The non expert interview i have chosen to discuss is my interview with MS patient Sarah Cohan - Sarah is one of the first patients to be issued with Bayer Pharmaceuticals new product Sativex. I managed to acquire this interview after placing an advert on NORML UK's website. She contacted me and said she would be happy to help if we could schedule the interview around the numerous talks she does up and down the country. Because of these constraints I decided it would be best to conduct the interview over Skype.
The set up for the interview was extremely professional in my opinion - despite being over Skype. I had set up a camera to capture and over the shoulder shot of myself and the screen that Sarah was on. I also had a screen recorder running to make sure that I had variation of shots to switch between. As well as this i had a mic plugged in to the computer to get unadulterated audio from Sarah and I wore a lapel mic to get my audio with good clarity. With all these things set up I think I combatted the fact we were on Skype rather well. Given that I had every possible bit of equipment to make the interview as professional as possible made up for being on Skype.
The approach I adopted for this interview was light hearted. I understood that Sarah had recently come out of a serious relapse and didn't particularly want to start hounding her for certain answers. With this in mind I endeavoured to have a friendly chat with her but at the same time subtly angle the conversation to get the answers I wanted. I did this by asking her a broad question that would enable her to talk fairly freely and then offering her statements to comment on to bring her back on track. I think this worked well and Sarah seemed largely comfortable with the situation and gave some fantastic answers.
Thursday, 27 June 2013
Tuesday, 25 June 2013
Audience Theories
Audience Theories
What key words or statements would you describe the Hypodermic Needle Theory with?
What does Orson Welles' radio adaptation have to do with Hypodermic Needle Theory? Apparently lead many audience members, and some of the media, to believe that aliens actually landed in New York.
Descrive THREE ways in which the Uses and Gratifications works. - Examples -audiences use media as a sense of diversion (from everyday life)
- Brainwashing audiences into one way of thinking
- audiences are passive
- audiences are injected with a message
- audiences have no opinion on the matter
- message is received and accepted.
What does Orson Welles' radio adaptation have to do with Hypodermic Needle Theory? Apparently lead many audience members, and some of the media, to believe that aliens actually landed in New York.
Descrive THREE ways in which the Uses and Gratifications works. - Examples -audiences use media as a sense of diversion (from everyday life)
- Personal Identity
- Companship or relationship
- Surveillance
- Representation
- Entertainment
- Active = audiences participate with the text, or have their own opinion or interpretation of the text.
- Passive = audience accepts the text with no thought or opinion on the matter.
Wednesday, 19 June 2013
FMP Evaluation
FMP Evaluation
This evaluation of my final major project – a documentary
film names The Chronic Issue, will look at all the strengths and weaknesses of
not only the film but the production process as well as what I would have done
differently if I could have.
The film itself was looking at the situation of Cannabis in the UK, specifically focusing on legal, medical and social issues. I also focused a small amount on the War on Drugs and a whole. During the making of this film I travelled to various locations both in the UK and abroad.
I managed to secure a number of interviews with good quality interviewees; this provided me with good quality content.
Strengths –
I think I succeeded far better than expected within the
making of this film. When I look back at the interviews I was able to arrange,
the places I was able to go and the support I was given from external groups
was fantastic.
I still hold this view despite a number of outspoken objections from certain lecturers. From the moment of conception this film concept was not greeted in a particularly positive light, this was one thing that drove me to make this film the best I could possibly do. I believe I was right to stand by my concept as I was able to use my skills with people and my abilities to make links with the specific people I needed to.
I was able to identify the people I wanted to talk to rather quickly. With the help of some very supportive organisations and individuals I was able to gain access and peoples time in nearly every framework I had chosen.
For example I travelled to Amsterdam in order to talk to a couple of extremely experienced and educated guys – to be able to acquire some of these peoples time is quite difficult and so I felt as though I was on to a bit of a winner by them even agreeing to talk to me. I was taken to a number of coffee shops to meet the owners, unfortunately I was unable to get footage of the inner workings of the store due to legal boundaries. However I did gain some extremely useful insight and angles with which to incorporate in to further aspects of my film.
I was able to set up interviews with Cannabis historians, Ex police chiefs, ex MI5 agents as well as MS patients.
I genuinely believe that the success of this film came through my ability to link with people and cherry pick the exact person I wanted to use. The film would have suffered dramatically if I had not been able to interview the people I was. It would have lost a lot of the credibility I wanted the film to have.
I think despite the expectation for the film to go wrong and be a bit of a half arsed disaster I ensured that this wouldn’t happen by sticking to the concept I had originally envisioned.
My planning was a really helpful aspect throughout the project. I was able to plan for everything that I did and kept notes of what was coming up over the coming days. This helped me to stay on top of everything and be aware of the more important aspects of the film. This shows in through my production diary.
Upon the showing of my film despite a few weaknesses (which I will go into further later) I felt very proud of the piece of documentary film I had managed to assembled despite some frankly ludicrous criteria and the emphasis put on being “unbiased” – a notion I strongly disagree with.
Initially I was urged not to attempt a film regarding the laws around Cannabis and drugs. A number of other topics where suggested because I “already had a huge knowledge on this topic. It would push you to learn about something else” I completely disagree with this. You wouldn’t ask David Attenborough to make a fashion documentary, that would be ludicrous – stick to what you know. It made sense to me that I use my knowledge to create a well-educated piece of film. Not attempt to learn an entire new subject and then document it poorly.
Returning briefly to the notion of remaining totally unbiased, this again makes very little sense. I agree if you are making a documentary with no heart or passion. It is impossible to make a documentary that credits idiocy.
With regard to the War on drugs there is no sense to it, it is wrong, it costs millions and a cacophony of lies have been told. If I were to acknowledge these arguments it would undermine the political view point of the film. If I were to make a film about murder, kidnapping or rape (many of which are a direct subsequence of the war on drugs) would I be a neglectful film not to show the positive sides of these things? No, of course not.
The same can be said of my chosen topic, I cannot show a good side to the subject matter if there isn’t one.
I stand by my choices with this film and am proud of the result.
I still hold this view despite a number of outspoken objections from certain lecturers. From the moment of conception this film concept was not greeted in a particularly positive light, this was one thing that drove me to make this film the best I could possibly do. I believe I was right to stand by my concept as I was able to use my skills with people and my abilities to make links with the specific people I needed to.
I was able to identify the people I wanted to talk to rather quickly. With the help of some very supportive organisations and individuals I was able to gain access and peoples time in nearly every framework I had chosen.
For example I travelled to Amsterdam in order to talk to a couple of extremely experienced and educated guys – to be able to acquire some of these peoples time is quite difficult and so I felt as though I was on to a bit of a winner by them even agreeing to talk to me. I was taken to a number of coffee shops to meet the owners, unfortunately I was unable to get footage of the inner workings of the store due to legal boundaries. However I did gain some extremely useful insight and angles with which to incorporate in to further aspects of my film.
I was able to set up interviews with Cannabis historians, Ex police chiefs, ex MI5 agents as well as MS patients.
I genuinely believe that the success of this film came through my ability to link with people and cherry pick the exact person I wanted to use. The film would have suffered dramatically if I had not been able to interview the people I was. It would have lost a lot of the credibility I wanted the film to have.
I think despite the expectation for the film to go wrong and be a bit of a half arsed disaster I ensured that this wouldn’t happen by sticking to the concept I had originally envisioned.
My planning was a really helpful aspect throughout the project. I was able to plan for everything that I did and kept notes of what was coming up over the coming days. This helped me to stay on top of everything and be aware of the more important aspects of the film. This shows in through my production diary.
Upon the showing of my film despite a few weaknesses (which I will go into further later) I felt very proud of the piece of documentary film I had managed to assembled despite some frankly ludicrous criteria and the emphasis put on being “unbiased” – a notion I strongly disagree with.
