...actually a fourth, or maybe a third, but anyway, "Mažasis Genijus" is now eleven and it has been with me a while. "Mažasis Genijus"is a company I worked for for about 5 years. Yes, It might sound weird, as you don't usually do that, right? "Microsoft" has been a part of our life's for a very long time, in some cases it has always been there (which is scary, by the way), but we don't actually celebrate a Happy Microsoft Day every year!
For me "Mažasis Genijus" is special, as it introduced me to definitions of respect, goal, fellowship, responsibility, dependability and friendship. It was the firs place I was acknowledged as a part of a team, as a partner and as a film maker. It was a place where I met many incredible people, many of them became my friends.
It isn't fair, however, to make this company solely responsible for the best times of my life. The people that brought it to life, gathered so many others around them and are still holding the flag, they are my heroes and friends, and partly, family. However, I am sure they would't mind being summarized into one proud name called "Mažasis Genijus" .
I madethis clip for them.
P.s. "Su Gimtadieniu" on the cake means "With Birthday", or "Happy Birthday" in Lithuanian.
And so, Year one is officially passed. I am not familiar with UK's evaluation system, so I am not really sure if I am very excited about my results, however, I met our lecturer Deborah the other day and she said 66.8 is quite a good mark. So I guess I should be excited. Either way, what I know, is that I will be really excited when these marks bring other results, like a proper job, for example. So, onward, to 70% and beyond!
Just opened up a Tumblr blog with an actual portfolio of my work. Will try to keep it clean with only relevant stuff. Also made a new (wanna-be permanent) logo for my works. I'm keeping "fakeshock studio" as it might be mildly known, however I'm still leaving the "edk" thing as my personal sign. Yay ^^
Click the New Logo to jump to the Portfolio Page (Opens in a new Tab)
Alright, so two crazy things happened today that I am really excited about and wanted to tell you all! First, I woke up this morning, grabbed my phone, started checking the new subscriptions I got, and what I discovered was that I one of my videos was featured on an awesome channel I just love - Vsauce2.
*my video is featured at 3:57*
Then, I went on my Twitter and got this lovely message -
Looking back
at the three projects by the end of DP2, I have to admit, that, probably,
Virtual Environments one was the most enjoyable in both execution and result.
And that is fairly strange, considering my next years’ chosen pathway, which is
Moving Image.
The whole
thing started a while back, when, at the beginning of the module, we were
introduced to the goal we will have to achieve in each pathway. Knowing the
briefs instantly made me think about what I wanted to make for all three of
them. Of course that did not last long, as we dived into our current projects.
However Virtual Environments never left my mind completely, as I expected it to
be the biggest challenge, because everything there was completely new to me. I
started picking up influences from the world around me and by the time it was
time to crack on working, I realized, that the picture was already there, all I
had to do is give it a shape.
The first
unnoticeable influence came from my gaming experience earlier this year as I
was playing the newest “Assassin’s Creed” game. The hero of that game, a
stealthy assassin, was a very appealing figure, not only because I followed his
life through all his installments, but also because of his character and how
well developed he really was. From that moment I knew that my Superhero would
not be an all powerful being, but a stealthy freedom fighter, who’s only
superpowers would be his will to survive and his irresistible charisma. Little
did I know that his made up personality would grow into a story with a fully
developed past and a complicated, but intriguing future.
Other things
kept building up and soon a side project I have been making for my girlfriend
turned to one of the main focuses in my Virtual Environment. The “sort of”
London Underground train I was building for her (yes, maybe building a train from
scratch for my first 3D model was a bit too ambitious, but the result turned
out to be pretty nice, so I guess that was a good call) got me into thinking
about the place I wanted my hero to be in. An abandoned underground station
came to mind as a great place for a stealthy character running from someone to
hide. I started researching the usual layout of service rooms that appear in an
ordinary underground, and it turned out that most of the service constructions
underground consist of 1 big room with whatever in it. This posed a challenge,
as our brief stated that we needed to create 4 rooms and to connect them in
some way. To keep things realistic, I tried working my way around one available
room and the idea of separating it with lights into, at least, 4 different
sections struck me. It felt like a goldmine, and after some experiments I stuck
with it. Creating environments in those sections caused quite a mix of
emotions. I was building an average hideout with some over the top things, like
5 big widescreen monitors, as every superhero should have, but it all felt very
basic and uninteresting, even thought I was very happy with the models
themselves. I started adding things like books and ashtrays to populate the area
when the whole image slid into place. Somehow, through these manipulations, my
hero started to develop his deeper personality. He became a smoker, thus
rendering him a stressed out person under a lot of pressure. I highlighted that
by turning one of the ashtrays upside down and adding a shattered texture to
one of the monitors, as if he threw it into the screen. Taking to the account
the characters position, his environment and his looks (I was working on them
too, that is how his armor and weapons got to the middle of the lair in the
first place. No guns, just swords) I added specific books to his place of
study. They were all strictly revolutionary or historical. That is how the
background of the story slowly formed.
