Thursday 27th May 2010

Today we are designing and creating our websites, I have decided to create mine using dreamweaver, I used this before in a previous unit being Unit 4: Web authoring.

I have decided to do this website without any support or help as I feel confident to do this all on my own, One day in my life I am going to have work on things that are hard in life and I am not going to have help when I want it.

I enjoyed the web authoring unit and as I had such a keen interest in it then I will work well into it and be very careful of how I design it.

Wednesday 26th May 2010

Today we have started our new unit which is working on a brief to eventually present all our work at the show sometime in June.
I have just started making my website for including 5 units worth to present.

We have all just started this today and have 2 weeks to do this in.

There is not alot to say for this blog, but I should of lots more to say by tommorow afternoon.

Monday 24th May 2010

Today we presented our presentation in front of the class, I felt confident today and was ready to present, it was very good when it came to presenting our video as it gave our group to show what our work was all about and give everyone a chance to see what it's about and what information it gives to them.

I found it a little hectic to have to read off Rob's laptop, it was especially hard when it came to reading small text which was underneath the note section.

I felt as though our group did well and presented our video and evaluation clearly and understandable.

We have been listening to the other group presentations today aswell, they're videos are very good and the way they have presented their evaluations was very well presented.

We've now finished this unit and are awating to see what our next unit is on.

Thursday 20th May 2010

Today we have been working on our powerpoint presentation, it has been difficult to word out my wording and language throughout my work as I am feeling quite ill today and am trying to get all the work done by today to present it for Monday.

On Monday when it comes to presenting our presentation, I will ready and confident.
I am looking foward to presenting our work and seeing what everyone thinks of our work.

It has been good working with Rob, Liam and Paul, it has been a pleasure and great working with these three friends.

Wednesday 19th May 2010

Today we carried on editing and collecting more work together.
Rob has started working on the subtitles for one of our interviews due to sound problems.
Rob is struggling to deal with this as it is very hard to hear what Ryan is saying as it is very loud.
However Liam was not in today unfortunatley but we are hoping he will be in tommorow for the presentation.
Paul is away at the Doctors since break time, so Rob and myself have been working on our presentation and editing on soundbooth.
I have taken some screenshots to show what programmes we have used through out this project.
Also there has been a problem with the G drive but it seems to be fine now, Due to this problem I could not insert the animatic into our presentation.
I shall insert it tommorow morning.
Tommorow I will carry on with the Presentation with my group and then present it and have it ready for the afternoon.

Thursday May 13th 2010 blog 2 update

As of today there have been many issues with trying to get our work off tape 2 using Adobe Premiere, it has been a total nightmare!
Luckily throughout this afternoon and help from John we have managed to get the audio sounding off the interview with Ryan with one of the squatters who we interviewed, I then recorded this and sent it over to Rob to analize.
It has been difficult trying to get this audio off the camera but we have managed well and have done quite a lot of editing, the next time we carry on will be on Wednesday the 19th May as we have paintballing to attend to on Monday.

I will see what else needs editing and make a planner over the weekend so then we get everything finished before our deadline and evaulation write up.

This unit has been very good and it has taught me a good experience about squating, It can be very depressing and I myself wouldn't want to end up in a homeless condition.

I shall attend the weekend by and updating the Forum posts and may make a small start on my evaluation.

Thursday 13th May 2010

Today we are planning to get our editing in place.
I have filled out a student load form to borrow another video camera so then we can download our work off the camera tapes quicker than we would with one video camera.
I am now financially responsible for the camera, but we will only be using the camera to copy our work over to the computer to edit in Adobe Premier.

As it is going to be a long day we should hopefully get a lot of editing and finalizing done.
Whilst we are waiting for the second camera there is not a lot to do at this moment in time.

We have also downloaded our soundbooth recordings for when we were interviewing, we need to add this into our video documentary.
We may need to add subtitles for one of our interviews as their was poor sound quality.

I shall write another blog to update what we have done later today.

Wednesday 12th May 2010

Today I am going to write a blog on our filming sessions:

Whilst filming out in Brighton we interviewed some sqauts/homeless people.
We took it in turns to use the camera and the other equipment we had.
We kept a logsheet and noted down our recordings and kept a track of timing and camera angles.
We changed the location by bumping into our interviewie when looking around at the Crowley club.
Liam interviewed the squater and asked some of the questions that Paul printed out.
We did this yesterday even though it was a day off college, we are trying very hard to get all our recording and shooting out of the way and can then move onto editing for which we are now starting.

