Week 12: Return of the normal posts...

We are back to weekly posts that are enforced by my 2014 diary (had to blow off the dust...)

On the Wednesday (What I class the start of my work week, and Tuesday is classed as the end of the week... If you hadn't noticed...) I turned up to work, but my boss had taken the hard drive and laptop with my project on (Avro sisters) which meant that I had nothing to do. After a wait of about an hour and a few texts (which never sent I might add), I was asked over the phone to get the serial numbers for his: 4 cameras (All JVC); Audio mixer; Talk Back; and Tricaster. When talking to my boss, he said that he would arrived when I finish collecting the serial numbers and within 15-20 minutes I was done and had waited for him to arrive. It is all I could do, since there were no projects available to edit on the machines present and there was no packing since previous projects were with other editors, miles away.

Then he finally arrived and rather than getting me straight on with Avro Sisters, I had to create an Amazon listing for a single DVD to see if it would sell. After much confusion and having to explain the costing against having amazon to fulfil and fulfilling the postage themselves, I had finally finished. However most of my day was gone... So I made some audio changes to my edits and went home.

The DVD in question.., (Click the blue text)

On Friday, I returned and had a better day and actually got work done! Or so I thought... Within one day, the editing laptop had crashed 15 times, restarted three times and set me back an entire day due to its inability to understand what 'save' means, or even 'save as'.  Not only did this set the edit for AVRO sisters behind an entire day, it looked as if I had done no work what so ever. To add insult to injury, when my boss had returned the laptop worked fine! And because there was a day lost, I technically did nothing. See Below the laptop in question:

Here is my laptop and the only picture I managed to snap during the entire stressful situation.

However I did do the following:

• Finished the draft edit for East Kirkby
• Finished completed Lincoln Vulcan Lancaster edit

Where I got to after 14th attempt before it died

After a long talk with the bosses son on the phone, we figured out that the anti-virus was in fact causing the problem, as well as an out-dated driver. I left hoping Monday would be a more productive day.


Which leads to Monday, the penultimate day of this epic saga of work experience, but just another day in regards to paid work. Today started off not too well, after visiting the doctors I arrived at work and to my surprise, my boss had forgotten the fiasco of Friday and assumed what I had done before as a draft was solid and said what I had done was all wrong. From there, I spent the rest of the day rectifying East Kirkby edit, which I planned to do anyway. However, with my boss stood over me most of the time, I felt pressured and got flustered rather quickly and made several mistakes and felt like I couldn't edit properly. But after 6 and a half hours, I had rectified the mistake and made sure (5 times) that the project had saved before I had left. The edit for East Kirkby section of AVRO sisters should last around the 10 minute 30 second mark. 

Thank you for following this blog, and it will turn into a production blog in the new year with new projects hopefully!

Josh

Final hours: 194 hours and 20 minutes

Special post 2: 8, 9, 10, 11

Here is the special post 2!

As last time, I have been EXTREMELY busy with working at my placement, 3 days a week. This is due to a number of reasons:

- Finishing the OOLS Club DVD project (14/11/14)

- Air show DVD/Blu-rays are behind in production

- Starting of working on the years 'block buster': Avro-Sisters

- Constantly answering the phone to make orders, handle complaints, etcetera.

But let us work down in order...

On the 14th of November, I had finished the OOLS Club DVD that was made for my boss and his model train club, the OO Live Steam Club. When producing the DVD menu, I had used Adobe Encore CS5 on the Windows 7 machines they use at Planes TV. As far as the brief is concerned, the task was relatively easy and highly creative: Make a DVD with a moving background; a chapter menu; both main features on the main screen; and no transitions.

The first task was to make a moving background, which was performed using Adobe After effects for smoke, then with some adjusting placing the smoke layer on top with the alpha channel activated to allow the background image to be viewed. Image in question was the picture of the LNER A4 Mallard train, which was a Live Steam train from my boss's own collection. Once done, rendered and exported, it was placed into Encore within a timeline of its own. The timeline was then linked within Encore for the background using the link dragging tool within the menu settings window.

When making the buttons, I used Photoshop CS5 in conjunction with encore using the built-in work flow tools within the Adobe suite to allow saved Photoshop edits to be placed onto the encore project.  (Hint: When making buttons in Photoshop, place all elements of a button within a folder, and when naming the folder add a plus to the start. EG: + Chapters bin). 

