Thursday 31 January 2013

Poster Editing - Photoshop



Here I just wanted to see what both the original and edit would look like next to eatch other, honestly I think it looks too simple. It looks like something you could make on paint when you were 10. I need to make it more impressive and eye catching, possibly blend them together somehow? But also that placement looks too simple.

I attempted to place the same picture differently, but also include a previous edit. I favour this one a lot more due to it looking visually more intriguing. I also really like the edit at the bottom blending in with the bottom, this is where I would plan to have the title 'Is It Really Worth It?' I feel like I might keep this part. I wanted to portray the day.

Tuesday 29 January 2013

Copyright



What is copyright?
When a person creates an original work, that he or she automatically owns copyright to the work. Copyright ownership gives the owner the exclusive right to use the work in certain, specific ways. Many types of works are eligible for copyright protection, including:
  1. Audiovisual works, such as TV shows, movies, and online videos
  2. Sound recordings and musical compositions
  3. Written works, such as lectures, articles, books, and musical compositions
  4. Visual works, such as paintings, posters, and advertisements
  5. Video games and computer software
  6. Dramatic works, such as plays and musicals 

Ideas, facts, and processes are not subject to copyright. In order to be eligible for copyright protection, a work must be both creative and fixed in a tangible medium. Names and titles are not, by themselves, subject to copyright protection.

Is it possible to use a copyright-protected work without infringing?

In some circumstances, it is possible to use a copyright-protected work without infringing the owner’s copyright. For more about this, you may wish to learn about fair use. It is important to note that your video can still be affected by a claim of copyright infringement, even if you have...
  1. Given credit to the copyright owner
  2. Refrained from monetising the infringing video
  3. Noticed similar videos that appear on YouTube
  4. Purchased the content on iTunes, a CD, or DVD
  5. Recorded the content yourself from TV, a movie theatre, or the radio
  6. Stated that “no copyright infringement is intended”
Some content creators choose to make their work available for reuse with certain requirements. For more about this, you may wish to learn about the Creative Commons license.

(Here is an article from youtube about copyright, I'm bringing the topic up because in my short film I plan to use parts of a song that I didn't create called '1000 Years Always By Your Side' by the Korean group SHINee. Because I'm chopping it up and reassembling it, it isn't exactly the original copy. And because I'm not planning to use it to make money and through being a student I can use this. Due to this song being foreign the likelyhood of me actually getting in contact with the company to ask permission to use their song is very slim.)

http://copyrightfriendly.wikispaces.com/
(Another link about copyright)

Monday 28 January 2013

Copyright Permission

For my short film I decided to find a piano cover of SHINee's song '1000 years always by your side', and to do this I looked on youtube. I found a cover near enough straight away, it impressed me so much that I felt like I had to use it. Out of copyright reasons and respect for this youtube user I asked in the comment section If I could use their cover in my short film. Not much time later they replied back saying that I could, but to make sure I mentioned them somewhere which of course I was going to do regardless. But they made me happy.

The youtube users name being the very talented 'Richardhuang70'

Poster Ideas

 I took the above photo when I was in London filming just because we were there, I look back at it now and think to involve it in my film poster would be perfect. Big Ben and the underground sign are iconic things linked with London, just by looking at them you know where the short film is set. What I like most about it however is how much sky there is, and because day and night play a big part in my short film I was thinking if there was a way I could edit it to make it look like night time.
 I decided to play around on paint.net that i've previously used for art, I attempted to change the sky to make it darker and achieved it by changing the 'levels'. However what has come with that is a big ben that is near enough blacked out, but even though this wasn't what I intended I like it like that. It gives it an eery feel and it's completely different from the daytime picture. But then I think it would be better if the picture was just slightly different from the original, giving the idea that doing one little thing different in a day can change it completely.

