Monday 30 May 2011
Thursday 26 May 2011
RSS
RSS or 'Really Simple Syndication' - God, who thought of THAT name? - is a means of restoring newsfeed-esque stylez to the masses. Constructed using a special XML file, (and some pretty sophisticated back-end software, might I add) all one needs to do is link their RSS reader of choice to a service that supports RSS feeding, and as if it were always meant to be, receive whatever the owner of said website (or podcast or blog or whatever) decides to share via RSS.
I like to think of it as a newspaper that I can tailor to my own interests, whatever they might be.
I like to think of it as a newspaper that I can tailor to my own interests, whatever they might be.
Monday 23 May 2011
Sapping Energies.
Seriously. This VPA104 assessment is kicking me down. Hard. And for the life of me I just can't figure out what to do about it.
Friday 20 May 2011
The TVP105 Files: CCUs
Not quite thinking I'd fully ever recover from last week's experience in sound, this week I was on CCUs. After confirming all the cameras were cabled up, asking Bruce whether he was happy with the lighting, getting someone from staging to bring the whiteboard out, and lining the cameras up, I went into tapes to switch all cameras on and proceeded to white balance.
My intention was to have a consistent as possible image across all three cameras - so I rapidly switched between them, and observed the tally lights to know which camera not to adjust.
An issue that I wasn't expecting was that our newsreader Ethan was wearing black, standing infront of a black curtain and, well, he's black skinned, so that camera required its blacks to be raised slightly. Not a problem, only that the levels would need to be returned to normal when the camera had changed shots. Normally you can see where the blacks lie on the waveform monitor; I encountered some kind of feedback in the signal, and so I couldn't actually see where 0% was. So I 'capped' the camera by closing the iris and manipulated the black balance to return the levels to normal - what I didn't consider is that I had also effectively blinded the camera operator. Oops.
Otherwise, the vibe in the control room was great - some roles had been previously been filled, so experience was showing - and from what I saw of the floor through my tiny porthole, things were running smoothly. Aesthetically, my shots looked great. Bruce was very happy, and so was I. :)
I've learnt from this experience that a slight modification in my workflow when dealing with otherwise unusual situations is needed - though in my defence without comms, I was unable to notify anyone, and didn't want to run my request through the DA, when she had other more important things to be concerning herself with. Had the comms been working, I would have notified the cameras that I was closing their irises down first, before going ahead and doing it, or figured out a way to look past the noise in the waveform monitor and adjust the levels that way.
All comes with experience, I guess.
My intention was to have a consistent as possible image across all three cameras - so I rapidly switched between them, and observed the tally lights to know which camera not to adjust.
An issue that I wasn't expecting was that our newsreader Ethan was wearing black, standing infront of a black curtain and, well, he's black skinned, so that camera required its blacks to be raised slightly. Not a problem, only that the levels would need to be returned to normal when the camera had changed shots. Normally you can see where the blacks lie on the waveform monitor; I encountered some kind of feedback in the signal, and so I couldn't actually see where 0% was. So I 'capped' the camera by closing the iris and manipulated the black balance to return the levels to normal - what I didn't consider is that I had also effectively blinded the camera operator. Oops.
Otherwise, the vibe in the control room was great - some roles had been previously been filled, so experience was showing - and from what I saw of the floor through my tiny porthole, things were running smoothly. Aesthetically, my shots looked great. Bruce was very happy, and so was I. :)
I've learnt from this experience that a slight modification in my workflow when dealing with otherwise unusual situations is needed - though in my defence without comms, I was unable to notify anyone, and didn't want to run my request through the DA, when she had other more important things to be concerning herself with. Had the comms been working, I would have notified the cameras that I was closing their irises down first, before going ahead and doing it, or figured out a way to look past the noise in the waveform monitor and adjust the levels that way.
All comes with experience, I guess.
Thursday 19 May 2011
Assessment 2: iWeb-created Website
My second assessment submission is a website that focuses on the content that I have created for my two other elective subjects, namely VPA104 (Introduction to Digital Image) and VPA106 (Introduction to Sound Production).
