R.I.P Ray Harryhausen

The other week i had the pleasure of going to see some of Ray Harryhausen work at Bradford Media Museum but on 7/5/2013 i heard the tragic news that he had passed away aged 92. For anyone who was not aware of his work then you have been missing out because before all the big Hollywood effects that we are now used to Harryhausen created a little thing called Dynamation which is used with stop-motion model animation. I first saw his work when i watched the film Jason and the Argonauts with my dad when i was a kid and straight away i was amazed when i saw the skeletons come alive as a young kid i was in a daze. How was this possible?

Ray Harrhausen interview about the production of Jason and the Argonauts and also he speaks about the how he started in the stop-motion productions. Watching the video you get a sense of the passion that he puts into all his work and the time and effort he spent perfecting the work he wanted to achieve. Watching some of his work shows the break though is special effects though it seems dated now its hard not love his work. It remind me off the work that goes into shows like Wallace and Gromit it takes time and effort and things like this can take months to get perfect and i take my hat off to him for having the patience with his work.

Here is a link to a few of his films:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sg1v5HkpdEA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hg5TZqJvG6M - This link is brilliant watching the difference between Ray's work and the remake of Clash of the Titans.

R.I.P Ray HarryHausen (29th June 1920- 7th May 2013)

SWOT

In a recent lesson with Paul we got told about something called SWOT am i'm going to answer it in this blog.

Strengths:

Being Creative
Video Production
Sound
Team Player
Communication



Weaknesses-

Confidence
Talking in front of a crowd
Editing

Opportunity-

Filming/Video Production
Sound Recording
Acting
Script Writing

Threats-

Laziness
Organisation

Facts On Social Media

Social Media is a big part of everybody's now a days life. Keeping up to date with friends and families life and sharing you thoughts with the world and what you are thinking. We now live in a society were it is deemed not normal to be on social network sites such as Facebook and Twitter. It is a revolution and new era for people of our age.  Twenty years ago people would use letters, telephones to keep up to date with people now we have the power to do this with our mobile phones alone. It benefits our lives everyday though as a lot of people will keep tabs on their facebook waiting for that next notification to come though or seeing something hilarious and tweeting about it.

As of January 2013 there was 32.8 million users of Facebook in the UK and this is just over half of the nation. If it was a country it would be the third biggest behind India and China which is about 1,000,000,000 users. Its amazing to think that such a small and simple idea would grow into one of the globes biggest businesses. Because as well as being able to use Facebook as a social tool it does a lot more then this. It has got social games such as Farmville, Cityville this is used to interact with your current friends online and help build up the community spirit online. It also helps businesses promote themselves online as they will gather information about what pages you like, and what sports, tv and music you watch and listen to and they take that to their advantage. For example companies like Lynx will use Tv adverts to lure customers in to check out their Facebook page and from their you can see any latest deal and offers and competitions you enter. Then when your friends have seen this they will check it out. It is a clever piece of marketing as one of the most powerful forms of marketing is word of mouth as it can spread quickly. I think social media like this is great as sometimes you find out about new products that are coming out and fits in well with the purpose of using social media as it helps build up a good spirit and the more people that are getting involved the bigger and quicker the company will grow.

Twitter came a little bit of Facebook it has a totally different style and layout to Facebook. Its not as commercial to start with as i feel the whole aim of Twitter is that you are in control of what you do and your opinions are there to be seen. With Facebook you have that freedom but at times it is used as a tool to promote and i think that is why the Twitter community is growing quickly. The hash tags you use go into a data base and if you type in a hash tag used you will see like minded people who are perhaps very similar to you and because you have less characters to play with sometimes you have to be a bit more creative with your tweets. As of 2013 there has been a total of 163 billion tweets and in 2012 around 175 million tweets were sent daily. Twitter also gives you the chance to be more engaged with companies and celebrities and you can send them your own thoughts unlike on facebook where it is more then likely they will have a a team who work on their pages. The risk with twitter though because anybody can see what you are doing all the time the chances are there will be people more willing to abuse you as a celebrity and it can be hard to have a private life as there will be everyone who will be watching your every move.

Also now the rise of picture social networking sites are now a powerful force. The main one is Instagram which allows its users to upload pictures daily aswell as this you get to use the variety of filters available on the app. The social side of this is your friends can look and comment on all your pictures and aswell as using # more people can enter your world. It was taken over two years ago by Facebook it has now gained 50 million users and generates 575 likes and 81 comments every second. Since it has started over 4 billion photos have been uploaded. I think this is a popular app because the user can take vintage photos and as a user they love taking pictures regularly as its a way of keeping your own album.


I think the main reason that social media sites are so popular is the fact it is free. This means that if people have a access to the internet people will start using it more because it gives you the chance to express yourself or as i like to call it an online presence. Sometimes our online presence is very much different to us as for some people they feel they can be themselves online. It gives you more chances to keep up with friends and family as well as national news and in general without it we would be very much lost.