I've also learnt about permission and consent for watching someones work, I was a little uncomfortable on the idea of how someone might play your video if we didnt give permission to show our video, as this is a group project I am happy and confindent for it to be played to everyone.

Monday 10th May 2010

Today we have been introduced to Adobe Premier, it is quite good to use and am just starting to get the hang of it, We worked on one of Take-That's songs and had ago at editing it, we followed ways of editing from John whilst watching how to edit from taking notes.

Later this afternoon we have carried on working with Premier, I have found this a little tricky but as always will grow used to it and remember how to use it very well, I have had a go at editing a video off of YouTube of a Mass Effect 2 Video which is a game, I find that it is easy to edit something I like and how I can create my ideas to my own advantage.

I am hoping to get another try at editing before we start editing our work, it is very difficult to understand how everything works at the moment.

When it comes to editing our documentary then I shall hopefully know some of the tools of editing.

I shall also start writting down the name of the tools so then I can note it all down for my Evaulation.

Thursday 6th May 2010

Today our group went out recording and spent most of the day doing this, we recorded Rob's friend Sid today and interviewed him and asked him a few questions listed from our script.

Before we interviewed Sid, we went to some empty buildings and recorded them from different camera angels and from heights.

We next went around Brighton and recorded the outside of the police station, after we moved on and were about to write up our video logs, we were then stopped by two police officers and were asked to show our college I'd, we then told them the reason for recording the police station as it was for our college work on a documentary on homeless people and squating, they then understood this and let us carry on with what we are doing.

We then moved on to find that someone who looked as though they were homeless were selling the big issues magazines, we asked them whether we can record them, they got a little angry and said they didn't want to particapate, we then offered to buy a big issue of them and to see whether we could record that at least, the woman went to us saying "abosoutley not".

We then said thank you anyway even though she wouldn't particapate with our college work and moved on to a busco who was a minute a way down the road, we asked him whether it was alright to record him playing his gutiar and one of pass by giving him some money.

This worked out well and we were happy that we had captured this scene, we walked around some more to find either some more empty buildings or anyone on the streets who were either begging for money, playing music or just sitting down quietly.
Near the train station we found a homeless person sitting underneath the tunnel, we asked them whether it would be alright to record them sitting there and pretending to be cold as Liam passed by and gave him some money.

Afterwards we headed back to college and started uploading and viewing our recordings and watched over it a few times.

It has been a good day, and it has been nice to get out of the college and do an active task in the streets of Brighton and knowing new areas.

Tomorrow we are coming into college to collect the camera and any equipment we need for more recording.

Wednesday 5th of May 2010- BLOG UPDATE!

Over the last 2 weeks we have been working very hard on the production work for assignment 1.
I have done my tasks and completed them, today I have uploaded them and have sent them for marking.

Our group came into college yesterday to carry on with work that was needed to be completed. Paul has been working very hard on the the Story board and also the Animatic.
We scanned some information from some books in the Libary yesterday, this helped us understand a little bit more about squating/homeless and gave some new information to us.

Rob has been busy planning out and scheduling the time planner for our Production work which is coming up very soon.
I have been working on the script, it still needs a little bit of editing but as we have Liam who has returned to join our group we should be able to get our work and producion (filming) done quite quickly and handed in on time, editing will be required for the production as we have a time limit of 4 minutes.
We have permission from both sets of squatters, the first group we went to we asked face to face as Paul knew one of them as a friend.
The second squat is one of Rob's friends who is more than happy for us to film and ask questions towards him.

Tomorow we will be introduced to the Adobe Premier for which we will be using for our producion editing.

I want our audience to know what it is truly like living in a poor condition, the condition of their home and how they feel, how they survive, what caused to be in a homeless state and lastly how people show them respect.

Our plans for filming will be set out for Thursday and Friday.
We will be interviewing the people for both of these days, one group will be filmed in their location where they live, and the other person will be filmed down either in a park or an empty squat.

The mood of this video would most likely show emotions and personal thoughts and a story of how there life might have turned upside down (bad fortune).

When we enter the squat and interview Rob's friend, we will show respect towards them and appreciate any questions they may not want to answer.
We don't want them to feel like it is an interorgation or the fact that we could disrespect them, this is how I feel and should show respect as I am a crew member of my team.