Major Production: Website

I made a website for Gullible on Wix http://jamesogde7.wix.com/gullible

Professional Practice: My Thoughts/Unit Review

This whole unit has been a wild experience for me. Being offered a chance to film a promotional video for a major event in Maidstone was amazing. From the start of the project it was very hard to get a hold of the organisers and I felt that we as students were left wondering what was going on, however this is an understandable point from their side. I can understand that if you're planning a big event in Maidstone that you have priorities such as artists and locations, and this doesn't take away from the fact that we were eventually given the information we needed and we were able to film the event.

Filming the event was probably the most organised part of my whole experience on this unit. Filming went really well, we were given the right support from the organisers such as places for us to charge our equipment, access all areas and we were treated very well by the crew. Because of this support I feel we got some amazing shots of the whole event and this can be shown in mine, Tory's and Jamie's videos. I felt that there was so many things going on so it was a joy to film, we were never short of things to shoot which meant it was very easy to put together in the edit.

After the event I feel that the same issue we had at the start came round again in the form of communication with our clients. At times I felt that we didn't know what was going on which meant that we really had to push people for answers like when they wanted these videos done by and if the videos were okay. We also came across the issue of not having enough output for the project meaning that me, Jamie and Tory each had to create separate videos. After the discussion we decided that Tory would create the actual promo video, Jamie would create a teaser and I would create a behind the scenes/interview video which Nic our client was surprisingly okay with.

During the editing process I felt that the issues in communication didn't improve. I had to push my client for an answer on whether or not an edit was good or not, and when I didn't get a reply I had to choose my second cut as my final one. However this is the consequence of dealing with a client which moves around alot. I do not blame my clients at all on the out come of this unit, they have jobs of their own to be dealing with and the videos were of good quality anyway. I believe that although communication was not as good as it could have been, the output of the project speaks for it self in the quality of the videos. I found it a pleasure working with Nic, Andy and the rest of the Social crew and wish the best for the Social next year. I found this unit to be a great learning experience and it gave me a great insight into how it is to be work with/for a professional company.

Professional Practice: The Final Cut

A few days ago I e-mailed Nic for feedback on the updated interview video however I have heard no response. Since I have not heard any feedback from him and the deadline for this project is tomorrow I have no other option than to use the second cut of the interview as the final cut and the video that I will present to Nic. Since Nic is very busy and is on the move constantly I understand why he hasn't replied. Nether the less here is the final cut of the interview with Nic from The Social.

Professional Practice: The Second Cut

I recently re-edited the interview with Nic, after the feedback I received from him about the first cut. All I needed to do was remove the question which he didn't want in there and patch up the gap with the rest of the interview and some cut aways. I have e-mailed him for more feedback and have sent him the updated video. Here is the second cut.

Professional Practice: Feedback from Nic

I sent my first cut of the interview to Nic to get his thoughts and opinions on the video and to see if he wanted anything changed. The feedback was quite positive however he wanted the part of the interview removed. One question which was asked was what artists he wanted for next Social event in 2014, Nic wanted this to be removed because he didn't want any hints given away to who might be playing next year which is fair enough. I took this on board and plan to re-edit the video so I can remove the question which he doesn't want in there.

Professional Practice: The Interview Edit

I recently finished editing The Social: An Interview with Nic Fanciulli which I filmed a couple of weeks back. The clips turned out really well, which dispelled my worries about the lighting in them. Firstly I cut up all of the interview questions and put them in an order which I thought felt smoother, I then put in a couple of cut aways. I found that the cut aways that I filmed around Nic's office weren't as helpful as I though because they added nothing at all about the event which Nic was talking about so instead I used a few clips that we filmed from the event which worked really well. For the music I used a song that Nic sent all of us. Jamie and Tory felt that it didn't go well with their promotional material so decided not to use it, however I used the song as I felt that it worked well with the interview itself. Unfortunately I couldn't find the same font that Saved used for their Social promo stuff but I found a font that was very similar so I used that for the introduction and the shot at the end. I sent this to Nic and awaited his reply and feedback. The video below is what I wanted the video to look like. (Unfortunately I cannot release the first cut of the interview as Nic has requested that a question be removed and for the video with said question in be removed for now, I will release the final cut in the next few blogs)

Professional Practice: Communication Issues

Just before I started the edit for the interview, we had various texts and emails from Andy saying that he would like to see some of the footage and the edit to see how our videos were going. We agreed that one day Andy should come in and view what we had. On the day we arranged we found that Andy didn't turn up to view any of our footage or our edits of the promo videos and interviews. When trying to contact him we found that he wouldn't pick up his phone at all, so in the end nothing was viewed by Andy at all which was annoying as we weren't able to get any feedback on the footage or hear what he wanted in particular. When trying to contact him again a few days later we found that he had nothing else to do with The Social, so even if he did view our footage it wouldn't have had any difference as he doesn't really have a say on the situation any more. In future we all decided to go straight to Nic for any feedback and comments on our videos, which is also an issue. Nic is quite a popular DJ and is often out of or touring round the country which is quite a problem when trying to communicate with him, however we have to hope that he gets our messages and answers any of our questions in the future as he is the only one we can contact now!

