End of Uni and the student show + My Degree

Delayed post as I was trying to get a photo of my booth from the student show. I will hopefully have a photo of it in my next blog post instead.

Last Saturday the student show came to an end as well as my time at University. I enjoyed the student degree show and had alot of interest from others which was great.

So what now?

Apart from looking for a job I will also be pushing my film, Caged, in to festivals. So far I have sent my film to three events and hoping to be selected:

The cut 2011
Smalls Film Festival
Encounters

I'm hoping that the FLIP animation festival is continued this year too so that I have a chance of having my film sent by the Univserity.

I also got my degree and it was as I had predicted:

"You have been awarded a Bachelor of Arts with Honours in Animation First Class on 7 June 2011."
Really happy I got what I had hoped for and I will make sure to keep improving.

Final Grades and my Student Degree Show experience

Still two days left for the student degree show and then my time at university comes to an end (which is both exciting and upsetting as I'll miss the 1st and 2nd years as well as the lecturers, its been an awesome time).

Last Friday marked the start of my student degree show with a private viewing for the evening. It was a very busy night and I got a lot of attention. I was extremely pleased with the evening, especially with the new contacts that I made.

The student show then opened for the public this week and closes tommorrow (Friday 9th June). The past three days have been great and whilst it's no where near as busy  I've still had a lot of interest in my film and gained more contacts.

I also got my final grades for this year which I'm definately proud of and my degree is definately a 1st by looking at my grades (13 grades out of the 14 that make up my second and third year have been A's). I was also told that the examiner found my film to be the best student film he has seen which is very motivating for me to keep animating.

I already have some ideas for new films although these will be shorter than Caged.

In my next blog post I will include a photo of my booth at the student degree show.

Student Degree Show 2011

So it's finally time for the student degree show, something I've been looking forward to since last year's degree show. It's been fun preparing for the show especially since I've been one of the main organisers of the event for my class.

It's been an interesting experience pitching for a budget, organising posters and life size cut outs as well as helping with the designs for the promotion of the animation show.

The degree show begins on Friday 3rd June with a private viewing from 5:30pm to 8:30pm. This is an invite only day so to attend and to have the chance to see Caged, you must print this e-invite off:

http://www.wlv.ac.uk/files/images/newsletters/sad/4/degree-show-invite.pdf
(allows 4 people to attend)

or you can

RSVP to:
E: art-design@wlv.ac.uk
T: 01902 322058
The degree show will then be open to everyone on Monday 6th June to Friday 10th June (no invite needed).

The sound of Caged

The sound effects of Caged consisted mostly of foley sounds that I recorded myself mixed with royalty free sound effects for scenes I found difficult to make sounds for, such as explosions. The sound effects were then compiled with the film in premiere.

However, the quality of the sounds weren't consistent as well as not simulating the environments that the film takes place in. This was solved by adding reverb to certain sound effects and composing them into the music, which was something composer, Joe Cruickshank, wanted to improve the audio of the film. Certain sound effects and notes in the music would sometimes clash. After an entire night was spent working with Joe, we finally reached the final soundtrack with the enhanced sound effects.

The enhanced sound was a definite improvement as sounds had the echo, although i reverted the bird's cough and Overlords scream to the original as the echo (which was realistic) took away from the effect that I wanted to achieve with them. So the end result was a mixture of realistic and non realistic effects to make the world believable but to also make sure the film's narrative was not harmed in the process.

Huge thanks to Joe for creating the original soundtrack and taking the sound effects to a whole new level.

First Screening of Caged

Today was my final presentation at Wolverhampton University and also the first time Caged was shown in a completed state. Really enjoyed the presentations for my year and seeing everyones hard work paying off.

The presentation for me went well although I had planned on showing extra content in case we were required to show more. In the end, it wasn't required so the extra content prepared was not shown. Good news is that I will update the blog instead with these.

With only an essay to complete for my course, I will now begin to focus on the student show as well as planning what film festivals I will be submitting Caged to.

Caged completed

It feels really weird but Caged is finally complete totalling at 4 minutes 50 seconds (including credits).

Really excited about showing it this Tuesday for the last presentation in my course (*sniff* If only the course was another year or two longer).

With the completion of the film ,my focus will now be aimed at it's promotion for the student show. With a poster concept ready to be printed, I can start designing the space I will get for the student show (hopefully with a life size cut out too)

Here's another screenshot of the film:



Enzo isn't happy despite his surroundings...



Caged Trailer now online!

With my film almost complete, I have uploaded the first trailer for Caged:



I will be re-editing and spending more time on the trailer once my film is finished, for now I quickly put this together to promote my presentation on May 10th. Can't wait!