DMU Underdogs

Remember that post I made waaaaay back in January, full of my aims for 2012? Well the aim to: "Make more music videos, both for competitions and non competitions" was pretty high up on my list and now my first year of uni is complete I can get right back to that.

I decided to put some screenshots up from the video ratherthan spending hourse uploading it this time because me and youtube arn't the best of friends right about now. But there is a link of this quick vid I put together at the end of this post if you'd like to see the whole thing.

http://youtu.be/EFagVKxxP8g

-x-

Music Video: Editing

Just finished the final stages of our editing!! So the video shall be up as soon as it's been compressed and uploaded for the competition! :D

-x- 

Music Video: Filming (1)

Day One

From 11.30am on Wednesday it has been all go - go - GO!!

There were people to meet and makeup to buy, so we didn't make it to our first film location till 3pm, but that was ok because we knew that we were in for a long day. Our first location was at Jacobs’s house in his pub/ basement. It was PERFECT! The basement especially because we had to use a head light on the camera when we went down and it had old beer barrels and cob-webbed stone walls, which made it very horror film-esque. Simple filler shots and hostage like footage was taken down here.

Outside we pulled off a more complex shot which involved burning a chair, poisoning a captured jess and smashing glasses which all worked really well on camera!

Even when sheltering from the rain we captured some really nice photo's and it gave that 'darker' tone to the footage that the band are looking for.

- x -

Music Video: Makeup + Costumes

 

 Today we made the most of testing out a few looks for the types of characters in the music video, based around the idea of having a "golden sun" styled character and creating the look for the two opposing tribes that fight for/ hunt down the golden sun.

Can't wait to get filming!!

-x-

Music Video: Location Hunting

I forgot to post earlier about a competition I saw online to create a music video for the new track 'Golden Sun' by one of my favourite bands Fenech-Soler!!

I was so excited after seeing the post I got organising straight away, which is pretty good seeing as the deadline is now twenty days away today!!! Me and some of my friends from college (the ons who lived in the art department that is) got together last week to watch a film when I shared the news with them. Tomorrow we'll meet again to get some serious ideas and early footage down.

In between all this my friend Jacob and I headed out to do some location hunting - and this is what we found!

Yeah... We like subways.

-x-

Remember that advert...

So a while ago, I blogged about a little project myself and my fellow art student Ashley Cooke took on board during our exams:

Business students put an add in the bulletin wanting art students that work with video to produce a 30 second video to support and promote ‘CityHitch’, their entry in the PolyU Global Student Challenge, so me and Ashley rose to the challenge! They even said they'd split the prize money with us if they won and they were talking about $2500 between five of us, which didn't sound too bad at all!


The advert came together really well and they met there deadline and I thought that was that... Till a few days ago.

*     *     *

I got a message from Ashley saying that they had infact won!!! They came in first for the Environmental and Sustainability theme and they were the only team from Europe to reach the final six teams and came third overall in the secondary division. We hadn't heard anything from them since they'd won so Ashley thought he'd send an email over and find out about the prize money we were promised, and found out that the buisness department had left a token of their appreciation with the art department that had been mailed out to us so all that was left to do was wait and see what this token was...

Token was a very select choice of words.

It wasn't the $500 we were hoping for or what ever that amount would be in pounds, but £25 and a thankyou card signed with all their thanks :P At first I was a bit miffed that we'd missed out on some serious money but when I thought about it if they hadn't won we probably wouldn't even get the £25 anyway.

I told this to my sister, she used to study busness, and all she said was that if something like that ever comes up again - get it in writing!! haha... Well at least it's kept my editing skills ticking over and I can always work it into my portfolio for uni. 

Below i've managed to add the 30 second advert I edited down for them and I must say i'm pretty proud of it myself :') 

- Enjoy!

-x-

The Film: behind the scenes and more

Masks: check // Mates: check // GO!!

Emily: Her character is very delicate, but strong and ruthless in her
search for Michaela.



Michaela: has a character that is naive and later deceived, but determined

 to put things right.



Fran: She's the wolf in sheep's clothing (literally) very sly but good at
heart...in her own way ;)

And last but not least Steph, who arrived after the photos were taken but was a character that added an ominous and haunting presence in the film that subtly altered the decisions of each character.

After meeting in Emily's garden and taking a few pre-shoot photos, we headed down to the woods to film in this lovely weather. Luckily it was surprisingly quiet out, except for the odd dog walker or two, who seemed pleasantly surprised by the masks and such ;) I had some vague ideas of what I wanted the final film to look like, pieced together from day dreams I've had about surreal wanderings in the woods and in a way it overlaps with the focus in my current unit of work - the exploration of hostile environments.

Then what a better place to head to than the woods?

My main aim was to loosely follow a lost and found narrative, where the main character becomes separated from the other and both search desperately for one another until they are reunited at the end. But I've thrown in a few sub stories and the extra character or two, but I think like many films - it will be open to interpretation.

Big bad wolf anyone?

These pictures are only the half of it - I can't fully explain how magical the film is alongside the songs I've picked out so far. I've also cut 40mins of film down to 7 since last week and I'm beginning to piece together a short trailer that I will upload a while before hand. Hopefully I'll get that done before Monday, as Monday = the dreaded ART EXAM!!

 

I'll keep you posted!

- x -

Have you ever...

...had the urge to just do something spontaneous?

I have.

Quite a lot to be honest, sometimes I get the urge to draw, to dance or just try work out a little tune on my piano... but normally I never follow through (except when it comes to dancing, sometimes I don't even realise I'm doing it as I shimmy my way through college!).

This time however was very different.

This time I did something I actually wanted to do.

This time I made a film.

And not just any old film but a film with my best friends, who'd offered to help me out as an extended part of my art project. I wasn't too sure how I'd directly link this to my work but I just felt the need to make it. So last Thursday, while it was beautifully sunny (very rare in england!) day I met up with my friends in Emily's garden, which was the closest to the location we'd be fillming in. 

They had no idea what we we're about to do - which made me love them even more :') seeing as all I'd told the was to dress in something vintage. I had some rough ideas, along with various items including masquerade masks to give me some inspiration.

And away we went!

I got loads of great footage, and some hilarious stuff for the bloopers :') but I shall tell you more in detail alongside some of my favourite photos from the day in my following post.

-x-

End of an Advert :) End of a Holiday :(

Today is the last day of half term - and what a long one it has been!

Two weeks with many bank holidays throw in has got me too relaxed to jump back into the college routine tomorrow! But on the plus side I finally finished the video work needed by some of the buisness students: 1 thirty second advert and 1 sixty second pitch done and dusted. I hope it gives them that added edge in the finals!!! Below is one of the final edits i put together:

Once this deadline had been met i focused on college work, and surprisingly I did alot for english literature - not my favourite subject but I found it really easy to wrtie about 'Paradise Lost' the current book we're studying.

Now what I reeeeeally should be focusing on is the prep work leading up to my final art exam!!! I'm still unsure of what I wanna do in my final piece. But I think I'm over thinking it all to be honest, all I want to have is good piece of work for the exhibition. As a kind of momento, a sign that i did something great with the many hours of my college life that I've spent up in that department. But it's gotta make sense, i can't just pull somethingout of the blue. It's got to relate to my prep work or statement of intent... hmmmmm

I think I've got some work to do, but I'll keep you posted.

-x-

p.s. this would have been my earliest post yet since i finished it at 4 but because I had problems uploading the video I'm posting this 4hours later, minus a video :( ... Bad times!