DJW Talent LTD

Today me and Janice went down to Stockton to discuss possible opportunities with DJW Acting School. There were another two filmmakers there (and one that joined a bit later on) so I gave out business cards and networked. It wasn't quite clear what was being asked of us, and today was mostly speculating what could be done. There are two groups; a youth and adult, all of which have come up with pitches and performed pieces of them. Whether all of these can all be filmed or not is tricky, but I assume this exercise was just for us to see their acting ability. Dan (leader) was mostly after experience for everyone for in front of camera, especially for those going into contracts with CBBC with no camera experience under their belt. 

Janice came up with a good idea called Dear Brain which is essentially a ten second hot seat acting about anything they like, which could be like what they pitched. A day could be dedicated to this and a good way to start them off. I think everyone seemed to skim over this idea and wanted a mockumentary type film done. This is great but I'm not sure it would look very professional and showcase their talent. It was then discussed to have an in house production team, making regular films and maybe include some teaching like terms on set, etc. This would be very beneficial for everyone, but getting a hold of money for kit (they seem to want their own to keep) and to cover our time might be an issue (fundraising seemed to be their go to, but I'm not sure how much they could raise).

Dan sent out a long email the day after which really cleared everything up and was a lot more organised. It looks like Dan is leaning more towards an in house production team but is open from what happens after that and what to film. We need to come up with a cost for equipment, as well as wages for our time, so they know how much to fundraise. However it makes a bit of sense to see how much they can fundraise and we scavenge equipment from that. I'll still come up with a sum of the minimum we need. There is also a part of the email to come up with what to film, so it makes sense if Janice fills that part out and I do the sums of the equipment. I also need to see what wages the other filmmakers are going to put. I was thinking around £50 a day to cover expenses and our time. But if the other guys put £100 and they get it, I will be devastated! It's a good part time job but I would need another one to support me financially, especially if this is a once a week/irregular thing.

Newcastle Graduates

Today I went to the end of year show/performance of the Newcastle University screenwriting graduates. Their script were being performed by five actors and was great to watch. A lot of them were very serious but the two comedies stood out to me and were hilarious. I gave out a few business cards and asked a few to send me some scripts (excerpts were only acted out) so filming them could be an option. I also know someone who does regular shows for them and might be good if I can get professional pictures and videos done for her and others.

Massive big thank yous to everyone who took part and came along to the northern stage script readings on friday!! Im am so immensely proud of all pals and super glad that people enjoyed 'Gentlemen Creatures', my supernatural geordie werewolf adventure series!! 🐺🍺 Thank you everyone for your support, i am so greatful.

A post shared by Melody js (@melodygroovysproates) on May 28, 2018 at 4:41am PDT

AJ Productions

Took on a last minute camera operating job/experience yesterday for a Panto video. I arrived in plenty of good time so I could meet everyone and set up. However, on the morning I was told that they were bringing their own camera operator. So I was demoted to runner and general helping out. Set up all the lights and camera in good time for the tech/sound guy and camera guy to turn up. 

Lee quickly showed me the settings on these lights to keep it one colour

I'm still not entirely sure what each one does but I got a warm tinge on them to stay

The tech guy wanted to put up photography lights for close up lighting. I struggled here as I have never used or put up any photography lights before but he was happy to show me how and we got it done very quickly. It was a bit like putting up a tent.

Everyone started to filter in that point and it went quite smoothly; the script was just stolen Tim Vine jokes! From here I was mostly handing the camera operator lenses and showed him how to get different settings up. 

Probably the best photo of the day!

They also got a quick 'Q and A' video in the Celestial Encounters set. Norman walked in at this point who was very keen and wanted pictures of them using the set (hope he doesn't mind they drank the fake rum!)

I was mostly eating biscuits at this point and being canned laughter. Next the cast did a photoshoot and the crew went home. I started moving equipment and backing up footage so they could grab it next time they're down (they didn't have anything to store it on!) 

Overall, a good shoot. Was done in good time and quite well organised! I also gave out a few business cards if they ever wanted me again for any projects!

Castle Pin

Managed to secure a paid job for a promotional video for a company called Castle Pin. Basically they set up QR codes in buildings to see when things were last monitored and when they are due for an update, particularly useful for fire doors. 

This originally started out as taking a few pictures for the website but I suggested a promotional video to further explain what they do and have a broader reach. The company is quite independent at the moment with only a few clients, but hopefully with better marketing, it will kick off the ground. 

Had to reschedule the shoot for another week (which is typically the week of Degree Show! Managed to get Vue and the Opening Night free but can't attent my rotors sadly!)

