in the publishing lab studio and then interviewing the people up in the broadcast lab.
toot toot, lets go!

tired...

2009-03-15T16:23:00.000-07:00

back from filming at moles with chris and vance/lance from the 2nd year. think it went quite well really after the first song or two of having to move about and find somewhere where there were no heads popping in and out all the time. or people knocking my arms so much. freelance camera work here i come...
oh yeah the band was 'from humans with love', nice kind of indie band with a trumpet to add a little ska punk kind of feel, nice enough guys too.

more tattoo research ive been doing

2009-03-14T05:01:00.000-07:00

here an article from the times "Once the mark of the criminal, rock star or squaddie, now one in five British people has a tattoo."

this is the one i found first but there are other parts of the documentary dealing with tattoos and piercings and other forms of body art, but the documentary goes into a slight history of japanese tattooing and the kind of people who get tattoos, and how it can feel like a brotherhood or group.

A week in the...

2009-03-14T04:53:00.000-07:00

ill leave you to make up your own ending there.

now then, now then...

this week in our lectures/class we had to give a pitch on our group projects which as you know is on tattoos if you have been paying attention. we gave the outline for how we feel we will approach the subject (our answer to this question is to see where the project takes us, like some kind of magical journey). but it did lead to the major points i was worrying about in the project. logistics (getting the interviewees to us or us to them), filming (to HD or not to HD, we chose to HD and scale down after), taking photos (ie to have a studio or not or take a small mobile one) and also the process of editing. i am relishing the chance to put this together with the group to see how well the group creative process goes, the photographs should be a good visual focal point throughout the project and the film and audio there to back it up. but the stories are what should drive the whole piece. i hope...

also...
susans class we had mark fox come into the uni on friday to talk to us, no less than a day or two after returning from kiliminjaro on the red nose climb team where he was editing the days rushes into the show you may have seen on thusrday night. now i cant let you in on what we were doing but that will be next week. mums the word...

Some Editing Magic

2009-03-12T04:58:00.000-07:00

have a look and check it. nice editing and continuity.
from 'Yeah Right!' the girl skate vid by Spike Jonze

New Stuff

2009-03-12T04:50:00.000-07:00

on youtube i have added some more videos and piss abouts that i have done in the last few months when ive had time.
coming soon a copy of a little stop motion animation i did too. if you have a youtube account you can subscribe to my video feed or keep your eye n the box to the left here on my blog for new vids uploaded.

for your convenience here is an embeded version of my channel

Eureka!

2009-03-12T04:33:00.000-07:00

i have had a brainwave. my individual project is going ahead now.
woo
thanks to freddy m for getting involved even with his recuperation. i wont be able to get any new footage of his skating but hopefully he will be full of energy he can direct towards talking about skating and life.

ALSO

group project is coming forwards too, we now have more of a direction to go forwards with. we are going to interview as many people as we possibly can and find the most interesting stories to present in the time frame we have. now having quite a few people involved who are mainly male though, where are all the tattooed women out there?

Tattoos

2009-02-27T10:46:00.000-08:00

ah, tattoos, ink, tribal markings.
i my self have 11 now and am always trying to save up for more. but what is their appeal? this is the question that my group aim to answer in our short documentary on tattoos. Megan, Fiona, Ciaren and I aim to interview a few tattooed people and find out about their tattoos, why they got them, the history of it.
ive been doing a bit of research and brushing up on the history of tattooing and have come across the following resources.
6 Pages of information from the smithsonianmag.com website.
a discovery new media video on .
Vanishing Tattoo
Penn Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology
also i found the documentary 'The Vanishing Tattoo' on youtube.

stills vid?

2009-02-26T02:02:00.000-08:00

cannot remember who the artist is but the track is 'holy, holy, holy' and can be found on mp3.com

EXPO!?!

2009-02-25T11:46:00.000-08:00

we went to the BVE expo last week and i had a good look around. i felt kind of like a kid in a toy store, anything that remotely interested me i looked at or asked questions about if i could get a word with one of the stand minders.
i got the most photos of the 3d HD camera rig company, and having tried making a rig before to film in 3d it didnt work found it quite interesting.

now this company originally only did 3d film and graphics work but after being plagued by customers about where they could buy a rig for filming in 3d decided to start producing their own. im not too sure where 3d
stands in the future of broadcast really though. i mean who owns a 3d tv at the moment and how many are they?
the popularity of 3d films may be making a come back in a small way but to translate that kind of scale into your average consumers home with their 37"(nowadays maybe a bit more) TV will take a bit more advancement in the technology from what i can gather.

