Moving on from Research and Development. FMP Continued

360 MC Research and Development was a large project that helped me decide ultimately what I  was going to achieve when making my Final Major Project. From now this Blog is to feature the production notes and progression of the project rather than what influences I have for this project as that was clear in the last module. I feel like I will be repeating a lot of what has already been said so far about YouTube, Directors and The Found Footage Style. I will touch upon things but not go in to a great deal of depth about why I’m doing it at this point. I think that mainly this period or Research and Development is for people undertaking a brand new idea but for me the whole research and development module shaped my project in to something I can be happy enough to start production on. So lets make some progression on ‘The Scarlett Massacre’.

STORY 

Draft one of ‘The Scarlett Massacre’ was completed and passed over to Steve for a read over. I felt a bit rushed to get this script over in time for Steve to read it but his overall feedback on the script was helpful. Steve suggested that the film maybe needed to go in a different direction for the ending and for me to think a little more out of the box.

The original idea was for the main character Scarlett to be kidnapped and the story take a rescue operation theme for the rest of the film. Although this idea was good it wasn’t as Steve put it ‘something that would make your head turn’ He was quite honest with me and said that I should stop thinking of the project as just Transmedia and make the film stand up on its own as something that will impress the festivals. Others might be offended but it made me come up with several different ideas surrounding the same themes that would make the plot stand out. Once I concreted the idea which eventually took a bit from column a ,b and c  I wrote the final script. I have come up with a story that I  believe is current featuring the YouTube/ Found footage style that has some twist and turns along the way. Steve was happy with the new direction and was happy for me to move on to the next stage of the project.

FMP A look at Alfred Hitchcock.

For my final major project I thought it would be a good idea to look at some directors with styles that might be useful for my film ‘The Scarlett Massacre’. This post will look in to the famous director of suspense Alfred Hitchcock who is one of my all time favourites and influences in film.

Alfred Hitchcock 

Alfred Hitchcocks film ‘Psycho'(1960) and  ‘The Birds'(1963) are arguably his most Successful films  and these are just two examples of long career of mind-blowing suspense feature films. What interests me most about a Hitchcock film is his ability to capture suspense and to keep an audience engaged for a long period of time. Hitchcock(n.d.) states “There is no terror in the bang, only in the anticipation of it’ which is the overall body of a suspense film. The belief is in the final pay off ‘the bang’ but the realism is what’s before that final climax which makes that pay off rewarding to an audience. In my film I will try to build up moments in homage to Hitchcock, using more of a current format of ‘The found footage film’.

Borgus.com (n.d.) Talks about the different film techniques that Alfred uses to make his films stand out , techniques that we can use to make our films in to what is classed as ‘Hitchcock Thrillers’. There are a few different ways to do this but I am going to highlight the ways that I believe can influence my style and over all presentation of my film ‘The Scarlett Massacre’ Borgus.com (n.d.) states:

“Step 1: It’s the mind of the audience’ Change everything in your screenplay so that it is done for the audience.  Nothing is more important than how each scene is going to affect the viewer.  Make sure the content engages them and reels them in.  Use the characters to tease the viewer and pull them along desperately wanting more”.

My film needs to think of this idea even more than others as its found footage. A style that always has to consider the audience through where the camera is placed and how the characters are coming across within the frame that has been created for them. The main task for me is making these moments believable for my audience while keeping an overall suspenseful and creepy tone.

Another step that Borgus(n.d.) talks about The Camera becoming the audience

“STEP 3: Camera is Not a Camera : The camera should take on human qualities and roam around playfully looking for something suspicious in a room.  This allows the audience to feel like they are involved in uncovering the story.  Scenes can often begin by panning a room showing close-ups of objects that explain plot elements.”

This techniques works in the found footage style as the camera is showing the audience what the character wants them to see and in the case of my film what the character doesn’t want them to see. I will use this technique to show moments in the characters life and in revealing the atmosphere and environment which is very important in my film.

One of Hitchcock’s techniques was within his Mise en scene where he often used his environment to draw out the suspense. For example in this montage video put together by Schmitd, J. and Hitchcock, A. (2012). Hitchcock in many of his films used staircases.

He used staircases to bring the suspense to a heighten stage and as the camera, character would travel up the stage it would always feel as if he or she was travelling to a problem or their demise. for example a climatic scene would be in ‘Vertigo'(1958) where a staircase his heavily featured in the death of the films ‘Hitchcock blonde’.

