What if ......?

Disaster movie premise

what if ......?

the Banking crisis spread and the Electronic Banking systems failed, nobody could pay for anything and everything started to unravel.......

Society revolves around trust stacked on trust in computer systems and electronic money .... if an evil mastermind disrupted the way we pay for things Society would soon break down into chaos and the world would be held to ransom .....

Bath Farmers Market

I wandered along to Bath Farmers Market and came out with some great interviews !







The Stallholders were incredibly friendly & helpful and more than happy to talk on Camera about the goods they sell - unfortunately I had to cut it right down into a minute but we will be back to make some more promo's !

Genre M@sh Ups

For our genre Mash up we took Forrest Gump & Dawn of the Dead to create

"Day of the Gump" .......Zombie is as Zombie does.....Life is like a box of decaying limbs.... etc...etc..etc....

Horror \ Comedy

Pitch ;

A simpleton from childhood to fully grown zombiedom, meeting historical figures through sheer chance, eating them and changing the course of history, finds redemption through the son he never knew he had.

6 word story

Here's my 6 word story ;

Cleaner Wanted ; Quiet, discreet, not squeamish.

Now get out of that one !!

NOW GET OUT OF THAT ONE

John and Philomena looked up from their fried eggs and stared through the window of the greasy spoon Café, waiting for their moment.

Lancelot came back from the toilet and sat down. As he sat, he knocked John’s knife, catapulting John’s egg into Philomena’s face.

Philomena screamed and jumped up in shock, she stumbled back without realising there was a baby in a high chair behind her. John’s quick reactions, inherent from being a professional table tennis player, kicked into play and he grabbed Philomena’s arm with all his strength to stop her from knocking into the baby.

John knew that this was his moment that he was waiting for. So he decided he wanted to became a profesinal table tennis player and learn with the Japanese champions!!

John had a real problem with this decision, the fact that he was in a greasy spoon café and not in Japan where he wanted to work with the best Japanese tennis players. Luckily a Japanese man sitting on the next table said that he was going to Tokyo and his son was a Japanese tennis champion he had a spare ticket to go to Tokyo that day.

“Only £5000” to you sir, said the Japanese man.

John pondered on the offer, then remembered he had a Wii, complete with Wii Sports. He stands up proud and walks out, unfortunately dragging the Japanese man with him as the long white beard got caught in John’s belt.

It just goes to show that you don’t have to travel the world to find yourself. John also realised that Japan is famous for Sushi not eggs. He loved Eggs.

He turned on his heels and headed for home, whistling happily and pondering the endless choices of poached, fried, boiled, scrambled…
= = = = = = = == = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
This was a weird exercise - I thought I'd set up a scenario of two people waiting in a Cafe for something to happen - they were waiting for something outside, but the story evolved inside the Cafe and became surreal. I wanted to shout "hey can't you all read my mind???!!!" but of course none of the others could.

Foleys - not as easy as it looks !

Over the Summer I was asked to contribute foleys to an indie scottish indie horror movie called "The Dead Outside" http://www.thedeadoutside.co.uk/ - the Film was shown at Film4's Frightfest in August to good reviews.

I took the job on but found it incredibly difficult to record the quiet sounds that they needed without picking up huge amounts of noise - in the end, without access to a professional recording studio I had to admit defeat and pull out of the project.

A real learning experience and certainly will not treat foleys so lightly in the future !

REVEALED : first TV Credit & IMDB !!

Back in June I signed up to Productionbase (http://www.productionbase.co.uk/) because I'd seen a Runner Job advertised in Bristol - I was lucky enough not just to get the gig but also to be asked back !

I worked on a National Geographic \ Channel 5 co-production that was being made by Change Productions of London. I was making drinks, fetching pizza, driving the props to & from London, helping the Camera team rig dolly & jib, helping the special fx guy set fire to things and generally having a great time.

The Programme was REVEALED:Julius Ceasar and the Druids http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1280386/fullcredits#cast and was shown on Channel 5 in August and gave me my first credit on national TV plus an entry in imdb ! (http://us.vdc.imdb.com/name/nm3109089/)

Visit to BBC Bristol

I was lucky enough to be invited by my mate Martyn Harries to visit him at work at BBC Broadcasting House in Bristol.

Martyn is a Dubbing Mixer and has worked on numerous Natural History Programmes along with Drama and Entertainment. He was part of the BBC Team that won the 1999 BAFTA Award for Best Sound (Factual) for 'the Life of Birds.'