Some links i used: http://blogsession.co.uk/2013/01/facebook-statistics-2013/

http://www.dazeinfo.com/2013/01/10/social-media-statistics-2013-facts-figures-facebook-twitter/

Trip To Bradford

So last week i was given the pleasure of being given a chance to go visit the media museum in Bradford. I had done a little of research before i went and was excited for my visit to Bradford. What could be better then going to watch a Imax film and then get to go around a museum that holds loads of interesting archive, equipment. I was most looking forward to the exhibition  of Ray Harryhausen and the photography of Tom Wood. Ray Harryhausen is famous for doing the stop-motion animation on films such as "Jason and the Argonauts" and "Clash Of The Titans". As a kid i used to love Jason and the Argonauts and even to this day thing it is a film with a brilliant dynamic to it and the stop animation, though dated now was well ahead of its time i still get a thrill from watching the skeletons come alive. Tom Wood is somebody i have not heard as i don't know much about photography but looking at some of his images i was taken to era before my time a much simpler time one i could only imagine. His photos are nothing fancy nor artistic but they show the public  going about there everyday life. It shows how simple life was before digital cameras took over and when i saw some of his images i was looking forward to seeing his work at face value.

 A piece of work done by Ray Harryhausen

The start of the day i had brought myself a disposal camera hoping to find the time to get some photos of my own to take back with me. It is something i have done a view times as i really like the filters that are used to in the cameras it gives me a feel of being a youth again where a picture was to be used for a frame to put on the family cabinet and not to be spread across for the internet for the whole world to see. Getting there i was eager to get inside and see what the place had to offer and it didn't fail. Walking in looking around in the gift shop was a good way to start and i wish i had brought some money with me as there was a few books i would of liked to purchase and photography but if i ever visit again i know for sure i will have to pick one up.   Then it was on to the I-Max film about the Hubble telescope. Even though I-Max hurts my eyes i can't deny how brilliant it is. Nothing can really top it is visually perfect and gives the audience a better viewing experience as you feel you are there living and breathing in the film. After the film had done i walked around the museum with dale to see what it had in store and i was looking forward to seeing the pictures by Tom Wood.

The exhibition didn't disappoint me either i wanted to take a few photos but there was a ban on picture taking(which seems a bit ironic but oh well) going around his work it was like i was there in the shot with the people.Its not that he has used any fancy technology or computer tricks it is just plain and simple and very effective. It use no lighting either its just a man and his camera and taking a picture without worrying, Some of the pictures that he has done are probably a bit out there and different. But isn't that what the world stands out for sometimes? Someone who is willing to stand out from the mainstream and do what they believe is right. Every movement starts with someone and stands out from the rest. Im not saying this is pioneering stuff but the pictures taken some up a lot of feeling without the person in the picture knowing what has happened. It's great it gives the audience a lot to think about when they look at the picture. I was thinking as i went around where are these people now? Have they ever seen these pictures been taken off them and what would they think about it. I want to do a separate blog about Wood so i can break down and analysis some of the pictures and shoots that he has done. Downstairs they had the Kodak museum it was great getting to know some of the old camera and the type of pictures it took(links in with the Tom Wood exhibition)  it is an area i would like to get to know a lot better old film for cameras and build up a portfolio for myself as at times i feel we overload everything with digital and sometimes i just want to take a picture without worrying what filter i am going to use or taking one two or three times to make sure it is perfect.

Below are two of the images from the gallery at Bradford:

For the Ray Harryhausen i was very let down i was hoping to find a lot more about the man behind such genius work. There wasn't really a lot about him i just managed to get a few snaps of some of his creations which i will upload when i get chance. Despite this let down i enjoyed my day in Bradford i got to know how to use vintage 1950's camera and how much different filming was back then and how the digital world has now made film making and tv work a much smoother process. Also playing vintage videos games was a big highlight for me at the end of the day

Couple of images and video i took on my day at Bradford

Hello 2013( It has been a while)

Hello 2013 its been a while i do apologies for that. But i am back now and ready to get this show on the road. My blog will consist of my life at uni and how i will try(and hopefully succeed in) getting into the big wide world of media. My current University is giving me the biggest chance possible  of getting where i want to go in life. For anybody who reads this i would highly recommend the course at Nottingham Trent as it gives you loads of chances to gain the experience that is required. With the mix of getting work experience with academic work.

At the start of this course i had no experience in either of these two(well not properly) but within the time i have spend at Trent i have grown and grown and now i feel very upbeat about what is going to happen.  I will write some separate posts about the current placements i have got at the moment. I am working at two places at the moment one is at "The Hive" there we are making videos for our boss Sean Macaskill. My main role in the team is sound and film and arranging meetings. My other placement is "White Collar Zoo" this placement has been a lot of hard work but it is starting to have a lot of promise. Before going onto placement i was involved in a competition for Notts TV. We had to produce an ident, marketing campaign and a logo for Notts Tv and we had three weeks to produce everything. After a slow start we managed to pick it up the end and been part of the team that made the ident i was pleased with what we produced in such little time.  This was a great experience for me as i got involved with a competition with bosses in high places and if we could produce a video that was good enough we knew that we would be able to get some good references out of it. But it wasn't to be as even though we produced a brilliant video we feel just short of the other team who impressed the judges more then us. If we had an extra week on the project i feel we could of beat team 1 but they had a brilliant team which was hardworking and its hats off to them.

So that was just a small update on what i have done since my last blog entry and i promise i will keep up to date with it and do a few more posts ok peace out