Photoshop Practice

Enhancing some of my photoshop skills by fixing old photographs. Also did a leaflet design as a small job from my brother which I am quite proud of. I had to change the date on an existing poster with the same font and colours. Quite straightforwards, I used a website called Fontspring which came up with loads of similar fonts so I downloaded a few. Also used a simple colour picker. Came out with this.

Left is the original, right is mine

I also started experimenting with repairing and recolouring old photographs. I found one in an album which was discoloured from being in a frame and had a stripe of original colour on it. First, I had to repair the stripe so I used the 'stamp' tool and picked a colour and essentially coloured it in. 

After that, I used the Photoshop 'auto colour' tool which brought it back to its original colour. I tried to recolour black and white photos but this was very time consuming (the auto colour tool didn't work as there was no colour information whatsoever). I might come back to this later. But now at least I can say I can repair old and discoloured photos!

My friend sent me one of his very damaged pictures so I experimented on one and it turned out very well. I might start this up as a business on Fiverr.

Mostly just used the stamp tool for this one, I used content aware for some of the bigger bits. It was quite time consuming hence why I should start it as a business, so I can put more effort into it.

Trailers

For Newcastle Film Festival, we had a choice of making a trailer for the film. This would be good for marketing as well as another box to tick on the application form. So I did a quick edit, luckily I knew the film well and what shots look good. With a bit of help from the director for artistic vision, we came up with this.

Cirque du Muerte - Trailer from Janice Lee on Vimeo.

The director liked this so much they requested a one of Onion Man (which I am 10x prouder of). Again had a few creative outputs as I didn't know the film as well, but it looks very cool. I think I have found my calling haha! Also had to alter the aspect ratio as the footage at the moment had the film peaking through in the back. I edited both trailers in Premiere Pro mostly for ease as I have it at home and also on all of the Uni computers. Basically made an adjustment layer and changed a few of the settings. Learnt a new skill!

RTS Awards

Cirque du Muerte (last years live project) has been nominated for a regional RTS award in Yorkshire, in the category of Entertainment/Comedy. So tonight roughly 30 of us went down to support it and the Uni. 

Glad to report that WE WON! CCAD have not won a category before (only craft awards) and we are now shortlisted to be in the national awards down in London. They did play the worst clip of the film though, guess they just picked the most 'comedic' bit. We got certificates and a trophy (hope this will be on a rotor), but we are getting our sound ops name engraved onto it. Sadly the certificates only say 'nominees' too instead of winners. 

It was a very good night and we have had an article on the CCAD website already. (http://hartlepool.ccad.ac.uk/ccad-film-students-win-rts-yorkshire-student-awards-2018/)When we were emailed about this we were told it might go into the papers too!

Echoes Stand In

Today I was a stand in for the computer voice in Echoes of Silence, as well as just generally helping out. Most of which was trying to work the long LED lights to make it stay constantly on blue. Got there eventually! Found out that my voice was echoing and thought it would be better to ring me from across the room, which still echoed, so I was in a room (which I was grateful for in the end as it was very cold! I know now for Hope that I need more heaters, blankets and hand warmers). I said I was up for it tomorrow but had to be at home, but this was fine as it was just a phone call. However I think the director had a lot more to worry about the next day so it didn't happen. At least I did what I could to get everything set up easier and quicker on the Monday.

Edinburgh International Film Festival 'The Network'

Got an opportunity emailed to us a few days ago about a scheme from Edinburgh Film Festival called The Network. Basically it's a four day course to try and kick start a job in the film industry. There will be industry professionals there and looks like it will be valuable experience. I tried to find any flaws and I just can't seem to find any. Accommodation is supplied and I could get my travel and food expenses back. The only flaw I can find that I might fall at is that I have to come up with a new TV show idea. I'm more technical savvy than ideas, and I will be extremely unhappy if they pick my idea and want me to organise it all (want experience with the cameras ideally). But hopefully I can change my path and just focus on my technical skills in my CV and three questions that need to be answered alongside it. 

Deadline for this is Friday 27th April so hopefully I can come up with a fleshed out idea by then!

Side note: This also fulfils learning outcome three for Professional Practice by using my skills in this module for potential employers.

Create Write Here

I have helped a classmate creating a facebook group for creatives to share their work to and receive constructive criticism. Hopefully this group will encourage people to collaborate if they like an idea as well as kick start their projects. I mostly offered my knowledge as I admin a few Facebook groups. It hasn't quite kicked off the ground yet but hopefully it will.

