Thoughtful Portfolio Visit

This lunchtime I went to the Thoughtful Studio to have a portfolio visit with James and Stuart. I showed them some of my pieces and asked for some feedback. Obviously I could have asked that via email but it is always better when you talk to companies in person to get a more personal response. This ensures you can completely explain your ideas and what you wanted to communicate.

I think I came across well in the meeting and to start with Stuart told me that they were impressed with what they've seen of my work previously. They mentioned how well and mature I came across in presentations and how I seemed to explain myself well. This was very kind of them to say but also a great boost in my confidence before I presented my work to them this time.

VH1: I started by explaining my ideas behind the VH1 and what I wanted to show with the piece. They really liked the piece and told me that they liked the way it was done and at first they thought it was a mixture between real footage and maya work. I told them how I have redone the lighting to make the whole piece lighter. James disagreed and said he liked the lighting and it went well with the materials and the distressed look of everything. They both thought the music went well with the piece and really summed up the channel. The only thing they really suggested was maybe putting a foot in with the pedal.

E4: I showed the guys my ad that produced for the D&AD brief and they were very impressed. They liked the fact I hadn't just used 3D and stuck with that. They understood how hard it is to organise people and get locations which to film in. They thought the piece showed the guilty pleasures thing well. They also mentioned how good it was that I included the purple theme throughout the piece. All in all they respected my organisation skills.

Threat Of Exposure: After the E4 add I showed the guys my title sequence. I explained the brief and the plot. They understood and were impressed with my ideas and how I showed that in the piece. At this point Stuart asked me what my influences were for this title sequence. He mentioned Kyle Cooper which I agreed with using Se7en as an example. I also told them about Delicatessen which they saw the connections between. The only criticisms they had with this piece was that they suggested I filled the wall with newspaper clippings and didn't just have a few. They also agreed with Chris Hardcastle and thought I should distress the desk and the wall objects more to make them look like they've been torn out, creased and well used.

After speaking about this we spoke about how I would improve as I'am only a second year. We spoke of combining live footage with the 3D elements. This has made me think more about what I want to do for my final major next.

DO Lecture: To finish with I showed them the work I am currently working on to their brief. This was the intro and outro for the DO Lectures online web lectures. They were very impressed with what I had produced and they really want me to continue with the idea and maybe incorporate a strap-line and music as well as the natural sounds in the background.

After talking about my work, we were talking about their future projects and future work. I enjoyed hearing their ideas and how they are going to go about their next projects. I look forward to seeing how it turns out and seeing what they do in the future. I will be heading up to see them next year to see what other projects they get and their plans on how to tackle them.

Mainframe Contact Report

After contacting Chris Hardcastle at Mainframe he sent me back this contact repart after looking at both my title sequence and my VH1 ident. His constructive criticism was very helpful and I agree with every word he said and while I have some free time over the summer these are the areas in which I will try and improve!

Making of Camdem Crawl, Mainframe

This is a breakdown of a project produced by Mainframe. After Speaking with Chris Hardcastle from Mainframe I have been checking out the breakdowns on their website of how hey produced some of their pieces of work. I especially like this one as it shows you the step by step production and all they layers of development a job like this has to go through.

I started looking into Autodesk MatchMover last week and was intrested how they combined their 3D elements with their real time footage. This shows how they combine the 2 seamlessly. Over summer I am going to have a play with match moving and see what I can produce before coming back in September. I think this is the next logical step when i enjoy 3D work so much.

Water Piece

This is what matt wrote about our group piece (Water Project) when going to a studio visit and this is the feedback we got from Malcolm and John Watkins when sending a contact report.

Water Project:

Although there are things that we as a group have already decided that were going to change with the piece I decided to show this piece anyway. I felt that as we took this project on as a group project and it was different to the other briefs we have set, that this would be interesting to have a talk about. He loved the work and asked me to pass the feedback onto Steve and Luke. He said that the piece works really well in terms of narrative and telling the journey of the process. Interestingly, he thought that the length of the piece wasn't too long and if we chopped it up too much that it might loose something. He liked the music that me had used, but suggested that we consider the use f font and the way that the type is brought onto the screen. Maybe that it animates on either letter by letter or word by word, to fit with the flow of the piece. We were considering editing the length of the piece , however maybe its more important that we asses the way that the type is used. 

Portfolio visit with Malc Shannon

Water Project:
I like the water movie, it keeps you watching until the end. I would like to see the pipe moving all the time and maybe be followed. The house looks good. also maybe cut the length about about 2min. Very very good.

Contact Report with John Watkins

Died Young Stayed Pretty Lecture

On Friday afternoon I went to the lecture theatre to see this documentary on underground rock ‘n’ roll posters and the artists behind them. It was interesting to see why the artists did what they did and how influenced by each other they were. It was quite funny in places with some very interesting ideas being thrown around. Alot of them worked for next to no money and quite often let the artists have to posters for them to raise funds. A couple of the artists I struggled with as they were very opinionated and had a really obscure view on life. Some of the camera work was a bit erratic and was hard to watch at times but i did like the amount of different views shown when talking to the artists.

I think I enjoyed it but I thought it was also thought it was a bit too long. I don't think I'll be watching it again though.

If i were you I would watch "Exit Through The Gift Shop" instead!