I spent the day in a Dubbing Theatre and watched in awe as Martyn did his stuff adding sounds and mixing levels for some short films and trails for BBC Springwatch. The Tracks had already been laid by the Assistants so his Job was to check all of the levels and make sure that the added sounds worked with the footage. Martyn instinctively knew which sounds would work and had a full library of alternatives to call on if he needed to.

He was using audiophile to lay and mix the tracks and working on an AMS Neve MMC Desk with full automation. The suite has a Full Projection Screen display along with 2 smaller televisons for monitoring and checking final mix levels. Mixes can be in Stereo or 5.1 Sound depending on where the final programme is to be shown - a lot of HD Content is being mixed in 5.1 along with programmes that may end up on DVD.

It wasn't all watching and I managed to involved and get my big break as a foley artist and recorded the foleys for a Magpie flapping its wings !

At lunchtime we popped into the 'Bargain Hunt' Office to meet up with Rob Bayly and have a quick look at where the Production Team run the Programme. I met Martyn through Rob and his passion for Ballooning - I've flown with him and also helped with crewing & retrieving - a great experience and one not be missed !

All in all an excellent day and a really educational visit - cheers for the pint !

Bath Rugby TV & Bath Spa Uni

As part of the Course Rueben, Mike Bishop and myself volunteered to help Bath Rugby to produce some Video clips for their Website.

So far we've helped to produce a passing Clinic Video, an Interview with head Coach Steve Meehan, an Interview with Steve Borthwick and also the Interview with Ryan Davis that I've posted below.




Working with Bath Rugby has given me great experience in producing Films for a Client and working to the brief and house style that they have. We have to shoot & edit the footage quite quickly and Bath Rugby have given us great support and facilities.

We've experienced numerous Technical difficulites along the way and have had to adapt and work around them to produce content that the Club and University can be proud of.

There will be further clips to come and I'll update as we do them !

His Dark Materials - view from the front Row !

We were lucky enough to be invited to the Theatre Royal in Bath to Film the Bath Young People's Theatre Production of Philip Pullman's "His Dark Materials". I was on the Panasonic Camcorder getting close-ups in the Front Row while Mike, Lance and Philip were in the Circle on the Sony Z1's getting the Wide Shots.

It was a great experience because I had to try and shut myself off from the Performance and concentrate on getting the shots that the other Cameras weren't able to get. There was a lot happening onstage along with flying Witches and explosions and I had to focus on what I was Filming rather than being distracted by action.

The Film will take a while to Capture & Edit - I'll keep you posted with progress

Montage - "Strange Day in the Country"

Here's my Montage Project that I created for the BC1006 Module. I was finding it hard to get inspiration so I put my iPod on and set off with a stills Camera and Camcorder to see what I could capture. I already had the Music in mind so I put it on a loop and used it as inspiration to get pictures and Video that would reflect the mood and feel of the Soundtrack.

Shine a Light

I went along to see the Rolling Stones Movie "Shine a Light" Directed by Martin Scorcese. A really energetic, rowdy and intimate performance shot over two days and nights in the Beacon Theatre in NYC.

The Movie is mainly based around the Performance with occasional behind-the-scences and archive Material cut in-between Songs. The small Venue and close Camera work really gives a sense of being right in the front row watching the Gig - a great contrast to some of the Arena Gigs I've seen where it's more about the spectacle, effects and the Show rather than attitude and sweat.

The Movie starts with a stressed-out Scorcese trying to get the Set List for the Gig so that he can plan his Shots - in true Rock 'n' Roll (and almost Spinal Tap) style the Stones hold out until just before Keef swaggers onto the Stage belting "Jumping Jack Flash" out of his battered Telecaster. Great stuff and a genuine sense of hunger and attitude from a Band that still know how to go out and earn their Ticket Money.

On with the Video......

This Semester we're Learning all about Video & Film Production, both from a Technical & Production perspective and I'm really enjoying working with Final Cut Pro.

So far we've been involved with Projects for Bath Rugby Club and the Egg Theatre with more to follow....

Shameless Plug

Here's a YouTube Clip of my Band 'the Police Chiefs'



This was shot (by my mate Stan) at the Cheese & Grain, Frome, March 2007.

It was Shot on a Sony DVD Camcorder with built in Mic (records Sound in 5.1) and I edited it using Womble MPEG Video Wizard DVD - this was because the Software can import from DVD, edit on a Timeline and overlay Titles & Graphics.

