Week 1 (22nd - 26th September)

Monday 22nd September

We all pitched ideas for the 48 hour PSA challenge. I made a few simple slides for mine (see below), a fantasy comedy about how evil wizards can defend their lairs from being looted by adventurers. Considering it was an ice breaker and a short intense time period I wanted to pitch something more silly and lighthearted

Voted and ended up on the puppet fire safety PSA (my first choice so I am VERY excited to puppeteer). 

I'm fine with my idea not being selected, I plan to reuse it for a future project one day



Had an afternoon camera workshop with Malcolm in the green screen studio, I learned a lot and finally understand how camera settings work! Below is a Panasonic DVX 200. Very excited to finally get access to the green screen studio


Tuesday 23rd September

Had two Premiere Pro and After Effects workshops with Malcom. I now have a slightly better understanding of how they work, and After Effects decided to play nice today (I famously have had bad luck with that software and it is out to get me). Wish I knew all this for my undergrad assessment videos though

Wednesday 24th September

Had the first R&D in Practice introductory lecture in the morning

We had our first PSA team meeting in the afternoon

Figuring out a plan of what shots we want to include and how we will go about filming them. Distributing tasks amongst the team too; who will be puppeteering, filming etc. I took notes of the meeting

I started to help making the puppet, but Emma had it covered.

I booked us a DJI Gimbal, Sony Camcorder and a Tripod from DEL

Went to a talk from Animated Women UK in the evening and picked up a lot of tips and advice. It's normal to struggle to find work after graduation, just take any opportunities to get started. Keep every freelance receipt for tax puposes. Keep CV simple and easy to read, tailor each, and keep LinkedIn up to date with company history. Quality over quantity, your worst piece of work is the level, and reels/portfolio MUST grab attention within the first few seconds. Good to show traditional observational skills and personal projects can be included on reels too. Make yourself easy to find online and build a network, go to events. You will have gaps in your career so fill them positively, eg by learning a new skills or another personal project. Do personal projects related to what you want to apply to/the type of work you want to do


Thursday 25th September

I was mostly puppeteering alongside Emma, and directing on camera when not being filmed. Had a LOT of fun! Took a couple behind the scenes shots too.


We had to come up with a few creative solutions to puppeteering/filming. Including using a rolling chair for movement shots, and hiding under a table a couple times


We managed to get everything filmed today! I got all the footage off the two cameras and saved it to a USB and to sharepoint, and narrowed down the shots to ones I feel work to put into another folder (so we don't have to weed through a hundred in editing tomorrow). Might make a blooper reel for fun if I have time






Friday 26th September

Marshall recorded the narration and puppet noises, but it was in 15 minutes across only two videos with many takes. I did all of the audio editing for the PSA: cutting up and selecting the narration and puppet takes, adding background sfx (fire alarm, fire crackling, muppets theme, life noises), timing and trimming clips, and adjusting audio levels. 

I had to make sure the narrator was heard clearest since we didn't have subtitles, but ensuring the puppet was still clearly audible without being too distracting, and balancing this with the background audio. 

I had to wait for the final version of the video before I could work on the timings



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