Latest updates

Hi folks,

It's been a while since I have posted here...This is mainly because I have ben busy with Uni coursework events etc. So heres my update of everything since September:

I have been working on my three modules: Digital Storytelling, Motion Graphics and 3D Character production. All three modules have been very interesting and have given me lots of work to do. Digital Storytelling has been broken up in to three courseworks:

• A proposal - an advertising document to provide an Above the Line advertising campaign strategy, using the story stucture of a recognised fairy tale. This was a challenge in itself, but in the end I settled on making my strategy for the made up company Alba Denim, using the story structure of Jack and the Beanstalk. In short, I changed the major plot points of the story to fit around promoting Alba Denim.
• Adding a new character: the next phase of the coursework was to create a new character to add to the existing story to help drive the campaign forward. It proved very difficult to create an interesting character with depth, however I settled on a villain, in particular, a rich and cunning villain.
• Phase three is yet to be introduced however it will involve transmedia. So more updates on this soon...

Aside from working towards my degree, I have also attended 2 major events which have helped me massively to choose the right career path:

• The Adobe UK Campus Tour: This event was great in short. The whole day was about the new products Adobe had to offer with the Creative Cloud and the industry standard workflows already being practiced now. I learned very interesting techniques used in VFX which can be carried across any software not restricted to Adobes tools. After attending this event, I wanted to find more...
• The VFX Festival: This is a 10 day festival in the heart of London, filled with London's industry professionals giving tutorials and holding screenings about the VFX industry and recent movies which have been released. So I booked my bus from Edinburgh and left on Tuesday 12th November at 5:45am to see one of their screenings, How to get into the VFX industry and a special talk about the Assasins Creed live action trailer. The event was an eye opener to say the least. My perspective on the VFX industry has changed. Here's what I have learned from this:
• The VFX industry is largely Freelance, meaning I would be essentially my own business. The downside of this is work can be sparse so I would have to be good at my own book keeping.
• The industry is very competitive. I was in a room full of students and industry professionals working in the industry and I saw some amazing showreels from students. So I need to make sure I have the right skillsets for the job.

Having said all that, I really enjoyed the screening and has lead me to look at the industry differently, aswell as pursue a few extra curricular courses to make myself stand out more from the crowd:

• Become a Generalist - I found from the screening that Generalists tend to have more work. So I intend on learning as much of the VFX pipeline as possible, which includes, Modelling, Rigging, Lighting, Compositing, Colour Grading and Animation. I will do this using industry standard software such as After Effects, Photoshop, Maya and Nuke X. I will focus most of my attention towards After Effects and Nuke.Although Nuke is the industry standard software for most films at the moment. I still feel After Effects will definitely be worthing knowing.
• Learn a second language - I feel that if I learn a second language, I will be more employable in the industry, in addition may open more doors to me in other countries. I intend on learning German. At the moment, I am looking into adding it as part of my degree, but if this is not possible, there is always night classes.
• Be more of an Artist - at the festival, all I kept hearing time and time again was the word 'artistic' and 'talent'  etc. I looked at many showreels and found that many of them had a grounding in art to help them express themselves creatively. So it is part of my plan to start an art class at night school. In order for me to become more of an artist, I need to do a little bit of art.

So that's the plan for the next two years until I graduate. Until then I intend on building up my showreel and work experience as much as possible. More updates soon...


Cheers

University

Hi folks. This is a quick post as I haven't posted in a while...

Today marks the day that I start my new course at Napier University. It's goin to be a fun 2 years. There will be more posts to follow starting now....

Cheers the now

Loch Ness Marathon

Hi folks,

Just a quick post about my latest project... A marathon.  Over the last few months, I have been working hard to get in shape and be able to run for a bus without running out of breath. So after completing the Insanity program (possibly the hardest workout I have ever tried) I heard that my brother was training for the Loch Ness Marathon on September 29th. So I joined him in the 12 week training program to work up to marathon pace.

So far, we have completed a half marathon in 1:40 (avg pace - 8 min/mile) which we were really happy with. During this time, we were researching into raising money for charity and found that out of a massive amount of fantastic charities, we chose to raise money for Diabetes UK. This is a great charity campaigning to raise awareness and provide support to over 3 million people suffering with Type 1 and Type 2 Diabetes.

This charity is a great cause, and if anyone out there would like to find out more, please visit our JustGiving page here. Please donate as much or as little as you want. Any support will be hugely appreciated. Here is my fundraising poster, if you like, please share.

