The Grand Design: Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow

The Grand Design (Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow) in a nutshell, gives you the low down on the natural laws of physics, the constant battle of science and religion to explain the origins of our universe, and all the forces in between.

Not to sound like I'm writing a personal statement, but I have been a bit of a science geek from a very young age. Due to "blocking" of A-Levels, however, biology was the only science I was able to carrying on studying at an academic level, as Art was my first and foremost important subject... Dropping Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics was one of the most difficult decisions I ever made. And so this has left me studying science as a hobby. Isn't that strange? Art and Media as a career path, science as a pass-time? Yes, I know.

However, for someone who has no professional A-Level knowledge of science other than what she has learned from magazines, books and documentaries, this book was really easy to digest! However, not light reading, and definitely not light on information. I feel like after putting this book down, I have learned the answers to many questions, and, unlike in The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy (Douglas Adams, 1979), the answer is not just 42. 

The Skeuomorphism of Framerates

I will be seeing Dir. Peter Jackson's "The Hobbit" tomorrow afternoon. The main reason I'm anticipating this so much is to feast my eyes on the future of frame rate that is 48fps or "HFR" (High Frame Rate).

We've been stuck with the same old 24fps in films since the 1920s, and really the only restriction there was cost and sound technology. However, 24fps still works pretty effectively, despite slight "strobing" during high action it still keeps the film within a realm of realism, so why spend a whole lot of money on something not really needed?  Well, because there's no restrictions anymore, so why the hell not?
The reason why we haven't advanced before this film is because people generally don't like to be put out of their comfort zones. There were many upon many other technological advances that were predicted to be the "death of cinema", for example, colour, and with 24fps being the norm for approximately 90 years, it's a awfully large comfort zone. I feel it's about time cinema started advancing. We have a wider aspect ratio, and along with it, 70mm horizontal reels. It is about time frame rate followed... Jackson was actually smart about keeping it divisible by 24 I found, as it can be screened at 24fps if needed to after cinematic distribution, so just because the film is of higher technology than most, we won't need some special equiptment to see the film again.

I hear it's supposed to be quite odd to look at for around the first 30 minutes, as it's much crisper and smoother than any other action that's been placed on the screen before... I am almost more excited for the visuals than see the adaption of the story. That being said, I've brushed up on all my LOTR films, and I'm pretty ready to be wowed!

Liverpool to Home

 

The last day of my first semester in Liverpool was spent lounging on the roof of the university building with Lee, speaking of Summer plans to visit friends in Canada.
Don't be fooled - that December afternoon was a lot chillier than it looks.

As much as I am enjoying my time living independently in a massive city, I miss my humble country home-town. I miss trees, vast grassylands, long dirtroads, bitter cold beaches and most of all, my mum's cooking. I'm happy to be home now, where I am familiar with locals bands and the North Coast music scene, giving me great opportunities in nightlife photography.

Castlerock Coast, Northern Ireland

Belfast Benefit 15.12.12

 

I was able to take a few nice shots of ASIWYFA, Ed Zealous, MTC and Team Fresh last night, despite being too lazy to apply for a press pass. The bands played superbly. (and for free for a good cause!) The bands of the North Coast/Belfast music scene never fail to make me proud of my hometown.

See The Flickr Photographs of the Belfast Benefit 15.12.12 here.

Give ASIWYFA a listen if you haven't already.

A Critical Analysis of Psycho (Dir. Alfred Hitchcock, 1960) in Terms of Mise En Scene and Cinematography, Essay 1

Our first essay that we were instructed to write for the Film Language module was a critical analysis of any given film in terms of any given elements. I chose to analyse Psycho (Dir. Alfred Hitchcock, 1960) in terms of Mise-en-scene and Cinematography. I then went on to link these two aspects of film-making to motifs that would reveal an explicit meaning within the narrative.

I am more than pleased to announce that I received a First for my efforts in writing the essay. 

Production Group

My classmate, Lee Reid, and I are coming together to make a small production group in which a big group of our friends and will be involved. Within the production group we will be doing various university side projects stemming from documentaries to short films to photography and everything in-between that takes our fancy.  I feel this is a great idea as it gives us a medium for free creative outlet and will help to build our knowledge of the media and strengthen our technical abilities.

Here's to hoping all goes well.

