Commission Unit- Confirming the finished pieces.

Myself, Charlie and Mike recently visited our commissioner from the Friday People (Nick) to make a few notes about the finished projects he wanted us to create, so that we had a clearer idea about what we are going to be doing, which we can then feedback to our tutors, who seemed a little bit confused about what we wanted to create.
While speaking with Nick, he suggested that me and charlie work on creating a kind of crowd-funding video for sites such as Kickstarter and Indiegogo. This immediately gave me something to research for the promotional video I aim to create, and I can take a look at some successful crowd funding videos from the past and see what potential traits made them successful and see about applying them to my own promo video for the friday people project.
During the meeting, all three of us made sure to take notes on certain points that Nick was telling us, and I made sure to write them up into digital form when I returned home so that I could share them with charlie and mike easilly. Here are the notes I took:

Friday People Notes

Studio Production Unit- Sound Practice and Workshop

This week, unfortunately Hans (who will be delivering our studio production workshops) was ill and couldn't make it to this weeks workshop. However, we continued with the workshop as normal, this time led by our course leader Helen.
Although last time Hans gave us seemingly random roles (I was given the role of P.A) we were allowed to this time operate as the roles we will be having in the final studio production. I found this to be the best way to go about things, as it kind of gave me an opportunity to experience how I will be working with Mike Hoad on the actual studio day, and see what can potentially go wrong, or how I could improve my performance beforehand. This should ultimately allow me and everybody else to work to the best of our ability come the day of the live studio production.

the sound board that Mike Hoad and myself were using to adjust mic volumes.

Our jobs as sound guys during the workshop was to keep an eye on the radio mic levels that the cast of the show were wearing. We did this by physically listening to the show as it took place, and adjusting a particular guests radio mic when they were too loud/quiet.
This was quite challenging, as we were using quite an old piece of equipment, and it was also my first time using said piece of equipment. By the end of the day though, I was confident enough with this sound board, and so was Mike.
I feel that the best way to get used to using this type of equipment is to simply practice with it again and again in person, and in that regard, I think this particular workshop was very useful.

A major problem that both me and Mike picked up on during our work was that at certain points during the shows recording, we kept getting microphone feedback and static. We did our best to eliminate this by lowering a particular microphone when it was not in use, but it didn't help too much.
After some brief research (and our own personal knowledge), we realized that this static that would interfere every so often was probably caused by the guests mobile phone signals interfering with the radio mics signals.
A simple way to eliminate this problem on the day will be to simply make sure that each guest switches their mobile phones off before entering the set. This way the possibility of signal interference is minimal.

This experience got me thinking about the ways in which radio mics work however, and as such I decided to do a bit more investigation into the way they work, and ways in which we can use them to their full potential on the day of the live studio production. I did this by watching a few youtube videos, created by people that have actually worked in the sound industry.

Studio Production Unit- Assisting with VT shoot.

The VT group (which I have been working with closely) has finished the final script for their VT on the young voters subject and have begun filming the actual VTs which include their presenter and contributors.

The shoot for this particular VT took place in Margate- somewhere I have never been before. Because of this, I had to make sure I- and everyone else that didn't know the area was prepared for the shoot and   had the proper things needed to make sure the risk of getting lost or separated from the group was minimal. This was quite easy to prepare for as I could simply make sure I had some updated Google Maps on my phone, and also make sure everyone had the correct phone numbers for everyone in case they needed to get in touch with anyone.

I contributed to this particular shoot by playing the part of a masked "Nigel Farage" character which was supposed to add a sense of comedy to the shoot. All in all the shoot went well, but we did come across a few obstacles.

For one, the masks and cameras we were carrying around attracted a lot of attention from the public, and as such we kept getting asked what it was we were recording, which although it wasn't particularly major, it did somewhat hinder and slow down the filming.

Margate at night, which allowed for a very scenic and interesting shoot.

Studio Production Unit- Investigating Covert Film Making.

For our studio production unit, I have been assigned to working on sound for a VT on domestic violence, where an unsuspecting person will witness an altercation between two actors. The unsuspecting individuals reaction will be key for these VTs, and they will not know that this reaction is being captured, therefore it will be important to keep all recording equipment hidden.
In order to accomplish this, I have been investigating "covert film making", which involves hiding a camera and sound equipment in order to capture events, without the subject realizing.