My submission includes a few sets of photographs from an extracurricular side project I am working on, my first VPA104 assessment submissions, and my first VPA106 assessment submission.
I haven’t gone out of my way to alter the provided iWeb templates, because I have focussed on the creation of content. (That and our course is meant to be focussing on the creation of multimedia, not websites) Multimedia entails both the creation of and the linking together of text, images, video and sound (among others) which is what I have submitted using this website.
Monday 16 May 2011
Friday 13 May 2011
The TVP105 Files: Sound Manager
My first assessable role for 'Hello, Riverina!' and the only thing I can say with any certainty was that I was completely off my game. What was most concerning was that this was my second go at audio - I had previously come off the floor as an observer and was dunked into Friday's second workshop just prior to the Easter break. Things were shaky that time too, but after three rehearsals, I was able to deliver something worthy to record.
This time around was a different story – we had made the mistake of miking talent before getting the desk ready; scripts still needed to be marked up. Cues needed to be agreed on and set. Matt was talking in one ear and Pat the other. Everything that happened prior to the rehearsal would’ve been okay if what was to follow was excusable, but it wasn’t. Levels were all over the place and way above -18dB, cues were missing left, right and centre, and, well, simply put it all went pretty badly.
Michael, my sound assist was right on the ball from the beginning. He cued everything on time, played it when required, and assisted me when he could. I would definitely mix with him again.
I take away from this experience that audio is something I need to work on - as Pat had mentioned during the debrief at the end of the workshop 'you appear to be missing out on some of the basics; practice will help you no doubt, what's concerning is that you were making the same mistakes from beginning to end.' All I really can do is practice, so I will.
This time around was a different story – we had made the mistake of miking talent before getting the desk ready; scripts still needed to be marked up. Cues needed to be agreed on and set. Matt was talking in one ear and Pat the other. Everything that happened prior to the rehearsal would’ve been okay if what was to follow was excusable, but it wasn’t. Levels were all over the place and way above -18dB, cues were missing left, right and centre, and, well, simply put it all went pretty badly.
Michael, my sound assist was right on the ball from the beginning. He cued everything on time, played it when required, and assisted me when he could. I would definitely mix with him again.
I take away from this experience that audio is something I need to work on - as Pat had mentioned during the debrief at the end of the workshop 'you appear to be missing out on some of the basics; practice will help you no doubt, what's concerning is that you were making the same mistakes from beginning to end.' All I really can do is practice, so I will.
Wednesday 11 May 2011
FTP
Oh FTP. You dog, you. There was once a time that I'd use you for uploading things to a webspace, but those days are long gone, and have been replaced by your much newer (and more secure, might I add) brother sFTP - the S stands for 'sassy' or is that 'sexy' or even 'secure'? I don't know.
FTP would have to be one of the oldest protocols for doing things on the Internet (yes, you need to go back that far when describing it; things like the actual serving platform of the Internet [WWW or WorldWideWeb] are called protocols, email has its own protocols) and is for the most part still in active use.
But, I can safely say that sFTP is so much better. S. Sssss. Ssssssss!
FTP would have to be one of the oldest protocols for doing things on the Internet (yes, you need to go back that far when describing it; things like the actual serving platform of the Internet [WWW or WorldWideWeb] are called protocols, email has its own protocols) and is for the most part still in active use.
But, I can safely say that sFTP is so much better. S. Sssss. Ssssssss!
Thursday 5 May 2011
iWeb
On the surface, this somewhat downtrodden application (at least speaking of those people that didn't regard it that highly in my class) looks a little dorky. But as Apple is somehow magically capable of doing, underneath the perceived dorkiness is something which has amazing power for those that are able to appreciate it.
iWeb isn't designed for the web designer with a degree in computer science to have their own presence online - such person could probably even make their own variant of iWeb - but for the purposes of normal people (and not enthusiasts) it does its job perfectly.
I don't see why there's so much hate about this piece of software when it does what it needs to do!
iWeb isn't designed for the web designer with a degree in computer science to have their own presence online - such person could probably even make their own variant of iWeb - but for the purposes of normal people (and not enthusiasts) it does its job perfectly.
I don't see why there's so much hate about this piece of software when it does what it needs to do!
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