Last Post

Burned everything to Disc today. And learned how to put pretty pictures on the DVDs, which I haven't done before. Now, just finishing off my PowerPoint and heading up to see Roger. Helped Daniel out with what he needs to do for Art Video, and linked him to my blog so that he can see where Roger listed good sites to download free sounds. He also saw my Foreign film spoof which he is in, he liked it =)
Micheal commented on the lighting I used in the animation. Apparently lots of amateurs overdo the lighting, but he liked mine. Well that is all....bye bye

Almost there!

Today I learned how to feed corrupted files (that play though but just won't render) through a camera and re-capture them on the computer as new, continuouse files...without the coding errors. I needed to do this as a part of the Cork footage was playing up still. Tis all good now though! Micheal helped me convert all my expoted files from AVI to QUICKTIME so that they can be burned onto disc from the college Macs. (My computer doesn't have a burner)We will do that tomorrow, then I should be all ready for my preseantation on Thursday...=)

Battle-Scene

http://livedocs.adobe.com/en_US/PremierePro/3.0/help.html?content=WS5B13C4F8-065A-4215-A0EF-E84BAB12BFC9.html
Found on the net how to fix the rendering problem I was having. The battle-scene stuff works now, it was an underlying rendering error all along. VERY pleased.

Part one!

This is part one of The Lost Duck Saga. I finally uploaded it using Windows Media Player to compress the file (WMV). First exported at 120MB, I compressed it to about 5MB. Feedback appreciated! Approaching the presentation date I have been conversing with Roger in order to polish my PowerPoint. It will be a busy next couple of days if I am to burn everything to disc on Tuesday. I'm about to try to import the supposedly 'corrupted' battle-scene files (which, by the way, play fine in other programs) into Premier again. If it fails, I will re-shoot this evening.

F@#$% Gmail!

Because ALL technology hates me, Gmail is now refusing to send my PowerPoint to Roger to look over. Grrr. I've tried four times, I guess I'll give it a go through the student mailer, as Moodle does not appear to have an attachment property.
In other news, I need to do lots of work tonight. Losing all the battle-scene footage was a blow as it took about three hours to shoot, but I need to get over it and just re-do. Also my home computer doesn't have a PowerPoint program so I can't work on that at home...also did I mention my flash drive broke? That's ok though, I didn't lose anything except convenience; everything was backed up on my Mp3/external hard drive and computer. So now I'm using the Mp3 for everything, tis a good little machine because it takes all different files without a problem and is 40 GB. Tis also an old-school brick. But the buttons are big and it doesn't seem to hate me as much as other technology. So we're all good. =)

The Countdown!

Only one week to go until my presentation! I'm feeling positive, I got to have a long talk with Roger today about the stuff I missed and he made it clear what I still need to do to achieve a pre-tertiary mark. I should have been quicker to elect his help in the past I think. But no matter, the important thing is that my computer is behaving itself (pretty much) and I'm making a PowerPoint for my presentation with pictures and pretty writing. I plan to burn all my work onto a DVD which I can open behind the PowerPoint presentation. When I want to show a clip I can simply minimise the PowerPoint and select the clip from the menu. This will be a far more effective way of showing my work than what we did at midyears, with individual files on a flashdrive. However this means I will need to get the DVD to Roger two days earlier (the 14th) so that he can check it functions. So, I aim to have all the video's exported and on my external harddrive so that I can burn them to disc through the Macs at college next Tuesday.

Also I have polished my inquiry question to read "How can I communicate an original idea through entertainment?" and "How can an 'old' idea be re-invented to create 'new' entertainment?"

More tech problems

My computer froze as I was importing the final bit of footage, the epic battle between corks and ducks...now the files are corrupted and I can't import them. So, now I'll have to reshoot. Kodie found the place where Premiere keep the cache' files, there was a couple of GB in there, seriously slowing the whole process down. Now I clean it out before I close the program each time to keep it running better. I really need to get an external hard drive but I'm not sure if I can justify it considering I probably won't be continuing with video making next year. I reckon I shall just press on with it how it is, and finish the year out.

