Update On Project-Digital Media

From since i have last posted there has been change to my image, i am slightly puzzled on what to add..there is only so much you can do with a short space of time. At first i wanted to add a bit more of the castle behind but after a few adding and removing having a bit of the castle through the windows felt a bit more better but also i wanted to add a forest in the background, in the day there wouldn't be or not as many houses or other buildings as there are today, also i had a go at smudging the trees it did take a while to do but i do think it looks pretty nice, again i added more greenery around the trent and fenced off the rest of the field and added a bit of cobblestone since from another recreated image i saw that was the area where the cannons and other weapons and machinery was left to defend. This is my image in question.

I did try to make the castle look a bit more brighter and i tried to clean it up a bit and it was a struggle, also i made the top smooth/flat or somewhat flat because during the time it was flat but the battles did cause it to crumble up. I honestly don't know what else i could possible add. Here is the original image i took.

The Growth of my Digital Media Idea

As you may of noticed from a post or two ago that i wanted to work on Lincoln Castle, i wanted to create a series of photographs and record sounds around the area of the castle, as a example i created my idea around Newark Castle. On the day that we talked about how out ideas developed i was told that Newark would be more interesting to do a project on, that confused me at first because i never heard anyone telling me that Newark is interesting but however i understood the point, Many students do work on projects around Lincoln and also i liked the idea of being different. That week i went and visited the castle again to take another selection of photographs, different shots and angles. The idea of recreating the castle to what i think it looked like 900 years ago before William the conqueror destroyed it. I am in between that fine line of struggling what to add and knowing what to do. What i am planning on doing next is trying to make the castle bricks slightly more lighter, just to say and imagine that it's a new castle, also i would like to try and add parts of the castle in the windows, for example i want to look through the windows and see the other side. Also i plan on adding a gate along side the Trent and on the field that i was standing on, i am sure back in the day they would need a bit of extra space to add a few weapons. This is what i have came up within the workshop, notice that the top, trees, small bridge and colour of the wall has changed

Due to the white sky it's already a blank canvas, i could remove the little sign and the steps that lead into the river and maybe add a few trees behind the castle, i am sure back in the day there was a lot more greenery than there is now.

Due to my Grandad passing away on Wednesday afternoon, it may take a day or two for me to continue with this project, but i will try and get everything up to speed before and on the day of the 29th. That's if the funeral isn't planned on the day. 

Thoughts on the short film "The Lift"

At first I didn't really know what to think about it, I didn't know how someone could make a Documentary about a lift somewhat interesting but I did get on the wrong end of the stick with this. It's apparently it's about people taking the lift and noting down how many times they use that lift everyday, some people use it once others use it more than three times a day and something along those lines. I really have to hand it to the production team who pulled this off, this is something I couldn't do, I personally don't like taking the lift it's small, cramped and can break down at any minute I just don't like them at all. But what I found interesting was what the people had to say, some was sad, some was funny and others where strange though what i found amusing in the documentary was the lady and the drunk man in the lift he left and she turned to the camera and pull quite a funny face as she was about to say "That man was weird!" Quite a interesting documentary, something I wasn't really expecting!

My Idea For Digital Media

What I would like to do for the Digital Media project is take a series of photographs of historical architecture and also record a bit of audio of the surrounding area of the historical building, I have created a example of what I would like to do but for the main project I think searching around Lincoln would be a lot more better than adventuring around Newark just for the basic fact that Lincoln has a lot more to offer in historical value and the castle still looks like a..castle. So to demonstrate my point  here is a quick example of what I would like to do for the project.

What triggered this idea was from the last project where we all went to the Arboretum, I liked what I did but i really want to step up another level

A Low-down On What's Happening with my Projects

I just wanted to write a short paragraph on what's happening with my projects right now, for my Radio Documentary on the Marshall Tractors I am still currently trying to get people to interview, I have already sent an email to a new contact at the Gainsborough Museum, I sent an email yesterday, I am still waiting. As for the volunteers at the Lincolnshire Life Museum I have just contacted him (again I just got a email today about who I can talk to, the man is named Derek and he says he is more than happy to have a chat with me, I am just waiting to see what time and day fits him best, i am hoping to meet him next Monday during the 4 hour break. Now as for the Digital Media project, I still want to work around history and culture so I kinda want to work around Newark Castle and take photographs of the Castle grounds and record some audio along with. How I am seeing this is that I want a series of photos to show and audio with the photos, so a two in one. Newark Castle isn't much of a Castle any more but it does look interesting. I plan on doing this Wednesday afternoon of this week. 

Videos and Photos from my solo trip to Lincolnshire Life

The main tractor i shall be working on Marshall 1983

Marshall Tractor 1950

Some other tractors in the museum which i found interesting

Also this video was playing, i would of recorded more but there was a group of school children creating loads of noise

Day 6 & 7 Of Cress

Apologies for not updating yesterday, but here is yesterday's update and today's update on the cress, Yesterday the cress was a darker shade of green and almost looks fully grown! Again sorry about there being no speech in the first vlog video.

• General Photo

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Day 7- There wasn't much change and i think the cress has just finished growing and is now ready to be picked, but the colour in the cress is a lot more glossy and healthy, or should i say more of a pure green in the leaves. The vlog video has a bit of speech, sadly it's a bit faded, still there wasn't much to say about it apart from that the cress is ready to be picked.