Professional Practice: Interview with Nic

A couple weeks back myself and Jamie Shaw interviewed Nic Fanciulli an organiser for the social and local Maidstone DJ at saved records in Maidstone studios. I planned out what questions I wanted to ask and what shots I wanted in anticipation of the edit. When we arrived there Nic was very helpful, and when we asked him the questions he gave some amazing answers. Filming wise we used a close up of Nic throughout the whole interview, we also got a few shots around his office of his music desk and some of the vinyls which he had on shelves for some cutaways. I also asked Nic to pretend to talk to someone on the phone and for him to use his computer for some other cutaways which could be usable in the edit. One concern I had at first was the lighting as it looked quite dark when we arrived, however when we did a few test shots I found that the lighting in the room was just right, any more light would have not done it justice in my opinion. So in conclusion I believe that filming the interview went and hopefully the edit should too.

Major Production: Casting Call Success

Last week I decided on the actor I wanted to play Liam (the compulsive liar). His name is Calum Gulvin and he recently finished training in acting at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. Calum messaged me with his interest in that part a couple of weeks ago and his experience and showreel were quite impressive. Since I was not holding auditions for the role I had to analyse the performances from each actors showreels and Calum's was the best by far. Calum has worked with UCA students before and is looking to build up his showreel so I thought it'd be great for the both of us to collaborate.

Major Production: Script Changes

In my most recent tutorial with Helen, we were discussing the scripts and both agreed that 1 minute shorts were too short to get the story across meaning that certain endings are lacking and not as funny. So instead of doing 15 1-minute shorts I will be doing 5 3-minute shorts instead, which meant that I had to cut 5 of the 10 scripts which I already drafted and extend the other 5 so that they can meet the 3 minute mark. So far I have extended 1 of the 5 scripts and plan to expand the rest by the end of the week, so I can e-mail them off to Calum (the actor playing Liam).

Now that I am able to extend the story to fit into 3 minutes, I can now take examples from other youtubers who release sketches on a regular basis. At first I was only taking examples from hit youtubers Smosh but now I am taking examples from other youtubers such as Rhett and Link, Tomska, Corridor Digital and Shane Dawson who all release videos and sketches lasting around 3 minutes. Below is a video by Tomska, it's a sketch called the Fallen, I am using it as an example as it has the same humor pattern which I want to replicate in a way.

The After Effects Workshop

On Wednesday myself and a couple of other students went to an After Effects workshop held by Simon Holland at Rochester Campus. In this workshop we learnt some of the basic mechanics of the After Effects software such as moving and layering pictures and items. I found this quite helpful and adjusted to it very quickly due to it being very similar to Adobe Photoshop which I used to use quite often in Sixth Form. I do plan on using these skills in some of my future projects which is why I also feel that I need to learn more about the software and how to use it.

Major Production: Scripting

Over the past couple of weeks I have been scripting episodes of Gullible. So far I have scripted 8 episodes and episodes 9 and 10 should be scripted by the end of tomorrow. The episode titles for the 8 which have been scripted are: Holy Water, Helmets, Pigs on film, Milk feels pain, Narnia, The 5th Side, The signs, and Dracula's castle. Since I started scripting I have also come up with names of the two characters. Before hand they had no names and were known as the Compulsive Liar and the Gullible Idiot, now they are known as Liam (The Compulsive Liar) and Gulliver (The Gullible Idiot), I decided on these names because they sound so similar to the main personalities of their characters.

Professional Practice: Organising an Interview

As a group Me, Jamie and Tory decided that we will develop 3 additional videos for The Social Event to actually count to our professional practice. One video will be an interview with one of the Organisers Nick. An interview with an organiser would make for a great insight to how the event was decided upon and some inside decisions that people may not have heard about.
On the Friday I did try to organise an interview with him but he texted me to say that he will be away for a week and will be back on the 14th of October. Although I'm disappointed that I didn't get an interview I also have to plan ahead and ask for an interview the moment he is free and back in the studios.
The Main video will last about about 3-4 minutes whilst the 3 smaller ones will last about 1 minute and a half.

Major Production: Searching for actors

A week ago I sent out a casting call for the role of the Compulsive Liar for my project Gullible. So far I have received 10 or so applications for the part so I have to decide on who I want to play the part and why. I have already decided who I want to play the role of the Gullible Idiot so that shouldn't be a problem. Within the next few days I plan to whittle down my ten applicants to 1 who will be playing the part in my production.  

Professional Practice: Filming The Social

On the 28th of September myself, Jamie and Tory filmed the social event for our professional practice. We were assisted by some of the first years and another second year. During this event I filmed the amusements, atmosphere and a couple of interviews whilst the others got footage of the acts on stage at different angles. One of the main things that I filmed amusement wise was the ferris wheel. I filmed this at three different times in the day, in the morning, at sunset and at night, I felt that this would be a good way to show how the festival changes throughout the day.
However I felt that at the start of the day was pretty slow as not many people were around at the start of the day which made it hard to get the full atmosphere across on camera but fortunately by 14:30 the festival really picked up and I was able to get some amazing shots which I thought would fit well with the music in the edit.
Throughout the day I was always thinking about what shots would fit well with the edit and how I could get the atmosphere and fun across. I think the only issue that I came across was during the interviews. Most people were uneasy about being on camera but the ones who weren't were not giving great answers. In total I was able to get one or two usable interviews but alot of good shots in my opinion. I will see how well it goes in the edit though!