Initially I was urged not to attempt a film regarding the laws around Cannabis and drugs. A number of other topics where suggested because I “already had a huge knowledge on this topic. It would push you to learn about something else” I completely disagree with this. You wouldn’t ask David Attenborough to make a fashion documentary, that would be ludicrous – stick to what you know. It made sense to me that I use my knowledge to create a well-educated piece of film. Not attempt to learn an entire new subject and then document it poorly.
Returning briefly to the notion of remaining totally unbiased, this again makes very little sense. I agree if you are making a documentary with no heart or passion. It is impossible to make a documentary that credits idiocy.
With regard to the War on drugs there is no sense to it, it is wrong, it costs millions and a cacophony of lies have been told. If I were to acknowledge these arguments it would undermine the political view point of the film. If I were to make a film about murder, kidnapping or rape (many of which are a direct subsequence of the war on drugs) would I be a neglectful film not to show the positive sides of these things? No, of course not.
The same can be said of my chosen topic, I cannot show a good side to the subject matter if there isn’t one.
I stand by my choices with this film and am proud of the result.
Weaknesses –
I think that my weaknesses within this project lay primarily
with my editing skills. Unfortunately my skills in this particular area are
lacking. While I enjoy editing and am competent in both skill and speed I find
I don’t particularly have the mind that is required for intense editing
periods.
For example I had over six and a half hours of raw footage that needed to be compressed in to an eight to twelve minute film. This was by no means an easy task for someone with a relatively short attention spans when it comes to staring at a screen.
I feel I edited the footage I had reasonably well to form a cohesive, well-reasoned and compelling argument. Albeit a few loose edits and the, unbeknown to me, game changing situation regarding backgrounds, of which much was made, I think my film was a success.
One potential weakness, but one created by criteria out of my control or agreement, was the lack of relevant cutaways I managed to get. Unfortunately I think this was an unavoidable issue given the discussion of my film. It was always going to be able to gain access to the jails, pharma labs, narco-states that was being discussed in the film. I'm not sure that this is a fair criteria given the limit of archive footage and the topic and content of more ambitious documentaries.
For example I had over six and a half hours of raw footage that needed to be compressed in to an eight to twelve minute film. This was by no means an easy task for someone with a relatively short attention spans when it comes to staring at a screen.
I feel I edited the footage I had reasonably well to form a cohesive, well-reasoned and compelling argument. Albeit a few loose edits and the, unbeknown to me, game changing situation regarding backgrounds, of which much was made, I think my film was a success.
One potential weakness, but one created by criteria out of my control or agreement, was the lack of relevant cutaways I managed to get. Unfortunately I think this was an unavoidable issue given the discussion of my film. It was always going to be able to gain access to the jails, pharma labs, narco-states that was being discussed in the film. I'm not sure that this is a fair criteria given the limit of archive footage and the topic and content of more ambitious documentaries.
I think when I finally had the film finished I realised a
few aspects I could have improved on. One of these was the amount of cutaways I
had procured. There was nowhere near the amount of suitable cutaways I thought I
had. This compromised the quality of the film as some of the interviews had irrelevant
cutaways that I had to work in to the film.
The second would have been some of the positions I used for my interviews. I think if I had thought a little further in to the back drop it would have given the film a more professional air. This is something that I accept as a learning curve and will make sure I don’t make the same mistakes again.
I was extremely happy with the quality of interviews I managed to acquire but I'm not sure I necessarily did them justice.
While my lack of unbiased was a conscious decision I think if I were to do it again I would add a little more negative viewpoints as this would have given the film more credibility. I found it difficult to obtain an interview from someone who was anti-drugs. This is one of the main reasons the film was lacking in a negative stand point. This was somewhat out of my hands and I didn’t particularly want to compromise the integrity of the film by having someone with no knowledge of a the topic as an interviewee. While this would have addressed the bias issue I think it would have lessened the impact of the film. Again this will be a learning curve for next time.
The second would have been some of the positions I used for my interviews. I think if I had thought a little further in to the back drop it would have given the film a more professional air. This is something that I accept as a learning curve and will make sure I don’t make the same mistakes again.
I was extremely happy with the quality of interviews I managed to acquire but I'm not sure I necessarily did them justice.
While my lack of unbiased was a conscious decision I think if I were to do it again I would add a little more negative viewpoints as this would have given the film more credibility. I found it difficult to obtain an interview from someone who was anti-drugs. This is one of the main reasons the film was lacking in a negative stand point. This was somewhat out of my hands and I didn’t particularly want to compromise the integrity of the film by having someone with no knowledge of a the topic as an interviewee. While this would have addressed the bias issue I think it would have lessened the impact of the film. Again this will be a learning curve for next time.
This film was always going to be ambitious and was always
going to be a struggle to create the product I envisioned. However I think my
weakness’s didn’t take a huge amount from the point of the film. Just in terms
of my own personal standards I think this could have been a trifle better if
those weakness’s had been addressed earlier.
To conclude this evaluation I think the film I was able to
make given the criteria constraints was a really good effort. The level of
interviews I was able to achieve were the quality of interviews that the BBC
would be happy to have. Taking in to account the travel involved I'm proud of
my level of commitment to the film given its purpose. I believe this is because
of my passion towards the cause and I wouldn’t have been able to put the same
level of effort in to less ambitious project – despite the fact I would have
likely got a similar grade if I had.
Interview Techniques
Investigative Interview:
Investigative interviews are done with the express intention of building a picture of the scenario or topic being discussed. They use quick fire questions, instead of getting people to simply answer the questions you can encourage them to create an image with the answers they give.
A good example of investigative interviews would be police interviews. They ask a select type of questions in order to best garner the information they need. The sort of questions that would be asked in these interviews would be to set up the interviewee to give the most informative answers. In certain occasions it would be planned to try and catch someone out, especially if they mistakenly reveal information.
Promotional Interviews:
These interviews are best suited to advertising a specific product. These styles of interview are primarily seen in the movie industry. For example an interview with Seth Rogan on the topic of his new film would be seen as a promotional interview. These styles of interview are used to push a product, the sort of questions that would be asked would be tailored to releasing positive information regarding said product. With regard to the film questions would be asked to encourage the audience to go see the film. This is a very clever way of advertising as the audience get a glimpse of celebrities off screen and it creates a personal interest in that person, especially if the certain actor is a likeable person. This new found personal interest in the actor would encourage the audience to go and see the film.
Hard News:
This is an example of an informative interview that has an agenda behind it. They are generally used to lay down facts on a certain issue and be extremely to the point. These styles of interview would be seen on Question Time. You would frequently find these sorts of interviews in political circles. Its always interesting to see a Hard News interview as the news anchor generally pushes and prods their subject in order to get the facts out of them, especially if the politician is being typical and trying to worm their way out of it.
These interviews arent always necessarily passive aggressive. Sometimes these interviews are just used to extract as many facts and figures from the horses mouth as possible. Its one thing to give an audience a load of facts and figures on screen but most people wont particuarly take any notice. However if a doctor or scientist were to deliver the same facts on screen people are far more likely to sit up and take notice.
Light Hearted:
These styles of interviews are a lot more laid back and far more conversational. These types of interviews are usually found on chat shows where the style of conversation is a lot more laid back and is more about the personal side of a person than being informative. These interviews are excellent for day time TV or Breakfast shows. The reason for this is most people have these shows on in the background as they get ready or eat in the morning. This is the last time you want to be thinking about having educational interviews jam packed with facts. No one would pay any attention at all. And so you have the development of a more conversational style of interview that shows the subject in a much more approachable light. It shows the audience that these too are real people that have exactly the same small talk chats as every other person in this planet. Again creating a relatable and personal relationship between audience and subject.
