OUDF602: Portfolio

Editing my portfolio was a fun experience, It made me reflect on my earlier work from first year & made me realise how much I have improved in my skill level. It also made me reflect how much I can also improve if I keep on working hard and perfecting my craft. It has made me set a target for the next two years, to improve my work to an industry professional level. 

Creating this showreel was very important as it will be a stepping stone into the real world, I will use it in the exhibition to showcase what i have done and I will also use it for job hunting. 

I plan on expanding it after college with my own personal briefs  and competitions I will enter. 

I've attached a link to my Vimeo account to watch the showreel. 

vimeo.com/wisdommakubile

OUDF602: Action Movie Kid

Action movie kid is a you tube page in which a father films his son doing his day to day stuff and he adds after effects during post production. I was amazed at the level of detail & quality he is able to do this in after Effects alone. What inspired me about his work is, he edits videos which are a minimum of 30 seconds each, means he won't have a lot of work piling up on him, giving him time to be consistent with his videos and generating views. This is a project I would like to set my self, work on a number of short videos, this will help with my portfolio.

OUDF602: Collaborative Work

This is the collaborative work I did with Phil, Luca & Tom. My role was providing a vehicle and also an acting role. This required us to wear suits as our role were to play mobsters. I thoroughly enjoyed the collaboration as it was right up in my alley (Film). I'm looking forward to doing more collars in the future. 

OUDF602: Web and Social Media Presence

In the busy freelance world, how do I make myself stand out from the pack and attract those clients I'm always dreaming of having on my books? Web & Social Media Presence.

First and foremost it's important to understand exactly what I need to offer to potential clients. Finding a trait that differs me from others in the industry can be very helpful & could make me stand out in this saturated competitive market. The first thing I considered was to tailor a a distinctive logo design, as I was briefing the company that designed it for me I described the tone of voice to be 'colourful, fun but professional. I also provided a specific colour scheme to insure the design stood out.

Once this was tailored I then created a Facebook page as I felt this is where I would reach the most market. Contacts are definitely my biggest asset at this moment. 

Creating an open network such as Twitter also helped provide a perfect platform for myself to engage in conversation with clients and other peers in my field and helped build relationships. 

Networks such as Facebook, Tumblr, Vimeo and Flickr serve a platform to show off my expertise and gain some recognition. 

Of course networking offline is just as important.

I've included links to all sites I have added information/profiles to below:

Facebook Page

Vimeo

Tumblr

Twitter

OUDF602: Business Cards | Printing

The company I chose to print my cards is a company I was recommended by Antony Ward who was one of the visiting speakers. The reason being that it provides 'Luxe' cards, Luxe being  the finest paper stock. Four layers of sumptuous Mohawk Superfine sandwiched together to create the ultimate Business Card. What I like about the website is, it lets you design your own card or choose from thousands of their designs. Fortunately for me I ready to use my logo that I had designed, so therefore I chose to design my own card instead of the presets Moo provides. 

Moo allows you to choose the type of paper you like & also provides the dimensions for the card size if you choose to create your own design on Photoshop. 

As I said on my earlier blog  that I was not entirely happy with the final design of my logo & I had unfortunately used up the number of time the design is revised. So I took upon my self to alter the designs into something I'm much more happier about. Below is the altered edit of my logo.

The new design insists of a telephoto lens signifying that I'm a photographer & film-maker. I also added a fine line between the lens & 'WIZ' and lastly I added a title that says "Professional Photographer & Film-maker".

This is how I've designed the back of the card, using one of my favourite fonts 'Bebas Neue', I added the Facebook, email and telephone icons and lastly I added a textured ivory colour background.

When I was happy with all the designs, I went ahead & purchased a quantity of 50 Luxe business cards costing a total of £28.79 inc VAT. The turn around for the cards was 2 weeks, when the delivered, the Luxe cards come in a nicely packaged box as a way to thank the customer for spending a little bit of more money. 

