Graduation! Results:

Well I have finally graduated!

My final score was a 2:1 (Second class upper division)

I now finally have a BA.

For information on how to get a copy of my dissertation click here.

For Any further work please go to my Other Blog. 

Stage One Overall Results

Here are the results for BA (Hons) Media Arts Stage One. The modules that give a percentage mark have their percentage and the pass/fail modules have either a pass or fail: 

MEDI 114:  69%

MEDI 116:  61%

MEDI 117:  64%

MEDI 118:  58%

MEDI 119:  55%

MEDI 126:  60%

MEDI 127:  PASS

All of these modules are a pass grade. :)

MEDI 127 (Sound and Image Project Critical Evaluation)

Our Film ‘A pebble love story’ is a tragedy about, well, pebbles. The basic Idea was to have a stop motion animation where we used googly eyes and marker pens on pebbles to effect emotion on the pebbles. My particular inspiration for this came from a picture where people had put faces on fruit and made a story out of them, the way this was done made it very emotive and I thought If we followed a similar tack we would be fairly successful in our aims.

However the actualities of filming were very different. We had very limited equipment as there were no tripods available in the hub and all the best cameras had been taken.  Also trying to hold a camera steady in the wind is a tricky thing to so it’s not quite stop motion. Also we couldn’t use markers to draw faces on as it would not have been logistically possible since for the most part it was raining....

The actual filming took place on location at a beach and it was freezing cold and also very windy. This made sound recording hard since the wind distorted the sounds and they are nowhere near as crisp as we would have liked. The pebbles ‘voices’ however were recorded later and sound much better. 

We had the idea of making little squeaky kind of noises to add to the comedic effect of the piece, as without the humour it is fairly sad.  The ‘voice’ noises worked in achieving a comedic effect I feel and in particular made the ‘pebble sex’ scene funnier. Originally we were toying with the idea of having sounds of pebbles hitting one another or making some form of cheesy 80’s porno sound track for it but I think what we went with was funnier.

It’s not as good as I would have hoped and next time I would like to have had better and more equipment. It would have been nicer with a warmer place to film but the location and the weather add so much to the film I feel as the grey and cold looking beach adds to the sombre tone that we wished to create.

MEDI 127 (Ideas for the film)

Our group for 111 has decided to make a film that is a love story between pebbles. My particular inspiration for this came from a picture where people had put faces on fruit and made a story out of them. We aim to do the same thing in stop motion. Here is the image that inspired me and helped me think about giving them faces. I feel If we do do something like this it would be very effective since it is still very emotive despite them being fruit.

In retrospect though because we used googly eyes the film turned out more like anouther funny fruit series that I have seen and also is reminicent of a new childrens program.

MEDI 127 (Black and White Photography Critical Evaluation)

Critical Evaluation:

For my black and white photography project I eventually chose to go with a theme on my experiences of Plymouth and although I had a lot of ideas I wanted to do none were feasible due to technical errors. The first idea I had was to focus on the struggle or balance of nature and manmade but there is also manmade nature to consider in this and although I wasn’t able to cover it in the detail I wanted it is still prevalent in my work as a whole. The second idea I had was based on lyrics from a song and in specific “Hear the call of your ancestors of blood and bone, of womb and tomb and standing stone” It’s a very haunting song and one that I like and I have written in my workbook was all shot on the film that didn’t develop with a pregnant friend of mine even offering her belly as the’ womb’ and I do have the particular shot that I wished to represent the standing stones although the enlarger didn’t seem to work for me and it kept going blurry as I enlarged. It was gutting when the film didn’t develop because all of my best ideas were on it. Also I had the idea of doing a photo series all about my ‘pet skull’ Marv.  I took a lot of shots with him in funny and odd places around Plymouth. Sadly of all my ideas fell through however I am overall pleased with the shots I have. I have never used a wet dark room before and due to the printer in dry dark room breaking I have had to use the wet dark room for nearly all of my prints. Also no one actually showed us how to use the wet dark room so I’m really pleased I actually got any prints at all. I would like to have a better grasp of all the technical equipment and I do still feel like a novice but I feel I have done very well considering I have no prior experience in anything like this before.  I should really in hindsight have shot much more film. I’m pleased mostly with the compositions of my shots but there is always room for improvement. I have enjoyed using the SLR cameras and feel that I have picked them up fairly quickly. Overall I have enjoyed this project but think that with a better grasp of the equipment involved I could have done better. Most of the pictures had an average exposure time ranging form about twelve to fifteen minuets and also the black and white filtration of the pictures ranged from three to around four. I feel this project went well but I need more technical awareness of the apparatus I also need to ensure I have enough film to shoot my ideas again if the film doesn’t develop, as stated in my workbook I believe the issues to have been camera side but there is no way of knowing.

MEDI 127 (Black and White Photography)

Ok so we have been producing black and white photos. We all had to use an SLR camera and a 400 film. Taking the photos proved harder than I had thought by far since you have things aperture, shutter spead and exposure to consider. The actual photoshoot was very fun. Developing the film in the soloutions and putting the film on a spool in the pitch black is something I have never done before and despite a few hicups I still very much enjoyed it and it was a thrill to see my negatives developed (even though some of the film didn't) But the enlarging of the negatives in the dark room has been very enjoyable. They were printed in a dry dark room with a 14 secound exposure. Also the red filter used for the pictures of the tree was a 3 which is why its not as sharp as the 'tomb' because the red filter was a 4. Its rewarding to have a tangable print in my hand especially after so much painstaking work to get to this stage. I very much enjoy black and white photograpy. I'm going to post up my pictures. They are poor quality as I have taken them with a web cam but I still like them. (They are black and white the colour effect is the result of the webcam)