Example of a bad interview:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADJhErmJuoQ
It's a morning talk show people watch before work or class while eating breakfast. Notice how quickly they jump to talking about his boots and how that guy says he's unable to understand him when he's on the radio right after he makes a relatively intelligent statement. I actually watched this three times over now and the more I watch it, the more I notice how often they try to jump to such trivial points like his outward appearance. You can see it in their body language and facial expressions. It's honestly astounding that they don't want (or don't now how) to further discuss anything which could be seen as higher level thinking. It's especially apparent when he asks that dude how he feels about Manning and Snowden. The short haired blonde jumps back about 4 minutes into the interview with the whole 'can't understand him' thing and that dude goes to the chest hair line, essentially hoping the average viewer completely forgets what Brand just said. So incredibly ridiculous really. I feel like they expected to have some laughs and accomplish little more than serving as just another stop on Brand's promo tour. This guy was honestly too nice to them.
This is clearly a misplaced light hearted interview. Unfortunately Russell Brand is exactly the wrong person to take part in a casual light hearted interview. He is an extremely big personality that needs to be controlled within an interview process, otherwise he will run riot. Which is exactly what happened. He realised that his personality was stronger and he was far more intelligent than all three of the panel and continued to embarrass them, especially when at one point he literally took over the interview. This should have been a promotional interview that quickly developed in to a farce.
Investigative interviews are done with the express intention of building a picture of the scenario or topic being discussed. They use quick fire questions, instead of getting people to simply answer the questions you can encourage them to create an image with the answers they give.
A good example of investigative interviews would be police interviews. They ask a select type of questions in order to best garner the information they need. The sort of questions that would be asked in these interviews would be to set up the interviewee to give the most informative answers. In certain occasions it would be planned to try and catch someone out, especially if they mistakenly reveal information.
Promotional Interviews:
These interviews are best suited to advertising a specific product. These styles of interview are primarily seen in the movie industry. For example an interview with Seth Rogan on the topic of his new film would be seen as a promotional interview. These styles of interview are used to push a product, the sort of questions that would be asked would be tailored to releasing positive information regarding said product. With regard to the film questions would be asked to encourage the audience to go see the film. This is a very clever way of advertising as the audience get a glimpse of celebrities off screen and it creates a personal interest in that person, especially if the certain actor is a likeable person. This new found personal interest in the actor would encourage the audience to go and see the film.
Hard News:
This is an example of an informative interview that has an agenda behind it. They are generally used to lay down facts on a certain issue and be extremely to the point. These styles of interview would be seen on Question Time. You would frequently find these sorts of interviews in political circles. Its always interesting to see a Hard News interview as the news anchor generally pushes and prods their subject in order to get the facts out of them, especially if the politician is being typical and trying to worm their way out of it.
These interviews arent always necessarily passive aggressive. Sometimes these interviews are just used to extract as many facts and figures from the horses mouth as possible. Its one thing to give an audience a load of facts and figures on screen but most people wont particuarly take any notice. However if a doctor or scientist were to deliver the same facts on screen people are far more likely to sit up and take notice.
Light Hearted:
These styles of interviews are a lot more laid back and far more conversational. These types of interviews are usually found on chat shows where the style of conversation is a lot more laid back and is more about the personal side of a person than being informative. These interviews are excellent for day time TV or Breakfast shows. The reason for this is most people have these shows on in the background as they get ready or eat in the morning. This is the last time you want to be thinking about having educational interviews jam packed with facts. No one would pay any attention at all. And so you have the development of a more conversational style of interview that shows the subject in a much more approachable light. It shows the audience that these too are real people that have exactly the same small talk chats as every other person in this planet. Again creating a relatable and personal relationship between audience and subject.
Example of a bad interview:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADJhErmJuoQ
It's a morning talk show people watch before work or class while eating breakfast. Notice how quickly they jump to talking about his boots and how that guy says he's unable to understand him when he's on the radio right after he makes a relatively intelligent statement. I actually watched this three times over now and the more I watch it, the more I notice how often they try to jump to such trivial points like his outward appearance. You can see it in their body language and facial expressions. It's honestly astounding that they don't want (or don't now how) to further discuss anything which could be seen as higher level thinking. It's especially apparent when he asks that dude how he feels about Manning and Snowden. The short haired blonde jumps back about 4 minutes into the interview with the whole 'can't understand him' thing and that dude goes to the chest hair line, essentially hoping the average viewer completely forgets what Brand just said. So incredibly ridiculous really. I feel like they expected to have some laughs and accomplish little more than serving as just another stop on Brand's promo tour. This guy was honestly too nice to them.
This is clearly a misplaced light hearted interview. Unfortunately Russell Brand is exactly the wrong person to take part in a casual light hearted interview. He is an extremely big personality that needs to be controlled within an interview process, otherwise he will run riot. Which is exactly what happened. He realised that his personality was stronger and he was far more intelligent than all three of the panel and continued to embarrass them, especially when at one point he literally took over the interview. This should have been a promotional interview that quickly developed in to a farce.
Thursday, 23 May 2013
Production Diary - The Chronic Issue Documentary
Production Log:
27th Feb - Conceived the concept of my first idea. I am planning to make a documentary regarding the war on drugs and cannabis prohibition. Will conduct further research. Other ideas still pending.
29 Feb - Posted a number of posts online regarding research for the documentary on cannabis. I have had an overwhelming response from people wanting to be involved or interviewed. Lots of stories from medicinal users.
I have decided to name the film The Chronic Issue.
I have decided to name the film The Chronic Issue.
2nd March - Have conducted preliminary research in to my topic. Have also booked a trip to Amsterdam with some friends. This will be a great opportunity to film and arrange some interviews. I am going to begin to start planning who to talk to.
I have also met a medical researcher. Possible good link?
8th March - Having conducted primary and secondary research I am confident of the potential content for this film. The trip to Amsterdam is going ahead on the 20th March. Interviews and meetings being arranged. Have also scouted ahead for future events over the coming weeks.
15th March - Interviews and filming planned for Amsterdam. I have contacted a number of researchers and coffee shop owners and they have agreed to talk to me.
24th March - Have just arrived back from Amsterdam. Got some lovely cutaway footage and spoke to some interesting people. Got average footage due to surroundings and technical mishaps. Some is usable but sparingly.
3 April - Massive interest in the film developing. Companies from America who I have contacted in America for research purposes are considering sponsoring the film. Continuing to plan interviews with suitable people. Planning to go to the 4/20 event in Hyde Park london. A good opportunity to document a political and cultural event.
14th April - Planned interviews with a MS patient and a Crohns patient. Hoping for good material to be usable in the film. All equipment and plans have been made to attend the Hyde Park event. Will be an interesting day. and will certainly be a lot of good footage to be gotten.
25 April - Hyde Park was a big success got a lot of good footage and made some excellent links for the films for possible interviewees. Relentless contact from people wanting to be featured in the film.
4th May - Formulated all research to develop a good understanding of my target audience. This will help me angle my film appropriately to attract the best response from my target audience. I have decided to approach from and legal, medical and ethic perspective. I am planning to attend a cannabis conference in Bristol on 18th May.
I have also conducted the interview with the crohns patient. All footage has been gotten from a skype interview. I used a screen recorder as well as a camera to give another angle. I used a range of audio equipment including radio lapel mic's and an onboard computer audio recorder. This gave for some decent footage given the Skype call.
5th May - Conducted interview with MS and Sativex rep. Interview went extremely well. Same film and recording set us as previously stated. Again all footage and audio has been synced.
6th May - Conducted interview with cannabis and hemp historian. Again interview went extremely well. Lots of usable good quality information. Skype call again and same recording and audio setup as previously stated. Again all footage and audio has been synced.