Speaking of
a story, the last page to it was added through the characters appearance. His back
was covered in glowing tubes shaped as a double-sided letter “Q”. At first it
was just a decorative element, but as I started thinking about its practical
use, I realized it had a huge potential. It evolved into a logo and I placed it
around the environment as if stating that this was the official place of some
organization, adding a huge chunk to the story, which now looked like this:
“In
the future (in our future, for the character it is past) information is a
“weapon” which, by the people in power, is considered too dangerous. The once
mighty World Wide Web is gone, schools are being monitored and censored,
knowledge flow is reduced to minimum and learning anything beyond your assigned
duties is considered a highest offence and is punishable by death. Whole
nations were drawn into slavery, and those who escaped that fate are either
dead or brainwashed by the “flow”. Centuries have past in this state and there
is less hope with every year.”
The “flow” is the
liquid that passes through our hero’s body armor and weapons, and was created a
few hundred years ago by the company that used this symbol as its logo.
The
“flow” is an information storage device of a very high capacity. It also can
transfer information with incredible speeds, using liquids molecules. When this
system was invented it opened new possibilities. It could almost make people
“smarter” by increasing the storage capacity and the process speed of their
brain. It could also transfer commands to computers in objects with astonishing
speed, reducing reaction times, even in the melee weapons, practically uniting
the weapon and its user. This potential seemed either too dangerous or too
revolutionary to not to seize it. It fell into powerful and greedy hands. The
device was used to “brainwash” people into submission, basically replacing
their memories with the ones that have been created by the new masters,
overflowing the victims brain, until it cannot tell the difference between his
own memories and someone else’s. With this overflow of knowledge in certain
levels of hierarchy, the information flow to the whole planet was stopped,
basically putting people to slaves. The people of the organization that was
responsible for the “flow” were traced down and killed. Some of them escaped
this fate and established bunkers where they hid knowledge and the “flow” for
future generations to find. It seems that our hero found just that.
This was a huge idea, and I tried to place every single hint right where
it belonged to make this at least somewhat noticeable. As my tutors told me at
the end of my presentation – I succeeded. I think the whole project was a big
success, well, for me. I loved every single bit of it, and even though
sometimes I felt like I was going to break down, I came out empowered.
The video is at the top of the page and if you have already watched it
you can run through it again and try to spot all the hints that were there for
you.
It was a
while since the interactive project was finished and I have been up doing all
sorts of other things, from laying round reading books to working my sweat out
on the 3D environments project, and now, when I have a my mind off those things
I turn my head back to my interactive project and some unfinished business we
still have left. The next sentences are going to put a start to my DP2
Interactive self evaluation. The project
in whole began and carried on very slowly, as if there was all the time in the
world to make it. I really like the chilled out and sincere tutors we had on
this module, they made me feel safe about my coding skills, which, if honestly,
are next to nothing. I tried to
do my best to create my own custom layout and make the whole thing interesting,
accessible and informative. I spent many days just figuring out the style I
want everything to be in. At first, I had everything round up to the 80’s Miami
style like the one you can see in “Starsky & Hutch” films, but soon the
idea became obsolete, because, as my tutors suggested, it was too bright and
old-fashioned, and it did not represent me the way I am. I wanted to disagree,
but there was really no time for quarrel, and I did not start making the
backgrounds or anything, so there really was nothing to lose. It had to go and
I stuck with the modernistic “the less the better” approach. The only things
that Miami has left was the neon tubes on my logo and a few flashy images. When I finally
go to the technical part of the website, I found myself in a weird situation,
as I was almost completely unaware of how the Adobe Dreamweaver works and even
with all the tutorials the things I had been planning to create were just too
advanced. After a many days of struggling I had to give up another array of
ideas I had in favor of something more basic but practical. I also had to scrap
the code I wrote myself, as it had too many loose ends and was tough to navigate,