Thoughtful Lecture

The guys from Thoughtful came and gave us a talk as practice for the 4 Designers Conference which they were presenting at on 22nd February. I have worked with Stu and Chris in the past but it was good to hear abit more about them and their backgrounds. It was fascinating to see that they had come from nothing to what they are now. They kicked off their presentation by showing us what inspires them and what has driven to do what they are doing now. They didn't just stick to graphic design inspirations either, they also had inspirations from all sorts of disciplines such as sport and music. Chris also looked at Chindogu which we looked at last year. From here they showed us past pieces of their work and how they got to the outcomes they came to. This was interesting but the section that really stood out to me was the "Wise Words".

Chris and Stu Presenting at 4 Designers Conference

The was words were from a few different designers such as Patrick Baglee, Greg Quinton, Jonathan Baldwin and Michael Wolff. The guys asked them a series of questions to inspire students on how to do well in the future and how to get noticed. Quotes such as,

"Only work with the best even if you don't get paid."

and

"Change with the times"

really stuck with me and made me want to push myself. Hearing from the Thoughtful guys and all of the designers they had managed to contact really inspired me. It showed me just how important networking is and how making contacts is key to being successful. And finally the I thought the 5 P's were brilliant and so true to everything you do not just design...

Preparation

Prevents

Piss

Poor

Performance

Shellsuit Zombie

When we were on our trip to London we had an evening with guys (and girl) from Shellsuit Zombie who are all postgraduates in the design. They gave us a talk informing us on what to expect when we leave university. I thoroughly enjoyed the evening and learn a lot from them all. They all told their individual stories and where they ended up which showed that we couldn't just sit around waiting for something to happen and we need to get out and get on with things. They organised an activity for us where we had to design an ad campaign using controversial celebrities and controversial products which was a great laugh.

They also gave us this book to fill full of quotes and illustrations that came to us throughout the evening. All in all it was a good relaxing evening but gave us all alot of inspiration for our futures.

Exit Through The Gift Shop

I went to see this film The week it came out at the Cornerhouse in Manchester. I'll start by saying I thought it was brilliant and one of the best films I've seen in a while!

This was a very cleverly made film and I feel that Banksy has done himself the world of good by releasing this. The film isn't a documentary about Banksy which you might expect. It's a documentary about the guy who tried to make a documentary about Banksy. This is about a would-be filmmaker Thierry Guetta, who ran a vintage clothing store in Los Angeles cousin was the Paris graffiti artist known as "Space Invader." Later in the film you see this film maker who starts thinking "I can do that" and attempts to become Mr. Brainwash.

Thierry Guetta (Mr Brainwash) being interviewed.

You start by liking the French film maker until it is revealed that he is a total sell out who doesn't care about the art but just about making the money. He ends up hiring a team of people to produce Mr Brainwash's pieces and puts no thought and effort into what he produces. He starts selling these so called pieces of art for ridiculous prices as he is the hot new artist out at the time that everyone must have. As you can tell, if we met I don't think we would get on.

Banksy being interviewed.

Anyway your probably thinking why did I like it so much, well look at the reaction the film got from me. I think it is really intelligent of Bansky to release this as everyone keeps saying as he has had exhibitions and shows that he is a sellout but this film shows otherwise. There is still a meaning behind each of his pieces and he thinks about location just as much as the art. I think with this film he is saying, "I'm not a sellout... this guy is a sellout" and he comes across very well.

If Mr Brainwash is going to make money out of Banksy then why shouldn't he do it in return. Anyway this is a fantastic film and definitely see it if you have the opportunity.

Double Negative Visit

In march 2010 I went to London as part of a group to see some professionals in our field and we had a choice of studio's we could select from. I chose Double Negative Visual Effects company.

I've always had a strong interest in films and how CGI is used when compositing footage together. This was therefore an ideal trip. I first found out about the company when a past student from my degree course did "running" for the company last year. Since speaking to him about the work he has done and the kind of opportunities he has had made me look into them. Before we turned up I looked into to past pieces of work they had produced and past films they have worked on.

On their website it says they started with 30 staff and have grown to over 700 but this did not prepare me for the size of the company. We entered the building and spoke to Vic who is head of HR and she told us that it spread over 5 floors of that particular building. Being a past English teacher she was very good with people and really showed her enthusiasm for what she did. She showed us around the first floor of DN. This included everything from a reception area to 2D and 3D design rooms. Just seeing the workspace with everyone working together on projects I found fascinating. There was such a good atmosphere to the company even though it was it's huge scale. She explained the separate areas of their company before taking us into one of their screening rooms.

In the screening room we saw a showreel of pieces they have worked on and before we went back and watched it back trying to guess which bits had been done by DN. It was great to see what they had done and how some of it was so well hidden it was hard to figure out how they had done it.

After this she spoke to us about what we were up to on our course while we signed a form saying that we would not speak a word about the footage we were about to see. So I'm afraid thats about all I can tell you about the trip... They finished by showing us some examples of their compositing and how many layers and stages a shot goes through. It was fasinating to see and i think the trip convinced me the area in which i want to get into when i finish the course.

But saying that there are many companies out there and many more visits which i want to go on so this is not set in stone. I just really want to see what the inductry has to offer.