Major Project: Presentation Blog

Gullible

Introduction: What is Gullible?

Gullible is a fifteen webisode series. It is about two young men in their early 20's (names are not specified as of yet), one is a compulsive liar the other is extremely gullible (thus the title of the series). The liar will tell the gullible person a ridiculous lie and the gullible person will believe it. The gullible person will then see the lie unfold in front of their eyes in a very surreal kind of way. All of the episodes will be based around gags from the book Great Lies to Tell Small Kids written by Andy Riley.

Where would it be shown?

I feel that Gullible would be perfect to be put on the internet video sites (youtube.com, vimeo.com, etc). My reasons for this because Gullible will be shown in one minute segments so would find it hard to fit into television however there have been many people who have made a living off of youtube by writing and publishing short videos and comedy sketches and this is where Gullible would fit into. One thing that made me so drawn to youtube is that you can receive feedback of your video from people who have watched it meaning you can learn directly from your "fans" what they liked or didn't like about the video, this way if it became an on-going series and people who watched it shared it to all of their friends the series could snowball and potentially become a big hit.

Why the Web?

As I said before I feel that the Gullible is perfect for the web because of it's short run time. On television small one minute episodes may be missed or overlooked however on the web viewers can choose what they want to watch and when they want to watch it, which is an even bigger plus for Gullible as people can click, watch an episode and choose weather they want to watch another one or do something else. Comedy duo Smosh have been producing short comedy sketches and videos since 2002 and have over 12 million subscribers and are a good example of how I'd like the series to turn out (without sounding too ambitious).

My main audience for Gullible would be young adults and teenagers. The Gullible is a very light hearted comedy and isn't too crude or smutty, not to mention that youtube is watched mostly by the younger generation, so Gullible would be able to appeal to these audiences

The Story

Each episode will start of with the two main characters sitting together on the sofa, the GI (Gullible Idiot) will be watching the TV as it plays in the background and the CL (Compulsive Liar) will be reading a book (the book will change each episode depending on the lie which is about to be told). The CL will then tell his (ridiculous) lie to the GI who will believe it. The GI will then see the lie unfold in real life and will react to it in some way shape or form. Each episode will follow a similar plot line but the difference will be in the lie so it isn't the same thing over and over again with slight differences.

A few gags that I have chosen from the book are as follows:

"When you change channels on the TV the presenter on that channel dies instantly"

"Father Christmas is hiding in the Pakistan/Afghanistan border region never sleeping in the same place for two nights running, he’s MI5’s ten nost wanted list"

"Narnia Is Real"

The Characters

As I said before the series will have two main characters: The Compulsive Liar and The Gullible Idiot. The CL will be a small dark haired individual who enjoys teasing his gullible friend and telling him stupid lies, he is conniving and quick to think on his feet, also enjoys pranks. The GI will be a taller lighter haired individual who usually sits around watching the telly most of the day, he doesn't have much common sense an is pretty much an airhead. He'll believe everything the CL says. Although these characters seem like complete opposites they are the best of friends.

Casting &Location

I am halfway there for casting in the sense that I have cast the GI from a past project that I've done. However I plan to look on Star Now or Casting Call pro for the CL role which will be put up this weekend.

The location for most of my videos will be set in a living room on a couch. It will be a very simple set where not much will be going on in the background. Occasionally I will need to film outside and around Maidstone but it wouldn't be anywhere too crowded for a long period of time so that shouldn't be a problem.

Collaborations

For Gullible I will be collaborating with Sam Wilder. Sam and I have worked well together in the past so I have chosen him to work along side me as co-writer and co-director. I feel that Sam can bring alot to the table and would be a great help in this production. I will be editing the project by myself.  

Professional Practice: Dissertation Proposal

For my dissertation proposal I wanted to focus on animation in Japan and the issues of localising it in the western world. I knew I wanted to focus on animation in Japan but wasn't sure about the topic I wanted to tackle. Although I thought about issues on localisation in the western world I wan't sure on it.

When I had my tutorial with Chris this week it really cleared up some things and gave me a clearer understanding on what I wanted to do. Instead on focusing on localisation I'm going to compare Japanese animation to American animation. There are many differences between the two such as different types of audience and specific types of genre. I plan to observe how history has affected two different types of animation e.g. how Tom and Jerry evolved into the The Simpsons and how Astro Boy evolved into One Piece

Professional Practice: Commission

For my professional practice, myself and a couple of other students were asked to film and make a promo video for "The Social" which is taking part on Saturday 28th of September at Mote Park in Maidstone. "The Social" is musical event with many different acts performing such as Robert Dietz, Carl Craig, Loco Dice and many more. For research I have observed other promo videos for festivals very similar to this one and have made a short list of ideas for shots etc.  

