Day 0.4

Tuesday:

After having a light and camera rehearsal on Monday, as well as having a meeting to go over the changes made to the script, we decided to move all the equipment to the location where we`re going to do the filming on Wednesday. The locations, a cellar, a kitchen, and an outside look of a house, have all been risk assessed by Alan and we have been given permission to film. He also arranged for the transport of the group to the location.

The kitchen:

The cellar:

The house:

We split-up into two groups: Ryan, who is in charge with sound (pre-)recording and Alan have set out to capture some of the sound effects that we will be needing for the final editing, and the rest of the group (Abdul, myself, Duncan and Umar) was busy coming up with different ideas for camera/lights angles/position and help put them into practice. Lighting the kitchen has been quite a challenge, and I am still not sure if I am happy with the result (I get to much exposure on certain parts of the face), but we have marked out the places for the set-up we have tried today, so tomorrow hopefully we can start from there and come up with some last minute ideas to solve that problem. Abdul has also drawn up a floor plan. The lighting for the cellar scenes looks more promising. We have used one of the lights and had it bouncing of the wall, and made it look like its source is a lamp that is placed just near the subject. I suggested using a CTB gel, because the CTO one just seemed to soft and tangerine-like. Also, the colour treatment of the kitchen scene required something similar, I think, so as not to have too stark a contrast between the two scenes.

We have had some troubles with the actors...with the actress, to be more precise. She came down with a flu, and her presence is uncertain. Alan has come up with a back-up plan, having contacted a professional actress who might be interested. Until tomorrow though, I am afraid that`s a cliffhanger...

Day 0.3

MINUTES

Monday:

• Final draft of the script, discussed and agreed upon.
• Studio light and camera rehearsal (see photos).
• Booking equipment for Tuesday (on location rehearsal) and Wednesday (shoot).
• Health & Safety, Recce sheet completed.

Day 0.2 - An Overview

MINUTES

• A new member has joined the group, who will take up the role of sound recording

• We have got interested actors and actresses who have e-mailed back to take part in our film

• We have sent details and asked the actors to call back

• Completed a schedule for the filming and practice for all roles

• Tuesday at 2pm after lecture we will do a set rehearsal

• Wednesday at 9am we will do a dress rehearsal

• Monday at 9am, lighting and camera practice will be done before filming on Wednesday, by people undertaking these roles

• Script will be finalised on Monday (all changes)

• The risk assessment has been scheduled to be done on Monday as well

• We have had another discussion regarding our location, after having a sound lecture. We then decided a bedroom, but have now gone back to our original idea of the cellar due to sound and lighting purposes

• For all filming we have got permission from the technician to borrow equipment (e.g. camera, lights, mic etc) on specific days, when needed, whether for practice of actual filming.

Day 0.1

Today`s seminar on the sounds we would consider including in the MALac script was really good, both for brainstorming within the group and sorting out our own scenario, and for comparing ideas with the other groups. Things seem to come together now. We had to make a list of sounds for:

*Music

*Special Effects

*Voices

*Ambient

Taking into account the conditions on our selected location (which will be a basement), we realised we`ll have to do some pre-recording of special effects and also some voice-overs.

We have a new team member as well, Ryan who will do sound recording and one of the tasks. Duncan will be adding the changes and instructions we`ve added to the script and discuss the new version during our next meeting on Monday. Also on Monday, I`ve arranged to book out the studio rooms and lighting, camera and sound equipment to do some rehearsals. Abdul and Duncan will try to get in touch with the people who have already showed interest to act. Hopefully, that will be settled as soon as possible.

Now that we have a location, Alan is doing the risk assessment over the week-end and Abdul will get the story boards ready after discussing the changes with Duncan.

So, that leaves me, Ryan and Umar to do our best on Monday and get our act together with the lighting, camera work, and sound recording, respectively. Oh, and Alan will do the (pre-)production stills

Day 0

After a disastrous performance at today`s seminar (yeeeeeey to us!) we had our first meeting for the MALac film. Going over the script and discussing possible interpretations of it (shhhh, I`m not going to tell you about it for now), we have also agreed on the roles that each member of the team is going to take on.

Abdul: Producer, Editingm Camera assistant

Alan: Location manager, Health & Safety representative

Duncan: Director, Sound recording and post-production

Diana: Lighting and sound, Production assistant, Location assistant, titles designer

Umar:  Camera and lighting post-production and visual effects

Tomorrow, we are going to have another meeting, discuss some other proposals for the location (the ones we have looked at today prooved unsuitable for shooting) and hopefully get some feedback from people interested in acting (Abdul has posted an advert for the roles). If everything works out the way it SHOULD, the risk assessment should be on Jools`s desk on Monday, and we will be shooting on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Until tomorrow, I will be thinking about the title sequence, because we would have to change it quite a bit to make it match the interpretation we have given the script.

My morale is a bit low (very low) after today, so I might have a rather gloomy perspective on the outcome of our effort, but I guess the best thing to do is to look up some more tutorials and emerse myself in work, hoping things will come together eventually.

Pret-a-Port...rait

So, my dear guests, if you`ll take a look down the corridor, you will notice two ouvres, both part of the precious `Design Research Task` collection of the Gran Maestro Machi Ticredi! ...

