Chosen Object

My MacBook. I don't think life would be the same without this now! Macbook is a line of Macintosh Computers, released in May 2006. Santa Claus bought it me last Christmas, beats any Dell computer any day. My Dell at home is FULL of viruses, when I went back to Manchester for the weekend I turned on my Dell and ALL my music, pictures and general documents had all been wiped. Everything on it had been eaten by viruses. I'd never let my Mac get any viruses!

Everyone that goes on my laptop goes straight to i-sight (the built in camera) and takes millions of different pictures of themselves using the different effects. To be honest, I'd be lying to say I don't still do that too...

It takes a while to get used to but when you've got the hang of it it's amazing "Once you go Mac, you'll never go back". The best feature for me is having bluetooth on your laptop, incredibly handy, especially when your best friend has the same laptop with all the programs you want on, that she bought but they're free for you with the wonders of bluetooth.

Pixilation Continued...

This is our group pixilation film. We discovered a mass amount of problems within this project. Weeks after weeks the project just wasn't getting ANYWHERE. The group bit by bit fell apart and everyone lost interest for the project. Then the new project was introduced (one shot film). So the group was even harder to get together. 

This is what we put together from the small bit of film we had which was approximately only 30 seconds long. Not enough. The quality of the film was also poor. I love the idea that we came up with but the actual outcome was just not up to scratch. We didn't use a tripod so the frames were out of focus and blurry. 

I'm treating this particular project as a learning curve as after Christmas when term 2 begins I am going to shoot my own pixilation and make sure I give myself enough time to complete everything to the standard I believe I can reach. 

One Shot Film - Idea

Both myself and Kirsty have researched into air traffic pollution. Between us have thought up a plot for the film. We thought about mis-en-scene, effects, camera angles and editing.

We're going to film in the very city centre where the busiest city traffic takes place. Bus and taxi lanes, junctions and traffic lights. 

We first tried this idea and failed miserably as we did a filming and then the camera decided to break on us. Not fun. Had to leave it until the next day. The next day, I don't think i've seen it rain for long in such a long time, or maybe thats just because we we waiting for the rain to die down. It just wasn't happening for us. Then it got dark.

That weekend both Kirsty and I had to go home for the weekend for personal reasons and weren't back until the following tuesday morning. 

During midday Wednesday we went to the junction outside the Victoria Centre, set up the camera and tripod and positioned it towards the traffic lights. We filmed the traffic for about 45 minutes until we had enough film for the next stage. Success!

We then went to the lab and attempted to upload and save the film. When I say attempt it was more like five. With us both very new to the Premiere Pro 2.0 program we struggled a lot. 

From this point on we realised there was a lot more work involved then interpreted. As a team we are both very unfamiliar with the programs as both of have studied Graphic Design before coming on to this course, therefore we are used to other programs such as Photoshop and Illustrator, and did a lot of hand based drawings. 

Things just seem to be getting worse and worse. It is so hard to get the hang of Premiere, I constantly need someone there telling me what to do next! I NEED a book to help me along with the editing! I went to Waterstones to try get one with help with Adobe Premiere Pro but they were no help, looks like I'm going to have to order off Amazon or ask Santa to get me one. 

Editing- 

The idea is that I change colours of the sky and clouds to emphasis the pollution to grays and dark purples, every couple of frames it would turn to those two colours. On selected frames the speed would slow down, as on selected vehicles would have facts and information about air traffic pollution. For example, I noticed when I looked over the film that I had a lot of buses going back and forth past the camera, and as they get in focus , I would erase what is inside the billboards and put my own inside. This would continuously happen throughout the film, with a bus at the beginning with an opening title and then a vehicle at the end with a finishing fact. 

One Shot Film

Single Shot Brief-

For this project we have been tasked to produce a one shot film - literally meaning a single continuous shot. We have been set guide lines we must use to make this film. Films should be one and two minutes long.

• You must use a tripod and can only move camera once.
• During the edit and include additional sound.
• You must work in teams
• You must document this process online journal.

With lack of freedom to experiment as the camera has to be kept in a fixed position, I am restricted with what I am able to do. Though we have almost complete freedom in the editing process apart from cutting the film.

Plot For Film-

Both myself and Kirsty feel quite strong about looking after the environment. As we are both from major popular cities i.e. Manchester we both have to suffer with traffic pollution. Therefore we decided to base the one shot film around this idea. 

I have done some research about air pollution to help me with the film, here are a few bulletins;

• Traffic pollution has been blamed for tens of thousands of deaths every year across Europe.
  
• The cost of treating illness associated with traffic pollution across the three countries amounted to 1.7% of their gross domestic product, exceeding the costs arising from traffic accidents.
  