Thats all for now.
More info to follow in the coming weeks.

Creative Cloud Updates

Hi Folks,

Here is a quick update on the new software update I downloaded from Adobes Creative Cloud.

I downloaded After Effects Creative Cloud (which I am assuming is the new name for CS7). So after looking at the native Cinema 4D compatibility, I thought it was awesome that 3D can now be created and updated really quickly with Cinema 4D. So I have decided to continue learning more about C4D, as I find it much easier to use than Maya and works along with Illustrator and Photoshop. The rest of the summer will be spent working with 3D. Good fun.

My 3D renders will be uploaded very soon on mikestruthersmedia.com and my youtube page.

Cheers

HND completed- the next step

Hi folks.

Thursday the 14th of June is the final day of my college years and I am successfully leaving with an A in my graded unit. This year was really good for pushing me to think and research about what I really wanted to do in the creative industries. VFX is still the field I want to pursue. At the moment, I have been reading VES Handbook of Visual Effects. This is an education into the history and common practices in the visual effects industry. This will be a good grounding to give me a more clear idea of how to pursue my target.

Now. The next step after college is now getting an honours degree in Creative Computing. I plan on continuing working with my promotional material, making regular videos, and update my website with all my projects I am working on. My next major target is to get a summer internship with Framestore in London. I will work as hard as I can to get this job. It's going to be a tough couple of years. But I think I can do it.

Cheers

Work experience - A Runner Job

On top of the graded unit and all my other stuff for college, I put my name down for some work experience as a runner on a feature film set in Edinburghs city centre.

I then was contacted to start work at 6.30am at their unit base near the location.

I loved the experience, it was very hectic from the start of the day right through til 7pm.

During filming I was part of a team of runners helping lock off areas of the set during takes. This task proved more difficult than I had thought, some people walk very fast... however I managed to find my feet after a couple hours of doing it.

In the end, I was asked back for two more days, so I officially have 3 days experience on a film set... not that impressive but a start.

For more info about my work experiences and projects I have worked on my website

Cheers

Graded Unit Submission!

Today is the day I have finally submitted my graded unit (development stage) after months of graft.

My Graded Unit can be found on my website.

Creating a promotional material package for myself was a good experience, and I will continue to use the skills I have learned on this course to progress in the Creative Industries. Over the course of the Graded Unit, here is a track of changes which happened throughout the development stage:

• Vimeo Channel - Once I created an account, I found that there were upload restrictions such as file size caps of 2GB a week, unless you set up a PRO account... For just now, I will stick with Youtube's player although I intend on building an HTML5 video player to show my media.
• My showreel ended up at a duration of 1 minute when I had originally planned 2 minutes. But after a peer review, I found that my showreel was too short and needed more material in it.
• Overall, I followed my week by week schedule (which I was very surprised about!). 

Next step is to sum up my Graded Unit in my Evaluation, this is the last section of my course and I can get my grade from there...

MikeStruthersMedia Tshirt!

Hi folks,

I thought it would be a cool idea to create my on t-shirt with 'Mike Struthers Media' on it. So when I made image in Photoshop, it looked great with reflections etc, but when I uploaded a tiff to the t shirt printing company 'StreetShirts', it came back saying the image was too large. So I settled for a Jpeg which printed out not so good...

The image had much more colour depth and the reflection I made didn't show up very well, so its back to the drawing board. More research must be done to create a better T shirt, but here's what I have learned.

• Make the image a reasonable size, so there is less room for error when it is printed.
• Try and find a t shirt printing company that prints higher quality images.

More on this soon.

Cheers

Graded Unit 2 Peer Review

Hi folks,

Today was an important day in the Graded Unit Process; showing our promotional materials that we have been creating over the last few months to be reviewed by the class, to give criticism to improve next time. Here's what happened...