SHINee - 1000 Years Always by Your Side (Music Video)

For my project I'm using the Japanese single from the Korean band SHINee called '1000 Years Always by Your Side' I remembered that the music video has a lot of sky and outdoors scenes, thinking about the lost posters I wondered if I could take a scene from the MV (music video) for my poster. I watched the MV all the way through and print screened scenes that interested me, and what I felt I could use.
^^ Above are speakers with the background of just a plain blue sky, at the beginning all you hear is the siren going of with this scene for a few seconds before the music starts. I feel like this is similar to my short film with the alarm clock. With the colour I really like how plain it is, the way that just by using this background the speakers stand out so much. However because of the dull colours and shapes it doesn't pop out at you, which for a poster I guess is what you want it to do. Even if my short film isn't happy, it still needs something on the poster to catch the audiences attention.
^^I only took this screen shot of Minho's clothes because I really liked the olden style, I wouldn't really know how to incorporate this in to my final poster.

^^ Just further scenes that show a large open space with something else in front of it that grabs the watchers attention, in that they know what they have to be focusing on.

^^ This scene is completely different from the rest, the singers blend in with the back rather then stand out as they're both black. I like the idea of things standing out and blending in for my poster? I have of yet not decided how I'm going to do this.

^^ In this scene theres added colour with the balloons, what I like about it is how suttle it is.

^^ Each member is in unison, doing to same pose against a background with many different suttle colours. I think I like the scene for more of the fact of me being a fan of them (my fan girl side is here) but I think it's such a strong site, they're all together.
^^ I knew anyway for my short film that I wanted a black screen with white writing, it's just lucky for me that this music video also has this scene to give you an example of what I want. I've yet to decide if I want another language as I am using a japanese song, however because my short film is set in London..I don't really think it will be appropriate.

Sunday 27 January 2013

Poster - Lost

I know Lost isn't a film it's a television series, but the poster for it caught my eye with how simple it was.
What I like most about it is the simplicity, all you have is the shows title, the shadowed characters that we know nothing about yet (as this was a promo poster) and a very dull background. It says nothing about the show, and so will encourage you to learn what the show is about. This is the kind of design I want for my film poster.












The style of the posters never change, they are simplistic however the characters and background have gained colour. As the show became increasingly more popular the style became more recognisable. Just by looking at the title style you could tell what show it was from.
These posters show another season that is coming soon, and due to how simple they are they give nothing away about the season.

 
You see even when making the merchandise they keep the same style, it's well known, it's the 'brand'


Tuesday 15 January 2013

Bus Breaking Down

It disappoints me, but I didn't make it into college today to edit my short film due to weather conditions. I got on my first bus of two (due to living in the middle of nowehere), but due to it snowing heavily we got stuck behind an accident ahead for an hour. The bus then traveled further but broke down near enough in the middle of nowhere. I spent the rest of the day in a near by hospitals canteen waiting for someone to come and pick me up.



Monday 14 January 2013

Music - Piano Covers

At college today I was really thinking about what I could use for my audio for my short fil, to which I thought of one of my favourite bands of all time 'SHINee' a Korean boy band. As my short film is emotional I thought a piano cover of one of their songs would fit perfectly, unfortunetly I can't play piano so I decided to search the internet. I had to wait until I got home to look for a cover and through not much searching I found the perfect cover of SHINee's '1000 Years always by your side' a Japanese song. I know I'm biased with it being my favourite band and so their covers and music videos are going to mean more to me, and create more emotions. But this piece of music is so beautiful.

During the short film the lead role (my brother) as he's walking places headphones in his ears, whether or not I decide to then seem like he's listening to the orginal (which also gets me emotional) I havenn't decided yet. Although there's a good chance I will just to mix up the audio.

Currently

I've been working on my blog all morning and this afternoon (due to one of my lessons being cancelled) our technician has been helping me learn and get to know final cut express, even though it feels complex right now I feel if I use it enough it'll be fine. Our deadline for this short film is Thursday, I wont lie and say I'm confident because with all the switching around and trying to get to know new software late I don't feel prepared. I have a day off tomorrow (15/1/13) and so I plan to come in tomorrow and work on getting my project finished, If I don't I will come in whenever I have free time.

