Oliver Manson Extended Project Final Draft 03/07/2017

Olivers college portfolio. (DONT DELETE!)

 

 

Oliver Manson Extended Project Second Draft 12/06/2017

Extended Project Portfolio

Unit 11

1.1 Critical evaluation

When it comes to my strengths I can never think of many. One thing I’m good at is talking and where I work in a supermarket I often have to talk to customers and help them out with there needs. This has really helped me out to come out of my shell as believe it or not I used to be shy as a child. I am also good at problem solving and ways of coming up with solutions. I am also good at coming up with new ideas and I have a very creative mind. For example at work I am often coming up with new ideas.

I am interested in lots of things whether that’s football or stuff related to the media industry such as camerawork or watching TV shows. My main ambition is to become a camera operator and more specifically working on TV shows or filming football matches. My ultimate goal is to become a camera operator filming premier league games and champions league games at some of the biggest stadiums in the world.

To achieve my goal I need to change my attitude when it comes to being motivated and when it comes to thinking about going to University I need to be more positive and think it will help me achieve my goal in the long run. For my dream job I need to have a wide range of skills when it comes to using cameras. I will need to know how to use proper filming equipment and not just the basics.

Skills needed in the media industry are obviously going to vary from different industry however some skills remain the same. You will need to work well with others and work with people you’ve never met before. You will also have to be motivated and enjoy what you do. If you don’t enjoy working in the media industry you will find it very hard to go to work each day and try your best.

I feel my goals are realistic and if I put the effort in I feel I can achieve my goal. If I go to University I will achieve my goal its all about motivation for me and motivating myself will help me achieve.

The results I got from the 16 personality test is that I’m a Defender. It says I get socially exhausted from social activities. I’m sensitive to noise and lots of things. Its says I’m down to earth, have strong habits and focus on what is happening. I’m sensitive and emotionally expressive, less competitive and I like to think. I like to plan and structure. I’m sensitive to stress and I’m a perfectionistic.

Before I took this test I thought these kind of tests are always untrue. I’ve done tests in the past on Facebook and the internet and I haven’t agreed with them. This test however I agree with nearly all of it.

I never completed my personal statement but I will include what I did do as I feel it relates well to this work.

‘I am applying for this course as I really enjoying doing Film and TV at college. I want to learn more in depth into the film and TV industry and learn how to become a camera operator.  I’m looking forward to studying media at University as this will be a big step up from College and will give me the skills to achieve my goal in the media industry.

What really made me think the media industry is right for me is when I went out and filmed a project for my college course. Qualities I can bring from past experiences include a wide range of skills when using media equipment such as DSLR cameras, zoom microphones, chroma key and editing software’s such as avid. I’ve worked really hard all my life in education and at college I have really matured into a student who is hard working and always ready to learn new things’.

1.2

To understand the progression route you have to start at your GCSE years and finding out your results that will ultimately determine your future. The next step of progression is to stay on at school and do six form or go to college. Some people may wish to go straight to university but this is a big step up. After six form or college most people will then go to university to study there chosen subject. After university most people will then go out and find a job in the industry. Its important to have knowledge of your progression as when it comes to a job interview you must be able to put down on your CV your progression in life. You don’t include primary school you start with secondary school.

Oliver Manson Extended Project First Draft 16/05/2017

Extended Project Portfolio

 

 

Observation Exercise

I went out into Canterbury to gather research for my chosen area. I chose to look at architecture as Canterbury has lots of interesting architecture such as the cathedral, library and city wall. I decided for my research source I would use my phone to take photos of the different types of architecture in Canterbury.

We went out in groups of three. All of us had different observations we wanted to make but we made sure we had time to do all of them. For me architecture is everywhere in Canterbury. If you look about the store fronts in the high street there is some lovely old architecture. You’ve then got the 1950s look about McDonald’s and Poundland etc. You’ve also got the new more modern architecture of whitefriars with its clean lines and solid brick work. Another interesting piece of architecture in the high street is the Superdrug store what in my opinion looks unique. Stuck in the middle of a mini square outside kfc is the clock tower. I took a picture of this as it resembles a mini landmark in canterbury and something lots of people probably don’t even look at when visiting Canterbury.