During and after the production of the OO Live Steam DVD (Which took roughly 90 hours to compile due to extreme micro managing from my boss), we had many customers calling up the office asking where their DVD is, has it been made, and sometimes even ordering DVDs. 

When taking an order, you are to gather the follow:

>Name

>Address

>Phone Number

>Email address (if applicable since some customers don't use the internet)

>What DVDs are wanting to be purchased (Names of shows & Qty)

>Card Details

>Find if customers are returning customers, or if returning. If they are returning customers, find where they have come from. 

>If a customer quotes 'Aeroplane', they get British Air Shows '89 absolutely free.

When a customer is to complain about 2014 unfinished DVDs, explain that the company has been live broadcasting over the summer, and iterate that it deeply saddens us, that they are sad and that the DVD will soon be with them after the release date. If after telling the previous, and they are not happy, the customer usually asks for a refund. Bar that, the phones are easy to handle but they do delay production.

After completing OO Live Steam, I was placed to edit footage from a collection of air shows that featured the Canadian AVRO Lancaster Bomber that visited in August/September. Up until recently, I had no clue what show I was editing. It appears to be the show that is has been one of the most ordered shows of the year, Avro-sisters which features: the 3 Lancaster Bombers (KB276, PA474, NX611 (2 flying, one taxi): and the Vulcan Bomber (XH558).

DVD Cover for my project
http://planestv.com/shop/dvd/avro-sisters-reunited-pre-order-december-delivery

The show compiles footage of the Lancaster's from:

- East Kirkby 

- Duxford

- <Add other shows later>

Also featuring the Vulcan 'with some remakable air to air footage especially staged for PlanesTV cameras.'

So for this, I am especially excited for this project. I hope to finish the project within the next 2 weeks, since it is required to be out ASAP for a December release (In time for christmas).



Finally, my job role has changed dramatically. As well as editing, I answer the phone and take orders from customers as well as deal with minor complaints. Because of data protection, I cannot divulge into the calls, orders, names or complaints. So this point is only short...






Until next time, keep safe!


Josh 

SPECIAL POST: WEEKS 5, 6, AND 7!

This week is.... you guessed it... A SPECIAL POST!

As you can probably tell, I have been really busy over the past 3 or so weeks with placement at PlanesTV, with my fellow class mate N (Names shall not be given, so names will be given their first initial).

Over the past weeks, I have taken part in:
- Editing (Visual and Sound)
- After effects
- Camera operation
- Setting up a studio scenario
- Audio operation
- Professional coffee making skills (since other placements make tea)
- And almost placed a HDTV onto the wall, but for health and safety, it hasn't gone forward as of yet.


For those who have followed my twitter, you'll see what I've been up to at Planes, as well as the kind of mug I use for tea, but that is for a different module on a different day.

Tea in question...

Rendering an edit of my boss
talking about trains

Now onto the purpose of this post:

Over my weeks at PlanesTV, I have been chosen to work on the OO Live Steam Club (OOLSC) DVD for the OO Live Steam Club, in which my employer is chairman of. I know you will all be wondering, 'What is OO Live Steam?' Well, I can safely give an overview... In the 1990s, Hornby released OO Gauge Live Steam models (Invented by Richard Hallam) that were powered by steam, just like a real steam locomotive. It was an innovative system and even had Sean Bean narrate the official Hornby promotional video (below), but people simply found it difficult to operate their locomotives and the enterprise of live steam died.

(Hornby Live Steam promotional video)

But the OO Live Steam Club want to change that. They know the ratio of water to oil, how many times to flick the switches before the train will move, they have worked it out and made the locomotives live again! The chairman of the OOLSC hopes that the DVD will bring more people to buy second hand or use their Live Steam locomotives that have gathered dust on the shelf to play with them again, with the end game of Hornby releasing Live Steam again, properly.

Mallard train... its tiny...

So far, the edit has taken about 3 weeks and I have almost finished! And the run time stands at over an hour! It's a bigger job to do than On The Bench was for Estuary TV and a lot more difficult since I have to carefully select footage, rather than receive a live mixed show to just tweak the audio, drop in VT's etc. This is because its not a TV show, it cannot be made in a few hours for that evening. Its a carefully planned documentary about the life of a legacy that was cut short, to bring back the legacy and the immense engineering that made, Live Steam. 