Ah, let`s get back to earth for a second. These are two ideas I`ve had for the portraits made by juxtaposition of symbolic objects for ourselves. While choosing the objects, we had to keep in mind we had to think of our environment, our beliefs, our way of viewing the world and our experiences, as we have convened on a previous seminar that these are essential parameters to define our identity. The objects I have included in the final work are slightly different than the initial seminar material. In the seminar, the package contained: a lightbulb (experience), a book (beliefs), lots of papers with notes, sketches or cup marks on it, sweets wrapers (environment)and a camera (way of seeing the world). The collages have all of these except the camera (although, you could argue that the eye is a reference to the camera) and the sweets.

I guess the next thing to do is expand a bit on the symbolism part. Now, probably the most puzzling one for an outside observer would be the association of the lightbulb with experience. Most of the times, the idea of the lightbulb as the cartoonish representation of the spark, the Eureka! moment. So, in this respect, it is connected with that still unknown territory called imagination and creation. Still, as the day-to-day object we use in our lamps, it also has the technological conotation, and through it, the link to rationality. The way it is included in the first portrait, floating in water (should I remind anyone the whole mumbo-jumbo about water and dreams and the subconscious and all that Fraud...sorry, I mean...Freud stuff?) it emphasises the two ideas that can be associated with it and their contrasting nature.


Books are NOT meant to offer a coherent system of beliefs (sorry for those who thinks so), but propose directions in which one could advance his/her ideas. I don`t have a fetish for books but I know some people who do, so I will try and be as diplomatic as possible. Despite their apparently neutral appearance, books can be condemning, self-righteous and blind to the obvious for the simple fact that they not only shape our beliefs, but are shaped by our beliefs (not just by that of the author). Should I give an example to illustrate my point? Works that have been given hideous interpretations to motivate prejudice (the hand reaching out, as in a gesture of mercy or desperation in the second portrait), hatred and genocide against the other (no, I`m not talking solely about religious texts, I also mean Mein Kamp and Malleus Maleficarum). So, again, a word of caution...and don`t I just love ambivalence?

Using the papers to represent environment, I went for the very thing that my mum has always been made at me for: having piles and piles of scribbled papers, sketches, notes scattered all over my desk. It happens whenever I settle into a new space and create a working environment. I don`t usually take specific things with me if I move (dolls, boxes, pictures, etc), but I re-create this sort of paper-notes-sketches habitat. I used a veil-like material with sparkles on it while taking a photo of some of these papers. I liked the idea because I could use it to give the impression of relief, of `mountains` of paper, but also a sort of fluidity and motion. As they are capturing thoughts, they are a bit like them...fleeting, chaotic, veiled for an outside observer and sometimes...well....brilliant (sic!).

cREA(C)T!ivity

SPP Journal Task on creativity and research...

I remember having my interview previous to being accepted for the course...and more vividly, the fact that at one point I said that irrespective of whether or not I get to be a Multimedia student and make a career of it, I`m still going to experiment and try to give a form to some of my ideas, one way or another. Maybe I`m an incurable starry-eyed dreamer with little if any notion of financial responsibility, but I refuse to objectify my passion, my curiosity and my imagination for stability. Not that I deny its use, I just think it is one of those natural perks of focusing on what I have always felt as important: knowledge and vision.

Knowledge is about questions, riddles, controversial things, taboos and all the things that can cause anxiety and make us want to escape the challenges they pose by retreating into `bonus levels`. Yet, straying from the main storyline usually makes one change from a protagonist (of his own quest) to a Non-Playable Character. Talking about anxiety, this must be my biggest one, for sure.

For the second aspect, vision, I think one has to take a look beyond the rational. For knowledge is consciousness and the world of words, the way our understanding is built up by the power of this form of expression. Still, who can deny the (often) subliminal force of images, sounds and that dazzling melange of sensory perceptions that tell a story of their own. Perhaps the thing I find most fascinating is that as knowledge examines and tames visions, so visions are able to cast a cloud of doubt over the righteousness of our rational selves. None can slay the other without fataly injuring itself, yet they can and should always point a questioning mirror in front of the other. I think I could say that this is my credo, in whatever field of activity, and as long as I won`t find a better guideline for my future, I`ll go by it.

So, how does one follow the...```yellow brick road`` ? Maybe by never being too sure of what one knows: perpetually looking for that extra bit of information or insight, to give depth. Of course, how far down the rabbit hole one decides to go is a whole different issue (or is it?).

Shaping destinies...and marine life

3D Studio Max...a name that rings dear to some, and geometry to others...Luckily, today`s seminar has made it all cutsie as we embarked on a noble mission of recreating the gratious movements of an.......ahm....octopus.

I didn`t manage to get the thing up and going during the seminar, so I thought I`d have another go at it while at home. I think it is quite ok, although I`ve yet to complete the rest of the tutorials (it is a gruelling long list of videos, it is!) and hope to be able to acquire enough know-how to successfully complete my Identities project (apropos Identities, I should really check the documentary The Century of The Self).

What I did besides what we were required was to try and play a bit with cameras. I haven`t been through the tutorial just yet, so it is more of a trial and error exercise, and it looks a bit....odd? Well, baby steps, baby steps...easy does it...here is my purple octopus!