Frustration

2009-02-09T12:27:00.000-08:00

my pc is broke, the motherboard decided to blow a fuse and so i have had to buy a new one, along with memory and a processor in the process of determining what was wrong. damnit.
also my xbox360 decided to flash the red rings of death at me so now i have no xbox.
flaming testes!
testes, testes, one, two, three?
testicular cancer is no joke.

anyway, i havent posted on here in a while, i keep having thoughts of making a short film, but well, you need a cast and ill be damned if i can find one right now, and what exactly is classed as a young person/student? i have found a film festival occuring this june, films must be made between the 1st of jan and the 1st of march for submitting on the 20th of march. a short time frame in which to make a movie, but alas, i might be able to do it.

everyone on my course looks like they have been finding the photography thing we have been doing good fun too, (i cant afford batteries for my camera if i am to make it to uni this week due to the amount i have had to fork out in trying to fix my pc and so you wont see any photos of mine on flickr at the moment, also i forgot my username and password, now i know them again but still, besides the point [also it sounds like im making excuses, maybe i am, but my pc is more important to me and my uni work than going out in the cold after work and taking photos]), a good pointer here for framing shots that i would like to point out is to look at films, especially robert rodriguez's films as he seems to pay special attention to the framing of the shots (check sin city, once upon a time in mexico, and even the second spy kids movie) the way the main charcters stand out, or the way the background is used to frame the action that is happening. also he uses this in reverse, to draw attention away from the main character to something that may be happening in the background by framing that within the frame.

i could go onto frames here but it would be in the old web 1.0 terms and not the new web 2.0 new fangled bollocks .php and javascript based web sites. but i wont

enough for now
this is a man old before his time signing out
rice and peas ahbuh! BO!

oh yes, and this...

2009-01-05T01:34:00.000-08:00

not sure what to say here.
i like this
but i hate grease...
make your own mind up

ps, i like the fact the john travolta lego man has a pilots uniform on

AHHHH fug, im on a roll here

and escaping from the lego music videos onto what ive always thought was eddie izzards best stand up sketch adapted by some tiny little lego actors

More Random Vids

2009-01-05T01:13:00.000-08:00

ive been trawling Youtube when i should have been doing something else...

as you can see, this week i have mostly been injesting stop motion through my eyes after watching a bit of W&G and some monty python animations over the holidays, inspired so much that i am going to retreat to my castle and create, create, create. Anyone that fancies joining me can come along on weds 33rd of Granary to my castle atop the mountain snaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhh.................

The Junior Christian Science Bible Lesson Show

2009-01-01T07:27:00.000-08:00

No this isnt a plea to you to join the religious fanatics waging war around the world but more a quick review of a programme i came across.
Now this programme is nuts, i would call it a reason for the abolition of public access television in the states.
normally i would not watch this tosh and discard it as religious propaganda, but having watched a few clips of the show and realising that this has more than your usual US televangelistic bull about it. The presenter who runs the show really seems to get into his character, albeit which ever puppets rear he has shoved his hand up.
I dont know if this is still running in the states though so who knows how relative this really is.

Now onto something more serious, i dont know how many people in our class have been keeping an eye on the industry and how it is running at the moment but a lot of television production companies are facing a bleak year or two ahead. Now some people may be worried, some may not care. i personally came only say that the one thing we can do is to go ahead and get our degrees, as hopefully this 'blight' will reduce the amount of crap telly on the air and bring back proper television shows. Come the end of this 'wave of destruction' that we are facing, not only inside our projected job field but also across all other business and commercial sectors we will probably be facing a lack of skilled individuals as people already doing the work we hope to get when leaving uni may well have moved onto pastures anew and there may well be the gaps that we need for us to do what we want.
(this was inspired by an article in the Media Guardian and Charlie Brookers Screen Wipe, both from some time before christmas, Happy New Year)