!5th May - Planning for trip to Bristol. Press pass's and interview with Tom Lloyd - former Chief Constable of Cambridgeshire and Annie Machon - former MI5 agent and European head of LEAP. Hotels and transport have been arranged. All previous footage compiled into folders and ready to be cut down to the usable parts.
19th May - Just returned from Bristol. Couldn't have hoped for better footage. The interviewees were extremely professional and gave incredibly insightful answers. I believe these interviews will make the core of my film. I also filmed the entire convention. Beginning editing entire project tomorrow.
23rd May - Editing complete. I edited the entire project in Prem Pro and had to cut through 6:30hrs of raw footage with all footage combined. It was a long task but I got down to 46 minutes of rough edit footage. I then cut this down further and began to intertwine the interviewees to form a cohesive argument. I used alot of transitions, archive footage, cutaways and inforgraphs to give a wide spread of easy to view information. I hope this works as its the core idea of how the film should be delivered I added music, voice overs and title sequences to complete a project im happy with.
Monday, 6 May 2013
Animation Character Profiles and Storyline
Once upon a time there where three young men named Leonard, Eric and James. All three boys took the same history class together and Tree Falls High School in Boulder, Colorado.
The boys had been childhood friends for as long as they could remember and were infamous for consistently "being in the wrong place at the wrong time" as they always protested. The teachers and parents knew better.
The 2013 Summer term was drawing to an end, everyone at Tree Falls were gearing up to finish the year and break up for Summer, all except Leonard, Eric and James. The boys had failed their final piece of History course work and in turn were set a last minute, 2 day deadline project on the Wild West (a topic of their choosing) Unless this was completed within the deadline the boys would miss their entire summer and spend it at summer school.
Walling home the boys are extremely disgruntled and this recent turn of events and agree that the best course of action would be to orchestrate a "flashback" and present their findings to their teacher the following day.
After hours of brain storming and failed attempts to spark the legendary flashback Eric has, what he deems to be, a fantastic idea. He erects a swing set in his living room from which he is hanging by the ankles above a paddling pool of water. His Tivo box is set up on the History Channels Wild West Weed recording all the shows possible on its 120GB Hard drive. As soon as Tivo is full it is propelled into the paddling pool while at the same time Eric falls from the swing set head first. The Tivo box hitting the water electrifies Eric and thus combines both their energy fields inducing a Flash Back.
The 3 boys sprung up in a bar in Santa Fe, New Mexico at the same moment as the legendary Billy The Kid is out in the street having a duel.
The boys then impersonate some local kids the same age and proceed to join Billy's entourage. They find out more and more about Billy The Kid as he travels further West to rob to newly rich Californians.
The boys find all they need to know and the flashback ends. All three boys wake up in hospital a mere 5-6 hours later.
They then rush to school and give one of the finest presentations the teacher has even seen.
Everybody lives happily ever after.
Leonard - A tall bespectacled lad, Leonard is the goody two shoes of the group. He suffers from asthma, poor eye sight and requires prescription shoes to help aid his ferocious ingrown toenail.
Eric - A loud, brash and chubby lad. Eric is rarely seen without some sort of emergency snacking device. He's rude and unsympathetic. Many argue hes racist.
James - James is always keen to have a good time, no matter what the cost. He often is the one behind a number of the boys ideas. Clearly the leader of the group and by far the most impressive, James brings an air of calm to an other wise uncontrollable group.
The boys had been childhood friends for as long as they could remember and were infamous for consistently "being in the wrong place at the wrong time" as they always protested. The teachers and parents knew better.
The 2013 Summer term was drawing to an end, everyone at Tree Falls were gearing up to finish the year and break up for Summer, all except Leonard, Eric and James. The boys had failed their final piece of History course work and in turn were set a last minute, 2 day deadline project on the Wild West (a topic of their choosing) Unless this was completed within the deadline the boys would miss their entire summer and spend it at summer school.
Walling home the boys are extremely disgruntled and this recent turn of events and agree that the best course of action would be to orchestrate a "flashback" and present their findings to their teacher the following day.
After hours of brain storming and failed attempts to spark the legendary flashback Eric has, what he deems to be, a fantastic idea. He erects a swing set in his living room from which he is hanging by the ankles above a paddling pool of water. His Tivo box is set up on the History Channels Wild West Weed recording all the shows possible on its 120GB Hard drive. As soon as Tivo is full it is propelled into the paddling pool while at the same time Eric falls from the swing set head first. The Tivo box hitting the water electrifies Eric and thus combines both their energy fields inducing a Flash Back.
The 3 boys sprung up in a bar in Santa Fe, New Mexico at the same moment as the legendary Billy The Kid is out in the street having a duel.
The boys then impersonate some local kids the same age and proceed to join Billy's entourage. They find out more and more about Billy The Kid as he travels further West to rob to newly rich Californians.
The boys find all they need to know and the flashback ends. All three boys wake up in hospital a mere 5-6 hours later.
They then rush to school and give one of the finest presentations the teacher has even seen.
Everybody lives happily ever after.
Leonard - A tall bespectacled lad, Leonard is the goody two shoes of the group. He suffers from asthma, poor eye sight and requires prescription shoes to help aid his ferocious ingrown toenail.
Eric - A loud, brash and chubby lad. Eric is rarely seen without some sort of emergency snacking device. He's rude and unsympathetic. Many argue hes racist.
James - James is always keen to have a good time, no matter what the cost. He often is the one behind a number of the boys ideas. Clearly the leader of the group and by far the most impressive, James brings an air of calm to an other wise uncontrollable group.
Monday, 29 April 2013
Hypodermic needle theory.
1) Terms to describe Hypodermic Needle Theory: inected, message, Brainwashing, influence, passive.
2) Hypodermic needle Theory discusses audiences are passive? True
3)
4) How User Gratification works - Personal Identity, Companionship or relationship, Surveillance, Representation, Entertainment.
5) An active audiences can identify and contextualise certain inputs devised by the director. A passive audience will accept these same inputs as having no real meaning or consequence.
Thursday, 25 April 2013
Animation Essay
Persistence of vision:
Persistence of vision is a visual phenomenon where an image is retained in the eye for a short period of time, creating an illusion of continuous motion in film and video.Our eye has ability to persist the detail of the object for a time equal to 1/16th seconds after the removal of the object. This time is known as persistence of vision. Present day film and tv now runs at 24 frames p/s.
Timeline of animation history:
http://www.joshuamosley.com/UPenn/courses/Ani/AnimationHistory.html
Zoetrope:
A zoetrope is a device that produces the illusion of motion from a rapid succession of static pictures. The term zoetrope is from the Greek words ζωήzoe, "life" and τρόπος tropos, "turn". It may be taken to mean "wheel of life".
The zoetrope consists of a cylinder with slits cut vertically in the sides. On the inner surface of the cylinder is a band with images from a set of sequenced pictures. As the cylinder spins, the user looks through the slits at the pictures. The viewing through the slits keeps the pictures from simply blurring together, and the user sees a rapid succession of images, producing the illusion of motion.
Persistence of vision is a visual phenomenon where an image is retained in the eye for a short period of time, creating an illusion of continuous motion in film and video.Our eye has ability to persist the detail of the object for a time equal to 1/16th seconds after the removal of the object. This time is known as persistence of vision. Present day film and tv now runs at 24 frames p/s.
