Client Project- More Editshare problems

Owen was in this morning so we followed up on yesterdays problems with the server. Unfortunately he doesnt know what the problem is, as he was not originally the person who administered the system. This is obviously a predicament, as we don't know if or when the system will be back online.

We have sent an email to Jools making him aware of the problems, so hopefully we can get the days back that we were unable to work.

Client Project- Editshare Problems

The Multimedia server, Editshare, where all our footage and projects are stored was not available today. This is a real problem, due to the fact we have only a week or two to finsh the documentary. I had come back from my Easter holiday, having passed up a chance to earn some money in order to get back to Nottingham to edit...and i cant! We have emailed Owen about the problem, so we hope he can shed some light on it. Debs told us that rather than try and recapture some of the footage we have on tape, we should just wait and see if Owen can fix it. Heres hoping!

Portfolio

I have come up with a design for my portfolio, finally. What i want to do is display a view of a workstation/desk where I am sat, facing away from the viewer. For each area of my work, e.g. A/V work, documents and CV etc. I will have a highlighted part around the monitor, a pile of papers and so on. Using a camcorder i can film each individual action, like turning on the monitor, then convert into a vector in Flash, where I can design the transitions and the rest of the portfolio, to be used both as an interactive DVD and a website. Im hoping to get sorted with a domain name aswell, but im not sure about the process. Im sure there are lots of people that can help me on that front.

I should have a sketch up here soon outlining the proposed layout...watch this space.

Cool Stuff

I had a go at making a high speed sky scene, filming about 40 minutes of footage out of an open window from my house in Nottingham. It was a windy day with lots of clouds, so it looks pretty cool. Check it out.

Client Project- Holgate School

Due to the Easter break, both the university and the school will be closed for a while. I will be returning back from London after a week or so, as the Waverley building with the edit suites will be open again. Hopefully it shouldn't be too busy, I will be back at least a week before the term starts again, so it will give us a good opportunity to start editing all the captured footage. As the school will be back in the same week, it will give us a chance to get any more shots we need, including interviews with the Headmaster Mr. Crompton, and also Mr. Beattie.

Influences

Under direction from Andy, I have been looking at relevant practitioners in the industry who I think have influenced me as a filmmaker. One such person is Oliver Wood, a Cinematographer and Director of Photography in such films as Fantastic Four, Face/Off and The Bourne Trilogy starring Matt Damon.

Something which stood out to me in the Bourne series was the way the camera was very unstable, often shot freehand to give the films almost a documentary feel. Most scenes were shot with between two and four cameras, assuring as much action could be shot as possible. Wood did not feel it necessary for the composition to be faultless for every part of every shot, allowing the overall visual style to work with a lack of focus and sometimes jerky camera work. This feeling of spontaneity allows the individual camera operators and focus pullers the chance to experiment, asserting their own creative input. I am extremely impressed by Wood's ability to shoot in this way. Amazingly, rather than it appear tacky and unprofessional, its almost like you are right there with the characters.

© 2007 American Cinematographer

On location in Morocco, director of photography Oliver Wood (right) confers with C-camera operator Mostafa Badreddine as focus puller Zakaria Badredine stands by.

List of recent films:
Rudy (1993)
For Love or Money (1993)
Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit (1993)
Terminal Velocity (1994)
Mr. Holland's Opus (1995)
Celtic Pride (1996)
2 Days in the Valley (1996)
Face/Off (1997)
Switchback (1997)
Mighty Joe Young (1998)
U-571 (2000)
The Bourne Identity (2002)
The Adventures of Pluto Nash (2002)
I Spy (2002)
National Security (2003)
Freaky Friday (2003)
The Bourne Supremacy (2004)
Fantastic Four (2005)
Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (2006)
The Bourne Ultimatum (2007)
Step Brothers (2008)

Audio Project

This is a liquid dnb track I've been making for the last few weeks. I plan to create a music video for the song, which is being scripted at the moment. I plan to shoot the video in the early summer, making the most of the weather.

Client Project- Holgate School

Georgia and I went into the school again today, we needed to get some fill shots and cutaways for the documentary. We were helped out by a sixth former called katie, who has assisted us before as an interviewee and general runner. We got some shots of the quad, the ground, the field at breaktime, the 'well' (a staircase) and the sixth form study centre. All in all, a very productive day. We are now at the stage where we need to start editing.

Client Project- Sound Problems

Unfortuantely we had a bit of a set back while filming interviews today, two interviews of Mr. Beattie and Headmaster Mr. Crompton were unusable due to problems with sound, regardless of any amount of tweaking we agreed after a long discussion that we would have to bin them. We are going back into the school soon in order to film the two interviews again, which we consider to be extremely important in the overall documentary.

Client Project- Holgate School

This is a sample from the client project, the schoool canteen at Holgate. The camera was mounted using a suction mount tripod in the top corner of the room, facing down on the canteen. This clip is taken from about 20 minutes of footage, shot with a shutter speed of 1/3. I used a threshold filter, then a texturise filter to create the two-tone black/grey effect.

Portfolio

I've been thinking long and hard about what to do for my portfolio, and its proving harder than i thought to come up with a concept. I went to see Andy for a tutorial and he showed me a portfolio made by a fine art student from a few years ago. The guy had basically shown all his work in a case which had slides of the work he had done, but the case was in the same style as his work. He made ten of them, and got a job almost instantly. What Andy was trying to say was that the portfolio should be an extension of the type of work I am doing, or should show my working practices. This is something to think about. Hopefully my next post on the subject will have a more concrete example of what i want to do.