Gayle Woodruffe - Talk

Today we had a quick presentation with a representative of Northern Film and Media. They look and host a lot of events in the area related to the film industry and also offer talent development, some small funding and a production service. They host four main events; careers and networking events, bootcamp (which happens every quarter of the year), masterclasses and workshops. More info is on their website. 

Mostly, Gayle offered us advice on what to do after University which is useful for my Professional Practice module. Firstly you should know for certain what you want to be and what the role entails; for camera look at things like what cameras to use and where from. Next, there are two main production services/databases, one is north east exclusive (Northern Media) and the other is wider (Creative England). There's also two Facebook groups to join which I have already done. Creative Skillset offer further training and websites also have a Trainee Finder and traineeships is another option for getting into the industry. 

For looking at jobs in he industry, always find a person to contact rather than an overarching email address, and make sure it's the right person (usually a Line Producer). CV's should be one page ideally, and must hook the reader in half of that. Put the most relevant to the job first such as experience and expand on it. If something is not relevant, use transferable skills and make it relevant. Show your personality. Learning to drive is also pretty much a must (unless you're based in London).

Echoes of Silence Extra/ITV News

This afternoon, ITV Tyne Tees news came in to do a feature on the college after Sir Ridley Scott mentioned CCAD in his BAFTA acceptance speech. A life goal of mine was to appear on TV so I followed the crowd and tried to get in as much as possible. There were two cameras so naturally I gravitated towards the second camera, but I ended up putting make-up on Andrew somehow. The news reporter then did a few VoxPops of us, I panicked and pretty much just repeated what the news reporter said. 

Thanks to Sir Ridley Scott, for mentioning ccad at the baftas last night. Itv coming in to interview some of our current students in the new studio. . . #bafta #ccad #artschool #itv #ridleyscott #filmproduction #director #alien #bladerunner #inspiration #northeast

A post shared by Film & Moving Image Production (@ccad_cfmip) on Feb 19, 2018 at 7:34am PST

Luckily I was dressed for the occasion as I was filming with Echoes of Silence as an extra afterwards. I also took a few behind the scenes pictures and also put eye shadow on Graham's knuckles to took a bit bruised and bloodied. The shoot went quite smoothly, however I couldn't get the ear piece in my ear very well. It managed to stay in for about a minute at one point so there should be stuff to work with! 

Chris Campbell

Today Chris Campbell came in to give a seminar about post production workflows. Chris has 18 years experience in the industry in editing. Even though this doesn't really apply to me, I find editing interesting and came along. 

One of the main things covered was the difference between online and offline resolution in the industry, which is very important and can vary your salary. Offline editing is when you transcode videos to a lower quality so it's faster to work with, and exporting it as the original quality, useful for narrative editing. Online resolution is editing with the higher quality footage which takes up more processing power and storage. This is more useful for colour grading. It costs a lot of money to edit, even more if you are online editing. And you also need to make sure your computer can hold the native media and is powerful enough to edit. 

Naming conventions are also important and can be beneficial to the editor later on, so they can find clips very quickly. Chris' system is usually;

Project name - year, month, day - camera ID - card number

Folder and edit bin structure is also important for finding clips fast. The set up should usually look like this;

• 01_Media
• 02_Audio
• 03_GFX
• 04_SFX
• 05_Music
• 06_Outputs
• 07_Cuts

Always duplicate sequences in case the new edit doesn't work or the client liked it better before. If you save to a desktop, always make sure to take it off and relink the media.

Chris then went to talk about four main post production job roles in the industry which was very interesting, even a few of these appealed to me.

A Data Wrangler takes the footage to the editor without loss. They keep a log and back it up onto two drives. They also use Shot Put Pro to ensure integrity of the footage. Make sure you copy the entire contents from the camera and never put contents of two cards into one folder. This is usually the way in the industry for aspiring editors.

A DIT (Digital Imaging Technician) is in charge of image quality control and essentially do on set colour correction. They also manage the production's workflow, as well as check exposure levels, applying LUTs, looking at focus errors and unwanted shadows, etc. 

An Ingest Operator ingests rushes in a range of formats; cards, cameras, drives and FTPs (file transfer protocol). They transcode the media to editable formats and frame rates, and set up project files, sync camera footage and audio, and generally organise footage for the editors.

A Logger looks at the footage and makes detailed notes for the editor/producer, which usually includes the time, subject, location and dialogue. They also look at the themes, sync (of dialogue) and arcs in the story. Time codes and paper logs are also very important for this job. They must have an eye for what the editor wants as well as identify tones of voice, camera movements, too much light in shot, etc. They often go into Assistant Producer roles. 