so I took the template we were provided. It was a disaster
for me. Almost all of my ideas were gone and I had less than a week to build
the website. I realized that I spent too much time on “fighting the windmills”,
never actually thinking that things might just go wrong at any moment. Luckily,
with me I had enough ideas to last a few more websites, so I just jumped into
it. A few
sleepless nights just before the presentation and the website was done. I
looked simple but attractive enough for me to feel respect for my work and the
notion that I have actually done something that I like. Nothing in
this project went smoothly for me and the presentation was not an exception. I
dedicated all my time to making the website and the Project Book the best I
could, and I completely neglected the presentation. That was a huge mistake on
my part, and when I came to do my presentation, the tutors were nice enough to
present my work through my project book. I made my best effort to presenting it
that way and it would have gone well, if only the next thing did not happen. For
an unknown reason the computers we showed our presentations on could not open
the archive I had put my files into. Even when my friend sent me all the files
a few time through the email the whole thing just did not work. I was
devastated, but I did not stop me from submitting my work to the drop box on
the same day, so at least that helped. Either way,
this project was a good lesson to me, as I know now that you just cannot leave
important things hanging, and always have a backup for your projects, whatever
you are doing. From that time I returned to this project only now, tweaked it a
little bit, now I am ready to show you the final result. Here are the
screenshots of my finished and slightly modified website, enjoy.
For some reason I am having a hard time understanding the technical issues with my wannabe-website, as, in fact, one does not yet exist :D God, I don't make sense... But here is a bit of a research on the design part of the assignment.
As I am, quite certainly, going to choose the Moving Image pathway for the following two years of study, I figured that my Portfolio Webpage would have to feature an easy interface that would quickly lead people to the films I make, their promotional and still shots, and other relevant information I have chosen these two websites as my main inspiration. Behold - RockstarGames & Chanel:
the backgrounds in this image are mixed from 4
of many backgrounds the website features
Both feature a great way of showing off their projects, their current works, main focuses, and, in Rockstars case, a social aspect. Having a distinctive style also helps with "selling the feel". As Chanel has some dynamic image change and a very conservative feel, Rockstar goes further, actually showing the concept art of their games as a background. In Rockstars website the background changes almost every time you refresh the page. In the top picture I actually mixed 4 different backgrounds, the mono-background images are below.
this is how the website looks with one of the backgrounds
I like the way Chanel keeps the most focus on its products, basically with no menus coming in the way, yet before Rockstar shows their projects in detail, they do an astonishing job showing of their best of their many titles. The following images show a brilliant video section of Rockstars website and its amazing feature that makes watching videos a great experience.
when the LIGHTS options is pressed the whole screen is
being covered in black, unlike on this shot, as I wanted to show the contrast
The video viewing is enhanced by two options that are as white squares on the black background. LIGHTS and 720 are two great options, one of which enables and HD mode for the video and the other one dims the website so that the content can be viewed with no distractions.
With those things in mind I've made a few sketches of my vision. My first idea was to create something different to the standard model, placing everything in the middle of the screen and making it pop-up as pressed. It is a bit too ambitious and I am not convinced I could come up with the code that would make it pop out, but never the less here it is:
as a window (as VIDS here) is being
pressed it jumps out & covers the rest
The second idea is a bit more basic. It features the menu system from Chanel and a product showreel of Rockstar Games website. Maybe I could even get my hand on the LIGHTS and 720 options for my videos.
this is a bit of a variation of the previous FILMS page
Well, here they are. Now, to get some technical skills on Dreamweaver, as I am not even remotely sure how to do all of this. Quite unfortunate. But since this is mostly out of the way, I might crack on with the technical part.
Thanks for reading this far guys. Have a good, whatever the time...
National Media Museum? MONKEYS! Well, also elephants, 3D, "Outposts" and a Dalek. That is what the National Media Museum in Bradford is all about. BOOM! Cute little baby monkey!
