Mandatory "it's been ages since i updated" blog title

I want to make a website but I don't do enough stuff to make having a website worth it. It's probably pretty bad that watching Nathan Barley was what made me want to do this, as that's a giant satire on how retards with no talent think they're important cos they have websites and such. Someone shoot me before I ever become a New Media wanker.

Anyway, I'm still waiting on a lot of things to update with, but here's a short one. For my final design piece, I chose to create a press pack for a film. I had assumed it had to be a fictional film, but apparently you could have had real ones as well, as the new DVD cover for Schindler's List I saw at one point proved to me. Anyway, I took some inspiration from Harmony Korine and the Dogme 95 movement and came up with a fictional movie:

Francis and the Gang
Francis, a young adult with severe autism, wanders the streets of the city at night searching for self-meaning. Down a back alley, he meets a gang of people with similar mental disorders, who live their lives together, stealing what they need and drinking all night, staying together in an abandoned house nobody else ever visits. Francis soon joins them, and becomes part of a whirlwind life filled with criminal activity and danger.

Also inspired by the fact that pictures of my friends on nights out are hilarious. The first thing I made for the press pack was a poster:


I should at this point thank my friend and fellow bandmember Ben Wilson for just pulling the most fantastic faces ever. I also decided to make some little fact sheet things for the characters, in a card form. Yeah I dunno just have a look at a couple of em and you'll get the gist:


I also took part in the writing and filming of a 15 minute live kid's TV show all about China and pandas and stuff, and made a radio package about robots. While I don't like to blame other people for things, the reason none of these are up is entirely Bing's fault.

In the meantime, have some funny YouTube videos, as well as an awesome short film by Cakebomb's TomSka starring that dude who plays Percy in the Harry Potter Films:

Oh wow it's been nearly 3 months

I apologise for the lack of updates! First there was nothing to update for ages, then there was lots and it was just like "OH GOD"

Anyway, the first semester ended, and with it, we said goodbye to the Digital Media, Photography, and Script, Screenwriting & Realisation modules. Choices was filmed, edited, finished, and handed in. When they've finished the marking, we'll get the tape back and I'll be able to put it on the internet and show you lovely people. I also handed in my projects for the other two modules, but to be honest they were nothing really amazing or worth showing. My original idea for Photography fell through so I had to do this whole guitar playing thing, and I wasn't very happy with it. Digital Media I was pleased with, but the photos I took of my house were definitely the coolest/best things about it, before I drew all over them and ruined it, haha. I'm pretty sure I got a good mark for that one.

So now we're doing three new modules, and for the most part they're incredibly fun. First up is Production Planning, which is pretty much just another way of saying TV. We get to use the small TV studio (Students who carry it on next year get to use the large studio, which is one of the biggest in the country) and the final assessment is for the entire group to work together on a children's TV show based on a certain geographical area. Despite the deadline not being for weeks, our group's getting a head start. We've already chosen China for the topic of the programme, and everyone has their parts. I will be assisting in the scriptwriting, as well as one of the three cameraman for the final piece. So far in the workshops we've all done different jobs for certain things, swapping round each week. I've been the sound guy, a cameraman, director (It was a catastrophic failure) and last time around I acted, which was incredibly fun as it was the first week we got to improvise something and not just work from a script we were given.

The second new module is Design & Visual Communication, which is really just what the title says. Our first assignment was to make something that we thought described us. While a lot of people made collages or cartoons or something, I booked out the photo studio and went a more slightly traditional route:


I was pretty happy with it, and people seemed to like it, so yay! The final assignment is to make a press packet/poster for a film or CD or various other things. I would do the Mute album but Ben already did that when he did the module last semester (more on that later), so maybe I'll just make up a fake Dogme film as an excuse not to put much effort into it. LOL!

Then there's the final module, Radio & Sound. I'll admit to not being massively interested in radio as a whole, but I've enjoyed this so far. I'm in a group with Bing, Jason, and Luke, and our first project has been to make a soundscape. Bing came up with the idea of making one that gives off the feeling of being underwater, and a sort of harmony that can be found there compared to above ground. This should be finished within the next couple of days, and then I'll post it up here. After that, we have to make a 15 minute radio show and present it live. It'll be interesting.

That's about it for Uni, but there's more to report on. I've recently started writing for Projectorheads, a movie blog, along with some of my friends from Ugmo. It contains reviews, features, and occasional videos. I'm currently writing a segment on my top 10 directors for it, so be sure to keep checking it out.

In January, I discovered Xtranormal, an odd site where you write a script and little robot people act it out. No good for making movies or animations you want people to take seriously, but the idea is comedy gold, so I used it to make a short web series called Excellent Jim. You can watch all the episodes by clicking on these links:

1 2 3 4 5

I stopped after episode 5 because, well, once you start to make jokes about ejaculating in Madeline McCann's eye, you've taken things as far as you can in the "tasteless" category, really. Some of my friends have made other videos though, which are pretty damn fantastic.

I guess the final thing to update you guys on is Mute. We've played a few gigs, and have a couple more videos up on youtube:

The Escape - Live at The Black Market 10th December 2008
Pennyword - Live at The Black Market 10th December 2008

We also have some new videos from our latest gig, but they're not up yet. The next couple of gigs we have lined up are with some fairly big local bands, so I'm quite excited for them.

Oh yeah, we also finished the CD.


Catch you guys later.