2008-12-12T06:53:00.000-08:00

to include an image into your blog with a little bit html coding for a better understanding of webste you can use the following code. paste it into the 'edit html' section of the publisher with the address of the image you want to use instead of the one in there already. be sure to include the " at the start and end of the address.
< img src=" http://www.kubiss.de/kulturreferat/reichsparteitagsgelaende/bilder/Skater.jpg " / >

Sound Recordist Presentation

2008-12-12T06:48:00.000-08:00

some shorts

2008-11-28T10:13:00.000-08:00

STILL LIFE

POUND

did try to find one about a mafiosa who sent his errand boy to the shops to get 1/2 dozen eggs, cant remember the name of it though and its a few years old as was originally on a vhs video that i had
gar, firefox doesnt like the new youtube format and keeps fucking me missus laptop up so its only 2 this week

Undercover

2008-11-24T14:02:00.000-08:00

Kiwi

2008-11-15T01:43:00.000-08:00

Just came across this vid on youtube and its a wicked little anim of, well watch and see.
Click here to view the vid.

Paul Appleby and Interactive Broadcasting

2008-11-15T00:52:00.000-08:00

During todays session we had probably our last guest speaker coming in to see us. This week it was Paul Appleby, who is mainly a series producer with interests in interactive broadcasting (i.e. the web, interactive shows, mobile device content delivery, etc). He currently is working for the BBC and has worked on programmes such as 'Saving Planet Earth' and other natural history programmes out of Bristol and has also been involved in the ongoing digitisation of the BBC, but mentioned that he will be going freelance soon, something to do with interactivity.
He came across as being very consumer driven, wanting to deliver content to specific audiences. He believes that interactive TV is the way forwards. Interactive TV is a little misleading as a term, interactive broadcasting describes it more fully. It would involve the use of multi platform broadcasting, e.g. a short radio or television advert run between shows informing the audience of a specific programme they might be able to catch online, as and when they want to. One down side to this he pointed out thought was that you would loose the social aspect of television, sitting down with friends to watch a programme at a set time. As a community, audiences still seem to like the social aspect, the sense of belonging to say half a million people watching neighbours each night, you know your not the only one doing it. This gives the audience a sense of connection to the show, a sense of belonging. But he also feels that more interactivity will increase this sense of community in the audience. If you miss an evenings episode because your late home from work you can catch up again on it later (not at the moment as I just remembered neighbours is now on 5 and not BBC), but the message is there that more interactivity doesn't lead to a loss of what I could only describe 'television'. That magical feeling i remember from last decade before Sky caught on in a major way, of sitting in front of the TV with your family or friends and watching a programme at a certain time, cancelling all plans on a Friday night to stay in and watch the latest episode of Red Dwarf.
Susan asked us to type up a few of the questions that were asked, frankly I've typed enough I reckon here to keep and pretty illiterate clown happy for a wee, but I suppose I better touch on those subjects as it will help give a better understanding of what Paul was telling us.
1.) I asked Paul about advertisings role in internet broadcasting and his first reaction was that someone needs to do it correctly first. Television at its basest form is a business model and is there to make money, not just for the broadcasters but also now for advertisers. Advertisers want to target more closed knit groups of consumers these days and internet 'TV' could be one way for them to do it. At the minute it seems to subsidise what companies are putting into it unless you are a specialist site providing specific content (look at Mpora.com, an extreme sports video website, which I think is flooded with adverts but they are all targeted at skateboarders, snowboarders, mountainbikers, etc). He mentioned how wrap arounds or the dreaded pop ups could be used to target certain demographics.
Also during this however he mentioned that the TV lisence needs reviewing, the name changing to something more descriptive of wat it actually does. Maybe 'BBC Content Lisence' would be a better term for it as the money used from it not only goes into production for television shows, but also radio and internet (iPlayer used a big chunk of the income from the TV lisence when it was first set up). With the correct advertising subscription fees would then become un-necessary unless paying for things like movies.
2.) I asked what new roles could pop up in the business with the emergence of interactive broadcasting and though he didn't seem to answer my question directly he suggested that there could be new roles appearing for people with the right skills. Self shooting directors/producers with internet authoring knowledge, creative types with the technological know-how to adapt to this new form of media communication. There will however be more opportunities to communicate through visual media, whether it will make you a lot of money is waiting to be seen but there will definately be openings in companies other than traditional media ones as people will realise the importance of visual communication.
3.) Also asked, thought I cant remember whether by me or one of my class mates, but this is one had been trying to ask for some time I think, was the question of how could he see interactivity playing a role in the future of broadcasting?
This made him very animated as I think its something he is very passionate about. The need to embrace web delivery and design, the fact there is more than one way to get a point of info across and easier collection of audience data were the main points. He pointed out three types of viewer, the inwardly focused viewer (I presume the type to watch designer shows etc), the outwardly focused viewer (someone who may watch a lot of factual based programmes) and the viewer focused on the now (maybe your soap opera addict) and the need to provide shows that cater to all tastes available as making a show about interior design and putting in a slot that might turn you outwardly focused viewer away will loose you ratings, but making three types of show available to audiences at the same time by the press of a little red button on your remote or the click of a mouse could possibly mean higher ratings for your channel than showing one type of show. OK he didnt go this far deep into it but after thinking about this matter I can see how the future of broadcasting may go, and it looks like it could be good.