OUDF602: Business Cards | Logo Drafts

As Alex from Ypson was designing the logo, he kept updating me with his progress as to see how I'm liking the design. I responded to him accordingly. Below are my responses to the drafts provided.

"Hi, thanks for the draft. Looking good so far, the colour scheme is perfect. Here are a few changes I'd like you to make.

1. Could you make the shapes more rounded and organic instead of the block shapes.
2. Could you change the font of 'Shot by' & make it stylised and the font for 'WIZ' to something along the lines of the image I've attached."

"I love the design, the new font of 'WIZ' is perfect and the rounded shapes are great, however could you change the 'Shot by" font.

After careful consideration I don't think the current one agrees with me. I've decided to go for helvetica & could you make it white in colour and all lowercase.

This will be the last change & we will be done."

"Yes the WIZ part is definitely nicely done, 2 thumbs up on that one.

I do apologise again, the 'shot by' still looks a bit flat unfortunately.

Could you remove it and replace it with a vector image of a camera icon instead , but please keep the dividing line which is next to WIZ.

I've attached & circled an example of the of the icon I would like. The image is watermarked & the unwatermark version costs $4, if you agree to make this final revision let me know & I will purchase the unwatermarked icon and send it to you asap.

P.S could you also make the dividing line fade on both ends, I've attached an example of this as well.

Thank you Alex, I hope I'm not turning into a client form hell."

Above is the final version the logo that I was sort of happy with, what I noticed when commission someone to create a piece of design for you is that it is easy to become a client from hell. I took the design I was given and modified it a little on photoshop below is my own final version that I decided to use on the business card designs.

OUDF602: Business Cards | Development

To create my business cards, I decided I needed a professional to do this for me, I then commissioned a designer from America to create me a logo that I would use for freelance work in Film & Photography. The designer charges $60 for one design including 2 revisions when you don't like the initial design. 

It was quite interesting to to be the client for once and call all the shots. What I first did to get the design started was write him a brief of exactly what I wanted & also send source material to give him an idea of what I want the final outcome to look like. 

Here's the brief below:

LOGO DESIGN BRIEFING

Client: Shot by WIZ photography

Briefed to:

Amount paid: $60

An alternate e-mail address: wiz@voodooevents.co.uk

Background

Q:Product/Company history?
A: Nightclub and Event photography for the past 2 years, Film, Games & Animation student

Q:What it does? (about the company)
A: Freelance photography, videography at various nightclubs in the city, mostly student nights.

Q:Main Competitors?
A: Other photographers

Q:Which of the competitor's logos appeal to you? Why?
A: photographer named Tom Joy’s logo, because of its simplicity; it has a custom typeface & that is something that is appealing to me, meaning no one else can have your font.

Q:Give some examples of logos that you like. 

(This is IMPORTANT for us to understand the style you are after, please provide links to actual logos.)

A: I have attached a Jpeg of a logo above, that I would like you to sort of replicate and follow it’s design style, the logo is a map of North America, instead of the map, I would like you to design an abstract shape of your choosing but following the design style of the logo provided. Where it say “Obama ’08 | All Colors Together” I would like you to put “Shot by | WIZ”.

Q:Where do you see the company/product/service going?
A: Being recognized by more event promoters, other photographers and gaining fans on my page & work being published.


Q:What design work has been carried out previously for the company/product? What do see as the
positive and negative aspects of that work?

A: Non



Q:What specifically sets you apart from your competition?
A: Nothing at the moment, I’m hoping this logo will give me my own individuality and personality.


Q:Objectives of the logo design?
A: To give me my own identity and gain me more recognition in my field

Target Audience

Q:Who is your services directed towards?
A: Young adults, students, nightclub promoters.

Proposition

Q:Should I use a tagline/slogan for the logo (if yes, what should it say)? (no more than 3-4 words)

A: Non

Q:What name do you want to use with the logo?
A: Shot by | WIZ

Q:If you were to describe your product in one line, what would it be?
A: Colourful

Tone of Voice

Q:Serious/fun/funky/stern/etc?
A: Fun, Colorful but professional

Q:What is the overall message you are trying to convey to your target audience?

