ABR Watson Productions

Better late than never

2010-09-09T14:45:00.003+01:00

Thought I would ease myself back into using this blog with something short and simple, then get myself back into the routine of using it properly.

This is England '86

With the premiere of Shane Meadows new follow on series "This is England '86" based on the characters from his BAFTA award winning film "This is England," this video interviews Shane Meadows about the new mini-series and his debut on TV.

At 6:40 in the video he brings up an interesting topic of how there is a snobbery between film directors about TV and how they think going to TV is a step down from the big screen. He mentions how directors such as Mike Leigh and Stephen Frears made their films for TV, and so while there are some directors who feel that TV is a lower grade medium for their work, others utilise it well.

I personally feel that if a director can create a mini-series that looks just as epic and incredible on TV than it would in the cinema then it is not a step-down, it can be a step-up. What ever story you have to contain in two to two and half hours of film, you can spread out and develop further in a 4 hour mini series. If done correctly, TV can allow a director to broaden his story, delve into the characters and develop everything a lot more than they can in a constrained time limit for film, and at the end of the day this allows for much bigger and better projects being made for TV.

Looking at title sequences

2009-10-25T20:00:00.003Z

In thinking for the future, I've decided to take a look at some title sequences and how they correlate to the theme of the films or tv programmes. While these examples are of not films, they show the same techniques that film title sequences have.

From the american SHOWTIME programme Dexter. This title sequence is a perfect example of how a title sequence can tell the audience everything they need to know. Without watching it before, some may think this is the daily routine of the eponymous character, but after watching it you'll understand the themes shown. The premise of the show is that Dexter is a serial killer who kills other killers who have escaped the legal system. In knowing this, the audience can see correlations of the title sequence to actions of killers. The cooking and eating of meat as mutilation of bodies, the splattering of ketchup relating to blood, tying shoelaces wrapped tightly around his hands as in strangling. Many of the actions shown in the title sequence would look normal without knowing the programme, but it is a perfect title sequence as it tells the audience everything they need to know about the programme in hindsight.

The next title sequence is from HBO's True Blood. While this title sequence isn't as directly linked to the programme like Dexter's, it definitely gives a feeling and sense of what the programme is about. The title sequence shows a mix of religious images and scenery to tell the audience it's set in a southern state of America. The programme is about vampires being a reality and are revealed to the public and the media, some "mainstreaming" which means becoming an integral part of society, while some are revered as what they are. There is constant friction between the vampires, the media, society and religion. Which is why there's an apparent religious theme, especially set in Louisiana, mixed with sexual images relating to the hedonism of vampires.

Broadening and Surrounding - Jurgen Wolff

2009-10-25T19:26:00.002Z

Reading up on Jurgen Wolff's thoughts about generating and creating ideas, I took both the broadening and surrounding ideas and decided to try to apply them to future projects. While both area's of Wolff's thoughts may not be exactly connected, they are similar and can be used in conjunction with one another.

An example of what I came up with is using my knowledge of sociology and further broadening my knowledge of theories on ideology, social interactions and social stipulations and associating them with where I live and where I have lived, especially in certain area's which are afflicted by some of the theories of sociology that I know. This could include frictions between middle and working class, downward spiral of poverty and causes of crime. Any sociological theory can be applied to where you live, and can be easily used to tell a story through film detailing a characters life experiencing these afflictions and struggles in life to a climax.

Surroundings and broadened knowledge go hand in hand when making a film, especially if those surroundings are personal to the film maker themselves. The film maker then has an extensive array of emotions, experiences and history to that surrounding to add creativity and uniqueness to the project.

Mood Boards

2009-02-06T02:55:00.002Z

Mood board for Avatar:

Mood board for Box:

And it came to me light a strike of lightning.

2009-02-03T02:46:00.001Z

It's funny how the best idea's come to you at the most unlikely of times. For the audiovisual aspect of my identities, I was thinking of what defines me most as a person. And it should be the same for everyone. What defines me the most, are my friends. So my idea is that I will compile footage of my friends, me and me with my friends. It will be a short piece, but it'll be meaningful and sums up me as my identity. So why not? What makes me, me, are my friends.