I think that with the emergence of 'Interactive Broadcasting' (to give it a better name than 'Interactive Television') the future can only hold a new and exciting time for broadcast media in any form.

Audacity MP3 LAME

2008-11-13T05:52:00.000-08:00

Right then peeps, to install the mp3 LAME on audacity go to this page and click on the download for the version of audacity you need; i.e for windows or mac.
If you are using version 1.3.3 you should be able to export to mp3 straight away with no need for the LAME. If you are not able to do that in 1.3.3 follow these instructions.
For older versions once you have downloaded the zip file unzip the file lame_enc.dll using winrar or winzip to your audacity installation folder.
Run audacity and choose the file you wish to export to mp3 and click on export to mp3 from the file menu and click on the 'find library' button. In older versions it will ask if you want to locate the LAME encoder, click yes.
In 1.3.3 click on the browse button that should appear.
Locate the DLL in the folder you placed it in (should be your audacity installation folder for easy finding) and click open, you should be presented with a dialog box where you can now choose the bit rate etc of your mp3.
Hopefully this will help those of you who are having problems with audacity and mp3s.

Pitching it

2008-11-09T05:36:00.000-08:00

Well, Chris and I did the pitch for the honeybee/CCD radio ('Where have all the good bees gone?' could this title work?) programme idea on thursday and it seemed to go well.
Im not sure what to put here as the whole class did a pitch in their respective groups and we all know how hard or easy it was.
I think the way to have done it was to go in their confident and full of passion and try and sell the idea to the panel. Luckily we had some current and ex-BBC staff aswell as Steve May from the uni, oh and Mike.
Chris and I went in there with a general idea of what we were going to say and the plan was for Chris to do general pitch and one sentence pitching and for me, with the full information that I already have on the subject, to back him up and answer any questions.
Chris did get thrown by the question posed to us about whether the show would be presenter led, but I jumped in there to save our bacon by explaining that we would need a presenter but only really in a minimal role as the subject needs someone to explain certain parts of it and also to lead from interviewee to vox pop, etc etc. Basically the presenter would be helping to tie it all together.
All we can do now is wait and see how the show comes out, and if we can get it to fit into a five minute time frame.

Fingers crossed.

Nicholas White comes into talk/Some of us phone interview Mark Fox Nicholas White comes into visit

2008-10-28T03:16:00.001-07:00

Friday 24th oct and in the friday afternoon session some of us had to interview Mark Fox (others had to interview a producer/director whos name i never learnt) who has edited numerous TV productions like 'Big Cat Diary' and 'Jungle' and also done work for the BBC. Before my interview with Mark i had time to watch a bit of his showreel previewing some of the work he has done. He started out as a sound editor or dubbing editor and moved onto film at a later date. Anyway here is the recorded phone interview that i have tidied up a bit.

