03/06/2016

Final week before handing in all my work.

31/05/2016 – Spent the day writing up notes from my critical analysis L03 of the first sequence in Goodfellas, it came to a total of 9,000 words, 8000 more than required. I uploaded it to my page and decided I would start finalizing it tomorrow.

01/06/2016 – Decided to stay off college to focus on trimming down my essay and adding to it, I received a message from my lecturer telling me he was displeased with the final part of my showreel, which I quickly corrected and re-uploaded 30 minutes later. I was able to finish a rough draft of my critical analysis L03 essay and uploaded it to my page. I feel I have included enough in my essay to suffice the brief.

02/06/2016 – Today I was informed by 2 of my lecturers; Tommy and Andreas that I had passed the core modules I had submitted, this relieved some pressure and I spent the day finalizing my L03 Analysis. tomorrow will be my presentation and I’m unsure what to expect. I have already written a rough evaluation of my showreel edit and hope to be able to use it on my graded unit page.

03/06/2016 – came into college to show my lecturers my “final” projects, due to the responses i received i quickly made finalizing touches and these are my final projects.

 

Documentary

Showreel

Wonderworld Competition Entry

This is my winning entry of a music video for my work place.

27/05/2016

25/05/2016 – Stayed off today once again as I felt more work would be done on my own personal computer which has more computing power than the college Macs (although the Tutors seem to disagree). I was able to do a final edit of my showreel and documentary which I uploaded and linked into my Mahara pages.

I Felt that today I was able to complete a lot of work and most of the paperwork needed for my college has been finished. All that needs to be done now is the LO3 Critical analysis of a film of my choice. I’ve already done the planning and now just need to go through the scenes I have chosen and Analyse them.

26/05/2016 – I came into college to be interviewed by Tommy for a work experience module. it consisted of going through my objectives and asking if I felt I had achieved them. Which I believe I did. I then spent the rest of the day updating my pages and ensuring they had everything needed uploaded to them to ensure a pass.

27/05/2016 – Today we were off due to a public holiday, although our graded unit page is being externally verified. I have no concerns as I have the required paperwork and media on the page to pass me on the areas that are required. I continued working on my L03 Analysis and I’m not yet feeling stressed about completing it.

20/05/2016

18/05/2016 – Today in my first class which was an editing class, I asked alan my tutor to watch a semi-final cut of my showreel, he mentioned that it fills the brief of a cinematography showreel and that I have some potential in my final cut. I do have some qualms with my latest showreel maybe because of the constraints it has such as needing to be long enough to fit with my plan for the music. I was conferring with Michael another tutor who said he would have preferred it to slowly fade out which I am having difficulty doing. I was also told that towards the end of the showreel it starts to get messy editing wise so I have been trying to balance the ending to be a bit easier on the eyes.

19/05/2016 – Thursday was spent writing essays for my final college hand in I didn’t do any editing but I did upload an alternate version of the music video that was created over creative break. I felt the original edit that was done by Duncan Formosa was fine but because I had to create a music video for a brief on my college graded unit I tried to make an entirely different video which in my opinion sort of works for what it is but isn’t the best for an official music video.

20/05/2016 – I stayed off college today so i could focus on editing. I also started planning how I would write my L03 critical analysis essay. I decided to do it on Goodfella’s, a perfect film “in my opinion” and analyse it using Semiotics, Structuralism and psychoanalytic analysis. I have chosen 2 scenes per type of analysis and feel cautious about writing this essay as I have no idea how in depth I will need to go. I understand its a 1000 word minimum if thats any indication of what they are looking for in terms of quality.

13/05/2016

11/05/2016 – I was off today, slept in. Felt no motivation to go into college today. I still had to edit my showreel though. I’m trying to finish a fourth cut while fighting the urge to jump off a 3 story building. Here are my previous cuts.

#3

#2

#1

I lied in that first line. I did go into college after lunch for a peer review that Michael had planned. I felt it was necessary to go in to get feedback on if people thought my showreel was as artsy as I had perceived it. Or maybe it was just the fact I had spent so much time with it I grew a bond and felt the need to protect it whenever possible. The peer review went OK. It wasn’t what I wanted. But it was enough. It has definitely opened my eyes on what my showreel can be, now that I see as they see. I started editing as soon as I got home.

12/05/2016 – Off again. Still no motivation to do anything. Except work. Since I was ahead in work experience or I’ve at least given the illusion of this fact. I spent this time writing my evaluation of the work experience. It was more of a guide. they specified it to be a guide. But I’ll give them an evaluation and say its a rough guide they should get an image of what I did to get my work experience. I’ll tell Tommy to check it out and hopefully by then he will be ready to review the group I was in for my final module of my work experience page. Still plenty of time left. Or at least that’s what I keep telling myself.

13/05/2016 – This morning I made the effort to push myself out the door just in time to catch the bus but unfortunately First Buses had a different idea. After cursing whatever driver was in control that morning I waited at the bus stop for about an hour. Was it worth it? Absolutely not. But I still waited. When I finally got into college I found myself in an almost empty classroom ready to publicly write up my opinions of everyone else’s showreel’s. Afraid of being too harsh and in turn getting the shit kicked out of me around the back of Cumbernauld’s very own KFC Diner I felt my best course of action was to be neutral for most of them or at least give the illusion of being neutral while passively aggressively hinting towards them that 15 shots of your cat and one of a door is not a showreel its an art piece and should be sold to some overconfident loser that feels his status relies on how much he pays for peoples work. In conclusion today was a good day.