Still can't connect

Roger sent me a direct link to Moodle as I still can't connect to the Portal from my home computer. As sugested I will compress the video files through Movie Maker so I can post them. Now I'm just focusing on getting my Presentation together. Real Boy won't be completed but I still aim to have Corks of Our Lives as my second completed piece along side the Horror Vs Chickflick....I have to shut everything else down in order to run the editor so that is all for now. More updates soon.

Corks of Our Lives: The Lost Duck Saga

Ok, I haven't been on twitter or blogger for two days but I have been working heaps on my stop-mo. It is about four minutes long now, but I still need to shoot a bit more to fill in the gaps in the story. I'm really pleased with it, and have had good feedback so far =)
I'm able to move fairly quickly because corks don't have facial expressions or arm/leg movement so all their animation is in their possitioning. It's better than you might imagin. Zoe and Erik stayed last night and they composed some 'music' for the project. Bass and spoons, suprisingly it fits really well with the footage. It has been good to work with others recording the sound. Still a bit to do today with voices and a battle scene. I spent hours on the internet on monday searching for good free/royalty free music and sound effect sites. I'm pretty sure the one I used previosly was FreeSound, however this site seems to no longer exist...very disapointing. Anyway, the result of my hours of searching was two tracks of averagly fitting duck noises...I hope to have it all pretty much finished by monday...unforunantly it is more fun than other homework...I must leave some time for that too!! well, I must be off, I need to find some angry-mob sounds....untill next time.

Failed attempt

I tried to put the beginning of my experimental video, Real Boy on here today. Just so those of you who have been following my writings on it's progress can see how it is coming along. However it is 375mb and I don't know how to compress... anyway, here is some stills from the film as consolation. In other news; it has been pretty smooth since I fixed the problems with Premiere. My computer still won't connect to Moodle for some reason. I have sent Roger an email today hoping he can give me any recent, relevant info I might have missed on Moodle.

Flash animation: Pinapple Crush

Have been mucking around with Flash8 this lesson...finished off my short animation....Enjoy

scooters, vacation, fall

I got some positive feedback from Kodie on Wednesday regarding my experimental film. He commented on the creepiness of it, the light, and the asthetic shots, everything I aimed for! He also found several viruses on my computer ("No Jo, don't look to see if there is such thing a dental-floss porn") *cough* Also, I must not cancel the computers protection just because it makes it faster......
I haven't had a chance to work on the video anymore due to Premier freezing every time I try to render. I think it's because I saved it unrendered and now it's chucking a s***. I must retrieve my tri-pod on Tuesday as trying to prop the camera efficiently while stop-mo-ing is proving ineffective. I was looking back on my proposal I did early on. Sadly the animation I wanted to do never went ahead because Flash really isn't smooth enough for what I wanted to do. Still, I guess, I have learned somthing. *end transmission*

Dodging a Fail

Just a quick post to re-establish my being active in this subject. I have, despite absence of posts, been moving forward with my experimental video, but little else. After my meeting with Roger in the hall and my short comings being illuminated I have realised I need some help with some parts of the subject if I want to get a pass or better. I really don't understand the link recording thing and RSS. I will start my cork animation tonight (and listen to the RSS recording that i missed). I have painted half a dozen corks to look like people. They will feature (along with my rubber ducky Floyd) in short episodes. These episodes will be stop-motion (corks have limited movement or expression) and I will animate in speech and such with flash. anyway I must be off. Back on tonight!!! bye!

More updates!

