RT! & C3P! YouTube Creator Academy - Maximise Your Channel - 100%

I'll just brag a bit :)

RT! & C3P! Silly Shorts - working on an intro/outro for the new channel.

So I've been wandering for a while - creating a new YouTube Channel (which is a pain, or was, at least) and committing to regular posting there, or, trying to create content for my existing channel, but completely overhauling it from its initial goals. Which is no good. Luckily, now we have our Research Project on the way, and with me taking up a topic of content creation for YouTube - making a new channel would work best for me, my research, its artefacts and so on. Without further ado - "Silly Shorts" intro/outro evolution.

Any thoughts?! :)

Researching Things! YouTube Space and Creators Academy

Starting a year with a bang! I always wanted to make something recognizable on YouTube, but I never thought that this platform will grow so big and would actually envelop me in a full-year research project! But here we are!
The initial idea was to figure out what makes a video popular on YouTube, however now I see the picture is a lot bigger!
This week I have enrolled in a 3 week YouTube Creator Academy and found this breathtaking tour of their YouTube Creator Space! People, who where sceptical about that being serious - think again... And they say they've got one in London!

Visit Creator Academy

Happy Birthday to Half of my Life

 ...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 made this clip for them.

P.s. "Su Gimtadieniu" on the cake means "With Birthday", or "Happy Birthday" in Lithuanian.

www.mgenijus.lt

Ed.

Interesting Stuff

 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 -

ryan_connolly Ryan Connolly

@EdgarKazak

 Excellent job man. You have a great way of expressing yourself. I'm honored to be mentioned in your video! Well done.

 It wouldn't be the biggest deal, if Ryan Connolly didn't just happen to be one of the practitioners I was talking about in my Visual Essay! 

*of course it happened after I have sent him my video with a slight hope he might see it,

but he did, I'm really happy, and that, again, made me believe more into the net and its open media*

 Well, that is it. Thanks guys)

Ed

Visual Essay for End of Year 2012

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

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

DP2 film project - entry one - Pre-production

 It has been a few weeks since we were presented with the script on a film we were going to shoot and since then our group has done quite a lot of pre-production.
Without delay we started working on our project by assigning roles we wanted to have in the production of our short or the ones we thought suited some of the crew the best. And so, after a short discussion - our crew:


              (positions colored like this became needed and were established on the filming days)

Alex - Producer
Phagun - Producer Assistant, Director's assistant
Edgar (me) - Director, Actor
Kamil - Director of Photography
Nima - Sound & Audio
Kieran - Lighting, Actor
Jasmine & Jing - Costumes, Makeup, Props, Camera Assistant

  After we went on and started planing what is going to be done. All we knew was our own experience from DP1 and what we want to have as an end project.
 We met the following tuesday and the guys started trimming the scipt to the size and content we needed. Unfortunately I couldn't help them at first because I had to solve some personal problems. When I turned up a few hours later there already was a a draft or a storyboard and shots we wanted and a fairly trimmed script. With that done I went to the Student Unions office and got a Drama Societies heads contacts so that we could find actors for our film. Unfortunately, even though we did contact them, talked on the phone even, they did not reply to our email and ignored our calls further on. The good side is, that so far, this was the only downfall we had. Later that day we paid a visit to a location Jing proposed as our filming site. She made a whole arrangement for us to come and see the place her friend rented. And I must say it was a great place, but unfortunately we needed something a bit different, more of a house than an apartment. At that point we realised we want something home-like and more of a blank canvas so we could put more of whatever we wanted there rather than removing everything that could be in our way. We decided that everyone who thinks he knows a place that would suit the cause will post photographs of it on our facebook.com group that we started to communicate and share our ideas.

Storyboard draft by Nima Hedayati, day TWO:

 


Location suggestions, day TWO:
 

               

               

                  


  Day three, which was wednesday (must say, work went fast the first week), to me, was a great example of determination shown by my frew. On the day before we were thinking that probably we've made enough progress already and, since we were still having a film lecture on thursday, we could make a little break. However, to my surprise, there were not many refusals after I've put through a thought that we should, in fact, not wait and meet up on our free day and maybe go even further. And so, wednesday, we were all a Phaguns place. Trimming, timing the sript, contacting the drama society, finding most of our costumes, bookijg tye equipment - all that was done in that one day. With this progress we thought we are going to start shooting in a few days. But on Friday lectures are plans have been heavily changed.

Script changes, day THREE:

Costumes, day THREE:

      

 Friday was the day we knew that there were so many other "legal" things we had to do before we even start filming, such as: location visit and risk assesment on location, call sheets, storyboards and location release forms. By that point, just a week after we got the the assigment, we already have booked the equipment, planed a location visit and ect. The only thing we didn't have, and unfirtunately didn't have till the day of tge shoot itself. Everything else was there, but sinse we had so many documents to fill, the group decided to postpone the shooting till next weeks weekend, get everything signed, test the equipment and overall get everything right. The following next went a bit slower, with me developing a storyboard and cutting the script to scenes. Everyone was doing their research on their own and basically that was how the whole week went. With a little diversity as shooting days change (to Monday and Tuesday), and an exciting lighting tutorial on Fridays lecture. This is the first segment of the three-part coverage of our DP1 film project. Pre-production done, now - shooting...

 To be continued...
 Ed.