Wednesday 26th October 2011 / Wednesday 2nd November 2011

On both these days I edited the music video using Final Cut Pro. I had to chop up three different files of footage, whilst making sure they flowed well throughout the video and also making sure that the cuts sat well with the different lyrics during the song. The only bit of footage that I didn't fill was a brief 30second period during the clip where I aim to put footage of children or something along those lines in just to break it up a bit and make the clip have a bit more atmosphere / appeal. I also added in an Album cover to the beginning of the clip as well as make scrolling text credits at the end on the video.

Wednesday 19th October 2011

Today we filmed the music video in the photography studio. We set up 3 cameras. One camera was set on a wide mid shot which we centered using the HD camera. The other two camera's we setup either side of the room and angled them in towards Jess and Oliver across them. We only needed 20mins to set up thanks to the help from Cam, Damo, Sarah and Taylah. Once we were setup we started shooting. We got what we needed in the first take which was great. Overall it was a successful shoot and hopefully the footage will look good once on the computer. Next week I plan to start editing the clip.

Wednesday 12th October 2011

First lesson back for term 4 we worked on out tutorials. Taylah and myself also organised our filming schedule for our music video. We planned to film the clip in the photography studio using 3 cameras. We aimed to make the photography studio look like a recording studio by setting up a microphone. If all goes according to plan then we should be able to film next week in class.

Wednesday 14th September 2011

Today I was absent from class due to my involvement in "Showtime 2011" state school spectacular.

"Wow, where do I begin? Being part of such a professional production like Showtime 2011 was fantastic. The opportunity to work with so many different industry professionals was invaluable; including lighting, sound, cast movement, etc. The hours were very long, but very rewarding. I see it as a great opportunity for anyone pursuing a career in the industry whilst still at school. Throughout the week at Hisense Arena, I was blown away by the professionalism of all those involved with the production, not only the amazing cast and orchestra but the phenomenal crew working backstage. Participating in the State School Spectacular re-inforced my belief that my dream of becoming an Events Manager in the future is real and achievable! I met some wonderful people, many of whom no doubt, I will have long-term friendships with. I look forward to other experiences such as this in the near future and I cant wait to get involved in the State School Spectacular in 2012." 

Wednesday 7th September 2011

Today I was on day 2 of work placement at PRG (production resource group) http://www.prg.com/ in Dandgenong. I working with the lighting rigging crew to make looms for the several lighting trusses needed for the state school spectacular next week at Hisense Arena. I had to run out hundreds of meters worth of cable and then loom them together using electrical tape. Then I had to tag and label each loom at both ends with specifically coloured tape so that the crew next week will know exactly where the cable needs to go and which lighting truss it belongs to. I then put the looms into specific road-cases ready to be put on the truck on friday. It was a great experience to learn what goes into preparing for a production as big as the state school spectacular. Everyone at PRG were really nice and taught me heaps about different aspects of production that I had not have had experience in. Hopefully I will work alongside some of the crew from PRG during bump in for School Spec next week.

Wednesday 31st August 2011

Today we recorded Jess' song in the studio for the music video. Seeing that it was only vocals and acoustic guitar that we had to record, it didn't take us long to set up the studio and start recording. Firstly i set up a KSM27 on a mic stand with a pop filter on the front of it. I plugged this mic into channel 1 on the desk. Then I set up a SM57 on a stand positioned around 5 inches from the sound hole of Olivers guitar. I then ran a channel through the DI and into the guitar. Jess (vocals) and Oliver (guitar) both did a few run throughs so that we could get an understanding for different levels of the mics and also to see where the peaks in the track were so our levels matched accordingly to that. Once all the levels were correct Taylah and myself were able to start recording. We only needed to record the track twice which was really good. Jess sang really well into the mic which made it easier to get clarity within the track. Oliver originally had his guitar set on half volume and the signal strength wasn't very strong so we boosted it to full to help balance the vocals and guitar before recording, much like what you would do for a live performance, however this brought us peaks on the guitar signal so we once again brought olivers guitar back to half level volume and then adjusted the vocal signal accordingly. The only hard thing about recording Jess' song was that it had low and high parts which made balancing the track difficult. Overall I believe the track turned out reasonably well. The vocal signal was good considering it was a live recording with the acoustic guitar. If I wanted to produce a better quality track then I probably should have recording the vocals and acoustic guitar separately at different times so that I could then get a better overall mix.

