One Shot Film

For this project I was asked to work in a group to produce a short film, filmed in one shot. The twist however is that we film three shots and two of them are shown in the final viewer perspective shot. I enjoyed shooting this film and editing the sound and text. If I had any criticisms with my video it is with the credits at the end i feel they go far to fast but it is all a learning curve so I'll keep trying and learning.

My group members were:-
-Steven Carrol - lighting and equipment
-Joe Whawell - Actor and concept artist
-Samantha Kirk - Actress
-And me Martin Stanley - Cameraman

Why are we willing, as soon as we can afford it, to pay extra for things with appealing forms?

Other things have an impact on aesthetics like for example the current release of HD. With it there have been televisions, DVD players even television broadcasting comes in HD, for a price of course. It isn’t just by choice any more though, we are all being told that by 2011 we are going to need a digital television or we wont be able to watch our shows. People are going to pay more for it because in the one hand we want what is new and exciting and in the other we don’t have a choice but to pay more for a television that shows more aesthetic pictures and looks impressive in a room.

In this ever-moving consumer world its pay out of your own accord for the newest best looking thingy on the market or buy it because you have no choice and are being told you need it. You have to decide are you going to be brainwashed into getting it or get it because its your only option.

Why is it we want our belongings to do more than just function well?

The other week I bought a new monitor to replace my old one for my PC. I had to choose between two made by Samsung. Both models are 22inch and have exactly the same specification the only difference is one is newer and the older one has a pebble shaped case making it look like a television rather than a monitor. I found both monitors at various places for roughly the same price only the monitor with more expensive search results was the older and pebble shaped model. I also found that the monitor regarded as the most aesthetics was in fact the pebble.


I went with the newer model and after lots of searching found it for around £140. I preferred this style because it looks like a monitor not a television. This led me to believe that people do not always pay more for aesthetics over practicality. For example I paid less for a monitor that is regarded as less aesthetic and blend into the room and not be so noticeable even though it’s a large monitor.


Then I realized that I had in fact followed the norm of the modern consumer as my computer set up was fine as it was the graphics were a little set back and the monitor was not DVI but it worked. The only reason I bought the monitor was to make the GUI more aesthetic.

This leads me to believe that everything we buy has a direct relation to aesthetics weather we realize it at first or not. For whatever reason we are buying something we buy it with aesthetics in mind it has been this way since the 80’s this do I really need it oh well it looks pretty mentality that society has nowadays. I think people feel they need to express themselves through their belongings it allows us to show sides of our personality that we cant always show in general conversation.

Pixilation

So I had a go at pixilation last week and this is what I came up with. it's a lot harder than you I first thought it would be you have to be so patient and and make tiny movements with what ever it is you are animation, otherwise things appear to jump from place to place. I think I will definitely be giving this style of animation another go because it is very effective look. I do think my animation could have done with sound but I am still getting use to the software and in any case this is something I can experiment with in my own time so keep posted to see other ideas i come up with.

Recent Multimedia Technology

Using the infrared camera in the Wii remote and a head mounted sensor bar (two IR LEDs), you can accurately track the location of your head and render view dependent images on the screen. This effectively transforms your display into a portal to a virtual environment. The display properly reacts to head and body movement as if it were a real window creating a realistic illusion of depth and space. By Johnny Chung Lee, Carnegie Mellon University.

A few months ago I found that someone had done something really interesting with the Nintendo Wii. The thing in question is a virtual reality display basically this means that with head tracking you can turn your flat dimensional screen into a full 3D world that will move depending on where you yourself move (you move to the right and you see more to the left and so on). As stated in the demonstration though this effect will only be stunning to the one with the head tracking which is a bit of a shame that no more than one person can experience it. I think that this break through with the Nintendo Wii technology will have a big impact on the way we play games in the future and it has the potential will no doubtfully change the way we play games. With this technology apparently possible it is a shame that Nintendo did not opt for the Wii to have better graphics and match say the Xbox 360 or Playstation 3 but in any case pursued in properly they will defiantly come up with something interesting, perhaps a re-release of Far Cry Instinct but with motion tracking.

Motion tracking technology dose not have to end with games it could be used for educational purposes. What if using what if you could walk around the world galleries and see some of the most famous paintings in the world. A person in France could walk around the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art and see a Jackson Pollock painting or a person from New York could walk around Le Louvere and see the Mona Lisa. As for how easy is it to feel if you’re actually there, there are already companies producing full peripheral vision monitors, you could though just create a wall of monitors about 6 foot high and there you go you’re really there. I think there is still a lot of work to be done with this technology but as it stands despite the lack of a mighty graphics card and processor Nintendo’s Wii has a massive advantage over its competition.

What do i want to get out of my course

I want to expand on my current strengths and learn some new ones as far as what I want to specialize in if I knew that (coming from an HND) i would probably be in the second year. Obviously i want a digree but mainly I think its a personal goal.

What did i do on my first week?

Monday - Monday was slightly boring mainly because I spent the best part of the day sitting in a hot lecture being talked to. The worst meeting has to have been an hour long meeting listening to a woman describe every last thing about NOW. Annoyingly enough when I got home to have a look for myself I didn't have a clue what to do. Oh also I watch Fringe the new JJ Abrams (the creator of 'Lost') TV series and it is very very good.

Tuesday - Tuesday, what can i say other than I now know i don't like dark, crowded rooms and my short term memory isn't to good (due to dyslexia) so Tuesday was rather interesting. I am really fond of photography and whenever an opportunity comes along for me to take some photos I jump at the chance so Pinhole photography was probably one of the most interesting things iv done. All in all a pretty good day.

Wednesday - Today I set up my online journal and had to write two past tense posts about what I have done this week and one about what I want to get out of the course its going to be a challenge keeping up to date with this whole blog thing as I have never really been keen on the idea of the blog but I can see the reason behind this one so I am more than happy to try looking forward to tomorrow as I get paid and can buy pretty things... Yay.