Major Project: Idea

In this blog I will demonstrate the process of how I've come up with my current idea for my major project and why I have chosen to do it.

My original idea was to do a 15 minute long sketch show which would consist of 3 sketches and a few mini ones in between. However when I went back home for the summer I stumbled upon a book that I bought several years ago by Andy Riley called "Great Lies to Tell Small Kids". The book is full of humorous illustrations with captions of (as the book says) lies to tell small kids. I then remembered that I had the option to create fifteen one minute episodes and the one minute episodes would be perfect to adapt these lies into film. So I decided to change my idea from a sketch show to a 15 episode series.

I decided that if I were to create this series I'd rather work with adults than children so I changed the title of the series from Great Lies to Tell Small Kids to Great Lies for Gullible idiots. My second port of call was to come up with a story for each episode, obviously the stories for each episode would be based around each page of the book but I still needed to form a story around these pages. So I decided to have a maximum of two main characters The Compulsive liar and The Gullible Idiot. The compulsive liar character will tell a lie and the gullible character will believe it, the gullible character will see the lie unfold in real life. I then decided to shorten the name of the title to just "Gullible" to keep it simple and to the point.

That's about all I've got so far I keep updating when I have more ideas or any changes are made

Coming back from the Summer

Over the Summer break I kept my self occupied with a number of things one of which was videoing and editing press conferences for a website called Bollywood Eye. I got this job through a friend who interviews for the company.

The first bit I did for the company was film the Satyagraha press conference. Unfortunately the camera which we were using was not high quality so the footage wasn't entirely clear and we had no external mic to record sound, however I felt that I grabbed a good spot to film from considering most of the camera crew from other websites were competitive for places to film. Overall I feel that the positioning was good but because the footage and audio was not high quality I felt that this let it down but I did my best to edit the footage together with parts of the trailer and it seems to be doing pretty well with views by reaching over 3000. Here is the video below.

 
The second piece of work that I did over the summer was an edit for the press conference of Bhagg Milkha Bhagg for the same website. This time it was filmed on a proper hd camera with an external mic so it was much easier to edit compared to the Satyagraha one. I put the official music of the film over the top of the interview to associate it more with the film. I feel that compared with the Satyagraha press conference this video looks and feels much better because of the difference in image and sound quality.

Fiction Adaptation: CD/DVD cover

Today I created my covers for my CD and DVD cases for the Fiction hand in. Below are my two covers:

I created a DVD and CD cover because I wasn't sure what case I would buy for the hand in. In both of the covers I used a picture of Jim Morrison (the author of The Graveyard Poem), an old letter for the background of the cover (to represent a fiction piece) and included all of the contents that will be available on the DVD and put them all together using photoshop. I personally prefer the CD cover as the image is a lot more tighter which I feel the DVD cover doesn't have.

Fiction Adaptation: Edit

Yesterday I finished my edit for The Graveyard Poem, in this edit I had to overlay lots of different sounds to give it that horror edge. At one point I came across a huge problem when my first rough cut was over six and a half minutes, at that point I really wasn't sure what I could cut. In the end to size it down to the 5 minutes mark I had to cut out a whole scene. The scene which I cut out was the bathroom scene as it contributed the least to the story and also the fact that Sam could be seen in the background of some of the clips (I didn't notice on the day). When I finished my edit I showed my peers and they really liked the sounds I used and the "creepy" feel that put across in some of the clips.

Studio Production: Opening Graphics

Today myself and Sam Creamer started to create the graphic opening for Punchlines. I have never used After Effects before however Sam was quite experienced with the programme so that did help quite a bit. We had an idea already in mind and with that we were able to start work. We did not finish the intro today, however we were able to make a start and tomorrow we should be able to finish it off. I learnt alot today with Sam and using After Effects, although I won't be the best person at using it I now have some experience and knowledge on how to use the programme!

Studio Production: Poster Creation

Within the last week I created a poster for the Punchlines production, in this poster there is a lot of information about the show. The poster explains how to book tickets, where to find us on the internet, the date of record, that it is a student production and shows off the boxing iconography. I designed the poster in Photoshop. Problems that I encountered whilst making this poster is that the image that I was using has a lot going on in it so it was hard to find a place to put all of the information. I overcame this however by putting a box around the picture so I could add as much information that was needed. Below is the completed poster, they will be printed off tomorrow at UCA campus and will be posted around the uni and the town centre.

Studio Production: Ticket design

A couple of days ago myself and Neill created an entry the ticket for Punchlines. In this ticket we included the Punchlines and UCA logos, all the information on when to arrive, the address and who to contact. We tried to make the ticket look as professional as possible so we used the O2 Arena's ticket as a template for ours, you can see the comparisons below.

 

Fiction Unit: Filming

Last week Wednesday I started filming for "The Graveyard Poem", for my location I used a friends house not far from the uni halls, this house was perfect as it had the exact number of rooms needed for my shoot and was very spacious. For the shoot I used a various amount of props which included over 30 alcohol bottles to represent a house party sort of state, a rabbit head mask for the beast which follows the teen/youth around and a syringe and belt for the drug scenes. Shooting wise I got all of the shots that I needed and a couple of extra ones aswell, some of which I thought of on the spot but felt that these shots could add something to the story. I feel that the day went very well, the actors that I had chosen played the part perfectly, I look forward to editing the piece and making it look as good as it possibly can!  