My two biggest regrets when going out for this observation exercise is that I did have time to visit the cathedral and city wall. For me these two are the best and most famous architectural element of Canterbury. The cathedral is a magnificent piece of architecture and is something very special when taking photos of. The city wall like wise is very interesting and also includes interesting history behind it. It remains a main architectural thing in Canterbury and something people often visit and walk along with the lovely Dane John gardens that run along side much of its length. The city wall also provides a place for people to watch what’s going on in the bus station and the gardens themselves.

 

 

 

 

Unit 12- Specialist Study

INTRODUCTION

In this report I’m going to be writing a report on the work I have produced in the past six weeks towards my chosen discipline. This will include the personality report, skateboard research, my discipline research, experimenting and the practitioner report. I will be writing my report based on three questions, answering each question with much detail. In the past three weeks I have done further research into cinematography and found out lots I did not know about my chosen discipline.

REPORT

WEEK 6

I will be focusing on cinematography and in particular Sven Nykvist and Emmanuel Lubezki from the work I did in my practitioners report for week six’s work.

Sven Nykvist is a cinematographer who was born in December 1922 and died in September 2006. He was Swedish and considered one of the best cinematographers of all time. I would say his most famous films were Cries and Whispers (1973) and Fanny and Alexander (1982). Nykvist won the Academy Award for Best Cinematography for two of his films: Cries and Whispers in 1973 and Fanny and Alexander in 1982, both of which were Bergman films. At the 9th Guldbagge Awards in 1973 he won the Special Achievement award for his work on Cries and Whispers. He was also nominated for a Cinematography Oscar for The Unbearable Lightness of Being in 1988 and in the category of Best Foreign Language Film for The Ox in 1991. He also won a special award for his film The Sacrifice in 1986 at the Cannes Film Festival. He also wrote three books in the 1990s.

My second cinematographer I chose was Emmanuel Lubezki. Emmanuel Lubezki is a Mexican born cinematographer who was born in June 1964. He is known for his brilliant use of natural lighting and continuous uninterrupted shots. He won in his category three years running. In 2013 he won a award doing Gravity. In 2014 he won an award with Birdman and in 2015 he won a award in The Revenant.

When researching into these two cinematographers I made sure I found out every little detail like what they produced as a cinematographer and there favourite things to do. I really enjoyed researching into my cinematographers and my chosen discipline.

WEEK 5

In week five we did a very interesting task experimenting with our chosen discipline. Based on cinematography I decided with my group to focus on experimenting with lighting and pacifically blue lighting to represent cold and red lighting to represent heat. We worked in groups of four. We didn’t have much of an idea of what we was going to do but the whole point of experimenting is to try new things as we go along. We started off by experimenting with the lighting using blue and red covers for the lighting. Straight away after experimenting with these colours I knew this was the path I wanted to go down when experimenting towards my discipline of cinematography. We also used a high visibility jacket to make the model stand out amongst the lighting. We decided on a whiteboard for the background as the blue lighting reflects well off a white background.

 

WEEK 4

For week four I looked at two films one more in depth that the other. For this week I did comedy as my discipline as a start to coming up with cinematography.

The first film I picked is a triogly of films and my favourite comedy films. Meet the parents, Meet the Fockers and Little Fockers. I will be focusing on the first film what in my opinion is the best film. Meet the parents was released in 2000. It was the first film of the three to be made. For me what makes the film is the way its been scripted. Another big comedy film is Love Actually. I’m always seeing it pop up on TV and I would say its one of the best known and most watched comedy films of the 21st century. It features many big stars such as Colin Firth, Hugh Grant and Liam Neeson.

I also did some research into Charlie Chaplin. He was one of the main figures in developing comedy and is a icon to many comedians of the modern day. Hes also big in the film industry and again was a main figure of his time in making films what they’re today. He was most famous for his screen persona “The Tramp”. Charlie Chaplin wrote, directed, produced, edited, starred in, and composed the music for most of his films.

The point of weeks four work was to research more into my chosen discipline and narrow down what I wanted to do for my weeks five and six work.

