Portfolio visit feedback emails

The image below shows the response that i received with Chris Toole, after thanking him for the portfolio crit that he gave me. At the visit he asked me if I would like to do some flash animation for him. I thought that this would be a great opportunity for me and after completing the work and being paid for it it was great to receive the following feedback:

"From a commercial point of view the flash file is perfect, exactly as ordered” Chris Toole Nov 2010.

For me this was great to hear as it was unexpected and he has offered me any similar work that he gets in the future. It was good to hear that he felt that I was able to respond the the brief rather than go off at a tangent.

Film Museum Archive Berlin

I was really excited about going to see the film archive museum before we went, however I wasn't expecting it to be so interesting and such a great experience. I don't think that we were sure what to expect when we arrived, but I don't think any of us were expecting the gems that they had in store for us!

The two ladies that were showing us around started of by showing us original artwork for films, some German and some more mass released.These on their own were fantastic to see, however I think when they pulled out the concept artwork for Metropolis before the film was made, I think that everyone's jaws hit the floor. The images were incredibly beautiful and the amount of detail was just exquisite. A few shots of these can be seen below:

I think if the visit had been just to show us around the first room that we went into, we would have still been impressed however the archive was huge and they went on to show us room after room, each room more impressive. After showing us the first room they took us into the next where there was a room full of film reels and then in the final room I felt like I was in heaven! The final room was full of old cameras and memorabilia, just an incredible visit!

This is another image of one of the pieces that they showed us in the first room:

It was great to see the technical drawings for a scene within a film, because one thing that I have been considering recently is how I could incorporate a variety of elements within my own work. For example mixing a combination of live action, animation and other element, however one thing that I haven't considered is the use of sets and props, definitely something to think about. The visit was so helpful and thanks again to be given such an interesting visit!

Dirty Bathroom

It's important for me to consider how I make the bathroom dirty and grungy. Do I go literal and have a dirty bathroom, or do I suggest this in another way? If I have a dirty bathroom then at the beginning of the piece I don't want it too be dirty, in order to create contrast with the end of the piece. In the end I decided to achieve this in the way that I lit the scene. At the beginning of the piece the lighting is ordinary and the bathroom appears clean, however as the type starts to emerge from the toilet a slightly green light is introduced in order to give a grungy look. I think that this works well.

Early Test

This is a test that i have created in which I have explored using the type to illustrate the object that shouldn't be flushed:

Example typography

At the moment one of the ideas that I have is to consider using type in terms of building the composition. The video below is a great example of the use of type as a way of creating composition:

Portfolio Visit - Chris Toole

I had my second portfolio visit on Tuesday with Chris Toole, who works with a variety of mediums from print based platforms through to online media. I decided that I would show him my showreel first as I felt that this worked well as a starting point, in my previous portfolio visit earlier on in the week.

I showed him a few of my pieces. The first piece which I showed him was my Morph London Ident, which he felt was professional and seemed to really like the look of it. I think that this was because he spends a lot of his time creating brand identities. This was exciting to hear because recently I have found it quite exciting looking at advertising and identities.

I then showed him my title sequence, he said that the use of live footage worked well and he liked the overall look of the piece.

The last piece that I showed him was my Discovery Channel Ident. This led to a conversation about the use of 3D and how I really like 3D, but we discussed how its appropriate to consider where to use it in order for it to be most effective. With the Discovery Channel Ident I tried to use 3D, but still with a line based vector style. He liked the way I had used 3D in this piece. I feel that this is one of my stronger pieces, so it was good to get someone else's opinions on it which were positive.  He said he'd never touched 3D before himself, so he was impressed with what I'd shown him.

I think that there is definitely potential to go back for another visit at some point and when I asked him if I was to send over an email asking for feedback he said that it wouldn't be a problem.

This is an example of something that shouldn't be flushed: a puppy! This report is interesting because although it is quite eccentric when we contemplate the fact that a puppy has been flushed, the mere fact that a puppy can fit down the pipes of a toilet is ridiculous!

Something that is interesting within this video is the way that the camera travels down the pipe. It gives me an insight into the insides of the pipe and a way to consider th styling of the piece that I'm going to create myself.

The video above shows an example of something that has been flushed down a toilet. I decided to include this because I felt that it is appropriate to consider things that could be flushed down a toilet that wouldn't be expected. the brief suggested a few things, however at this stage I feel that it is important to break it down as far as I can to explore the vast things that could be flushed, that shouldn't be.

Richard Hubbert Video 1/3

Here are the three videos supplied by the agency as part of the sewer monsters campaign:







The brief said to design something which could live online, but fit with the campaign that had already been crated, so this is something which I definitely need to consider when breaking the brief down.

New Brief

I have decided to work on the brief that we were set at the end of last year, as they have extended their deadline until the 3rd Dec. I'm looking forward to this brief, so we will see where it goes!

Thanks to Design By Day

I got back in touch Design by Day to say thanks for taking the time to look through my work, (see emails below)

I'm definitely going to keep in touch with them over the year and it would be great to start to build a relationship with them, in terms of being able to refine work and get additional feedback. When I mentioned the end of year show Angela said that it would be something that they would be interested in coming to, which although its a while a way its great to hear, (as I suspect it will creep up on us!)

Design By Day - Portfolio Visit

 

This morning I went to a portfolio visit at Design By Day who are based in Salford. On first impression the building that their studio was based in was a really interesting place, with a live music venue and bar in the basement, along with a garden area and exhibition space. I went on this portfolio visit with Olivia from graphics. We arranged to go and see Design by Day last year towards the later part of the year, however due to deadlines etc it wasn't really convenient on both sides. So when we got in touch a few weeks ago about rearranging it was great that they were able to make time for us.