Studio Production: Photo Shoot

On Friday when Joz came down, the promo team needed some photos for the poster to advertise Punchlines. For this we used the lighting kit to make Joz look a bit more dynamic and also made him wear one of the boxing gloves. Here are what the pictures turned out like later on I shall use Photoshop to put fonts and effects on.

Studio Production: Filming Trailer

On Friday the VT and Promo teams met with Joz to film the trailer for Punchlines and shoot a couple of VTs. The trailer script was written by myself and the trailer was directed and edited by Neill. The basic plot of it was Joz waiting in his dressing room waiting to get called in for the show, the floor manager arrives to let Joz know that the studio needs him. At this point we see Joz walking down the hallway where we see alot of boxing and comedy props come into play, this shows off both the boxing and comedy elements of the show. Here is the finished trailer!

Studio Production: Teaser trailer

Before we broke up for Easter, myself and Neill created a teaser trailer for Punchlines. We did this by using a boxing glove, a crowd cheering and editing it in after effects and final cut. Here is the link to the completed teaser! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWAvcy638ZE

Fiction Unit: Scripting

Today I started scripting my fiction piece, I was planning to do this over the easter break but decided to start now so I can start filming as soon as I get back from the holidays. So far I have done 3 and a half pages and plan to do the rest over easter for now I shall continue writing my essay as I feels that this needs the mist work at the moment.

Fiction Adaptation: Music Mash up

Today we were given the task of creating a music video created from archive clips and a song of our choice. The song I chose was "Father and Son" by Cat Stevens and I decided visually I will use clips from the original 3 Star Wars movies (mainly of Luke and Vader). The song is about a father and son arguing about what is right and wrong although affection can still be seen in their relationship. I thought matching this song to the visuals of star wars was perfect as it basically reflected the relationship between Luke and Vader in the way that they will always have their arguments but in the end they still care for each other. Editing wise I made a rough cut that I still need to add tweeks to but all in all I am already quite proud of it and hopefully it will put some smiles on peoples faces!

Editing Demon-Con

On Monday after filming Demon Con the day before, me and Sam uploaded and edited the footage of the event. Here's what it turned out like, I hope you enjoy it!.

Filming Demon-Con

On Sunday myself and Sam Wilder went into Maidstone to film the local comic-book convention known as Demon-con which was ran by Graham Beadle who we did our documentary on. We took out a camera from the studios and used Sam's camera to record footage, when we got there Graham told us to film whatever we wanted so we decided to get some interviews with some of the comic-book artists, we asked them why they were there, what they were promoting and what they thought of the event. We also filmed an auction that took place, where they auctioned off three posters (I placed a couple of bids in but didn't get anything). At the end of the day we got some really good interviews and some great footage.

Studio Production: Studio Workshop with Hans

On Thursday I got the chance to practise vision mixing in the gallery. This allowed me to gain experience for the studio production coming up in May. Aleister showed me the controls for the mixing desk, which meant I could switch between cameras, watch previews before switching and mixing visuals from one camera to the next. During rehearsals Ashley Kay would say which camera he wanted to cut to and I would do this by pushing said camera button when the shot needed was ready. Overall I did enjoy the workshop as I got to spend time in the gallery getting to grips with vision mixing and think I learnt quite a bit

Fiction Adaptation: Finalised idea

I have now finalised my idea for my Fiction adaptation and am planning on scripting and storyboarding sometime this and next week. The narrative is based around The Graveyard Poem by Jim Morrison and in some ways associates with the authors lifestyle. Here is the finalised narrative for my adaptation:

