RTS Careers Fair

On Wednesday 1st February, I attended a careers fair for RTS (Royal Television Society). Even though television is not the area I’m most interested in within Media, it was interesting to have an insight into something different. I travelled to London from Plymouth with four other friends and we spent two days looking at the sights and creating memories. This RTS fair was very positive for me because I looked at sectors within social media and journalism, a few jobs engaged me to apply for the role. Some of these positions were paid graduate jobs and some were unpaid shorter schemes.

As I am open to all possibilities when I finish university, I wanted to have improved knowledge of the company and the different roles they advertise yearly. When I finish university, I want to try and ensure I have a job waiting, ideally within the media. I am hoping to kick-start my career straight away by having relevant experience within the industry. By working alongside/for a well-known company will enhance my potential career aspirations and hopefully enhance my application. I will be attending other career fairs because I collected many skills throughout this experience, which enhanced my communicational skills by talking to people within the industry.

MEDI503: Final Gif

I am happy with this gif and I think it’s very successful as it’s the first cinemagraph I’ve ever made. I think I could of made my cinemagraph more personal to me which is something I would change if I had more time on this module. I would also change the background because it’s very bright and you can’t see what’s behind me, this is unfortunate because it’s very different to the original. Also I am standing the wrong side of the window compared to the original, I wanted my gif to be just like the original. This is something I wish I changed the most because I was inspired by this gif but I just didn’t have the time to change anything else. Reflecting back, I wish my time management skills were better so I could of had more development throughout this project but I think I did the best I could with the time I had left.

My final gif;

 

 The original gif;

Reference: Laurent, R. (2016) Romain Laurent. GIF. [on-line] http://static1.squarespace.com/static/52b33a6be4b07a518c7ecced/
559d9a22e4b0c1679a03db64/559d9a27e4b00219c95a7edb/1436391997561/11.gif?format=750w Date Accessed: 22nd April

MEDI503: Experiments before Final Gif

In the lesson we had on the 11th May, I developed this gif but I wasn’t as good as I hoped it would be. I found problems again when editing because only 2-3 frames were useable because there was too much movement like the previous examples on my blog. Nevertheless, I still developed this gif and I’m happy with the way it looks because I developed so many problems throughout the editing process it allowed me to have a lot of gifs to explain every outcome I had. I created the movie of my gif in Adobe Effect which gave the cinemagraph method. I then exported it into Adobe Photoshop and had to create a gif out of it but in doing this I found a lot of problems. 

First Attempt;

When I brought this video into Adobe Photoshop, I imported it wrong. I brought it in as a video but it should of been imported using frames instead because of this there is a small delay on the movement of my eyes. So I had to export it again to stop this from happening.

Second Attempt;

This attempt didn’t have the delay on all the frames but it didn’t loop forever, so it only goes around once. I wanted to ensure my gif went around a lot of times instead of just once because this makes the movement more effective.

Third Attempt;

I then imported this one using frames instead of the video and as you can see from the example, my eyes move  too fast and it doesn’t look as effective because it’s non-stop moving. I ideally wanted the movement of my eyes to be slower so it was more like the original example.

Fourth Attempt;

As the example beforehand was too fast, I wanted to ensure it was slower for my fourth attempt, so I slowed down the frames to 0.02 seconds per frame. Unfortunately this made my gif too slow so I had to re-export it again.

Please look at Final Gif post for final gif. 

MEDI503: Creating Gifs in Adobe Photoshop and After Effects

During the last couple of weeks I needed to refer back to this lecture that we had at the start of this project on how to create gifs using Adobe Photoshop and Adobe After Effects. So I collected some notes in this lecture and I used them whilst creating my gifs. These notes were very effective when creating my gif.