A massive post of ideas and examples

2009-02-02T21:16:00.007Z

So it's been a while since my last blog post, and since then we've started the identities module. This is just a post to show some examples of what I'm thinking for both my box and my avatar.

the box I have decided is going to be a rubix cube, because while it is box in shape, it allows for some interesting animation aspects. I could have the user click on either side of the rubix cube to go to each different element of the piece which would allow me to animate it spinning and everything else. However, I dont know how applicable this is. The other option is to have the user click on the top of the rubix cube, and have the lid lift up, and have the user get transported inside the rubix cube to then have options to click the different elements.

Here are some examples of the rubix cube:

The other idea's I had were for my avatar. Due to me not knowing how to model a biped yet or any type of clothing, I'm keeping this idea in the back of my head until I can actually do it, so obviously I have a back up idea for my avatar later. The idea for the biped which unfortunately I can't execute yet, is a rabid version of me kept up in a cage. The idea is to show that everyone has a wild side to themselves, and some let it out to keep themselves from being bored. The only thing I've modeled for this idea is the cage, but i haven't finished the cage yet cause I'm planning on breaking some of the bars and have them jagged too look like the avatar has escaped but stays in the cage. So here is the unbroken cage for the moment:

I'm going to have the cage hang from a chain, which can then be animated to swing from side to side. It's going to look pretty epic cause i'm going to put some camera's from underneath, so when the cage swings, it only illuminates part of the avatar to make it look even creepier to fit the mood of the piece.

The back up idea I had for my avatar was an oldschool robot, you know the ones you get from like tin toys that look absolutely useless as a robot which could cause major devastation. I'm modeling it right now cause it's just composed of basic shapes, animating it might be a problem, but at the moment it's just a back up idea incase the rabid avatar doesn't come to plan. If the rabid avatar does come to plan, then i could save this for an animated piece of work and class it as audio/visual and have it as one of the 5 elements of the identities package. The idea if I did make it into an audio/visual element is the idea of a disastermovie and have the avatar devastate a 3d town. I was thinking of making it humorous and maybe have the town be formed of like giant cardboard cut outs, so instead of the robot knocking down a building, it'll knock down a cardboard cut out of a building.

Here's the beginning of the robot avatar, but being the idiot I am, i forgot to save different stages of the render, so you can imagine how it was looking before this stage, but i'll update it with more renders as i develop it:

3D Lego

2009-01-12T23:37:00.002Z

My own film added onto Radio 1

2009-01-07T19:51:00.004Z

The spoof video of "It's raining men" featured on earlier posts on this blog, that I made earlier in the year of 2008 has just hit Radio 1. The video is currently on their site and will be mentioned on Saturday around 5pm.

The link is here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/fearneandreggie/request_show_tvvideo_wk46.shtml

Interesting Pixilation/White wall? animation

2008-12-24T18:13:00.001Z

I found this interesting video of a pixilation mixed with almost white board/wall animation incorporating moving camera to simulate video camera movement. It's an interesting mix of everything.

MUTO a wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo.

City Scape 3D: stage 2

2008-12-24T16:20:00.003Z

More added to the scape. 2 new sky scrapers, beginning on a park.

City Scape 3D: stage 1

2008-12-24T01:31:00.002Z

With the basis of the tower model below, I used the greeble plug in again to create a plane into a city like model. Copying each plane I managed to create a 4 way block which has a cross roads in the middle. I plan on expanding the city, making different sections of the city such as parks etc. And by inputting and editing the tower model below I can create an interesting and deep city scape.

3D tower

2008-12-24T01:02:00.002Z

Using a tutorial and the greeble plug in, I modeled this Tower using only a cylinder and the plug in. With this idea, I will begin to create a full blown city.

A 3D reactor

2008-12-23T19:32:00.003Z

Deciding to try and get a head on the game of 3d Modelling, cause I would not like to get left in the dark, like what happened with flash. So after trying some animation with a biped below, I thought I would try out some tutorials on basic modeling. I used this tutorial: http://www.3dtotal.com/team/Tutorials_3/basic_modelling/basic_modelling_01.asp just to get an idea on some basic and simple techniques. Here is some of the renders I came up with:

Try out on 3Ds max

2008-12-22T21:09:00.001Z

Deciding to try and get some practice with 3d modeling for the identities module I decided to try a bit out on some animation with a biped.