One of my main goals for ‘The Scarlett Massacre’ is to create suspense, I will replicate this technique in one of my scenes and have my characters walk up or down stairs to create suspense. It’s also meant to be natural and stairs are a natural part of environment and a major feature of the house/flat I’m shooting in.

Hitchcock is a big influence of mine and I hope to be able to use some of these techniques to increase the watch ability of my film.

Bibliography 

Alfred Hitchcock. (n.d.). BrainyQuote.com. Retrieved Feb 22nd, 2015, from BrainyQuote.com Web site: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/a/alfredhitc100225.html
Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/citation/quotes/quotes/a/alfredhitc100225.html#4rqUGOhoei56OqES.99

Blurppy.com(2012) [image] Available at:

http://blurppy.com/2012/06/27/from-universal-studios-home-entertainment-alfred-hitchcock-the-masterpiece-collection/. (2012). [image].

Borgus.com, (n.d.). Film Techniques of Alfred Hitchcock – suspense, camera angles, style, editing, basics. [online] Available at: http://borgus.com/hitch/hitch2011.htm [Accessed 22 Feb. 2015].

Psycho. (1960). [film] United States of America: Alfred Hitchcock.

Schmitd, J. and Hitchcock, A. (2012). Stairs of suspense: An Alfred Hitchcock Montage. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3BUZBnDS74 [Accessed 22 Feb. 2015].

The Birds.(1963) [film] United States of America: Alfred Hitchcock.

Vertigo. (1958). [film] The United States of America: Alfred Hitchcock.

Vertigo. (1958). [film] The United States of America: Alfred Hitchcock. Cited in: Lieszter. and Alfred Hitchcock – Vertigo (1:11:24-1:15:00). (2009). Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GnpZN2HQ3OQ [Accessed 22 Feb. 2015].

Progress of FMP

Since our 360 module Research and Development I’ve been looking further in to  my story and Transmedia Process. As my project will eventually be a film it’s also a story that works as a viral campaign for the film, delving in to the story before the film of the character Scarlett. I produced at the end of the module YouTube, Instagram and Twitter accounts for my main character Scarlett Radcliffe.

YouTube

I have produced four videos of Scarlett and her boyfriend Steve Reid  over several weeks. These videos show generalised YouTube styled themes and characteristics of my main Characters, not really revealing anything of the story at this point. Which is a good decision just in case we decide to go in a different direction with the film. Here are the four videos that I have posted on-line so that Scarlett is considered a youtube vlogger.

Video 1 : Intro Video

A generic video that shows Scarlett on her own introducing her channel.

Video 2: an attempt at vlogging / hosting there video

The video  exactly  doesn’t resemble a professional YouTube channel as Scarlett is trying to replicate their actions but doesn’t completely succeed with the delivery. The video is fairly forced , mainly during the characters speaking to the camera. I’ve done this so that they appear new to the whole process. Although it looks good visually there still are issues that she hasn’t thought of like sound, presentation of the videos such as titles, promo stills etc. This will be something that gets better as the channel develops.

There are currently four videos on her channel : https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFoJbemrKdDb6Cjo0tU67GA

I plan to make more videos to build the characters and slowly add hints of what is going to happen in the story. At first the idea was to make the character of Scarlett in to a beauty vlogger. I decided to cast someone a little different from the stereo type in the idea of making her a less successful YouTube vlogger and also the actor cast didn’t know much about different styles of make up but was really natural on camera. I decided that was more important than the beauty theme to have a natural actress.

We did how ever have to come up with something else to make Scarlett as a character whole. In the end it was decided that she would be interested in reading books and acting. Too things that Jodie enjoyed doing so there would be a fine line between where Jodie as a person and where Scarlett as a character would be.

We decided to film a few more videos in help to not only give Scarlett some on-line presence but also help with character development. These videos will be in the form of book reviews.

I mentioned in 360 mc about making other accounts to support the film. I still have the accounts up and they are going well people seem to believe that Scarlett Radcliffe exists especially on Instagram. Here is her instagram.The Instagram will come to a halt when the character is kidnapped.

https://instagram.com/scarlett_radcliffe/

Dead Mans Shoes/Shane Meadows FMP/ Found footage realism.

A director I have yet to mention who  I think has a brilliant vision is Shane Meadows, famous for his film and TV series ‘This is England'(2006). Meadows has a great ability to portray the darker realisms of modern society. I love his ability to make you feel angry and his ability to capture moments of hard times and underlining morals that shouldn’t be broken. Meadows usually gives the hero the satisfaction of retribution but sometimes he uses the reality that its not always going to work out in the end. Bad things do happen and in my opinion he displays them in the right way.

