NM3208 – Learning Journal

The Making of Someone (MV) April 24, 2008

The Introduction – Wow, what a major production I must say. But indeed, this is also one that basically concludes the whole module, what we have learnt, the skills, the knowledge, the theory are all placed into this MTV that we will be producing. Definitely an eye opener.

The Song – I guess we are very much luckier than the rest of them as we managed to get a song, “Someone” which self-composed and sang by a band. It saved us the trouble from searching a suitable song and retrieving rights belonging to it.

The Locations – Well, scouting for places to shoot seem like an easy task, but ended up, it became a rather time-consuming and tiring task. After all, we climb hills (Seng Kang) and stairs (SOC1) just to look for locations of scenes that can accurately capture the atmosphere and feel which we will be using for different segments of the song. We have decided to shoot the kite flying and flashback scenes at the hill near Seng Kang depot as the long grass and palings present really added a ‘flashback’ feel. We are fortunate to have found our hospital scene in SOC1 as we did not want to trouble our talents in having to travel up and down and taking too much of their time just to help and support us in our shooting. By doing it in school, we save the trouble of having to bring the heavy camera out, and getting resources like trolley and all needed in our shoot. Moreover, there was no need for us to obtain permission from using the venue. However, we did encounter some problem. Initially we wanted to shoot our running scene at the Seng Kang Comfort Delgro depot, but due to security reasons, they were unable to grant us permission and as a result, we had to shoot our scene at Kent Ridge road instead. It was a pity as the road at Seng Kang depot was longer than that at Kent Ridge road.

The Shooting – It was definitely a memorable and good learning experience. From setting up of lighting, to trolleys, and preparing the various resources required for each day, we learnt to work like a real production team. We were like the wardrobe team, the production team, the makeup team, the special effects team, the audio team, and whatever we might have missed out, all combined into one. Multi-tasking was no easy task, but through that, we have further enhanced our makeup skills and special effects skills nevertheless. We were also like the meteorological team, where we stayed tune to weather conditions constantly so that during the actual day of shooting, we minimize the possibility of getting surprised by a bad storm. Nevertheless, contingency lists had to be prepared in the case of bad weather or no wind (for kite flying). The amount of things to bring along for each shoot were tremendous and not to mention, embarrassing. I got several stares from the public from looking like a terrorist (carrying of the lighting, battery), to looking like a karang guni man from the huge amount of cardboards needed to create the 360degrees effect.

Overall – For Me, it was definitely an eye-opener as this was my very first time handing a video camera and filming was fun with my teammates and the talents and helpers who came along with us. Through this assignment, I have conquered the difficulty of shooting under the direct hot sun, and also took home with me the various skills of shooting, camera angles, directing, Adobe Premiere, Adobe Encore to say the least. Not forgetting the soft skills of working with my team, time management and ensuring that the talents and helpers were in good condition for the shoot by taking care of them and ensuring they have a sufficient supply of water and food where possible. All in all, I would say that this assignment, albeit short, have taught me a lot which I will bring along with me in the future.

Thank you, The One Production Team, you have been great! And not forgetting Maurice and Valerie who have been very patient with our needs and ‘cut’, ‘retakes’ and all. It has been wonderful learning from each and every one of you.

The final product:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ou8X7IIkQLg 

The Lyrics:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AemNWB9UzjQ

The Slideshow:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XqSSbRYEfQ

The Making & The Credits:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nEr8uoto0K8

The Super Heroes ? April 24, 2008

In this assignment, my partner Jiaxiang and I have done the time freezing in such a way that Jiaxiang that he had fallen down, but was ‘teleported’ to the seat instead.

But I guess due to the overloaded effects, we did not manage to capture our storyline properly as most of the tutorial mates did not quite understand our video. It is a pity indeed but we will be retaking our video where we will be incorporating a humorous touch and a story based on school and tutors. Hopefully that being more related to where we are now, it can be understood much more easily by our audience.

Here are the sketches for our ideas:

Here are the various verison for this assignment:

Version 1 Revision 1

Version 1 Revision 2

Version 2 Revision 1

Version 2 Revision 2 (Final)

My Photo Movie – Our Valentine March 1, 2008

Let the photos roll …

The task : My Valentine Movie
Design of a simple movie with a love theme
using photographs (i.e. still image)

Well, many movies we see today are mostly videos, or animations. Seldom do we see still images being presented in a video form. To make still images come to life, or in fact, to use still images to tell a story is indeed one challenging task to do.

So why did I choose such a storyline? Basically, I did not want a ‘walk-down-memory-lane’ kind of video as I felt it was too stereotypical and boring to start with. However, if I were to incorporate that within another story, it would somehow add to the romantic feel and would also make a good introduction to those who do not know Jo and myself. In addition, it would be a nice built-up to the whole story before the twist comes in.

Well, I chosen this song as I felt it meant a lot to both me and Jo and also because it is perfect to the story I was intending to capture through my photographs – a surprise at night. Last but not least, the photo transitions I have used have been added in a way that it is able to tie in with the song smoothly so as to create the right visual effect with the right feel of the song.

Here are some photo transitions I have included:

NM3208 – My Photo Movie
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-AoqQA0BHLc

Our Valentine February 17, 2008

After much thoughts, I feel that there is no proper introduction into the story and hence decided to add this particular picture which slightly illustrates it is February. This subtle meaning is to prevent the picture from being too straightforward in the start, so that as the audience gets engaged in the story, he/she will realise it is Valentine’s Day.