I have just started editing my "Real Boy" video footage. I had some problems shooting as I could only go to location on the weekend and it rained two in a row! Not helpful! Finaly though I got about ten minutes of very attractive imagery. It will be hard to cut any of it out as the light was perfect for shooting and it's all very clear. I plan to take the other footage, of the hand/puppet master, in my bath, very soon...My Flash skills are improving although I am still unsure with the process of uploading scanned cutouts into the program. Unless I can easily upload cut outs and manipulate them like the manually drawn lines my intended project "Ruby and the Morbid Children" will be impossible. Presentations went well last week, Amelia and myself presented together as we have both been working on animation and conepts...I am inspired to do more now, story boards for cork animation completed. Tis a simple story but funny. Also I'm pleased with my results so far, I plan to push myself more to get A's.
The link to the animations Amelia and I presented. (Blogger won't let me add it as a directly followable link. please paste it into your search bar)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5x3ZfiQSK94

Flash8

http://www.baycongroup.com/flash/00_flash.htm

Chris gave me a crash course in the basics of Flash8 animation this week. Above is a link to a Flash8 tute which I will explore in more depth after I have perfected the very basics of the application. From first appearance i'm not sure it will surfice for doing my proposed animation...but I don't know for sure at this stage. I'll ask Chris to show me another day how to import cutouts and such...for now I'll play with the stick figures.

Cork Construction

I've just finished painting Erik Cork, who stars as "that guy who dies" in Corks of Our Lives. I have a few more of them under construction. It takes alot of layers of paint to get a nice looking finish so tis a bit time consuming, but hey, look at the results! Please observe, Erik in cork-form!

noteable advancments...

1. I have started storyboarding for my second project "Real Boy" which will be an experimental art film. I intend to begin shooting on the weekend.
2. I have decided to capture my foreign film onto my own laptop to edit. As I have moved all inactive video files onto my Mp3 for storage, there is now room to work on a largish file.

I plan to film my experimental film project in Southport or Lune river. I scouted both area's for location last year when I first intended to do this project. I have been made aware of an abandoned and overgrown house in the general area that may be ideal...

Kodie may be going to install XP onto my laptop instead of Vista (which is what it's running now) That should free up some space and increase speed.
I have my camera back from Daniel, so that's good.....Umm....Oh yeah, Chris was going to show me how to animate on the double lesson Tuesday. I forgot about it....So, I will ask him if he is still free to show me next week. (Sorry Chris)
I reckon that's all for now....

Oh damnit, I'm at home working...and my computer dosn't want to open any of the files related to Tuesdays presentation....I will have to do it at school tomorrow. Oh well, I tryed.

Recent advancments

OK, not allot of new news to report...I sent Dirk my Project Proposal draft to read over, but as yet have had no reply...I have taken the Student Directed Inquiry as a second offline course too, so I plan to up the work allot. It will help to have that extra flexible time to work with...I STILL haven't managed an interaction with Chris; he remains ever allusive! But I am becoming very keen on the idea of animation and I think it may become my major project.
I had the pleasure of seeing the Glass Biscuit mob do their presentation on last Thursday. It was very impressive, I think it has encouraged me to start working a bit harder; they have accomplished so much, if it only be in planning. I have previously tried to comment on their website but it wouldn't let me, despite me being registered with Wiki. And still no success adding other Blogger's to my list, it always comes up with an error.
I'm not entirely sure what the deal is with doing both Digital Projects and Interactive Media in regards to work quantity; do I have to spend double the time on Moodle? etc...

That is all for now. I shall report again after I have attempted to track down Chris after recess...

Storyboarding

Today I'm storyboarding for the cork animation I plan to do. I have corks, and I will just come up with a story now....I think I will paint the corks to look like friends, heh heh...at least some of them. Hopefully I'll be able to complete more than one of these animations but that will depend on how well it works out. The first will be a bit experimental as I have not worked with stop motion techniques before and my knowledge of Premiere Pro, my chosen editing program, is still minimal. I hope to learn allot from this particular piece and it should be lots of fun!

Clueless complete!

I finnished off Clueless today, It is a little rough looking but you get that with trashy horror anyway. I'm happy with it, It's loosened me up with effect editing and I especially like the look I've achieved with high contrast and grain. I've exported the file onto my Mp3, and just have to put it onto a Mac at college and ask Michael to help me burn it onto disk. One down four to go!