A youth wakes up in a bed which looks unfamiliar, he gets up, puts on his jeans and leaves the room to explore the house. As he leaves the room he enters a dark hallway, as he walks along the corridor he feels that someone is following him (to which we see a tall figure standing behind him, which resembles a beast) he turns around quickly to find no one there, he carries along the hallway to find a set of stairs. He sees beer bottles and cans scattered all over the place which means he must have been at a house party however he finds it strange that for a house party there are no signs of the guests or anyone else. As he heads down the stairs images flash on the screen for less than a second and as these flash up, the youth feels a pain in his head and hold it in pain, he continues to walk down the stairs. He is now on the second floor of the house, still finding it strange that there is no one around he decides to explore the rooms where he finds a bathroom. The bathroom is surprisingly clean and is sparkling white all over, the youth goes to wash his face in the sink to wake himself up a bit. As the youth bends over to wash his face in the sink we see the beast again reflected in the mirror, he is standing right behind the youth. As the youth rises to look in the mirror he sees nothing of the beast however the bathroom is now grotty and brown compared to its earlier state, the youth is confused and leaves the bathroom quite confused. He enters another room to find a window facing out towards the garden, he looks through the window and sees the beast outside in the distance. The youths head starts throbbing again and more images flash up for less than a second, he runs to the door head in hands but bumps into the beast who now blocks his path and falls to the floor. The youth cannot look at the beast straight on, his heart starts beating rapidly as he manages to push past the beast and exit the room, he runs through the hallway but stumbles over still in pain more images flash up and the youth screams in pain, he looks up to see the beast standing on top of him he manages to pull himself away and crawl to the next stair case, he manages to make his way downstairs and runs to the back door. He collapses against the door banging on it repeatedly screaming for help, he tries to open it but it is locked so he makes his way into the living room where he is stopped by the beast. The youth tries to turn back but the beast is split into three entities and surrounds him, he collapses to his knees screaming as images start to flash and the three beasts circle him spinning infinitely. The youth draws enough strength to push away from the beasts and runs towards the front door but the beast blocks his path arms spread not willing to let him pass. The youth still in pain is determined to leave the house, images still flashing and head still in pain charges straight at the beast, he manages to knock the beast over and is right next to the front door. As he places his hand on the door knob the beast utters two lines from the poem "hate to leave, your sacred lay", the youth hears these words and looks back at the beast hunched on the floor with a concerning look as if he is reconsidering leaving the house. He turns away from the beast and opens the door to be blinded by a massive white light and the screen fades to white. As the picture is visible again we see that we are in the same bedroom as we started in the first scene. We see the youth sprawled across the bed with a needle in one hand and a rope tied around his upper arm, we then hear the last words from the beast as we look down upon the youth "Dread the milky coming of day" 

Morrison died in 1971 due to a heroine overdose which plays a big part for the ending of the piece. The whole story is the youth exploring his mind after taking heroine, his mind is represented by the house itself and as he explores different rooms this is him looking into different parts of his mind. He finds the room which he wakes up in unfamiliar due to the heroine affecting his memory which is why he finds the house so unfamiliar. Each room represents a different part of the youth himself, the bathroom represents his innocence once pure white but now brown and dirty due to drug abuse and the room with the window doesn't focus so much on the room itself but the window as he looks out and sees what other people think of him, paranoid that people may think badly of him he represses these thoughts thus actually hurting himself in the process. The beast can be looked at in a variety of ways, it can be perceived as the demons that live in the youths mind which he overcomes or could be the youth himself trying to save what's left of his tattered mind. The photos that flash up for a fraction of a second and pictures of the youth taking the heroine, the pictures will flash up too fast for the audience to see so will not spoil the ending. And finally the final "mind" scene represents the moment where the youth has left his mind meaning death and loss of sanity.

Studio Production: Producing a VT

Today we were given the task of making a VT which that to be 1 minute 45 seconds long. Luckily we used this time to edit our footage for The Making of Punchlines Episode 1 that we took whilst talent scouting last Thursday. Here is that episode that we created:

Studio Production: Talent Scouting and filming a making of video

Last Thursday the Punchlines crew went to The Walnut Tree, a small up in Maidstone who ran their own comedy club to do some talent scouting. Myself and Neill went along to this so we could film a behind the scenes video. That evening a comedian was on named David Whittney, after he done routine we had a chat with him and he was a very friendly person. He gave us his details and we said we'd get in contact with him in the near future. We got some great footage for the making of video which included interviews with the crew, footage of David and some interesting insights for our production.

Fiction Adaptation: Taking pictures on locations

On Sunday I went around Maidstone to take pictures of location that could be used in an "Emma" adaptation. I went to various locations including churches, a village and a dining room which I created. The way I am adapting "Emma" is in a modern day setting with middle class characters. I also plan to put my photos through Photoshop and add some nice effects onto them.

Fiction Unit: Location Scouting

For the location project we had 4 different novels to choose from to do location scouting for: 1984, Emma, Wuthering Heights and Bleak House. I read the first chapters of all of the novels and I decided to do Emma by Jane Austen as I thought that I could find some decent locations for this and bring in a modern twist.

Studio Production: Designing a logo

Last week Friday me and Neill stayed behind to finish designing the final logo for the studio production. After  using different features on photoshop and using various effects we came up with this as our logo.

 As you can see we added a static background with the boxing glove punching through with the name of the show "Punchlines" on it. We downloaded the font from Dafont and put a black square around the outside to make it look like the boxing glove was coming out of a tv screen.

Studio Production: Creation of the facebook page

Yesterday I created the Punchlines facebook page and is now up and running. So far we have 27 likes and have made 3 posts, Hopefully people will start sharing our page and that way it'll start getting popular! Here is a screen-print of the page:

Tomorrow myself and Neill plan to edit the logo and make a better one.

Studio Production: Production Meeting

Today everyone on the team of Funny People gathered in the baseroom to have our weekly production meeting. The first thing on the agenda is the change of name for our programme from Funny People to Punchlines. Originally my idea, the group decided that this name would be more affective and really gets the point of the programme across. In the production meeting we discussed a variety of things including: locations, logos, rounds and the set. We discussed alot and have quite a bit planned to do over the course of the week. Promo wise Myself, Neill and the rest of the team decided on a solid logo which we'll like to use throughout the whole production and shall start developing it on photoshop tomorrow.

