Tuesday 29th April

So I pitched my idea to Rowan today and got some positive feedback. He thinks it is a good idea which means im set to start filming in a few days when i've got this damn flash project completed for my other 201 paper. I was intending on filming myself using the consoles etc, but i think it would be a lot better to get someone else in to be my 'gamer model' for the doco. Then I can also sit down and have a interview with him about the games afterwards. This should save me a lot of time as I can ensure the camera stays in focus and in the right position as I will be behind the camera the whole time. There will be no frustrating repeats of filming footage again and again, well there might be a few but at least no where near as much as if it were just me.

Monday 28th April

So i have decided on filming a history of video games for my documentary project. This should work out nicely for me as I am quite familiar with this topic and even more so as I am in the process of writing a thesis to do with the topic also for my history 271 paper. Another advantage I have is that I own a lot of the older consoles including the Sega Master System, Sega Megadrive 1 and Sega Megadrive 2, Gameboy, Gameboy Colour, Playstation 1, Playstation 2 and a new addition, the Nintendo Wii. All of which are available for me to film and use in my documentary.

I am also thinking about putting some still images into my film. I know the Gamesman on Manners Street has a timeline of video game consoles above the counter so I could see if they would allow me to take some pictures of the different consoles so that I can include them in my video.

Inspiration - History of Video Games Documentary

History of Video Games Documentary

Project 3 Concept Idea

The world of video games has become hugely popular since its birth in 1971 and is now a forever growing source of visual entertainment. It has become so large in fact that it now rivals the motion picture industry as the most profitable entertainment industry in the world, a $10 billion industry. It is no wonder that it has become so large. With constant advancements in technology, this allows manufacturers of video game consoles to integrate this technology into the consoles thus allowing production of a new range of games that are ‘bigger and better’ than those that came before them. Video games have become a huge part of modern human culture; billions of people around the globe now own at least one machine console that functions as a means of playing these games. But how did we get to where we are now? How have these games evolved over the years? Or better still what can we expect to see in future gaming to come? It is these questions I hope to answer in my documentary video. I am going to take viewers on a journey through time to experience video games past, present as well as present ideas towards what might become of these video games in the future.

Monday 7th March - Final Day

Today i had a talk with Rowan who gave me a few things to improve my video. This unfortunately required me to redo my whole audio which after completing it now i can see how much better it is. The mix i had before was a good tune but i agree, it didn't relate to the video enough for it to work, the sort of music it was created a sort of story and so too many things were going on. The sort of breaking and entering thing, essence of children and traces etc. So the audio is now sort of ghost audio, as you move through the corridor scene you hear children talking/screaming, adults or teacher in the background also, in the playground, again children playing and having fun while the view of the video is when there nobody there. This i think emphasizes my idea of presenting the site by showing its unseen details that are all a part of it which are our essence of once being there. As a brick is to a wall, the footprint is to the pavement, its all connected to the site. This essence you really get a good feel for by listening to the audio. It allows you to picture what has happened in the space by connecting what you see with what you hear, even though you weren't around during the time the kids were there.

Overall i am quite happy with my video, hopefully Morgan will be as well and will give me the pass mark i am hoping for. It is a quite different to my original concept, but as they say, change is good :)

Sunday 6th March

OK well today was my audio day, before i got stuck into this however i revisited the school one last time to shoot the ending of my video. Got some good footage and just in time because straight after the battery ran flat. I set the camera up on the tripod and filmed myself exiting the school. As i leave i look back at the sign in which we see at the beginning of my video so i think it ties it up pretty nicely. Also got a neat shot of a man walking past after i leave who looks up towards the school and sees the camera and keeps moving. quite funny.

Rest of the day i spent putting in my audio. Early morning i came across a pretty cool techno remix which really suits the start of my video quite well. Managed to arrange it quite nicely so that once i get the door to the school open, the music busts out. Audio wasn't long enough to cover my whole video but that is fine because i found i nice slow guitar piece of music on my computer, no idea where it came from, never heard it before. Is an unknown track so i don't know who the artist or person playing is. But this piece goes nice at the end, it goes in sync with my video nicely because it means the majority is fast paced then as it comes to the end you get this nice slow easy tune until finally it comes to the end and the music stops. Found the first bit of music on some persons profile on some site, dowloadable for free so thats all good, decided to play with it a bit just to ensure it be copyright free and i gave it a slight remix, so it is a remix of a remix now :)

Also realized that my website didn't really link well to my cinematics area so have redeveloped it so now when you click on cinematics on the main menu it takes you to a cinematics menu page where you can pick which project you would like to view, so it means now navigation to both my videos is much simpler and well defined, its not all over the place like before. So busy day today but it had to be done. I don't want to see myself failing this project as well so I'm giving it everything I've got!

PS: Also loaded up my website with project 2 onto the web itself with a near completed version of my video to ensure everything works OK which it seems to, so all i have to do 2mrw is complete the video as best i can and load it up to replace the old. Not long now...

Saturday 5th March

Came into uni before work. Spent the time editing my video a lot, putting in a few effects. Then began my search for what sort of audio to use. Drum and bass? Techno? Rock? so many choices out there and yet i just dont know what to use for my video.. Hopefully ill find something 2mrw as it is my audio day.

Fri 4th March

Pieced together all my sequences to create my full video, turned out to be 6 mins 48 secs. Then began the editing process, cutting out what didn't work together, what didn't flow, and parts of scenes that were a little too long. After doing this i managed to get it down to 4 mins something, which is good means now i am in the correct time limit. All i need to do now is polish of the video and correctly add the audio to make it all finished and ready to embed into my site. Yay! Oh and i also got a few opinions from my class mates. They all seem to find it pretty good. Things to improve they said were: 1) cut down a few bits at the start as areas are slightly too long, 2) perhaps add few more zoom sequences into the film as they liked these areas i created already in the video, 3) To add a good ending, ideas for this included a) a scene to show you close the door behind you so that the audience knows ur leaving the school and so that there ends the video or b) (which i worked out together with a class mate) have a scene of the sign i start the video with showing the pathway next to it that leads up to the school and you walking down this pathway exiting the school and walking down the road. This clearly shows you have left the school and so there ends the video. I think this option b is better because option a wouldnt make sense, me closing the door behind me, when by the end of the video im already outside in the playground area so why would i be closing the door? I have clearly already exited.

Wed 2nd and Thurs 3rd March

Completed turning my footage into subclips and sequences ready to be put together nicely to create my video. Was quite a grueling task as i had about 80 mins or so of footage which i had to go through manually capture and download my stuff as the computer wouldnt download it all in one go. Created 48 secs of my final video by editing and joining 3 of my sequences together. These were the Ngaio school sign footage, entering the school and a part of the corridor scene where i come across the cleaning lady. All in all this 48 secs is to be the start of my video :)

Tues 1st April

Today i polished up my graphics for my website and got them arranged onto my site which is great, means i can now concentrate on my video. Had a few issues getting the computer to read my camera to download footage but after a good 30 mins me and rowan got it going, although i could only download the video with no audio at this point. Later however i discovered that if i just download piece by piece i could get the audio to download as well which was great. Other than that i just began editing my footage turning it into subclips and sequences.