This lesson really cleared up a few grey areas that I had regarding shading from last year. The lesson started by telling me how to arrange my interface by hiding all U.I elements and then by using the hotbox, selecting the hypershade view. From the hotbox I could also get to the attribute editor as well.
With the hypershade open I familiarized myself with the create bar (for creating any rendering nodes), the hypershade tabs (listing all nodes in the current scene) and the work area (that allows you to look more closely and alter any part of the shading network's graph. I then began to create shading networks for the various objects in the room. I created a new lambert node and applied the appropriate colour and incandescence, named it sky and then applied it to the dome. I did similar procedures for other objects in the room as well as say adding textures to the ground. I then added texture maps to other elements of the room by loading file texture nodes to shading networks and then assigning them.
For my third bit of crewing I helped my friend Dave out with his sound design. He said he wanted something nice and upbeat to go along with a skater reminiscing about a time he skated. The sun is out and there's a smile on his face. Seeing as we had to use royalty free music and dave said he wanted something akin to an ITV1 ident with well composed music, I thought I'd go straight to garage band. After sifting though plenty of loops I came across a bunch that had a nice shuffle and a jazzy feel.
My second bit of crewing was pretty similar to the first; I was an extra pair of hands. Here I help set up the green screen, tape down the tarpaulin and mix the custard. Yeah that was the fun part! This shoot involved one of our classmates being covered in watered down custard, with black food dye in it; intending to look like oil. Mixing over a dozen tins of custard was worth it for the smell alone.
After I did the rough cut I chopped away all but what I knew was really nice. This left something that was pretty close to the final cut. The final cut will be this cut edited a little more + sound + effects + stabilization.
N.B the better cut finishes after about a minute. Everything else are the bits and bobs left over that I want to leave there just in case I feel like considering them for the final cut.
This video's a perfect example of what can be done with minimal kit but good ideas. A friend of mine (who's definately worth following at jayhawleyphotography.blogspot.com) sat me down and told me to "just pay close attention". This music video can't have cost too much to make, and what's more it manages to incorporate a highly engaging story instead of just being a series of consecutive pretty images set to music. The director Saman Keshavarz hasn't done much else, his only other video on his Vimeo account is an advert by him, but I can imagine seeing a lot more of him, what with the amount of views the above video has!
I saw a trailer for this film a couple of months back and at the time I thought it would be the best psychedelic roller-coaster since Fear and Loathing. Oh how wrong I was. This film stunk like a humid Pacific island plastered in cat food. I can also say that it was a very educating experience and I'm thoroughly glad I saw it...
You know when you see a trailer for a movie and you think "yeah that looks great" and you usually don't really know what the film's about in its entirety but nevertheless some clever dude as done a great job of pasting together all the cool bits to create an in your face incomprehensible taster. Now try and imagine that trailer being 90 minutes long.
The formula is great when you think about it, a modern take on Alice in Wonderland, set in London with loads of English actors giving a gritty angle to the classic characters. Plus the entire movie looks wonderful. Full of arty angles and interesting shots complete with some lovely colour grading. Unfortunately the entire film makes so many basic errors all of the above is irrelevant. Everything happens far too quickly with so many events happening within minutes of each other. Therefore there is no tension, no suspense, no release of tension. One just goes from one incomprehensible run in with a bizarre character to another. Secondly (and this is exacerbated by the rushed nature) one doesn't really know what's going on! The script is so all over the place and in places confusingly poetic that the story you're meant to be following goes way over your head! Finally the actors in it are all pretty dire-one of them being Danny Dyer-apart from a little help from Paul Kaye and Matt King, whom we see very little of.
And so the whole thing just felt like a long trailer very pretty but I had no idea what happened. Yet thanks to this film I've been shown exactly how not to make a film. In my short time learning this craft I have learnt one thing in particular and that's the fact that making films is more about not messing things up rather than showing off. It's a bit like grammar; you only notice it when it's done badly.
I recommend any budding filmmaker see as many rubbish films as they possibly can!
This lesson really cleared up a few grey areas that I had regarding shading from last year. The lesson started by telling me how to arrange my interface by hiding all U.I elements and then by using the hotbox, selecting the hypershade view. From the hotbox I could also get to the attribute editor as well. 
