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!

New Threat Of Exposure

After the feedback from my title sequence piece I've re-rendered my final piece using a different piece of music and syncing it. I have softened the continuous camera movements to keep the momentum throughout the piece while keeping the mood. I wanted to keep the noir look but by using an occlusion layer the whole piece looks a lot more realistic. I'm happy with how it's turned out but if I was to tweek it I would hold the camera a little longer on the first name.

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