Interactive flash narrative - Drug Smuggler

2008-12-11T23:36:00.000Z

Drug Smuggler by ~sharkTACKLE on deviant ART

A bout of creativity

2008-12-11T16:39:00.003Z

After finishing my flash narrative, I'm not too pleased on the aesthetics of it. While my major concern was narrative, my inexperience with flash caused the look of the piece to plummet. So to make myself feel better about it, I returned to my trusty photoshop to create something that I'm pleased with aesthetically, to get my confidence back up.

Come on Die Young

Update on Flash Narrative

2008-12-07T00:48:00.002Z

I finally conquered Flash. So it can now go die in it's hole. Finally I've got the first few frames sorted. But i'm worried about the style of it, it's just a rehash of google images copied to do with my narrative. I'm worried that the look of the narrative is going to get me down marked, but at this very moment, i'm more concerned about getting the work done and then maybe looking at how to make the style of it better.

My first concern is getting the narrative down and getting it to make sense and have a somewhat of an involving story line. My second concern is getting the flash work done and getting the coding done so that each frame goes to where I want it to, or link right back to the beginning to start again. Style is my last concern at this moment, but I don't want it to look like a pile of shit. But i'm not getting massively marked on look, i'm getting marked on narrative which is on the forefront of my mind.

Thoughts on Interactive Flash Narrative

2008-12-05T23:37:00.002Z

Before I actually get anywhere with this post, I'd like to show my great distate towards Flash. Now, I love Adobe, sometimes when you don't think of their extortionate prices. But Flash is probably the most obtuse, awkward and frustrating piece of software I have ever used. Fair enough programmes take a while to mess around with to get to the point of where you're fluent enough to do certain things. But thursday showed me that it's a piece of software which is going to take me ages to use. Adobe Premiere was a piece of cake, Adobe Photoshop is always a piece of cake, Adobe illustrator took me a while but I got there. But let's carry on with the main theme of this post.

My idea, that I came up somehow, somewhere, is that of a traveling story. The first frame and the main screen of the narrative is going to be that of a globe, where you can travel to any continent in the world. And from there you'll encounter some kind of stuff. I really don't know. I might make it a gangster/drug smuggling narrative where you could encounter the police, get put in prison, get killed, end up in hospital, get back to the airport and go somewhere else, go to other drug drop off points and keep smuggling. Obviously if you end up dead or in prison, you'll start the story again. It sounds very complicated, but I think each event will be seperate from another, so you'll eventually go through a series of events to then come back after a while back to the main screen or a certain frame where you can go somewhere else within the same narrative. My good ol friend Luke suggested i make the narrative educational where you'll travel the world and find out about different cultures.

While this isn't a bad idea, and it's a good tool for education, i don't find it too thrilling, while gangsters, danger, guns and drugs are. I'll keep this blog updated on my frustrations with flash, and hopefully my success and conquering of the frustrating software.

Evaluation of "The Meating"

2008-11-25T00:13:00.001Z

[will edit]

The Meating

2008-11-25T00:12:00.002Z

Preparation and planning for "The meating"

2008-11-25T00:11:00.001Z

[will edit]

2008-11-24T22:09:00.000Z

The piece of work above is by the artist Rebecca Patridge named “Love more.” The artist has used colour and consequently light in a very interesting way, using the translucent qualities of the colour has given the piece of work an aura of light working from the outside to the inside allowing the colour to slowly solidify as you travel towards the centre of the piece. The use of translucent colours on the outside gives the edges of the painting a soft approach where the colours start to harden in the centre.

The range of colours used in the piece offer the piece a strange psychedelic appearance, while the colours used do not contract with each other, the opaqueness of the colours are what offer the contrast to the piece itself. The use of this effect draws you straight into the centre of the artwork as you follow the shapes painted from the points to the top of the cones of colour, allowing you to work your eyes from the centre to the outside of the piece. The artist has purposely used the colour and lighting of the piece to do this so your eyes cover the whole piece, and while attracted to the centre, you follow it from inside to out, and not just concentrating on smaller parts of the piece.

Autopsy

2008-11-21T19:05:00.002Z

The practical assignment on thursday was to take a series of shots from the intro of a horror film sequence. While each group was given a mood to portray with these shots, the mood my group had to portray was that one of silent and sombre. This was extremely difficult as the whole sequence of shots was a conversation between 2 people about the death of a relative. And to condense down upwards of 10 minutes of footage down into 1 minute full of silence to show a conflict between these 2 people was extremely difficult. This was what I came up with:

2008-11-11T22:03:00.003Z

Why is it that we want our belongings to do more for us than just function well?