Creating a gif using Adobe Photoshop

• Bring in files to photoshop (the ones you want for your animation)
• Make sure to number the files in order
• Click on window and timeline
• Make frames from layers, icon on right hand side
• Change the settings to forever loop, on left hand side at bottom
• Select all frames, copy frame and paste after selection
• Reserve Frames
• Select down bottom menu to change length
• No delay for stop motion animation
• Image size; don’t go over 1000 pixels
• File, export, save for web and check review window

Creating a gif using Adobe After Effects

• Use photoshop for cutting out unwanted parts
• Create your strip on Photoshop before bringing it into After Effects
• Use video from Photoshop and still images
• Preview, to change loop
• Chose timeline
• File, export and add to render queue
• Render as video on After Effects and open in Photoshop as frames
• File, import, video frames to layers in Photoshop
• Select from beginning to end, frame animation
• Loop Forever
• File, export, save for web.
• Don’t go over 2gb for file size
• Looping options: Forever

I used both of these processes when making my gif and I found them very helpful. So I will be using them again when creating a gif or cinemagraph.

MEDI503: Development of Final Gif

In the third week of this project, I developed more stop motion animations and cinemagraphs. As the theme for this project was self-portrait I developed two gifs which included myself. One of them was me holding several umbrellas and the other was me holding a glass jar in front of my face. I wanted to do two initial gifs and then hopefully this would teach me new methods for creating my final one. I unfortunately couldn’t do this because I didn’t have enough time to take all the images for the stop motion animation or cinemagraph. So I had to make one gif and then try a new idea to show development. I done this well but I would’ve liked to create more than two gifs for my development to show more of a range.

Potential Location 1

Potential Location 2

Potential Location 3

Potential Location 4

Potential Location 4

As the quality of my experimental gif isn’t very good compared to others. I wanted to ensure my next/final gif would be better and show more academic skills. The second idea I developed was from ‘Romain Laurent’ and it displayed a glass jar in front of a female’s face, this was inspiring for me because it showed some cinematic backgrounds (which is what I wanted). I chose to use this idea as my final gif because it allowed me to create something simple but have a complex narrative. Taking the pictures for this shoot, didn’t come as easy as I thought it would because I was confused on whether to take it as a film or a stop motion method. So I chose to do both so I could show more of a selection, I also changed locations of where I would stand so I could show more of a range. I had four different locations and I chose to go with the one of me standing by the window because it was most like the original. (Potential Location 4)

MEDI503: Development/Experimentation

After doing initial research and additional research in the first week, I decided to start experimenting with some of the ideas I was inspired by. As I haven’t ever made a cinemagraph I wanted to ensure I gave myself enough time for improvements if I needed to. During the second week of this project, I wanted to start experiment with the motion of the umbrella and see if I could create an cinemagraph just of the umbrella moving instead of my body and fingers. I was successful in doing this, but I found a lot of problems when trying to actually create the cinemagraph in Adobe After Effects as there was too much movement in the umbrella. So I had to create a gif which didn’t have many frames, doing this made the gif have a disadvantage. Instead of having a gif which actually moved around, mine just creates the illusion of it moving around from frame to frame instead of round and round in a circle. This idea proved a lot harder than I thought it would be, but it was a good skill to learn throughout the development of this gif. I also tried to complete my first gif on photoshop but a lot of the frames I took in a stop-motion method were unusable because there was too much movement. Unfortunately, because of this I could only use 2 frames out of 70, which meant I had a lot to learn to make my cinemagraph successful in the upcoming weeks.

In the next week, I hope to work on my second idea of an eye moving near a glass jar but this time I will be taking what I’ve learnt from this experience and trying to improve my on the next method.

This is the gif I made;

This is the software I used;

Adobe After Effects

Adobe Photoshop

MEDI503: Reflection on Gif’s

I wanted to do some further research into what gifs/cinemagraphs I didn’t really like just so I could refine my idea further. Showing examples which I liked on previous posts allows me to create experiments on what I like the most, whereas I haven’t included information on what I don’t like to see included on a gifs/cinemagraphs. This was the next point I wanted to cover so people could understand my development and know why I was inspired by the gifs I chose.

This first example, isn’t the type of gif I’m looking to make because it includes a lot of movement from the coloured lights. I also don’t like the reflection around the room and on the walls, however I like the silhouette in the centre of the gif because it’s not moving. I also think the strobe light is very repetitive and could benefit from slowing down just a bit because it gives an overpowering lighting feeling for some audiences.

