A Mindmap

I did a little mindmap for preparation for my essay. Here it is.

Scanned notes

Here are some notes I made on Marshall McLuhan's "Medium is Massage" .

All doable

I'm all for the all-singing-all-dancing-high-budget music video because they are usually quite good. Still they seem so advanced and high end that I guess I end up dismissing them as being "a long way off"-which they are-and thus aren't very inspirational.

When I see a video like the one below though it's a different story. You see the level of technical knowledge required for such a video (which is really the only barrier between the artist's creativity and the end product) is so relatively basic, that I can understand to a greater extent how the video was made. More importantly though it is also a great deal of encouragement to the amateur film maker as this shows the kind of high quality work that can be done with basic experience. In many ways I prefer this simple approach to music promos as I feel it fulfills all the requirements of a promo whilst having that edge of not be too "tryhard".

Music; no, Art; yes,

The more my entrance to the real world of work looms the more I am reminded of the fact that

I'm going to have to kiss many a behind and do a great deal of dull work for clients I neither like nor respect. Then I considered videos such as those below...

The music for the videos below are a cancer. They are not music they are a marketing team disguised as a bunch of monotonous jingles. However when it comes to music promos, I do not feel guilty in saying that I adore every bit of the evil marketing team's method. You see this is one of those cases where I feel that one can separate a piece of work from its god awful initial purpose. Whilst there may be a team of culture-less apes responsible for the video's germination, at the end of the day there will always be room for a smoking hot production team to nurture and caress a music promo into a work of art in it's own right. In a slightly bizarre way, if I were to direct a video like those below, I'd imagine I'd get a kick just from the knowledge that I'd subverted the pop industry a fraction by actually making some form of creative effort.

What to ask the accountants.

Here is an outline of the sorts of questions one should ask the accountants courtesy of Accounting for Non-Accounting Students.

The companies act of 1985 now requires directors to show copies of the company's annual accounts, the directors' report and the auditors' report on those accounts. So that the accounts don't break the law the following questions are suggested.

* Can you assure that the accounts are prepared in accordance with the companies act of 1985?

* Has every applicable accounting standard been followed?

* What (if any) are the relevant stock exchange requirement that we need to follow?

* Are there requirements that could cause difficulty for our company?

* Do we have to follow any accounting standards on such issues?

* What sort of effect could it have on the result if we followed them?

* Is it possible to invoke the true and fair view override rule?

* Do you know what the auditors think?

* If the requirements are ignored are the likely to be investigated by the FRRP?

The Five Phases of Growth

Here are the five phases of growth as outlined by The Successful Entrepreneur's Guidebook.

1. Growth Through Creativity

The initial start up of the business is fueled by the founder's initial idea. If the idea has sufficient demand, i.e there is a large enough gap in the market or it beats its competitors then the business will grow. Of course as it grows, the organizational structure becomes more complex and thus requires leadership.

2. Growth Through Direction

Once the business is established then it requires a strong leader to make tough decisions about the company's priorities. A leader must be found in order to carry out phase three.

3. Growth Through Delegation

Once there is a strong leader and the company is moving in a steady and strong direction, there will come a point where to ensure efficient work, responsibility will have to be delegated to more people in the company. For the business that has trouble moving forward the issues usually lie with the leader's lack of trust and confidence in his employes which result in less delegation and the leader being ineffective at handling work that would be performed better by a larger group.

4. Growth Through Coordination

With the roles of the business delegated the business puts in place strategic planning to ensure accountability throughout the hierarchy. Various systems and policies are developed to regulate the actions of managers at all levels and communication all throughout the business is vital.

5. Growth Through Collaboration

Finally if possible where there are production lines, create teams. This results in a groups of people being responsible for the whole major portion of a task as opposed to having individuals responsible for small and seemingly meaningless stages of the process. People are now naturally encouraged to generate solutions rather than passing problems down the line.

A good experiment

The Holy Chicken of Life & Music from NOMINT on Vimeo.

I know I've bitched about experimental films before but this is an exception. Or maybe it isn't. You see my problem with experimental film is still just as present in this film as is it is in any other; it's meaning is so hidden/non existent that-to the viewer-the creative decisions behind its making are basically arbitrary and therefore unskilled. However this film is different in that it contains a great deal of objective appeal; it is good quality. The animation and art direction in it are top notch, the characters are well drawn and I especially like the sharp cut out vibe. This I feel provides good objective quality as a backbone for any experimentation in that that because the makers have hooked my interest with quality in other departments it means that I am ready to give the film's more testing aspects a look over.

DJ Derek

DJ Derek pt. 2 from Grand Finale on Vimeo.

Came across this today. It's major appeal is obvious; the subject matter is both interesting and heart warming. Everyone loves a friendly old man and everyone's intrigued by an anomaly. I think that this concept of a successful odd one out is present in many popular films like; Babe, Cool Runnings and Ali G in Da House. Also though I really like how it's shot, it doesn't feel like one's standard documentary style documentary that, let's face it, has no style. There has been some nice colour grading to make it feel warm and fitting with the subject matter and some nice cinematography that's a little more than just documentary style.

U.V mapped and Textured

To create a good U.V map I planar mapped my model. To do this I separated the components and then projected a planar map from all necessary angles. I then opened the maps in photoshop and imported over the top them some nice textures that I found online. I then went back into maya and then component by component applied the corresponding map to each area of my model.

Bad Normals

After texturing and more importantly a little editing of my Maya model I imported it and realised that from one side one of the walls wasn't on show. This was because the normals weren't the right way round. I went back into Maya and after going back and forth a little bit I managed to get the right faces and reverse the correct normals.

Costings

Here is a list of the various costs of producing the video we have planned

Equipment Hire Costs according to the company Decode.