• "That's equivalent to a jumbo jet crashing every ten days. The government must take tougher action on traffic levels to reduce this appalling death toll."
  
• Global Warming
• There are very few areas of Britain that are safe from air pollution.  Government health standards are exceeded many days throughout the year - in rural areas as well as urban.  It is estimated that air pollution causes several thousand premature deaths every year.  The health of 1 in 5 people is at risk from air pollution in the U.K.  The people who are vulnerable are young children, pregnant women, the elderly, and people suffering from heart and lung diseases.
  
• How it's caused; The internal combustion engine has been developed into a powerful, reliable and compact power unit.  These engines work by burning fuel in cylinders and expansion of this burning fuel pushes a piston down.  The piston in turn pushes a crankshaft around; much like a person's legs pushes the pedals around the crank on a pushbike.  The rotary motion of the crankshaft is then used to power the transmission that allows the vehicle to be driven at different speeds.  The big disadvantage of these engines is the combination of impurities in the fuel and the process of burning it produces pollutants.The pollutants that are produced by internal combustion engines are: nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide, benzene, particulates and hydrocarbons.  The problems associated with these different pollutants are given below:

  Nitrogen dioxide: May aggravate asthma symptoms. Can cause a tightening of the chest and reduced lung function. Can make airways more sensitive to allergens such as house dust mite. By disrupting the body's natural cleansing mechanisms nitrogen dioxide may increase the body's susceptibility to viral infections.

  Carbon monoxide: Slows reflexes, impairs thinking and causes drowsiness by reducing the oxygen-carrying capacity of the blood. Can increase the likelihood of exercise- related pain in people with coronary heart disease.

  Benzene: A known carcinogen (something that causes cancer) that can cause leukaemia.

  Particulates: Consistent correlation between particle levels and death rates. High levels of particles have also been linked with increased hospital admissions and asthma attacks. Smaller particles can carry carcinogenic particles into the lungs.

  Hydrocarbons (Ozone): Irritates the mucous membrane of the respiratory system, causing coughing, choking and impaired lung function, particularly in people who exercise. Other symptoms include headaches, eye nose / throat irritation and chest pain on deep breathing. Can make airways more sensitive to allergens such as pollen. Can also impair defences against bacteria and viruses.  

Pixilation

This is our first project. Our brief is to make a 30 second stop motion film. At 12 frames a second that works out at about 360 shots. We've been split into groups of 4 and it's time to start some work. 

Our inspiration is the Guiness hands advert and "The Handymen" from Zzzap (remember the childrens program on CITV?!) 

We've bought the props and hopefully will turn out okay !

Week One Continued

In the second session we were put into groups of 4 and each took part in creating a white board animation. It was a very simple but effective way of creating an animation. Using a high end camera with stop motion features and a white board we could draw an image and take a photo and wipe the image off and draw another and carry on this process to make an animation.

The brief was to draw a box and a tree and get the box on the other side of the tree by any means we could think of. We took 187 photographs in 2 hours, then when it was edited it became roughly 6 seconds.

I enjoyed creating and contributing this piece of work because the finishing outcome looked better than expected.

Week One !

So here is my first post. My name is Claire Burton, I moved up to Nottingham on the 29th September all the way from Manchester to start university life. Everyone around me is ill with 'freshers flu' I'm bound to get it soon with all the constant partying and excessive drinking - amazing! 

Apart from that this week we have had a few introduction meetings to the course with a few warm up activities to make us feel more comfortable with our surroundings and an idea to what we will be doing throughout the course. Which I thought was a good idea as it gets us working in teams.

In the first session I made a pinhole camera using a 440 ml larger can, then the group was released into the near by area taking and developing photos. The developing process involved 4 different stages:

1) To put the photo paper into a chemical bath so that the image will become visible onto the paper.

2) To put into another chemical used to seal the image to stop the paper reacting to the light.

3 & 4) The last two stages used to protect the photo and wash off left over chemicals.

I took two photos, both taken towards the Waverley Building where we study, as the building itself is quite beautiful and thought the black and white image would develop with lots of interesting shapes. One photo turned out a lot clearer than the other. Due to the size and shape of the camera (larger can) it gives a distorted image. Before I came to Nottingham Trent I studied an Art Foundation course in Stockport, and you chose your pathway for the year (I chose visual communication) you studied photography for a week and for 3 of those days we used pinhole cameras made from shoe boxes, so I had a clear idea of how long I should leave the shutter open for, to expose light. 

Here is my photo outcome :

http://www.lab.constellations.co.nz/induction/07-08/pinhole/photos/claire_!!!!.JPG

And here is the rest of the groups photos:

http://www.lab.constellations.co.nz/induction/07-08/pinhole/