I presented my material (which can be viewed here) to the class and received good feedback overall. They found that my website was a good way of promoting myself, my CV was well laid out and was good at highlighting my strengths. In addition to this, I received some pretty useful criticisms that I can take on board:

• My showreel was very short - Initially, I had planned in my Planning Stage Document that my show reel would be between 2 and 3 minutes, but after some thinking, I thought it would be better at a shorter length in order to keep an audiences attention. But, I realise now that one minute is too short and as long as I keep the flow of the showreel correctly, it should turn out fine. If you haven't seen my showreel, it can be seen here.
• A section of my CV could not be read - One of the headings on my CV couldn't be read easily, which is an easy fix, but crucial to make a good impression to a potential employer.
• Change video player on my website - When the website was being coded, I asked for my videos to be embedded through Youtube. There is nothing wrong with this choice at all, however, there are more stylish looking players such as Vimeo (but the problem with this is unless you subscribe to a PRO account, all your material will be downscaled to 720p, and there is a cap on how much can be uploaded). But, since I have been researching into the new technology HTML5, which builds great looking players, I will pursue this which will be updated in the near future.
• There was no definition of specialism in my CV - I hadn't put at the top of my CV the specialism I intended to get into. This was a good point to raise, now it will allow me to make changes to my CV to make it better and more tailored to the VFX/Motion Graphics Industry. 

Overall I enjoyed the peer review as I thought it was very helpful to find all the loopholes in my promotional material, and to also have a fresh pair of eyes look at it to improve to make me more employable...

Well that's another post done.

Cheers

GU2 Presentation and Week Plan 29/04/2013

Hi folks,

I may have missed last weeks week plan updates so here is a quick run down of what happened...

I started working on a quiz show for my Multi-camera Assessment at the start of June, so the proposal was completed and submitted, the next step is to start a script to be submitted for Tuesday 30th April. There will be a post about my quiz show this week.

On another note, my Graded Unit 2 development deadline is coming (7th of May) and I must show my promotional material to my class for a peer review, which I am not looking forward to, but criticism is a good thing so I can improve my promotional material in the future. If you haven't seen my promotional material it can be found here.

Week plan 29/04/2013

• Submit Animation Unit - I have uploaded the images required and I am now going to submit the final version to be graded. This unit has been haunting me for a few months now, so I will be happy once it has been submitted.
• Present Promotional Material for Peer Review
• Start Evaluation for Graded Unit 2 Evaluation stage - the final stage in the Graded Unit which sums up everything over the course of the year.
• Submit Major Project and supporting paperwork - The final film must be handed in along with the last bits of paperwork, then that is done.
• Continue working on Multi Camera Unit - This is the last and final unit of my HND, this should be fun...

Well there is a lot of work left to do, but now that the end of the year is coming, it is not long before it is all done and I move on to University. More on that later...

Cheers

Mike Struthers Media

Hi Folks,

This is the quickest post I have ever made...

Visit www.mikestruthersmedia.com.

Cheers

Work Experience Evaluation

Work Experience Evaluation

When I started year 2 of my HND of Creative Industries:Television, I wanted to pursue a career as an online editor working for small production companies like Freakworks. But as I continued to further my knowledge of VFX and Motion Graphics using After Effects, I found that I enjoyed this working in this area more and wanted to promote my skills to gain more experience in the VFX sector.

When I handed in the first copy of my CV and sample covering letter, I found that my CV seemed very general and not very specific towards any area of the Creative Industries for the following reasons:

• The design didn’t look very interesting for a CV applying to the creative industries.
• The education section of the form was very vague and didn’t explain the course I was studying which would give a potential employer an idea of what I learned on the course
• and I had too many headers with my details on it. To fix this, I would need to have a header with all my details at the top of the page.

When I then took on this, I then designed a new CV which had a colourful design to make it stand out more, with a neater typography, this change I thought was essential to making a more unique CV. I added information about my course as well as relevant references for an employer to see.

During the work experience class, I have learned that is crucial that every CV is tailored to each individual employer and I must keep updating it with all my work experience to keep my CV as relevant as possible.

When I began searching for work experience, I wanted to try to contact every post production company, big or small, to try to get any work experience. After emailing companies all over the UK, I was unsuccessful in the majority of cases in getting a response, but persistence is the key to success. Eventually a work experience placement came up with 2020 Productions for one week which I thoroughly enjoyed, and I hope to continue keeping contact with this company.

Overall, I found the work experience unit a great learning curve to help me promote myself in the best possible way, here are examples of what I learned:

• To keep updating my CV with all new skills/technical proficiencies to make sure I can promote myself in the best possible.
• To be as friendly and approachable when given the chance to get work experience with a company, as it might lead to positive things in the future.
• Make sure to be active in all aspects of searching for work in the creative industries as it will be only way I will stay in work.
• Attend networking opportunities to gain professional contacts which may lead to work or even help with my own projects.
• If I choose to pursue a freelancing career, I will need to make sure that I can gain clients and keep them in order to get further work with them. When I was on work experience, I was informed by one of the editors (who was a freelance editor/producer) that it is essential to keep clients happy as they would tend to come back for more business and word would get passed to other potential clients.