04/05/2016

04/05/2016 – This Wednesday I was just finishing up and cleaning the music video that I have been editing in Alan’s editing class once I finish the video I should be able to go home and spend this time editing my showreel in an environment that has, not only updated equipment. But has components that are much stronger and faster than the college Macs. I hope that the music video is just a place holder for a brief and isn’t going to be marked. I want to focus all my time and energy into editing my documentary and showreel which is going to be handed in in the next couple weeks.

05/05/2016 – In Tommy’s class Thursday morning I found myself writing up and reviewing an evaluation of what I took part and assisted in during my time at Knockhill race-track for work experience the only part of the essay I had to add was references and involvement of health and safety regulations. I referenced the health and safety at work act and documented some of the precautions we had to make such as wearing high vision vests and knowing where fire safety locations were. I’m sure its fine for the module. he brought up that he was organising an interview for work experience in the following weeks.

06/05/2016 – Friday was focused on paperwork I had missed out on while focusing on my documentary and showreel these were minor things such as storyboards for the music videos, log sheets and evaluations. I’ll be uploading several of these today and will continue catching up over the next couple of days. the law and communications industries class at the end of the day was close to concluding that module as a whole. we only have a couple classes left and afterwards we will be free to edit or go home as we please for other projects. so far law and the communications industries has been the most entertaining class.

27/04/2016

27/04/2016 – Wednesday morning in Alan’s class I used the time to edit a music video we had previously shot for creative break I used the reversing of footage to create a strange/surreal look to the video. after lunch I started to review my critical analysis essay in Michaels class. so far I have been editing my documentary and show-reel at home and I feel it will be completed very shortly.

28/04/2016 – Tommy’s class was used to continue editing my music video as its required for the editing own programme part of the course. so far I feel I’m in good standing for what the briefs require I can do this work on a day where I’m off and can focus on these areas. so far I need to shoot a couple additional scenes for my showreel which I can do sometime in the very near future. I’m not currently worried about this as I already have several rough cuts of a showreel for my course.

29/04/2016 – Friday was a day dedicated to essays and updating websites which is what I feel I’m struggling most at. I’ve been told several times by Michael that I seem to have enough content in my essays to suffice but I’m worried its quantity over quality I will attempt to get Michael to skim over these essays so when I do end up handing them in I wont me screwing myself and the course over.

20/04/2016

20/04/2016 – Wednesday morning was the first day back after the 2 week break, I missed the bus (as per usual) and arrived to class an hour later, but aside from that I caught up quickly and was able to present my 2 videos (Documentary and my show-reel) to my current lecturer, he seemed to enjoy both videos and pointed out several things he liked as well as things that needed changed. I have not yet fixed these issues, due to lack of time and energy. But I have taken a mental note and currently planning out what could replace the issues that were stated. The rest of the day was spent by adding to my Critical Analysis Essay. So far I’m unsure if I have met all the requirements stated in the brief as I feel I still have not fully corrected and finished my analyses (Psychoanalytic and Semiotic) but I will focus on this aspect and aim to finish it all by next week.

21/04/2016 – On Thursday I was able to arrive on time for the half day of college that was scheduled. I was conversing with Tommy my lecturer about having no responses from Chris Wallace (The person giving me a work experience) in the past month. it was only 15 minutes later when Justin, Martin and myself were called out of the classroom by Tommy to be told that Chris was offering to take us over to Ireland to film footage for a broadcasting channel to create a 2 day racing programme. Obviously we were happy to comply with a yes and were instructed to meet Chris at the college reception to converse about what he was looking for us to do in preparation. The main points that were discussed were.

1) Communication (Radios, Numbers, E-mails) (I’m currently looking at Ebay Auctions for walkie talkies)

2) Equipment (Cameras, Sound Recording equipment, mounts (shoulder mounts, steady-cams)) (Myself and Justin already own Cameras and Audio Recording equipment) Talk of hiring a drone was brought up as well.

3) People (Chris brought up the fact a 3 man team wasn’t enough and that around 5-6 people would be a comfortable team) (we have not yet asked any additional people to assist but have a hypothetical list of preferences on whom to ask)

4) Travel (On May 1st we will be escorted by Chris up to Knock-hill for a practice day and around the 11th and 12th of June we will be travelling to Ireland on a mini-bus and then a ferry for a period of roughly 5 days, Chris estimated)

5) Accommodation (This is one fear i had when going to Ireland as i would not want to be stranded on an island sleeping on a square meter of space in a mini-bus filled with 30+ people) Chris assured us that some form of accommodation will be supplied either at a hotel or hostel (York 2.0)

So far I’m starting preparation for these events and plan on communicating to other members of the HND that have not yet been informed of this opportunity in an attempt to create a team suitable of Chris’s specifications.

22/04/2016 – Today we are scheduled to sit an assessment about copyright, I have no worries about this test as once again it is an open book assignment and I have enough knowledge and notes documented on my page to thoroughly assist me in fleshing out answers. as for keeping up with paperwork i have slowly been progressing on updating this website and my essay on critical analysis. as for organisation of Knock-hill preparation I have mentioned this opportunity briefly to the class and more in depth to individuals we agreed are suitable for Chis’s plans.