Digital Skills Task 1

I have just completed my first task for my Digital Skills module of the course. This task involved cutting a number of clips that had been given to us and edit them into a video, cutting the clips to the beat of the music track that we had chosen to accompany the visuals.

I found this task very interesting as I have always thought when I cut a video to the beat of the music the whole project flows better as well as looking more interesting and in some places, experimental.
The music that I had chosen for for this task was quite happy and upbeat, so I then tried to select clips that reflected this and then tried to cut them in a way that kept in style with the music.

I have now uploaded this file to my YouTube channel

https://youtu.be/XYybj4VvPV0

Intro to Fiction Module

I recently a module called "Intro to Fiction." This module involved learning about the different types of drama and fiction pieces from serial dramas such as Lost and Breaking Bad to Episodic Serials such as EastEnders and Coronation Street. We were then tasked to come up with an idea for a 3-5 minute short film. After we came up with the ideas we then had to pitch our own ideas individually and the our lecturer would pick out the 4 best and most feasible ideas and then put us into teams to complete the project. we would have to plan, shoot then edit the chosen ideas.

My Idea was chosen to be made. The idea was a man is waiting for a bus, looking quite sorry for himself, and a woman walks into shot and he instantly falls for her. The woman then meets with a friend who hands her a bag before walking off. After a short time another man will enter the scene and mug the woman before making off with her bag. The original man sees this and gives chase, catches the mugger and gets the bag back, he will then discover the woman is a drug user and the bag is filled with drugs, this will be when what looks like a police officer will enter and the film will cut back to the woman before fading to black.

During the Pre-production segment of the project we did run into a few problems with the locations we wanted to film in, and because of this, we were held up a little from when we wanted to start shooting the film. Initially we had wanted to film at Manors Train Station in Newcastle, we had all the correct permissions and had already filmed once, but we decided the idea would be better if we shot at night, however for this we would need lights and Northern Rail denied this after stating that this would distract the drivers of the trains. We then found a bus stop on Great North Road in Newcastle and we made this our shoot location.

During Filming, we ran into a few major issues with the location and equipment, we did not have the correct lights that we wanted to use, this meant we had to shoot at a higher ISO and this made the footage look grainy. After getting back to the edit we then knew we had to reshoot so we rescheduled so we could have better lighting and a wider range of lenses to use. This time the shoot went off without a hitch.

After this we started to edit the film together. The only issue we had here was with some of the colour grade on some of the shots and we then fixed this within Final Cut Pro. We added a few effects to make the film look more profession such as the Wide Screen banner above and below the footage.

And here is the finished product.....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVmkQi8vEtA

Work Based Learning

I have recently completed my first Work Based Learning (WBL) task. This task involved editing a number of prerecorded interviews for the Principal of Newcastle College. The interviews focused on a number of students from different courses, and asked them about why they had chosen Newcastle to study at, and what they wanted to do after their courses.

While editing there were a number of tasks that I had to complete to get a worthy product at the end. First of all I synced up audio that had been recorded on an external device when the interview was taking place, this would allow the final video to have cleaner and crisper audio than what it would have had if we had used the camera's on board microphone. Secondly I had to colour correct the footage, this was because when the interview was conducted, it was not lit correctly and therefore would look to dark. So I increased the brightness and contrast within final cut so that the image was clearer, but because of this, there was more grain on the image so I had to balance out the brightness with the grain, to achieve a good look and overall product at the end.

It was worth it when I received this feedback...

Inspiration

I have found inspiration from a few different sources, the most notable of which however, is the online magazine Vice. I have watched a vast number of documentaries on the vice website as well as their Youtube channel and this has led me to pick up on a few codes and conventions that they use whilst filming factual pieces. One of these conventions is that they tend to report on the unreported, the things that the mainstream media won't, or are to scared to report on. I recently watched a documentary of theirs entitled Suicide forest. It is about The Aokigahara Forest, which is one of the biggest suicide hotspots in Japan. This is the kind of story that the mainstream don't report on and one that I am interested in. Whenever I have any spare time I tend to float onto the website to check out any new Documentaries that they have posted as they tend to be very interesting and insightful.

Vice Website - http://www.vice.com/en_uk/

Aesthetica Short Film Festival, York

Last Week I had the opportunity to take a trip to the 2014 Aesthetica Film Festival in York. The yearly event is held in York every year and involves a number of venues around the city with a variety of screenings and master classes in everything from directing actors to editing feature films and Documentaries.

We started off the day by having a group screening in the York Theatre Royal where we attended a talk about Camera Operating. It Involved Listening to a panel of 3 experienced camera ops; Peter Robertson, Phillip Sindall and Peter Taylor. And after watching clips from films they have worked on, including Gravity and Atonement, they answered a few questions from the audience.

After this I went and seen a screening of up and coming documentaries. I found this worthwhile as I have always wanted to be involved with documentaries more than fiction pieces as these are what interest me most. Real stories about Real people. This is what I want to continue to be involved with after my degree.

Finally I attended an Editing Masterclass with BAFTA nominated editor Lisa Gunning, who has been involved with editing some well know feature films such as; Goldfrapp, Seven Psychopaths and Nowhere Boy. During this masterclass Lisa discussed how the editing of a product helps to tell the story of the film. She went through how she prepares herself to edit projects and stressed that to be successful you had to learn to take a break and a step back to see the full picture. Lisa then took questions from the audience. I found this to be the best part of the trip as it gave me a keen insight into the world of editing. After my degree I would like to become an editor as this allows creative control of how the story is told as well as how the final product will look.














Overall I found the trip to Aesthetica a really valuable experience as I found out first hand from experts in the field about the problems they face and the best way to overcome them. I also found out the best way to network with professionals and how to get m work seen, and this is invaluable when it comes to progressing on from University.

Learner Style

I feel that I am a type of learner that learns better when they get hands on. I feel this way because whenever I am learning about any new equipment, I don’t always stay engaged and miss information. Therefore if I get my hands on the camera and practise with it, I will be able to take all of this in and cement in my mind what I have been taught. This means that I am a kinaesthetic learner as I prefer to get hands on with the equipment Im learning about.

I also feel that when I go away to research any of this new kit, I don't tend to read lots and lots of text articles of what different people know about it, I prefer to watch online tutorials with people explaining as they are demonstrating and giving me tips on how to get the most out of the piece of equipment that I am looking at. This means that I am also a Visual learner as I also like people to explain what they are doing while testing out the piece of equipment.

Where I Am Currently...

Hi there,
My name is Jonathan Cliff and I am a first year degree student studying Media Production at Newcastle College. So far I have found the course very enjoyable and have learned a number of new skills and techniques which I plan to further strengthen my grasp of in the coming weeks and months.

I feel that there are a few things that I need to improve on throughout the duration of this course and these are; my organisational skills (needing to improve prioritising of specific deadlines), Target Setting - I need to set myself targets so that I know what I need to improve upon and set myself a mini deadline by when I want to have improved by, and my Essay writing, I have never been good at academic writing and this is one of the main skills I want to improve on this course as at the moment I feel that this is my weakest skill and is the one that I need to improve upon most.