Wednesday 17th August 2011

Today we finished off our international promos. We then filmed some footage for a music class. Our groups theme was the word "calm". So we filmed a few different things at school such as trees blowing in the wind. We then went online and found some images of young children playing and smiling. We used this to create our short clip for inspiration for the music students. We used soundtrack pro to create an acoustic track that we could use to help edit our clip. However once the editing is completed we will remove the song track so that the music students can use the footage to help inspirer them to compose their own music. Tomorrow we will head to north brighton to attend sessions at the 2011 Bayside Film Festival.

Wednesday 3rd August 2011

The majority of todays lesson was spent editing our international student promo videos. Rob was away on ski camp so we had a sub. This made some editing tasks hard because I wasn't able to ask rob questions. However, with the help from my classmates, i managed to work through the problems I came across. The biggest task this lesson was not only finding the right footage for what the interviewee was saying but adjusting the sound levels in relation to the music and the talking. This was hard because the sound quality in the interview was crap to be honest. The good thing is that next week i will only need to add in a few titles and I will be finished :)

Wednesday 27th July 2011

Last week we started a new activity to help promote the international program at the school through creating a short video showing of Sandringham College's qualities. I made good progress last week working out what parts of the interview I wanted to use in my video. I found it hard to find the right additional footage. I wrote out notes on what i wanted my final video to look like and as to what I needed to do this week in order to complete me video. 

Wednesday 1st June 2011

Today I handed in my industrial assignment. However I didn't find the answers to a couple of questions so the class talked to Rob about different issues they had. Then I completed my assignment and handed it in. 

We then worked on making sure all our work was complete. 

- CHAPTER QUESTIONS (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 9, 10, 15, 17)

- Production Journal Blog (incl excursion report)

- Notes from guest speaker (Bond University) 

- OHS Certificate

- Editing Tasks (School Policy, Blue Screen)

Because I was up to date with everything I checked out the video footage which myself and Cameron filmed on Monday night for the "Yr 11 Group Music Performance" in the theatre. The sound quality was really good and the vision was good also. Congrats must go to Cam for the vision switching and for his directions as to what and when to zoom in etc. I learnt heaps from filming the event. To be honest it was much like doing follow spot for a show which made it easier for me to pick up the skill. 

I look forward to filming Winterdance with Cam next tuesday evening. 

Wednesday 25th May 2011

At the beginning of today's lesson, we went over the chapter questions as a group and discussed why we had the answers we had etc.
We then went onto our individual computers and started to edit our blue screen music videos. At first I had quite a bit of trouble in learning how to remove the blue background from the vision but with the help of Rob and Bethany I soon worked out how to do it. I then looked on google for some background images that I could incorporate into my video. I then started by trying to sync the music track to the vision which isnt the easiest task. It takes up a lot of teadious time and a lot of back tracking to get it right but in the end i someone got it almost perfect. I then worked on adding the background images aswell as a few different graphics. I believe I was successful in editing my music clip and it has definatly taught me different techniques that I can use in the making of future videos.

Wednesday 18th May 2011

Today we filmed our blue screen lip-sync music videos.
I did a Spice Girls song with Dylan, Sarah, Taylah and Bethany. It was a really fun media exercise because not many of us were taking it seriously so it was a lot of mucking around as im sure youll see once I edit the video next week. All in all it was a casual lesson but we still learnt a fair amount of stuff about filming whilst in front of a blue/green screen.
NOTE: dont wear anything that is the same colour as the background :P hehehehe

Wednesday 11th May 2011

In class today, I spent the majority of the time working on editing my school internet policy video. I was using Final Cut Pro to edit my video. It took me longer then I expected to edit my video because i am still learning on how to use the program. I focused mainly on making sure the transitions between the different shots was correct and that it wasn't jumping.

Tuesday 10th April 2011

On Tuesday we had an excursion to fed square. We were going to ACMI to see the VCE Season of Excellence 2011 Top Screen.

I caught the train into the city with Taylah and a few others that were going on the art excursion. We arrived at flinders street station at around 9am. We then went across to fed square to meet Rob and the rest of the class. We then headed into ACMI at around 9.15am and took to our seats in the cinema and waited for the VCE Media Films to start at 9.30am.

The first film 'Sunshower' was directed and created by a girl named Molly George from Ringwood Secondary College. Molly used a photo album as her focus point and used animatiated images/drawings as well as photos and film to tell her story. What I really liked about her film was the imaginative way she created it and especially the way the music lyrics depicted what was on the screen.

'Free Parking' made by Issac Brown of Northcote High School was a fun comedy about a group of friends who decided to be rebellious and park their cars in random places such as in a police vechiles only zone and on footpaths. It looked like a film that the cast/crew would have had a lot of fun making.