Dead Man’s Shoes

Dead Man’s Shoes (2004) is one of my favourite Shane Meadows films as it depicts a real revenge story and has a quite dark message. In points he uses harsh story lines of The main characters brother being abused by a gang of people , some of the footage and editing styles that he uses makes the audience feel uncomfortable. However this is done to drive the audience to the side of the returning soldier (Paddy Considine) who seeks revenge for what they did to his brother.

I would like to do something similar with my film and have scenes happen that will piss off the audience and follow the overall story to see the villains get there comeuppance in the end. For The Scarlett Massacre this wont be in this film , but maybe a few films down the line. Part One is just laying the ground work of the massacre, Part Two is the main deaths of the massacre and the final part would be the end game. For my Final Major project I’m just focusing on Part 1.

The main idea of realism strikes me the most when it comes to Shane Meadows . he always seems to be able to make his films feel real and look like the point in time it was filmed in .

Found footage realism

I’m making a modern day film set in our current digital age and my predecessors in the found footage used a technique in editing where the footage would look like its being played on a VCR and would have lines cutting down for effect. It would also sometimes cut in to footage already recorded on the tape. I have two issues with these styles and my film as its made on digital cameras and SD card don’t give off these same effects , there is no delay with overriding footage which there was with VHS camcorders, to HI 8 camcorders and DV camcorders.

In Cloverfield (2008) there is a home video recorder filming a leaving party for the main character. The footage cuts to and from the past and present where the tape has been coincidently recorded over for this apocalyptic event. The footage also drives a underpinned love story for the main character. This is something that cant happen in my film due to the digital age SD cards either record footage or you have to format, so this idea could only happen while looking through uploaded footage to the internet or saved on to a lap top. SD Cards just dont have the same rustic feel as tape had.

The Visual look of broken footage on tape recorders

Above (Background n.d)

This is a style that wouldn’t work cutting to this as again Sd based cameras and camcorders don’t do this. Sometimes Sd cameras  can pixalate the footage shot if the camera has been knocked around.So replicating this is plausible in my Film.

BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Background-pictures.vidzshare.net, (n.d.). [Image] Available at: http://background-pictures.vidzshare.net [Accessed 18 Feb. 2015].

Cloverfield (2008) [film] United States of America. Matt Reeves

Dead Man’s Shoes (2004) [film] United Kingdom. Shane Meadows

This is England (2006) [film] United Kingdom. Shane Meadows

Back to The Drawing board FMP

I always  had the ability to come up with solid story-lines. So the process of picking a Final major project was an exciting chapter for me, one that started even before I joined this course from the HND . Before even coming up with an idea which was steered by 360 MC’s Research and Development I had a brain storming session to see what  I could make for my final piece of university work. I always wanted to do something big for my last year of university and wanted something ultimately that I was proud of and can distribute in to festivals and hopefully get a good response.  Here are some of the brainstorming photos of me deciding what idea to pick

Two Reality’s is a short film about a man who is experiencing to alternative realities and the audience would view them at the same time.One thing that would happen in one reality could possibly impact the other. It would focus on the soul and how much a soul could take if each life span was to impact the next . One lesson in this film would  heavily effecting the other persons time line. Quite a interesting concept but I wasn’t sold on this being my final body of work.

YOUTUBE CHANNEL FOR BAND (COME IN TO FOCUS)

As well as being a passionate film-maker I also love music and have performed in various bands over the years.

Comedy act Hangs to the left( above left Mark on right) A Dear Investment (above Mark at the front)

Any Project that revolves around me performing and writing music really excites me. I started writing new material and thought it would be a nice idea to document the process from the very start. A brand new band with new members starting there journey from the very beginning. However for me this doesn’t feel like my final project at uni. It feels like I could do this at any time. I really want my last project to revolve around an interesting story and try to present that story in a captivating way. The music channel would be a cool idea for the future though.

The Vortex

The Vortex is by far one of my favourite ideas that I have come up with. The story follows a group of friends who are stuck in a house surrounded by a vortex.The program is a comedy /drama that deals with the relationships and survival of the friends that are stuck in a house together for a long period of time surrounded by a Vortex.  I thought it was original and used our limited surroundings to its advantage. In 2008 I made a low budget version of the idea, at the time I was happy with it however looking back I would do it completely different . I think a re draft and re-shoot of this idea could be great for my final major project.  Here is the version of the original pilot show.

