Riding the Tallescope

TALLESCOPE - A retractable alloy vertical ladder on an adjustable wheeled base. The platform at the top is just large enough to hold one person. Used for rigging lanterns, focusing etc, (according to a glossary of theatre terms).  

In reality it's more like a terrifying daredevil circus act and I would have felt better in a sparkly tutu with a drum roll!  

Lots of fun in the theatre today learning about the effects created by differing angles of lights, as well as adjusting and focusing them, we had the chance to create our own moods while lighting a single subject.  

Got ourselves some groovy little cameras

Amazing! How easy is this little pink Flip video camera to use?  Incredibly!  Is that the death of the written word then?  Possibly, but I'm sure there will be times when I don't feel like sticking my mug in front of it and others when it runs out of charge or I don't have the right handbag or it doesn't go with my outfit...

Sesh in the studio

What would YOU do if the dead arose from their graves??

A very chilled day in the recording studio of Coleg Harlech learning some teccie stuff about microphones. I now know, for instance, that an SM57 dynamic mic is best for a snare drum, while a couple of condenser mics like ATM33As, would be better at capturing acoustic guitar.

Got involved in the recording of a serious ad (for Evans Zombie-proofing for goodness sake!) and looking at music which works with Aaron's chocolatey voice.

A great start to a week potentially oozing with creativity!

Oscar Cooks Brownies! 12/11

Here is Oscar, my youngest son cooking brownies back in December.  This was my first attempt at film-making and the brief was to make a "3-minute wonder" on a subject of our choice.  It was fun to make, and a real learning curve for me as I'd never attempted anything like it before.  I filmed it in my own small kitchen with a basic video camera and tripod.  It took an entire evening with lots of interruptions from other members of the family who wished to make refreshments!  In the end I had about 45 minutes of footage and I edited it down using Adobe Premier.  Stuck for a soundtrack, I ended up using a free one on the PC already, but I think it kind of works. 

(For some reason the video won't play on the blog, but if you click on the youtube logo it will play there).

Getting Theatrical

A rather splendid day at the theatre darlings!  Learning about the technical side of  stage performance.  Lots of health and safety stuff, but also a chance to explore the space, clamber up vertical ladders (a personal challenge for me) and start finding out what the different lights can do. Looking forward to playing more next week...

1st project

Getting to grips with first Creative Media project. Hope I can get my teeth into it easier than I'm getting the hang of blogging! Battling an evil sore throat and getting my fuzzy head around my idea for a film without colour or sound with fear and suspense as the subject. My overview is: A short film featuring a young woman using facebook finds that social networking is not as safe as she thinks. Encountering a strange friend request, she becomes frighteningly involved in the chain of events which lead up to the disappearance of her friend and the realisation that they have both been stalked...

It all starts here

Today is the day it all starts for me on my year-long voyage on the sea of learning and discovery.  It's going to be a rough passage I think, as I'm a slow (if enthusiastic) learner... and pretty mature at that - but not in a grown-up way unfortunately.  Hello Creative Technology Course.  Pleased to meet you.