WEEK 3

For week three we was required to research into skateboarding. The reason for this is to get us as a class out of our comfort zones and research into something we normally would not normally research. I found this weeks work really hard and struggled to write or find much research. I like to stick to stuff I find interesting and research more into that. Stuff like comedy’s, dramas and documentaries I find interesting to research as there’s such a wide range of stuff you can research. Of the little research I did I found two pieces of research.  I was asked to Google skateboards then add a word of my choice on the end. The worked I picked was Kent. Below I’ve included my two screenshots from my week three work to show what I googled.

 

WEEK 1 AND 2

 

 

For this work we had two parts to complete. First off we had to complete a personality survey answering questions what best related to ourselves. The whole point of this was to find out more about ourselves we perhaps didn’t know and to help get a understanding of who we was as a person. The survey would give me as a person a clearer understanding of stuff I might be interested in researching for my chosen discipline.

The results I got from the 16 personality test is that I’m a Defender. It says I get socially exhausted from social activities. I’m sensitive to noise and lots of things. Its says I’m down to earth, have strong habits and focus on what is happening. I’m sensitive and emotionally expressive, less competitive and I like to think. I like to plan and structure. I’m sensitive to stress and I’m a perfectionistic.

With the results I got I was surprised at how accurate the results were. All the results are very much how I would think of myself being sensitive to stuff and have strong habits of not going out of my comfort zone and struggling in social situations.

For the second part of the weeks work we was required to conduct interviews to find out more about a member of our class and for them to find out more about you. These interviews could be conducted by either filming them using a camera or recording them using a microphone to just have the sound element. We had to come up with some questions to ask what could be about anything of our choice. I decided to do a mixed bunch of questions to ask my partner. These ranged from ‘Do you like your workplace?’ to ‘What was your favourite subject at school?’. I felt with including a wide range of questions it would give a more interesting interview and would give my partner they chance to give a wide variety of answers.

MY FINDINGS

As the weeks went on I found out different bits of information about my discipline that I would normally not of considered. Before I would of never thought of doing cinematography as my discipline however after I researched into it more I found that actually this is a good subject to do and takes me out of my comfort zone just that little but. I found out lots of useful information to help me write this report such as researching into my practioners Sven Nykvist and Emmaunel Lubezki. Without researching into them further I wouldn’t of been able to write this report with greater detail.

As I’ve already explained when explaining about my findings for the skateboard task in week three I struggled to find out much apart from a few skateboard companies in Kent. If I had researched further into skateboards and stuff to do with skateboards then I would of had more research evidence to show and write about on this report.

Week one and two was a helpful week for finding out about myself and was very useful in helping me with the rest of unit 12 with my chosen discipline.

REVIEW OF WORK

I feel like I have struggled with certain aspects of the work over the past six weeks. I enjoyed weeks one and twos work but week three with the skateboards I found really hard as I didn’t have an interest in it at all and I just couldn’t engage with it. Week four was again a bit of a struggle researching into fear and comedy. I struggled to write much on that. Week five was my favourite week. I really enjoyed experimenting and loved using the different types of lighting to create different effects. I defiantly found week five the most engaging and interesting as it was the only week we got to do a practical task. I also found it easier to wrote about week five as I enjoyed it and knew what I was doing. Week six I found ok as I just had to find two people in my discipline and conduct a research task on them finding out what films they have done and all there work. I enjoyed this researching task the most out of any I have done for unit 12. I found out lots of information about my two practitioners and felt it was one of my better pieces of work.

When I go back and look at my work I do feel like I could of done more research and put more effort in. Its not that I couldn’t be bothered with the work its that I generally struggled with the work and I find it a struggle to ask for help as often I just stay confused and still don’t understand. The biggest regret is not engaging more with the skateboard task. Although I hate skateboards and don’t have an interest in them sometimes in life you have to research into things you don’t like especially in the media industry and I should of just got on with it and tried my best and maybe I could of found some good information about skateboards.

Something I must improve on is my referencing. As my work currently stands I have included any images or links from my research as the referencing side of it puts me off. I find it extremely difficult to reference everything especially using cite em right and Harvard referencing can get confusing at times. Referencing is something I must engage more with as its something everyone has to do in the media industry. Whenever you use something that isn’t ours you must Harvard reference it properly in alphabetical order. If you don’t Harvard reference something it could be classed as copyright and this can become a criminal offence. Referencing is something I must improve on and do if I want to include research material that isn’t my own. This is something I will work on for my final major project.