Reference: Giphy (2016) Giphy. Self Portrait. [on-line] http://giphy.com/page/2 Date Accessed: 9th May 2016

This second example, also isn’t the type of gif I want to create because it’s got too much movement in the hands. Even though, this is a self-portrait which is the theme we needed for the gifs I don’t really like the skills displayed. I also don’t really like the movement of this gif as I find it boring and repetitive it also doesn’t display much skill within the movement of the hands.

Reference: Giphy (2016) Giphy. Self Portrait. [on-line] http://giphy.com/page/2 Date Accessed: 9th May 2016

This third example, includes a silhouette of a park which includes trees and birds. I like the background of this gif and I think the sunset in this gif is cinematic (this is how I would like my cinemagraph). Although, I think the movement of the birds is very quick and changes the feel of this gif, from being cinematic to being rushed. I want minimal movement included in my gif because I don’t want it to be overloaded with moving objects.

Reference:  Giphy (2016) Giphy. Self Portrait. [on-line] http://giphy.com/page/2 Date Accessed: 9th May 2016

Medi503: Additional Research into Cinemagraph’s

As I developed throughout this project, I definitely wanted to do a cinemagraph so I decided to do further research into what cinemagraph was and who started it. From the source ‘The Washington Post’ I learnt that the cinemagraph was created by one male and one female, Jamie Beck and Kevin Burg. They created a new method because Jamie was an New York based photographer and Kevin was a web designer. So they came together and created animated gifs called cinemagraph’s.

“It’s somewhere between a photo and a video, a piece of artwork that seeks to perfectly capture a fleeting moment in time.” (Flock, E. 2011)

I want to be able to capture a perfect moment with my cinemagraph, so this quote was very inspiring for the development of this project. I wanted to do a cinemagraph because the idea of having an still image in additional to an video really engaged me to try and develop one.

Another source which helped me, suggested to me why a cinemagraph is so captivating and that they should become facebook’s new brilliant method. They explain a cinemagraph as something you couldn’t draw your eyes off, which is the perfect explanation for a cinemagraph. They are brilliant and allow you to be interactive and include a mixed media form. They also quote that if you came along one on Facebook you wouldn’t be able to scroll down, I find gifs on facebook funny so I would love to see a cinemagraph. (Sloane, G. 2015) Fortunately, facebook supports this creative design because it allows users to not click a button and still remind engaged.

Next I wanted to find a quote, which explained the way I feel about self-portraiture and what it means to me.

“It’s hard to understand why self-portraits, as a genre, have until now been so little discussed. They include some of the greatest works of all time” (Spalding, F. 2014)

Spalding suggests that portraits have been ignored before and people have started to discussed them he also comments that self portraits  are the greatest works of all time. This relates to how I feel about self portraits, it’s not been a massive method for me before as I think it’s outdated now as we have the ‘selfie’ instead. After doing this project and working with self-portraits, I have learnt there is many ways to be able to capture a self portrait and they are a lot more interesting than I thought before. Spalding’s comments are similar to my opinions I had previously on self-portraiture but now I agree with him that the greatest works of all time is self-portraiture.

After doing this additional research, I have come to the conclusion that making a cinemagraph would be the best possible outcome. I like that I can be flexible with the type of image/video that I want to use and when it’s finalised it will look professional.

References

Flock, E. (2011) Cinemagraphs: What it looks like when a photo moves. The Washington Post. [on-line] https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/blogpost/post/cinemagraphs-what-it-looks-like-when-a-photo-moves/2011/07/08/gIQAONez3H_blog.html. Date Accessed: 7th May 2016.

Sloane, G. (2015) Here Is the Captivating Ad Format Facebook Hopes Will Wow Its Users. Adweek. [on-line] http://www.adweek.com/news/technology/here-captivating-ad-format-facebook-hopes-wows-its-users-162839. Date Accessed: 7th May 2016.

