My Show-reel; Digital vs Physical

The differences between the digital and physical copy of my show-reel.

My show-reel was exported as a Quicktime Movie (.mov), with the projects current video settings. The video setting were; aspect ratio: 1440 x 1080 at 25 FPS. The field dominance was set as upper (odd). The audio was set to a rate of 48 KHz at 16 bits. I compressed the mov to a H.264 using, a free video converter, MPEG Steamclip so I could uploaded it on YouTube. Since YouTube uses a Adobe Flash Player plug-in for playback, files like H.264/ MPEG are used to

By uploading your show-reel to a digital streaming site like YouTube, or Vimeo you instantly widen the range of audience that can access your content. Also sites like You Tube and Vimeo can also support HD formats like 1080p/i, 720p/i. The down side to uploading your content onto streaming sites it hard to protect copyright, since their are lots of programs that can download content from these sites it's hard to project your content.

DVDs are more personal format then streaming sites, since you can only give out your DVD to limited number of people. DVD are compressed into VOB, which stands for Video Object, and compress the video, audio, subtitles, and the menus into one file. DVDs can only output 360p without the use of High definition cables such as HDMI. DVDs also encrypt the DVD against directly coping the contents on the disc, although the encryption doesn't stop people from using programs to decrypt the encryption.

DVD Menu Analysis.

Futurama Season 4 DVD Menu.

(Left to Right) Futurama Season One & Four DVD Menus

Throughout Futurama's journey to the DVD format has always been shaky process. The first two seasons didn't have 'Play All' options, and having to go through two menus to get to the 'play feature' button was unnecessary. The menu's where also static with some diegetic sounds but after the release of third season they started to change up the design.

From season three onwards they finally added a 'Play all' feature to go along side the individual episode selection. Also in season four there were still static menu's with diegetic sound, although they add a random little animation. It usually comes down to an image siding a cross screen.

There are commentary for more or less all the episodes with the creator 'Matt Groening'. Which is a letdown since that most of the creators aren't involved in production. It would of been insightful to hear the cast talk about there time on the production, although some of the commentaries with Groening are interesting but I would of preferred two different commentaries so you could hear both the pre-production, & production of Futurama.

The DVDs do have 'Deleted Scene', which is the only thing they did right durning first two season. The deleted scenes are the pretty much what you would expect. The deleted scene's menu listed all the scenes that also has a 'Play all' function. But beyond the 'Standard' features, such as 'Scene selection', 'Play all, & etc... there isn't many features such as 'Directors Cut' and 'Behind the scene' stuff. Which is a shame since most DVDs come with this a standard, and with a show like this it shame there isn't any behind the scenes.

All the Futurama DVDs have had some sort of 'Easter Eggs' hidden within the menus. Most of the 'Easter Eggs' can be found when clicking on different objects in the background, for example on one of the Easter eggs is activated by clicking on one of the finishes in the background. Although all the Easter eggs are character bios of actors and writers, which isn't something people would want to continually go back and find. Since there isn't any 'Behind the scene' stuff this is a shame that the Easter eggs are bios.

My Involment on Snow Queen.

Just before Christmas our group was given the task of publicizing the Egg's production of Snow Queen. They wanted us to create a website, Mini-Documentary, 90sec promo, and film the last dress rehearsal. I was originally involved in designing the website but after some break down in communication I didn't have the resources to finish the website in time, so I was move on to the production side of Snow Queen.

It was my job to film the both of the dress rehearsals so that all of the actors have something to put on there show reel. The week leading up to the last dress rehearsals was a little disorganized, because the rehearsals where on the week we came back from the Christmas. So we weren't really ready for the rehearsals, we didn't have any of the equipment and we haven't seen the stage. On the day we booked out the equipment, and we got to the Egg at 4:00 and starter to setup the cameras. We used a three camera set-up, two cameras would sit level with the stage and focus on mid-shots and close ups. While the third would sit above the other cameras in the balcony focusing on a wide shoot of the stage. We film both play-through.

Things I learnt on Black Box.

Hi,

long time no see... Actually a very long time, anyway here's six things I learnt during the time I work on Black Box. Black box is a series of episodes set on, the most unlike of places, a plane. Each episode tells an original story written by students. Oh! and just to add I wrote episode four, which was name "Worst episode", so yeah.

Number 6 - Timing & planing;
Yeah, working on Black Box we only had half a day (9am - 12pm) to come up with an idea, write a 'finished' script before we had to start planing the actual shoot. Planing wouldn't go to deep, planing wouldn't get much farther after the story boarding stage, and by that stage when would have our Actors, and props but that it. Then on the day of the shoot we only had the room for two hours. So in the end we started to cut less important shoots and scenes just to able to the footage we need.

