I went down to the Manchester Digital open day at the town hall this afternoon; meet some nice folk who gave some excellent advice which I thought I’d share with yoose.

• Online Portfolio; pretty much everyone I spoke to mentioned having an online portfolio. This is especially important in the digital/creative world as it helps prospective employers view your work in one place. EVERYTHING should be included (Music, films, animations, twitter, blogs etc). Carbonmade looks like an interesting site to start putting a portfolio together.
• It’s still a case of who you know; this again was a recurring theme amongst the people I spoke too. It’s definitely not too early to be thinking about contacting employers in preparation for life after Uni. Attending events like the one today are very necessary in building up contacts and networking.
• Work experience/Internships; the lady I spoke to from the BBC (and there was a hell of a queue to speak to them) said the best way to get in with them is to do some work experience with them. They get so many applications that If you’re known to them it gives you a better chance of employment further down the line. The Beeb have a dedicated website for work experience which you can view here.

It’s well worth signing up with Manchester Digital (It’s free if you’re a student) as they’ll keep you up to date with all the latest goings on.

Saturday night out; the taxi ride in to town was pretty special. There are a couple of glitches but you get the idea. If you ever use Olympic cabs be sure to ask for the disco taxi. If only all taxi drivers were like Dave.

A Photo A Day 2012

Dollar, dollar bill y’all.

Student fee’s are obviously a hot topic at the moment, the government recently sanctioned universities to charge up to £9000 per year for certain courses. How is this going to affect education?

Just before Christmas I was chatting to a young chap who was thinking about doing a sound/video course at Media City, he’d previously done a two-year course and had racked up £20,000 worth of debt in fee’s and living expenses. The course he was thinking about doing was for three years and cost £8000 per year. That’s £24,000 before you start with living expenses, let’s say another £16,000. That’s £40,000 for the three years, add-on the other £20,000 and that comes to a £60,000 before the age of 25. He was obviously a little hesitant about applying for the course..

£60,000 debt before you hit 25? A good percentage of people who go to university don’t really know what they want to do in later life (Indeed Uni plays a part in determining a students future path). Would you want to punt £60,000 on a course you weren’t totally sure about? In the current climate that obviously doesn’t guarantee you any sort of employment either.

I can imagine this also affecting the way students study. I’ve already heard some complaints along the lines of ‘I’ve paid three grand for this course, it’s not what I was expecting’. What’s going to happen when it’s £9000 per year? Students demanding the curriculum be taught a certain way? On the flip side it should make students think really carefully about what course they want to do.

The sort of figures involved will preclude a large majority of the population in going to university. So what’s the alternative?

Modern apprenticeships will become more and more popular for sure; join a company at 17, learn a trade, stay with them and work your way up the chain.

Another way could be to educate yourself with the aid of new technologies; ITunes U recently popped up on the app store, a service that allows you to download complete courses from learning centers around the world (courses from Stanford, Yale and Oxford are all available). I downloaded the course on iPad and iPhone app development from Stanford and it even comes with lecture slides, video’s and course materials.

I know that this isn’t the same experience as going to Uni but if you’re a young kid who’s a little unsure of what they want to do in the future, isn’t this a viable alternative? Buy an Ipad (other tablets are available), download the relevant subjects and consume them; especially if you want to get into an area such as apps or software development, you could learn the relevant skills and start building your own apps straight away.

One of the joys of going to university is the people you meet, the people you work with. You gain invaluable experience through meeting a wide range of folk that can only hope your future career; but it comes down to straight economics at the end of the day. Do you want £60,000 worth of debt or not?

This may be a bridge too far; obviously a lot would depend on the aptitude of the student. In these times of austerity, entrepreneurship is on the rise with many creative types returning to the old punk attitude of doing everything yourself. When the going gets tough, the tough get going. Finding a job in ANY sector is going to be a challenge.

The internet has changed the way we listen to music, watch TV/movies, do our shopping, read newspapers/books etc. Is it about to change education as well? The next 10 years will be very interesting..

‘The digital revolution of the last decade has unleashed creativity and talent in an unprecedented way, with unlimited opportunities.