These valuable skills I have learned from work experiences, I will continue to make better CVs and will make a big effort to make myself as employable as possible.

Cheers

Update and Week Plan 15/04/2013

Hi folks,

Here is another update on my week. Now that most of my promotional material is now live and up on my website which looks great (check it out here), it is now time to continue fine tweaking my showreel so it is ready for a peer review session that will be held on the 30th of April.

I recieved feedback on my work experience unit and I must complete an evaluation of the entire work experience class from my initial CV creation, to the end of the work experience.

In addition, supporting paperwork for my film must be completed to finish off my production file and finish off my Graded Unit Paperwork also.

So heres the plan:

• Complete Work Experience evaluation to finish off that unit - a 500 word evaluation over the work experience unit as a whole.
• Complete the last stages of my Major Project - submit entire edit folder including EDL (Edit Decision List) along with a Programme as Completed form, an updated budget and a Sound FX breakdown.
• Update main budget which was created in the Planning Stage of the Graded Unit - Change overall figures to find out what the projects actually cost and compare the results in a final Graded Unit Evaluation.

So it's a pretty grueling paperwork week, but there is only a few weeks left for the college year, it will be worth it.

Cheers

Showreel 1st Version Done

Hi folks,

Today has been a productive day. I have completed a version of my showreel ready to submit for an internship application for 8 weeks in London. I am happy with the first version and will be uploaded to the website tonight. It can also be viewed here.

When I started editing my showreel together, I realised that I did not have enough material to make a 2 minute video, so as a compromise, I cut everything down into a short and sweet one minute. Here is a breakdown of the material I used:

• Footage from my major project last year - Music: Its Not So Easy, including the music video and opening title sections.
• Motion graphics tests using Trapcode Particular.
• Footage from 'Damage', the short film I finished yesterday!
• Footage from the 'White Rabbit' music video I did all VFX for.
• A 'Sky Arts' animation which I submitted for a Motion Graphics competition.
• And an ident animation which I created on my weeks work placement at '2020 Productions'.

Now that I have uploaded it, I will send it off to other people in the same position as me, to get feedback to make my next projects much better, also will be a great networking strategy too...

If there are any comments on my showreel, don't hesitate to tell me.

Cheers

Damage - Major Project - Done!

Hi folks,

Heres another update about my Graded Unit. My major project, Damage is now complete and has been uploaded to Youtube for everyone to see! It can be viewed here.

I would love to know what you think, and all criticism welcome. I want to get better and make better films with better VFX.

Cheers

Website is Live!

Hi folks,

After coming up with a design with my web developer, making some changes with colour scheme and video players etc, my website showcasing all my media all in one place is now live for everyone to see!
Mike Struthers Media can be viewed here.

I am really happy with the layout and I can only add material from here on. But I will make sure that I keep it to one page as I like that type of design.

In addition, I purchased my domain and web hosting through GoDaddy.com which is a great website that does great deals to set up your own website, I then set up my log in details to my FTP server and I am free to own this website for a year for under £30.

For more information about me, please visit my website, which contains all my media and projects I have been part of.

Cheers

Update and Week Plan 08/04/2013

Hi Folks,

I have been up to my eyeballs in work for my major project editing, colour grading, audio mixing and compositing. Plus I had another project where I was doing the compositing for a music video which will be edited and shared with the world soon.

I am almost complete the first rough cut of the film and working on the music and foley sounds to make the film sound better than just dialogue. So I am turning to www.audionetwork.com. A very useful royalty free music bank which has thousands of songs which can be purchased with a student license (which has limits on it) for £0.83, which is a great price for great quality music.

But the big news for me is an internship for 8 weeks in the summer at Framestore in London, I would love this opportunity, so I am rushing to gather all my promotional material together (including my showreel, completed projects, Facebook page, Twitter page, blog etc) all to be viewed on my website. So I contacted the web developer I hired to help me, and began the design and layout of the website, all that needs done now, is purchasing the domain and web hosting. The deadline is Thursday, there is going to be a few sleepless nights getting this turned out but should be fun...

Week Plan 08/04/2013

I have missed a few weeks now, but here it is again...