The client is always right, you will have to make choices you don't like to make them happy. Always listen with an open mind. Consider the impact and suggest an alternative and say why it won't work. Always meet the objective. 

Always check the film twice, for picture and audio. Fix these issues. Send off a timecoded copy (drag and drop). Always double check and make sure there is no miscommunication. Editing in a full room of people could also happen which is fun, but stressful. Also, get in with the film crew to make sure the edit is easier.

Echoes of Silence - BTS

Whereas I am not credited or crew on Echoes of Silence, I have offered myself to take stills and videos of Behind the Scenes footage and also as an extra in this particular scene. The shoot went slowly but surely and I think the footage they got looked good. 

 

Photoshop Lessons

On Thursday afternoons, we now have basic Photoshop skills lessons. This is very good news as I only know how to edit RAW pictures, rather than looking at editing, adding text, making posters, etc. I won't be including the very basic and common sense side menu which is pretty straightforward and I already know where most things are.

I was the only person from my course that turned up which was a shame (plus a few Production Design students). We looked at making business cards as well as the basic tools like the magic wand, text, layers, etc. The history tool is particularly helpful so you can see where you have made a mistake and delete it. 

Holding shift while drawing using the pen tool draws a straight line. The layer tools can also edit text by adding outlines (edit then stroke) and also a nice embossing effect (bevel and emboss). You can also drag documents from the tab menu and put them into other documents. Holding the shift key while selecting can make you select specific areas. 

Going into select then transform will bring up the resize options. Free transform will resize the image and holding shift will keep the dimensions. 

Next week we will be looking at images and editing them which will be useful for everyone in our year for making posters. 

Photoshop

With Minor out of the way, I am focusing on getting the wedding photos edited. A lot of them were quite noisy so I looked into how to get rid of it and it was life changing. Since I took pictures in RAW format it was a lot easier too. The CR2 menu comes up automatically on photoshop so it was quite easy exploring through the options and the "noise reduction" tool.

Before

After

There's also a few lights that are over exposed, some sadly too far gone where it just darkens the white. Some I could save such as this one below. The phone was very overexposed, so I used the Adjustment Brush and made a new correction and brought the exposure down.

Less overexposed

I also experimented with the spot healing tool for a spot someone had, but most importantly on this picture. It's not very flattering at first so I was hoping this button would smooth out the bones. After time it did! And I am very happy with the results.

Before

After

Wedding Photography

Yesterday I did my first every professional photography gig. I was extremely nervous as I've heard that wedding photography is the worst and I still feel like I'm lacking in the photography field. But hey, they found my facebook page and liked my pictures, so I must have been doing something right. I took a few nice pictures of decorations and the dresses and then accidently formatted the card somehow (no idea how, they were there one minute and gone the next. It's even harder to do as it says "are you sure you want to format it?"). Luckily it wasn't of the ceremony. 

I switched to video for the most important shots as I didn't want to miss them, e.g. the kiss, the first dance. So I will screenshot from them, and maybe make a montage. The rooms were also very dark (I did take a LED light which I used at some moments, but not when taking pictures of the guests as I thought it was too intrusive, as my brief was "casual shots"). So I'm a bit worried about noise, hopefully I'll be able to fix and make them look acceptable in post. It will also be my first time experimenting in photoshop (I shot in RAW so I should have good data to work with). 

I got paid £70 (plus a £10 tip) and possibly some more later when I deliver the finished pictures, which will go towards investing in the business, such as new lenses and business cards. 

Onion Man - Filming

Today I went to see some of Janice's directorial project being filmed. Basically, some people from Leeds wanted to produce her project. It was a much bigger crew and I learnt a lot. I offered myself as stills photographer on the day for experience with a bigger crew and to see how filming was going. (I also took a few behind the scenes videos for my showreel).

Filming was off to a good start, all the actors arrived in good time, and the location looked fab. The 1st AD was also great at getting everyone on time and not afraid to speak up if we were behind schedule. However, I did feel a bit overwhelmed at times (can't imagine how Janice was feeling). I even got another job role with using the hazer when they needed smoke (however, someone took it at one point. We just alternated between ourselves who was using it. I was too busy taking stills!)