(For example: cost-effective, secure, reliable, efficient, etc.) MENTION ONLY ONE.

A: Creative

Requirements

Q:Specific colours that MUST be used?

(Please provide a color scheme that you like/suggest, use the http://www.colorister.com to pick a color scheme and paste the link here)

A: Please follow the color scheme from the logo attached.

Success

Q:How will you measure the success of the Design?

A: If it closely resembles the logo provided but hopefully without infringing copyright.

Comments

Q:Any other info you'd like to make me aware of? A: Non

OUDF602: Uncredited Published Content

An online newspaper from 'The Tab Leeds' released an article that included a series of my photography. As I was delighted that my work is finally getting out there to a vast audience, my excitement was quickly brought down as I realised that they hadn't credited me. The article is regarding a Made in Chelsea star Jaime Laing's disappointing appearance at a nightclub. 

I went ahead & asked for some advice from a closed group for photographers on Facebook and I quickly got a valid response illustrated below.

I thought to myself that even if the subject being written about is receiving a lot of bad press lately, I doubt it would affect me. I went ahead and emailed the editor of the article and politely asked if they could credit the source of the images. 

Here's the link to the article: Fans left gutted after Jamie Laing's disappointing appearance.

Late on that day, yet another unrelated article got published & again more of my work was used to illustrate. This article was from the same publisher. The link is below: 

The-alternative-leeds-prospectus


This hasn't been resolved yet as the editor hasn't responded to the email I sent. Although I am grateful that my work is being taken seriously by other practitioners, it would also be helpful to be credited as it would help me receive more recognition from potential clients. 

OUDF602: Godzilla Competition Moodboards

This is some of the inspiration I gathered prior to starting my own poster.  These best convey the mood and the look I was going for and I like how the poster related to the main elements of the film & portrayed in a minimalist look. What I like the most about the minimalist style is the use of colour within a minimal palette, it grabs the attention of the viewer therefore succeeds at grabbing the attention of the viewer. 

This second mood board conveys death, destruction and violence, they capture a moment within the film & convey them in a photorealistic manner, this is what I wanted to deliver. 

OUDF602: Godzilla Competition | Planning

First plan of action I took was to draw a rough concept of how I wanted the final outcome of the posters to look like. I drew rough sketches on my scrapbook. I also created a mind map to narrow down exactly what I need to do. 

The image above illustrates 1st poster I'm going to create.

2nd Poster 

ODUF602: Final Submitted Posters

This is the final high-resolution version of my artwork, the PSDs are available upon request. I believe I've completed and delivered the design to a professional standard, both posters took me a week to composite to their final stage.

As I worked on both posters on the image mode of CMYK colour at 300dpi quality, I will take this opportunity to print a full size copies to display it in the end of year exhibition. So far on the photo shop creative website, my posters have received nearly 600 views altogether, which is a huge accomplishment considering the amount of view others received. In my opinion, I prefer the illustration design more than the photo realistic one, the reason being, I decided to think outside of the box & do the total opposite of what's expected from an action packed sci-fi movie such as Godzilla. Unfortunately upon submitting my art work, I started to notice people copying my work & going for the minimalist look, one of the submitted posters even included the same colour scheme as mine. 

Currently the competition has closed and judging is underway, we should be notified who the winner is shortly.

OUDF602: Poster Design Progress

Initially I decided to use silhouette buildings in the background as illustrated above, that lacked a bit of depth therefore I used an HDR image of San Francisco and the Golden Gate Bridge. Working with 2D images is very challenging when trying to give away an effect of a 3D effect but when done right, the final product gives a good illusion. Below are some of the main source material I used to create the second version of my poster compiled into a mood board, this became the final version:

Above is the compilation of most of the source images organised into the final version of the poster. This one incorporates 3D buildings and a realistic skyline and sun texture.

Below is the 2nd poster and the same source material mood board, the second poster is all 2D vectors stitched together.

Each poster consisted of more than 20 layers, I made sure to organise them in a hierarchy & name accordingly. 