Alright, to be fare I did not expect anything particular out of this trip. A bit more, well, a lot more stuff to read I guess. The fact that we had to find 3 practitioners there now sounds even more unrealistic than before as the place had hardly any. With that said I definitely think it is still a great site to visit. I thought the place is great for what it was, probably, created for. It introduces people to the media industry without going into huge details. It hooks up young minds and just makes them want to be film makers, animators and/or TV producers. In fact there were a lot of children there when we visited and it made it quite stressful to get around and find what you need. I do love children though, and so, in order to make the most of our trip, some of us left the building for an hour, and, since we all were very hungry, we went to a restaurant, ate, returned, and what do you know, the place is pretty much free. Great. Unfortunately some time was lost and we had to make haste. That was the time I realized there were more things to consider looking at. Cinema research labs and TV booths where you could book an old TV program and watch it on your own or with a friend. Unfortunately it would take a lot of time so I had to pass. Either way, we've already been to the IMAX to see monkeys and elephants, and boy oh boy, was that great. And I took some 30 minutes to watch commercials on a small screen in the TV section. After all, one of the ideas for my VE was to do something with commercials.
The museum turned out to be a pretty interesting and engaging experience, but my job was to find some practitioners for my Visual Essay. I found three. Two were had interesting ideas I might use and the other one had an interesting visual style:
First it was Donovan Wylie, a photographer that had his own exhibition. There I found a video of him talking about the "Outposts" project (photographs & video are at the bottom, number 1). At the beginning of his talk Donovan talks of his fascination with the power of the visual aspect, how fortifications are built not to last in the fight, but to prevent from attacking (that's what I thought it was). I might not use him as a practitioner in my Visual Essay, but I'm certain I will use his idea as one of the bases for my project.
Second was Daniel Meadows, who also had an exhibition of his early works. I liked his visual style, the vibrant colors that were present in the pictures he made (the ones that were in color of course) (photographs are at the bottom, number 2). http://www.photobus.co.uk/?id=1 was his early project and attracted my attention. It seems that it was doing something for the people of his generation what the internet is doing for us today - a chance to express ourselves. I might be wrong, but I will look up his photographic style and his early project and maybe I will find something.
The third person that interested me was Bill Kroyer. He was quoted on the wall of the animation section next to a shot form "Tron" (1982). It stated - "If you can't make it good, make it loud and fast". As I found out Bill was actually in charge of the storyboard production (later I found out he was unofficially a visual effects animator) for "Tron" (1982). With that said I found our, in the same animation section, that the film was a commercial disaster. Quite weird as it was the first film with actual computer graphics and even had a sequel after "Tron: Legacy" (2010). Further more - I really liked both of them. Keeping that in mind I am interested if Kroyer was speaking ironically, because "Tron" (1982) is quite an action film, or was it something else. Still, for me, that is a great idea to base my VE on, as "loud and fast" movies are now all over the place and some of them are really good both in visuals and story, and everything else. So I am going to look forward into Bill Kroyer, as he was a Visual Effects Animator, Animator, Writer and Film director. I like his idea, and maybe I will go from there. (photographs are at the bottom, number 3).
I didn't learn a lot form the museum itself but it definitely gave my VE progress a push. I will start from there and we'll see where it goes.
Thank you for your time, Ed.
This is a so called "Moodboard" I created for my Interactive assignment. This collage represents the colors and fonts I like and prefer, the style that makes me comfortable and makes me feel like I want to feel, and how I want people to feel when they visit my Portfolio Website. Probably the main theme here is the colorful sunny warm feel of the 1980's Florida. This is a very nostalgic theme as it brings out pleasant memories to people of almost all ages. For ones its the time when they actually lived, for the others it is the movies as "Starsky & Hutch" and/or "Miamy Vice", and for my generation it is usually an epic video game, the favorite of many - "Grand Theft Auto Vice City", that made many young people to fall in love with 80's theme, style and music. Even if we forget the theme and just pay attention to the fonts, colors and style then we are still left with a warming feeling of a yellow and red morning sun and the cool, smooth ocean blue. Straight lines, silhouettes and a modesty in the number of colors used but no restrictions in the different types of the same color (if I make sense :D). There are also big bulky and curvy fonts with purple stripes all around. Awesome.
I love it, to say the least, and I am very excited to see how the website is going to turn up.
Thanks for reading this, guys, have a great weekend, or whenever you are reading this,
I started editing right away without deleting the footage I thought I
will not net, as it proved in the end, even thought I checked the shots I
thought I need it turned out that there were many other things to add, so I
added as soon as the need came up. Thought this was not just a head-straight
jump into action, I made some crucial data management regarding my folders and
their lay-out. Those were not the only obstacles I have overcome. The next
images show the highlights of my progress highlights:
Data management:
Problem detection & solving
1st draft project file, quite messy
Final project file, organised & easy to navigate
After Effects post-production
Final cuts:
The white highlight you can see in the second picture represent where I
made the crucial cuts I made to the edit.