In addition, I feel the ending was too sudden and decided to add in two more pictures of the card given by the guy to the girl. (Message for valentine)

 
(Zooming out from the words to …)

___________________________________________________________________

Last week we presented our ideas and storyboard. My story is actually built upon a simple statement of ‘Absence makes the heart grows fonder’. It actually portrays a girl longing for the boy she loves on Valentine’s Day, but due to the amount of work she has to accomplish, she is unable to spend time with him.
My idea of a valentine…

Poor gal, rushing for her due project on valentine night

A sense of loneliness while she looking out into the moon

She then look upon the photos she took with him

Her MP3 Player starts to play a familar tune

 
Looking back at the snapshottthat she and he took

Her most memorable snapshot

He suddenly appear behind her

She was caught by surprise over the presents

She was touched and so speechless to realize he was behind her all these time

A kiss of true love .. The End

Just Another Day ? February 4, 2008

What a day ( Ha more like a DATE )

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The task :
Build a webpage which showcase a series of photo that tells a story. No restriction to the number of images used. However the total file size for the webpage cannot exceed 180 KB (including the image files)

My Pick : 
The scenario : A girl received a call from her boyfriend and prepare herself for nice date
The scene start from her makeup process to choosing the right outfit to leaving her house.

The Challenge :
Having to shoot the photos in a rather bulky room. (Too many things around the dressing table, hard to position the camera to the desired angle)
Problems arise during the image compression We need to tackle photos which have a wide range of colours. During compression, the more colours the image presents, the larger the file compression. Thus, certain images were set to reduce their colour intensity and redue the number of colours sampled in the image file format.

Ok, anyway, I shall talk a little bit more about my feelings through the process of this assignment. It seemed like a rather simple task of having to portray a daily event with many pictures. However, the hard part of this assignment is to ensure that we kept to the limit of 180kb space. Moreover, we are to ensure that despite the minimal size to be kept closely to, we are able to deliver a decent web display.

Having said that, this is what I found out about image compression.

Something about  Image compression

Image size is usually measured in pixels (dots) instead of inches or millimetres for example 3000 x 2000 pixels. File size is how much space the image takes up on your hard drive, this is measure in bytes or kilobytes. Many image files can be quite large (over 3000 pixels on the longest side), this results in high quality images with large file sizes. File sizes are measured in Kilobytes or more often Megabytes.

Keeping them in their original file size preserves image quality. However, when sending images by email or posting them on websites, large file sizes are usually far too big to send efficiently. So you need a way to reduce the file size for quick transfer and faster downloads, without sacrificing the quality too much.

If the images are both resized (reducing both the width and height) and then compressed correctly (further reducing the file size) the time it takes to transfer them is remarkably faster. This saves both time and money spent online to send the images, especially if multiple images are included in one email. Faster smaller transfers are also more reliable especially if using a dial-up Internet account or small free email accounts such as hotmail.com

Re-sizing the image dimensions and compressing the image are two different practices:-

1. Re sizing means changing the number of pixels that make up the image.
2. Compression means reducing the amount of information that is stored in the image file.

Jpeg image files are internationally recognised as the standard compressed photographic file type and can be compressed to a very great extent. Having said that, after experimenting with the lowest image resolution 320×240 and the different contrast, hue, saturation and colour features, I managed to successfully compress, not 10, not 20, but 27 photographs and kept within the limit of 180kb! Most importantly, after seeking comments from my friends, most of them were able to comprehend the pictures and the visual meaning behind them, which was ultimately my goal in this assignment – compression with understanding.

Lost Dream February 4, 2008

Colour is important. To bring out the right mood in the poster, I decided to make use of both analogous colours and contrasting colours. Hence, the choices are reduced to only a few grey-ish and low-lining colours. (Grey and white might not be contrasting enough to the audiences, thus some dark and strong colour are used to paint the text which are most visible to the audiences especially if its view from far). Thus the combination, I believe will capture the attention and draw the audience to see and understand the mood that the poster need to portrait. In addition I have decided to use mainly Serif fonts as I felt it could better bring out the theme. Last but not least, in order to hold the attention of the audience, I have given sufficient breathing space so that eyes will be kept inside the frame of my poster. Below is the final design.

 Colour Draft

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 Final Design

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Surrealistic Drawing February 4, 2008

After some comments from Julian, I decided to work on the 3rd idea which play the tragedy of a loving couple. The story goes where the boyfirend donates his pair of eyes to his girlfriend in hope to recover her vision to the world. However, the operation did not go as it was plan and in the end he only leave his soul for her to “see”.

The idea was to create a subrealistic scene where the boyfriend (male lead) helps to review his girlfriend bandages while having her to feel his presence with looking directly to what she has lost in exchange to her recovery.

One idea was shown as to use his hands as a guide to her vision (thus to place the eyes on the hands ) As to express the lost in front of her the tears are added to the eyes. Another idea was to show the separation between the couple due to the tragedy ( hands are force apart ; with the eyes on the hand : to witness the separation ). ( See sketches below )

However, after some feedback, the previous ideas were considered to be too abstract. Going back to basic, I decided to research on other ways to portrait the scene. Then it came to my mind that I can position the male behind the female as he remove her bandages. As for the expression, the tears are changed from normal tear drops to tears of blood.

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Sketching for Dreams February 3, 2008

First assignment, a recap on what we did in 2208;
A poster design for a Surrealistic experimental play titled “Dreams”.

Dream is where the rules of reality do not apply,
surrealistic is having features typical or reminiscent of those depicted
in surrealistic painting or drawing

Simple sketches to portrait :

A little girl with the dream to own her own playland
but ends up being afraid of what she had created. (Left-most)

A lonely who never gets the attention he wants. And when
he finally did something significant in his life, he gets it with
the wrong attention. (Middle)

A boyfriend who wants to help recover her girlfriend vision but
end up in tragedy. (Right-most)

My Sketches [ Zoom in ]