Spalding, F. (2014) The Self Portrait: A Cultural History Review. The Guardian. http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/mar/27/self-portrait-culture-history-james-hall-review-profoundly-human. Date Accessed 12th May

Medi503: Gif Research

During university, we had a project based on gifs and we had to create one which included an self portrait. After researching many artists, I found out I preferred cinemagraph style gifs because it allowed me to create an still image but still have some part of the image/clip moving. As I prefer to do photography I wanted to make sure my gif was mostly still image based because this is what I’m more skilled at.

Figure 1

Figure 2

References
Figure 1: Laurent, R. (2016) Romain Laurent. GIF. [on-line] http://static1.squarespace.com/static/52b33a6be4b07a518c7ecced/
559d9a22e4b0c1679a03db64/559d9a23e4b01af9ed998810/1436391977614/34.gif?format=750w Date Accessed: 22nd April

Figure 2: Laurent, R. (2016) Romain Laurent. GIF. [on-line] http://static1.squarespace.com/static/52b33a6be4b07a518c7ecced/
559d9a22e4b0c1679a03db64/559d9a27e4b00219c95a7edb/1436391997561/11.gif?format=750w Date Accessed: 22nd April

These examples from the artist, Romain Laurent potentially gave me the initial idea to create a gif which was a full body self portrait. I liked the idea of having my full body in the image because it gives the image some sort of meaning.

Another initial idea I chose was inspired by the artist, Mario Sahe-Lacheante on a gif he created. It captured pouring a drink into a glass but the whole image was still and just the liquid between the bottle and glass was moving. I really liked this gif because it was engaging for the audience as it’s an still image but still displays some sort of movement. Like this example, I will position just my arm in the image as it will be beneficial because the main subject would be the liquid moving.

Look at this example here;

Reference: Sahe-Lacheante, M (2016) Fixel Cinemagraph. [on-line] https://flixels.s3.amazonaws.com/flixel/37j166egeqadu8of6jxw.hd.mp4 Date Accessed: 22nd April

Other cinemagraph examples, I found engaging are available on the link below. These gifs were created by many artists their names will be found below the gifs on the webpage.

https://flixel.com/cinemagraphs/fresh/

After researching, I am excited to create a gif as I haven’t really designed one before. I created an interactive small 4-5 frame gif before in a group but I really wanted to create one which showcased  more skill. Having this opportunity to create something I’ve never properly done before is intriguing and hopefully I will learn many new methods within the development of this project.

‘Home, Where our Story Begins’

#sixwordstory –  ‘Life has ways of surprising you.’

As a child, my dad was always there supporting me and I was a daddy’s little girl. He used to give me everything I would ask for but always taught me right from wrong. Having a strict dad meant I always missed out on big events and parties because he wouldn’t let me go out with my friends when he was not there with me. As I got everything I wanted, I never complained because I always had my dad by my side. When I turned thirteen, everything changed and my mum and dad started to argue and tried to hide it as much as possible. Having an older brother helped me out with these confusing times because he was always there for me, right by my side. This was beneficial because the arguments started getting worse between my parents. My dad started staying out later each night but also was sleeping on the sofa most nights and sometimes not coming back until the morning after. Throughout this period of my life, I didn’t really have many trustworthy friends so I had to experience all of this alone. Months went on and nothing really changed. My brother started to become more upset about something but I couldn’t quite understand why. The arguments were getting harder to ignore and I could hear them both arguing throughout the night and shouting at each other. Finally, one night, my brother had gone out and I had to stay at home listening to my parents arguing and by this time, it was a regular occurrence. My brother had been going out a lot more because he wanted to get out of the house. I was sitting in the lounge watching my favourite programme at the time and my parents were in the kitchen. They started arguing really badly and screaming at each other. Then my dad went upstairs for something but I didn’t know what it was at the time. He came back downstairs and then shouted at my mum and I heard my mum say ‘if you leave, you will never be able to come back’. He then left through the front door and he never came back. My family household has always been different after that day, I guess life has ways of surprising you.