The editing was quite a challenge because Stan got progressively more plastered as the Gig went on and was Zooming in and out & panning all over the place as he explored what the Camera could do....this meant that there were few usable clips - so I had to take the best bits and edit them into a Compilation Promo and be quite creative with the Transitions. The footage is overexposed so I'll be listening with interest when we cover white balance !

BC1001 - Reflection on Media Roles

During this Semester we've looked at and had experience of a number of Media Roles.

We've covered Sound Recording & Editing, Research, Producing/Directing, Presenting and have examined all of the Roles involved with making a TV Drama Production.

With all of the Roles (particularly Research) we had to be very aware of the Legal aspects of gathering the information and using it within a context that represents it in a true light. When editing a piece together or Presenting information it is very easy to misrepresent the meaning of the information by rearranging what was said or using it out of context. We also looked at the issues of Copyright and examined the process involved with using Copyrighted Music in a DVD for General Release.

I had an idea about Copyright but was shocked at just how much is involved in ensuring that information is used and represented correctly - and just how much this is undermined by YouTube where basically anything can be put up and shared to a mass audience without much repercussion on Copyright.

Because of my musical background I really enjoyed the Modules on the Physics of Sound and Sound Editing where I got to explore and use my own ideas and experience to create some Projects that I took great pride in making. I've worked with Digital Effects and both Analogue Digital Sound Recording in the past so it was great to use this experience in a new context.

For the Soundscape project I spent time around Campus and my Village recording birdsong, running water, horses and included some Guitar playing which I recorded in the Kitchen ! For the finished project I then explored and used the Digital Effects within Soundtrack Pro to enhance the Tracks and try to create a piece that conveyed a mood.

For the Group Audio project we recorded interviews with a number of my friends in the Tribute Artist Business then basically had a lot of fun adding incidental music stabs and stings to try and keep the interviews interesting. For the "John Lennon" Interview I had to use Original Tracks as Martin couldn't provide any good quality mp3's to use with the piece. The Track used with the "Elton John" Interview was recorded and sung by the subject (Marcus Andrew) and was excellent so I used it to underline the whole Interview. (There was a slight pun in using "I guess that's they call it the Blues" - Marcus is currently not performing due to a broken ankle.....)

These Projects also gave experience of other Roles ;

(non-Technical) Editing - there was a wealth of material that was left out due to it not being interesting, relevant, likely to cause offence - or, if edited and used, it may have changed the context of what was originally said. Also we had to ensure that the edited piece flowed and made sense.
Researching - We had to contact each Artist, ask for agreement to be in the Programme, set up Interview dates & locations and provide advance copies of Questions along with Release Forms for the Interviews and keep all of the information within the Production Portfolio.
Producing - We had to take on Producers Roles to ensure the Programme was made to the Original Treatment, that the Interviews achieved usable material and also to ensue that Production meetings were held to keep everything on track.
Presenting - We Scripted and Presented the Programme (I hope we get more experience of this because we need it !)
Interviewing - I found that Interviewing someone is not just a matter of pointing a Mic at them and asking them to talk - you have to guide them and explain what you're hoping to get from them. Also you need to be prepared to step in with a question or comment if they are wandering off on a Tangent.

All in all I've really enjoyed the first Semester and I'm looking forward to getting stuck into Filming.

U2 3D Movie hailed as 'a work of Art' by New York Times

U2 3D (2007)


NYT Critics' Pick This movie has been designated a Critic's Pick by the film reviewers of The Times.

January 23, 2008

More Than Rock ’n’ Roll: U2 on Tour in 3-D Images

The musical documentary “U2 3D,” which stitches together three performances by this Irish rock band during a recent tour of South America, is not merely a technical landmark — shot entirely in digital 3D — but also an aesthetic one, in that it’s the first Imax movie that deserves to be called a work of art.

The person most responsible for the film’s vision, Catherine Owens — one of the movie’s two directors, who is also in charge of production design for the band’s live shows — has brazenly ignored the usual stipulations about making a 3-D film. She favors quick edits and slow dissolves rather than long takes and hard cuts. Throughout, she layers the screen with multiple planes of information: long shots and medium shots of the musicians, images of the crowd, close-up details of graphics from the big screen that the band performs in front of that make the designs abstract and merge them with the performers.

The result is not a confusing mishmash of images but a musical/experimental work that visually simulates the sensation of thinking. The very idea of self-contained screen geography is thrillingly reconceived.

http://movies.nytimes.com/2008/01/23/movies/23band.html?ref=movies


Sounds like a completely new take on the 'Rockumentary' genre, this may spawn a whole new interest in producing 3D Movies - look forward to seeing it and hope they include a few 'Spinal Tap' moments !

