Dissertation - The Future of Technology in Film

Being in my last year of university I have to produce a twenty thousand word essay on a subject of my choice.

Quite a tall order, some might say but I've found just the subject matter to keep me interested for those twenty thousand words and I'm eager to be getting on with it.

To keep me going, I've decidd that I'll be posting my work for anyone interested in my findings thus far and it will hopefully enable to me to not only keep the overal work in perspective, but provide a means of proof-reading (without me having to send it to people - I'm a student afterall and I have a tradition of laziness to keep up).

In any case, this dissertation will be an investigative piece studying the history and evolution of the technologies used in the film industry and will be used to predict the most likely possible futures in the industry of film production.

As well as posting the updated versions of the paper on my website (ww.machinationsworld.com - yes, you read those two "w"s right) I'll be posting musings and ideas here (that wouldn't be included without some fine tuning and research).

On a side note, I have to produce a feature length film to accompany this paper (which I'm also looking forward to) but I'm divulge more on that at a later date.

Oh well, tally ho!

HMR

Filming in a field...

Last night I was lucky enough to be working on a music video for a band called "No Redemption."

It was a simple enough affair, a four camera setup, shooting as-live as the band played in a field in front of a roaring drum-fire.

It went pretty well over-all. I was doing my usual thing with the camera and I got some wonderful shots in the process (which I hope to post some screencaps of in a later entry.) The fire gave us some wonderful lighting effects and I was pleasantly surprised by how well it came out.

I ended up helping out the sound guy too as I was the most qualified for it there, apparently. We have to go back though and do pick-ups next week as the first few audio tracks were somehow lost. That being said, after looking at the awful software he was using, it wouldn't have surprised me if I'd done something similar, had I been doing it instead of him. I may have to badger PC world to get my laptop back to me sharpish. Maybe then we can run the sound through mine, something I know to be wholly reliable.

Anyhow, the crew I was with was a good one and was a vast improvement on the folks I've worked with in the past.

I spoke to a few of the members of the band too and they seemed keen on working with me again...which means organising some business cards.
I may commission Caz to do those for me. I could do them myself but she's a professional in that particular field and I'm just a Photoshop junkie.

It also means that I'm going to have to get my website sorted. At the moment it looks awful, so I'm going to have to get my finger out and make another attempt to learn Dreamweaver or something.

Oh well, I'll do all of that when I don't feel so tired.
The shoot went on until late last night and I slept like a baby...without the betwetting and crying. So really I slept like a heavily sedated baby.

In somewhat related news I'm still waiting on details of the last music video I did. I worked with a guy called Ben to shoot this Gig somewhere in Shrewsbury. The thing is the guy's entirely unreliable and an utter primadonna, meaning that at the rate he seems to be going there wont be much point putting the gig on my CV as it'll be a miracle if it gets done.
I should have been the one to author it. It would have been done by now. The gig in question was two monthes ago and by all accounts it should have been finished long before now...or at least it would have if I'd been doing it.

Still, there's no sense getting too annoyed over it. I'll ring him and badger him for details.
Also, with this new crew I've hooked up with I should have more work heading my way and the crew in question are reliable, professional and generally good guys. I certainly hope I get more work with them.

Speaking of which, I'd better go. The director is popping by today to drop equipment off and I need to make myself decent.

Have fun kids,

HMR

An introduction and what-not

Well I suppose I'll have to, wont I?

I'm [at the time of writing] a student of Film at Staffordshire University in the UK. Of course, that probably has nothing to do with any of this but at least when I mention films I can appear to have a professional opinion...

...In any case.

Methinks it's important to chronicle thoughts and ideas and as such I decided to set up this little dohickey.

And without much further ado, the blog!

*tumbleweed*