I have primarily been doing this through watching youtube videos and reading blogs. The problem with investigating this subject is that a lot of the material I find to study can be somewhat strange, due to the voyeuristic nature of the filming process, but the nearest mainstream kind of film-making I can compare it to is capturing wildlife.

A very useful online article I found which demonstrates what kind of covert filming is legal and illegal is this one: http://www.channel4.com/producers-handbook/c4-guidelines/secret-filming-guidelines
by Channel 4.
Obviously, filming somebody without their express permission can be considered a crime, and therefore it is important for us to know our rights and the rights of the person being recorded when the day of filming the VT arrives.

There are many ways in which I, as the sound person for this VT will be able to hide my sound recording equipment. Since the Zoom recorder I plan on using is relatively small, I will be able to easilly duct-tape it underneath a chair or table where the unsuspecting person being recorded will not be able to see it.
Of course, a test shoot to ensure that the acoustics in the room are good enough for this type of recording will be necessary to ensure that the best quality sound possible is picked up. This would be done by re positioning the recorders in such a way that they capture the best sound possible.

Rather than spending so much time investigating this myself however, I have also decided to research the techniques that other sound engineers have used in their own projects. In this research, I came across an ebook called "Recording and Producing Audio for Media", a book in which studio and outdoor sound recording techniques are discussed.
This should be very useful, not just for this project, but also others, and so I will make sure to keep this ebook at hand.

Studio Production Unit- Understanding the studio and practice workshop.

Today we were visited and delivered a workshop by a guy called Hans, who has a lot of experience working on studio production projects in the past. We began the day by having the layout of the studio explained to us. I felt this was a fantastic thing to teach us about, as although I have used the studio in the past I hadn't had much experience with checking out the actual studios layout, and working a project around that.

For the purpose of this workshop, I volunteered for the position of P.A, and this role was explained to me extensively. P.A is something I haven't really considered doing as a profession in the past, as it seemed like quite a complicated, technical position where I wouldn't really get to use much of my creativity. However, after Hans explained the process to me, and after a couple of run throughs I was confident enough that I think I would be quite successful in this position again if the need ever arose.

An important thing I learnt from this experience was the need to be very careful with the time used on a production. When watching a production normally, it doesn't seem like much time passes. However, when I was put in charge of counting down the seconds to the live performance, the time seemed to go incredibly quickly. This experience would be useful in other production areas, such as script writing and creating time schedules for shows in the future, as I now have an understanding about the methodicalness of being conservative with time in planning.

The studio we used, although quite daunting at first because of all the buttons and switches dotted about the place was actually quite easy to navigate once we were told where everything is.

This experience has allowed me to become a lot more relaxed in a studio environment and I am now very much looking forward to re-entering the studio gallery for future workshops and my eventual position as a sound technician for the final studio production unit.

Studio Production Unit- Briefly Researching Sound

It was recently suggested by Michael Hoad (one of the other VT and studio sound guys for this unit) that I check out an ebook about sound. The ebook in question is called "Recording and Producing Audio for Media" and is written by Stanley R. Alten.
The reason this ebook was suggested is because it has a very intricate section which explores recording sounds in both outdoor and studio environments.
I found that ultimately this book didn't really explain anything in great detail that I hadn't already known about due to my work on previous units on this course, but it was still an interesting read, and was a great way to refresh my mind on how to record and produce audio.

Studio Production Unit- Sound Research and unintentional practice.

Recently I have been doing my best to try and get some practice in for recording sound in different environments in preparation for both my work on VTs as a sound guy, and also for inside a studio environment.
Something I realized was that in a way, I have experience working with sound already, as I host a wrestling podcast with my friend Andy Cox, and as such, we often encounter sound issues and overcome them. I realized this is something I could directly relate into my sound work with this studio unit. I therefore began to research certain things online.
I often use a Zoom H4n sound recorder to record my podcasts- a very powerful recorder, and as such it often picks up background noise and the sound of nearby appliances.
This is where a program called Adobe Audition comes in handy. Adobe Audition allows the removal of said background noises, and should be an incredibly useful tool in the sound department for this unit.
I have also suggested to the VT group that we have a practice shoot to test out where we can hide cameras and sound recorders for a VT on domestic abuse, where we plan to capture actuality in the studio board room. This would allow us to collect materials to check that we can hide cameras in and sound recorders in areas that make them hard to notice, and also so that the sound we capture is the clearest quality possible.