But does democratized culture mean better art or is true talent instead drowned out? This is the question addressed by PressPausePlay, a documentary film containing interviews with some of the world’s most influential creators of the digital era’

Lots more over at PressPausePlay

I was watching ‘Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse’ the other night as we’d discussed it in class a couple of weeks ago and I’d not seen it for a while (if you haven’t seen it I’d throughly recommend it as it’s almost as epic as the film).

Just before the end credits roll the director Francis Ford Coppola tells us of his hopes for a new generation of film makers, with people who wouldn’t normally make movies using modern technology to do so. This was in 1979 and the new technology he’s talking about is the 8mm camera. Kind of fits in with everything we’ve been doing (We Think, Rufi etc).

I’m beginning to think that Rufi is a state of mind..

Best tweet award goes to Yuki:

@RufiFranzen: please tell me we aren’t going to get murdered. lol

Thanks once again to Heloukee & Huey

As we began the advanced multimedia part of our PSVT course, a few students received a very mysterious letter in the mail:

91211. What could this mean? There was some discussion amongst the group, with some people concerned with security as at least one letter had been delivered without a stamp. This died down a little as we got on with the very arduous task of student life.

A few weeks later a few emails were sent; Jonny, Paul, Aaron and myself received an email from Rufi Franzen via our Salford student accounts (10th Nov 2011):

Hi James, hi Paul,

Just wondering how Aaron S and Jonny D were using their rudimentary cognitive skills when not watching the video I sent them last Friday. You might want to ask them to check their mail.

Rufi

There was also a link to this video:

I thought this was a strangely worded email and remember watching the video & thinking it was some US self-improvement film. Although I was curious to find out who Mr Franzen was as he was emailing our Uni accounts, once again the thought drifted from my mind.

Then the tweeting began, first to Paul and myself. The first tweet was sent on Nov 11th, by our lecture on Friday 18th the whole class was preoccupied with one question: Who is Rufi Franzen? By now most members of the class had some interaction with RF, either via tweet or by comments being left on their blogs. It was at this point that our advanced multimedia tutor Helen became involved, and  much of that Friday’s session was spent collating the information we had so far. Eventually we got back to the task in hand, namely our short video assignment. I showed my video ‘If you go down to the woods’ to the group, went and sat down in my chair and immediately received this comment on my blog:

RF: Nice. There are signs everywhere when you look hard enough. I’d like to see more.

This was just getting weird. As the comment had come through so quickly, I began to think that RF was actually someone in the room. After chatting with Jonny we began to look a little suspiciously at Ben Shirley tapping away on his Ipad.

Soon after Helen emailed the group this info:

Hi all,

Thanks to you lot and your detective work (and getting me his email address I’ve just made contact with the mysterious Rufi Franzen.

Firstly, you’ll be relieved to know that you have nothing to worry about in terms of data security – there have been no breaches of security. I can’t say any more at the moment as I’ve been sworn to secrecy, so I need you to trust me on this.

What I do know is that this is going somewhere good – amazing in fact. I don’t know much more at this stage, and not sure I’m going to be told. Anyway, let’s chat about it tomorrow – remember the feedback session 3-5 in 3.34!

See you tomorrow. This is crazy – but ace.

In my mind this was the tipping point; Rufi Franzen went from being a curious little annoyance to just being plain curious. Who was he?

Then on November 20th Rufi posted again:

“You have a number.
You have a word.
You have some videos.
You don’t need the answers.
You just need to ask smart questions.
Crack the code.”

During the next week the hot topic was Rufi; The camp was split between people who were very much into the whole caper, and people who didn’t want to know (A viewpoint I can understand as everyone has their own stuff to be getting on with).

On the 25th Nov a countdown appeared on Rufi’s blog; It expired on 9/12/11 at 11am. We also received another riddle:

“There is a sweat spot between a pebble and a boulder, two worlds meet, in a ditch that hangs, on a day that awaits. Four squares, three corners, two wheels and one number. Send.”

Crack the code.

With one week to go we were all busy working away in Dave Tolan’s digital audio production class; Alicia, Rob and Lawrence showed me a smart mobile video they’d been working on entitled who is Rufi Franzen? When I came and sat back down In my chair I received this tweet from Rufi;

The interest in Rufi amongst the group reflected the interest people have in social media; There’s been an obvious split in students who love Twitter and social media and students who don’t see the worth in it. As the narrative developed, the students who have embraced the new media were the ones who drove the story further.

