Magic Show

My daughter Emma Louise is a Castaway member. We were asked to produce an article for the newsletter about a magic show she attended at Junction Goole. She had this photo taken on her phone after the show:

The quality is not very good but it’s all there is! I designed a page in Scribus to include the photo and a label. We recorded an audio interview which I edited with Audacity. The results were combined using Microsoft Photostory 3. It was approved for inclusion in the newsletter. Emma Louise was delighted with the finished article.

St Davids Pantomime Visit

St Davids Court is a sheltered housing complex in Goole where some of the Castaway members live. They had a day out in Hull which included a visit to the New Theatre to see Aladdin. I was asked to produce an article about this using video interview. This was to be done immediately using whoever was available.

Anna, Karen, Shaun and Carl were available. We decided which topics would be covered before we started filming. I filmed them as a group then individually using a Kodak Flip camera.

I edited the resulting 5 files using Windows Movie Maker. There is a lot of jump cutting. This is normally done to break up the flow but the reverse is true in this case. I have removed excessive pauses, prompting, stutering, etc. This gives a much better flow. Everyone was happy with the finished film.

Goldcrest Leisure Facilities

Goldcrest House is a residential care home in Goole where some of the Castaway members live. Some new leisure facilities have recently been opened there. I was asked to do a feature for the newsletter about them.

I was supplied with ten photos. Two residents (Mark C and Mark G) were available for interview. We decided the topiics to be covered before doing the interview. I edited the interview using Audacity to remove excessive pauses, etc. My voice is not in the finished version.

I made a photo story using Microsoft Photostory 3. The order and duration for each photo was determined by the commentary – hence the variable lengths. There were a few photos that were similar (Mark C using the punch bag). I used them in quick succession when Mark said he used the punch bag often. I was also able to use bits of photos (eg the head shots when they introduce themselves). This makes it look like there are more than ten photos.

I made a title page in the same format as the others. Everyone was pleased with the final result although Mark G queried why Mark C was listed above him in the title (alphabetic order).

Additional Items For Newsletter

The completed newsletter was delivered on the agreed deadline day. The client liked the style but asked if further items could be included if the deadline was extended. The media team were given photographs for a further five stories. These were Castaway Sing, Sing for your life, Christmas show, Eastrington Panto and New Projects. We were provided with some scripts for these stories. One session was spent recording members of the class reading these. In addition there were some unscripted recordings (Anna for North Lincs Short Breaks, John for Young Bands and Donna for Sing For Your Life). I did the sound editing the next day using Audacity. Another day was spent adding the photos. I did a title page for each story in a consistent style. The result was an extra four and a half minutes of video.

The Christmas Show had one long photo of the cast and 21 seconds of audio. I panned across the picture for the duration so everybody was seen.

Castaway Sing had performed at four events. There was a photo from each event and one extra. The story was driven by the audio. I used the extra photo and extracts from the others for short durations at the start where the commentary says they have been out and about. I include a picture with water towers in the background like Michelangelo Antonioni did in L’Eclisse.

This was followed by the full photo for each event for the duration of its commentary.

Eastrington Panto had three photos. The durations were determined by the commentary.

Sing For Your Life had five photos which I extended by cutting them up. I used panning to give a good view of the collection of djembe (African drums). The picture sequence was determined by the audio commentary.

New Projects was the most difficult. For the North Lincs Short Breaks I had three photos (two of them were very similar) and one minute ten seconds audio. I put the two similar photos together – one was sharp and the other slightly blurred. I noticed that the default transition (dissolve) gave an illusion of movement. After experimenting with picture duration and transition duration I alternated each photo every five seconds using a transition of five seconds.

I used all the photos that I was given.

Work Placement – Castaway Goole

I have been working for Castaway Goole on Mondays. They are a musical theatre group for adults with physical and/or learning disabilities.
I have been assisting their media team produce a newsletter three times a year for dstribution via DVD and Youtube. It is distributed via DVD because many of the intended audience do not have internet access. The intended audience is family, friends and other similar groups.
I have been helping with the following:

filming
interviewing
audio editing
film editing

The second newsletter has just been finished on time and to the satisfaction of the customer. I have had involvement with nine of the stories. Further details of these can be found in other posts in NWRL category.
A one day training course in filming techniques and editing with Final Cut was provided by professional film makers. They were shown the film of the visit to see Aladdin at Hull New Theatre. They thought it worked well as a narrative but gave tips on framing (rule of thirds, dead space, etc).
As a result we have decided to have the interviewee looking towards the dead space if we are keeping the interviewr’s voice. Otherwise the interviewee will address the camera. They also suggested using cutaways to hide the jump edits. We intend to do all future editing using Final Cut.
For the next newsletter due in May we hope to have a greater ammount of video content. This obviously depends on footage being available. We will continue to use still photos and audio recordings. The audio quality in video footage will be improved by using clip on microphones for interviews and making a separate audio recording for performances. Obviously we will need to learn how to sync audio and video. We would like to include a sequece with someone talking to the camera while another sequence of film plys on the wall behind them (like the tv news studio).

Critical Studies Module CDCCS – What I have gained from this project

I first read the story about the end of the Thomas Cook overseas timetable in The Independent newspaper. I was later able to find the article on their website. I did not know much about the timetable but I did know it had a good reputation. The aim of the project was to find the reason why the timetable was to be published no more. Was it because of technological advances or was it for other reasons?

I looked for the answer online using Google. The story was too recent to be in a book in the library! I looked for information about what the timetable is, when it is published and since when. I found this information on Thomas Cook’s site and also Amazon. I looked for customer quotes about the timetable. They all seemed positive. An interview with the editor told the reason for the timetable’s demise – he was retiring and not being replaced. There seemed to be a consensus that it would be missed. I also investigated possible replacements. I collected relevant information in a word file. It was combined and condensed over several iterations. This is how the timetable was produced and is the technique I would use to research and create the contents of a leaflet professionally.

In general I get most of my research information online. I use newspapers and magazines as well. I find something of interest and do further investigation online. Images are taken from online sources. Video clips come from Youtube. In a professional job images, sound and video would need to be provided by the client or myself. I have the skills to do this. Otherwise permission would need to be obtained from the copyright holder.

I wanted to use web pages as an image. I converted the web page to PDF. This sometimes produced a multi page document which I imported into Scribus. Each page was exported as a JPEG. They were reassembled into a single image in Gimp.

The pages layout of the leaflet was done in Scribus. The colour scheme was influenced by the timetable itself. Finally it was exported as a PDF.

In short this project has demonstrated that I have the necessary skills – research, image manipulation and page layout to produce a professional quality document.

I use online tutorials to learn new skills. It seems to work well. I prefer using an online manual where a search will find the relevant section rather than searching through a large book. I search for an answer online when the current task is beyond my current skills.

Music Video Module Code CDCFP

I have made a music video. This consists of a new piece of music which has been added to the otherwise unchanged Pascal’s Triangle video submitted earlier for the Moving Image module.
Here is the music without drums

Here is the music added to the drum track

Here is the finished video complete with music on Youtube:

See also the following blog posts:
Musical Inspiration
Construction of Music For Pascals Triangle
Skills evaluation

The following three word files were used to produce the factsheet Major Scales and Chords:

Scales and Chords

Scales and Chords 2

Scales and Chords 3