• Complete Fine cut of film and upload to Youtube.
• Complete all supporting paperwork that goes with my Major Project to have it done and ready to submit.
• Purchase domain  and web hosting for the website to be uploaded.
• Create a Youtube playlist of all my material to be embedded into my website along with all my social media timelines.
• Fill out Framestore application and submit.
• After all this is done. Iron out all the loose ends with the Animation Unit and have it ready to submit.

Its a busy week as always...

Cheers

Quicktime - HDV

Hi folks.

Codecs are todays topic as its the first problem I have came across. When I started the post production process, I had footage from the first two days on a JVC hard drive which recorded to mpeg2 (m2t) and the third days footage on an SD card from a Panasonic which shot on AVCHD. When I ingested the m2t files into clipwrap, I rewrapped the files to quicktime under the HDV codec. This was all fine and well until I got to my home computer... once I imported the footage into premiere pro, the footage was dropping frames and rendering out red frames.

This problem turned into a nightmare as I found out that quicktime 10 (which is just a player now and no longer has any pro features) had dropped all their older codecs. So when I was researching, I found that the only way to solve this issue is to buy a decoder which would decode the HDV codec and allow me to reencode to something else. The software I found was XD decoder from Calibrated software. This useful tool cost me $89 but I suppose a needs must.

Now that I'm over this issue, I can prepare for the next one, hopefully the next one doesn't cost me anything...

Cheers

Work experience 25/03/2013

Hi folks. This week has been a busy one and here's the update:
I have just finished my last day of work experience with 2020 productions - a production company in edinburgh which does everything from video production to event management and organisation. Over the course of the week I took part in shadowing the editors, watching the general work flow of the company and working on my own personal project set by one of the editors.
Here is a breakdown of my week:

• Day 1- I met the staff and was shown around the building. Once everything got settled down, I was shadowing in one of the edit suites and was impressed by the speed of the editors workflow when either editing in Final Cut Studio 7 or After Effects CS5.5. I was set a task of pitching, designing and creating a 30 animation which revealed the '2020 Productions Logo'. I would have any assistance I needed through the process and would be given feedback once the animation was complete. So I began drawing up potential ideas with a few paragraphs describing the look, technical challenges involved and how I would intend to make it. In the end I was happy with 3 ideas:
• A computer interface 
• An Idea being Communicated  
• A Conveyor Belt Factory
  
  In the end I decided to use Idea #3 as I thought developing it would be a good challenge to create and would demonstrate my skills of After Effects and Adobe Illustrator.

• Day 2 - I began researching searching methods of creating the animation: Expressions to create the robot arms on the conveyor belt, animating the cogs in a realistic way, camera movements and background music. For background music, I found that using a royalty free music service called Audio Network which allows students to use the music for a fee of £0.83, as long as the material is not sold and is distributed on a website such as Youtube, Vimeo etc. For the remainder of the day, I worked my way round the office meeting some of the people who work there and find out more about the workflow of 2020 Productions
• Day 3 - At the start of the day, a portion of a promo video for a client needed to be filmed that morning, so I went along to see how they worked. The mini-shoot was fun and watching it be cut together was interesting as some of the shots they really liked on the shoot, ended up not being used at all. I began working with my project, creating all of my assets for animation in Illustrator.
• Day 4 - I continued working on my project, getting feedback as I continued to build my scene in After Effects. I was advised on using Quicktime's Animation codec as it would produce a close to lossless video. 
• Day 5 - I spent the entire day working to finish my project as I realised I left some of the project a little late so had to make up for the time. Although it was not needed to have the project finished, but I wanted to complete it in the time for my own purposes. In the end I managed to produce a finished render which was given feedback. The video was liked and I was asked to continue to work with it to see if I could build a better version and fix some technical issues etc.

Overall, I really enjoyed the work experience and will try to keep in contact with the company and gain more work experience with them.

Major project week

Hi folks

The time has come where my major projects principal photography to commence. So far the filming has been going very well. Here is an update on each day:

Day 1: The day started with the  disorganisation of equipment booking... I realised I did not have enough equipment booked out to make the shoot possible, so I checked my equipment checklist which allowed me to add the correct equipment.

Once myself and the crew made it to the location, I confirmed the booking with the apartment and met the actors.

The shoot went very well due to the actors being very easy to work with and very quick at getting into character... the argument scene we filmed looked like they were furious with each other!