Studio Production: Ideas for Logo and Trailer

With a production meeting coming up in the next week as part of the promotion team I have to design a logo and come up with some ideas for the trailer of Funny People. Because Funny People is like a "comedy-boxing match" my first design is a boxing glove bursting through a wall with the words Funny People written on it, however I have quite a few variations on it but will still keep the boxing feel to it. In terms of trailer ideas I have a vague idea of what kind of visuals it will include but I haven't got anything too solid yet. My aim for this week is to try and draw up some decent logo designs (as my photoshop has stopped working!) and put more thought into what can be put into the trailer!

Studio Production: Funny People

Unfortunately my idea for Drawbacks was not taken any further, however I am not discouraged as I now get to work on the production of Funny People which is being produced by Sam Wilder. I am glad to be working on this for a number of reasons, I am a big fan of comedy and have been to a lot of stand up shows and I have worked well with Sam before in the documentary unit. The roles which I were given after an interview are on the Promos team and Vision Mixer, I am very pleased to be working both of these roles. When I first heard about the Promo Team I was really interested in doing this as I have experience in both Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator and as I want to be an editor in the near future I thought that Vision Mixer would also be a good role to go for. I look forward to working on the Production of Funny People and feel that we can produce a really awesome programme!

Studio Production: Audience, Channel and time

Today I started to think of what channel my production would be on, what audience it would appeal to and what time it would be broadcast. My thoughts are in two separate places on what channel this would be broadcast on, at first I was thinking BBC 1 or 2 but after thinking about all the different channels there are out there, I think my production would be perfect for the freeview channel Challenge. Most shows broadcast on Challenge are mostly competitive shows which mine is, although Challenge broadcasts shows from other channels Drawbacks could be a Challenge exclusive show which could bring more viewers to the channel itself, however this channel does not reach out to my target audience so BBC1 and 2 are still up for consideration. The audience who this is aimed at are children and families. I have chosen this demographic because this is the type of programme that the whole family can watch together and enjoy. This appeals to children because of it's simplistic format and appeals to adults and families because of it's comic and entertaining structure. All in all the programme is a bit of fun which can be enjoyed by families because it's not too competitive! If this programme were to be broadcast on BBC1 it would be around the 17:30 mark during weekdays, as this is just before the news and is just after school is finished so would bring in a lot of views, however if this was broadcast on Challenge it would be flexible to what time it would be broadcast due to most of their content being the same sort of genre (entertainment and game shows).

Studio Production: Idea - contestant format

After thinking how I can make "Drawbacks" more entertaining, I thought about how the contestants should be arranged. Originally the show was a two on two elimination game, but I thought about restructuring how the rounds are set up and how contestants were eliminated. The first way I though of switching it round was like a "Pointless" sort of format where contestants play as pairs and help each other out though the rounds. The other format I was thinking of was where all four contestants go head to head against each other and as the game progresses a player is eliminated until one remains where he/she faces the final round. 

Studio Production: Idea Development "Drawbacks"

Today I decided to think of a few more rounds that could be involved in my studio production idea called "Drawbacks" here are some examples of ideas that I came up with:

1. quick draw - 30 seconds to draw a picture from memory
2. blind draw - 30 seconds to draw a picture without the use of sight
3. switch draw - 30 seconds to draw with the hand you don't usually use (right handed people use left hand vice-versa)
4. clue draw - The host describes attributes of an object and contestants have to draw the right object
5. quickfire draws - round lasts 2-3 minutes, host shouts out various objects and creatures first contestant to draw the object/creature gets a point

These are just a couple of the ideas which I have come up with for "Drawbacks". There are some more but these are the main 5 which I believe are the strongest.

Fiction Adaptation: Idea development

The poem I have decided to adapt is The Graveyard Poem by Jim Morrison. The back story of poem is Morrison write it whilst in a graveyard with his friends however I have chosen not to take the poem too literally considering the actual meaning of it. My idea is about a young man waking up  to find his house is absolutely trashed from a house party held the previous night. The story follows him trying to remember what happened as he faces the troubles of a really bad hangover. In production I plan to film this with the camera occasionally going out of focus to represent the youths terrible hangover and for this I will also need alot of extras to represent the drunken party goers who are still randomly sprawled all over the place. My idea is still forming in my head and within the next few days I believe that I can think of alot more interesting shots and ideas for this adaptation! 

Studio Production: Work shop with Hans

In our workshop with Hans this week we learnt alot about the different roles each of the production crew have, such as director, producer, vision mixer, PA and many more. Later on we did a small workshop which put us in the shoes of someone with that role. We had three cameras and had too record an interview between a presenter and two guests, one person also had to become director and another had to become floor manager. The first time round I played the role of floor manager which meant I had to get the directors words across to the cast and crew in the studio, I found this role quite challenging but this was not a problem as I found it an enjoyable experience. The second time round I had to play the role of the guest which meant that I had to waffle on about my favourite tv programmes, which was quite hard considering answers had to last 40 seconds and one of the longest ones I gave were 20 seconds! and finally the last role that I had to play was the role of camera man where I had a total of 5 different shots including two shots, close ups and mid shots. All in all I thought I was a fun workshop, I learnt alot about the roles we would be playing and we got to see inside the gallery, to see what we would be working on in the future!  