More updates

My video for ArtVid is almost finished. 3:40 At the moment. Daniel and I spent most of Wednesday scouring hobart for a fake-severed hand for his ArtVid project. No luck.
Kodie fixed my computer problem (The LINE ISN'T RED ANYMORE!) I just have to make sure I avoid downloading/storing files and or programs on the default drive.
My plan to study at the VCA has been pretty much been shattered. Last year, only 14 out of 194 applicants got accepted...and only one of those was straight out of year 12. So now the plan is to go to the art uni here in Hobart and continue to make films ameturely/hobbie and build up a stronger folio of work that I can present to VCA next year. I will also pursure local filmmakers in the hopes of furthering my knowledge in all things film.
I plan to start storyboarding for my project "Will Dance and String" soon. I better try to capture "Ngierof Mlif" again too. I will lend Daniel my camera for the weekend so he can hopefully start shooting.
That's all to update for now.
......................................................

Since Easter...

This is my first post since before the Easter holidays. I filmed my grandparents as planned, and downloaded the slaughter footage I needed. Only minor problem being unzipping the files, which Daniel helped me with (downloaded version of WinRar). I also found that although I had deleted all my slaughter footage from last year, it was still stored in the un-exported version of another project...interesting. My laptop's main internal hard drive is full, that is causing problems. It's a split hard drive or something and the second one is almost empty...I just need to work out how make it take the new information; rather than the main one processing it all by default. I shall ask Kodie about that, he will know!
My horror/chick flick, now indefinitely titled Clueless, is coming together well. I'm exploring the different effects which is really good because I had never used overlaying or anything. Also have an awesome bit where wine turns to blood (using inverted colour replacement mask) Also altering the contrast and tones to get the look I want. Slightly disappointed that I filmed so erratically my 'chick flick' footage. Because, although it is married with genre appropriate music and soft colour tones, the look of the editing is still not entirely as cliche' as I would have liked. But it is alright; very arty, which is the point. It doesn't have any dialogue, but is carried by the visuals and music. It has some moments that I am very pleased with, 'am enjoying the euphoria that can only be achieved by successful editing!

Attended Roger's presentation yesterday; I found this one fairly enlightening =) I will look through it again on Moodle just to clarify.
I think that's about it for now...
Until next time!

Horror Vs Chick flick- First shoot

I filmed Nan and Papa today for my Horror Vs Chickflick. I didn't capture any sound as music and other sound effects tend to be more common audio choices in both horror and chick flicks, as they are both emotive genres. I probably shot about seven minutes of film, some static mid shots and also freehand close ups and other erratic techniques often observed in horror films. I used the two different styles as they are signiture of their genres. I downloaded the slaughter footage off the internet on thursday night, however I chose a different sourse than last time and Premire won't open the files. As I have a limited internet quota and they were fairly large files I have kept them, hopefully I can aquire a sutible converter within the next week or two so that I can begin editing. Even so I will probably play around with the film I got today, but won't be able to move forward much untill I have the slaughter footage working too.

Reflection on recent developments.