Timeline of animation history:
http://www.joshuamosley.com/UPenn/courses/Ani/AnimationHistory.html
| 1824: | Peter Roget presented his paper 'The persistence of vision with regard to moving objects' to the British Royal Society. |
| 1831: | Dr. Joseph Antoine Plateau (a Belgian scientist) and Dr. Simon Rittrer constructed a machine called a phenakitstoscope. This machine produced an illusion of movement by allowing a viewer to gaze at a rotating disk containing small windows; behind the windows was another disk containing a sequence of images. When the disks were rotated at the correct speed, the synchronization of the windows with the images created an animated effect. |
| 1872: | Eadweard Muybridge started his photographic gathering of animals in motion. |
| 1887: | Thomas Edison started his research work into motion pictures. |
| 1889: | Thomas Edison announced his creation of the kinetoscope which projected a 50ft length offilm in approximately 13 seconds. |
| 1889: | George Eastman began the manufacture of photographic film strips using a nitro-cellulose base. |
| 1892: | Emile Renynaud, combining his earlier invention of the praxinoscope with a projector, opens the Theatre Optique in the Musee Grevin. It displays an animation of images painted on long strips of celluloid. |
| 1895: | Louis and Augustine Lumiere issued a patent for a device called a cinematograph capable of projecting moving pictures. |
| 1896: | Thomas Armat designed the vitascope which projected the films of Thomas Edison. This machine had a major influence on all sub-sequent projectors. |
| 1906: | J. Stuart Blackton made the first animated film which he called "Humorous phases of funny faces." His method was to draw comical faces on a blackboard and film them. He would stop the film, erase one face to draw another, and then film the newly drawn face. The Ôstop-motionÕ provided a starting effect as the facial expressions changed be fore the viewerÕs eyes. |
| 1908: | In France Emile Cohl produced a film, Phantasmagorie which was the first depicting white figures on a black background. |
| 1910: | Emile Cohl makes En Route the first paper cutout animation. This technique saves time by not having to redraw each new cell, only reposition the paper. |
| 1911: | Winsor McCay produced an animation sequence using his comic strip character "Little Nemo." |
| 1913: | J.R. Bray devised "Colonel Heeza Liar," and Sidney Smith created "Old Doc Yak." |
| 1914: | John R Bray applies for a patent on numerous techniques for animation. One of the most revolutionary being the process of printing the backgrounds of the animation. |
| 1914: | Winsor McCay produced a cartoon called "Gertie, The Trained Dinosaur" which amazingly consisted of 10,000 drawings. |
| 1914: | Earl Hurd applies for a patent for the technique of drawing the animated portion of an animation on a clear celluloid sheet and later photographing it with its matching background. [Cel animation] |
| 1917: | The International Feature Syndicate released many titles including "Silk Hat Harry","Bringing Up Father", and "Krazy Kat". |
| 1919: | Pat Sullivan created an American cartoon "Felix the Cat." |
| 1926: | The first feature-length animated film called "El Apostol" is created in Argentina. |
| 1923: | Walt and Roy Disney found Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio. |
| 1923: | Walt Disney extended Max Fleischer's technique of combining live action with cartoon characters in the film "Alice's Wonderland". |
| 1927: | Warner Brothers released "The Jazz Singer" which introduced combined sound and images. |
| 1928: | Walt Disney created the first cartoon with synchronized sound called "Steam Boat Willy". |
| 1930: | The King of Jazz is produced by Universal. In it is a short animated sequence done by Walter Lantz. It is the first animation done with the two strip technicolor process |
| 1934: | Urb Irwek creates a multi-plane camera. This camera is capable of filming several separate layers of cels giving the final frame a truly three dimensional look. |
| 1943: | John and James Whitney produced "Five Abstract Film Exercises." |
| 1945: | Harry Smith produced animation by drawing directly onto film. |
| 1957: | John Whitney used 17 Bodine motors, 8 Selsyns, 9 different gear units and 5 ball integrators to create analog computer graphics. |
| 1961: | John Whitney used differential gear mechanisms to create film and television title sequences. |
| 1963: | Ivan Sutherland and SKETCHPAD at MIT/Lincoln Labs |
| 1964: | Ken Knowlton, working at Bell Laboratories, started developing computer techniques for producing animated movies. |
| 1972: | University of Utah, Ed Catmull develops an animation scripting language and creates an animation of a smooth shaded hand. Ref: E. Catmull, "A System for Computer Generated Movies", Proceedings of the ACM National Conference, 1972. (In the SIGGRAPH 98 Seminal Graphics collection.) |
| 1972: | University of Utah, Fred Parke creates first computer generated facial animation. >Ref: F. Parke, "Computer Generated Animation of Faces", Proceedings of the ACM National Conference, 1972. (In the SIGGRAPH 98 Seminal Graphics collection.) |
| 1974: | National Research Council of Canada releases Hunger/La Faim directed by Peter Foldes and featuring Burtnyk and Wein interactive keyframing techniques. Ref: N. Burtnyk and M. Wein, "Interactive Skeleton Techniques for Enhancing Motion Dynamics in Key Frame Animation", Communications of the ACM, 19(10), October 1976. (In the SIGGRAPH 98 Seminal Graphics collection.) |
| 1982: | Tron, MAGI, movie with CG premise |
| 1983: | Bill Reeves at Lucasfilm publishes techniques for modeling particle systems. "Demo" is Star Trek II: The Wrath of Kahn. The paper also promotes motion blur. Ref: W. Reeves, "Particle Systems -- A Technique for Modeling a Class of Fuzzy Objects", Computer Graphics, 17(3), July 1983. (In the SIGGRAPH 98 Seminal Graphics collection.) |
| 1984: | The Last Starfighter, CG is used in place of models |
| 1984: | Porter and Duff at Lucusfilm publish paper on digital compositing using an alpha channel. Ref: T. Porter and T. Duff, "Compositing Digital Images", Computer Graphics, 18(3), July 1984. (In the SIGGRAPH 98 Seminal Graphics collection.) |
| 1985: | Girard and Maciejewski at OSU publish a paper describing the use of inverse kinematics and dynamics for animation. Their techniques are used in the animation "Eurythmy." Ref: M. Girard and A. A. Maciejewski, "Computational Modeling for the Computer Animation of Legged Figures", Computer Graphics, 19(3), July 1985. (In the SIGGRAPH 98 Seminal Graphics collection.) |
| 1985: | Ken Perlin at NYU publishes a paper on noise functions for textures. He later applied this technique to add realism to character animations. Ref: K. Perlin, "An Image Synthesizer", Computer Graphics, 19(3), July 1985. (In the SIGGRAPH 98 Seminal Graphics collection.) |
| 1987: | John Lasseter at Pixar publishes a paper describing traditional animation principles. "Demos" are Andre and Wally B and Luxo Jr. Ref: J. Lasseter, "Principles of Traditional Animation Applied to 3D Computer Animation", Computer Graphics, 21(4), July 1987. (In the SIGGRAPH 98 Seminal Graphics collection.) |
| 1987: | Craig Reynolds then at Symbolics (now at Dreamworks SKG) publishes a paper on self-organizing behavior for groups. "Demos" are Stanley and Stella and Batman Returns. Ref: C. W. Reynolds, "Flocks, Herds, and Schools: A Distributed Behavioral Model", Computer Graphics, 21(4), July 1987. (In the SIGGRAPH 98 Seminal Graphics collection.) |
| 1988: | Willow uses morphing in live action film |
| 1992: | Beier and Neely, at SGI and PDI respectively publish an algorithm where line correspondences guide morphing between 2D images. "Demo" is Michael Jackson videoBlack and White. Ref: T. Beier and S. Neely, "Feature-Based Image Metamorphosis", Computer Graphics, 26(2), July 1992. (In the SIGGRAPH 98 Seminal Graphics collection.) v |
| 1993: | Chen and Williams at Apple publish a paper on view interpolation for 3D walkthroughs. Ref: S. E. Chen and L. Williams, "View Interpolation for Image Synthesis", Computer Graphics Proceedings, Annual Conference Series, 1993. (In the SIGGRAPH 98 Seminal Graphics collection.) |
| 1993: | Jurassic Park use of CG for realistic living creatures |
| 1995: | Toy Story first full-length 3D CG feature film |
Zoetrope:
A zoetrope is a device that produces the illusion of motion from a rapid succession of static pictures. The term zoetrope is from the Greek words ζωήzoe, "life" and τρόπος tropos, "turn". It may be taken to mean "wheel of life".