As I checked off each shot on my shotlist, I noted down some notes about each take and what my comments were (very useful for the editing part of the process).

Day 2 - this day was very interesting and had situations come up which I will account for in my next production:

- scheduling time for makeup - on my shooting schedule, I only allowed time for filming, so when my actor sat in the makeup chair, we were running about 30 minutes late. However, this wasn't a problem as we had the room for enough time to cover this.

- organising a room for makeup- this problem was solved by using an empty editing booth which was a suitable size to get makeup done.

Once all these problems were solved, we sorted out a really cool lighting setup which was fun to play around with gels with different colour temperatures.

When shooting began, it only took around an hour as only two short scenes had to be filmed.

Day 3 - this day we were filming at Easter road at a friends flat. Everyone arrived at the location, found parking and got ready for the shoot ok. I had arranged 2 scenes to he filmed- scene 6 (Chris's last video diary) and scene 7 (where Chris discovers Amy with another man).

I had scheduled for make up for all three actors, shoot all scenes in the flat, shoot scene 6 and leave but about half one...the problem was. Makeup took longer as detailed prophetic were being applied which took time. In addition filming took longer than I expected. So lesson learned. Try to factor in more time into the day to allow for tasks to be completed in a realistic time frame.

Overall filming went well for all three days, however I would have benefited from a camera operator to allow me to concentrate on controlling the shoot rather than doing two jobs.

As from now, post production has started. More posts to follow about this.

Cheers

A big truck and a 47kg lens

Hi folks,

Today has been good for experience. Yesterday I was called to go to a tour of sky sports multicam working environment at the Hibernian football stadium, ahead of the match tomorrow.

When we first arrived we were shown where all 13 camera feeds will be capturing the game from, the surprisingly small studio where the presenter and guests would sit, the vision mixing desk (which is part if an enormous truck which can be transported anywhere) and the commentary stand.

When we were getting shown round one of the camera operators allowed us to shadow him rigging one of the HD cameras - the camera was split up into different parts:

-  The pan and tilt head (which is mounted to a cradle)
-  A 47kg Canon lens
-   A Sony camera head which attaches to the lens
- and the viewfinder.

It was a good experience and I hope there is more where that came from.

Cheers.

'Damage' Make up test

Hi folks.

Today has been a productive one; I have arranged a cast rehearsal for Thursday 7th of March at midday    
this will allow the actors to meet for the first time and see how well they act together.

But the main part of today was the first special fx make up test for the film. We sat a member the production crew down in a chair to get some make up applied to see what it would look like, the results were awesome.

A timelapse of the make up test can be found here. This makeup looked awesome and will look great in front of the camera and lights.

Cheers the now

Production meeting #2

Hi folks.

Today was another production meeting. We discussed final dates so I can work out the final draft of the shooting schedules. My lighting operator has confirmed insurance to book the light kit out for the production. In addition we discussed using the zoom h4n sound recorder to get the audio for my film.

So far so good. Next thing on the to do list: cast rehearsals. Once I have arranged a suitable day for both my actors to attend, the rehearsal can go ahead.

That's all for now

Cheers

Week plan 25/02/2013

Here's the update:

- the animation deadline must be moved to another date so that I can get all the material together that I need to complete my animation.

- a make up test is arranged for tomorrow which will be filmed and shared on here. Looking forward to it.

- continue with paperwork. Make sure everything is in order

- start kellys post production project- I am doing the visual effects and motion graphics. Should only take 2 weeks maximum.

That's a for now

Cheers

Cast Meeting and Project update

Hi folks,

Here's the update about the meeting I had yesterday:

I met up with my main actor, Martyn, who would be playing the main character Chris. Unfortunately, Felicity (playing Amy) could not make it to the meeting. However, I filled in Martyn with the details of the shoot and the terms of the acting agreement. In addition, I had Martyn sign both a Cast Agreement and Release form. Now I need to get the same forms signed by Felicity and that will set everything in stone...hopefully.

I am planning to schedule a crew production meeting next week to keep the crew involved the progress of the Pre Production phase. I also plan to schedule a quick rehearsal with both actors. This meeting will allow the actors to meet and act with each other, take some photographs of them as a 'couple' (for the picture in the locket and picture frame in the film).

On another note, I am still working to the deadline for my Animation Unit. Once this project I will upload to vimeo and use as a trailer.