'Rally' was a short documentary that looked at the history of rallying and the technology of a modern day rally car. Its creator (Ashley Davies) obviously had a very strong passion for rallying because his level of knowledge was impeccable. Myself as the viewer, could definatly see the time and effort that went into creating the documentary, because the editing of the film was of a very high standard. Another thing I liked was the personality that the speaker brought to the film. Because of the comedic/informative presentation, it  allowed even people who may not have been to keen or interested the sport of rallying enjoy the documentary. The documentary had a clear storyline which I liked because I didn't need to try to think to much about what was going on, which allowed me to just enjoy it for what it was.

'Sock Doc' by James Vinson  of Scotch College and 'Untitled Screenplay' by Darius Family of Mount Waverley Secondary College were both great comedies. They were a great way to finish the VCE Season of Excellence 2011.

All in all, it was a very worthwhile excursion. I defiantly walked away from it with some ideas of my own that I hope to pursue in the future. Thanks to Rob for organising it aswell.

Wednesday 27th April 2011

Today we continued to work on filming our short films on a school policy (internet policy).

I feel that my group (Taylah and Cameron) worked well together to get what we needed filmed within the time we had.

The main reason why I believe we got our footage shot was because we knew exactly what we needed to film and exactly where we were going to film it.

Another thing that made our shoot successful was that we used an amateur steady-cam instead of a tripod which made our shoot quicker and more sufficient. We also used a dolly as part of our shoot which i believe turned out reasonably successfully.

All in all it was a good day of shooting :)

Wednesday 6th April 2011

Today, we had a teacher from Sandringham College - Junior Campus come and talk to us about his work in the australian film and t.v industry. He spoke off different shows and movies he has worked on. He said that he did a lot of under water camera operating. He showed us lots of photos of a man-made under water cave that was made out of foam in a big tank/pool, which was really cool. I found his work history in the film/t.v industry very informative because it opened my eyes up to different elements of film/t.v production. It was a good insight into the industry that I may one day work in.

Wednesday 30th March 2011

Today we had a man from Bond University come speak to us.
He told us about the annual movie/video competition that Bond University run. The grand prize is a schooliship to Bond University's film school valued at nearly $80, 000.  He then showed us some short films. the first one was made by a 1st year university student I believe.

Wednesday 23rd March

In class today we did four different things;
- We read over chapter 3, 4 and 5 questions as a class
- then we continued to make our tutorial surf promo on final cut pro
- next we watched the mystery object videos
- finally we started to plan a video based on a school policy, cameron, taylah and myself decided to chose the internet policy. We storyboarded our 30second video and then shot the first few parts of our video.

Wednesday 9th March 2011

Today Rob was away so he left us some work to do.
First we had to start research on a career within the media industry.
Then in the second part of the lesson we were to start editing our videos , however we couldnt find our tape and then when we did find it two members of our group wernt there so we made to decision to upload the tape and edit our mystery objects video next lesson.

Wednesday 2nd March 2011

Today,

We were in the theatre because there was a presentation for students from different school entering the bayside film festival 2011.

Our Media class was going to be running the sound, lighting and vision for the event. We were split into two groups. My group was to run the equipment for the first half of the event. I was given the job of lighting operator. It was pretty easy because I only had to move one control.
For the second part of the event, our group just watched and listened to the speakers. It was an easy lesson, not much work at all.

Wednesday 23rd February 2011

in this class,

We went over the homework questions from chapter 2 and then we went into the editing rooms and created our blog on blogger.com with the help of Damien.  It didn't take us long to have our blogs up and running...we then sent our url to rob via facebook so that he could view our blogs each week.

Next we learnt about how to use 'Final Cut Pro'. We watched a tutorial and then started to create a short surfing promo video based on what the tutorial was telling us to do........... it was a good intro into 'Final Cut Pro' because it showed us how to do most of the main things you need to know how do do in order to  create a video on 'Final Cut Pro' this year, from sound, footage, effects ect:

Wednesday 16th February 2011

Hello everyone,

This is my first blog for Yr 11 Sandringham Secondary College VET SCREEN. so yeah it probs will take me a while to get used to this thing so bare with me!!! thanks

Ok well, in class today we watched three different short films from the AFTRS. We also learnt about different camera techniques (Shadow Detail, Rule of Thirds, Use of Perspective, Mood/Pace) and other camera techniques to improve our knowledge about film. We then were given a small task of filming a mystery object using the use of depth of field.

Thats all for this week,

Nick