Location Project

For my Cinematography module of the Film and TV Production course, one of my assignments was called 'The Location Project'

The brief that we were given was: 'You must tell a story about a location that is personal to you. The location may be a busy place or a quiet one - it can be constructed or already in existence. It is essential that the viewer is able to understand something about your connection with the location.'

I shot this film at my grandparents' house just outside London.

Unfortunately Blogger will not allow me to embed it but here's the link: https://vimeo.com/55030764 

Film Assignment

Today Aiden and I went on a walk around Cambridge trying to find the locations we wanted to use for our film assignment for the Screen and Drama module of the course.

For the film assignment we are to make a short film, 3 to 5 minutes long, with the brief:
'A boy is attracted to a girl. It appears the girl gives him a sign. The boy chases the girl. The final twist.'

The next set of instructions we were given read:

'Try to enrich the story as much as you can; you can change the circumstances, gender of the characters, place the action of the film in different surroundings, make it a period piece, science fiction, a farce, comedy, tragedy, whatever.'

We've come up with a story line and found our locations so all we need now is to pitch the film and hopefully get the go ahead to film this. 

Here are some of the photos from today; with a few fun ones:

Art in Cambridge

I've taken a few trips to Asda down the road from where I'm staying. I've walked past this building each time ; the art on the walls have captivated me. This art can be found on Newmarket Road in Cambridge.

Here are some photos I took.

These last two are my favourites I think.

How to: Create your own ballet flats with ribbon

I absolutely love ribbons and whenever I go out shopping I always look in the shoe section of any clothing store to see if I can find a pair of ballet flats that have ribbons that tie around your ankles. Unfortunately, my search continues for those perfect pair of shoes. However, this morning I came across a tutorial for making your own. So I went out, bought some ribbon and this is how I did it.

You'll need:

-A pair of ballet flats

-Ribbon

-Scissors

-Needle

-Thread

-Thread picker

-Lighter or clear nail varnish

The shoes that I decided to use were a pair of black flats that I bought in Primark for about £6.You can use any pair of pumps you wish to customise, I just chose a black pair because it's what I had at home.

I bought black ribbon from Range. I paid £2.69 for 5 metres. Again I chose black because it goes with the pumps, however I did debate using white or red ribbon; the ribbon can be whatever colour you desire.

 I took the ribbon and cut it up into four 1m pieces; cutting the ends at an angle. Using a lighter I burned the edges a bit so that the ribbon won't fray; this works well for dark coloured ribbons. For ribbons that are lighter, take clear nail varnish and put that on the end of the ribbon, setting it aside to dry completely. 1m seems like a lot of ribbon but this allows you to cut the ribbon shorter if you wish; it gives you room to experiment. Remember you can always cut off more but you can never put it back.

Taking a needle and some thread I sewed the ribbon from the inside of the flat. I suggest that the colour thread you use is the same, if not similar, to the colour of your pumps as it'll show up less on the underside of the flat. I sewed the ribbon approximately 6cm from the middle of the heel of the flat; you can sew the ribbon where ever you wish to. I would recommend placing the ribbon on the inside of the flat and moving it around, tying it around your ankle just to see how it will look like and make sure you like it. 

 You do this to the other side of the flat so that you have two ribbons parallel to each other; making sure that the distance from the ribbon and the heel is the same as the ribbon on the other side.

Repeat the steps above to the other flat and voilà. You've got your very own ballet shoe style pumps.

This is what my ballet flat look like:

As I said before 1m of ribbon is quite a lot, so play around with the ribbon and only cut some of it off when you're completely happy with it.

Alternatively, you could use a hot glue gun and glue the ribbon to the inside of the flat. I find this very messy and the ribbon may come out at any point. Use which ever method you'd like though!

Total cost: £8.69
This definitely beats paying at least £15 for a pair of shoes.

Enjoy customising your new flats! 

Galaxy Nails

I love the stars and space in general; who doesn't? I decided that I do space themed nails. This is the result. 

I do admit that they could be better but there's always next time. 