In between editing, I set up for a studio scenario where my employer sat at a table and spoke about how to get your OO Live Steam Locomotive operational and give the correct instructions. I had a Mini JVC 1080i camera filming wide (with audio) and a JVC 1080i broadcast camera. Big JVC was used to film close up shows due to the smoother focus ring and the none-clunky servo-zoom system. 

Multi-camera set up with green-screen that wasn't
keyed out in edit... Not needed... Apparently...

During my time on the Live Steam project, I have placed in over 50 hours (3 days a week, 8 hours per day, roughly) into the filming or instruction, editing and compiling the main feature for the DVD. There were times I enjoyed editing, and times where I got home and wanted to pull my hair out due to an editing mistake or a corrupt video file. But the experience is amazing, to be able to work on a documentary edit and film it with little-experience in documentary film making. I've learnt a lot about how to imagine a story; how to choose the best footage and work with bad footage to make it look good; learnt new tricks in Adobes Premiere Pro (Normalisation of audio> -12db); and learnt a lot about toy trains, something I had no respect for before, but I do now.

Normalise to -12db with the US spelling

Now to conclude:

Over the OOLSC project, I have learnt about editing a documentary which will aide me in the documentary module after christmas and I have gained a deeper respect towards toy trains. My skills have broadened by: learning best places to cut on (if cutting on action, place cursor on a point on your target. Go frame-by-frame until you find there the camera shakes. Cut before the camera shakes and you'll have a smooth  edit); being able to normalise ALL audio on a time line to a certain volume level; and most importantly, how to select the best footage to work for the story being told. 

This is a quick summary of my 3 weeks (due to being immensely busy. So, you gotta take that into consideration)

Until next time

Josh

P.S - My professional coffee skills surely outrank tea making skills of other placements, I'm sure.

Week 4: CVs and work placement

Week 4 was all about the interviews and all about the CV distribution.

As mentioned last week, I gave my CVs to Estuary TV and to Planes TV. Today (being the 7th of October), I have gained my work placement with Planes TV, working every Wednesday. On week 5 (From the 8th October) I shall start between 9:30am and 10am and finish at around 6pm.

So with today: I had the interview at 8am with Marketing Director, Adrian Campbell. I felt that the interview started off amazingly well. We spoke about my experience at Estuary TV and what kind of editing I did with them. I stated I worked on: On The Bench as an editor, sound op and camera op; That Friday Show as an editor, sound op and camera op; and did odd jobs within the editing room. From there, I felt it went down hill.

I love aircrafts, however upon being quizzed about my aircraft recognition, I failed and didn't answer a single question correctly. This was completely my fault, since I did not research properly into different types of planes; mainly ones that they had filmed, that were within their archives. After, I was told I would learn as I worked.

The next segment of the interview consisted of being given a scenario: 'You're a director, and you have to come up with a TV show for people who like planes for an internet TV channel. Go.' Now, if you remember back to the SWOT analysis post, you will remember that I stated in the weaknesses section about not being able to convey my ideas effectively. I have worked on this, but only with a well rehearsed idea in another module (production research). However, I still have trouble on the spot. This part took the longest and consisted of a lot of 'umms' and 'erms' and 'ahhh' and 'arrrummmm' utterances which you could associate with a chimp, but I digress. Point is, I have a lot of work to do in regards of being able to convey my ideas.

Surprisingly, I got still got the post of editor. I was shocked, and extremely happy.

When I had passed interview stage, I got straight into edit work and started to catalogue clips and edit the arrival of the Canadian Lancaster with interviews and cut aways of the crowd and the aircraft itself.

Me at the edit station at Planes TV editing the Lancaster arrival.

Tomorrow, I shall carry on with that tasking.


Until next time


Josh

Week 3 - Applying for work

This week, I had applied for work at 2 of the companies that are listed in employer research page. The two employers are:

 Click the pictures to go to employer research

For Planes TV, I have applied for the position of editor at the company. And for Estuary TV, I have applied for the position of Crew member on the current affairs show, 'Hot Topic'.