Every detail that went into Rufi was well thought out; The references to Charles Leadbetter, Steve Jobs & JJ Abrams through Rufi’s blog further tickled my curiosity; The google + profile with the now customary curious quotes:

It takes courage to be this good

Media inventor. I introduce the future to the present

The whole thing was done superbly well, I can imagine this going down fantastically well with students from all over the world (They would bloody love this in the US). It also got me thinking about the education side of all this.

Here’s a couple of short movies I’ve made this week, I’m not sure If I’ll proceed further with them but it’s given me a nice insight into making short film:

This is my first attempt at a very short film, it was recorded on Saturday during a game of racquetball. The device I used was an Ipod nano which has a little camera in it.
We tried the camera at various points around the court and found the best place was taped against the wall directly facing the players. It doesn’t make for the most interesting video (Maybe that’s why squash/racquetball isn’t really shown on television) but it’s certainly given me some ideas going forward with this assignment..

This is another (very) short film that kind of jumped out at me whilst walking through Chorlton water park this afternoon. I came across some rather strange signs that had printed onto paper and posted onto some trees. I rushed back home to pick up my camera quickly shot the footage.
As I say, the signs have nothing to do with me but it has sparked an idea that I could steal (remember talent borrows, genius steals from a few weeks back?). The music is actually the work of my fellow student Jonny Duddle, we are working on a radio documentary together and he’s kindly let me use his music for the film.

Sunday 20th November

During this Friday’s lecture I was able to show both my short films to the class (As I’m working on my own, this provided some valuable feedback). I first showed the footage of my film from the woods in Chorlton water park which garnered a favorable reaction amongst the group and also gave me a few ideas to take the project on further.
Monday 21st- Friday 25th November

Over the weekend I shot some new footage for my squash video (documented in this blog post). I also managed to shot some new footage for the ‘If you go down to the woods today’ video. During the week I started the process of editing the footage together; The squash video was an interesting experience as I purposely wanted to use new techniques in areas that I was not familiar with; In particular I wanted to use a split screen (The music signs flashing in time with the music). I managed to achieve this fairly quickly thanks to the huge number of tutorials available online.

I managed to get the squash music video uploaded to You tube on Monday, It received some favorable feedback from peers and colleagues alike. I then concentrated on editing together the ‘Woods’ video. I decided to add a story telling narrative to the film, and re-shot the scene using the 8mm iphone app (Full details of the shoot and edit on Wiki page)

During Friday’s advanced multimedia session I showed both films to Ben Shirley, who gave some interesting comment. For the ‘Squash music’ video he suggested editing some of the original footage I’d shot (Using the camera against the back wall) and getting the sound of the squash ball in sync with the music.

He also suggested using some extra sounds for the ‘If you go down to the woods’ video, namely using the sound of a heartbeat that speeds up as the scene develops and speeding up the footsteps as well. He also mentioned that it would add a further narrative to have a few cut away’s as the camera focuses on the label that you can’t really see. I’ll spend some time over the weekend getting these extra shots completed, and adding them into the video.

Monday 28th November- Friday 2nd December

I’ve spent some time re-editing my short films; I’ve added some heartbeat sound Fx’s to the ‘If you go down to the woods’ video. The heartbeat gets faster as the scene develops and I feel it works very well in adding further suspense to the piece. I also spent some time trying to edit the ‘Squash music’ video. Unfortunately the original squash footage that I’d shot couldn’t be re-sized in proportion with the new footage. I spent a little while trying to rejig the original footage but decided to stick with the film I’d already made.
By Thursday I was happy with my films and uploaded them to my Youtube channel; It was interesting comparing the footage I’d shot for my films, the ‘If you go down to the woods video’ certainly developed nicely from the first shoot. The use of the 8mm app gives the film a vintage quality and the use of sound effects and music now give it a scary narrative.
The squash video has also taken on a different tone that the first video shot, the inspiration taken from the Kasabian video helped me immensely and helped take the film in a different direction. I am also pleased that the project features my own music, my own video, and my own artwork (Made the music signs for the squash court).