Tribal/Aztec Nails

Spiderman nails

Nautical Nails

Seeing as summer is just round the corner and I've taken up rowing this year, I decided to go for an ocean-y theme for my nails. Hence the nautical nails:

Life's not all what it seems

There isn't much I want to say about this photograph. His eyes are open which I found a little odd as he did go in to kiss her but I may have caught him at the wrong time. They weren't too happy about me taking a photo I don't think because she gave me a funny look when they turned around to continue their artistic journey.

I suppose what I like its that both love and hate feature in the photograph; love being the love between the couple and hate being the two birds pinned against the wall with arrows. Thinking about it, the way that I've interpreted this piece of art is that its the opposite of life. What grabs your attention when you see this is the fact that the birds are dead due to the fact that they've been struck by arrows. Once you get over the initial shock, you then notice the drawing of the buildings in the background. We always notice buildings around us but we don't see the destruction that we're doing; we may think we're doing the best and have the best intentions at heart but we need to look at the wider scheme of things.

Mirror, mirror on the wall..

Standing on the other side of the corridor at the Tate and watching people pass this mirror amused me. This is purely because a lot of people seemed to stop, look at themselves and adjust their image. I said to Adam, I bet the next woman who passes the mirror will fix herself; which of course did happen, she fussed with her hair and make-up and then carried on. I think having just a mirror on the wall is actually a clever idea, as I said in one of my earlier posts, 'beauty is in the eye of the beholder'. Beauty is all around us, even within ourselves; we just need to find it.

Little photographer

In one of the rooms at the Tate Museum this little girl was going around with, what I presume was her parent's, digital camera. She was taking photos of all the pieces of art, crouching down to get a better photos; possibly because she didn't know how to use the zoom. I'm not too sure whether this piece of 'artwork' can really be called art but it was being exhibited so it must be. The simplicity of this photo is what catches my eye; also the fact that this little girl was so keen on getting as many photos as possible. I love seeing younger people take an interest, especially in something that I share the same interest in. Saying young people makes me feel old. 

Art knows no age

I have already posted a photo of this piece of art but it was this little girl. Prior to taking this photo I had tried taking a photo of a mother talking to her daughter about it but it didn't come out too well. However, this one was perfect. You can see the thoughtful and puzzled look on this little girl's face. I'm not entirely sure what she was doing at the museum as it is not a place where children would normally go as they tire their parents very quickly if they're bored. I stood in the corner of the room and watched people trying to capture their reactions as they came across this particular piece of artwork but I think this is the best one I was able to capture.

Stairs

When you walk into this room at the Tate Museum there is a slight pink tint to the room and you look up and this is what you see. It's mesh fabric make into stairs going up to the floor above; the detail on this is incredible. A fuse box, a pipe, the banister, the switch, it was all there. This is as if you've got x-ray vision that's red as you are able to see through the ceiling/floor and there's all the detail of the banisters up at the top. Simple yet complicated at the same time.

First final edit of Media A2 coursework - Music Video

Here's a link to the latest and best export of the music video. I know there needs some touching up and the ending needs to be finished but its the first time the glitches haven't happened so I am pleased.

Fourth edit of Media A2 coursework - Music Video

Here is the link to the third draft of my Media coursework.

Third edit of Media A2 coursework - Music Video

Here's the third edit to my Media coursework

Second edit of Media A2 coursework - Music Video

Here is the second edit of my Media coursework music video.

First edit of Media A2 coursework - Music Video

I am taking Media Studies as one of my A-Level subjects, the course is 50% exam and 50% coursework.

The coursework for A2 is to create a music video as well as a digi-pak; this includes an album case and a magazine advertisement that is the size of an A4 page. I've been having trouble with FinalCut Pro and exporting the videos onto the Mac has proven to be difficult. If you click the 'Click here for video' link it will open (in a new window) the video. I know that there are lots of black clips; this is where the narrative footage will be edited into. I am also aware of the glitch at 3:14, this is due to the Mac's failing in exporting the video properly.

Photos from Dreaming of Yesterday's video shoot

On Wednesday I did a video shoot for Dreaming of Yesterday and my media coursework. I took some photos pre-shoot and these are what I took.

Jaron Ali

Jaron and Ryan

Ryan Bosley

Ryan

Jaron

Female lead for video: Emma Burman