Ideas for Interactive

 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...

Ed

National Media Museum & a bit about Visual Essay

 15/02/12

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.

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Moodboard for Interactive

    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,

    Ed

"Clowning Around" edit by Edgar Kazak

And here it is, the final project. The result. Check it out and tell me what you think. 

The top version is a YouTube player and the bottom one is Vimeo.

Thank you for your time,
Ed

DP2 film project - entry three - The edit

   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.

Font research:

Berlin Sans FB Demi
Giddyup Std

Century Gothic

Jokerman
Cooper Std Black
Kristen ITC

Curlz Mt

Rosewood Std Regul
Forte

Script MT Bold  - this was eventually chosen. 

Thank you for getting to this point, 

Ed.

DP2 film project - entry two - On set

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 called  Karen. 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.

Thanks for reading this far,

Ed