Live Client Project - Happy Go Lucky nightclub projection video

I have recently been putting a lot of thought into what to actually produce for my live client project. I had recently chosen to produce a identity promotion package for a new local jungle and dubstep music promoter in nottingham; this would involve creating flyers,posters,website,promotional video and possibly banners and backdrops to use on the night. However after speaking to Simon he advised that I focus purely on my specialised field of multimedia - audiovisual, so he suggested that I make a advert or promotional video which makes use of my area of audiovisual interest - visual special effects/video editing/postproduction. However after thinking about this I realised firstly there wasn't much scope for demonstrating my visual effects skills in depth creating a advert for a small club night as they just wouldn't suit the image of the music,the venue or the promoter; and secondly I don't a video advert would be all that much use in promoting and helping sell the night.

After talking to my client we decided that instead of producing an advert, I would create a psychadelic projection video which could be used at the Happy Go Lucky club nights to enhance the experience as well as promote it. Suddenly I'm well excited about this project, unsure as to why I never thought of this before as creating these kind of visuals used in VJing is something that I have wanted to learn about for a while but guess I just forgot. This project will much more fun to work on,will benefit the client much much more, will let me exercise my visual effects skills with After effects and Premiere as well again skills with similar programs, and generally be a greal deal more interesting to work on! Here are a couple of examples of the type of thing I intend to produce:

Drum n Bass projection visualisation video

Ambient projection visualisation video

As can be seen by the flyers above the promoter uses a frog as their identity or is 'the face of Happy Go Lucky', and I intend to build on this image as a starting point for my visualisations. Over the next few months I shall be collecting videos and imagery which relates to frogs,animals,flora and fauna among other things which represent the jungle and the music. I will also be learning more and getting to grips with various programs used to create these videos as well forming some sort of narrative and meaningful structure for the video so that it is not just a random string of clips. I am really looking forward to starting work on this.

Personal Research Project: Visual Special Effects in Film and Television
For my personal research project I have decided to do an investigation into the art of visual special effects in film. I shall be researching and learning as much as I can about the history and techniques used to create the various illusions and creatures in a variety of films, in particular the horror genre. However the main purpose of this investigation will be to observe,learn and finally compare between using more traditional special effects such as prosthetic make up,actors,animatronic robots and models, to the increasingly common CGI effects of today. Although CGI is now used in the majority of horror/sci-fi and adventure films and these advances in technology are generally seen as a blessing for the film industry, I'm not entirely convinced; for instance compare the mechanical shark from Jaws made back in 1975 to the ones created digitally for Deep Blue Sea in 1999...and then to a low budget straight-to-video film, Shark Attack 3:Megalodon made in 2002.

Jaws (1975)

Deep Blue Sea (1999)

Shark Attack 3:Megalodon (2002)

I shall be researching into various films to find out as much as I can about visual effects and analysing the techniques used and final effects among other things before coming to a decisive conclusion.

In terms of research I have been using a variety of books that I have bought and borrowed from the library however none have proved that useful as yet, although today I purchased Special Effects:The History and Technique by Richard Rickett off Amazon for a hefty 30 quid second hand which according to reviews is the best book you can buy on this subject so looking forward to that arriving so can get started on writing the 4000 word essay.
Another useful source of information I discovered today is the e-journals accessible through the VLP, I have only looked at the Art Full Text journal database recommended by Jools and already found numerous interesting and relevant articles.
Another important source of research will be Making of documentaries found on the special features menu of various DVDs. I have already found an extremely interesting one for The Hills Have Eyes remake and have learnt a lot from it, so I therefore plan to purchase more DVDs for this purpose.

Simulated Client Project - Chlamydia Advert
After presenting my simulated client project plan and visualisations to my module tutor Simon Perkins it was decided that the message of my public information advertisement would be shown more effectively through use of images and music rather than through film. The advert was meant to display the pain and upset that can be caused through infertility by showing a happy family before cutting back to a unhappy childless couple due to chlamydia; this message would be more powerfully conveyed using a strong image rather than a series of video clips.
Here is the final result:


I was not very happy with what I had produced for this project due to its relatively unprofessional feel. I really felt the time restraint on this project due to problems finding the right images; I did not have connections to a family in Nottingham that I could direct and photograph efficiently for the shots I needed therefore had to browse the internet for images. The limited quantity and quality of images available made the flexibility for manipulation of images very difficult. I also did not have time to produce the soundtrack I needed therefore again had to search the internet for something that 'might do the trick'. I think I would have been much happier with the final result if it was a film as I think it would looked much more professional and more fun to watch.