We will always run into time constants and I know in that situation that we have to start drop what isn't absolutely necessary to the film.

Number 5 - Giving up your control;
During Black Box we shared the roles out each week to mimic a real production, which I have done before. In the past I've work on independent films, and group projects so I have worked in these conditions before but I've never written a script then never been apart of production at all.

I know that in real video productions that once the writer has written the script then that's his job done. But I can't stand giving up my creative control over to someone else and hoping for the best I would much prefer to be in control every step of the way but again this is something I'm going to have to get uses too.

Number 4 - Working in a small space;
Since the plane set wasn't all that big, and even with all the equipment there was less room, we had to adapt to the space quickly. We started to dump the tripod if we were in small spaces for hand held, we also tried to fold some on the chairs so that we could have the camera on a tripod.

Number 3 - Lighting;
Since the plane set only really had two light sources so most shoots look natural because we didn't (well for most of them) use the Redhead. The mean reason the we didn't use the Redhead because most of the group haven't use them, and those who have knew that by the time we set up the lights we would of wasted precious time while we teaching the others individually. Although when we did use the lights, Black Box's production values went through the roof.

Number 2 - Sound Mixing;
Throughout the entire series of Black Box most of the first edits had problems with the sound levels when viewed through the projector. In some the dialog was drowned out by the music or the dialog was to quiet. All this was easy fixed by copying the audio into the other channels and then normalizing them.

And...(Side note this ISN'T a countdown. It's the final countdown.)

Number 1 - Editing;
One of the biggest problems we had on the first few episodes where there wasn't a storyboard or a time-code sheet, so we captured everything and throughout editing we had to manually go though all the clips until we found the usable clips. This was only a small set back but I would of made sure that there was a sheet.

And if YOU want to watch Black Box below is a link to its You Tube channel. So enjoy.

Thank you,
Simon.

Link Dump
Black Box's You Tube

TV Idents.

Virgin 1’s rebrand introduced RED was created by Paul Jomain. His other work included PG Tips Monkey, & Marvin, from ‘The Hitchhiker’s Guides to the Galaxy’. RED is a red cotton puppet, operated by the crew. After BSkyB brought out Virgin 1 and rebrand it Channel one in September 2010. Channel One new, Red Thread, indent was designed by RED BEE media. The ident was animated by Trunk Animated .LTD. Animators at Trunk animated a detailed 2D animatic, which after was approved by RED BEE the animators at Trunk Darragh Mason and Steven Lall created a 3D thread model of a thread in Maya, a 3D modelling program, which they then animated.

The brief Trunk Animated. LTD received was to create a ‘fluid and dynamic with the red thread travelling through and creating four different environments, each environment representing a strand of programmes broadcast on the channel, medical drama, sci-fi etc. ‘

Trunk Animated. LTD hit the target with the brief. The thread interacts with channel’s genres and themes. The thread tries to be a spiritual successor to RED but doesn’t create or give the personality that RED gave Virgin 1.

Link Dump;

http://worldofidents.blogspot.com/2010/09/virgin-1-becomes-channel-1-with-red-bee.html

http://www.pauljomain.biz/PJ/Paul_Jomain_Studios_Home.html

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/jun/01/virgin-media-red

http://www.trunk.me.uk/

The History of Printing Stamps.

The first feed paid stamps were first introduced in 1840 after the postal reform. The concept was design by James Chalmers & Sir. Rowland Hill, the idea was to be able to send mail through the Kings Mail service. The Penny Black was world's first adhesive postage stamp, before all stamps used glue. The Penny Black was an Intaglio print, the stamp was printed using 11 plates.

There where two adhesive in 1840 the Penny Black & Two penny Blue, the Penny Black could post a letter weighting up to half an ounce while the Two penny Blue could deliver a letter weighting a full ounce. The Penny Black ran from May 1^st 1840 & wasn’t official until the 6^th of that month, the Black penny stopped a year later.

Stamps have been known to use such printing techniques like Intaglio, Lillo, Offset, & Lithograph. The most common used today print stamp is Offset. Offset printing is where a picture or design is first made chemically on to aluminium or copper plate. Once attached to the printing press the plate is placed into ink and water. While the non-image parts are placed within water, this acts as a “repellent” to the ink so the design will only transferred onto the paper.

The most common print method in the 1850 was Intaglio, this is method is the most time consuming but gives out more detail. This method was later scarped for a less expensive & time consuming method which is the one we used today.