I tried to capture footage (for project Ngierof Mlif) onto the Macs yesterday. For some reason it wouldn't register the computer/camera connection. After about 20 minutes of fiddling with it, it froze and had to be shut down manually. This one project in particular I don't want to have to edit on my laptop, due to the size and the fact that I am already familiar with the effects I want to use on Final Cut. I will try to get it to work again after Easter.
I had a revelation on my Horror vs Chick Flick project, That is; to use my grandparents as actors! And use their house for location; it beats trying to find other actors....
So, I can shoot that over the weekend and hopefully get some editing out of the way before school resumes after Easter. I will edit this on my laptop. I will download the extra footage (Meet your meat- http://www.goveg.com/) tonight onto laptop and work out what I will use of that. I intend to shoot some of my own 'horror' footage to minimise copyright problems with using the downloaded stuff (not sure of the implications there). Just basic stuff; blood, guts, sharp implements...etc. I'll probably do that at the grandparent's place too.
I will ask Chris to show me layer animation on Flash8 after Easter also, so I can begin with animating my second project Ruby and the Morbid Children.
I have been watching some Tropfest films for inspiration. It's always wonderful to see what some people manage to pull off with minimal props/location. It encourages me to go back to basics with my ideas, and to find the simplest way to portray them.
I'm still working on a private project; a music video to Cannibal Corpse's-Stripped, Raped and Strangled. I need to shoot some more footage for that. That's also on the laptop; I don't know how much more footage I can fit on there (The little bar that shows hard-drive usage has gone red...red's not good, right?....) Anyway, that will probably be submitted under the Medley of Shorts umbrella in my end of year folio.
The proposal for Digital Projects is nearly done. My inquiry question being "Can I create entertainment using an original idea?" and "How can I take an old idea and re-invent it for entertainment?"
Watched Roger's presentation yesterday on "Knowing what we don't know..." not entirely sure what it had to do with Digital Projects...I think he just likes PowerPoint =P
Oh well, it was interesting (from a psychology and philosophy and PowerPoint point of view, not digital projects.)
I think that's all.
Until next time...

Progress: "Ngeirof Mlif"

Alright, I shot the footage for my foreign film on Sunday (or rather, I was talked into being in the frame while Phoebe manned the camera) The shoot was successful, and although I haven't watched it back yet, I am confident there will be sufficient material to begin editing next week (I plan to capture in the Dig Proj double on Tuesday)
I'm almost done with the proposal; will finish that tonight.
I think it's time to go nag Chris to teach me to layer-animate...
That is all

Shooting

I shot the footage for my foreign film at Phoebe's this afternoon. I think it went well, we might find some unexplained exclamations from people outside of the frame (Phoebe's Mum)...Phoebe's Mum also started a paper plane fight with Sam, so it looks like the film, when reversed, will include planes flying backwards back and fourth through the frame....Or I can cut that bit out =P
I reckon there's about fifteen minutes of footage on there but possibly more, so editing on my laptop along with my other, smaller, projects will be out of the question. I ended up being in the frame for most of it as Daniel and Sam were unsure of what I wanted, so I had to lead by example! The bane of directing, I expect...That's pretty much all I can say about that until I've watched the footage back.

So far this week....

There have been some positive advancements this past couple of days! Firstly: I feel motivation, secondly: Phoebe has been a huge help; letting me use her house to shoot my foreign film and also threatening some friends into being actors for me...(thank you Phoebe!)
The foreign film is not my major project, however I begin it now as it won't take much time to do but will serve well to re-familiarise me with the editors and processes.
Due to more explanation I am beginning to understand how this course works, and have found all the lectures/presentations to be helpful. I feel everything is coming together, and starting editing soon will help allot to further that feeling...
I will update again after shooting Sunday, fingers crossed 'everything goes as planned!

Inquiry Question

I've decided to base my projects this year around the Inquiry question "Can I create entertainment from an original idea?" and "How can re-invent an old idea in entertainment?" So throughout the year I will try: (1) to execute film based on original ideas (If there is indeed any left in the world) and (2) to take old idea's or stories and re-invent them with original elements.

Horror Vs Chick flick

Just created a Blogger account, no luck adding other people's blogs yet though. I guess I'll try again later.
I have been looking into the genres of 'horror' and 'chick flicks' after a discussion we had in art. There are almost no female fimmakers and even less in the art-film/horror/left-wing field. So as well as finding some noteble female fimmakers; My task is to combine the two genres (horror and chick flick) in a single short film. Should be interesting. At least, it will be interesting trying to do that without it becoming....a comedy. Sooo, even though it has not alot to do with my original inquirey, I suspect i am learning valuble research skills and widening my knowledge of genres which will assist me in digital projects...
I went and saw Chris about learning to layer-animate for the short i plan to do in dig proj. He is too busy with the new students, and said he will teach me in a couple of weeks when everything has settled down.


That is all.