Dissertation Proposal- Information

I have recently decided on the subject and question I want to discuss in my Dissertation, and I am now ready to start writing the dissertation proposal. The question I want to answer is: "Does Stereotyping characters in soap opera make them more relatable or understandable for viewers?"

I have purposefully chosen a subject that will allow me to have the most discussion possible in order to fully reach the specified word count. I have also chosen a subject will allow me to do the most research, and I will therefore have the most source to cite when writing my bibliography.

Studio Production Unit- VT Link Practice

For the studio production edit workshop, I have been practicing using Final Cut Pro to edit someone else's footage. I found this to be quite a difficult experience, as some of the footage was missing due to us not having panelists yet.
The hardest part however was that there was no outside sound recording besides the camera the group used, and as such I didn't have better quality sound to work with. I did everything I could with what I was provided however, and using some assets I found on youtube, and inserting some black title screens to replace the missing footage, I managed to create something that was semi-viable.

Now that I have created this video, and the rest of the class is working on their own edits, we have a bit of an idea about how our final product will look. We also have gained some valuable experience in editing footage that we have had no part in filming, and as such, I feel more confident about editing other people's footage in the future.
I believe editing will be a lot easier in the future once a set script has been created, as the editors will then have a skeleton to begin adding to, as opposed to having to create the story of the show as they find the footage.

I had to speak about how easy or difficult it was to edit this piece of film, and I made some points about about it, including;

• The greenscreen in the background made it difficult for me to know whether or not this was supposed to be a VT link or a studio piece, but I compromised by using the greenscreen to insert some relatable graphics, such as a screenshot from the videogame that Tim was speaking about and the "#Whatyousayin" logo.
• Although the shots the cameramen used were choreographed properly, they seemed quite odd at times, as at the time of filming, I assume they didn't know the layout of the set we wanted to use, and therefore at times Tim would be speaking to the "contributors", but they weren't sure which side of the screen they would be appearing. 

Studio Production Unit- Finished VT practice and feb 6th production meeting

Me and Tim have recently finished the VT edit to make sure that a coherent and viable story can be told with the footage we collected. Something I noticed was that the sound we collected was slightly distorted, as it had some kind of strange screeching sound in the background.

This was collected using Mike's zoom and we weren't too sure why it was there, as all the settings were correct.

Something else we noticed was that compared to the sound directly from the camera, the zoom sound was considerably clearer, with less wind sounds and background noise. This is mostly due to the fact that the equipment that was used to collect the sound was very good quality, and we made use of the "dead cat" microphone attachment to eliminate as much wind noise as possible.

The finished video is here:

Commission Unit- Forms and partnering with Charlie.

I have recently sent the forms the UCA needs me and Nick of the Friday People to Nick to be filled out, and have received them back. Therefore most of the paperwork for this commission unit is out of the way and finished, meaning I can focus on generating ideas and organizing shoot dates.
The form with completed A and B section:

Friday People Forms

It has also come to my attention that perhaps this project needs more than one person working on it in order to fully ensure that it is done properly. Normally I would be confident enough to take part in the project myself, but since I will be being commissioned by a charity, I want the completed product to be flawless. Therefore I have partnered up with another student, Charlie Ansell to get this done.

Like myself, Charlie has a lot of experience in many different areas of media, and as such I think he will be worthwhile to work with and shoot some ideas to.

Studio Production Unit- VT creation workshop.

In order to ensure that the subjects that were chosen by the production group would be suitable for a studio production show environment, we were asked to take part in a workshop where we would collect footage which would be edited to create a mock up of the graffiti VT we were after for our show, "What u sayin'."

Originally we were just supposed to collect the footage needed which would be edited by another group, but after some deliberation with the footage and thinking about whether or not we had enough footage to tell a coherent and believable story, we decided to edit the footage beforehand to make sure that when the other group gets the footage, it is usable.

It was actually a very fun day, and it got our minds working about how difficult it will be to find graffiti to film when it comes to filming the final VT for our studio production.