Some of the earlier stamps weren’t multi-coloured until 1854, the world’s first multi-coloured was printed in India by the East India Company. The stamp was of a portrait of Queen Victoria. It was lithograph print; the stamp was printed in two colours blue and red.

The penny black and most other early stamps needed to be separated with a scissors. In 1854 with the invention of perforated stamps that could be rip off each other. They only appeared in England at 1854, it wasn’t until 1857 that the United States started to print them perforated.

There have been many types of stamps designs for different events, the first stamp design to be design for an commemorate propose was issued in 1888 by New South Wales to mark its 100th anniversary. Commemorative stamps today are usually photo base & done digitally.

Stamps in the future look like they’re going to be replaced by a Postage Meter. A Postage Meter is a device that can be used to create evidence of post, this meter can be followed online. Postage Meters act as proof of payment just like an adhesive stamp. The meters have only appeared in Austria, Belgium, France & the USA.

By, Simon Burdall.

DreamWeaver Lesson on the 30/11/09, 7, & 14/12/09.

DreamWeaver Lesson on the 30/11/09.

For the last two weeks I've been working on my index page, & designing & preparing all the images I'll will need for the rest of the project. At the end of the lesson there was something wrong with the code, it won't keep an image in the right position but Alex & me decided to leave it until next week.

DreamWeaver Lesson on the 7/12/09.

After last week problem with the code I couldn't move on until I fix it but because Alex wasn't in on that day I decided to move on knowing that all the pages share the same code & would have to share the same problem.

So I started to build up the Store, Gallery, F.A.Q, Contact, & The Terms & Use pages. At the end of the lesson I had one more look at the code to see if I could spot anything but I couldn't spot anything that shouldn't be there or anything that would cause this.

DreamWeaver Lesson on the 14/12/09.

This week I started to finish off all the pages, there where some problems but most where simple fixes. Since Alex was back this week I ask him about the problem from two weeks ago, sadly I was to far into the project to be able to fix it with out starting again.

I start to linking up all the pages & tested the site to see if I could spot any mistakes or anything else, the site work well & had only a few mistakes but the positioning problem still made the site look unprofessional but there wasn't anything I could do in the one day time frame to hand this in.

DreamWeaver Lesson on the 27/10/09, 2/11/09, & 9/11/09.

DreamWeaver Lesson on the 27/10/09.

In the lesson we found out what our website had to be based on. Our websites have to be base on Vinyl toys, so for most of the lesson we had to search around for a set of toys to build the site around I choose a set of Mars Vinyl as some below, This toys where designed by San Francisco artist MARS-1.

After choosing a set of toys, I started to sketch out a basic design of the homepage & annotated it.



DreamWeaver Lesson on the 2/11/09.

In the lesson I recap on what I drew in my sketch book last lesson & then made some changes to the design. After then planed out what I would do this lesson, then started to make the banner for my website using the set of Vinyl toys I choose. After I finshed the I change the design according to the changes I made on the banner.

DreamWeaver Lesson on the 9/11/09.

Stated to work on a site map from my website. A site map is like a storyborad showing what happens when you click on a link.

DreamWeaver Lesson on the 12 & 19/10/09.

DreamWeaver Lesson, 12/10/09.

In our E-media lesson we where introduce to Adobe's DreamWeaver which is a program design for website designing & programing. We were show some of the basic functions, we where also shown how to mange a site & how to set up a root folder.

A root folder is a folder that sits within the user's Hard drive that you can link your site together with. In this folder you can put all the files, i.e: images, HTML pages (Hyper Text Markup Language), & or any other asset you would use, that you would use for your website.

DreamWeaver Lesson, 19/10/09.

In this weeks E-media lesson we reviewed what we did last lesson, & recapped how to define a site. Afterwards we got some tutorials to work through, the tutorials range from how to create & insert Tables, Hyper links, Image hyper links, E-mail Hyper Links, & so on.

I found them personally to be easy to catch on. At the end of the lesson we where told to use what we just learn & had to create our own Website index page. I started to create a format for the bases of my websites index page by using tables, creating a table with 3 rows & 1 column, I was able to create a format that look like this;

(Note the table is meant to be completely white but for demonstration the table has a black boarder.)

This format is basic but with some use of Adobe's Photoshop this could look more interesting.

Thank you,
Simon.

Stamp Research.

Commemorative Stamps.
Commemorative stamps are a limited release to commemorate a person or an event.





Ceremonial Stamps.
Ceremonial stamps are a limited release that follow an event.






Stop Family Violence, 2004.