That's all for the now

Cheers

Cast Meeting 21/02/2013

Hi folks,

Tomorrow is the first cast meeting where the main actors will meet for the first time to discuss the film.

This meeting will cover the following bases:

• Filming dates - Thursday 21st - Saturday 23rd of March.
• Cast Contracts - Once dates are confirmed, contracts and release forms can be completed.
• A script breakdown - which scenes will be filmed when.
• Locations - Apartment (Short term lease), Green Screen Studio, Gary's Flat and staircase.
• Filming arrangements.

This meeting will be informal and will explain their part in the production.

If everything goes well tomorrow then the project is truly underway. I'm looking forward to working on this production. Only thing is, I need to do quite a bit more paperwork before shooting starts... But I'm getting through it.

Cheers

Location meeting

Here's a quick update on locations.

I have been in contact with the writer of my script and he has confirmed that I can use part of his apartment and the staircase leading to it. I have received photos of the location and they suit the films look.

As I searched further into locations, after searching on booking.com I found apartments serviced by staycity. I contacted them asking to use an apartment for the day. The costs for this are as follows:

£85  for the apartment
£15 for a parking permit
And am optional £10 for an early check in.

I am considering to use the early check in to get the most out of filming. So total costs will be £110. This will be added to final budget after the project is finished.

That's it for now.

Cheers.

Week plan 18/02/2013

Hi folks here's the plan:

- gather last remaining parts of animation unit footage ready to be added to my animation.
- send off storyboards to camera operator for him to look at.
- complete recce forms with risk assessments.
- get a crew contract signed for hair and makeup.

There will be a cast meeting this week to get the main actors to meet and rehearse some lines. More info on that later.

Cheers

Google Maps

Hi folks,

I watched a cool tutorial from Andrew Kramer on videoccopilot.net. This tutorial was about an Earth zoom using high quality satellite images from a provider like Google Maps. So I thought that this idea would be interesting to use a similar effect in my films opening sequence (Animation Unit). When I started looking into obtaining images from Google Maps, I found that the images are Royalty Free and can be used in an Online video, on the condition that each image is correctly attributed. So I have obtained some 'screen grabs' ready for working with in After Effects. This effect will be good to practice with anyway, even if the shot doesn't work for the project.

Here's the link for Google Maps Licensing Agreement: Licensing Agreement for Online Video.

That's all for the now.

Cheers

Week Plan 11/02/2013 and GU2 update

Hi folks.

My major project is coming together nicely, just need to keep on top of the paperwork. At the moment, scene breakdowns and storyboarding is taking place and should be completed by the end of this week. To make things easier, I have linked my script with my storyboard so that every line of dialogue and action is accounted for. Over the rest of the week, I plan to include a technical breakdown for each scene which will lead to me working out an accurate shooting schedule for the three days of filming.

On another note, my animation unit is halfway to a rough cut, I have scouted out some timelapse footage of Edinburgh which would be useful in establishing my location for the film. So I have been in contact with the person who shot the footage and has allowed me to use it. I am setting a personal deadline to complete this Unit by the end of February. This deadline will allow me to focus all my attention on the other things I am being assessed on.

Technical decisions: I have decided to use Premiere Pro CS6 to edit my major project, show reel and any other projects I take on this year as I find it works very well with the rest of the Adobe Creative Suite. In addition, I have located an excellent plug in for After Effects called Knoll Light Factory, this plugin generates realistic lens flares and lighting effects which will give a more professional look to my film and is a no brainer to use in my film.

Now as usual, the week plan:

• Complete Storyboarding with rough shooting schedule which can be moved on to the camera operator to look at and add any ideas.
• Keep in constant contact with the actors to make sure everything is going smoothly.
• Design a rough look for my website to be sent to my web developer to look at.
• Start the search for foley sounds, backing tracks and atmospheric noises.

That's it for the now.

Cheers

Actor Meeting Arrangements

Hi folks,

After a search through gumtree, Starnow and emailing people directly, I have found the actors I intend to work with in my film. Now I have arranged to have a meeting with both the actors on Thursday 21st February at 5pm. This meeting will have myself, my writer to discuss the roles, character breakdowns and the dates they would need to be in to film.

So far the project is coming together ok at the moment, but I can't be too complacent.

More info to follow on this.

Production meeting #1

Hi folks

Today was the first production meeting for damage. All members of the crew were present and crew contracts are now signed with production dates fixed (21st - 23rd march).