Catering was very nice and cozy, in a shed surrounded by all the actors (definitely needed on this very cold day full of outside shoots). The afternoon, however, was a bit of a slow burner. One of the locations we planned to film then dropped out, so everyone had to think quick and do an alley scene instead. It's a shame because the art department bought loads of vegetables and were making rosettes all morning for the location (the show). I hung out with the art department for most of the afternoon as the alleyway was very small and not a lot of crew could fit. I also found it the least stressful and independent of the departments (I think I know which I want to specialise in now). 

Thor: Ragnarok - Review

Well, it's been a while (4 years!!!) since the last Thor film and well, it wasn't great lest be honest. I was excited and nervous going into the cinema but let me tell you, I felt like a proud parent after it. Ragnarok was definitely a step in the right direction for the Thor films and the MCU in general.

Overall there wasn't a lot to analyse shot wise. HOWEVER there was a lot mise-en-scene wise (can this count as minor research?). The planet Sakaar was rich in colours, which is a bit ironic seeing how post-apocalyptic it and the inhabitants are. It also reminded me a lot of The Hunger Games with the Capitol and how there was a rich centre and people dressing expensively when people were dying and malnourished. Colour was definitely the stand out in the film and was used amazingly; even the trash was colourful. All of Hela's scenes were dark with no colours, and felt like this was done on purpose with colour correction. The Willy Wonka reference on Sakaar was also really weird but funny.

https://giant.gfycat.com/GregariousMemorableKoodoo.gif

Now it doesn't look very colourful on here, but it does in the film

I was looking forward to Valkryie but her introduction was horrible in my opinion; not funny at all and cheesy. But I grew to like and relate to the character. Can't wait to see more of her! I also want to know where Sif was in the film (didn't cover what happened in the actual film but there's been plenty of speculation). It was nice to see the rest of the other Warriors 3. I am very glad Jane has gone though. The Doctor Strange cameo was all I could have wanted and more. It was hilarious and made my hyped for Infinity War! All the characters are meeting and it's building up and I'M SO EXCITED! (it was also veryyy convenient that Thor gained his super power before Infinity War- this isn't a spoiler as it was in the trailer). 

https://media.giphy.com/media/3o8dFlRV9seyimVQuk/giphy.gif

The first half an hour of the film felt a bit rushed and fast paced in my opinion. I did like the very start of the film, it just went a bit fast after that. Didn't know where to look and just needed a scene to get my breath back and think about what just happened. The rest of the film was fine after that though. It just felt like they rushed to get Thor to Sakaar then took their time after that.

Now I said colour was the highlight (colour pun?) of the film, but soundtrack was also pretty close. The theme sounds like something that came out of War of the Worlds which I loveeeee (see below for a Spotify embed), and was also VERY happy that Immigrant Song from the trailer also featured in the film (twice, sorry if this counts as spoilers!). 

However, the songs and the humour involved (there was a lot of adult references. So be warned if you bring kids. I heard one kid go to their parents asking what an orgy was, so good luck with that) was very similar to Guardians of the Galaxy. The introduction of Sakaar and other planets was also very similar to this, and maybe even the soundtrack. Personally, I wouldn't say this was a bad point as I love both, but some people might argue that Ragnarok isn't original. But hey, what in the film industry is?

http://78.media.tumblr.com/789e851a0389a92bfa233e5534048088/tumblr_otqrtvEZit1spgwzwo2_500.gif

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the film. I've learnt not to trust Marvel trailers ever again though as there was a lot missing and edited differently (some people picked up the Hela scene in a field vs. a back alley being one). I saw the film in 2D but I might go again for it in 3D IMAX to see the difference. ALSO please bring me more Thor and Loki brotherly love and stories when they were younger. LOVED the small story with the snake.

7/10

First Professional Job

I created a videography and photography page last year. Even though I only have about 20 likes, I got a phone call the other week asking for a wedding photographer. I did warn them I was only a learner, especially in the photography department, and offered expenses only. But he was very kind, liked my work and offered it as a paid position. I am a bit nervous (even though he only wants casual pictures, I still have some pressure to get key moments of the night) and excited as this is my first proper paid position and I hope it goes well! (maybe this can link to "online presence" and Professional Studies!)

I also went to RoyalTeas over the summer and took a few professional pictures and the lady who owns the establishment loved a picture I took of her which now has over 200 likes. I asked for her to tag my professional page but I haven't had any new likes (doh). I'm quite proud of the picture though.

I proof read and edit my friends novels and one is now a pubished paperback! Very exciting stuff. Link for which can be found here: http://amzn.eu/8tKxisA I also manage his social media accounts. I've also applied for a role in Middlesbrough town centre at Christmas time. Sent off my CV so just waiting for a reply now.