While the function of a multimedial device and any other electronic belonging is the forefront and the reason why we purchase such devides, there are other things we want our devices to possess. The one second to functionality is the design and aesthetics of the product. Many of us will pick a design and aesthetic that suit us as individuals, as many modern day devices are fashion objects. They define us as a certain fashion and our devices ascend into that function. The pictures above and below show my mobile phone, the Samsung F480. While I decided to buy this product for the functionality of the touch screen, meaning less mechanical parts to break and so the function of the device continues to be superb. But there was more of a conscious decision for the purchase of this device besides the functionality. The design and aesthetics of the device are sleek and fashionable, the flawless screen and the almost lack of buttons give it a seamless look.

Why are we willing as soon as we can afford it, to pay extra for thing with appealing form?

The exact same reason as to why we want our belongings to do more than just function for us. Most modern day devices such as phones, mp3 players, games consoles, jewellery etc are there for fashion and status. They define who we are, and we are willing to pay more for that symbol of status and wait to be able to afford it instead of getting something which is inferior and subpar.

Pixilation practical production

2008-10-30T21:21:00.000Z

Past Audio Visual production projects

2008-10-29T01:59:00.002Z

This was a end of year 13 project which I put together for my form. It's a spoof of "It's raining men" by Gerri Halliwell and had one of the best times filming, editing and producing this piece of work. It's one of my finest to date.

This was my year 13 media coursework production. While not my best work, it was the first longest film I made.

OLED's

2008-10-27T23:26:00.003Z

While OLED's are not a direct recent multimedia technology, their application and constant development integrated into multimedia appliances has only recently come about. In recent times there has been a new fashion of applying OLED (organic light emitting diode) into mobile phone handsets, which gives the display a clearer and much better viewing in broad day light and the viewing angles meaning that the display appears brighter and colours do not get washed out as easily. Soon enough, the OLED display will give developers a major form of control on the thickness of their handsets as OLED displays are significant thinner. And while the discovery of OLED's is not that significantly recent, its only really just come about into the market, especially with the release of the new Nokia N-series mobile the N85 which has the largest OLED display yet (2.6 inches). However, there is more to the application of the OLED than just the display market.

Due to the nature of the OLED's, it will have a massive impact on society when it becomes mass marketed and produced OLED displays do not consume as much energy. This is because when there is black on the display, the OLED signals are off which gives off no energy for black area's while a standard LCD display will just dampen the LED to give off the black. Also, OLED's do not need a backlight which other displays due such as the aforementioned LCD. Because of this, the impact that it will have on society will be massive due to the growing concern on carbon footprints and the consumption and consequent wastage of energy and electricity. If OLED's are applied into more mass produced technologies then the total energy wastage will be severely improved.

Not only is the the development of the OLED beneficial to the environment, but other future applications of it for the multmedia world can be considered. Due to the nature of the OLED display, it could be applied to pliable materials and media forms such as newspapers which could be a single sheet of printed OLED's which are then foldable, which each page being able to changed to the next page. This then could be converged with touch screen technology to make a multi-interactive application which could be used for future gaming consoles and further developments in the mobile handset market.

References and further information:

http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/oled5.htm

http://www.about-oled.com/advantages-and-drawbacks.html

http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/oled3.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organic_light-emitting_diode

2008-10-08T11:57:00.002+01:00

What did I do on the first week?
The first week was just about me getting situated into a new strange place and getting to know my flat mates who I would be living with for a year. After copious amounts of alcohol, socialising with everyone became easy. In short, what I did in my first week was enjoy myself and know that I will enjoy it here for the rest of my 3 years.

What do I want to get out of the course after the 3 years?
After the 3 years, I don't want to just come out of the course with a broad skill set in various areas of multimedia. I want to become a multimedia practioner which the course has taught me how to easily transcend my creative and interactive ideas into coming applicable and enjoyable to either watch or apply in what ever means it was designed for. I want to be able to apply my imagination and creativity into many projects during the 3 years, and after the course has finished, then continue this process into other freelancing or commision based work.