A basic swatch has been forwarded to my camera operator so he has a rough idea of the kind of shots I'm looking for. Character breakdowns are almost completed and ready to be sent to my actors once casting has been complete.

Now all I have to do is keep in contact with my crew and cast. Good communication.

That's it for production meeting #1. More meetings to follow.

Week plan 04/02/2013

Here's this weeks plan:

- find a suitable apartment location at a relatively decent price.
- schedule what scenes will be filmed on each day of production.
- continue learning visual effects suited to making my film better.

My major project is becoming a very tough job. But I will complete it...

Major Project Update

Hi folks,

heres a quick update on the major project...

I have completed character breakdowns and have received interest from potential actors for my film. The next part of the process is to cast the actors, arrange final dates. Due to the fact that we must work around class time, my original shooting dates (18 - 20th March) will not be suitable. So I am changing the filming dates to 21st to 23rd of March. All members part of the project will be notified. I am holding a production meeting tomorrow to discuss dates and sort out crew contracts.

I still have a month until I shoot, but I can feel the pressure setting in. If I keep at it, this project will pull off hopefully.

More info to follow

Cheers
Mike

Week plan 28/01/2013

Hi folks.

Here's a quick one.
Continued looking for actors by posting more ads in random places all over the internet. From this searching, I have had a reply from Napier university. I have forwarded details of the film and take it from there.

A treatment and budget has been completed for my animation unit and the first cut will be completed this weekend.

Week plan:
- update cv. Improve technical skills and interest skills as well as a design overhaul.
- review mock interview skills
- have a quick meeting with crew to organise contracts.

That's it for this week
Cheers

Semester 2 Update, Animation and Work Experience

Hi folks,

Here's the update:

I have started semester 2 of my HND and the pressure is back on. I am still looking for actors and have contacted both Telford and Napier Acting schools. I have now posted an ad on Gumtree which can be viewed here.

Now I am currently planning my opening sequence for both my Animation Unit and Opening Titles for my short film 'Damage'. The brief is to produce a 30 sec animation, so I have split up the project into 6 5 sec shots to start with. At the moment I have began work on an establishing shot of a meteor flying towards Earth, as well as some test shots of Newspaper headlines talking of the Disaster. I will be producing a small production file for this project to keep everything up to date. This file will include a budget, treatment and shot breakdowns. The finished version will be uploaded to vimeo and youtube as a trailer for the film.

In other news, I have completed a first version of the sky arts sting competition. The video can be found here. Any Comments would be great and would help me make it better.

Now for a work experience update:

I have definitely got work experience lined up for a week with 20 20 Productions in Edinburgh, which is great. But I am currently in the process of trying to get more work with Freakworks in Edinburgh also. The more work experience, the better. So I have contacted them, hopefully this pulls off...

Well thats it for now. More posts to follow

Cheers

Week Plan 14/01/2013 and Production Update

Hi folks,

Here's this weeks plan:

• Continue searching for Actors.
• Arrange a production meeting with crew members to sort out job arrangements - contracts have been sorted out, amounts need to be sorted out for the duration of the shoot.
• Continue location search - finding a flat will be tougher than I thought... I asked Edinburgh Film Focus about their locations and the cheapest flat was £500 a day, so back to the drawing board. 

My crew members for the shoot as it stands are:

Simon Messer - Camera

Dan Fairhurst - Sound

Jamie Herriot - Lights

Hair and Makeup - Charlene Sives 

My scheduled filming dates are the week beginning the 18th - 21st of March. 

Lastly, I have one location secured so far - the Video Studio. 

Well that's it for the now.

Cheers

Happy New Year and Week Plan 01/07/2013

Happy New Year!

It has been an awesome Christmas and New Year, and after a 2 week break, its back down to driving forward my Major Project and Showreel.

Firsts things first, my vimeo channel has been created where I will upload some of my VFX tests (a link will be posted once I comply with vimeos video compression standards).

I have contacted Telford Acting School, asking for my main actors for my major project. More info to follow...

Week Plan 07/01/2013:

• Arrange Crew members for filming in March: A Camera operator and a Make-up artist have been secured so far, my mission is to employ at least 2 more to pull this project off.
• Liase with other class mates to work out available dates for everyone to avoid confusion later on.
• Start Major Project Production File.
• Begin storyboarding 30 title sequence for the Animation section of my Graded Unit.

That's it more me folks

Cheers
Mike