BBC Reporting Undercover in Kenya

This week John Simpson from the BBC has been sending special Reports from Kenya.

The situation there is incredibly tense and is worsening daily, I hope we don't see another Rwanda situation happen where Millions of people are slaughtered whilst the rest of the World sits and watches. (I remember vividly at the time reports from Rwanda being kept out of the news by the unfortunate death of Ayrton Senna......)

The News Report I saw on Monday stressed that "the BBC is banned in Kenya so John is reporting from deep undercover in Kenya" before showing John strolling about in a crowded street - a large solitary white man walking about in broad daylight in a Kenyan Street was hardly the height of discretion !

Let's hope the situation there is closely Reported and that calm is restored without bloodshed or suffering.

BC1001 - 16-24 Age Group Commisioning

Here's a Slideshow about the characteristics of the 16-24 Age Group - from the perspective of BBC Programme Commisioning !

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Liverpool Trip - Beatles Bonanza !

Over the Holidays we spent a few days in Liverpool and I took the opportunity to take in some of the local Culture !

We did the Magical Mystery Tour - which is a Bus ride around the City and takes in all of the Beatles Childhood homes plus Strawberry Fields (a Salvation Army Childrens Home - I always thought it was a Psychiatric Hospital !) and Penny Lane - you see all of the places mentioned in the Song - the shelter in the middle of the Roundabout, the Barbers, the Bank ....


Rory & me at Strawberry Fields

The Beatles Story Exhibition at the Albert Dock (with NUS Discount !) was great - a Journey through the early days of Rock'n'Roll with plenty of Film clips, Newsreel of Screaming Girls, old Guitars, John Lennons Specs, Original Contracts, Letters , a Full size Yellow Submarine, a recreation of the Cavern that was used in a Beatles Documentary - the list goes on.

What it brought home to me most was the huge impact the Fabs had not only Musically but Culturally and Socially and it made me wonder if we will ever see another Band that has such a lasting legacy. You can also see how proud the Liverpudlians are of the Beatles and how they put the City onto the World Stage.

Media News - ITV blends genres with new music show

ITV is drawing on the talents of Take That singer-songwriter Gary Barlow and Strictly Come Dancing judge Arlene Phillips for a show that combines a stage school drama, behind-the-scenes real-life documentary and a revue finale.

Britannia High will feature Barlow heading a team of songwriters who will pen set-piece numbers for the fictional arts school's young pupils to perform.

Phillips will be the head of choreography, while David Ian, the West End producer who featured as a judge on Grease is the Word, will help her to select the performers.

Britannia High will start with two 60-minute documentaries that show Phillips, Ian and other producers picking the actors, as well as venturing into Barlow's recording studio.

This will be followed by eight hour-long instalments of Britannia High, a scripted drama about young actors vying with each other for centre stage and featuring music and dance routines created by Barlow and Phillips.

Britannia High will end with a 90-minute live episode, taking the form of an end-of-term revue featuring performances from the cast, mingled with further drama segments.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/jan/10/itv.television

Interesting Stuff ! Quite a mix of ideas and Genres - a rethink of Talent Shows...Big Names to pull the Viewers in and new Songs every week. Shows like 'X-Factor' are big hits and earn big money. There must be a lot of work going into developing similar shows but adding fresh ideas to keep people interested - or maybe they just write a few ideas down, pull them out f a hat and make a TV show out of it !!!!

BC1001 - Digital Cinema

This presentation looks at the world of Digital Cinema, the Technical Requirements and the possibilities !

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BC1001 - Job Description

This Presentation was produced as part of the BC1001 Module - I chose to look at the Requirements for a Final Cut Pro Editor

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BC1001 - Presentation on Music Copyright

This is a Slideshow that I created to explain the process of Licensing a piece of Music to be released Commercially in UK Shops

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Deal or no Deal Trip !

Back in December we had a trip to Endemol to watch the Recording of 'Deal or no Deal' - we sat in the audience for the Recording of one show (I had to move because my T-Shirt was too bright !) and had a Studio Tour and question & answer Session. I was really interested in seeing the Sound Desk and Post Production Suites and that was my favourite part of the Tour - the Show is Filmed as it happens and then edited down to the right length for Broadcast, a few cutaways and reaction shots were done beforehand but basically what you see in the finished Programme is how it happened on the day - all in all a really interesting & worthwhile trip !