OUDF602: Poster Design

This is the progress for my first design.

This first 3 three designs are the ones I chose to use 2D silhouettes, but as I felt this lacked a lot of depth, I then decided to use 3D skylines of San Francisco. Below is the version with the 3D buildings and 3D F16s. 

I still felt the Godzilla's back scales are too razor sharp & they also do not have depth, I decided to also modify this. I will post on my next blog the progress of how I have modified this. 

OUDF602: Godzilla Competition Brief

To celebrate the release of GODZILLA in cinemas on May 15th, IMAX teamed up with Warner Bros, ODEON Cinemas and Imagine Publishing to give us the chance to show off our creative skills in the ultimate fan artwork competition.

The Challenge was to create the most "bad-assed" design of an alternative GODZILLA poster that will not only be judged by the director, Gareth Edwards himself, but will also be displayed in ODEON Cinemas across the country!

"We’re looking for something unique and iconic that’s as MASSIVE as Gareth Edward’s epic new movie. Your creation could showcase the tone of the new film, the scale of the monster or the human story and incredible cast." 

"Terms & Conditions- Artwork should be your own original creation. Official GODZILLA 2014, original TOHO, or 1998 GODZILLA artwork and images cannot be repurposed or re-used in your artwork. When you submit artwork created for this competition, you agree to give permission for Imagine Publishing, ODEON Cinemas, IMAX, and Warner Bros. Entertainment to use your submitted artwork and your name and image for means of promotion, marketing, advertising, both commercial and non-commercial. You may be required to sign a release form. Closing date for entries is 11.59pm on 19th April. Winner will be announced on 29th April. This competition is open to UK residents only"- Imax.com.

I decided to create 2 posters that showcase a totally different tones from each other. The first brief I set myself was to create a poster that showcases total mayhem and destruction, while I thought to myself that everyone else would probably do the same, I then decided think outside the box & I set a second brief, the second being a retro Japanese minimalist poster. 

The time scale to plan, create and submit all the work is a month, the closing date for all entries is the on the 19th April. This enough time for me to juggle this brief with my Final Major Project as well as my referral. 

OUDF602: Jamal Edwards Talk

Jamal Edwards the founder of SBTV came to do a talk about his experiences running SBTV and his rise to fame. Jamal is now worth £10,000,000 from his online content. His company SBTV is a multi-faceted company run by a small team of amateur young people who work on web-based viral content at different music-based events. The media platform has its origins and roots in urban music. Most of its content can be seen on its own YouTube channel which was created on November 2, 2006 or the official SB.TV website. Much of the content includes unprofessional footage, or 'street-shot' freestyle raps and music videos. However, even though its earlier uploaded videos contained entirely amateur footage, the channel's latest uploads contains some professional recordings.

Above is an image of Phil & Jamal exchanging information. 

OUDF602: Corridor Digital

These are other industry practitioners that inspire me.

OUDF602: Dave Blewett | Sumo Digital

Sumo Digital is celebrating it's 10 year anniversary 

It has a staff of 200 members

It's main studio is in India

It has developed  over 30 games 

Develops games for ALL formats 

It's part of the foundation 9 union

Respected developer worldwide

Dave mentioned that the bigger the company gets the riskier it becomes of making it's employees redundant and the business going under, he was employer number 56 when he got his job, the company was planning to have a maximum of at least 60, it now has 200. The bigger the company means that the jobs have to be consistent, if a project gets cancelled , people get laid off, that's just how it works. 

Joining a union  such as Foundation 9 helps to avoid companies going under. When one company dries up with work they speak to the union and they share woe with another company that has too much work on it's plate.

So you want to be a game artist? Whats it like? How do you Impress Sumo? "It's a very hard job" - Blewett

Back in the old days there were no real specialists areas

• No specific UI artists
• No specific special FX artists
• No specific Animators
• No specific Environment artist
• One size fitted all.

What are the different art roles today?

