Interaction

During Interaction, we have been given documentaries to write about and to discuss, however, due to the work load we have received many of us have struggled to complete each episode of the documentary series and have fallen behind in that respect.
I know that i have failed to complete each series, but i have also indulged myself in extra curricular activities, such as regularly visiting the Impressions Gallery and National Media Museum and writing about the exhibitions on this blog 'Robbie Cooper: Immersion', as well as attending a talk by John Hurt as part of the Bradford Film Festival.

I also watched documentaries at home and online and wrote about them on my blog e.g; 'Sue Johnston Shangri-La' and also short documentaries such as 'Kelly And Luke - 24 Hours', which i enjoyed as it linked back to our capture work, observing "A Day In The Life Of...".

I am also proud that my blog entries are quite long.

I do get carried away while typing up experiences and things that i have enjoyed and also not enjoyed watching.

At first some of my peers believed this blog to be a waste of time and quite irritating as we were on a creative and media course not a writing course, but I've thoroughly enjoyed writing on this blog. I'm a natural writer anyway and could write all the time, and don't find it awkward at all, but this blog has allowed me to channel my opinions so well that i was considering writing one for my A Level Art as you can look back and recall how you felt at that time, and it's better than writing in a sketch book how you feel you have done throughout the course of the subject, as you can seem to write and write.

Overall during this course of the unit, i believe I've worked well and overcome difficulties, noting them in this blog and hopefully showing the progression i have made through writing and through my work.

I am quite disappointed that i haven't managed to complete each blog about our documentaries we have watched together as a class, as i have taken extensive notes to write about it later, and then become sidetracked with the work load and priorities take over the weaker ones. I am submitting the handwritten notes into my folder, to show my work and to prove my intentions concerning the completion of the blog.

However, i am proud that i have realised that and tried to compensate by writing about my gallery and other experiences.

End Of Year Show

Last Thursday was the End Of Year Show 'premiere', and myself and my friend Libby were invited to take part as two characters from 'Alice In Wonderland' and feature in a set of the Mad Hatter's Tea Party.
We were very excited and couldn't wait to contribute.
We were promoting the Media Make-Up Department and we had our make-up and hair done by the students and staff.
It was very last minute, having been told in the morning of the show, but we couldn't wait, especially as our work was not going to be exhibited.

When we arrived at Media Make-Up, there were china tea-cups and buns displayed on a table, and our job was to talk around the college promoting their work.
I was dressed as Alice due to my blonde hair and Libby was the Queen of Hearts due to her darker hair.
We remarked that it was quite a role reversal for us as i'm a lot darker in make-up and character while Libby is very fresh-faced and innocent.

We got many strange looks and glances as people were unsure if we were part of the college or had turned up dressed as we were for fun. But it did provoke comments and we explained about the Media Make-Up and their special effects and exhibition.

It was a great night and I'm very glad that were agreed to take part.

Evaluation

I am now currently going through the checklist given to us and recording all of my work and placing it into my completed folder.
I only have a few areas in which i need to finish and place into my folder:

• PowerPoints - detailing the four groups we chose, in our case 2.
• Telephone records - I have currently lost my USB stick and so cannot locate our Call Logs, although we do have many e-mails corresponding with our community groups.
  
• Reflective Report - I am currently aiming to finish this today and tomorrow, by the deadline.
• Photographs - When we went for the meeting at Mind The Gap for our initial proposal, we took a camera and an EdiRoll but we were so engrossed with the place and looking around that we forgot, but we did take alot in camera wise, thinking of interesting shots as detailed in my location recee. I can also take clips from the MTG website and use them in a storyboard type piece for my folder, to show our ideas and where we could have placed things if we were to do it again.
• DVD - I also need to burn our video onto a DVD for completion and then to place it in my folder.
  

Those are the only things i need to do now are buy a new folder, a lever arch one because my current folder is going to break, organise my work inside and complete the tasks above, and i will be on target to hand in my folder by 4:30pm tomorrow.

I'm very proud of myself today as i came in dreading the completion of my work.
I first had to type out my whole Investigative Report due to having lost my USB stick, meaning that i couldn't quickly edit my work and start on my final report.
But i completed the Investigative Report by 12:30pm and then i have used the rest of my time to catch up on printing regarding e-mails with community groups and going through my checklist.

I believe that i can complete my final report 'Evaluative Report', tonight and tomorrow, giving me enough time at the end of the day to arrange my folder and double check everything that is in there.