The zoetrope consists of a cylinder with slits cut vertically in the sides. On the inner surface of the cylinder is a band with images from a set of sequenced pictures. As the cylinder spins, the user looks through the slits at the pictures. The viewing through the slits keeps the pictures from simply blurring together, and the user sees a rapid succession of images, producing the illusion of motion.
Praxinoscope:
The praxinoscope was the successor to the zoetrope and was invented in France in 1877 by Charles Emiles Raynard. Similar to the zoetrope this contraption uses a strip of images that spin within a cylinder. It improves on the zoetrope by removing the slits and replacing them with mirrors so the images with in the cylinder appeared more or less stationary in position as the wheel turned. Someone looking in to the mirrors therefore would see the rapid succession of images creating the illusion of movement.
Thaumatrope:
A thaumatrope was a product developed in the Victorian times. It is essentially a disk or bit of card with two images either side attached to two pieces of string. When the strings are twirled the circular cards flip between the images they appear to be combined in to one.
Examples of common thaumatrope pictures include a bare tree on one side of the disk, and its leaves on the other, or a bird on one side and a cage on the other. They often also included riddles or short poems, with one line on each side.
Stop Animation:
Examples of common thaumatrope pictures include a bare tree on one side of the disk, and its leaves on the other, or a bird on one side and a cage on the other. They often also included riddles or short poems, with one line on each side.
Stop Animation:
Stop motion (also known as stop frame) is an animation technique to make a physically manipulated object appear to move on its own. The object is moved in small increments between individually photographed frames, creating the illusion of movement when the series of frames is played as a continuous sequence. Dolls with movable joints or clay figures are often used in stop motion for their ease of repositioning. Stop motion animation using plasticine is called clay animation or "clay-mation". Not all stop motion requires figures or models; many stop motion films can involve using humans, household appliances and other things for comedic effect. Stop motion using objects is sometimes referred to as object animation.
South Park & Trey Parker:
Trey Parker is the animator that I have decided to look at. Parker was born in Denver, Colorado to Randy & Sharon Parker - the two names given to Stans parents in South Park. Parker graduated in Music and Japanese at the University Of Colorado.
In the early years of South Park, Parker came up with the initial concept of a Santa VS Jesus episode based around 4 young boys in the Colorado town. This film became a smash hit and went viral around LA and NYC. Being passed around and copied over and over by some of the biggest names in the industry before ultimately landing in the hands of Comedy Central Exec's. In a 2006 interview those same exec's said that "it was the funniest thing we had ever seen! We told them to make a show. They went off and made the first 13 episodes, which turned in to South Park Season 1". Parker has been widely accepted to be the main man behind South Park. He is well known to have written and directed the majority of episodes as well as being the predominant voice actor across the entire show.
Since South Park's success Parker has written and starred in a number of feature length films as well as writing entire broadway musicals.
South Park is an American cartoon/animated sitcom created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone for the Comedy Central television network. Intended for mature audiences, the show has become famous for its crude language and dark, surreal humor that makes a mockery of a wide range of topics. The long running narrative revolves around four boys—Stan Marsh, Kyle Broflovski, Eric Cartman and Kenny McCormick—and their crazy adventures in and around the Colorado town.
Parker and Stone developed the show from two animated shorts they created in 1992 and 1995. The latter became one of the first Internet viral videos, which ultimately led to its production as a series.
South Park first aired in August 1997 with great success, consistently earning the highest ratings of any basic cable program through out the shows entire career.. Subsequent ratings have remained high although fluxuating through out a few seasons. but it remains one of Comedy Central's highest rated shows, and is said to run through at least 2016.
The pilot episode was produced using cutout animation. All episodes there afrer were created with software that emulates the cutout technique. Parker and Stone perform most of the voice acting. Since 2000, each episode is typically written and produced during the week preceding its broadcast, with Parker serving as the primary writer and director. Then the pair go in to the recording studio and do all the voices together.
South Park & Trey Parker:
Trey Parker is the animator that I have decided to look at. Parker was born in Denver, Colorado to Randy & Sharon Parker - the two names given to Stans parents in South Park. Parker graduated in Music and Japanese at the University Of Colorado.
In the early years of South Park, Parker came up with the initial concept of a Santa VS Jesus episode based around 4 young boys in the Colorado town. This film became a smash hit and went viral around LA and NYC. Being passed around and copied over and over by some of the biggest names in the industry before ultimately landing in the hands of Comedy Central Exec's. In a 2006 interview those same exec's said that "it was the funniest thing we had ever seen! We told them to make a show. They went off and made the first 13 episodes, which turned in to South Park Season 1". Parker has been widely accepted to be the main man behind South Park. He is well known to have written and directed the majority of episodes as well as being the predominant voice actor across the entire show.
Since South Park's success Parker has written and starred in a number of feature length films as well as writing entire broadway musicals.
South Park is an American cartoon/animated sitcom created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone for the Comedy Central television network. Intended for mature audiences, the show has become famous for its crude language and dark, surreal humor that makes a mockery of a wide range of topics. The long running narrative revolves around four boys—Stan Marsh, Kyle Broflovski, Eric Cartman and Kenny McCormick—and their crazy adventures in and around the Colorado town.
Parker and Stone developed the show from two animated shorts they created in 1992 and 1995. The latter became one of the first Internet viral videos, which ultimately led to its production as a series.
South Park first aired in August 1997 with great success, consistently earning the highest ratings of any basic cable program through out the shows entire career.. Subsequent ratings have remained high although fluxuating through out a few seasons. but it remains one of Comedy Central's highest rated shows, and is said to run through at least 2016.
The pilot episode was produced using cutout animation. All episodes there afrer were created with software that emulates the cutout technique. Parker and Stone perform most of the voice acting. Since 2000, each episode is typically written and produced during the week preceding its broadcast, with Parker serving as the primary writer and director. Then the pair go in to the recording studio and do all the voices together.
In terms of animation, a lot of video games use animations to enhance the experience of the user. For example in the game FIFA they call in a number of players and have them wear sensor suits. Then a camera tracks the exact movement of the certain player in order to have the movements of the animated characters exactly tuned to the identical movements the player would make in real life. This is true of a number of video games. They use said suits to track life like movements of people and have the characters immitate those movements with in the game. For example the way the torso, shoulders, arms and legs move while, hypothetically Cristiano Ronaldo takes his free kicks.
Personally I think this is a fantstic way to input real life movements in to animated video games. I would imagine we will only to continue to move animation closer and closer to real life.
Idents:
An ident is a graphic created by a company in order to be the most associative thing with their company and ideals. It works essentially like a call sign for the company on air. Previously idents were spoken by word during the interval of shows.
Some interesting idents ive identified would be Channel 4's recent ident campaign in which different things in every day life come together to briefly form a "4" on screen. This has become synonymous with Channel 4.
Another one would be BBC1. The use of a complete circle in which to encompass everything they want to say is a really intuitive in terms of a fairly subtle ident.
Music Video:
There is a massive benefit to having a music video animated. As with all other facets of animation it increases the scope of creativity and reduces the cost of the project. I think this is extremely useful with regards to music videos especially. One of the key things with music videos is to be relatable to the song. This is something that cannot be necessarily achieved with real life actors and locations. With animation you dont have any of these problems. You control every facet of the video and can quite literally control everything from the weather and lighting of the film to the emotion and reactions of you characters within it.
In a world where music videos are being increasingly used as advertisement tools it is ideal to try and keep production costs as low as possible. Animation can make this, often difficult, task an achievable reality.