The show would benefit from a restructure with not as much ridiculous content for no reason. It would have a constant story that is spread over a series of episodes and take an influence from how ‘Spaced'(1999) is shot and would have a similar narrative structure.

However if I do re-shoot this project I would  like it to have  a bigger budget and be able to do all the ideas that are in my head. This might be a bit to optimistic and too big of an idea for university.

THE WEST KEYS

At college in our HND Digital Film and Video course we had a Scriptwriting assignment and I came up with the idea of ‘The West keys’  something that I would very much like to make at some point. The script is ready to go I just need a big enough budget to make it happen. It’s a show similar to ‘Lost’ and its narrative bounces around in Time and display and shows a possible  post apocalyptic scenario. Again this is a big budget idea so I’m holding off on this idea at this stage in my life.

With all these ideas bouncing around, I have decided to  still make the film ‘The Scarlett Massacre’ I believe its more realistic at this stage of my career.  These ideas are good to have sitting here just in case something goes wrong and I have to drastically change my idea. These are some of my favourite story’s and would be happy making any of them.

Bibliography

Lost( 2004-2010) [DVD] United States of America. J.J Abrams

Spaced. (1999). [DVD] United Kingdom: Edgar Wright

Vortex (2008) [TV Episode]Part A. United Kingdom Mark Lee Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rwSnoOqEjg

Vortex (2008)[TV Episode] Part B . United Kingdom Mark Lee Available at :https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E00yRThUhNQ

R and D : Contacts

Here are a few important contacts that could be useful in this module.

Chris Lewis : Venue Runner 

Current Venue : The Litten Tree

Phone number: 07590527534

previous venues: The Golden Cross, The Dog and Trumpet

Contact is good for venue booking , Stage management  and technical advice.  I  met Chris through my band A Dear Investment and I was offered work experience as a promoter/ event manger/sound engineer.

Chris Porter : Life is Art Films owner

Current role : D.O.P / Filmmaker

Phone number:  07845822245

https://vimeo.com/lifeisartfilms

Contact is a great film-maker with superb visuals in his work. He always has professional looking products and a nack for knowing what’s new and reliable equipment wise.  I helped Chris when he was first getting regular bookings for music videos. I helped with story, acting and assistant directing.  Chris has moved in to producing documentary and promo video. There maybe an opening for me there as we worked well together the first time round.

Herbert Art Gallery

For a number of years I have been in contact with members of the Herbert Art Gallery media section. They have a loan shop and offer various advice and opportunity for creative people. It might be worth me sending another email to them regarding work experience .info@theherbert.org

simon.wellman@coventry.gov.uk

Simon is in control of the media section ,handling equipment bookings and is extremely knowledgeable with shooting film.

Richard Wood

Richard Wood I met at Warwickshire College he is extremely good at networking and runs rootes to shoot and call the shots. I used to speak to Rich about ideas for projects , funding and competitions. Rich convinced me to enter 2 weeks to make it music competition in which film-makers are randomly selected and joined with artists who collaborate on making a video.  The team that I joined was successful in coming second in the competition.

Contact with Richard wood is over Facebook.

Paul ( Cov uni Sound man)

Paul is the man in charge of the radio rooms at Coventry University. Emailing him is my best option to being trained in there and for any questions I need about sound in the radio room and using the equipment he’s the man to speak to.

aa5574@coventry.ac.uk

Emma Mcgann , Tom Harris : Study Vox.

Friends of mine through my gigs with various musical acts. Emma and Tom now are presenters on a radio show in Oxford called StudyVox. It might be a good idea to go down and see what there set up is like.  

Tom Mobile: 07505555611

 Belgrade Theatre 

Belgrade Theatre is always a great place full of opportunities.This maybe a place where I can use my skills.  There is an area which I would to get involved with in the theatre and that’s the lighting and sound controls of the plays.

Nick Bakewell/James Meikle  Triple X Westling

Triple X wrestling is a big local wrestling company that puts regular events. For years I have filmed events and promo videos and will be able to continue my professional experience with them at any point.

https://www.facebook.com/triplexwrestling

James Meikle: 07896718996

David Michaels (Magic Dave)

Over the years Magic Dave has asked me to help him with his promotional videos. We have been talking about making some new up to date videos fora while. This will not only help him but help me get out there a more as a professional.

http://www.davidmichaelsmagic.co.uk

2WEEKS TOMAKEIT GUYS(Herbert Competition)

Komal Shastri: 07918923238

Ian Upton:07590722085

Lawrence Harrison: 07964543149

Other Useful Contacts

Actors:

Phillip McCullough: 07930921704

Jodie Antonia :07909070740

Hannah Grover : 07727144633

Jes Rowe: 07540881654

Richard Williamson: 07900431478

Steph Edwards: 07712715534

 

Wrestler:

Kieran Young: 07412329050

Producer:

Harriet Finch: 07760231689

 

 

Bibliography

Belgrade Theatre, (n.d.). Home. [online] Available at: http://www.belgrade.co.uk/ [Accessed 11 Feb. 2015].