So overall when I go back and review my work and look at what I’ve done I do feel I could of done more to improve my work and I have struggled with unit 12. I should of asked for help so its my own fault. I will make sure I try my hardest and ask for help if I get stuck when doing my final major project. I will also make sure I put in 110% in my final project to create something I am proud of and something I am proud to show the class come the end of the year.

Week 6

For my early practitioner I’m choosing someone who does cinematography. For my early practitioner I’m choosing to research into Sven Nykvist and for my current cinematographer I’ve chosen Emmanuel Lubezki.

Sven Nykvist is a cinematographer who was born in December 1922 and died in September 2006. He was Swedish and considered one of the best cinematographers of all time. I would say his most famous films were Cries and Whispers (1973) and Fanny and Alexander (1982).

He entered the film industry at the age of 19 as an assistant cameraman at the Sandrews studios. In 1943 he moved to Italy to work at the Cinecitta studios for two years before returning to Sweden to become a full fledged cinematographer. His first solo piece was called The Children. For the next couple of years he worked on lots of small Swedish films and also filmed wildlife while on holiday in Africa. He released the footage as a documentary called ‘In the footsteps of the Witch Doctor’. In 1953 he began to work with director Ingmar Bergman on Sawdust and Tinsel. Once he had helped Bergman with this film he then became full time working with Bergman. He worked as the only cameraman on Bergmans Oscar winning film The Virgin Spring what was released 1959 and Through a Glass Darkly what was released in 1960. Nykvist was the man who came up with the revolution of close ups when he did the film Persona in 1966.

After working with lots of different Swedish directors, including Alf Sjöberg on The Judge in 1960 and Mai Zetterling on Loving Couples in 1964, he then worked in the United States and many different countries, on Richard Fleischer’s The Last Run in 1971, Louis Malle’s Black Moon in 1975 and Pretty Baby in 1978, Roman Polanski’s The Tenant in 1976, Jan Troell’s Hurricane in 1979, Bob Rafelson’s version of The Postman Always Rings Twice in 1981; Agnes of God in 1985, Woody Allen’s Another Woman in 1988 and Crimes and Misdemeanors in 1989, Richard Attenborough’s Chaplin in 1992, Nora Ephron’s Sleepless in Seattle in 1993, and Lasse Hallström’s What’s Eating Gilbert Grape in 1993.

Nykvist won the Academy Award for Best Cinematography for two of his films: Cries and Whispers in 1973 and Fanny and Alexander in 1982, both of which were Bergman films. At the 9th Guldbagge Awards in 1973 he won the Special Achievement award for his work on Cries and Whispers. He was also nominated for a Cinematography Oscar for The Unbearable Lightness of Being in 1988 and in the category of Best Foreign Language Film for The Ox in 1991. He also won a special award for his film The Sacrifice in 1986 at the Cannes Film Festival. He also wrote three books in the 1990s.

 

My second cinematographer I chose was Emmanuel Lubezki. Emmanuel Lubezki is a Mexican born cinematographer who was born in June 1964. He is known for his brilliant use of natural lighting and continuous uninterrupted shots. He won in his category three years running. In 2013 he won a award doing Gravity. In 2014 he won an award with Birdman and in 2015 he won a award in The Revenant.

Lubezki began his career in Mexican film in the late 1980s. From a young age Lubezki was always interested in camera work. When he went to University in Mexico to study History he found this wasn’t the subject for him and this spurred him onto photography and the film industry.

Emmanuel Lubezki has also worked on films such as A little Princess (1995), Great expectations (1998) and Children of Men (2006). All these films aren’t as well known as Gravity and The revenant in which Lubezki played a big part in however every film he works on big or small is another film on his cv to add to his impressive cv in cinematography.

Lubezki is very into technology and has been since a young age. He uses a Nikon D810 to try out on a lot of his work. When Lubezki starts a project he always does thorough tests to get the best result out of his final pieces. Testing can include testing cameras to testing all sorts of equipment he may use. Once he’s done all his testing he then chooses his best camera for the job. According to Lubezki certain cameras work better on certain jobs.

