Pixelation.

We worked in a group of four girls myself, Beth, Stephanie and Gemma.
When we were assigned our project, we were given 300 or so photos to take that would create 20 seconds of seemless film.
So we began, when thinking of a narrative as a group we came up with a few ideas, however they all seemed fairly small subjects so we produced a concuction of a few of them. I think its a rather random mix but in parts I feel it does relate to student living. Especially as we filmed in university halls.
In our shots we wanted to portray a sense of unusual behaviour that is often related to the student life. In the first few shots I appear to be making a cup of tea but afterwards I begin to behave in a strange manner, for example taking copius layers of clothes off and falling down the stair case. It raises the question, Was it really tea i drank? Maybe someone spiked the water in the kettle.
The idea of wearing multiple layers was to resemble the issues women have with deciding upon what to wear, especially during freshers week as we had so many fancy dress outfits to get sorted. The way I have edited it gives it a sense of confusion with the two images overlapping, this was achieved by copying and pasting some of the photos above the origionals and then bringing the opacity of them both down to 50%. Also when reversing the sequence it looked quite unique as the clothes seem to be put back on effortlessly almost as if their was a magnetism between myself and the items.
I think it looks really effective when I'm falling down the stairs, as what would of normally been quite a painful accident we made into a controlled but still natural looking fall. Although at one point I did actually fall but the end result was worth the bruise. The inspiration for this came from the video below which we were shown earlier on before this project.

Unedited footage.

As cringe worthy as it may have been to post this on my very own blog, seeing as I am the clumsy one running, tripping and falling repeatedly over in these unedited shots. I feel It is important to show the viewer the making of our eventually (I feel) successful film. Also I suppose it does gives us something to laugh at.

All these different takes proves we tried filming from a variety of angles, we discovered the best position and angle for our film through experimenting, although it took alot of time I think it definatley shows in the quality of our finished edit version. In the early practice runs I run away from the camera which we felt didn't work well enough. We thought that positioning the characters further back gives a sense of hidden identity which we had intended, especially with the brightness of the sunrise casting shadows over our figures. Also If I had fallen in the distance I would have been hidden by the thick layer of plants that covered most of the hillside, it proved more successful to fall only a few metres from the camera where I would be highly visible.
Having the two characters moving directly towards the camera gives the film more professional feel as it is steady and the attention of the audience can remain solely on the movement of the two figures.

Audio whispering

We recorded the sound on an ordinary video recorder instead of in the sound booths, as we haven't been instructed how to use the equipment in them properly. We all had an individual statements which were "How could he do this" "Just leave me alone" "Don't look back" and "Let me help you" The first three examples are the thoughts of the women and the last is of the man. It provides insight into the relationship these two may have shaired before the incident, but due to the repetition of the phrases the meaning somehow becomes distorted as we begin to speak over one another. Although there are clearly mistakes in the recordings (eg:uncontrollable giggling) I think it gives a good example of what we intended to produce.

Single shot video

So here's the group video, I feel the editing has really worked wonders. I love the way the film is black and white until the very end when the light is gradually filtered back in reemphasising the sunrising. Also the colour brightens the scene and portrays a sense of relief when the couple embrace. This isn't our end result as we have an alternative audio track, which will consist of each member of the group whispering a phrase that resembles the thoughts of the actress and actor.

What do I find Visually Aesthetic?

Looking around my room at university I wouldn't say they were many worthy objects that I would call visually aesthetic apart from my MacBook but that's too much of an obvious everyday commodity. So I thought I'd choose something that's totally different to that in a technological sense. For example I have a white candle that when lite drips coloured wax, as the flame flickers in the dark I would say it was the most visually aesthetic and therapeutic object to watch. Not only does this object nuture the flame but it creates a visual warmth that is purely natural




However I also want to talk about something more personal to myself that I feel defines the words visually aesthetic and these are the printed photographic images that cover my notice board. They each tell their very own story and have qualities far beyond aesthetic value. They record a moment in time that was worthwhile and looking back at these visual records gives me the best feeling. In the end good feelings have everything to do with aesthetic value.

A day at Chatsworth

On the tuesday the day before our film was shot we spent the day trapsing around Chatsworth. Here are some photographs I took to give an idea of the scenary of our location. I especially like my photo of the cow as it gives it a real sense of being in the country.