The company itself is a small company run by Angela and Louise, Angela who has a background in Moving Image and Louise who has a print background and now enjoys creating brand identities. Their skill sets allows them to use their talents in both aspects of design and create both print based and digital moving image pieces.

I really like the work that they produce. Here is their current moving image showreel:

DBD Showreel 2010 from Design By Day on Vimeo.

When we arrived at the mill building Louise came down and let us in and took us up to their studio. Their studio was a nice, small bit quirky office space. It had a very homely a personal feel about it and she made us very welcome. Angela joined us soon after and they looked through both of our portfolios.

I decided that I would show my newly created showreel, as I felt that it showed a broad range of the work that I have created. It allowed me to include pieces of my work that I didn't necessarily feel were the right ones to show in full in order to get feedback, but I would still like to show the range of pieces I like to create. Before I went I was unsure before I went whether or not to show my showreel, however I'm glad that I did because in terms of how I decided to present my work it was a nice ice breaker in terms of introducing me and my work . On reflection their feedback suggested that they liked what they saw.

I decided to show them a few pieces in order to get feedback on them.

Self Initiated Project: Title Sequence
This was the first piece that I showed to them. They liked the aesthetic of the piece and its overall look. We talked about the way that I had played with depth of field towards the beginning section of this piece and felt that this worked. They thought that the colouring worked well and the way that I had explored the use of live action footage in a way that wouldn't appear cliche worked, looking at voyeurism.

D&AD Competition Piece: 'The Ever-changing City Brief'
In terms of this brief I discussed how I felt that for me that this was an ideas driven project and that although I am happy with the concept of the piece, that I would like to rework it. They liked the idea but with a similar feeling to me they felt that I could look at the use of the books aesthetic and play on this more. They thought that the books looked quite illustration based and maybe I should make them a little more realistic. This feedback was really helpful in terms of this piece because this is definitely a piece that I intend on reworking the get it to a stage that I am happy with.

 Discovery Channel Ident
They seemed to really like this piece. They liked the way that I had used 3D in a way that wouldn't necessarily be the expected way. They liked the way that I had chosen to use the vector line style and how you were able to see the working parts. Louise said that she also liked the use of smoke and felt that it complimented the rest of the piece. We talked about how I would like to rework the end section when the Discovery channel logo comes in and they suggested that maybe reducing the logo in size might help to so this. I was happy that they like this piece as I feel that it is one of my stronger pieces of work.   


Door Project
I didn't really think about showing them this piece originally however after we started talking about the way that the collaboration project worked and how both me and Olivia felt that it was one of our favourite and most successful pieces of the year. They were really intrigued about the way that this brief worked and said how more universities should adopt similar real-world briefs. We talked about our own experiences of project managing and how we thoroughly enjoyed it. I therefore thought that it would be appropriate to show them this brief. They liked the way that we had used metaphor to show the life of a person and the way that although we felt that we weren't necessarily driven by production but working in a collaboration that the final outcome was effective. They liked the jerky feel of the stop motion and the way that we split the project up as a team.

Overall, this was a great experience for me and I came away from the visit excited and motivated. They said that we should definitely keep in touch so with this in mind as my work progresses I would like to get back in touch with them and show them my work as it evolves.

JOHN CAGE UNCAGED: SONG BOOKS
Manchester RNCM

We went to see this John Cage event at the Royal Northern College of Music. When we first walked in it seemed a little surreal, but sometimes things that initially seem strange turn out to be the most interesting! We went to the event with no expectations or idea of what it would be like.

From what I understand both staff and students took the challenge upon themselves, to take John Cages scores and interpret them in whatever they felt was appropriate. We had a look through a copy of his notebooks and the graphical score were really interesting. It was intriguing that each notation looked different and was shown in a different way. When thinking about people interpreting in a different way it got me thinking about how this could be explored in a different way, i.e. a moving image piece.

Here are a few images that a took on the night of some of the performances:

Andrew Brooks- Panorama Special

We went to see a talk by Andrew Brooks at the Whitworth Art Gallery. It was a really interesting event in which he talked to us about not only his work, but how he goes about creating it. He actually opened PhotoShop on screen and showed us how his composition was made up of layers. The pieces he showed us were just incredible and unless he had told us there's no way that you would of know that they were composited together.

Here are a couple of the images that he talked to us about:

http://www.andrewbrooksphotography.com/

I found it mesmerizing that the images that he created are all composited together in PhotoShop from different shots. He talked about how he goes out and finds the perfect elements in order to create these scenes. For example in the image shown above he talked about how it took him so long to find the right boat that he wanted to use to construct this shot. Not only did he take shots in many places around the country but in other ones too, I think he said that he finally found this shot of the boat in Ireland. I think the idea of constructing your own compositions from multiple shots is exciting when you think that the possibilities are endless.

Another thing that he showed us, was the way that he constructed a mechanism that housed multiple, mounted cameras. He did this in order to create a 3D esc image. He had video on screen almost in two panels next to each other, in which you had to make yourself go cross eyed in order to see 3D like footage. It was extremely interesting.

If you haven't seen any of his work you should definitely take a look at his site. Here's a link to another talk that was filmed in June, (not the event we went to), but still covering his process. http://vimeo.com/14012293

I think that seeing this talk was helpful because as I have been researching compositing as a medium, it was interesting to see the application in in terms of simply working with composition.