 

 

Week 5- Experiment

I started off with originally choosing to do script. I was planning on experimenting with scripts however I found that this would be too hard to do and didn’t feel I could experiment in anyway. My next choice was cinematography. I felt I could experiment more with this category and could do lots of shots using different lighting.

Below is images I took experimenting with lighting. The lighting I decided to use was a blue lighting to give a cold ice effect. Normally cinematography would be associated with warm lighting but I wanted to do the opposite and do cold lighting. Obviously for a cold effect I used blue. I could of used just a white light for ice but I decided blue was the best colour.

I also included a photo at the bottom to show the use of warm red lighting. The only regret I have is that I didn’t take more photos using the red lighting.

We worked in groups of 4. We didn’t have much of an idea of what we was going to do but the whole point of experimenting is to try new things as we go along. We started off by experimenting with the lighting and using different colours in front of the lighting. As seen with my images we chose blue and red lighting. We also used the high vis jacket to make the model stand out amongst the lighting. We decided on a whiteboard for the background as the blue lighting reflects well off a white background. I’m really pleased with the way the images have come out.

I decided to look into a filmmaker who worked with blue lighting. At first I couldn’t come up with any but then I came up with one. Came to my head that Avatar is very blue and of course it was directed by the filmmaking legend James Cameron. Released in 2009 the lighting used is incredible for a film and I’ve never seen such unique lighting and colour used before. I planned on replicating shots in Avatar by using blue lighting. I like using blue lighting as it gives off a cold effect that the location in which the photo is taken is cold. James Cameron in my eyes is one of the best directors to of ever lived. He directed the film Titanic what is one of my favourite films.

I am happy with these photos. I feel that they link in well with a film such as avatar as they look good with the blue effect and contrast well with the background. The framing and composition is good on all photos and quality of the photos is good considering the room was dark with just the blue lighting.

As tasks go this year this is the one I enjoyed the most and the one I feel I got the best work out of. I understood the task and felt I got something good out of it. I feel a lot of my work can be a bit jumbled but this links in well with what I intended to set out to do. 

 

 

 

Week 4- Own theme research

I am exploring the genre of comedy and what films fall under the genre of comedy. Comedy can cover lots of different areas from films to TV shows to theatre productions. I will be focusing on the film area of comedy.

The first film that comes to mind that falls under the genre of comedy is Meet the parents, Meet the Fockers and Little Fockers. There a trilogy of films that in my opinion are the best comedy films around. I will be focusing on the first film what in my opinion is the best film. Meet the parents was released in 2000. It was the first film of the three to be made. For me what makes the film is the way its been scripted.

Another big comedy film is Love Actually. I’m always seeing it pop up on TV and I would say its the most popular comedy film of the 21st century.

Comedy really started when Charlie Chaplin came onto the scene. He was one of the main figures in developing comedy and is a icon to many comedians of the modern day. Hes also big in the film industry and again was a main figure of his time in making films what they’re today. He was most famous for his screen persona “The Tramp”. Charlie Chaplin wrote, directed, produced, edited, starred in, and composed the music for most of his films. Obviously all his films are black and white as they were filmed before colour was invented in film. He also did comedy sketch shows such as the one called Repairs.

When researching into comedy the first person I always look up is Charlie Chaplin. For me he’s the best person when it comes to comedy and the man who really kicked started comedy. Many comedians nowadays look back at Chaplin and inspire the very best comedians now. He has helped me with my research into why I like comedy and why I’ve always had an interest in it.

Week 3- How to Research- Skateboards

 

 

This week I was tasked with researching into skateboards. The point of this task is to get my used to researching into my chosen subject. Normally I wouldn’t of researched into skateboards as I have no interest in them however I was given this subject so I had to research into it. To be honest I didn’t know where to start with researching into skateboards. I decided to start by researching into skateboard companies in kent. This would narrow down what I was researching and I would stick to skateboard companies in kent. I was told to write skateboards and then any word of my choice into Google to see what results I get. I decided to chose kent as I thought this would make it easier for me when researching into it.

Before I did this research task this week I didn’t know much about skateboards. I’ve found out lots of facts that I would of never have known however if I’m honest skateboarding is something I really don’t take a interest in so I struggled to take a interest in researching about it. 

Once I found two pieces of research from skateboard companies in kent I then screenshotted them and copied them onto this blog post as shown at the top.