Studio Production: My idea

Over the Christmas holiday I had quite a lot to think about what I wanted to do for the Studio Production. Eventually I came up with an Idea which I believe is incredibly unique and has never been done before! I feel incredibly passionate about my idea and that it has massive potential even for a student project, however there is only one thing that is holding me back. This year we have to come up with an original idea for a live production, which doesn't include a quiz or talent show. My idea is a game show which includes a total of 4 contestants, The rule of the game is that each contestant has to go head to head with other contestants in a drawing contest. The first round of this game show is a one-on-one "draw off" with another contestant, there are two one-on-one "draw offs" which will eliminate two contestants. The contestants are asked to draw an object from memory within the space of a minute (both contestants asked to draw the same thing), these objects will be nothing over complicated  for the first round (e.g. a cat, birthday cake, etc). When that minute is over contestants are asked to show their drawing to the audience who vote on which one looks most similar to the actual object itself, the winner of this "draw off"  advances to the next round where they face the winner of the other "draw off". In the second round of the game show the two winners of round 1 will now go head to head against each other in a round which is very similar to the first, the only difference is that the objects which will be drawn are going to be significantly harder to draw than the objects in the first round and may include drawing a famous person. The winner of this round will go ahead to the final round where a family member or friend will now be join the finalist. In this last round the finalist will have two minutes to draw a total of four objects which are provided by the host, this sounds simple enough however, the finalist cannot continue onto the next drawing unless the friend or family member has guessed correctly what the drawing is (giving approx 30 seconds per drawing). If all four drawing have been guessed by the family member/friend within the two minutes the finalist will win the show and will win a special prize (which has not been thought of yet), if all four drawing are not guessed within the time limit then the contestant loses but is given a consolation prize of some sort so he or she is not left with nothing.

This is my idea, I have not yet come up with a name for the show but I have a lot of time to think about this. Although the project brief says that quizzes and talent shows may not be considered, as I said before I still feel incredibly passionate about this idea. It is very unique and has not been done before, it is simple programme and is not too overly complicated (even if I haven't described it well), the show interacts with the audience and gets them involved and can appeal to a wide range of audiences from children to the elderly. If the production were to be broadcast on television, the best time slot for it would be 17:30, which would be just before the six o'clock news which the majority of our audience will tune into eventually anyway. Another reason why I have chosen 17:30 to be the time this is broadcast is because most quiz/game  programmes are shown around this time including The Weakest Link, Pointless and Eggheads. Again I do know that a game/quiz show may not be up for consideration but as I have said many times I am incredibly passionate about this idea and would love to pitch it to the panel. Even if the idea isn't chosen I would feel as though I'd have done my best with an idea I am proud of.

P.S. Sorry if I waffled on a bit and becoming a bit too sentimental :)  

Studio Production: Discussion and feedback

On Friday we were split into groups and had to discuss our ideas with each other. I discussed my idea with Sam Wilder, Kevin, Jamie and Scott. It was really interesting to hear other peoples ideas and how they would involve different people and appeal to their audiences. It was also great to hear feedback from other people about my idea, not to mention some brilliant suggestions that could make my idea more interesting. The feedback has given me alot to think about with the studio production and I shall continue to work on my idea!

Fiction Adaptation: Ideas

Whilst browsing on the internet to find ideas for my project, I started to consider doing a poem instead of a graphic novel for my fiction adaptation. I decided to search for poems by Jim Morrison; lead singer of The Doors, I had knowledge that he had written poems before so I had a look to see what kind of things he had write. I found a few poems written by him however this one stood out the most for me.

It was the greatest night of my life
Although I still had not found a wife
I had my friends right there beside me
Indians scattered on dawn's highway bleeding
Ghosts crown the young child's fragile eggshell mind
We scaled the wall
We tripped thru the graveyard
Ancient shapes were all around us
No music but the wet grass felt fresh beside the fog
Two made love in a silent spot
one chased a rabbit into the dark
A girl got drunk & made the dead
And I gave empty sermons to my head
Cemetery cool & quiet
Hate to leave
your sacred lay
Dread the milky coming of the day

The moment I read this several ideas popped into my head of what I could do and how much I could play around with it. It's called "Graveyard Poem" and is about Morrison hanging around in a cemetery with his friends but I plan to not take the poem literally and plan to add my own twist to it.

Fiction Adaptation: Introduction

Today was our first day back to uni, and we found that our first project was going to be the Fiction Adaptation. In this unit we will have to take a Fictional piece of work and create a five minuet film out of it, aswell as a written assignment which includes an essay. As students we have to choose appropriate material for our adaptation, we can choose from: Poems, Short stories and Graphic Novels/ Comic Strips.
I have personally chosen to recreate a Graphic novel (to be more specific manga), because I read a lot of graphic novels I feel that I can create something really interesting and put my own spin on it. As to what graphic novel I am going to choose, I have not come up with an idea, however today I shall research what story I feel I can put my all into and hopefully really be experimental with!