These 3 days of filming were fast but, i must say, quite stressful. Not because of the crew or the equipment, but mostly because I felt that I'm failing to achieve the amount of quality I assumed I can achieve, and the lack of control over the situation drove me crazy. However, believe me, I think we did great.
First, the things that were redone, improved and had a result on, or just before the filming:
New storyboard:
Costume match:
Drawings by Jasmine Leung, Top picture -
http://tvlistings.zap2it.com/tv/dexters-laboratory/photo-gallery-detail/EP00176555/296553
Character Bios:
Karen – a young housewife
with her husband Brian and three children. Karen is the only one who works in
their family as Brian struggles to get some money now and then. Even thought
she has not the best payed job in the world they seem to have everything they
need. It is due to Karens parents who generously donate maney to their family.
Karen was in a relationship with a character named Tommy but left him for Brian
because, even thought she sometimes thinks he is useless, she likes him, and
care for him. And they have got kids. Although sometimes Karen is a bit tricky
to understand as she sees no crime in having an affair.
Brian – an unsuccessful, weak
willed actor, father of three in a young age. Back in high school he had a
friend called Tommy and both fancied a girl calledKaren. Later Brian and Karen became a couple
but after a month he found her in Tommy’s arms. Friendship ended, rivalry
began. Karen switched sides a few more times as she liked Tommy’s confidence
but at the same time Brian always cared for her… At least till she became
pregnant when they were in the college. And then the wedding.
Tommy – a self-employed
actor for kids parties. Cocky, does not care about anything or anyone. Likes to
show that he is a powerful person, but when in an actual fight tends look for a
compromise, because is afraid of being beat up.
The Policeman – smart
looking guy. Maybe not going to be a high rank officer, but sure knows his way
around women. He is sarcastic, into fun and one night stands are his specialty.
Also very confident and wears a uniform – exactly what Karen was looking for.
Just for a bit. While Brian gets his things together.
And now to filming days:
These
days were fun, interesting and educating. As our tutors warned us many things
were changed on the set, many shots were removed and lines added. We also
required an extra day for our shoot but expecting that we had already booked
the equipment for an extra day and our location was given to us for whole four
days of testing and filming.
I
got up early every morning and went to sleep late the following night as I was
planning the next day. As a director I learned a lot on my mistakes, as I
wasn’t prepared properly for the second shooting day without a proper shooting
schedule and so that day turned out to be a stressful nightmare for my whole
crew. However day three was fast and smooth as I had a whole schedule prepared
the night before and even the fact that my assistant Phagun Shah and our “Sound
guy” Nima Hedayati had to be late for the shoot we had no trouble shooting the
scenes.
In
terms of having an assistant director in such a small group there were a few
things we had to overcome. We have managed to get two actors out of four but
unfortunately our contact, who we got in touch with in order to get actor for
our film had left us with no response after a few interactions. He also had
other people who agreed to participate in the filming process but they were
forced to quit at the last moment due to person issues. We had to improvise and
I was chosen to play Brian - the main male character. I thought directing on
its own would be a challenge and this seemed a bit unreal, but nevertheless, I
decided to give it a go as we had no other options.
I
had to split my focus in two so that I would not lose control of the situation
and also keep the character I was playing as believable as I could get him. I
kept on top of most of the things - the crew, actors, location. Assistant
director kept control of breaks and sometimes I the shooting process, and
saying “it’s a rap” in the end of every shooting day. In fact Phagun took over
the filming of the second day as it was a bit of a mess and I had to keep my
focus on the actors and my own acting as my assistant took care of the camera,
silence on set and the schedule. Off course every time she had a hard time with
the misbehaving crew or her own nerves (yes, day two was a nightmare) I took
full control of the situation.
The
most important things I learned on those days as a Director were that keep your
management up-to-date, keep your crew happy and warm (as long as you are not
paying them :D) and It is always better to stop, think, and, even if everyone
else around you are whining, be The Director, say - “ok, now everyone is going
home and we are reshooting this tomorrow” – because there is no need to have
bad footage and unhappy crew.
This is the end of the second part of our filming of "Clowning Around". Next thing - editing.
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