Richard & Famous

Having your photo taken with a celebrity isn't always easy, but for Richard Simpkin it's something that he's become practised in over the last 22 years.

What began as a teenage urge to have his photo taken with celebrities when Richard was 15, back in 1989, developed into a lifelong project which has resulted in a collection of over 1,000 photographs. An exhibition at the Open Eye Gallery (Mann Island, Liverpool) is showcasing a selection of these photographs, as curated by Martin Parr. The photos have been arranged along a timeline from 1989 to 2011 and as they progress, they show Richard ageing and fashions changing. The photos also act as a self-portrait of Richard growing up.

All it takes is one Cup of Tea

This morning's Creativity & Concept lecture was a real insight into why we are actually doing this module. After talking to Alex and Gareth (this is where the cup of tea comes in as I happened to be making one at the time) and explaining how a large proportion of the class felt, they realised that they really needed to go back to the beginning and explain to us what this module actually achieves. A lot of people just weren't getting it, part of the reason why only 12 people turned up today.

We really stripped back what we'd done by creating a diagram of how a programme is made. The whole process is 'production' but many of us thought that this more applied in a practical sense of filming and editing when really this only amounts to about 20% of the production process. The other 80% refers to the part that comes up with the ideas and makes them viable. Our module is strongly relating to this part. It's like the 80-20 Rule (Pareto Principle) but reversed.

It was really interesting being shown how the production process is broken down the in the media industry and I could really see how this module was helping us with that. The industry isn't necessarily going to employ you because your the best technically as they can teach that, they want people who can come up with interesting and original ideas. They don't have to be brilliant ideas, as long as you can create them because amongst all those ideas, there could well be one that really stands out.

Having this discussion has made me realise that I could perhaps work in that sector of the industry as coming up with ideas is something that I can do quite easily at times, even if I'm not really realising it at the time.

I think I may need to drink more cups of tea whilst at uni!

Strange Ambitions

At the moment I have an ambition to do 2 things, unfortunately I need a certain type of job to be able to do either of them. Let me explain...

The first ambition is to create a viral marketing campaign for a boxing gym. They better be prepared to clear up a lot of sugar glass from the gym floor though. The second ambition is a direct a music video. This is to do with the fact that I really want to re-do Chase & Status' video for their track 'End Credits' with Plan B.

At the moment I really can't see either of these happening but who's knows what the future holds. Failing that, I want the join the crew on Hustle and become a grifter.

It's Liverpool

For our Production Practise module we had to film a 90 second location profile about Liverpool, focusing on one location in particular. As a group we chose to film down on the Pier Head. It was pretty windy when we went filming but we persevered with the weather and we're all really pleased with the end result, so much so that we have entered it into the 'it's liverpool' film competition. This is the first film competition that I've entered so quite excited about it - we'll just have to wait and see how we get on with it. Please take a look at our film as we need as many views as possible.

Liverpool Through the Lens

Telling Stories using Google Maps

So you want to find directions to a somewhere or take a look at a place, where do you look? Quite often you'll go on Google Maps, what else would you use it for! Well, how about using it to tell a story.

For one of our assignments we were given a location in Liverpool and we had to use Google maps to tell a story across 5 locations. These locations could be anywhere in the world but we had to start off at our Liverpool location. Our location was the Anglican Cathedral. We decided to find out who the architect was and then see if they had designed any more notable buildings. It turns out that he, Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, has a whole list of buildings to his name - even the red phone box. As a group we picked 4 of the other projects that Scott had been involved with and then created diary entries related to each of our choices. In the diary entries we have put Scott's thoughts and feelings from the time which he was working on each of the projects.

View Sir Giles Gilbert Scott in a larger map

I'm on Flickr

So as the title of this post suggests, I now have a Flickr account. This has come about because of one of my uni modules, Digital Media Tools. On my account I'm going to put lots of photos that I've taken in Liverpool as quite often I will just go out into the city with my camera. Some of the photos I'll upload as I've taken them but others I will edit using Photoshop first - it just depends on what the photo is and whether I have any ideas as to how I can edit them.

So here's the address for my Flickr account: www.flickr.com/photos/ynwamediaproductions

RIP Sherlock Holmes...or not!

In the closing moments of BBC One's 'Sherlock' tonight, I was all ready to write a blog post about the BBC having a habit of killing off a main character in order to end a series of programmes - until the final few seconds before the credits that is...

Back in 2009, the BBC ended 'Robin Hood' by killing off Robin himself. A sad end to such a brilliant programme that unfortunately only lasted until its third series. If you kill off a character then the general rule is that they can't return from the dead right? So it's an easy option for closing a series as that way the viewers can't have more. However, as we have just seen tonight, thankfully, that is not the case if you're Sherlock Holmes.

Shock value seems to be one of the BBC's core elements to its dramas as that is often what the audience wants. No-one could have seen it coming when Sherlock Holmes announced himself to be a fake and then commit suicide. This indeed did come as quite a shock and seemed to be quite a let down for viewers only 2 series' in. Being such an ingenious and gripping drama I really didn't want 'Sherlock' to come to an end but, as the BBC have let me down before, I did believe that that was it as we'd all seen Sherlock fall off of the rooftop. [By 'before' I mean 'Grange Hill' but just don't get me started on that one - I might end up discovering that Blogger has a word limit on it's posts.] Much to my surprise, and joy, and most probably to the surprise of most of the viewers, John Watson got what he asked, and what we'd all hoped for - a third series of 'Sherlock'. The appearance of a very much alive Sherlock Holmes leaves the BBC with a lot of unanswered questions that they definitely need to address in the next series, preferably the first episode please. Until then, we'll just have to wait...

One Shot Wonder (well, nearly)

Another post about Eric Saade tonight, I clearly am a fan. Another one of his music videos caught my attention, this time it was 'Hotter Than Fire' (featuring Dev). After the opening sequence, the video is shot with just one take. The location for the video is made up of a series of rooms that are connected by a door but each room only has 3 walls, allowing the camera to pass to each room without cutting. As the video doesn't use a range of shot types, the camera is mounted on a crane and it uses the movement of the camera through tilts, pans, canted angles, etc. to create variation. I think that this creates an interesting aesthetic to this music video and something that is different as many videos use a locked off camera or one that moves fairly steadily compared to the camera in 'Hotter Than Fire'.

Behind the Scenes of a Music Video...in a Music Video?

If you go on YouTube to watch a music video then chances are you'll also be able to find a 'Behind the Scenes'/'Making of' video to go with it. Well Eric Saade went one step further than this.

Eric Saade is a Swedish singer who represented his country in the 2011 Eurovision song contest and finished 3rd place with the track 'Popular'. I love the track and wanted him to win, I even downloaded the track afterwards, but it wasn't until the end of last year that I decided I would check out some of his other stuff on YouTube - turns out, I really like a lot of his tracks and think it would be really great if he could break into the UK music scene.

Anyway, as I was watching a few of his videos I noticed one that had a preview at the end for the video to the next track. This video that I'd just watched, 'Break of Dawn', happened to be the 'Behind the Scenes' video to 'Masquerade'. The video to 'Masquerade' is about a masked ball in a historic era so the video for 'Break of Dawn' is about a love developing between the male and female leads whilst they are shooting the music video.

I've seen music videos that have backstage shots within them but I've never seen another set of videos like Eric Saade.