Davidmichaelsmagic.co.uk, (2013). David Michaels Magic | Magicians Midlands | Corporate Magicians UK. [online] Available at: http://www.davidmichaelsmagic.co.uk/ [Accessed 11 Feb. 2015].

Facebook, (2014). Triple X Wrestling. [online] Available at: https://www.facebook.com/triplexwrestling [Accessed 11 Feb.2015].

Gallery, H. (n.d.). Welcome to the Herbert Art Gallery & Museum. [online] Theherbert.org. Available at: http://www.theherbert.org/ [Accessed 11 Feb. 2015].

Studyvoxfmunsigned.com, (2013). StudyVoxFM Unsigned – Online radio for unsigned bands. [online] Available at: http://studyvoxfmunsigned.com/ [Accessed 11 Feb. 2015].

Vimeo, (2011). LifeisArtVisuals. [online] Available at: https://vimeo.com/lifeisartfilms [Accessed 11 May 2015].

R and D: Radio Room Training and Wrestling Podcasts

On Monday 9th of February  I had my radio Training with Paul Adkins . He showed me how to use both radio rooms at university. The first room was two rooms that were separated in to one control room for the presenter and one guest and another room for four more guests.At any time then its possible to have six voices recording at one time. This room was the older room out of the two. We learnt how the desk worked and also how to record and

The second room that we went in to for training was all in one and had a much cleaner modern look. The desk were all digital and controlled in a different way , more buttons and more flexibility . But for me at this stage the room is a little intimidating. It does look professional and I hope to build up my confidence as all guest in one room would be less hassle.

The training took about two hours and I felt more comfortable in the first room. You have to get trained in these rooms before being able to book and use un supervised.

I booked the room to do a test run and invited Nick Leek for the trial run. As we are both big wrestling fans we decided to test out the podcasting and see how the recording sounds. It was simple enough to  work out and we were impressed by the results.  I did struggle with my microphone and Nicks was louder in the recording, this was because I was slightly facing away from the Microphone to address Nick face to face. The Microphones although pick up a lot of sound you need to speak directly in to it to get the best results.

Here’s the first Podcast.

Professional Practice Porfolio

Professional Practice Portfolio

For this module I wanted to show employers my skills within Media Production. Unlike other students that usually have one main goal for example becoming a Video Editor, Director or Producer I fall in to a variety of different media linguistics. I have a background of writing, Editing, Directing, Sound recording, Producing and Camera work and this module of Professional Practice Portfolio is the optimist time to locate all my talents and attributes and present them online for an employer to see.

I have always been fascinated with film and video and I believe that my journey is different from a younger generation as they may not have had the same steps as me. My family every year used to hire big VHS camcorders

to film birthday parties and would document the whole experience, this is where my love for film started. I bought my first camcorder from a part time job I was doing when I was 16 years old. The Camera was a Hi-8 Camcorder which took different smaller SVHS tapes. This camera style lasted a few years while in experimental days of film. Where I didn’t really understand the methodology and concepts that were used to correctly make films. After a lot of different terrible ideas accompanied by worse filmmaking I took a break and became a bit more musical (this is explained in another blog revolving around sound production), I would still now and again use my camera to film practices , events , holidays and social gatherings until I was ready again to get back in to filming. I purchased a basic DV camcorder and again not a seriously started making films and videos. I say it took a back seat the camera was always involved in some way just had different meaning at different periods of time.

Eventually I decided it was time to return to filming permanently and take it more seriously. Life experience’s had helped me with my writing and I managed to purchase some better equipment, now I was recording on a HDV dv camcorder which was your last step before SD cards( which is what we have now), some basic lighting and a brand new mac desktop. This step in filming too me in to my more mature ideas , I offered my services to anybody who wanted videos making and this made me grow in my ability to film and produce video. With video it takes a lot of time to perfect a craft and we are always learning every day. I have over 100 DV tapes all filled with footage from different genres, events and films and that’s just DV tapes , this isn’t counting the VHS or HI 8 tapes I also had.