Now you have teams dedicated to specific roles such as:

• Specific Concept artist
• Environment artist
• Character Artist
• Animators
• Motion Graphics (This one is fairly new)
• User Interface Artist
• Vehicle Artist
• Visual Effects (Very important in today's high resolution games to have explosions, volumetric smoke, trails, heat signatures etc)
• Technical Artist (complex rigs are used on PS4 engines and Xbox One, On PS3s and Xbox 360s & it's predecessors you had to think about the processing power. Technical artist make sure that a rig]g is not too complex and that it will be able to render in real time without slowing down the game. )
• Lead Artist
• Art Management
• Art Director (Responsible for production quality)

What skills are needed to be a game artist?

• Maya
• Z-brush
• 3DS Max
• Photoshop
• After Effects
• Flash
• Unity

According to Dave, to become a game artist at Sumo Digital, you have to adapt to the following

• You have to be flexible and reasonable
• You have to be happy to work on handheld versions of the games while the more experienced artists work on the PS4 & Xbox One version
• You have to be adaptable in terms of picking up new skills quickly
• You have to be realistic
• When time and budget run out, you have to be prepared to modify your approach
• You have to have the right team spirit
• You have to perform well when times get hard
• You have to be professional
• You have to be trusted
• Most importantly, you have to COMPROMISE!!!!

OUDF602: Visiting Speaker | Kath Shackleton.

We recently had a visitor from the animation industry come to do a talk, she gave us some really good advice and some great pointers on what to expect in the real world. Kath is the founder of 'Fettleanimation.com, she has been running it for 18 months, she also works with other organisations such as All Animated. Her primary role in the company is working as a producer, she been a producer for 12 years. She mentioned that her partner has been an animator for the past 22 years, and he went from 2D animation to 3D animation for games, he went from being the youngest guy in the 2D animation market to being the oldest guy in the games market. 

A project that Kath worked on as a producer for CITV known as 'Share a Story' recently won a BAFTA award, this was a huge achievement for her and her team.

What is an Animation producer? Someone who organises the budget of the film, makes sure the production process runs as smooth as possible, manages a team, makes sure the animators are not being overly ambitious with the work given, thus making sure they stay on target. As the producer, Kath will usually act as the line of communication and the interpreter of ideas between the executives who run a studio and the creative people who are actually making the animated product. In this capacity, she must be able to control the costs of an animated production to keep the executives above her happy, while also ensuring that the creative animators and artists working under her are able to make the feature or series they are working toward. Ultimately, as the title suggests, it is the producer’s job to ensure that a final product is actually produced.

"You are as good as your team, tell people what you have to offer (sell, sell, sell) but don't over sell yourself." Kath Shackleton.

She emphasised that taking advantage of free networking tools such as Word press, Vimeo, you tube, twitter, Face book etc is essential but you also have to get your face out and meet people  A face to face conversation is much more memorable, the best place to start are networking events, conferences, festivals. It's important to get the right ideas to the right ears, it's important to go out and listen to what people what.

A few eye opening topics that she brought to our attention were:

Budgeting. Learning to very quickly handle money is essential, if you're not good at this then having accountant is a no-brainer as they will deal with a lot of numbers and paper work for you, alternatively having friends who are familiar with accounting also helps. It's absolutely important to do it as you're going along and not leave it last minute. 

Planning. It's really important for everyone to know what's expected of them and deadlines, know your skills and stop when you're going to need an expert in something because learning as you're going along can sometimes waste a lot of time, money and resources. 

Motivate. Some people thrive on pressure some don't, learn how to get the most of your crew. Treating them with respect is important as they are professionals, it's no longer high school were you have to shout to motivate people. 

Reporting. In her line of duty, she's had to prove to the BBC that the animation they were commissioned to produce is not plagiarised, the music is copyrighted, the fonts are original etc, the last thing the studios need are expensive lawsuits. 

When everything has been handed in to the clients the next step is to take a deep breath and start again. While most projects are on going, you have to make sure that you're getting more work, otherwise work will dry up and your bills will pile up. 