O2 Academy Band Photography - 6/12/12

The Flickr Pictures

What Is Art? - Creativity & Concept

A time-old debate, what is art? What makes it art? There are two main opinions on this topic, the first being, talent. The artists with ability to put brush to canvas and paint photorealistic images such as Nicholas Poussin make “art”. Many would say only these artists deserve to make money from their art because they are gifted. Nevertheless, traditional artists in today’s society receive criticism due to the fact that in some cases their paintings lack meaning. A portrait of a face may not tell an audience as much as they’d like, as beautiful as it may be, there is no meaning behind the façade. On that note, is art then defined for its intrinsic meaning and how it can incite an emotion?

Modern art is rich with meaning, however, artists such as Damien Hirst and Jonas Gerard can be an acquired taste. One may perceive what they do as child’s-play but it can be argued that it does take talent to invoke a strong impression upon an audience-you can look at a piece and find your own interpretation, as many modern artists refuse to reveal the true meaning behind their pieces so every audience member can find their own identification with the piece. Modern art is like being invited to write a novel guided by colours, patterns and objects. In this sense, modern art involves the voyeur in a way never seen before.

Street and Gallery have forever been juxtapositions in the art world. However, with the onset of modern art, they are no longer dissimilar. Classical art was traditional in technique, the renaissance artist commonly depicted scenes as seen through the eye. The modern artist lends us a new set of eyes that offer us a different take on difficult subjects, forcing us to see their opinions. This is the Street artist’s territory also; they now share the same platform, creating pieces for the sake of provoking its audience. Street Art also has its criticisms, not only because it is classed as vandalism but through the use of stencils it receives the same “I could do that, why is that art?” attitude that is bestowed upon Modern Artists.

Somewhere along the line, classical art developed and become modern art. The question is, what provoked this drastic change where the art exhibited inside galleries for large amounts of money began to take on a similar focus as the art we see pasted on the grimy wall outside the building?

Ludology

Studying Ludology, we were asked to invent a game. We were shown such videos as The Piano Staircase... My group began thinking of similar concepts in order to adjust human behaviour. The rule that was set was that the game had to take place in the Redmonds Building. Therefore, we discussed how we could reassess something within the building... The vending machines. Come lunchtime, students flock to Starbucks and Greggs. The vending machines on the top floor remain virtually untouched. We designed a game using various theories of fun based around the Vending Machines to promote their usage. Here is how the test-run went:

We also created a Prezi and a website to present and promote the game. We also used the Prezi to evaluate the experience, weighing it up on it's effectiveness with factors such as Anxiety and Skill. We found in order to create a more effectively fun experience, we would need to decrease levels of Skill. However, due to the high levels of skill, people were forced to team up - creating a sense of community with in the game, thus generating a very different style of fun than Competition. Therefore, the project was an all round success.

• An update on the Ludology project, I am pleased to announce we received a First for our efforts in the Vending Machine project. 

Filming On Location: Albert Docks/Birkenhead Ferry

Timelapse Filming: On Location Profile: Ferry

The Star of our Stopmotion Short

Playing With Stopmotion

First Production Piece: People On The Move

CLICK TO VIEW "GOTTA GET UP" VIDEO

FACT

Got 2 pretty cool free posters from FACT for participating in the Melodrama and Other Games section in the foyer. 

A2 Media Coursework - "10 Billion"

For my A-Level production piece I created a movie trailer for a post-apocalyptic science fiction called “Ten Billion”, the narrative centres around modern society’s fear of government control and pandemic that the government tried to control overpopulation by releasing a virus in small well-contained areas such as hospitals. However, the virus broke out and a world-wide pandemic was caused, leaving the last man alive, Charlie Marx.

Through my investigation I discovered a wide array of generic conventions associated with post-apocalyptic movie trailers through studying specific movies, “I Am Legend” (2007) and “28 Days Later...” (2002) utilising the internet and books to conduct in-depth research. I used my discoveries to influence the production of my trailer.

Street Art: Business or Talent?

For Creativity & Concept Development we were given a set of concepts to extract an idea from for a short 3 minute factual film promoting culture in Liverpool. We have chosen "Street Art" from this, we are going to explore the business of Art. Is Art a commodity? Does the business of art stump creativity?

We are looking to discover more through interviewing our possible subjects, one in particular, Phillip W. Garret, in the above photograph taken earlier today. He is a street artist, but he is not as we usually except when we hear the title. He has a much more classical and traditional style of painting than most street artists. In fact, he is professionally trained and has prestigious degrees under his belt. Why has he chosen the streets as his gallery?

We are also looking to interview artists who display their work in galleries. As of now, the Liverpool Biennial is all over Liverpool and it is a hotbed for up and coming gallery artists. However, their subjects are much more unclear than that of Garret's. Simplistic themes are reoccurring with exhibitions including two hanging coats, and a short video of a dancing man. Is this art? Does the message make the art? or does the business of Art take from all meaning and effort?