When considering a location for a single shot film, we wanted it to be origional and as far from any aspect of student life as possible. Somewhere remote and quiet, a place one would feel at peace with their surroundings. We went to check out the grounds of Chatsworth House on Tuesday the 13th of november and it seemed perfect for what we wanted from the film. Whilst walking through the countryside around Chatsworth it reminded me of the BBC production of Jane Eyre I had watched a year or so ago which is a romance novel by Charlotte Bronte. I thought of a specific scene where Jane has come to discover that Mr Rochester (her soon to be husband) is already married and has hidden his mentally ill wife from her until now. In her confusion and emotional state she runs away from Thornfield Manor and becomes lost and begins to hallucinate, loosing grip of who she really is. The scene is one of destress and I feel we can cooperate this into our short film.
Obviously there was alot of different locations we could have chosen around Chatsworths many aches, but we specifically decided upon an open area of ground away from any woodland that would cast shadow into our shot. We have decided that we want to film during sunrise so it will intensify the atmosphere of the landscape and will show more emotion. During the day we really came together as a group and I feel we have all contributed and hopefully the shoot will be successful tomorrow morning.



On Wednesday morning at 5.00 am after an eventful night out at oceana we all clambered into the car half asleep and began our second journey to Chatsworth to shoot our film. We arrived an hour or so later and trecked to our filming location, however in the dark we were unsure as to where exactly that was but eventually we found it. It went from pitched black to light quicker than I would have imagined it to and we had to get into gear quickly if we were going to catch our sunset on camera, The first few attempts fell through due to obvious problems accuring, for example the clumsiness of myself running through the hillside knee high in shrubs and thistles. It was very amusing at first as I wouldn't really say Im a natural on camera but I soon got into the role. We shot from a number of angles but found that it was best if I ran directly towards the camera with the sun rising in the background. It meant our figures became silhouettes and I think it works more effectively as the sunrise appears more intense. Also when the audience see the figures appearing as silhouettes without an identity it will resemble a sense of confusion which is what we wanted to portray.







This is a short clip I found on utube that I thought would give a idea of the relationship between Jane and Mr Rochester that eventually leads to her abandoning thornield manor. Athough it does not have the specific scene that I took inspiration from it still helps in our perception of the storyline.



We also gathered inspiration for our film from the last scene in Pride and Prejudice, where the couple meet together, confessing their love for one another as the day breaks and the sun rises in the background. It a stunningly beautiful scene.

Review of The language of new media. Chapter 6, What is cinema?

Chapter 6 is a very intense and hearty read. Full off important and useful information, such as the history and development of cinema, for example the digital image and the history of the moving image which follows a historical trajectory from 19th century techniques for creating moving images to 20th century cinema and animation. In this last chapter of the book It covers the followig questions. How does computerisation affect our very own concept of the moving image? Does it offer new possibilities for film language? Did it lead to the development of totally new films in cinema?

An important part I took from the chapter was to do with the principles behind new media and that this image we create becomes an image interface and as computer users we oursleves become Lewis Carroll's Alice in our very own wonderland.
Personally I found it abit overwhelming and in some parts quite alot to take in, as i'm rather new to multimedia my self, therefore I would encourage others like me to take their time with it in order to fully understand the concept behind the subject. Maybe reading the last chapter of the book was the reason for me not being able to understand it completely in parts. If i had progressed through the book chapter by chapter it possibly would have made more sense.

This is a sentence i felt somed up the chaptper "Cinema works hard to erase any traces of its own production proccess, including any indication that the images which we see could have been constructed rather than recorded."

i think the whiteboard session worked well but as a group we struggled to produce the number of photos required because we had made the drawings too complicated. We managed to take 130 photos in the end, next time we need to plan out more thoroughly.

In our first week we were split into groups of 4 and given a white board some board pens and a camera and this is what we produced. The project was about how we would transport a box over a tree. I think the whiteboard session worked well but as a group we struggled to produce the number of photos required because we had made the drawings too complicated. We managed to take 130 photos in the end although we did exceed our time limit, next time we need to plan it our more thoroughly. I like the interaction we had with of board, for example when I wiped away three of the birds and then flicked the fourth out of scene. It was a great initiation into multimedia.

Welcome to sowters space...Im currently studying Multimedia at Nottingham trent and have just managed to survive freshers week, which was insane. In the first week we practised pin hole photography which was very new to me. The looks people gave us when we were croached on the street corner beer can in hand, oblivious to what we were actually doing. Apart from looking like druken students was amusing enough for me. It was a very tricky technique attemping to keep the can perfectly still and steady on the floor but all three of my photos seemed to have come out quite well, although they were abit blurd due to my inability to keep still.