This Stamp was design by a six-year-old little girl how had been an victim of Family Violence & therefore her name is not mention in any sources of information but the name of the art director who selected the design was Carl T. Herrman.

This stamp was printed at AVR, Clinton SC, 29325, which is somewhere in the USA. This stamp was made using Dia Nippon Kiko (according to the official release of the stamp).

This stamp style is an hand drawn image expressing what victims of Family Violence must feel.

There are some light colours in the foreground & a lot of dark & dim colours in the background. The typeface is hand drawn & seems like to been done of a backboard to give it some Victorian era kind of feel. I doesn't seem to have much space but for the subject matter it doesn't need it.

Sources used;
Family Violence Fundraising Stamp

London's 1012 Olympics Aquatics.

The Aquatics Diver was illustrated Julian Opie. Where was the stamp made

I can't really find any information about the specific printing process for this stamp, but going on modern day stamps I would say I was ether Laser or Inkjet print because these are the process best suited for this image. These are the best process because Laser will print pixel by pixel & the Inkjet where ink is sprayed onto the paper like an stencil.

The colour is simple & is one block colour, the blue colour seems to represent water of the pool. There is a lot space around the image, this gives the main image stand out more. The image is of an diver jumping into the pool.

Sources used;
Julian Opie's Website I Printing Wiki

Types of prints.

The are many types of prints that don't use modern day tech, below are just a few of different hand made prints.
From left to right they are; Relief Print, Intaglio Print, Planographic, & Stencil.

Banksy







Banksy work is always interested me because of the style & he use the wall or canvas as part of the image. For example the image of the whole in the wall give the impression that the whole wall has been painted.

Katsushika Hokusai.





Katsishika has been know for his "36 views of Mount Fuji" Project but some of his other work is every inserting & Influences alot of people. Most of his prainting & print are done by Woodblock printing.

Thank you,
Simon.

Publishing Lesson 2/10/09.

In the lesson we used the our work of the last four weeks & scan into photoshop. With the scaned images we used photoshop to make brushes, I choosed use my image of the Monkey to tunr into a brush. The process was easy and simple, by putting the image onto a trasperant background & making the image back & white we could save it as a brush template.

In the second half of the lesson we where told to make backgrounds for our blogs, I choose to have a less over powering background unlike the others. My background just has some of the brushes I made from the first half of the lesson. I like this background design mainly because you eye is still drawn to the blog not the background.

Thank you,
Simon.

Update.

Hey,

I've just spent 3 hours work on HTML trying to fixes the site up, below are a list of things I've done;

-Add a background, stop the image from repeating, & move the position of it.
-Changed the Side bar colours.
-Changed the Template to MS. Moto, then changed the colour of the Header, Outer Warp, padding between posts.

All done in HTML.

Plans to;
-Update banner.
-Add icon in search bar.
-Change background with copyright logo.

Thats it, enjoy.

Thank you,
Simon.

Print Media Lesson 25/09/09.

This week lesson we learnt how to do etchings, using plastic we cut an image into the surface. This process can also be done with Zinc. After you finished the image you would put oil base pant on the surface until you can't see the image, after that you would rub of the the pant with a cloth in a half circle motion until the layer is nearly of then using some paper (we used scrape yellow pages).

Once the layer is off you get some wet paper & put the the etchings underneath the paper, then you would put the etching through an roller.

The same process you would be able to do a Lilo cut, a Lilo cut is where you cut an image into some rubber or wood & then pant the over the top of it an the print the image onto some paper.

Thank you,
Simon.

File Formats.

Hi,

In to days lesson we look at different file formats for images, like a JPEG and GIF.

JPEG or Joint Photograph Expert Group, is used for photograph (as the name suggest) & can have 24-bit colour rate & can produce high-quality image at a small file size. The quality is rubbish for professional use because the pixel can blur if the image is enlarged.

Pros: Its great file format for taking photographs.
Cons: The quality is rubbish for professional use.

GIF or Graphic Interchange Format. GIF is used for making logo, it could also be used for animation images. But can only use 256 while the JPEG can use millions.

Pros: Its good at making images with text & low colour images,
Cons: It can only use 256 colours which is a small amount of colour compared to other formats.

PNG or Portable Network Graphics. Is good for pictures with an transparent background but it doesn't compressed as well as JPEG.

Pros: Its great to keep the transparent of an export image.
Cons: Its doesn't compress well.

TIFF or Tagged Image File Format. Is an good format for high quality & don't loses any information in transfer.

Pros: For high quality prints.
Cons: Big file sizes.

SVG or Scalable Vector Graphic. Is used for vector based images, file like this are used Illustrator.