Also Nicholas White, a producer/director back from a jaunt with Bear Grylls on his latest travel lodge assisted 'adventure' (although Nicholas did say he was roughing it this time around), came in after everyone had conducted their phone interviews for an informal chat. I must admit and he did say this himself that Nicholas went round and round in circles with some questions, never really answering what you had asked and flirting with the subject, going off on tangents and then returning to a previous comment before setting his feet down with a vague reference to the question in point. However what he did say was very relevant if this is the kind of thing you were hoping to go into. He made a big thing out of the fact that someone in his role needs to have good social skills and also know how to get the best out of people. He came across as the kind of director who gives his crew their say in how things should be going, the kind of amiable chap who would say to the cameraman "Bill, I need this kind of shot, with the light coming from this angle lighting up the bottom half of the face" and the cameraman can get on and do what he is being paid for. I.e. not the dictator type.
With me, hoping to go on to become a cameraman, editor, sound tech or something along those lines, this gave me an idea of what kind of qualities to look for in a director i wouldn't mind working with.

some vids i like

2008-10-27T15:26:00.000-07:00

Here are some vids on you tube that I like...

1. Scott Bourne's part from "Strongest of the Strange"

great skater in a well thought out part for a skate vid.

2. Clerks Clip - Jedi Politics:

from the film 'Clerks'.

3. BEASTIE BOYS Sabotage by Spike Jonze 1994:

great vid, great idea

4. The Pharcyde - Drop:

well i am a big admirer of Spike Jonzes work

Poetry Radio Package

2008-10-23T04:43:00.000-07:00

Today we came into class and were given some previously recorded audio to edit into a 3 minute radio package within 3 hours. As the total time of the files came to nearly 30 minutes this may have seemed a fairly daunting task, but I seemed to have no problems with the editing or even with soundtrack pro, unlike some other students who seemed to be having a nightmare with the program. The audio included an interview with Annie McGann and the poem 'Howl' by Ginsberg.

Here is my package, hope you enjoy

The Cojack Interview

2008-10-22T11:04:00.000-07:00

On a Thursday not long ago we were asked to interview two members of the BSU band Cojack. We were asked to prepare questions to pose to them in the hope they would make good interviewees and not just answer with a yes or a no. These questions came in many forms, some like "where are you from originally?" through to "what’s your favourite pie?”. The pie question went on to become the question to cause one member to think long and hard about the answer, which if you can hear if you listen to the interview edit.

Ciaren, Matt and I managed to get both members (Rob and Matt) of the band for our interview which I think was a real bonus to our interview as it seemed to make them more relaxed and chatty. This was also a downfall as our interview ran to about eighteen minutes in end which led to a lot of editing on our behalf. With my edit I cut out a lot of the later questions, trying to focus more on a theme of 'This is Cojack'. I went more for questions that gave them a chance to explain how the band formed and also went on to help them promote upcoming gigs, before ending the questions with the infamous 'pie' question. When adding the music I decided to use the shortest of the three tracks as the intro and background music, as this was about 2 minutes long I decided to use the longest track as the second part of the background. This could help to give people an idea of what other songs sound like as they also introduce a song at the end of the interview.

In this I could have gone about it differently, taken later questions where they had relaxed more giving a more chatty feeling, but I feel it was quite chatty anyway. I could have had them introduce the song and at intervals have them answering a few questions about the band and have finished with their next gig dates.

Andy Netly - Editor

2008-10-22T11:02:00.000-07:00

During the afternoon Firday 10^th Oct Andy Netly came into our lecture for us to ask him some questions. Beforehand we watched an episode of the ‘Amazon’ from BBC2 that he had worked on. When he came in we asked him various questions about editing, some to do with the technical side and later more in the way of how to make your way to becoming an editor. He mentioned about how an editor needs to have a good musical knowledge and/ or library and an appreciation of how to tell a story instead of just following a script. He mentioned about how with the episode of ‘Amazon’ that he had worked on he had been given very little footage to use due to technicalities in the field with illness. This seemed to have left him with less creative play than if he had been given more. He also mentioned that since the move to digital it has become easier to do the job but a lot more time intensive as people will normally bring many times more footage to be edited than is actually needed.

First Post

2008-10-16T08:34:00.000-07:00

Welcome.

This is my first post on this blog.

Been a while since ive blogged, my punctuation may not be up to scratch upon here but whos to care at the moment as we havent even been through this at uni yet.
Mike if your reading this hope you like it for the moment. Let me know if you want more punctuation on here.
Anyway, sat here after editing the Cojack interview which should be available on Mikes page in the coming hours.
Anyway enjoy the coming nonsense that may pop up on here too.