It can also set the tone for an artists style of video. For example The Gorillaz - the became extremely well known for the recurring characters in their videos. As well as the obvious representation of the band members within the videos. This set a theme for them that they can be associated with and people can come to expect a similar style. It attaches a very staunch image to not only the bands image but to their music as well.
Advertising:
Animation is being increasingly used within an overly competitive advertising world. The benefits of using animation with in your advertising campaign comes with the realms of creativity. For example "Wonga" were to use real life actors and studios within their advertising campaigns it would have been far more expensive and time consuming. Opposed to using animation which gives the director a lot more freedom of creativity. The realms of possibility are greatly increased with animation. Taking in to account the amount of advertising we see every day its the creative ones that stand out. Animation give you that possibility.
<iframe src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/41105425?title=0&byline=0&portrait=0&color=ffffff" width="400" height="300" frameborder="0" webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen></iframe>
Some of the things that make advertising with animation a lot easier and economical are:
Personally I think this is a fantstic way to input real life movements in to animated video games. I would imagine we will only to continue to move animation closer and closer to real life.
Idents:
An ident is a graphic created by a company in order to be the most associative thing with their company and ideals. It works essentially like a call sign for the company on air. Previously idents were spoken by word during the interval of shows.
Some interesting idents ive identified would be Channel 4's recent ident campaign in which different things in every day life come together to briefly form a "4" on screen. This has become synonymous with Channel 4.
Another one would be BBC1. The use of a complete circle in which to encompass everything they want to say is a really intuitive in terms of a fairly subtle ident.
Music Video:
There is a massive benefit to having a music video animated. As with all other facets of animation it increases the scope of creativity and reduces the cost of the project. I think this is extremely useful with regards to music videos especially. One of the key things with music videos is to be relatable to the song. This is something that cannot be necessarily achieved with real life actors and locations. With animation you dont have any of these problems. You control every facet of the video and can quite literally control everything from the weather and lighting of the film to the emotion and reactions of you characters within it.
In a world where music videos are being increasingly used as advertisement tools it is ideal to try and keep production costs as low as possible. Animation can make this, often difficult, task an achievable reality.
It can also set the tone for an artists style of video. For example The Gorillaz - the became extremely well known for the recurring characters in their videos. As well as the obvious representation of the band members within the videos. This set a theme for them that they can be associated with and people can come to expect a similar style. It attaches a very staunch image to not only the bands image but to their music as well.
Advertising:
Animation is being increasingly used within an overly competitive advertising world. The benefits of using animation with in your advertising campaign comes with the realms of creativity. For example "Wonga" were to use real life actors and studios within their advertising campaigns it would have been far more expensive and time consuming. Opposed to using animation which gives the director a lot more freedom of creativity. The realms of possibility are greatly increased with animation. Taking in to account the amount of advertising we see every day its the creative ones that stand out. Animation give you that possibility.
<iframe src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/41105425?title=0&byline=0&portrait=0&color=ffffff" width="400" height="300" frameborder="0" webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen></iframe>
Some of the things that make advertising with animation a lot easier and economical are:
- Save Money - Contrary to popular belief, it is actually cheaper to create an animation commercial than it would cost to create a live production. If you want your advert to be memorable you would probably need a recognizable face to go with the product. Hiring a celebrity will cost you a lot of money not even talking about the salaries of the entire team. Even casting for your commercial is an expense you can spare by creating your character online.
- Dream Big - Even though the shooting of the commercial will only take a few days that is only the beginning. Post-production takes a lot of time and another set of hands to help with the editing and voice overs, you name it. Instead of struggling to direct your cast, you can choose what your animated character will say, and even how and with what emotions they will say it.
- Create Lasting Characters - The character that you are creating in your animation film or commercial will be the face of your brand. This character will become recognisable and people will link it with your brand. You don’t have to worry about that actor or actress not being available for your next television commercial, your character creation will be available for you to use until the end of time.
Tuesday, 23 April 2013
12 Principles of Animation
1. SQUASH AND STRETCH
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2. ANTICIPATION
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3. STAGING
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4. STRAIGHT AHEAD AND POSE TO POSE ANIMATION
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5. FOLLOW THROUGH AND OVERLAPPING ACTION
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6. SLOW-OUT AND SLOW-IN
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7. ARCS
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8. SECONDARY ACTION
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9. TIMING
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10. EXAGGERATION
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11. SOLID DRAWING
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12. APPEAL
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Monday, 25 March 2013
Social network questio
Questionnaire - Social Networking
- Which of the following social networking sites do you use?
Facebook Twitter Instagram Linkedin Google+ Reddit - How much time per day would you say you spend on social networking sites?
________________________________ - Do you use social networking sites as the predominant method of contacting friends?
Yes No - Do you find you ever social network out of habit?
Yes No - Have you ever made friends on a social network?
Yes No - If so, did you go on to meet that person?
Yes No - Would you feel more comfortable approaching a person in real life or on a social network?
Yes No
Friday, 22 February 2013
eiorvjiowd
To Whom It May Concern,
My name is Tim Oates and I'm writing to you today as I am currently within the pre-production stage of what, I hope to be, the most comprehensive cannabis documentary to come out of the UK to date.
The film itself aims to portray the plant from a well rounded and broad perspective, taking in all scientific and social findings thus far.
The plan is to make this film as relatable as possible in terms of experience. On the basis of that, the film will be made up of numerous interviews with leading professionals as well as a number people with fascinating stories to tell.
I have organised a number of interviews with a multitude of people from small time growers who cultivate for personal use only to large scale industrial growers operating on both these shores and others.
Not to mention the dozens of medicinal users as well as experienced and advanced institutions within Amsterdam's flourishing cannabis market.
Despite only being in pre production the film has garnered an incredible response from the cannabis community both the UK and abroad. Having been featured on petitioning body NORML's website and have agreed to support the film throughout.
We currently have a team of 5 with extensive experience within film and television production to social sciences to botany. We also have a number of team members who aren't as heavily involved in the production process but are more focused on the research side of things.
Unfortunately funding is a necessary evil when making an independent film. This is why we are contacting you. We are in the process of launching a KickStarter but are keen to include an independent investor as well as a recognized brand who could mutually benefit from exposure.
We are more than prepared to offer incentives in what ever way we can. Be that product placement or credit acknowledgment.
This is a independent film and we are looking for an investment that would reflect that. We are literally looking to fund the basic aspects of this film, travel currently being our primary expense.
We hope this is something you could be interested in and look forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely
Tim Oates
tim.oates183@gmail.com
My name is Tim Oates and I'm writing to you today as I am currently within the pre-production stage of what, I hope to be, the most comprehensive cannabis documentary to come out of the UK to date.
The film itself aims to portray the plant from a well rounded and broad perspective, taking in all scientific and social findings thus far.
The plan is to make this film as relatable as possible in terms of experience. On the basis of that, the film will be made up of numerous interviews with leading professionals as well as a number people with fascinating stories to tell.
I have organised a number of interviews with a multitude of people from small time growers who cultivate for personal use only to large scale industrial growers operating on both these shores and others.
Not to mention the dozens of medicinal users as well as experienced and advanced institutions within Amsterdam's flourishing cannabis market.
Despite only being in pre production the film has garnered an incredible response from the cannabis community both the UK and abroad. Having been featured on petitioning body NORML's website and have agreed to support the film throughout.
We currently have a team of 5 with extensive experience within film and television production to social sciences to botany. We also have a number of team members who aren't as heavily involved in the production process but are more focused on the research side of things.
Unfortunately funding is a necessary evil when making an independent film. This is why we are contacting you. We are in the process of launching a KickStarter but are keen to include an independent investor as well as a recognized brand who could mutually benefit from exposure.
We are more than prepared to offer incentives in what ever way we can. Be that product placement or credit acknowledgment.