Since they both fit my needs for the work I wish to follow in. With Planes TV, it works in multiple ways: Firstly, it allows me to work under strict deadlines with professional editing software; work in a professional environment, away from the university campus; and to be able to learn more about editing for a professional company, and to widen my horizons with such a niche market; and most importantly be able to hone the skills of editing, since that is the specialism I wish to follow in the TV industry.

On the other hand with Estuary TV, they work in a different way by: being funded and ran by the Grimsby Institute Corporation; function along side a learning environment; full of familiar faces since I have worked with Estuary as of previous with shows such as On the Bench and That Friday show; allow me to work in a team since I will be a crew member; present the opportunity to work in many positions in the TV industry, so I can truly find my place despite being set on being an editor.

As a nice finish to a post, today (1/10/2014) Adrian Campbell of Planes TV had made contact with me to ask me for an interview next Tuesday (7/10/2014) and hope to gain the position of editor at Planes TV for the duration of this module, and hopefully after the module has finished with the position of editor.


Until next week,


Josh

Week 2 - SWOT analysis

It is week 2 of my progress report.

This week, we worked on a SWOT analysis to figure out how we would be good team members as well as be able to work out the more pressing points of making ourselves better for the work force and in general.

This is the self-analysis in the form of a SWOT analysis:

Strength

• Independent worker
• Has leadership qualities
• Can use different editing suites proficiently
• Easy to adapt to situation

Weakness

• Trouble to convey ideas
• Average team player
• Not being organised enough with personal life

Opportunity

• To work on idea suggesting and conveying
• Work more in teams
• Work on self-organisation

Threat

• Dis-organisation in personal life could slip into professional life
• When trying to explain, I may not be understood

With those points in mind, I know I need to work on being a team player more so and be able to organise my personal life as it MAY affect my professional life and how I would cope in a work place environment. I will also need to work out how to convey my ideas better so that my audience would know exactly what I wish to do, and how I will do it.

To work on this, I shall:

• Give myself idea exercises by using: spider diagrams; bullet point what I plan to do; record my ideas vocally first, and use that to create a transcript for me to work with when writing ideas.
• Start to organise my dates and times by using: to-do apps for android; use diaries; make vocal reminders.
• Work on small, out of university film projects with a small team to build on my people skills, which will ultimately aid me in being a better team player.

In other news, I had contact and sent my CV to Planes TV during this week. Hopefully I should find out by the end of week 3 if I have employment.

This is week 2 of my progress report, stay tuned for week 3.

Josh

Week 1 - Setting up of the blog

It is week 1, and I have set up this blog to record my progression in the Work Based Activity module I am doing as a part of my BA (hons) Digital Film and Television production course I am under taking whilst at UCG at Grimsby Institute.

This week we were asked to set up our blogs and get started with: the layout of the page; the 'Employer Research'; 'About me'; 'Work Experience'; 'Examples of Work'; and 'Reflection and Development'.

The sections work as followed:

About me:

• This section is where we talk about ourselves, what we can do, and where I want to be in the next 5 years.

Work Experience:

• Where we post where we have worked and who with. 

Examples of work:

• Post videos that we have worked on, whether we edited, worked as a camera man, etc.

Reflection and Development:

• Track my skill progression weekly.

This week, was employment research week which means that I had to research into the four different production companies: Estuary TV; Synergy Grimsby CIC; Planes TV; and KNOW media. This will enable me to know my possible future employers for this module, if not the future, and it also allows research skills to expand. 

With my research, I had found that: Estuary TV has got a licence to expand their viewership out towards Scarborough; Planes TV had been open for almost 40 years that film air shows around the globe; Synergy Grimsby CIC is a community run project that focus's on local projects and renting out studio space and offering audio and post production services for small prices; and KNOW media is ran by a former UCG student and his friend from Ravensbourne to follow their passion for film making. I also found out they offer corporate filming solutions, post production solutions, training and even wedding videos. (Check out my employer research section)

This week, I feel I have learnt a lot about my prospective employers and what corner of the market they tend to serve. It has also allowed me to gain ideas for filming space, extra man power on set, and/or distribution of content I may make in the future. Also, it allows me to sit and think what side of the market I wish to work in for the duration of this module, if not the rest of my professional career.

Until next week,

Joshua Parsons