Contact List. Who do you need to have on your contact list?

• Creative agencies
• Advertising agencies
• Editors
• Musicians
• Voice Actors 
• Writes
• Arts Councils (Creative England, British Film Festival)
• Accountants
• Admins

But the most important one that everyone should have is a Lawyer. A lawyer is important to sit down with and explain intellectual property.

OUDF602: Matt Saunders Visiting Speaker

Former Leeds College of Art student, Matt came to do a talk at the lecture theatre and he gave us some honest advice and information. When Matt graduated from LCA, he left with only one piece of show reel to get him started. He had already started applying for jobs during 3rd year of university, he subsequently got offered jobs in London but due to his financial status he had to turn them down. Fortunately he got offered a job locally which he gladly accepted, though being under qualified for the job, he was offered anyway due to the fact that the company liked him and they saw major potential in his work. 

After a few months of work, he then got offered a placement in San Francisco were he worked closely with Aesop Rock, it was a good fun project in which he spent a couple of months over in America he said.

When he returned to England, he signed to an agency called HF were he got various jobs with them. The most prominent one being to paint a hotel room. He mentioned it is important to pitch an idea to clients as most of the times they are limey to say yes. 

'It is important to constantly try to experiment, don't box yourself in, otherwise work will dry up. If you use computers, try to use pens and pencils also" - Saunders. 

He showed us a clip of the Belle and Sebastian music video, in which he was the art director of it.

He gave us advice telling us to be careful because some clients will take advantage of undergraduate and post graduate students therefore it is important to sign contracts before doing a job. clients will never listen when you tell them that the work given is not possible with the amount of time given. It's important to have contracts because some people are a nightmare to work with, he would sometimes receive threatening emails from clients and sometimes he would not get paid for all the work done.

While he was working on Ellen & The Escapades music video, he worked on it without a storyboard, all the ideas were flowing straight from his head. He worked with 2 interns from 7am till midnight. He had the concept in his head and he visualised it through film. 

Below is Matt Saunders' Show reel: 



What I admire about Matt is his confidence to dive into any project and not limiting himself to one media, I also admire his hard work, his passion and drive to keep on working on various projects, his motivation is very high.

"When I was at uni, they'd give us 2 weeks to design a poster and I'd be like, 'you can do that in a day', so I would design a poster and make an animation as well." - Matt Saunders.

OUDF602: ASFF Aesthetica | Barry Ryan On Warp Films

Bio: BARRY RYAN HEAD OF PRODUCTION AT WARP

Barry is the Head of Production for Warp, and is responsible for the production of films across the Warp Films and Warp X slates.

He produced Grow Your Own, written by Frank Cottrell Boyce and Carl Hunter and directed by Richard Laxton for Warp Films and Line Produced Warp's first short My Wrongs 8245-8249 &117, which won the BAFTA in 2003, and Dead Man's Shoes, Warp's first feature which was nominated for the Best British Film Award at the BAFTAs 2005 and which won the Hitchcock D'Or at Dinard in 2004. Dead Man's Shoes, Hush and Bunny & The Bull have all BEEN nominated for "best achievement in production" at the BIFAs

Prior to working for Warp, Barry ran Cargo Films which made a number of successful shorts (Puffer Fish, Sound Effects of Death & Disaster, You Are My Favourite Chair) and the ultra low budget feature, Jelly Dolly, which won the best film award in 2004 at the Britspotting Festival in Berlin.

I thoroughly enjoyed this masterclass at York Theatre Royal as Barry gave a unique lecture on the things you learn from film making.

Why would you shoot a short?

• Showreel
• Practise
• Story to be told
• Fun/Experiment 
• Hang out with friends

Barry mentioned that he wouldn't recommend to just shoot shorts for a showreel otherwise you're gonna have quantity than quality. You need to do it to show your talent.

Thing you learn from film making:

• Budget
• Schedule
• Negotiation Deals
• Project Manager
• Technical Manager
• Human Resources
• Health & Safety
• Legals for closing Film/TV tax credit
• Cash flow