This is a independent film and we are looking for an investment that would reflect that. We are literally looking to fund the basic aspects of this film, travel currently being our primary expense.
We hope this is something you could be interested in and look forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely
Tim Oates
tim.oates183@gmail.com
Friday, 15 February 2013
Deaf & Blindness
Deaf Blind UK
What Is Deafblindness?
Deafblindess is a term which describes the condition of having an impairment of both your sight and hearing to varying degrees. Living with deafblindness is very challenging as the combination of the two impairments creates a unique and severe disability. It's common for deafblind people to experience communication problems, mobility issues and problems with accessing information. However it's important to note that the needs of a person suffering from deafblindness will vary depending on their age and the type of deafblindness they experience.
People suffering from deafblindness will require different services and have different needs than those suffering exclusively from blindness or loss of hearing. This is due to the fact that those suffering from deafblindness can't use one sense to compensate for the loss of the other.
Communication
People suffering from Deafblindness can communicate in a number of different ways. Again, this differs depending on the age of onset, the type of deafblindness and what resources and support they have available. It's common for someone who grew up deaf and suffered from vision loss in later life to use a type of sign language. Similarly those who grew up blind and lost their hearing in later life usually use a tactile mode of their spoken or written language. The main methods of communication include:
Using any residual hearing or sight - Such as speaking clearly, using hearing aids, being able to use sign language despite having restricted vision and using writing in a large print.
Tactile signing - Such as sign language or a manual alphabet (like the DeafBlind Alphabet) with certain visual or tactile changes.
Interpreting - Use of services such as sign language interpreters or communication aides.
Communication devices - Such as Tellatouch or the computerised version; the Telebraille
Tactile signing - Such as sign language or a manual alphabet (like the DeafBlind Alphabet) with certain visual or tactile changes.
Interpreting - Use of services such as sign language interpreters or communication aides.
Communication devices - Such as Tellatouch or the computerised version; the Telebraille
In addition to these multisensory methods have been found to help those suffering from deafblindness to communicate better.
Causes of Deafblindness
There's over 70 known causes of deafblindness and these are usually split up into two main groups; acquired and congenital:
Acquired - Most people suffering from deafblindness have had use of both their sight and hearing throughout the majority of their lives. The loss of these senses occurs through injury, illness or age. Around 4% of people of 60 in the UK have experienced both auditory and visual impairments. The majority of people with acquired deafblindness are able to retain a useful amount of their sight and/or hearing. Many people with deafblindness have a congenital sensory impairment, meaning they were born without either sight or sound. They then go on to acquire the loss of the other sense, such as being born with congenital deafness and acquiring blindness through glaucoma in later life.
Congenital - Those who are born deaf and blind are said to have congenital deafblindness. This can occur for several reasons; prenatal infections such as rubella, chromosonal or genetic syndromes (such as Down syndrome), excessive use of drugs and/or alcohol during pregnancy and trauma occuring during childbirth. Due to widespread vaccinations, rubella, which was once the major cause of congenital deafblindness is now exceedingly rare. Another major factor in congenital deafblindness is Usher syndrome. This is a genetic condition where the sufferer is born deaf and then gradually begins to lose their sight. This typically occurs in late childhood and is due to a condition known as Retinitis Pigmentosa. Early warning signs of Usher syndrome include a loss of peripheral vision and night blindness.
Types of Communication
People suffering from deafblindness use a variety of different communication methods. Which method they choose depends upon how much useful sight and hearing they retain. Other factors include the causes of their deafblindness and for how long the person has had sensory impairments. And in some cases a deafblind person can make use of a combination of techniques to communicate. Here are some of the most common types of communication used by deafblind people.
Deafblind manual alphabet
Also called finger spelling, this method represents the letters of an alphabet using only the hands. This type of signing makes use of touch by spelling out each word onto a deafblind person's hand. Each letter is signified by a particular sign or location on the hand. Although the Deafblind manual alphabet can take a while to learn it's much faster to use than other methods such as block. Due to it's speed and fluency, this method is one of the most commonly used worldwide. The manual alphabet can be used to denote complex words by spelling individual letters or quickly express simple information such as 'yes' and 'no' through use of quick signs.
Block
Block is another form of manual communication in which words are spelled out onto the palm of the deafblind person's hand. As opposed to other forms of manual signing, Block makes use of tracing in order to spell the words on the palm. Block can be used to spell out complex words by tracing each letter with your finger in block capitals on the deafblind person's palm. Letter's are placed on top of each other and there are slight pauses to signify the end of a word. It's important to keep letters large and clear as it's easy to mistake similar shaped letters. Although learning Block requires very little tuition, it isn't as fast and is less popular than other signing methods due to the limited speed at which information can be imparted.
British Sign Language (BSL)
BSL is the main sign language used in the UK and is usually the first language of deaf people in the country. This languages makes use of space and movement of the hands, face, body and head. BSL is a language in its own right, it has both its own grammar and word orders. Although mostly used in the deaf community some people who are deafblind are able to use this form of communication and is most commonly used with those suffering from Usher syndrome. Like any other language BSL has several regional dialects. This can mean that signs used in some parts of the country, such as Scotland, might not be understood in southern parts of England. Some signs are extremely local and may only occur in certain cities or towns. An alternative version of this method is Makaton, which uses some of the main BSL signs but without a grammatical structure. Due to this many people find it easier to learn.
Visual Frame Signing
Most people suffering from deafblindness will retain some useful sight and in these cases communication methods such as visual frame signing can be used successfully. Visual frame signing makes use of the remaining field of vision to communicate words by sight. An alternative version of this is close signing in which signs will be kept at a certain distance from the deafblind person.
Hands on signing
Based upon British Sign Language, in this method the deafblind person follows the signs made by placing his hands on top of those of the signer and feeling the signs as they are formed. As many people with deafblindness can retain some useful sight this type of signing can be helpful. This method is particularly useful in helping people with Usher syndrome to communicate as their sight reduces.
Clear Speech
Speaking clearly is amongst the most effective ways to communicate with someone who has acquired hearing loss. Research indicates that this method can be highly effective in communicating with a deafblind person as they often retain some useful sight. It's necessary to control several environmental factors to ensure the method works well. For example it's important to check with the deafblind person which position is best for you to be in. Similarly it's important to minimise background noise and avoid noisy places. It's also recommended to hold a conversation in an area with good lighting. This allows your face to be seen more clearly and people with poor sight can often see more in a well lit place. In this method it's crucial to adapt the conditions to suit the individual and make sure to speak slowly and clearly.
Tadoma
Tadoma, also known as tacticle lipreading, is a method of communication for deafblindpeople in which the deafblind person places their hands on the speakers lips, jawline or neck in order to feel vibrations. The middle three fingers usually fall along the speaker's cheeks whilst the little finger is used to pick up the vibrations in the speaker's throat. In this manner the deafblind person can feel both the movement of the lips as well as the vibrations in the vocal chords. It's also useful to feel the puffing of the cheeks and warm air which is produced by nasal sounds when saying letters like N and M. Tadoma is a relatively difficult method to learn and is not commonly used nowadays. However some deafblind people can successfully use Tadoma to retain speech skills which they had before becoming deaf.
Braille and Moon
The Braille method is a system which is commonly used by blind people to read and write. Each Braille character is made up using six dot positions which are arranged in a rectangle. Dots can be raised at any of the six positions and can be used to form up to 64 permutations. Moon is a similar writing system for the blind which uses embossed symbols which are derived mostly from the Roman alphabet. Moon is popular with those experiencing acquired sight loss as many already possess the knowledge of the shapes of letters. And many deafblind people find Moon easier to understand than Braille. Although neither method can be used in general conversation, they can help deafblind people access information in books and magazines.
Statistics about sight loss and eye disease
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