Fingers crossed it works out and on time. *crosses fingers and makes everyone around her cross their fingers*

Final Cut Express HD

After many troubles with final cut it's finally decided to work on the macs at college, our technician has said he's played around with the software and he's convinced that it will now allow me to split screen ('spilt screen' now becoming the most used words in my life) however the only downside of using final cut is that I can only use it at school as I don't have a mac at home. This gives me a very limited time of when I can work on my project due to lessons and other commitments, But this is very important to me, I will do my best to get it done.

Video Analysis


In class we took it in turns to film ourselves talking about our film and how fair we were with them, the teacher and students would then ask me questions about my short film and i'd do my best to answer them as descriptive as I could. Apart from saying "umm.." one too many times I think I got my point across well.

Tuesday 8 January 2013

Attempting To Split Screen

I'm attempting to spilt screen by following the video I uploaded in a previous post, however it's proving more difficult than I imagined. I'm going to carry on in hopes I will achieve the outcome I want.

Saturday 5 January 2013

Free Trial - TraxAxPC

I decided to go for the free trial first before buying TraxAxPC, first impressions of this is that it looks pretty simple it doesn't look that different from all other softwares i've used (Imovie, final cut etc)

Friday 4 January 2013

Spilt Screen Software Find

At home I went on a search to find a new software that would allow me to split screen as final cut at school hasn't been working. From just typing in the simple question 'What software will allow split screen?' I found the TraxAxPC by windows, this software you'd have to buy if you wanted it however there was an option to have it on free trial for 15 days, which is what I did.
Above is a video on youtube that I found that shows how I can create a spilt screen using TraxAxPC, however it only uses pictures and not video. I'm not sure if this is a problem, it might not be sophisticated  enough.

Photos Of The Cast

 
Here is my brother, I used him as my lead role. I decided to use him because I wanted to find a male in his 20's that could look convincing as someone who would work in an important job and I felt he was the best choice. He has simple yet smart clothing, ideally I would have had him in a suit but due to not having one I had to change it to smart casual.
Here is my father, I used him for any extras I needed but not making it obvious that it's the same person. He played 'the guy to take the wallet' 'the boss' and 'the homeless guy', this was mainly because I didn't want to complicate production too much in having to find a time for everyone to do when the extra parts weren't the main parts. It was easier to use two people throughout the whole short film.
My father sat outside the train station convincingly dressed as a homeless guy, so convincing that a woman actually gave him money. (Just appreciating the effort he went through)

Photos Of The Office

Here are pictures of the parts of the office that I used,  I was very fortunate to be able to use a real office after hours. This office is newly refurbished and is brand new, and because my short film is set in London you'd imagine the building the lead role to work in to be new. I obviously didn't have any control of the design of the office, but because the colours of it are so dull and and basic it helps with the depressed, fed up feelings I'm trying to interpret. 

Here the desk I decided to use, it's in a cramp corner which is cluttered with boxes and office supplies. The boxes are conveniently there because they only just moved into building. But because it's so cramped it feels as if there is no freedom for the worker.
In this hallway I filmed the scene where the boss (my father) telling off the employee (my brother), it's just another room that looks no different from rest with dull colours to make him increasingly fed up. It represents his mood.
The canteen another room that looks the same as the rest even though this is where people take their breaks, I filmed a scene where he sits and eats by himself.

Thursday 3 January 2013

Tomorrow

As it's still the Christmas holidays I've decided to take this time to film the last scenes I haven't already for my short film, my dad's partners business has just upgraded their office and since I need an office scene they said I could use it. I'll add this to the footage I have already and see the outcome, if I'm not happy I'll just re-film parts.

By Chance Finds


By chance I was watching 'Saved By The Bell' and found another example of a split screen that I initially wanted for my short film. However i'm unable to find what software was used, and it being an old TV show I doubt i'd ever beable to.