Marshall McLuhan

To aid our research into Marshall McLuhan's "The Medium Is The Massage" I asked friends a few general questions and edited them into a short video.

The Wikia

Upon completing our Wikia page, our group needed to find a way in which to present our findings our Marshall McLuhan's "The Medium Is The Message". We chose to utilise a "Prezzi" to put across our message. I followed this up further by interviewing 3 of my friends over skype in order to get their opinions on the subject matter to flesh out the sources of information.

Marshall McLuhan's "Medium Is The Massage" Group A Presentation

Creativity & Concept: Ideas for Pitch

We were given the task of choosing an idea for a pitch and expanding upon it. Joe and I chose the "Street Art/Gallery Art" idea. We are still working towards a focus area to find our Unique Selling Point but progress is being made.

Animation - Media Technology - 23/10/12

A very early example of Live Action Animation by Norman McLaren (1952)

Today, in media technology we began looking at Animation in it's simplest form - stop motion. We investigated all the forms of animation such as Stop Motion Cutout Collage, Live Action Animation, Rotoscoping and 3D CGI. We looked at one of the very first artifacts of animation, Eadweard Muybridge's short loop of a galloping racehorse in 1878, where he set cameras up which would take seperate photographs when triggered by the horse. By doing so, we discovered for the first time that horses hooves leave the ground all at once, uncovering mysteries behind animal movement for artists as well as being a major starting point to what would become very sophisticated animations.

Animation had not developed much in years to come as a similar concept of looping would be used often in Warner Brother animations such as Coyote and Roadrunner. As we can see, in such animations, keyframes and tweens are utilised. The Keyframe of the roadrunner or coyote running is simply a looped animation made up of a few simple drawings. However, the Tween action background is a reel, moved right to left to give the illusion of the Keyframe moving.

However, through the birth of 3D CGI, in around the 1980s, animation became more sophisticated.

Even today, stop frame animation is still in great use to accomplish a quirky atmosphere and can even be used in the learning environment to convey messages across a language border. Our next task in Media Technology is to create a stop-frame animation of our own using inanimate objects.

Sequential Imagery - The Graphic Novel - "A Big Surprise"

Submarine (2012) Dir: Richard Ayoade

Unusual is it that I would be drawn into coming-of-age films, let alone romantic comedies. The sickly sweet generic conventions of both genres tends to leave a bad taste in my mouth and the lack of realism distracts me as I am trying to believe that all loose ends tie up neatly and happily for an under-age pregnant girl with a surprising amount of pop-culture knowledge. Yes, I admit I have swooned for Ryan Reynolds in my time, but solely looking at the films-I am uninterested. However, I found Richard Ayoade's "Submarine" to be quite unalike any indie coming-of-age film I have seen before. Easily it has become one of my favourite films that I would recommend to anyone. I must confess, I was surprised with Richard Ayoade's skill as a director. I had assumed he was yet another actor trying to show the world he's not just a face in front of the camera but an intellectual too. 

Ayoade's cinematography gripped me from the very beginning. You can see every shot is framed and positioned to great detail. Characterwise, He has also obviously shyed away from the conventional tall, dark and handsome protagonist and gone for a believably real, plain, every day "Oliver Tate". For me, this increases my empathy for the protagonist and his situation as I can picture myself as him, or I can picture him as a friend, he is someone I could know, he is everyone and anyone. We are inside his head as he describes the way he would imagine his life if it were a film. We are watching the creations of his mind. We are in his mind. Therefore, we are connected emotionally with him. His non-diegetic monologues show throughout the film he is a melodramatic and eccentric teenager. Nevertheless, this does not take from the realism. In a way his eccentricity adds to this as a form of naivety to the way the world works. Also, a lot of the over-the-top thoughts he comes out with, I can relate to, as I have thought them once before, maybe as a fleeting thought, however, this increases my empathy yet further. He is exceedingly relate-able  For example,

"I find that the only way to get through life, is to picture myself in an entirely disconnected reality. I often imagine how people would react to my death. Mr. Dunthorne's quavering voice as he makes the announcement, the shocked faces of my classmates, a playground bedecked with flowers, the empty stillness of a school corridor, local news analysis, tear stricken tributes, candle lit devotions, and finally, my glorious resurrection." Haven't we all imagined how others would react to our death and maybe overshot our importance just a little? I find this incredibly entertaining as the screen plays out his humorously eccentric scenario. Situations like this reoccur throughout. "Don't ask how, just know that I am now more powerful than ever." he says, as he moves down the corridor towards the distraught young girls, transparent and glowing in a long black gown as he returns to the world that loves and misses him. One of my favourite quotes from the movie.

queue shot of our plain protagonist, back in the real world, vacant eyed but happier to imagine himself in another dimension as his fellow students show disregard for his general existence, juxtaposed with how they worship him in his mind.