The period of the HDV camcorder really was a big time for writing ideas mainly in the comedy realm , we produce are own sketches, pilots and short films all thought out , scripted and with a small budget. I think the steps are highly appropriate in learning about different areas of film. I learn best by actualisation and I always have, this stage is where I really learned the elements of what it took to make a film. Where lighting is placed, what audio to use, what impact poor actors have and figuring out how to get your ideas on paper with little help from others. This is always challenging but somethings can’t be taught, somethings you have to experiment.  Just before I returned to education I asked around a few professional companies to be runners. Some helped and gave me the opportunity others rejected my time. This is always going to happen but it’s hard not to get upset by it.

Looking back from this point even though I started to get some videos together that I liked, they still lacked knowledge which is why I returned to education to learn about why I was doing certain things. Yes it’s about trial and error and going out and actualising with your films but also about learning what you need to succeed. The HND in Digital film and Video , heres where I grew more as an individual and the experience gained me more success as a filmmaker, I grew the ability to be professional and produce on my own from what I learnt the values and key elements of film. I even got paid for a few videos which was a great morale booster.

The areas I feel that I have done well in over my entire life in media are as follows:

Camerawork , Scriptwriting, Producing , Editing , Directing and Sound recording. Through my many years of adapting through the Digital age I believe my talents have brought me to here with prospects and ability to be hired for work. This will focus on showing off my qualities and bringing to life my idea of helping out others which Is going to be a big part of my future in this industry.

Bibliography

Brancovich, E. (2012). Digital Video Production made simple.: Evolution of home movie camera.. [online] Simplevideoproduction.blogspot.mx. Available at: http://simplevideoproduction.blogspot.mx/2012/11/evolution-of-home-movie-camera.html [Accessed 4 Feb. 2015].

Panasonic.com, (2015). 1985 – Corporate History – History – About Us – Panasonic. [online] Available at: http://www.panasonic.com/global/corporate/history/chronicle/1985.html [Accessed 3 Feb. 2015].

R and D- Sound Recording

Introduction

One of My  focus points on this module is the different elements of sound recording and where this is useful. I have a few ideas already of the direction I would want to go in including recording the sound for films and recording and distributing pod-casts. I have chose this area as I believe it has room in the market for more sound men.

I’ve always been interested in different forms of sound recording and have experience in some of the different areas of sound. I make music , write guitar parts and sing, my first band was called ‘ A Dear Investment ‘ and this band gave me experience with the performing elements of sound , playing gigs and experiencing different stage set ups and different inputs.

The band also gave me the experience of recording our songs and putting out records.  We made many recordings , some in which we paid for a sound engineer to record our music , but its when we recorded the songs ourselves that I gained the most experience in recording instruments,using software and producing a product.

My experience in music lead me in to event management and sound engineering. I put on music nights at The golden cross, The Dog and Trumpet , The coliseum/Kasbah, Rootes Bar( Warwick uni) and The Litten Tree. This experience allowed me to deal with different form of venues with different set ups. I worked with sound equipment such as microphones, sound desks,PA’s, leads and instruments to give bands their required sound. This was challenging for a number of reasons as a music night can have a number of issues that you have to be quick on your feet to solve.

My love for film and the different type of filming I have produced over the years I noticed that sound is extremely import in the production of a film. You can have perfect footage but if the sound is rubbish your film will be hard to watch. I think Sound can be overlooked as a career path and It’s some thing that interests me with an attainable outcome.

My plan is to look in to different elements of sound recording research in to methods and correct equipment for recording  sound on films and in radio/podcasts. Then look at opportunity’s in the area of sound and contact media professionals for advice/ experience.

This year in my Research and Development for my Final Major Project I found an interest in Pod casting , I research in to the different types of Podcast and thought I could link this module with my development in that area. This could help me test recording techniques and look at editing sound after the podcast is completed.  I had two ideas for podcasting one is using a similar style to the Chris Jericho podcast about wrestling , I would be taking a more Fan approach to the podcast where we have fans debating the form of sports entertainment.

Another idea I had for podcasting was to use a more professional style where we would talk about exciting new media based projects by students. This could be great in spreading the word on another platform about great up and coming Film-makers projects.

Going back to music as i have experience with live sound I’ve always been interested in how radio produce a live show , With live musicians performing. That’s an area that I would like to research in to in this module.

Overall I think these experience and ideas show why I’m choosing sound as my main focus for my  Professional Practice Portfolio.