4 lights, 800w redheads & stands; £32 for the day.

1 middle range camera (Sony HVR Z1E) with standard lens; £100 for the day.

1 tripod, slider moy unit; £125

1 microphone, sennheiser 416P kit, gun mic, basket suspension system, boom pole, fluffy and XLR leads; £15

I haven't included the greenscreen in the cost as I have heard from many places that it's best to simply buy some good green fabric.

The grand total for equipment hire would be £272 for one day. Seeing as we now plan on filming on a tuesday and then the following thursday, at the very least our production would cost £816. The other costs to be taken into account are if you like "the variables" which are all props and their cost will of course vary on whether or not any of the cast and crew or acquaintances of them have said items.

Basic Accounting

As I plan on working freelance, eventually running my own film production company I will need to have some knowledge of accounting or more likely some knowledge of how to deal with the accountants I've hired.

According to "Accounting for Non-Accounting Students" here are the best questions to ask once you've hired an/some accountant(s).

1. Are you (or how many of you) are 'qualified' and what are your respective professional accountancy bodies?

2. How is the accounting function organized?

3. What can the accountants do to help me do my job more effectively and efficiently?

4. What information do the accountants want me to give to them, when is it wanted and in what form?

5. What is the information to be used for?

6. What information are they going to give back to me?

7. What am I supposed to do with it?

8. How can the rest of the team work best with the accountants?

Me and my crystal ball

For our creative industries module we have been asked to write a report on how we plan on advancing our enterprise. This will consist of outlining basically three elements;

Where I am at the moment,

Where I want to be in ten or so years,

How I propose to get there.

Right now I have a basic understanding of Maya, After Effects, Photoshop and Final Cut and feel that I am currently most capable of making music videos. This probably has something to do with my interest in music and my habit or ability to blend my senses when experiencing audio or visual stimuli, i.e music and video are to me inseparable. All my favorite films have good soundtracks and all my favorite songs conjure up the nicest most vivid images.

In ten years or so I would love to be directing music videos professionally. I am well aware that there is not initially a lot of money in them, however from the information i've gathered so far from those in the industry I feel I have an idea as to how to go about it.

Firstly I know full well that to succeed in many industries it is all about who you know. So one hard and fast rule I plan on sticking by is to simply get out of the house. I'm not a gamer and don't plan to be and thus have very little reason to stay inside when not working or socializing. The concept of work hard play hard is very wise, one should just make sure that a balance is struck. In order to network better I think the best job I could get would be running on film sets. This is a great way to meet lots of people and it gets you used to the industry environment. I already have a few friends who work in the industry so I'm sure they would be happy to lend some advice. I also plan on purchasing a decent and affordable camera just so I can do any bit of freelance work that pops up. Even now my friends are asking me to little filming and editing jobs for them.

Here is someone who I feel serves as a good model to aim for. Spike Jonze is one of the world's biggest music video directors. He started out making cheap skate videos though! Something I'd love to do myself.

How to make a return

In order to for a business to succeed it needs to make a satisfactory return on any money initially invested in it, be it by those running it or other investors.

The Successful Entrepreneur's Guidbook by Colin Barrow, Robert Brown and Liz Clarke outlines

four objectives to this.

1. The company should make enough profit to let the company grow. For a business to expand its sales it must acquire more and more working capital and eventually more space. This expansion is best achieved through internally generated profits known as reserves.

2. The return should be substantial enough to attract new investors or lenders.

3. The return should provide enough reserves to keep the real capital intact. In order to make a large enough sum of money to maintain the capital one must make sure that inflation is taken into account. If a business retains enough profits each year to meet a 3% growth when inflation is 4% then it is in fact contracting by 1% every year.

4. If your business has shareholders you must make sure they are getting a good return. If the business is speculative and the profits are less than bank interest rates, then your shareholders won't be pleased.

Planar U.V mapping and textures

To create U.V maps for my model I used a simple planar mapping technique for everything. I separated all the elements of the model and then projected the maps from all angles. In photoshop I then opened the U.V maps and edited my textures. For this i simply searched the web for good wall and floor and textures and imported them to photoshop.

The Organisation

I just thought I'd blog about a few organizational bits.

Firstly we've divided ourselves up for this project as follows.

Me: Director/Producer & D.P

Because I like writing, storyboarding and working with cameras.

Steve: Production Designer & Editor

Because he's always good with drawing and I have previously worked well with him as my editor.

Chris: VFX & 1st A.D

Because he's exceptionally good at Maya and After Effects.

We've got a pretty simple schedule. The filming will be divided into two parts.

Firstly the green screen footage with our news anchor actor can be shot in a few hours, provisionally on monday 15th March between 4 and 6.

Secondly the city centre footage can be shot in an afternoon from 12.30 when the light starts deteriorating at around 5. We should be able to shoot provisionally on Thursday 10th March.

Props & costume needed:

Jacket shirt and tie for news anchor: potentially supplied by actor.

Jacket shirt and tie for reporter: potentially supplied by classmate.

Retro shell suit or suitable blue substitute: no sources yet, blue morphsuit as substitute.

Blue facepaint and hair-dye: obtainable from Argos.

Microphone: borrow from A.V department.

Three pairs of glasses, preferably thick rimmed: I have one pair, need other two.

First Import

Here's a first import of my Maya model. The first thing that I saw needed to be done was for the history to be deleted as that initially resulted in some bizarre and unwanted shininess on the model. I also realised that I should probably put a wall around the remaining open perimeter of my model so that the player character can't get out.

Fewer Polygons

So that unity can handle the Maya model that so far I have only intended to be used as concept art, I need to lower the poly count. this is a simple enough task of going through and selecting all the edges that don't contribute to shaping the overall geometry and then deleting them.