Pros: Can be modified because of the lack of pixels.
Cons: Not great for printing.

Vectors graphics are the opposite to Raster graphics. Vector are made up of lots of different objects so you can sketch the image to any size & still have prefect quality. Vectors use a formula to calculate the colour fill when its sketch.

Raster images or bitmaps are images made of pixels, the differences between Vector images & Raster is that raster images cannot be sketch without losing quality.

Thank you,
Simon.

Print Media Lesson 18/09/09.

In the first half of the lesson we where spilt up again into to groups, the first group would have to make a Sun print, Lilo cut, & finish of the organic print we did last week. The stone print I did last week came out well, the images look the as they should but I did rub a bit of the print off on one side. Overall the stone process work really well. After I finished the stone print I try some Lilo cuts, Lilo cut is where you cut an image into wood or rubber, which will later be printed & print on paper & the cut will leave an image on the paper, I've made a cut, as show below, of a weird face.

While I was making the Lilo cut I also did an Sun print, an Sun print is where you use some photogenic paper an you put some items transparent or not into some store of shape. I used a class with small square shapes all around it, I through this would make an interesting pattern but I didn't work as well as I hoped & look just like the out side of the class.

In the second part of the lesson we where taken down to the print room where we did some Relief prints, where we use intersting objects to make parterns like a leaf, bubble warp or a feather. We also did another form of Relief printing where you put two peices of paper on top of a plate of print then draw whatever you want, I found this to be the funnest because I enjoy free drawing, The images came out well apart from one where I push a bit to hard down on the paper.

Thank you,
Simon.

*(Images coming soon, problem with Blogger's image uploader.)

WK3 : HTML.

HTML or Hyper Text Mark up Language is a set of codes that will tell an internet browser how to display the information as the author intended. There are many function for HTML, I've research some of this functions.

Elements are everything in between to the start tag & the end tags. Tags go at the start of the code & looks like this "<", there are usually letters that are code for a word function, for an example "B" in between that tags (the element) would make a word bold.

Formatting a code that will set up the page to look a certain way, for an example you'll be able to format a paragraph by the tags & inserting "P". Attributes are another part of the code that will add a position, colour*, font, & links, for an example if you wanted to add colour you would have to add "color= -------", the - equal the six digits you would to put in to make the text red for an example.

Links, a link is a code used by every website. To like one page from another, for example "url" is the code you would use followed by the link. Frames allow you to veiw more then one page in a browser. Tables are away showing infomation or to make a basic layout for a website.

Hot linking an image.

This is the best site ever, I'm so shallow.

Thank you,
Simon.

Print Media Lesson 11/09/09.

The lesson was spilt up into to parts, in the first part of the lesson half the group had to go out and find interesting textures in & around the college using the rubbing technique. There are a few inserting textures like Brick Walls, The lettering on the City of Bath College sign, & leafs but after those textures it gets a bit repetitive.

Original Image









The next part of the lesson we did Fresh Prints, where we made a copy image without the use of a computer onto I there paper or something organic. I brought a stone along and print some of my drawings onto it (as shown above). I don’t have any pictures of the stone this mainly because it takes 24 hours for the image to dry up from printing. Fresh Print is done by using print vanishes to print over the image & then rubbing the image into item you’ve chosen I.E: paper, stone or leather. I have some paper prints but they didn’t come out as well on the scan.

Thank you,
Simon.

Hello Cleveland!

Hi,

Its Simon here from New Mad Cowpictures, for my college course I've been told to set up a blog (HI5). On this blog I will post most of my college work as evidence for my national diploma course. So yeah enjoy.

Digital Communication

Digital communication, what does it mean? Digital communication is a broad term that some up most modern day communication like mobile phones, TV & the internet.

Most digital communication fall under the category of Protocols, Devices or Communication methods. The differences between them are as followed, a protocol is the set of a rules that a devices follows. An a example of this is 3G which is an forum of phone network which is used worldwide. A devices is piece of equipment that helps communication between devices, an example of this is a Modem. Communication is away of talking between to devices without beening in the same room, like MSN.


RSS Feed

What is an RSS feed? Really Simple Syndication or as it's sometimes know RSS. RSS is on most websites that have frequently, there is a button that people can click & subscribe to the page & follow that will tell you when they updated there page. Its also for the authors to share there information live. To view this information you'll need a RSS reader that come with Firefox, Google also has a reader if you have an account with them.

Video
Also heres a video, awesome. The video is of my new series The Wasteland.

I got this off You Tube, & used the URL code to embed on to this blog. Awesome.

Thank you,
Simon.