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and that's that, now that i have finished the life of cress i need to figure out what i want to do with the footage, yes i did say i would like to make a time lap video, but i am wondering how i am going to do it, i don't have the most greatest editing software, but if it looks good, it'll be great!

Day 5 Of Cress

I feel that we're almost coming to an end of the growth of the cress, today there was a huge amount of greenery and only in time the cress will be ready to eat, again i am guessing till Tuesday it will be ready, so here are today's photos and video, today's video has me speaking again. Also sorry that the pictures seem a bit dark, we where getting a spot or rain down here.

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Day 4 Of Cress

And this evening we have the first sign of pure greenery! Sorry about the late post and the speechless video i had some family matters to attend to this afternoon, So as you can see more progress has been made, maybe by Monday or Tuesday the cress will be fully grown.

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Day 3 Of Cress

Went to check on the cress again today  but at a later time (I slept in) There was some extreme progress with the cress this afternoon, small green shoots have appeared! Again with the collected videos and photos I plan on making a final video of the cress growing all at once, like a time lapped video but a little different. So here is the updates in photos and a short video, Sorry if my voice in the video a bit quiet I was half asleep.

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Day 2 Of Cress

Today I checked on the growth of my cress and changed has started, the cress has just started to sprout out and the seeds look a little bit bigger and more light brown.

I took this image from my digital camera so we could get a better look at what's happening, also i have recorded another video describing what's happening.

Hopefully by tomorrow we should see some green shoots or something looking like green shoots. 

Thoughts On Ted Lectures and The First Day Of Cress

During today's workshop we viewed three to four short lectures from the website called TED. From what i can remember there was a interesting lecture about putting friends in a jar, I can't remember how he has done it but he may of used a projector to make it seem like they are stuck inside the jars and i am sure he has told his friends to do a few actions. Also another thing i would like to talk about is a project by Noah Kalina he is a photographer but the project he has done which caught my attention was his self portraits, Noah took photos of himself everyday for the last twelve years. This is the project in question.

I thought that this was pretty amazing, sticking to a project for almost twelve years, i would like to do something like this but there might be a high chance of me missing a day for some reason. Though also it is interesting to see someone change slowly before your eyes and see how they grew/turned into that particular person. Which leads me on to the next project i would like to talk about, just today as a group we have been told to document cress, viewing it everyday and see what and how it changes, I would like to present to you Day 1.

As i made my way back home from Homebase in Newark, which i might add i had an adventure trying to find a single packet of cress seeds. I don't really have much to report on at the minute since they are only just been planted this afternoon but as you can see they are sitting in damp cotton wool and somewhat slowly growing. I have also taken a 34 second video of the seeds, i plan on adding all of the videos at the end and add it with music.

Thoughts On Waltz with Bashir

The Documentary "Waltz With Bashir" was created by a Israeli writer and director, Ari Folman. It is a animated film based around Folman on his search to recover his lost memories from the 1982 Lebanon War. In the mother language of the film goes by "Vals Im Bashir" ( ואלס עם באשיר ). The film was released in 2008 and earning the sum of $11,125,849. The whole film is in Hebrew but English, German, French and many other subtitles where included. "Dispite the popularity of the film, it was officially banned in Lebanon" (Wikipedia) The trailer is accompanied by PIL & Johnny Rotten - This Is Not A Love Song

As for my thoughts on the Documentary film itself, i personally thought the animation was beyond amazing! I really do admire the artwork, though it was quite interesting to finally view a Documentary that isn't in English for a change it was a really nice change. Though i never really understood the nudity scenes, mainly the woman climbing into the boat, I really had no idea what was happening or what she meant to be. I found it quite interesting is that we learn about what happens behind the news stories on the television, we learn about things we never knew about the Lebanon war. However the whole war and terror did really terrify me, I didn't see it as a cartoon, I didn't see it as a film, I saw it as real life and it really hit me from the moment it all started. I have amazing and wonderful friends in Israel and seeing them become soldiers really does make me worry. This was a striking yet magnificent film.


~ Film Posters

~ A interview with Ari Folman from Black Tree Media

Thoughts On The Film Tarnation

Tarnation is a documentary film by Jonathan Caouette. Jonathan tells us about his life and his mother who is mentally ill mother, Renee. We see 20 years of footage, photographs and answer machine calls. He lived his early years in Houston, Texas but later moved to New York City at the age of 25. The film entered the market in 2003 earning the sum of $1,162,014. So my thoughts on the film, I really did feel shocked and quite emotional over it and at parts i could relate to him, though having a ill mother i do have a father that guides me. With some of the slightly coloured toned photographs and music was quite terrifying but it does give you an idea how he felt around that period of time. I would like to comment on some of the transitions in the film, the only one i am going to complain about is the repetitive flashing transitions, they where too frequent and i was slowly getting slightly dizzy from it and if any longer it would be quite nauseating for me. Also the film contains a lot of on screen text to read and at points i couldn't read all of it, i would persoanlly prefer someone narrating what needs to be said rather than reading. Towards the end of the film we see his mother singing about a pumpkin, at this point i wasn't too sure if she was being humorous or something else but i felt that scene went on a little bit too long, it did make me feel slightly uncomfortable again it does bring back a memory from my own life. In seriousness, it's a powerful film. "Your greatest creation is the life you lead."

• Film Trailer