  Accompanying the aesthetically stunning mise-en-scene, editing, unique storyline, and many quirky characters is the soundtrack written and performed by Alex Turner of the Arctic Monkeys, an indie icon. Quite fitting to every scene, the mellow tracks add to the atmospheric qualities without being melodramatic.

    Honestly, in respect of the storyline, the real cherry on top of the cake was the ending. Generic of romantic drama, the male protagonist sweeps the female off her feet and they live happily ever after. However, Oliver and Jordana are completely void of convention. They are a countertype. Oliver runs towards her, desperate, she stares back at him blankly. "I was crying earlier, my eyes are probably red" he remarks, probably looking for sympathy "You look fine." she replied sharply, still holding the same blank expression. "Well maybe they don't go red when I cry then." At this point in your typical romantic film, Oliver would have picked Jordana up in an intense embrace and the camera would be whirling around them and craning out into a beautiful longshot fading into the credits. Instead, they continue the abrupt exchange of words, Jordana replying sharply. Jordana is a strong female role, she does not need Oliver to be happy, and this is why I enjoy her character so much. This adds depth to Jordana as she does not appear in the narrative only in respect to the male role. She does not represent what she can do for a man. She is not subject to the male gaze. In fact, she creates her own happiness. This is, indeed, a refreshing and inspiring female role.

They then share an intense stare and then step by step, they walk out into the ocean together. Like a metaphor for washing away their past mistakes and beginning again. The ending is left open, however for me, semiotics would indicate that they start anew. Oliver's turmoil is over and we have reached a new Equilibrium. Yes, this aspect may be generic, but what would a coming-of-age film be without an uplifting ending?

  

Overall, I can barely fault this film as it is one I hold dearly as a true favourite and I had no idea Moss from the IT Crowd had it in him. Five stars.

Contemporary Issues: Creation of the Wikia Page

A couple of weeks ago, we were assigned to read seperate texts. I was part of a group that was assigned Marshall Mcluhan's "The Medium Is The Massage". We were given the task of answering why McLuhan used the word "Massage" in place of "Message" in the quote "The Medium Is The Message"... We will base our Wikia on answering this question and also learn more about the book and the author upon doing so.

FOLLOW LINK TO VIEW WIKIA:
The Medium Is The Massage - Group A, Assignment

Production: In The Editing Suite

People On The Move: On The Set

For the beginnings of our "People On The Move" production project, I have been mainly working behind the camera, practising techniques such as panning, zooming, and trying to achieve aesthetically pleasing framing using techniques previously taught in digital media class.

Creativity & Concept: 3 Documentaries Promoting Liverpool Culture

Concept extraction

3 Short ideas

Creativity & Concept

Splitting Concept And Ideas

Other Images Captured For "Digital Media Tools"

Creativity & Concept Module Task

Coming from Northern Ireland, I have never had the opportunity to visit Liverpool museums and art exhibitions. Our task this week was to visit a Liverpool 2012 Biennial Arts Festival building with this years theme of "Hospitality". We were assigned to visit the Unexpected Guest exhibition. During our exploration of the gallery, we found a vast amount of weird and wonderful artwork. However, I found 2 exhibitions brilliantly memorable. One featured plants picked from the sites of mass bombings. The message was that new life springs from death. The second, a video clip taken in china, screening on a white sheet of a drunken man staggering and falling in the middle of the street, with great danger of being run over. He falls down and lies in the road for nearly 6 minutes before he is assisted. This is a poignant video as it prompts you to question humanity.
Overall, I found the task incredibly interesting. Coming from an Art A-level, I understand that art can be a strange thing when left unexplained, but it can be thought-provoking and brilliant when given the time.

Digital Media Tools Assignment

Our first assignment for our Digital Media module was to photograph usually unnoticed beauty whilst incorporating rules of composition such as the rule of thirds, lines and patterns, cropping and colour.  I chose to photograph this scene because, to me, the patterns that light makes is something usually unnoticed but I find the way it breaks up the symmetry of the scene by adding unusual beams and patterns quite interesting, as well as the biennial posters which add a cultural indication.