Mind The Gap - Interaction Video

Myself and Ruby have completed our video for Mind The Gap.
Completing the video only took us Friday and Monday to do which I'm very proud of as we have been on a short deadline for this unit.
Today we are going to do the narration and music for our video and then our video will be complete, and we would like to showcase our video to Mind The Gap on Thursday 16th or Monday 20th June.
The editing of the video has gone quite smoothly, with only a few hitches with the editing program we are using not working properly.

We have completed the video well within our proposed production schedule because we knew where we wanted each clip to be placed.
On Friday, we edited our video into sequences, so when it came to putting the video together, it would be time efficient and we would have a clearer idea of where we would want our narration to fit in.

Mind The Gap - 7th & 8th June

Myself and Ruby agreed to film at Mind The Gap on the 7th and 8th June through Rio when she rang me up and confirmed our ideas and agreed to meet and allow us to film.

Ruby booked the equipment out for us to use on the Monday and Tuesday in advance so that we would be able to book the equipment out and use it; as the final end of year shows are happening at the moment in college, it would be difficult for us to book them out without doing so in advance.

FIRST DAY
We set off from college to Mind The Gap and had no problems getting there and settling in.
We arrived 15minutes early and settled down in the AllSpace area at Mind The Gap, where the actors sit and eat their lunch and socialise with each other. There is a kitchen area fully equipped with refreshment making facilities, which we were told to help ourselves to if we wanted.
We sat down with a coffee and awaited the arrival of the actors when they came out from their first session.

When they did come out, Rio introduced them to us as we stood up and then made our way around the actors, introducing ourselves and making them reassured with our filming and interaction with them for the interviews and filming in the studios and sessions.

As soon as we sat back down, some actors came over and started talking to us. We spent the whole of their lunch talking and asking them questions, and they didn't seem fazed that we were strangers with media equipment, just people who they could talk to and interact with.
Myself and Ruby felt very appreciated after their interaction with us, as we didn't want to intrude in their space and intimidate them.

We then planned out what we were going to do for each day that we were there in terms of filming so that we had a schedule we could stick to, and with the ideas fresh in our mind, we could complete the filming tasks with ease.

The camera work was split 50/50, with myself doing the intro shots and thinking of the ideas for how we could introduce ourselves in front of the camera.
I believe i have a knack for knowing what camera shots work, so i hope that the finished product looks very professional, after taking influence from news reports that i have seen and various other live and pre-produced television shows.

In Mind The Gap there are 3 studios, and in Studio 1 there is a balcony area above the floor where we set up the DV camera on the tripod and then left the camera for around half an hour so that we could capture lots of unconscious movement and then produce it in a way that would allow us to show a time lapse in the film, which i believe is a great effect in documentary style/fly on the wall filming.

After filming, myself and Ruby walked to the bus stop with our equipment and saw some of the actors there waiting for the bus. It was nice to talk to them outside of their work, as obviously we didn't want to intrude while they worked, but they also spoke to us at breaks and lunch, so it was great to see their personal side and have great informal chat with them. We also got on the bus with them on the second day.

We had so much fun on the first day, even though we were only there for around 3 hours.
We were warmly welcomed in to their studio and impressed by the talent and charisma the actors have.


SECOND DAY
We arrived at MTG for 10 o'clock and settled in with a coffee while chatting to the actors.
They then had a dance session which we filmed. They have this around once a week, which is useful as the actors can use these techniques to be flexible and graceful while acting.

They then continued their Interchange work.
On Monday, the actors will be performing in the Interchange, staging a still motion scene during the working scene of the Interchange, which would be very interesting to film and see, but due to permission we would not be able to film this.

They then worked on their MediaBox work, where they are learning to work with cameras and to film each other, which is why we wanted to film them at this particular time so show them interacting with cameras as we film them.
We were also hoping to get them to use our cameras for a day but due to our ideas and visions we would be unable to feature the footage in our film as we have so much footage already.

However, we did interview some of the actors and find out why they like coming to Mind The Gap. We also got some candid footage of the actors messing around and performing for us a little bit, which was great to see them being very spontaneous and really at ease with us filming them.



The second day didn't have the same buzz as the first day did, but maybe thats because we settled in and the adrenaline had worn off, as on the first day we were busy brain storming ideas and figuring out what we were going to do, but the second we just got straight on with it.

We had a chat with the whole group at the end of the day and they thanked us for coming down to film them as we thanked them for letting us film a day in the life of one of the actors.
They also invited us back for a screening of our film when we have completed it, which we are looking forward to and we sure Mind The Gap are too.