Both films also now have QR code that link back to their respective Wiki pages.

The second part of my short film assignment concentrated on another area entirely and is an extension of the idea I’d stumbled across whilst walking through Chorlton water park. I’d initially come across a series of strange signs that were pinned up onto various trees and found that they could form the narrative to my second short film.

I filmed the scene’s on my Ipod nano and edited the project together in Adobe premiere pro CS5. I also added a music track to the scene, I am working on a radio documentary on aliens and UFO’s with a couple of students (Josh & Jonny). Jonny’s composed some music for the radio program that works perfectly over my filming (very space like and eerie) and he had no problem in allowing me to use his work.
The following Friday (18th) I showed the film to the class, this was invaluable to me as I am working the project on my own and it was good to get some constructive feedback. I explained the scenario to the group (That I had just stumbled across the scene, that there was nothing preordained). The feedback on the whole was positive, with some of the group comparing the footage to the Blair Witch project. Helen then suggested that I could use the film as a template and print out my own signs and tell my own narrative. This was something that struck me whilst filming the original scene, something I was certainly pondering on.
I ruminated on the this idea for a couple of days and decided to stick with the original plan; There’s a couple of reasons for this, I really liked the idea of using the signs that were already in place and adding my own narrative to the sequence. Also, whilst walking around another part of the water park, I’d found another scene that would fit into my film. I’d come across a small piece of digging that could easily be construed as a grave (I’m sure it’s all very innocent, there is a gas post a few metres away, I think it is related to that). Here’s a picture of the ‘grave’.

This then triggered an idea; I thought I could add a narrative to my story using the signs and the ‘grave’. This really appealed to me as I loved the idea of using the elements I’d happened across in the water park with me adding a story telling detail. I then came up with the following storyboard:

Shot 1: Filmed from the camera’s point of view, the subject walks into the park. After walking a few metres the subject notices a tree stump, as the camera focuses further in on the stump the viewer can read this sign: ‘She kept apologising for talking too much…she said it came from living alone’.
Shot 2: The camera then walks further down the path into the park, it then pans left and we see the second sign. This reads: ‘She just wants to get out and about’. There’s also another small tag sign that we see blowing around in the wind, but it isn’t readable.
Shot 3: The camera walks further into the park and begins to focus on a tree in the distance. As the camera approaches the tree the words ‘Watch this space’ become visible:

As the shot ends the viewer hears some strange noises and the camera jerks round quickly. The viewer then hears some footsteps from behind the camera, we then hear an anguished Woman’s scream and the screen begins to shake violently. The shot then starts to flick on and off until the viewer is left in darkness.
Shot 4: We then mover further into the park, and once again from the camera’s eye view, the viewer moves up and we can see a ‘grave’. The camera then focuses on the grave and the movie ends.
(During scenes 2/3 there are a couple of music tracks. I decided to keep the music I’d originally used (Jonny’s composition as it had an especially eerie quality that fits the mood of the piece very well. In scene three there are a number of musical sound effects & textures, once again to give the film an added creepiness. These are all copyright free samples)

The film was once again edited on Premiere Pro CS5. It was a fairly simple piece of editing as I’d only used 4 shots. I also used Jonny’s incidental music and a couple of copyright free sound effects (Woman screaming, man’s footsteps).
The entire film was shot using the 8mm app (Using the Siena film) on the IPhone 4 (The original film being shot on the Ipod nano). I was really pleased with the outcome and look of the film, especially given the fact that the app cost £1.69. It really lends itself to the sensibility of the film, the olde world feel of the app has a sinister under tone to it. The film was also shot on a foggy day which adds to the creepiness.
There will undoubtedly be comparisons between the film and the Blair Witch Project (Shot in the woods, dark subject matter). This has actually been quite a surprise for me as I am in no way into horror movies. I love the fact that the local environment pointed me down this route as it’s certainly moved me into a different area, one that I wouldn’t ordinarily pursue.

After some feedback from Ben Shirley in our Friday lecture I’d decided to add a few more sound effects to further enhance the horror narrative of the footage. Ben suggested using a heartbeat that gets faster and faster as the action unfolds. This helps to add to the suspense and drama of the movie.